Chapter 51: Divide and Conquer

The Chang E system, a system made up of mostly hydrogen, with a young sun accompanied by a pair of Gas giants filled with nearly countless moons. Parts of the first gas giant in the closer orbit have been part of mining projects while the second is mostly left untouched, and that's where the battle between the two groups of artifact users will take place.

It all started with Elmyra taking the stage in the first act of the battle, and she immediately went into Artifact Avatar mode, outputting enough energy to turn her body into a small sun as she glowed brightly on the surface of the planet. Then, her mind zoomed all the way out as the paths of all those living in the Geb system are now visible to her. Then, she focused her mind on Brakagi, and pulled him here.

The space and time warped in resistance to what she commands, but the physical laws that governed the universe soon bent to her will, and Brakagi appeared in the grounds on the small moon not too much further in front of her. He is dressed in full space combat gear and looked combat ready the moment he gets pulled. Of course, this is courtesy of Hong Fu's intelligence.

Initially, the group of Rockies plus one human are also as confused as the bearers were regarding Hong Fu's abilities and his limitations. He is able to tell that Elmyra is going to pull Brakagi out, but feasibly, there is nothing that he can do to prevent that from happening 100% of the time. All that they can do is to prepare themselves, and that's exactly what they did.

This is also exactly what the coalition of the bearers and Absolute Being is expecting.

Soon after Brakagi appeared in front, Elmyra was able to tone down her artifact avatar mode as the figure of her returned to being human with Zel popping out of pocket domain and holding onto her body in case of collapse due to fatigue. At the same time, he also shoved a sugar bar into her face, as the bar poked into the insides of her cheek and puffed it up. Elmyra ate it up without any resistance and slapped Zel in the butt instead.

The space behind Brakagi started to warp as an semi-transparent spherical sphere materializes from mid air before it opened up and the image of Jozzor and four others became visible. This is Hong Fu's counter, as Jozzor's ridiculous mobility is what they will use when Brakagi gets pulled by Elmyra. By utilizing the galactic network as well as an entanglement tracker, the Rockies can then track down the location of Brakagi and go reinforce him right away with Jozzor's Sling Shot through space.

Now that all of the combatants are here for the Rockies, they are facing off against the couple of Zel and Elmyra, and Jozzor prepared for an attack. However, Elmyra immediately entered into artifact avatar mode once again, and in an instant, the six beings from Brakagi's side are split into three and displaced into three of the larger moons around the gas giant. There is no time to react as Elmyra manipulated their fates with simple swipes of her finger.

The six are divided into groups of only Jozzor, Vindy and the assassin of unknown ability (Miss D) and Brakagi, Hong Fu and another Rocky of unknown ability (Caliditas). As the bearers have mentioned before, their first win condition is finding out ways of countering Hong Fu's intelligence gathering ability from Probable, and their methods of doing so is through Elmyra's fate and trajectory manipulation abilities. This has worked out extremely well, and Brakagi's group can do nothing except reacting to her actions.

However, after that, the second win condition is disabling Jozzor, which formed a majority of Brakagi's mobility, who is just about as good as a counter for Elmyra as any others. The second phase of the coalition's plan is to take out Jozzor as quickly as possible, as he found himself standing on unfamiliar territory on the smaller moon facing off against a tall human female with long blonde hair that looked side a model stuck in space. Or rather, a fighter that looks really good.

'Your opponent is me.' She declared, as the common communication channels is established between the two.

Jozzor didn't say a word, and instead looked on at the human in front of him with interest.

In the meanwhile on another much larger moon with heavier surface gravity, Miss D and Vindy found themselves trying to recollect themselves with far out in the distance, three humans began to approach. Two of them being male, with one with short black hair and dressed in all black and another in a white military uniform that is signature of Absolute Being. The third is a shorter human girl with a cute red hair. They didn't immediately attack, and they stopped at a distance before establishing communications.

'We don't want to cause you harm.' The man in black said, 'But Brakagi needs to answer for what he did.'

'And is this the way you want to get to him?' Vindy replied sharply, 'since when is the galactic government hiring thugs? Oh wait. You always have.'

On a third moon where the third fight is going to take place, the two fighters from Absolute Being stood guard in the shadows with Sir Deva sitting on top of a rock with Lady Lily in his laps with her arms around her neck. Then, the space around them are bent and warped before Brakagi, Hong Fu and the second unknown artifact user (Caliditas) appeared.

'Look who's back.' Lady Lily said with a smirk on her face as she kicked herself up and hopped away from Sir Deva.

'Let's take them down quickly.' Sir Deva said, taking giant steps forward towards the three disoriented users, 'I will be the vanguard.'

And with that, Elmyra's role is complete in this fight, as she not only initiated the action by pulling Brakagi here and away from Geb 4 but also divided the groups up into three fights that are predetermined by the coalition days prior. With her artifact avatar mode, she has put all of the battle groups in the best position.

'Mission completed.' Elmyra reported with big breaths in between as her battle suit is now filled with sweat. Her legs are shaking slightly, as the aftereffects of using artifact avatar mode weighs on her body and mind. Fortunately, Zel is there to support her as always, and he popped her in the pocket domain before taking her towards the nearest waiting shuttle, with Ol there picking her up.

