I don't own HALO or Attack On Titan.
THE TALE OF ANGMAR, THE DREAD KING:
Five years before the Fall of Reach, a young man lost all that he cherished and loved. In a whirlwind of blood and bone and torn flesh, he was robbed of his soul. And from that day on, he became a force of violent nature. A horrendous monster to the invaders; one that brought about dread.
Master Chief leapt down from the top of the building onto the cobbled ground. He walked toward his new enemy: the freshly arrived Armored Titan. Its body was like a professional weightlifter's: big bulging biceps, pectorals and triceps. A body of pure muscle layered over with thick, rock-hard, segmented plates. Its head sported short-cut, blond hair. Its eyes glowed an evil, golden color.
The Armored Titan noticed the Master Chief walking in its direction. It turned, shaking the earth. Boom. Boom. Even Chief felt the impact. It stood imposingly, facing Chief.
Master Chief stopped walking. About a hundred yards separated the Spartan and the Titan. Master Chief was greatly reconsidering his decision to fight the monster. He had nothing to defeat it. No Energy Sword. No Spartan Laser. No Fuel Rod Gun. Anything less would fail to pierce the armor and would be disorienting to the Titan at most.
The Titan let out a low growl. It seemed to know that the Spartan was hesitating. But it wasn't making any move. Perhaps it suspected that Master Chief was trying to trick it? It seemed to be the case.
Chief unslung his assault rifle from his back. He figured some weapon was better than no weapon.
And thus the Titan's fears were alleviated. The human had no plan. He did not expect to survive the fight. The Titan might as well kill him. Still, it felt a modicum of admiration for the warrior. No one could call the Master Chief a coward. A fool, perhaps. But not a coward? Never.
"JOJO!" Lucius screamed. The wounded Spartan tried to rise, but his fatigue dragged him back down. "Get out of there! Get out of there now!"
Chief ignored Lucius's pleas, keeping his focus on the foe before him. 'Sorry, Lucius…' Chief thought somberly. 'But someone has to do this.'
The Armored Titan took a step forward. Then another. And another. Its long strides were closing the distance between it and Chief quickly.
Master Chief raised his rifle, ready to fire. Perhaps if he blinded the Titan, he could buy himself some time to think up a more concrete plan.
BONK!
The Armored Titan stopped. It glanced down behind itself. On the ground, a large stone clattered. Someone had thrown it at the back of the Titan's head.
BONK!
Another stone, this time at the Titan's shoulder. It turned around, ignoring Master Chief. The Spartan took advantage of the distraction and moved back.
The Armored Titan scanned the area, searching for the one who had dared to throw rocks at it. Then it heard…the tapping.
Clack…Clack…Clack…Clack...
Master Chief had no idea what was going on. But Lucius knew. His eyes grew wide with a mixture of disbelief and fear. Lost in his surprise, Lucius managed to utter a single word.
"…Angmar…"
Footsteps crunched against the gravel and debris. Heavy. Lumbering. Deliberate. Merciless. Lucius knew they were not just footsteps…They were like a drum, announcing the arrival of a new player in the arena… A war drum.
The footsteps echoed from the open gate. A shadow, as long as a hundred feet, of a humanoid figure, stretched out from the hole. Then…came the scraping sound. Something heavy and metallic, dragged along the stone ground.
After what seemed like a hundred years, the source of the sounds and the shadow emerged from the destroyed gate.
It was a Spartan. But not just any Spartan. He was clad in black, heavy MJOLNIR armor. His helmet was an up-armored Pilot model. The visor was ivory black. Upon his chest-plate was a pale, white skull fragment of a Jiralhanae. It was attached to an iron chain that went around his neck. His helmet was ablaze with blue fire. In his hand was a Gravity Hammer, but something about it was amiss. It was not a traditional gravity hammer.
Angmar. Had. Come.
"Jojo…" Lucius rasped. "You might want to get to cover. Now."
Chief would've argued but the serious tone in Lucius' voice told him to listen. So Chief retreated back into the building.
Angmar raised the gravity hammer, holding it with two hands. He walked quickly toward the Armored Titan. The Titan, in response, moved toward the Spartan. Angmar's pace quickened. So did the Titan's. Before anyone knew it, they were running. Then they were sprinting.
Angmar leapt up into the air, raising his hammer back. The Armored Titan clenched its fist, leaning back before sending the first punch.
