To Be Paid
Heian Ciemnosc saw Beto, Cara, and Clanton fly out of their Fighters, taking their auxiliary one out and accompanying Beto towards the rapidly incoming enemy Frigate. Heian Ciemnosc felt they were crazy, as not even he would dare show himself before a Frigate just like this. However, just as he wondered which target the Frigate would fire first between the mini-fleet and the 3 cultivators at the peak of the Second Step, with 1 of them at the pinnacle of the last realm, his darkest eyes widened as dozens of artillery shells fired towards him as machine guns sent trails of bullets the same.
Pom...! Pomm...! Pommm...!
Thankfully, the Elemental Eyes' Elemental barriers resisted the heavy brunt of the attack, bringing Heian Ciemnosc and the other Fighters to a miserable wake-up call and returning to dealing with the enemy Fighters and drones. The rear finally joined the fight as the mini-fleet became more entangled, with the enemy catching up. Heian Ciemnosc received extra help at times, and a few enemy spacecraft turned into blobs of fire while others were damaged, making it easier for Heian Ciemnosc and his Fighters to keep the merchant spaceships afloat.
They were still moving at maximum speed, and the enemy Fighters had to go all out to intercept them, using, perhaps, an array formation or talisman to boost their speed, pass them by, and lunge at them from the side if they failed at the first time. Or several times in a row...
However, the enemy Frigate that was now flying beside the mini-fleet, shadowing it with its size, fired all out at the latter without scruples, trying to bury it in space as fast as possible. This complicated Heian Ciemnosc's orbiting motions as he had to be faster and last less time outside the Elemental barriers' cover. But his Ornament still suffered damage that started affecting its maneuverability.
However, Heian Ciemnosc's Fighters became more and more used to frenetically killing the enemy through the gaps in the barriers. Their bullets flashed before raining on several enemies, and Heian Ciemnosc's few artillery barrels shot at them. Even slightly grazing the enemy spacecraft's surface was enough to cut them in parts, letting them on their own as they were left behind in the middle of nowhere. And the missiles they sent were whenever the enemy tried raiding their merchant spaceships without a care for their lives.
Well. Those missiles proved key as they delayed the enemy enough for Heian Ciemnosc to re-focus most of his firepower on their above in the universal conveyance, dispatching enemy spacecraft while emptying his Ornament's storage. But things started changing, for the better and worse.
On their left flank, the enemy no longer bothered attacking them, as the Frigate completely ignored the cultivators before them and continued targeting the merchant spaceships, which Heian Ciemnosc and his Fighters desperately began defending after 20 minutes of constant fighting. Because of this, the Fighters at the rear had it a little easier, and Loma left Moy's side to join Cara, Clanton, and Beto in destroying the Frigate's weaponry.
Despite their brazenness, the enemy commanding that spaceship hadn't come out was turtling inside. But it was only a matter of time before they were forced to come out and stop the Team. Everyone was at the peak of the Second Step. They were more than qualified to strike any other spaceship built for combating that same Step. They could dismantle one if they were let alone for as long as it was happening now.
Heian Ciemnosc could only see, tiringly, as only Sandra and Ruo Wei remained on the right flank, easing their heavy burden a little less heavy. Thus, while the enemy weaponry on the Frigate was slowly being dismantled, the right side was still occupied with obliterating enemy spacecraft. Sandra and Ruo Wei fought with all they got, and the Fighters in their temporary command quickly received damage beyond repair, but they kept flying, attached by formidable strings to the Team's Fighters.
The rear had it much easier after the left flank ceased having more enemies. It wasn't a problem to leave it open. If more enemy spacecraft traveled towards that side or decided to perform an offensive from that side, the enemy Frigate would have its aim blocked. On the other hand, attacking from the rear would immediately threaten the mini-fleet's merchant vessels' smallish engines. Fortunately, they had it smoother than anywhere else, but it wasn't positivity everywhere.
