Chapter 17 : Afternoon

“Kianna.” called Anton as he tilted his head to the side to crack his neck “If we could get another 30 minutes, please.”

“Of course, Master!” replied the dark elf as she again set up the timer on her phone.

“Yes! This is about to get really good now!” smiled Fiona as she rubbed her hands together.

The Mica's all grimaced angrily at her before quickly turning back to Anton.

“Okay!” exclaimed Kianna as she readied the timer “3... 2... 1... Go!”

Everything remained still for a moment as the Mica's waited for Anton to make a move.

“Hm, I think I'll start by thinning out the herd a bit...” mused Anton as he raised his left hand and leveled his open palm at the group of Mica's.

The shinoccubi all took stances and braced themselves to be ready for whatever Anton was planning. They froze in shock as one of them was suddenly entrapped in a series of binding rings that seemed to just instantly exist around her. The ensnared Mica made a small sound as chains exploded out of the rings and wrapped around her torso so tightly that they crushed the very air out of her chest. More thin chains then wrapped around her limbs and neck before tightening to such extreme levels that they literally started ripping the shinoccubus apart. With a look of panic on her face the Mica clone dissolved into a shredded shadow before disappearing completely.

The rest of the transfixed Mica's stared in horror at the now empty binding rings. Preoccupied as they were, they failed to respond as a light chain shot through the air and wrapped itself around the waist of a second Mica before turning into a locked shackle. The surprised Mica grunted as she was yanked backwards into the air by the rest of the chain and pulled towards Anton's open left hand.

Catching the flying shinoccubi at the head and holding her up by the hair, Anton remained stoic as she began to scream in rage.

Immediately, the Mica went to slash at him with her tail, but Anton caught her at the base of her spade with his right hand and in one fluid motion, he pulled her spade down and then across her neck, slitting her throat clean open with a single slice.

Anton then dropped the now silenced Mica to the ground and as she landed on her knees and fell forward, her head and body split apart at the neck. The clone then dissolved back into a shredded shadow before disappearing completely.

A stunned silence passed as both the rest of the shinoccubi and the two dark elves all stared at the spot where the Mica clone had just disappeared.

“...Uh, you have 29 minutes left.” said Kianna as Fiona began to softly clap.

Anton angled his right hand out and away from his body as he pointed his open palm towards the ground. Focusing a ball of mana into existence at the center of his palm, he ignited the mana with his holy attribute and condensed it down into a physical manifestation that was the size and shape of a glowing hot tennis ball. Grabbing the ball of energy in his hand, he tossed it at the group of Mica's.

Zipping through the air at a faster rate of speed than it could have reached if it were an actual, physical ball, the glowing orb made a sudden right turn and homed in on one of the Mica's before striking her in the center of her chest. Before the surprised Mica could even react, the ball exploded and instantly incinerated her into nothing. The resulting cloud of fire caused the rest of the now panicking Mica's to all scatter in opposite directions.

“Holy shit!” cried Fiona as the burst of flame burnt away “Run! Run little Mica's! Run for your lives!”

Anton followed the same pattern as before and created another ball of mana at the center of his palm, but instead of throwing this new ball he moved his palm in an arc pattern in front of himself. As his hand moved across the span of the arc, the ball of mana was left hanging in the air at the low end of the arc and was quickly followed by another. Within the span of seconds, Anton had a dozen glowing balls of energy floating in front of him.

“Yes, you better run...” whispered Anton.

Both of Anton's palms began to glow with a soft white celestial light. Rearing his arm back and rolling his shoulder, Anton pushed forward and slammed his open palm against one of the glowing balls of mana, which instantly set it alight and sent it flying out into the open air.

Having been imbued with a much heavier dose of his holy attribute, the mana had now become a large, blazing ball of holy fire. As it flew forward through the air it veered on its axis and curved to the side as it began targeting one of the fleeing Mica clones.

