Inverted Deck

Inverted Deck (Chapter 42)

Chapter 42

"Come."

Rosaleen aggressively Ripple Steps upwards straight above me.

I gaze up at her floating body, hovering perfectly in the center of the two full moons, as she shoots her Crimson, Crystalized Tails at me one after the other.

I jump backwards, dodging the first, she shoots the second one at me as I'm sliding backwards through the grass. I take Twilight Fang and slam it into the tail, shifting its trajectory past me.

A distraction.

I instantly look back up to find Rosaleen's body flipping around, while pulling back two of the remaining three tails left.

"What is she doing? She's not planning to-!?"

Rosaleen plummets to the ground, slamming the two tails into the ground where I stand, causing the ground around me to quake and break up slightly. My body inadvertently backflips to avoid the quake attack caused by the tails. As I stare at the broken up ground below me preparing to land, I realize that there's one tail that Rosaleen has not used yet.

Without giving it a second thought, instead of landing the backflip as I had planned, I thrust Twilight Fang into the ground below me, and immediately push a mass amount of my Internal Aether into and out of the tip of Twilight Fang, causing a huge black and white dome shaped explosion flinging me backwards, as Rosaleen sweeps the broken up ground with her last tail right under me.

"That explosion... it looked similar to the one in my vision... in the future of Cor, that one explosion that leaves Cor in ruin. Although it's not the same size, and the one in my vision had something else at the center of it, as if it was trying to fight its way outside. The only one I just created wasn't like that."

"Not getting zoned out are you!?" Rosaleen screams as she shoots out all of her Crimson Tails, towards me all at once.

"Tch... Ripple Step: Stringed Sillhouette."

I blitz in between each of the tails moving past each one with finesse, as if I was born to do this right here, and right now.

I step the first, the second, the third, slide under the fourth, and slide in close to Rosaleen noticing she kept the last two remaining tails tucked back with her as a counter measure, pointing directly at me.

"You're strong Rosaleen. But you rely too much on that Observer Eye power of yours. It's nifty I'll give it that, but that's only one set of cards in your hand, not the whole hand."

"Shut up!!" Rosaleen yells maintaining the tail's aim on me.

"You don't truly want to kill me, do you? Or else you would've been fired those last two tails. Even when you shot me off the cliff, you shot at non vital spots, you knew I wouldn't die, I'm not worried about the how so much as the why?"

"You... RAAAAAAH!!!" Rosaleen roars as the two tails shoot straight downward for me.

I Ripple Step within an arms distance of Rosaleen, blurring right under the two tailed attack.

"Sorry Father... I'm going to borrow this real quick..." I utter as I let all of the Aether in my right arm ride to my elbow and clump together.

"Way of the Spear... Spear of Judgment."

I lodge my right elbow directly into the Shroud Scale crest on the left side of Rosaleen's stomach.

Her mouth gapes open, as her eyes grow wide.

I feel the Aether in my arm immediately shoot up to a single point at the tip of my elbow, following behind the blow I dealt Rosaleen. The blow combined with the Aether creates an immense shockwave between the both of us, launching Rosaleen directly into a large Sage Tree behind her, leaving large cracks and a large Rosaleen sized crater  into the bark of the Sage Tree.