Angmar's hammer swung. The Titan struck.
The second that their attacks met, a thunderous boom rocked the city and its walls. The Armored Titan's armor cracked like the shell of an egg; its bones shattered like glass, and its flesh burst like ripe raspberries. The Armored Titan stumbled backwards, spun around and slammed into the ground with a second—not-as-thunderous-as-the-first—boom.
Every living being in the vicinity watched with unrestrained awe. They dared not believe their own eyes. The Armored Titan—the creature responsible for thousands of deaths five years ago and considered unstoppable—had been struck down.
Angmar landed on the ground, rolled back up, and charged the Titan again. Gripping the hammer at the lower end of the shaft, Angmar swung his hammer at the Armored Titan's right ankle. The crack bounced off of the walls, sending shivers into all around.
The Titan roared.
"RRRRRRRAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"
It tried to kick at Angmar, but he sidestepped the attack. Instead he ran up farther alongside the leg, his aim set on the knee. He struck again, with a similar crack resounding, but accompanied with a loud squelching sound and more blood.
Outraged, the Armored Titan rolled over, hoping to crush Angmar with its body.
Angmar, instead of running away, slammed his gravity hammer into the ground. The shock wave, cracked the ground and sent the Spartan flying upwards. Angmar rose ten, twenty, thirty meters up into the air.
The Armored Titan noticed this and mindlessly reached out with its undamaged hand along the ground. It found a bunch of barrels, grabbed them and flung them at Angmar.
Angmar smashed the first two barrels with a swing of his hammer, a couple missed him entirely, but three smashed into him. The barrels sent Angmar flying back in an uncontrollable spin. He fell, landing hard on a roof. His hammer dropped from his grasp and fell to the street.
The attack had dazed Angmar; he couldn't tell which way was up or which way was down. His stomach and chest had a tingling sensation within them. The best case scenario? Something was badly bruised. Worst case? Something was badly broken.
In the meantime, the Titan rose back up. Its damaged hand was healing, steam coming off of it. However, the damage to its leg was recent. So when the Titan began to move towards Angmar, it did so in a half-hopping, half-limping gait.
"Chief, buy Angmar some time!" Lucius yelled over the comm.
Master Chief set into motion, firing single rounds at the Titan. The shots hit their mark, but the Titan didn't even flinch. It knew that Master Chief was the least of its worries in the moment. If it allowed Angmar to recover, then things would truly take turn for the worst.
On the roof, Angmar groaned. His head was still spinning.
His hammer. Where was his hammer? Thankfully there was a tracker in his hammer, which connected to his HUD. It seemed to be only a few meters away, down in the street.
He had to get off the roof and to his hammer. His dizziness was slowly wearing away, so he was able to notice the enormous figure of the Armored Titan shuffling towards him.
Angmar crawled and shuffled his body in the direction of the marker on his HUD, slowly and steadily. His armor scraped against the red tiles, even cracking some of them.
The Titan noticed the Angmar was moving. So it in turn started to move faster.
Angmar reached the edge of the roof. Looking down he spotted his hammer, just a few feet away from a hay cart below him. He pushed himself off the edge, aiming for the cart. Angmar landed with a rustle, then a crash, cracking the wooden vehicle.
He emerged from the cart, bundles of hay stuck in the crooks and crevices of his armor. He stumbled out of the cart, reaching for the haft of his hammer. He grasped it, falling to his knees.
Boom-Boom-Boom!
The Armored Titan was now limping as fast as it could. It had to strike before Angmar could!
Angmar knew he didn't have enough time left. But then out of the right-most periphery of his eye, he spotted something. A manhole cover! Sewers! He quickly crawled over to the cover, wrenching it open. Then he pushed himself headfirst through it.
Darkness. Then a splash.
Immediately, Angmar crawled through the wet darkness. He had to get as far from the opening as possible.
CRASH!
The opening through which Angmar had entered was suddenly enlarged by a giant, armored fist. The hand blindly felt around the narrow tunnel, surging the sewer water and breaking away rocks.
The waves smacked against Angmar as he speedily retreated. His eyes were adjusting to the darkness. Up ahead, he saw a junction of the tunnels. Angmar picked himself up and slogged through the water. When he reached the junction, he rounded the corner. He took cover as the Titan's hand roiled around.
Then the sounds stopped. The hand had withdrawn.
CRASH!
