Moon in the Welkin
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Soma was running straight towards the Vajra, but the Aragami was staring right at me. Albeit the focus of the large cat-like beast was on me, it still evaded a swipe from the dark skinned God Eaters monstrous blade and the follow-up strike as well.
"Sakuya!" Soma shouted as the started gathering Oracle energy in his massive weapon, the blade itself turned purple from the gathered overcharge as the power expanded doubling the reach of his next strike.
"Get them out of here!" He shouted again.
"We're not going to leave you alone!" The medic argued, taking aim and fired only to miss. She was surprised as the Vajra dodged the attack even before she could have released it.
"This isn't a regular Vajra!" Soma had no choice, but to release the overcharge of his weapon as the Aragami decided to stay out of his range and start to build a spark-dome under his feet.
"Knows exactly how God Eaters fight!" He charged the beast, as it was still preoccupied with summoning the electric attack and got a powerful strike on the head of it.
"Those two would only be a hindrance!"
I was staring at the Vajra, while it was staring back at me, all the while avoiding the attacks of Soma. Somehow I knew that Aragami was being called, something was summoning it nearby. In truth, even I felt a strange tugging from deep within. On top of that, the skin on my left arm was crawling, indicating the same location.
"Sierra!" Sakuya called, snapping me out of my daze.
"We need to leave." The medic called, Kota standing by confused.
"Hurry up and leave already!" Soma shouted as he drove his blade at the Vajra again, only to miss. I raised my left arm in front of me, which was aching uncomfortably.
"Move your ass, Dead Beat!" He shouted again, but the aching intensified.
"He's going to be fine." Sakuya grabbed my shoulder, to pull me away, but I slipped out of her grip and raised my right towards the Vajra.
"Soma can take care of himself. We need to leave." I shook my head and once again pointed at the beast.
I... can't leave! I know if I try to leave, the Vajra will turn to attack me.
You can't understand me... This sucks.
-That's not going to be so easy.- C's voice sounded in my earpiece and from the way the others looked up meant that even they were privy to this too.
-After all, the Vajra has marked her as prey.-
"Prey?" Kota repeated puzzled.
"Aren't we all prey to Aragami?"
-That's one way to put it.- She chuckled for a bit.
-However you've noticed it didn't you? That Vajra isn't like the others.-
"What do you want, you greedy bastard?" Soma snarled, while constantly battering the Vajra with attacks. None of them hit, but they were good enough to keep the beast from getting closer.
-As much Fc you can pay?- C said lightly, apparently amused by the situation. When Soma snarled only as a response.
-Okay, okay. I'm still charging for this.-
"Get to the point!" Soma was forcing himself to be patient. It didn't help the situation that there was an annoying trouble maker and their target was a difficult one to handle.
-Can't you feel it?- She laughed briefly.
-I know you can too, Moonboy.- Kota looked even more confused and I could tell that neither me and Sakuya were clear on what C is trying to tell with this.
-Just as the Vajra, or my Sierra does.-
Huhh? Soma can feel it?
Like me, or the Vajra?
"Why do you say that?" Kota asked, looking on the fight between the dark skinned male and the large cat-like beast.
"What is common between Soma, Sierra and that Vajra? What does them make different from me and Sakuya?"
-Bias Factor.- C answered shortly.
"Uhm, that is?" The young gunner asked, still being lost on the subject.
"My Bias Factor is different from other God Eaters." Soma explained, parrying another strike and failing a counterattack.
"So is Sierra's."
"What does this have to do with our situation C?" Sakuya spoke up.
"If your keeping your games out of this, I'm willing to pay for the info."
-Now that is what I wanted to hear from the start.- As the girl answered, I could imagine her face donning a smirk. One that she usually wears when things go just as she wants to.
-It's rather simple, you see.- She paused for dramatic effect, which was non-required in our situation.
-Resonance.-
"Resonance." Soma repeated, annoyed as he once again stopped the Vajra from closing in, but not being able to inflict the slightest damage.
-Resonance.- C repeated too, her voice clearly amused.
"What's... Resonance?" Kota asked and I didn't mind that actually. I was lost in this matter too.
"It's named after when Oracle Cells resonate with each other, in that state they can transfer information instantly. But it only triggers from extreme..." Sakuya started explaining, when she stopped suddenly mid sentence.
