CW:
-Vertigo
-blood
-foot scraping
Amara rushed down the dark hallway. Claws reached for her in the dark, her lungs were burning a house, but she pressed on. Taipan's light was just a bit further. She got a clearer picture of her.
Five 'teachers' attempted to strike her. Using her echo arms, she caught the blades and cut down their arms.
Like a shooting star, she darted from 'teacher' to 'teacher', pounding them into dust. The 'teachers' screeched and tried to swarm her, but they were too slow.
One got close to striking her. Amara sloppily cut it down. She took notice of her.
"Ms…Taipan, correct?" she called out, her legs and arms shaking, her eyes shrunk, her face a waterfall of sweat.
"Mr. Taipan,"
"Y-yes, Mr. Taipan. I'm lookin' fer the Reaper an'-"
She released a swarm of tiny serpents in her direction. Amara ducked down, coddling her head.
She heard the 'teachers' screaming behind her. Taipan walked on.
"You may try to follow me if you can keep-,"
A silver light flashed through the entire school.
The school rustled. Dreschers with the dust infused to their bodies crawled out of it. Many of them had blades or extra armour added on. They swarmed the pair.
"keep your distance, child,"
Taipan raised a claw, her echoes colliding together. A red purple light lit filled up the entire hall. Amara rushed to get away.
Taipan snapped her fingers. Boom.
Chapter XXV
Lynception
AKT VI
Rebels and Rulers
An entire section of the school had been incinerated. Amara barely held onto the outside thanks to the ruler.
Her body swayed back and forth above the grey and silver abyss. She swallowed air and scrambled to pull herself up. She almost slipped, the dust dissipating in her hands.
She flipped the ruler horizontally and scraped against the floor to keep from falling. Taking deep breaths, she put pressure on the dull side and used it to push herself up. She stumbled, her face straining and turning red from the pressure.
She took a deep breath and gave herself another push. She fell to the ground, breathing heavily.
She got up and placed her fingers on the bridge of her nose, "Stupid Reaper. Stupid Taipan. Stupid Armina. Stupid Amara! Yeah, yer stupid! Gettin' yerself into this here mess!"
She flailed her arms about, "What're ya gonna do in this dangerous place with no way out!? Might as well wait for Taipan to finish the job an' get ya out of here!"
"Whose this Amara?" a squeaky voice asked.
Eyes widened, she looked around. Aside from all of the spare rulers, there were plenty of students around her. Each of them trapped in cages like she and the fake Lyn were previously.
"That's me," she answered, struggling to find the student who spoke to her.
"Why do ya talk 'bout yerself in the third person?" one asked.
"Is that normal?" another asked.
"Where's yer mask?"
"Why do ya have a ruler?"
"O-one at a time please!?" Amara called out, pointing both palms out and shaking her head.
"Can ya get us out?" a student with a bow asked.
"What're ya crazy?!" another student asked the bow.
"She's got a ruler,"
"ENOUGH!" a 'teacher' called out, jumping down to their level. "There will be no talk of escapin' in this school!"
It turned to Amara, "AN' YOU! RETURN TO CLASS AN' WAIT FER YER TRANSPORT TO THE CORE!"
Amara flinched, "What…core…,"
Her eyes started to sharpen and she shook her head, "No!"
"YOU! WILL! O-BEY!" It insisted, stretching and looming over her.
Amara took a breath and raised her ruler, "M-MAKE ME!"
Its ruler clashed against her's. No contest.
She was sent sprawling back.
The edge to the abyss was right next to her. She tried to take deep breaths.
"'RE WE DONE YET?!" it asked.
"No!" She shouted back, struggling to her feet.
No time to breathe.
It attacked wildly with its ruler from above. She blocked.
It felt like blocking a mallet! Each strike made the ground shake. Thump! Thump! Thump! Cracks began to form beneath her.
She almost fell into the abyss, but the 'teacher' grabbed her. She cut herself free.
"'NOUGH REBELLION! COME HERE!" it screeched, regenerating its claws.
She looked at it, at the students, and at the abyss. Repeat.
She took a step close to the edge, "Make me!"
"WHAT DO YA THINK YER DOIN' SLUDGE RAT!"
"L-leave me be 'r I'll jump!" she called out.
It chuckled, crossing its arms, "Okay, do it,"
She stepped closer to the edge. She became dizzy, her vision unable to focus, an unnerving tickle in her stomach. She stumbled forwards.
Its free claw snuck up on her from behind.
She screamed as it tossed her around, slamming her into the walls. It laughed as it hurt her, her pigtails coming loose and her body covered in pencil dust. The other students looked on in terror.
She had gone numb. Each thump felt like nothing in her state. she blinked, her eyes going fuzzy.
["Yer reeeaaaal persistent ain't ya 'Mara," a woman with a voice like cool, clear water in the desert giggled].
