There's still one more chapter of this. When you reach the bottom of this page… there will still be one more chapter of this mayhem. I cannot even begin to tell you how I got so carried away with something so early into the story.
I am going to put myself into the psyche ward once we get to the proper climax of this tale.
Pray for me. I'll pray for you.
These tunnels and back passages were the absolute worst. It was bad enough that there was no room to maneuver, but that pad-suited bastard she was chasing had a knack for launching ambushes.
And even worse, he had some reserve grunts milling about.
Patroka ducked back into a tight alcove formed by a batch of pipes running up the wall. Perdido stepped in front of her, planting a dark tower shield into the floor. A continuous storm of searing beams surged against the black barrier, the Blade holding up his defense with three hands.
"Fucking assholes," the brunette seethed as she worked the heavy slide on her weapon, venting heat from the long, pale frame of her ether cannon. Turning away from the spray of teal tinted steam, Patroka peeked through a small gap between her Blade's shield and the pipeworks she was huddled behind.
A trio of cock-sucking gunmen with their fancy laser blasters were poised at an intersection further down the hall. Two had taken up position around the corners, one of which being that piss eating pistoleer she'd chased down here in the first place. The third was prone on the floor, snapping off shots like he was in a fucking fire drill.
Yeah, he could eat it first.
"Perdido!"
Her tone alone spoke volumes. Perdido could feel his shield getting heavier. On the inside of the tall defense, he watched as the last of twelve scarlet gems formed a half circle along the curved interior. It wouldn't be lethal at this distance, but that was probably what his Driver wanted.
Patroka would rather kill them herself.
The four armed Blade pushed abruptly against the torrent of rays. At the same time, a chaotic burst of crimson erupted from the outward curve of the shield. Perdido held the barrier with all four limbs, the collection of red jewels vanishing into the shield as the scarlet wave flooded the corridor.
The pair of shooters poised at the corners twisted out of sight. The dumb fuck on the floor dropped his gun as he rolled back, drawing up that grey cloak. Silver runes ran alight across the fabric, the garment going rigid.
Perdido's blinding blast didn't even make it half the distance to the small squad. Patroka rotated around her Blade and his shield, hoisting her tubular launcher up onto her shoulder. The lone trooper in the hallway was just readying to lower his cloak, clearly confused by the lack of impact, when the woman in white squeezed the trigger.
A violet pulse shot free of the weapon and streaked down the passage. The punk with the sparkly sheet got a brief eyeful of the incoming ball of plasma before he took it full on. Dumb bastard didn't even get the chance to scream.
The figure who ducked around the right corner reappeared in a flash of motion. Perdido instantly imposed his shield in front of his Driver but the pistol packing parasite just ran across the hallway and took off down the left passage. The last zealot leaned out of that corner, gun up and firing blindly, clearly confused by his comrade dashing off down the passage.
Before the perplexed gunman could puzzle out his next move, the reason for his mate's retreat entered the frame. The last soldier did a double take at the figure approaching from the right corridor, ceasing his suppressive fire as he hurried to swing his rifle around on them.
He wasn't anywhere near fast enough. In a streak of silver, Jin's nodachi rent the air in a shrieking wave. The trooper's weapon clattered to the ground, along with his now very severed hands. The beginnings of a sparking yellow glow rolled over his padded suit, just about to enter his extremities when the white haired swordsman swept his blade in a downward cleave.
Patroka and Perdido started towards the intersection at an even speed as Jin's sword parted the zealot's torso. The messy corpse had hardly fallen to its knees when a volley of dense beams pelted the masked warrior. The first set of shots nailed his upper chest and left shoulder with scorching heat before Jin thrust his open palm forward.
A half dome of hexagons crackled into being, every ray's impact snapping off a burst of ice crystals. Jin's eyes narrowed as he widened his stance, unable to move as he maintained the barrier.
Perdido reached the intersection at a run, mashing his shield into place between their leader and the beam barrage. A trail of steam billowing behind her, Patroka swung tight around the corner, her freshly vented cannon mounted and aimed.
That cowardly fuck darted behind a steel bulkhead, the thick portal slamming shut with a terrific boom and the wheel shaped locking mechanism twisting rapidly.
Patroka made to dash after the prick, ready to use her weapon as a damn battering ram if she had to, when Jin's solid grip fell upon her shoulder. She almost tore right out of it when a dull bang echoed through the passage, Perdido dropping his shield as he caught the brunette's other arm with two hands.
"Leave it Patroka," Jin commanded, flicking the blood off his nodachi with a short twirl. "We'll catch up soon enough, we're all heading to the same destination."
Jin inclined his head towards the ceiling. Perfectly timed, the passage shook, the muffled orchestra of furious combat again sounding from above. Whatever was happening upstairs must have been pure pandemonium.
