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Chapter 26: Battle or Play? Indy vs Calm Heart

Independent Bear charged at Calm Heart Lynx and slashed down hard, partly cleaving through her rocky armor. Calm Heart winced in pain and stepped back, raising a wall of earth to block Indy's advance. Indy dodged around only to be struck in his chest by a column of earth but it shattered on a shell of magical energy that surrounded him. Indy struck out at Calm Heart again but his weapon bounced off her armored earthen shell, which had visibly thickened on her body. Indy winced in pain as his sword vibrated in his hands. Calm Heart turned and ran, getting as much distance between the two of them before Indy regained his footing. Indy didn't miss a beat and took off after Calm Heart.

Calm Heart finally came to a stop in a playground, children stopping to stare at the strange lynx as Indy caught up to her.

"Done running?" Indy pointed his sword at Calm Heart.

Calm Heart shuffled her feet in the mass of loose stones that made up the ground underneath the playground equipment, "I am. I should have expected you to be stronger, since you survived your encounters with Shatter Heart and Blade Star."

"Yes you should have." Indy telekinetically grabbed a scattering of stones from the ground and hurled them at Calm Heart. The children scattered to a distance as Calm Heart weathered the barrage and kicked up a tidal wave of stones to pummel Indy. Indy dodged aside and jumped onto a nearby bar-dome play structure to get a height advantage over her. He charged up a blue ball of energy in his right hand and shot it at Calm Heart, striking her and piercing through her arm.

Calm Heart groaned in pain then ran over to another play structure, climbing and hiding behind the plastic wall. Indy slid down from his perch and was running over to the other structure, before he heard the voices of children nearby.

"Get her!"

"Fight back!"

"Don't let her run!"

"You can beat him!"

The children that had been playing in the park before their arrival now stood at a distance, shouting encouragement to either combatant as they saw fit.

"Looks like we have an audience." Indy looked around at the kids. Their parents nearby tryied to pull them away except they kept running back to watch whenever they had a chance. Other people nearby had pulled out cell phones and cameras to record the fight, "Can't they tell this is real?"

"In my experience, most people either can't tell or don't care if it brings some excitement to their lives." Indy looked up at the voice to see Calm Heart standing on top of one of the plastic walls of the structure, supported by a shelf of earth and with her arms folded. She raised her hands in a shrug and shook her head, "They don't appreciate the stability they have in their modern lives."

"Maybe, or maybe they just love to watch a good fight," Independent Bear gripped his sword in both hands as blue energy surrounded his body, "So let's give them a good show!" he suddenly jumped up at Calm Heart and struck down, just missing her as she fell backwards but not damaging the playground structure.

"I won't stop them," Calm Heart jumped off the play structure right as Indy jumped down to strike again. Calm Heart fired off a rock that struck Indy's barrier but bounced off and Indy jumped down to strike her again, this time hitting the ground as she dodged back.

"Pretty dodgy for a geokineticist!" Indy struck out at her again and she dodged back. "Not going to take hostages?"

Calm Heart raised walls of earth in quick succession to deflect Indy's attacks, "No need. Even if I did I don't think it would deter you." She dodged back then sent a barrage of stones from the ground at Indy. Indy dodged aside then caught the stones with a telekinetic field and slingshotted them around his back and back to Calm Heart only to miss as Confidence Heart charged in and swung her mace down at his head.

Mace and sword rang out like a bell as Indy blocked the mace at the last second only for a rock to shoot out and strike him in the stomach. Indy found himself on the defensive, blocking blow after blow from Calm Heart's mace interspersed with a rock or stones hammering on his magical shield bubble. At last, Calm Heart got past Indy's defenses and struck down hard at his head, snapping his sword in half and shattering his shield to strike him on the head. Indy reeled from the blow but had no time to recover as a solid clod of earth hit him in the stomach.

Calm Heart didn't stop, she struck Indy over and over with the mace and shots of earth. Over, and over, and over she stuck but Indy didn't seem to be going down. Indy used his telekinesis to force himself backwards as he tried to clear the stars and blood from his vision, then then Calm Heart struck.

"Giant Causeway!" Calm Heart slammed the ground and pillars of stone rose in a torrent before her that stuck Indy from below and catapulted him into the sky. Calm Heart watched Indy spiral into the sky, until he suddenly stopped in mid air.

Indy was surrounded by a field of telekinetic energy that held him in place as he finally got his vision back. He glared down Calm Heart as he hovered in place, "That hurt."

"How are you still standing?!" Calm Heart shouted, then stopped and took a deep breath.

"That's the thing about being chased around by two monsters that keep trying to kill you," Indy held his right hand to the side of his head as his mana flowed into his wounds and he conjured a new katana from his chest symbol, "You learn to take a beating and how to recover fast." Indy pulled his hand away from his no longer bleeding head then charged up another orb of blue energy in his right hand. Calm Heart's eyes widened and she raised a wall of earth up in front of her.

"Force Blast!" the blue force bolt lanced out and shattered the barrier before Indy dropped down, slowing his descent to avoid shattering his legs which gave Calm Heart enough time to dodge out of the way. The energy shield finally reformed around Indy and he charged back in to continue the fight.

