(Runs out, panting)
Hello again, everyone, and once again, I apologize for the two week delay, but school's been a pain. However, after this, things should be getting back to normal, so I should be able to write more often and get these chapters out on time.
As a warning, this chapter is very, very violent, and I caution you to read at your own risk.
Also, you can all expect to see Keira's AC form in this battle, and I hope that everyone finds it to their liking. Special thanks to animedragongirl for her help in coming up with the initial form, and to DarkStarPhoenix for further refinement. Also, there will be something of a surprise from one of the characters near the end of the chapter, just to warn you.
Oh yeah, I want to extend my thanks to Aura for her review, as I could not respond due to the ineptitude of my e-mail account. A heart felt thank you to everyone else who reviewed anonymously, and whom I cannot directly reply to because the administration is on some really back crack at the moment.
Lawyers: me no own, so you no sue!
That said, here is the next chapter, (crosses fingers)
&
An Angel's Wrath, a Demon's Fury: Part Two
The Marauder guard paced back and forth along the length of the battlement, his mind only half upon his duty. In truth, it was only by bad luck that he was up there, as Scourge had wanted to keep a few people on watch duty just in case any Wastelanders that had happened to be out and about at the time of the attack should drop by and try to stir something up. Thus, he cursed the fact that he had been unable to participate in the greatest victory celebration to take place within this fortress in living memory.
Unbeknownst to the guard, his luck was about to get a whole lot worse than it already was.
Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a bit of movement, ad he turned to face it, lowering his weapon at the same time. However, he found, much to his surprise, that the only thing he could see was one of his compatriots, about a hundred or so feet down the length of the wall. Cocking an eyebrow, the Marauder sentry frowned, and brought his thumb and forefinger up to rub his chin.
Along the way, he felt them brush something that didn't feel like it was a part of his gear, and a look of confusion came over him.
It was a look that would be forever etched into the face of the man as his unseen assailant yanked on both end of the wire that he had just looped around the guard's throat. The monofilament cord dug into the tender flesh of the elf's neck, slicing through skin, muscle, and an instant later, bone, as the cord did its silent and deadly work. This resulted in a very efficient, if more than a little messy, decapitation.
The body hit the ground, and the head rolled against the wall. Just as Jak had anticipated, the other sentry heard it, and turned to face the noise. Zooming in with his night vision, the dark elf could see the other Marauder's face change from one of confusion and curiosity to one of horror, and he smirked at the knowledge that his enemy couldn't see him in this low light.
Jak would never know if there was simply no alarm system to begin with, or if it was some sort of morbid curiosity that drew his prey nearer to him, rather than raising Kain and alerting everyone else to the fact that here was something amiss going on. Nonetheless, he was silently grateful and mentally encouraged and enticed the Marauder sentry to come forward and meet his doom.
The other elf proceeded to do just that, leveling his rifle and slowly, but steadily, walking over to where his comrades body lay on the dusty stone. Jak took a slight step to one side, in hopes of better positioning himself for the next killing blow, and because the pool of blood from the body was creeping nearer to him, and it wouldn't do to be leaving bloody footprints wherever he went.
Trembling visibly, the other guard finally got over to where the corpse was, and bent down, his breathing rate bordering on hyperventilation and his movements jerky.
Having tucked away the cord into his utility belt, (as he wanted to add a little variety to the slaughter that he was about to unleash) the Ascended Channeler reached out, grabbed the guard around the head with both hands, and before the man could even began to struggle, twisted his neck in such a manner that even an owl would have found itself wincing.
The dead man's eyes now gazing blindly in a direction that they were never meant to, the dark elf slowly lowered the corpse, and then began to make his way towards the far end of the battlement, where a door that led deeper into the compound was located. He would have to move fast, as it would only be a matter of time before the bodies were discovered and the Marauders put two and two together.
He had not traveled very far into the depths of the Marauder Fortress when he stumbled across what appeared to be some sort of barracks. Judging from the distance separating the doors, the rooms would have been about the right size, and he could see the logical sense in having them located this close to the outer defenses. Behind the helmet of his armor, the dark elf smirked once more, already knowing what he was going to do. He got up next to the first door, and leaped upwards. The way in which the supports were built into the fairly low ceiling made it easy for him to brace himself with three of his limbs. Then with a surprising amount of agility, the young warrior drew Kitetsu from its scabbard, and leaned down, before rapping sharply upon the door twice. A muttered reply on the other side and a flash on his motion detector let him know that he had succeeded in getting the occupant's attention, and he quickly pulled himself back up.
The door opened, and the Marauder stuck his head out of the door.
