.....
Third Person P.O.V.
Marguerite Hellbender is a humanoid alien; the only features that distinguish her from standard humans are her pale gray skin and large stature. Eidolon can see that she is even taller than Thor, easily passing the 7-foot mark, and just a little smaller than the Hulk.
She is also muscular without losing her femininity. Despite the bulging muscles, she has curves in the right places to compensate for them and keeps an hourglass figure. The long red hair on her head, which is braided over her shoulder, can be put in the "copper" classification of the redheads, a color that also dominates her swimsuit style armor, which leaves her biceps, shoulders, and thighs exposed.
Another notable feature is the scar on the left side of her face that comes from her lips and "extends" her mouth upwards in a sharp line.
In Hector's own thoughts, she indeed can be classified as a top-tier "Muscle Mommy". She even has that dangerous vibe that looks like she will break your bones and make you like it.
That is how Hector can judge her because he indeed doesn't have much meta-knowledge about Lady Hellbender. Only a quick read through the wiki because her character design caught his eye… Like with Angela, another redhead. There is a pattern here.
'I think I saw a cover of her standing on top of a defeated Hulk, but covers are not reliable.' He cracks his neck and gets ready for the fight. Bare-handed, because he still hasn't judged her deserving of death… Only of some broken bones and pain.
On the other side, Lady Hellbender is also sizing him up. With his modified Sith Stalker Armor, she can't see an inch of his skin, no clue about his body, so she can't try to guess how he fights.
But the stance… To an experienced fighter, the stance tells enough. From the moment she saw him, she knew that this guy was dangerous. Maybe not a direct fighter, but she understood that he is a killer, a predator.
From his attire, she does not rule out the possibility of hidden weapons, so maybe an assassin.
"What is your name?" She asks while the two walk in circles around each other.
"You can call me Starkiller, Lady Hellbender." He answers surprisingly politely.
" Lady Hellbender? Haha, never been called that, but I like it." Marguerite laughs
"..." Hector tilts his head 'Earlier in the timeline, huh? I accidentally named her'.
"Not gonna draw your weapon?" She is smarter than she looks, eyeing the cylinders hanging from his belt 'Maybe the four join in a staff, or a nunchuck'. The universe is filled with strange fighters with even stranger weapons; one must be ready for all crazy fighting styles out there.
"No need…" He says dismissively "I don't want to kill you." He also doesn't care about wasting some time with her while the Ul'lula'ns sort their affairs.
If was on Earth, even after being grateful for the warning, he would prefer to deal with his inner issues alone instead of letting an outsider mess with things.
"..." Lady hellbender didn't like his tone, frowning at the disrespect and casual dismissal of her abilities. She pulls her mace from her shoulder and grips it tightly with her two hands. "Till this day, I have met many men who underestimated me… and you are meeting me hale and healthy today. Do you know what this means?"
"That you won against all those men." He answers easily, guessing her line of thought "I was not underestimating you particularly." he explains himself "It's just that I'm very strong." But his tone remains cocky.
"HAH!" She barks a single laugh. Even though it looks like he is still belittling her, now Lady Hellbender doesn't take offense because now she understands that he is just a confident man, and she wouldn't take offense at someone confident in themselves. "Hope you can back that out… Nothing is more unattractive than a man who is only talk!" She crouches down and jumps while shouting
"I don't care… I know that I'm very hot." He keeps the attitude and calmly raises his hand to her.
Fwoon
Her eyes widen when an invisible force hits her and sends her flying back a dozen meters.
BamCrack
She hits the ground like a boulder thrown from a hundred meters high, but immediately stands up with the support of her mace.
"A psychic…" She murmurs as rubble falls off her, her expression turning ugly.
In the vast universe, it's not that uncommon to one to find espers/psychics. Many races have those abilities, after all, they have to possess a very well-developed brain to reach space travel, and there is a small chance for abilities like telekinesis, and others, to manifest.
The chance is not that high, but when countless races exist in the cosmos, it becomes common enough for people to develop ways to deal with it.
Those abilities can not only become a racial ability, but also manifest in specific individuals of a race that normally don't possess them.
So that is why it is common sense never to underestimate an unharmed individual. It is also common sense to simply run when you meet someone with psychic abilities. Or surrender… yes, it is recommended to simply turn around and run as fast as you can. Away from the person, out of range of the abilities. And if you can't, just give up.
It is an invisible, indefensible, and unavoidable ability with very broad applications. Depending on the user, it can paralyze you, throw you into orbit, destroy the starship killing everyone, or even bursting a artery in your brain or heart.
