Chapter 91
"The battle is all over except the 'shouting' when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be"
Napoleon Hill
I wish to apologize for the lateness, although I don't think that would do me a favor right now. The computer problem and my thesis got the better of me. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, please enjoy.
Group 2, Forest Area
To kill or to be killed, that's an absolute law whenever you enter a battlefield. Be it a small one or a huge one that law still applies. If you hesitate for a second, you might regret it for the rest of your life. That law has been implanted in any gunslinger's mind in Einbroch, so that they wouldn't hesitate at all during their missions. But sometimes, there are times when you have to make exceptions. In this case…an exception not to kill.
Facing a mass number of enemy would never be an easy thing to do, especially if you have no intention on killing them at all. And moreover, if you have never showed mercy to your enemies before. But trying to live up to his promise, El is doing his best. Approaching a group of Soul Linkers in rapid pace, El prepares his Tristan and Lancelot because other weapon than the double handgun would certainly kill his target.
Performing a leap to the mid air, El subtly lands among eight gunslingers circling him without preparing themselves to attack him. Sealing the chance to take the pre-emptive attack, El moves his double handgun to two different directions while at the same time lowering himself, aiming perfectly for the legs of two different targets. El pulls both triggers and fires two soul linkers, quickly preparing his composure to shoot another two before they realize his position and go scattering. It was a smart decision made by the gunslinger, because in their position now they cannot attack him without the chance of attacking themselves. Before they could do anything anymore, El disables the remaining four with four successive shoots. Alas, the dark illusions don't seem to move regardless the current situation.
Two soul linkers stretch their arms and throw two esmas to the direction of El, but the gunslinger lowers his body near the land and aims perfectly at both men's legs before firing. He hit them and disabled them in a single attempt, before proceeding to run across four more soul linkers. This time they try to engage El in a close quarter combat. A soul linker goes first and delivers an Axe kick. El, however, shoots the soul linker's other leg before the attack reach him. The gunslinger quickly gazes at the other three and appears quickly beside them. El moves his left arm below and shoots another soul linker's leg after avoiding a direct esma. Now trying to gang up on him, the two soul linkers use their number advantage to throw a double whirlwind kick to El. Yet again, the gunslinger bests them by throwing two coins right to their face and stops their attack. Before they could regain their sight, El already shoots both men's legs. The soul linkers whom have been defeated are growling in pain while holding their legs on the ground, and this annoys Matthew (pretty much), "How did he do that?! He's just one man and you couldn't even take him out?!"
"You're lucky Alexandria requested me to spare all of you" El deliberately taunts the whole gang, "If she hadn't done so, you're all dead meats now. You shall thank her later"
"Impudent bastard!!!" One of the soul linkers standing behind Matthew rushes towards the gunslinger to deal with him personally. El prepares a stance and welcomes a quick Axe Kick from the soul linker. Despite successfully blocking it by using his double handgun, El gotta admit this guy is way above his peers, but only this wouldn't suffice to defeat El. The soul linker throws some other jabs although El parries them rather easily. This whole thing bores El as a fighter. The soul linker is a good, but El is levels above all the soul linkers combined. So, with great ease, he waits until the soul linker gives him a kick. And indeed, thinking he's gaining the upper hand the soul linker delivers a Round Kick to El's face. But before it could reach its target, El blows the soul linker's leg with Tristan and disables him.
"Aaaaargh!!! You!!!" The soul linker crumbles to the ground and screams in pain, "You bastard!! I will kill you!!!"
"Not with that leg, that's for sure" El deliberately sighs before turning his attention to his surrounding. There are so many Dark Illusions and Soul linkers around him, but none of them seem so eager to fight him, "Oh, for the love of God…I came all the way here to do something worthy and yet I found bunches of cowards who cowardly tried to take down an enigma…you are pathetic, all of you!!! Sasha!!!"
"Y, yes!!" The younger gunslinger is somewhat surprised to see her vice-captain's reaction. Although maybe she can understand it; he and his comrades came all the way here to help but instead he witnessed a bunch of weak cowards with their foolish leader trying to gang up on him. And to make it worse, he promised not to kill them. Not only the current situation bores him, it also hurts his pride. Both as a man and a gunslinger, and maybe more…as a warrior, "What is it, vice-captain?!"
"I want you to assist me disabling the soul linker! My coin is your sign!" El pulls out his HAVOX. The cowards shouldn't have made him mad, "I will deal with the Dead Illusions. Got it?"
"Yes"
"Then, go!!" By the order of El, Sasha quickly climbs a tree and finds a cozy spot to take her aims later. The dark illusions come in group and quickly cast fire balls to attack the gunslinger. Triggering the HAVOX, Elraven blasts all the spell away and bombards the dark illusions to turn them into pieces. A soul linker emerges from El's behind and hits a whirlwind kick on his back, but it doesn't bulge El too much. Quickly whirling on his point, El throws a coin right to the soul linker's face and at the same time gives Sasha the sign she's been waiting for. The Silver Sniper shoots the leg of the soul linker perfectly using her Daedeye, completing the first step of her mission. El hunts three other dark illusions, who attempt to casts a direct meteorite attack on him. Without being told, three soul linkers appear and support them by standing between them and El. Too bad they didn't learn anything at all, because El picks up three coins and delivers the coins to the soul linkers in rapid pace. As the three soul linkers all got shot in their legs, El is more than free to blasts the dark illusions from casting their spell. Another dark illusion comes from behind with a meteorite ready on his hands and smashes El with it. Fortunately, El was quick enough to cover himself using his HAVOX before countering back the smash. Four soul linkers follow with esmas ready on their hands from four separate sides, however El bests them by outmaneuvering all of them using his coins throwing. Flipping four coins to the correct direction of each soul linker, Sasha shoots them all and seals some other small victories for her side.
