10:00 AT, Day Thirty Six | Ruler’s Conquest Arena / Outside Cinder Keep
“Long time no see, dearest brother.” Luna says, her white armor blending in with the snow, making her blend into the background. If it wasn't for her pink hair, she might just be invisible.
Time seems to come to a halt.
When time resumes, Ray quickly moves next to me and grabs hold of my arm, ready to jerk me away. By some miracle of adrenaline and willpower, I respond back. “Brother?” I ask, completely bewildered.
Luna takes a few steps closer, her boots silently moving across the snow. Ray immediately draw her blades, but I motion for her to wait. Behind us I can hear people from our party shouting as they try to figure out what is happening.
“Has our aunt not figured it out yet? How strange.” Luna says, “Well to put it very simply put, we are twins. Nice to meet you, dearest brother.” She waves her hand in a friendly greeting, but it seems like she is restraining herself from something.
I stare at Luna, completely dumbfounded.
We are related? Twins even. That's a bit of a thing to just reveal. Plus, what's with all this snow?
But, now that I look at Luna closely, we do look somewhat similar.
“I know that it might be hard to believe a worthless loser like yourself is related to someone as great as I. But unfortunately, that is the case.” Luna says, the familiar venom returning to her speech. “Aunt Initae must be a fool to have thought Father would only create a single offspring.”
It is a hard idea to swallow. Like seriously? This pink haired chick is my klacking sister? But, she knows Initae’s name. It would make sense that her (our) father would be able to tell her.
Ray places her hand on my back, and I can tell she is trying to let me take the lead here. How I wish I could just let her deal with it. However, I think this is an issue that I must solve myself.
“Well in that case. Nice to meet ya, sister, how have you been as of late?” I say, trying to sound as smooth as I can. “How have your plans been going? I hope you've managed to get a nice army up and ready. Would you like to sit around a campfire and chat?”
Luna scoffs, “Do you really think I am here to make friends? To play happy family?”
“Well, that would be nice. After all, it would be just delightful to sit down for a nice drink with my newfound sister!” I lie, I would really rather not do such a thing. “But if you have another idea, I am sure we could do that instead.”
“What an imbecile. To think I am related to you, it makes me sick.” Luna says, moving her hand to cover her mouth like she is about to throw up. How rude, I am just trying to have a friendly conversation that she started. “However, there is one idea that I have.”
“And what might that be?”
“Forfeit this trial right now.”
“Gonna have to decline that invitation. You see, Ray and I are the winners of this thing. Which can't be the case if we forfeit”
Luna looks away from me for the first time, seemingly just now noticing Ray’s presence. “I see. In that case, we will have to do this the hard way.”
A knife appears in Luna's hand, seemingly out of thin air. Before I even realize she has the knife, she pulls back her arm and throws it, right at my chest.
I manage to move a single step, causing the knife to fly towards my arm instead of my chest. It meets my shields and armor with a burst of sparks. Propelled by some force, it pushes through and embeds itself deep in my arm.
Immediately, my energy starts to rapidly drain out of me. Poison, my kit warns me, flashing red and screaming alerts into my mind.
Ray, realizing what happened, lets go of me and leaps towards Luna.
Luna effortlessly sidesteps Ray’s attack and kicks her aside, sending her flying into a nearby pillar with a loud thud. Ray seems to be unconscious, Luna is going to pay dearly for that.
Thankfully, Ray gave me enough time to inject a health pack, and I can feel its effects as it removes the poison from my system and energy rushes back into my body.
Luna turns back to me and somehow her dagger rips itself out of my arm and flies back into her hand. I feel a small pulse of inae in the air, she must have some sort of inae tech in her dagger. Plus, she can obviously wield inae, and probably quite well at that.
I extend out my perception field and it rams into her own. Our skier aura battles, invisible to all but us two. We seem to be evenly matched, unable to actually overcome each other.
Luna flicks her wrist and her dagger flies at me once more. But, I won't fall for the same trick twice. I easily manage to dodge it, and it flies past me and embeds itself in the wall of the keep.
Taking the opening, I leap towards her.
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The moment my feet leave the ground, I feel a sharp pain in my back. I collapse onto the snow covered ground, writhing in pain as poison courses through me once again.
“Ha, you actually fell for that trick. What an idiot.” Luna says, walking over to me. She bends down and grabs the knife that is now embedded in my back and yanks it out, painfully. “Are you ready to yield now, brother?” she spits out, frustration at my continued life displayed for all to see.
My kit seems to have gotten better at removing the poison. So, I try to quickly stand up, only for her to stomp her boot into my back. Her boot presses me down into the cold snow. I have a fleeting thought that this would be nice if it was Ray, but I quickly focus back on the situation at hand.
I have Luna right where I want her. I quickly grab onto her foot and flip around, throwing her to the ground and launching myself back to my feet.
