The Art of Rebellion

Beneath The Waves

Nysa blows a gust of wind towards us with her left hand, pushing is back a bit, and then aims a lightning bolt at me with her free arm. I jump to the side to avoid it, but she then raises her leg in a high kick, and another gust of wind slams into me, sending me flying. I land on my back with a loud thud, and my head starts ringing. This one's gonna be a bitch tomorrow. I stay down and watch En try her luck.

Nysa keeps slashing at the blonde girl with concentrated wind attacks, but they're all dodged with relative ease. Every once in a while, she mixes things up and throws a lightning bolt, and I realize what En's plan is; She's waiting for her opponent to exhaust herself.

The woman seems to realize this, too, because she changes tactics and slams her palms together. As they separate, a spear of electricity appears before her, cackling with power. Nysa takes it and gets in a stance to throw it. "How unfortunate that you're both so insistent on dying. I could've gotten even richer. Oh, well. Time to bleed." With that, she launches the attack, which flies forward way too fast for En to dodge completely. It hits her shoulder, then explodes, firing lightning all around the girl, making her body convulse with pain. My partner falls to her knees, then gives me a look from across her shoulder.

I nod, noticing the small knives she prepared in one hand, and then stand up. En throws the few knives she has all at once, and in different directions. Nysa propels herself into the air using wind to dodge, and then I fling Mad's dagger at her. The attack hits home, piercing the white woman's abdomen, making her gasp and lose focus. The wind beneath her disperses, letting her drop to the ground. The fight's over.

'Wrong,' Shishi says, and Nysa proves him right by pulling the dagger out and standing back up, looking like a madwoman. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small vial of something gold, then swallows it. As soon as the potion is gone, her wound closes and her power skyrockets.

"I can't believe I've gotta waste it on little shits like you," she snarls, pumping a fist into the air. Lightning comes down from the sky and slams into her, then transforms into a snake above her - one made entirely of electricity and magic. "Oh, well. Time to die."

En gets back on her feet, but just barely, and I follow her lead. We can't dodge it physically, so I've got no choice left. I'm gonna have to put myself out of commission again.

"Hey, bitch," I call out, earning Nysa's attention. "You actually needed a potion for an attack like that? Pathetic."

She simply smiles. "The fact that you're trying to anger me means you want me to attack you...." her focus shifts to En. "Bye bye, girl."

Fuck. I throw my hands toward En and raise her shadow as a shield, but the serpent goes through it, frying the girl with its impressive power. The explosion of bright light makes me cover my eyes to avoid being blinded, and I notice Nysa is doing the same, but trying to look at En. Forcing my body to move, I run toward her, and manage to catch her off guard. She raises a hand to defend herself, but my fist passes it by and slams into her face, cracking her nose and putting her on the ground. Before she can recover, I throw myself at her and keep punching. In turn, she claws at me and tries to kick me off, but I grab her hair and slam her head against the ground, knocking her out cold. If I just leave her like this, she'll come after us again, so I put my hands around the woman's throat and squeeze. I keep applying pressure for a few minutes, not willing to risk it. Just like that, another council member dies.

I get up and limp toward En, who's bruised and burnt all over from the attack.

"D'you g-get her?" she asks, barely looking at me.

"Yeah."

"Good..."

"Don't speak," I tell her, kneeling down. "You need to save your energy, and we need to get out of here." I put one hand beneath her legs and the other her back, but I don't have enough strength to lift her up. "Fuck..." I groan, noticing a few remaining mafioso approaching us, swords drawn, angry and worried looks on their faces. One of them is dressed slightly differently, wearing a black suit over a white shirt, with a red tie as the finishing touch. It's one of the newest entries to fashion, so he must be a rich guy. He's average in height, I guess, and really pale - probably made more so with his clothes and dark hair. His eyes are slightly slanted, confirming his identity as Gerald's son.