Disclaimer: See previous chapters
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Chap. 34
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TKTKTKTKTKTKTKTKTKTKTKTKTKTK!
Havoc bore down a load of machine fire upon Hades, but his shots weren't making too much impact on the Death Dealer. But that was part of Elijah's plan. In order to safely combat this Raven, he had to keep him off balance. Being a reverse joint AC, that would make Hades defense low. He just had to hit him a sufficient amount of times and Hades would fall.
Hitting him was the problem, and not the only one.
With the energy weapons Hades possessed, he could make short work of Elijah's AC. Thus, keeping him off balance was also a defense measure, one that Hades soon noticed.
-"I can sense your fear, hatchling."-
Elijah frowned at the name and continued to fire. Hades skipped aside and took to the air, avoiding the gunfire that ripped on past. Havoc stopped firing and looked upward. Hades aimed downward and fired his Karasawa rifle, sending beams of energy soaring down to the young Raven. Havoc flew aside as the blasts smashed down, causing the dirt floor to erupt. But Elijah wasn't fooled by this tactic and kept lock on the airborne AC.
'I don't think so.'
Arming his missiles and activating the extra missile extensions, Elijah let loose a stream of flying projectiles at Hades just as he was landing. Hades was completely caught and Elijah smirked at the imagined look of surprise on the Raven's face.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
Rearming the machine gun, Havoc charged in. Since his missiles were radar jammers, that would render Hades helpless for a few minutes. Enough time for him to take him out. But upon getting past the smoke, he found Hades gone. Wheeling around, Elijah found Hades airborne once again. And even worse, Elijah's system warned him that he was locked.
'What? But how…?'Hades fired a slew of missiles from his left-arm launcher. Elijah quickly yanked back on the controls, dodging most of the fire. As Havoc began to turn around, Elijah finally understood what happened. Hades must have a high ECM resistance, meaning that he wasn't as helpless as he thought. Havoc finally managed to turn around, only to be blinded by a white flash followed by a rocking explosion.
A Karasawa blast…
Elijah felt like his cockpit was spinning and when he regained control, he discovered what happened. Hades had fired upon landing and had completely blown off his machine gun. Havoc was now holding the smoldered remains of his weapon.
-"And now, the hand of death reaches for you."-
Elijah scowled slightly as he discarded the weapon. After all his work and training, he had missed that one vital fact. What if he missed other things as well? 'No. I can't doubt myself now.' Memories of his previous fight with Hades drove him even more. 'I refuse to be that helpless again.' Lifting the left arm, Havoc ignited his laserblade, a long stream of light red energy, and readied himself for renewed battle.
'Alright. Round two, creep.'
"Come back here!"
Koemai pursued the now-retreating Sheol. Since the beginning of their fight, Bloodhand had been relentless in his attacks, not giving the Death Dealer a chance to form a counter-attack. Already, Sheol had sustained a significant amount of damage, both from the machine gun and a close encounter with Bloodhand's laserblade. It was no wonder why they wanted such a Raven to join their ranks.
But he was a part of Nightwatch, therefore he was to die…
Locking on with his vertical missiles, Shoel fired a couple of projectiles that soared high into the air and then descended. Activating his OB, Bloodhand shot forward, dodging the missiles altogether and coming in close with his blade again. Shoel activated his extension boosters, pushing him out of the way of the slash and giving him enough space to fire.
But not with his weaponry…
Koemai, meanwhile watched as Sheol continued to fly away and pursued once more. At this point, his old wounds were beginning to bother him, but he ignored it and pressed on. The sooner this was over, the better. Sheol stopped flying back and skiff of to the right. Koemai had a clear shot now. Sliding on the ground, he quickly activated his grenade launcher and locked on.
'Gotcha.'But suddenly, his FCS lock vanished as he fired and the grenade blast soared clear through the sky. 'What the hell?' Wheeling around, Koemai regained his lock and was about to fire when he lost it again. 'What's going…? Oh yeah.' Hovering in the air were ECM markers, blocking out his lock-on capabilities. Seeing that remaining in place would be suicide, Koemai retracted his launcher and returned to his machine gun. The lock on was still cut, but there was a solution to that. Firing his boosters, Koemai began to move out of the marker's range. But the swarming sound of missiles cut turned his attention to his opponent, who was not firing at him with his vertical. This time, Bloodhand would not be able to avoid them. Relying on instinct, Koemai fired, not at the Death Dealer, but at the missiles themselves. Remarkably, he managed to hit two of them.
Problem was, there were five total…Wham! Wham! Wham!
Normally, such hits would barely faze Koemai and he would just get back into the fight. But he was a bit slow to recover and by that time, Shoel attacked again, switching to his rifle and unleashing his fury. The bullets hit Bloodhand consecutively and in return, Bloodhand fired back, forcing Shoel to strafe away. Luckily, Bloodhand's extra shielding protected him for the most part, but more damage was done than could be seen. Within, Koemai moaned painfully. One of the shots had hit the cockpit and sparked him, opening a wound on his side. Blood was slowly seeping out as Koemai grasped his wound. His FCS cut off again and he looked to see Shoel continuing to strafe around him, looking for the right moment to strike. Releasing his wound, Koemai retook the controls while his hand was stained with his own blood.