The dark illusions realize they must come up with something new if they want to win this battle , so they gather in one place and raise their hands above in the air. Noticing their doing, the soul linkers buy them some time by attacking El again. Their effort is another fruitless one because El anticipates it by throwing a pouch containing coins to them. When their attention is caught by the pouch, El quickly pulls out his Lancelot and shoots the pouch, showering the soul linkers with coins. And at the exact same moment signaling Sasha to execute a consecutive shoots. Indeed, Sasha does. She successively fires the legs of the soul linkers in less than fifteen seconds, rendering all of them immobile and allowing El to move further. Regardless, it was too late. What the dark illusions have been chanting was a powerful spell that merged all of them into one entity, The Dark Lord; now thing is getting serious here. The Dark Lord teleports himself right to El's behind and, not giving El any chance to retaliate, blasts the gunslinger away with a fire ball. El flung for several feet and hits a tree; good for him his wound is quickly healed by The Spell of Dionysus. And much like before, his face is still tranquil. Readying his HAVOX, his smile is getting wider and wider. Seeing the Dark Lord, he knows he's here for something worthy. But El forgets someone: Matthew.
While it's true El has retired many soul linkers today, their leader is yet to be seen in action. Well, El would see him soon enough…because he appears from behind the tree El crashed into and kicks the three, blowing both the tree and El at the same time. El hits the ground yet quickly regains his stance and turns over his shoulder to counter the earlier attack. His effort is proved too late because Matthew is ready before him with an Esma and hit him right on his stomach. As if that wasn't enough, The Dark Lord hammers El's back from behind using one meteorite he throws when at the same time Matthew moves to avoid the attack. Receiving three consecutive attack, El spurts some blood from his mouth. But he isn't mad at all. Now, this is worthy of his patience. And for that, he's going to end the battle real soon.
After landing to the ground, Sasha aims her Daedeye and fires one soul linker right at his leg, revealing four other more behind it. She landed because she knew El would be busy by now, so it's up to her to take care of the soul linkers. Being a sniper, anyone would think a close range combat would take her down easily. But that stereotype doesn't apply to this young lady. The Ropera Squad sniper fires one other soul linker in the leg again before blasting the remaining three in quick charge. The sniper quickly sights five other soul linkers heading to her direction from her left. Taking the advantage of her reach and her semi-automatic rifle, Sasha proceeds to blast a hole in their ankle, one by one. She starts from the left before firing at the one in the middle. The sniper takes quick glance and in less than six seconds, fires all three of them consecutively. She didn't even give them the chance to come anywhere near her. Having only one bullet left in the chamber, Sasha takes another magazine from behind her gunslinger coat while observing her surrounding. There are still dozens of soul linkers left, and they don't give any intention on giving up from beating her. Setting ten soul linkers as her next target, Sasha grabs the magazine with left hand while shooting through them with her right. The Silver Sniper quickly reloads her Daedeye with the magazine she just grabbed and attacks with her Daedeye again.
One shot to end all. The motto of every sniper in this world, and Sasha is no exception. She fires three of the soul linkers from their behind in another consecutive manner, hitting their leg with each shot. The other seven turns their back and rushes at her, but the sniper shows no fear at all. Changing her plan, she kneeled down before blasting the leg of the soul linkers seven times in a quick dispatching attempt, and she blasted their legs less than fifteen seconds. The soul linkers fell before wailing a painful scream, each losing one leg holding their body. There is no mercy written on Sasha's eye, as clumsy as she could be she still belongs to a group of elite gunslingers. Reloading her Daedeye for the second time today, Sasha quickly takes aim to the soul linker approaching from behind. Placing her right index finger on the trigger and using her left hand to get a better hold of her Daedeye, Sasha fires her sniper-rifle ten times in rapid pace, blowing the legs of the ten soul linkers one by one in an exact ten seconds. As the soul linkers paralyzed bodies are ricocheting all over the floor, the sniper proudly smiles when she prepares another magazine. This time to blast the rest of the soul linkers surround her. The next thing the soul linkers heard is the sound of the magazine placed in the chamber followed by Daedeye clicking; and that means they won't fight for long when Sophia starts aiming at them with flair written all over her face.
"Summon a Meteor Storm. I'll buy you some time" Before rushing toward Cliff, Matthew tells The Dark Lord who obeys. Quickly El sees an esma is coming at him again, aiming straight for his head. El ducks at the last second and it speeds past harmlessly, missing him by a fraction of an inch. As the next wave of esmas approach, and before the soul linker could get anywhere near him, El fires a burst from his HAVOX to eliminate the esmas and jumps toward Mathhew, aiming for his opponent's legs again. Unfortunately before his bullets hit Matthew casts another massive group of esmas to protect himself from the bullets, bringing them down onto the ground which breaks the nearby land. El tries another shoots but Matthew grabs the nearest tree by the arm and holds it in front of him. He feels his makeshift shield take a few hits before El's HAVOX, being used as smasher, breaks through the tree on its way to him. Matthew throws another esma which hits El directly before dashed to El's side as it was cut in two, then fires another esma at the gunslinger. His eyes follow the gunslinger as he stays away from him to the forest, and Matthew scans the place where he disappeared to try reacquiring his opponent. Meanwhile, El's thinking inside the forest, "I know I can end this battle in one attempt. All I need to do is trap him"
Coming out from his hiding, El shoots the soul linker in linear direction but he avoids the bullets directed to his legs by leaping to mid air and performing a butterfly kick right to El's head. The attack successfully stuns the gunslinger for a moment, long enough for Matthew to delivers a whirlwind kick and sends El back to the ground. Matthew jumps high to the air before spinning while descending in rapid pace; stretching a leg, Matthew hammers El with a hammer kick which shatters the ground. If anything, El seems done for. Too bad this is a chance El's been waiting for. The gunslinger realized Matthew's speed and movement are above him, so it's necessary to let Matthew think he was gaining the upper hand all the time despite El's plans to end the fight quickly. In an unpredicted occurrence, El grabs Matthew's right ankle and shoots it with Lancelot. "Aaaaaaaaah!!!!" Matthew wails and succumbs to his defeat, "Ukh!!! How could you?! You're still alive despite all that attack?!"
"You took my bait kindly, moron" El chuckles and raises, "By the way, The Spell of Dionysus comes in handy today"
"The spell that heals everything?!" Matthew, no matter how much he hates it, must admit defeat. But not that fast, "You think you've won?! You forgot something!!"