It's common sense not to mess with psychics. This rule of thumb came from a general fear and awe of the mysterious ability widespread around the universe.
But people like Lady Hellbender are not that afraid of psychics. She knows that they are not as invincible as they want to make everyone believe, and like with everything, there are good ones and mediocre psychics.
She herself killed her fair share of them, smashing their heads as they flimsily attempted to do something to her. Like most races in the galaxy, they are harmless with their brains turned to paste.
But now… Now is nothing like in the past, where she met some that can use small objects to attack her or try to float around out of reach. Lady Hellbender felt like she just been slapped by the tail of a giant armored beast.
Her ugly expression is because, to a physical fighter like her, the chances of winning against a psychic that can overpower her with their telekinesis alone are close to zero. That being generous.
She was already hacking her brain in ways to figure out the conditions of his abilities, after all, to her, psychic abilities are not those incredibly unfair abilities that most of the galaxy thinks they are. Lady Hellbender understands that it has a weakness…
Some psychics can only use their abilities in a certain range, others only in targets they can see, others have a limit of weight, others have difficulty using in living beings or even on themselves.
There is no rule, so when you fight one, you need to first figure out the conditions of the opponent's ability. Of course, the lack of a standard in those rules also implies that there are a select few individuals that doesn't have any restrictions…
Those are the individuals who started the whole boogeyman legend that scares even the nastiest space pirates. The ones that make even the godless races pray to not meet during their travels. The 0.01% survival rate.
Lady Hellbender doesn't have too much time to dwell on that because her vision is suddenly filled with the image of Hector already upon her, right leg sideways and delivering a kick.
Sw-Crack
Her reflexes are good enough for her to raise her mace to defend herself, the kick landing on the handle, but it makes her arms jolt backwards, and she almost lets go of her own weapon because of the impact.
"!!" No time to feel surprised, she digs her feet into the ground, and tries not to be sent flying, and even swings back while he is in the air.
Vwoon
But Hector spins himself with the momentum and swings his arm at her, slapping the air.
BoomThw-aack
Lady Hellbender is forced to her knees as she feels gravity increase tenfold; a palm imprint the size of a car is carved on the ground around her.
Hector is not satisfied with that and stomps on her head, forcing her to faceplant on the hard ground.
Only after that, he uses her head as a platform to do a huge backflip and land on the ground.
"That barely hurt you? Impressive…" He tilts his head, but he is not that impressed. After this point, he is used to the people around here being very durable. The fight between strong characters is to last for days till some real damage starts accumulating.
Unless…
His fingers twitch, and the lightsabers on his belt move slightly, but he controls himself for now. One eye was watching Lady Hellbender stand up and the other was checking the fight around them.
Ul'lula'ns that he can't tell apart are engaged in a fierce battle.
'They should wear uniforms… I don't even know who to help…" He thinks while watching an Ul'lula'n fall incredibly hurt. It can be someone from the other side, so he doesn't help.
He focuses back fully on Lady Hellbender when she is suddenly upon him, mace pulled back and already coming down to strike his head.
"..." He saw that coming 2 seconds ago, so he moved a little to the side to dodge the attack.
POWTHRAACCK
Her attack hits the ground, and the shockwaves push the air away. A huge crack stretches from the attack, creating a fissure dozens of meters in front of her.
"That would hurt if it hit me…" He says, but he is not one to miss a counter-attack, his arm already going for an uppercut, hitting her chin cleanly.
Her head snaps back, her neck almost breaks, but she grits her teeth so hard that the blood coming from her mouth comes in thin jets between her teeth. But she held on, her expression ferocious before she roared and dragged her mace sideways to hit him.
Her objective is not to hit him directly, but dig in the ground and shoot pieces of rock at him like shotgun pellets.
The attack covers a large area, so not even Hector can dodge perfectly from this close… But he doesn't need to do that. With a raise of his right hand, the rocks moving at bullet speed quickly stop completely just when they are about to hit him.
It's like there is an invisible wall impeding them from moving forward. Hector even saved some mental capacity by not stopping all rocks and using the ones that he stopped as a makeshift shield to block the rest.
Crack
But from the shield of rocks, Hellbender's mace emerges with a horizontal swing, aimed at his ribs.
He ducked quickly and was about to attack, but then the mace came back from the other direction quicker than he expected.
"..."
WooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWooshWoosh
A flurry of attacks kept him dodging, the mace passing dangerously close to his body as he continued to retreat and she continued to follow.
"Nice hips…" He compliments.
"Thanks!" She shouts back without slowing down.
