Chapter 34: The battle by the tunnel.
Far behind at the tunnel, Lyon, Veronica and Butchy had arrived to confront Cosmic Kieth.
“Looks like we have a celebrity joining us.” Lyon laughed as he stared Kieth down. “How much is your bounty worth again?”
Kieth let out an exaggerated yawn. “Hopefully enough to finally fix that receding hairline of yours.”
Lyon let out a sigh. “That’s it, you’re dead.”
He was about to step forward before both Veronica and Butchy extended their hands to stop him.
“There’s three more people lurking in the tunnel.” Veronica explained as her crimson eyes pierced into the darkness behind Kieth.
Three figures then emerged behind Kieth. One was a large fleshy monstrosity that could scarcely be considered human, the other was a thin man in a black coat with blonde hair and the third was a rather plain looking woman.
“I don’t understand why we’ve been waiting here all this time.” Tristan said as he stared at Kieth’s back. “The Azurai boy is very inexperienced and doesn’t know his own strength. We can use that to our advantage.”
“So that’s why you’ve all been lurking behind the train.” Lyon laughed. “You’re afraid of the two shang rokai on board.”
“There’s a possibility that someone like Guyus or Dorodo is on there and I’m not going to take dumb risks.” Keith adjusted his glasses before smiling. “But I don’t see any risk in attacking you.”
“Let’s get them together.” The woman whose name was Isabella said as she stepped forward to face Lyon and the two others along side Keith.
Belnus and Tristan also joined them before rushing foreword to attack.
Lyon extended his right hand before his skin peeled back from his fingers to reveal machinery underneath. The tips of each of his five fingers opened up to reveal five gun barrels that quickly fired.
Tristan and Isabella quickly swivelled their way back behind Belnus who endured the blazing onslaught head on. Hot wind blew everywhere and the smell of burnt flesh filled the noses of Tristan and Isabella.
Belnus charged forward swinging several of his half a dozen appendages around. His three opponents effortlessly dodged with Veronica and Butchy taking cover in the bushes while Lyon leapt high into the air.
In a swift motion Lyon yanked off his own right arm before several fire grenades flew out of its metallic socket. They rained down on Belnus who suddenly found himself unable to move.
“What the hell?” Belnus panicked as the grenades all hit the ground with a thud.
“Big brother!” Isabella yelled out for her idle. “Please get to safety!”
One of Belnus’s eyes locked on to her before he commented. “Wait a second, aren’t you that one stalker I had to get a restraining order against?”
The grenades all exploded simultaneously as Lyon landed several metres away. The blast lit up the tunnel entrance under a crimson inferno before it collapsed in a mountain of dust.
Before Lyon even got the chance to see if Belnus was alive he was suddenly enveloped in a wave of death energy.
Keith chuckled as he emerged from the dust.
Instantly, Lyon opened his mouth and blasted Kieth with a searing torrent of fire. The air was cooked dry as the blaze rended his flesh off his bones with a crispy snap. Tristan laughed as he was reduced to a pitch black skeleton before an explosion of death energy erupted from the holes that were once his eyes. The death energy carried with it the smell of burnt rubber, expired fish and shit as it plumed above Tristan. It separated into five equal sized black clouds that shot towards everyone else besides him. Everyone immediately took measures to endure the incoming attack. Tristan willed for his maple puppeteer to shield him which it did, resulting in its destruction. Veronica chanted and illusory golden clouds manifested around herself, Butchy and Lyon. The death energy was all deflected away, converging on an injured belnus. The death energy swallowed him up before being sucked into his body.
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Belnus let out a dry high pitched sigh that ended in bloody gargling. His body expanded as it tried to regenerate from the damage, growing several nasty puss filled stubs of mangled limbs. Thick green diarrhea erupted from his bloated and herniated orifices. His entire body then suddenly calcified signifying his death to a mortified Isabella.