Valerie with Lock Down should be a direct counter against Jozzor's mobility with Sling Shot, and Zel with the Pocket will be there to back her up after dropping off Elmyra with a kiss on her cheek. The thin layer of the space suits felt like a silicon gel upon contact to Elmyra's face, and she wanted Zel back now more than ever in her weakened state. However, he has a battle to fight, just like the rest of her friends.

The second group of fighters consists of Rydel with the Glove, Alrith with the Lightning Knife and Sadie Allen with the Shield, which should provide a solid combination of impeccable defense, mobility and utility offered by Rydel and raw offensive power from Alrith. This should be enough to counter against the mechanical waves of Vindy as well as whatever attacks the assassin can throw at them. If this isn't a flat out counter, it sure is a competitive enough team composition.

The last group is the iconic pairing of Sir Deva and Lady Lily, who has been together for years and years at this point, and they will be taking on the final bosses of the battle. However, Hong Fu doesn't exactly have the most raw combat power compared to the others, so really it will just be the two of them facing off against Brakagi and Caliditas, the latter's artifact power unknown to the two of them so far.

'Stay safe, and come home victorious!' Elmyra wished on her friends, as the shuttle rattled off into the Unlimitary, the new flagship of Absolute Being.

Turning our attention to the first fight with Valerie and Jozzor, her role is of utmost importance here, and she intended to carry out her mission with the same amount of conviction she had when she was avenging her father. Today, Valerie Surtdorf will take down whoever that stands in her way.

'Prepare yourself!' Valerie said before running forward towards Jozzor and reaching out with her hand. Inside her mind, she felt for the smoothness of space around the small Rocky, and activated her artifact. Lights glowed alongside the spirals in her right arm starting from the center of her palm, and she reached out to lock down the region of space around Jozzor, intending to freeze him once and for all in the beginning of the fight.

Jozzor, instead of warping away, reached for something around his hips before giving it a gentle tap. Then, a pulse exploded outwards with him at the center before a buzzing sound knocks out the communication capabilities of Valerie's personal interface. Then, he picked up his feet and stomped onto the ground.

His feet glowed for an instant before contact, and then a deep crack formed on the surface of the moon as shard of rocks are send flying towards Valerie like silent killers. As the sharp tip of one of the shards almost pierced through Valerie's torso, she locked down the space in front of her before kicking against the rock, stopping her forward momentum and flipping back and away.

That's no normal strength! Valerie thought, are the Rockies just enhanced to this degree? But if that's the case, why did she saw a glow on Jozzor's feet at impact? She thought Jozzor's strength is in agility, mobility and speed, rather than raw strength? There is no mistake that the flash was the distinct glow of an artifact.

So what is going on here?

'You users are so predictable.' A feminine human voice came through the other side of the channel, 'but that's can't be helped in this case, right?'

Jozzor's image flickered a few times before disappearing, and in his place stood a short and skinny human girl with white hair. She had a fanatical smile on her face, and she pointed her finger at Valerie, 'you seem strong. LET'S FIGHT!'

They were tricked! Valerie cursed under her breath. Hong Fu saw the strategies of the coalition dividing their group and isolating the most troublesome artifact users, and that's why they used holographic projectors to swap the appearances between Miss D and Jozzor.

'How did you do it?' As Valerie dodged a rock hurled at her with high speed and approached Miss D and crunching close to the ground, 'no holographic projectors are this good. Who are you?'

'I am Miss D, D for danger.' She replied slyly, 'nice to meet you, pretty lady!'

'Won't be so pretty when I knock you down.' Valerie said, rapidly approaching in a zigzagging route, 'no holographic tech is that good to mask your appearances, heights, movements so perfectly that Elmyra is fooled.'

'Right, but I make them better.' Miss D replied, 'plus me walking out first from the bubble Jozzor created also helped with fooling your friend.'

'Tsk.' Valerie also checked the status of her communications device beyond the limited capabilities between her and Miss D locally. This is also likely of Miss D's ability, as all of gear that Zero has prepared for all of them are interference and pulse resistant. Any regular pulse would have merely dented the quality of communications for a split second at best.

So...Miss D's ability is enhancements of sort?

As the two human women spun around each other and eyed for attacks, Miss D raised a glowing fist and prepared to knock Valerie off this moon. In response, Valerie froze up a donuts shaped space in front of her in the region immediately before the fist made contact. Miss D felt as if she has punched into an elastic wall before her arm was thrown back with the vibrational recoil travelling back throughout her body.

Before Miss D can process what has happened, Valerie spun around before delivering a crushing kick towards her torso through the hold in the center of the donuts shape and sending Miss D flying backwards. However, despite the look, there doesn't appear to have been any substantial damage.

One of the biggest advancements in her training has been that of shape manipulation of her regions of lock down, as she had been able to create simpler shapes before. However, in more complex scenarios, more complex shapes are desired, such as the donuts shape she just did which not only protects her from most attacks while allowing for smooth counter attacks. She is also the only person that is capable of seeing the regions that is locked down, meaning the tactical advantage created from this will offset any lack of offensive power in her means of attack.

