CrimZon Universe
Season 1 - Rebirth
Episode 10 – Stop
Unknown…
In a black and white city overseen by a colorless sky high above, blurred in different shades of grey, Erb roams aimlessly in his new setting, bewitched by a sense of near weightlessness from each step he takes.
His state of mind is that of someone under heavy medications and he believed he could go on walking forever even under starvation and/or dehydration; the only thing he could perceive is a tingling numbness and an unflinching pulsating warmth coursing through his body from head to toe.
The road in front of him did end, or rather, the majesty of a tall gray wall stands in his way with no way around it. He lays his left palm on its surface, learning its texture to be smooth yet cold as though winter had been upon it. Looking both ways, the obstruction continues and curves around the farthest building in his sights.
His tranquility begins to break over his current inability, and small portions of his normal state came back as he imagines how the city would appear now; one city in a massive circle. On another note, the wall's formation seems natural and yet artificial; from what he sees, it wasn't built from the ground up; rather signs at its base suggest it had risen from the ground by some unknown force while remaining connected and unaffected.
As more of his original mindset returns, the sudden roaring boom of a far-off explosion, buried deep within the city, brought his attention away from the wall. But he is then blinded by its intense eye-piercing light for some time. As soon as his vision clears, he runs towards it, ignoring his sense of reasoning which was telling him to stay where he was.
Sprinting around a corner, he brings himself to an abrupt halt at the edge of a large smoking ditch. He walks around it, encounters more of them, each bigger than the last, some even on the side of buildings and a few overlaps. His instincts then told him he isn't alone; everywhere he looked the presence of countless pairs of eyes stabs his very being and yet there was only himself – the streets bare no life.
From there, he spots the shadow of a building having moved. He jerks his head to find it to be normal, unchanged. In a few seconds, though, a piece of it breaks off, slides out and into the barren lit streets. It was a black circle, no bigger than his feet and looks to be harmless. Suddenly it grew and flew off the ground, and then takes the shape of a person - a human female. He notes her short hair, her light armored attire, and what outlined to be her alluring curves. He was albeit shocked by how it's new appearance, but that swiftly changes to paralyzing fear as shadows made from ruined structures and even the smallest pebble begins to have wills of their own.
Though some of them turned out the same as the first – human and feminine - there were others who appear to be male from their bulkier surface; however, the rest were different; most of them were at least twice the height of the first, and their overall appearance retain both human and animal characteristics - tails, claws and dinosaur-like hind legs. As the last of them takes its shape, they wait perfectly still; none of them moved a muscle.
Erb vainly tries to see their face as a black curtain masks their identity. Out of the blue though, they vanish into thin air only to reappear rapidly all over his field of view. It wasn't their speed that placed him in further confusion, though, it was the fact that the human shadows were fighting the beastly ones - a simulation being played in real time.
The creatures fought barehanded and some of the human-like shadows carried weapons.
Among all the fights taking place, his eyes were set on one.
He sees both the initial dark figure he saw fighting alongside a man with a tail. Their opponent was another humanoid beast, relatively towering them by 2 feet with a long tail slithering behind its back and 2 horns protruding out of its head.
As he continues observing the battle, he noticed a startling familiarity – the humanoid male was himself; he was the shadow fighting with the girl and in few short successive blows, his doppelganger and the girl combine an aura attack and unleashed it on the beastly shadow.
The sheer backlash force behind the gigantic beam almost sent Erb tumbling away if he hadn't braced himself beforehand. By the time it ended, a large wide trench was formed, containing whatever was left of the buildings in its path underneath its partially glassed surface and the same black smoke scattered all around it.
Whatever remnant of numbness and tranquility the man had was now gone, but with his sanity returned, his senses sharpen to their utmost limit – for some reason he couldn't shake the bad omen that was about to come. His shadow and the girl on the other hand act otherwise - oblivious and careless. Watching them do nothing put him at odds with his own anxiety. Then for some strange reason, he sees the girl expressing signs of distress – it was the first time any of the shadows did show any type of emotion – and pushes his shadow aside. From there tragedy strikes; a spear runs through her chest, making her stumble back, struggling to keep herself upright until the spear disperses from within her.
