Code Geass: The Demon and the Dragon
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass. If I did, then what you see below would be the show, instead of a fanfiction on the Internet.
Stage 22: Ryūō Roars
- The Dragon -
Narita Mountains
The Ryūō, a Knightmare as tall as the Guren, but stouter of limb and replacing the fin-like head with a horned wedge, landed with a crunch on a pre-arranged collection of felled tree trunks and boughs, each about as thick as one of a Burai's limbs at the least. The Ryūō was similar in many respects to its derivatives, the Reikoku Knightmares, in its smooth-surfaced curved hull and the relatively smaller armored landspinners.
The wedge-shaped head, wider than the Reikokus, had twin red cameras for eyes and a protruding Advanced Factsphere set squarely between the horns, each of which stuck backwards and up like thin lances, curving forward at the midsection and backward near the tip. A zig-zag line on the face of the wedge was lined with gold, appearing like the lipless fanged maw of a reptile or wolf. The shoulders were at least twice as large as the Gurens, with tri-barreled Gatling guns protruding from the tops.
In the Ryūō's motorcycle cockpit, one of Rakshata's design innovations that he reluctantly agreed was a rather good one, Learme cackled again, a slightly higher-pitched laugh that shrieked out through the Ryūō's speakers. He used the blunted claws that were his Knightmare's fingers to pick up and toss the splintered remains of the trunks and boughs aside, in one case tossing a rather large trunk off of the mountain to crash among the recovering Britannian Sutherlands at the base.
When the Ryūō stood straight and unhindered, Learme had it pull out its primary weapons. Twin single-edged, straight-bladed sabers with strange grips that extended at a forty-five degree angle away from the guard slid out of their sheaths on either hip, perfect hyper-sharp edges gleaming like diamonds in the sunlight, contrasting with the pitch-black spines. And with a flick of a switch on the main console, Learme activated them. A distinct, low-pitched hum filled the cold mountain and forest air, followed by an unsettling crackling like electricity as the once perfectly reflective blades began to glow an ominous bloody scarlet, deeper than that of the MV weapons the Lancelot and Bors boasted, coloring the area with a slight tinge of the same shade. Then sparks and electricity began running the length of the blade unexpectedly, colored pink as Sakuradite. Examining the effect a bit, Learme nodded to himself appreciatively. The random movements of the sparks, combined with the blade and the light emanating from it made it appear to be wreathed in flames. Unintentional, but highly effective, for purposes of morale if nothing else.
Then he got his first test targets. A Burai, colored in the hues of the JLF, rolled up, head and Factsphere turned behind as it fired at its pursuers. Then it turned to look ahead, and stopped cold at the sight of the Ryūō. Behind it, the group of eight Sutherlands, what Learme guessed was a mismatched group of the advanced scouts of Darlton's troops, raced up with rifles raised, and likewise screeched to a halt, churning up dirt and gravel and splinters of wood when they beheld the draconian Frame, with seemingly flaming sabers in either clawed fist.
Without much in the way of cliche battlefield taunts and/or boasts, Learme raised one saber, pointed it tip-first at the lead Sutherland, which was struggling with its rifle, and fired. A red flash preceded the round piercing the Sutherland's torso, the superheated round splintering inside and setting off the Yggdrasil Drive, consuming the Knightmare in a bloody red explosion. The barrel of the pistol was well-hidden as an extrusion of the blade's black spine, and was only revealed to be as such when fired, when the red-tinted gases produced by the electric spark igniting the propellant were exhaled through the muzzle brake.
With a grin, and an audible exhalation that the speaker system sounded as a menacing hiss, Learme sent the Ryūō leaping above and behind the Sutherlands, far and beyond that of any Knightmare they had before seen, landing just as they began to turn. The Dragon brought the Ryūō's arms down hard on the rearmost two of the Britannians, the sabers slicing through their armor and frames like a plasma torch through plastic. The edges of the cuts glowed hot in the path of the sabers, which themselves dripped the melted materials of the Sutherland's armor, even as the leaking Liquid Sakuradite contacted the cuts and ignited, detonating in small amounts and setting the Sutherlands on fire.