Her eyes sharped. She cut off its arm and fell to the ground.
She cut at it. It easily countered and sent her back.
She landed on her feet this time. She took slow, deep breaths.
"Insolent Sludge Rat! Y'ALL SHOULD BE GRATEFUL THAT THE MONDGREIF IS PUTTIN' HER RESOURCES INTO MAKIN' YA A GOOD CITIZEN INSTEAD OF MAKIN' YA INTO A DRESCHER PROPER!"
"Ya…ya abuse me, hurt me, an' these students! An' that's yer justification for all of this! BULLCRAP! If it'd gone through, my papier would've exposed y'all fer the scum that ya are!"
"Big talk from a Sludge Rat WITH NOTHIN'!" it exclaimed, striking at her with its ruler.
She blocked. Again and again, constantly thrown around. Her shoes scraped against the ground so much they were practically gone.
She attempted to counter. The arm dodged.
It rushed to strike, but wait. It slowed down a bit, just enough for Amara to block.
Her eyes widened. The next strike came.
She lowered her weapon.
The ruler stopped just short of hitting her.
"Decided to surrender, have we!?"
She smirked, "Make me,"
"WHAT?!" it reverberated!
"Yer not allowed to kill me 're ya? Ya don't have no power over me! Which means I win,"
"FRICK YOOOUUUUU!" It yelled, striking at her repeatedly.
She rushed forwards, her weapon lowered. It could only applied minor cuts.
It kicked her, pushing her back, blood scraping from her bare feet.
It struck again. She cut off its leg. It slapped her with its ruler. She countered the next strike.
The pointed edge of her ruler easily broke it.
She cut through its arm and charged it. She grit her teeth and CLEAVED RIGHT THROUGH ITS BODY!
She raised her ruler in victory! The students cheered! The rustling interrupted them.
There were more in the distance. Many more. And it wouldn't be nearly this 'easy'.
"You," she called out, pointing to the bowed student.
"Me," they responded, pointing to themselves.
"If ya can grab more rulers, I could use yer help gettin' to the principal's office," she explained, taking a deep breath and looking up towards the Western Hall. "I need an army,"
The students all looked at each other, whispering amongst themselves. They turned to her and nodded. She smiled and cut down their bars.
They rushed out and armed themselves as more 'teachers' and Dreschers appeared.
"REBELLIIIIIOOON!"
------
The Principal's Office was a dome of black lined with white, notebook papier lines. The floor bore a whirlpool of black dust with gaps of white, and a faint light of silver. At the centre was a pencil. At the wall in the back, was a cocoon with a purple light.
And at the entrance, was Taipan.
"BACK!" an echoing voice screeched like a megaphone. "YER NOT WELCOME HERE FOREIGN NIGHTMARE!"
"That's correct, my child," Taipan responded, placing her claws behind her back. "That's why I'm here to pick mine and leave your Realm in….peace,"
"UNACCEPTABLE!" It insisted.
Taipan chuckled, "That silver flash yes? Nullius Omnium is quite the difficult one. Shall we play?"
"A MERE TICK LIKE YERSELF AIN'T NOTHIN' TO ME!" It stated, the whirlpool stirring wildly.
"Always the most confident gamblers that lose it all," she responded, shaking her head.
A MASSIVE beam of pencil dust shot at her. She immediately countered with her claws.
The beam increased its intensity. She let out a massive serpent in response.
The beam increased again. The serpent got larger.
It inched forwards, slowly devouring the beam, getting closer and closer to the pencil.
Just as it was about to strike, the pencil retaliated. It attacked her from all sides with an array of spikes.
Taipan blocked them all with her echo claws. She sent them flying back and darted DIRECTLY towards he pencil.
It sent multiple walls to counter her. She easily broke through them, but that wasn't the point.
Before she could claw down the pencil, it vanished into the whirlpool.
Beams came from two sides of the wall. Taipan countered with echo claws. She quickly clawed at the centre of the whirlpool.
More beams were added. And more. And more. And More.
A serpent twisted its way through the walls. This created an opening for her to slip through and go for Lyn.
The purple light in the wall vanished.
Dreschers and 'teachers' crashed through the walls.
"YA UNDERESTIMATED ME INTRUDER!"
"You celebrate too soon,"
A Drescher clawed at her. A 'teacher' cut at her. She countered with echo claws, ripping one's head off and cleaving the other in half.
She weaved through her different attackers, taking them out with echo claws while she tried to get multiple echoes together in one claw like before. A sharp vertical wave of dust tried to get in her way. She turned, easily avoiding it.
Her enemies were shot up. A horizontal wave came for her.
She hopped above it. The enemies were shot at her.
She twisted around, grabbing a Drescher with her feet. She swung it through her enemies and fell to the ground head first.
She snapped her fingers, grabbed the explosion, and SLAMMED it into the ground.