As the dust cleared Lyon and a fully healed Keith resumed their battle with Veronica joining in. Butchy kept his eyes locked on Tristan who returned the favour, both men analysing the other for an opportunity to strike.
Isabella clung on tightly to the calcified corpse of her fallen idol, unfazed by the intense smell of fish and faecal matter.
“Screw this…” she sneered hatefully at the blond haired bastard standing with his back facing her. It was his maple puppeteer that attached its threads to Belnus and paralysed him. He was the reason her precious older brother died.
She was about to attack but suddenly found herself unable to move. Her limbs then began to move as another person was controlling her body. She dashed forward and charged past Tristan towards Butchy against her will. She unwillingly activated over ten of her resonance abilities causing numerous bony spikes and fleshy tendrils to sprout from her body.
As Isabella swung for Butchy with several of her new appendages, he flipped over her effortlessly and hand chopped her neck knocking her unconscious.
He then closed in on Tristan before suddenly staggering. A giant puppet that had the upper body of a woman and lower body of a spider appeared above him with almost all its threads attached to him. He smiled and squinted his eyes before saying. “I’ll show you a real spider…”
Tristan watched in horror as Butchy grew to double the size of an ordinary man. His limbs rapidly became muscular as he sprouted four new arms that tore through his clothes. Two black spider fangs protruded from his upper jaw and his legs grew long and springy like a grasshopper’s.
Butchy let out a rabid high pitched growl as he grabbed the threads of the puppeteer and ripped it out of the air. He then tore its head off before mauling its torso to pieces.
“Shit!” Tristan took several hasty steps back before turning to run.
Butchy swiftly swiped him off the ground before throwing him hard into the rocky tunnel entrance. Bone and flesh collided with jagged collapsed rock as Tristan’s body was sent spinning across the rubble. He came to a sudden stop when his back hit a bolder with a fleshy crunch followed by a snap. There was a brief moment of white hot agony before he completed lost all sensation in his lower body.
Lyon bobbed and weaved around Keith’s kicks and punches. He extended his left arm in much of the same manner he did his right arm earlier and lit up the area with a relentless rain of bullets.
Tristan took the onslaught head on and his body was torn to smouldering pieces. Another foul cloud of death energy arose from his body before shooting towards Lyon and Veronica.
“It’s useless.” Veronica frowned before chanting once again to create more golden clouds for Lyon and herself.
The death energy collided with the illusory cloud layer enshrouding the two super resonators. It was all redirected to the surrounding plants that all withered away and died.
Once again Keith arose unharmed and continued to charge at his two opponents.
As Butchy loomed above him Tristan searched his mind for a solution to his sorry situation. He could heal himself by sacrificing his maple puppeteer. By doing so he’d remove his ability to defend himself in this situation and would have no choice but to run away. It was still better than dying however so it wasn’t like he’d be too unhappy.
He activated a resonance ability called. “Sacrificial blaze.” It created a massive fire around the puppet that would rapidly consume the puppet itself as well as everything around it. Gathering all of the death energy created from whatever it destroys and converting it to life energy restoring his body. The draw back was that his soul would be injured and he’d completely lose his ability to use resonance for six hours.
Right when Butchy was about to deliver the killing blow, the maple puppeteer appeared above him again to stagger him. It was then suddenly engulfed in a blazing aura of golden flames that burnt it severely.
The fire quickly spread down the threads towards Butchy who was immediately protected by Veronica’s illusory golden clouds.
Tristan cursed internally before quickly changing his plans. He could still use this as a distraction.
He twisted his body painfully and pressed his right hand into the hard rock he was sitting on. With his super resonator strength he pushed himself off the ground rapidly and was sent over thirty metres into the air. In mid air his lifeless legs regained their function as the last of the maple puppeteer was devoured by the golden flames.
He landed in the bushes above the collapsed tunnel entrance and immediately fled the battlefield with blinding speed.
Wasting no time Butchy darted after him leaving the unconscious Isabella lying limp on the ground.
End of chapter 34: