A/N: Picking up a second job is counterproductive toward getting more time to write, but hell, I need the money now. Shit sucks.
But hey, you know, at least I'm pretty much securing myself in getting a more solid place for my future, even if it causes me some physical pains and personal time along the way at first.
To those who reviewed and have been waiting all this time, sorry about that. But hey, I'm here now, right?
In two of the previous chapters, I basically started using songs that I really like and found inspirational for that particular chapter and it made sense. The first was Chapter 4, where the song was "Live Long Enough to Become the Hero" by NateWantsToBattle, and the second was Chapter 6, where I obviously used Jet Set Run. The fight referenced was the Phase 2 portion of the Chakravartin fight in Asura's Wrath. This one's using Shot in the Dark by Within Temptation as the base. And let me tell ya, it's gonna get spicy.
So... Let's do this!
Chapter 7: Your Soul and Body is on Fire
I watch in awe as Gwain, in a show of magical brute force, fires a beam of light magic that makes her look like a raging blazar. A bright corona of spiraling light surrounds her as she channels more and more energy into the attack, the ground around her beginning to emit black body radiation and glow an angry orange as the beam rips through anything and everything in her way. A titanic steam cloud from the water that was evaporated from the surrounding ocean begins dissipating, and a heavy vapor cover falls over the water as it spreads.
Just as quickly, the attack ceases, and Gwain releases a breath of steam as the air around her remains hot enough to turn her saliva into steam on contact.
"You know," I start, and Gwain turns her gaze to me, the bright glow in her eyes making it all the more intimidating. "When I asked you to provide me an example of things that I might be facing against magically, I wasn't really expecting you to launch a fuck-off beam as hot as the planet's core from your hands."
"Well, that's what you could face in this world, Chris." Gwain states casually.
"Yeah, if I ever managed to piss you off so badly that I deserved to be wiped from existence."
Gwain grins smugly. "Oh, you're admitting to be afraid of me now?" she prods.
"No, Gwain. I just can't see you fighting me with everything you have. You love me too damn much for that." I retort, smirking as Gwain turns bright red.
"As if i would fall for a human!" Gwain fires back before even thinking, before pausing and sighing. "Sorry, force of habit." she mumbles.
"Eh, it's fine." I reassure her, waving a hand. "Old habits do die hard, after all."
"Thank you." Gwain replies with a small sigh of relief, before turning to face me fully. "So, what are you planning for the rest of the day, since your training session is over?"
"Mm, not too sure, really." I reply, scratching the back of my head in thought. "I may just go home and chill for a while, but I could also go out to the mountains again."
"You're such a mama's boy." Gwain teases lightly, using my own words against me.
"Hey, I'm gonna take every damn opportunity I have to contact her that I can, now that I don't really have a way back. I'm just glad that that dimensional rift lets light waves in general through, including radio and cellular from my home, at least that way I can still talk to them." I state while looking up to the sky. "She still can't believe the shit that I can do here now, though."
"Didn't you say that you were rather unremarkable physically before being transported here?" Gwain asks, curious.
"That's right." I reply with a nod. "You know that couch that I got recently at my place? I can lift that entire thing on my own with one hand and not break a sweat now, whereas before I could only get half of it in the air with everything I had. It must be at least a fiftyfold increase to all my attributes except durability, which is some number I can't even figure out. That's pretty crazy if you consider my weight being included. It also explains why I can break Mach 1 now if I really push it as hard as I can." I ramble, mostly to myself.
"Mach 1?" Gwain asks, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.
"Oh, yeah, sorry, that's a technical term from back home. Mach 1 is equivalent to the speed of sound." I explain, and Gwain's eyebrows switch from furrowed to one quirked upward.
"Really? And how do you know that for sure?" she asks, and I smirk.
"Do you remember when I took off running as fast as I could that one day and not long afterward you heard a loud and continuous booming sound? That was it." I iterate.
"Is that so? And just how fast do you need to be moving for that to happen?" Gwain presses, and I groan.
"Dammit, you just had to ask the one question that I couldn't answer outright." I lament. "I haven't figured out the numerical conversions from home to here yet, so I can't tell you exactly how fast I need to be moving yet."
"... Can you show me, instead?" Gwain asks, and I grin.
"Sure can, it's been a while since I cut loose on a run." I reply, before pausing. "You, uh... you aren't afraid of loud noises, are you?"
"Not particularly, why?" Gwain asks.
I just smile mysteriously.
-Thirty minutes later-
I laugh lightly to myself as I ready myself to run full-out toward where I had Gwain standing, which happens to be several miles (curse those measurements of back home) ahead of where I myself was positioned. It's really quite a good thing that the land around here makes for perfect terrain to make a dead sprint in a straight line, else I'd have never known I could do this.
