Angelos Odyssey

5-1

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Tavon

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I charge at Artemis, mentally preparing for my opening attack. As my momentum carries me forward, I imagine leading with a high kick—and then I hear something rushing through the air behind me.

One of Spilsbury’s bone-blades soars in the direction of my head. I can’t outrun it, so I strafe left, rotate on my heel, and I move to face Artemis just as he rushes me. Artemis launches a thrust at my neck; I step right to evade, and he spins with the same blade while moving to cut off my head. I duck, he stops mid-swing, then he swings out in the opposite direction, and I step back—

Right in time to see another boomerang of bone fly at my lower back. I spin to evade it, and the boomerang stabs and buries itself inside Artemis’ chest. Artemis grabs it in order to tear it back out of his body and throws it my way.

I jump in order to avoid the spinning blade, and, as soon as I land, Artemis fires one of his arms at my head. I sidestep out of its way, and then I notice the trail of grey tau behind his arm begin to solidify while growing a narrow column of white spines. Artemis’ aura transmutes into a spinal column that attaches to his arm, and, before swinging, the entire column expands with sharp spikes.

Artemis slashes right, aiming at the center of my body; I crouch down, generating enough zol in my legs to cause them to expand, and I leap through the air to avoid him. Simultaneously, another boomerang heads my way, and I spin in the air to dodge it. Once I land, Artemis withdraws his entire arm back into itself and charges before he lunges at me with a rapid thrust.

I move left, a boomerang homes in on the back of my head, and I duck just as Artemis lifts up one leg and extends it into a slender spear. He starts to swing his leg my way, so I try to dash to the right—

Another boomerang cuts me off and sinks itself into Artemis’ body at the exact moment he kicks out at me. His body reabsorbs the fragment, and a trace of zol rushes down to his leg; Artemis slashes at me faster than I can react, and he cuts a wide gash in my chest that also tears open my tank top. My blood splashes across the ground, Artemis’ leg returns to its normal shape as it touches the floor, and Artemis follows up with a swift s***h at my head.

I duck as I move to the left, and he stabs at my chest with his right arm; I strafe right, and he swings at my head again with his left blade. I pivot and rotate away, coming to face him once more as he advances and swings out at me. When I step back, he lunges with a quick thrust; when I evade, he thrusts again and again; when I avoid his fourth strike, I spot a boomerang flying in from the left and crouch as it passes overhead. Artemis aims his next thrust at my face while I’m in a lowered position, and I stumble over myself as I dodge left while trying to stand. I stand, Artemis anticipates it, and, while still moving forward, he uses his momentum to rotate into a swing that moves like a flash of light.

I step back, right into the path of an incoming boomerang. I crouch, it flies by my head, and Artemis thrusts at my face. I backstep, backstep again into a spin as another boomerang rushes past me, and then come around into a charge as a third boomerang heads my way. Right when it comes close to tearing my head from my shoulders, I duck—

Right into the path of one of Spilsbury’s swords.

I react by sending all of my momentum into my lower body, expand the muscles in my right leg, and rotate my body into a kick aimed at my target’s chest, bashing his arm aside before he can bury his blade into my skin. Artemis steps away and then shoots three shards at my head. I dart forward and to the left to evade them, then I rotate my body just as another boomerang rushes by and sinks itself into Spilsbury. Artemis shoots two more shards at me as I charge his way; when I strafe right, he immediately flings his boomerang at me, forcing me to sidestep so that I’m in the path of another boomerang. But, before I can manage to evade it, Artemis charges and stabs at the side of my face. I duck, move my hand inside of his thrusting arm, turn to avoid the curved bone blade as it strikes Spilsbury’s body, and move to strike his stomach with an uppercut. He reacts by thrusting with his other arm, and, when I see it, I grab his blade and stop it in place; Artemis flexes it and causes a series of spikes to impale themselves through my hand.

another As I gasp, drawing back my bloodied hand, Artemis moves back slightly. He frees the first arm I blocked and swings: I backstep, duck as another boomerang nearly takes off my head, move inside of his next thrust, and deflect it with one arm; he thrusts with his right arm, I step to the side, chop down on it as it comes forward, and strafe left and inside of his guard as he thrusts again with his left. I deflect, advance, flex my arm as red aura flickers around it, and punch Artemis straight in the chest!

Compression follows before his body absorbs the full impact of the hit. My knuckles crash through fragments of bone, and Artemis Spilsbury is blown backwards as three boomerangs home in on me from three different directions.