"External stimuli..." The medic looked over to where Soma was holding off the Vajra, then snapped back to me.
"Hibari!"
-Yes, I'm here Sakuya.- The Operator responded immediately.
"Did you find the source of that abnormal Oracle reaction?" The medic inquired, as she saw Soma once again force back the Aragami he was fighting.
-I can't confirm. Maybe the signal of the Vajra is interfering, you should take it down first. Then I could check if the signal stabilizes.-
"That's going to be a problem." Soma grunted, blocking a swipe from the massive paw of the beast.
"Because of the Resonance, this goddamn monster can react to our attacks faster than we can damage it."
-Then abort mission!- Hibari gave the order and we looked at each other.
-Retreat immediately!-
-Not gonna happen.- C chimed in, amused as how the situation is unfolding.
-Didn't I say that Vajra marked my Sierra as prey?- Her voice then turned cold, almost threatening.
-Don't you dare let her loose even a single strand of hair.-
-I can't let you risk the life of others!- The Operator argued.
-There were a dozen small Aragami in that area also. Adding onto that a dangerous Vajra is an unnecessary risk that shouldn't be taken by anyone!-
-And I'm not going to allow any harm to come to my Sierra!- The pale girl shot back equally angered, followed by a 'tch'.
-Give me five minutes, then you can take down that Vajra.- Her part of the connection terminated.
"What is that bastard up to now?" Soma grumbled, as he attacked the Vajra again and this time the Aragami raised his cloak to block the strike.
"This?!" He frowned as he landed another strike, albeit on the resilient cape of the Aragami.
-The abnormal signal is weakening, however it doesn't seem to be long lasting!- Hibari called and we could see as Soma finally landed the first blow on one of the Vajras paws.
-Finish the Vajra off, fast!-
"You don't have to tell me twice." Soma snarled, pushing back off from the Aragami.
"Sakuya, and you two! Support me!"
"Count on us!" Kota took aim and released a short salvo at the Vajra, although it jumped back to avoid being struck from them, Sakuya used that time to take aim and shoot the legs of the Aragami as it landed with a high powered Sniper Round.
"Oh YEAH! It's all yours!" The gunner cheered while the beast fell. Soma had already begun to infuse power into his weapon, charging up as fast as he could before releasing a massive overhead strike.
The Vajra howled in a mixture of pain and rage, its legs strained to stand up preparing to strike back when my God Arc impaled into one, making it stumble once more. Soma used that to bring down another fully powered charged blow on the head of the Aragami.
Kota and Sakuya were continuing their assault on both the weakened hind legs with my help to pin the Vajra down. All the while Soma relentlessly continued to smash the head again and again with the empowered strikes. Then came a final crush, cracking the skull of the Vajra and underneath the core too. As the body collapsed, the God Eater didn't wait and removed the core from the dead body.
"Aw Yea!" Kota cheered, upon seeing the victory. To be honest, I could tell that even Sakuya felt relieved and so was I.
"Don't let your guard down. There are still more targets in this area." Soma warned us, forcing us to remember why we came here initially.
"Hibari. Give us a number of the Aragami in this area, also could you locate the source of the Oracle reaction?"
-Give me a moment.- The operator requested, as she probably checked the status of the monitoring equipment.
-The number of small Aragami dropped to four. However the abnormal signal still can't be pinpointed. All I can tell it's somewhere in a mile radius of the location you are at.-
"Great..." The dark skinned God Eater grunted, before deciding on the course of action.
"You two form up a team and remove the Aragami threat, Sakuya keep an eye out for anything unusual. Hibari, give us a report when anything else comes up."
"Uhm, Soma?" Kota walked closer to him and the other responded simply with a 'What now?'.
"Shouldn't be Sakuya giving orders?" The gunner motioned with his head towards the medic.
"I mean she's the vice captain, therefore higher in rank than you." Soma snarled upon hearing that, but didn't say anything.
"Actually, Soma has more experience than me and his judgement was spot on." The medic responded, as she surveyed our surroundings.
"Is everything all right Sierra? Did you arm get hurt?" She noticed me holding onto my left arm, the aching returned only a few seconds ago and it took me a bit not to grimace due to the pain.
