Neptune looked around the empty arena silently. Laerton stood across from him, wearing the red mask. She suddenly twisted her sword, doing a small twirl with it, and in a flash, her clothes changed along with the blade.
She lacked proper Knight Gear, as all members of Phoenix Flight lacked the correct equipment. She did have some magical items, which she had claimed in a dungeon and had set to trigger when conditions were met. Her robes shifted into white plates of metal, donning her in armor, and her katana straightened out and grew incredibly thin until it looked like a needle. This same gear was the one she used in her fight with Bloom.
Without warning, she stabbed her needle-like blade toward Neptune, and her mana swirled around the tip, a wave of threading rapidly spilling out, which sliced through the air. Neptune easily dodged her strike, jumping up, and the mana sliced the arena in two. He pointed his trident down toward her and launched several spears of water toward her, but Laerton weaved in and out of the way of the attacks.
As soon as Neptune landed, she darted toward him and tried to strike out with her blade, but he swung his weapon faster, and she was forced to go on the defensive. His weapon slammed into her, and she was sent flying back from the force, crashing into the stands. A second later and she was forced to roll to the side as Neptune sent more beams of water her way.
"Vil Thread Plushie!" The tip of Laerton's needle ignited, and a wave of threading flew out, shifting into the shape of a bird. The plushie was large and looked like a cartoon phoenix, which she hopped onto. Its wings expanded out, and it flew upwards, letting her get some distance. "Ha! Try and get me up here, horsey!"
Neptune gave her a flat look, and his hooves began to glow. He stepped into the air, using a form of skywalk to get higher and higher.
"Oh shit, I forgot we can do that!" Laerton cried. Neptune reached her in only a few strides and sliced up with his trident, splitting the bottom of her bird open. "No! Not my phoenix- Just kidding."
As the fabric of the animal was torn apart, several grenades spilled out, their pins already pulled. Laerton made a jump for it right as all the bombs went off directly into Neptune's face. The god growled and batted his hand to the side, ripping through the dust and smoke that was kicked up. "Take this battle seriously, will you?"
"I am!" Down below, Laerton created more of her plushies and sent them flying out. Three birds flew up carrying bears. "This is how I fight!"
The bears held their paws out, revealing rockets that were sewn into them! The missiles rammed into the floating Neptune, which still didn't budge an inch. The bottom of the birds then tore open, revealing miniguns that unloaded a hail of bullets into the chest of the god who stared at them in annoyance. The plushies then finished off their barrage by flying toward him as fast as they could and exploding against him.
Neptune calmly walked toward the ground and dusted himself off. "I must admit, I can't recall how strong you were in previous worlds I was in, and yet I am still very disappointed. Myth's attacks hurt far more; you can't even scratch me. I thought a captain was supposed to be strong?"
Laerton's eye twitched. "You're acting awfully tough for someone who has kept a mana barrier around themselves since the moment this fight began. You fought the others without it, but the moment I show up, suddenly you get all serious?" Her smirk grew. "Don't tell me you feel threatened by me?"
"Row Shadow Vault." Black hands spilled out of the ground, and Laerton winced as she suddenly became bound. Neptune raised his trident, and his mana output suddenly lowered. The water bullet he fired pierced past her armor and bruised her skin but didn't puncture it. He fired another one and another one and another one again and again.
"Ow! Stop that, fucker!"
"You're right, I shouldn't play with my food. I'll just kill you."
"Wait, wait, wait, play with the food!" Neptune charged forward, and Laerton gritted her teeth, flaring her mana up as much as she could. "Ril Thread Cutter!" The shadowy hands were sliced apart along with the entire section of the arena she was standing in as razor wire flowed off her. Neptune ignored her attacks, the wire tearing on his mana-enhanced flesh, and he struck her with his weapon. "Vil Thread Shield!" The threading barely formed into a barrier, which softened his attack so that he would not kill her instantly. "Ow…"
Her back still exploded as she rammed into the bleachers, shattering several of them.
"This really is sad." Neptune flickered over to her, using a mana step, and rammed his horse's leg into her stomach. Laerton vomited as her armor shattered and she was smashed through the ground. "Fight back." Laerton swung her needle blade up once again and sent out a slash of threading, which Neptune tore through, and he then impaled one of the tips of his trident into her shoulder. "A bit better, but try and have more power behind your strikes. You're a captain, right? So act like it. Show me something fancy." He twisted and tossed her away, sending her crashing back down toward the arena.
Laerton smacked into the stone and groaned. She pointed her weapon toward him and charged her mana up again. Her armor reverted back to her robes, and her needle was starting to shake, but she still fought with everything she had. "Vil Thread Creation!"
Black and gold threading twisted into the image of a large train, which launched toward Neptune. He raised an eyebrow at her, a little more impressed, and then fired a stronger water bullet, splitting the train in two before it could hit him. The bullet soared through the air and smashed into the front of her mask, causing her head to recoil back as the object that covered her face shattered.
Laerton blinked and looked down at the broken mask, which crumbled to the floor.
'Hey? What's your name?'
