The Console Wars

by BlackNoire

The CPUs are at each other's throats, but not in Celestia but in Gameinudstri. This is not done from Neptune's perspective or any CPU for that matter. A male arrives in Gamindsutri who appears to be from somewhere else. All is not as it seems as this is not from the Neptunia universe but a general gaming universe. This is a fanfic unlike any other. Rated M for violence.

138. The ideology comes to an end

Chapter 138: The ideology comes to an end

I am still in the duel involving two people, two ideologies, and two swords, and the two people concerned are myself a citizen fighter for Britannia, and one of my nemeses who I hate so much, this being Cody Gears who wishes to destroy this place. My immense hatred of him is because his ideology contrasts deeply to mine. He wants this country to be ashamed of its history, to pay for its history, and to die in such a horrific manner if they refuse to.

He also supports my other nemesis Neptune who wishes for there to be the extermination of attractive females, criminalising models, smart people, patriots and desire the most sadistic torture of innocent people. She also desires the immigration of criminals, the criminalising on reporting crime, along with the flag, anthem, flower, animal and dish, even reading, learning and hard work and no freedom in what products the people can buy.

There is also the massive payments that will never cease, propaganda that portrays us as bad, along with massive regulations on products, the stealing of wealth from workers which is then given to the lazy, and of food. Then there is the complete destruction of monuments and of heritage, as well as compulsory sleeping for 20 hours a day and making products unbelievably expensive, and to criminalise the concept of cleanliness and hygiene.

This cannot be allowed to happen to my nation, the nation I love and am proud of, it would completely destroy it as there would be no prosperity, no progress, no freedom, and no fairness which this nation is known for under her plan. I have no doubt that this is her intention to destroy my nation, my culture, my people, purely because she was defeated even though that was inevitable. It's not right and historical grudges are not healthy especially when it's only one way.

My people have done no wrong, and even historically it was a few individuals and I know it wasn't unique and was not the worst, and then there is the matter of context which determines right and wrong. If anything my nation has been a force for good in the world with its technology, it's morals and for defeating nations that were a lot worse.

My ideology would involve being proud of its history, to be taught this and to have it in our programmes and movies to inspire us, as is everyone else. Furthermore rather than bear grudges, cooperate with other people so that there's mutual benefit and there can be peace and prosperity. I also desire investment not handouts to get people employed and development of infrastructure to happen, which can help people and this will be more effective and more motivating than limitless handouts. I want there to be massive amounts of capitalism where we reward hard work and allow new ideas and inventions to develop, to benefit everyone and healthy respectful competition, so that we can learn from each other and be inspired to make new and better ideas.

There's also having control of our borders so that there's people in reasonable numbers who are loyal and hardworking and value our way of life, and for there to be freedom for all where we are all proud of our accomplishments, and encouraged to do our bit for our nation and to be inspired to achieve great things. There would be as well as that, the rewarding of success in the process to encourage more and more of it, and to allow ourselves to be entertained by models, by sports, whichever we wish as there's no harm and everyone benefits, and enjoys it, and for us to celebrate who we are as it's worthy of it with all our icons and perhaps make new ones.

We will not harm innocent people, instead we will have fair trials where there's an independent jury, there's evidence and the defence and prosecution have an equal say. We will have minimum regulations on products while at the same time ensuring they're at a high standard and that there's only regulations that are necessary with regards health and safety, and to keep taxes to a minimum so that the people have the money and can choose what to spend it on since they have more experience over it and can be trusted to do so.

We will not just maintain monuments and heritage, but continue to make more and ensure our nation is the best nation that it can be, and to make products as cheap as possible and with competition ensure that wages can go up, so that people can choose to have more free time or more money, a lot more valuable than sleeping. In fact we intend to research into new ideas, and maybe being able to go without sleep can be an idea as it can increase productivity and free time, and be able to advance even quicker. We will also continue to maintain standards of cleanliness and hygiene, and research into technologies and ideas that make maintaining this significantly easier.

