Young was she who was born in a time of strife. There was no beauty, no grace, no lavish life like what she had now after the war. No, to get all of that back, for humanity to once again live, men and women toiled through the bloody ravages of war.
Lapping wounds lashed the people she called mentors, fathers, and mothers. It all weighed heavy on her, and heavier on those she called family and friends. Seeing your fellow man, more so a child, be stricken with grief was a sight never found wanting.
Now, Arielle looked upon the Black Helmeted Visor of a fellow explorer, a fellow survivor, orphan, and wandering soul of the war. Itsuki was his name, but the more apt name she’d give him was a pain in the ass. So strict, so serious, no room for fun or meaningful banter. To her, Itsuki was the amalgamation of what she called a drag.
Yet, she held no inkling of true hatred for him. Though she did of course find him odd, unapproachable and difficult to get along with, her initial impressions from long ago had changed. The time during her academy years, only 5 years ago now, were ingrained deep and she wouldn’t forget what she had found and learned from him, and the academy.
To put the time into a plain and wholly accurate description, the guy beat the hell out of her during her academy years.
Becoming an explorer was grueling work. The constant hyper realistic 3D simulated replays of war and violence, the backbreaking bookwork, and the operational studies of hundreds of different equipment. There were even the smallest details of tactical know-how and military phonetics that to this day still went over her head.
And it was only the bare minimum.
All of this made Arielle and her classmates want to break in their first month. Coupled with Itsuki’s Unique mannerisms to how he goes about exploiting the learning process? It’s a recipe that bears little success. Just who would hire this lunatic? Is he really an explorer? These were her first thoughts of him.
But, and a big But! As Arielle would quote, she understood why he was hired, why the curriculum was beyond the norms of conventional academies.
From that little success, reaps the best of the best. And I’m one of them.
Arielle took pride in that, and had never thought she could. She came from a poor background. Growing up as a kid during the war she understood that it was a dog eat dog world out there. At the time she guessed she was only 4, and at that time, that dark time, was a lot to handle at that tender age.
Supposedly though, those times were of the latter end of the Starfall Calamity War. Conflicts still raged and the dregs of humankind clung to the newly established explorer program, where heroes and legends were made. Hope was born, but was it really?
When the war did end, thankfully, better times were ahead. Arielle looked forward to that, she believed wholeheartedly that, Good times were coming. Those imagined days ahead, full of fluff and warmth.. Were crushed.
Civil war, racism, terrorism, greed, lust, corruption, and deviancy pulled the world down from its already shattered and shipwrecked husk.
The explorers were the ones to pull the world back up. Strength of Body and Will drove humankind back into the light. So Arielle decided to become like them, those people she idolized and were her.. “heroes”.
But that isn’t true. That’s not why she joined.
“I want cash.” She said to the lanky instructor, whose graying hairs and scarred eye told of the battle hardened heart he had. But the man wasn’t the brute he seemed. He looked at the young Arielle with eyes of pity, then concern as his gaze drew to everyone else in the room.
Only seconds earlier was Arielle asked why she chose to become an explorer. It was an icebreaker question to help everyone get to know their fellow classmates. After all, they were all in this together.
But Arielle's response didn’t roll well, and many of her peers looked at her in contempt for the greedy digger she was.
Rat, beggar, leech. She could hear them wordlessly gossiping.
A rare few looked on with understandable sentiments, those were the ones she could tell were like her, who lived during the war. And for the rest of the class, she scrutinized and found they were wholly ignoring the comment, likely lost in thoughts of their own. Self Centered Pieces of Shit.
Arielle wanted to spit the sudden bitter taste in her mouth. She remembered swallowing it down as the instructor sighed while he lumbered over to the next student.
This was a horrible way to start the conversation. When he moved away to get the class back on track, an individual confronted Arielle. Blank black eyes stared up at her.
For a second she thought it was a fellow classmate, a kid who unlocked his abilities early in life. The first notable trait of the kid were his eyes, but his demeanor was overly apparent and strange. His short stature and despondent looks belied any semblance of maturity. The patch on his shoulder got her attention. To her disbelief, this kid was an instructor.
