* * *
Three weeks later, Requai was lunging in with a charged fist at one of four Young Ones the team had just confronted. She shifted to the side, jabbing the female Young One in the ribs before firing a beam into her back.
Even Aly made a face after the brutal blow when she looked overhead to check on her comrade. Still, she was too preoccupied to give a hand. She did a back walkover, avoiding a beam from another Young One, placing five meters between them.
Catty shot a wave of energy into her opponent’s chest. The hit made the other mastra lose her balance and Catty ran in to take her down. The other Goolian, however, used her target’s own momentum as she fell onto her back and flipped Catty over with her legs.
The lively mastra landed hard on her left thigh. When she got up, she shuffled back and squinted an eye, fighting off the pain.
“Aly, a momentary hand!” Glani hollered as she provided cover fire. “Two levels above.”
When Aly looked up, Catty was ducking underneath a beam. When it struck the trunk, the shot blew off the first two layers of the tree’s wood, sending burning specks into the air. Aly got two steps up the bark before leaping for the branch underneath Catty.
With her own opponent chasing her, she managed to grab Catty’s adversary by the ankle and tug. She tumbled off the tree before she could see how effective her trick was, but heard the other mastra swear as she fell forward, straight into Catty’s heel. When she fell out of the tree, Glani was on top of the downed Goolian before she could even blink.
“Bang,” she said, playfully aiming a finger at the mastra’s head.
Aly still had her opponent pursuing her, now firing more aggressively. She got a good running speed before jumping back up to Catty’s branch, knowing the master chasing her was too blind with anger to see the trap.
“Hello!” Catty sang when the lad hopped in front of her. With hand already charged, she struck him in the chest, knocking him into the base of the tree.
“Nice,” Aly said before running off.
She watched Requai use a limber branch like a trampoline, bouncing off it twice before it launched her across the ground and onto another tree. Another Young One hopped right after her. Aly nodded approvingly when Requai hopped back and shot the part of the branch she landed on with a being sphere. The Young One screamed as she fell alongside the dismembered wood. Aly closed her eyes and waited until the ground shook with a thud.
Requai leaned over to examine the outcome of her strategy firsthand. “Secured.”
“As are we,” Catty hollered across from her.
The Young Ones grumbled as they pulled out their pads from below, documenting their defeat.
The second mastra that Requai fought hissed. “Dirty cheating is what I call your methods. That goes for the entire lot of you.”
Catty hopped down to their level. “Whoever said this was to be a formal confrontation? Truly, does this one think other tribes would play fair if they attacked us? If one does not fight with even a hint of malicious intent, then one does not want to survive hard enough.”
The Young One still shoved her pad into Catty’s chest when the smaller Goolian extended her hand for it.
When Catty finished updating the numbers, Aly snatched it away, humming as she jotted down the notes for herself. Things couldn’t have gone any better over the past few weeks. People kept coming and dropping, one by one. She then counted how many were left since the last roster update, and stopped singing when she finished. She counted again to make sure she was right, and the numbers slapped the smile off her face.
“Enjoy your silly game,” another Young One said. “And you best realize your luck since we did not fire lethal shots, Little Brats.”
Requai yawned. “Uh huh. Had that been the case, you lot surely would have met your ends prior to you even blinking. Now, away with you, silly things. For we have people of greater significance to deal with.”
The master was about to storm up to Requai and pound her face into a tree, but the mastras in his team held him back.
“We can show some decency, all the same, Requai,” Catty said as she extended a hand to the Young Ones. “Our thanks for a skilled fight.”
The older Goolians looked at one another, bewildered. Requai and Glani held their peace as they awaited the response. Aly, on the other hand, checked her numbers for the fifth time, not making a peep.
The lad shook Catty’s hand. “Perhaps this one’s nobility is not a mere title.”
The three mastras bowed, and Catty nodded in gratitude before the four left.
Glani looked over Aly’s shoulder. “Alytchai, why does this one have a quiet lip? Truly, you are to be a shy one, yet you ended your typical victory hum.”
Aly lifted her notes closer to Glani so she could get a better look. She wasn’t surprised when the mastra stopped smiling as well. Requai snatched the paper away from her, but Aly didn’t even fuss over it.
Requai checked the numbers, and then she checked again. “Oh pache.”
Catty growled and rolled her eyes. “By Truth’s Grace, what troubles you fools?”
Aly pointed at Catty’s paper as she eyed Glani, who stood on her left, and then Requai, positioned on her right. When Catty finished going over the numbers, she folded the pad, placed it back into her pouch, cleared her throat, and turned around.
“Pardon,” she hollered at the four departing Young Ones. “If I may, I am to confirm you took three out the prior day, yes?”
“Truly, we did. Yet fret not over them. They have marked themselves in white as accordingly so. Do you lot not have bigger concerns?”
Catty rubbed her hands. “Indeed we do.”
The Little Ones didn’t say another word, and watched the other Goolians head back home. Even then, they didn’t move for another minute.
Aly peered down at the tiny notepad made out of leaves another time. It was too good to be true, and too horrid. She looked up and locked eyes with Catty. And as she looked into her fiery yellow irises, her spine tingled.
“We be the only ones left, yes?” Catty said, almost whispering. “And I suppose we shall not return as a victorious team, Aly?”
Aly shook her head. “Apologies, yet I can’t...”
She soared back, unsheathing her weapons. Glani and Requai were too surprised to do anything. They looked at each other, and immediately fired at the other’s head. The blasts of two evenly charged particles made the fusion explode, sending all four flying into the air.
Aly scrambled to her feet and got into cover the second her rear hit the ground. She heard the other ones running away into the trees, but didn’t go after them, since she knew it’d be better to live today and fight tomorrow. As her heartbeat settled, she slid down against a tree. She covered her mouth, but couldn’t hold her laughter and crying from coming out.
Catty stopped running when she covered half a milo-worth of ground. She fell into the ground face first, exhausted. She then rolled over and peered into an opening the leaves provided. Moments later, she heard the happiest sound in her life. A Goolian was singing, so content with the way the world was. Catty couldn’t deny her wanting to fall into the hypnosis, and gave in. Her body went numb as she listened to Aly’s song, all the while hearing the whisper of logic telling her she’d make Aly sing a different tune tomorrow, if it was the last thing she ever did.
* * *
Evaluations of the Tribe - Prossia Book 0 : A Coming of Age Space Opera Page 31