And by forgot, Matthew was referring to The Dark Lord. Floating in the sky, twelve dozens meteorites could be seen descending from his above. And trust me, they aren't meant for greetings. How the Dark Lord summoned that many? Simple, he's the combination of at least twelve dark illusions, no? So, it's only normal his spell would twelve times as great. El knows one hit from it would massively damage the whole forest like the spell did earlier. So, there's no way he's going to let it happen again. Putting his HAVOX up straight with the Gatling barrel faces the sky; El takes a good aim to the meteorites while activating the child of ARMAS, "HAVOX second mode, Lumiere activate!"
"It's useless!! No matter what you do, you cannot stop all the meteorites!!" Matthew taunts El with a smile, "You're going to die!!"
"Die isn't in my plans for the near future. You said those meteorites are going to kill me? You bet" El forms a smile on his face before pulling the trigger for activating his HAVOX, "Now, why don't you bid them farewell?"
DRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRD!!!!!
And in less than ten seconds HAVOX launches thousands if not millions of bullets from its main barrel. So rapid, eyes couldn't follow. So fast, ears couldn't catch. The bullets hit all, and I mean all, the meteorites in blinding speed. The bullets are too fast, shattering the meteorites into pieces before shattering them into much smaller pieces. The Dark Lord, who is defenseless above, could do nothing but scream when the bullets reach him and tear him apart. The barrel doesn't stop firing until no meteorite is seen in the sky, leaving only its pieces. With widened eyes illustrating his disbelieve, Matthew is in lost words as the pieces of meteorites slowly fall onto him. And moreover, his soul linkers have been defeated by Sasha. El packs up his HAVOX before facing the defeated soul linker, "Guess you're not as bad ass as your doing sounds, eh? I have heard the way Naght Sieger defeated Alexandria in a rather easy manner. Sorry for saying this, but you should thank your luck because you and your cowards are so damn weak. Naght Sieger would own you without even blinking"
"Silence!! You don't know how disgraceful he is!! He's greedy for power and his throne!!" Matthew spats back at El, "And on top of that, he used the reason of protecting us so no one can claim the throne!!"
"You're that weak but you still talk big? You and your soul linkers couldn't defeat two gunslingers, how do you want to fend off an entire army? From Valdomir Kingdom? From great demons? Naght Sieger protected you from all that, right?" El retreats as Sasha approaches him, "Think about it, dude. Don't just yell like an idiot"
Sasha sees El taking the blue pack from behind Matthew's coat, guess that would seal their victory for the game, "Where are we going, Vice-captain?"
"To where Alexandria is. Maybe she won't need our help at all, but this is just in case something happens"
"OK"
When El and Sasha leave the scene, Matthew is left wondering for himself…
****
Group 3, Desert Area
Going toe to toe with Baphomet, George tries to do his best. The two fighters meet in the middle, slashing, parrying and blocking furiously. George soon realizes his opponent is no pushover. He would have been ded if he was his old weak self, but Fenrir's influence on him has somewhat improved his technique and movements. He is forced to break away and retreats as the demon's scythe does the impression of a cutter, spinning and jabbing in a maneuver that would have removed his midsection components.
Baphomet speeds forward, floating just a bit off the ground and trying to seal his victory by launching a strike using his scythe. George however is quick enough to sneak below the demon in a rapid speed and throws an uppercut to Baphomet's stomach and forces the demon to hit the ground; George jabs him some more while aiming to the demon's stomach before retreating backwards while casting his attention to the demon in case he does a surprise counter. Deciding that guile might win where skill could not, George takes a brave decision to charge towards Baphomet. But George did not expect that Baphomet would deliver a fine slash and he gasps as the edge of Baphomet's weapon touches his stomach and makes a way for the blood inside him to sprays out.
"Akh!!! That hurts!" George retreats when Baphomet chases him while swaying his scythe around to sickle him into bits; yet George retaliate by summoning five soul spheres to knock Baphomet back. And now with his opponent being unstable, George performs a fine Ashura Strike which hits Baphomet's stomach and sends him flying to the air before returning him to the ground. The champion glares at the demon to see if he is coming back; in George's current state performing an Ashura Strike is no big deal for him. Thanks to Fenrir's influences said earlier, he is able to execute at least six more strikes before running out of energy. As if fate is challenging him, Baphomet slowly raises despite being fatally wounded.
"You're still alive after a direct Ashura Strike? You really are something" George throws a little praise for his foe, "But, you won't survive for long"
"Do not think highly of yourself, human. You could not do that without the help of the being inside you" Baphomet is obviously referring to Fenrir, "It is him who makes you and your power grew stronger"
"Yeah, and I should thank him for that" George doesn't buy the taunt, "Thanks to him, you're not a real threat for me"
"You haven't defeated me, yet!! Do not overlook me!!"
"I already have, Baphomet" Just when George finishes his statement, Baphomet cvould feel at least five spheres glowing inside him, "Surprised?"
"What?! What is this?!" Baphomet could feel the heat of the spheres inside him raising as the spheres glow even more.
"Sphere Explosion" George smirks for his soon to be victory, "I implanted them when I hit the Ashura Strike on you"
"You…how could you think of such trick?!"
"Because my friends usually referred to me as the stupidest among them. Let's say, I'm making up for what I lack" George glances at his champion uniform with proud, "A voice inside me tells me"
GLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!
With the latest statement voiced, the sound of an explosion reaching the night sky could be heard in the desert, leaving nothing of Baphomet but memory.
"Thanks for the advice, Fenrir" George thanks his guardian angel, "Couldn't have done it that fast without you whispering"
"No big deal, kid" Fenrir replies with a proper tone, "Your lost would be my lost too"
"That's…kinda true" George shrugs, "I wonder how everybody is doing at the moment"
****
Group 4, Mountain Area
When two fighters in the same caliber meet, they would know how they fare with each other. And so are Clyde & Gert. Both of them have been locking at each other's eyes, trying to scale themselves with their opposition. Pythons are originally consisted of six instead of ten, and even now the original six are regarded as the best gunslinger squad other than Ropera. Being number IV, that means Gert only have the top 3 surpassing him in terms of power.