With a look of terror on her face, the Mica clone raced across the field and began to dart back and forth as she tried to escape from the now growing ball of flame. Tripping she tumbled, rolled and came to a stop sitting on her butt and facing the looming inferno. At the very last second, she vanished as she teleported herself to safety. As the fireball struck the ground it rolled over in on itself and exploded forward. The blast of holy fire was so intense that it ripped up the ground itself, creating a massive cloud of dust and leaving a vitrified scar that was over ten feet wide, four feet deep and nearly thirty feet long.

“Whoa!” cried the dark elves as they both shielded their eyes from the brightness of the explosion.

Anton wasted no time on observing the blast and instead began to slam his palms at more of the mana balls, igniting them and sending them flying at the stunned Mica's that were scattered across the field.

As the balls of fire began to soar through the air they each bent in their trajectories and targeted one Mica or another. The panicked shinoccubi raced, danced and teleported across the open terrain as they all tried to dodge the swarming fireballs and subsequent explosions. As each fireball exploded, it left behind a ravaged stretch of land and clouds of dust and debris.

In a panic, the real Mica raced through a cloud of dust before ducking down into one of the lightly smoldering trenches left by an exploded fireball. Safe for the moment she began to hyperventilate as she worked to catch her breath. As she peeked over the edge of the trench to survey the land around her a loud whizzing sound drew her attention upwards. Her eyes widened to their fullest as the cloud of dust above her was suddenly split apart by the wake of an orange glowing chain that was sailing at high speed through the air and heading straight for her. Leaping out of the trench at a run she stumbled over the broken terrain and fell into a rolling cartwheel that turned into a series of back-flips before righting herself on her feet and running at full speed. As she raced to and fro across the field she now had to dodge the still raining fireballs while keeping herself at least one step ahead of the chain that stayed on her heels as it zigzagged behind her.

It wasn't long before her fatigue set in and her speed began to wane. Realizing her plight she teleported forward to give herself some space and dropped into a combat stance as she turned to face the chain. Still soaring forward at full speed, the chain quickly closed the distance between them. At the very last second before the chain found its mark, a Mica clone appeared in front of the real Mica and was immediately wrapped in the chains coils before they turned into a set of shackles that locked around her body.

“Hm, clever...” mused Anton as he pulled the chain back into his left palm.

Reaching out, he grabbed one of the few remaining balls of mana in his right hand and raising his open palm upwards, he let the imbued fireball absorb more of the holy light from his hand. The small fireball began to slowly spin as it grew in size, and as it reached a high enough speed, two falchion-like blades erupted from its sides and began to whistle angrily as they cut through the air.

With a flick of his wrist, Anton sent the bladed ball of fire flying forwards so it could effortlessly cut through the ensnared Mica clone that was being pulled towards him.

The clone was sliced in half at the chest just below her bosom. The cut was clean and instantly separated her torso into two whilst slicing off both of her arms at the elbows, and half of her tail. Gasping in shock, the clones eyes went dull looking as she fell apart and dissolved back into a broken shadow.

The still sailing, bladed fireball then left a trail of flames as it cut a trench through the ground behind the clone before finally exploding into a pillar of fire.

Ignoring the blazing inferno, Anton began to scan the field of destruction for the real Mica. He was surprised as the two remaining clones suddenly appeared right in front of him and both reached for the key at his chest in unison.

Unperturbed, Anton leveled his open palms at the clones faces and blasted them both with holy fire, which instantly incinerated their heads.

Stepping through the dissolving clones, he cocked an eyebrow as he continued looking around for the real Mica.

“Fuck! This is just unfair!” exclaimed Fiona as she shook her head “They're all gone now!”

“Master is so amazing...” whispered Kianna as she struggled to keep her clenched hands from reaching down to her loins “He's just so amazing!”

Anton shifted his lower jaw back and forth in a thoughtful manner as he looked out over the seemingly empty, smoldering field.

Chuckling to himself, he began to stride out into the largest remaining patch of tall grass. Turning to the dark elves, he raised his left hand in front of himself and made a show of readying his fingers to be snapped.