The brunette clicked her tongue, shrugging off her pale Blade's grasp. "Fine, did you find a way up back the way you ca-"
The floor above collapsed, an avalanche of splintered wood and broken metal charging down the hall from whence Jin came. The Tornan trio sprinted down the hallways towards the sealed bulkhead, the masked man's blade at the ready.
And then the lights blinked out.
Azurda charged through the nearest batch of zealots. Most threw themselves out of the way, their overclocked rigs granting them tremendous agility. Two were still swept up regardless by the sheer size of the draconic catastrophe, battered forms sent sailing off to the sides.
When the old titan reached Rex's group, the powerful behemoth lunged clear over them with a swift flap of his violet wings. Hirkham hopped down from Azurda's back just before the dragon jumped. And halfway through his leap, a dozen plus searing lances railed rapidly against the titan's chest and neck.
Madame Faye stomped forward, her open palm thrust forth as a blizzard of parchment manifested into being. The leaflet storm assailed the beam barrage and disrupted line of sight.
This lasted right up until the titan serpent barreled through the tempest, the insurgents' fire coming to a halt as the armored goliath raced in low before launching itself at Azurda.
A flap of his wings altered the dragon's trajectory. The foe's fangs, aimed for his neck, clamped down on Azurda's foreleg instead. Rex's gramps pitched himself into a roll, not wanting to come crashing down on the other defenders. His unbound front leg caught the armored titan in the chest, driving the back of its skull down into the boardwalk.
Rex, Gorg, and Malos sot towards the reinforcement group. The young salvager dove down as Gramps' wing swept past, an accidental oversight. Malos took the brunt of a tail swipe from the old titan, his tonfa barely raised in time to deflect the blow. That second one may have been more of an "intentional oversight" on Azurda's part.
A dozen zealots drew themselves into a firing line. Lead Lady stood just behind, saber raised as she barked out, "Fire at will!"
Madame Faye's tome flipped pages with violent force, the bookmaster herself driven to one knee with her free arm outstretched. The scattered storm of leaflets reanimated into an obscuring tempest just as the first volley was loosed.
Rex threw himself to his feet, scimitar trailing behind as he charged the invaders at a dead sprint. Malos easily outran the boy, smashing into the enemy lines like a mad ardun. The downward blow he delivered snapped right through one of their fancy rifles.
If the shattered gun's wielder was perturbed by this, they hid it very well. His comrades to either side hopped back as the dark warrior hammered through the trooper's defense. With fluid ease the grunt discarded is ruined weapon, dodging back from Malos' strike. In an instant a short blade was in his hand, its edge flaring the same amber as his rig, flying up to carve through the brunette's chest.
Malos ducked down, raising his weapon towards the soldier on the left. Sever came careening down from above, crushing the ignored knife wielder. The trooper to the left blasted a pair of rounds uselessly into the field of hexagons before Malos' tonfa.
The third insurgent, the one who hopped back to the right, had their long gun poised on the back of the dark brute's head. Sighting through the irons, the holy warrior took no notice of the palm reaching towards his stomach or the miasma of violet malice collecting in it.
Rex slashed through the gunman holding his rifle to Malos' head. The black clad Driver barely contained his surprise, the wrathful ether in his hand quickly dispersing. Sever caught the grunt still shooting at Malos' shield with a powerful tail sweep, knocking the shooter onto his ass.
Lead Lady thrust out her sword, one of her cohorts squeezing off a swift blast with their carbine. Rex drew up Nia's scimitar, deflecting the beam. An attack from the flank slammed into his upper back, a golden mace impacting with a spray of static. Rex staggered, almost falling to his knees.
The mace user hefted his bludgeon, preparing for a follow up strike. A bundle of papers encased his head and raised arm. The zealot stumbled back blindly before Sever rammed into him, the monstrous Blade driving his sword tonfa down in a harsh slash.
Nearby, Malos was in a heated struggle. The trooper his Blade had swept to the floor stood before him, both men gripping his pale rifle as they jockeyed for position. Malos couldn't help but enjoy the contest of strength, specifically how much effort he had to put into it. These lunatics were a fun time, if nothing else.
This was the point that Gorg finally arrived. His left hand holding his greataxe lightly by the shaft, Gorg's right fist was reeled back for a haymaker. Through the leaflet storm, it took a moment to spot the man sized fist of water trailing behind him. The large liquid construct surged forth as the water Blade threw his fist forward.
Malos' opponent took the blow full on, the aquatic wall of knuck-ular destruction launching him across the avenue.
"Step back!"
At Gorg's shout, Malos shimmied behind the advancing water Blade. Gorg turned his momentum into a spin, both hands on his axe's handle. Rex didn't bother to think when he snatched the arm of the insectoid Blade beside him and hauled the both of them to the floor.
Three scorching rays pierced through the obscuring paper veil, hitting the baker-warrior from both sides. The zealots' front line, though ruptured, maintained their battle sense.
