Hellacious Hospitality Ch. 11

Sadly, not one of the "smart" ones either, fleeing the scene of disaster before they became entangled. He gawped helplessly at the scene unfolding before him, cowed by their awesome might.

"Eyes on me, bitch!" The gleaming knife blade lashed out.

Caeli caught its edge with her talons just in the nick of time, before it could slash across her neck. The tips of her claws sparked, trying to find purchase, but Luna braced her strike firmly. Hooking the knife up under the claws, she pushed up unexpectedly, causing Caeli to stagger backwards and to lose her hold on those intangible points of air.

A swipe from her other hand in retaliation, seeking to rend through the weapon. But without firm footing, her strike came slow, and Luna brought up her knee against her opponent's elbow to interrupt. Caeli winced, her left arm now hanging limp below the elbow, dislocated, after the sudden jarring counterattack.

With her opponent's defenses broken, Luna became a whirling dervish, pirouetting and striking rapidly. The sweeping motion of her weighted sleeves obscured her movements, and with that distraction, she constantly shifted the knife from hand to hand to cause further confusion.

It was all Caeli could do to continue her retreat, only able to parry the chaotic strikes at the very last moment, preventing her from leveraging her most potent ability in order to separate her attacker from her weapon. Her rapid healing abilities appeared to require active concentration, the way she kept trying to flex her left arm in the brief window between each attack.

The moment she regained use of that limb, she lashed out with her tail, causing Luna to stumble as she warily avoided the surprise maneuver. That stumble was all Caeli needed to disarm her, clapping both her hands around the thrusting blade a mere inch from her nose, and throwing it aside. It was cast away with such force that the keen edge embedded itself in stone - the stone edge of Xochitl's planter ring, to be exact.

"Hold on that for me, will you Xo?"

"Oh, you really think you've given me incentive to do any favors for you? I'm just enjoying the show."

"Not the time for that, Xo! We'll... I'll negotiate later. Please."

Disoriented by her sudden disarming and the conversation breaking out around her, Luna snarled. "Take this seriously!" She lunged forward wildly, in contrast to the sharp efficiency she had embodied but a moment ago. "I won't be ignored! Never again!"

Caeli's tail slammed on the ground with a vicious crack, stopping her enraged opponent dead in her tracks. "I wouldn't dare. If you're ready to cool your head, I'm more than willing to talk."

"Lies! I've offered all my prayers, to deaf ears. There's no more to be said, until you've been removed as the source of the problem!" The magic blazed to life at her fingertips once again, but this time, so did the jagged scar over her heart, glowing like hot embers through the thin cloth at her chest.

"I don't want to fight you!"

"It doesn't matter to me. I'll kill you either way!" She lobbed both explosive ordinances at once, snapping as they neared their target to manually detonate them before Caeli could deflect or evade them.

At least, that was the plan, except that she aimed where Caeli had been. Having grown accustomed to fighting her on foot, she'd aimed low to cover as much ground space as possible.

But the attack was far more broadcast this time, in her blind rage. Caeli shot herself skyward, well out of harm's way. Wings flapped gently, pink vanes subtly sparkling in the magic-infused air.

Another barrage of shots followed, but Caeli proved to be far more resilient in that element. With the benefit of three dimensions of movement, she dodged and weaved seemingly effortlessly, even as the attacks grew more intense, desperate. With but a gesture, the ceiling stretched up another fifty - no, hundred feet, giving her far more space to move and evade.

Luna's expression grew hungrier, more depraved. "Still, you run! What good is the power you wield, if you do not use it to smite your enemies? You dare make a mockery of me?" She barked.

"You don't understand! This power was not meant solely for me. I do not wish to use it to bring harm!"

"If you continue to deny, I'll force you to reveal your true colors, demon!"

She conjured four of her magic spheres at once, panting in exertion as she did so. Unleashing them in a wide spiraling pattern, it took Caeli all of her deftness to evade them in sequence, as they exploded around her. The cascading shockwaves rumbled the entire room.

"Raargh!" was all Luna managed to voice in frustration, her most powerful assault as of yet failing to bring her target down. Switching tactics, the next masses of magic she gathered in her hands sharded and splintered, which she sent into the air as a storm of glowing flechettes, overwhelming the battlefield with sheer quantity.