“Why?” The kid asked plainly, his eyes drilling into Arielle. She glared back with adversarial eyes and a pompous edge in her tone.
“Because I need it to live.” She crossed her arms below the bosom of her still growing breasts. They bounced, drawing in gazes with her overtly sexual air. It was a naughty posture to take for a teenager. The less able of her classmates couldn’t help but glance.
Arielle sneered at them in her heart, then returned her attention back to the kid. For a moment, she tempted the unlikely kid instructor to look at her in that way. If he did, then she could slap him with a lawsuit or slap him right then and there. No one would dare to look at her like he did again and she’d set straight who was the apex of the class.
Internally, she bemoaned her method of putting up this front. She very much preferred a fun life, a happy life, but the war hadn’t given her that, and the current world order had gone to shit. Her family, or who remained, all lived together in a single small house.
Using the word poor was apt to describe her situation. In need of money and with the burden of pulling her weight, she came to become an explorer. They made a lot of money. And by a lot, it meant enough to set her and her family for life. So she needed to be strong, and needed to stand tall, above everyone.
Her eyes trained on the kid, watching for anything she could use against him, to get a leg up and impress upon her classmates. The kid smirked and whispered only loud enough that Arielle could hear.
“A good reason and good eyes. You’ll do well, but you’re missing something.”
Arielle blinked. She was startled. What is up with this kid?
“Uh? Excuse me!” Said the other instructor. “Itsuki, if you would, let’s move on?” The man was shaking in his boots for some reason that Arielle and the rest of her classmates had no clue about.
Glancing around, the other instructors in the room had their hands on their head as if they were nursing a headache. Others were making an apparent effort to not look in Arielle’s direction.. No.. not in her direction, the kid, Itsuki’s direction.
“Yeah, we can move on.” Said the Kid. “I’ve seen what I want to see.” He moved away to stand at the side with the other instructors. The class then continued. Arielle got through the hell of the practical training class’s first day and came to understand what that Kid, the instructor, Itsuki, was talking about.
You’ll do well. He said. Did I really? She asked herself.
Out of her class, only less than 10% barely passed the first day of practicals. It involved a mass sparring session between the instructors and the students. For her to put the outcome mildly, it was a slaughter.
Of course she complained and wanted to quit in her endeavor to become an explorer right then and there. But if she did become one, it would be an assured life of luxury with the amount of cash she’d be rolling in, but to go through all that hell again? Over and over? It made the simple life seem like the better option to take, which it was.
That sounded nice. Scratching through each day had its merit, but where was the fun? The happiness? The joy in only knowing you made it to the next day? And what about her family? Would they live long? Hell, they were barely feeding themselves.
So why? Why did she keep coming back everyday? Well, like everyone, they had their reasons, and a particular one was shared amongst her class after that first day. I want to beat them. I want to wipe that smile off that guy's face. God! I wish I could punch him! Fuck you! Itsuki!
Yeah.. violent. Arielle no doubt looked back on her earlier years and believed she was more savage warrior than conniving exploiter, or even aspiring breadwinner. And every time she did look back on those events, she reconciled what she came to understand from those years.
Yes, she wanted money. It meant getting everything she wanted, to secure her place in society, and most important was to secure her family's place in the world. Surviving the war was the first battle she and her family had gotten through.
Now? Living and adapting to the new world after the war?
It was a whole new beast to break in.
With every practical training class, Arielle gained new friends and new outlooks. Most crucial of all was that she unknowingly gained a missing piece to herself.
“Have you found it?” Itsuki had asked her that suddenly around the 3rd year of her time at the academy. She glared at him.
“Found what?” She asked. “What are you even talking about?”
“Hmmm.” Itsuki paused then finally spoke. “Guess you forgot our first conversation, figures.” He shrugged and turned to leave.