'My name? My name is !@#$%))*&^^%'
'Oh! That's a lovely name. Mine is…'
His name… What had his name been? Laerton reached out and picked up one of the shards of her broken mask. What had it been? The tengu's previous owner. What was his name? What was it, what was it, what was it-
She wiped a sudden tear from her eye and laughed. "Damn, you seriously went and broke my mask? Talk about a dick move." The shattered pieces slowly shook before they floated off the ground, and the mask began to piece itself back together. "Man, you're like really strong. I guess I should get serious, huh?" Laerton began to slowly twist her katana around again and again. "Hey, do you like to paint?"
"What?" Neptune raised an eyebrow at her and began to casually walk toward her.
"To paint." Laerton hummed, and suddenly her katana changed again. It glowed and twisted the blade, fading entirely, and the handle grew and grew, becoming a long staff. At the tip of it, a brush forged out of horse hair jutted out, and when the light fully died down, Laerton held a large paint brush. "I was never much of a painter." Her aura had looked like thousands of silken webs bathed around her, but without warning, it shifted into black fire, and the tengu mask changed as well, fading to black. "I knew this guy. He really liked to paint. He loved to craft scenes and create worlds that never existed, all by using his brush." She slipped the mask on, and her aura kept twisting and growing. "I was never much of a painter. No matter what I tried to make, it never came out well. Colors were also never my strong suit. I always made everything way too dark. I guess you could say that by the time I was done, whatever sheet I had painted on would be faded. All black."
Laerton slashed her paintbrush sword out as hard as she could, and the tip of it changed, becoming an inky black. Droplets of ink spilled out and blotched across the ground, darkening the scenery around her. The ink stretched and grew as if it were alive, reaching out, and Neptune took a step back, his eyes narrowing.
"Okay. I'm a bit impressed. I'll admit, in all the worlds I've seen, I don't think I've heard of a Laerton doing this."
"Well, I guess I can show you something new then, huh?" Laerton's fingers curled around her paintbrush. "Row Thread-Paint Slash!" The ink splashed out, and like a wave it sailed toward Neptune. He got ready to block it with his water, but before he could, hundreds of razor-thin wires flew out of the ink wave. It wasn't able to cut his skin, but it did bind his limbs, allowing the ink to splash against his chest. Various letters began to form into place on his body.
'Ignite.'
Neptune grunted as he felt his skin heat up, and then he caught on fire. It was for only a second, and he put it out with his water, but it still surprised him. He snapped the wire around his arms and charged toward Laerton, trying to impale her with his trident, but she side-stepped the attack and smacked his back with her brush, forming more letters on his body.
'Shock.'
A bolt of lightning dropped out of the sky, and Neptune had to slap it away as it almost hit him. "I see! Your magic is very much like Father's, isn't it? You create a cause and effect using enchantments to manipulate the world! Painting magic must be strong, huh?"
Laerton skated on the ground, using the drops of ink to slide, and she ran her brush through it, drawing something. "Vil Thread-Paint Plushie!" She formed a perfect circle on the ground, creating a portal that glowed and allowed something to pull its way out.
The hand of a large stuffed teddy bear shot out, and the ground shook and rumbled as the bear crawled out of the portal. It was over ten feet tall, and its fur was stained in ink. It charged at Neptune and opened its mouth, firing a beam of black paint toward the horse monster. Some of the ink formed on his arm, writing out another word.
'Slash.'
The letters slashed into his arm, spilling his blood. Neptune grunted and stabbed the bear in the gut with his trident. It spewed out more ink as he ripped it apart, and other words formed across him.
'Crush.'
'Explode.'
'Die.'
Gravity increased around him, nearly slamming him into the ground. A second later, his body was hit with a sudden explosion that appeared out of nowhere, and it was followed by a sudden pain in his chest. Neptune gritted his teeth and flared more of his mana, canceling out the enchantment before it could even come close to stopping his heart.
"I take it back, this isn't fun, it's annoying." Neptune swatted his weapon and fired out another series of water spears, tearing the entire stadium apart. "I've decided that you'll die now."
Laerton swung her weapon up, creating plushies and blobs of ink to block the spears, but they kept coming again and again, several flying past her guard. She was impaled by several spears and tumbled back, her blood spilling and pouring out of her. She gasped and tried to focus, but before she could, Neptune's mana stepped in front of her and smashed a fist into the side of her head, nearly cracking her skull open.
The force of the attack lifted her off her feet and sent her crashing back once again, only this time she didn't get up. Laerton lay there in a puddle of her blood and groaned. Several more water spears appeared above her and stabbed down. She was stuck on the ground, her blood mixing with the dark ink that stained her robes black and red.
'See. I told you I wouldn't be good at this.'
'What are you talking about? It looks so good !@#$%))*&^^%!;
'If you're going to lie, at least make it a good one. All I did was paint it black. There's nothing.'
'Yeah, but even this can be something if we want it to be. Look, it's almost like you painted the night sky. All black and empty. It only looks lonely because we haven't added anything else.'
She felt a hand on hers, guiding her limb to move, and the mask she wore suddenly began to grow heavier. She gripped her weapon and stood back up, the tip of the brush bathed black and red as ink, and blood danced together.