At least they did so until Bobobo leapt off his Blade's back. As Gorg sunk down, groaning from the searing impacts, his nopon partner spun through the air, lengthy tendrils of dark nasal hair lashing at the nearby insurgents.
Lead Lady, more than done with the nopon's presence, clashed her sword against one whipping length of hair. Parrying the violent tendril, the blonde woman thrust her saber towards the spinning furball, eight long guns automatically drawing lines through the leaflet typhoon.
They really shouldn't have taken their eyes off of Gorg.
The flowing axe head that surged out of Gorg's weapon was big enough to part the average titan. It followed swiftly behind the swing of the original, moving far too fast for something that large.
It hit two troopers to Gorg's right. They were brutally carved through. The tidal construct soared over a prone Rex and Sever, smashing into another soldier near them. As the swing passed the halfway point, two of the zealots jumped back, a third ducking down and receiving a shallow glance to the scalp for his trouble.
Lead Lady stepped in front of three of her men, her now blazing saber crashing down on the approaching replica. The much smaller blade met its titanic counterpart in an eruption of steam, blasting apart the water duplicate.
Not missing a beat, the zealot commander again slashed through one of Bobobo's nose hairs, the bundle of strands abruptly lit aflame. Again she thrust out her saber, half as many guns now snapping onto the crouched figure of Gorg.
And then a streak of lightning ripped through the area.
The titan snake writhed with all its strength against Azurda's hold. The smaller group of soldiers near the broken chandelier rallied, sighting their carbines on the dragon's flank. Faye drew her spellwork into a tighter weave around Azurda, blood trickling from her nose and a splitting pain building on her brow.
It was unfortunate that the tempest didn't shift fast enough.
Three continuous beams surged towards the brawling titans, two intercepted by the book keeper's literary storm. The third flared into Azurda's throat with a piercing hiss. Barking out in agony, the old dragon instantly lost his leverage.
The plated wyrm hurled is massive tail into the back of Azurda's skull. Dromarch pushed Nia and Kassandra aside as the enemy titan threw out its arms before launching itself into Gramps' chest. The pair of giants went tumbling across the thoroughfare, crashing through any shops lining Feast Street, the titan snake spewing lightning as Azurda wrenched its head away from him.
As the front line of insurgent reinforcements scattered from the electrical blasts, the battered remnants of the chandelier group pressed the attack. Dromarch, crouched before Nia and Kassandra, took two beams to his side and shoulder. The tiger Blade raised his head in a challenging roar, a shockwave of aquatic pressure rippling out of his gaping maw.
Silver sigils glimmered across an advancing zealot's cape. Dromarch's explosive burst slid harmlessly off the veil of fabric as the trooper pressed forward. As she got into range, the fanatic lashed out with her mace, silencing the striped Blade. Dromarch was tossed back by the strike, his attacker's system boiling with hot orange flow.
Kassandra shielded Nia as their fellow Blade's solid frame smashed against her shoulder. The trio were sent reeling, end over end, Dromarch grinding to a halt as the girls crashed into his stomach. Nia couldn't even blink the stars from her eyes before a boot stomped down on her, the holy warrior hefting her mace overhead.
Shots, traditional gunshots, rang out as a pair of rounds banked into her executioner's raised arm and shoulder. Hirkham racked the bolt on his rifle, lined up a third shot, and fired.
The first two hits barely marred the woman's padded armor. The third was a headshot, the zealot dropping like a puppet with her strings cut, bright runes flashing off her cloak. The molten hue of her pipe rig instantly went dark as she plopped against the floor.
A raging howl sounded, drowning out the ever weakening sounds of Faye's tempest. Hirkham glanced sideways, hurling up his bolt action in a guard posture.
Dualsies, his stun rod held high and that cruel dagger drawn tight to his side, plunged the shock stick down. The immense strength flooding his body made swift work of Hirkham's defense, snapping his rifle in half. The dockmaster fell back on one knee, the rod's sparking tip sailing past his face. And then the dual wielding trooper stepped in, stabbing out with his knife.
The leaflet whirlwind dissipated in an instant. Faye spat blood as her arm shot towards the pair, a jetstream of parchment following her gesture. Dualsies' blade never even left his side, papers plastering his hand to his hip in the blink of an eye. Hirkham lashed out, grasping the man's free wrist with his right and reaching his left down to the half of his long gun with the bayonet attached.
He took a knee to the face instead. Faye's paper bindings yanked the zealot sideways, her fellow Argentian falling flat to the floor.
That undignified position saved Hirkham's life. Dualsies was just beginning to pull his arm free when a continuous, thundering crash caused him to turn. He met the rotating mass of shattered wood head on, the better part of an entire vendor's stall careening across the battleground.
Azurda and the siege beast continued to rampage through the adjacent market, cleaving through any structures they didn't uproot entirely. The serpent slammed one of its dense plates into the dragon's head, swerved past a blind flail, then snapped its jaws around the base of Azurda's long neck. Assuring its grip with both claws, the enemy titan spun the old drake in a wide arc.