Even as their comrades burned, the rest of the troop turned to flee, and fell just as quick with debilitating shots from the 'Tsukiken' Magnetic Coil Pulse Pistols/Oscillating Radiation Sabers. The Ryūō walked among the shattered Frames, one with an empty torso from when its pilot activated the eject mechanism, only to be shot down and blasted apart by the Sakuradite-launched rounds of the Tsukiken, while the rest of them had either been disabled by shots to the limbs and head, or been carved apart when they had tried to defeat the Ryūō.
Now, one of the three survivors broke open his hatch, crawling out. Learme didn't even give him the time to breath, a burst of fifty rounds from the right Gatling gun tearing the devicer apart. Unlike others, the remnants of such an action did not affect Learme, which only made sense considering the sheer amount of gore he'd witnessed in the war seven years ago and all the illegal actions he'd taken part in since. However, it seemed the Burai's pilot wasn't so tough, opening his cockpit to vomit over the side. Another of the Sutherland pilots died, crushed under the strong tread of the Ryūō's feet while still in the cockpit. The last one, farthest from the original contact between the Ryūō and the Sutherlands, had a single surviving arm and was using that limb to drag the Knightmare towards a cliff that fell off into the mudflow that the Guren's claw had unleashed. One of the Ryūō's four Slash Harkens, one of the shoulder-mounted ones which benefited from their enormous sides with more powerful pneumatic launchers and longer lengths of cable, fired and pierced just under the cockpit, into the waist. The blades of the Harken were made of monocrystalline Beta Carbon Nitride and as such were completely reflective, as well as very very sharp. He reeled the Harken in, tugging along the desperate Britannian into slice-and-dice range. Just before passing the latest wreck of his team-mate, the Brit pilot managed to flip the Sutherland onto its back by pushing with the remaining hand, faced the Ryūō and fired both of its rather less impressive Slash Harkens, made of cermet with alloyed edges. Contemptuously, Learme ducked his Knightmare down under the rather Harkens, and lashed out with either saber to slice the wires. The moment the Sutherland, now totally impotent but for the Tonfa on its arm, comes within a meter of the Ryūō, Learme stomps the draconic Knightmare's foot onto the chest and activates a certain sequence.
The fang-like line on the Ryūō's face cracks open, spilling ruby light onto the scene.
- The Knight and The Orange -
A.S.E.E.C Trailer, Base of Mountain
"Ararara, so Rakshata's helping the Black Knights." Lloyd mused as they played the feed from the Bors' Drone again, showing the Mabon's hull bubbling under the energy radiating from the Red Frame's silver claw. "This explains how they managed to drop the mountainside on us...Cecile, switch the screen to those large Frames." The Picture-in-Picture window changes into a view of the Ogre-like Knightmares, with five holding up shoulder-to-shoulder with Zero's custom Frame in front of their lesser-armored brethren as a sixth breathes flames of horrendous heat onto the Sutherlands.
"The Black Knights...they can't be forgiven for such methods." Suzaku growled from inside the Lancelot.
"Don't be so naive Kururugi." The gruff voice of Jeremiah said. "They merely use what they have the best they can. Despite being our enemies, I can't help but admire their grip on the concepts of morale." Not a single Knightmare devicer would go against these new frames without their spine chilling into a block of ice. At the moment, both the Seventh-Generation frames were being outfitted, the bulky artillery armaments of the Bors being replaced with a single large, blue cannon, while the Lancelot was being equipped with Sand Skimmer attachments to its landspinnners. Both had their polearm weapons, the Lancelot's MV Spear and the Bors's MV Halberd, while retained their respective swords and axes.
"But-"
"OOOOooh Cecile! Do you have the data on the item that killed that poor Gloucester?"
"Yes Lloyd."
"AAaaaand!"
"It's not actually a laser cannon, like they thought. Rather, it is a high-velocity mass accelerator round ignited by what appears to be a mixture of Powdered Sakuradite and White Phosphorus, somehow accelerated to just the right amount of speed to penetrate the Gloucester's armor and embed itself just above the Yggderasil Drive. The combination of Powdered Sakuradite and White Phosphorus produced enough heat to melt and oxidize the enhanced armor protecting the Yggdrasil Drive, causing it to drip into the core and ignite the Liquid Sakuradite therein."
There was an eerie silence for a second. Powdered Sakuradite? Was that even possible? Judging by the fact that the affected Gloucester had in fact exploded, its surviving component parts still burning and melting even as they flew through the air as shrapnel...yes, it was.
"Where the hell are they getting all this?" Jeremiah muttered.
