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Scales of Justice Her staff in hand, Stephanie Chen stood face to face with the copy mage, a sorceress in fancy, multi-colored robes. "No matter what I do, she'll just copy it exactly," Stephanie thought. "I can't hurt her without getting hurt myself, and since she has no reaction time, I can't trick her. How? How am I supposed to beat her?" Stephanie stood in the hovercraft hangar, in thought. The copy mage did nothing. "Maybe if I cast a spell complex enough, powerful enough, she simply won't be able to copy because it's too complex and too powerful," Stephanie thought. "Maybe... but I've never used it before. The copy mage probably can't imitate it, but I probably can't even cast it in the first place. Still, I have to try." Stephanie raised her staff and called upon the Holy energies to strengthen her. Concentrating hard, she closed her eyes. Light formed at the top of her staff and took the shape of a pair of scales. She opened her eyes, and the scales at the top of her staff fired a bright, wide beam of Holy energy at the copy mage. To her amazement, the copy mage was firing her own beam from the top of her own staff. "She copied it!" Stephanie thought, feeling distressed. "No, I have to have faith. Her Scales are only an imitation. They can't be as powerful as mine." The two beams crossed. Steph's beam struck the copy mage, and at the same time, the copy mage's beam struck her. The impact knocked Stephanie back several yards before she came to rest on the floor. However, the copy mage was knocked back even further. She had flown all the way to the end of the hangar, where she now sat against the wall, not moving. Slowly, Stephanie climbed to her feet. There were bruises all over her body, and one of the straps of her tank top was torn. She ran across the room to check on her foe. The copy mage was alive, but she was bleeding from several places on her body, including the mouth. "How?" the copy mage asked. "How did you beat me?" "A counterfeit is never as good as the real thing," Stephanie explained. "The spell I cast, the Scales of Justice, is way above your power level." "But, you're not any more powerful than I am," the copy mage interjected. "Yes, but my magic skills are in Holy magic," Stephanie explained. "You only have skills in copy magic. My Holy magic will always be better than yours, no matter how well you can copy. All I had to do was cast a spell that's way too complex and way too powerful, and you wouldn't be able to copy it properly." "I see," the copy mage said. "Then, I have failed as a copy mage." She looked up at Stephanie. "Your last attack was quite powerful. It broke most of the bones in my body, so there is no way I can continue fighting. I am also bleeding internally, so my death is inevitable. You have won. I am defeated. Now, leave me. Let me die in peace." Stephanie slowly nodded, then exited the hovercraft hangar. "An empty room," Robert commented. "This would have been helpful earlier, when we were fighting that terrain mage." Robert and Alice were still wandering the basement, and they still hadn't found an exit. Robert opened the door at the other end of the room. To his surprise, a woman stood right on the other side. She wore a black sleeveless shirt and shorts and carried a broad sword in her hands. In her belt, she carried an assortment of short swords and daggers. "Hello," the smiling woman greeted them in a friendly matter. "Um, hi," Robert said, uneasy. "Could you tell us how to get out of here?" "Sure," the woman replied, "after I kill you." The woman struck with her blade. Both Robert and Alice leapt back. "I am Scimitar, sword mage of the Quantum Saviors," the woman said. "I will not allow you intruders to leave here alive." Flames appeared on her sword, and the sword mage leapt at Alice and Robert, swing her sword downward. Quickly, Alice and Robert leapt to opposite sides of the room. Scimitar slashed deep into the ground. Robert and Alice pulled out their guns and fired, but the sword mage swung her sword rapidly around her. The sword glowed with green energy and deflected all the shots. Then, she leapt at Robert, powering her blade with lightning. Robert dove out of the way and fired at her, forcing her to block again. "So, you want to fight from long-range, huh?" Scimitar said. "In that case, I'll just use my Ether Blade technique." Facing Robert, she swung her downward. Although she was much too far away to even touch him, Robert instinctively hopped to the side. Something slashed into the ground where he had been standing. It was as if Scimitar's blade had been magically and invisibly extended. She swung her sword horizontally. Robert rolled, ducking under the swing. A long slit was cut into the wall behind him. Then, Scimitar turned to Alice and slashed at her with the Ether Blade. Alice screamed as she dove out of the way. Then, the sword mage turned back to Robert and swung downward at him. Robert quickly stepped aside. Then, the sword mage followed up with a low horizontal swing. Robert fell to the floor to get under it. As the invisible blade passed by overhead, just inches away from his face, Robert thought he saw something shiny and silvery. "Metal?" Robert thought. The sword mage then turned her attention to Alice again, who screamed every time the extended blade narrowly missed her. On the floor, Robert could see the door to the next room. It was close to him and wide open. He quickly rolled to his feet. Firing on the sword mage, he shouted "Run!" to Alice and ran through the door. As the sword mage blocked, Alice followed him