Chương 56: Permission To Get Stronger

Ch. 56: Permission To Get Stronger Nelo began to run away.

"Wait!" yelled Kayla, "wait, where are you going!?" Nelo was stopped by a gargantuan foot. She fell backward on her rump. She picked herself up to see Kayla approach her, "I'm sorry,! I'm so sorry. I can't. I'll help you defend until another champ comes through. B-but…"

"We can't wait for that."

"Kayla, I'm an alpha. My weapon is a shield. The most I've ever managed to kill one on one was an elk with buzzsaws for horns. I'm not like you. You're a prodigy." Kayla wondered if she would have to tell Nelo the story about the ratatouille rat and if it would help at all. She got down on one knee. The beast was turning, and beginning its journey to the next building to destroy. Time was running out.

"Nelo. You're good enough."

"I'm not."

"I don't need you to believe it. I need you to act like it." Nelo shook her head shakily. The moon's pale light was blotted by the leg of the beast swiveling its enormous body. Kayla and Nelo both got out of there.

"You handle leonids on your own," Kayla said.

"I survived until someone got there. And my plan was to bring you back to do the rest. You solo'd a charlie core."

"Oh, that wasn't… we have to move to the front of the dungeon core. We're losing it. Come on!" Kayla grabbed Nelo by the hand and yanked her up. Kayla dragged her timid teammate to the middle of the street.

"Do you want to know how I solo'd that core!?" Kayla asked. Nelo said, "you were a charlie right out the gate. You were a prodigy. And you have 1. 2 million followers on Insta and a brand deal with Reebok 2 years ago. And you hung out with Zendaya once when you did the runway for…"

"Okay, wow. Did not expect you to know that much about me. Uhm, no. I solo'd that Charlie core because I didn't wait for anyone's permission to get stronger. Do you hear me?"

"Uhm, what does that have to do with Zendaya?" Kayla looked at Nelo for a second then sighed and said, "Zendaya was the one who taught me that." Nelo's eyes sparkled. She looked up at the giant core and said, "Okay, what's the plan?" Kayla said, "Give me another speedboost." Nelo slapped Kayla across the face. Kayla received the slap, mumbled, "Harder than last time but fine," Then she spit out some blood from her mouth. A red flare trickled around her skin. Kayla instantly felt like she was read for the gym.

She looked at Nelo and said, "That shield magnifies energy, right?" Nelo nodded and said, "Yes. But I need to redirect it in 10 seconds or else I take the damage."

"Then we have 10 seconds. Hold it up please. And brace yourself." Nelo held up her shield as Kayla took a step back. Then another step back. Then a few steps back.

"How many steps back do you need!?" Nelo asked. Kayla began swinging her hammer in a circle. She rotated once, twice, thrice, letting the hammer build up momentum and with each quick rotation getting closer and closer until the hammer connected with Nelo. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Nelo could only say, "I feel like this is the wrong time to ask but is there really nothing going on between you and- woah!"

The hammer hit Nelo in an upward direction and launched her toward the montabeest's leg. Speed, power, velocity, metal hitting metal allowed the hammer to produce a powerful vibrational attack that Nelo stored in her hammer for a crucial 10 seconds. 10 Nelo sailed into the air. Kayla slowed her circulation to a stop. She tried to take a few steps, but her brain felt like it was sloshing in her skull. She took a step forward but waited for her dizziness to clear.

9 Kayla stumbled forward and just as the montabeest's foot came down, Kayla took her hammer once again and smacked its toe like she was the living embodiment of a coffee table. 8 Nelo almost flung past the knee. She slid her arm though the straps of the shield and used two hands to grab onto knee hairs. Her body wobbled against the massive shin bone. She tried to rise up but the large leg jerked up from the hammer attack. 7 Nelo screamed as she rocketed toward the beast's chest.

She looked up and could see the montabeest's torso. Its adaptive qualities giving it a rocky chest plate. 6 Rock! Would the vibrations themselves be enough to pass through!? Would it need Kayla's hammer to smash it more? Would it need the piercing of a knife? The strength of someone actually strong? 5"You're running out of time, Nelo!" Kayla said it fast, breathlessly. Did the words even make it up to Nelo? Despite the shocking g-force pulling her down, the champ crawled up the leg as much as she could.

4 The knee reached its apex. 3 Before the leg could begin to go down, Nelo released her grip. inertia continued, g-force reversed. Nelo shot up. She made it to the knee, reached out and kicked off of it to gain even more height. Nelo wanted desperately to close her eyes. She felt the thrumming of her shield getting more unstable. She didn't have long now. 2 Nelo was the oldest of 5. She was the third parent to her four sisters. Her needs were not secondary, not tertiary. They were not at all.

Putting other people above her own became her nature. And while her parents became more lax with every child, they were hardest on her. Asking permission was the requirement for her. At that moment, she thought about one person in her life who always took what he wanted. She wished she could tell him that she looked up to him too. I'm getting stronger. That's what I've decided. 1 It was time.

If she didn't do it right then, the vibrations of such a charged attack would likely focus on her and cause her to lose consciousness. She would fall limp to the concrete stories below here. Nelo made it to the crest of her jump. She gingerly placed the spike of her shield on the rock of the montabeest's chest plate and released the energy. The powerful frequency reverberated through the chest plate. It was like an ekg machine had been replaced by an emp grenade being used on a perfectly healthy patient.

The montabeest stopped attacking the building. Its tower horns slid out of the windows. It took a lumbering step backward. The attack reached its heart. The heart stopped pumping blood. Its massive size meant that this delay shut down the body. Once it had stopped… It was too much for the heart to start again. The body went into overwhelm. It fell to its knee.

"We did it!" Kayla said. Penelope fell from a great height. The behemoth was not yet done dying, and began falling over on top of Nelo. Kayla had used her ultimate move. Her eyes went wide as the shadow over her grew bigger and bigger. Even if she saved Nelo from her great fall, they would not survive the corpse landing on them. Kayla ran out of the way. Nelo looked at the skull of the beast falling faster than she was. It would over take her and drive her into the concrete. Splat. Game over.

Instead of fear of dying, instead of calm, a giddiness arrested her. She cackled in the cold night air and with her hands behind her head said, "I knew I could do it." She closed her eyes. Nelo felt someone grab her waist. and move her out of the way. She opened her eyes and I was grabbing her, and I was using cloudstep to run sideways away from the corpse.

"Drake!"

"Hey! I meant to give you one of these back there," I said it and I dipped my my lips to meet hers. We kissed as I ran across the night. The skyline of Los Angeles partially on fire from the destruction the beests caused. Nelo pulled away from me, harumphed, and crossed her arms.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I'm not waiting for permission to get a better life anymore. You don't treat me like I deserve to be treated."

"Nelo, I'm ready!" I told her.

"You're ready!? You're ready for what?"

"I am ready… to have a conversation about being exclusive somewhere down the line… eventually." Her face melted into a smile.

"Oh, Drake. That's all I've wanted to hear." She and I kissed again. The montabeest finished dying and a bright white light over took all of us, sending the many denizens of Tartarus back home.