Chapter 205: Overclocking

Skyzo and Pele were out of the competition for now. There was a chance they could return to the field later but that tended not to happen in most matches as the down time was long enough that any match typically ended before this feature became relevant. If it did, though, then the Umbras would almost certainly have the advantage as Pele's Feel The Heat! would be reset back to its default state. This was the real reason Skyzo and Fate prepared this last ditch method ahead of time because removing Pele from the fight was of utmost importance. From here, anything else could be managed by the remaining members of the team. Losing Skyzo hurt but so too did losing Pele, perhaps even more, and it evened things out. Things would have swung massively in the Legions' favour had this problem not been averted but, now, it was back to being anyone's game.

Fate was hardly pleased with this turn of events because even if she knew ahead of time it was going to happen, that didn't change the fact that she'd been winning against her bratty opponent! The front guard wasn't making a dent in her defences and the rear guard was having a hard time keeping up with H.I.JACK by its lonesome... And now all of her effort had gone to waste! In the time H.I.JACK was taking over the runes, the rear guard had recovered completely and the front guard was still wailing away at a barrier Fate had set up a while back. Fate simply sighed and accepted that the damage had already been done and things wouldn't get any worse at least. She didn't have any other duties assigned to her from her other siblings so, from now on, she was free to act as she pleased. The first order of business was bringing H.I.JACK back around and pushing back the front guard a little because it was starting to get annoying. The racket it was creating as it swung its scythe against the barrier protecting Fate was going to give her a migraine at this rate and preventing that was more important to her than attacking Palioxis. She ordered H.I.JACK to enter stealth mode and return to her side, hoping that maybe a combination of her puppet and some of her other treasures might be able to do the front guard in for good. If she could deal with one half of the equation then sorting out the other afterwards wouldn't be such a task. Plus, as H.I.JACK was currently invisible to the naked eye, Palioxis would be slow to respond to it appearing not by the rear guar but instead back over by Fate. She couldn't move the rear guard either because the risk she would be taking, leaving herself completely unguarded, was flat out a mistake. Sadie had taught the Legions to fight safe and so keeping the rear guard in the rear was a move that had practically been ingrained into her by the drunkard. Still, despite being aware of this unsolvable problem, Pali didn't seem too fussed about the predicament her front guard was in as she had the utmost faith it could handle things by itself.

While the front guard kept slashing away at the barrier around Fate, an electrical spark to its left caught its attention and made it wary. When that spark became a series of high-voltage blasts the front guard was quick to retreat from its position with a swing of one of its scythes preventing a follow up attack from this ambushing foe. H.I.JACK was forced out of camouflage as the new weapon it had replaced the jack with, a bundle of wires shaped like a dragon head that could spew electrical fire, wasn't quite as tame. This allowed the Scytheguard to readjust its scythe position and go for the throat against H.I.JACK, now that it could see its adversary, and fight back properly even if had to avoid the electrical fire to get in close. The front guard floated towards H.I.JACK, looping clockwise in the air as it did so to skirt around the dragon's breath, and raised both its hands to bring the two scythes down in a cross slash when it drew near enough to strike. H.I.JJACK responded in kind by lowering the dragon and raising the claws on its other arm which had yet to see any use up until now. This weapon hadn't done anything yet but it was about to showcase its true power as, the second the scythes came bearing down on H.I.JACK, the claws shot up to meet both of them by its lonesome and fend of the incoming danger. The tips of the claws spun like drills and buzzed as they tore through the air before finally clashing with the dual scythes.

CLANGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Both sides rattled as the shock absorption systems on both puppets worked overtime to prevent their parts from springing out of place thanks to the mighty collision. Despite the main purpose of the claws not being head to head duels such as this they were formidable enough to hold back even two weapons simultaneously, convincingly, and with room to spare. Meanwhile the front guard was creaking as it put all of its strength into pushing the tips of its weapons deeper into its opponent's weapon. It wasn't losing the confrontation but it definitely wasn't winning it either as the wear and tear would be considerably worse for the front guard than H.I.JACK. Also, although Pali didn't know this, H.I.JACK could repair its tools by putting them away temporarily.