“Hey! Wait!” Arielle rushed over to him and grabbed his shoulder, turning him around. “What is up with you?!”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about your face, and that personality of yours.” Arielle accused him. “Are you always a hard ass? And what’s with your ludicrous treatment of me and the students?! Do you get off and enjoy beating us up! You’re too brutal! What’s even the point!?”
Itsuki sighed and brushed her arm off of him. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you all become explorers. End of story.” He made to walk off. Arielle got in front of him, stopping him again.
“I said! Wait! If you're not going to answer my question then explain to me what you meant earlier, what do you mean by, Have I found it.”
“The question is obvious.” Itsuki said and stared up at her again. The height difference between them had grown as Arielle matured. She by now knew how old Itsuki really was and why he was so eternally short.
For all his short stature, that compact frame of his held a presence larger than anyone else in the school, even herself, who drew a lot of attention now due to her well developed and shapely curves. Like she had set out to do in her initial days at the academy, she rose to be the top in her class.
She looked into Itsuki’s pure black eyes. There like two voids of a thousand yard stare, as if he were looking at something only he could see. Was it trauma from the war? Was it his memories of the past? Or were his eyes really like the void?
She stared into them and a memory of her’s came back. A good reason and good eyes. He had said. You’ll do well. He then added at the time and finished with. But you’re missing something.
What was Arielle missing back then? Her mind raced to answer the question as Itsuki’s eyes patiently kept their time on her. The dire situation with her family finances and welfare came to mind. Was that it? She said her answer and a silence hung between them.
Out of nowhere, and amazingly, a new smile showed itself on Itsuki’s lips. It was nothing like Arielle had ever seen, or would ever see again since it was rare for him to be this expressive. She wouldn’t forget the conversation they shared that day.
And the days after seemed brighter and full of.. Odd fun?
From then on, Arielle came to get along with Itsuki in some quirky kind of way.
Funny. She thought, as the idea of that wayward kid instructor who was overly serious in training, hated by everyone for his brash and outlandish methods of teaching, and seemed to never get along with everyone, now had a place in Arielle’s world.
When she looked at him, in those eyes of his, she saw there was a trickle of light, an inkling of a sparkle in those pitch black pearls of his. Conviction was the word she’d put to it and could now see in the others.
Itsuki was right, she had good eyes, and he understood why she had good reasoning for her greedy goals of a wealthy future.
The last two years of the academy went by in a blur, and now, after hundreds of jobs as an explorer, surviving the stardepths, killing creatures no normal human could hope to match, saving men and women like the explorers who fought in the war, Arielle now stood against her past instructor, her friend of an unique circumstance.
And ironically to her, he had become technically a student. Oh the irony. She thought. Time for some payback.
***
Mid morning light filled the air in the sky with warm brush waves of dewy sunshine. Shadowing clouds provided cool shade. The vast spaces of empty air around everyone was calm, but not for long.
I’m going to kill you. Is what Itsuki had just said. It was an unfitting statement to say to a lady on such a fine and lovely early day up here in clouded skies.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I haven’t heard that in a while.” Arielle said. “Been over maybe.. 4 years? Quite a long time since we last got a chance to fight each other. Last time you said you were going to kill me, I thought you really would.”
She smirked, fair red lips puckering up in a grinning smile. “You got serious, but I know that isn’t true. So tell me!” She yelled. “Are you giving this your all, or am I going to have to drag out everything you have.”
“I’d like to see you try.” Said Itsuki. He then addressed a new matter that came to mind. “By the way, what’s Joel’s game? What did he offer you to do this? You’re causing me and the rest a lot of trouble with your support of his antics.”
“Heh.” Arielle almost broke into a fit of laughter. She knew something Itsuki didn’t, it was heartening to feel this superiority over him. She humored him. “Well, let me think. First, we were supposed to change sides in the middle of the optional training exercise today, then we’re supposed to stop the trainees and make the students fail.” A greedy grin knitted itself to her.
“And, the headmaster promised a huge payday and an even bigger bonus for putting a stop to you.”
“Tch!” Itsuki hatefully clicked his tongue and thumbed the trigger guards of both of his guns. “I’m going to have a talk with that guy later.” He mumbled. “Then perhaps I will get a little serious.” The external pack on his back dematerialized in a flicker of light and stored itself away into his suit’s storage rings.
