Tango

Double Cross

After their conversation was over, Vusician and Desoakian alike took little time before starting their climb by their own separate sides: Hernando thanks to ledges and vines and Chi thanks to something the lapine male couldn't see, but he figured she was using the tree's ridges as well. She'd given fairness as her reason for having helped him at all, but he couldn't help himself from feeling like she knew more about him than he knew about her: for starts, he had no clue what had happened to her last opponent.

Not that he minded much, but it was somewhat unnerving nonetheless. However, her choice of them splitting paths and sticking to being opponents for the time being made things easier for him, as that meant he wouldn't have to confront her to find the teleporter first--just climb faster than she did. Which, even he had to admit, would have made a few people laugh given his shoulder issues.

However, that didn't stop him from giving his all, and soon he came across a much, much larger ridge that seemed to go around the entire inner bark of the tree, which stuck out so far away from the wall that it would have been impossible to climb on to if it wasn't for a conveniently-located hole on it just above him. It was jagged and splintered, so he guessed it wasn't natural, but he paid it little mind as he climbed through and stood up on the other side.

"Floor one!" announced Chi's voice from so far away that only her glowing marks told him where she was, and it clicked in his head that he was standing on one of the structures she'd speculated the tree would have. However, he figured they were a good three stories above ground level instead of just one. He approached the giant, natural gap in the middle, to take a look down--and he didn't need to see the floor below to feel dizzy.

However, he heard a noise on the wall near Chi, and by the time he'd lifted his gaze, she was already starting the climb for the next one--much to his chagrin.

He mumbled expletives as he rushed back to his climbing path, which seemed like the straightest path available, and he couldn't help but think that whoever had intended for them to climb the inner side of the tree had taken the time to study, and clear, every possible path. Unfortunately, in his engrossment he hadn't noticed the growing ache on his shoulder, and by the time he did he'd gotten too far up to even consider jumping down for a rest--so he bit his lower lip and braved the pain on his shoulder as he tried to pick his pace, doing his best to gather the strength needed to keep his shoulder from failing. 'Come on, come on, come on!' he thought to himself, and mentally cursed his lack of training: any other Captain from the military wouldn't have had any kind of trouble reaching his spot on the climbing, and as if to add insult to injury, Chi was about a dozen feet above him when he next checked up on her. All in all, he was at a huge disadvantage there, and he knew it.

"Nepenthe dammit . . . there's got to be a way," he groaned to himself, just as he struggled to climb onto the second story's ridge, ten minutes later. He quickly reached up for the next ridge, and it was then that he noticed a string the girth of a pencil sticking out of the bark. He followed it with his gaze, and froze in place a split second later.

"What the . . . is everything in this place oversized?!" he asked to no one as he noticed a spider at least twice his size crawling around on a web that he wouldn't have even noticed if it wasn't for the string before him, and that stretched from one end of the gap above him to the other.

"Hey, Hernando?" came the Vucisian's voice from the distance, and he snorted to himself as he looked over towards her. However, the glowing marks that served as his way of pinpointing her location stood still at what he guessed was the story's floor. He figured he knew what she wanted to talk to him about.

"Yes, ma'am?" he asked nonetheless, and he noticed the uppermost mark jerk a bit in his direction.

"I say we pause for now," she offered, and he didn't think twice before dropping down to walk over towards her. He didn't take too long to reach her, and he found her with her arms crossed and her gaze aimed up at the spider, which was now feasting on something that he guessed had been unfortunate enough to touch the web.

"I won't burn that web down in case the tree catches fire as well, but I'm not going to take that thing on by myself, either," she sternly said, and he tried to stifle a chuckle.

"Well, that is . . . unexpected," he commented, and the faint growl that came from the female brought a wide smirk to his face. "Alright then darling, what do you suggest we do?" he asked, and she shook her head a bit, changing her pose into a thoughtful one.

"I'm not sure. I could stab it from here, but that would still leave the web and, if I tried to cut it I'd just end up tangled with it instead," she said, and he figured by what he could see of her expression that she was just thinking out loud.