Chunks of debris large enough to crush a man spilled across Feast Street. One of the fanatics lowered his stance and stepped into an oncoming mass of rubble, drawing up his cloak, the garment and his pipeworks burning their respective colors. The tumbling hazard broke upon the enhanced soldier like water upon stone.
Hirkham wouldn't prove so sturdy if he got hit. None of them would, but being laid out on the ground made the dockmaster especially vulnerable. Dromarch, back on his feet, and Nia, up on his back, were en route to remedy that.
Kassandra stayed with Madame Faye, the Indoline woman bowed over, collecting her breath. Though she kept a palm pressed against the kneeling mage's upper back, the brunette Blade's attention was solely on Nia and Dromarch's rapid advance. She watched with seized breath as tiger and rider strafed and lunged around twisting chunks of debris and stray shots of shimmering heat from the numerous invaders.
The hammer wielder barely got her own defense up in time, the blue aura manifesting between her and a scattered spray of cookware and steel instruments. A blinding streak of lightning sundered the boardwalk just beside them, prompting Kassandra to draw closer to Madame Faye.
It made it all the more shocking when the Indoline witch was simply batted from her grasp. Faye was sent skidding across the floor, a frayed hole bored in her blouse's right shoulder, the skin beneath raw and burned.
"Lady," Kassandra shrieked, not actually knowing Madame Faye's name. She made to rush to the woman's side, but halted when she remembered that the surprise attack had come from somewhere. Her wine colored sight snapped to the side.
A polished hammer swung into the left side of her skull. Kassandra staggered, dazed but not downed. An open palm rammed against her gut, scooting her back a smidge but doing little more than aggravating her diagonal cut from earlier. Then an intense heat built in the hand's center, abruptly exploding outwards.
Kassandra flew over Madame Faye, bouncing once off the wood floor, through a row of chairs, and into a certain – still standing – desserts shop. The book keeper, her tome shut on the ground in front of her, pressed her palm tightly against her seared arm. She glanced up at the rhythmic click-clack of footfalls coming towards her.
Saturn decked her in the face, his prosthetic fist driving her gaze back towards the floorboards. His pristinely pale boot pressed against Faye's injured shoulder, drawing out a mewl of pain. Saturn toppled her to the ground in a stricken heap, an admonishing look on his features as he rapidly tsked at the downed woman.
"I really do hate insolents," he rasped as his natural arm raised his hammer high.
His right arm shot out, synthetic palm open as a blast of condensed heat tore free of the small port in its center. Kassandra had made it two steps into her charge when Saturn's strike nailed her in the gut. She grit her teeth against the impact, but kept on her feet.
A second blast struck her in the collarbone, just to the left of her core's housing. Her arm on that side went limp, so her right shot up instead. Saturn's third beam plowed into her ether barrier, several hexes visibly cracking at the power behind it.
The port centered in Saturn's palm hummed with a high pitch, its depths glowing white hot with charge. Kassandra steadied her stance, but her eyes shifted sideways at a sudden burst of movement. Saturn didn't even blink as he spun in place, his mechanical right arm drawing over his front in a guard position. The energy gathering in his cannon's barrel dispersed, flowing up from its inner workings into a shining collage of glyphs over its wiry surface.
An azure barrier, tall enough to cover Saturn entirely, floated over the fanatic's limb like a centurion's shield. The glob of flame, large enough to consume at least three men, splashed against the madman's defense in a torrent of crackling heat. Saturn couldn't fight back the grin he held as the destructive blast did little more than send him skidding back a meter or two. He was still standing as the violet/red flames burst out behind him.
From his still upright position, Saturn easily strafed into a great lunge to the right. Kassandra threw herself back to the left as the invader's siege beast ground to a halt where the two humanoids were standing seconds before. Its upper left side was smoking, a feature soon mirrored by its exposed belly as another fire blast crashed into it.
The felled serpent shrieked at the overwhelming heat, its rough hide scorched. Azurda wouldn't waste a moment, charging his foe with head bowed, his mighty horn poised for skewering.
Both of the enemy titan's plated arms crossed over its front. Azurda's horn scraped and slid across the curved shells, the drake's head shooting over its target, his body slamming into the snake's crossed arms. The giant rolled, taking Azurda with it, before flinging the old titan into the untouched shops on the opposite side of Feast Street.
For good measure, it sent a stream of lightning trailing after the thrown dragon. Or it would have if not for Dromarch ramming into its side. As the white tiger hunched up, ready to pounce, clear liquid enveloped his form. Crystalline water surged up amongst his bristling fur, spiking into a layer of translucent quills.
Dromarch drove his spiny shoulder into the thick hide of the siege beast. The snake threw back its head in an agonized wail, its lightning breath shooting straight into the underside of the third floor. A shower of charred debris immediately came cascading down.
