Chapter 12: Desmend vs Eliza! The Trickster Is Out

The next morning

Desmend cranes his head up and spits out some gravel before looking at the voices in front of him. He sees three figures, two tall dwarven men and a small, dark-skinned girl, all standing a cautious distance away. Behind them is a spiky-haired salesman in what appears to be some sort of food stand: coconuts or something. What stands out more is the fashion. The small girl is in some kind-of-out of place overall get-up with long brown hair under a floppy hat, and the two men are dressed even wilder.

The man on the left has muted red hair with a lopsided bang, dressed in a full formal jade-coloured uniform. The man on the right seems to have a permanent scowl underneath his short black hair and is dressed in a full black trench and slacks despite the beating Aurarock sun. This grumpy faced guy reminded Desmend of a mobster, but he looked oddly familiar.

“This town is pretty awesome... Eliza is so going to kill me later,” the king thought as he could picture Eliza's rage-filled lecture and beating. And his prediction was correct.

“I’M... GOING TO BEAT YOU WHERE YOU...STAND!!!” Eliza said in rage and threw a harsh glare before taking one more step towards Desmend and the twins.

“Sorry mate, I won’t get in the way this rage incarnate,” Harry said next to the fuming woman.

“You just had to jinx yourself, Desmend,” the South African boy mumbled to himself.

“Now hold on, I don’t know who you are, lady... I was just with my twin siblings out on a-.” Before Desmend could finish, a large purple figure burst from beside Eliza, fist careening towards Desmend’s midsection. Fighting instinct kicking in, Desmend dodges to the right where the fist hit a food stand. The pure speed of the blow crashes directly into and through the shopkeeper food stand. A loud “RA” bellows from the purple spectral figure, and the force of a dump truck rams the food stand back at least 20 feet into a palm tree. Wood, splinters, and cabbages scatter across the walkway.

“My cabbages!” the shopkeeper cries in horror.

“This isn’t good; Eliza is doing Jojo shit to me. I could barely manage to runway from her yesterday; who knows what else she has on her. I really doubt that it’s like Jojo, but it seems like there is more to it. But there’s only one way out…

“RUNAWAY!” Desmend screams at the top of his lungs as he sprints away down the rocky path, shocking everyone with this random burst act. Grabbing the twins’ arms, Desmend keeps shouting. “MAKE WAY, DANGEROUS FEMALE EX BEHIND ME, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY! SHE IS CRAZY! CRA CRA!! MAD IN THE HEAD, I TELLS YA!! BUT HAS AN AMAZING RACK...!! ASS FOR DAYS!”

In the distance, Eliza stares, stunned at the running man, oblivious to the crowd watching the display.

Harry nervously shuffles a step away from Eliza, who turns and glares at him. The air grows tense, and Harry’s confidence seems to melt a bit. Just as Harry goes to speak, a random guard speaks up, “So, um... Lady Eliza, is that your boy?”

“No...” Eliza’s tone is humourless and cutting. “Harry, go get the healers... I’ll go... after the broken man.” Harry’s eyes glaze a bit, but they snap back into focus a fraction of a second later. “Right, Princess. I’ll wait for you to get back. I’ll make sure to have them ready.” Then, with a flick of her coat, Eliza casts one last scorching glare back at the hastily retreating figure of her sister’s personal knight.

Time passes…

“I may be hedging my bets here, but I think I might have lost her,” Desmend thought. “But that still...”

Up ahead, just before the warehouse building on the outskirts of the dry dock complex, a weathered wall stood in the way. It was about eight feet high, with brick and barbed wire guarding against intruders.

“Perfect. I have been jumping fences since I was seven. So it should be no problem.

Desmend focuses his breath and lands a foot square on the wall ahead, intending to launch himself up and over. He unknowingly got a boost from his inner Vespa energy, which thrust him into the air. However, a burning pain surges through his entire spine. He gasps out, breath-stopping short and the twinge of pain throwing off his trajectory. In the fraction of the second it takes to twist himself around midair, Desmend sees that he has essentially lobbed himself perfectly so that he’ll land directly on the wire. Ahead of him is the backside of the warehouse, an old window directly in front of him, if about twelve feet away. Time begins to slow around him, the wire below him tauntingly awaiting his landing.

“Oh, come on. I survive racists, vengeful fathers, the government, and my mother, only to die on some barbed wire. But, hell, even if I live, I’m not going back home with a nasty belly scar; I’ve worked too hard on this figure for it to go to waste. If I could just reach… that window.”