It is not a praise out of place. Her showing of keeping an incredible fast momentum of swinging back and forth like a pendulum at him is thanks to her great lower-body strength. Her knees and hips are doing the groundwork while her arms swing left and right.
'It is like a Dempsey Roll with a mace… If Neymar had her knees, he would have three World Cups' Hector jokes on his mind while dodging.
Lady Hellbender's crazy attacks are not a desperate attempt to try to land a hit on him. It is a quick-made strategy born from experience. She wants to keep Hector on his toes, occupied, without time to think.
After their previous bouts, she would need to be stupid not consider him a threat of the highest order. He is not only a strong psychic, but his body and fighting instincts are top-notch, too.
This is a combination only rarely seen in races on the very top of the food chain. Any other honorless mercenary would have already abandoned the contract, but she will not give up.
If she can't figure out the specifications of his telekinesis, then she will not allow him to use it. A minimum degree of concentration is the standard for every psychic out there.
Even if he is a highly trained one, the maximum he can do with the amount of leeway she is giving him would be throwing some objects at her that she would be capable of shrugging off.
Unfortunately, she is still underestimating the arguably best fighter in the universe…
Hector back downs to dodge a swing, his right foot touches the ground at the same time she also steps forward. His telekinesis is channeled through his foot, and he pushed the ground away at the same time he did a small jump.
"!!!" The part of the ground that is pushed away separated lady Hellbender's legs, she slips, and is forced to do a full split as her foot is carried away.
Hector lands softly in front of her, looking down at her eyes, fist already pulled back.
THWACK
This time, she didn't have time to use her mace to defend because she was completely out of balance. If one looked in slow-motion, they would be able to see his fist connecting with the side of her face cleanly, her gray skin rippling because of the impact, skull undulating slightly as she was forced to the ground some meters away.
Lady Hellbender bounces a little before stopping. She goes to stand, but when she is on all fours, Hector steps on her leg, just on the side of her knee, and forces her to stay down.
She looks at him over her shoulder and, while keeping visual contact, spits two teeth that are loose in her mouth together with a mouthful of blood.
"Ptoo*
'Hm, that is kinda hot…' Hector's gaze is cold, his hand reaches into the air, and Hellbender's own mace flies to his hand. "Good night." He says before raising the axe above his head and then mercilessly brings it down on her.
Her armbrace suddenly vibrates, a humming sound echoes, and a big object with a hook tip flies into her hand, and she uses it to defend herself.
Bam
The two get into a contest of raw strength that Hector respects to gauge her power level. Using only the power of his muscles, he forces the mace down, trembling while she keeps up by holding the blade's flat part at him.
"You are strong." She says, struggling a little, but stopping the advance of the mace.
"That is my line." He speaks "Your raw strength is greater than this body of mine." From his estimates, she could toy with Luke Cage. He would just be a very durable punching bag in her hands.
"Oh…" She raises a confused eyebrow; his way of speaking does not make much sense to her. 'This body of mine'? What is he? A parasite that inhabits someone else.
That can explain his psychic abilities and strong body; he is just using a powerful host to complement his abilities.
She is very wrong… but it makes sense. And she saw weirder.
"Too bad raw strength is not everything I have…" Suddenly, the pressure increases a lot on Lady Hellbender's end.
Hector is finally enhancing himself with his energies. But he is not doing that to simply win a contest of strength; that would be a waste.
With his power systems, what he can show off is his Attack Pottency.
He pulls back so suddenly that Lady Hellbender almost loses her weapon by shoving it into the empty air. Her mistake is obvious, she is completely open, and he is already on position to strike again.
She rarely felt this much danger to her life, her honed instincts screaming at her to do something… She is about to be killed.
Her life is flashing in her mind, all the dangerours situation she went through till she got here, all the time that she survived through grit or sheer dumb luck… Her luck ran out, and she is about to pay for all her escapes from the hand of death.
But the blow never came. It was not mercy that stopped his hand, but the interference of a creature.
"A dinosaur?" He turns to the roar he hears, the mouth full of sharp teeth eager to take a bite of his face. "Sit!" With a bout of Conqueror's Haki, the dinosaur-looking beast stopped in its tracks.
Sliding on the ground till it is in front of him, trembling, the dinosaur bows submissively at Hector.
"Don't!" Hellbender suddenly exclaims, her voice dripping with some despair when she saw Hector's fingers twitching.
"..." He turns to her "Your pet?" He saw the collar and the handles
"..." She doesn't answer, only stays looking at him defiantly. From her experience, it is not a good idea to expose a weakness like that, even if it is out of the bag already.
