The Battle Majestic (Round 4 - Magpie Skies)

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

---

Lionel got to his feet slowly. He was somewhat surprised that he had survived the sudden attack; Helix could most likely have simply flattened him.

Then he looked around and the guards out in the open, and realized that the swordsman most likely had other plans.

Jacob stepped out nonchalantly, lifted his arm, and three Deejan guards suddenly found themselves lifted off the ground and flung toward Wykerr.

Lionel reacted more quickly this time, and got out of the way as the guards collided. He fired off a bolt in Jacob's general direction; while the swordsman had removed his plate armor, his sword would serve as a strong attractor and conductor.

It did, as the Yagg whose stomach Jacob had thrust his sword into soon found out firsthand.

After that, the guards collectively settled on a strategy of "stay away while they take care of each other, pick up the pieces afterwards".

***

In a small, relatively isolated laboratory, a Rhone and two Deejans were examining what they had been told was "a sample taken from a captured specimen".

A simpler term would have been "Sen's shoulder". They had only received the sample a few minutes ago, and had been rather oblivious to the disaster unfolding around them.

"Unusual," Zill muttered, more to himself than to his fellow scientists. "This is certainly plant matter, but it is unlike any I have seen before."

"What's this?" Gaiz asked, poking at a grapefruit-sized lump in the mass of green. "It seems different from the rest of the sample."

Zill carefully pulled the object out for closer examination.

"Hmm. My best guess is a seed. Perhaps the specimen uses it to repro-"

He didn't finish the sentence, as he slumped over with a bullet hole in his head. Gaiz turned towards Frull in a panic, only to see his fellow Deejan holding the gun.

"What did you..."

"Quiet, or you're next," Frull said gruffly, grabbing the seed. "This is exactly the sort of thing the humans want. I'll give you a simple choice, Gaiz; you can come along with me to meet my human contact and get out of here, or I can shoot you right now."

Gaiz gulped.

"Let's... let's go."

"Don't worry, my friend. It's not so bad on the other side."

***

It was rather surprising how far Jacob and Wykerr's battle had travelled along the Crossroads; they had somehow managed to find their way to the furthest bar from their starting point.

Both men had taken their fair share of blows by now, but Jacob had gotten the worst of it. This was mostly because Blitz or whoever the hell he was now could fight from a distance more easily; it seemed he didn't have to worry about using mana effectively. Which wasn't all that fair, in Jacob's mind.

He jumped over the counter as Blitz fired another shot, which missed and hit the floor.

Then Jacob saw all the bottles and a stack of napkins and realized that he had another ranged attack at his disposal.

About ten minutes later, the bar had gone up in flames.