The dome was wiped out, as were her enemies. The pair stood in a grey void, overlooking most of the school.
Pair?
"LIKE THIS HERE EXTRA SPACE!?" the principal asked.
A black knight forged for pencil dust arose from the whirlpool. It had six arms with different weapons on each: a sword, a hammer, a spear, an axe, a flail mace and a handled mace. It had great bat wings, and in its helmet was an eraser with a single eye.
"Did a 14 year old design you?"
It cut at her with the sword, jabbed with the spear, slammed the others on her from four different sides! She caught them all and shattered them.
New weapons grew back. It flew up above her, striking rapidly from a distance. The cycle continued.
"Is this all?" Taipan asked, bolting over to her enemy.
It pulled in a few arms to block the strike. It countered with multiple rapid strikes from its available arms.
What was surprising was not that Taipan kept up, but that the principal was(mostly). It spun its blocking arms to make a heavy strike.
She used her echo claws to STRIKE it!
It was sent FLYING across the roof of the school. In a flash, she caught up.
It reached its arms into the roof and RAISED a million spears.
She sided stepped them. It sent them falling down like a TSUNAMI!
She snapped her fingers. It bundled itself up for protection!
Before the dust settled, it began summoning a massive black giant!
She snapped her fingers and controlled the direction like before. It COUNTERED, firing an eraser beam from its eye!
The beam outlasted and went through her explosion. She side stepped it, looking back. A long opening was made in the school, dislocating an entire wing.
She raised a claw, black sword the size of a sky scraper. She fired a serpent right through it.
The principal sent a swarm of many blades of many sizes her way. She summoned a cloud of tiny serpents and flew around.
She darted through the skies like a shooting star. She SHOT through one of its arms! It flailed around it anger, but it was useless.
Another arm! And another! Another Another.
It fired its eraser beam, trying to keep her away. She DUG into the lower part of its torso and SNAP!
The body and pencil were dislocated from the school. She dug up through its body and GRABBED the pencil from the bottom!
She shattered it! The metal around its eraser seemed to smile.
In a flash, the eraser exploded!
---
Amara cut down a 'teacher'. Students leapt upon them, restraining them, cutting them down, and taking their weapons.
A Drescher hit Amara, throwing her back. Two students countered, cutting through its arms from behind.
She looked around. They were completed surrounded. For every enemy they took out, they lost more. Multiple arms tried grabbed her from all sides.
"OY, PATRIDIOT!" a familiar voice called out.
Lyn crashed through the ceiling, spinning around and shooting down all of the claws attacking her. She landed on the ground, kicked up a ruler and grabbed it.
She smirked, "That was gettin' pretty borin'. Hope ya didn't have too much fun without me?"
Amara chuckled, barely holding in her joy, "Reaper, I hate ya,"
"Better keep that bad habit in check then," she remarked.
She used her whip to pull a 'teacher' in and CLEAVE right through it.
She charged forwards, shooting down multiple enemies. Three 'teachers' cut at her. With a swift move, she countered their strikes and cut their claws.
She let out her stars, paralyzing not just those three, but many of the other enemies. She snapped her fingers and quick shot more of them down, letting the students arm themselves.
She quick switched to the ruler and spun cut through the three teachers around her. Dreschers rushed her.
She cut through two and elbowed another's head off. She shielded herself with stars, leapt off of one, and pulled an enemy up with her whip.
Over and over, shot them down, while pulling them up to jump off of them or the stars. She was practically floating in the air.
THUMP! A giant made up of Dreschers and dust attacked! It cut at her with a MASSIVE ruler!
She tapped and flipped onto said ruler. She slid down it like a slide at playground.
She LEAPT up its arm, cutting at its joints. She travelled up and SLICED ITS HEAD OFF before falling down to the ground and getting engulfed in dust!
"NOW THIS IS WHAT I LIVE FOR!" she exclaimed, jumping around like a child. {reference to the ending of Devil May Cry 3, but less cool than there}.
There was a massive BOOOOM!
Everyone stopped.
"(That, not so much),"
The entire school began to shake. Dust began crashing down.
The bow student stepped forwards, "The principal has been destroyed. We need to get out of here,"
"Reaper, we have to-,"
"Don't need to tell me, Patridiot," she remarked, creating multiple portals. "Lets blow this joint!"
All of the students rushed into their portals. Lyn and Amara meanwhile, grabbed each others' hands and RUSHED into a portal of their own.
---
In the abyss, Taipan's body quick regenerated. She should it off like nothing. She opened a crack and vanished.
...…
"-And that's what happened," Bow finished.
"Thank ya very much," Arturia exclaimed from her table. "That was definitely-,"
"Do ya know where they went next?" Armina asked, turning towards them.
She held a silver sword, and bore silver plates on her limbs, albeit only a little. Her hair was turning white.
Her eyes sharpened.
To Be Continued...…