"What?" he growled, his tone that of someone nursing a rather severe hangover.
Just as the man realized that there was no one in his immediate field of vision, the dark elf leaned back down once more, and lashed out.
Blood gushed from the stump of the elf's severed neck as the head and body fell to the floor.
Jak then sheathed Kitetsu, exhaling slightly and bracing himself for another bit of fancy acrobatics. He suddenly un-tensed his body, letting gravity take over. However, before he could hit the ground, he twisted about, reaching out and grabbing the overhang of the now open door, before swinging himself into the room.
A quick glance confirmed his earlier suspicions about multiple bunking, and saw about three other Marauders still sound asleep further away from the door. For the third time that evening, a wicked smile came over his face, and for the first time in a long while, he allowed himself to enjoy the carnage he was about to bring.
All he needed to do was to remember the images of the Wastelanders as they lay upon the ground, their faces twisted into silent screams as their blood flowed upon the sand, some of them tortured almost beyond recognition. Not to mention what had happened to any females unfortunate enough to be captured, and he knew that these killings were about to become textbook cases of justifiable homicide.
He walked over to the first elf, who was still snoring soundly away. Without a moment's hesitation, he formed his hand into a knife, and angled it downward. He then thrust his hand forward, driving it into the rib cage of the sleeping man. Powered by his vampiric strength, his blow easily tore through the bone of the sternum, and he quickly curled his fingers around the prize that he sought. As the Marauder began to awaken from the pain, Jak ripped his hand back out, taking with it the other elf's still beating heart.
Watching one's heart appear to hover outside of your opened up chest can sober up even the drunkest of individuals, to say nothing of the pain that accompanied such an event. As fear and agony caused him to open his mouth to scream, the dark elf took the opportunity to shut him up with the handiest thing available.
He shoved the bloody organ into the elf's mouth.
Not pausing to admire his handiwork, Jak then marched over to the next one, who slept on, oblivious to his roommate's rather agonizing demise.
The Ascended Channeler drew his katana, and walked up next to the elf. He placed the dark blade right above the sleeping Marauder's throat, and mentally planned his swing. He then reared back, and with a single, incredibly swift stroke, split the man open from chest to groin, bisecting his heart and just about every other vital organ along the way in the process. The corpse thrashed about for a few moments, getting a good deal of blood all over the place and making a minor racket. Fortunately, the sole remaining Marauder was in dreamland. Not that being awake would have made much of a difference in the long run.
With no one else present to raise the alarm at the moment, the dark elf opted for a different form of execution. Reaching the bedside of the last one, he reached down, and yanked the man up by his hair, while allowing for his optic camouflage to fade away. Quickly bolting awake due to the pain from being held as he was, the elf had just enough time to see the mangled bodies of his comrades, and realize that there was something that did not appear to be of this world holding him up, before the dark katana hissed, and his world went dark.
As the body fell away from the man's head, the Ascended Channeler released his grip upon the hair, and let gravity take over. He then faded from sight again, and made his way over across the hall, where his rage would play itself out once again.
It was about half an hour later when a patrol came through. It consisted of a dozen or so men and women, all of whom were very much alert. They had been supposed to replace the rest of the guards and take over the watch shift. However, upon finding the two corpses, they quickly realized that there was something up. They had left some at the watch incase something should happen, and then proceeded further into the compound. Silently, they all pitied the guards from the previous shift, as when Scourge heard about this, he was not going to be happy that they had been so lax and careless with their duties.
However, as they turned the corner and entered the first barracks area, it was all that they could do not to lose their last meals at the sight that awaited them.
Like a scene straight from a horror movie, bodies lay everywhere, and the walls were all but painted with blood. Limbs lay severed and some still twitched, and the stench of death hung in the air.
Barely able to stop himself from gagging at the sight, the leader ducked his head into the first of the bedrooms. Upon seeing what lay inside, the butchery that had gone on, he felt the bile rush up from his stomach, and he lost it.
While he was busy coughing up dinner, his patrol group spread out in an attempt to see if anyone had survived, or if they might find this monster that had rampaged through here and put an end to him. Unfortunately, all they found at first was more of the same, dismembered bodies, corpses with their heads halfway across the room, their eyes staring up in blank horror and their mouths open wide and some mangled remains that they assumed had been elves at one point in time.
However, a few seconds after their leader rejoined them, wiping stomach acid from his mouth, there was a stumbling noise, and a very fearful Marauder came out of the last dormitory. His whole body trembled as he pushed himself back away from the room on his hands, his mouth opening and shutting uselessly.
"You!" the leader called, grabbing the man's attention. "What happened here?"