This is our two ideologies, his which is hell and will lead to a slow and painful death, against mine which is heaven and will lead to a long and prosperous life which grows over time. That is our duel, what we have fought for, and I have gave it my best shot both in physical fighting, and in my arguments, and now the duel is over, or it appears to be as I did my best to provide the killer blow just as he did. The problem is I am unsure who has won this big clash of swords and words.

I don't feel any more pain for sure, but it could be that there are reasons for it to be the case, either that I am used to it, I have become numb to it, or that it's hard for me to notice due to the stress and adrenaline from the situation. And with this in mind, I must have the same cuts which I knew that while painful and significant, it's nothing a little medical attention cannot fix. Despite this though, I am unsure if I am still alive, considering I don't know what it's like to be dead, no one does, and it's weird because I got into this nightmare all because of that duel I had with Honda all of those chapters ago, and it's after this duel that I may have fallen once again, and this time for sure I would be dead.

It would be such a tragic shame if I am to be dead now considering how wrong that nemesis of mine is, to destroy a nation and its people for something they didn't do, something that happened a long time ago. Something that was hardly unique to them, and something in which it's ever so complicated regarding the context as to the why it happened, how bad was it, is there any good to be had from doing this.

Even if I was to unite with Noire and Uni as a result of this, and that is assuming that they are dead, I don't think I can bear having to watch our defeat together, to experience the shame of letting them down. For me to have hoped that I could avenge the deaths of my sisters' deaths in the helicopter by pressing on and taking on Cody, only for me to have fallen to him. I wouldn't like to have let them down and I feel that I have. With that said I'm sure they'll be understanding and even if it's in those circumstances, there is the little comfort that I will be with them again.

Even with that reassurance though, I don't want to be dead, I don't want to have lost to him, for my people to have died and lost to them, and those that have survived to suffer such tyranny, such bleakness, such shame and horror that will be eternal. Even if I don't get to join Noire and Uni just yet, I'd much sooner do all I can to ensure that their deaths won't be in vain, even if my enemies will have ultimately succeeded to have caused significant damage to them so that they can share my grief.

But it may be the case that I have died, that I have lost. I just wish I knew for sure though rather than this suspense of not knowing either way, not knowing if it was a success, a relief, good fortune or if it was a failure, a catastrophic one, a disastrous one.

I soon realise that I would have to look for any blows, any wounds on my body that are new and spells death, spells fatality, because surely if I am to be dead I would have those wounds on me.

I therefore quickly look at my body to see if I have new injuries even if my sense of pain and touch doesn't tell me it is the case. It's hard to say, there doesn't appear to be anything new on me, with the exception of a new injury on my arm from what must be his final blow against me, and that's minor, just a graze. In fact the rest are just some cuts, nothing that some good medical attention cannot fix.

Hmmm, well if I can't see anything to suggest I am dead on myself and am still standing and in the same surroundings, then am I alive in this nightmare? I can only assume it to be the case, as one can only go on the evidence available at the time or even the lack of evidence available at the time on certain things.

It's a relief to know that I've not failed, and I can go on for longer, just do my best to ensure that I do better, and ensure that I don't bring myself to the possibility of losing and dying, due to a blow I failed to dodge or deflect. With this in mind though I fear it will be easier said than done, as I wonder about whether I could continue to put up a significant enough fight against my nemesis for some time, and if so how long would it be? Especially considering my exhaustion and pain that I have.

I can only hope that I managed to kill him at the end of the last chapter, especially as there's no other way to get him, and I can't see myself getting another opportunity to pull off something like that again. I therefore look at my enemy, my nemesis so that I confirm his kill as I didn't get chance to in the last chapter. His mouth is covered in blood and has gushed outside it, and yet in contrast there's nothing to suggest he's alive, he must have lied there for all of this time, and if he was alive he would have quickly got up and tried to continue the duel against me, and I would have noticed the sword, and fought for my life.