'Bloodhand…Talk about irony.'
The dust of the wasteland spew up wildly as Phantom flew along with Black Widow. The two machines then split off and flew at each other. Phantom got the first lock and fired a thin beam of energy. Black Widow skipped to the side and fired her arm missiles. Phantom continued to soar past and then shot up into the air. The missiles followed, but then she descended sharply, causing the missiles to lose track and implode in the air harmlessly. Looking at her opponent, she armed her dual warhead missiles and let them loose. Black Widow stopped briefly and suddenly hopped up into the air just after the missiles split up, causing them to fly just under her and miss totally. This is how it has been between the two Ravens. One would fire and the other would counter without a scratch, using their speed and agility to outright dodge and avoid one another.
'This is hopeless.' Ellie thought amusedly. 'We're not going to do too much at this rate.'
Black Widow landed on the ground, with the dual orbit cannon lifting up. Phantom wheeled around in a double fire, firing both a howitzer shell and an energy beam. Black Widow quickly jumped back and up, dodging the attacks once again, but narrowly this time. But her goal had been accomplished and the orbiters hovered in the air, twisted toward Phantom and fired wildly.
Phantom quick backed away out of range, but just then, Black Widow landed behind her and launched another set of orbiters, which quickly fired away. Again Phantom was forced to move away, but Black Widow didn't pursue. Ellie soon found out why. To the left there was a third set of orbiters. 'She must have launched them beforehand.' Ellie was now centered in between three sets of orbiters, with Black Widow closing in.
-"Welcome to the web. Now death follows."-
Phantom however, flew straight up into the air. The boosters burned rapidly as she ascended and then took a small shot backward. The descent space put Phantom way out of range of the orbiters and gave her the space she needed to attack.
"Sorry Widow. But I don't trap that easily."
Fsskk!
The fight between the heavyweights of the two clans looked much like a old style battle between tanks as White Wolf and Skull unloaded bazooka fire upon each other. Due to the slowness of the machines, they also took much of each others' fire as well, but because of the heavy armor, it didn't stop them much. But within, both Ravens knew their limits and Baron was beginning to see cracks of his.
'S&$t! This sucks.'
The last bazooka shots from Skull had impacted with his linear cannon, disabling it. Not that he could have afforded to use it now, but he was short one weapon now. 'Guess I'll have to go to Plan B.' Kneeling down, White Wolf unfolded his chain gun and fired, not even waiting to lock on. The bullet fire ripped at Skull, tearing away at the dark AC. In mid-attack, Skull lifted its arm and activated the energy shield, reducing the damage he took. At the same time, it unlocked the vertical missiles and sent loose a swarm of them.
'Give me a break.'
Flipping the switch, Baron activated his core's missile interceptors. As the vertical missiles began to descend upon him, the interceptors fired projectiles of it own, countering the missile attack. But it did serve to distract Baron long enough for Skull to get out of the line of the chain gun fire and settle down elsewhere. Now Skull was unfolding his own weapon, a back laser cannon.
PHOOSSSHHHH!
'S#$T!'The cannon blast hit White Wolf square on, blinding the Raven inside in a flash of light. The armor continued to hold, but the blast had damaged a good portion of the circuitry, causing sparks to flutter around him. Looking back at the viewscreen, he saw his opponent in the same place, likely charging for another blast. Baron jerked on the controls, but found that they too were damaged, jammed from within. He continued to jerk them around, trying to get a response out of his machine.
'Come on, Wolf. Get it in gear.'
-"Time to put you down like the dog you are."-
PHOOSSSHHHH!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Cloak swiftly swooped away and through the onslaught brought about by Genocide, who was in the air and bombarding the area with howitzer shells and his EO solid shots. 'This guy sure lives up to his name.' But there was a pattern; she was smart enough to see that. He was aligning his blast, trying to drive her in a certain direction. She quickly checked her area map and saw a crater just up ahead.
'Ah, so that's what you're up to.'
Genocide continued with his barrage, driving the high-speed AC toward the crate. His attacks had been timed well as he fired consecutively to make it seem as if he was blasting everywhere yet limited enough no to waste his ammo. She would be unable to counterattack and when she ran into the crater, she would be doomed. The howitzer shells would swarm her and without her maneuverability, she would be helpless to stop him. Cloak continued to be driven toward the crater and Genocide decided to take the final step. Lowering to the ground, Genocide switched the firing capacity of his howitzer arms and launched four shells simultaneously. The explosions tore up the ground as he landed in the aftermath. Genocide quickly set up his multi-missile and began aiming toward the crater. 'Time to end this.' Despite the smoke, Genocide would still be able to lock on to Cloak. The missiles will ground her and give him enough time to finish the job. A flawless plan of execution, save for one problem.