His eyes dilated from the horror, his chest filled with a regret and sorrow so dark and heavy he couldn't breathe right, and his mind was telling him to run after her – run to her as fast as he can before her body could touch the ground. This time, he listens, and sprints towards her in full haste, and before he knew it she was in his arms and his knees were touching the ground.
As her black blood spills onto his arms and clothing, the urge to scream out his suffering was nearing a breaking point, and mountains of questions relentlessly attack him with no end.
Who is she to him? Why did he want to cry here of all time and places? Why does his heart ache? What exactly was all of this – the buildings, the shadows, the wall, the girl – supposed to mean to him?
In an act of impatience, he brushes his hand over the black curtain to see her face; learns who she is and perhaps what was happening. However, he was unable to remove it; and so, he brings her up to his chest, longing to hear her voice at very least
Startlingly, the girl moves and before he could react he follows her right hand on his left cheek. The warmth of her surprisingly silky-smooth skin and her quivering cold body has put him at ease, and finally, parts of the black curtain disappear and he meets her soft tender smile. He then watches her lips form inaudible words which rang hollow in his ears, leaving him skeptic and helpless.
Thereafter, she brings her hand down on her chest plate where she then suddenly lifts her face up with her pink lips barely touching his own, only to later lightly settle herself back down on his arm. Her bizarre yet affectionate gesture left his mind in a condition where he lost his willpower and any restraints he put himself to keep his heartache from escaping, and all at once he sheds streams of crystal blue tears down his despairingly blank stare, screaming at the sky, wanting the nightmare to end. And so it did, in a flash of light, coloring everything in white.
Forest Area, underground cavern…
"AH!"
Awakened by the trauma, Erb let out a short horrific yelp, discovering himself to be drowning in an unknown substance with no bottom to support him. He desperately swims whichever way he thought was up and to his fortune his head emerges out of the surface, allowing him to breathe and cough out whatever was in his lungs.
"Oh god, cough cough…gah! Whe-where am I!?"
In a mere instant, his heightened mental state declines back down thanks to the mildly cool liquid surrounding everything below his head. He then takes a quick sniff of the air and to his surprise, he knew what it was.
"Water?"
Shortly, he felt a droplet land on his head and veers his gaze up. In his sights, numerous stalactites riddle the ceiling above his head - each one of them covered in a glowing green moss-like flora. The, not so, welcoming display sent chills down his already frigid body.
"How exactly…did I get here?"
The last moment he recalls was his fight with the female cyclops above ground and he was winning, before her partner sneaked in with a surprise attack - he knew that much from the bruise ringing out from the left side of his chest.
"Oh right. He hit me." He cursed grudgingly. "I must have fell in here somehow. Good thing my face wasn't actually in the water, or else I would have most likely-"
As he was clearing his vision, he felt some measure of warmth around his eyes and rubs his fingers together, and then, strangely, licks it. He was met with a salty taste – but most importantly, it wasn't spring water.
Tears? He thought curiously.
After that, everything was a blank to him beside the nightmarish idea in his head. He tries to picture what little he knew after losing consciousness. However, to his frustration, everything was a blank – as though he never had a dream in the first place.
"So this is what she was talking about."
Erb recalls having asked Yuuko about why he had been having restless nights and she warned him it was due to the side effect of his memories being taken. This phenomenon had happened to him nearly every morning, waking up with no recollection of his vision and yet the after-effects linger – anger, sadness, joy, etc. The only sequence he could remember from one morning was of him eating mountains of food in pure delight – the reason he woke up was due to his hunger.
Suddenly, a few of the ceiling's spikes break off and splash in the water – one of them almost landed on top of his head.
"Yeah, I think I dwelled on that subject long enough." He whispered to himself and rises from the water, using his ability to fly. As he hovers above soaking wet, he begins drifting in different directions, grasping the lay of his cave, until he discovers, with great dismay, a large cluster of rocks blocking what he believes to be his way out from the scent of fresh air seeping through the cracks.
"Sigh….fantastic."