to the next room. The room was mostly empty except for a huge, glowing glass cylinder in the middle of the room. The glass was labeled with red text saying "MMH Power Generator". "Look out!" Robert shouted. The invisible Ether Blade had cut through the wall, and Robert had reacted just in time. He dove to the floor and pulled Alice down with him, barely avoiding the horizontal swing. Then, Robert transformed the momentum of the dive to roll them both back onto their feet. "Behind the generator!" he shouted to Alice. They ran and hid behind the generator as Scimitar entered the room. Robert leaned around the side and fired at the sword mage. She blocked the shots with her sword and replied with a downward swing. Robert shifted back behind the generator. "Not vertical," he thought. "Horizontal. I need a horizontal swing." Robert jumped out from behind the generator, firing his gun. The sword mage blocked the shots, then replied with her own attack, this time a horizontal swing. As Robert landed, he ducked under the invisible blade, barely dodging it. The Ether Blade cut a few hairs from the top of his head. However, Scimitar's attack suddenly stopped. The Ether Blade had struck into the generator, and a bolt of electricity shot up the invisible blade, shocking the sword mage. As Scimitar screamed, Robert fired at the tip of her blade, and the broad sword shattered into pieces. "What?" Scimitar gasped. "How did you--" "It's your Ether Blade technique," Robert explained. "Instead of cutting with the ether itself, you used the ether to extend the tip of your blade. Since your Ether Blade was made of metal, it could conduct electricity. Once I entered this room, I realized that all I had to do was trick you into hitting the generator, and you'd get shocked. Also, since your Ether Blade technique stretches the tip of your blade, it puts a lot of stress on it, so all I had to do was hit the tip of your sword and it would shatter." "Damn you!" the sword mage shouted. "It's over," Robert said. "Surrender." As he pointed his gun at the sword mage, Alice came out from behind the generator and pointed her gun as well. Suddenly, the sword mage threw two daggers, one at each of them. Robert leapt back behind the generator, but Alice wasn't so quick. The dagger struck her wrist, forcing her to drop the gun. It was a powerful throw, so the dagger pulled Alice back to the opposite wall. There, it stuck into the wall, pinning Alice up by the wrist. Alice cried in pain. Scimitar drew a short sword and ran toward her. Robert fired at the sword mage, but she simply deflected the bullets with her sword. Alice reached for her gun on the floor, but it was too far away. Thoughts flew through Robert's mind at extreme speed. "Gun won't work. Alice can't move. If she gets to her, she'll kill her. There's no time. I have to go save Alice." The sword mage lunged at Alice with her short sword. Alice screamed, but at the last second, Robert got in the way, and the sword went through his abdomen. "Robert!" Alice cried. As Robert grunted, his gun fell out of his hand. Alice caught it with her left hand. Then, as Robert fell out of the way, the blade still stuck in his gut, Alice fired. This caught the sword mage by surprise. She didn't have time to react, so she fell to the ground, a hole in her head. The sword came out of Robert's belly. Alice blasted away the dagger that pinned her arm to the wall. Then, she knelt down by Robert. "Robert!" she shouted. "Please, don't die!" "I'm not dead yet," Robert said weakly, smiling. Then, he closed his eyes and went limp. He still breathed, but very weakly. "No! Robert, you can't die!" Alice screamed. Slowly, tears welled up in her eyes and she began to cry. "You can't die! I won't let you!" She opened the door and dragged him to the next room, a room full of doors. Frantically, she went from door to door and bashed them open. Finally, she found a stairwell with white painted walls and a skeletal, square, metal spiral staircase. She grabbed Robert's body and dragged him up the stairs until she came to the first floor. Entering the hall, she recognized it as hall where she and Vince had last parted. Hastily, she dragged Robert over to the same closet in which they had hid earlier that night. Alice checked on Robert again. He was still alive, but his breathing was getting weaker still. "Robert, please don't die," Alice said, her eyes full of tears. Vince finally reached the top of the eighty-floor stairwell. He heard a noise coming from the other side of a door, so he slowly opened it a crack and peeked through. On the other side, Koumilon was fighting a Mystic. The Mystic attacked with his sword, but the sorcerer blocked with an energy shield. "Pathetic," the Mystic said. "Is that all you can do? Block with a stupid little shield? No sword spell or anything?" Vince recognized the Mystic's voice. It was Motarius. He was the one who had killed Vypith and Tempo, and he was the one that Aea had referred to. Motarius threw his sword against the wall behind Koumilon. The sorcerer then dropped his shield and fired a bolt of lightning at the Mystic, but Motarius blocked with a Holy shield and replied with a barrage of Holy shots. Koumilon blocked with another energy shield. However, behind him, Motarius' silver sword had transformed into the beautiful, blond-haired, blue-eyed girl. Koumilon hadn't seen her yet. She furtively cast a spell. Vines sprouted from the ground and caught Koumilon from behind, holding down his limbs and breaking his control over his energy shield. Motarius laughed. Ophelia reverted to her sword form and returned to