Still, with delicate aerial grace, Caeli managed to avoid the worst of it. Well-timed parries with her claws deflected what she couldn't outright dodge, and at most, the storm cut small gashes and tears into her uniform, while the thin lines of blood on her pale skin healed instantaneously.

Even though she hadn't been afforded to soar the way she once did, however many decades ago that was, Caeli's dazzling form was a sight to behold. She seemed to dance as freely in that open space as Iara did in her watery abode. If it weren't for the chaos going on around them, Benson would have been content to just watch, mesmerized by her effortless grace.

An errant bolt of energy whizzed by his head, putting an abrupt end to that beautiful daydream.

Her attacks grew more indiscriminate in her growing frustration. He'd been relatively safe on the sidelines up to this point, but now that she'd adopted a "quantity-over-quality" approach, he couldn't stay still, scrambling to find some form of cover. That didn't make things any easier for Caeli, either, as she began focusing her own wavering magic towards protecting him, erecting small, pinpoint barriers wherever the shards strayed too close.

Lacking the fine control over this spell, compared to previous, the magical bolts only exploded in small bursts as they solidly impacted the walls and ceiling. She couldn't detonate the projectiles at will. The room continued to shake, as small pieces of rubble and debris began to shower from the sky.

"Caeli! You can't keep playing with her. She's going to bring this whole place down on our heads!"

She nodded in agreement, waiting for an opening. Luna's attacks remained furious, but the gaps between each barrage seemed to grow wider and wider. Sensing her chance, she divebombed on her assailant like greased lighting.

Too quick to read the smirk that appeared on Luna's lips, as she released a stored-up burst of magic all around her like a shield. Caeli smashed into it with a sickening crunch, as her body bounced off it and corkscrewed through the air. She barely managed to regain air control when a single shot lanced through where her heart would have been if not for her supernatural reflexes.

With the brief reprieve in the action, he made a mad dash for the concierge desk and vaulted over the counter.

Luna's eyes had followed him the entire time, but she made no move against him. She had more pressing interests.

To his befuddlement, he realized he was not alone when an irritable hiss sounded beside him.

Huddled behind the desk was Merah, holding her rambunctious sister tight within her serpentine coils, hand clamped firmly over the young siren's mouth.

"What are you doing here?"

"All the rumbling. I worried something was amiss, and came to investigate."

Right. Benson still had no idea how this place worked on a physical sense. But if even the smallest tremors caused by the heated battle could be felt elsewhere, Merah would be the one to notice, with her snake-like hypersensitivity to ground vibrations. And then the reason for Aila's presence was obvious. Her insatiable thirst for fun and excitement would have been buzzing just in following her curious sister.

"Just what in the world is going on here?" She asked, keeping her voice low.

"Blame it all on me. She got in here because of my carelessness."

"Somehow, I don't think that's the full story here. We'll point fingers later. We've got to help Aunt Lessee!"

"You got any ideas? Because I'm all ears." He was surprised not to be on the receiving end of her snap judgment, considering the sour note they'd parted on not that long ago. Despite their disagreements, it was clear she still cared for Caeli in her own way. Hood pulled up over her head again, her eyes were fraught with worry more than any other emotion.

He dared to peek over the counter, to see what she was seeing.

From their current vantage points, both combatants cast deathly glares at each other, signs of exhaustion starting to set in. Caeli still clutched at her shoulder, shattered in the forceful impact. Drawing long, harsh breaths through her teeth, her damaged joint knitted itself back together, but it seemed a slower and more painful process than her previous bouts of self-regeneration.

The battle had moved quite some distance from the foyer where it had began, and Caeli now found herself in the front of the lobby area, the gentle chiming of the great crystal chandelier at her back. She looked uneasy, nervous.

Seeing that opulence seemed to set Luna off even further, if that was even possible. Her fists balled in fury. "Is this what you do with your hoarded power? This ostentatious affront to the tribulations I've faced? That flaunting of your privilege is disgusting!" The dark glow in her eyes sputtered and flickered in her outrage, boiling over.

