Calypso Wind tugged at her vest, then thrust a hand through her flowing green hair as she summoned Soldier Poet King. Her Stand charged forward, its mouths opened in some kind of crazed smile as its soldier side brandished its spiked knuckles, smashing them together as it ran.

“Firewater! Burn them to smithereens!” Tirek cast a hand towards his target.

His stand launched two globs of fire at Soldier Poet King, but it dodged both attacks as it dived into the water under them.

“You think that water will save you?” Tirek looked at Calypso and laughed. “Firewater’s liquid flames cannot be doused and can exist within water itself. Observe!”

Firewater tilted downwards and blasted flames through the boardwalk, incinerating the water in a five meter radius under itself.

But Soldier Poet King hopped out of the water behind Tirek, its heads swerving around so that its Poet head was now facing him. It stretched a hand out and on its side was a manifest for fishing boats, left on a crate for who knows how long. The words on the paper began to float out, swirling around its fingertips before it lashed them out like a rope, tying it around one of Firewater’s horns.

“Why you!” Tirek growled and had his Stand spin in a circle, breathing out fire all around itself.

The fire burned through the rope of words, but Soldier Poet King had already changed faces, swapping to its king face. Bringing its elbows together in the middle, it created two towers out of thin air, standing as high as itself. The towers slammed together in front of itself, protecting it from the liquid fire attack. Somehow, the fire didn’t even catch on; the towers remained unscathed.

Calypso titled her body to one side and pointed at Tirek. “Soldier Poet King’s king towers cannot be harmed or destroyed. Even your unquenchable fire can do nothing against them.”

“Well, we’ll see about that, won’t we?” Tirek slapped a hand against his right bicep and hefted it up. “I’ve never been beaten!”

“Yeah, you have!” Ocellus said from behind.

“I’ve never been beaten in this world!” Tirek roared as Firewater flew over his head, diving down towards the king towers as it fired more shots from its face. “Destroy them! Destroy them all!”

Soldier Poet King pushed the towers forward, blocking more of its attacks before leaping atop one of them, swinging its rope of words at the Stand. Calypso’s Stand got it around a horn again, but as it yanked it this time, it let go of the rope and the words returned to where they came from. Instead, it flipped to its soldier face, baring its knuckles up. Firewater spun in a circle, brandishing a wave of fire, but Soldier Poet King stepped to one side, just narrowly avoiding it before delivering a one two to its single yellow eye.

Firewater bounced back against the boardwalk, then lifted off the ground again as Tirek stumbled from the blow.

“Graaah! How dare you!” Tirek lifted a hand to one eye as blood began to spill down his fingers.

Firewater zipped through the air, then spat out a few more fireballs at it. Soldier Poet King sidestepped the fire again, but this time, some of it dripped down onto its left shoulder, setting it on fire as Calpyso, like Ocellus, tried to put it out with her hand, but she got her Stand to keep going, sending it onward with its fists held high.

“A little fire won’t stop me. You’re going down!” Calypso swung an arm forward from her waist to her shoulder level.

Soldier Poet King aimed fist after fist at Firewater, all the while maintaining its crazed expression. Some connected and some didn’t but, the injuries sustained weren’t enough to take Tirek down.

The red man just kept going, bellowing each time he got hurt, but never once did he falter. He continued commanding his Stand to attack. The attacks were getting faster and faster and Soldier Poet King and Calypso were also sustaining more injuries as time went on. Both of them pressed on, not willing to relinquish victory to the other, but sooner or later, one would have to fall.

Subterra and Leilani did their best to try and get rid of the fire on her and Ocellus, but it was incredible just how lasting Firewater’s flames were.

“Your Stand’s towers might be impervious to my fire, but you won’t last forever against them!” Tirek laughed and stomped his feet. “All my life I’ve waged battle after battle, attempting to acquire power that doesn’t belong to me. Little did I know true power existed here in this world. Truly amazing!”

Firewater glowed a bright red, then spewed fire all around itself, drenching the whole boardwalk, which began to dissolve and melt from the intense heat.

“Firewater’s flames are liquid in nature. They’ll flow alongside water if they have to!” Tirek brought both hands together, palm touching palm. Fire spread around him, engulfing his feet, but he seemed to be unaffected. “You’ll never get to TWI. You’ll never defeat me!”

“Just stop this!” Calypso yelled to him. “Why do you even need to kill us? If you run now, we can defeat TWI and you’ll be free!”