I even repeatedly kick him and there's nothing. There's no way he can survive that, but even then I worry about whether he's pretending to be dead or not. But there's nothing I can do about that right now, considering how tight his armour is, and me not having any guns in my hand. I guess I won the duel after all, despite him managing to wound me, and appearing to have more experience in the duel and be on the offensive more, not to mention having armour as well which covers everything except for his mouth.

It pleases me since I completely destroyed his arguments, and he is now dead with his ideology of guilt, of suffering and never ending conflict, and paying in money, in culture, in identity, in health and in overall wellbeing.

I should be happy to have won this duel, to have fought for my nation, my people against someone who would see it destroyed in the most painful awful way possible, and to have won despite overwhelming odds. But the trouble is he is just one nemesis, there are some more, and he is one opponent, there are many more of them too. There are still all of the soldiers who even without one of their leaders will no doubt fight to the death, for their insane ideology and there's loads of them.

There is also still the matter of defeating Neptune in which my HUD says I must do so and within a set time limit or else all will be lost, which I cannot allow to happen, and I cannot bear the thought of their insane fantasies to become a dystopian reality.

It is unfortunate that we are in a building that's full of enemy soldiers but few allied ones, and I can only hope that us fighting them room by room and using tactics will help defeat the enemy, and our allied reinforcements can ease the pressure off. Speaking of which, one such individual enters the room of myself and the concerned Britannians who were threatened by the trio whom I dispatched, only for him to lock the door with a key in which I am astonished that the Gears faction provided him with, and then with the other two, move the cabinet as best as they could towards the door, hoping that it can hold the enemy off.

I am pleased that he's joined us especially as he is the only one with a sub machine gun, which is just as well as a couple of soldiers enter the large room from another entrance, but they get shot down quickly by my ally by the locked door.

We quickly head over and pick up the weapons the two guards had along with the ammunition for them, in which they involve 2 Arisakas, and 2 Nambu Pistols in which I take one of the latter. While it's good to have a gun again as I'm a lot better with them than with swords, it's only a pistol and I am concerned about how I'll fare against the enemy here. Never the less, I rally the troops so that they can do their best against them even if we are outnumbered along with being outgunned.

"Cody Gears may be dead but the enemy sure isn't. We may be outnumbered but hopefully not for long, allied reinforcements should be nearby soon. We will have to fight our way through these soldiers who fight for an insane ideology. They demand that we patriots die by them in a horrific manner, so it's only just that we spare them if they surrender and quit their insanity project. Let's do this, hail Britannia." I say to them as I lead them through the exit, which is similar to the other exit that me and an ally went through before the duel.

Note: Readers please listen to Cod World at War Wild Card OST while reading this:

I felt determination and to some extent rage rather than concern at this point, and this is due to what they have done to my people and what they intend to do, and I have no doubt that from what I know of them they won't stop with the death of Cody, if anything they'll be even more determined to succeed in their insanity project. And so for my fallen allies including my sisters who I wish are still with me, and for my allies who will fall to them if they're not stopped, I must make sure they are dead or at least surrendering, otherwise it'll be us that falls and this cannot happen. No doubt I am in this state to help me ensure the survival of our glorious nation, as the adrenaline surges through me, my pain is now gone as I choose to fight over flight in this situation.

We take cover close to the door and I peak only to find myself noticing in that grand hall in which Gear culture has covered up the Britannian one in different places, including chairs, paintings and even carpets along with the walls and ceilings, that there are significant numbers of them down there. Yet while they're in white with red cogs, they appear to wear leather armour and helmets such that they look similar to the samurai armour that Cody wore, only their legs are not covered and consist of baggy trousers and they wear geta sandals. Not only that but their weaponry matches their armour too in that there are those with samurai swords, some with spears, bow and arrows while there are a few armed with claws.