'Let's add a bit of red. It's my favorite color. What do you think? A bit of red to your black? With only a little more effort, we can add stars. There. Now it's not so lonely, don't you think?'
'I guess…'
"You still have some fight left in you?" Neptune's confident smile returned. "What do you have planned?"
Laerton licked her lips, tasting metal, and she began to paint on the ground, red and black weaving together. "Have you ever looked upon the night sky?"
Neptune launched his spears of water at her, but she dodged out of the way and continued to paint even as she ran.
"The night sky can sometimes look so lonely and boring. It'll seem as if there's nothing up there, but then one night you'll gaze up, and it'll be filled with stars. Of course, in Esteria, the pollution is so bad you almost never see them, but the point still stands. Part of me was always a little jealous of the stars. They got to be up there while I was down here."
"Quit your babbling and die," Neptune ordered, and he began to speed up the point at which his spears came. They moved faster than Laerton could dodge, and so she simply stopped dodging. She turned her back to Neptune, letting the spears ram into her and impale their way through her flesh. She remained unbothered and kept painting, and Neptune's eyes widened as he felt her mana growing stronger and stronger. She was getting ready for a powerful spell. "Like I'll just let that happen!"
Neptune unleashed a massive spear, launching it at Laerton's head, but before it could reach her, the destroyed remains of the plushies all jumped in the way, using their bodies as a shield! The spear punctured through several of them, and they wrapped their limbs and stuffing around the liquid weapon, holding it back just enough to allow Laerton to finish.
On the ground before her, she had drawn a portrait. A night sky with several red dots across it, forming into faraway stars. Laerton raised her mask and smiled as her mana reached its peak.
"A night sky, lonely and sad. Explore the cosmos and travel roads never seen before! Will of Hermes!" Laerton lifted her hand to the air. "Vow Thread-Paint Starry Sky! Infinite Tracks!" She activated her Vow level spell! Her ace in the hole! Her trump card! The requirement to use it was that she create the starry sky painting out of her blood and ink, something she couldn't do as easily due to the limited time she had in her Mask form. It also took a ton of mana and required the chant.
The painting ignited, and the ink and blood that formed it lifted into the air. Threading grew out of the drops, and they began to weave into the shape of a night sky far above them! The stars all glowed, and the massive painting began to swirl until it looked like a massive portal of chaotic energy.
Then, Neptune heard something. A noise that was like a whistling sound? I bothered him deeply, but he saw nothing as he stared up at the portal, ready to defend himself.
All Captains had Knight Gear. She did not, however. This was because Phoenix Flight was not trusted with Knight gear. That didn't mean she didn't own her own gear that was extremely powerful and enchanted, though. Her robes and sword were both magical, but there was another enchanted item she owned. Her strongest one yet, which was a high-grade elven item. One she was shocked the king had let her keep.
Then again, it wasn't very good when it came to combat. At least if you weren't smart. The fun part about being an assassin is that you're trained on how to use hidden weapons.
The painting had fully shifted into a black portal now, and all it showed was a sea of darkness, and then suddenly there was light. It glowed and came out of the black. The whistling sound grew ever louder, as well as a mechanical whine. Neptune's frown grew, and he suddenly recognized the noise as it got louder and louder.
It sounded almost like… A train?
"Choo, choo, mother fucker!"
The portal exploded as the Phoenix Flight train came roaring out! Neptune was so caught off guard that he didn't even have time to defend himself. Of all the things he expected to happen, this was at the bottom of the list!
The train smashed into him head-on and rammed into the ground. It came down at a curved angle, and the wheels tore into the ground as it pressed into him and dragged him forward, cart after cart spilling out of the portal as the train kept coming until eventually it rammed him through the stadium completely and drove through the city! The train sped up, getting even faster, and several Pantheon guild members who had been on guard duty, as well as dozens of Licht-Fulk soldiers, all had their jaws hit the floor as the train went all the way to the wall around the city and rammed through it, still carrying Neptune.
As the last cart dropped down, the portal above dropped, and Laerton grabbed onto a railing attached to the cart, allowing it to jerk her along as it took her out of the city.
"I love Vow level magic!" Laerton cheered.
Some captains have complex Vows for their ultimate spell, but hers was super nifty because she'd just run you over with her train!
The train finally came to a stop, well outside of the bounds of the city. Laerton dropped off the cart and grinned as Neptune pulled himself out of the front of the train. He had been dented in the front of the base and actually looked extremely beaten up. One of his four legs was twisted at an awkward angle, and his chest had turned a nasty purple due to all the bruises and broken bones he now had. Blood was pouring down his face as he spat up several globs of it, and shards of debris were lodged in his back.
"You hit me with a fucking train!"
"Hell yeah, I did, and if I had two of them, I'd do it again!"
"You psycho bitch!"
"What's wrong, horse dick? Did I hurt you?"
"I'm going to skin you alive!"
"I completely believe you." Laerton weakly held her katana up. The paintbrush mode faded away, and her black aura shut off. Her time was up. "Well, what are you waiting for? Come at me, 'god'! This fight isn't over yet!"