"Well, nothing we can do about it now." Lloyd commented lightly. "Good news is, this got us permission to launch!"
"Umm...did we get an image of what fired the round?" Jeremiah asked. Not one for cowardice, he was still rather concerned about the possibility of a high-velocity railgun, considering that a weapon of similar type managed to literally blow away an entire G-1 Mobile Base.
"Nope." Lloyd said, almost cheerfully. "Anyway, begin the launch!" The wannabe mad scientist cried, just as the last connections between the Bors and the cannon snapped together, and the Lancelot's Sand Skimmer attachments were secure.
"Z-01 Lancelot and Z-02 Bors are to proceed at highest speed to Her Highness Cornelia's position and hold back the Black Knight forces. Lancelot will be using the Sand Skimmer Lanspinner attachments in order to proceed over rough terrain, and the Bors will be utilizing the Prototype Variable Ammunition Repulsion Impact Cannon, VARIC. All units, launch"
The Bors, having been previously deployed for artillery support, technically had a head-start on the Lancelot. However, this was quickly eliminated when the Lancelot went 0-60 in 2 seconds, blew past the Bors, and started over the remnants of the radiation-incurred mudslide.
"Uppity Teenage Eleven." Orange-kun muttered in his cockpit, in resignation with no malice, even as the Bors's Landtracks slogged the heavy Knightmare over the same muddy terrain.
- The Black Knights -
They surrounded the unit. Ten Sutherlands, part of a force of over fifty that had been inserted ahead of Cornelia without her permission. Nevertheless, their presence had been accounted for in Zero's impossibly prescient plans. Four of the Zero Squadron had their attention focused on this small group, three immediately around them somewhere in the forest, and another with cannons locked on their position.
Above them, on a ledge, Kiryu's Reikoku was mainly blue, with gray urban camo patterns on torso and parts of its limbs, trimmed in azure blue. Cannons protruded from their cockpit mounts over the Frame's shoulders, minute adjustments as needed to ensure maximum accuracy based on data incoming from the three on the field.
The last bit of data was about to be collected. Around the Sutherland unit, the Reikokus appeared in the shadows of the trees, their head appearing like the specters of crows to the frightened Britannians. This was only enforced when cries like the calls of a murder sounded, echoing and rebounding off of solid surfaces. The sound waves were recorded and interpreted by the Sonic Vibration Scanner encased in the lower half of the Reikoku's heads, creating a three-dimensional map or image that was instantly shared across the command link and showed up on the screen of Kiryu's Reikoku.
Only a tiny adjustment was needed, and mere seconds later the cannon muzzles flashed. The shells arced, before landing in the precise center of the panicked unit. The explosion fairly standard, sending the Sutherlands it didn't outright destroy to the ground through a combination of its awesome shockwave and heated shrapnel slicing through the Sutherlands' limbs.
On the other side of the mountain, where the forces of Alex and Darlton desperately tried to reconstitute their severely weakened and damaged forces, both the remainder of the Zero Squadron and the primary mechanized infantry unit hampered, if not outright routed, them.
The snipers of Zero Squadron, Yamamoto, Antonov, and Bellaci thinned the herd, Sutherlands falling with gaping holes, or stumbling from the impact and then exploding. And despite the efforts of their best scouts, their most powerful sensors, they could not find them.
Mainly because it was Ouka Shinobu who coordinated the efforts of the Black Knights ECM. Unfortunately, her Reikoku's customization had been momentarily overruled for this mission, instead going with a configuration well suited to keeping it hidden in the forest. Qilin had circled around the force, his heavy armaments pounding their rearguard even as Eris's Reikoku, with mine-layers incorporated into its legs, ran all about the forest, spreading all manner of mines for the Britannian's enjoyment.
And even when the Brits tried to advance conventional armor in the form of tanks and APCs and anti-mine vehicles along the road, the Samurai-like infantry took perverse pleasure in surrounding them and smashing them into pulp through rockets, grenades, and hundreds of bullets.
Everything was so easy when you had someone who could hack into an IFF system at will.
One could almost hear the combined mental cackles of the Black Knights.
- The Samurai -
It was with great speed that the vans crashed straight through the roadblock, sending Britannian soldiers and police diving to either side in their rush to save their lives from being pulped into messy red road kill. Inside, Kisek no Tohdoh and his Four Heavenly Swords stared ahead, grim-faced, as they drew ever closer to their not-so-secret base.
