Day 77

(Niala POV in '[]' rest is narration... due to... reasons. [I call laziness!~])

[I don't really know what I should be doing.]

[I have to be strong. To take up the slack.]

[It has been nine days since Chirrik left us behind... I know I should be sad, but he didn't want me to be. I cried a little. When I'm alone sometimes I find myself with tears, even when I'm not thinking about him.]

[The big metal room that moves... the 'train' was broken. It still could move once it was pushed upright by the remaining metal people. It just couldn't be steered. Something vital broke there and the wheels don't turn.]

[Only five metal people still work. The one with a long nose (railgun!), the hollow giant (pilot-able mecha) two of those small ones (Barricade model) were trapped under the train and there was still the big one left at home (anti-matter destroyer golem!).]

[The walk back was rough for almost everyone. I had to cut the roof off the train and use the metal people to carry it. We used this as a fast means of travel, everyone riding on the sheet of iron. Everyone except me. ]

[Is this what brother lived with all this time? ]

[I don't feel tired, sleepy or hungry. With my legs all shiny I can run fast. They even spark and glow when I run.]

[I can run so very fast.]

[I don't feel tired, ever, so I can run faster and faster. When the ring in my chest grinds harder I can see and move at these speeds as I like. With my new eye I see everything.]

[It's really useful. Like that one time that strange glowy thing followed us. I caught it.]

[It was a round hard thing floating there. Almost no one else saw it. ]

[The tiny kitty cat called it something. I asked her if it was good to eat.]

[She said it was a bad thing. I ate it anyway. Hmph. Tasted... I don't know... different? Not bad.]

[I kind of want another one? ]

[A whole bunch of weird new people are in our home. ]

[They all seem very weak and tired. Whenever I walk past they move away.]

[The big bitch finally snaps. Like Chirrik was to me, so her brother was to her. Only, she blames Minke for this. In the end... she belonged to brother, so I can't let the thieving cat get hurt. ]

[When we first scuffled, the dog woman was not committed to killing me. She just wanted to scare me. This time, she was trying to kill from the beginning.]

[When Minke entered her hut, the dog woman followed with a sharp thing Chirrik made, taken from his storage area.]

[Seawayhandur?] (Zweihander... she's so big she can use the massive two-handed sword as a one-handed longsword)

[I couldn't help hearing the argument the two had... it was all such nonsense.]

[Very clearly however the bitch decided to kill. She was choking the cat.]

[So I intervened. It took me only a few moments to respond.]

[The bitch crashed sideways into the treetrunk walls of the hut, from the force of my kick to her ribs.]

[The cat fell away from her coughing. But I don't care about that. I only promised Chirrik I wouldn't kill her or let her die. I don't know the first thing about healing and there is no chance I'm hugging her. ]

[The bitch was not hurt much. A line of blood from her mouth. She just seemed angrier.]

[Before she was killing the cat with cold hatred, now she was furious. She raised the sharp thing as if finally noticing it even existed.]

“You too?! I warned you...!!” [Janess] “She lead your brother to his death as well! Can you not understand? She deserves this! Kill her with me!”

[No, I don't believe that at all. At the last moment, he chose that end. And he wouldn't want her to be hurt for it.]

[This is not like the ape-bitch's treachery. It feels different. In those last moments I could feel the affection. He did it to save me and nothing the cat said or did had any bearing on it. He would have done it, regardless. That is just who he was.]

[The best brother in the world.]

[And this bitch... her insinuation is that my brother was just a leaf on a river of lies.]

“I don't know your brother or think highly of him, but understand that every word you spew cheapens my memories of mine. So fair warning; you shut your mouth and leave, or end up rotting on the garbage pit alongside your sibling.” [Niala in rough cat-dialect] “The cat is my responsibility. Don't push me further.”

However the dog woman has no intention of giving up. She thinks she can still fight. Her steel blade makes her bold.

[Sorry brother. I'm going to have to scuff up your work a little.]

[I bounce backward, flipping over the steel edge as she slashes at my throat. It's a small room, the bitch is smirking. She thinks here, in a confined space I can't dodge forever. She's right, too. So I attack.]

[My next move is to bounce off the wall, driving a blue steel knee into the dog woman's belly. Her eyes widen as she gasps for breath after puking her dinner onto the fern fronds that cover the stone floor.]

[I'm hoping she got the hint: that I'm not using my full strength.]

[I don't know my own limits, but brother made me strong. What he did to my legs made them better in every way. From strength to speed, agility to grace. This gift Chirrik gave me has made me something more fearsome than a monster 'boss'.]

[This bitch doesn't understand as she crawls to her feet from her hands and knees after retching. She isn't a threat to me. She isn't even an irritation. And yet even so I hear...]

“I'm glad your filthy rat brother died. He deserved everything he got. An awful death over a worthless sister.” [Janess smirking]

[This evil bitch still keeps smearing shit on my brother's name.]

“You killed him, you know.” [Janess] “You're to blame.”

