Chapter 64
"Take this!" Neptune swings her sword at the heel of a giant five meter tall guardian. We were busy distracting it so she could get that shot.
"Argh! I've stated before that none shall pass!" It said in its deep voice as it knelt to the ground. It's on the last leg of its life so might as well end its suffering.
"Really now? Well now your oath is broken." Vert flies forward and jams her spear in the guardians face, killing it instantly.
We all let out a huge sigh, that fight took way too long to complete, even with my new upgrades and most of Vert's returned power. The item drop screen appeared in front of us and we examined the loot.
"This was hardly worth the effort." Noire states to us. Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with her on this one. All we got from that kill was a moderate amount of credits and some medium grade crafting materials.
The fight itself was too challenging in itself, the monster had an insane health pool and the ability to regenerate lost health. On the bright side, the dungeon boss is just past the gate it was guarding.
"Is the boss gonna be super long to fight like that last monster?" A legitimate concern Ram, I'm asking myself that as well.
"Whatever it is, let's pulverize it until we get some good items!" You can feel the rage radiating off of Blanc. It's kind of scary if you ask me.
The next few minutes were spent recovering our Hp and Stamina bars. Can't take out a boss when we're only at half capacity now can we? Catching a breather is the best course of action sometimes.
I see Nepgear sitting down so I go to join her. Almost out of instinct she lays her head on my shoulder. I start stroking her avatars pink hair softly for comfort.
Learning that if you're connected to their power source then you feel pain was a shocking revelation. That means every time we've played before they've all experienced some degree of pain.
This is my silent way of telling Nepgear that I'll protect her no matter what. As that guardian before us had an oath to protect this gate, I have an oath to protect the ones I love.
"I trust that you two are done, everyone else is waiting." Neptune walks up to us and shoots me a glare. I have to remember I'm speaking to a completely different Neptune when we play.
"Yeah, we're ready." I say getting up then lending Nepgear a hand to get off the ground as well.
Nepgear walks to the others but Neptune grabs my arm to keep me back. She looks at me with her penetrating blue gaze for intimidation. Now I'm officially scared of both Neptune's.
"Let me make this clear, don't let my sister get hurt. You already hurt her enough when you took her virginity. And it hurt her when she gave you some sharicite. The other side of me may trust you with her, but this side still has its doubts about you."
"Wait… How did you know I had sex with her!?"
"We're connected remember? Anything she feels I can feel as well if I want to. Sure towards the end there was a lot of passion and pleasure, but for most of it you caused her pain."
I really can't argue with her, I have done a lot to make her and everyone suffer. But on the bright side, our bonds are stronger than ever because we went through this ordeal.
"I can't make any promises, but I'll do my best to protect her." I'll be as sincere with her as I can be. I'll never be able to fully protect Nepgear, I'm only human after all.
Neptune's avatar smiles at me, exuding a little bit of warmth. "You're not as bad as I thought you were. Now I see why Nepgear likes you so much."
I step back at her statement. "Were you just hitting on me?" I ask out of concern.
Neptune walks by my avatar and puts a finger on my chin sliding it across my jaw before being fully behind me. "We'll just have to see now won't we?" She says in a seductive tone.
I know she's joking with me but this is getting weird, even for Neptune standards. I'll have to scold her other self later, even knowing that these are essentially two separate people I'm talking with.
Ignoring Neptune's crazy antics, I walk back and rejoin the group. All of us are gathered around the boss door just waiting to open it. Who knows what kind of boss could be behind this door? It could be another Bound Deity for all we know.
"Alright guys, let's kill this boss until it dies!" Ram tries to inspire us with a chant. It's working I'll give her that.
"We have Jack here… we can't lose…" Rom says to us as well. For some reason she thinks highly of me. She is like a little sister to me so that could be why.
With that, the boss door opens, revealing the outside world. This must be the dungeon exit, but where's the boss?
*Splish!* *Splish!*
Across the graveyard arena, a man clothed in tattered robes of sorts and a wide brim hat. In one hand he wields a simple looking axe, in the other hand he has an old fashioned pistol.
The strange man is hitting the carcass of what looks to be a Fenrir. It doesn't make any sense, the beast is already dead so why keep mutilating it?
"Monsters all over the land." He starts talking to us while still hitting the Fenrir.
He points to me without looking away from the carcass. "You'll be one of them, sooner or later."
My heart stops for a brief moment. I feel cold by that statement, to the point that goosebumps are covering my entire body. Something about his words make me think about what I fear the most.
Why does nothing ever make sense when I play this game? People talk to me like they know me, monsters read my mind, and ancient spirits teach me new tricks. It gets annoying after a while.
He stands up straight and turns to us. When we see his face, his eyes are covered by something and his teeth are incredibly sharp for a human. He's more like a beast now that I look at it.
"Be on your guard, we don't know what kind of shit this guy pulls." Blanc alerts us, concerned for our safety.
"You don't have to tell me twice." Vert responds.