Besides Heian Ciemnosc, who was having a hard time keeping miss Rila and her merchant spaceships safe, as some bullets started making holes and long marks on their beautiful painting, and the Elemental Eyes array formations started collapsing, the front started crumbling. The Fighters left behind were becoming metal scraps, and little explosions happened every 3 seconds from the enemy fire.
Boom... bang!... Pff... p... "... Sir... I think it's time... some of my people have been hurt... I'm sending us off early," Heian Ciemnosc suddenly heard one of the Fighters say. He placed his Spirit Sense on that Fighter and saw it zoom into the distance. Its shield had always been a little more focused towards its rear, where the motor engines were, protecting them from harm from enemy firepower or from the inside, avoiding it spread from within.
Before Heian Ciemnosc saw the heroic movement from the Fighter as it went ahead to self-explode in the enemy ranks, the other Fighter started advancing forwards, and only Beto's Fighters continued firing. As this happened, Beto's Fighters covered the suicidal merchant Fighters, changing its trajectory. Heian Ciemnosc looked a little more as the latter rapidly shot into the enemy ranks, getting killed but not destroyed before they could self-explode. Yet, when they were blasted to pieces by other enemy drones or Fighters, they became a blinding, lighted-up 'boom' and sent several Fighters to dust, critically damaging dozens.
In under 35 seconds, as Heian Ciemnosc started focusing on 3 different angles from the universal focus, building more heavy pressure upon himself, a 'pair of eyes' became on the battlefield, painting the endless blackness into 2 blinding dots in the distance. But Heian Ciemnosc's Fighters didn't stop firing and destroying enemy spacecraft.
However, without the front existing and Beto's Fighters becoming tragically riddled with irreparable damages, Heian Ciemnosc and his Fighters became more endangered. More enemy Fighters flew towards them, making Heian Ciemnosc's Ornament suffer more constantly, and the merchant spaceships deteriorated further. The goods were still unharmed, but for how long?
Thankfully, though. The right flank experienced less and less trouble, and the pressure on those Fighters was relieved before Beto's Fighters were crushed into metal scraps. When Heian Ciemnosc was growing weary of the insurmountable quantity of enemies, Sandra and Ruo Wei flew over with the Fighters, barely alive, flying beside them with strings. They detached those Fighters and left them flying towards the front, where they could safely explode with the extra self-detonation array formations proportioned by the Team.
... booom... booom...
Heian Ciemnosc's darkest eyes watched as another portion of the enemies were turned into blinding eyes, reflecting on his Ornament's cabin's windows.
...-peeeeeeew- pshift! ... ... ... ...-
"Defend your positions!!" Heian Ciemnosc's darkest eyes suddenly widened as his Spirit Sense sent shuddering notions throughout his body. His pale left arm extended towards the medium-sized vessel's front, just as he was orbiting above it with his Ornament's nose facing its right and tens of meters behind the merchant spaceship's head. As Heian Ciemnosc shouted, sounding forceful and aggressive, his Fighters continued firing, but miss Rila jumped to action as her Neutral Energy injected her surroundings within the vessel.
At the same time, Heian Ciemnosc's left palm extended with Vocón Link making its apparition. It was practically undetectable in space unless one watched from a fourth point of view and saw the contrast between the pure darkness tentacle-like whip, 4 cm in diameter, and the medium-sized merchant spaceship's painting. It extended while forming a dark screen at the front, along with dark Water elements, becoming over tens of meters big when it finally projected before the spaceship.
Miss Rila stepped forth in disbelief inside the merchant vessel and bent slightly over as a thin dark screen tried protecting them from what seemed like a missile but was much smaller and was many times faster, even in space. Miss Rila's strict, stern eyes widened, and her Neutral Energy extended everywhere more intensely, even about to use her blood essence. However, one instant, she saw the thing still tens of kilometers away, but in the other, it was just hundreds of meters away.
"!!" Heian Ciemnosc felt his left palm hurting, as if something was digging through the center of his pale skin, and just as he watched dark liquid come out of his extended arm, the rocket hit his dark screen, and it imploded as the inertia brought all its explosive waves forward, immediately penetrating the dark screen... and the spaceship's front.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Crash. CRUUUUUUSHHHHH~~!! BAM!!