The first idea that comes to mind was blowing away the debris, but he automatically sets it aside for fear of a cave in. The next thing he could do would be to carry each boulder away from the entrance, dig his way out; yet, that method would only prolong his stay and one wrong displacement could lead him to the first scenario. Then there's an alternative; finding another exit, which would lead back to the second's dilemma - it would take too long.
Stuck and still wet, he continues to ponder on his next move, spending far longer than he intended. Suddenly, the cavern shakes violently enough to cause the water to churn and the rocks over him to rain down.
Just when he starts to curse his own luck, he could tell large bodies of energy were colliding with one another and identifies one of them to be the same Cyclops who put him in his current situation.
Him again. He thought annoyingly until he detected the other high-power level, who seems to be opposing the alien. Who's he fighting?
Sadly, his train of thought fell short when the ceiling breaks apart, bringing down bigger chunks to the poor warrior. All he could do now was watch his new setting bury him.
"Fudge my life!"
Forest Area…
After the death of Vard took place and Ouros was dragged off by Zeph elsewhere, Teal is left in a bind between the chooses of assisting her leader or killing the humans right next to her first.
Roza, still in the enemy's grip, notices her guard had relaxed and the weight she was pressuring her with had lightened. Not letting this life-saving chance go by, she quickly slams the back of her head against the cyclops's face, and just as she felt her attacker's grip loosen, she frees herself, suffering only minor bruises, turns about with her rapier drawn, and performs a vertical slash before leaping back.
Teal narrowly evades it and readies a frontal charge, eager to fight the human; but she stops, frozen in place, realizing the path in front of her leads to a fork road – if she fights the soldier her and now, she would lose precious time in catching up to her lord and risk wasting her strength.
So, would she face the soldier head on, or go after her leader and destroy the more powerful enemy?
A full 5 seconds pass, and she came to her conclusion; she saw no point in staying any longer and promptly follows the trail of the destruction left behind, setting aside the lesser threat for later.
Seeing her leave after seemingly doing nothing, Roza relaxes her guard and turns to Lilith, Bulb, and Jav who were in shock. Lilith had it the worse, sobbing and shivering.
Understanding full well her little sibling was still shaken by the near-death experience, Roza hugs her and gently pats her head to ease her mind. "It's ok now. We're safe."
"I know, but…." Despite that, her sister's nerves begin to overload her sane innocence from one truth. "Bulb's friend…he left us to fight them off before.
"Oh no." Roza murmured with the deepest sympathy to both Lilith and her green friend; the fact that the aliens caught up meant only 2 things - either they've subdued the one who was left behind, or they killed him.
"I'm so sorry."
She glances over to Bulb, sitting quietly on top of his motorcycle, and guesses his silent attitude was his way of mourning to his missing companion. However, she was proven wrong; out of the blue, his voice reached a new peak of high pitched tone as he throws a tantrum over his inability to process the second-long event which took place just before Vard was about to kill him and Jav.
"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!? HOW DID THE BIG GUY DIE!? WHERE DID THE SHORTER GUY GO!? WHAT THE HECK MADE THIS TRAIL!? WHY DID THE ALIEN GIRL LEAVE!? WHY AM I YELLING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS!? NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE!?"
All manner of pity for him was instantly replaced with the same disappointment she would show to one of Raix's idiotic acts of hysteria.
She then looks over to Jav who didn't seem all that upset but was unfazed by the green one's loud banter. Roza calls out his name and he responds by looking back quickly as though he had been dozing off. Spotting life in his eyes she beams a grin, thankful he was fine and then turns back to Bulb. "Bulb, right? Can you drive that thing out of here?"
"U-uh yeah." He croaked, finally snapping back to his old persona.
"Good! Then take my sister and Jav and drive away from here as fast as you can; northwest from here is where our base is."
Upon the end of her request, she earns opposition from her sibling. "No! You're coming with us!"
"I can't. I need to go and help Zeph."
"Then we're staying until you come back with him!" After saying her piece she figured out her sister had mentioned Zeph's name – last she saw him was less than a minute ago after he was sent flying into the forest below with Jav's jumper by Ouros's hand. All she saw after that was a bright flash of gold light and a yellow blur taking the muscular being away.
"Wait, did you say Zeph?" Jav was also confused by that and joins in with an educated guess. "Did he do all of this!? How? When!?"
"Oh, that's right." She muttered. "You 2 never seen him fight seriously before-"
Unintentionally, Jav and Lilith were never told of just how powerful Zeph's, Raix's and Tya's truly were and the transformation they had hidden away. Still, this was neither the time nor the place to discuss it – she needed the kids gone; away from the impending battle that is to come.
"-But that's beside the points. Just do as I say, please!"
Reluctant to listen at first, they quickly changed their minds as soon as Roza raised her voice against them.
And so, Bulb starts Fenrir's engine and when the 2 kids sat on it, they drive off. Still, Lilith manages to convey her last words to her sister for the sake wishing her luck just before the sound of the engines drown her out. "You 2 better come back!"
Fenrir's engine roars out loudly throughout the forest but Roza heard her message and replies out of gratitude to her.
"We will."
Hundreds of Miles away…
Smashing through every boulder, hill, and even mountains in their path, Zeph, and the fully powered Ouros traded blows after blows, not caring for defense, putting all their effort in a pure offense.
To both of their astonishment, they find themselves to be equals in every aspect of their fighting prowess – speed, agility, strength, and endurance. Additionally, their skills as close quarter's fighters made it difficult for them to land a solid strike, that was, until they both collided their knuckles with one another, stopping in a barren terrain dotted by high rock columns everywhere with the forest they came out from on one side and on the other, hollowed out spherical mountains, made through bizarre and unknown means.
The 2 fighters take a breather while making mental assessments of the other's stature.
Ouros patiently observes the golden light aura fluctuating all over the cyborg's body, studying its motion and flow, looking for any weaknesses he can exploit to help aid in his victory. Unfortunately, he couldn't find any; the man had complete coverage – no holes or gaps. All he could do now is hold out and hope the enemy's stamina runs out before him – his new form was making him expend more power than normal.
Across from him, Zeph reads off new information regarding the enemy's overall power and his own body's status; multiple bruises and cuts - nothing serious. Thanks to Gabriel lifting the seal, he survived against the alien's surprise attack and was given a chance to get his revenge. However, the fact that his seal was undone, spelled worrisome concerns for his other comrades back at the base. Have they fared better than him, or was it the opposite.
But his resting period ends as soon as Ouros makes the first move.
Sticking with defense now, Zeph raises both arms over his chest, blocking an inbound right uppercut and then ducks down from a left hook. However, a right front kick nearly hits him in the chin. He flips him and lands on his feet and instantly shakes it off – he managed to ride with the attack instead of going against it at the last moment. From there, he spots a ki blast closing in and responds by deflecting it upward with a front kick of his own. However, he left himself open by accident for the alien's hand to grab his entire face.
Ouros tosses the Saiyan to a far-off column and pursues.
Zeph rockets back with his arms constantly shooting out beams of plasma to propel him forward. In one fluid motion, he twists his entire body around in midair with the bottom of his left foot aiming towards Ouros's head.
Sadly, the mercenary uses his aura to control his own flight path and veers away from him entirely, leaving the young man shocked.
He can fly!? He thought.
The young man descends back to ground level with a grim new piece of detail.
The cyclops simply waits for his grounded foe to make the next move since he had the high ground; he could tell he had no means to chase him in the air other than before.
What will you do now boy? Will you chase me or will you try to shoot me down like before?
To his surprise – and displeasure – he watches the cyborg making taunting gestures with his hand - sticking his middle finger at him – and making a smug look. Though Ouros didn't understand the meaning behind it, he knew it was an insult to his dignity as a warrior and didn't appreciate it one bit.
"Does he think this is a game!? That dishonorable-"
He stops short of what he was about to say as he noticed the boy swiftly opens his palm and out from it a spark ignites. Then, with no warning, an explosion yielding even more power than the beam he encountered, engulfs him whole, surrounding him in a smoke cloud until he rushes out, covered in minor burn marks on his right side. This short scuffle left him skeptic as to how the young fighter managed to hit him.
Was that a ki blast!? It couldn't be. He didn't make one-
He watched another spark from his hand ignite; this time Ouros leaps back, dodging an explosion from the opposite side.