Saturn stepped back from the downfall of splintered wood and dust, using his energy shield as cover. The sight of Dromarch clawing his way up their writhing titan prompted him to dispel his light barrier. His prosthetic extended, a swift blast knocking the spiked Blade off course. Their serpent caught the airborne feline with one of its arm plates, blasting him up and over Saturn's head.
Trailing his gaze after the flying tiger, the long coated zealot only just caught sight of Rex. As the boy slashed down with his scimitar, Saturn batted the sword aside with the back of his synthetic hand. His left arm darted forth, driving the top of his pickhammer into the young salvager. Rex's free hand blocked the strike, the boy flung back a few meters.
This was all the opening Sever needed, the monstrous Blade trailing swiftly in Rex's wake. Saturn's coat glimmered sapphire as the fanatic ducked and weaved through a short flurry of savage swipes. A lunging slash from the Blade was dodged with a spin, Saturn taking up his weapon with both hands. The spiked end of the bludgeon shone bright with runes as Sever's hexagonal barrier glistened over his back.
The ruinous spike drove into the half dome of ether. Its radiant energy punched into the shield, shattering it into scattered motes of light. The pick careened down into Sever's chitinous back.
Rex's sword swung up into the hammer's shaft. He couldn't overpower the larger man and his boosted strength, but he did throw off his aim. Sever collapsed forward as the curved pick glanced off his shoulder blade with a brief flash of sparks.
Saturn hopped back as Rex cleaved past his belly, manic cackles spilling from his mouth. The salvager ducked as his foe whiffed a palm blast, his rising strike deflected by a quick jab from Saturn's hammer.
"Guess our game gets another round after all," the blue coated man exclaimed, sidestepping another swipe, "But I'm pretty sure you're still losing."
A heat lance glanced off Rex's hip armor. A second shot caught him in the arm before the pair of riflemen were harried off by Malos. The boy in blue barely got his guard up in time to block a swift whack from the pyramid base of Saturn's weapon.
Sharp pain pierced his exposed lower back, followed quickly by a seizing surge of electricity. A ragged howl tore free of his gaping maw, rousing Nia from her efforts healing the downed Hirkham.
The trooper spearing the young man with the shock stick pressed forward, driving the salvager to his knees. A second insurgent approached rapidly, his own staff sparking in anticipation. Saturn's easy grin turned feral as the low buzz of his palm cannon charging grew louder.
His grin became downright savage as Sever lunged at his back. The hammer wielder spun away from the blow, sweeping out with his weapon. Sever bounded forward, seemingly unconcerned with his miss. As Saturn's attack whipped past the base of his tail, the black plated Blade lashed out with its left arm. A tempestial gale roared into existence, plowing into the advancing staff user with hurricane force.
Their comrade flung into the distance, Rex's assailant flinched from the buffeting winds. That was all the lapse needed for the young Driver, twisting his grip on his scimitar and then stabbing back into his foe's stomach. Though it didn't pierce the enemy's armor completely, it drove them back enough for Rex to whirl around with a slash across their legs.
Sever offered the boy no further assistance. Instead he skidded to a stop then abruptly changed direction with a sudden leap. The swift motion threw off Saturn's aim, his palm blast sailing wide as Sever's claws raked down his front.
The rending strike barely jostled the man, his heavy trench coat burning bright with warding glyphs. Saturn tilted his head back as a follow up flash of talons sheared past his jaw. As he backed away, his left arm guarded a third slash at his throat, his radiant sleeve locked in place against the Blade's considerable strength.
Sever snarled into the man's face. Saturn's easy smile remained. Then he slammed his open palm into the creature's chest.
It wasn't an overly powerful hit. There hadn't been enough space between them to achieve the proper wind up. But it pushed the Blade back enough for the now righted titan serpent to belt out another static bolt, battering Sever away in a flood of static and pain.
Saturn loosed a short peel of laughter.
As Rex swept the legs out from under his own foe, Saturn gestured towards the boy with his pickhammer. The siege beast hardly paid his not-handler any concern, doing his bidding regardless as the blue clad Driver was the first target in sight. The young salvager halted as he took in the giant's open maw, thunder rumbling up from its innards.
Nia jumped past the titan's right shoulder, her twin rings tearing a deep gash through the flesh of its lower neck. The wyrm buckled in an instant, thrashing its long neck and heavy limbs in a mad tantrum. Nia rolled past the crushing flurry of blows, tossed into the air from an earth shattering impact landing just behind her.
That was when Azurda re-entered the fray. The horned dragon, looking rather rough from the scuffle, soared through the limited headspace with wings fully unfurled. This was like a magnet for fire from the invaders' many thermal rifles. The barrage of shots only incensed the old titan who dropped onto his behemoth foe, an avalanche of stone skin and dense muscle.