His erratic breathing becomes stable as he prepares to attack us. We do the same, getting ready to halt any advances he might have on us.
Before either side makes a move, someone else joins us in the arena. He didn't enter behind us, instead he jumped over the wall surrounding the cemetery like battlefield.
It happened so quickly that none of us really knew what was going on. I stood where I was shocked that someone just jumped into here. They must have some serious leg strength to pull that off.
Mid air, he pulls out two gigantic swords and connects them with an arm attachment. A cool but ineffective weapon in my opinion.
He lands behind the dungeon boss with his scissor blade fully held to each side. The boss turns his attention away from us and turns around quickly.
"Heh, too slow!"
*Slash!*
His blades release their tension and slice horizontally, cleaving the boss in two with just one attack. This is a pretty high level dungeon, and the boss just got annihilated by some random guy.
The upper half on the boss falls to the ground with a thud. All of us stare in disbelief at the man who easily killed a boss.
"Holy Crap!" Uni says what we're all thinking.
Looking at him closer, he wears a mechanical suit that practically is his skin but is bulky enough to differentiate and be intimidating. Red lines and dots are all over his armor, telling us that it's some form of mechanical enhancement armor. His mouth is covered by a three piece guard and his eyes blocked by a visor with lights lining it.
"Oh no… he's back." Noire says in fear. Noire never gets scared publicly so it's causing most of the group to worry.
"Who's back?" Martin asks her.
"He's a Bound Deity… we need to run!"
Noire attempts to run away but is stopped by Neptune grabbing her arm. "Why would we run? Shouldn't we take the opportunity to slay one of our foes?" You make a valid point Neptune.
Noire looks into Neptune's eyes with intensity. "There's no way we can beat him… he's too strong for us." Tears form in Noire's eyes. She's been through something that's for sure.
Footsteps can be heard from across the graveyard. I turn my attention away from Noire and see the Bound Deity walking towards us.
"Well, well, looks like the Goddesses have come out to play." His voice sounds altered, most likely from his face guard. He sounds more like a robot than a man to me.
Neptune begins to comfort Noire while the rest of us get ready for battle. If this guy's really as tough as Noire says he is then we have to be ready for anything he has up his sleeve.
"Stay away from us you dummy!" Ram holds out her staff and shoots an ice chunk at him.
*Clink!* his blades disconnect back into two separate weapons and he knocks away her attack with a simple swipe.
"Tch, if you think that attack will hurt me," he crouches slightly, then propels himself high into the air beyond natural human limits. Then again he's basically a god.
He holds both his blades behind his back for a down strike attack at Ram. "Then you're out of your league you damn brat!"
"Don't lay a hand on them!" Martin steps in to intervene by launching an arcane attack the Bound Deity, effectively knocking him out of the air.
On his way down, he crashes into several tombstones, destroying them in the process. Enhanced or not, that's still going to leave a mark.
While he tries to stand back up and knock the chunks of rock off himself, Martin stands firm with us. "Go now, I'll hold him back."
You may be valiant Martin but there's no way you can make it out of this alone. You're going to need someone to cover you.
"Correction, we'll hold him off." I run to stand near Martin and draw my sword.
He side glances over at me. "Very well, I appreciate your assistance. Alright everyone, there isn't much time left so hurry!" Martin's getting more furious by the minute. Maybe because he doesn't want to see his new girlfriend in pain, or because he's a pretty upstanding guy.
Whatever the case is there isn't much time to think. The Deity finally gets up fully and reoriented with his surroundings. Seeing this, our companions flee like Martin asked them to.
"Come back alive!" Nepgear yells at me as she and Neptune carry a fear struck Noire out of the area. That's her way of saying I love you right about now.
"I promise that I will Nepgear… I'll fight for us." I say softly to myself.
"That's beautiful, really tugs at the heartstrings. It looks like she'll be one sad little girl after this though. I promise you that Jack."
"How do you know my name?" Honestly, it seems like everyone knows who I am at this point.
"You're kind of a thorn in our side. Your friend here isn't though, so could he kindly back off? This is between you and me."
Martin takes a step forward. "Are you saying that an all powerful Bound Deity is scared to fight two people?" Damn, Martin can be an asshole when he wants to be.
He steps back, his pride having been hurt by Martin's remark. That may reduce his rationality in battle, a smart move Martin.
"I'm not scared of a hundred opponents. Come on, it's time to play!"
Martin and I got into our battle stances and watched him carefully from where we were. But from the bloodlust in his distorted voice, I could tell that this is going to be a long battle.
A/N: Hey guys, long time no see. For the record, I didn't forget about writing, I've just been playing a lot of Ps4 recently and Bloodborne is pretty addicting. You might not see me for a while when victory II comes out but I'll try my best to write.
In other news, how's everyone been? Lately I've been getting messaged by people curious about the story and I want to hear everyone out. Like earlier today, I received a review asking me about it. Well, Mr. Guest, here's your answer.
As always, stayed tuned for more, but until then, see you in the next update.