"That won't work twice!" He angrily yelled, gushing out his dark pink aura in discontent and speeds at his opponent.
However, he gets hit again, this time from behind, causing him to divert straight to the ground head first. Swiftly, he gets on his feet, flies to the air once more. A detonation burst in front of him, catching him by surprise and causing him to return to where he was; but the last hit allowed him to understand how he was being attacked.
He rolls up to his feet with a renewed concentration and as easy it was to breathe, he applies more of his aura to strengthen his eyesight, giving him the ability to see a single transparent bubble encased by a finely thin layer of ki hovering over the cyborg's hand. The bubble pops from the same spark he had seen and a steady current of energy, bolts towards him at lightning speed.
Ouros backpedals away at full speed, but regardless, it tails him no matter where he went.
Zeph, guessing the cyclops sudden shift in maneuverability was because he had solved his little trick, wasn't discouraged the least.
I have more where that came.
With both hands, Zeph sent out his invisible plasma balls – which he had named as Blitz Shot - and with the help of his visor's onboard tracking system, he can home in on his opponent's location real time, readjusting on the go with ease.
In a desperate attempt, Ouros turns to face the blitz shots, runs past them, makes them follow him, turning their long-range fight back to what it was before, while nullifying the blasts – if he gets close enough, his foe would run the risk of hurting himself if he sets them off too close. He readies a punch aimed at Zeph's head, but he realized the cyborg didn't budge from his spot – he stayed, with a smirk – and when he takes a quick glance back, the spheres were gone.
From there, bursting out of the ground, 3 blitz shots sprout out and pierce through Ouros's body instead of detonating upon impact – one through his right bicep, another through left chest, and the last leaving a hole through his stomach region. Although the wounds would kill a normal human, his biology would treat them as non-lethal. Nevertheless, he was stunned and vulnerable to the second wave bursting out, this time blowing him up into the air, set in a way the aftershocks avoided their controller.
Not wasting any time for him to recuperate, Zeph produces more than a dozen Blitz shots and directs them into Ouros, sending him further away and even when he crashes back down. He was relentless on him, creating a larger devastating storm of continuous barrages in rapid succession. But a different explosion takes place within; larger and brighter than his combined onslaught.
The smoke disperses and out from it, a dark pink sphere erects itself around Ouros's body, shielding him from any further damage. The cyborg throws more his way. The protective sphere's density bounces them elsewhere. However, this didn't dampen his confidence. He cancels his barrage and went back to mockingly smirk at his foe and motioning him to give it his best shot with a simple hand wave – he threw all caution to the wind now for the sake of baiting him in.
Further enraged by his disrespect, Ouros gladly does so by channeling a plasma bolt outside of his barrier and rockets it with the intent to eviscerate him.
Zeph stays in place as his opponent's technique anxiously approaches and in an instant he whips up his right arm, transform his forearm into a cannon and unleashes his most devastating move, the Mac Buster – an aura based attack which makes a super condensed ball of plasma stored inside his arm into an ongoing beam, amplifying his earlier beam strike by at minimum, a hundred fold; at full strength, it can penetrate out of the planet's atmosphere and from the last time he fired it, his attack reached beyond one of the moons orbiting Aeon and grazed its surface, leaving behind a gully the size of one of the city's skyscrapers.
Still, he unleashes it at half strength for the sake of the environment, and cuts through Ouros's own salvo and punctures right through his barrier, setting off a cataclysmic discharge that even made Zeph run for cover.
The white light outlined by an excess of sky blue colors resonates in all directions, carrying a shockwave that pulverized any unfortunate nearby object into particles – much to Zeph's dismay. In the aftermath, he returns to the battle sight to find it completely changed beyond recognition.
But as mushroom cloud gradually settles down and gets carried away by the returning wind currents, he gets startled by his sensors notifying him of the enemy's presence.
"There is no freaking way!"
Jumping out of the ground and setting down far from the sergeant, Ouros got away with heavy injuries and serious burns along with a missing his left arm. When the beam nearly penetrated his shield, he used his left arm to cover himself while moving downward, saving himself in the end.