Merah ducked back fully behind the counter and leaned in close, whispering, "I could constrict her, maybe stop her from using her hands, but I don't know how much that will help. If she can still unleash one of those all-round blasts, then I won't survive that any better than you. I have no skill in magic. How is she so good at it? She's matching Aunt blow-for-blow."

"I'm actually not sure that's the case. I think Caeli sees something we don't. Even now, I think she's still trying to extend her hospitality. She's holding back."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I'm not. Not fully. This is all foreign to me too. But I'd like to think I know her well enough by now. That was something she told me before, that part of the nature of this place is to help expel intruders who seek to do harm. I can attest. I was on the receiving end of that trickery. But your Aunt, Caeli, it's within her ability to override that."

"Why would she do that?"

"That's just her burden to bear, as the warden of this sanctuary."

"You mean, her... responsibility? Is it because of what I said to her earlier? That's crazy! I just... all I wanted was for her to spend more time with us. I didn't mean for her to take things this far! If she continues on like this, she'll get herself killed!"

At that word, Aila thrashed and squirmed, biting down hard on Merah's hand. She winced through the pain, holding her sister tight.

It was then that he felt he understood Merah wholeheartedly. That unknown aspect of her personality, that he had troubles deciphering through her standoffish attitude and steely gaze. She tried to play the mature one, in looking out for her sister, but they were both juvenile in many ways. It was as Caeli told him, that life in the Haven didn't afford the demi living within the true wealth of life experience. She puffed her chest out and made herself out to be stern and disciplined, but all Merah really wanted was attention from her "mother" figure.

Despite the terms of endearment they used, there was no doubt in his mind that it was Caeli that filled that nurturing aspect in the sisters' eyes, over the bitter and self-righteous Xochitl.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to take her away from you."

"Wait, what?"

"Later. We all have to survive this rampage first. What was that you said? Why are you surprised at how strong Luna is with her magic?"

"Beast-type demi aren't known for their magical aptitude. Not to that level. You and I are not so different, in that sense. A far cry from the primordials like demons or the nymphs, or even the fae."

"Are you saying the magic she possesses... isn't her own?"

"Not likely, I don't think. I don't know, I'm no expert. But from what Aunt Lessee taught us, sorcery like that doesn't come easy for most. All things have a natural state, after all. To fight against that is to bargain in blood."

The way those two were going at it out there, he could feel the truth in those words. If the connection to mana, Earth's life-blood was through the soul, he imagined tapping into that was something like drilling for oil. Small signs, leaks might bubble to the surface, as per the "aura" that Caeli espoused. But to really tap into that wellspring, the process was likely far more invasive. She'd spoken on the dangers of magical artifacts that could assist in the channeling of that power, and the scarring side effects of such use.

That unnatural, blackened mark that Luna bore on her chest was proof-positive of that. As she continued to draw on that power, that scar glowed ever more prominently, while she herself fell further into ragged exhaustion. She'd started out self-assured, cocky. But now the only thing that seemed to fuel her was raw animosity.

Like an oil-well, he wondered if there was any way to plug that font. Without knowing the full story of what was going on here, he still didn't want to see what the point of no return looked like for her, and he could feel she was getting close.

"Magic may not come easily for you, but that's not to say you have none at all. Tell me, what are we working with here?"

"At most, the abilities we have are inherited, primal. Like her -song-." She silently mouthed the last word, to avoid encouraging Aila. While a wild, siren song-induced orgy might have been in some ways preferable to the warzone currently being enacted, the consequences of such a ploy were...

He shook his head, putting that thought out of mind. They didn't need that kind of trouble either. Completely inappropriate of the situation, he was glad that Merah was at least willing to talk with him, considering how poorly their previous encounter had turned out. Even if only out of this life-or-death situation. They needed to put their heads together on this. There would be no purpose in stirring up her grudge.

Hold on. Merah's ire? He remembered the cold, paralyzing grip he felt whenever her steely gaze crossed his own. That's what it was. Primal. An idea stirred in his mind.

Before he could voice his thoughts, Luna interrupted with words that raised the hairs on his neck.