Tirek let out a single laugh. “Like you won’t come after me once you’ve dealt with her. And that’s if you can deal with her. She’s strong. Stronger than she’s ever been as ruler of Equestria. There’s no stopping her. The best I can do is clear out my sentence!”

“I can’t believe this!” Ocellus pointed a finger at him from across the boardwalk, her shoulder still burning. “How far the great Lord Tirek has fallen, to serve under Princess TWI! I never thought I’d see the day. You should’ve done this years ago!”

Tirek’s smile faltered. “This world empowers you. You should know that, Ocellus. Stand power is the evolution of Equestrian magic! A magic so strong it manifests your inner power from within! TWI’s Stand is stronger than anything we have seen. We can’t run from her!”

“Good grief, this guy…” Shiho shook her head. “I’ve beaten TWI in a fight. That means I can beat you too.”

“Not if I beat him first.” Calypso smiled. “Too bad, Tirek. I wanted to just let you go. But if you want to lose so badly, I’ll help you with that.”

She bent low and swept a hand through her green hair, before grabbing the corner of her vest and yanking it slightly to one side.

“My fire has no end. Watch as Firewater and I burn it all away!” Tirek raised both hands skyward. “Volcanic Dawn!”

His Stand shot out more fire from itself, but this time, it wasn’t just simply globs of fire. It was releasing an endless stream of fire from its two face holes, melting away the boardwalk and village around them.

“You better find some safety till this is over,” Calypso warned the others. “I’ll take care of this.”

“Be careful,” Subterra said and gave the fire on her shoulder one more look before heading back to dry solid ground.

Calypso couldn’t ignore the pain in her shoulder anymore, but there was no alternative to stopping it than to finish Tirek off and if she wanted to avoid any lasting damage, then she would have to do it fast. Judging from the fire, she had at least two minutes before it would burn her down to the bone.

Tirek was looking livid, and it seemed that the flames that his Stand produced burned even hotter than before. The flames continued to spread through the fishing village, filling the air with choking black smoke. It was getting harder to breathe and Calypso put the corner of her vest to her mouth as Soldier Poet King jumped back into the fray.

With a shout, Tirek charged forward with his Stand, intending on colliding with Soldier Poet King. Tirek himself reached behind his back and pulled out a long, serrated knife as he ran at Calypso.

“If I kill you, your Stand will go with it!” Tirek roared as he brandished the weapon. “I’ve had enough of you. This ends now!”

Calypso backed away, hiding behind one of her Stand’s towers and putting some distance between herself and Tirek. At the same time, Soldier Poet King threw a barrage of punches at Firewater, knocking Tirek back a step.

But Tirek was tougher than he let on, because instead of falling over backwards, he caught himself on the backfoot and steadied himself, ignoring the bruises that were forming on his body. Calypso looked out from behind her piece of cover and was almost blinded as Tirek’s knife spun past her face and embedded itself in a burning building.

“You have to see where I am to use your Stand,” Tirek said, taking out another knife. “If you can see me, then I can see you. And if I can see you, I can nail you with one of these!”

“Not fair,” Calypso said to herself. She was now wishing that she had requested some weapon of her own before coming here, but it was a bit too late for that now. Tirek was right; she had to be able to see him if she wanted her Stand to accurately attack him. She had no choice but to expose herself to his attacks if she wanted her Stand to continue being effective.

Calypso scurried around the tower and chanced a peek out the other side, but the house next to her had reached its limit from the heat and collapsed in a burning pile next to her. Pieces of old timber scattered around, some of it still on fire.

Picking up a long plank, Calypso looked out again for Tirek, only to be rewarded by another flying knife. This one threw up a shower of sparks as it nicked the pillar.

“I see you!” Tirek sneered and took out a third knife.

“How many of those does he have?” Calypso muttered to herself. She ducked back behind Soldier Poet King’s column.

She stuck her head out once more, and just as she suspected, Tirek was ready with yet another knife. However, this time she was ready and put the wooden plank up in front of her face, where it blocked the thrown knife.

Going back behind the column, Calypso pried the knife out from the plank and hefted it in her hand. It was a solid weapon, made of steel and constructed for larger hands than hers. But now she had a weapon, which evened the odds a little; she wasn’t foolish enough to think she could defeat Tirek in a knife fight. He was much bigger and stronger than she, and he probably knew more knife-fighting tricks than she did.

