The monk's battered body only got worse; with the sacrifice of his eye, he tried to ensure the death of the Blight warrior, but it feels like he failed. He could not help but be sad at the sacrifice the lightning mage had to make so he could achieve his laser spell, and he wasn't strong enough to finish the job.
After finishing the attack, the monk kept walking slowly forward. His training before becoming part of Karma demanded the loss of sense and of self. With his imagination, he recreated all the park in his mind, the changes happening in real time he heard and felt, and tried to change what he imagined. The chance of error increased the more distant it was from him.
He could barely recreate what the other group and the other fighter were doing now, not only because it was far and chaotic but also because what was near him was more important. She lives, Icaro too…the same could be said of the blight warrior. It truly failed, I failed.
I can't help them, not in this state; I'm ashamed. What I can do is try to put an end to this fighter. The monk remembered the teachings he received when he was younger, the teachings of one of his masters: "To be quiet is to be undetectable, like the silent sloths of Bardash. How many hunters didn't go there and kill them to his heart content, only to finally find their strong claws cutting his neck? Sometimes sacrifices are needed for retribution to find its mark. When you can't find a solution that can save anyone, kill yourself in your mind and fight like a dead man, but keep your objective clear. Nothing is more dreadful and undetectable than a killer who doesn't believe himself capable of killing; if not even you believe in it, how would your enemies?"
The monk laughed in his mind. Master, why did you teach me that if you keep talking about peace? You are such a bad teacher, but I'm a worse student. He downed and slowly crawled like a snake, trying to find solace in the fangs of a tiger—the release of death. He heard as the blight warrior dashed and decapitated Icaro, his head plopping into the ground. The monk continued silently, both in body and in heart.
More and more, the distance was reduced; he was near his end. He heard the sword penetrating into the woman's head and her life ceasing. But more than that, he heard a wounded heart pumping blood, eager for battle. It was time to calm this heart, so he hugged it.
The monk hugged the blight squad warrior from behind, like a mother embracing her child. As any kid, the warrior was surprised, struggling against it. But who could refuse unconditional love? The monk glowed red, and a projection of himself showed where his body was, mimicking him. The same started to happen to the Blight Squad warrior.
"STOP THIS HERETIC, WHAT ARE YOU DOING???", the blight warrior kept struggling, trying to cast spells both from himself and his armor, but it was futile. Soon a transparent projection of the Blight Squad warrior showed up; both projections hugged even more deeply than their bodies, and both of them felt a connection to a great force beyond.
"Peace through death; growth through rebirth. You fought well, John", the projection and the body of the monk said melodically. Both of their projections started to disintegrate, becoming part of the flux. Their connection to the great power deepened. Now they are part of it, part of Karma; that is what the monk wished in his fading heart, but reality could be cruel and unpredictable.
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All that Roberion could think, as far as he could, while still trying to direct his euphoric mind, was to destroy that vial. What a coincidence; he already has the tool for that well in hand. The [Cursed bubble?] enchantment was already charged, the maroon bubble eager to leave one of the grotesque mouths of the [Jubilant Choir], and the crazed Roberion was happy to oblige.
Roberion swinged as fast as he could, taking advantage of the short distance he had from the Blight Squad warrior. The maroon bubble emerges from the mouth of the grotesque club, the maroon ball shining weirdly and going fast at his head.
The warrior looks at the bubble, but his body gets mixed between the actions of drinking the vial and evading the surprise attack. He chose to avoid the attack. His head evaded the attack completely, but his hand with the vial got hit head on, the vines surging trying to find purchase on the power armor arms.
Most of the broken fragments of the vial drop on the floor, as do some of the contents it contained as well. Yet, most of the substance found its way to the vines that absorbed it; it didn't see much of a change for a few seconds until it's color modified. The golden color of the vines, which always had an aspect of sacred light, started to darken, like the color of a dying plant.
The dark aspect of the vine didn't weaken it; on the contrary, it got only stronger, and in seconds, its grip warped the power armor, the Blight Warrior letting out a painful grunt.
Not all things looked hopeful, though. If Roberion could, he would yell at the stupid orc that kept a frozen face, only looking at the fight. The crystal golem was long gone, but it did its job admirably; the machine gun was no more.
The only help he is getting is from Xenn, who was already rushing into the fight, doing a body slam on the warrior as he tried to take out his standard gun, the weapon leaving the holster. Roberion could see that it was a semi-automatic pistol.
The warrior shoots two times at the beetleman's torso, his dark green blood leaving his body; however, the bullets weren't strong enough to fly out from his body into the other side, even on point blank range. Xenn does his best to seize the hand of the armored warrior; the next three shoots hit the floor, then two hit his foot. After more than six shots on the floor, only the sound of the trigger could be heard.
That is the only sound everyone could hear aside from the vines warping the power armor's arm. Roberion used all this distraction to get to the back of the Blight warrior, lifting his club high and smashing into him. Xenn kept wrestling the fighter to the ground so Roberion could finish him.
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As the grotesque club neared the head of the blight warrior, he finally talked.
"YOU THINK A DEFECTIVE PRODUCT LIKE YOU DESERVES TO LIVE?", the dome surged around the blight warrior again; the only source of the mana could be the fighter's own reserves. The dome tried to push Xenn out, yet the beetleman kept his grip strong, even as the dome started to eat his exoskeleton away. [Jubilant Choir] shocked against the dome, not enough to destroy it but giving pressure.
Roberion's euphoric mind wanted to keep bashing the dome until it broke, and the wisps of Roberion consciousness were happy to concede. Each slam weakened the dome, not only because of its weakened state but also because of Roberion's increased strength.
