After a few minutes, the bodies surrounding Emory began to block her view of Innes and Nephenee since she had slain more than fifty Mantoan. The scorpion man finally unburied himself and surveyed the situation. Most of the platoon was centered around the red-haired girl, but there were also more than ten bodies around the two taller humans, meaning they were a threat as well. What surprised him the most was how easily this singular human was dealing with the Mantoan, better than any human he had ever heard of. Though he was concerned yet, he did register her as a threat. However, a thought crossed his mind, and a devilish grin grew on his face. He slowly crept through the background towards the two smaller threats until he was thirty feet away and they spotted him. "You two are certainly annoying, aren't you?" he jeered.
"What, you didn't want to deal with Emory, so you thought we'd be easier?" Innes retorted, "A coward is the captain; I should have guessed as much."
Nephenee added as she tilted her lance towards the captain, "You'll find no easier of a fight here. In fact, with two on one, you've probably picked the worse option." As the two groups moved gradually closer together, they sized each other up carefully. Innes stood at eight feet tall with each of his limbs as wide as a tree trunk and fire covering his gigantic form head-to-toe. Next to him, Nephenee stood next to him almost seven feet tall, covered in a glossy, translucent magik and carrying a polearm as tall as her cloaked in the same magik. Their enemy was roughly the same height and build as Innes but atop a large ebony scorpion body with a barbed tail more than seven feet long. Chain link armor covered his torso but left his arms and other features uncovered, and his single greataxe, almost the size of Nephenee's lance, had split, allowing him to carry one on each side of his body. They were made of a dark metal that sparkled in the light but definitely weren't made of orichalcum. Once they were about ten feet apart, they began to maneuver into fighting stances.
Nephenee tested the waters by juking out her spear, easily hooked and returned by a single greataxe. But neither weapon broke nor chipped upon impact, meaning they were of similar quality. She tried again, a little harder and faster, but the same result occurred. After a few more strikes from different angles, she determined he was both a bit stronger and more proficient with his weapon since he only used one of the two axes to defend. Innes then attempted to throw a couple punches, but instead of using either axe to defend, the enemy used his second set of arms to match Innes. He couldn't overwhelm the scorpion man, and his attacks weren't fast enough to get past his defenses either. Even when Nephenee started attacking where Innes wasn't, it defended against the two of them with relative ease. After five minutes of back and forth, the two sides paused to decide on their next course of action.
Innes was trying to hide the creeping fear gnawing at him because, according to his assessment, they would lose. They hadn't gained an upper hand against their opponent separately or together, and it hadn't even used its tail yet. He turned his gaze to Emory's fight but couldn't get a clear view due to all the corpses stacked up, which meant they couldn't count on her for backup. Both Nephenee and he had about fifty percent of their magik and stamina, yet without knowing their enemy's levels, it wouldn't be smart to draw this fight either. Running away wasn't a viable option either since the three of them were too close to each other and too far from the base. In the end, they would need to make a bold move to try and overwhelm it in a single attack. However, when he gave Nephenee a look, she shook her head. Suddenly, both axes slammed onto the ground as the scorpion man called out, "Well, I think we've felt each other out enough. The name's Breguet by the way. That way you know the name of the one who killed you."
Breguet charged forward while dragging the axes through the ground before swinging them down from above. Nephenee barely had time to defend, putting her lance longwise to block both axes swinging downwards on her. She almost buckled under the force until she felt Innes grab to spear to reinforce her. Together, they just barely held it at bay and noticed why its power had grown so much: both hands on each side of the body were holding the axes. Innes forced fire from his feet to overwhelm Breguet and caused the insectoid legs to buckle. As it knelt, Nephenee released her spear and jabbed it several times in the chest with her fists. To her surprise, it barely flinched either from lack of power or its battle experience. Once the moment was over, it pulled the axes down and Innes with it as he was still clutching the lance. Like lightning, Breguet's spiked tail flashed towards the unprepared Nephenee but ran out of reach just inches away from her chest. However, with most of its weight forward, Innes released a flaming spiral kick at the ground level to knock it off its feet followed by a straight kick that pushed the prone Breguet back several feet. Though it didn't seem to hurt the scorpion man very much, it was the first solid hit made by either group.
"You have some skill for a youngling," Breguet commented as he brushed himself off, "Your footwork, strength, and speed are all very high for a young human. Too bad your magik leaves something to be desired. I thought the humans would have prepared better after we wiped out their last base."
"Humans have made great strides since the Mantoan left the Sol System; we're just getting started," Nephenee shot back while Innes glared.
"I doubt it," Breguet chuckled, "Your magik isn't sharp enough to cut my shell, and you can't do a strong enough internal attack to beat me before I get you. Surrender now and make this easy for yourselves."
Innes surveyed the battle, "We don't have to beat you. Our companion is over halfway done with the Mantoan. Once she's finished, she'll tear through you. So, by my estimate, we just need to hold you off long enough."
