Thel stared at Drektus, exchanging eye contact with one to the other. While Arbiter had a calm, cool state, the war Chieftain Drektus was hungry for Sangheili blood. His chest breathed in and out with heavy force, spreading his arms out to make sure Thel wasn't going to escape his grasp, and also to try and grab Thel with. Arbiter kept his energy daggers at his sides as the two circled around their area of battle, waiting for the first strike.
"Huh? Cynder? wh-what the?"
Thel made a small mistake by looking at Shenko and Dark Cynder. He twitched his eyes to see that the dark dragoness was using her scythe tail to attack the Spec ops with. At this moment, Drektus launched himself at Thel, running at a berserk speed, roaring like a feral beast. Thel turned to avoid an incoming punch at close quarters. As the Brute missed, Thel scrapped his left wrist energy dagger against Drektus's helmet, even scrapping his skin and causing him to bleed.
The force of Thel's swipe of the dagger sent Drektus sliding across the floor a few feet. He got up to realise his attack failed, and banged his right fist on the floor in rage, getting back up to attack the Arbiter once more. He threw another left punch at Thel but Arbiter grabbed Drektus's arm to hold him, giving him the chance to knee the Brute in the gut. Immobilized, Drektus felt the hit, holding his stomach. Thel took this chance to grab the Brute's face to stare at him. He head butted the Brute right in his face with his helmet. Drektus roared in pain as he stumbled backwards from the hard hit.
His nose started bleeding, as he looked his own blood on his own hands. Drektus was enraged by the sight, revealing his bone-crunching teeth. He got into a rugby like position, putting his right shoulder at the front of a ramming attack. Like a freight train, he went at full speed to attack the Arbiter. Thel rolled to the left side to avoid this act, but Drektus stopped right next to Thel and grabbed him by the neck with his left crushing hand, cutting off Arby's access to oxygen. He pinned Thel against the wall and once again went for the right fisted punch.
With quick-like reflexes, Thel impaled Drektus's wrist with the left energy dagger just before his head got pulverised. The Brute yelled in agony and released Thel, pulling the dagger out of his wrist. Drektus held his bloodied wrist and growled at Thel.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT! BY THE PROPHET'S OWN WILL, YOU WILL PAY" Drektus threatened the mighty Arbiter, but he won't run away from low levelled threats. This was a battle that will end with one dying on the floor, no matter how long it will be fought for.
Thel crossed his arms like an X, protecting himself from the Brute's next attack. What Drektus did then was turn around to confront a column. With all his strength, He lifted it up, taking it out of its cradle. Thel widened his eyes as the Brute turned around and threw the column. Not having time to react, the column smashed into Thel, breaking apart and destroying Thel's defence. The force of the column sent Arbiter slamming into the wall behind him.
He grunted as a reaction from the impact on the wall, moaning in a horrendous pain. His started to breathe in and out much slowly, losing some of his energy and will to fight. He looked at both of his daggers. His right one was still in decent shape, but his left one was badly damaged and cannot be used. He ripped it off from his armour and chucked it away like useless trash, as it was.
Thel pulled the concussion rifle from his back, deactivating his only energy dagger that he had to weild the weapon with both hands for better accuracy. Realising that the Arbiter was armed, Drektus tried to run away from the weapon by weaving through the column field, but his sheer mass got him caught between the columns a couple of feet in. Arbiter relinquished 4 shots at the vulnerable Brute, all hitting his back and damaging his armour. Drektus roared from the painful hits, making him turn around to stare at Thel, but in front of the massive Brute was another concussion shot heading straight for his face. The bright pinkish red energy blast hit the War Chieftain like a fireball, sending his helmet flying through the air and landing far away from both former Covenant warriors.
Drektus wiped away the blood on his face, still having his teeth exposed to show his fierce potential, but the bloody nose, the missing teeth, the ruined face and the burnt facial hair just made Thel smirk, knowing he's making the Brute very angry. What Thel was trying to is make Drektus so angry, he would only go on reckless charges, giving the chance to strike at the Brute's most vulnerable points.