Even as his strength started to diminish slowly, he kept attacking the dome, targeting the warrior behind. Most of it was a consequence of his loss of blood since the start of the confrontation; consequently, some of the drugs were evacuated from his system, reducing his power.
It took minutes of continuous slamming until the dome gave out; the vines had already destroyed the arm and were moving to his torso. The plant shooned with a dark luster, entirely rigid, like an anaconda that compressed its prey; the left arm of the warrior was no more.
Xenn, sadly, was barely alive. The dome ate most of the exoskeleton; beneath it, his green flesh was exposed. The creature had somewhat kept his eyes, which now looked dazzed just at the upper left of Robberion.
The crazed null didn't have time to look at what got the attention of the Farmungus being. The blight warrior kept spouting nonsense, and Roberion kept bashing it. The masculine face wish chiseled chin glared with wrathful eyes, cursing Roberion and Xenn, but as the club kept slamming, the wrath gave way to fear.
Soon his eyes gave way to blood and vicous liquid, which soon gave way to flesh, all finishing with fractured bone and brain. Roberion only stopped when he slammed the grotesque club on his brain some more times, giving a nauseous sound each time the brain was pounded. He only stopped caving the warrior's head in thanks to his consciousness, which wanted to get a better look at the blight warrior if he didn't have some sort of last ace.
Roberion stopped to look at what was left of the warrior's head until he heard the sound of something crossing the air and a shadow covering him. All he could hear was something penetrating flesh. Just ahead of him, Xenn dashed to guard him, and dark green blood fell on the floor like a broken bucket.
He did that because of what he told me, didn't he? Or just because he is dying? I can't comprehend—the counciouness flickered the euphoric Roberion taking place, this time for the better.
Roberion jumped out, ignoring the Farmungus dying on the floor, trying to find the direction the attack could have come from; coincidentally, it was the same direction Xenn was looking at before: where the Orc is. Roberion held the club high, and the orc tried to get back up, but the accumulated wounds of the green humanoid were too much; he had difficulty moving, especially while trying to hold the great sword with only one hand.
Roberion's counciouness didn't try to control the situation, just letting his body bash the orc out to its heart content. The orc looked a mix of wrathful and pleading; it didn't matter; another head would be crushed soon. The green humanoid didn't endure as long as the Blight warrior; without a dome and with only a single arm to protect his head, it was impossible to stop Roberion. Not without magic, and by the looks of it, either the orc had no mana or he couldn't cast the spell to control the sword again.
A dozen seconds later, and the result presented itself: another brutalized head. Roberion felt the euphoria diminishing, but something a little less uncontrollable but much more insidious took place. He felt a desire to consume the drug again, not only from his mind but also from his body. When the fiznaults told him about the dangers of drugs, he didn't know it would be like this. The only explanation Roberion could think of is that the parasite, which increased his perception and control of his body, also increased the effects of chemical dependency as a consequence.
Roberion tries to control the creeping need for the drug. He remembered, like a mantra, that he couldn't use something that didn't exist in this place. He tried to search the corpse of the Blight warrior for something useful, but taking his broken power armor out seemed impossible, so he only kept his remaining weapons. He tried the orc's corpse next and found nothing.
Taking only a quick glance at Xenn, Roberion gazed at the other group battle, where he could only find bodies in the distance. "Wait, honor…bound", Roberion spun, only to see that Xenn was still alive, barely, but still living.
"What do you want?", Roberion tried to control his mood, "Thanks. Sorry, I'm not in a good mood", Roberion tried to reign his mind; the euphoric feeling gave way to anger and frailty.
"Finish, me, bring—body, to, space", with each word, some of the dark green blood spilled from his mouth.
"And do what?"
"Shoot, stars, becoming, one, with, space", Xenn face took on happy features, his gaze misting, like he was looking at the stars he said before.
"So throw you into space?"
Xenn nodded, "Yes, finish, honor…", Roberion couldn't understand what he said any more; he could only hear the vibration; the translating device is probably broken.
Roberion nodded and raised his club, but thought better of it. The creature saved his life; the only thing he could give him was a quick death. He took the sword of the warrior; he didn't feel any enchantment, but from the damage it caused before, it would do the job.
Roberion took his weapon and perfurated from the top of Xenn's head; the exoskeleton, all fragmented, gave way to the sword easily, reaching deep into the farmungus neurosystem. Roberion removed the sword and waited a couple seconds. After making sure that the Xenn was dead, he tried to put him in his pack.
It was hard. Although the Farmungus lost most of his body, especially his exoskeleton, the creature remained big. After some work, Xenn was finally in his bag. It seemed a little macabre, but Roberion didn't have time or will to think about that.
Reaching the other group, only corpses waited for him, or so he thought. He could see the chest raising and falling of The Gentlemen. He had no guarantees that the creature wouldn't attack him, so Roberion thought better of it and took space from the beast.
Another weirder thing happened: the Blight Squad warrior seemed to die in the embrace of the monk. Curious.
Roberion ignored the scene, only taking the rifle, another sword, and another semi-automatic pistol. He only took a quick glance at the headless corpse of Icaro and the burned body of the lightning mage. Roberion did a quick nod at them and said, "Thanks for your work, we both know we would have to kill each other, but I thank you the same", and left as fast as he could. There is a chance what I saw before all this hell broke is a safehouse. I need time to think, to try to take hold of my body, and obviously to protect myself from The Gentlemen. Then I will see how the situation is and how to win this thing once and for all.