Honestly, it's a fantasy of mine that I've been living in to learn that I can run this fast if I wanted to. To be able to share it with someone is even better, just to prove that I'm not going crazy and that I could actually achieve this.
And thus, I ran.
I started at a run, and then pushed it to a sprint. I grin and grit my teeth as I feel the air and g-forces fight against me, and I fight through into what is my top speed, which by my calculations, should be roughly 900 miles per hour, since I tested how fast I was able to run back at home once, and clocked around 18 miles per hour.
I see Gwain, run up to her, and pass by her in the span of less than 10 seconds. After that point, I ease off on the speed, decelerating over about 30 seconds, and come to a halt, before jogging back to her. When I get there, she's got her pinkies in her ears, and a grimace on her face.
"You weren't joking. If I didn't have magic, that may have really hurt my ears." Gwain says as I get close enough for normal volume conversation.
I chuckle. "So, did that show how fast one needs to be going to break the sound barrier well enough?"
"I suppose, since you aren't really able to give me exact numbers for obvious reasons." Gwain states.
"Eh, good enou-"
Pain.
My body locks up as a horrific pain burns through me, centering on a raging, burning and icy electrical sensation in my chest, slightly right of dead center.
I look down, blankly registering that this is quite the substantial amount of blood that's covering Gwain, who looks just as shocked me.
It suddenly hits me that it's my blood.
I wheeze as I lift my hand, covering the penny-sized hole that runs through my entire torso. It must have grazed a lung as it's substantially harder to breathe, but maybe that's just the pain talking.
I only just notice that Gwain is tightly gripping her right leg right where it joins at her hips, and her teeth are tightly gritted. Whatever hit me hit her, too. Fuck.
I manage to gain enough presence of mind through the pain to try and find the assaulter, grateful that I can at least try and fight through the pain with the limited magic pain tolerance training Gwain's been giving me in the last days.
And my eyes land on her as I scan the upper branches nearby, her outfit painfully obvious against the greenery.
Luna.
She smiles and drops from the tree, landing softly and walking towards us mockingly. "They never look up." she says, jeering.
I try and fire a retort, but only cough as my chest flares in pain. Fuck.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to collect that blood and be on my way." Luna continues, before pausing as I muster up the power to get into a fighting stance, though off-kilter and down an arm as I clench my fist against my chest. "... Interesting." she states calmly, before snapping her fingers.
Impact.
I suffer from a bout of pain as a shot to my temple lands cleanly from the flat side of a mechanical tail with a large, stinger-shaped end on it. I stagger and fail to recover cleanly as I drop to a knee before managing to get up, my vision going blurry. Son of a bitch.
I glance up to see Gwain getting knocked away from a far less savage attack, landing on her back and skidding a short distance as she groans from her injury hitting the dirt. I also take the moment to take in the robot attacking us, which looks a lot like a four-legged scorpion armed to the teeth with weaponry.
(A/N: It's the same model bot that was fought in the pilot episode. Y'all know the one.)
"I'm curious if you can manage to fight this off while injured as you are." Luna starts, and casually walks forward to the ground behind where myself and Gwain were standing from her initial shot. "By the way, there's a teleportation disruption field around this area for the next 5 minutes. Enjoy fighting, lovebirds!" Luna taunts before a motorbike revs from the tree line nearby. It self-drives to her side, and she smoothly leaps onto it before taking off.
Well, shit. I force myself upright. My breathing feels like I'm being constricted by water, and I'm panicking my ass off.
What can I do? I'm hurt bad, and while Gwain's hurt less than I am it's likely that this bot is immune to magic just like the first that the two of us fought together, so she's also at a disadvantage.
... Fuck it, go in with everything I still have. It's all I got.
As I clench my fists and get into a ready stance, I'm surprised to feel a rising heat from my core. The bleeding slows down, and the heat diffuses through my arms and legs.
"At least I can still use my magic on you." Gwain states, standing with her weight heavily balanced on her left leg. Her bleeding has stopped entirely, but there's still evidence of her injury.
"You have healing magic? Since when?" I ask, genuinely surprised.
The bot lunges at me before I can even register her speaking for a response, and I manage to catch its tail in a hug and stop it dead. My chest is screaming at me to stop, but I can't do that just yet. I hold it in place and plant my feet hard as the bot tries to break its tail free from my grip, its servos straining.
"Since always, it's just nowhere near as good as Ami's. Light magic does have some benefits other than being strong." Gwain replies once I can hear her. "At best I can stop bleeding and get one out of danger to their life, but the pain stays. We'll need an actual healer to be back to good health." she continues, and I nod.
