CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

DOPPELGANGERS VS CALTA, PART TWO

It was rather easy for Daedalus to tell that Calta was much stronger than he’d been during their first encounter. He and the others had raced toward the fight under the assumption that any single one of them would be more than enough to take down the monster but it’d started to look rather different than they’d expected, with Calta showing himself capable of handling attacks from Dante and Dang, although, in both their defenses, they were still a little rough after the encounter with Arkanis.

Daedalus, on the other hand, hadn’t been part of the fight with Arkanis and that meant all of his systems were running at full power, which poised him as the greatest threat to Calta, which was exactly how he wanted it.

All three of them went at Calta simultaneously. Dang surged forward with his incredible speed, having gotten faster in the past few weeks, and struck Calta in the chest with a powerful blow that staggered him backwards a few steps. Dante attacked from the back, hitting Calta with a blast of intense heat.

Daedalus fired off a quantum cannon from his chest, the blast hitting Calta right in one of his exposed spots, an opening that had been made possible by Dang and Dante’s attacks. The blast caused Calta to produce a roar of agony, and a moment later, the monster came down to one knee, and held one hand over the spot where Daedalus had attacked him.

Dang and Dante sought to attack while Calta looked to have been momentarily weakened but Daedalus knew his supposed moment of weakness to be bait. He yelled out warning to his doppelgangers but it’d been far too late.

Just when they’d charged at him, Calta had spun around with speed to catch Dante with a powerful blow that sent him flying through the air, a trail of flame in his wake. Dang, on the other hand, was on the receiving end of a purple pulse blast, one that blasted him into the ground, leaving a small crater.

Calta grunted, and stomped on Dang’s chest a few times before kicking him with incredible strength, launching him through the air like a football. Dang flipped uncontrollably through the air but managed to regain his balance and come to a sliding stop just next to Daedalus.

He grunted as he stopped and spat blood from his mouth. “Ouch,” he growled.

Dante joined the two of them a moment later, rubbing his head as he landed, having clearly been dazed by the blow from Calta. “Crap, he hits hard.”

“We can hit harder,” Daedalus declared. “But we need to do it together. We can’t just all go at him without strategy. See those revealed areas of his skin? Those are his weak spots, but he tries to cover them. We can expose him by creating openings if we all work together.”

“So, we distract him and let you hit the openings?” Dante asked.

“Yes,” Daedalus nodded. “But if you get any openings of yours, be sure to strike too. He’s dangerous, we need to make sure we take him down, right here, right now.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Dang grinned. “Ready?”

“Ready,” Dante and Daedalus said in unison.

The three doppelgangers exchanged nods and then they all surged forward in unison, colorful, intersecting trails of orange and blue in their wake. Dante materialized a whip made of flame and struck Calta across the face with it.

The monster roared and turned in Dante’s direction, leaving himself open to a flurry of critical blows from Dang, who moved at incredible speed such that the entire thing looked a blur. Calta made to attack Dang but Dante wielded the whip once more, wrapping it around Calta’s right arm in one clever throw, and pulling with all of his strength in order to restrain the towering brute.

A grin formed on Dang’s face and he hastily seized Calta’s other hand, pulling with all of his strength too, gritting his teeth under the strain it was putting on him. Calta was a lot stronger than they’d expected but it didn’t matter. They didn’t need to restrain him for very long, just long enough for Daedalus to take his chance.

Daedalus deactivated his newly-crafted cloaking tool once more, materializing out of nothing right in front of Calta, a grin on his face. He struck forward with a chainsaw, feeling the satisfaction of his blade sinking past Calta’s skin and flesh - soliciting a pained roar from the monster. Calta’s muscles bulged as he threw in even more effort in attempting to break free of the hold the doppelgangers had on him, but the two of them held on still.

Daedalus glowed with energy as he charged himself up, and then vanished in a blur of speed. Trails of blue arced across and around Calta as Daedalus struck at all of the exposed weak points. Each time Daedalus’ blade slashed Calta, the monster bellowed in rage and agony.

Finally, Calta managed to break free. With all of his strength, he yanked at Dante’s flaming whip, pulling the doppelganger toward him and meeting him with a powerful blow that sent him slamming into the ground with enough force to send out a small shockwave. He swung with the hand Dang was holding onto, launching Dang several feet into the air.