In the backs of the three vans, they had what could be a terror for the Britannians, similar to how the Mabinogion had been a terror for the JLF.
They could not know that the Black Knights had long since surpassed them in that regard.
Still, they were going to make some jaws drop.
At a command, Tohdoh and the Four Holy Swords abandoned the trucks' forward compartments, locking the wheels in place, and entering the storage containers.
- The Witch -
Cornelia was furious.
Before, she had steamrolled over some of the largest militaries in the world, creating new Areas for Britannia to have seemingly at whim.
And now, she was being stopped by a terrorist organization that had sprung up in Area Eleven, and mere months had already racked up an impressive record of military victories, even if at least one of them was Pyrrhic.
But the most insulting part was that they apparently did this without any effort whatsoever.
How the hell did they get such advanced frames, like the one that trashed the Knightpolice SWAT, and the red one that even now melted its way through her frontlines at the head of a wedge of yet more advanced frames and a smattering of modified Glasgows?
How did Zero acquire such a competent force that they were picking apart her elite Knightmare units?
And then, came the warning.
"Your Highness! Attackers from behind!"
"Damn it, have the Black Knights even managed to completely encircle us?"
The sound of chainsaws ripped through the air, even as the colors of the JLF seemingly blurred into existence before her Gloucesters in the rear, armed with katana that had chainsaw edges ripping through the armor of her Knights.
Deep, deep in her mind, where no one could eavesdrop, Cornelia thought. You have got to be motherfucking kidding me.
The new Knightmare Frames, now assaulting her direct personal guards and elite Gloucester Squad, were painted in JLF colors, dark gray Landspinners, joints, cockpit and torso armor, as well as Factsphere covers, with a light olive color elsewhere. Except for one, which replaced the light olive with pure white. Antennae drifted back from their heads to hand to either side of the cockpit, and small modifications in their armor could be seen clearly.
It was clear that these were modification on that bastardized Glasgow model that the terrorists used.
Yet the most terrifying and obvious change from the pretty much aesthetically modified Burai was the katana these new Frames wielded. The afore-mentioned chainsaw edges glowed a bright orange, presumably a side-effect from friction of air and brief contact the chain made with the spine of the blade.
Then the white one noticed her, the distinct horn-like antennae of her personal Gloucester, along with the garish purple color immediately set her apart, and the pilot noticed. Cornelia had a pretty good guess who was piloting it.
The katana may have sliced into her cockpit if it wasn't for Guilford, her ever-loyal bespectacled knight deflecting it by striking the flat with his lance. Immediately, the rest of the Gloucester squadron formed up, an impassable barricade between Cornelia and the new Frames, which began to circle their formation like carrion birds.
"Princess." Guilford said calmly, his Gloucester unwavering as his face on the comms screen. "You must get out of here."
"Damn you Guilfordfor thinking I would abandon my men." Cornelia hissed, stressed. Honestly, one really couldn't blame her. Having a nigh-perfect military plan fall apart so quickly and with such a number of surprises (The Black Knights, their corpse-colored Ogre Frames, their red frame, and that apparent railgun that had annihilated one of her personal guard) had effectively pushed her to the edge.
"You are central to the anti-terrorist efforts in Area Eleven, Your Highness." Gilbert says quietly, still watching the new Frames. There were a few seconds of silence.
Damn him and his logic.
"Fine. We'll meet here after you've dealt with...these."
Guilford nodded.
Then the formation broke.
The encircling Frames closed in, katana set to slice into the Gloucesters and deprive them of their lower bodies, except for the fact that the lances, with somewhat longer reaches, threatened to pierce cockpits. Still, some Gloucesters were sliced apart at the waist, their pilots being just too slow to chicken off the Frames' pilots, with said pilots rather easily avoiding the lance to carve their chainsaw-katana into the Gloucester.
The new JLF Knightmares did not get away unscathed. Guilford managed to scratch the shoulder of one of the olive ones.
In the ensuing ruckus, the presumable JLF reinforcements allowed Cornelia to get away, and strangely did not pursue.
- The Black Knights -
"Hm. It seems Tohdoh has arrived." Zero mused over the comms net. That stopped the Black Knights. Those with command links that allowed them to see what Zero saw looked, while those without, namely the Burai, just huffed and listened.
