Celeste landed back down on the arena once more, panting harder than earlier. She coughed up blood, purely from pushing herself so much against Atlas.

"Just how much... damage can you... take...?" she grumbled, spitting on the ground and wiping her mouth. "Hurry, everyone... I can't... do this for much longer..."

The stone giant let out a growl that shook the area, staring down at her with that familiar emerald hue. It's clear that these two were going all out, despite their injuries. Cracks and cuts, bruises and gashes— they were both on the ropes. Nonetheless, they charged forward once again, clashing their fists with all their might, making a shockwave that shook everything once more.

Back to the nosebleeds, Terra and Fren stood side by side, staring down Basilis with a calm aggro. Basilis on the other hand, looked back at them with a nonchalant attitude, keeping his hands clenched by his sides, and his eyes darting over to look at his weapon, then back at the Plague Doctors over and over again. He knew his objective in this battle, and so did they.

They were silent... until the deafening roar of the colossus acted as though a signal to start their battle, Basilis immediately running over to his gunblade and lunging forward, before spinning on his heel and blocking the duo's combined attack, causing him to stagger back.

"Rrgh... Dammit!!" he grunted out, rushing towards Terra and Fren, clashing fists with them.

As if like a dance, their style was apparent as they collided blows. Kicks, jabs, hooks, dodging, blocking— they went on and on. In the distance however, a familiar Afflicted man got up with a wheeze, limping his way over to the Afflicted controlling Atlas, and picking them up, evacuating from the area as fast he can while in so much pain.

A grin peered from Basilis' face, catching both of the Plague Doctors' fists and pulling them together, making them collide their heads roughly.

"Ack—!!" Terra grunted out, blood going down his eye from a popped vessel on his forehead. Fren on the other hand, stumbled slightly from the impact, causing him to catch himself from falling just barely by keeping his feet shoulder width apart. By the time they could look back up to prepare to attack once more, Basilis stepped forward, grabbing them both by the neck and lifting them up, suddenly slamming them into the ground with a heavy slam.

A cry of pain escaped them both, gripping on to one of the Rat's hands each as they tried to break free from his hold.

"Maybe I don't need her against you two." he said, smiling sadistically. "It's a shame... You're starting to succumb to your wounds and pass out!"

That much was true, Terra's eyes fading out slightly from the loss of consciousness, whereas Fren clinged on weakly, holding on for as long as possible. Just as all hope seemed lost, Fren got a surge of energy course through his body, suddenly pulling back into the ground more to launch his legs up, kicking Basilis on the back of the head with a hard thud.

"G-aagh!" he grunted out, finally letting go and hopping back while running the spot he was kicked. Without any time to waste, Fren got a murderous intent forming around his Pressure, making it seemingly heavier. Basilis' eyes widened as the Plague Doctor, fighting off of a killer instinct, ran towards him and flying knee'd him in the chest, into a left and right seven-hit combo, causing the Rat to barely hold on to his guard to reduce the impact.

Fren's eyes were cold, and narrowed. Such a sight was disorienting, compared to his usual carefree demeanor. Despite this, Basilis, weaved his next barrage, striking back whenever there was an opening. They were seemingly even in their combat abilities, trading strikes equally with each jab, each hook, each kick.

Terra slowly regained consciousness, shakily looking around behind him to see that the Atlas Afflicted was gone. Such a sight made him snap wide awake again, terrified. His head snapped over to look at Celeste, fighting for dear life against the living statue— no, a living mountain of a creature.

"Shit... Shit...! He's distracting us!" Terra said to himself, quickly turning to see Fren blindly attacking the Rat with... a surprisingly effective assault. "No... If we can take him out, we can fight that Afflicted easier. I have to hurry, before it's too late!"

With a weak attempt at standing back up, it only became more aware how much fatigue had set in on Terra's body. Bullet wounds, cuts, blood; they all covered his body seemingly head to toe ever since he started this endeavor. All this... he had never had to fight for his life for so long, if at all before now. His eyes were lidded, and blurry. A scream however, snapped him from his weakened trance one more, looking over quickly to see Fren being hit with a brutal haymaker, making the Plague Doctor fall back on to the ground.

"A-aggh!" Fren groaned out, dodging by rolling to his side to dodge a devastating follow-up punch that cracked the wood underneath his hand, right where Fren's head would've been.