"Are you empowering me right now?" I ask.
"I am."
"Good." I state, before I adjust my grip and yank the tail upwards as hard as I can. I manage to get the robot over my head before I whip it downwards, making it smash into the ground with a mighty clang. "You may wanna keep empowering me, then. I'm gonna tear this bitch to shreds. After all..."
I trail off my sentence as I leap forward and deliver a punch straight to the center of the bot's back, leaving a hefty dent. "We can assume that it's immune to magic if Luna's been keeping her trend going. I'm physically stronger than you right now, and that's what MATTERS!" I shout as I give the bot a hard kick to the side plating, making it cave in slightly and sending the machine flying.
I try to take a deep breath. It hurts and still feels like I'm underwater, but I have to make this work. It's in my hands for the moment.
I rush forward to the impact crater the bot left as it hit the ground from my kick, and I send a palm strike into the retaliatory tail swing that swept up at me, knocking it off course and damaging the tail. The machine attempted to correct for this by using the momentum to swing the tail around at speed into me again, but I punch the tail this time, causing it to lose the end of it in a shower of sparks and ruined plate metal.
The bot compensates in stride, and leaps out at me to attempt to pin me under its weight. I perform a swift rising kick with my right leg, sending the machine up into the air at the cost of horrifically winding myself as my leg makes contact with my chest.
I gasp in pain and try to keep my head on straight, but the pain is great enough that my vision blurs and I stagger. I can't put my foot down in time to catch myself as my left leg gives out from under me, and I fall to my back, causing even more pain as I land onto my injury.
I yell aloud, unable to hold it back anymore, and things only get worse as the bot lands on top of me.
I only manage to make out a faint shouting through the haze of agony, and then the weight lifts off me for a brief moment. I figure it's all I'm going to get, and I lash out at the nearest thing that I can see with a primary black coloring.
My hand strikes a mechanical leg with adrenaline-fueled fight or flight power, and snaps the leg clean off.
"Chris!" I hear, muddled through my own physical and mental trifles, and I feel a pair of arms trying to lift me up.
I shake my head to try and clear it, which is much easier said than done, and force my feet underneath me. I have to get up. I have to. Don't fall apart here, Chris.
Fuck, I wish this thing folded in one hit like that first bot back in MoonTech.
I stand up, and release a primal howl as I lunge at the bot as soon as I see it. That empowering boost is fading, I have to make this count, now.
Luckily, now is exactly what happens.
I ram my fist home one final time into the faceplate of the bot as it tries to engage its ranged weapons and they fail to deploy due to external damage, and it fails to compensate in time. The face plate gives way easily, and I grit my teeth as I plant my hand inside, then grip the opening on the front plate with my other hand.
And I rip.
I manage to separate the machine into two parts with pure adrenaline-infused might. It's just a shame that my arms hurt like a motherfucker now because I put absolutely everything I had into doing that.
As soon as the bot goes down, I fall backward onto my ass and gasp as I try to breathe. My chest hurts, my arms hurt, and frankly I need a fucking medic yesterday.
As I try and mostly fail to catch my breath around the somewhat-healed hole in my torso, I feel a hand land on my shoulder.
"Just hold on, Chris. As soon as this disruption field fades, I'm getting us back to the castle." I faintly hear through my agony.
"How the fuck are you still functioning? I can barely think with this!" I exclaim, and wince as that strains my currently overtaxed lungs.
"To be honest, I'm not sure myself." Gwain replies while keeping her hand on my shoulder, which is helping me ground myself. I reach up and take hold of her hand, and while I feel her tense up, she doesn't pull away.
"As soon as this is over, my ass is going to sleep." I manage to get out jokingly, and Gwain guffaws through her own pain.
"I'll agree to that!" She says with a smile, and I can't help but smile at her too.
But all this leads to a question.
Why the fuck did Luna want blood from the both of us?
That thought is whisked away as the disruption field fades and Gwain teleports us back to the castle, where we're immediately swarmed by her guards and medical staff when they see the sad state we're in.
-?-
In a hidden lab outside of MoonTech's normal operation center, Luna stands with a small smile on her face as she swishes to the two blood samples she obtained from Gwain and the human that she's taken a fancy to.
Luna's mind whirls with possibilities to what can be done with this, but soon settles on one idea specifically.
And her grin widens as the cogs in her mind turn.
A/N: Alright, that's gonna have to do it for now. It's a shame that I can only go so far with each of these before my motivation peters out and it just starts to look and read like shit.
Though, to be honest, I'm kinda afraid that it already does that on most days, but I digress.
See you folks next time, and hopefully it'll be sooner than later, eh?
-Phaazed