"I...HATE...YOU...SANGHEILI!" Drektus was sick of being the one hurt in this fight. He's tried some of his most brutal attacks, but he's little to know damage to Thel's strong fighting spirit. He was an Arbiter for a very specific reason.
"That's fine by me Brute, when I'm done with you, I might as well send your rotting corpse to Magnaruckus, to show that I am not an elite that you should underestimate!" Thel reactivated his dagger again, tossing the rifle on the ground.
"What? like Rtas's corpse? Har har har! what a weak fool he was" Drektus smiled deceptively. Thel growled, remembering the remains of his friend.
"DON'T YOU DARE TALK...ABOUT...RTAS! YOU MURDERER!" Thel ran at Drektus full speed, pulling his right wrist back, preparing to slice one of the chieftain's limbs off.
Before he could even touch him, Drektus punched Thel in the chest, widening his eyes from the powerful blow, dropping his mandibles. He coughed a good amount of his blood from the opening in his mouth, falling on his back. Drektus placed his left foot on Thel's chest and started to crush his ribs, poor Thel could not breathe as the last of his breath from a torrential and agonising scream of pain. He could even feel his ribs about to break like twigs.
"HA HA HA! PREPARE TO DIE ARBITER! (crashing sounds) Huh?" Drektus heard the sound of columns being destroyed. He saw Dark Cynder going through the multiple columns, creating a path of devastation.
Thel took this distraction as a chance to slice through Drektus's foot. He impaled the savage creature, but he didn't stop there. He dragged the blade through the Brute's lower part of his leg, slicing through multiple muscles and veins. The Brute opened his maw right open and roared at the top of his lungs, moving his foot away from Thel. Arbiter got up in the instant and, while Drektus turned around with eyes closed, he inserted the dagger into Drektus's spine and dragged it up like he did with the Brute's foot.
The War Chieftain stopped roaring as he felt the nerves in his spine be torn apart, feeling the cleansing energy of Sangheili technology in him. Thel wasn't stopping, now, he impaled the back of Drektus's neck, tearing through the spine, nerves and the windpipe. A Human would already be dead from attacks like this. The dagger wasn't coming out, it was stuck inside the Brute's neck, so Arbiter, with fury and fire inside of him, pulled the Brute's entire mass and sending him to the wall.
Drektus slid across the once clean floor, leaving trails of his Jiralhanae blood behind. He collided with the wall, just sitting there. Drektus could barely breathe with his windpipe utterly ruined, he could hardly feel his body with torn up nerves and he spine was a total wreck. He was unable to fight back.
Thel wasn't done yet. He scratched his plan to make the Brute go berserk. He was going to use plan B instead:
"Brute, I'm going to beat you to a bloody pulp, stay alive while I do this please, punching a dead Brute just isn't as fun as punching a live one" Thel deactivated his dagger and cracked both of his fists, preparing to beat some sense into him.
Drektus was tortured by the sight of Thel coming towards. He had nothing to defend himself with and the Arbiter is not going to stop just yet. A part of Drektus was actually asking for a quick death.
He stopped in front of the immobilized Jiralhanae, staring into the eyes of a dying Chieftain. In a swift move, Thel punched Drektus, his entire head was thrown aside. Thel punched him again, repeating the same head sway. Arbiter, who was supposed to be the most honourable out of the two, was making Drektus suffer as he repeated many punched, knocking out all of the Brute's teeth in just mere seconds.
Drektus was battered, beaten and bloodied. He could do nothing to stop the Arbiter's relentless assault, each hit felt like bricks smashing into his face. He was bruised almost all over his face. It was too much for even a Brute to handle. Thel kept on going and going AND going. Nothing was stopping Thel from absolutely making Drektus die a horrible, miserable death. Arbiter kept on going until he heard the voice of a damaged and wrecked Jiralhanae.
"Wait! (punch), stop! please! (sobs)" Thel stopped as he noticed a couple of tears come down from the Brute. Never in his life has a Brute done this.