This baffles me to see them with such weaponry considering the time period, though they look similar to an old video game I once played, and my gut tells me that they won't be easy to kill especially as the ones with claws rush towards us followed by the swords men and then some distance behind the spearmen, with the archers covering the melee units if they are not able to fire yet because of the troops in front of them. There must be 16 of them all together against the four of us, but we do have the advantage of guns over them.

To respond to their charge, myself and the other pistol user hides behind the two rifle men all of whom with making each shot count would fire a bullet, only for them to retreat while cocking the bolt of the rifle so that another shot can be fired. After that myself and my pistol wielding ally fire all the rounds the clips in our pistols have, ensuring that they hit one of the three claw men who are fast approaching us. One of them is now down but it is now that they are close to us and so we have to rush away while reloading our weapons, as the riflemen do their best to take another shot at the claw men, in which they manage to get the second one down. There's only left now but he's too close to the riflemen.

The allied riflemen with their barrels try to keep him at bay as they have no time to cock the bolt for another shot, though the claw men just manages to move it away, brushing the barrel aside and was about to strike one of them down. The riflemen drop their rifles as they notice this, and retreat back as best as they could, and it's at this point where me and my ally with the pistol, have reloaded our gin and shoot as many bullets as we can at him killing him. That was too close, way too close for comfort. I could have lost half of my team right there, and that is something I find alarming considering how much I need my allied troops to be alive, to help even the odds.

We have to keep going though and we cannot be too relieved or celebrate, as there's more to them, now it's the samurai that we have to deal with, as the riflemen after returning to pick up their weapons cock their bolts for another shot, while myself and the remaining team mate reload our pistols with another clip.

They are significantly slower due to their size, but they are still quite quick, a bit more numerous and my gut tells me that they'll take more hits to go down. Already they have travelled a significant distance since we dealt with the enemy claw men, and so the four of us around the door open fire against the swordsmen who appear to take hit after hit. Me and my hand gun ally reload while the riflemen fire another round at them, by this time they are quite close and it's then that with our reloaded weapons, me and my semi-automatic buddy fires as many bullets as we can at the samurai and this in fact kills two of them. However, we are then forced to retreat again having to reload our weapons, though at least we should be a bit faster than the enemy this time around.

I order the two riflemen to cock their guns, fire at the one on the right, retreat while cocking again, and then fire again, and I'm pleased that this works as we reload our guns while retreating, as there's just one of the samurai left standing that I finish off with a few shots from my gun.

Excellent, now it's just the spearmen who move at the same speed as the samurai and have already travelled a significant distance, and after we fire at them, they don't take anywhere near as much damage as the samurai. In fact in one barrage of fire, two spearmen have fallen, but then we are forced to take cover away from the archers who now fire arrows at us, and the riflemen have to reload their weapons after firing every bullet in their clips, as does me and my buddy.

We retreat back to the room itself along the wall nearest to the door, with our guns pointed at the door and with them coming out all together, we shoot them down whilst conserving our ammunition to the best of our ability, which is ever so crucial as me and my buddy only has one clip left.

Now it's just the archers, all four of them to deal with, and this will be a challenge since they just stand where they are quite far away, firing alternately so that there's always one of them firing an arrow, keeping us at bay. This will be quite the challenge since without us risking getting hit by the arrows; we will have to lean from cover and to take pot-shots at them, which will take a long time before they die.

They must be trying to buy for time before reinforcements come in and take us out, especially as I look at the other exit which is blocked by a locked door and is full of furniture strategically placed. It is then after looking at the arrows which are continually being fired that I notice that they would hit us in the head or chest if we were to stand in their way. I therefore with my hands order one of them to go prone and to crawl to the edge before peeking out, quickly aiming and firing a shot, and then retreating away, and it's just as well because a few seconds slower and he would have been shot in the head for sure by one of their arrows.