Nia made a b-line for Saturn, her right ring drawn in front of her whilst her left trailed out behind. The long coated zealot gave his bludgeon a twirl as he widened his stance. A tremendous quake rattled the ground as the tussling titans slammed into the floor. Nia bounded forward, her trailing chakram shining teal.
A shimmering beam shot from the flank raced past her face. Nia swung up her left chakram towards Saturn, unleashing a crescent wave. The vertically inclined man, hardly jostled by the titan drop, only had to tilt a little to duck the sailing cleave. Nia pitched forward into a swift roll as a full volley of rays blasted in from the side again.
The Gormotti girl ended her tumble in a crouch. She leaped up and over an almost lazy hammer swing, the weapon's lustrous head skipping over the floorboards. Another round of shots blazed past, one pinging off her ether barrier, before the offending squad of troopers were engaged by a howling Gorg.
Nia spun on Saturn, quickly raising her rings in a cross guard. She caught the shaft of his weapon right beneath the head, the taller man bearing down on her with full force.
"Hey there little monster," the maniac leered into her space, "fancy meeting you here!"
As the cat girl was ready to spit in his face, Saturn levered the butt of his weapon up into Nia's center mass. When the girl crumpled forward, Saturn hooked the hammer's head around the back of her skull and dragged her down. But rather than follow through and drill her gut with his knee, the insurgent commander took a swift step past her.
Saturn's open right palm thrust forward, deflecting a downward swing from Rex's scimitar. His prosthetic's barrel issued a short whine before a blazing lance burst out of his palm. The boy recoiled from the rush of heat spearing past his face, throwing himself back as his foe struck out with his weapon.
Rex backpedaled and the man in the wide brimmed hat fully turned his back on him. This was to intercept a whirlwind of strikes from Nia, hopping back from the first swing and then knocking away the next three. The man abruptly stepped in, sweeping the open flap of his long coat into the Gormotti's face. Then he rammed his bludgeon into her ribs.
The hammer's length ignited with lines of energy, rapidly streaming up to the weapon's head. The angular slab of steel flared white hot, motes of silver sparking off its surface. There was a dull thoom as the space around abruptly darkened before a wall of light and pressure exploded from the blunt head.
Nia went flying several meters. She'd been so stunned by the impact that not even the intervention of two particular strands of nosehair, their coiling lengths catching her mid flight, managed to rouse her. Bobobo was forced into evasive maneuvers as Lead Lady's squad sent a few volleys their way.
Saturn skidded back across the boardwalk, leaning forward for balance. He wasn't immune to his weapon's shockwave but his heavy coat, fabric bright with glyphs and venting plumes of steam, gave convincing arguments to the contrary.
"Hmm… what was the definition of insanity again?"
Rex was in the madman's face with a spinning slash. His foe simply stood upright as the swing whipped past his chest. The boy in blue rotated fully, coming back with a second circular cleave. This time, his blade glimmered with flowing ether.
This time, Saturn stepped into the attack, halting it with the top of his hammer. The aquatic energy gathered within the sword burst against the blow, gushing harmlessly over his wide hat and jacketed shoulder.
"Oh," he chirped, as though having a eureka moment, "that's a pretty apt example. Thank you, boy." That said, the fanatic flung his prosthetic fist into Rex's left cheek.
The salvager dropped low, bouncing off his knees as he rolled across the floor. Saturn approached, his bludgeon arced overhead. But Rex didn't go down, maintaining his momentum to lash out with one more swirling strike. The blow caught Saturn right across the middle, rocking his ribs even as his defensive garb attempted to counter. The torrent that burst free of the Blade weapon did him no favors, knocking the man back into a flailing stumble.
Rex stood. "Third times the charm," he said, a wicked grin in place. Saturn stomped down to end his scrambled backpedaling.
He launched sideways, narrowly avoiding the enormous, stone grey limb smashing down on his former position. The motion made Azurda's stance awkward, enough for the already pinned serpent to gain some leverage over the larger titan. Gramps bellowed, slamming his paw into the siege beast's skull as it raked a lightning blast across his front.
Saturn rolled, the struggling giants crashing into the space behind him. He shot to his feet and skipped forward, gaining further distance, his pickhammer held low to the ground. As the warring titans launched back the way they came, he took grim pleasure as a familiar noise sounded across the battlefield. Lead Lady could be heard shouting orders as a deep, metallic clink-clank pierced the ambient drone of combat.
As such, he really wasn't ready for Bobobo spearing both of his little nub feet into his brow. Saturn bent back at an intense angle, seeming too stunned to react. His nopon attacker likewise adopted a perplexed expression.
"How is your hair so luscious," the bent man wondered.
"How is your hat staying on your head," the bronze furball replied.
Bobobo sprung from Saturn's brow like it was a diving board, front flipping through the air as the invader's hammer swept just past him. The nopon's miraculous nose strands pulled taut behind him, drawing forth their cargo. With a shriek equal parts wrathful and mentally scarred, Nia barreled into the off-kilter Saturn.