"Please! I-I don't w-want to die! I (coughs) I have a family b-back on D-Doisac, our homeworld! You kill me, you kill the mate of a female and the father of 3 young ones!" Drektus pleaded to be spared, revealing what he has back on the Jiralhanae home planet.
Thel continued breathing heavily from his assault, lowering his arms. He was shocked that he was killing a Brute that was part of decent sized family, but this Brute and the rest of the Battle cruiser force destroyed the Shadow and killed many crew who had families back on Sangheilios. Thel growled, clenching his fists and activating his energy dagger.
"Brute, the elites that were a part of this great ship all had families! their children and their females will never see them again! They all died! All thanks to Shenko and the rest of your savage weapons! I should've died in the crash! I don't have a family, I don't female to go back to unlike the countless others who did! YOU'VE MADE YOUR CHOICE TO FIGHT ME! I'm afraid...the kids will never get to see daddy come home...EVER!" Thel raised his right arm to deliver the final slash, not caring about Drektus's family
"No, please! DO-" the dagger cut through his neck like nothing. The Brute gargled all his blood out of his mouth and the rest splurged out of his open shafts of his neck. Some of it even splattered on Thel's skin and armour, ignoring what got on him as he watched the Brute die.
"Burn in hell...like the rest of the Covenant!" Thel's dagger ran out of energy at that moment. He felt nothing. No emotion, no hatred, no remorse...no mercy. He stared at the corpse that he created by killing this one, single Jiralhanae. It was a mess that would never be cleaned up.
Thel a yellow data pad on Drektus's thigh, concerned that one piece of equipment held all the information to create Assault Carriers. Picking it from the corpse, Thel went through thousands of archives that held Carrier information, to create the cleansing beams, the hangers, the many reactors, the plasma batteries, everything to create a new fleet was stored on this hand held square piece of tech. It was dire for the Jiralhanae invasion force.
Thel then cycled through the pad for the delete button. He saw the word right there, written in Sangheili language, spelling 'Droukt'. He breathed in as he pressed it, wiping all the info from the thousands of archives. None of it remained. The pad was useless now with all the information gone. Arbiter just averted a cataclysmic disaster for his people. Sangheilios was now 100% safe and secure from the Jiralhanae. Their invasion plans had been foiled.
"There Rtas...its finally clear for our home. You may rest easy now" Thel dropped the pad and suddenly heard the hum of the lift. He turned to see 4 elites, including Tesk and Ventor, come to Thel's aid.
"Thel!...what happened here..." Ventor asked the Sangheili who punched him earlier.
Before Thel could reply, Shenko's screaming was heard as he was flying through. They turned to see him getting closer to the plasma reactor. All of a sudden, a giant dark convexity beam hit Shenko. It came from Dark Cynder.
"By the gods...is that...the dragoness?" Tesk was beyond any shock he ever had. Every Sangheili was surprised by this, except Thel, who whispered to himself.
"Finish him Cyn".
"CYYYYYYNNNNDDDDDEEEERRRRRR!" Shenko collided with the reactor, instantly disintegrating him. The power of the beam caused the whole reactor to blow. Now was the time to escape the ship before everything they've done here is lost.
"ELITES, GRAB SPYRO, JABJAB AND YAPFLOP AND TAKE THEM BACK TO THE DROPSHIP! NOW!" Thel pointed at them with the explosions happening right behind him.
Without argument, they went to pick up their fatally wounded companions while Thel ran to the darkness-receding Cynder, who dropped to floor.
Dropping on his knees right next to her, he lifted her head and started to gently caressed the markings on her forehead which was the most sweatiest area. As he stared into her emerald eyes before they closed, he spoke a few last words before she passed out.
"Cynder...we're almost out of this...stay with me".
YES! FREAKING YES! I AM BACK EVERYONE FROM THE LAPTOP REPAIR, BY THE GODS, BY THE ANSCESTORS, HOLY ANGEL CRAP, AFTER WEEKS, I FINALLY GOT THIS UP! Also, I put in the missing chapter from early on back in the story, everything should be good now, the escape from the Shadow is finally coming! YAY!