While the flow of arrows continue, it is the direction that has now changed, as rather than it being where our heads and chests would be; instead it is where our feet would be. Excellent as it means the other riflemen can just lean around the door, take a shot and then retreat back again and that is exactly what happens and he is able to tell us that one of the enemy archers has fallen. However he then tells us that one of them is moving towards us albeit slowly and now it seems that their strategy is to wait for us to pop out and then fire their arrow when we are there. Hmmmm.

This appears to be tricky as I do not know where the arrows will hit, but I then realise that their arrows won't travel as quickly as our bullets, in fact I think the arrows travel at about 100m per second, plus which there is the reaction time and so I have a plan in mind and that is for myself to peek out a bit to lure them to fire their arrows in which they do after I peek.

After that and knowing that there's just a second long window of opportunity, as soon as the arrows go past the door, one of the riflemen while on the floor leans out just enough to get the archer closest to us with one shot, before doing a side roll and cocking their gun. It won't be enough to kill him but it should do significant damage to him, and after they've fired their arrows and appear to wait for us, I take a peek just enough for me to see that approaching archer and kill him with one shot with my pistol.

Good, now there's just two archers left and I can't see them being able to cover the area as well as before with their line of fire, especially as I reckon I can just fire, dodge their arrows, fire, dodge their arrows and repeat this process until they're both dead. In fact I swap weapons with my buddy and do just that.

I can sense the look of doom on their faces as they notice me dodging their arrows, and I fire at them while they have to reload another arrow, in fact they react even more so when there's just the one archer left, since bullets travel quicker than arrows and so as soon as he lets go I can just move out of the way which I manage to do. In fact the archer resorts to moving towards me as quickly as he can, only for him to fall by two of my allies who peek around the door to fire one shot each at him.

Good, we've cleared them out, and I look behind me to see the door which is locked and reinforced by a cabinet thanks to my allies, is now being pushed at with significant force by the enemy while the door still holds on, though I'm unsure for how long. After all this commotion, I then hear in their language an officer yelling to present and then fire, and it appears to come from one of the rooms before several bullets have been fired at once, which appears to have come from Arisakas.

This must be execution of fellow Britannians which will stop soon, but at least one good thing to come of this apart from me personally showing them that executing Britannians is illegal in Britannia, that there are potential soldiers who can join our squad and perhaps make a difference as we fight our way out of here, hopefully find allies fighting the enemies, and take our fight to Parliament. I also hope that we can get better weapons in the process, especially how I don't think we can last much longer with them.

I lead the troops looking ahead and around for any enemies to pop out, but there aren't any as we look for where it's come from, only for us all to find the room where the shots were fired from.

I peek around the door only to see that in this large room which has the same effect, with this one consisting of a piano, a settee and a large fire place, there are about 8 Gear riflemen executing Britannians, in which there's only a few potential allies left and the Gear soldiers are led by an officer armed with a pistol. I quietly order a pistol user to have a weapon exchange with me, and then I order the other one with the pistol to take out the officer and the riflemen from the furthest away coming up to the nearest one, while I'll take out the nearest ones starting with the second closest and work my way to furthest away, and an allied rifle man will take out the enemy closest to us.

Though we are outnumbered and outgunned, and it does appear to be pretty risky, I am confident that the element of surprise will ensure that we take the entire lot of them out with just two bullets each, due to the range of our guns and them appearing to be regular troops. There is no other choice with all the enemies out there, and we need every ally we can get along with weapons and ammunition.

I guess here goes nothing. Me and my pistol wielding ally then expose ourselves to the room and as quickly as we can, clear the room, firing one shot each at these enemies with our pistols as quickly as we can. By the time the enemies have noticed us firing at them, because of the quick speed of us firing a target and then another, and thanks to it being what I thought and hoped for, that the short range of them would mean that minimal bullets would be required to take them out, they are all dead, and in fact we've saved a few Britannians who would have been shot had it not been for me, just as I hoped for.