Somewhat reassured by the sight of friendlies, the man seemed to get back a small amount of composure, and he managed to get himself into a standing position. However, he never took his sight off of that room that he had come from.
"I…I don't know…" he said, his voice dripping with fear. "It's a demon…whatever it is." He then dissolved into whimpers and moans, which further confused the patrol.
"What do you mean?" the leader stated, a little bit of uneasiness starting to creep into his tone.
"It's a wraith, a spirit… " the other one replied, finally taking his eyes off of the carnage that littered the room.
It happened so fast that none of them ever truly figured out what happened. One or two noticed what appeared to be a fast moving blur roll out of the doorway and come up behind the man, and he stopped blubbering instantly as an eerie, hissing noise split the air.
For a moment, all stared straight ahead, nervously leveling weapons.
A second later, the Marauder fell forward, his corpse hitting the ground and slumping in two different directions, revealing that he had been vertically bisected from the bottom up.
The group watched, horror picking at their entrails, as the man's slayer then became visible to them. As it had been with Veger, they stared into the cold, emotionless mask that made up Jak's helmet, and they felt their courage begin to desert them. However, they were a good deal braver than the Count, and some of them opened fired at the dark elf.
Flipping off to one side as the first of the bullets began to streak past him, Jak began to charge towards the group of Marauders, his slitted eyes narrowed to a hate filled glare. He threw out his left hand as he raced at them, calling upon his powers and throwing a dark bomb out at them. The orb of blackness hit the largest concentration of them, and in the narrow hallway, with no room to evade, eight of them died almost instantly, their lives snuffed out before they even had time to scream.
Upon witnessing this, the remaining four Marauders decided to try their luck at fleeing. It would be a vain effort, as the first one to turn heard that strange hissing noise again, and the next thing that she knew, she felt a white hot explosion of pain through her chest, and looking down, saw the strange assassin's blade sticking out of it. She crumpled a moment later, her vision going dark as her soul fled the corpse.
Leaping forward to catch up to the next one, Jak withdrew the monofilament cord that Seth had given to him, and effortlessly looped it around the head of the next Marauder. The man had just enough time to realize what was about to happen before the Ascended Channeler killed him, decapitating him even as he started to plead for mercy.
Lucky number three was heading full tilt for the door, screaming as he did so. However, he suddenly felt something hit him in the back and he lost his balance, pitching forward and striking his chin hard against the stone floor. Rolling over and looking down, he saw what had tripped him up: the head of the one who had just been decapitated. All sanity left the man then, and he began to whimper and cry like a child.
Leaving him alone for the moment, Jak caught up to the last of the fleeing Marauders. Throwing out his shoulder, he body checked the desert elf into the wall. He hit it hard, the breath being knocked from his lungs as he instinctively turned around to try and face his attacker. He did so just in time to receive an armored boot to the chest. So powerful was the blow, such was the fury that drove it home, that it crushed the man's chest, and turned his heart into pulp.
As the corpse slid to the ground, blood gushing from the slain elf's mouth, Jak walked over to the one who remained on the ground, whose eyes were wide with fear and who continued to whimper and stammer intelligible pleas. In response the dark elf reached out and picked the man up by the throat, holding him easily in one hand. He brought he man close, to where his nose was practically touching the Vibrium of his helmet.
"What mercy have you shown to the Wastelanders to deserve any in return?" he growled, cocking his head to the side.
The amount of fear in the man's eyes doubled in that next instant, and Jak began to apply more pressure to the man's windpipe, cutting off his supply of oxygen.
The man's struggles became frantic after that, thrashing about in the Ascended Channeler's grip, trying to pry off the vice like grip around his throat. However, he would not die of asphyxiation, as an instant later, there was a loud snapping noise, as the dark elf's grip turned his neck vertebrae into powder.
Dropping the corpse, Jak took a moment to finally pause and look around at the death and destruction that he had unleashed here. At least a hundred Marauders lay dead in their bunks, plus the patrol group, and he felt no pity, no bit of remorse for what he had unleashed.
'May they burn for eternity!' Kage growled, his rage slightly placated at the thought of what they had done, and of the Wastelanders that would doubtlessly rest easier, knowing that so many of their tormentors were now where they belonged.
'The job's not done yet, buddy.' Jak replied in a similar tone, 'We've got to get as many as we can before they realize what's up.'
'Then we should hurry, I imagine someone will get a whiff of your work soon enough, and then it will be my turn to deal out a little justice.' The oni said, a feral smile coming over his face as he cracked his knuckles.
Jak remained silent, but he concurred with his alter ego, and he was soon dashing off through the corridors once again.
