Salt Fat Acid Magic [Nom-Fiction | Food Fights | Culinary Academy]

Tataki moved the fastest. His tentacle arm—as thick around as a tree trunk—shot out and wrapped around Nori's midsection, pinning her arms as she screamed.

Archie had meant to attack Tataki head-on, but diverted his noodles to wrap around the tentacle and prevent Nori from being drawn in.

Yarrow moved next, raising his arms. Julienne launched his own set of noodles—but not at Tataki. Instead, his noodles bound Yarrow's wrists together just before Julienne tackled him to the ground.

As Oliver stood frozen staring at Chrysanth's dead body, Archie struggled in his match of tug-of-war. Tataki tried to yank Nori toward him, forcing Archie to grab the noodles with both hands and wrapping them around his forearm for more grip.

He wasn't strong enough to win, but he was strong enough to slow Tataki down. Nori wriggled a hand free to send a splash of citric acid at her cousin.

"Let me go!" Nori yelled.

The acid hit Tataki, but he used his own essence to dispel the magic as it came into contact with him. The ease with which he dismantled the attack scared Archie—especially because the Black Jacket was still hunched over from his wound. "I don't want to kill any of you," he groaned.

Behind them, the Glutton ran out from behind the tree, making a break for the door. Tataki shot another sea urchin spike, skewering the Glutton's thigh—the constant tugging from Archie had disabled his lethal aim. The Glutton screamed in pain as he rolled across the grass. Elsewhere, Yarrow broke free from Julienne and stood.

Archie knew what would happen next, and he understood why Julienne had tackled Yarrow. They had both seen up close what Yarrow could do.

Nori was too close.

Archie recklessly poured his essence into his noodles and contracted, yanking Nori toward him and making Tataki's feet slide on the grass. A geyser of acid shot from Yarrow's hands just as they moved, the stream missing and disintegrating a solid stone pillar.

Something snapped in Tataki. His expression changed from pained to alive. The look of a warrior. He stopped trying to pull Nori away and instead threw her at Julienne, who couldn't dodge out of the way fast enough. Nori slammed into Julienne and Yarrow both, Oliver diving to catch them. The dropped torch's flame had spread across the grass and licked the bottom of the tree.

With everyone else on the ground and Nori momentarily freed, Archie took his opportunity. He threw blueberries that exploded into smokescreens in front of Tataki and wrapped noodles around the pillar behind him. With a strong contraction, Archie launched himself into a diving kick.

But such an instinctive warrior didn't need sight to land a blow.

A giant lobster claw emerged from the blue smoke and caught Archie mid-air. He cast his sugarskin just in time before the pincer closed down.

The points of the claw pierced through the sugarskin. Tataki's spare arm returned to normal so that he could point at Nori.

"You come with me! You come with me, or he dies!"

Archie groaned as he tried to harden skin that had already been pierced. He saw no emptiness in Tataki's threat—he was just one squeeze away from death. Tataki was too quick. Too strong. How could anyone beat him?

Just as Nori opened her mouth to concede defeat, Archie remembered how. He had seen it his first day in Ambrosia City.

"Oliver, bubbles!" he yelled.

Archie conjured a minty cloud in his mouth and spat it in Tataki's face, giving Oliver time to launch his assault. The jokester had never fought before, but he did not disappoint on his debut. He threw his hands forward and launched a torrent of alcoholic bubbles that enveloped Tataki and Archie.

Tataki released Archie, transforming his claw into a large clam shell to block the bubbles. Archie shot his noodles around another pillar and pulled himself away. Bubbles filled the courtyard as Oliver's stream continued.

Nori helped Yarrow up off the ground. Blood ran down one side of his face, and his legs buckled under his weight. "Archie!" she yelled. "Take Yarrow and go!"

Archie ran over, scooped his shoulders under Yarrow's arm, and started to lead him away. "Just hold him off for a second," Archie said. "Then we run."