Fate's one puppet drastically outclassed Pali's two in individual fights because it was seriously an incredible treasure. Not that any of this even mattered. a tug of war like this directly in front of Fate was only ever going to end one way as she intervened and fired off another Fritzbee, putting the front guard on the back foot. It didn't have the freedom to attack the Papillon that just spawned so it had to find time to retreat out of range and regroup with the rear guard. It lifted its lower half up to face its jets directly at H.I.JACK and put them in overdrive. The blast forced H.I.JACK to dodge out the way and give up on the clash but that didn't mean it was going to let the front guard retreat for free. The Papillon was on track to be a good boy and catch the Fritzbee so H.I.JACK wanted to make sure its efforts weren't wasted by keeping the front guard around long enough to still be in range of the emp when it detonated. To that end, it replaced the useless claw, which served no purpose at this range, and brought back the chains. It fired some more dragon breath to prevent an escape while circling the front guard with the mass of chains. Although this would be the perfect time for the front guard to pick a fight with the H.I.JACK, as its weapon selection was poor for close range engagement, the Papillon meant it had to focus on leaving so it slunk under the dragon breath and barrel rolled sideways to avoid the chains. It looked like it was home free but one of the chains barely managed to latch onto the edge of its dress by piercing it and forming a knot. The front guard halted in place and, as H.I.JACK started trying to reel it in, pulled back against its fate as best it could. It seemingly wasn't going to escape the emp range at this rate but if it could at least keep this distance then the effect would be minor compared to a close range blast. Was it preferable? No but it was as good as things were gonna get. It was already a rough situation as is thanks to the dragon breath making a return and forcing the front guard to devote its scythes to preventing the attack by spinning in front of it.

The Papillon trotted a few more feet forward, looked up at the disc overhead, wriggled its butt closer to the floor in a crouching position, and leapt upwards with a joyous smile on its face. Happy days a-plenty as the Papillon pup opened its maw, gave off a quick bark, and caught the Fritzbee perfectly out of mid air. With a wag of its tail, the Papillon crunched down on the chew toy and faded into electrical particles, leaving behind an air of satisfaction and fulfilment while a blue wave shot out from the position of the crushed disc. It passed harmlessly over H.I.JACK, only briefly rummaging around in its circuitry before continuing onward, and landed on the front guard.

BZZZT BZZZT BZZZT BZZZT BZZZT 

A number of short zaps caused the Scytheguard to collapse on the spot and fall, spiralling face first into the arena's floor as repeated clicking and rattling sounds came from within its chassis. All manner of problems assailed the guard as its cooling system failed, its core overheated, its power supply went up in smoke, and every wire nearly imploded simultaneously. A near complete switch off put the guard out of the fight but not entirely as there were still small signs of life in the twitching frame. The issues it was experiencing could all be fixed automatically but it needed time and so, just as H.I.JACK decloaked by its side to finish the job with its claws, the rear guard swooped in and shield bashed H.I.JACK to force him back. H.I.JACK understood this was a good chance to end the fight so it engaged the rear guard while Fate, in the background of all this, disabled her barrier and turned invisible with one of her treasures. H.I.JACK wasn't the only one around here that could cloak, no sir.

Where was Fate going? Well the correct answer was one of two options. Either A; she was going to go lob an EMP at Deimos' bike, which was ironically exactly what he'd been dreading earlier, or B; she was sneaking around to fight directly with the unguarded Pali. Palioxis without her puppets was considerably weaker and would find it difficult to hold back Fate's treasure onslaught by herself. Both options would lead to a stressful situation so Pali took matters into her own hands and ran towards her rear guard while holding up her dress to stop it getting in the way of her jog. If Fate was going to attack her directly then positioning herself near the rear guard at least put Fate in a position whereby she was close to danger herself and things could potentially shift in Pali's favour is Fate wasn't careful. Now if Fate was going somewhere else this would wind up being a pointless manoeuvre that wasted Pali's time when she could be doing something else but she wasn't worried about making the wrong call here because she knew her opponent well. Though Pali would never use the word 'friend' that was what Fate was to her so she was fully aware that Fate would be gunning for her right now for one simple reason, Fate had already helped her family once and now wanted to have her own fun! Fate was the kind of revenant that would get grouchy when others kept asking them for help when all she wanted to do was play. Palioxis had seen it in her face and general demeanour earlier when Fate had to help Skyzo that she was reluctant to give up her advantage. Once was fine but twice? That was stretching it. Fate was fond of her family but there was a limit to her willingness to throw her own potential accomplishments under the bus. That and she also wholeheartedly believed ending the fight sooner would mean she could offer far more support in the long run anyway and that this was the best choice overall.