After which and before we get too relieved again, I equip myself with a secondary Nambu and with all the clips the officers had and reload the weapon I originally had. I do this with the consideration that with us going into another small room, there'll be plenty of enemies and so accuracy is less of an issue, but firepower is more of an issue. Meanwhile my allies equip themselves with Arisaka rifles and every one of them has a bayonet attached to them.

Before the people we have managed to rescue can thank us properly for our actions, from the room next door there is a machine gun, and the user is firing away with it. This forces us to flee from the room despite the risk of us getting killed in the huge corridor, though it is tragic that he manages to get one or two in the process of that action, and while we may be safe after that, it's only for now.

It is a significant loss and frustrating for that to happen after almost losing troops to our first encounters with claw men, but I cannot let that get to me, especially since more can be lost that way.

He fires his gun for a second or two after us getting out of the room, but then he stops clearly out of ammunition. During this time I dared to rush along the corridor to the next room where the machine gunner is, though just at the door frame I stop there and hug the wall next to it, my gut telling me that there'll be a couple of enemies who will leave the room and come out to investigate and finish us off.

In fact my gut is proven right when I hear footsteps from what my gut tells me what must be two people, who are walking towards the door I'm hiding by. I quickly poke my two guns out and fire as best as I could a few times to ensure I get the two soldiers, only for me to pull them back and then retreat back to my allies.

Interestingly enough, a couple of spearmen moved towards us who came from the corridor but they get shot down by two rifle men of mine, who was watching the corridor away from the room I had the duel. After which there were two other enemies who came out of the room that involved executing Britannians, they were armed with sub machine guns who hoped that with their quick rush they can avenge their fallen comrades. It is unfortunate though that they're partially successful, as one of them manages to kill one of mine, while the other enemy kills two of mine, though not without him dying. The only good thing to happen regarding this is that the enemy who killed just one and who didn't die by those around the door had his back to me, and I was able to kill him with my remaining bullets.

This is even worse, even more tragic and all because of us not being aware of an enemy in the next room. I can only hope that this can be turned around as we need all the luck we can get along with our skills as soldiers.

The thing is in contrast to the brief but chaotic carnage, nothing happens after a few moments despite there being loud gun fire in that carnage which can easily be heard. From this, it makes me think that it's just a machine gunner whose weapon is mounted, or that there's more of them but they wish to ambush us rather than investigate our position. At least it can only mean that there's no more enemies in there, though that's probably wishful thinking, especially since I look at my ally and it hits home even more now, how I started off with 3 others, then gained 3 more, but now I've lost a lot in one fire fight and it's just the two of us, how frustrating and tragic.

Despite this, I will ensure that at least they won't die in vain, and if I can at least kill more of them than they do of us, then I'll be fine with that, to bleed the enemy even more, as that can make a difference in the overall conflict. Tragically though I realise that I have to survive or else all will be lost, but I must not let that fact deter me, especially as every fallen enemy makes a difference for our cause.

All I can do now is to do my best and make sure that we stick together and survive, or better still find and rescue more Britannians that we may encounter. I head over to where the two enemy submachine gunners who are now dead are, and pick up one of the weapons while my ally does the same and we both pick up some clips as well, both weapons happening to be Type 100s which I've encountered before.

One good thing to be had from this, is that at least we have better weapons now to deal with the enemies and there must be an even better one in that room with the machine gunner, and if I can use that, I'll have an even better chance considering the clip size, range, damage and fire rate and while it'll be heavy, I don't mind since there's lots of enemies to deal with. It's a bit risky but I think it's worth it especially considering the situation both here and out there.

I get on the floor, and peek around the room where I shot two enemies and notice the theme of the rooms being the same, only there's a large wardrobe covered in cloth, with a desk and chair also covered in cloth along with a four poster king sized bed looking in a sorry state, which is where the machine gunner was and has been shot a few times in different places. Apart from that and the two enemies who I killed with my akimbo pistols, there's no one else there.