"Come here and let me take a look at it."
I shook my head, then raised my right arm and pointed towards the center of the city. Soma glared at me for a moment, then looked in that direction as well. Kota and Sakuya looked towards where I indicated, but didn't see anything strange.
"Take care of the small fry." Soma started walking towards the direction, from where I felt the strange feeling.
"Sakuya, keep an eye on those two."
"Are you two still feeling the Resonance?" The medic asked, but Soma didn't bother to answer at all. When she turned towards me, I nodded in response which made her sigh.
"Soma, if you need reinforcement, call for us!"
"I don't need help from anybody." He grumbled back, then broke into a sprint.
From nearby the roar of an Aragami could be heard, one belonging to an Ogretail. Following that immediately another responded this time a Zygote and we could hear as the two clashed. Another two joined the fray, belonging to two more Ogretails. By the time the three of us go the the scene, the three bipedal Aragami were busy feasting on the fallen flier.
"Sierra, sneak up on the one in the middle. Kota and I will handle one on each side." Sakuya adviced us and we moved into position. By the time I've gotten spotted, the two Aragami on each side was peppered with a dozen bullet holes and they even staggered my target for an easy takedown.
"Good work, you two." The medic praised us, before calling the Operator.
"Hibari, we've taken down the rest of the Aragami I believe. Can you run a scan on the area?"
-On it!- She called back, then after a few second she responded.
-Nothing else on the scans, but be careful that Vajra popped up suddenly and the unusual signal is still going strong.-
"Sierra, from where does the signal come?" Sakuya turned to me and I've pointed towards where I felt the source.
"Then let's catch up with Soma." She reached for her communicator.
"Soma, you hear? Wait for us." A grumbling response came, that we could even take as a 'hurry the Hell up', or something like that.
By the time we catch up to him, he was standing near the very source of the signal. It was coming from a huge church, or actually if I think about it a bit more, a cathedral. Soma was a bit distracted by something as we neared, then turned to us for a short and took the lead.
As we edged closer to the entrance of the building, from the corner in front of us two persons came out. Our surprise was understandable when those two turned out to be Lindow and Alisa. We stopped near the entrance on both of the sides and stared at each other for a few short seconds.
"You guys?" Lindow started the conversation as the russian girl stopped by him and the full 1st unit finally assembled.
"Huh? What are you doing here, Lindow?" As Kota wondered, I could see Alisa gasping for air. Even I felt a wave of pain run through the skin of my left arm.
Did she... also feel the signal?
"Why would they send two teams to the same section?" Sakuya asked that, albeit none of us could have answered.
"What does this mean?"
"Let's worry about that later. We need to wrap this up and head back." Lindow took over the lead and decided our course of action.
"We'll take the inside. You guys check the outside. Got that?" He was already on the move, with Alisa by his side as we stood in a half circle to cover for their back.
"Is that a problem if they send two teams to the same place?" Kota asked, who was stationed on the right hand side of the entrance, to cover as much as possible with him being a gunner.
"Normally, you divide up teams to cover as much area as possible. Helps to thin down the number of Aragami." The medic answered from the other side of the entrance, similarly covering as much wide of an angle as possible to her.
"The only exceptions are when something extremely dangerous surfaces, or there are communication errors present."
I hope neither is the case right now...
"Hibari, where was Lindow and Alisa to be stationed?" Soma asked from my side, we were tasked to guard the front if something tried to break through and also to assist the gunners if they spot anything.
-Lindow took out Alisa for a regular sweeping mission in the nearby area. You've met up with them while they were still patrolling that section.- The Operator answered.
"They should have gotten a warning of the unusual Oracle reaction, no?" At this point an unidentified roar echoed from the inside of the building. Just as Soma jerked his head up and noticed a small number of Aragami on the top of the rooftops on the nearby buildings.
This doesn't look like the result of a communication error...
Albeit they were still far from us, I could make out a form that resembled that of a Vajra. But there were more than enough differences for us to not to confuse the two Aragami. The cape of this one was ice blue instead of the red that a Vajra normally possessed, also it had a female face.