In a split second, he came up with a way to take advantage of her distraction--a plan to gain the upper hand. If he could get her to think that he wouldn't cooperate with her at all or worse, that he'd kill her, he was certain that he'd be able to force her into surrendering. It wouldn't be very difficult to convince her, given that he just knew that her knowledge of what had happened to the little creature from last round would have her biased against him. And she was wide open and distracted. He couldn't ask for a better shot.

'Now is your chance,' he told himself, but at the same time, he realized that if he took her out he'd have to deal with the web and spider problems by himself. Still, he figured it was better than having to struggle afterwards, so he quickly pulled out his machete and pressed it against the Vusician's throat. She looked at him with a puzzled expression, and he pulled the best bad guy face he could manage without letting his issues with his choice show through.

"Shut it," he said as soon as she opened her maw to interrupt her before she had the chance to say anything, and pressed the blade a bit harder to emphasize his words. He watched her blink a few times, but she finally closed her maw and nodded at him.

He did his best not to let relief show on his face after not having to carry through with his threat, but he couldn't stop surprise from mirroring itself on his face when she smiled and let out a soft giggle.

"What's so funny, ma'am?" he asked, and the smile on Chi's face widened considerably.

"Hernando, you do realize what you're doing right now, right?" she asked, giggling once again, and he furrowed a brow, more confused now than he was at first.

"What do you mean?" he asked, and she let out another giggle in response.

"Well . . . I guess you don't then," she said, sighing a bit. He looked on in ever-growing confusion. "Hernando," she started, lowering her gaze to gesture towards the machete on her throat, "this thing isn't an effective demon-slayer, so you wouldn't kill me even if you chose to carry out your threat. Now can we please stop goofing around and deal with the spider above us?" she asked while she pointed her thumb upwards, but he dropped his machete and took a step back instead, as several things he'd noticed about her clicked into place.

"You . . . are a demon?" he asked, fixing his gaze on her like a hawk on its prey, and she answered by furrowing a brow in confusion before raising them as she, too, realized a couple of things.

"Ah . . ." she said, chuckling a bit and reaching a hand up to scratch behind her back. "You're afraid of demons, I take it?" she asked, visibly trying to figure out how to diminish the impact of the fact. "Well . . . yeah . . . I am a demon. Doesn't make me very proud though!" she quickly added at the end to calm him down, and it was then that he noticed he'd sat down and his body had started trembling. So he quickly got back up and reached for his machete, only to realize that he'd dropped it and the female now stood between him and his weapon. He thought about climbing up, but the spider's web blocked his way, and the gap on the floor was too far above ground level to even consider leaping through. He was trapped.

"Stand back," he said, as he tried to figure out how to rid himself of the creature before him. "Stand back or I'll . . ." he started, but he cut himself off upon noticing the pity-filled expression that had taken over her face.

"Hernando? Hernando, listen . . ." she started, but he shook his head at her. He didn't want to hear a demon's words. Instead, he started side-stepping to try circling the female, in hopes that he could reach his weapon before she noticed. However, her eyes trailed down towards it before he did, and for a moment he felt his soul drop to his feet--only to catch a glimpse of hope when she just stepped away from it.

He rushed over towards it and picked it up in no time, turning around and wielding it against her--only to find her staring up at the web. However, convinced that at worst it was just a trick to make him lower his guard, or at best that she'd just distracted herself, he silently approached her, determined to at the least cause enough injuries on her to keep her from going after him.

"I think I just found our teleporter," she said, and even though he temporarily considered looking up, he still took that as his cue to leap at her with his machete's swing aimed for her throat.

She stepped away however, and gave him an offended stare when he turned to look at her once again.

"Hernando! I'm a demon yes, I get it, but this is going to take us nowhere!" she whimpered, but he chased after her instead, enraged by her dodge of his first attack, as if she'd meant to offend him by doing so.

This time however, she took a hold of the machete with a hand, and quickly punched the flat side of it--causing the blade to dent and, by extension, rendering it useless.

But he wasn't ready to give up, so as soon as she released the machete's blade and turned around, he used the weapon's handle to strike at the back of her head. It wasn't without a personal sense of satisfaction that he watched her body collapse to the ground.