It was about twenty minutes later when the Marauders finally seemed to realize that there was a highly skilled killer running around inside of their little fortress. This was mostly due to the fact that one of them lived just long enough to call out a warning before the dark elf struck him down.
Fortunately, they didn't manage to get whatever jamming device they had used before up and running, as Jak found it relatively easy to communicate with the others while he continued with his little rampage.
"I think the jig is up," he told Keira over a private comm. channel, "it's now or never, you guys."
She was quick to relay the order on to Valthos and the others, and the Wastelanders manned their vehicles, gunning their throttles and tearing down towards the Marauder Fortress, the thoughts of avenging their fallen comrades giving them courage and strength.
The trip took less than two minutes, and Keira hung back as Valthos plowed the road, stopping about halfway along the bridge unleashing the rocket pods from the Slam Dozer's arsenal. They hit the drawbridge, and the resulting explosion ripped it apart. The Ascended Channeler and the others held their cheers though, as that had just been the easy part. Kleiver and Seth roared past Valthos' huge vehicle, before spreading out to where they were running side by side with each other.
Right as they were supposed to, they activated the jumping system of their buggies, and the two green vehicles shot into the air, easily clearing the gap and coming down on the other side. The two of them back up until their rear tires were upon the edge of the gap, and then they released the locking mechanisms that kept the pontoon bridge portions sticking up into the air on the back of their vehicles (lest they damage something vital dragging them across the ground). Just as planned, the two portions fell into the water.
After that, the two quickly hoped out, and showing a nearly suicidal amount of courage, as the Marauders had figured out that they were under attack and had begun to return fire, began to secure them. That took a few seconds, during which time Valthos and the others kept up an enormous amount of suppressing fire upon the defenders, lest they realize what Kleiver and Seth were up to and gun them down.
When they had finished their jobs, they quickly informed the others, and raced back to their own vehicles.
The Marauders had a secondary gate that was designed to form a barrier in the event that the moat was ever crossed, but the Slam Dozer's dual gattling turret, which had been loaded up with flechette 'shredder' rounds for this purpose, turned it into a pile of toothpicks after about five seconds of sustained fire.
Kleiver and Seth were the first through the breach, their buggies grenade launcher weapons throwing out explosive fire at any large groups of Marauders that they could see. Behind them, the Slam Dozer came barreling in, every single weapon that it had blazing, sending out a withering fire that cut down anything in front of it.
The Marauders knew that they had to hold the courtyard of their fortress, that every single bit of defensive fire had to be coordinated to keeping their attackers bottled up and unable to get a further foothold upon them.
However, their plans were about to be derailed by something that they would never have expected to have encountered.
Keira came in, her Sidewinder screaming as she put it into a slide that actually resulted in her going underneath the Slam Dozer and coming out the other side of it. Quickly bringing it back up to a normal position, she accelerated it towards a group that was manning a large machine gun, and she smiled wickedly behind her Precursor crafted helmet as she decided that it was time these scumbags learned the true meaning of 'righteous anger.'
The group of Marauders that she was targeting were about to sight her up, when a bright flash of light caused them to have to avert their eyes form the girl. Indeed, so bright was the ensuing burst that one might have thought that a star had fallen from the sky.
It cleared a few seconds later, and everyone present saw what had occurred.
Keira hovered before them, having leapt off of her vehicle. She had transformed into something that no living being had ever seen before.
Her battle form was very different from that of her soul mate's, being not so heavily built, and not quite as tall. Her helmet still covered her face, though one could see a pair of glowing, bluish white eyes even behind the visor. Her build was also still rather humanoid in appearance, and not having Kage's triple jointed legs. Her feet were different as well, as rather than the Dark Eco demon's prehensile feet that were adept at gripping things; she possessed two large, talon-like toes that were very similar to a Precursor's when it was in its own combat form.
She did have one thing that was still very similar to that of Kage, though. One of the oin's most distinguished traits was the strange, black tattoo like marks that adorned his body. In Keira's case, though, the markings had the appearance of jeweled, draconic scales, shimmering a silvery color in the moonlight. Her hands also had claws, which were also draconic in nature, and those who saw them held little doubt that they were capable of rending flesh and armor alike.
She still had her wings, as well, though they seemed somewhat longer than they had been before. Masamune, too, had changed, growing and lengthening until it was slightly larger than her new form, about the same size as a Precursian duracon stave, while the blade glowed argent.
It short, it looked as if the heavens had just sent an avenging angel down to the mortal plane for the purpose of wiping out the stain that the Marauders represented.
