Angels Ascended: Round 1 vs Ren and Vi

Round One: Charity

Mailaika kept her head low as she silently weaved through the city of Cartias. All of the buildings seemed eerily empty, each with locked doors and dark windows. It was as if all of Heaven was commanded to stay off the streets…though with the cacophony around them, she could hardly blame them for doing just that.

Everywhere she turned, there was a clash of metal or the roar of a bloodthirsty fighter. Clearly, she was not the only one involved in Azrael’s game. Even worse, someone had rung the alarms. All of Heaven’s finest soldiers and angels were rushing the gilded walls, intent on stopping anyone and everyone who broke their way through. Reaching Adrael would not be easy. Taking her halo would be even harder yet.

Malaika stopped, flying as high above the Cartias streets as she dared. Unlike its damned brother with its nine circles, Heaven was built into squares – seven of them, if she remembered her studies correctly. Unlike the circles, which descended, Heaven’s squares rose upwards, like an elaborate temple that stepped into the skies. Adrael would certainly be at the top, she reasoned, but so would the rest of the archangels. The tip of the pyramid was alight with an almost impossible glow, a beacon of pure white rising out of the darkness Azrael had brought to the lower tiers.

Flying straight to the top would be the fastest way to get her killed. She’d have to find her way around, find an inside way through the seven steps.

“Ren, look out, another angel!”

“Stand back, Vi, I got it!”

Bang! Bang! Before Malaika could even turn around, her left wing crumpled under the weight of two bloody bullet holes, dropping her out of the sky. The fall left no damage, thanks to the cloudy floors of Heaven’s landscape, but the burn of the attack shot through her magic and straight into her back. It was a searing pain, enough to make her cry out as she fell. She quickly equated it to the feel of touching a pan that was far too hot – it burnt like fire, something she didn’t know bullets to do, especially when she herself wasn’t the one being shot.

As she sat up and recovered, two figures in heavy coats ran past: her attackers, no doubt. “That’s not her, let’s go!” the taller of the two said, leading the other away.

“Hey!” Quick as she could, Malaika grabbed a handful of magic from her glove and sharpened it to a point, throwing it at the two in hopes of slowing them down. “What was that for?!”

It worked. Her attack sliced right through the back of the smaller one’s ankle, toppling him instantly. “OW! Ren, hold on, she got me!”

The taller of the two slid to a halt, turning around and immediately tending to his partner. Finally, Malaika could see them both properly. They shared the same dark, piercing eyes, though the smaller hid his face and hair under a hat. He dressed in all blues and yellows, though his pants were quickly soaking red from the blood pouring out of his ankle wound. The other kept to blacks and browns, allowing her ruby-red hair to stand out.

The taller of the two, the one he called ‘Ren,’ stood up and pulled out her gun, pointing it right between Malaika’s eyes. “Hey!”

“Hey yourself!” Malaika challenged, marching right up to her challenger. (She quickly regretted it, though; Ren towered over her, by at least a full foot if not more.) “You shot first, ma’am. I simply wanted to know why.”

Ren fingered the trigger of her pistol a moment more. “Ren, come on, don’t bother with her,” the other, Vi, spoke up. “Help me wrap this up and let’s go. Didn’t you say we’ve got some halo to find?”

Malaika looked up. “Adrael’s halo, bychance?”

Ren was quick to tighten her hold on her gun once more. “What do you know?”

“As much as you do, clearly.”

Ren didn’t hesitate. It took all of Malaika’s speed and strength not to be riddled with bullets. The young flockling grabbed two handfuls of magic and pulled a thick sheet of it in front of her face, providing just enough armor to stave off the clip-full of bullets. Each bang! of the pistol fought hard, though, punching deep dents into her makeshift shield. Each shot rattled through the Cartias streets, and sent a fiery shiver up Malaika’s spine.

When the pistol refused to fire anymore, Ren threw it into one of the pockets of her jacket and began to dig through the other. Malaika saw the moment of opportunity and struck, ramming Ren over with her makeshift shield and throwing her across the road.

“Ren, you okay?” Vi asked, looking up from his patchwork tourniquet job.

Ren quickly rolled back to her feet, her hand finally emerging with another pistol. “Stay over there, Vi!” she called, waving her spare hand to further hold him back. “I’ll take care of her, you stay out of the way!”

“Not like I’m going anywhere anyway,” Vi pointed out quietly, returning to his tourniquet.

By the time Ren looked forward again, Malaika was already upon him, with a fresh pair of wings on her back and a blade in each hand (if you could call her shoddy rectangles blades.) Using her pistol as a makeshift shield, Ren was quick to deflect one of the slashes, gritting her teeth as she let the other one clumsily strike her arm with barely a sign of pain. Once Malaika was within striking range, she rolled back and kicked up, giving Malaika a hard blow to the gut before throwing her into a nearby wall.

“Oof!” While Malaika fought to straighten her vision and get up, Ren drew a new bead and prepared to fire. Bang! Malaika swiped a wall of magic to deflect the bullet, yelling out as its bloody burn shocked its way through her arm. Bang! Another swipe, another save. Bang!