"Pythons number IV; I have never thought my luck would bring me this way" Clyde prepares his Cutlass without casting his attention away from his opponent, "The fourth strongest Python among the ten"
"Too bad for you, but I think my luck is in the opposite side of yours" Gert throws a deadpan sarcasm, "I came here in hope to fight the three top fighters from Ropera Squad but ended up with the one in the bottom"
Gert was obviously referring to El, Ty, and Emilio. Although with El being busy in the forest, Ty being busy with Thanatos, and Emilio has been defeated by Valdes his wish doesn't seem possible.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but you shouldn't overlook me" Clyde, still with his confidence, forms a decent smile on his face, "I'm way above your expectation"
"We shall see" Gert appear behind Clyde before The Throttle even noticed and gives him a straight punch. It was a nasty one, as Clyde is forced to meet the ground in just one punch. Among the Pythons, Gert is nicknamed The Black Crusher for his preference of fighting with hand to hand combat rather than his actual firearms. And among the Pythons, he possesses the strongest physical strength, "You are nothing after all"
"Oh, really?" Clyde counters by lodging a bullet right on Gert's head, much to the Pythins number IV surprise, "Am I still nothing?"
"Enough of your shit!" Gert steps in and stomps to Clyde's direction but Clyde avoids in the right time by rolling up to the opposite direction of Gert's stomp, and butterfly kicks Gert in the face. Clyde carries the attack on by using his Cutlass as smashers and smashes Gert's face in five constant strikes, but the behemoth gunslinger doesn't seem to bulge. Gert retaliates by head-butting Clyde and nearly take him down again, but Clyde is mentally prepared this time so he won't be taken down so easily like before. Clyde attacks with a hook kick to Gert's jaw and bash his face with Cutlass again, and this time Clyde doesn't want to lose any second attacking. He quickly pulls Gert's collar and hits his neck with his knee before pushing him back and hammering him with a fine roundhouse kick to his belly. Gert tries to jabs Clyde but the smaller gunslinger simply moves the attack to another direction by pulling Gert's wrist, quickly before shooting his leg. Clyde quickly circles around Gert's back so that his opposition wouldn't be able to follow him with ease, and shoots Gert on his back. The Black Crusher is stuttered with the wave of attacks and paused for a second. If he never had the regenerators inside him he would have died by now. Clyde is standing not far behind him.
"So, I'm not that bad after all?" Clyde counters the earlier argument with style.
"Not bad…I was wrong to underestimate you…I have to give you that" Gert picks up what appear to be a pair of iron knuckles with some cables wired to their palm and wears it on his arms, "I guess I shall take this battle seriously"
"Oh, you mean you're going to use the ARMAS nullifier?"
"No, I and Valdes are the only two members who fight without ARMAS nullifier among The Pythons" Gert tells a secret, "But, that doesn't mean we're weaker than the others. I'll show you"
Before Clyde's brain can catch up with what Gert just said, he felt a penetrating force striking his chest with brute force. Clyde is sent flung away from where he stood crashing and breaking everything he hits which stood behind him. He finally stops after crushing into a boulder before falling to the ground. "Ukh…that was…" Clyde could feel his broken back, because he could barely stand. And moreover bloods start draping from his mouth. He's got an internal injury, "Just…one…punch…"
"Allow me to introduce you to my weapon, The Cracker" Gert comes to the scene with a big smile, "The wires inside it react to my nerves and allow me to move with unseen speed. And this doesn't even need bullets"
"So…you have taken me seriously, huh?" Clyde slowly raises back and shows Gert his Cutlass, "Then, I shall activate the first stage of Cutlass, Pain!"
Gert doesn't get what Clyde just said, but before he could say anything he gets punched, a real hard one, on his face which gets him off guard. Another kick is delivered to his head which shock him even more. His surprise is done when Clyde hammers his face with both his Cutlass. Three head damages and he already regenerated several times. Gert doesn't need an Einstein to tell him anything Clyde just activated increased his strength greatly and make him able to ignore his injuries. Simply put, this will be one hell of a battle if he doesn't do something.
Pops out from behind one of the trees on Gert's behind, Clyde hammers the gunslinger right to the back of his head with a long fist and surprises him. There are six more punches from Clyde to the same direction; all were executed before Gert turned over his shoulder. The large man moves closer to Clyde before giving his target a roundhouse kick to his stomach and a finishing kick to the face. Clyde leaps backward and maims Gert with a perfectly executed Butterfly Kick, yet that doesn't leave Gert open. Alvin then steps in to the Rekenber gunslinger's reach and gives him a double hook, adding three more as he progresses. The Black Crusher soon realizes his foe is starting to best his movements, and this wouldn't be good for him. Quickly moving into one side, Gert accumulates the power on his right leg to lodges Clyde's head with his brute strength. As Clyde is about to regain his composure, Gert bents his right leg and spins, unleashing a powerful Crescent Kick to Clyde's head and sending him flying to the trees beside him, knocking all of them off in one crash.
Gert rushes to where Clyde went yet Gert spotting him with his guard ready pretty much surprise him again. Clyde shoots Gert using his Daedeye to stop him but the pythons number IV jumps and successfully avoids all the bullets. Advancing into a spin in the air, Gert executes an insanely powerful Butterfly Kick right to the ground and breaks it, rendering Clyde shocked and immobile in one single strike. The dark skinned man seizes this opportunity to gives Clyde a taste of his uppercut continued by a straight to his stomach before he nearly falls down. Once Clyde regains his balance and casts his attention back at Gert, he sees the green uniformed man quickly getting down before giving the gunslinger a low reverse roundhouse kick. Successfully dispatching the man of the only support for his balance, Gert carries on with a middle reverse roundhouse kick and then finishes him by a high reverse roundhouse kick, sending him crashing to a boulder behind him, crashing into it violently. Clyde attempts to shoot Gert from the front, unfortunately Gert was quick enough to notice and kicks both guns to the air, leaving the gunslinger weaponless. But that doesn't stop Clyde from connecting a Jump Spin Hook Kick to Gert's face. The rampant fighter throws another series of kicks from his front by performing five Flying Back Kicks in consecutive manner to his opponent before Gert got any chance to retaliate and successfully knocking Gert down to the ground. Clyde quickly seals Gert's chance to strike back with an elbow attack to the ground and spinning afterwards, positioning himself so his right arm got enough space to execute a superman punch. Bringing his rear leg forward to feign a kick, Clyde then snaps the leg back while throwing a cross spinning punch directly to the Gert's face, resulting on him flying backwards and taking four trees with him. A usual superman much doesn't require a spin on the arm, but Clyde does so because it enhances the power he conduits with the punch. He calls this one Screwdriver. Well, at least that technique lived up to the name by screwing the soldiers. The Throttle is really on fire here.
