139. Gun to a Knife Fight

Serac reached up with her CONSTRICTOR hand, shooting out two tentacles at once and sending them wide. They stuck to the amber wall and held in a V-shape, allowing the gunslinger to dig her boots in and open up the rest of her body. She twisted in place and met HARPOON with REVOLVER, but stopped short of squeezing the trigger.

"Rodrin!" she exclaimed, voice subconsciously rising an octave. "What are you… Did you follow us here?"

"I'm sorry!" A humble apology to momentarily offset the steely determination. "I couldn't help but overhear… and when I realized you were trying to climb into the Queen's chamber…"

As was the wont of the young and inexperienced, Rodrin's self-belief appeared to be wavering. Maybe there was still a chance to talk her off the ledge, so to speak.

"I have my reasons," Serac said, "and despite how it looks, they don't involve crossing you or anyone else in the Kronvakt. We don't have to do this!"

Honest and sincere—Serac's modus operandi. She had high hopes that Rodrin, as someone who seemed to be cut from the same cloth, would respond to it in kind. Well, Rodrin did—but took it in a different direction from what Serac had hoped for:

"You're wrong, Serac Edin. I have to stop you! That's what… that's what Eddur would expect of me!"

As was the wont of the young and inexperienced, Rodrin was desperate to prove herself—to spread her wings, as Trippy might've put it. In any other circumstance, such earnestness would've warmed Serac's heart, but here and now, it broke it instead. Nevertheless, she got ready for a fight she'd dearly wished to avoid.

[HARPOON Spell: GRAPPLEHOOK]

Rodrin fired first. The spearpoint flew, imbued with and trailed by a bright-green aura. Serac had a split Ksana to note its course and velocity, before she kicked her way up the wall to steer clear of impalement.

She'd done her homework on all the Kronvakt members, paying equal caution and respect to each and every one—including even the baby of the group. As such, she knew this opener by Rodrin to be a two-parter. She steeled herself for what she was about to do, all the while ruing her opponent's naive predictability.

HARPOON's spearpoint landed just where Serac's feet had been a moment ago. It failed to penetrate the amber wall, but neither did it bounce off entirely. Instead, its green aura spread itself in a radial pattern, forming a temporary attachment that was sturdier than any tentacle could hope to emulate. At the same time, Rodrin moved into the second part of her opener, just as her opponent had anticipated.

HARPOON's rope retracted, pulling Rodrin towards the [Grapplehook] attachment at speed. Meanwhile, her off-hand held a small dagger, pointed and ready to be 'plunged' into her target's weak point.

Knowing the mackerel woman, it was likely by design that her fighting style strongly resembled that of her Team Leader's. But where Eddur's teleport gave his targets little to no time to react, Rodrin's imitation was limited by rope physics—not 'slow' by any means, but readable and, more importantly, susceptible to interruption. Oh, and don't forget…

A marriage between caution and inspiration. Serac stretched out a third tentacle from CONSTRICTOR, wrapping it around REVOLVER's barrel to form a sort of cylindrical extension. The idea had come to her in a flash, and she had no choice but to test its efficacy on the fly.

bang.

It worked… sort of? The report had certainly been muffled, but perhaps not to the extent Serac had hoped for. It also came with a painful drawback, as she immediately found out:

[41!]

[118!]

The tentacled 'suppressor' was still a part of Serac, just like PULVERIZER. And as it turned out, it wasn't immune to the heat produced by the gunshot, resulting in some minor self-damage.

In better news, however, the bullet did find its target, right into Rodrin's grill. As loath as Serac was to deface the younger woman, she wasn't above it if it represented her most direct route to victory. A heavy and painful 'punch' to the face—the surest way to knock most souls off-course and make them think twice.

Most souls, but apparently not Rodrin Skjortsdatter! The mackerel took it on the chin and never faltered, eyes shining as brightly and menacingly as the point of her dagger.

[Auxiliary Technique: FOR THE JUGULAR]

Having already contorted herself to avoid the [Grapplehook], Serac had little in the way of mobility. If PULVERIZER had been in its base form, she might've put it up for a block, but now…

There was nothing for it. Live by the tentacle and die by the tentacle. Serac flexed her CONSTRICTOR 'muscles', this time borrowing the image of a retracting rope. The two wall-hanging tentacles writhed in place, pulling Serac's jugular up and out of the way of Rodrin's MISERICORDE.

Not a moment too soon. The KL-15 Yaksha followed through with power and precision, but her blade made contact with Serac's [Abyssal] chestpiece, sending out jade-and-white sparks as it did.

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[ABYSSAL PLATE Current Durability: 74%]

Big, big hit! Serac felt it too, as a kind of dull pressure against her sternum. She shuddered to think what it would've done to her HP if the attack had connected. Yet another reminder that you should never underestimate a Wayfarer, hatchling or no.

Rodrin had whiffed on her big opener, and it was time for Serac to counter. She readjusted REVOLVER (still suppressed by CONSTRICTOR), back onto the mackerel woman's face. Sorry, Rodrin, but we're all fighting for something!

bang.

[41!]