After the third bullet, Malaika balled up the remains of her shield and fired it, scoring a direct hit into Ren’s kneecap. Once again, the redhead hid her pain very well, showing barely any reaction to her leg being knocked out from under her, but at least she fell back stunned for the moment.

Malaika got to her feet, using her wings to gain a bit of vertical ground. Ren tried to draw a new bead from her position on her knees, but before she could pull the trigger, wham! Malaika pulled a claw from her glove, shooting it forward and grabbing onto Ren’s gun tight.

“Hey! Give that back!” When Malaika didn’t oblige, Ren surrendered her pistol in favor of freedom, and rushed the flockling down with her fists, giving Malaika a pair of hard punches to wherever she could reach. As Ren swung for punch number three, Malaika tossed the gun as far as her claw could throw it, and instead redirected the violet appendage to grab Ren directly by the arm, trying to hold the redhead back.

Wham! Ren was quick to redirect, rolling into Malaika’s claw and delivering a hard roundhouse kick, pulling the flockling away from the wall in favor of smashing her face against the ground.

She tried to run for her gun, but Malaika caught her first, grabbing her by the ankles and pulling her down. Ren cursed as the two fought and tussled, until she could finally crawl into a better position. “Get – OFF!” she snapped, kicking Malaika in the face until the flockling released her.

With her vision spinning, there wasn’t much Malaika could do as Ren got back to her feet. All she knew was that if the redhead was reunited with her gun, it might be the end of her and her mission. Barely within the walls of Cartias, and already falling to the first rival she crossed paths with? Would she really allow herself to seem so weak?

With a frustrated growl, she decided that no, she wouldn’t. Malachi and the Basilica were counting on her, strangers with guns be damned! She pulled off her claw and re-molded it into a staff, sharpening its tip as quickly as she could. As she heard Ren’s footsteps running for the discarded pistol, she grabbed hold of her makeshift javelin and fired it, as hard and fast as she could--

“AAAAAAAHHH!”

Both fighters froze as the ear-piercing shriek shook their makeshift arena. Time seemed to hold still as even the chaos of combat surrounding them went quiet.

She barely wanted to look, but Malaika eventually followed the line of her arm to across the road, where Ren had left Vi to care for his wound in peace. Her projectile had found its mark, just not the one she intended at the moment. It now lay in Vi’s chest, buried in a grotesque wound that tore through his fragile frame, sloshing gush after gush of blood everywhere until his heart finally stopped providing.

“VI!” All at once, the silence broke, and Ren took off from their entanglement to tend to her partner. “Vi! Come on, Vi, don’t do this to me! Y-You were…You were supposed to be safe over here, Vi! I told you not to get involved! C-Come on…Come on, Vi, you can fix this! Where’s that ‘fire of the goddess’, Vi? This isn’t happening, right? T-This…This isn’t…Vi, please…”

Ren dropped her head, shoulders shaking as it took everything in her not to break down.

Malaika looked down at the pistol she had wrestled away from Ren during their fight. While Ren took her time to scream and curse the heavens, she walked over and picked it up. A hard weight fell in her chest; she had only wanted to cross blades with the redhead who attacked her. Now she had speared an innocent, the one who was sitting quietly away from the battle.

Your temper strikes again, Malaika. And unfortunately, it doesn’t have very sharp aim.

She opened the barrel, as she saw the revolutionists do again and again in times of war. There was only one bullet left.

Stepping as quiet as she could, (her heels didn’t make for light travel, unfortunately), she approached the grieving child of fire. “I know it won’t mean much, but--”

“Then shut up, bitch!” Ren cursed. “This is all your fault! I can’t just go back home now! What am I supposed to do, show up without the vessel? Just say that I “lost” the kid I’m supposed to be protecting with my life?!”

Malaika returned the pistol to its rightful owner. “I can’t tell you what to do.”

Ren gave the gun a shake, obviously more familiar with its tells than Malaika could ever be. “Only one left, huh?”

“I need to find my way up through the steps of Heaven,” Malaika said. “I will be the one to return Azrael’s halo; I would recommend you not follow. I won’t have the choice of showing mercy next time.” She gave her opponent a bow and a gentle gesture of prayer, then resumed the arduous walk through the streets of Cartias. (Already, she felt her bones grow tired from the stress of combat; as much as she wanted her wings, she'd have to do without until her stones had time to rest.)

Ren sat and watched as Malaika took off into the stormy city. She looked away from Vi the best she could, now turning her attention back to her pistol. It was her most-trusted weapon, and within it lie the last of Vi’s bullets.

It brought her back to the night before, her contemplating out on the balcony. “Just you and me again, is it, old friend?”

Only this time, there was no magic feather. There was no promise of answers. Azrael no longer required her services. He had hedged his bets proper, inviting a number of warriors to all compete for the same prize. Yet now, Azrael’s prize was worthless. If she used the final wish to rescue her brother, she’d have to live without Vi. Using the prize on Vi would mean their entire quest was for naught, and she’d never know the truths she so desperately craved.

There was only one thing left. Vi’s final bullet could only have one resting place: inside the trusted guard that had failed to protect him.

Bang!