Which was just what the angelic Channeler proceeded to do. She leapt at the machine gun crew, her wings spread out to carry her through the air, screaming a battle cry at the top of her lungs.
She dove towards the ground as she reached them, impaling one upon her naginata, as they had remained paralyzed by the sight of her charging them. Upon realizing that to remain as such would mean their deaths, they began to try and fight back against her.
It was to be in vain.
The first of the Marauders was killed instantly as Keira brought her naginata in from below, before slashing upwards at an angle, splitting him clean in half. Spinning around, she brought the bladed staff down again, driving the blade all the way through another one. At the same time, she put her wings to use, reaching out and nabbing one of the masked soldiers by the leg, yanking him off his feet. He thrashed about like a fish out of water, but the angelic Channeler was quick to put a stop to that, as a second wing reached back and wrapped around his throat. A quick twist, and the sound of snapping bone was heard.
Without so much as a backwards glance, the young warrior threw the corpse away, lashing out with her foot as she did so. Her armored foot talons pierced the steel chest armor of her foe, going through his chest and almost erupting from his back. Spinning about, she launched the dying man into a group of his comrades, who were quite horrified by this apparently supernatural being as it was. Having the thrashing body of one of their buddies thrown at them certainly didn't help their courage at all, and several broke from the group in an attempt to flee from Keira. However, just as they had started to get a good head of steam going, the angel was upon them again, coming down from above and splitting one of them clean in half with her Vibrium weapon.
Dashing around in front of the fleeing group, she gave Masamune a deft, two handed spin before driving the butt end of it into the face of one of her foes. The Light Eco Crystal set into the bottom of it went into the man's eye, and he fell to the ground, clawing at his wound.
As the group slowly backed away from her, Keira walked towards them, pausing just long enough to put the wounded Marauder out of his misery.
One fell to her knees and pleaded for mercy, only to have her begging repaid by the hissing sound of the angel's weapon being swung, taking her head off at the shoulders.
"I'll show you the same mercy you showed the Wastelanders." The Ascended Channeler growled, her voice now possessing a strange, echoing like tone to it.
With that, she charged them, her naginata spinning as she hacked and slashed. Some of her foes tried to flee once again, while others, knowing that there was no hope, drew close combat weapons and attempted to stand their ground. All met with the same fate as she cut them down.
When all were dead and their lifeblood spewing out onto the sand, she turned to assess the rest of the battle. Her Wastelander comrades had quite a bit of a headway going, but the Marauders seemed to be realizing that they were under attack. Such knowledge could do wonders for a hangover, and they were quickly trying to get an organized defense going.
She saw one of her allies drop, a bullet tearing through him, and looking up, she discovered the source: a sniper on the rooftop of the fortress. Growling in anger, she focused within herself, calling upon one of her more destructive abilities. A ball of glowing white energy appeared in her hand, and with a cry, she unleashed the Channeled attack. It formed into a ray of energy, and streaked upwards like a shooting star, before hitting the area that the sniper was in and detonating.
A smoldering rifle fell from above, and she smiled grimly behind her helmet, before charging across the courtyard to where a dug in group of Marauders were causing some problems.
As it had been before, the defenders were somewhat distracted by the sight of an apparently otherworldly being, and as such, were easy prey to someone as beyond them as herself.
As the last one twitched out her life upon the sand, the girl looked around, and not seeing any enemies at the moment, decided that she should check on Jak and see if her soul mate needed any assistance.
"Jak?" she called into the communications system of her helmet.
"Yes?" came the growled voice that belonged to Kage.
"Oh, didn't know you'd gone and transformed." came her somewhat surprised response.
"Once you and the others showed up, these vermin started pouring out of the tunnels like rats, and the two of us figured it would be best if we stopped with stealth tactics and went for a more direct approach." He informed her, grunting while he was at it.
A moment later, she heard a death gurgle over the comm. link and figured that the oni was still up to his armpits in Marauders. That conclusion reached, she quickly decided that it was time to go on the offensive again and try to link up with him.
She charged through the nearest door, a well placed kick turning it to firewood and then she was in. Much to her surprise, a very large and heavily built person joined her.
"Sig?" she inquired as she ran along. "Shouldn't you be helping to secure the courtyard?"
"Valthos and the others will get that under control, don't you worry," he told her, and she could tell that there was a silent rage boiling just underneath the Wastelander's apparently calm attitude. "As for me, I gotta find my sister and get her and the other monks out of this hellhole."
The angelic Channeler nodded somberly, and felt a genuine amount of pity for anyone stupid enough to try and stop the large warrior.
No sooner did that thought cross her mind, than did they encounter a Marauder squadron that was apparently trying to make its way outside and try to hold the fort.