Nori confirmed the plan by joining the fray, throwing a lemon over Tataki's clamshell and detonating it behind his back. Archie and Yarrow hobbled toward Waldorf's chambers, taking one last look back at the carnage.

Borscht and Chrysanth lay dead. The Glutton had nearly lost a leg and screamed for help. The fire burned around the blackened trunk of the tree. Nori continued to lob lemons. Oliver's steady stream of bubbles filled the courtyard. Julienne used noodles to try to pull Tataki's clamshell down.

Archie had to trust that they could keep Tataki at bay for a minute. Just a minute. That was all he needed.

Tataki swiped his clamshell down, scattering the bubbles. They flew across the lawn toward the burning tree, and—

BOOM!

Flame moved faster than lightning across the bubbles, flaring up high enough for the Roots to see. Tataki took the worst of it, the flame bouncing off the stone wall behind him and completely engulfing him. Nori and Julienne were thrown to the ground. The flame worked its way to the source and blasted Oliver through the air. The shockwave shook Archie. Yarrow tried to go back to Julienne.

Archie wouldn't let him.

This was their only chance. Other guards would be there soon. Whatever had just happened to his friends had already happened. He couldn't do anything about that. So he yanked Yarrow through the door.

No guards were in Waldorf's chambers. The bedroom door was open, a half-comatose naked woman laying in bed, but Archie didn't have time to save her. He set Yarrow against the desk and felt for the hidden door. He found it and broke it in half with a sugar-powered kick. Debris scattered into the kitchen, and someone inside scampered away.

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Archie had been convinced Arty would be there. And he was right. But it didn't stop his shock.

Arty's face had swollen to shut one eye—a great big purple grape ready to pop. A dried stream of blood went down his neck and disappeared behind a torn shirt. He held one arm in suspension near his chest, broken and mangled fingers pointing in five different directions.

"Ar—Archie?"

"Dad! Yarrow! Yarrow! Get in here!"

Arty went for a feeble hug, but Archie went for the chain, yanking at it with desperation. Yarrow stumbled over and swayed in place. He undoubtedly had a concussion, but Archie needed him to deliver.

"Help him!" Archie screamed.

Yarrow stepped forward, acid dripping from his fingertips and making indents in the floor. Archie pulled his father away to make the chain taut, shielding him in case the acid splashed.

"Archie," Arty croaked through dry, cracked lips. "I need water."

Yarrow started slow, a little drip stream of acid falling onto the chain and sizzling. For all the sound it made, nothing seemed to change, even as he increased the stream. "I'm going to have to go full blast."

"Archie." Arty put his hand on Archie's face. "I'm so proud of you."

"Hold on, dad." Archie covered his back in essence and tried not to remember the pain of acid. "Go."

Yarrow unleashed his acid, droplets spraying onto Archie's back. His essence reacted to each drop, but they still stung before he managed to disintegrate them. His back sparkled with pain. He couldn't hold out long, and neither could Yarrow, who let up.

"I'm only getting the rust off."

"Archie," Arty said, his voice and faculties clearing up as fear took him. "You have to go. You have to leave me."

"No!" Archie yanked at the chain.

"There was that explosion. They'll be coming soon. You have to go."

"Yarrow, come on!" Archie yelled, ignoring his father.

Yarrow tried again, but each cast was weaker than the one before it. "I'm out, Archie. I'm sorry…I can't conjure that much."

Archie looked around for something that could help. Oil. Fire. Knives. Water.

Water.

"Wait here." Archie ran out into the main room and came back with his pitcher of water. He shoved it into Yarrow's hands. "Convert that!"

Yarrow's eyes widened in surprise. "What's with this? It's…overflowing."

"Turn it into acid!" Archie shielded his father again.

Yarrow held the pitcher over the chain and closed his eyes. The lemon bobbed and then dissolved into the liquid. Yarrow breathed. Breathed. Breathed.