Now Calm Heart was back on the defensive. She took advantage of Indy's seeming unwillingness to damage the playground equipment and ran through it to force him to come at her from odd angle: up the play structure, around the swings, to the top of the bar dome and down again then through a small open cube with a large "tic-tac-toe" game in one wall.

Indy stopped as she clambered up the play structure again and scowled. "Are we just gong to play games all day?"

"This isn't a game." Calm Heart answered.

"You tell him!" a little boy shouted from the still present audience.

"Stop playing and fight, cat!" a girl added.

Both combatants tried to ignore the mixture of cheers and jeers from the crowd, which had gathered even more members by this point. Indy pointed his sword at the wall in the play structure that Calm Heart was hiding behind, "Then come out and fight me."

"I have a better idea," Calm Heart whispered then took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and tried to spread her senses out through the ground. There he was, right across from her just waiting for her move. This was her shot!

"Stone tide." Suddenly the tiny rocks that made up the ground surrounding the play structures rose up in tidal waves of stones. Indy barely registered what was happening and dodged at the last second, only for a stream to pepper him in the back, shattering his energy shield again.

Indy was forced to dodge, jumping around and going back and forth as rocks rained on him form all sides, most missing but enough striking him to cause bruises for the impacts enhanced by magic. Indy was knocked to the ground and nearly buried under a cascade of rocks, until he forcefully levitated himself up into the sky, leaving his katana behind to dissipate.

Indy stared down as the waves of rocks moved around, seeking him out. He squinted down to where Calm Heart was sheltering. Indy growled and shot his right hand out towards her, A field of blue energy extended out from his left hand and enveloped Calm Heart. The lynx looked up to see Indy's rage filled visage as he shouted, "KINETIC THROW!" He swung his hand out and upwards, Calm Heart tried to resist but she was hurled into the air as Indy swung her up in a massive circle and slammed her to the ground.

Indy panted as he slowly floated back down to the ground and watched Calm Heart. The lynx twitched then groaned as she got to her feet. Her rocky armor was flaking off and her legs were shaking. "I'm not done."

Indy stared her down and conjured another katana into his left hand. Calm Heart managed to conjure her mace again and held it up as she hardened her armor into gray stone texture.

The audience stood in rapt silence as Indy took a deep breath then raised his right hand, grabbing several rock from the ground in telekinetic tethers and hurled them at Calm Heart. Calm Heart dodged aside and hurled a conjured wad of earth at Indy, only for the wad to shatter as Indy swung his right hand down and shot a blue bolt of energy through the earth and struck Calm Heart dead on. Calm Heart wasn't hurled backwards, instead the energy latched onto her. Indy yanked back with his hand as his feet left the ground and he hurtled towards Calm Heart, taking up his katana in both hands. Calm Heart held her mace sideways to block right as Indy came close and the trailing energy tether around his sword, then struck with both hands and all of his might.

The world stood still as Indy stopped two meters behind Calm Heart, his back to where she still stood. Indy's sword dissipated and he straightened up. "Yes you are." A spray of blood burst from Calm Heart's chest as her mace split in half and dissolved and Calm Heart fell to her back, her face still frozen in shock.

Indy walked over to her and checked the large cut across her front. There were no cheers or applause as the audience had watched the final strike play out, more horrified at the brutality of the last two blows than impressed the spectacle. Undeterred, Indy touched Calm Heart's wounds and wove his aether into them to heal her, "I'm no killer, but you're not getting up for a while."

Battle in the Playground

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Winner:

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Independent Bear

OoOoO

Confidence Heart Fennec was thrown back several meters when Marine Heart Otter stopped. The otter growled and fired off several blasts of water at the fennec fox, who managed to dodge every one and retaliate with a blast of air that struck Marine Heart dead on.

Marine Heart threw up his arms as body armor made of water appeared on his body and the wind struck him, making the water ripple but otherwise not affecting him. He looked up from behind his hands as Confidence Heart punched the air and sent two more blasts of air right at him, both found their target but barely made an impact, leaving only a small and shallow cut on his right forearm.

Marine Heart lowered his arms and bared his teeth at Confidence, "This is your kinetics? You're a novice!" Before Confidence could reply, Marine fired off a concentrated blast of water that struck Confidence dead on, enveloping her completely for an instant. She had no time to recover as Marine Heart charged forwards, surfing on a stream of water under his feet as he plowed into her and grabbed her around the neck. Marine bared his teeth in Confidence's face as he spat his next words at her, "How the hell did a weakling like you beat Passion Heart?"

Confidence Heart smirked and spoke through the grip on her throat, "Like this!" She suddenly punched Marine Heart in the stomach then kicked him away, which tore his hand from the grip around her neck. Now it was Marine Heart's turn to be caught off guard as Confidence Heart followed up punching him repeatedly in the chest then dropped down and swept his legs out from under him, grabbed his arm and swung him up and over to slam him on the ground.

She grinned and pumped her fist as she stepped back to let Marine stand, "Yeah, I'm a novice with kinetics but I've been learning karate and wrestling my whole life! This is how I beat Passion Heart and it's how I'm going to beat you!"

Marine Heart stood up slowly then turned to face her, his eyes blazing. "Alright then. I'll pay you back ten times for what you did to him, no matter what it takes."

Confidence Heart gave a single derisive laugh, "Bring it on!"