Gert engages the fight back faster than Clyde's prediction, sending the gunslinger flying to a tree by an excellently executed Chambered punch. Clyde is now suffering from the hit which nearly broke his ribs in an instant second. And it's only normal for Gert; his hit would break any normal's bones or hard rock in a single direct hit. It may not be strong enough to break a solid metal, but Clyde isn't that hard either. Two other punches quickly approach the man nicknamed The Throttle with nasty power, possibly trying to end this fight for good. Gert brought down Clyde again with compacted fist using his wrist from upon it and hits him before delivering a fatal Overhand punch right to Clyde's back, adding more damage to the already injured back of Clyde in an instant. Clyde attempts to smash Gert with his two fists but Gert bested him in terms of speed, grabbing both Clyde's hands before slamming him to the floor with full power. Noticing Clyde is too injured to fight back, Gert throws him right away to the tree behind him, knocking Clyde down for God only knows how many times today. The Pythons number IV seizes this chance and leaps, landing perfectly near the fatally injured gunslinger. It seems that the effect of the hypnotic state from Cutlass is going to worn out sooner rather than later. Gert sweeps Clyde of the ground with one fine low Roundhouse kick, followed by a middle Roundhouse kick and brought Clyde to the air. Performing a low leap, Gert retires The Throttle using a high roundhouse kick before delivering another strike with his Cracker which cements Clyde to the dirt.
Gert lands perfectly, but exhaustion is written all over his face. Clyde seems motionless, so he believes this is his victory, "I was wrong to underestimate him…that kid is really dangerous…"
And indeed he is, because Clyde is slowly rising from his defeat with a determined look on his face.
"Impossible!! He shouldn't be able to even move a finger after receiving all that attack!" Gert cannot believe what he is seeing, despite seeing it with his own eyes.
"I'm not…going to allow myself…to be defeated even further…" Clyde kneels and picks two familiar things located near him, his Cutlass which he lost before. Slowly, he pulls out a berserk potion and drinks it, "This is my vice-captain old trick…hopefully it works"
"You're going to go Berserk with that?!" Gert spats at Clyde, "You're crazy!! You won't…"
Gert word is cut short with a fierce smash to his face, so violent it nearly tears his neck off his head. Grabbing both his Cutlass as smashers, Clyde is ready to end this battle. Gert attempts to slink back into the darkness of the forest, but even his speed couldn't keep Clyde's targeting lock from pointing him out like a sore thumb. Vent fires six bullets, hitting Gert and blasting him just right on his head. In this form, Cutlass' power has also increased. Gert tries to avoid more shooting by jumping, but after jumping over the first wave of blast Gert got hit by the second wave with a swipe from the numerous bullets that abruptly dematerializes Gert's torso to bits, Clyde then showered him more till Gert's torso got completely destroyed, thus forcing him to regenerate. The dreaded gunslinger bounced flawlessly off the ground as to hammer his opponent even more, bombarding the Rkeneber gunslinger with a volley of shots from his Cutlass before unleashing an insanely powerful kick to Gert's head. The head is nearly detached, disabling Gert for a moment until his body regenerates, and this is what Clyde's been aiming for. Clyde follows up his attempt to assault with a dozen blows using his fists to the larger man. Gert could only watch as his body heals slowly.
Quickly after Gert regenerates, another six violent blows are delivered to the python's torso, blowing the parts they touched with nasty amount of power. The Throttle bravely advances in hammering his foe mercilessly, not even the faintest idea of hesitation goes through his mind. Two violent strikes hammer Gert's head as his fleshes and bloods are starting to splatter everywhere. Clyde starts adding more power on each of his strike before detaching Gert's right arm to the ground; it was so fast, Gert didn't even get the chance to scream. The Black Crusher is caught off guard even more when Clyde unleashes a powerful roundhouse kick in the mid-air, nearly splitting Gert's torso and sending him flying back to a big boulder behind him, momentarily disable them. This buys Clyde enough time to accumulate his power to end the battle. The Throttle slams the worsened physics of Gert and slams him to the boulder. Clyde rapidly blows Gert using continuous bullets to his torso until he runs out of bullet before throwing a straight punch to his mouth, breaking his face in one strike. Accumulating the remaining power he got, Alvin delivers a straight piercing punch to Gert's stomach and blasts him away with full speed, destroying the boulder behind him before crashing throughout the forest. Gert's lifeless body, which is now barely recognizable anymore, slowly falls to the ground with a horrible condition. His fleshes and bones are scattered everywhere in the forest; the regenerator wasn't fast enough to patch him up. And Gert didn't even have the chance to scream or express his pain in some way. Clyde's training with Sarkhan allowed him to master all the three stages of Cutlass, and this is only the first stage.
The Throttle looks at the prize of his battle he took before finishing Gert, in the form of a red pack, "I…I really did it…"
Slowly sitting in the ground, Clyde rests himself cause he knows his injury is quite bad, "I…did it…I defeated…one of The Pythons…"
True, during his training he has grown into a much more capable fighter. He's grown both as a gunslinger and as a man. And therefore, Clyde is no longer a weakling. Thanks to his effort, now the heroes are one step closer to victory.
****
Group 2, Forest Area
"I'm glad to see you again, Freyja" Dracula greets the soul linker in rather polite manner, "I've been wanting to taste your blood"
"You're sick" Frea detests the comment, "I'll make sure to finish you off this time"
"Come and have a try" Dracula summons a massive group of bats to surround him, "What can a former goddess do after all?"