She has also developed her artifact avatar mode, though she isn't sure that now is a good time to use it.

Miss D didn't waste any seconds in her counter attack, and she dashed forward yet again, her speed boosted with constant amplification of ground contact forces and she accelerated to her before making a sharp jab, snapping the ground in half in the process and circling around to Valerie's side.

Valerie instead pivoted with Miss D's movements and locked down the region all around her, covering herself in a safe bubble of attacks. A few explosions went off immediately outside of the bubble, but Valerie was unfazed by it in the slightest. Miss D continued to circle around her, and tried to figure out her modes of attack. However, this isn't going to be easy...

There is no point wasting any more of her weapons and explosives to fight against Valerie's absolutely flawless defense. Valerie has been in the driving seat of this fight, and there is no sign of her letting it go. Miss D needs to make a drastic move and force her hand, or risk being stuck in a stalemate.

That's when she glanced back quickly towards a crack on the ground that she has created in her movements, which sends shards gliding away in the low gravity environment. Then, she realized something...instead of trying to directly attack Valerie and trying to pierce through the defenses created by her artifacts, it is a much better idea to change the environment around them and force her to divert her attention away.

You cannot overcome an artifact, but you can work around to get to the user.

So far, Valerie's abilities looked like a form of telekinesis to Miss D, and she is wearing of being attacked from a range. In order to execute her plan of action, she needed a cover and/or something to block out Valerie's sights. Amplifying her leg strength and the sharpness of her boots, Miss D kicked out a layer of dirt, dust and rocks and sent the wave flying towards Valerie. Then, as Valerie vision is obscured by the cloud of objects Miss D created, she shot out the grappling hooks from her wrist off to the side in the ground and amplified their strength and durability.

Then, she kicked her leg high up in the air, and amplified her entire body.

'Artifact avatar mode...Amplifier...activate!'

That's right, the bearers weren't the only one that found out about artifact avatar mode. With enough Brakagi pushing his fellow artifact to the limits of their power, they also came across artifact avatar mode, with Brakagi accidentally causing a nearby volcano to erupt. Thankfully, Jozzor was able to boot everyone out of there. However, the group of Rockies also immediately realized the volatility of such a state, and only advised using it in short bursts and only when absolutely necessary.

Now seems like such a time to Miss D, not because she is in any danger, but rather because she has been making no process in this fight.

With the power of what feels like a RKM (relativistic kill missile), Miss D slammed her feet into the ground at the speed of an asteroid, as an explosion went off at her feet, vaporizing layers of rock upon impact and enveloping the entire area in smoke. She, at the same time, released the cable system that came with the grappling hooks as the ground beneath her exploded with dusts jetting out from the cracks she has created.

However, this wasn't the end of it. A wave of displaced materials traveled quickly outwards to beyond the horizon before the shear amount of energy from the impact causes the ground to shake and quake as Valerie hobbled around and tried to find her footing. The shaking finally settled after a long while, but giant cracks began to form along the surfaces of the moon all across, and somehow, Valerie felt a strange sense of pull and tug from the gravitational fields of the moon.

Miss D raised her feet up high and slammed her foot down again and again, with each impact, the moon began to crack and break further, with more smoke enveloping the entire surface. Miss D felt every impact through her entire body, and pain began to become more and more severe in her kicking knees and ankles as she began to slowly tear the planet apart. Instead of holding back and changing a strategy, she instead doubled down on it.

Let's see how you dealt with a cracked moon. Miss D thought as she laughed maniacally out of joy and slammed her feet for the final time with all of her will power and energy. And with that, the energy output from her finally overcome the gravitational binding energy of the planet, as she yanked the entire moon apart from her sides as if she is slitting a watermelon, and slammed the two massive chunks into Valerie's protective bubble.

The rest of the moon's materials appeared red hot as they floated apart, following the momentum offered to them by her kicks while what was once a moon set for battles are now no more than a cluster of dusts, rocks and asteroids.

And in the middle of it, Miss D trapped Valerie underneath chunks and layers of rocks.

'You can clearly offset my attacks, but can you get out of this?' Finally exiting her artifact avatar state, Miss D clung onto one of the rocks spinning slowly around the Valerie and the massive chunks of the original moon, 'Or are you going to be buried alive there?'

'You crazy bitch!' Valerie cursed, but Miss D is right. She would have never thought that the little human girl in front is capable of such a ridiculous feat, splitting up an entire moon into chunks with her kicks alone.

Of course, she also amplified the binding strength of the chunks of rock that her hooks are attached to, which allowed her to swing those around and manipulate them. As the dusts settles in again, and more and more layers of rocks began to pile onto Valerie's bubble of Lock Down, she is also beginning to feel the strain of maintaining the bubble. Though Miss D would have expended a lot more energy than her.

Just as she was about to be buried alive, Zel's voice came from beside her with a robotic arm appearing in her peripheral vision.

'Need a hand?'