The noise was too much, breaking the universe's laws, and Heian Ciemnosc's left arm, whose infrastructure broke apart from the inside, turning it into a mangled hand with only 3 fingers, but those were just flesh lumps from his palm left behind when the rocket exploded forth. A crack spread from Heian Ciemnosc's left wrist towards his chest but stopped just 3 centimeters away from reaching his left pectoral or under his left armpit, leaving his heart unharmed.
On the other hand, inside the merchant vessel, miss Rila, the strongest among her crew, was flung backwards, becoming embedded in a wall 3 modules away from the central command module. When her body stopped, and she could swear to see everything in slow motion, her eyes drowsily witnessed the deaths of thousands in the spaceship turn into bloody liquid from various Myriad Races. She then fell unconscious, but her nature couldn't allow her to do so, and she immediately woke herself up, forcibly staying alive as she activated the emergency array formations to protect everyone and everything from the Elemental Poisoning.
Pshift!! Miss Rila forced her way ahead and returned to the central command, where she saw half her people dead, eaten away by the Elemental Poisoning after being semi-struck by the rocket's heavy might. Her chest heaved up and down heavily as she sent pills to those who were still alive or conscious. Then, she walked to the front, where the spaceship was struck, and noticed the missing hundreds of crew members who were supposed to be there, ready to move on any occasion, in their cabins. Her face said everything that needed to be spoken.
"... Ugh." On the other hand, Heian Ciemnosc's body floated above the spaceship's surface, with his Ornament still going in circles, orbiting it. It fired and launched missiles at the enemy Fighters, coming here like finding water after days of drought. The Ornament was receiving heavy fire as Heian Ciemnosc's left pale arm was covered almost entirely in his dark blood. His body floated backwards, his toes and the meat under them sometimes grazing against the metal as he was temporarily paralyzed.
His Spirit Sense told him everything that happened, and his instincts told him many Souls were eviscerated, forced into death with barely any suffering, but all at once. He couldn't care about it, but all these were from people ready to use their bodies to safeguard the goods. Fortunately, though. The wares were at the back, where ammunition storage would be if the merchant spaceships hadn't gone through modifications in the past 2 Kingdoms' portals.
Looking up, Heian Ciemnosc could see his Ornament passing by once every 5 seconds, going at maximum speed, and soon about to activate the smallish engine for quicker passings on the enemy spacecraft and kinetic force, or what little could be left in space's hungry Elemental Poisoning. The enemy Fighters took advantage of the front and upper Elemental Eyes' barriers collapsing after the rocket's impact on the medium-sized spaceship and targeted it, ignoring the small vessels.
Yet, his Ornament continued to make quick work of the enemy. And, at this moment, Heian Ciemnosc received questioning from his Fighters.
"Sir?! You're alright! We lost you for a couple minutes! We are not gonna endure anymore... We've decided to use your self-detonation array formations. We've poured our blood essence, and they are ready to be used. Some of our Team's members have died, are... can we go ahead, sir?"
'Agh...' Heian Ciemnosc rolled his darkest eyes in a daze, feeling his head hurting like hell. He forced dark blood out of his pores, bursting. His body regained mobility. He shut his darkest eyes tight and opened them 2 seconds later, sharper and colder than ever. His pale red lips danced to the notion, "I've got better plans."
"Sir?!" One of the Fighters almost shouted. They knew not to do that, but they had to. Heian Ciemnosc understood, and as he regained foothold, he gave the Ornament a few looks and set it to not sacrifice itself. They were costly. Then, he walked towards the open at the rear from before and told the waiting, impatient fellows to die for a cause. "Give me a moment. Let those enemy spacecraft continue attacking and kill them. You'll turn will come, just not in the same way..."
