Chapter 37 - Face Off

"I'm not the Warden's grand-daughter," Baulder replied shyly, between a few muffled shouts coming from behind him.

I could hear a face-palm coming from everyone in the room. I looked back at my body-guard, and he had a look of legit confusion on his face, then I pointed behind him, to which he reacted with a vivid blush, and slightly turned away, probably in embarrassment.

"Very funny, Baulder Wodinson, but we're not in a joking mood," Stacey firmly replied.

"Hey, it's Karver, okay? No need to call us by our personal names anymore," I called her out.

"Oh? Are we playing names then? You think you're big-shots, just 'cause you broke out of a prison?" she looked at me with pity mixed with some fire in her eyes.

"A prison you were tasked with defending," I quickly replied, "You can call me Lord Tentazione, if you would."

"A Lord, is it?" Donaldsson looked at me, bawling from laughter, "Don't think you're anyone worth of praise, boy."

"Idiocy," Hattori added.

"We'll see if I'm worthy," I taunted back, "Anyone wanna face me?"

Stacey stepped in front. She glamorously flung her hair around, as if she was trying to flaunt her femininity. That was just wasted effort. I knew her face when she was in her berserker mode, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty.

"Let's make this a bit more fun, shall we?" Ventus quickly intervened, "Let's do a one on one, Tentazione against you, Baulder against the fat dude, and I'll -"

"I'll face Hattori," a voice behind us yelled.

Andromeda jumped out of Baulder's grip, and rushed to stand right next to me. She glanced at me with a quick 'you missed me?' expression, and glared directly at her previous sparring partner. Francis, seeing that he had no other options, raised his hands, and backed off. He and Zenia were protecting Caleb and Claire as we did our part.

"Do we have a choice?" Stacey wittily replied, "Let's do this, shall we?"

At the exact same time, as she finished her sentence, I jumped in, straight away binding her legs with my [Greed Binders]. Even without looking at them, she ripped them apart, and started charging towards me. Mid-run, she turned into her [Berserker], and let out a loud roar, followed by a punch aimed at my head. I knew better, than to let that hit me, so I dodged downwards, and lead up with a jab of my own, coming straight from the ground, my tentacle was aiming for her jaw.

Seeing this attack coming, she also dodged just in time, but late enough, so that my Binder would cut into her cheeks. At that time, I noticed that there were some scars around her face, but they wouldn't really show from far away. I wonder, if I caused them last time, when I pushed her off of the helicopter.

Upon getting out of my way, she hissed, as she touched this new wound with her fingers, and straight away responded with a roundhouse kick. I knew I couldn't dodge this one, so I instantly raised my shield, and was waiting for it to shatter, maybe even crack some of my bones, but to my surprise, I didn't even feel any force coming through it. Is this how much I matured?

Bolstered from this realization, I went straight back to the offensive. As long as I could block or dodge her attacks, she couldn't hurt me. I pulled my gun on her, and started shooting away. My aim was true this time, but as they hit her skin, they bounced off, leaving just a little bit of a scratch mark on her.

While I wasn't happy about this, I could use it for some level of distraction. I decided to aim straight for her eyes, for well, a number of reasons. Mainly, anyone would flinch from a direct shot towards their eyes, even if they could just bounce a bullet off. It's just human nature. Second, if by any chance she had some weaker points on her body, one would definitely be her eyes. As for the others, a man can only hope to find them.

And I was right. She flinched, as my bullet was going towards her eyes, and in turning away, I could use this chance to just go for another jab from her side. Correction, from both sides. I had two of my Binders slowly creep up on the side, and now was just the perfect time to launch an attack using them, towards her head.

——

After he put down the folks he was carrying, Baulder walked up to his old enemy. Donaldsson was waiting for him to walk up, and at that same time, he transformed into his ball farm, and straight away tried to hit his opponent. This wasn't that easy, though, as Baulder was already used to that move from their previous battle.

He easily stopped the wrecking ball, extending one of his tree-arms towards him. Feeling the pressure coming from above, the armadillo man tried to change course, but he just couldn't move. It seemed like Karver has already carved his way to victory.

Or was it? Donaldsson suddenly changed back to his human form, loosening his opponents grip over him. He just barely managed to slip away, but at the cost of about half a dozen bruises all around his body. Maybe a few cracked bones were thrown into the mix, but he wasn't entirely sure about those.

This time, it was Baulder's turn to attack. Seen as he's not that great at that sort of thing, he just stood there, waiting for his enemy to make a move, and he sure did. Wrapping himself up as a ball again, he zig-zagged his way through the field in between them, but it was once again, to his demise.

Baulder was owning this situation, and not a single soul could stop him from doing so. He unleashed all four of his extra arms, to catch the ball man from all sides, while he used his actual hands, to grab onto the actual face of his enemy. And that he did. Flawlessly.

——

Andromeda was still slightly woozy from getting all that damage, at the exact same spot, only the gods know how long ago. Waking up at the same place didn't help her either, but she knew that everything was sorted out while she was passed out. And to be fair, this left quite a bit of damage on her pride.

She was supposed to be the [Lioness], the 'Queen of all Animals', yet she couldn't defeat one enemy, without fainting in that process. She didn't care about reasons, and petty excuses. Smoke poisoning wasn't really a valid excuse for her, and neither was getting knocked out by a huge burst of fire through her abdomen.

Those were all just excuses for her. What she really needed to do, was to tackle this situation head on, and taking down this annoying son of a bitch, once and for all. She had to run once, and she won't run twice. Hattori was just a prey to her, a bird, waiting for his inevitable doom.

"Victory," Hattori said.

"For me," Meda grinned back, "[Were-Lion]."

She hunched over, her clothes slowly stretching out around her growing body, as some fur would encompass parts of her body. She grew a feet or two in height, and with that, the rest of her body followed shape. Long claws sprouted from both her feet, and hands, and fangs slowly emerged from within her mouth. Her hair started to move on it's own, levitating menacingly, just like a mane. Even a tail followed her now.

Hattori seemed a tad bit intimidated, but seen as he was used to things like this, it didn't take him a long time to get used to it. He had to fight worse things in his past, things that even to this day he couldn't explain, or understand. But that was a long time ago, and being a vice-warden in a prison would take it's toll on just about anyone.

Andromeda's now elongated ears, and sort of off-putting snout moved around, seemingly on their own, as she was looking around for the best course of action. Eventually, she realized that in this small area, she didn't have a lot of choice to attack, and she pounced forth, with a deep roar, coming straight from her core.

The sound reverberated through the entire room, making everyone look in her direction, and what they could see, was true elegance. Witnessing a Lioness hunt for her prey is surely a once in a lifetime experience. No doubt, to her enemies it struck as one of the most intimidating events that day, but to her friends, it was true inspiration, a rally, if you will.

Hattori knew that this would be one hell of a fight, but for it to end so soon.

This was truly a shame, as a ninja.