Pali crouched behind the rear guard and started opening up a few panels on the front guard to diagnose and fix whatever issues she could. She wasn't the most tech savvy puppeteer out there but she knew enough to aid in the front guards resuscitation and speed up the process. As if on cue, the second Pali opened the very first panel, Fate and H.I.JACK launched a simultaneous attack. H.I.JACK kept the rear guard busy with its claws while Fate snuck around and pointed a gun at Pali. The gun was a treasure that always shot completely straight and no amount of wind or lack of control over the weapon would ever change that. This meant that, at any range, provided the shot was initially aimed directly at the target, the bullet would end up in the foe if they didn't move. There was no drop off and no deviation which turned what was otherwise a close range pistol into a long range marksman's weapon. That wasn't to say it couldn't fulfil its original role as a close range murder weapon just that, at that point, it gained nothing by being a treasure other than packing a bit of extra fire power. Fate didn't choose this weapon to be flashy or because she needed the extra oomph, it was just the only gun she had on her person. If it wasn't a treasure, Fate didn't carry it around with her after all.

Pali had been expecting Fate so she whipped a shield out of her spatial ring and dug it into the floor in front of her. As she was both crouched and petite, not a single part of her body was exposed to the gunfire that rang out a split second later. Seven shots smacked against the shield but all rebounded off elsewhere unceremoniously. Fate had probably come closer to accidentally shooting her own barrier, which was still up just in case, than to hitting Pali. Good 'ol Legion smithing had come in handy here and saved Pali's hide. A long while back Bellona had mentioned that Enyo was somewhat of a role model to both Phobos and Palioxis and that was proven true by the fact that the weapon Pali had been learning in her spare time was a shield of all things. It did make sense though. She wasn't overly reliant on the rear guard to protect her if she had a defensive weapon like this and could wield it well. The Scytheguards were stronger together and, as a duo, were somewhat like Slick. The power gain of using both guards at once was not additive, it was multiplicative. Pali not being a burden on the Scytheguards in the future would considerably boost their strength during engagements and so that was the line of improvement Pali was trending towards. She wasn't there yet though and her ability to use a shield was rough but it had done her a favour here. Did it fix the awful situation she was in? No and things were looking really grim, actually. H.I.JACK was still far stronger than a single Scytheguard, especially the defensive oriented one as the weapons H.I.JACK packed were heavy duty. The rear guard was basically playing catch up as H.I.JACK phased in and out of view, appearing at the guard's dead angles and launching a colourful variety of attacks. Heavier attacks like the claw put the strain on the guard while light attacks, from weapons like a sharp screwdriver or a long reaching electric baton, prevented the guard from taking any breaks. It was a constant onslaught and no amount of jet boosters were going to allow it to remain more mobile than H.I.JACK. If it just flew up into the air then H.I.JACK would turn its attention to Pali and that was an unacceptable outcome so it was grounded while H.I.JACK danced circles around it.

Fate was also bringing out multiple different treasures and pestering Pali who had to resort to using her own, limited use, treasures in returns. Things like one-off barriers and magic dampening talismans were being run through at a pace that made the spectators agitated. All of these life saving measures were expensive! Using them in a tournament instead of actual life or death situations was such a waste! Spendthrift! This brat was spoilt! But why that was surprise to any of these people remained a mystery. This was a daughter and direct kin of the matriarch and patriarch of the Legion family, arguably the de-facto leader of the highest currently available domain. What Pali was using right now was barely even a fraction of the clan's total wealth and tools at its disposal. It wasn't a pointless waste either as she'd bought enough time to get the front guard up and running again... Barely... It was functional but jittery and weak. Not that Pali was complaining as it did alleviate some of the duress she was under.

Contrary to what everyone else expected to have happen, Pali actually directed the front guard over to the rear guard's side and left herself stuck with Fate to continue getting bullied by the treasure tossing twerp. Evidently she'd come to the conclusion that things weren't going to magically solve themselves. Pali had been on the back foot this entire time precisely because she kept dividing up her Scytheguards and now she was opting for more reckless measures. If she could last long enough against Fate, maybe her Scytheguards could cinch a win against H.I.JACK and that would lead to a reversal. Whether this strategy would pay off, especially now that the front guard was in a poor state and half broken, was up in the air but the fight raged on regardless.