"I here your vassals nattering. If you think that's how you'll best me witch, you're sorely mistaken." The sound of energy crackled.

"Merah, move!" He had his hand around her shoulder and signaled for her to dive in an instant. None to soon, before the blast sounded behind them and the counter they'd been hiding behind exploded in a shower of rubble and splinters. He felt some light pain as the debris showered around him, but not nearly as bad as what he'd have felt if he were just a second too slow.

Stupid. Of course her large ears weren't just for show.

Merah nodded a silent thanks, as Aila shrieked a wailing battle cry, slipping loose from her sister's slackened grip and she shot into the air by Caeli's side.

Luna flattened her ears against the piercing sound, while she grit her teeth in contempt. "What the hell is this? What are they doing here?"

"Mean girl no hurt Auntie Lessee!" Aila called out, defiantly.

"Raaargh!" was all Luna had to voice in response, frustration taking over, renewing her assault with a hail of magic bullets at her two flying opponents.

With the agility of a falcon, Aila dipped and weaved through the shower of glowing projectiles. She dove threateningly low with her razor talons, but had to back off just as quickly, that close proximity putting herself in harm's way.

Caeli hung back, conjuring pinpoint barriers around herself to halt any further damage to the surroundings. Benson wondered why she put in that effort, knowing that the place would be able to restore itself in due time. But then, he supposed they didn't need shards of glass from the great chandelier raining down on them either. Or maybe that was just reflex. It was her favorite piece of décor, after all, carrying fond memories with it.

"Please! All three of you. Stay back! I don't want to see you get hurt! I can handle this!" Then further muttering under her breath "I have to be able to handle this..."

"Ooh, you really think you can afford to spurn their offer of aide? I'm quite eager to see how you pull this off," Xochitl jeered from the sidelines, unable to resist needling her rival.

"This is our home, too, Aunt Lessee." Merah reared up, appearing resolute and firm. "If we're not willing to fight for our place, then we don't deserve to live here."

"Yeah! Umm, what Rara says! Aila doesn't want Auntie to lose!"

"Girls... thank you."

"This is a sick joke! Is this the kind of farce you enact with your limitless power? What gives you the right to flagrantly invoke my misfortunes for your own sick amusement? You're a monster!"

"Mean lady take it back! Auntie is the best!"

"Look, Luna. I don't know what it is you've been through, or what you hope to achieve, but it's not too late to end this. If there's any of the girl that I was happy to call my little sister in you, she should speak up. We've got the best listener in the world waiting on you right here, if you'd give her the chance." Benson chimed in as well, hoping that their time together had actually meant something.

"Lies, all of you! Lies and trickery! I've made that mistake before. Not again. Never again. I'll not stand for more promises to be broken. I'll grab hold of them with my own two hands!" Another spray of magic bolts erupted forth, wild and unfocused.

Aila dodged with ease, giggling all the while. She didn't really understand the breadth of the emotions on display. She was just enjoying the most exhilarating time of her life. That indifference enraged Luna even further, making Aila the target, even over Caeli. Her aim growing more and more unsteady, she braced one arm with the other and channeled overwhelming power into the air, blotting out the airspace for a brief window, before panting in exhaustion.

There was a shriek, the cloud of projectiles suddenly too dense for Aila to avoid. She was relieved to find herself intact, and stared awe-struck at the air that shimmered and rippled in front of her face, as Caeli managed to throw her energy into casting a dense barrier just in time. The rest of the projectiles fizzled, energy spent, before they could reach the rest of them.

Benson nearly voided his bowels as he stood his ground. It was only the unwavering look on Caeli's face that told him to hold firm, or he would have been the first to run for cover. A fact that he was none too proud of, but better than being dead.

Seeing Luna's unhinged mental state, he understood why Caeli had taken that approach. In presenting a united front, it communicated that they would not bow to the show of force.

"Why...? Why... won't you all... just die!" Truly deranged and desperate now, Luna resorted to picking up rocks and other debris off the ground around her and just started flinging it. If that was her new tactic, she had a near-limitless supply of ammo, after all the prior destruction she'd caused.

Is that all she has left? This'll end quicker than I thought.