Day Two, Chapter Six, The Second Conflict

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Floriana Household, Woodrow, Northern Territory, Australia

Friday 2/2/2024

10:24

Talia Morticaya was cautious yet determined. For two years now, Talia had not once lost a fight. No matter who she fought, Deimos, Janus, Ronin, Graevel, Nomura, even the Emerald Demon. The six most powerful Magicae in the entire world, she had fought them all and tied with each. With the ability to infinitely multiply yourself, it was almost impossible to lose. But that didn't mean that she was guaranteed victory. A draw was not good enough. She needed to kill Pendragon. And she had prepared well. There were several hundred copies stationed around the property, all in a nearly braindead trance state so they wouldn't require concentration. If Pendragon tried to flee, she could transfer her consciousness into one of the groups and ambush him. There were also four sky-camouflaged Lockheed C-5 Galaxies flying holding patterns above the area. Each of them carried more inactive Talia copies. No matter where Pendragon fled to, she would be able to keep attacking him. Pendragon currently had the Magicae Powers: Arrowcall, Devour, Extendo-Arms, Fabric Control, Flame Control, Intentions, Multibody, Musclebound, Re-Call, Regen, Re-Tool, Scalemorph, Selective Intangibility, Soaring, Tendrils, Undercall and Windrun. He also had the Subpowers: Advanced Object Summoning and Escalate. Nineteen abilities in total. Talia could discount seven of them:

Advanced Object Summoning, it required detailed knowledge of the object trying to be summoned.

Arrowcall, it could only temporarily paralyse its victims. And it was hard to shoot more than one at a time.

Intentions, even if Pendragon used it, the combined input of fifty hive minded opponents would be overwhelming.

Multibody, it required incredible amounts of practice.

Re-Tool, it took time to work and was almost useless in battles which were decided by quick action.

Selective Intangibility, it could only make the user intangible to five objects at a time. It was useless against Talia's fighting style.

Soaring, it was great for flying long distances, but that was all. It was hard to control and useless in a fight.

That left twelve abilities. And Pendragon had no skill in any of them. Magicae Powers improved exponentially with practice and skill. That was why no one considered Pendragon a major threat. Even if he were to copy every ability out there, without any idea of how to use them he would probably only rank in the top twenty strongest Magicae. For reference, Talia Morticaya was ranked as the seventh, although she was far behind the sixth. So long as Talia played her cards right, the fight would be a clear victory.

There was a loud boom as Pendragon launched towards her, propelling himself with both wind and flames. Twenty AK-47s were raised and fired. Pendragon's dark blue trench coat swirled around him, absorbing and nullifying the bullets. Ten copies raced forward, wielding swords. Green scales coated him. The swords bounced off his armoured hide. Bladed insectoid limbs sprouted from the trench coat and julienned the copies. Just then, three rocket propelled OG-7V fragmentation grenades exploded around him, one directly striking him. Pendragon was sent flying back, his scales cracked and damaged. Talia smiled. Scalemorph was a great defensive ability. Gunnar's scales were so strong that so far no one had been able to even scratch them. But Pendragon didn't have his skill, and his scales were just a little stronger than metal plates. More RPGs. More explosions. Some of the scales had been blasted away and there was a large yet shallow crater on his chest. The Talia copies advanced, now aiming for his injured chest. Once again, the trench coat wrapped around him. It too sprouted scales. Nathan transformed. Long tendrils burst from him and stabbed into the ground. As more bullets and RPGs struck him, he remained fixed in position thanks to the anchoring limbs. Scaled arms stretched from the coat. Massive bursts of fire exploded from their palms, sending a colossal wave of fire towards the Talia clones. They scattered, or else summoned heat shields. All of a sudden, Alexandria joined the fight. She redirected Pendragon's fire, directing it upwards and away from the copies. Talia took the chance. Fourty of her copies ran at the scaly cocoon. Bladed tentacles wiped out most of them. But a couple managed to reach Pendragon. Each of them summoned several kilograms of C4 plastic explosive. There was an immense explosion. A shower of green and red burst from Pendragon, like a cascade of emeralds and rubies. The frayed and damaged coat retracted, revealing Pendragon's blood-covered form. The scaled outer layer gorily peeled away and, once again, Pendragon launched propelled by Windrun and Flame Control. He covered himself in spikes and aimed for the remaining Talia clones. With incredible speed, a flame covered Alexandria slammed into him, knocking him off course. The two of them violently crashed into the earth like a meteor, causing a great flaming blast. A seared Pendragon dragged himself out of the flames. Alexandria, who had avoided the worst of both the spikes and the impact, continued her attack. Talia took this time to increase her copies to fifty once more. In that time, Pendragon had managed to cocoon Alexandria in his fire resistant coat. He turned, only to find more clones surrounding him. His arms stretched and struck the ground, launching him upwards and away from the advancing copies. RPGs renewed gunfire shredded the air. Pendragon sped through the air, avoiding the attack. Some of the copies broke away from the main group and helped free Alexandria from the coat.

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