While Fate was unreservedly launching treasure after treasure at Pali, to the point the spectators weren't even sure if she was being deliberate in her attacks or just plucking random garbage out of her space ring, H.I.JACK was going scorched earth. Palioxis used the bestowal aspect arts 'Shift Gear' and 'In Unison' which increased the Scytheguard's speed and improved their teamwork and co-ordination to a point that they could temporarily function independently of Pali and to a high level. In response to this Fate chanted "Overclock." to get H.I.JACK operating over its limits. Sparks were flying and its mask was leaking neon blue liquid as its speeds became horrifying. It would strike the shield of the rear guard and vanish, appearing in position to fire its dragon breath at the front guard a split second later before reappearing back by the rear guard and launching another attack. It morphed into a tech demon that was fighting two different opponents at fraction-of-a-second intervals, bouncing between them and cycling through its weapons in a frenzy as its fog cloaked the arena. The Scytheguards were caught up in this blue fog of data streams as H.I.JACK blinked in and out of view, clashing with them and swiping at their unguarded flanks every so often.

What was truly worrying was that H.I.JACK was utilising the jack on the weakened front guard from time to time and its mark was progressively becoming more and more clear on its frame. No matter how many arts Pali used to strengthen these two puppets it was looking like H.I.JACK was going to emerge victorious from this two vs one fight in overwhelming fashion. Even when the Scytheguards floated back to back, launching attacks together and covering each other's weaknesses, H.I.JACK was able to drift in and out of their range effortlessly and pick apart their formation. H.I.JACK slunk in, baited the rear guard's scythe, and clashed with the front guard's scythes with its claws. Utilising its free hand the jack was placed firmly on the front guard's pipe-chest for a few seconds until H.I.JACK was forced to retreat by the rear guard. Only having two arms to fight against four meant nothing to H.I.JACK who was expertly weaving between the two puppets and making them look like inexperienced dolls dangling on strings. H.I.JACK's performance in this overclocked state, as its motherboard cloak was computing possibility after possibility, was astonishing and just went to show that every single member of the Umbras were a threat in their own right. It wasn't just Scar and Skyzo carrying this team, they were all monsters. Pali may have been a better puppeteer in terms of control but she was evidently not a better combatant as Fate's ability to wield H.I.JACK in combat scenarios trumped hers. Actually, Fate was also better at working alongside her puppet which left the question of what having fluid control over your puppet actually meant if you couldn't win a fight anyway...

The spectators were a little disappointed at the way this fight was trending because they could see what was going to happen coming from a mile away. Whereas Skyzo's last ditch effort was a nail biter for the audience who had their gazes dragged around the arena to get the full scope, Pali was just going to lose in a way such that nothing could be done about it. H.I.JACK's jack mark was mere moments away from full completion and Pali was still being held back by Fate so the countdown had already started and there didn't seem to be a way out... So yes, the spectators who were in favour of the Legion clan were disappointed... But none more so than Fate who was stamping her feet and yelling abuse at her rival who was cowering behind the shield!

Tiny tantrum!

So cute!

But why was Fate not happy about this situation? She was winning, no? Well the reason for that was something that only Fate, and a few select other people knew... Palioxis was holding back. To anyone who knew roughly how strong Palioxis actually was it was clear as day she wasn't really trying. Would she flip this current script on its head and win if she put more effort in? Unlikely but it was possible if she actually tried which raised the question of... Why? Why was Palioxis doing any of this and trying to lose? This was a competition wherein the goal was, obviously, to come out on top and there were a few things riding on the outcome of this match. To most people in the crowd, Pali's actions were indecipherable and they were wondering if she had some kind of grand plan. To people like Rhea and Fate, however, who knew why she was doing any of this all too well... They were in disbelief that Pali was this dedicated to her own plans that she would sabotage this match for her own sake! She was being selfish!

Fate growled under her breath and stomped her foot one last time before calling out to Pali. "Fine! You dumb brat! If that's what you want, then I'll do it!" Fate had yet to have her own moment to shine in this tournament so this entire scenario angered her to no end. In every other match up until now she wasn't needed and then, just as she was winning her own fight when it finally mattered, Skyzo reset all of her progress. She then worked hard to get back to this point and now her opponent was willingly throwing in the towel! Where was the justice in any of this?! Fate just wanted to show off at least once! Despite her puffed up cheeks and the sentiment that she thought everyone around her was dumb or stupid, though, the way she acted was that of someone always willing to help people even at the cost of her goals. Yes she promised herself not to help anyone again after Skyzo but the little tyke didn't have it in her to actually put her foot down and say no when someone else was asking, even if it was Pali. Or rather it's because it was her friend Pali that she couldn't say no even if she was an enemy right now. Her balled fists where nothing more than a visual sign of protest but her actions from now on would speak louder than the optics of her reluctance. If Pali wanted to lose, and Fate knew why, then Fate would oblige and make her loss as dramatic as possible! It's not like what came of this would affect Fate anyway!... Although it might affect Venus... But that was her problem and what she got for playing with her food!