"I see… Don't worry, I don't have the hobby of torturing other people's pets. I have my own." He pats the dinosaur's head casually "This one looks harmless and cute too."
Despite the situation, Lady Hellbender smiles at him. A bloody smile, but a smile nonetheless…
"Having second thoughts about breaking your contact with the obvious evil Ul'lula'n now?" he tilts his head to her. Around them, the fierce battle continues.
"Well…"
"Too late." Bonk
She falls unconscious when he hits her head with her mace.
Stepping out of her, he turns to the dinosaur pet "Take care of your owner…" He then looks up and starts contemplating, "So… Can I go now? The numerical advantage is simply too big…" The matter should be solved eventually.
CRACKCRACKFWOOOON
"..." Okay, now I jinxed it. My bad.
By the design that is 70% similar to the Nautiloid, I guess that the ship that just appeared from the Mirror Dimension in a burst of smoke is from the Marvel bastard cousins of the Mind Flayers, the Spirit-Flayers.
...….
Some Minutes Earlier
In another part of the battlefield, Bora and other members of the Ul'lula'n council are facing Supernalia. The wife of Nebulon is keeping up even against half a dozen of her same species, proving her superiority.
But what is intriguing is that she shapeshifted to a different form.
"(Ironic, Supernalia… Using a anthropoid form)." Bora says to the human-like Supernalia.
"(We thought you and Nebulon imagine themselves above the great majority of sentient life in the galaxy)." Another council member snickers
"(Hypocrisy is only the last of the long list of flaws in their characters)."
Supernalia can't argue against their mockery. She is, indeed, choosing a humanoid form because it is more convenient.
"(Hmpf, that is only because most of the good weapons are made to this type of body)" She says, walking, holding two battens that shimmer with a white light, charged with her psionic powers. "(But that will change)." She dashes at one of them and attacks with the battens.
Supernalia now looks like a buxom human woman, but with yellow skin, completely white eyes, and with hair that is shining with some golden glitter and floating like gravity doesn't affect her. She is wearing a black low-cut catsuit that exposes her cleavage to her belly button and her legs and arms.
"(And this conventional attractive form is just because is convenient, huh?)" Bora doesn't stop the mockery. Two balls made of crocs float in front of him to raise a psychic shield.
Ul'lula'ns use their minerals in weapons without giving forms because they have their telekinesis to move them.
"(Shut up, if I'm gonna wear this skin, I'm gonna show that I can wear it better than all of them.)" Supernalia says proudly. From her belt, balls of stone and metal also float and go to defend her from the attacks of the other council members.
The many spheres meet in the air, making a psionic crash that creates turbulence in the area.
One council Member raises a red sphere with his telekinesis and, from it, shoots a piercing laser at Supernalia. The woman raises a black sphere that spins on itself, like a black hole that diverts the laser away from her.
She brings one of the spheres to her, joining perfectly with the end of her baton, creating a mace that she uses to hit one of the council members. The impact is loud and sends the council member flying. That ball probably has some "increase heaviness" property.
After that, with a swing of her arm, she sends the ball flying from her baton, hitting another council member directly on the mouth.
At some point, the sky suddenly splits, and some smoke appears from the sky together with the mothership of the Spirit-Flayers.
The members of the Ul'lula'n council look surprised and then notice that Supernalia doesn't share the sentiment. She even takes advantage of their surprise to sneak attack.
Her floating spheres shot with lightning speed, charred with the elements, and hit all the council members, sending them flying.
"(You… what price have you paid?)" One council member asks weakly
"(you don't know what you doing…)" Bora also speaks
"(I know exactly what I'm doing.)" Supernalia replies scornfully "(You all forced my hand, and made me do a unpleasant deal, but everything will turn to the better when Nebulon came back.)"
"(You fool!)"
"(You arrogance blind you.)"
"(You invited trouble into our home!!)"
Supernalia ignores the words of the council members; to her, they are obviously too shortsighted to understand her plan. More spheres of hers float above them, trapping the opposing Ul'lula'ns into a restrictive force field before they could recover from the previous bout.
"(It is regrettably really…)" She shakes her head more calmly, now confident in her victory "(But a cleansing is necessary to open space to a new future)." Her eyes get maniacal, something the other Ul'lula'ns noticed
"(You…)"
"(You are not…)"
Their fears are proven true just a few seconds later. In the past, Nebulon, after being cornered, tried to kill the opposition in a desperate terrorist attack.
This time, it seems the Spirit-Flayers will do something similar.