He was being locked…
'What?'The smoke cleared to find Cloak facing him directly. Diana had allowed the howitzer bombardment to hit her, relying on her shielding to take the brunt of the damage while she settled the machine on the ground for an attack, using the smoke as cover all the while. Fortunately, many of the howitzer shells didn't hit her and her shielding held up. Now for the counterattack…
"Choke on this."
BOOOOSH!
The laser cannon fired, hitting Genocide dead on and nearly knocking the machine down. But in a flash, the Death Dealer strafed off to the side and flew back. 'That's what you get for treating me like cattle.' Diana deactivated her cannon and brought her machine gun back to bear. However, the black AC began to swoop back, it eyes gleaming red.
-"You…will…suffer…!"-
-"As the ancients perished under my namesake, so shall you."-
Stealth active, Anubis fired upon Professional with a combination of his machine-gun and large missiles without worry. Professional strafed around the attacks as they came continuously, not able to fire back. As he soared off to the right, Anubis switched to his triple missiles and let them loose. Again, Professional was forced to dodge, only this time into the air. His hover booster active, Professional flew around the swarm. Anubis turned and followed, but the Raven within frowned. Professional had moved into the perfect spot to counterattack, yet he didn't do so. Anubis had planned on using the counterattack to move in, but in never came.
For that matter, Professional hadn't made any offensive moves against him. Despite taking in damage, the leader of the Nightwatch clan did little to fight back. Anubis had assumed that it was because of his stealth extension through a majority of the battle, but there were times where he had been open. Anubis is usually prepared for an attack right after his extension shuts down. It was one of his strategies with his machine to expect it and to hit his enemy as they come in to attack.
'Perhaps this one knows that.'
Seeing this, Anubis decided upon a new strategy. He would leave his stealth extension off for the time being and let his opponent attack him for a time. Then when he least expects it, he will reactivate it and move in close for the kill. It will be a swift and final end.
Just the way death should be…
Foooossshhhh!
The rocket flew past the white AC as it came in to attack. Reaper skipped back briefly before his scythes flared alive and slashed. But in was in defense against Glaive's Moonlight saber. As the two clashed heavily, Bane frowned. Dealing with Glaive now was turning out quite differently than his previous encounters. His battling was more aggressive, especially with the new saber generator extending his already powerful laser blade. Bane usually had the advantage due to the fact that he was equipped with dual scythes, but this alters range and the ability to counter. It was time to use a…different type of weapon.
-"She will die. It is inevitable."-
No response from his rival and Glaive pushed back. Allowing himself to fly back, Reaper launched another salvo of vertical missiles. Glaive came in close in order to dodge most of the missiles, with a few hitting around the legs and almost throwing him off balance. Seeing this, Reaper came in to attack, firing another inside rocket for extra time and attacking with his scythes. Glaive activated his laser sword and lifted it in defense, resulting in a flash of sparks and energy between the two.
-"You tried to hide her from me. But nothing escapes the eyes of death. Nothing escapes the hand of death."-
Within Glaive, Cain worked hard to shut out the taunts of the Death Dealer and focus on the fight. He didn't need to be thinking about Aria now. He had long decided on what to do and simply wanted to focus on completing his task. To that end, he had to leave out any thought other than that. But with Bane attacking him verbally, it was just as difficult to focus as the battle itself.
'Remember what you're fighting for…'Calming his thoughts, Cain moved into action again. Glaive pushed back hard, forcing Reaper back again. Switching arms, Glaive lifted his laser cannon and fired a blast of energy at Reaper. Reaper twisted of to the side using his turn boosters and the energy swarmed off into the air. Still turning, Reaper fired up his scythes again in a backward slash, to which Glaive jumped back. Reaper was very adept to using his scythes in forms that were unusual for most Ravens to use. Glaive was the only AC that moved in similar fashions and he showed it as he moved his blade upward while Reaper was coming in for his second slash, deflecting it. Glaive then strafed off to the side, expecting another rocket launch. But Reaper made no such move and Glaive continued to fly around, readying for another attack. But Bane had an attack of his own.
-"Room 5G."-
Cain's eyes widened. That was the number of the room where Aria was in. He did know where she was. Cain's focus was all but shattered at that moment and Bane chose that moment to boost at Glaive and attack, firing a rocket that impacted with the laser cannon on his arm, blasting it off. Cain forced his mind to refocus, but it wasn't complete and Reaper was upon his, scythes flying through the air. In an act of desperation, Glaive shot back, but the scythe edge hit across the core, creating a tear mark across it. Glaive seemed to stagger back and Reaper came in again. Only instinct allowed Cain to defend against the attack with his blade, but the force of strike forced Glaive to kneel down. Cain struggled hard with the controls in order to push back, but his efforts were weakened. Reaper towered over him, pressing down even more and forcing the white AC into submission.
-"She will die. And so will you."-