Chloe had managed to arrive just in time to save Z, which was good! Very good, actually. The only problem was that Administrator A was still alive and kicking, which was considerably less good. Chloe tightened her arms around Z for a moment before helping her back onto her feet, her eyes flicking toward the Head Administrator as he slowly emerged from the aftermath of Liz's attack. "Z! Do you have a plan?"
Z shook her head, looking exhausted as she steadied herself. "I... have something that might work, but I need you and Liz to buy me time."
Liz snorted, folding her arms as though the prospect of buying time from someone who had just nearly killed Z was hardly worth mentioning. "I can buy you a lot more than just that, but yeah, I'll help out."
Chloe blinked, then smiled. "Okay! Then we'll do that."
She kept one arm around Z, helping her remain upright as they turned toward Administrator A. He was already walking back toward them, seemingly unfazed by being hurled across the room moments earlier. His gaze settled on Liz, and his expression hardened. "I will remember what you did to me."
Liz's lips curled into a smug smile. "I hope so. It was a pretty good move on my part."
Chloe couldn't help but grin at that. Liz certainly seemed proud of herself, and honestly, Chloe couldn't blame her. She had just smacked a ridiculously powerful administrator around with a giant tentacle. That was pretty cool.
Chloe looked back toward Administrator A and noticed that he was, like, way shinier than before. Seriously, a lot shinier. The strange bluish energy surrounding his body had intensified into this ridiculously bright glow, and it was so intense that Chloe had to squint just to look at him. He looked like an angry star or something, and Chloe was pretty sure that in situations like this, getting dramatically shinier usually meant getting stronger too, which was, uh... not ideal.
Before Chloe could worry about that too much, Z suddenly stepped away from her and spread her wings, flying backward to put some distance between herself and Administrator A. The moment she did, Administrator A raised a hand and pointed a single finger directly at her.
Chloe had absolutely no idea what he was planning. And that was precisely why she wasn't taking any chances. "Z, look out!"
Chloe lunged forward, throwing herself between them as she rushed to tackle Administrator A. But his finger shifted. It was suddenly pointing directly at her. Chloe's eyes widened as she realized that she might be getting blasted instead soon. Oh, darn.
A concentrated beam of energy tore through the air and struck Chloe. Just like that, a massive hole had been punched straight through her stomach. Chloe's eyes went wide as she stared down at the enormous wound. "Dang it."
Well, that sucked. Chloe barely managed to keep herself up as her body desperately struggling to regenerate the damage.
"Chloe!"
Liz's voice rang out, followed by a barrage of dark energy. Chloe glanced over and saw Liz standing off to the side as she fired blast after blast at Administrator A. The dark bolts tore across the chamber and exploded against the weird bluish aura surrounding him, but he didn't even flinch. Every attack just shattered against his defenses, fading into little wisps of dark energy that definitely looked way less impressive than they had a second ago.
Chloe wanted to cheer Liz on since she was doing great! But, she was also kinda busy dealing with the giant hole in her stomach and making sure her insides stayed where they belonged. Luckily, Z was doing exactly what she'd promised and keeping Administrator A occupied, buying Chloe those few precious seconds she needed for her body to heal.
It took just a few more seconds before the wound in Chloe's stomach healed completely. Chloe glanced down. "Yay, all better!"
She then spread her wings and flew back toward the fight. Administrator A was still standing there, Liz's attacks continuing to break harmlessly against his aura. Finally, time for me to try and blast this guy into next Tuesday.
Lightning erupted from Chloe's fingertips, tearing across the chamber before slamming directly into Administrator A and wrapping him in crackling electricity. Chloe's eyes lit up. "Yes!"
Chloe was pretty sure she'd totally gotten him. But then the energy around Administrator A suddenly shifted. Chloe's smile slowly faded as she realized the lightning wasn't disappearing. It was... moving, and it was moving a lot.
Administrator A raised one hand, and the electricity began bending around his body as though he'd somehow grabbed hold of the entire current. Then, right before Chloe's eyes, the whole stream twisted around and started rushing straight back toward her.
Chloe's eyes went wide. Wait, what?
She barely had time to react before her own attack slammed straight into her. The redirected lightning slammed into Chloe hard and sent her flying. Her entire body convulsed as electricity surged through her, and she went tumbling through the air before crashing hard against the floor.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Chloe kinda just stayed there for a while, then she groaned. "Okay... definitely don't do that again."
Thankfully, Chloe didn't really feel pain, so she pushed herself back onto her feet and shook off the lingering sparks crawling across her body. Her eyes quickly returned to the battlefield, and she saw how Liz was still fighting.
She had moved into close combat with Administrator A, hurling blasts of dark energy at him whenever she could create an opening. The attacks exploded against his bluish aura, forcing him to block and deflect them rather than just ignoring them.
Then Liz formed a weapon of her own, dark energy gathering in her hands and twisting into the shape of a staff before she gripped it and swung at Administrator A, forcing him to conjure a glowing sword of light to block the attack. The two weapons collided with a violent burst of energy as Liz immediately swung again, only for him to parry, then again, and this time he countered, forcing Liz to keep moving as Chloe watched for a moment, honestly pretty impressed.