They watch, horrified, as smaller ships leave the mothership and move to the transportation tunnel, annexing at them like leeches.
"(Maybe I should explain how you all will die…)" Supernalia's voice is filled with contempt. "(To release my husband, an immense quantity of soul power was necessary. Not psychic, or any other power we mastered, but soul power! A mockery from the one that sealed him… He thought that we would be too prideful to ask for help from other races. Hmpf! He underestimated us.)"
Her face is twisted with rage as she remembers the humiliation from thousands of years in the past.
"(Initially we are ready to use some inferior lifeforms as fuel, but we forced my hand!" Her expression gets even more twisted "(Now the Ul'lula'ns that despise us like filthy we will pay with their souls for our return!)"
"(Supernalia, you crazy woman!!)" One council member shouts angrily
"(You don't have to do this…)" Another tries to be diplomatic
"(Don't have to go that far? Don't have to go that far??!" She shouts angrily "(You pushed us into this situation!! Thousand years being the cautionary tale, the smear of Ul'lula'n history! No more! I don't want to save you all anymore! I will rewrite history!)"
All around the continent, the Spirit-Flayers ships start invading the core system of the planet. As a civilization heavily based on minerals, the Ul'lula'ns are able to harness the power of their planet. They have access to their core and have access to all the energy created by their home.
But now this will be their downfall… the Ul'lula'ns that are so connected with their land are gonna suffer an attack from the inside. Their perfect distribution system will just facilitate the blow.
The Spirit-Flayers will use their transportation tunnels and channels to deploy a giant magic circle and start a sacrifice ritual of epic proportions.
It is what would happen if a certain someone were not here.
ZAAAAAAAPKRRZAAAAAAATBSSZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Suddenly, from a certain place in the battlefield, a pillar of white lightning and hits the sky. Like a tree of energy, the lightning disperses in branches that hit every minor Spirit-Flayer starship.
Supernalia's mouth falls open as the smaller ships fall from the sky like mosquitoes hit by an insecticide, the clothes that are fusing with the Ul'lula'n channel being fried too and forced to give up.
The sky lights up as more and more lightning hits the smaller ships; it looks like an endless supply of energy, like an angry god woke up from the ground and will not stop till the Spirit-Flayers are brought low.
Said Angry God appears to lose its patience with the much bigger mothership and attacks differently.
From anyone else, it would be an invisible attack, but for the psychic Ul'lula'ns is like the whole region was filled with power. It is suffocating and oppressive.
And the target of the attack, the mothership, was the one that suffered the most. Everyone can see the ship being forced to point somewhere against its will. The hull dents, and some pieces start falling as it struggles against the invisible force.
The bow is forced downwards, and everyone understands that someone is really trying to pull that giant ship to the ground. The struggle intensifies as the turbines fight against the invisible force, but it only worsens, causing more and more of the exterior.
Even from a distance is possible to hear an almost animal-like groan of pain coming from the ship. The sound of metal and other materials being bent and strained.
After more struggle, the ship is abruptly forced down dozens of meters. The hull sinks in certain places, if look attentivel,y one would be able to see that it is like a giant invisible hand grabbed it and is squeezing the ship.
After that, it was easily blown down amidst fire and smoke, hitting the ocean with a loud sound and raising giant waves that spread in all directions.
"(What…)" Supernalia doesn't even need to finish the question because the answer is already coming for her.
A black dot is bouncing in the air and getting closer at incredible speeds. When she can see that it is a humanoid figure clad in black, the said figure suddenly starts spinning on himself, and a red and purple light accompanies his movements.
"(!!!)" Supernalia immediately raises her batons to defend herself.
Bam
Her calves sink on the ground a little, and her arms tremble while her battens stop the attack, now she can clearly see that there are two blade-like objects made of what seems to be plasma that tried to cut her.
"Oh… Nothing is really absolute." The dark figure comments while staring at where the weapons meet.
Or don't meet, to be more exact… The batons are encased in some sort of invisible forcefield that pushes everything away, and that is why it is effective in stopping his lightsabers.
"(Who are you?!)"
"With your mouth, motherfucker? Do you speak?" He scoffs before trying to kick her, but a floating ball of metal enters the way and stops his attack.
Hector is forced back but he just slides a little on the ground before stopping.
"Are you the one who attacked the Spirit-Flayers?" Supernalia asks angrily
"See? It's not hard to speak this way… And why are you a hot woman now?" He tilts his head to the side while idly rolling his lightsabers on his hands. 'Why are most villains my type?' Supernalia not only became hot, but even after compacting her three-meter-long Ul'lula'n body, she became a humanoid not smaller than Lady Hellbender.
