286: Jump, Bounce, Down, Up
“FUCK OFF!!” the kind old man screamed at the top of his lungs and with a gesture of his hands launched his giant spiky ball of death at the masked hooded figure that approached him, radiating killing intent.
So, he’s human after all, Beatrice concluded when the man let his frustration take over.
The second flight of the death ball proved less successful than the first. The masked girl simply dodged to the side as the weapon zapped past her. The ball crashed into one of the straight walls of the mines, less than fifty feet below one of the lesser platforms on which some hundred spectators stood and observed the fight. The crash was powerful enough for the people standing there to notice minor vibrations.
“Oh no!” the announcer exclaimed as if she was worried. “A miss! It looks like in his fit of impotent rage the niece-fucker missed his one chance to kill—”
Another loud blast of metal against metal spread through the arena when the metal ball scored a direct hit against the masked girl’s lower back, sending her flying several feet forward with her back forming an arch around the spot where she was struck.
The ball ricocheted away from the girl, but this time Number Four did not wait for his opponent to recover and with his hands he redirected the spiky ball back at the airborne girl.
BAM! The ball crashed from above, slamming the girl into the ground. Another ricochet, another return. Again and again, Number Four pummeled the girl into the ground. Five, six, seven consecutive strikes into a prone girl, each slower than the last.
Out of juice, Beatrice sighed.
Indeed, the eighth strike was far weaker than any previous ones, the metal ball barely ricocheted higher off the ground than a basketball would off a court. The final fall looked to be guided by gravity more than whatever magical force that controlled the sphere before. After the fall the heavy ball did not even bounce—it simply rolled off the motionless figure to the side as any plain heavy metal ball would.
“Most certainly a commendable effort and an impressive ball control!” the announcer commented with a mix of revived excitement and not-so-subtle patronization. “No doubt that a regular citizen of Klapsus would be pummeled into mush! But has he managed to put an end to miss Ru-NO! No, he hasn’t!”
Before Thelicia even finished her sentence, the ball-pounded girl moved her arms. The girl pushed against the ground with both hands and slowly—like someone who had just been knocked down by a direct hit to the head in a game of dodgeball—got back on her feet, looking no worse for wear than possibly suffering from a minor concussion.
“A flying morning star, huh?” Ruby asked as she looked at the weapon that beat her body. “What a strange coincidence! I have something similar to offer!”
Ruby swiftly moved forward her arm and threw her dagger at Number Four. Though surprised, the old man managed to dodge the swift flying dagger just like Ruby dodged his attack. However, while the old man watched his back for an imminent counter-attack, Ruby sprinted to him, ducked, and slammed both open palms of her hands into his chest, blasting the old man high into the air above the arena.
“UNCLE!!” the pale, slender dark magician girl screamed in fear for her uncle’s life.
Number Four flew through the flaming numbers that counted down the five minutes of this round, through the ethereal viewing sphere, momentarily disrupting the image, and flew further up until he slammed into the shadowy ceiling high above the arena.
“Ah! I Need to get used to this,” Ruby muttered as she looked above and watched the old man’s motionless body fall back down.
“Let me see…” Ruby raised her hands, aiming at Number Four’s body that already fell back through the viewing sphere and the flaming numbers and—just some thirty feet over her head—managed to slow the man’s fall, leaving him hovering in the air up above her.
“Miss Ruby is showing impressive control of levitation powers of her own!” Thelicia said. “But isn’t she just levitating a dead body?”
“Only one way to find out,” Ruby said and—holding one hand aimed at Number Four—gestured with her other hand to the side. The next second a dagger flew from the side of the arena and pierced the man’s knee, forcing an agonizing scream from the reawakened man.