Keira prepared herself to attack, but Sig beat her to the punch.
A ball of crackling electricity shot past her, and the next thing that she knew, the burly enforcer had put his deadly Peace Maker gun to effect. The lightning ball exploded, tendrils of electricity lashing out and ravaging the whole group.
Screaming, they went down, electricity continuing to crackle over them. However, one that had been on the rear guard had apparently survived. With a slow, deliberate purpose, Sig walked up to the man, and grabbed him around the throat. He then slammed the man's head against the wall, before staring him right in the eyes, his whole face twisted into a mask of hatred.
"Where's Scourge holding the monks?" he snarled, his voice full of a kind of venom that Keira had never heard before, which was saying something indeed.
The Marauder whimpered for a moment and refused to answer, but a slight constricting of the man's throat caused him to suddenly become more cooperative. He raised a hand, and pointed to a corridor that headed east. Sig smiled, and thanked the man for his cooperation… right before knocking his lights out. As he let the man slide down the ground, he turned to head down the corridor. Keira moved to follow him, but he put a hand up.
"Sorry, Keira, but this is something I gotta do on my own." The burly Wastelander told her.
"But…" the Ascended Channeler responded.
"It's a family thing," Sig said, cutting her off, "and besides, I suspect that Valthos and the others have started breaking through by now, not to mention the havoc that your hubby must be wreaking on the other side of the compound, so I suspect they won't have more than half a dozen or so guards. You'd better go team up with Jak, Scourge has probably sent half of the army to go and deal with him."
Keira nodded silently, before proceeding down a western corridor, the direction that that seemed most logical, as she had little doubt that had he been in the east, those Marauders that they had run into would have been screaming and running for their lives, rather than out to engage the rest of the Wastelanders.Charging through the passages and corridors of the Marauder Fortress, the angelic Channeler soon found evidence that her soul mate and his alter ego had indeed been through here, if the blood spattered walls and dismembered body parts were to be any indication. A few Marauders still crawled and flopped about, more dead than alive, but she didn't even bother to pause long enough to finish them off. She had more important things that she needed to do.
Following this trail, it did not take her long to locate her quarry. Her first real clue as to how close she was to them was the screaming, echoing through the hallways.
A few moments later, as she approached a corner, a Marauder came around it, fear filling her eyes and her mouth opened in a silent scream of terror. However, upon seeing that she was fleeing a hell spawned demon only to run right into some kind of avenging angel, she attempted to backpedal and bring herself to halt. She did succeed in stooping her forward momentum, but unfortunately for her, that was mostly due the fact that having a spear like weapon shoved through your ribcage with an extreme amount of force usually resulted in bringing you to a halt.
With contempt, Keira lashed out, kicking the still twitching body off of her naginata, and then dashing around the corner.
Kage was on the warpath. Bodies lay everywhere, some decapitated, some run through, others cleaved in half and eviscerated. There were even a few where Keira couldn't really tell exactly what their manner of death had been, as there wasn't enough of a corpse left. Still, considering what these desert dwelling scumbags had done, and Kage's sense of honor, it was not surprising that he was unleashing a fury that was truly 'wrath of the gods' in nature.
Even as she watched, the oni blocked a pair of war axes that were brought to bear against him, before taking a step towards the closest opponent and dealing him a death that Keira had never seen before. The Dark Eco demon took advantage of fact that his helmet had changed to accommodate his muzzle, opening his jaws and lashing out, cobra quick, sinking his fangs into the neck of the Marauder, before twisting his head away and out. His throat torn almost to the point of being decapitated, the Marauder fell to his knees, his final cries more of gurgle than anything else.
Not wasting a second, Kage parried another strike from the other one, before reaching out and grabbing him around the face with his left foot. The marauder barely had time to scream before the oni swung him around and slammed his head through the stone wall of the fortress with such force that even after he released his grip upon the corpse, it did not fall to the ground.
There were still about a dozen or so Marauders to be dealt with, and Keira was not about to let Kage do all of the work. She let out a battle cry, drawing the attention of their foes, who were quick to realize that there was not one, but two of these strange beings attacking them. Thus, they quickly realized that they in serious trouble, as they did not seem capable of fighting just one of these creatures, let alone a pair of them. Faced with this indestructible barrier, they did what any normal person would have done when confronted by two Ascended Channelers in their combat forms: they turned and ran like hell itself was upon their heels.
Naturally, though, such a retreat did not help them in the slightest, and they were quickly brought down.
"You've been busy," Keira remarked as she drove Masamune into the heart of the last one, and then shaking him off of the end of the Precursor forged weapon.