“What? Are you skimping out on using that gear of yours?” Arielle taunted. “I thought you said you’d get serious, come on, show me what you can really do with that bag of tricks of yours!”
“I already am.” Suddenly at Itsuki’s declaration, a static hum rang in Arielle’s ear and in her HUD. Warning Signs and Error messages for the outgoing EM wave jammer she had installed on her wrist band were enforcing an immediate shutdown along with her malware and cyber infiltration tech.
“God damnit!” She hissed. This was a blow to Arielle. Itsuki’s skills in hacking were passable, though it had its unique quirks. He relied on premade programs in comparison to herself who executed sophisticated direct hacks.
As a result of her carelessness in not monitoring or preempting Itsuki's attempt, her immediate situation was turning in her opponents favor. Luckily, Itsuki’s attempt didn’t cut off her offensive capabilities as a mystic type explorer. But it did limit her options of sabotage to weaken her opponents ability to communicate and coordinate. Itsuki’s group consisted entirely of grunt type explorers, trainees of the CAU and CDU specifically.
An easy fight from the UN perspective, and even easier with how they all needed gear to function effectively. Arielle had the advantage.
Her manifested ability took the form of Cyber kinesis. She was able to manipulate technology, fix them, break them, update them, enhance them, hack them, she could do a variety of things with the right situation, software, or hardware at her disposal.
The latter two of the three assets had just been taken off the table for her to use. She didn’t believe Itsuki, or his group of trainees, would allow her to get her equipment’s hacking systems back to working order.
By now, Itsuki was probably already issuing wordless commands and a plan of attack over his own HUD and comms. Arielle thought rapidly through these next couple of seconds. Already her keen eyes saw one from Itsuki’s group finger making its way to the trigger of their gun.
In a quick action, far faster than a blink, Arielle conjured core energy into her hands. In her early years, her Cyber Kinesis had limited options as would all young mystics type explorers be. For Arielle’s school days, her uses of her power had been limited to only small modifications or the minor operations of physical tech.
This had unfortunately landed her with the designation of a Grunt type rather than the Mystic Type she was presently given. That had touched a nerve to her pride and Arielle wanted to give the UN council the middle finger for their ruling. It was unfair, this isn’t right. She had thought, but quickly quit her griping.
She would show the UN Council how wrong they were.
Just as an older trainee aligned the sights of her rifle from the hip, other trainees moved in tandem and quickly followed as one trainee throttled their jetpack to the right.
[Scatter!] Itsuki’s command came like lightning. In a mad dash, trainees flew to the left, right, up, and down. As they darted for the clouds around, a rocketing figure broke through their formation. The spurting of failing jetpacks sounded the defeat of two of the trainees who were clipped by the figure.
As it came into focus in everyone’s HUDs, the figure resembled the shape of a noble bird but was made entirely of static energy. It was as if lightning and digital life had been brought into reality.
[Watch out for that Holo projection Construct.] Itsuki reported over the comms, sending relevant data to everyone in his group. [One hit and it will fry all your gear. Keep your distance and take it down, lead your shots! Understood?!]
The trainees all returned a resounded yes sir over the comms and took to engaging Arielle’s constructs. Many more of her winged constructs emerged from the cloud bed below, likely hidden in preparation.
Itsuki guessed she and the other explorers hired by Headmaster Joel had purposefully made them target him, and they all had ample time to prepare while he didn’t. That annoying man seemed to make it his purpose to stir the proverbial pot that is life.
Reinforcing that fact, Arielle conjured several more constructs to give chase and pincer the trainees. Gotta move. She needed to keep Itsuki at a distance. From experience, she knew of how dangerous he was and how difficult it was to take him down.
As “knowledgeable” the UN said they were in matters of explorer warfare, Andromeda academy, which was tailor made for all things explorer related, was the better source to base her next actions. UN generals would disregard grunt types as a threat, instead treating them more like cannon fodder.