Instead of the boney crown structure of the cat-like Aragami, this one worse something like a crown. The shoulders and the front paws had bone-like armor growing out, making them heavily protected. The body itself was a bit lighter in color as well, but retained the tiger-like aspect like that of a Vajra. One by one, they jumped off the buildings and started to march towards us.
Neither from a known dangerous encounter!
-Unknown Oracle reaction confirmed.- Hibari warned us a bit late, as the newcomer monsters roared one after the other.
-There are half dozen of them, Lindow and Alisa are engaging one on the inside as we speak!-
"Keep them occupied! Don't let any of them break through!" Soma warned us as he charged forward, to meet the nearest one in combat. I could hear Lindow shouting something to Alisa from the inside, then the sound of a battle erupted from the inside as we on the outside had to join as well.
Kota and Sakuya were showering the unknown Aragami with various bullets, yet they were being pushed back towards the entrance that we were protecting. Soma and I were busy dealing with the attackers, but we didn't manage to deal much damage to them, very much like with the Vajra before these avoided our attacks with ease.
A sudden explosion sounded from the inside, at the same time of Alisa's scream and we could feel the shaking as part of the building came down. Sakuya immediately turned and ran towards the inside and I followed her to check on the situation that happened. We saw Alisa sitting there, slumped to the ground before a pile of rocks that barricaded the inside of the cathedral.
"Alisa! What have you done?" Sakuya asked and I've raised my eyebrow at the accusation. We didn't really see what happened, only heard her scream. I turned back as another scream echoed, this time belonging to one of the Aragami on the outside. However the russian girl was mumbling something to herself, in her mother language about her parents and something else.
Sakuya then turned towards the pile of debris and fired from her God Arc, but that didn't make anything else, just shake the structure around us. She immediately stopped to fire again, despite that I saw she wanted to make an escape path as much as I wanted to.
"This isn't good..." I could hear Soma's voice from the outside, followed up with a fancy curse.
"We're surrounded here, too." One of the unknown Aragami then pounced forward, barely missing Kota who managed to jump back just in time into the small entrance that the three of us were crowding.
While Kota managed to avoid being crushed by the weight of the Aragami, he didn't completely evade the attack and one of the massive paws smashed him to the nearby wall. Sakuya and we turned towards the beast, as it turned towards us too. Sakuya started shooting, just as I rushed forward to deal with that one.
However from the outside even Soma was getting pushed back relentlessly, trying to deliver one powerful attack after another only to be either deflected by the impenetrable capes or missing as the Aragami swung out of the strikes way.
"Hurry the hell up, or we'll be surrounded!" He shouted at us, as the unknown Aragami in the small corridor pounced towards me. Kota managed to get up and start shooting when Lindow's voice sounded from the other side of the make-shift barricade.
"Take Alisa back to the Den with you. That's an order!" He shouted, but Sakuya disregarding that started to argue, which our leader had to interrupt.
"Didn't you hear me? Take Alisa and head back to the Den, Damn you!" He shouted, from the inside more roars and the clashing of his weapon could be heard.
"Sakuya! Take charge of the others! Soma, find a way out of here!"
Alisa was still mumbling to herself, while Soma and Kota tried to hold the attention of both the Aragami in the entrance way and also of the others outside. I quickly turned towards the russian and helped her up to my shoulders. She was heavy, and wouldn't let her God Arc go, which was okay-ish until I could muster the strength to carry her.
"Hurry Lindow! Come with us too!" Sakuya pleaded, but was cut off again.
"I'd like to, but I think I'll mess with these guys first..." Another roar echoed from the inside, as he struck his target.
"Save some rationed beer for me!"
"No! Then I'll stay and fight too!" Sakuya was being stubborn, and I spotted Kota running towards us from the outside.
"Sakuya... I'm ordering you!" I could hear Lindow's voice was pained.
"Make sure you get everyone home alive!" However the medic started to cry.
Everyone except you?!
Just how is that going to work out?!
"Sakuya, Come on!" Kota grabbed one of her hands trying to pull the medic, but she resisted.
"If we stay, we'll all end up dead!" He pleaded, his voice also heavy. But she was desperately refusing and screaming Lindow's name only. The entire structure started to rumble and I feared it's going to collapse any minute now. In fact, some of the ceiling even collapsed and something heavy struck me down.