"Just accept your fate... None of you are the Plague Doctors meant to take me out, and you know it!!" Basilis shouted out, before suddenly getting speared by Terra's shoulder hitting his body, sending him tumbling away until his back slammed into the railing on the stairs that went between the rows of cushioned seats.

Fren's eyes focused once more, softening as he looked over at Terra, still on the ground. "Niño...?" he called out like a whisper, crawling over and shaking him. It didn't take long for Terra to shiver in pain, before weakly coming raising his head to look at Basilis, as if that's his only objective at the moment. A similar killer instinct that Fren had shown moments before.

"I-I..." Terra gasped out, shakily pushing himself up, and letting out a wheeze for every breath that escaped him, "I need... t-to... take him out. Never again... w-will he... ruin... someone's life..."

Fren was amazed. Terra, who's managed to make his way into the Asclepius Squadron in the Plague Doctors, still standing despite being thrown into a fight he's never experienced before. A kid who's never fought the Afflicted... A kid with little to no experience in combat... Holding himself strong in spite of it all. No Arcane, no weapon... Just a will. A will with no ideal.

Basilis pushed himself up to his knees, looking up to see Terra, trembling but standing strong. Veins prodded along the Rat's scalp out of frustration, before quickly dashing towards his gunblade, not even giving Terra a moment to stop him.

"NO!!" the Plague Doctors cried out, suddenly charging after Basilis. It was too late, however. Just as they scurried towards him, Basilis turned around with a shimmer of light reflecting off of his sunglasses, smiling sinisterly as he swung the blade aimlessly towards them.

"DIE!!"

Time seemed to slow down as the sharp edge of the platinum steel approached them. Slow, until it was nigh a complete stop. Sweat and blood glimmered in the spotlight. Adrenaline, pumping through the men as though it had completely replaced their blood. Just as the blade began to graze Terra's skin however, a voice began to speak to him. A voice, both ominous and familiar.

It sounded as though it could have been his own, as it echoed throughout his subconscious.

It is not our time yet.

Push onward.

Reveal your every being.

Formless, like smoke.

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Flowing, like water.

There is always a silver lining.

Fight on.

The voices surged him like nothing else. In that instant, he lunged down as if to follow the trail of the swing of the blade, before grabbing the collar of Basilis' dress jacket and his arm. In one smooth motion, he pulled him around into the air, and threw him over his shoulder, launching the Rat off of the edge within a split second. Fren and Basilis blinked at the same time, watching on at one another as the bald man descended down into the watery depths below, letting out one last cry— a cry of desperation to cling on to life, until a loud splash was heard like flesh upon wet concrete.

Terra stood there, hyperventilating and wheezing, his body twitching and pulsing from the invigorating feeling coursing through him. A silent laugh escaped him, before he unconsciously fell off the edge as well, limp and unmoving.

Just as it seemed he was too far gone, a giant arm reached down and grabbed hold of Terra's hand, not daring to let go. Fren, reaching down as far as he could, slowly pulled the young Plague Doctor up with a low groan, and gently laid him down on to the ground.

As he watched over Terra's nearly unconscious body, it was then he finally realized what he had did, looking up at his now massive, monsterous arm. A silent laugh escaped him as well, until he finally let out a hearty chuckle. The Rat was defeated, finally.

Meanwhile, Celeste landed on the arena once more, this time falling to one knee. Her breath was scattered and broken, exhausted beyond belief. As her quivering arm barely held her up, she looked up to see Atlas, staring down at her as if nothing could stop it. It's shell was cracked all over, green light leaking out from it's stone chassis, but it stood strong nonetheless.

"Dammit..." she simply grunted out, looking back to see the others were still unconscious; all but Joker remained standing on the arena.

All Joker could do however, was stare up at the colossus as well, with a silent fear, blended with acceptance.

"Maybe... I wasn't meant to keep my promise." he said to himself, watching as the giant readied his massive fist for one final strike. "Maybe it was meant to end here for us, huh...?"

Celeste grit her teeth, pushing herself up to her feet, despite staggering left and right as she stood. Her eyes were seemingly glowing, weakly entering her forward stance once more, giving her all in one last go.

"I... will n-never... let an Afflicted... g-get... away..." she announced quietly, before coughing up blood on to the ground. "I... will never... l-lose..."