Their eyes going wide, both of the dark elves became fixated on his raised hand. Though they had seen him preform this ability with his right hand in the past, they suddenly realized that they had never actually seen him do this with his left.

With a grin on his face, Anton snapped his fingers.

As the sound of the snap reverberated through the air, the tall grass around Anton was bent and crushed to the ground in a wave of motion that began from right where he stood and spread outwards into a massive circle that spanned nearly a hundred feet.

“...What the fuck?” breathed Fiona as her eyes widened at the sight “What did he just do?”

Kianna shook her head thoughtfully for a moment before she spoke.

“...He makes things float by getting rid of the gravity, right?” she mused as she watched the circle of flattened grass spread out to the side as Anton began to nonchalantly walk in that direction “Maybe he can make things fall by adding more?”

“...Oh, this guy is just full of bullshit!” exclaimed Fiona “He just made a fucking Crop Circle!”

“...Yeah!” giggled Kianna as she nodded her head in agreement “He did!”

As the dark elves watched, Anton continued to casually walk around until he noticed what appeared to be an odd lump in the flattened grass. Veering in his path so as to head towards the strange anomaly, he began to laugh humorously as the lump started to slowly move away from him as he got closer to it, but would stop moving as soon as he did.

Crouching down, he picked up a tiny pebble from the ground and tossed it at the lump. As soon as the pebble left the area closest to him it picked up speed and hit the lump with a surprisingly loud thud.

“OW! Fuck!” cried out the lump as it was struck with the pebble.

Anton laughed again and began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index finger. Without even looking, he raised his left hand and shot out a light chain towards the lump.

The lump quickly rolled to the side and dodged the chain as it struck the ground. Suddenly taking the appearance of a person made of water, the odd being rose up on its hands and knees and began to frantically crawl towards the edge of the circle. As it crossed over into the non flattened grass, the strange water person quickly got to its feet and began to run away from Anton before suddenly disappearing completely.

The dark elves were both startled as the water person suddenly appeared in front of them.

“H-how, m-much, time, do I have left!” cried out the water person as it planted its hands on its knees and began to hyperventilate.

“What the Hell!” cried out Fiona as she leaned away from the odd alien-like being “Who the Hell are you!?”

“Mica!?” asked Kianna “Is that you!?”

“Wha!? Yeah!” cried the water person as it looked back and forth between them.

As the dark elves watched in amazement, color seemed to fill the bubble of water that made up the being and an exhausted looking Mica quickly appeared in front of them.

“...How much time! ...Is left!” cried Mica between breaths “...Till I win!”

“Um!” mumbled Kianna as she looked at her phone “...21 minutes.”

“...What!?” cried Mica as her face became panicked “Are you serious!?”

“Wha, y-yeah!” stammered Kianna as a look of concern spread across her face “Mica, I'm sorry! But it's only been 9 minutes!”

“That! ...Can't be! Right!” exclaimed Mica.

“Yeah, it is! And most of that was actually you hiding in the grass.” exclaimed Fiona “Mr. Armageddon over there killed all the other Mica's like right away. And has just been walking around since then.”

Mica went to speak but stopped short as a rapid whistling sound filled the air and she was suddenly interrupted by a small twirling item flying in from her side and striking her neck as she was leaned forward.

The dark elves eyes widened and their jaws fell open as they registered the still spinning, shiny ring of metal that had looped itself around Mica's exposed neck.

“Oh no...” whispered Kianna as the manabinder came to rest against Mica's collarbone.

“Oh shit... You are so fucked now!” exclaimed Fiona as she shook her head and smiled.

“...No! No! No!” cried Mica as she reached up and frantically pulled on the locked manabinder with both her hands.

“Did you really just take your eyes off your enemy in the middle of a fight!?” called Anton as he was nonchalantly making his way towards them.

“No! No! No! No! Not again!” cried Mica as she quickly backed away from the dark elves while still pulling on the manabinder “Not this again!”

Tripping over her own feet, she fell over on her butt and began to scramble backwards before getting back upright and running away towards the large tree.

“Well this just went from exciting to sad...” muttered Fiona as she watched the fleeing shinoccubus.