He stares down to where his vacant limb, but did not fret over it; instead, he channels his latent energy over the open wound and in no time his cells began to multiply, accelerate and regenerate, making him a new arm right before Zeph's eye.
I didn't see that coming. The cyborg told himself.
He is in disbelief over the miracle before him, and in reprisal, he promptly set up his arm cannon at the Cyclops and charges another shot.
Meanwhile, to finally make up for his mistakes in underestimating the cyborg, Ouros hunches forward, flexing every muscle fiber in his entire being, and expels more of his aura out into a geyser as he undergoes one last metamorphosis. Doing so causes both the color of his aura and skin to become nearly white - with the exception of his markings, - and his hair grew longer, extending to his neck. His power increase causes electrifying discharges that melted part of the ground in his vicinity upon contact and erects a sphere of plasma around himself.
In a split second, Zeph's cannon finished its preparations and he lets it surge out at full strength. His plans blatantly backfire; the dome deflects it over the horizon and driving a wedge in the boy's determination. In response he transforms his other arm into an arm cannon and combining their dual power into one more enormous pillar of pure havoc, he watches his Super Mac Buster drill against the surface of the dome and before he knew it, it shatters and gigantic blinding light devours the surrounding area. It rages on, maintaining its devastation for as long as its user stood, distorting the atmosphere into a near inhabitable zone. Inevitably, he stops it to save enough strength to maintain his golden form and by doing so the explosion gradually settles down with nothing but the sound of burning smoldering earth and the stench of ashes.
Exhausted, he takes long and steady breaths to recover his strength, believing the battle was over. "That better have killed him…"
His alarming internal sensors blared out so loudly it drowns his short monologue, and before he knew it, a pink blur warps in front of him and he felt a kick thrust to his side, breaking several of his ribs and forcing him to spit out blood from his mouth.
The excruciating pain alone was enough to incapacitate Zeph, if his sensors hadn't shocked his brain in time, keeping him awake. Still, by the time he snaps back to reality, he was flying halfway across the barren land till he felt someone – or something- gripping around his left leg and goes ahead to thrash him around like a rag doll. Oddly, what saves the cybernetic soldier from any further bashing was when a part of his pants below the knee rips off and after one last heave over, he slides right out of the clutches of his attacker. Sadly, it took several rock formations to stop the blue soldier's flight completely and even afterwards he was no longer able to coherently keep his thoughts linear as his ears are plagued by high pitched ringtones, his view of the world spinning uncontrollably, and every single part of his body was screaming out in pure agony. Gradually, he succumbs to the mercy of exhaustion, and at any moment he could lose his golden state.
Forest Area Edge…
Elsewhere, arriving on top of a rock column, Teal looks high and wide for her lord in earnest – hoping the worst hadn't befallen him. To her relief, she can spot a shining pink light and sensed her lord's presence emitting outward.
In another part of the area, Roza stops by a rock wall to take a breather after surviving multiple shockwaves and hurdling over fallen trees and open fissures. From where she stands, she spots an ominous group of dark clouds looming over the distance and lightning striking down to the earth below. There, a pink light shine, but her instincts are warning her of danger.
"I have to hurry!"
Suddenly a flash of light from the sky zooms towards her, and she hastily stampers back, watching the rock wall beside her pulverized.
Out from the rubble, Teal stands her ground with the intention of not letting the lieutenant past.
Roza knew the alien in front of her is stronger than the short one she'd faced back at the alpha site and her chances of victory were even slimmer than before. Despite her odds, she plans to fight her way to Zeph's side with every fiber of her being.
"Get out of my way!"
Barren Rock Terrain…
After dealing significant damage to the soldier, Ouros marches onward in his form while coping with the stress and burden placed on his body due to his unstable aura output.
It seems that even a few seconds in Meteoric Burst is still too much for me – perhaps after this mission is over, I should start training myself again, starting from the basics.
As he walks over a wide trail, his one eye caught a small flash of light shine to his left peripheral view, making him stop and look at clusters of crystals unearthed by the destruction he and his foe caused. The smooth surface of the transparent substances shows a complete reflection of his upper body, entirely white and bare.