"Tohdoh's attacked Cornelia?" Ohgi muttered, reading the sensor displays that Zero acquired through his command link with Ouka's Reikoku, which was still plugged into the Britannian's IFF and sensor readings.
That, more than anything, drew their attention. Were they infantry, they would have crowded around the guy reporting the news. As it was, they each unconsciously leaned towards the image of Ougi's Sakanade on their screens.
"It seems he has managed to force Cornelia herself to retreat, while engaging her personal guard." Zero sounded very pleased with this. As close to ecstatic as ever they had heard. "And she has retreated to this point-" A map appeared on their screens of the surrounding area, with a position near to the edge of the mudflow, set close to the base of the mountain marked. "- an area with no side approaches, a bottleneck she can make use of against us when her guards return from dealing with Tohdoh. However..."
"Now that we know, we can trap her there!" One of the other Sakanade pilots piped up. Then Kallen pitched in, voice speculative.
"Zero, it seems that we've already been heading for that ravine..."
"Yes, I'd already accounted for such a situation in our plans."
"Then...did you know that Tohdoh would attack?"
"Mmmm, not quite. It was inevitable that Cornelia would retreat eventually however, and it was a given that she had her forces scout this terrain beforehand. It was simple to predict where she would go."
"..."
" 'Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.' To quote Sun Tzu." Zero said smugly.
- The Witch -
By now, Cornelia was very close to screaming and crying. If she were a weaker, more mundane woman, she would certainly have been breaking up into tears of frustration by now. One either of the ravine walls, the Ogre Frames and the Modified Glasgows surrounded her, led by the Devil Frame of Zero. However, the most important piece of this little scenario, was the menacing Red Frame, and the silver claw of its right arm.
"Princess Cornelia!" She heard Guilford, when he realized that Zero had effectively turned an awesome defensive position into a trap.
"I can hear you perfectly fine Guilford. No need to shout." Cornelia muttered.
Then the Red Frame charged.
Snarling, the Imperial Princess ducked her Gloucester under the sweep of the claw, one of the tips scratching against an antennae, even as she spun it on its Landspinners with the lance in its right hand smacking the Red Frame in the torso. The pilot was good, using the force from that attack to spin her Frame in a three-hundred sixty-degree spin-kick, smashing her Knightmare's Landspinner against the face of Cornelia's Gloucester, sending it into a crashing fall.
Except that Cornelia had been piloting Gloucesters since the Knightmare Frame was prototyped, and her Slash Harkens lashed out as the force from the kick turned her Frame about, anchoring into the ravine walls and pulling her up to them.
Damn, I guess it isn't a mere custom Frame after all.
Then, blood-red streaks blasted into her Harkens, smashing one into scrap and dropping Cornelia harshly to the ravine floor.
"Cornelia. You've already been checkmated."
"Zero!"
"We should celebrate our reunion later. First though, I would love if you would accompany us back to our base. There is much to discuss."
Cornelia's face twisted into a snarl as he went on, describing the situation to a fine point.
"Your reinforcements will not make it in time. The ever-admirable Tohdoh and his men now occupy your personal troops. My Sakanade and I have smashed our way through the vanguard that seems to have been deployed without your prior knowledge. Even now, my personal squadron hunts your troops and the remnants of your other forces all around the mountain. And a monster like none Britannians have faced since Arthur's time, I have set rampaging."
"I win, Cornelia."
"Fool Zero." Cornelia growled. "All I have to do is defeat this one-" Her lance swept to point tip-first at the Red Frame. "-And my freedom is assured!" She drew her Gloucester's assault rifle and fired a long burst, the Red Frame dancing about to avoid the bullets even as Cornelia fired her remaining Slash Harken. The Red Frame drew a forked knife and caught it, in between the blades, before twisting it, wrapping the wire around the guard and somehow clamping the blades tighter on the Harken.
"Stupid trash!" Cornelia hissed, driving her lance right at the Red Frame's face. It never touched it, the sliver claw darting to the other side of the Frame's body quick enough to actually catch the weapon at the tip, fingers wrapping around it. Then, the red aura blazed, waves of energy traveling into the lance and up the Gloucester's arm. Cornelia barely managed to eject the doomed limb, it exploding into a volume of smoke.
Then a single armor-piercing round cleaved her other arm off at the elbow, divesting her of her last weapon. It was, of course, Zero.