“If you believed that, then why try to kill the cat?” [Niala growling] “You are just trying to needle me. Ah well. I guess I'll have to apologise to brother when we meet again.”

The dog woman's smile faded as her opponent vanished from sight in an instant.

She glanced around but saw nothing. She wasn't fooled by it, as she could still hear it. The thud of steel on wood and stone over and over, moment by moment.

Niala was simply so fast she could reflexively avoid being spotted by eye. Little more than a flicker like a single frame of animation in a movie. A blur.

Janess lashed out with the sword, following a loud tap.

Metal on metal was deafeningly loud. Janess was thrilled at the solid response of the strike. She looked to see the damage caused to the rat.

Niala appeared, softly recovering despite the thundering crash of her impact.

Her legs showed no obvious damage.

[I lifted my chin, indicating the zweihander. It was snapped, the blade broken off an inch above the guard.]

In the moment of impact she had hooked the swinging blade with the toe of her articulated left foot and kicked down below that, braced against the sword. It snapped like a twig.

[I wagged my finger at her. Stupid dog, you asked for this.]

Niala seemed to vanish again as she accelerated to super-human speeds. This time it wasn't simply for evasion. She reappeared, driving her right heel into the dog woman's ribs. Not only did it wind the giant, it broke several bones along her left chest. (Note: Dog humanoid, it has several teats on the abdomen, no breasts)

The force of the kick lifted the huge woman, catapulting her across the room to collide with the wooden wall and break through it. She tumbled, rolling out into the open area and view of the crowd.

Coughing blood and holding her side the woman stood, shaking and wobbling. She snarled.

“You monster... I'll kill you!” [Janess]

Niala simply hopped out the hole in the wall, skipping like a child.

“Don't you know when to give up? Ugh, such a headache. Come on then. Let's finish this.” [Niala]

The dog tried to rush her. It was quite funny to Niala how slow she was.

Niala would simply drive a flying knee into Janess' face if she kept coming.

However the dog woman was not as stupid as she seemed; at the last second she hurled a handful of dust into Niala's face, then using the distraction caught her left ear and threw her to the ground on her side.

Janess pounced, trying to pin the rodent with her strength and size. Overpowered Niala was suddenly racked with pain as the dog woman bit down on her throat, canine incisors digging into the veins and artery and squeezing the windpipe.

But that was a misjudgement.

Having no need to breathe nor possessing blood, Niala was merely annoyed.

A tremendous crash rocked the area as Niala unleashed the true strength of her legs, kicking the ground with such force she was propelled into the air with Janess still on top of her. They both hit the floor again several feet away from the crumbled hole. Niala had left heel prints in the rock.

Niala was ready for the landing, gracefully coming to rest on her feet and hurling the dog loose. Her superior reaction time allowing movements that only professional athletes could equal. The throw was enough to slam Janess into the stone hard enough to rattle her.

“Ow...~” [Niala playfully] “You tried to kill me...”

Janess' eyes narrowed at the attitude. She was being toyed with from the beginning.

“So I'm gonna have to kill you. I'll never forgive you if your blood makes my legs rust...~” [Niala cheerfully] “They're precious to me, after all. The last gift from my special brother. Yours was just trash by comparison.~”

Blades and spikes extended from inside the legs.

“So if you can manage to do one thing right... try not to bleed all over me.~” [Niala]

The hacking and crunching of bone was loud in a room of total silence.

As Niala turned to take in the gaze of hundreds of people she smiled widely.

“What is it? You all saw her try to kill me.~” [Niala] “This is my home. Everything here is my brother's. If you don't like it, leave or end up paste like this bitch.~”

She stomped on the skull, crushing it into pulp.

“Last warning...~” [Niala smiling brightly] “But I protect my Brother's things. So as long as you behave, you are safe. As one of mine.~”

[Ewww... she got my heel dirty. I wipe it off on her fur.]

[Good thing I didn't kick too hard. The mess would have splattered everywhere...]

[Let's see... no chips or cracks. Great! Brother really made these legs special.]

[I look at the old dog man glaring at me, last one.]

“If you want, I'm willing to play some more...~” [Niala]

Looking at the bloody mess that was his charge and then at the slowly regenerating neck wounds on her killer, Karamech weighed up his options. He didn't want to tangle with the mad woman, he was obligated to protect Janess but she was dead now.

“Just give me a few days to perform funerary rites for her and her brother and I'll leave.” [Karamech sighing] “She brought her end on herself. She chose the fight. Stubborn idiot... as if we haven't suffered enough. And so the dynasty falls... such a pitiful thing.”

“I don't care if you want to clean up the garbage a little.” [Niala chuckling softly] “We have shovels if you need to scrape it up.”

What we learned:

Niala is merciless.

She's not even using her full power... Rick really did a number on her body.

Fatality! Niala wins!

What we missed:

Minke was surprised. She had actually predicted her own death here...

The kitten speechless as Niala ate a drone of the Whispers like a crunchy candy.

Unlike Rick who just silently remote pilots the golems, Niala gives them cute orders verbally.