"Answer me!"
"Ah yes, it was me. It looked like they were trying to do something big, so I just intervened." He replies without a hint of worry or shame, like he is talking about how he folds clothes "I hope I messed up with your plans." He chuckles at the end.
Supernalia snarls at him, her weapons spheres raised around her before start shooting blasts of energy at Hector.
ZwoonZwoonZwoonZwoon PsshPsshPsshPsshZwoonZwoonZwoonZwoon PsshPsshPsshPsshZwoonZwoonZwoonZwoon PsshPsshPsshPsshZwoonZwoonZwoonZwoon PsshPsshPsshPssh
But Hector starts deflecting them expertly as he sweeps the air with his lightsabers. It looks erratic, but no shot even comes close to hitting.
"I just crossed out 'pulling a giant ship from the sky with the Force' and now you gave me the opportunity of 'deflecting bolts of energy'. Today is a good day…" He jokes as he bats the last shot away, "Except for the threat of genocide, of course."
"Who are you?" After that display, Supernalia can't help but take Hector more seriously. Her eyes narrow as she tries to gauge his power and motives. "Why are you getting involved with Ul'lula'n's business?"
"The name is Starkiller." He answers while putting Jar'kai's stance "And is it necessary a reason to save billions of sentient lives?"
"Survival instincts are what would keep you out of my business… because now you are gonna die for being nosy!" Supernalia also puts a stance, raising her batons and her spheres with telekinesis.
"I will be the one done the killing here." Mentally, he activates the Force Fury, an ability of Starkiller. The character may not have any mastery of teh Force of how it should be but he is still the walking nuke as intended.
A semi-transparent force-field covers him and his lightsabers, and electricity also sparks around his body as he ends the reinforcement.
Zaap
He dashes forward, leaving a charred ground as he disappears from his spot.
Supernalia's eyes widen, but the spheres around her reacted instantly when he entered her vicinity.
'It is like En, extending her perception…' Starkiller understands perfectly and decides to deal with those unusual weapons first.
The spheres that go to block his path, both offensively and defensively, are met with quick strikes of his lightsabers. Some are cut in half, others bounce away, and others are able to deviate the trajectory of the attack.
'Each one does something… The color is telling.' He analyzes, concentrating his focus on the offensive ones that have no way to defend themselves. If he destroyed Supernalia's ways of attack, it would be a matter of time till he won.
She obviously will not let that happen and attacks him with a telepathic shock. Her glare sends a wave of psionic energy directed at his brain.
"Hmpf…" He scoffs and, after just a little stumble, resumes his attack and cuts two balls that are charging to attack him next.
Seeing that he shrugged off her mental attack, Supernalia went for the more direct approach and attacked him with her battens.
Starkiller defends her attacks easily, and an exchange of dual weapons users takes place between the two. Offense and defense plays simultaneosuly as the two dance back and forth in a chaotic battle.
High, low, left, and right… Stabs, slashes… feint… Almost everything is used as their exchange attacks hundreds of times in a few seconds.
Eventually it became clear who the best fighter was. After analyzing her battle style, Starkiller starts dominating the fight. His lightsabers are getting closer and closer to Supernalia's skin while she is pushed on the defensive.
Even with some of her weapon spheres trying to attack him, they do nothing more than provide a momentary distraction. Starkiller is able to dodge with an incredible show of acrobatics while still swinging at her to attack and simultaneously defending himself from her strikes.
Not satisfied with his slow imminent victory, Starkiller takes a step further and pulls his other two lightsabers from his belt and starts wielding all four at the same time. Telekinetic Lightsaber Combat is an incredibly difficult way of fighting, and an equally difficult fighting style to defend against.
Four lightsabers, two reds, one purple, and one white start flying from Starkiller's hands and attacking Supernalia. It is like Starkiller wants to show that she is not the only one who can use weapons telekinetically.
He attacks while holding two lightsabers, while the other two spin around to attack her from a blind spot or try to destroy one of her spheres. He throws them at her and continues to attack after grabbing another. The thrown lightsabers go and come back, attacking an exposed spot after being defended at first. In the meantime, he switches stances, angles, and tempo of his attacks. It is like he is juggling the lightsabers.
"Ugh! Ung…" Supernalia is obviously struggling to keep up. Tasting firsthand how annoying and overwhelming it is to face Hector in battle.