Mica had reached the tree at nearly the same time that Anton came up to the dark elves.

“Is she crying?” asked Anton in a hushed and concerned sounding tone.

“No.” said Kianna as she shook her head “Not yet. But she's probably close...”

Anton nodded and sighed softly.

“Might as well get this over with...” he mumbled as he raised his hand and sent a light chain flying out towards Mica.

The shinoccubus at the tree had apparently found a fallen branch and was now welding it as a weapon. Though she had initially taken a sword stance as she faced the approaching chain, her movements quickly devolved and became similar to someone welding a baseball bat. By jumping, dodging around the tree trunk and striking with her branch weapon, she was finally able to evade the chain by climbing up into the tree and getting it to wrap itself around one of the lower hanging limbs.

Anton sighed in frustration and shook his head as he released the end of the chain and let it melt away.

Mica took the opportunity to climb higher into the tree and give herself as much distance as she could. She put on quite a show by not only showcasing some of her gymnastics skills but also illustrating just how invaluable her tail could be in aiding her escape attempt.

“...Wow, she actually does move like a monkey.” quipped Fiona as she watched Mica hoist herself upwards by her tail alone “Look at her go! ...She must weigh like nothing.”

“Fiends like her are naturally very lightweight.” said Anton as he too followed Mica's movements “To make it easier for them to fly, they all have hollow bones, which that alone cuts the weight of their skeletons down by more than a half of what a normal person's would be. Also, like I said before, her tail is actually a lot stronger than it looks. Which now that you get to see it in action, you now know what I mean.”

The dark elves both nodded their heads as they all watched Mica reach the top branches of the massive oak. Crawling out onto the edge of an overhanging branch, the suddenly cheerful shinoccubus looked down and began to taunt them manically.

“Ha! Let's see you get all the way up here!” she shouted as she gripped the branch with both her hands and her knees “Good luck getting up here before the time runs out!”

Leaning over the tip of the branch so she could face the group below her put Mica in a position of having her rear end pointed up into the air. As such, she waved her long tail back and forth behind her in both joy, and in an effort to help her stay balanced on her perch.

“Has she not been paying any attention at all?” asked Anton as he shook his head “I just devastated the landscape right in front of her and she thinks this tree is going to somehow stop me?”

“Well what do you expect? I keep telling you guys she's stupid!” mumbled Fiona “How many times do I have to keep saying it?”

“Stop it, you guys need to be nice!” chastised Kianna as she pointed her ears straight back “You know how scared she is! ...She's just tying to be hopeful right now!”

“Kianna!” shouted Mica as she bobbed up and down on her branch “How much time do I have left!?”

Fiona and Anton both turned to Kianna who looked down at her phone.

“16 minutes!” called Kianna as she placed her open hand against the side of her mouth to help her voice carry further.

Mica was giggling as she gave her a thumbs up. She happily began to slice at the leaves on the branches around her with her tail in an obvious early celebration.

“Hm, the poor little thing is about to get her poor little heart broken...” mused Anton as he watched the shredded leaves billow down from the tree top “You know, I think I'm legitimately going to feel bad for her when she starts crying...”

“I hope you're ready to eat shit! You cocksucker!” shouted Mica as she started to bounce herself up and down on her branch “This game is over and you lost! You pathetic, asshole, fuckwad!”

“...Hm, nevermind.” said Anton as he shook his head and began to crack his knuckles “I'm going to so very much enjoy dragging that mouthy little brat around by her tail...”

“Oh, c'mon, Mica! Why!?” cried Kianna as she rubbed her forehead “Why do keep doing this crap to yourself!?”

“Again! She's stupid!” exclaimed Fiona as she looked at her sister and threw her hands in the air “I keep saying it!”

“She's lucky I don't really want to hurt this tree.” said Anton as he faced away from the dark elves and raised his right hand “Otherwise this would have been a lot more flashy.”

Opening his palm, Anton gathered together a broad expanse of mana and pushed it forward. As he did this, reality itself seemed to bow inwards for a second before silently cracking and finally shattering like glass.

