Chad ripped his axe backwards and an arc of crimson blood sprayed through the air, captured in the rays of the sun and glinting over the battlefield. Jen stumbled backwards, reaching a hand up towards her chest, her face growing pale, before her legs buckled beneath her and she fell to one knee. Chad prepared for another swing, but was interrupted as Ty darted in and stabbed one of his daggers deep into Chad’s side. The larger man growled and swung back with his other axe, but Ty flickered through the blow and appeared at Jen’s side.

I switched back to battle comms and called out. “Get her to Marlene, now!” Ty nodded in response and grabbed a hold of Jen, before flickering away with her, into the base.

Shots rang down from above, from the array of ranged defenders still on the wall. Chad’s axes blurred as he deflected each incoming blow, but was pushed back inch by inch. He growled out towards his onlooking followers. “Get in there you cowards! They can’t fight all of us!”

A bronze javelin flung down through the air, weaving around Chad’s defenses and lodging firmly through his thigh. He cried out in pain and pulled back one axe, his attention clearly focused on the wall. A bullet from Artemis carved a ragged path along Chad’s neck, spewing a spray of molten blood that cooled into an armored layer of obsidian over the wound. A pair of shots from the Big Irons thudded into Chad’s chest, but flattened against his toughened body.

Then Chad flung forward with the axe and a crescent of fiery energy shot forth, smashing into the wall, first crunching it inwards, then pushing further, causing the entire thing to begin collapsing. Mud flowed up and surrounded the defenders still there, allowing them to slide down on the safe side, but now it was just me and Chad on the outside.

I hadn’t had the time to even feel anything, let alone think anything more coherent than the plans that we had set into motion before the battle had even begun. Now, it was back to another duel, the sort of situation that we had wanted to avoid in the first place, all I could do was hope that my new tools would do what was necessary.

While Chad was in recovery from his ranged attack, I poured all of the energy from my power core into my autorifles, which greatly increased both their rate of fire and the force of the bullets. I also made sure to switch out to ice bullets, wanting to counter Chad’s natural attunement as much as possible. Indeed, he flinched under the rapid fire of the bullets, further still as the wall mounted autorifles joined in, targeting Chad exclusively and leaving him dealing with a volume of fire that he couldn’t fully block.

So he didn’t bother blocking. The bullets from the fully automated autorifles simply bounced off of him, though I didn’t let that dissuade their rate of fire, each of those impacts, no matter how small, would in theory add up by draining the energy of his defenses. My personal autorifles at least briefly dimpled his skin before the bullets fell to the ground, seemingly no more powerful than an airsoft pellet despite the constant cracks of breaking the speed barrier.

I connected my thoughts with the [Manual Condenser] attached to the frame, just above the power core, and set it whirring to life, the drill-like device serving much the same effect as an ergonic condenser, but only viable for relatively short busts and funneling that energy directly into the core. It would take some time for its build up to full functioning though, and Chad had already recovered from the new stream of attacks coming his direction.

His legs flexed into the ground and then he lept at me, tearing the earth as he took flight, his twin axes aimed for my helmet. I quickly switched the ammo of my [Flechette Shotgun] and free aimed at Chad. Thankfully, the Wyrd canister did its work and angled its position just right for it to open with the ideal dispersal distance, slamming that swarm of ice spikes dead center into Chad’s chest. The impact stole his forward momentum as the ice attunement sunk into his erg.

With my erg sight, I could see a layer of his energy slough away from the hit, and I fired another canister the moment that Chad hit the ground. His reaction speed was intense, though, as he flung his axe that very instant, carving through the canister. The axe continued forward and smashed into my shotgun. The force behind the impact shredded the plating over that part of my arm and tore my shotgun in half. My bone wrenched under the force and my arm fell limp to my side.

The pain felt like it was happening to someone else. The wash of adrenaline in my blood kept everything distant, made it seem like this entire fight wasn’t entirely real, that it was just some game that I was playing, a Great Game perhaps. Blood dripped down from the wreckage of my arm, pooling on the earth beneath it.

[Health 73%]

I kept the display in the upper right hand corner of my sight, keeping that detail as just a number rather than anything with real weight behind it. I couldn’t think about it, couldn’t allow my mind to fully process everything I was doing, and everything that was being done to me. If I faltered for even a moment, I would be lost.