The flames around the village continued to burn. A thick layer of smoke and floating ashes filled the air, making it hard to see further than a few meters. This gave Calypso an idea. She thought back to the holo-vids she had seen of life back in the early 2000s, and one of them was of a street magician who had played a game with some shells and a pea. She needed to see Tirek to attack accurately with her Stand, but Tirek also needed to see her. And if he didn’t know where she was, he couldn’t fight as well.

“Let’s do this,” Calypso said, summoning her Stand’s pillars and placing them next to each other, screening herself off from Tirek’s eyes. The most her Stand could pull up were three king towers. That was Soldier Poet King’s limit and she didn’t know why it was that way, but she figured it was her own spirit’s limit.

“What are you doing?” Tirek bellowed, before coughing out a cloud of smoke. Still he kept his eyes on the towers.

With a smile, Calypso ordered her Stand to start shuffling the towers around, weaving them in and out of each others’ paths like some kind of dance. At the same time, she made her move and dashed out from her original tower while all three were in motion.

“Huh?” Tirek said as he watched this happen. “What do you think you’re trying to accomplish? Firewater will just burn all of them!”

The crackling of the flames grew as Firewater sprayed a jet of liquid fire at the pillars. They did not burn, but the temperature around them intensified until it was nearly unbearable.

After twenty seconds of flame-throwing, Tirek stopped. Surely Calypso could not have survived that. He waved his arms to disperse some of the smoke and walked slowly up to the roaring blaze. As he did so, the pillars vanished, leaving behind a sooty pile of ashes.

“Got you,” Tirek gloated, looking down at the ashes with a smug look on his face. He had never burned a human with this level of heat before, and it seemed to have been very effective. “TWI will surely reward me for this.”

He turned around, and was shocked beyond belief as Calypso stabbed him in the stomach with the knife that she had taken from Tirek.

“Wha-? How?” He staggered back, summoning his Stand to put in between himself and Calypso.

“I knew you would think I was still behind my king towers,” Calypso told Tirek as she summoned Soldier Poet King in a fighting stance. “That’s why while they were moving around, I circled through the village to get behind you. I was never where you thought I was.”

“This… isn’t over!” Tirek clutched her hand tightly, drawing the knife deeper into himself, but pulling her closer. “I’m immune to Firewater’s attacks. But you aren’t!”

His Stand returned to him as two towers vanished, still spewing fire. It rained down over him, spilling over to his arm where he had Calypso’s arm trapped in a vice grip. Liquid fire splashed down on her skin and she shrieked, but all at once, the fire stopped pouring down around them.

“Wh-what? What is the meaning of this?” Tirek looked up at his Stand. He hadn’t ordered it to stop.

Where its holes should be were two of Soldier Poet King’s king towers and they were small now and wedged in the holes, stopping fire from flowing out.

“Soldier Poet King can shrink its towers if needed…” Calypso pushed a smile through her pained facade. “And since they’re indestructible, your fire’s not going to have anywhere to go.”

And she was right. Already, Firewater was starting to swell, having no other way to release its flames.

“No, not like this! No!” Tirek continued to tug on Calypso’s arm, but that helped her to bury the blade deeper into his body.

“It’s over. I gave you a chance to leave, so you only have yourself to blame.” Calypso let go of the knife and planted a kick in the center of his chest.

Tirek wobbled back and fell into the water just as his Stand’s eye popped out from the pressure building up within. It went off in a blazing explosion as Calypso threw herself in the opposite direction, just avoiding getting her hair and feet singed as she swam ahead to the next building.

Almost immediately, all the fire in the water began to go out, losing their magical ability to stay lit, including the one on her shoulder.

“About time…” Calypso rubbed her charred flesh underneath. “That was dangerously close to the two minute mark. But there was no way he could take me on and live.”

She looked on at the burning buildings as smoke poured into the air above them. This was not doing any good for the environment. Global Warming was already hitting the world hard, especially out here in Oceania’s island nations.

“If only there was more we could do for the world. To let it thrive once again…” Calypso sighed. On the upside, at least it was one of TWI’s minions to do this. For all their plans to save the world from humans, they should be. more careful about what their attacks do to the environment. “Everyone, we’re done! You can come back now!”

She began waving to the others by the shore, before the village started. Shiho spotted her first and directed the rest to approach her. Calypso smiled at them and turned back to face the burning village. She really hoped Shiho could find her grandmother. From the stories she heard of her from Sweetie Belle, one of the former CEOs of the Crusaders Foundation, she was a good person. And they knew it. She was here on this island and they would rescue her and they would defeat TWI and make sure the world would never bend to her rule.

• To be Continued...-

Author's Note

Soldier Poet King!