Light began to form in Celeste's eyes once again, before a sinister grin slowly creeps across her face. A surge of energy began to overflow within her, as the massive fist began to dart it's way toward the Plague Doctors. Celeste pulled her fist back, that familiar red fire beginning to burn across it like a miniature sunset.

Everything began to shake, as everything seemingly went silent from the intensity alone. She dug her boots into the ground with heavy stomps, before suddenly a trail of red light flashed throughout her entire body, just as the two powerhouses made contact. Audio once again came back to them, with the sound of a thunderous crash of Arcane energy, causing the entire boat to shake like an earthquake.

"Hm...!" Celeste grunted out, her left sleeve on the arm she's clashing with, ripped away from the pressure. Those cold and concise eyes... turned to a sharp desire of pure violence. To take this Afflicted out for good.

Joker shielded Netz and Kinae as much as he could from where he laid, letting out a worried cry as the gust of magical essence tried to push them away. He held strong as much as he could, planting himself down to the best of his ability. He looked over his shoulder, watching Celeste hold her own against such a disastrous monstrosity.

Within that moment, her voice boomed out with a gentle strength, echoing throughout every soul that could feel it nearby.

"Auf Wiedersehen."

Suddenly, a bright light flashed from their fists, alongside a pulse of energy that pierced through the shell of Atlas. Its arm had been destroyed, left only in embers and microscopic ashes. With haste, she turned her head to look at Joker over her shoulder, signalling him.

"Do it now!"

With an understanding nod back, he quickly made a portal on the ground and one above the first one, quickly jumping into the portal on the ground. As he went through, he appeared on the top one, going down and down and down... With each phase through the circle he placed, he sped up more and more, until he was a blinding blur. With one last port through, he suddenly snapped the portals around horizontally, launching him at a breakneck speed towards Atlas.

As if like a comet, he readied his cane, pulling on the handle and revealing a seemingly unending rope of metal chains. Zipping right past the stone giant, he created another portal in front of him, then appearing from another towards the side by it's chest. Then again, and again, and again, going down until chains seemingly cocooned it from the neck down to the knees. Finally, with one last portal, he closed his cane once more, landing a heavy uppercut right to Atlas' chin, launching it up into the air.

"Ha! Feels like the weights are off, sucker!!" Joker said with a laugh, finally portalling over to Celeste with the chain still connected from his cane. Despite the damage done, the colossus pulled away at the chains, trying to escape.

"G-Gh...! It's a fighter, that's for damn sure!!"

Celeste stepped forward, grabbing ahold of the chains with a fierce grip, her eyes glowing with that menacing scarlet hue. With one sudden tug from both her and Joker, they began to pull the monster down more and more, but even then it seemingly wasn't enough.

"This sure as shit is a ninety-percent cat, ain't it?!" Joker asked between grunts, pulling as if playing tug-of-war alongside Celeste. "It just won't go down!!"

Right as everything seemed as though a stalemate, a girl's voice got closer to them, wheezing... but holding strong. She joined them, gripping on to the chains and pulling as hard as she could manage, despite her broken body.

"Kinae...? Sis?!" Joker gasped out, looking back to see his sister, still weak and broken, pulling on to the chain for her dear life.

"I ain't going down that long...!" she said with a weak laugh, grunting as she pulled more. "You guys look like ya need the help...!"

Soon enough, Fren jumped down with Terra in hand, gently setting the young Plague Doctor down and walking forward, joining the rest in pulling Atlas down.

"Ay dios mio... It doesn't go down, eh?!" he said with a cheeky laugh, both of his arms growing bulkier and distorted from the Plague in his veins, yanking at the chain as well.

It didn't take long for the once unconscious Netz and Terra to also join them, their eyes hazed from their recently regained consciousness. Slowly, the colossus began to fall, trying hard to stop it's descent with every ounce of it's strength.

All together, the Plague Doctors let out one last warcry, pushing themselves to the limit. With a flash of light, suddenly the chain was yanked back hard, causing the giant to fall face first towards them slowly.

"NOW!"

As it fell towards them, they all readied their weapons and Arcanes, colliding with Atlas simultaneously. A cane, chakram, fist, bat, bullets, gauntlet— all together it caused Atlas to glow with a dangerous glistening light, before suddenly exploding into ancient debris, painting the area with it's decrepit stone; it's giant head slammed down in front of them, still leaking with the same emerald Arcane ether.