Not Itsuki though. Arielle quickened herself as her eyes scanned him. Already finding herself in a pinch, she weaved and dodged through the air as bullets came in with pinpoint accuracy.
Two bullets pinged off her crop top and short jacket, another 4 ricocheted off her heels, and a sparse few were put to a dead stop at skin level. Her aura of core energy covered and protected the majority of herself. Just how much ammo does he have left in him?
To her knowledge, Itsuki’s endless supply of weapons was key to all of his strategic, defensive, and offensive capabilities. Destroying, or depleting them, would then leave only his meager core energy to supplement his options.
But doing so was a trial. This weird guy seemed to always have storage rings on hand, granting him access to however much he could fit in them. Arielle retreated rapidly towards a pair of dense clouds as Itsuki barked gunfire at her. Having been found out before she could examine and key in on her target’s comms chatter, she needed to further prepare.
With a free hand, she tapped at her black lacquered designer waist belt. It gave a low hum as if it were a machine, which it was, and a genius invention at that. Created by her own hands and her Cyberkinesis, Arielle had fitted everything she wore for whatever means she had in mind.
Sleek Designer Gravitation High Heeled Platform Shoes?
MicroFibrous Titanium Carbon Nervelink Clothes?
Sensory Integrated and Interwoven Shorts and Leggings?
And All of it fitting perfectly to her body and looking stylish at the same time?
image [https://i.postimg.cc/fTBgXwtX/1706081540254.jpg]
Yeah, she made it all and to her taste. As her Tactical Interfaced Wireless Waist belt ran its preset programmed diagnosis of her equipment and manifested attire, she was troubled to find that a number of her vital systems were being probed with malware and spyware.
“Damn he’s good. No wonder the other instructors called him a monster.”
In the next second as she dove into a cloud cover, Arielle’s attire lit up with lines of electricity, purging all intrusive elements from her equipment. As if knowing what was happening, Itsuki noticeably began to scan for her with his own gear, the pings and signals he was emitting were picked up by Arielle.
Shoot! He found me. Looking in her direction, Itsuki made every effort to fly in a direct course at her. This wasn’t going to be easy and keeping him off her was going to be like trying to remove a bad stain.
Fine! You think you can hack me and get away with it?! Arielle began to laugh. Let’s see if you can handle this!
“No more hiding!” She declared. Changing plans, she opted to deplete Itsuki’s weaponry through other means. Being sneaky seemed to have flown the coop. Itsuki was onto her and she could see it, sense it even from the level of core energy he was emitting. It rose a tick in her indicator.
Gathering core energy into her palms to respond in kind, bright electrical energy formed into sleek cards. Spreading them in each hand as she would with two hands of poker, Arielle threw them. In a tiny bursting flash from her fingertips, the sleek cards flew on course at Itsuki.
He pivoted in the air and maneuvered his propulsion pack to propel him into a sudden and violent course correction. Yards behind him, two trainees who were able to follow him thought they were in the clear. Arielle’s attack streaked by, missing them, and they saw she was already being suppressed by Itsuki’s rapidly advancing gunfire.
We have this in the bag. They thought and aimed their guns to support from Itsuki’s rearguard.
But a sudden burst from behind them left one of their jetpacks stalling and plummeting to the ground.
[G12!] The other trainee reached a hand out, his finger touched his friend’s. [Dangit!] He wasn’t fast enough. G12 plummeted away from his fellow trainee until he was caught and subdued by a patrolling group of aerial constructs.
[Why.. Why you!] Enraged, the remaining trainee charged Arielle, forgoing all defense and unleashing all the ammunition he had left. Reloading inbetween grenade shots, the trainee was about to fire another but was halted as a bright burst of light hit him from the side.
He recognized what hit him as he fell. Flying as if they had a mind of their own, the streaking energized shape of a card flew in curving arcs around Itsuki, who had to roll through the air to evade while firing back to abate the projectiles. These were Arielle’s earlier attacks that had seemingly missed them all.