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My continually ramping [Manual Condenser] continued to pour more energy into my autorifles, increasing their rate of fire with every moment. Chad was building up another long range strike, but I could see the impact of each bullet, chipping away at that erg that surrounded him. That was my only goal now, to see that aura reduced to nothing. He released that crescent of energy and it slammed into the set of mechanical arms attached to my left shoulder. I spun to the side from the impact, a moment before the arms snapped, sending three of my autorifles to the ground, deactivating them as they were cut away.

Even the sound of half of my weaponry clattering to the ground failed to resonate in the core of me. All that was here was the progress before me, and all that Chad had done in cutting away half of my autorifles was allow me to pour twice as much energy into the remaining three. As he began charging up another ranged attack, I knew that I should try to dodge or block or otherwise prevent him from taking the remaining autorifles, but I simply couldn’t find the urgency to move in me.

The other three autorifles fell just as easily as the first three and I stared down Chad as he charged towards me. I poured a bit more erg to deploy my anti-Chad drill, ice all the way through, save for the internals which were made of steam metal, giving it additional power. He arrived just at the moment as the drill appeared, seeming not to notice until I stepped in and buried the bit into his chest. All of the excess energy from my core and my condenser went directly into the drill and I pressed further forward.

I didn’t realize that I was yelling until the sound echoed in my skull, so lost was I in the dissociation brought by the highs of cortisol and adrenaline, reacting with my own damaged psyche. I hated this, I hated fighting, I hated killing, I hated that I was in this situation, I hated the system that made this possible, I hated Chad for giving in to his fears and his anger and his own moral weakness, I hated Chad, I hated that I had to kill Chad. I hated me for putting myself in this situation.

The bit whirred as it churned erg. Chad bellowed as he pushed his erg back. He was stronger than me, but my tools combined with my skills were just enough to create an equilibrium with his skills alone, so it came down to erg expenditure. He increased his. I increased mine in response, pulling on my internal supplies. His defenses were pulled into the spiral of my drill, like the event horizon of a black hole. I flared my muscle fiber and added more strength. He held his axe, mid-swing, unable to move forward, frozen at that moment of impact.

[Erg 8/25]

I was burning through his erg faster than I was burning through mine, but he had more storage than I did, vastly more, and I felt the decline building in my limbs, the power faded from me, even as I continued to pour more in, trying to empty my entire circuits into him, to stop him at long last.

[Erg 5/25]

Finally, his words began to press in through my haze. “Gonna fuck gonna murder gonna crush you piece of shit gonna gonna god why does it hurt so much you weak!” They probably wouldn’t have made any more sense if I was more cognizant of my thought process, but the intent was clear. His axe drew closer to me, just a barest fraction of an inch.

[Erg 1/25]

My energy was gone, I was on my last dregs, but I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t stop. I poured out the last contents of my veins and pushed harder. A burning, ripping sensation cut through my body and I screamed my throat bloody, but I kept pushing.

WARNING

EXPENDING PERMANENT STORAGE

the last the last, oh god why am i doing this, why must this be done, feed the hungry, feed the world, bleed me, bleed every last inch of me, make the world bleed for the sins it has done, make me bleed, make me the holy one here in this final moment, please, please, let me, let me i have to do it, no one else can

it is for the children

The veins themselves collapsed under the weight of the pushing, and they were threaded out through my drill. Chad’s eyes went wide and he attempted to pull back, but it was too late, he was as caught in this brutal moment as I was. My health plummeted and I laughed, bitter and manic, as the last bits flew from me. The condenser suddenly snapped, bursting in my back, digging shards of metal into me. I wavered and Chad finally stepped back, staring at me, paled, shaking.

[Health 03%]

I fell to a knee, then lower, unable to keep my body upright. I coughed and blood filled my helmet. Chad strode in, gripping his axe with both hands, then swung it down at my head empowered by every last drop of erg he possessed. In that last moment, I tilted my head up to look at him, to look in his eyes as he brought this game to a final end, to grant me the peace that I had longed for in those darker days.

Some voice fluttered in my heart, something distant, something that I had never really listened to before, but a voice that spoke with thunder. I knew then, as I watched that achingly slow progress of my death coming towards me, that I wanted to live. That despite it all, I really wanted to live. I laughed.

A bullet collided with the side of Chad’s axe, causing him to stumble to the side, the blow going awry. Then two more bullets sang through the air, warbling and shifting. They caved in Chad’s skull with an explosion of blood that splattered over me. Shouts from familiar and friendly voices echoed in my ears, but the words were mush.

[Health 01%]

[Erg 0/5]

Everything resolved to a grey haze, before drifting into a comforting dark.