Upon seeing the area was now completely empty besides them, with the Afflicted and Rat handled, they all had finally sat down on the ground, trying desperately to catch their breath. Basilis and Atlas were finally defeated.

"God..." Kinae mumbled out, whining as she kept a hand over her ribs, "That was... too close...!"

Terra, despite being the only one standing upright now, still swayed and shook from exhaustion. The adrenaline was easing, slowly but surely, allowing the pain to flow through the floodgates within his nerves. With a sharp groan, he staggered in place, just barely keeping himself standing.

With a sniff, Terra's eyes had shrunk. His head quickly snapped over to the stone head of Atlas. Despite it not moving or glowing any longer, he could smell it in the air.

Something... wasn't right.

Suddenly, the eyes lit up with a flicker of green, as Atlas' mouth suddenly opened up wide, charging up energy within itself. In an instant, it fired out a massive beam of pure green Arcane energy, as if like a laser.

His eyes shrunk, before he quickly grabbed his bat on instinct, swinging with all of his might against the beam, causing a clash to begin. His legs faultered, making him fall down to one knee as he held the beam back with all of his might.

The others watched with blurred vision and hazy minds, blinking slowly. It was hard to process even now for them, just how in danger they were. Celeste, however, blinked once more to finally understand the situation.

"Terra...?!" she grunted out, trying to stand up. "My legs... I..."

Holding it back as much as he could, veins prodded across his entire body, using every ounce of his strength. At least, what was left of it.

"RRRRRRRRAAAAAAGHHHHHH!!"

With a deafening cry, he began to slide back into the team, his body beginning to give out from the pressure overload. He held on for only a moment longer, until he finally unconsciously collapsed back, only the whites of his eyes showing to his team.

Just as all hope seemed lost however, the rest of the Plague Doctors leapt forward before he could be swallowed by the Arcane energy for too long, pushing it back together. Even now, they were still too weak to stand firm against such a last ditch effort attack post mortem.

All together, they let out a desperate cry of ferocity, putting their all to defend against this final assault. Eventually, the entire room got filled with bright colorful lights across the entire spectrum, until finally... everything was white.

. . .

Police officer vehicles surrounded the harbor, their red and blue lights flaring as the sun began to rise in the distance, but clouds had kept the light from fully peeking through to the surface. With their front doors open, they all kept their rifles and handguns pointed firmly at the entrance of the frigate, still and patient.

"It's been awhile... Are we sure they didn't get... y'know?"

"I don't know. It's been too long. Usually those PDs take at most about three hours to finish a mission."

"What could've happened that caused them to take—?"

"Quiet. Listen."

As the captain spoke out, he planted his arms on top of the open car door, narrowing his eye as he stared closely at the entrance. Following his order, everyone silenced themselves, hearing footsteps slowly sound against the metal. The rhythm was broken between each step.

Finally, a figure appeared from the door, slowly limping through while helping someone else by their side.

"Yo yo yo..." spoke out a familiar male voice, followed by a weak laugh. "Take yo time! No rush, obviously! Just a baker's dozen of half-dead mothafuckers! No worries!"

The captain lowered his gun, sighing with relief.

"Joker. Sounds like we're green. Go in, team." he ordered, turning to the paramedics on standby, "Get them medical attention ASAP."

Wasting no time, the officers stormed into the frigate, while others helped the Plague Doctors limp their way out of the boat, one by one. Joker held on to Kinae gently, not daring to let her fall, limping his way towards the Captain.

"She's been running on fumes right of the rip. Thank goodness you guys got here." he said between grunts, setting himself and Kinae down on the trunk of the car.

All the Captain did was hum to himself with a low tone of understanding, then looked over to see Celeste carrying Terra weakly. The sight made him raise an eyebrow, curious.

"Who's that, Asclepius 4 Captain?" he asked, keeping his gruff gaze on her. "I don't remember that kid being in the squadron."

"He's... new, sir." she quietly replied, hiding her face from him as she walked past him.

Before he could question her avoidance, Fren let out a cheeky laugh, following behind her.

"Niño keeps talking about "gonna date her after this" over and over, heheheh. Hasn't stopped since he went unconscious."

The Captain stood there with a unamused scowl, the sunlight finally cracking through the clouds to paint those outside the boat in warmth. Letting out a sigh, he looked up to the beautiful star, the orange rays gently coloring his leather eye patch with a subtle hue.

"There's still new people joining the PDs... Who would've thought, after all this time."

. . .