Dracula launches one of his bats to Frea, only to see the soul linker avoiding it. But when the bat hits a tree on his front, it explodes. So, Frea now knows how dangerous the bats might be. The soul linker retreats to the air before materializing twelve esmas that tried to get the better of her enemy. Dracula sends twelve bats to counter the spells and soon explosions are occurring everywhere on the mid-air.
Frea takes this opportunity to get closer to the count and gives him a whirlwind kick in the face. Dracula attacks back by giving Frea a knee attack to her stomach. The soul linker blasts Dracula away from his feet with an esma right to his head. Dracula sends a bat bomb to Frea and forces her to retreat back after Dracula launching the second row of bats.
Quickly, Frea pulls back and vanishes to deeper inside the forest. Dracula tries his best to catch Frea's whereabouts but it doesn't do him any favor. So, he prepares himself for a sneak attack from any angle, and he is concentrating so hard that is caught by surprise when the ground nearby abruptly explodes, with dozen of esmas follows. His reaction proves to be a good favor on his side as he shields himself using his bats. Frea emerges from the ground and hammer kicks him right in the neck before whirling around in the air and strikes Dracula with flying side kick.
Dracula tries to run back to the cover himself using his bats but Frea's esmas flies out of the darkness to cut him off, zigzagging across his path and pushing him back into the open. Another esmas to his left knocked him off balance as he is being pelted by the energy spheres. His durability is good enough to keep him alive, but he doesn't know for how long. Dracula has never thought Frea would be this good.
Frustrated, Dracula fires his bats abruptly to counter Frea's movements. But Frea easily dodges them all, seeing how uncontrolled the attack was. Sneaking in a rapid move, Frea appears right in front of Dracula and unleashes twelve esmas to the demon at the same time…rendering the Dracula shocked.
"How could this be?! You weren't this good when I fought you at Geffen!!!" Dracula cannot believe what he just experienced, "You're just a former goddess!!"
"You've been underestimating me the whole time; it seems" Frea shows a little smile on her face but actually it's rather mocking, "Who said I'm still a former goddess?"
"What?!" Dracula shouts as his body starts dissolving, "You…you have regained your power?!"
"That's right. That's why some esmas from me is more than enough to end you" Frea is frankly pointing at Dracula who is vanishing, "See?"
"How did you get…your power back?" Dracula feels like relieving some of his curiosity before his life ends.
"It's a s-e-c-r-e-t!" With a cheerful tone, Frea shows that she isn't too much of a goody-goody, "If I tell you it won't be a secret anymore, right?"
"Heh…damn you…" Dracula escapes the ghost of a chuckle as he dissolves to the air.
"What an easy win" Frea feels somewhat proud of herself, "Hm? How is everybody doing? I hope El got some punishments for dumping me"
****
Group 4, Mountain Area
Now preparing for an all out attack; Ty dashes to Thanatos with the intention of ending the battle in a quick fashion. Ty smashes his Xilphas into Thanatos' Tirfing, again to one of its joints. Thanatos pushes him back before kicking him hard in the stomach. Ty counters by hammering the leg armor Thanatos used to attack him with his Xilphas, exploding Thanatos' leg. But being an undead that doesn't really affect him. Thanatos moves his Tirfing to Ty's direction, but Ty manages to dodge in the very last second, leaving his left shoulder as the only thing got torn out.
"Ukh!!" That was really painful, but Ty realizes more screaming from him and he would have lost his life. He knows he has to end this quickly, and one single attack from Thanatos could be proven fatal. And indeed, because Thanatos is already summoning the spheres containing the Abyss Break. And there are so many of them. "Just my luck" Ty bemoans the lack of luck on his side.
Thanatos leaps and slashes Ty, but the gunslinger blocks it with his Ecclesia before throwing another attack with his Xilphas. This time, Thanatos retreats a step to avoid the attack. Quickly taking the chance before his foe launches the Abyss Break, Ty forces Thanatos to retreat some more with another row of attack from Xilphas. Although none of it hit.
Thanatos strikes some more slash but Ty keeps parrying it. When he feels he wouldn't go anywhere with this, Thanatos quickly retreats back to the middle of the sphere. And this signals Ty to prepare himself for something…not good.
The first wave of Abyss Break comes sooner rather than later, but after knowing the weakness of the spell Ty quickly pulls out his Ixidor and shoots the spheres all in the mid-air. But the second wave is proved quick enough before he could reload, so Ty dodges around from the spheres thrown by Thanatos as an Odium Thanatos suddenly appears behind Ty and strikes his face, much to Ty's surprise. Apparently, Thanatos has summoned one of his serbvants to increase his chance of claiming victory. Thanatos fires the third wave of abyss Break to Ty, this time in massive number over Ty's head. Before the spheres got the time to go off and tears him apart, Ty runs over evading the spheres before throwing six grenades to the air, letting the explosion to take care of the sphere for him and creating a space between him and his to enemies, who could be seen trying to chase him. And seeing this, Ty knows he has to do something. Sending three grenades to the Thanatos Tower's residences; Ty fires after them at full speed. The explosions shock the two Thanatos, and Ty seizes this chance to knock down Odium with one violent strike from Xilphas after quickly approaching him. Thanatos shoots the fourth wave of abyss Break but Ty casually throws another round of grenades to nullify the spell.
Furious, Thanatos blindly fires the fifth wave of Abyss Break to everywhere he could cast his eyesight in; destroying more of the mountains but none of it hits Ty. Ty jumps over Thanatos' initial volley of attacks, landing directly in front of Thanatos. And he seals this chance to land a hard blow using his Xilphas right in Thanatos' face, rendering him immobile for a second and making him drop his Tirfing. This is a chance Ty wouldn't want to miss. Ty connects another explosion to Thanatos armor before giving him another in the neck. The gunslinger pulls out his Ecclesia and hammers Thanatos with it from his side, so hard it knocks the undead king down to the ground. If he cannot use his Soul Eye to injure the monster then he would as well go all out with his Ecclesia, using it as a smasher. The western graced gunslinger lands another hit using his Ecclesia to maim Thanatos deeper to the ground. But when he is about to perform the third strike, much to Ty's shock, Thanatos grabs his leg and pull him off he ground, nastily slamming him to one of the boulders.
