Chain Melody 22

Corvina launched herself upon the roof of the train and began a mad dash towards where Chain and Melody stood. Melody braced herself to receive the charging Hero and was surprised as Chain moved to meet Corvina head on.

“Link! What are you doing?! She’s a Hero, and your eyes…”

“So she really is the real deal, huh? Perfect. I’ve been wanting to kill her since I heard about her from that pompous idiot back in the Stormroots.”

“I couldn’t be happier to hear that southern maid!”

Corvina squealed with delight at Chain’s murderous intent and the two met with swords leading. A flurry of steel and a chorus of ringing metal punctuated the meeting of Chain and the Hero she faced. Chain’s sword work was vastly superior to Corvina’s however and it took the Hero all she had to force Chain into a weapon lock. Chain was far from impressed and she let slip a question from her lips.

“What’s the matter Hero? The Builders’ Song seems so weak around you right now.”

“That shouldn’t matter to you southern maid. Eh, he, he, he, he. All that should matter to you is your rage. Where is it? Where southern maid? Where? I want to see the rage that will level all of the Stormroots.”

“Like I’ll let you see that!”

Melody’s voice leapt in along with the harpy as she came from above Chain and scored a clean kick to Corvina’s face. Using her momentum to accelerate the force of her weight Melody drove Corvina over backwards and smashed her head into the roof of the train. Melody was not done there and grabbed Corvina’s entire head in her talon and threw her from the train.

“Melody what are you doing?! Do you have any idea how angry I am right now?! I have to kill her!”

“Don’t be ridiculous Link! If I kill her it’ll show that I’m alright and then you can calm down and we can put these two crazy kingdoms behind us!”

“Don’t be ridiculous you stupid beast! The only way you’ll be putting anything behind you is by the southern maid burying it all.”

With a start Melody turned to where she had thrown Corvina and saw that the crazed Hero had used the suspension cables of the bridge to save herself. Leaping back towards the train her murderous intent was palpable and Melody near shrunk before how feral it was. Chain lacked any such hesitation and stepped past Melody to again meet Corvina’s sword with her own. The two maids engaged in a lethal dance, the ringing of their swords providing the music to which they moved. Chain was a beat ahead of Corvina however as her acrobatic skills dizzied the Hero as she twirled and flipped through the air around her. To Corvina’s credit she managed to not falter even as she had only one arm to fight with and received countless shallow wounds from Chain as even Melody joined in to try and kill her.

“You should stay out of this you stupid beast. Though I’d gladly kill you if it would unleash the southern maid’s true fury. Eh, he, he, he, he.”

“Just keep talking like that and you’ll learn how dangerous I really am you idiot!”

“Really?! Then how about I pin her down and tear off every one of her monstrous features?”

“Link! Don’t let her provoke you! She just wants a repeat of Black Mast! But you promised never again! Don’t forget your promise Link!”

“I’m sorry Melody, I’ve already broken it.”

“Link…?”

Melody’s eyes grew wide with shock as Chain’s eyes fell from sight behind her bangs and the shadow of a columned tunnel as the train turned into one of Aperture’s flanking cliff faces. Within that shadow Melody could see the green light that softly glowed from Chain’s eyes and was filled with terror. Even the returning strength of the Builders’ Song around Corvina as the Hero laughed wildly and summoned new shadowy tendril meant little to Melody. Corvina’s returning strength was not just from being taken out of the range of influence of Finch’s verse, but also due to Finch ceasing her and Uprooter’s firing at where the Bandit King had been buried. She did not cease her fire for any belief that the Bandit King had perished, but rather because Kyte’s voice echoed out to her from above.

“Oh~, that’s a nice show you’re putting on Commander, but how about letting me finish it off.”

“Kyte?!”

Looking up above her and into the skies of Aperture Finch, laid eyes on a distinctly battered airship making for the neighborhood bridge she occupied. The airship itself did not hold Finch’s attention for long as in the shattered window of the bridge stood Kyte with a large smile on his face as he held his spear aloft and a verse rose up from the Builder’s Song.

♪~ Against a beast of peerless might, suffice it won’t a single spear ~♪
♪~ So throw second, a third, a score ~♪

Spinning his spear about before he hurled it Finch could see numerous spears of red light appear in the air around Kyte and presumably within the airship as well. As Kyte hurled his own the red reflections of it followed and extracted the crew of the airship from the vessel delivering them relatively safely throughout the neighborhood. Amongst the crew a man that was not garbed in the green military uniform of Bright Rift leapt out of the airship and took hold of one of the red spears of light with their gauntlet clad left hand dumbfounding Finch as they rode it to her location. As they landed they spun around and took their sheathed sword in both hands and faced the building where Roc lay buried.

“Is this really going to work?”

“Have a little faith tall man.”

“Kyte?!”

Finch spun around and saw that Kyte had somehow taken her back and again held his spear relaxed on his shoulders. Noticing Finch had spotted his teleport he offered the child Hero a smile.

“How’ve you been Commander?”

“Forget about me Kyte! Don’t you understand that I had the bandit King in a position where I could have finally lured out the other Hero here relatively safely?!”

“In that case you can leave it to us now. We’re here to kill both of them.”

“What?! And who are you supposed to be anyway?!”

Finch spun back around flabbergasted by the claims of the man who had joined Kyte beside her. As she came back around her eyes froze on the descending airship as it ignited in flames and descended upon where the Bandit King had yet to emerge from. Distracted by the imminent devastation the airship turned bomb presented, Finch completely failed to hear Varen’s customary introduction.

Copyright © 2018 Joshua D Tarwater