The pair struck the ground at a rough tumble. Just behind them, Azurda's head was slammed into the floor, the enemy titan's long tail wrapped around the top of the old drake's neck. As the vicious beast reared up for a second smash, Gorg reacquainted himself with the giant, diving down on its back with a collapsing cleave. Heated lances beat about his sculpted form all throughout the strike, the barrage doing little to dissuade the axe wielding Blade.
Shrieking in wrath, the serpent titan writhed as the broad edge tore into its rough flesh. Azurda wrenched free of its hold, swinging his head around and crashing the curve of his horn in beneath his foe's snapping jaws. At the same time, the winged goliath whipped out his own tail towards the squad of zealots taking pot shots at Gorg. All but one of the small group took the blow in full, the fourth soldier only just hopping away from the bushy tipped appendage.
This fourth man ended up right in Rex's path. He was summarily cut down as the boy sprinted past, his every sense focused on reaching Nia and Saturn. Rex raced straight through a sudden gale, skipping over a pair of tousled invaders sent sailing past him. In the not-so-distance, he could definitely hear that Malos loon laughing his ass off.
Saturn popped to a kneel, sliding back from the momentum. He drove the pointed base of his weapon down into the floorboards, catching one of Nia's chakrams right through the ring. Her arm jolted as it was locked in place.
Big hatted bastard was so busy looking smug he took the slashing wave straight to the mouth, the attack streaking just over the tips of Nia's ears. Saturn's defensive wards could only do so much, lines of blood gushing out from the corners of his lips.
That wasn't enough for Rex, who leaped over the rising cat girl with his sword drawn high. A quick thrust forward diverted Saturn's prosthetic, the metallic hand darting over Rex's right shoulder. The blue suited Driver dove down against the fanatic, his scimitar poised for the man's face.
Saturn scrambled backwards, narrowly dodging a cheek piercing, his bludgeon spun up into a guard stance. His crazed eyes noted a trio of soldiers rushing to his aid with melee weapons drawn. Two were swiftly felled when their own siege beast came careening down on top of them, the struggling snake promptly dragged back by its tail as Azurda "requested" a further audience. The last trooper was engaged, and then shortly dispatched, by the whirling dervish of sharp bits known as Sever.
The zealot commander felt his rage returning.
Nia swung around Rex as the young salvager touched down. Only holding one ring, she swept a glancing blow off Saturn's hammer, sparking off the rune-lit shaft. Her off hand shot forth, a spiraling sphere of water set in her palm, ready to blast outwards.
Lustrous sigils flared over Saturn's jacket. Almost too fast to see, the lanky fanatic leaned to the side, neatly avoiding Nia's hydro jet. The cat girl stumbled just a tad from the sudden miss and sheer display of speed. She turned this into a quick dash, rushing past Saturn's left flank.
But the madman, blue coat still trailing lines of molten silver, wasn't slowing down at all. He rotated in an instant, winding his hammer into a rising sweep at the passing Gormotti.
He just as quickly reversed targets, driving his prosthetic elbow into Rex's descending scimitar. The water blade offered a short spray, cutting slightly into the synthetic limb. Saturn came about, stepping in to ram his kneecap into the boy's face. Instead, the salvager caught the attack with one hand, forced back as he kept the blow from crushing his nose.
Saturn crouched low as Bobobo again tried for a flying drop kick from behind. "Okay," the man raised his right arm towards the salvager, "now I'm becoming agitated." He popped a quick palm blast at Rex, blocked by the flat of his sword. As the boy slid further back, Saturn spun away, avoiding both the nopon's grasping nosehair and a fierce charge from Nia.
The insurgent's mechanical fist snatched up a length of Bobobo's prehensile hair and, charged with inhuman strength, pulled the line taut. Aiming the head of his bludgeon roughly towards the Blade-abomination, he released a brief purge of energy to fend her off. Then he swung the bronze nopon around like a ball and chain.
"Fairest Nia," shouted Bobobo, "Catch me! Catch me!"
"Not a chance," cried the indignant girl, the outburst far closer than Saturn was expecting. His eyes lowered, spotting her sunken profile just as she jabbed into his glowing chest with one of her chakrams. "Wouldn't touch you with a ten meter pole!"
As his assailant's grip loosened and Bobobo was sent flying, Gorg was summarily knocked into frame. But rather than "catch" his furry little Driver, the tanned Blade used his broad back as a breakwall. Bobobo struck the muscle barrier with a dull slap, his round form flattening cartoonishly on impact.
Gorg glanced over his shoulder at the nopon pasted to his back, "And what have we learned today, boss?"
The fro'd nopon extended an accusatory wing towards the fighting Gormotti, "She's a mean one, little grinch."
"Close enough," Gorg grinned, leaping back towards Azurda and the enemy titan.