Now freed up, he spun to catch Daedalus mid-sprint, swinging a powerful punch. Daedalus slid to a stop and caught Calta’s fist in one hand, the impact sending out yet another shockwave, albeit a larger one this time, putting cracks in nearby buildings and causing whatever vehicles that were still left around them to be flipped through the air.

Calta smirked at Daedalus. “You’ve gotten stronger, cyborg.”

“How did you survive?” Daedalus demanded. “You should be dead.”

“I imagine the same thing that happened to me happened to you,” Calta answered. “The machine you and your little rebellion were building went haywire, displaced me across space and time. You ended up here, I ended up stuck in a void, losing my mind, until, of course, Bellum pulled me out. I’ve been planning my vengeance ever since, looking forward to the moment our paths would cross yet again.”

“My world,” Daedalus said. “What happened to it?”

“Oh, it’s still there, don’t worry about that,” Calta smiled. “But once this world and you doppelganger brats are taken care of, I'm going back there to burn it down to the ground, the entire fucking thing. And the same goes for your little friends who tried to get away. You know what, maybe I’ll keep you alive so you can watch me burn them all.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“You’re going to wish you’d died back then,” Daedalus snarled, his eyes glowing blue as he crashed his knee into Calta’s stomach, using his propellers for added impact. His knee hit Calta with a powerful thud, and then he crashed a powerful fist into the monster’s face, staggering him backward.

He shot at Calta immediately but the monster met him with a powerful punch. Daedalus deflected the blow, generating a small shockwave, and then retaliated with one of his own. Calta deflected the blow.

And so it was that the two of them began to exchange blow after blow, starting out slowly before ascending into a rapid barrage of exchanged blows, each one sending out shockwave after shockwave, causing the air to whip around the both of them and sending dust and debris up into the air around them.

The more the exchange of blows went on, the higher the damage they were doing to the environment seemed to scale, with the ground breaking up beneath them, a crater slowly being formed right where the both of them stood.

Finally, the two of them managed to land critical blows on one another at the exact same time, the impact of both blows causing the both of them to slide backward, feet dragging against the ground, sparks flying off from Daedalus’ feet as a result of the friction.

Daedalus drew a deep breath and wiped sweat off his face, surprised to find that Calta had actually pushed him to this point. He stared at Calta who had a wide grin on his face despite the fact that he had blood trickling down his nose.

“EXHILARATING!” the monster roared. “This is exactly how I hoped our final battle would go! Now what say we end things once and for all!”

“I can work with that,” Daedalus scoffed.

He aimed both hands at Calta, and they glowed simultaneously as he began to charge up a blast. Calta aimed his hands at Daedalus, the both of them glowing purple as he charged up a blast too. The both of them charged up their blasts so intensely that the air around them started to vibrate, dirt particles on the ground slowly started rising into the air.

“QUANTUM BLAST!” Daedalus roared.

“PULSE OF DESTRUCTION!” Calta roared, at the exact same time.

Beams exploded out of their hands, the beams of purple and blue colliding midway and sending out an insane destructive pulse, simultaneously sending out a blinding glow of light.

Daedalus gritted his teeth and dug his feet into the ground to retain some balance, pouring all of his strength into keeping his beam going. Calta did the same, clearly desperately wanting to emerge victorious in this matchup of powers.

Calta’s beam gained on Daedalus’ and he bit down hard on his lips as he attempted to push back, but the strain was far too much for him.

‘COME ON!’ He yelled at himself mentally. ‘YOU CAN BEAT THIS GUY!’

Calta’s beam gained again, and Daedalus felt his arms tremble a little. The realization that he stood a chance of actually being overpowered dawned on him.

He was going to lose.

Calta’s beam gained yet again and Daedalus felt his knees begin to tremble, the left one lowering slightly. But he dug deep, deep into his reserves of strength and continued going. He couldn’t stop. He couldn’t lose.

Not like this. Not to Calta.

He pushed back, straightening to both feet, renewed strength coursing through him, his beam gaining on Calta’s such that they were evenly matched once more. The grin on Calta’s face vanished immediately.

And then it turned into a look of displeasure when a flaming beam joined the equation, with Dante landing right next to Daedalus and firing a beam to aid his doppelganger. Dang landed on Daedalus’ left and unleashed a white beam of energy.