The dark elves were both impressed but not overly surprised by the sight of a portal opening up.

The portal was the size of a floor length mirror and was oval in shape with what looked like tiny broken pieces of the reality glass along its edges. Looking through the portal they were greeted by the sight of Mica's round, purple clad behind as it bobbed up and down in the air.

“Hey! What is he doing!?” cried Mica who was now much easier to hear through the portal “What is that thing!?”

“It's a skill I call Meridian Break. It basically works in the same way as a normal portal spell, but these portals travel through the Void rather than through a ley line like a normal one would. This makes these portals smaller than a typical one would be, but the trade off is I can open them pretty much wherever I want. Which makes them very useful.” explained Anton “...I always forget how clearly you can see through them whenever the two ends are this close together.”

Mica stiffened at the sound of his voice so close behind her. Arching her tail over her head, she lifted herself up on her hands and knees and looked down between her limbs. Her eyes could just barely be seen over the edges of her hanging breasts, but it was clear by the shock in them that she knew what she was seeing.

“Mica, did you know that you have hollow bones?” asked Anton.

“...I, um? No?” mumbled Mica as her eyes tightened in worry.

“Hm, well now you do.” said Anton as he leaned back on his left leg and raised his right up before bending it inward in preparation to kick.

Mica went into a panic as she realized what he was about to do, but before she could react Anton kicked her square in the center of her bottom and sent her flying out into the open air.

Tumbling as she fell, Mica was too panicked to have the sense of mind to reach out with her tail and snag one of the passing branches, and so she merely flailed her limbs as she quickly plummeted to the ground.

Just as she was about to make her landfall, another portal opened up right in front of her and she sailed through it and directly into Anton's waiting fist.

Anton had created the new portal with his opened palm just as he had before but this time he locked his elbow as it opened and made his hand into a fist. As Mica came though the portal, she met his fist with her gut and was bent completely in half before being tossed backwards.

Landing in a heap on the ground, Mica immediately hunched into the fetal position and held her belly as she struggled to keep from vomiting. Having had the wind knocked from her, she laid breathless on her side for a moment before desperately sucking in one painful lungful of air after another.

“That was for cussing at me again...” said Anton as he let his arm fall to hang at his side.

Gathering her senses, Mica steeled her resolve and gripped at the nearby grass as she tried to rise back up and move. Getting herself to her hands and knees, she clawed at the ground as she crawled away from where she knew Anton was. Making just enough headway to give herself a dose of hope, she was suddenly jerked to a stop. Already knowing in her heart what was keeping her from moving forward she clenched her teeth and stared at the ground between her hands as she continued to pull fruitlessly against the grip that held her tail. Gathering her courage, she tilted her head to the side and glanced back over her shoulder.

Anton was sitting cross-legged on the ground behind her and in his left hand he held her tail at the base of her spade.

Eyeballs burning from a combination of the dust around her and her recent fall, Mica shut her eyes as she shifted her head and reopened them as she looked up at the dark elves.

Both of the dark elves had solemn expressions on their faces as they looked back at her. Without a word Kianna slowly moved her phone so that its screen was visible to Mica. The shinoccubus clamped her eyes shut again and hung her head as she saw that there was still eight minutes left on the timer.

With a groan Mica pulled against Anton's grip until the last of her strength was spent and she tumbled forward into a heap on the ground. Curling back up into the fetal position she ended up lying with her cheek resting against a cool, dusty patch of soil.

Mica had remained completely still for the last nearly half hour. Although she was still awake, she made every attempt she could to distance her mind from what was happening around her.

“Kianna, can you hand me that pouch I had you put in your bag, please.” said Anton.

“...Um, this one?” asked the dark elf as she pulled out a small black colored, canvas pouch that was reminiscent of the carrying cases that shaving kits or hair-clippers were kept in.

“Yep, that's the one.” said Anton as he reached out and took the pouch from the dark elf “Thank you.”