PsshPssh
The spinning lightsabers hit and destroyed two more spheres before bouncing at her. She dodges with difficulty, but Starkiller grabs them after throwing the ones at his hands; they are like four boomerangs. With less protection, he gets more aggressive. Supernalia just needs to make a mistake, and she will receive a fatal injury.
She knows that and decides to try to "reset" the fight.
"HIYAAAAH!" With a battle cry, she suddenly thrust her hand forward to release a Telekinetic Blast at him, even if not to hurt him, to at least throw him far away.
But Starkiller saw that coming, and copied her movements to also throw a Telekinetic Blast at her.
Each of their left hands almost touch at they attack simultaneously. If they closed their hands, their fingers would interlock… But that small space between them could very well be a colossal chasm.
The amount of psionic energy colliding on that point is so huge, that it doesn't take long for the space become turbid, distorted, bending, and…
CRACK
…and exploding after too much pressure. Not only Starkiller, but even Supernalia was forced back. The two are sending kilometers away from each other, so far that they can't even feel their opponents.
Supernalia spheres go to slow her down to halt. She looks at Starkiller's overall direction with hateful eyes, but changes her mind.
"(I don't need to deal with him.)" She mutters and starts moving in another direction.
She floats to an open area, touches the ground, and puts some spheres into hidden slots around her. The ground lights up with symbols.
"(In the end, it falls on us to do everything right)." She scoffs.
Supernalia has a plan B in case the Spirit-Flayers failed or betrayed her. In the end, she was right in not relying on it completely. The alliance's main objective is to learn what she didn't know about the immaterial plane and try to free her husband, Nebulon, by herself if needed.
And it needed…
With one hand in the ground, she points the other to the fallen mothership that is floating far away on the ocean. Her preparation helps her take control of it; the ship lights up slightly, and with it, the many channels around the Planet do the same.
The ground opens in four directions, and a shiny pyramid starts emerging from it. Supernalia floats atop the pyramid, her white hair dancing wildly in the wind.
"(Time to come back, Nebulon!" Half of the pyramid is already out of the ground, with an oscillating light that is pumping energy into the planet. The pyramid is the heart, and the channels and tunnels are the veins.
WhooshBleng
Supernalia's head was suddenly hit by an object that sent her staggering to the ground. She turns angrily, only to see her own hired mercenary with her hand extended in her direction, after just throwing the mace.
"Contract terminated… no refunds." Lady Hellbender says, still bleeding from her mouth, but her eyes are determined.
She heard enough… She saw enough. The way the energy projected around the area started calling for preludes of natural disasters, the alliance with the Spirit-Flayers, known enemies of anything with a soul in the Universe.
Supernalia extends her hand, ready to get rid of Lady Hellbender…
Unfortunately, she will never have her chance. She has no chance since the beginning, in truth…
PSSSSSH
"Guh…" A wet sound escapes her throat, and she looks down to see a red plasma blade protruding from her chest.
"And in the heat of the battle, I master Force Teleportation." She hears Starkiller's voice behind her "I prefer my other ways of 'Blinking' though."
"You…" Whatever she wants to say or try is interrupted when he decides to finish the job.
PsshPsshPsshPsshPsshPsshPsshPsshPsshPsshPsshPssh
He stabs her torso consecutively, her body trembling with each strike that precisely hits an important organ.
Not satisfied, and fearing that her punishment can be relatively light in case he lets her go to the Ul'lula'ns, Starkiller then stops stabbing and starts cutting.
His lightsabers slices her body dozens of times till the biggest piece is not bigger than a football.
He is secretly a little annoyed with how hard the people of this universe are to kill, so he is venting.
Starkiller coldly stands in place as Supernalia's body falls piece by piece on the ground. It is not a bloody sight because of the lightsabers cauterizing the cuts, but it is still an ugly one.
"Sorry, I don't want to still fight the 'unsealed final boss' to keep things interesting." Hector shrugs at the dead remains of Supernalia. "Nebulon will remain sealed even if I think I can win."
In truth, before, he recovered faster than her during the last bout, but he waited for her to lower her guard and sneak attack. Lady Hellbender's unexpected interference gave him the chance, but he was expecting the moment just before she succeeded, when she would be sure of her victory. Most people lower their guard at that moment.
After collecting some interesting loot, like genetic material and her weapons, Hector watches the glowing pyramid slowly sinks on the ground again after no one calls for its power.
Then he starts walking towards Lady Hellbender.
"Not that I needed your help, but it's good that you came to your senses before I needed to kill you." he says
"You are holding back against me…" She is unhappy.
"More than you think."
"Why?"
"I could feel that you are not really evil." He casually shrugs. That did not come from his metaknowledge, but from the Force, Haki, and Nen. If was not like this, she would be as dead as Supernalia.