All three of their beams converged, and significantly gained on Calta’s. However, this much destructive power took its toll on the buildings around. The pulses and shockwaves being sent out now were much more destructive and caused a few smaller buildings to begin to crumble.

And yet, clearly outnumbered and disadvantaged, Calta remained standing, all of his muscles bulging now as he poured the last of his strength into putting up his last stand. Daedalus exchanged looks with Dante and Dang. The two of them nodded at him.

He drew in a deep breath, and then he deployed the power fins in his shoulder blades. The fins fired off intensely powerful blasts of their own, and the moment their blasts connected with the ongoing stream, the world exploded with brilliance, a massive force sweeping into the doppelgangers and sending them all flying through the air.

Daedalus felt himself crash into something firm and then drop to the ground, but he couldn’t make out what he’d crashed into or anything else around him for that matter. The explosion had blinded him momentarily and he could tell from the groans that came from around him that the same must have happened to Dante and Dang.

A few seconds played and then his vision started to correct itself. The world came back into view, first as a hazy blur and a distortion of shapes, before reverting to normal. Once his vision returned, Daedalus hurried to his feet, helped his doppelgangers up and then glanced around at the aftermath of their battle.

Most of the buildings around them now had been reduced to ash and rubble, and they’d left a massive crater in the ground; the second crater they’d left in the city so far. In the center of the crater, a huge hole burned into his left side and skin horribly bruised and burnt, was Calta.

At first glance, it looked like Calta might be dead, and Daedalus had been about to let out a sigh of relief. However, he noticed the creature twitch ever so slightly. In response, he stilled, his breath catching in his chest.

Dante and Dang joined him at the edge of the crater, staring down at Calta. “How is he still alive after that?”

“He’s a tough one,” Daedalus responded.

They watched, all three of them, as Calta rose to his feet as though gravity itself were moving. The monster took deep breaths, each breath releasing mist into the air. He stared up at the doppelgangers, eyes glowing.

All three of them clenched their fists, readying for another bout. From Calta’s gaping hole, smoke issued as his regeneration kicked in.

But he was regenerating rather slowly.

The monster took a step forward, stumbled, dropped to one knee and gasped in pain. A moment later, he spat blood from his mouth.

“He’s done,” Daedalus murmured. “I can end it now.”

“What?” Dang queried.

Daedalus deployed his chainsaw sword again, just as he charged up his propellers. Without warning, he exploded forward in a blur of a blue trail, eyes glowing as he shot at Calta.

One more hit ought to do it, it ought to be enough to kill Calta.

“No!” Dang bellowed. “Not like this!”

But Daedalus was paying him no attention. This monster had gone for his world, nearly killed his friends, and he intended to still come good on that. The only way to end all of this was to finish it, right here and now.

He got closer to Calta, raised the sword, ready to take the monster’s head clean off. There could be no regeneration from that.

Calta’s eyes met his just as he prepared to land the attack. The monster smiled.

“So, it ends,” Calta spoke softly, eyes showing acceptance in them. Acceptance of his fate.

Daedalus slashed with the sword. Where there should have been the sound of metal sawing through flesh, there was a clang, one of metal going against metal.

A powerful gust of wind sent dust and debris into the air and when that settled, Dang was standing right in front of him, his elbow right against Daedalus’ sword, teeth gritted, eyes glowing.

“We’re not murderers,” Dang growled. “We don’t kill people who can’t fight anymore.”

“What are you doing?” Daedalus demanded angrily. “Get out of my way!”

Calta snorted. “Morons.”

Daedalus saw Calta’s hand moved, saw him reach for a button just around his waist. His eyes widened.

“No!”

He shoved Dang out of the way and lunged at the monster. But it was too late. Calta hit the button and in an incredible glow of purple, he was gone.

Silence settled like a weight on the air, only interrupted by Daedalus’ heavy breathing. For a minute, he drew deep breaths, attempting to calm his temper. And then he turned to Dang, glowering with seethe.

“What did you—,”

The ground shuddered beneath their feet, causing him to trail off as both he and Dang staggered.

In the distance, they saw dazzling blue flames explode upward, straight into the clouds, the flames brilliant enough that they illuminated everything.

Both their mouths dropped open and simultaneously, they said the same thing.

“Wombat.”