I am still cautious despite this reassurance as I keep my finger on the trigger and look around to see if there's an enemy there waiting to ambush me, while moving slowly but surely. I get to the bed and do some more looking and with the best satisfaction I'm going to get that it's all clear, I pick up the machine gun which is a Type 99 light machine gun with 32 bullets, and I also pick up some clips for that gun.

I then hear gun fire and instinctively I duck and try to look around, only for it to come outside in the corridor. This must be my ally engaging the enemy and so I come out and help him, and I find that it's some distance down where apparently the enemy tries to attack us from around a corner. I rush out before taking cover around a door and assist my ally there.

There are a good number of enemies there, in fact about a dozen of them in which the first four are claw men, the next four are samurai and the final four are archers, and worse still the claw men are already halfway from the corner to me and are getting even closer, but at least there's 2 left and I manage to take them both out with the final one being just a few paces away from striking me.

That was a close one; I suppose it's always going to be the case with those guys. Still while I wanted to have more luck in these fights, I don't know if this is what I had in mind. Then again I shouldn't complain as long as we get through this, and one can only do their best with the hand they have been dealt with.

I quickly reload my gun while my ally does as the enemy samurai come charging in towards us, but we have already reloaded by the time they reach a third of the way and so we then fire our guns at the four samurai killing them all. The four archers behind them then open fire as soon as the samurai have fallen in which the two of us then dive to the ground, considering where the arrows would hit if we were to stand there.

As soon as the arrows fly past we take the empty clips out of our guns, only for us to get up and move back away from the arrows that aimed for our heads that were by the ground. They then fire at us again and we retreat back in the rooms we previously fought in, knowing that while our reloading time will be longer than before, it will be short enough before they come in and become a threat to us once again.

We reload our guns and think about how to get them, since we don't know where there'll be and there's still the issue of there being four of them who can quickly fire arrows at us. My gut tells me that there will be at least one of them or two walking down the corridor, and so I lean my gun out and blindly fire a clip at that area, doing my best ensure I hit the entire width of the corridor with gunfire.

After which, I reload my weapon again and afterwards I hear from what must be my ally, a Type 100 being fired for a couple of seconds only for there to be an arrow being fired down the corridor and passing my door. I then see my ally in the doorway with his back hugging the wall, only for him to fire his sub machine gun before rushing towards the door, and giving me a thumbs up before reloading his weapon.

It is just as well as he then has to fire his weapon again, spraying it about and I do the same to assist him as best as I can, but it is then I see my ally gets shot in the head, and worse still after that, I hear distinct footsteps, no doubt a ninja due to the footsteps suggesting a cart wheel.

How tragic for that to happen considering just a few moments earlier the claw men were fairly close to striking the pair of us down, and then there's the loss of almost all of my squad earlier, to an extent ambushed after us ambushing the executioners and surviving previous groups of enemies.

I have to accept now that I am the only one left, and it's such a tragic shame as I have failed to ensure that the others will get out with me, but I can only ensure that at least I can make it, and hope that there'll be others for me to rescue. Unfortunately though right now, it looks like I am about to die as a claw man is fast approaching me and I have ran out of ammunition, and there's no time for me to reload my gun. How ironic after surviving two waves of them, it could be that three times the charm for them, and that they're the ones in which I felt lucky to survive against, and now I could unluckily fall to them.

How frustrating to have survived the duel against a deadly opponent thanks to circumstances, but it's circumstances that could lead to my fall against a significantly less deadly opponent after defeating so many of them earlier.

There has got to be a way for me to survive this, to be able to kill him before he kills me so that I can press on, and hopefully find more allies in this place before I can get out of it for good, and hopefully after that those allies I get will survive long enough such that I have a small force with me, who I can use to take the fight to the streets, and defeat Neptune for good. Think Black; think there must be something here. It becomes harder to think though as the noise of the claw man doing cartwheels towards me gets louder and louder, and my death appears to get closer and closer, and with that my shame and my defeat. Come on Think.