The Grand Battle S2G1! [Round Six: Eddelin City]

Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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The tactician, the boy, and his parasite respectively hovered, stumbled, and protested their way up the museum's steps, Xadrez warning Maxwell not to shut the door behind them.

Arm yourself, refrain from dying.

Maxwell begrudgingly complied, Sik's hisses of disapproval silenced when Xadrez motioned to the Bio-Wyrm with his dagger.

"What does that insufferable ghost expect me to do with that?"

You must strike Kracht first - did you really think I would hand you my will as a gesture of camarederie

Of all choices the odds of landing that critical first strike are best with Sikarius bearing the knife

The boy took the dagger, gingerly running its impossibly sharp edge along his own unsliceable blade-arm while Sikarius peered over his shoulder. "How good's our chance?"

Twenty percent

With a conservative margin of error of up to thirty percent to account for unknown uncalculated factors

Sikarius told Xadrez where to stick his odds. Maxwell was silent, turning the dagger over and over before slashing off a strip of bloodied shirt. "Sik, come here so I can tie this on."

Too surprised to immediately rebuke him, the Bio Wyrm craned around until the two stood face to savage fanged face. Xadrez had drifted aside to read the display on Sk'Va's UP program, but turned at the snickof Sikarius' teeth retracting.

He waited silently until Maxwell had secured the dagger and Sik had burrowed out of sight. Now, we must move

Sk'va's destruction will mask the knife, but doubtless Kracht is aware of our intrusion

That door

The tactician motioned to the ajar door in question, flicked his fingers in what might've been a salute, then directed Maxwell to hide out of sight from the doorway. As he flexed his bone-taloned fingers in preparation for scaling the wall, Maxwell cast a curious glance at the giant engine, which Xadrez had shown no interest in since his initial perusal.

"Xadrez, what was that thing?"

A hero's death, Maxwell.



Kracht sighed a little as the noise from the city rose in cracking, rumbling, dissonant volume, correctly assuming someone had to come and bother him just as he'd found something interesting. He opened the door to the Bio Wyrm's alcove, and would've scowled if stone were capable.

"I'm a little busy, Xadrez. In case you missed it, you're looking for that giant engine in the main room. Really, you don't have time to be chasing-"

Ignoring his patter, Xadrez tossed a bit of security camera at Kracht, who automatically caught it. What is that and why are you reluctant to show me

The mineral surreptitiously sprouted another arm in his back to hold the feebly stirring Bio Wyrm, flinging his now-free arms wide. Xadrez shifted a half pace back in convincing surprise, which Kracht confidently stepped forward into.

Kracht was three and a half steps away from leaving the room. He chuckled, shaking his lime green head a little. Xadrez glanced around the room in a mistrustful manner, drifting another step in reverse. Kracht followed.

"Oh, this iteration's going to be fun, I can tell. You're putting in a really sterling effort, Xadrez, right from the word go." Kracht tried to peer around the tactician, who followed his glance and pretended to assume Kracht had guards posted in an ambush. The pair took another pace out of the alcove. "Who'd you bring with you this time? Arkal? Oooh, Jen maybe? That'd definitely make things interesting. Shame about Maxwell, the two would've finally had something in common."

Did

did I always split them into two teams

did I always bring one here to Sk'va

Kracht took another step forward, as if to pat Xadrez consolingly on the shoulder. The tactician recoiled, judging another step and a half should do it.

"Well, not ever 'here', exactly," Kracht said, before hurriedly adding to quash the spirit's triumphant narrowing of the eyes, "but honestly, I was waiting for the variation this iteration seemed to have missed, and I could tell this would be the place. If only because that massive engine or whatever always shows up." Kracht took another pace forward, standing in the doorway, and jabbed in the direction of the gargantuan contraption with a green thumb.

Xadrez sighed, and drifted off as if to leave, dejected. Kracht still stood in the doorway, leaning against it a little with a smug air. The tacitician paused, the cadence of chance and logic making him dance within like the bullet in lonely circles, round and round and round, before pulling the trigger.

At least tell me

did Jen's Network fail

I had high hopes for that

Kracht shook his head, thinking on his feet. "Hmm... I don't think it's made much difference, when I told you one way or the other. So no. It didn't work. Jen was devastated."

Xadrez nodded, murmuring something about Maxwell as he headed for the exit. "Oh, you want to take that route? Best hurry then, he won't have much longer."

You misheard me, liar

Kracht was very suddenly aware that the insistent whine that had been at the edge of his hearing was louder, and just to the left of his vision. He jumped out of the way, but Sikarius still cleaved off his entire shoulder in an elegant swoop. The severed limb fell to the ground with a clatter, Kracht scrambling up against a wall as the tactician advanced.

Return my knife, Maxwell

Kracht, you've lost control of this game

this is something new, something unprecedented, without your victory assured at the end

things are changing, Kracht, and I'll see to it you fall with Sk'Va

Kracht wasn't paying attention, much to Xadrez' annoyance. He wasn't even cradling the stump of his arm, like a normal humanoid in that situation would. He was cradling something, though, raising it in front of him. The tactician took a glance at Kracht, then to the disembodied hand, still clutching Xadrez' ersatz chess piece - and finally turned to Maxwell.

The boy was oddly still, head bowed, Sikarius' looming form also tensed and hunched. Without warning, his arms snapped at painful angles, the bones within lengthening as finger bones sharpened, lengthened, and tore through the skin as savage, inhuman talons. With a click, they hit the ground, and Maxwell lunged forward on all fours, Sikarius driving Xadrez back with his own knife, putting himself and Maxwell between the tactician and Kracht.

"Hm. It seems Sikarius is rather protective of his kin. Tell you what. Sik, go and find a nice host for this lovely Wyrm, would you? Our present company makes for a poor selection of, ah... accommodation." Kracht would've smirked if he were capable, but instead settled for waving cheerfully with his regrowing stump of an arm. He had to shout a little over the increasing pitch of the knife, but the mineral was thoroughly enjoying himself. "Do her a favour, and find someone who won't be around when Sk'Va comes crashing down in flames, all right? I can take good care of her - Xadrez here is harmless without that pretty dagger of his."

Sikarius hissed something unintelligible, jabbed at Xadrez a final time, then lurched off as a pair of cancerous wings unfolded from Maxwell's back. Kracht had already moulded a hollow in his chest, sealing up the Bio Wyrm. Making an especial effort to show his satisfaction on his stony face, Kracht grinned.

"Your move, chessmaster."