Liz was actually holding him off. But sadly, she was also slowly being pushed backward. Every exchange forced Liz to give up a little more ground. Administrator A's movements were precise and relentless, his glowing sword cutting through the air with frightening speed. Liz managed to block each strike, but Chloe could see the strain in her movements.
Chloe frowned because she knew that Liz needed to help. But charging straight at him hadn't worked. And she was pretty sure getting another giant hole punched through her stomach wasn't going to accomplish much either. So… maybe it was time to try a little sneak attack. Okay, Chloe. Think sneaky.
The world around her seemed to distort as her physical form faded, her presence slipping away until there was nothing left for the eye to see. Her Wraith Form rendered her invisible, allowing Chloe to disappear completely from sight.
She crouched low and started moving as she crept around the battlefield, staying as far from Administrator A as possible while keeping an eye on his fight with Liz. Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice her at all.
She continued circling around him, gradually closing the distance until she was practically right behind him, close enough that she could probably reach out and poke him, which she was really tempted to do, but Chloe knew she had priorities this time around, so she held herself back. Administrator A suddenly swung his glowing sword at Liz again, and while she managed to block the strike, the impact still forced her several steps backward.
If Chloe was going to hit Administrator A, she might as well make it hurt. Chloe thought through everything she had available to her. Then she remembered one of the skills she'd obtained after eating Sabine's brain. Power Surge.
Chloe tilted her invisible head slightly as she tried to remember the skill, vaguely recalling that she'd seen it before, although whether she'd actually bothered to read the description was another question entirely, because... maybe she had? Probably not, but whatever, the name was pretty self-explanatory anyway, and considering she needed a lot more power right now, it seemed like a pretty good time to give it a shot. She watched Liz narrowly block another slash from Administrator A's glowing sword, then finally decided there was no point waiting around any longer and activated the skill.
She felt the effect of the skill almost instantly as her invisible body flickered back into view and an intense burst of electricity erupted across her entire body, lightning crawling over her arms, dancing across her wings, and crackling wildly around her legs, with little sparks occasionally jumping from her fingertips and leaving tiny scorch marks on the floor. Chloe felt... amazing!
Her entire body practically buzzed with energy as her muscles suddenly felt lighter and more responsive, while an almost ridiculous wave of excitement rushed through her that reminded her of eating way too much sugar and somehow still having energy left over, making her bounce lightly on her feet as she realized she wanted to run, fly, jump around, and, preferably, punch Administrator A really, really hard. She was practically vibrating with energy when Administrator A suddenly turned toward her.
Chloe smiled. "Hi!"
Administrator A barely had time to react before Chloe shot directly toward him, twisting her body and driving her fist upward with all the power she could muster, the punch connecting squarely beneath his jaw with a thunderous crack. The impact sent a violent shockwave through the air as Administrator A's head snapped backward, his feet leaving the ground as the sheer force of Chloe's uppercut launched him high into the air.
***
Liz could only stare. She had seen Chloe fight, and she knew the girl was pretty decent in a fight, but this was something else entirely. Administrator A had barely finished recovering from the uppercut when Chloe was already on him again, her body blurring as she shot through the air and drove a fist into his ribs with enough force to send him sideways, only for her to vanish from his immediate vicinity and reappear above him a second later, her heel crashing down against his shoulder and sending him plummeting toward the floor. Administrator A twisted in midair and tried to recover, but Chloe was already there, slamming into him from the side and knocking him across the chamber before accelerating after him, lightning streaming behind her. Liz's eyes widened as Chloe caught up and unleashed another flurry of punches, each one landing with a deafening crack as Administrator A was knocked backward again and again, his glowing body bouncing through the air as Chloe practically treated him like a punching bag.
"What?" Liz muttered, her staff lowering slightly as she watched in stunned disbelief. She couldn't even follow Chloe properly anymore; all she could see were flashes of movement, bursts of electricity, and the occasional glimpse of Chloe's smug looking face before she disappeared again. One moment Chloe was above Administrator A, driving both feet into his chest, the next she was beneath him, launching another uppercut that sent him soaring back toward the ceiling, and before he could even reach it, Chloe had already flown past him, spun around, and kicked him straight back down.
Liz's jaw practically hung open as Administrator A tried desperately to defend himself, raising his glowing sword to block one attack only for Chloe to strike from another direction, forcing him to twist around just in time to avoid losing his head, then immediately catching a punch to the stomach that folded him over. Chloe didn't let up for even a second, hammering him with another punch, then another, then a knee to the ribs before grabbing him by the shoulder and throwing him across the room, only to chase after him and slam him into the wall before he could recover. The entire chamber seemed to shake with every impact as Chloe bounced around him with ridiculous speed, her laughter occasionally echoing as she apparently had the time of her life beating the absolute daylights out of Administrator A.