"You coward! You shoot me from behind?"
"Oh?" Zero's voice was calm, unconcerned, and infuriatingly smug. "And your plan of attack wasn't? In any case, this is not a duel. Seize her."
The Ogre Frames, what Cornelia presumed were the Sakanades Zero had mentioned, dropped into the ravine, even more damningly surrounding her.
"...Guilford."
"Princess?"
"My Knight, go with Darlton and protect Euphie. I will not be captured. I will fight to the last as an Imperial Crown Princess!"
"Princess Cornelia!"
Cornelia gunned her Gloucester straight for the Red Frame, and she could have sworn she heard Zero mutter:
"Hmph. What a boring choice."
Then, just before she could smash into the Red Frame, and explosion of dirt and rock smashed out of the side of the ravine. The dust cleared to reveal the white-and-gold of the Prototype, Lancelot.
"Your Highness, are you all right?" The Eleven pilot's voice called.
"The R&D Unit's Frame? Who ordered..."
"Her Highness Euphemia."
"...Of course."
- The Demon -
"Hey, Zero...t-that Knightmare..." Ohgi stuttered.
"Yeah, it's the one that was at Shinjuku and Lake Kawaguchi." Lelouch answered. "Damn him...Again! Guren! Take it down!" The former prince seethed.
"Yes sir!" The Guren charged forth, dodged a green particle blast from the blue rifle the Lancelot carried, and reached out with the touch of death for the Frame, which kicked at the Guren at the same time. Claw met Landspinner, and the red glow of radiation issued forth again.
However, the attachment on the Lancelot's Landspinner was detached, and exploded in the Guren's grip.
And then, several of the Burai accompanying Lelouch were smashed aside as the Bors rumbled its way into battle, landing on top of one of the Sakanade in the ravine.
"And, of course, as if the situation wasn't bad enough...Orange-Kun." Lelouch muttered to himself, too low for the mic to pick up.
Before the Sakande could reach around and tear the impudent Seventh-Gen to shreds with claw and pile-driver, the Bors twisted, the large blue cannon's muzzle pressing into the cockpit block and firing a powerful blast of blue that destroyed the entire torso. And a squad of ten Sutherlands just barreled into the ravine.
"For Her Highness Cornelia!" Kewell. Of course.
The rest of the Black Knights drew back from the heavy-set Frame and the Sutherlands now surrounding it, and the Guren continued to duel the Lancelot.
And then...there was music. Hard Rock, to be precise.
"Another mission, the powers have called me away,
another time to carry the colors again,
my motivation, an oath I've sworn to defend,
To win the honor of coming back home again."
It blared over the open channel, giving pause to the grandstanding some of the Sakanade were doing with the Bors, and the duel between the Lancelot and the Guren.
"No explanation will matter after we being,
unlock the dark destroyer that's buried within,
My true vocation, and now my unfortunate friend,
You will discover a war you're unable to wiiiiin"
"Black Knights, fall back." Lelouch cackled, grinning. "Guren, stay."
"Sacrificing your best pawn to secure your own skin?" Cornelia sneered. "You're even more of a coward than I thought Zero."
"Oh no, your highness." Lelouch chuckled. "I just don't want to get in the way."
"I'll have you know,
That I've become,"
- The Brits -
A black Frame slammed into one of the Sutherlands, the Frame deforming under weight and force, the cockpit smashed into a pancake of metal, ceramic, leather, flesh, and blood. The Bors and the other Sutherlands immediately backed off.
"INDESTRUCTIBLE!"
The Frame, with bulky shoulders and form similar to that of the Red Frame, lashed out with its arms, Slash Harkens with blades that blended into the background slicing into and anchoring to the two Sutherlands closest and reeling them in like fish, before the sabers, the flaming, glowing sabers, cut into them.
"Determination that is incorruptible,"
Another Sutherland panicked and fired its rifle. The Black Frame merely crouched in the corpses of its most recent kills, the horned reptilian head swiveling to lock onto the offender, with eyes that everyone there would swear glowed red. Then it leaped, the speed of it matching the Lancelot on three-fourths power, smashing the Sutherland into the wall.
And instead of some mundane thing like slicing apart the Sutherland, the Frame kicked it over and then slammed it back into the wall with the same foot, digging the Sutherland's face into the ravine wall.