Unzipping its top, Anton opened the pouch with one hand before reaching in, rummaging around a bit and pulling out a small whetstone block which he set down on his bent knee.

“What are you doing?” asked Fiona as she planted her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in her hands as she watched Anton.

“I'm going to give Mica's tail a bit of maintenance while we're waiting.” said Anton as he gave the edge of the shinoccubi's bladed spade a look over by flipping it back and forth.

“...Wait? How much longer are we gonna be out here?” asked Fiona as she glanced down at Mica.

“We have no reason to rush.” said Anton as he took a small package of alcohol wipes from the pouch and ran one down along the sharpened edge of Mica's spade to clean away the remains of the weeds and other plants she had been recently slicing apart “We can afford to be kind, and give Mica a little more time.”

Fiona scrunched up her face in annoyance but said nothing as she continued to watch Anton work. After a few moments of silence her ears suddenly pointed themselves straight back in annoyance.

“Hey!” she exclaimed as she furrowed her brow at Anton “If you can make portals wherever you want to, then why did we have to hike all the way out here! We could have just portaled here!”

Anton chuckled as he folded the small towelette over and began to use the still clean side.

“I've never been here before, and there was no one here. So how could I have made a portal just open up out here with no point to link to?” he explained as he grinned up at the dark elf “Also, that little walk was a good warm-up for Mica. And it's not like you and your sister didn't benefit from it as well. In fact, now that we have a shinoccubi to train, I'm seriously thinking about implementing an exercise routine for everyone to follow.”

Shacking her head, Fiona rolled her eyes and harrumphed in irritation before looking off to the side and silently fuming.

Chuckling again, Anton continued to gently work on Mica's spade.

Mica's spade was shaped like a thinly tapered spearhead and had about six inches of bladed length that was rooted to a smaller triangle shaped section that acted as the foundation for the blade. This chitin-like, horn-colored triangle had a cracked appearance across its surface and was actually the remnants of Mica's originally dull spade which had broken open along its top edge as the sharpened blade grew out from its top point. The two lower points of this triangle were still dull and rounded.

Like the rest of her tail, the blade itself was black in color and had a smooth, seemingly polished surface that would faintly reflect light in a softly shimmering manner. This low shine gave the blade the appearance of being metallic in nature, though it was actually made of a densely packed carbon based material which was constantly growing outwards to replace itself as it was worn down along its edge.

The very base of the spade, where it met the rest of Mica's tail, was curved inwards, and this was where the teardrop shaped bulge of musculature that not only attached the spade to her tail itself, but housed her barbs as well, could be found. Each of Mica's four barbs were curved, claw-like and about two and a half inches in length. They were a solid black in color and would retract into this bulge in a similar fashion to how a cat's claws would retreat into its toes.

Satisfied now with the cleanliness of the spade, Anton planted the whetstone along its sharpened edge and lightly ran the stone down its bladed length. He worked slowly and lightly to both sharpen the blade as well as smooth away the nicks and scrapes it had accumulated during its recent use. He was a little annoyed to find that the very tip of the blade had actually been chipped off at some point, and so using the whetstone, he did his best to carefully carve it back into a sharpened point.

These actions taken against her spade were not only painless for Mica, but actually had a certain level of comforting pleasantness to them. So even as Anton began to loosen his grip on her tail, she let him continue in his efforts rather than pull her spade back to herself.

Setting the whetstone back on his knee, Anton took a thick, dry, fibrous cloth from the pouch and ran it along the edge of the spade to clean away the dust-like particles that had been chipped away from the blade itself as it was being sharpened.

Sitting quietly as they watched him do all this, the two dark elves were both startled as a large portal suddenly opened up a few hundred yards in front of them.

“Oh, good. It's about time...” mumbled Anton as he blew on the newly resharpened tip of Mica's spade and gave it another swipe with the cloth “That took a lot longer than I thought it would...”

“Uh, what!?” exclaimed Fiona as she looked from the portal to him and back “Wait! Who is that!?”

“That...” said Anton as he glanced up at the three figures that had just come through the portal “Would be Mica's family...”