the Mystic's hand. Motarius charged at Koumilon, who was still held immobile by the vines. The Mystic stabbed his blade into the left side of the sorcerer's chest. Grunting in pain, Koumilon fell to the floor. Motarius, still laughing, went to through the door on the far side of the hall to the next room. Vince waited at the door for a minute, making sure that the coast was clear. Then, he ran into the hall, running past Koumilon's body. However, just as he reached the next door, it suddenly slammed shut and glowed with blue energy. Vince pulled on the door, but it wouldn't move. He turned around. Koumilon was climbing to his feet. "But Motarius killed you," Vince said. "He stabbed you in the heart." "I was born with a rare condition," Koumilon said. "The left and right sides of my body are reversed. My heart is on my right side. Motarius critically wounded me, but I still have enough strength to prevent a second intruder from getting to the control room." The sorcerer shot out a bolt of lightning. Vince ran to the side, dodging it. Then, Koumilon froze the air and threw a cluster of ice shards. Vince leapt to the other side. "Come on, traitor," Koumilon shouted. "Let me see that Dark Fiend of yours again. You can't win just by dodging all my attacks. Show me what you got." Then, he gathered some energy and fired out a jagged lightning bolt. Vince sidestepped it, but the bolt bounced off the wall and came right back at him. Vince leapt aside again, but again, the lightning bolt bounced off the wall and came back. "Chain lightning," Koumilon explained. "It'll just keep bouncing from target to target until I make it stop. Until then, have fun." The lightning bolt came back again and again. Still, Vince dodged it every time. "Never mind, I'll speed this up a bit," Koumilon said. Then, waving his hands, he produced twenty Magic Missiles and fired them all. As the energy projectile closed in on Vince from all directions, he knew that there was no way he could dodge them all. Magma flowed forth from his skin and covered him completely. Then, it condensed and solidified into armor. Underneath, skin had been replaced with black hide and black hair with red. The Dark Fiend of the Inferno formed a shield of flame and blocked all the Magic Missiles are the lightning bolt. "Much better," Koumilon said. "Now, I can use--" Without even finishing the sentence, Koumilon blasted a stream of water at the Inferno Fiend, knocking him down immediately. "Damn!" Vince thought. "This was a trap?" Another water blast knocked him into the wall. As Koumilon shot another stream of water at him, Vince rolled out of the way and threw a cluster of fireballs. However, the sorcerer simply wiped out all the fireballs with a cluster of water droplets. Then, Koumilon replied with another water blast, slamming Vince into the wall again. "I never could beat water magic before," Vince thought to himself. "How am I supposed to win this battle now? How did Motarius beat this guy? Wait... Motarius!" The thought of the Mystic's name reminded Vince of another battle, during which he had blasted out the lights, creating a shower of sparks to momentarily blind Motarius. Perhaps the same trick might work now. Koumilon shot another blast of water. Vince responded by blasting the lights above with fireballs. The room went dark, lit only by the sparks raining down. They touched the water. Immediately, electric arcs shot through the water and zapped the sorcerer. As the glow of electricity lit up Koumilon's body, Vince noticed the wound on the left side of his chest. This reminded him of a previous battle. "I see you're taking advantage of a fresh wound of mine," Motarius had said. Koumilon repelled the electricity with a pulse of magic. At that moment, Vince charged, screaming a warcry. His gauntlets afire, he stabbed his fingers into Koumilon's wound and slammed him into the wall. Koumilon screamed in pain. Vince pinned Koumilon to the wall with his hand in his chest, blood trickling all over his gauntlet. "I win!" Vince proclaimed. "Not until one of us dies," Koumilon retorted. "Motarius didn't kill you," Vince replied. "And he went right through this room." "Motarius is a lot stronger than you," Koumilon said. "Let me pass, and I'll spare your life," Vince offered. "Then what kind of guard would I be?" Koumilon replied. With that, Koumilon pointed his hands at Vince, and reality twisted itself madly into a point and shot at Vince. Barely reacting in time, Vince turned sideways and slipped between the two ether spears. It was a narrow dodge. Vince wasn't harmed, but large pieces of his armor had been torn off. Within the next second, two opposing thoughts fought for control in Vince's mind. He could not kill Koumilon, even if they were enemies. Koumilon was just another soldier, following orders, looking for a way to survive. He didn't deserve death. Vince couldn't kill him. Yet, he had to, lest the sorcerer killed him. Koumilon was making his next move. Vince had to decide quickly. Before the sorcerer could cast another spell, Vince, giving a warcry, slammed the palm of his flaming gauntlet against Koumilon's forehead, smashing his head against the wall. Koumilon's arms dropped to his side. Breathing heavily, Vince slowly threw him to the ground. There was a huge smear of blood where his head had hit the wall. The back of Koumilon's head had been shattered open. As though speaking to the air, Vince said, "Sorry, Tina. I'll pay my respects later. Now, I have to go help Motarius stop the Quantum Saviors from launching the nukes." With that, Vince ran through the door to the next hallway. |