"These bastards are like cockroaches." The oni remarked, looking around at the results of his rampage. "They keep coming out of the walls. How are Valthos and the others doing?"
"I think they've managed to break through the main entrance to the fortress and they're starting to take over the interior, mostly due to the fact that you've managed to keep about half of the occupied." The angelic Channeler responded, staring into the crimson eyes of the Dark Eco demon. "Sig's also going to try and bail out Seem and the others."
'I think we've done enough damage to this area, we need to head back to where Valthos and the others are and make sure they do not get overrun, they're outnumbered pretty badly despite the ones we've taken out.' Jak muttered inside of his own mind, a point that his alter ego was quick to agree upon.
"I think you're right, we do need to be heading back." The oni said, looking up at Keira, who nodded silently, giving her naginata a few spins before charging back the way that they came.
Sig carefully peaked around a corridor, and found what looked to be a prison block within it. He continued to stare, but could not find any signs of guards or sentries. Still, it paid to be cautious, and so he did not blindly charge into the cell block, but instead went in slowly, his gun, set to its peace maker mode, level with his finger on the trigger.
He quickly reached the conclusion that he'd found the place when he saw a familiar face amongst the sleeping prisoners. Like them, she was not aware of the waking world, no doubt trying to conserve her strength for a time when she would need it. She appeared to be okay, but Sig vowed that if Seem had been hurt by any of these wretches, then he would rip the ones that were responsible apart with his bare hands.
It was then that he did throw caution to the wind lowering his gun and facing over toe cell that she was in.
"Seem!" he hissed quietly, trying to get her to wake up.
He got no response, so he tried again in a louder voice. This time, he got a response form her, as she groaned and her eyes fluttered open. She looked about drowsily, but as soon as she realized who it was on the other side of the bars, she snapped to full alertness, and dashed over to him.
"Sig!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her adoptive brother and smiling, relieved that he was okay.
"You alright?" he asked, concern in his voice.
"I'm fine." She responded with a nod. "But many of my companions were injured on the journey here, and some of them were among those who went missing weeks ago."
By this time, the noise had begun to wake others as well, and they, upon realizing that salvation and rescue was at hand, began to wake their companions.
"Get back," Sig told his little sister, "I'm going to blast the lock off."
However, as he morphed his gun to its rifle mode and drew a power pack from his belt, his lack of caution nearly proved to be his undoing, for there had indeed been a guard, hiding in the shadows where none could see him, and he chose that moment to make his presence know. Seem saw him, and was able to shout a warning in time. However, Sig was forced to drop his weapon and devote all his attention to grabbing the wrists of the Marauder to stop the two handed scimitar from splitting him in half. Sig quickly planted his knee into the other elf's groin, causing him to drop the weapon, but then a wrestling match was on.
The two struggled back and forth, neither able to hold the advantage for long. However, Sig was about to get some help that he hadn't counted upon… in fact, no one ever saw it coming.
The armored enforcer had dropped his weapon and its power pack when he had been grabbed from behind. The gun landed beyond Seem's reach, but the clip was only a couple of feet away from her. She got down on her knees and strained, reaching out as far as she could with her left arm. After a couple of seconds, she could feel her hands grasp the metal of her prize, and she quickly yanked the pack back into her cell as her brother and his antagonist continued to struggle back and forth across the cell block.
She gazed down at the clip for a brief moment, before steeling herself for what was to come, as what she was about to do was going to hurt, a lot. She placed the power pack between bother of her palms, and narrowing her crimson eyes, focused all of her effort on crushing it. For a few seconds it held, before she felt it begin to give, and a moment later, the power pack shattered. Metal shards entered her hands, slicing through flesh and tendons and nerve, and the pain exploded through her mind. It was all she could do not to pass out form the agony, but she willed the darkness away, her brother needed her, and she was not going to let him die just because she couldn't' handle a little bit of pain. Still, she couldn't hold back a scream as her blood began to dribble out on the stone floor of her cell. But with the pain came a surge of power that she had not felt in years, as she once more called upon the gift of her blood.
Both combatants looked over to the monk, and worry as he'd never before known came over Sig. Fortunately, his opponent was just as distracted by what Seem was doing, and didn't use this opportunity to try to choke the life out of him.
Seem opened her eyes, and while they were rimmed in pain, there was a power there, something that Sig had never seen in them before. The remains of the shattered power pack fell to the floor, clanging against the stone as it did so, and Sig noticed that the Yellow Eco that had been stored inside of it was nowhere to be found. The Marauder against which he'd been fighting for his life noticed the same thing, and both realized what had happened a moment later, when Seem cupped her hands, and balls of energy appeared in them, blazing like miniature suns.
