Ayeka frowned at Ryoko. Yet again, that pirate had dared to insult her.
Yet again, they would fight. And yet again, Tenchi would complain about
the holes blasted in the fields.
A minor loss, if there was any chance of banishing that demon.
******
Ryoko floated away from Ayeka. Once again, the princess could not
handle the obvious truth. Once again, they would fight. And once
again, Tenchi would complain about the holes blasted in the fields.
Which would sting her deeply, but perhaps she could gain favor by
pointing out that she kept the fight away from the house.
******
Azaka and Kamidake were too far away to help, so Ayeka formed tiny
replicas of her guardians. A slight exertion of will, a flare of
energy, and the mini-guardians popped into existence full-formed. Their
patterns were of children, and children they would remain for their
short lives. As each one came on line, it formed a mental link with
Ayeka.
She refused to think of it as giving birth. These were not her
children, even if they were formed completely by her. They were slaves,
minions, serfs - sentient beings created to serve her, and to die once
their task was finished.
******
Ryo-ohki was too far away to help, so Ryoko snapped her energies into
battle mode. A thought, and energy blades were in both hands. She felt
the wind blow past these extensions of herself, just as she would feel
any surface they struck. No pain would come to her if they broke: she
fell for that trick once, many centuries ago, and quickly learned to
limit the sensory feedback as a result. But they would report any
weaknesses that she could angle them against.
The blades had a limited intelligence. If absolutely necessary, they
could fly without her control for short periods of time before either
re-integrating with her or dissipating. Most of the time, though, this
intelligence was just used for remote processing of their data, so
Ryoko's core brain was not overwhelmed by the new sensory information.
******
Ryoko hesitated for once, so Ayeka sent her soldiers on the attack.
Each one knew its position in formation; some would probably die as
Ryoko whacked away at them, but they would buy time for the others to
get through. Each was no more than a cog in Ayeka's machine.
******
Ryoko paused, assessing Ayeka's strategy from Ryoko's eyes, the
perceptions of the tips of her blades, and many other viewpoints. The
machine-like uniformity of her shell of guardian logs presented no weak
spots, or rather a pattern of weak spots so that no general angle of
attack was better than any other. And sure enough, when they attacked,
they came as a blanket with no way out - except for teleportation.
******
Ayeka quickly broadcast a query to her minions, for their many eyes
would find where Ryoko teleported to faster than her own pair could.
One of them told her of the pirate's reappearance behind her just in
time for Ayeka to duck a savage swing. She sent the cloud of guardians
at Ryoko while tumbling away.
******
Teleportation was simple: appropriate the space between here and there,
bind it into one for just a moment, then slide on through before it came
apart. She knew where Ayeka was relative to her destination; the scent
of flesh reported by her leading blade was old news to the pirate who
came out of the teleport swinging. This was not the first time that
Ryoko wondered how Ayeka sensed something behind her in time to dodge,
but the blade's disappointment at missing its target was Ryoko's own.
There was little time to ponder this, since Ayeka's drone cloud came
swarming at Ryoko again. A quick thought sent one blade spinning in
front of her like a shield, chipping and then mulching the projectiles.
When all that remained was modified sawdust, Ryoko again sought out her
target.
******
Ayeka came out of her roll just in time to feel the links closing down.
Her subjects were incapable of rebelling - she created them to be loyal
unto death - so it could only be death that was shutting them down. Not
shedding a single tear for the massacre of her army, Ayeka snapped
another one into existence before Ryoko could close.
******
And the battle continued...