Somehow, it had a homing effect and in the trainee’s short sightedness, he had underestimated his opponent. Cursing one final time, the trainee was downed and his ID tag was removed from Itsuki’s HUD. As it dissipated, he busily fired back from the hip with his twin sub machine guns at his sides. The incoming streaking shimmers of card shaped lights danced around him.
He sent three bursts and dissipated an incoming attack into particles at his 10 o’clock. Then 2 more above him and a repeating patterned grouping of 4 and 5 projectiles from his blindspots went at him from behind and below. To Arielle’s advantage, she continued her onslaught, throwing and throwing hand upon hand of sparking projectiles.
The name she called this attack was The Conjured Cage. And it did as it was intended. Itsuki was stuck, his advance on her halted as long as she kept conjuring more and more of her attacks. The unordinary trajectories of her projectiles had Itsuki on the ropes.
Too many had saturated the air around him and his depleting ammo stores were being wasted as he had to constantly adjust and adjust with every new hand Arielle threw out.
By now, not only was Itsuki being overwhelmed, but unbeknownst to him, tens of them were hidden within the surrounding clouds, some idling in plain view, and others flying around to draw Itsuki’s attention.
Unable to get any closer to Arielle unless he dealt with them first, he reloaded and watched as his storage ring capacity indicator ticked down. He chased and barraged the incoming projectiles.
Needing a better option to hit them all at once, he pulled out two four port rocket launchers.
“Oh shit!” Arielle paled and backed away. “Damn, I thought he used that already!” Her sudden distancing was the right decision. In the next second, 8 rockets fired and then split into 16, then 32, then 64, and then finally 128.
The splitting rockets drew crossing streaks and blasted a clearing in the sky as the shockwave pushed the air outwards. Bereft of any clouds to hide in, Itsuki saw his target.
Meanwhile, Bravo 1 and Alpha 1 flew in concert with their trainees away from Itsuki. Of the original group, 2 had gone with Itsuki and another 2 had been downed, leaving 10 between the group's two leaders.
Taking half, Bravo 1 moved to draw Arielle’s constructs in to give Alpha 1’s group the chance for a better shot. These conjured constructs were faster than the regular puppets, golems, and even hellhounds they had fought so far.
But speed wouldn’t avail the enemy victory. The trainees all thought as one. They bounded through the air on their jet packs to come around and bring down their opponent one at a time. Indicators lit up as beacons and flight points appeared, mapping out strafing maneuvers and attempts to bait the enemy into kill zones.
Chatter streamed in as Alpha 1 kept his sights trained on Bravo 1’s tail.
[Got another! Reloading! Cover me!]
[Got it! Get those grenades out and set them in air burst mode. Do it now!]
[Coming around! G2, pop smoke and change course by 3 degrees, bearing north east. Double time it!]
[Another two coming from the clouds! 6 o’clock!]
Bravo 1 turned mid flight and fired behind her. [1 down! The others coming at you Alpha 1. Disengage!]
[No, I got it!] Training and clicking the lever on his rifle's forward grenade launcher, the shot explosive round found itself burst in front of the soaring bird construct.
[Good shot!] Bravo 1 gave a woop, then snapped back into firing posture. [How many left?]
[2 more ahead.] Alpha 1 reported. [Concentrate fire and pop smoke, we’re out of here.]
Doing as told, the trainees level their rifles as they made to avoid and surround the last two constructs. With how no additional forces were attempting to interfere with them, Alpha 1 had deduced that Arielle’s focus was slipping.
Controlling constructs could be done through a variety of means. The apparent increasing simplification of the enemies movements told Alpha 1 that Arielle moved them remotely, possibly through some medium or tool. Either way it was a plus for them.
Itsuki must have done something on his end, so getting back and keeping the pressure on the opposing explorer was vital for victory. As the last two constructs sparked and bursted into popping particles of light, Group Gamma’s trainees formed up.
The nav indicator told everyone that Itsuki’s location was 1 kilometer due south from the original location of contact. The battle was drifting into enemy air space. Not a good sign.