Nia pressed in, a whirlwind of cycling blows. Saturn skipped back, slapping down two strikes before bounding off to make space. Still speedy, he used that scant bit of room to heft his pickhammer overhead and then straight down on the approaching Blade.
Rex, holding his scimitar by the handle and the back of the blade, charged through the falling hammer's path. Perhaps a moment earlier, his augmented might would have drilled the young Driver down into the floor. But at that very instant, with the two passing so close together, a quick shimmer of golden ether flashed between Rex and Nia.
"Oh," the madman popped, his weapon bounced back by an azure pulse from the sword's curved edge. Rex swiftly followed up with a horizontal slash, catching the front of Saturn's coat as he shot away. The man lifted his right arm, a blast charging in his palm's barrel.
One of Nia's rings sailed through, pinging off the side of the prosthetic. The boy in blue barely had to adjust his approach, Saturn's shot blitzing past his shoulder in a near miss. He didn't even get a chance to defend against the rising scimitar, his bludgeon knocking away Nia's other chakram before it could lodge itself in his forehead.
Saturn's long right leg pitched sloppily into Rex's front. The emergency maneuver only somewhat stymied the Driver's attack, a slashing wave arcing free of the rippling sword. Even through his defenses, Saturn rocked back from the blow.
He was rocked a little more when Nia vaulted over Rex's back, railing his upper torso with a spectacular drop kick. The crashing spray that followed, rushing down her form to burst against his center, was just icing on the cake.
The man pitched over onto his ass, flipping fully end over end and then landing on hands and knees. He looked utterly soaked and miserable, the runes glowing throughout his garb going dull.
But then, shakily at least, Saturn started to chuckle. Nia re-summoned her weapons as Rex sidled up beside her, the pair watching wearily. Their adversary cackled, broken up by coughs, for another few seconds.
"There," he rasped, fixing the pair with cold eyes and an empty grin, "there's that resolve again. To fight. To kill."
Trails of golden light shot to and fro between their bodies. The short space that separated them itself seemed charged, hazily distorted. It was a visible sign of connection, the bond between Driver and Blade.
And it was also a sign that they were at their strongest, united in heart and mind, their intent clear.
'Well,' the kneeling Saturn mused, 'perhaps not quite their strongest…'
"Having second thoughts now?" Nia spat the question as though it insulted her. Rex likewise wasn't entertaining any notions of surrender from this man, his eyes set in a hard line.
Saturn stood slowly, his hat's wide brim masking his features. "Nothing of the sort, just stating an observation. You were… similar, I think. Back then, when you killed him."
The hat's cover raised a bit, revealing a much more smug expression played across the zealot's lips. A voice shouted in the background, Rex thought it sounded like Gorg. He didn't dare take his sight away from Saturn.
Nia scoffed, immediately dismissive. She took brief joy in how that soured the man's features, even if only for a split second. "Really," she started, "I don't even get why you still bother talking."
"What can I say," Saturn shot to full height, startling his opponents, "got a lot on my mind." He tapped his skull for effect.
When the man began to lazily circle them, Rex and Nia were forced to pivot to keep him in sight. His head raised slightly, displaying his eyes. The young salvager noted how they flickered briefly to the side.
"Also… talk can be soo distracting."
"Fire!"
Lead Lady's commanding roar returned with a vengeance. And erupting in its wake was a cataclysm of thunder, fury, and bolts of lead.
Rex had thrown himself on top of Nia. He was still sailing through the air when his right arm got clipped, blood splashing across the floor in a long spray.
I love writing in "Patroka's voice." It's very similar to how I write in Bakugo's voice in some of my Hero Academia works. Just having the narration come out so "unfiltered" is always a small treat for me.
So… one thing I like about having such a massive melee as this one is just having these various conflicts spill into and then build upon one another. Characters are constantly jumping in to help their allies or being blasted across the battlefield by various means. And then taking into account the diverse abilities and such of individual combatants just further adds to the "chaos factor."
I've noticed about a lot of my writing is that I don't like to have just "straight" scenes. By that I mean that I prefer having detail rich environments. Like if I have a scene with two characters engaged in conversation, I like to intersperse individual mannerisms, point out details in the background (such as exchanges between other characters or environmental changes), and other such things. It's why I feel I have this habit of bloating out my scenes, this entire siege sequence serving as my Exhibit A.
There's not much else to say here as we're basically just escalating things from last time. We get a bit more of Dromarch but not enough that I really want to get into his "unique" aspect of water elementalism. That'll come next time.
I hope that Saturn comes across as appropriately strong here. His first appearance has him get bodied pretty quickly so I wanted to show that the man is a formidable combatant once he really hits his stride. He's one of our main antagonists for this arc so he has to be at least somewhat up to snuff.
Alrighty then. In the next update: The defenders come together for one last push against the enemy. And Rex and Nia show just why Saturn and his crew take them so seriously…