I jump to avoid one, duck to avoid another, and throw my body to the side in order to keep from being eviscerated by the last. All three fly past me before penetrating the body of Artemis, who grunts as his aura spikes and mushrooms into a cloud around him.

At that very instant, one of the Maeja thugs I’ve already met approaches me and draws his knife. He glares at me and says, “You were supposed to have given up already. What’s the problem?”—he steps closer—“I thought we had an understanding.”

He stabs at my stomach without another word. When he misses with his first strike, he flips the knife so that its edge extends from the bottom of his hand. The Maeja thug jumps and thrusts downward; I meet him halfway, deflecting with one arm and punching with the other. I uppercut him in the stomach hard enough to make him vomit up blood; I uppercut him again and smash through his head with my fist.

One of his companions follows behind him with his fists raised and instantly swings at my head. I take the punch without flinching, then I jab him in the face once, twice, and crush it inward on the third strike.

A third attacker dashes in with a pistol on my left. Artemis cuts him off by pointing the end of his blade in front of the newcomer’s neck. “Stop,” he says, “you’re being disrespectful.”

I suddenly become aware of fierce heat showering down on us from above. At first, I thought it was just the sun, but this feels more intense. I want to look up, but I have to stay focused on my opponent.

The Maeja thug takes one look at me, glances back at Artemis, and fires anyway, prompting me to step to the side before I’m hit in the face. Artemis swings and slices through the gunmen’s right arm! He dismembers it at the elbow. Artemis swings again and cuts off the man’s head before pointing the end of his blade at me.

As his victim’s blood drips down the side of his head, he says to me, “Let’s continue to fight as if they weren’t even there. I’ll kill your attackers if you kill mine.”

On that note, I dash toward him, leap, and send a flying knee toward his face. When he steps back, anticipating the strike, I kick out at his head. This prompts him to crouch and turn into a spin; Artemis swings at me with both arms, and I narrowly avoid the first blade as it sails through the air. The second extends itself at the last second and cuts into my thigh. I land behind him, and, when I try to charge, Artemis aims one blade at me and fires off three ivory fragments from his wrist that fly my way. I dodge by rotating my body to the right in time to catch an interceptor rushing me with a sword. He swings down, forcing me to backstep just as another attacker wielding a beer bottle comes in from the right.

While the first guy recovers and strides in my direction, the other swings; just as his bottle misses me and catches nothing but the air around it, I hit this man with a hook that puts him on the floor and then turn to face the swordsman. He charges with an angry roar, preparing to run me through!

Artemis shoots a shard into his head and causes him to fall forward as he crashes onto the ground, then Artemis runs at me with his blades resting at his sides.

Four men dash to intercept our fight, and all four face Artemis as one condemns him, “This was your fight to win! Why would you kill one of us! I’ll take both of you right here!”

One of them raises his assault rifle at Spilsbury’s face, but, at the moment he opens his mouth to speak, Artemis fires another shard of bone into his head. As the other three exclaim in terror and try to circle Artemis with their fists raised, he turns into a spinning swing, decapitating two, and plunges one of his swords through the body of the last man. Artemis cuts open a red path as he swings out, then he removes his target’s head with one stroke of his sword.

I run at Artemis, but another Maeja thug makes it to him before I do. He raises his machete high in the air, and Artemis blows two more shards through his face before putting him on his back and staring at me as his aura grows even more.

Just then, one of his boomerangs soars toward my head, and I’m forced to duck as it zooms above me and flies into the back of another attacker. Before I can approach Artemis, six men surround him; most of them are brandishing bats and knives, but two of them carry assault rifles that they point at his head. As both fire, Artemis twirls and flings a boomerang that slices through the head of one gunman; he catches another as it’s flying toward him, rotates once more, and throws it with so much precision that it cleaves through the neck of the second shooter. Artemis catches a third boomerang, flings it so that it buries itself inside the chest of his subsequent target, swings out at the next guy to approach him, and slashes straight through his skull. He turns to face the next assailant as yet another Maeja thug runs at him with a bat.

Artemis severs the thug’s arm at the elbow, impales the inside of his other bicep, then he extends a series of spikes out from the center of his chest that rapidly stab through his opponent’s head, chest, and neck. The attacker’s body spurts bright blood from each strike before falling the floor and right as Spilsbury’s final opponent rushes him; Artemis charges in response.