And then it drew its entire torso back, and slammed its head into the cockpit. Blood oozed out as the pilot was squashed into his displays, spattering over the top of the Knightmare's head.
"For the other side a terror to behold,"
The Knightmare eased back from the crushed Sutherland and turned to gaze at the rest of the unit. The six survivors clustered next to the Bors, drawing psychological support from the presence of their biggest and strongest Frame. The visage of the Black Knightmare, with a maw of zig-zag golden fangs and glaring red cameras, caused Kewell and a few others to soil themselves.
"Annihilation will be unavoidable,"
The maw split apart, and Jeremiah instinctively threw the Bors aside, taking with it Kewell and four other Sutherlands. From the opened jaws, a red beam of radiation spewed forth, piercing one of the two standing Sutherlands straight through the torso. The pilot died instantly, cooked as his frame bubbled, melted, and exploded, before the Knightmare's head swiveled, cutting the beam into the other standing Sutherland, which followed the fate of its comrade to the letter.
"Every broken enemy will know,
That their opponent had to be invincible"
The first victim of the Black Knightmare lay, crushed under its landing feet, the other two carved up by blades shrouded in flames hotter than any ever known. A third had his own Sutherland turned into his coffin, smashed into a casket by a mere headbutt, and two more were little more than piles of melting scrap.
Kewell roared in disbelief and anger, and fired, his Sutherland's assault rifle chattering. The Black Knightmare didn't even bother to dodge, most of the rifle's bullets uselessly fired into the ground or the ravine walls, the few that actually hit being deflected off of the smooth, curved armor. When his assault rifle emptied, Kewell tossed aside the worthless weapon and flipped out the Stun Tonfas, and charged.
The Black Knightmare's maw opened again, but no radiation beam fired. Those who survived this battle would later agree that it would have been better for Kewell if it had.
Instead, as Kewell came within centimeters, the Dragon breathed purple-red flames onto the Sutherland, the Purist screaming as his Sutherland's cameras were engulfed in fire. He turned, and unfortunately, the rest of the column of flame seethed onto his cockpit, rather than his Sutherland's torso.
Kewell's screams would haunt the survivors for the rest of their lives, waking in a cold sweat to those blood-curdling, sobbing shrieks.
The Black Knightmare stood, staring into what would be Kewell's pyre when the flames finally killed him, and the flickering shadows from the flames made it seem as though the golden-fanged maw curved into a wicked smile.
"Take a last look around while you're alive,
I'm an indestructible master of WAR!"
- The Author -
I believe this is one of the most epic chapters I've yet written.
Dragonrider04: Evil, yes. Effective? Not so much.
Silverscale: Sorry.
Infinite Freedom: How's this monster?
Agreed.
Alex Yamato: Yep.
Of course, this is just the Area Eleven Mabinogion team, most of these pilots excelled in the war due to the fact it was Knightmares vs. tanks, APCs and infantry. The rest of the Areas have far more skilled Mabinogion teams, as a result of having to fight Knightmare Frames their targeted countries made or bought from other superpowers.
He does have some fun, yes.
Shifter's Loki has quite a few surprises up its sleeve, and it's master has spent some time gathering those disguises.
Not quite, but close yes. Brits still have the Lancelot and Bors' VARIS tech, and later they'll have Float Systems and flying fortresses. So...it kinda evens out.
That's cool.
Well, I would like to play as some of my own designs I suppose...
I'm still thinking about it. It would be...different writing a fantasy fic, with magic and everything, and I'd probably like it, but I'm still working on D&D and KR. Plus, I'm not too sure of a plot myself.
Darth Brain: I should hope not.
Just the effect I was going for.
'Kay.
Kojiro Kun: How's the Ryūō then?
Makes a difference when you have a military otaku and mecha maniac.
Now add a dragon breathing it...It does, and not quite laser, as explained.
Heh, you're welcome.
See above, my reply to Alex Yamato.
00virtuezero: I am sorry for your loss.
I kinda wonder why they haven't...you'd think they'd want to expand their market.
Hmmm...well, I can't put the VARIS weapons on because I kinda want to keep that a Brit-exclusive tech (and in the story, Learme does not have a working sample of the VARIS) and I'm not too sure what you mean by Oscillating Radiation sabot bazooka. Would you mind if I replaced the VARIS tech with more mundane analogues?
Sure.
That would be telling.