Chapter Thirteen

“Where’s Ash?” were Ardentia’s first words to us. We didn’t respond. Ache was approaching the group slowly, leaving an unconscious Price behind. He and Vice were our best bets against her. Her eyes began to glow red with heat vision. “Last chance. Where’s Ash?”

“I froze him,” I said, attempting to stall as Ache continued his leisurely stroll back towards us.

“He would’ve melted your ice.”

“Not if he was in the middle of being reborn--”

Next, all I heard was a grunting noise. I honestly don’t remember if it was from her or me as she appeared in front of me in the blink of an eye and socked me in my stomach, sending me skating across the concrete towards the destroyed HQ building.

A shockwave cracked above me and she floated over, eyes still glowing.

“You’re the only one I don’t recognize,” she said. “And your powers match the description of the Noble killer.”

I said nothing as I got to my feet, letting my scrapes heal. But as soon as I stood back up, she hammer-fisted me in the back, sending my face to the ground, causing the ground to crater. I heard her heat vision charge fully and release, but as I braced myself, I heard it sizzled across the ground next to me.

I looked up and saw that Vice had kicked her across the face, making it so the beams missed. As she was stunned from his kick, I placed my palms on the ground and tried to send ice spikes through her body, but like Fiberglass, they shattered against her skin. I knew she had been compared to Metaman, but my ice got through his skin. I saw her eyes still red and rolled out of the way as Ardentia blasted her beams at the spot I just laid in before turning to try and decapitate Vice. He ducked, and while ducked, hit her with a body blow, knee, then sidekick to knock her away from us. 

“Listen,” I said to him. “To be perfectly honest, you’re our best bet against her. Against all of them. We don’t know what Ache will do. Especially powered up. So I need you to coordinate with me. My black ice may not be able to pierce her skin, but maybe the deteriorating effect can do some sort of damage.”

“Right. We--”

A crackling explosion startled us. Ardentia was face down on the concrete because Ache had just landed on top of her. He flashed the two of us a quick smile before he crouched down and grabbed the back of her head and lifted it to speak to her.

“Hey. Where’s Lux?”

She kept her eyes closed, grit her teeth. 

“Is this thing on?!” he questioned, slamming her face into the concrete before raising it again. To my right, I saw Vulcon trying to make his way over to us, Detonade protecting the barely conscious Aura Ray. I held my hand out and shook my head. It wouldn’t be worth losing them here. 

As Ache tortured Ardentia, smashing her face over and over into the concrete, trying to get an answer out of her, I questioned what her plan could be. I believed the original Archs were way too smart to have no plan, charging into these battles powered solely by rage. I was still trying to figure out the Ash one. Perhaps it was a fluke. Or perhaps they believed they could win with him alone. The gall.

Ache’s power didn’t increase his weight. She could easily throw him off. She probably could have killed us if she wanted too in an instant. Then I thought about the extent of her abilities. Speed, strength, flight, durability, heat vision. Probably more intricate ones as well like conditioning, stamina, reflexes, etc. Was it fear of losing to Vice again? He did take out her entire team alone, her included. 

Then something obvious came to me: she was stalling. Her team was likely on the way and she was the fastest one that could stay and make sure we didn’t escape. There was no telling what the team would do once they arrived. Entitled fucks like these could be pretty unpredictable. 

“Um. Miss, you still haven’t answered my question,” Ache said, raising her head again.

“Get off of me.”

“Vice, we need to leave,” I said.

“What? Why? He’s got her pinned.”

“She’s stalling.”

“Stalling for what?”

I began to retreat back to the other three. Vice kept up.

“The rest of the Archs are likely on their way,” I informed them. In the distance, I saw Ardentia’s head still buried in the ground. Then a red glow came from it. She released her eye beams into the ground, and the force from them pushed her into an upright position, causing Ache to fall off her back. She dashed up into the air and crashed back down, attempting to send her boots through Ache’s stomach, but he held them back with his palms, still keeping his smirk. 

Without continuing her battle with him, he snapped her head towards us and released her beams while flying towards us. I raised an ice wall but, in less than three seconds, the heat burned through and Vice stepped in front of me, tanking the blast with his forearm. She got close enough and tackled him, taking him up into the sky. I thought she would drop him, but she kept going.

I used him as a distraction, scanning the field. I found a few armored trucks that survived Detonade’s explosion. Detonade carried Aura Ray over to one of them and laid her down in the backseat. And as we began to pile in, Ardentia landed next to the truck, punching it, sending it tumbling several yards away.

“You’re not going anywhere,” she growled. 

“Wall!” Detonade commanded. And between him and Ardentia, and Vulcon and I, I raised an ice wall that would protect us from his explosion. But the explosion never came. Instead my wall shattered and my eyes fell on Ardentia’s fist through Detonade’s chest.

“I’m sure they won’t mind if I take a few of you out. Just as long as they figure out what to do with you,” she said, removing Detonade from her bloodied arm. 

“Excuse me!” Ardentia’s eyes flashed red again as she turned towards Ache. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

“What makes you think I’d tell you?”

“I asked politely, Miss,” he said. “I’m starting to think you’re withholding information from me.”

With those words, it seemed like Ache had finally realized that she wouldn’t give her teammate up. Now, he fought for real.

“Not very kind of you!” he shouted before he dashed in front of her and uppercutted her. Before she launched into the sky, he grabbed her ankle and slammed her body on the opposite side of us. He turned his head slightly towards us, not making eye contact. “This power up is not gonna last much longer. I’m gonna try my best to get info on Lux out of her.”

I wanted to ask him to find out where Asai was instead of Lux. However, considering what he was doing for us, I got rid of the thought. With his last words to us, he got to holding her off. Vulcon was the last one standing with me and we sprinted to another truck. Before we got in, he pointed my attention towards the sky. Vice was falling back down.

I crafted an ice slide that gradually slowed his descent and his body slid before me. I checked his pulse. Still beating. I grabbed him and tossed him in the back of the truck, before driving it to the damaged truck that Aura Ray had been in. She was damaged too, but still alive. With the two of them in the backseat and Vulcon riding shotgun, we pulled off, going around the back of the facility to avoid running into the coming Nobles. In the rearview, I checked to see Ardentia and Ache still trading blows. 

“Where to now?” the only conscious one asked.

“The only place I can think of that has sanctuary for people like us,” I told him. “Gonna have to go back to The Bloodbath.”