Chapter 512 - 512: Going all out?

While the clone struggled, Silva was also regiment fighting back against the blast. He knew that if his sword moved for even a second, it would be over.

"Let's see how you handle three."

He summoned a third clone, and the clone transformed into a Joker of the Abyss, pulling a card immediately and proceeding to toss it into the air.

She looked at the card in the air and wondered what it was. It transformed into chains and shot toward her faster than she could react to. The chains bound her and pinned her down, stopping her blast and stopping her tendrils.

For some reason, she didn't even try to move after the chains bound her. She stared at the Joker and then back at Silva.

"How do you have that?" She asked, her tone more serious than how she had been speaking all this time. She grabbed the chain and began to pull on it. The chain fought back and held her bound, but then the same heavy heartbeat that had hit Silva before came again.

He collapsed to his knee, and the clone that had transformed into the Joker vanished.

"Seems you cannot use one Joker yet," Zion commented.

"Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious," Silva replied and rose to his feet. He looked at her, and she had shattered what remained of the chains.

"Tell me how you got it," she said and shot forward, but the clone came in hot and blocked her attack. The ground beneath them cracked, and a shockwave travelled out fast.

Silva moved in from the side to aid. He came in with a full slash, but she kicked the floor and retreated, evading him. She rolled her spear and tilted it to face the sky.

"You are going to tell me, one way or the other," she declared, and a massive red beam shot from the rift and hit the spear. The energy caused rocks to float and the ground to tremble.

"Prepare to block whatever comes," Silva said, and the clone nodded. It transformed into the dark dragon and opened its mouth, unleashing a terrifying blast of flames.

She pulled her hand down at the same time, and the beam that came down was dragged like a whip. It slammed into the flames and completely destroyed the flames. It proceeded to rip the ground and everything apart in seconds, unleashing a massive blast that threw Silva and the clone back. The cloak wrapped around Silva and protected him from the full force of the blast.

The blast cleared.

Silva stood up from the ground, the dust falling away from around him, and the clone transformed back to human, standing beside him, shaking debris off its shoulders and looking at what the attack had done to the surrounding area.

"Well," the clone said. "Seems things are turning to shit."

"Yeah," Silva agreed.

He looked at her across the ruined space, still standing, spear in hand, not breathing hard, not appearing particularly stressed about anything that had just happened.

"I underestimated her," he said. "She might be more than we can handle at this level."

The clone looked at him. "Are we going all out?"

Silva watched her for a moment.

"Let's try to contain this," he said. "We are already doing enough damage to the planet as it is. If we can stop her without going completely all out, that is the better outcome."

The clone said nothing and got ready.

She tilted her head slightly, reading the exchange between them with those calm eyes.

"So," she said. "You will not speak." She rolled the spear once in her hand, the motion practiced and fluid. "Then I will drag you with me and make sure this world burns until you do."

She swung.

The first red arc that came off the spear was enormous, covering the full width of the space between them, and Silva and the clone broke in opposite directions to clear it. The second came before they had fully reset, then the third and fourth in rapid succession, each one forcing a different response, not giving either of them the room to build toward anything.

Silva looked at the clone.

The clone was already moving.

It went in fast from the side, reading her attention and using the moment she was tracking its approach to shift the angle, coming in from the left while she oriented right. She saw it, raised her free hand, and the tendrils erupted from the ground between them.

The clone did not slow down.

It opened its mouth, and the dragon breath came out at full strength, the flames consuming the tendrils before they could fully extend, burning through the entire formation in one sustained burst, and the clone hit the ground and kept moving.

He hurled the sword.

She dodged, the blade passing within an inch of her shoulder, and in the half second her attention tracked the sword, Silva came in from above with a compressed stream of dragon breath aimed directly at her chest.

She brought the spear up and spun it, the rotation creating a barrier that broke the stream apart, and the clone was already there, coming in from her blind side.

The kick connected clean with her face.

She went sideways, skidding across the ground, and the clone caught the sword before it finished its arc, gripping it mid-fall without slowing.

Silva came down with both swords swinging, black flame arcs firing with each slash, and she came back up from the ground and met every one of them, the spear moving between the arcs with a speed and precision that made the blocking look effortless.

She leaped.

The clone was already airborne.

Silva came from above.

The three of them converged in the space between the ground and the sky, all moving at full speed toward the same point, the energy between them building with every meter closed, the air compressing where their paths intersected.

She looked at both of them.

They looked at her.

None of them slowed down.