Vice and Virtue

Chapter - 13

As soon as she teleported me towards Harold, she simultaneously opened up multiple portals up above to distract them from my point of appearance. Then she jumped through a few of them herself, confusing everyone to keep our element of surprise till we sort ourselves. It was a heavy burden on her body but it was worth the risk to keep each of us from any unforeseen attacks. How she managed to slow herself down before she popped up in front of Tricia and Max was unknown to me but she emerged right in front of, flying up from the side of the building. To stop someone as strong as them wasn’t easy either. She kept moving around to keep them from acting up and when she was certain that she could close in, she caught both of their arms to stop them from moving, not physically but psychologically, strengthening her own ability by coming in contact with them. Leviathan’s bellows made it hard for her to concentrate but she hung in there by some miracle. Incapacitating Tricia was pretty smart, since she’s a ranger type with her dual guns but Max on the other hand is flexible with his self-armament. If she doesn’t get away soon, she might be in a pinch. Max started to manifest something over his legs even though he’s psychologically immobile. She took a step back from Max but barely kept in contact with him. Tricia was helpless but she didn’t bother worrying but instead she waited for her chance at redemption. His manifestation was slow but progressive and at the final moments, he broke out of her psychosis and swung his legs towards her. She managed to evade his claws at the last second but it still grazed her thigh, deep enough for it to constrict her movements. She fell on her back, pressuring the wound but rolled back as soon as she caught Max in the air from the corner of her eye. The floor shattered under his feet, briefly stopping him to gain his balance but Tricia gained the momentum, using his back as a footing and taking to the air, already armed and ready to take Renae down. Before she could let loose and raise hell on Renae for pulling that little stunt, she paused for a moment as soon as she caught a glimpse of Harold and me, falling through the clouds, straight towards them. She figured that Renae would be busy enough with Max alone and she could take a little detour. Max rushed in towards Renae, pushing her back and pressuring her into submission. She managed to stand her ground but since her abilities aren’t exactly suited for combat, she had to deflect all his attacks rather than blocking them completely because just her physical strength wouldn’t be enough to stop his full on assault.

Tricia quickly fired a few quick shots into the air, before she rushed towards Theo. She spared no ground for us to act but instead, built on the momentum she gained, separating us and reinforcing their advantage. She hopped on Theo’s dragon and kicked him out of the way before I came in contact with them. Leaving me to drill through the dragon and the building itself, she managed to minimize their efforts at confrontation and focused on support. Theo jumped into the hole I made in the ground behind me and Tricia rushed back towards Renae to support Max. He was already laying a fair amount of damage on Renae, even though he’s being deflected most of the time. Renae changed her strategies from keeping them busy to taking them on a wild goose chase. If it’s just one of them, she can hold them for a quite a bit of time but even she can’t handle taking on both of them at the same time and she understands it better than most of them. Tricia caught up with Max’s pace earlier than thought, so instead of a steady retreat, she decided to stress more on her abilities to slow them down. Dodging energy bullets consequently deflecting powerful charges and stomps, she held on to her rationality and acted accordingly. Every time she deflected Max, she quickly slid back into her portals and appeared at the most random spot a bit away from the duo. Tricia’s quick shots were hard to evade but a random appearance slowed down her accuracy, therefore increasing Renae’s chances at survival. When the things get a bit rough on the round, Renae took to the air, using her portals as shields from the energy shots but Max was always waiting as soon as she got back to the ground though. Juggling between these 2 monsters, she refused to falter for even the slightest moment but something that could affect her psyche would make her a mistake she would regret for a long time.

She noticed that Kai was heading straight for the Rogue division but he was staggered a bit in his course and with their linked minds, Renae already had an idea as to what was wrong and she attempted to transfer some of his pain to herself, only to feel despair by her failure, trying to do it. She hadn’t had the time to complete it as she was cut off by the ruthless barrage of bullets from Tricia but that was enough for her to assess Kai’s condition and for her to be distracted from the imminent danger below her. Before she came back to her senses, she was nearly on the ground, where Max had been waiting for her, but it was too late for her to react to his direct attacks towards her. He boosted himself with every contact and finally threw her back into the air. Her whole body ached in resonance with his merciless strikes but she held on. Her mind went blank with the pain, rendering her ability to make decisions, pointless. The duo didn’t waste even the slightest chance at hurting her, they intentionally held back as to not knock her out instantly but they went slow yet sharp, nearly to the point of t*****e. Her endurance was out of this world, being juggled between both physical and energy hits on both the ground and in the air, it was a near miracle for her to stick to the plan rather than bail from that hell. She did manage to deflect and evade a few but they were just too aggressive. At this point, she tried to get better at what she does and with all the energy she got left, she tried to focus on their psyche, trying to damage it just enough for her to catch a breath and plan her next moves and when she actually did do it, it didn’t work as good as she thought it would but they were slowed a bit and she used this chance to put some distance between them and retreat slowly. Covered from head to toe in blood and completely exhausted, she shot herself backwards with the help of all the projectiles that they racked up into the air and were slowed and held there by leviathan’s own gravity. Tricia tried to stop her but they were all struck by an ominous aura. From the smoke coming the big hole in the rogue division, they could make out a silhouette of a staggering man, coming towards the edge and close behind a faint structure of another, disfigured but erect. She held her breath for the moment of truth and when the time had come, her heart skipped a beat, when one of them, fell off the building, unnatural and static.