Another hit of self-damage, but the bullet missed the mark, flying instead into the void of the Krongardian sky. For Rodrin had disengaged [Grapplehook] just in time, allowing gravity to act as her ready-made escape route. No matter. All Serac needed to do was follow Rodrin's descent at gunpoint, and…

[41!]

Another burn, and yet another miss! Rodrin 'dodged' in midair, this time aiming her [Grapplehook] into a patch of the amber wall unoccupied by a tentacled gunslinger. It sent her on a diagonal trajectory that cut across Serac's CONSTRICTOR side, which provided the ideal angle for:

[Auxiliary Technique: PAINT IT RED]

Behind Rodrin's humble, aw-shucks exterior hid a surprisingly gory naming sense! The blade of MISERICORDE swung out in a wide arc, carrying with it all the momentum of a [Grapplehook]'d flight.

[113!]

[Wayfarer Status Effect: BLEED]

MISERICORDE cut through the gunslinger's exposed arm, dealing modest damage while leaving her with a highly inconvenient Status Effect. Serac found herself in a similar situation as her fight against Eddur, now having to worry about a persistent DoT in addition to her dwindling [Satiety]. But, ironically enough, it was a different Wayfarer's name that suddenly popped into her mind.

Using her weapon to maneuver freely in the air. Now, that looked a lot like Rathor's [Trueflight]! Our Rodrin is something of a Kronvakt chameleon—stealing all the best ideas from her colleagues. Well, two can play at that game…

What fun it would've been to fight alongside the mackerel! And what a pain it was to try and hit her with a bullet! Another suppressed shot of REVOLVER went the way of the previous two, shaving off 41 more points of Serac's health with nothing to show for it.

Rodrin countered with a [Grapplehook]-into-[For the Jugular] combo. But Serac too had grown into the fight, having picked up a trick or two from her opponent. She took a page out of Rodrin's book and let go of one of her tentacles, using the remaining anchor to swing through the air like a pendulum.

There was more where that came from! What the tentacle-hooks lacked in speed, they made up for with flexibility. Serac used the first pendulum swing to reload her Chambers, then went to work right away.

Her tentacles writhed and undulated, as the gunslinger herself weaved through the air and across a sheer wall, thereby 'flattening' the third dimension. This simple tactical shift flipped the fight on its head, as the onus was now on Rodrin to capture an elusive target.

The young mackerel did her best, with several more attempts at a HARPOON-MISERICORDE combo. Each time, Serac's tentacled micro-adjustments proved sufficient to keep her spear- and dagger-free.

Not only that, but she also managed to fight back, making good on two out of the next three bullets. [123!] points of self-damage for a return of [236!] to Rodrin—not the most terrible trade in the circumstances. More importantly, they all built up toward a big finisher—the moment for which was nigh.

One last pendulum. This time, Serac delayed the deployment of a second anchor, thus allowing herself to 'hang in the air' at the highest point of her swing. A moment of immobility and therefore vulnerability, which would surely bait out…

[HARPOON Spell: GRAPPLEHOOK]

A green-tipped spear, aimed directly into CONSTRICTOR. The intent was clear: pin the target and render it unable to dodge a follow-up attack. Serac rued Rodrin's predictability, even as she admired her tenacity. But when it came to the dogged pursuit of victory, Serac too was no slouch—and perhaps a little wilier than her opponent.

[190!]

HARPOON's spearpoint, boosted by Zealous magic, ripped into CONSTRICTOR and pinned it in place. The mackerel herself soon followed, dagger poised for a decisive [For the Jugular], sure to one-shot what remained of her opponent's HP. What Rodrin hadn't accounted for, however, was this particular opponent's penchant for risk-taking when it came to chasing her victory.

Rodrin's dagger flashed green, straight toward Serac's throat. But it was intercepted by an 'extra' tentacle, one that had slipped off REVOLVER's barrel, abandoning its suppressor role to instead default to what it did best—CONSTRICT its prey. It wrapped around the mackerel woman and held her back, and try as she might, she fell short of connecting with her dagger.

And still, Rodrin didn't give up. She released [Grapplehook], either to fall away, to reload for another shot, or perhaps both. But CONSTRICTOR held her in place, at point blank range for Serac to angle REVOLVER into Rodrin's abdomen, just underneath her chestpiece, and—

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Serac's wacky idea for a suppressor had barely worked, yet now, it'd taken the long way around and done its job as a decoy. The reports were distressingly loud, but it was a necessary trade-off. Rodrin Skjortsdatter had proven herself to be an opponent worthy of the very best Serac had to give.

[118!], [118!], [283!] -> [519!]

The damage spike on the third shot indicated that Rodrin had broken her Poise. Serac could also feel it, from the way the younger woman went limp in her tentacled grasp. A smidgen of the woman's HP still remained, but at this point, there was no need for a 'smiting blow'.

Serac loosened CONSTRICTOR and pushed with the little that remained of her Rakshasa anatomy. Rodrin fell into the void of the Krongardian sky. And for at least one Ksana, she looked as though she floated in midair—arms spread wide, a harpoon gun in one hand and a bloodied dagger in the other.

If others could see what Serac saw then, they might say it was a hapless chick whose wings had been clipped. But not her. To Serac, Rodrin looked every part the proud fledgling, ready to take flight.

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