*Bang! * *Bang! Bang! *
*CRUNCH! *
I feel an excruciating pain in my left arm, my forearm is bending at an impossible angle, while I’m also feeling the bent part of my arm burning from the steam projectile.
“AAHHH!!” It hurts so fucking much! I think I could pass out from just the pain alone!
Only one man managed to fire a <Steam cannon>, he did it at the same time I fired, it’s obvious where he hit me, but I managed to shoot the two of them, and the other man’s <Steam cannon> exploded in his hand, turning it into meat chunks.
This bought enough time for Timotei to kill the two men before anything else could happen.
“Octavius!” Antonia quickly brings me a chair so I can sit…
“His arm’s broken!” Aurora screams “What do we do?!”
Timotei immediately cuts the sleeve of my uniform, the middle of my forearm is bent, and there’s also a big red patch with steam coming out of it where it’s bending, and there’s a bump on the other side of my forearm.
“Try to keep your arm above your heart!” Timotei starts barking orders, and I obviously do as he says, he seems to have some experience giving first aid. “We need some water and something to use as a makeshift bandage!” Felix immediately goes somewhere as fast as he can.
“Is the rest of my uniform useful for that!?” I manage to scream, and then grith my teeth again, this pain is really horrible. “No, you shouldn’t move at all right now.” Antonia quickly chimes in “what about my skirt?!” Timotei, looks it for a second and then says “Yes, it could work, quickly give it to me.” Antonia removes it without much fanfare or hesitation.
Felix quickly returns with Aurora with two buckets of water “Here’s some water! And we can bring more if necessary, the well is not too far away!” He’s surprisingly reliable isn’t he? I’m glad we kept him alive.
Timotei instructs Antonia to slowly pour water into the big red patch, in order to cool it down, he’s also working the skirt into something he can use.
The slow stream of water is an interesting sensation, in one hand It’s soothing the pain from the burn, but it also hurts because it’s touching the bent part of my arm, cancelling each other out. I never thought such an intense feeling could be so… neutral.
Timotei starts bandaging my arm, in a way so that my forearm is still resting at my heart level.
“We can’t do more than this with what we have.” Timotei makes a solemn look “If we reach basil fast enough we can give you proper care. How are you holding up?”
“It hurts… but staying still won’t help, I don’t think our plan has changed from this” It’s just pain It’s just pain It’s just pain Its just pain, It will be ok once we reach basil It will be ok once we reach basil It will be ok once we reach basil It will be ok once we reach basil.
“Don’t try to act brave, stay close to me so I can shield you” Aurora says in a worried voice.
“I’ll guide you through here, so follow me.” Felix nervously adds.
***
We are walking through a hallway and find ourselves in the biggest room yet, it’s mostly empty, but it has 7 pillars in the middle forming a large circle, there’s a bookcase in the corner of the room, and some kind of patterned glass on the wall, the door is at the other side of the room.
“This is the pattern creation room, granny made it a few years ago when she was about to form her 4th pattern, and the rest of us make use of it when we need it, I’ve never used it.” Felix explains.
I know the clan has one of these, but I’ve never seen it. The pillars here remind me of something familiar… Fuck, my arm is getting itchy, but it’ll hurt really bad if I scratch it.
Antonia notices there’s something wrong with me “Hey, are you doing ok? We can take a small rest if we need to.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’m just remembering something.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“It’s nothing really important, I just noticed these pillars are similar to the ones in the temple of Tonatiuh back in paprika.”
“You’re right” Timotei chimes in “Each pillar represents a god; these kinds of representation are common because they are respectful to the gods, because they are beyond the human form."
“The pillars themselves count as altars for their respective god, their more common use is to make a sacrifice in order to obtain divine help.”
“Not to sound like an idiot, but who are the seven pillars representing? I only know of Nemach and Yaokiski.” Felix asks, how do you don’t know something so basic…
Timotei responds.
“It’s not a problem:
There's Tonatiuh, he's the god of the sun and time.
Yacatect is the goddess of the sky and wealth.
Ueyatl is the goddess of the sea and night.
Yaokiski is the god of war.
Amili is the goddess of earth and fertility.
Nemach is the goddess of knowledge.
And Kinzoku is goddess of metal and stillness, though she's not worshipped as widely as the others.”
“Don’t you think that’s too simplistic?” The voice of a man comes from the other side of the room, the door opens, and we see someone dressed in in some kind of suit and wearing a white cape, with a red beret, he also has a big scar right in the middle of his face “The gods are not just a name and a title, they’re spiritual leaders that allow us to live our best lives.”
“My <Cranberry beret>!” Antonia yells angrily
The man walks into the center of the circle of pillars “But it doesn’t matter, if you have escaped from your cells it means you simply had no fate with life in the first place”
He then looks angrily at Felix “And you! The only sin that all the gods agree on is betrayal, and you, young man, you can consider yourself death.”
He then takes a saber from his sleeve in a dramatic way “Of course, I’m not so barbaric that I’d fight against people who cannot defend themselves properly” He then looks at Timotei “You’re the only one who can fight at full power, let’s have a duel, and have the gods be our witnesses!”
Timotei looks back at us, and then walks forwards “It doesn’t look like we have other options. Very well.”
He also enters the circle, and a barrier seems to form around the pillars. Its creation released a strong pressure, and my arm hurt even more! Why was that necessary!? Did you just want to kick me while I’m down!? “Beat him Timotei!” fuck! I want some revenge.
“You can win!” Antonia is also cheering him.
“Call me Simon, the strongest man in the <Sycamore gang>!”
“Timotei.”
After that, Simon runs towards Timotei preparing to slash him, but Timotei deflects the attack with his spear and manages to keep his distance, and launches his own counterattack, launching a piercing attack towards Simon.
Simon jumps back to avoid the attack, but he’s still lightly injured in the shoulder.
“You’re not bad!” Simon sneers “But it’s time to turn up the heat!” Simon’s saber becomes engulfed in flames “This is the <Mountain incinerating saber>, it took me years to properly develop this technique.”
“Arrogant!” Timotei starts exuding a great pressure from his body, and 7 pikes of different colors appear behind him. “This is my <7-colored spears of judgement>! You won’t be able to defeat me!”
An even greater pressure comes out from him, and my arm hurts a lot more thanks to it!
Et tu, Timotei?
“Hmph!” Simon swings his saber at Timotei, releasing a great wave of fire!
4 of the pikes form 2 Xs in front of Timotei and block the fire! Then 2 of the pikes are thrown into Simon’s direction!
Eventually the fire stops… and Simon is not where he was!
Timotei immediately tries to turn back to block something, but he’s one instant too late!
A slash just as powerful as the last one comes from his back and engulfs him in a wall of fire!
But in the same instant something impales Simon! It’s an orange-colored pike.
“Impossible!” Simon spits out blood.
The wall of fire dies down, and Timotei is still standing and showing a confident smile, though he’s also in a very rough shape.
“This is a fight between people with 3 patterns!” Aurora exclaims “I don’t think I could survive very long in a fight like this, the best I could do is probably flee...” She seems a little sad.
Fuck! The pressure those two release is making my arm hurt so much!
“It’s time to end this!” Thankfully Timotei doesn’t plan to drag this out
All of his seven pikes seem to overlap in his spear, and he attacks Simon with all his strength!
Simon doesn’t just stay in place, his flames burn hotter than they have in the entire fight, and he jumps towards Timotei, preparing to slash him!
The two collide, and a big explosion happens that lasts for a few seconds, and then a big dust cloud forms around us, the only thing I know is that the extreme pressure has died down.
The dust settles down, and the last person standing is Timotei!