The ceiling above the junction burst, knocking Angmar back. The Armored Titan's hand returned, groping once again.
Angmar was angry. Angry at how this foul creature had put him in the position of hiding like a rat among filth. Angry at himself for allowing it to happen. Angry that this creature deigned to breathe the same air that he did! Angry that this creature thought itself so high and mighty! It was not! It should suffer!
Angmar stepped forward, and engaged his armor ability: Armor Lock. His fist pounded the ground as his armor's shields glowed.
The Titan saw the light emanating from the tunnel, reaching for its source. The moment that the Armored Titan's fingers started to close around Angmar, the Spartan's Armor-Lock burst with a shockwave of energy.
The shockwave, concentrated on the Titan's hand, caused its fingers to bend, curling backwards. The Titan's hand now resembled a split gun-barrel. The Titan recoiled from the hole. That was a mistake.
Angmar leapt out of the sewers, rushing the Armored Titan.
The Armored Titan rolled back, increasing the distance between itself and its opponent. But Angmar still had immense speed, being a Spartan. So it didn't matter if the Titan tried to run.
Angmar spun around, slamming his hammer with one hand into some debris nearby. The rubble flew like buckshot at the Titan.
The Titan raised and crossed its arms instinctively. Losing a limb wasn't nearly as bad as losing the eyes. Especially when dealing with such an opponent. The rubble buffeted its arms and lower body.
Angmar leapt up into the air, slamming his hammer into the Titan's forearms. The attack—as the Titan came to realize— wasn't meant to do any damage, but rather to boost Angmar over and behind the Armored Titan.
The nape! With a weapon like Angmar's, it didn't matter if the nape was fortified or not!
Angmar somersaulted through the air, swinging his hammer as he exited the acrobatic move.
The Armored Titan twisted its body rapidly. As a result, Angmar only clipped its shoulder. The shoulder wasn't crushed completely, and instead had a brutal gash along its length.
As the Titan twisted, it took advantage of the movement to send a punch with its other arm at Angmar. The latter saw the attack coming from the corner of his eye.
Bad Move.
First, Angmar relaxed his body. Rather than meet the attack head-on, he decided to hitch a ride on the fist. The punch was instinctual and uncontrolled, so the arm arced upwards to the sky.
Then, Angmar enacted the second part of his plan.
Angmar twisted a ring on the haft of his hammer. Suddenly, in a flash of light, a glowing, sapphire-colored, energy axe-blade was protruding from the hammer's head. Next, he activated Armor Lock again, but rather than pound his fist like last time, he clutched his Gravity-Energy Axe with both hands and swung down.
The combined force of Angmar's body mass, the Armor Lock Energy Burst, and the axe's power, sent Angmar travelling through the length of the Armored Titan's arm.
The Titan watched in horror as the black mass cut through the flesh and bone of its arm like a warm knife through butter. Blood burst and sprayed as the arm was split down the center.
A blood-drenched Angmar exploded out of the shoulder, blinding the Titan with its own blood. The Titan flinched, for Angmar's emergence was as loud and forceful as a thunder-crack.
CRA-BOOM!
The Spartan wasn't slowing down. He swung his hammer at the Armored Titan's face, specifically, its cheek. The cheek caved in and the one on the other side of the Titan's face burst with sprayed blood and teeth flying out like shrapnel.
For the second time, the Armored Titan crashed to the ground.
BOOM!
Angmar skidded out of the crash-zone, using his hammer as a brake. When he came to a full stop, Angmar rushed the Titan again. It was facedown and immobilized.
Now was the time to deliver the killing blow.
Then, the Armored Titan's body exploded.
Smoke and steam came first, then the shock wave followed. It was so powerful that it pushed Angmar back three meters.
Master Chief and Lucius, who had been watching the entire fight, took cover. When the smoke cleared, the Armored Titan was gone.
Angmar looked around, keeping his hammer at the ready. Nothing registered on the motion tracker besides allies. He walked over to the spot where the Titan had been. The concrete was cracked from the impact, but that was all. No blood. No armor fragments. Nothing.
Poof. It just…vanished.
Angmar was steaming. Both literally and metaphorically. The Titan's blood was evaporating off of his armor. But Angmar was—to say the least—"peeved" that his enemy had escaped before he could finish the job.
Angmar deactivated the Energy Axe-Head as he lowered his hammer.
Perhaps another day, he would fight the coward again.
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