The monk glared at the Marauder that had dared to try and kill her brother, and with a feral cry, she threw the first energy orb at the attacker, and it blew him off of Sig, and against the wall, a hole steaming in his chest. A second later, she hurled the second attack. The ball of energy was dead on, and the Marauder made a wet, popping sound, what was a left of him splattering all around the room.
His nostrils flaring at the smell of burnt flesh, Sig looked over to his adoptive sister in wonder, his jaw agape as he realized what she was, what she'd been hiding all this time. However, a moment later, when she fell to her knees, her hands pressed together, he noticed all of the blood. With a curse, he got to his feet, and rushed to her aid.
He snatched his gun up off of the floor, and quickly drew another clip to reload it, before frying the lock to her cell and hurriedly stepping inside.
Seem was a mess, her hands full of lacerations and he could see bits of metal sticking out. One of her fingers dangled limply, attached by nothing more than a few tendons and sinews. He cursed again, and stepped outside just long enough to take aim at all of the other cell doors, and free the remainder of the monks. Without a moment's hesitation, and ran back over to his little sister, before shouldering his rifle and scooping her up into his arms.
He then rushed blindly out of the cell block, heading back to where Valthos and the others were, hoping that he ran into Keira some where along the way, knowing that the Ascended Channeler could heal his adoptive sibling.
With a roar, Kage lunged forward, impaling a Marauder through the chest while performing what could best be described as a ballerina split, reaching out and grabbing one of the dying elf's comrades around her leg with his foot. He then yanked her back towards himself, thrashing his leg slightly and throwing her into the air. Kitetsu hissed a moment later, and the decapitated corpse hit the ground, its lifeblood pouring out upon the stone floor of the hallway.
Next to him, Keira also turned a pair of Marauders into cooling bodies, stabbing one with Masamune while following through with a round house kick that thanks to her claws cut another in half at the waste.
A few seconds later, the last of the Marauders fell to the ground, a nice sized hole in his head from where a PSG-1 sniper round had torn right through it.
"Keep pushing forward!" Valthos barked, an order that his men and women were all too eager to carry out.
However, they had not gone far when they ran into Sig and company, and both groups looked relieved to see one another relatively unharmed.
"Praise the Ancients I found you guys." The burly Wastelander muttered, stepping over towards Keira with Seem still held in his arms, her face still a twisted mask of agony.
"What the heck happened to her?" the angelic Channeler asked, a look of bafflement upon what part of her face was visible.
"Long story, I'll tell you later." Sig said hurriedly. "Just patch her up!"
"Okay, I'll give it a shot." She muttered, placing Masamune on her back and extending her hands towards the garish injuries that Seem had.
She focused, finding the power within herself, and willed it to come forth. It did, and a stream of light came form the palms of her hands and circulated around the wounds on Seem's hands. The Light Eco hovered over them for a few moments, before it went into her skin, and the metal shards were forced out as the injuries slowly closed. The look upon the monk's face changed from one of agony to that of a person who was in utter amazement.
It was to be expected, as Keira had not mentioned a word of this to her in the brief time that she and Sig had been with her before the arena fight. However, she would keep her questions until a more appropriate time, though she vowed then and there she would find some way to repay the Ascended Channeler for her help, knowing that she would retain her requisite number of fingers only because of her aid. That decided, she climbed out of her brother's arms, and looked to her king, awaiting her orders.
"Seth, Kleiver." Valthos said, taking the opportunity to reload his gunblade.
"Sir?" both inquired looking to their leader.
"I want you two to take a squad, and head back to the courtyard with the monks, we don't want them getting caught in a firefight." He said, and Seem looked as if she was about to protest. "They're exhausted, and knowing Scourge, they haven't had the past few hours very easy."
Seem backed down, realizing the logic behind the Sand King's orders. Valthos then turned to Sig.
"I want you to take the rest of the group and search for the rest of our people; they've got to have them holed up here somewhere." He told his friend, and he got a frown in response.
"What about you?"
"I'll be heading off with these two." He gestured over to Kage and Keira, both of whom were watching the conversation with interest. "We're going to go find the viper's head and take care of it." he informed the group, his tone hovering around absolute zero.
With that, they went their separate ways.
&
Okay, hope you all enjoyed that one, and that Seem's little abilities were pleasing to you.
Not much else to say here, except to once more thank those who helped me think up Keira's AC form, and to let you all know that if you wish to comment, give me constructive criticism, have an idea for a weapon or a power that you would like to see, or even just want to flame me, go right on ahead.
Thanks again for your time, and have a great week.