"If you can hold me for that long," Breguet grinned menacingly, "I still have moves left. Can you two say the same?" He rose from the ground and pulled apart the axes again to hold one in each of his four hands. When he drove all four into the ground, it trembled in their immediate area. Charging again with all four raised above his head, he swung them down towards the pair with great strength. This time, when Innes and Nephenee moved the spear longwise to block the axes, Breguet shoved them back at first. With one fluid movement, Breguet rocked back on his hind legs and gained more leverage on his strike, driving the humans to a kneeling position. Innes grunted as his muscles bulged, and he pushed the axes back enough to get Nephenee off the ground. Quickly, she jerked back the lance out of the way, allowing the strike's weight to fall forward along with the rest of Breguet's body. She channeled magik into her fist and threw a punch right into the side of his head which sent him off to the side a few feet. Using the distraction, the pair hopped back away from the scorpion man as a red fist mark appeared on Breguet's face, but his shell remained intact.
Breguet spit on the ground, "That was a good hit, human. Still, you got a few drops of blood for what, five or ten percent of your magik? At this pace, you'll both be dead before your friend gets done. However, you are beginning to annoy me, so I'd better play my trump card."
Innes and Nephenee watched wearily as Breguet began to change color from the metallic black he was to a blood red except for his tail, which now appeared to be both pulsing and growing. Originally, the tail and stinger were about six feet long; now it had grown nearly double in length. Making the situation even worse, the barbed tip seemed to be dripping a black liquid. Seeing this, Innes returned to normal size, but his magik was running so rampant that the fire cloak remained the same size. He turned to Nephenee as he nodded and surged forward. Though Breguet wasn't quite ready, he whipped his tail around to defend which Innes caught under his arm. With a forceful tug, Innes pulled the tail and tried to start swinging the enemy around in a circle. The strength of the pull was sudden and dragged the scorpion man along the ground until he was a few feet in front of Nephenee. Using both hands, she thrust her lance down on Breguet's chest, causing a loud scraping sound as it tried to pierce the hard exterior. Then a crack appeared as it finally broke through over the stomach but only went in an inch or two.
"Not so strong now, are you?" Nephenee gritted her teeth as she tried to drive the spear in deeper. By this time, Breguet was grabbing the polearm and attempting to pull it out against the force she was pushing down. At first, he was slowly but surely removing the blade until Innes dropped down on it with a fist from above and drove it completely through to the ground below. Breguet hissed and bared his bloody, spike teeth before a smile crept on his face.
"That was a good hit, but not fatal," Breguet coughed, "Too bad the same can't be said for my attack." Innes's face instantly turned white as his body slumped slightly. Nephenee looked across to see a dripping spike sticking out of his stomach a few inches. With a swift smack from the tail, Nephenee flew back a few feet while she tried to process the change in the situation. Breguet pulled himself up to reveal the depth of the problem: Innes was stabbed through the stomach by the large tail. The fire cloak fizzled out while he coughed up a mouthful of blood and his eyes drooped. With a single hand, Breguet ripped the spear out of his stomach and tossed it at Nephenee's feet.
Nephenee screamed, "Innes! Emory, come help! Innes is hurt really bad!"
"Foolish human, there's nothing you can do to save this one now," Breguet scoffed, "With this much poison circulating and this massive hole in his gut, he might have fifteen minutes to live."
"Emory! Come quick!" Nephenee yelled as tears rolled down her face.
"I'm not dead yet," Innes breathed as he raised his hand above his head. With a knife-hand chop, he severed the tail midway along the length but collapsed as soon as he had to hold up his own weight.
"Damnit!" Breguet hollered, "Like a parasite, you keep surviving. Be gone, human." He recovered one of the axes and swung it down at Innes's head, but Nephenee caught it with her lance just in time.
Nephenee cried, "Don't forget that I'm still here." Then a wave of prismatic magik knocked Breguet back several feet to his knees.
"And me too. Nephenee, go to the base and get healers and Athos. You've done well," Emory comforted Nephenee. Nephenee's eyes widened as she looked behind to see twenty Mantoan in a circle bisected in half at the waist. She nodded and took off at full speed back to the base like she was told.
"You're a bit different than these two," Breguet grumbled as he regrew his tail and stood up, "You're a half blood, aren't you? Well, no matter, I've killed knife ears before too." Yet as he bent over to grab another axe, she closed the distance between them and hit him with an uppercut that sent him into the air. Like a spring, she crouched down and rocketed herself into the air and launched another uppercut that propelled him even higher. Several cracks spread out like spider webbing along his face and neck, a detail Emory capitalized on immediately. Wings made of pure magik sprouted from her back as she pushed forward to close the distance. She gripped his neck with both gauntlets, put both feet on his shoulders, and yanked with full force.