King Me

The King of Strategy

Faust's unholy beast stood still, eyeless sockets turning across the two titans that were dwarfed before it. All the black eyes in the sky staired at it, watching the standoff that ensued, none of the three combatants making the first move.

Conner nodded at the screen, "Faust is way more powerful than that teleporter critter let on,"

Aurelia shook her head, "No, it was probably being honest. I think it underestimated him because he can somehow conceal his true power."

That would make sense, Yancey thought. He initially lied about his skills, so maybe he works to hide other things that I don't know about.

The fire titan realized nobody was going to make the first move. It reached over and snapped the top off a building, holding it out to show Faust and the water titan. Yancey wasn't sure of the meaning of this until it hurled it straight up into the air, unthreateningly. When it landed, the battle would continue, and the elements would clash with hell given shape. All eyes followed it. Even the eyeless head of Faust's beast followed it through the air, falling down slowly, gaining momentum and speeding up, and finally. Boom.

Both elementals erupted forward, shaking the entire city. The beast simply vanished. When it reappeared, its hands had snatched the water elemental, and phased towards the one of fire. It used the spiraling water-based body like a rope, lashing it around the body of flames. Steam burst outward, veiling the entire city yet doing little to stifle the screams of the titans. The battle had harshly slanted in favor of Faust. Mr. Sato pulled the car to a stop, unable to see the road ahead. And at this point, a few extra miles wouldn't help them much with the sheer scale of the battle. 

Faust's beast held tight onto the makeshift ropes of water, and began spinning violently in a circle. It released, letting the two tangled elementals flail off, shattering through skyscrapers with devastating speed. But the beast was not done. The remaining light in the world dimmed as the beast's mouth opened, a ball of purple energy forming behind bars of massive teeth. It grew, larger and larger, until it shot out a beam of energy. The beam struck the elementals, producing an explosion usually accompanied only by a nuclear warhead, and yet no bright flash followed. The explosion began pulling in, tightening down and sucking the light from the world. Massive towers bent inward towards it, and the very geometry of the city began pulling towards it. 

The rest of the group was now over twenty miles away, but the ground began to angle vertically as the very earth pulled inward towards it. Mr. Sato thought quick, and engaged the engine, avoiding the loose objects that began pouring by them as the ground continued to angle. Yancey missed everything happening in the battle until the slanting earth ceased. The hovering image displayed the two titans, now untangled from one another, badly wounded, yet still standing. 

The water titan released undistinguishable words to the fire, who shook its head, "No, that is not an option. All teams are not present yet, and if we--"

But whatever it was trying to warn of didn't deter whatever the swirling lengths of the typhoon creature were conveying. And then Yancey saw it. A tower of water, like a tsunami that had been multiplied by a thousand, sprung up over the horizon. Spouts of water erupted from the ground, flooding the earth. 

The fire titan roared with protest, "Cease this, you fool! You'll destroy the whole planet!"

Yet Faust's beast was unphased. It raised its right arm, uncurling fingers that summoned a wave of undead from the rest of the body towards the arm. Thousands of dead bodies pulsed out of the arm, leaking like geysers though the air. In the hand, the bodies began to form a staff. Metals began gravitating up from the earth. Cars, metal from decimated skyscrapers, even simple trash, shot towards the top of the staff, crushing into it to form a long blade of metal. Yancey realized it was forming a massive scythe, hundreds of stories tall.