He then remembers he hadn't received any communication from Azure, Gunnar, and Shade since they last met – it was daunting for him to picture his subordinates defeated. Using his natural sensitivity to aura, he looks in the direction in which the human base was, and there, the only energy signatures he could faintly identify are Azure and Gunnar, unconscious – Shade's presence was nowhere to be found.
It couldn't be! Were they defeated?
Upon that notion he ascertains 2 rather high-power levels, each standing next to his own.
The saiyans!
With what remains of his earpiece he touches it to open a public channel and relays a telepathic message to Teal.
Teal! This is Ouros! What is your status? Where are you-
Out nowhere a high-pitched shriek strikes his skull as though a massive needle had burrowed itself through his skull. He was being blocked; by what alludes him.
Further ahead of him, Zeph managed to stand on his own 2 feet while enduring the awful sounds made from his own bones cracking under the weight. Currently, he is under a euphoric influence where any random thought conjured in his mind stays with him until another one comes by to replace it.
He lets out a small chuckle, then hears footsteps echoing towards him, returning him to his reality and to his white nemesis; though he starts to wonder in a lucid manner as to why the Cyclops hadn't decided to rush in yet while he was still daydreaming this entire time.
His visor soon lights up with charts and figures displaying his own vitals - lines after lines containing details of his numerous fractures, torn tendons, internal bleeding and organ failures - he had no chance whatsoever in surviving another bout.
On the top left corner of his visor, a red icon flickers repeatedly in a constant rhythm, tearing him away from his thoughts, but he veers away from it right after – he knew what it was, and he didn't like it.
Go away...I don't need you. If I'm going to die here…then I'm going to give that one eye asshole something he won't be able to heal from.
He takes one step at a time, ignoring the sensation of an immeasurable number of sharp pieces of glass penetrating his nerves, and closes in on the alien, showing his resolve and determination with his defiant march.
That's right you bastard! Just come a little closer. I'll –
But the buildup he set for himself, crumbles to its foundation when out of the blue, Roza tumbles into his field of vision over the soft dirt plane, panting rapidly with what the young man saw to be beads of sweat rolling down her face alongside her own blood.
With one short breath, his lucid mind became sharp and he shouts out in pure terror. "ROZA!"
Hearing Zeph calling her out in such a startled voice causes the lieutenant to jerk her head around and sees him appearing worse off than herself.
"ZEPH!"
Zeph had assumed the moment he brought the leader away back in the forest, Roza would have stayed with Lilith and Jav, and return them back to base after defeating her own opponent.
Roza gets up and rushes to his side, hoping to give him aid. To his unfortunate luck, in her path stands Teal with a backhand arm swipe. She leans back, avoids it in time, but the strike was a faint, masking the kick sent to her waist. Already equipped with a strengthening spell – fortitude; increasing her durability - the SWORD member manages to stave it off, yet, she buckles overs, leaving her wide open for Teal to grabs her by the neck yet again, and pushes her down onto the ground with a foot stomp planted onto her chest. The alien left her foot where it is and increases the pressure – intent on caving in her chest cavity.
Unable to breathe properly, the lieutenant instead hears the cyclops spewing remarks to her overall skill as though she had already won.
"You seem to be a magic practitioner; but not a very good one. Sooner or later the magic surrounding your body will fail you and when it does you will perish. Don't worry, I will make it quick."
Her words did more than insult her; she robs her of the promise she made with Lilith and lead her to vainly grasp air into her lungs and push her off.
Unable to bear seeing her squirming desperately, Zeph sprints to her with all the strength he could muster, using his last remaining reserve to at least disable to female warrior. Unfortunately, his focus betrays him when the alien comes in with a sucker punch, hurdling the poor young man to a boulder, obliterating it in the process
"Your fight is with me!" Ouros asserted.
Dismissing his remark, the cyborg digs himself out, and his confidence is now replaced with fear and desperation as he prays for someone to come and save her and only her – he would even give his own life if it meant he could accomplish his wish.
"Didn't you hear what I said-"
Ouros words enter his ears and a hot beam of light pierces through his chest, stunning him and taking away whatever shred of longing he held.
"- Your fight…is with me."
This is the end of episode 10. Hope you enjoyed reading it!
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Canon Characters: (none)
OC characters: (none)