The pitcher shattered and broke into a hundred pieces. The glass sliced Yarrow's hands as an impossibly powerful acid fell, burning the palms off Yarrow's hands. The liquid ate through almost all of the metal chain before burning through the ground, pooling in a crater around the metal spike holding the chain down.

Archie celebrated—but just for a moment.

Yarrow's pained scream soiled their moment of triumph. Archie looked at Yarrow's arms in horror. The skin from his elbows to his fingertips had burned off, revealing tendons that slid over bone as Yarrow shook.

Arty yanked on the chain, which had been whittled to a third of its thickness, but still held its links.

And then Nori's scream came from outside. "Archie!"

"Go!" Arty said. Being so close to escape had revitalized him. "I'll burn through the rest."

Archie stepped over Yarrow as he writhed in pain and ran outside.

He emerged just in time to witness his friends' defeat. Oliver lay unconscious beneath a pillar that had been cracked by his impact. Julienne bled from his mouth and held one hand near a hole in his side, trying to turn the area into a cheese rind to stop the bleeding. Nori had been grabbed by a tentacle and was clawing the dirt to keep herself from being pulled away.

Archie shot to kill.

The first hardened blueberry didn't penetrate Tataki's skull, but it rung his bell enough to make his tentacle dissipate. The second blueberry hit his shoulder, and even though it didn't pop, Tataki's shoulder turned purple in an instant all the same.

He was ready for the third. He dodged out of the way and started to conjure a spike, but even the great Tataki was too slow. Archie came in at superspeed and delivered a cracking kick to Tataki's forearm. And he didn't stop. Left, right, kick, punch, Archie launched into a flurry of blows that weren't strong enough to knock Tataki flat but were fast enough to keep him from transforming. For just a few seconds, Archie was winning.

But they called Tataki 'the Terror' for a reason.

He spat black ink into Archie's face, giving him enough separation to transform a shrimp arm that snapped at unseeable speeds. Archie's ribs cracked as he flew across the lawn, blood spewing from his mouth as he smashed into the wall.

Tataki stumbled, his earlier wounds bleeding openly and his stability compromised by Oliver's alcoholic blast. Archie knew that if his opponent was at full strength, he wouldn't have survived the punch. As it was, it had just paralyzed him, leaving him to watch as a spike slunk out of Tataki's forearm and into his palm.

A pillar of flame as wide as a carriage erupted from Waldorf's chambers to engulf Tataki. He leapt out too late, his body making several incomplete transformations as he rolled to put his burning jacket out.

Archie rolled over to see his father preparing another attack. Essence radiated from Arty, decades of untapped potential converting into potency and power. Archie watched in awe as Arty sent another plume forward.

A spike shot out from within the flames, taking out one of Arty's calves. As he fell, the flames ceased, revealing a charred Tataki. His blackened body remained unmoving for a moment, then cracked and shed chitinous layers of shell, uncovering a slightly burnt Tataki underneath with raging eyes.

Archie knew he had to prevent the next attack. His ribs burned in agony as he shot another blueberry. Another of Tataki's spikes hurtled through the air, missing Archie's head by only inches.

Arty and Archie attacked again. Blue mist and smoke filled the courtyard as the father and son kept the esteemed warrior on his heels.

The flames started to get weaker. Another spike would be coming soon. Archie flung a noodle in an attempt to restrain Tataki.

Tataki caught the noodle in one hand. Before Archie could think to dispel it, Tataki yanked, launching Archie through the air toward him. A spike grew from the palm of his other hand…

…but the spike wasn't for Archie.

Archie managed to get one leg into the ground, and instead of pushing away, he pushed forward, hardening his leg with candied skin as he rocketed toward Tataki and aimed a kick at the growing spike. Archie was fast.

But Tataki was faster.

The spike launched. Archie's kick went harmlessly through the air, sending him spiraling past Tataki and onto the stone path. He looked back just in time to see the spike pierce his father's chest.