On approach, signals from below caught everyone's attention. A war was being waged on the ground. Columns of constructs cut over the land in large swaths that look like patches of marching ants.
Artillery booms echoed high. They saw smaller groups, battlegroups, moving into a position, holding the line as other aerial groups like theirs worked away at obliterating the enemy from a point of superior position.
[Stop Gawking!] Alpha 1 snapped. [Let’s go!]
He shot ahead with his jets roaring and the rest followed. On approach, Itsuki’s nav indicator disappeared and they were in time to support him. Though not through suppressive fire on the enemy.
As they got close, they watched as Itsuki had locked himself into close quarters combat with Arielle. Arielle’s twin blonde locks swayed in the air as Itsuki’s fist glanced her cheek. Itsuki made to pull his pistol out with his other hand and fire a point blank armor piercing 50 cal into her stomach.
His hand faltered as a head butt from Arielle sent stars into his eyes. It flung Itsuki’s helmeted head back but he didn’t grunt, or seem to feel any pain for that matter. A flying knee from him caught Arielle doubling over as it made a hard thump straight to her stomach.
She grimaced, wrenching herself away and then rapidly spun in the air to kick Itsuki back in the gut. Close combat wasn’t her forte, but she knew how to tussle, even if it didn’t fit the M.O. of mystic type explorers.
Her gravitation high platform heels delivered a hit unlike any other. It compressed gravity around the point of her heel, delivering a piercing strike. Itsuki’s armor strained to repel the momentous attack.
Itsuki gave way, tilting himself back to fly into Group Gamma, who caught him. That hit could’ve knocked him out if not for the thickness of his DICTATA augment suit. Alpha 1 returned fire to ward Arielle away.
She ducked and dodged her way into a set of clouds that obscured her.
“You can’t keep this up, Itsuki.” Arielle’s voice sounded all around as if it were an echo of the sky. “I know you’re only ignoring the pain. Get serious, come on! You’re a student now, so show your stuff!”
For her taunts, all Arielle got was silence. Itsuki gave Group Gamma a thumbs up and gestured a few commands with hand signs.
They obeyed and took up a spherical formation with surveying lines of fire in a 3 dimensional three hundred and sixty view around them. Spaced equally apart by a couple meters, Group Gamma surrounded Itsuki who floated at the center of the spherical formation.
Operating his HUD, he changed over his equipment to the external pack extension of his augment suit.
Missile pods lids hissed opened and chainguns revved as the targeting sights lit up with boxed reticles. He broadcasted his comms on all channels, knowing full well who would be listening in.
[I’m always serious, Arielle. But I don’t use my best since it’s costly. If I do, you’d be dead for sure and I’d be in the red. It’s better you let me win, or I’ll have to flush you out. Make this easy on yourself and I can save you from a world of hurt.]
No response.
[Hard way it is!] He said flatly. [Initiate Semper Fi!]
Group Gamma’s trainees flicked the front lever on their rifles' mounted grenade launchers. A number of pops then produced a torrent of growing clouds as white and gray colored smoke filled the surrounding air.
The artificial clouds spread rapidly and Arielle noticed the sensitivity of her clothes’s inlaid sensors decreasing. Soon she lost all technical and statistical analysis from her friend slash foe program. She was going blind and so were her opponents.
In response, Arielle’s blue eyes changed to green as her Multipurpose Tactical Eye Contacts activated and were modified by her Cyber Kinesis. If Itsuki had hoped that a smokescreen would hide him away from her and keep her from trapping him again, then he was dead wrong.
All she needed to do was adjust her equipment and.. Bang, like magic, she had infrared.
Too bad. Arielle smirked. Guess I’m the only one who can see now. I will find you Itsuki~. And I will come for you!. But I’ll enjoy it, having as much fun as I want. Heh heh heh.
A sultry smile formed as her pearly white teeth bared a gleeful exuberance. Strands of her long twin tails began to glow an iridescent rainbow of colors. Energy stirred inside of her. If Itsuki wasn’t going to get serious, then she’d make him.
If she did, Joel promised a hefty reward.