Desmend left arm strains as he tries desperately to reach for something to pull him over. He doesn’t have enough time to unwrap his scarf to grab onto anything, and his short shirt doesn’t cover enough to provide protection. He looks down, teeth clenched and eyes wide. Yet his vision gets yanked with the rest of his body, being pulled towards the warehouse window. His eyes follow his left arm towards his hand, which is gripping a golden rope. He sees the rope has extended and wrapped itself around some exposed rebar beside the window.

His arc guides him right between the first and second stories, and his feet are firmly planted on the wall like a rappeler’s. Desmend turns and smirks before seeing the black dot behind him has gotten bigger and has started to gain ground. He panics and starts to look for a way down, but a voice authoritatively shouts out below him. “Hey, you, get off that wall and come down with your hands up! This is a restricted site, authorized personnel only!” The voice below is a gruff army man, dressed in a brightly coloured green camouflage armour, clearly guardsmen from this town. However, the military man is unarmed and appears to have been taking a leak behind this warehouse.

"No hablo ingles, lo siento!" Desmend begins to pull himself and the twins up and into the building, the rope doing an incredible job of holding their weight.

He can hear the man below zipping and shuffling below as he shouts, “‎Get down here!” Desmend does not understand him at all.

Desmend crashes into the dusty glass, sending shards skittering across the worn concrete floor ahead. The area around appears to be an upper-level storage deck, where one would see smaller boxes stored instead of racks and pallets on the main floor below.

“Mr Desmend, there is the Javelin we talked about!” Lassras pointed to a closet door.

It certainly looked like a closet.

But Desmend opened the only to find it was much, much bigger than that.

A blue and red Javalin.

“Nice~” Desmend complimented the armour in front of him.

“Get down here... Chosen One!” the brunette’s rage-filled voice can be heard from a distance.

“This...could end badly.”

“That lady is sure is mad,” states Thaldal, saying the obvious.

“I have ten minutes, give or take, if I can make my way downstairs and set up something for her. I need to test out these ropes, too; there’s no way I can take her head-on. Now, let’s look around and see if we can prepare for the guest.”

Eliza had stopped running ever since she saw the Chosen One vault the wall ahead. Now, she is merely calmly walking towards the complex before her. A trap is waiting for her, without a doubt. However, the Chosen One seemed weak, so there’s no chance he would stand a chance against her shadow body ability.

But the use of Vespa he just showed changes things. She was going to wait until the king finished fixing the money problems of the kingdom first before teaching him Vespa, the warrior energy.

Through self-controlled respiration, a person trained in the Vespa technique can produce an energy identical to the energy of the magic, which manifests throughout their body. This energy can be used in a wide range of techniques.

Eliza circles the building, being cautious but wholly unstealthy as she shuffles her way across the weathered asphalt. Her eyes aren’t panicked in the slightest, but still diligently checking the corners of each building and pathway. The surrounding buildings seem like they’re in similar disrepair and devoid any of patrolling guards. The far side of the warehouse has a rusted double door, with boarded-up windows adorning each side on both floors. She presses his ear against the door, only to notice the right door is slightly ajar. There doesn’t seem to be any wires or tampering with the door, the rust seemingly preventing it from shutting closed on its own.

She doesn’t recognize this building at all.

“Waiting outside is too... disadvantageous. Grandfather’s guards will get here ...soon, and that bastard... seems like the type to function better with more prep time. Better to end... this quickly and directly than let him get set up.”

The fourth youngest sister made her plan.

Without hesitation, Eliza solidly kicks the door open near the decayed handle. The door swings wide, falling off the top hinge as it collides with the interior wall. Halfway through the door’s arc, a rather heavy-looking metal rod falls down and clatters onto the concrete floor.

“Setting up a trap on the... door frame? What a fool... crushing him will be... most pleasant.”

“Good grief…” Eliza mumbles to herself at the childishness of the supposed trap. She peers in as far as she can into the darkness, trying to get as much information as possible before stepping in. “Chosen one... I know you here. Give it up, you’re not getting away again... Come back and do your job... or I’ll crack your jaw with my fist.” The warehouse is strangely silent, minus the occasional drip of water into a puddle.

“Where is that cu-UGLY man!”

Eliza slowly steps through the now open door and sees rows of empty metal racking extending deep into the warehouse. The room is dark minus some light pouring in from the door behind him, some scattered holes in the worn ceiling, and the broken window on the balcony to the rear of the facility. The candles lit a path toward a section.

