Shattered Skies: The Morning Lights

CHAPTER 49: With Their Voices Soft as Thunder

Chapter 49: With Their Voices Soft as Thunder

[Author's Note: This chapter took forever, I know. It fought me every step of the way. Fight scenes are the bane of my existence, so I'd really appreciate kind (and detailed!) feedback regarding this one. The next chapter is already underway, and will be something very different... but hopefully still interesting. - BHS]

-VERTEX ONE: 15.556984-

Azelma's Labyrinth

Strange, thought Sakura Kinomoto. The thought came through with a clarity that was frankly inexplicable, given their circumstances. Strange that a creature with no eyes—none on its head, anyway, for as far as she could tell, the head was composed only of the massive lance and the two scythe-like pincers mounted just beneath it—could nevertheless glare at them with such vehement rage. And there was no doubt in her mind that it was glaring right at them, that it could see them looking up at it from within FLOAT's basket. Malice boiled off of the Witch like steam from an overheated kettle...

"Tigers, listen up," said Madoka Kaname. She was on one knee, a flaming pink arrow notched to her bow, waiting for the perfect moment to fire. To her credit, her voice only shook a little. "We're sitting ducks in here, so we're going to have to jump."

"Jump where?!" sputtered Chibi-Usa Tsukino, Sailor Chibi-Moon.

"On top of it. At least, that's a short-term solution." The smile that accompanied this statement was precarious indeed.

Hotaru Tomoe, Sailor Saturn, nodded in understanding. "I get it. It's so big that if we stand on it, it shouldn't be able to attack us without hurting itself." She allowed herself a slight smile. "Fleas on a dog's back."

"Are you nuts?!" Chibi-Moon took great fistfuls of her cotton candy hair. "What if it can attack us there, or it knocks us off, or—"

"That's why we need a Plan B," said Madoka. "Sakura-chan, what do you have that can give us some solid ground?"

Sakura chewed on her lip. "EARTHY could do it, if she raises up a big hill or a rock formation or something," she said as she wracked her brains, visualizing possibilities. It was difficult to concentrate with an armored centipede as tall as a high-rise office building looming over them, poised to strike at any moment... Why it hadn't already done so was beyond her. The fetid atmosphere of the mushroom swamp didn't help her think; her AMP's shields could keep out the clouds of spores that choked the air, but not the air's stifling weight, and not its smell...

"That'll work, just keep us well above the water and give us at least five meters of flat surface to stand on. Ten, if you can." The point of Madoka's arrow held steady over the bulging compound eye of one of the metallic faces set in the segments of the Witch's underbelly. Sakura was struck by how mature and elegant Madoka looked, the picture of an archer... she could imagine her as a marble and alabaster statue of a Greek goddess. "Okay," she said, drawing Sakura out of her daydream, "get ready to jump right after I hit it. Sakura-chan, once we're all off, call back FLOAT and have EARTHY stand by, okay?"

"Roger!" said three voices in a rough chorus.

"All right," said Madoka. Slowly she pulled back on her arrow's fletching. Its flames roared with new life, as if eager to be loosed. "Three. Two. One..." Snap. Set free at last, the arrow was near-impossible to follow with the naked eye, resembling little more than a line of sparkling pink fire. Flying straight and true, it whistled as furrowed a path through the stagnant air and speared the eye, bursting it like an overripe fruit.