"Aaaah!!!" Ty could feel his back aching in pain. This is the downfall of being a human: pain and suffering. Next, Ty could feel Thanatos assaulting him by a series of jabs to his stomach. Thanks to the power of the monster and his metal concealed hands, Ty spurts some more blood from his mouth while at the same time feeling some of his ribs got cracked. Thanatos gives Ty a headbutt to his forehead, bled Ty some more, before choking his neck and slamming him to the ground.
"You did well, Tyrael. But you need more than that to defeat me" Thanatos picks his Tirfing and heads back to Ty, who could be seem panting for breath. Perhaps to relieve himself of the pain his injuries are giving him.
"Don't push yourself too hard, you might die" Ty raises his sword to behead the gunslinger, who is still on the ground, "But you're going to die, either way. Good bye"
Thanatos talked way too much, it gave Ty the time he needs to recuperate for a bit and throws a grenade right in front of Thanatos' face. The undead monster got attacked by another explosion, which Ty follows by landing a harsh assault to Thanatos' armor using both his Xilphas at the same time. This time, a crack is visible on the undead's pride armor.
"Don't talk too much while you're battling, fool!!! You might die!!!" Making the number even again, Ty happily taunts his opposition, "Guess now your mighty armor isn't so mighty anymore, eh?!"
"You…that does it!!!" Now, Thanatos finally shows his angry side, "I had enough of your blabbing!!! I will kill you just like I killed that old gunsmith!!!"
"Gunsmith?" Ty frowns, but he is soon frowned for another reason when he sees Thanatos summoning dozens of Odium. There are so many the mountain is nearly filled with servant.
"Odiums, kill him!!!" Thanatos orders his servant. Seeing how things are running, perhaps Thanatos is trying to find an opening to end Ty in single blow. Noticing this plan, Ty prepares a last resort behind his gunslinger coat in the form of a grenade belt consists of twelve high powered grenades.
As the Odiums rushes to him, Ty readies himself to end this battle. The monsters don't scare him, despite being bloodied and battered. Maybe he enjoys this. Maybe he enjoys putting his life at the stake; it's his nature as a gunslinger. Or maybe he just wants to get this deed done quickly? Who knows; one thing we know is he's doing a damn good job at it.
Now, the hunters have become the hunted when Ty sets two dozens monsters as his next target. He rushes with full speed towards them, so fast that even the first Odium he hammers with his Xilphas from the group doesn't get the chance to follow his movement. The Odiums can do nothing but trying to grasp his motions with their frail brain. Amidst their confusion, Ty fires all of them using his Ixidor in circle before sneaking inside the group and pummels one of them on its head. He continues his rampage by quickly pulling out his Ecclesia and hits the one on his left before fires the one standing behind him. The Odiums gang up some more and leap to devour Ty, but the gunslinger doesn't feel like giving up.
With another quick movement, Ty takes the nearest six on his front and swipes them away with his Ixidor again, reducing their numbers somewhat effectively. Casting his sight on the first nine on his right, the gunslinger dispatches their attempt to attack him by besting them in terms of speed and appears in front of them. The Odiums stop right away, much to their shock. Ty smashes the one in front of him before shooting the odium behind his previous targets. Deliberately, the remaining monsters attempt to attack him. And that was stupid because it costs them their lives. The gunslinger fires six of them in a successive effort and proceeds to evade the three punch attacks from his front by dodging to the ground. From below, when the three odiums are still in the mid-air, the gunslinger smashes them in one swipe and quickly gazes at the remaining. The remaining charges to his direction and run; however they got bested again by the western graced gunslinger. The next thing they knew is they got bullets lodged inside their head, just like many of their kin before. With a dozen more running for him, Ty prepares to fire his Ecclesia, despite the number of times he got. But he is lucky, because once he commences the attack he blast them all away in one shoot.
The gunslinger sees two other Odiums coming for him and fires them away in turn with Ixidor. Not wanting to waste his time waiting for the hunted, he runs to the rest of the group waiting for him. The odiums decide to take the advantage of them outnumbering him and attack at the same time. Five of them jump to the mid-air to crush the gunslinger but Ty bests all five of them by blasting all five of them away with Ecclesia before spotting another three are jumping in line, so he shoots three times using the quick draw and hits them one by one in turn.
Too bad, Thanatos' plan goes unnoticed it seems. He swipes three odiums who try to attack him from the front using his long railed cannon to knock them away, obviously planning something with the tool he got behind his coat when he realizes Thanatos is nowhere to be seen.
And how right he was, because suddenly a giant black sphere appears from out of nowhere from above Ty and the odiums . Looks like Thanatos has been casting the giant Abyss Crusher while Ty was busy dealing with his goons. "Oh, damn!!! This isn't good!!" Ty ignores the threat from the odiums and quickly covers himself behind his Ecclesia, hoping his Mythrill made weapon would do him a favor and keep him alive. When the Abyss Break explodes into hundreds of spheres and spreads into every direction possible, the entire area is crumbling. Whatever the sphere hits, it destroys. The odiums are the first to feel its wrath. Their body is dissolving once the black sphere violently crushes them before crushing the ground and the mountain. Ty could feel a large pressure from the hit Ecclesia receives, but its Mythrill quality really do him a favor just like he wanted to. The massacre goes for at least a minute before everything stops. Ty casts a quick look to the battlefield, but finds nothing with the exception of piles of Odium dead bodies. "Phew…he failed…" The gunslinger sighs, "But why would he waste so much ener…"
Before Ty could finish his question, he could feel something is impaling his torso through from behind while feeling an incredible pain at the same time. In disbelieve, he slowly turns over his shoulder to see Thanatos Phantom already impaling him with his Tirfing. At least three of the jaw shaped blade thrust him good.
"Why would I waste so much energy? To do this, Tyrael" Thanatos pulls the sword back as Ty succumbs to the ground. His blood could be seen running everywhere around him, "See? Amidst the Abyss Breakers rain, you couldn't feel my presence nor see my movement. And that cost you dearly"
"Yeah…or maybe not…" Much to Thanatos surprise, Ty suddenly raises before warps both Thanatos and his Tirfing up with a long grenades belt he prepared earlier. Before the undead monster could react, Ty pulls one of the pins before hammering Thanatos ten feet away with his Ecclesia; obviously to create a distance between him and his soon to be exploding foe.
DUAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!
The grenades explosion not only blows Thanatos away but also engulfs him in a fiery fire. The pieces of his Tirfing and armor could be seen scattering everywhere. The explosion has successfully destroyed both the violent sword and prized armor. Thanatos doesn't scream, but inside the burning blaze his eyes could be seen widening, because Ty is showing the green pack on his hand. Ty stole it before he could even realize it.
"Surprised?" Ty mirthfully asks, "Your eyes say so"
"You…will….be paying…" Thanatos trembles before collapsing to the ground with fire still roasting him, "…for….this…insult…"
"Told you too much talking while battling could cost you your life, fool…" Ty gallantly replies with the catchphrase he stated earlier. Trying to drink some potions, he rests himself in the ground, "Damn…my wounds hurt…"
But the green pack on his hand somewhat makes up for it, so he stops complaining, "Well…at least I didn't end up losing…I wonder how everyone else is doing…hopefully no one gets killed…"
And the heroes are again, one step closer to the victory.
****
5th Story: The Warlock
"This is impossible…" Beelzephir was still in awe, disbelieving what he just saw with his very own two eyes, "How could you transform into Rune Knight just like that?"
"It's simple, really" Alphard calmly responded, "In the last eight months, I've been undergoing a secret training to improve my skills. And before I realized it, I already achieved this level. I purposely didn't show it to anyone in case I would meet something like this. I've already known from long ago Rune Knight is on the same level as god-like. And I'm glad it works"
"…nice…that was a nice way of planning things, Sir Alphard" Beelzephir felt irritated, but he took this as a challenge, "But don't forget I'm still a god, and I'm way above you!"
Beelzephir appeared right behind Alphard and tried to touch him using his Oppenheim, but Alphard dispatched the attempt by slicing off the white wizard's hand again. Before Beelzephir could even express his surprise, Alphard slashed his face before delivering a direct Sonic Wave at his white clothed foe. Beelzephir, however, only bulged a little from the attack despite having his blood spraying out to the floor. Alphard continued the attack by slicing one of Beelzephir's legs before sending him crashing to the wall using another Sonic Wave.
Quickly regenerating, Beelzephir returned from the wall with his Wizardry Staff ready. He casted ten Jupitel Thunders and launched all of them to Alphard's direction, hoping the speed of light would turn the table for him. Regardless, Alphard executed the wind cutter, creating huge sharp wind moves, to counter the thunders and it was a successful attempt, because the wind exploded the thunder spheres in the mid-air.
Alphard moved again in rapid pace before throwing another slash to Beelzephir, this time having it blocked by the staff the high wizard carried with him. But Beelzephir was again bested because Alphard showed up from his behind and slashed his back, again with the Sonic Wave. Beelzephir gritted his teeth to illustrate his anger and strike back at Alphard, this time combining his Oppenheim with his Staff, making whatever it touches vanished.
Alphard, noticing the energy raising from the staff, dodged the attack by moving himself to the opposite side and slashed Beelzephir's left arm, resulting on him dropping the staff to the floor. And as well as making some parts of the floor voided.
Seyren joined the battle by hitting the ground using his wave power to attack Alphard with its sound. But Alphard, having learnt from their previous encounter, countered it using the Sonic Wave to cancel the wave Seyren sent. Ignoring the regenerating high wizard, Alphard moved to in front the lord knight and slashed his neck to make it even. Seyren responded by throwing a Bash but Alphard easily blocked it, giving Seyren a Bash to knock him off his balance. Casting his attention back to Beelzephir, Alphard saw him already picking his staff back.
Beelzephir created an Oppenheim sphere and threw it to the rune knight, but Alphard strike with another Sonic Wave to cancel the sphere. Noticing Alphard's pattern, Beelzephir prepared himself to welcome Alphard's melee attack. But he guessed wrong.
Alphard attacked using the Wind Cutter, the total number of three, and the technique successfully hit the high wizard, gicing the rune knight a space to close the distance between him and his opponent.
The rune knight continued gaining the upper hand when he unleashed yet another Sonic Wave to Beelzephir's torso, nearly cutting it in half. Alphard finished the first round off as his Tegron glowed fire on its surface. Raising the long sword to the air, Alphard unleashed an Ignition Break which hit the white high wizard violently, blowing everything nearby away as well as Beelzephir himself.
This time, it made Beelzephir flung to the wall before hitting the ground, while being battered and injured. As soon as he hit the ground, he tried his hard to stand despite the Dionysus regenerating him.
"How could this be?! You bested me in every move!" Finally, perhaps for the first time after God only knows how long, the white high wizard showed his anger, "You're just a human!!"
Even Seyren couldn't believe what he was seeing. How easy it was for Alphard to constantly outmaneuver a god. Secretly, he was asking the same question as Beel.
"That's it, you just stated the reason" Alphard tranquilly responded, "You always overlook your enemies because it's been a long time since you faced someone who could move better than you. Thus, your victory so far ever since your revival was one sided"
True, his victory against Fio and El wasn't so fair at all because the two couldn't hurt him. His victory against Fenrir was only because Fenrir's ego. So far, he never sealed a true victory.
"Don't mock me, human!! You couldn't have done it by yourself!!" Beelzephir disputed the argument, "I'm a god!!! A godlike shouldn't been able to even touch me!!"
"Keep yelling that out loud and you will die" Alphard prepared his Tegron to finish the battle, "How naïve of you, wizard"
"Oh…is that so?" Beelzephir smirked, thinking of something inside his mind, "If you're so proud of your movements then I shall show you something good. Behold!!!"
A glimpse of light flashed in the room, forcing both Alphard and Seyren to cover their eyes. After the light ceased to exist, they could see Beelzephir, now in a Warlock uniform, "Shall we begin the second round?"
****
I've been wanting to put Ty on the omake, but I got so little response from the reviewers so please this time I want more responses. I don't know when I will update again. I'll be busy with interviews next month. Either way, c u next chappy!!!