Strange Aeons [Book 1]

7. Losertown [part III]

She was a petite girl, not taller than four feet nine, extremely thin, even if every fiber of her being were muscles. Two childish ponytails tied her light-brown hair on the sides of her head, giving her a scary Alice in Wonderland vibe, even if she was dressed in black leather pants, gloves and jacket and a bright yellow t-shirt. A Bluetooth earpiece was clearly visible at her left ear, and she sported what probably were smart glasses on her nose. Surely enough, she didn't really need glasses to see.

Glory was looking at her with an amused look in her giant dark eyes, and a smirk on her thin, pink lips.

«Well well, lookie here. I should have guessed you'd be somewhere in Losertown.» she spat.

«Glory, please, I'm not really in the mood.» sighed Banshee, and she was sincere. She really didn't want to take the frustration of the day on yet another member of the Lion's Charge. «I'm really surprised ye still think personal attacks are the better way to get intel from us.»

Glory didn't even answer. She simply disappeared. Banshee closed her eyes and focused. Swift calculations she could never do consciously were rapidly compiled in her brain, and she jumped forward just a second before Glory appeared, trying to sweep her down with a rotating kick at her ankles.

Banshee landed on the balls of her feet and disappeared as well. Glory jumped on her feet and looked around. Then dodged towards her left, escaping from the firm grip of the woman appearing right in the spot she was a second before. They both looked at each other and then disappeared again.

Banshee was the first one to reappear. Glory appeared right behind her, and shot a powerful knee hit towards her lower back. Her knee impacted, but with a shattering noise it did no harm at all. Banshee rolled in front of herself, and then got back up, turning towards her now baffled enemy.

She shot forward and throw all her weight against Glory, pinning her against the wall, with her elbow on her throat, using her other hand to keep her slim wrists well together and stopped.

«Do you always have to use your hands like a mere human?» burbled Glory with the little breath she was able to muster to get in or out.

«I told ye it has been a bad day. Can you please fuck off stage right and leave me alone?»

Glory tried to struggle and found enough room to use magic to evade her grip. She disappeared again and reappeared on the other side of the corridor. An arrow of fire left her hands to fly straight towards Banshee. That, too, shattered against some kind of invisible barrier, with a silvery noise of shards.

Banshee ran, fast, and tried to tackle the small girl to pin her down on the ground. The two shuffled on the floor, until Glory's slim body let her slip away from Banshee's tight grip and sprung up to her feet like a Jack-in-a-Box.

Losing the rhythm of the fight, Banshee couldn't anticipate the kick that got her right in the stomach. She lost all the air stored in her lungs and folded with her hands on her belly. Glory kicked her again straight on her face, with a loud crack of teeth. Banshee rolled backwards spitting blood and bone fragments and feeling her jaw pulsating. But Glory charging another kick gave her enough momentum to disappear again.

Glory put her foot back and watched around her, ready to get her from whenever she would have appeared.

She found herself suddenly buried under Banshee's complete weight. Her whole 176 pounds of Irish muscles dropped heavily on the scarce 132 of her opponent, spreading her on the floor.

«My God, you have no fighting elegance...» wheezed Glory, with Banshee firmly sitting on her stomach, Alzheimer triumphantly perching on her head, in his glorious animal form, as if he wanted to add even his weight to the action. «... just like that filthy beast...»