Her shadow clone, Double Star, manifests beside her, and with a quick snap of his shoulder grips and crushes a support to one of the racks in front of her. With a follow-up punch to the centre, the heavy chunk of metal topples it towards the depths of the room. One racking collides with another, and they begin to domino their way in through the middle of the warehouse. Eliza hears some clattering coming from the back left of the building, shoes rushing across the concrete. She stands her ground, no need to rush in any further.

After a second or two passes, she sees a glint of light as something small careens towards him. Double Star easily swats it away with a piece of metal it wrenches from a nearby rack. Still, the mystery object seems to electrify both the metal and Double Star’s hand on contact. Regardless, the projectile is deflected and embedded into a nearby wall.

The stoic woman looks are at her right hand in shock. The fact that he managed to even hurt even her a little bit screams on just how much of a monster he is starting to turn into.

“This because of the dragon egg?”

She shakes it off as she sees a figure materialized from the darkness about 15 feet in front and to her left. The Chosen One, one eye closed and finger-wagging. “Didn’t your mother teach you to not bite off more than you can chew? Dama Fuerte.”

Eliza didn’t know why, but for some odd reason, being praised by the Chosen One in that strange language caused some sort of mysterious warmth to form within her chest. Doesn’t help when that bastard is switching back to that accent!

“This bastard... has a mouth on him... I intend to break it, then make him... do the entire worker’s guild’s paperwork for a year!

“Shut up, you ...you bastard.” Eliza’s arm flexes as she clenches her fist in annoyance, and Double Star responds in kind by readying a blow. But before her shadow clone can lunge, the Chosen One makes a small leap back and clicks his tongue tauntingly. “Nuh-uh, none of that punchy business. As long as I stay this far away, you can’t hit me, right?”

The area around the Chosen One glows, and sparks appear on his arms. “Now I get that you want to punch this handsome face, but I kinda need to get laid and not pay for my meals, so how about we chat from a nice, safe, respectable distance, momma’s boy?” Without even opening his mouth, Jotaro simply tightens his glare. “Let’s deal! If you win, I will do whatever you want. And if when I win, you are going to do the paperwork for the dwarven people in my place and must wear a sexy, skimpy, combat french maid uniform. And all I have to do is make you say, ‘This battle is over or something’. “Desmend finished with a mocking grin on his face.

“I’m breaking.... his jaw! I’ll pin him... to the wall if I have to.”

“Okay, so, time for plan Sexy Eliza.” He had already laid out the plan in his head. It was ‘Get The Hell Out of Here and Lure This Brunette To The Cental Room’. As far as Desmend could tell, his future teacher/maid was getting surprised by his powers. Her Jojo knockoff also has incredible strength and eyesight because he used to be on a pitcher in high school, and his fastball is quite fast.

“Since I’m a guy and she is a girl, Eliza should be pissed off by now.”

Desmend heads straight for the open space he found and gets ready to beat his teacher. He puts on the red and blue Javelin armour and waits for the angry brunette.

“Chosen One!” calls Eliza from a distance. “Just so you know... I’m not gonna hold back!” she says as she enters the space with a Warhammer in hand.

“Well, that’s new,” Desmend thinks as he studies the woman with a giant Warhammer and wearing her own javelin. A large black n’ yellow bipedal armour that can take quite a beating.

The South African knew for a fact that Eliza wasn’t messing around. So maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all...

He looks around in the hopes of finding some way out of the situation.

Unfortunately, all he found were the curious stares of the twins and the judgmental glare of his future teacher.

Usually, he’d rather wait than do something like this.

Eliza has years of experience, and the fact she is somehow able to use something that is way bigger than her Warhammer without any trouble.

Desmend, on the other hand, has only used a javelin armour just once. Which is right now.

“Roll with the punches, and aim for the bushes; life is what you make of it.” Desmend doubts he can run away now.

Desmend took a few moments to breathe in and out. The marks on his arms glow and stretch out his arm. The armour shifts as though it were an extension of his own limbs and moves almost as quickly as he did.

Almost.

He has no idea if this was a testing model or not.

Testing models are very crappy, after all.

He took a step. He closed his eyes, breathed in, breathed out. He closed and opened his fist, trying to relax and let the armour work properly. He could do this, He could do this, he could-!

“Desmend, you are ready?” inquired Lass, ready to call the start. Ichika nodded.

“Mad lady, you ready?” She also asked Eliza, making him laugh and take up a Ginga-boxing stance.