I draw my pistol and shoot at her point blank. She rolls a bit to the side, so her hair gets set on fire briefly as the hot plasma flies past. I fire again and manage to nick her cheek, leaving a nice mark that is going to be annoying to heal.
I jump backwards and cast {Lightning Bolt}. The bolt instantly hits her, and discharges all of its energy right into her shields, causing them to light up like a star. The repulsor shields are overloaded and short circuit with an explosion. I am sure that will leave a few marks. Maybe scratch up that pristine face of hers.
I move over to where Ray was thrown and find her unconscious, somehow knocked out by such a little impact. Guess I can tease her for being too reckless now, maybe I can use it to extort a few extra headrubs later.
I turn back around to find Luna on her feet, somehow still conscious after she took a bolt of lightning to the face. What is this girl made out of? It's like she is some unfeeling monster that only exists to kill.
Her dagger appears in her hand again, and she throws it. Right for the defenseless Ray.
I quickly grab Ray and move her off to the side, hiding her behind the pillar. But, as soon as I set her down, I feel an attack coming for my neck.
I duck, and only end up losing a few strands of my hair as another knife arcs over my head.
One knife is unfair enough, but she has two? Oh well, the world just isn't fair I suppose. Ray is evidence of that, she is just far too cute. Not that I can complain about having such a cute girlfriend though, it's fine when it's unfair in my favor.
I throw my elbow back and meet air as Luna leaps away and launches high into the air. The faint glow of inae can be seen around her as she uses it to propel herself into the sky.
I launch myself into the air, feeling the boosted effect from the commendation for the first time. It's almost as though I can move whenever and wherever I wish. I cut through the air at absurd speeds, even without inae.
I quickly catch up to Luna and land a nice hit against her back with my spear. Her armor absorbs the impact, but I can hear a cracking sound that must mean I broke something, likely a rib or two.
Armor is nice, but it can only do so much. Especially without functional shields. It can leave one quite open to blunt trauma.
She suddenly stops and I quickly halt myself as well.
We are floating midair, a few meters away from each other. We simply stare into each other's eyes, waiting for someone to make a move.
“You're a surprisingly good playmate, brother. Unfortunately, I think our playtime must come to an abrupt close. Your army will return soon, and I didn't come ready to obliterate you yet.” She says, in a way that seems like she is suggesting that she could obliterate us whenever she wishes. “As a parting gift, take this, Father wished me to give it to you. Perhaps you can be useful for something for once.”
She grabs an information sphere from her belt and tosses it at me. I caught it gracefully (I totally didn't fumble it at all). It's quite small, it can't have very much information inside.
Then, without any other words, she activates some sort of skill and seems to blend seamlessly into the background. Even my perception field fails to register her anymore.
It must be some sort of commendation skill. Maybe this is also the reason why they are able to prevent us entering their territory. I should tell Emil immediately so he can get some people working on a countermeasure.
I descend back down to the ground and find Ray waiting for me, a worried look on her face.
“Ko, you're a big jerk.” she says, as I land in her arms. She squeezes me tightly, even knowing that I have many injuries. What a cruel girl she is. Oh well, she is super duper cute, so that more than makes up for it.
“Perhaps I am. But you know you love it, darling.”
“I guess you're not completely wrong there.” She says, our eyes locking. “So, you’ve got a sister, and she is a little bitch, isn't she? Your family is starting to seem really klacked up.”
“It appears so. I guess my family just wasn't insane enough already.”
“Seriously. You've got god-like beings for an Aunt and Father, and now a twin sister that is an absolute meanie!” she leans against my chest, though I am more injured, so really I should be leaning against her.
“Well, at least I have a super duper cute girlfriend as well. You sure you wanna stick around? I can't imagine it's gonna get any simpler from here on.”
She releases me only to flick my forehead with her finger, hard. “Fool, you know you cannot escape me. No way I'm going anywhere else. After all, I've gotta make sure you don't end up diving into a black hole or something silly and die. Plus, I would really love to punch that chick.”
I lift my hand and gently run my finger along her jaw, which causes her to start blushing profusely, at the sudden affection. I lean in, whispering in her ear, “You are super cute, ya’know. There is no place I would rather have you than by my side.”
She seems to jump a bit, but then places her hand on the back of my head and drags me down, kissing me quite greedily.
“Ko, you're a big jerk. At least you are super cute.” she mumbles, out of breath.
I am unsure what is to come from Luna and her faction. But I am sure of one thing.
No matter what happens, Ray and I shall overcome it, together. Whether my pink haired sister wants to be sneaky or direct, we will defeat her. After all, we are the Moonlight Duo, and luce lunae per aspera ad astra.
So, bring it on.
End of Chapter 127
Next: Chapter 128 | Snowballs
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To transcend the heavens, one must first forge the ladder.
He is a Cultivator who values volume over speed.
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