He then points to the horizon "Just go, because I don't think the Ul'lula'ns are as nice as me."
"No, they are not." Hellbender sighs
"Why did you even accepted this job anyway?" He tries to get more information from her.
Lady Hellbender is to her guard low, so she answers without thinking.
"Ul'lula'n materials can make good weapons. It is what I was promised." She says, grabbing her mace "I need the weapons for a little revolution."
'So she is preparing to become her canon self'. "Good luck with that." He acts uninterested.
She turns with a wide smile at him, and with familiarity puts her arm around his shoulder. "When I get my planet, I will send you an invitation."
"I don't think you will be able to do that." he removes himself from her clutches. "But maybe I will find you… What planet are you gonna take? Tell me." He continues to try to get more information.
Her smile gets even wider. "Oh, you will know… When my name echoes through the galaxy, you will know." She nods to herself before passing him "And you can visit anytime… Next time I will push you to your…limits. I swear."
Pah
And she slaps his butt.
"..." He raises his eyebrow behind his helmet, but doesn't give her the satisfaction of reacting. "Is that how you say goodbye in your culture?"
"Only to the ones I like~" Now her smile is showing all the dirty intentions she has for him. "Come visit, and I will show you how I say 'hello' to the ones I like."
"...I will keep that in mind." He answers calmly and watches her smirk one last time before walking away with wide hips swaying. The swimsuit armor shows off a good portion of her gray cheeks.
Hector scratches his helmet. "Well… As one of my heroes, Max Tennysion would say: 'To a real human male, Area 51 is a brothel'." He never said that with his mouth, only with his actions.
"If I'm going to clap some alien cheeks, better cross out the Snu-Snu from my list too" But that is far in the future.
....
Later, Hector wants to leave under the radar, but the Ul'lula'ns stop him to give their thanks.
"We are really thankful for your help." Bora says as he and Hector share a hand(limb)shake.
"No need… I think it's even my fault that the situation escalated to this point. Maybe I should apologize." Hector replies kindly
"Don't do that. It would be worse if we left Supernalia and her associates to their devices." Bora stops him from apologizing
"You saved us from a lot of trouble." Another council member speaks
"If there is anything that we can do to reward you…" Another suggests
"What is your name again?"
Hector shakes his head "No need. I came here because of the chance of this trouble spilling into something much bigger. I was just helping myself. And you can call me Starkiller."
"Starkiller? Are you sure that is not Starsaver?" Bora jokes
"If I used a name like that, I would need to change the black." Hector jokes too, looking at his menacing attire. "And I look good in black."
The Ul'lula'ns laugh. Their lamprey-like mouths opening and closing creepily, but the translator chip expresses that they are amused without a problem.
"But we really need to reward you." Bora gets a little more serious
"We insist."
"We can't let anyone out there think that Ul'lula'ns can repay a debt."
At this point, Hector understands that it is more than being nice. It's about reputation, too. Even if he doesn't care and wants to follow in his heroes' footsteps, it would be for the better if he accepted.
"Well, if you insist…" He looks around thinking "What about some trinkets? A little of every mineral that you guys have. The local specialty!" he exclaims and then raises his arms harmlessly, "Not enough to make any weapon. Just a nail size is enough to put in my collection."
"Oh, so you are one of those…"
"Can't blame him, I have my mineral collection even before I leave the nursery."
"We all had."
Hector laughs with them, relieved that they took his interest as a hobby. Minerals are Ul'lula's way of life, so of course, they are huge "Geology Nerds". And nerds like sharing their interests with like-minded people.
They also obviously never worried that just small samples would become a problem, even if their resources are depleting. Like with Earth's ecological problem, it is something that will only extinct them in many years in the future.
They have been working on migration alternatives for a long time already.
What they don't know is that for Hector, a small sample is enough. They are not stingy with it and even shared some "secret" minerals that they kept heavily guarded and very close to their slimy bodies.
'Trying to profit a little even when doing good… That is my way of life.' Hector smiles in his mind 'And to think this questline started with a simple exploration? Is this Skyrim?'
'Whatever… Now it is over, right? Right??'
...….
It was not. Trying to go back, he was attacked by Space Criminals 8 times while doing a little scouting around this quadrant.
But his patience was too thin, and he destroyed them quickly before things escalated and develop in another "arc".
"I'm not diverging my route and ending up on Sakkar or Xandar! Nope!" He denies the quest before entering the hyperspace route back to his Solar System.
...
A.N.:Hello there.
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