“Go!”

Eliza got the first attack. She dashes toward Desmend, the weight of her hammer not slowing her down. If she ends this quickly, she’d be able to help correctly teach Desmend how to use a Javelin after she beats him until he begs for mercy. Then, all she had to do was make sure Desmend couldn’t fight-!

No one counted on Desmend’s speed. The Chosen One snatched Eliza both in that weird dance-like stance of his and followed with a Meia Lua de Frente (half-moon in front).

“Damn!” Desmend cheered at seeing how far that girl flew after his kick. He is soooo keeping this. “Jump now!”

He wonders briefly but nevertheless does an extended hop mid-stride. He feels something whoosh under his feet as the lights dim just as the projectile passes under him. No doubt, Eliza was waiting for him when his guard was down, with whatever was obviously aimed at his nice legs.

Eliza then came in for another attempt. This time, Desmend didn’t counter but began to use his fists and kicks.

The twins and the people that had just arrived watched in awe.

“My king is fighting with Eliza and is somehow not dead after three seconds,” Harry said with a smile on his face. “That maid is so going owe me money after this.”

Desmend’s instinct immediately kicked in, and he caught his aggressor's hammer just as she was about to crash her right arm, locking each other into a tight struggle.

Eliza was taken aback by his strength for a second. And just let the action take in her head for a second.

An opening!

Desmend seized his chance and began to punch with the technique of every boxer he had ever seen.

All that time he spent watching Megas XLR, and Tony Jaa was finally paying off. All the time in classes and fighting, his brother and friends are about to pay off big time!

Desmend unleashed the three-box-combo to the body! Along with low kicks and knee strikes to the areas where she dropped her guard.

Eliza was stunned, reeling back only to have Desmend march right up and continue kicking her relentlessly! Eliza reeled back as Desmend pressed his advantage. Desmend deployed his lifepath only weapon, a high-frequency blade shaped as a Katana.

He couldn't stop grinning for days when he found out that he had a god. Damn. Lightsabre!!

The duo began to exchange blows as they clashed with their weapons of choice.

Desmend was doing his best to make sure he could counterEliza’ss attacks rather than try to get ahead. ““Good grief...! I knew the Chosen One had prior training before coming here, but he shouldn't be this strong. It's not like he is stronger or fast, but his moves are getting harder to read the more we clash,” Eliza thought. Before she could make any attempt to salvage the situation, however, the Chosen One spoke up once again.

“Hm? I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that”” the man said; the dwarven halfling can tell he is grinning.“Could you repeat what you said for me, please? Maybe in a language I actually understand? I mean, I can tell what your thinking’’ but I have to warn you” Suddenly, before the demon instructor of the knights could react, the man kicked her away and pointed at her. “I don't like what I hear, andI’lll kick your ass sideways! Or more like spank it when I get you in that maid dress,” Desmend taunted Eliza. If this worked on her goddamn tsundere dominatrix tomboy, then it would work on her sister as well. He just makes to avoid her punches. Clementine's strikes on his body still hurt. “Did you not learn!? Allow me to teach you!!” she snaps, stopping her weird way of speaking for the moment, gripping her Warhammer tightly and rushing forward, ready to put him in the hospital. The king doesn't need his legs to rule!

Desmend made no motion to move as he was ready for the angry gorgeous brunette. Eliza raises her weapon for a finisher. The wind-up gave Desmend exactly the opening and timing he needed.

Eliza swung her hammer upon Desmend. But suddenly, the Chosen One vanished from everyone sight. “What!” everyone yelled in shock. “Bitch..” a voice said behind her. He then wrapped his arms around Eliza's torso, knowing full well how to finish. Sending pulsing Vespa energy to his legs, he jumps 20 feet into the air. It's a huge warehouse.

Desmend angles his body backwards, bringing his soon to be maid instructor down, and performs a demolishing jumping spiral German Suplex! “...LASAGNA OVERDRIVE.”

*BOOM*

A sudden explosion causes a surprisingly large amount of smoke sending forth a shockwave that nearly knocks over the watching audience. The entire situation seems rather comical, really. I mean, a suplex then exploding? How is that not funny? “ARRGH”

However, what everyone saw when the smoke cleared up was anything but comical. “M-My... MY HAND...” Desmend yelled out in agony, tightly clutching onto his right hand, or rather, what was left of it. When the smoke from the explosion cleared up, Eliza (who was unharmed by the move) and everyone else is horrified to see the Chosen One clutching desperately onto a stump where his right hand used to be. The explosion from the Vespa charged move apparently blew the poor guy's handoff. Their reactions to his severed hand were as followed: “OHDEARLORDSHELOSTHISHANDWHATDOWEDOGUYS!” Lassras cried in horror.

“THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MESS WITH VESPA, YOU BUFFOON! OHH WHY'D THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME!? TANGERINE IS GOING TO KILL ME! THIS MATCH IS OVER,” Eliza bellows, entirely breaking her speech pattern. Unfortunately, this count as a loss for Eliza.

“GET OVER THERE, YOU MORONS! THIS MAN IS IN URGENT NEED OF MEDICAL ATTENTION,” Harry yelled at the dwarven healers.

“...is perfectly fine”, Desmend finishes offhandedly, causing everyone to freeze during their respective freakouts before looking towards him slowly. When he saw that all eyes were on him, the trickster of the Dylan family brought his “stum” in front of everyone and surprised all of them when his balled-up fist suddenly popped out of nowhere.

He was still wearing armour. “That was just a little joke of mine. I just pulled my fist into my sleeve at the last second, see” As an explanation for what he did, Desmend brought his hands in front of everyone and made it look like he was removing his thumb. A little trick the Dylan was quite proud of.

For a very brief moment, none of the none could do a thing. They were just too shocked and the sheer absurdity of the guy in front of them that they were rendered speechless for an ever so brief moment. However, once their wits returned to them, the following happened.

The eight-year girl practically deflated to her knees in relief, along with the healers... and Eliza's maternal grandfather.

The eight-year boy just stared on in shock. The knight that was yelling at the healers’’ struggles on whether to strangle Desmend or praise him for breaking Eliza weird speech thing.

It got really annoying sometimes.

And the girl with the brown hair proceeds to scream down Desmend’ss ear. She also removes her helmet. “A JOKE!? THAT'S YOUR DEFINITION OF A JOKE!? AND WHAT FUCKING SLEEVE!? YOU'RE WEARING A JAVELIN!! HOW IN THE EVERYTHING GOOD AND STONE ARE YOU ABLE TO THAT!”

“Since you said the match was over, that means I won,” says Desmend with a cocky smile after taking off his helmet, ignoring the brunette's ranting.“I will give the paperwork after I talk about the tax reforms for this city! I win, Dama Fuerte,” The Chosen said the last part with a cheer, not noticing

Eliza just stares hotly at the man, her face blushing like a damn maiden in one of those steamy books her sisters have. This doesn't change what her aura is saying:

I will hurt you badly and painfully.

While Desmend had no doubt that he could likely take down one or five angry women with no real difficulty, but an irate, fierce, fire burning aura Eliza who has that purple thing with her now, could prove to be a real problem. And so, the Dylan decided that for the time being, he would rely on his emergency technique until he could come up with something better. ‘“Time to put my ultimate move to good use.”

With this in mind, Desmend immediately turned around 180 degrees and sprinted full-on to a wall while channelling all of his Vespa to his legs and kicking the wall down. “Later gators”

Legend would go in history as the day when the Chosen One yelled at the top of his lungs away from a very beautiful brunette. It's also the day Eliza reputation of being emotionless come to an end.

The Database

Creature Name: Eliza Aucrulethen

Species: Human/Dwarf

Class: Warlord

Stats:

Magic: E

Vespa: A

Destructive power: A

Speed: A

Range: D

Durability: A+

Precision: B

Developmental potential: S

Eliza is the fourth daughter of the Aucrulethen Kingdom and is the grandfather of Ruldraic Wraitharm. She trains the knights in Vespa and is a great warrior. Eliza is rather tall for dwarf and fair-skinned. She appears as a beautiful woman in her late 20’ss to early’30ss. She is slender in frame yet exceptionally voluptuous with long shapely legs, wide hips, round rear, slim waistline, and a considerably well-endowed bosom. She has brown eyes and flowing short brown hair that reaches her neck and bangs that hang over her face. Eliza is one of the most severe and emotionless members of the sisters. She rarely shows any emotions other than surprise and always keeps a melancholic face. She believes keeping emotions in control is important for battle and that losing one's temper will dull one's skills. At times, usually involving Desmend, she can be a bit naive and easily flustered. Eliza wields the unique ability of a shadow clone called ‘‘Double Star’’ a figure that mimics Eliza moments or can separate from her with a basic reach of only 2 meters fromEliza’ss body, but with incredible strength, speed, and precision.