Heian Ciemnosc frowned as he struggled to move. The pain in his ribs was tremendous, as it was from the rocket crashing against his dark screen, supported by his Vocón Link, which was slapped sideways, and he barely held himself from flying away. If this wasn't the merchant spaceship his Team configured, he would've been left behind in space long ago. Heian Ciemnosc didn't have enough time to hold himself somewhere or to something, not even with a tendril from his Vocón Link or dark tail.
"..." Heian Ciemnosc stopped just before a gap where he could lower himself and enter the spaceship as he looked towards the enemy Frigate. There, he saw Beto and the others, with only Moy remaining at the rear, fighting off the remaining enemy spacecraft, assailing from there, making quick work of the enemy Frigate. Blood stains were evident on their uniforms, and some tore parts on their clothing. If there were no corpses, it should be because they were left behind, as that Frigate wasn't connected to any of its comrades' spacecraft and abandoned them long ago.
"..." According to what Heian Ciemnosc heard and his nature reading's of time, Heian Ciemnosc spent a few minutes unconsciously floating in space. He must've given his teammates and team leader Beto the scare of their lives. Heian Ciemnosc grinned at the thought. A few things went by after he saved the goods, and nobody came to comfort him.
'Ah, what a Team.' Heian Ciemnosc thought before lowering his body and right into the spaceship. Once inside, he saw miss Rila looking at him with crossed arms, whose face blinked but kept her eyelids low after seeing his arm.
"... Heian Ciemnosc?" The contractor said, and Heian Ciemnosc responded as his dark Neutral Energy covered his mangled arm, with only flesh lumps from his palm and his wrist becoming only bones with dark veins coiling or dangling around it. Then, he looked at her and said, "Not a good moment, but move your people close to the goods, a few levels below. If your smallish engines fail now, mine will push the vessel."
"Mhm," miss Rila nodded and turned around to guide him. Heian Ciemnosc followed as the battle continued outside. She was really calm for a really close death's call. When they entered the only place unaffected by this battle, miss Rila gestured with her hands as she explained.
"Everything's fine for now. But we are too vulnerable to any attacks. If they try assaulting us with big numbers and too many missiles..." Heian Ciemnosc heard her until she spaced a little, and he said while ignoring his torment. "There aren't too many enemy Fighters now. As for the drones, even I can deal with them. Let alone you or the rest of my Team."
"Indee-" - "!!"
PSHIFT---~! VEEEEEEEEEUUUMMM~!
Heian Ciemnosc's darkest eyes dilated, and his eyelids enlarged. Just as miss Rila's eyes noticed this, and her countenance changed, she saw Heian Ciemnosc's left arm form again, but in a monstrous way, becoming several times his body's size and palming her away in darkness. Her body was unharmed, as she was also in the Breaking Point realm, like Moy, but she saw a couple enemy Fighters in flames penetrate through the spaceship and head straight to the goods!
However, Heian Ciemnosc's right arm did the same as the left one, and as her heart clenched, massive dark Neutral Energy bursts exploded from where he was, immediately crashing the enemy Fighters at the side, but their mini-fleet as a whole seemed to be forced in another direction as everything moved. Before miss Rila was flung into an adjacent module to her left, she watched Heian Ciemnosc's pale body with dark claws, fangs, and a 'mascara' that bit the head off from a missile... and explode...
BANG!!...
Heian Ciemnosc felt his head buzzing enormously after watching terrifying faces look at him just before the missile's warhead exploded, sending everyone flying. Thankfully, the sudden multiple situations bought enough time for a few hundred crew members to rush upwards and become meat shields to protect the goods and Heian Ciemnosc. He was pushed backwards but still felt the explosiveness of more missiles as they crushed their bodies like waterfalls landing on a lake.
"... spit!" After another few minutes, Heian Ciemnosc woke up again. This time, though, he was inside the spaceship and, at the same time, in space. His shoulder blades were stabbed by protrusions from the spaceship's infrastructure, nailing him to the floor. As his darkest eyes and Spirit Sense recuperated, he saw clothes and skin colors of all kinds merged on the floor and walls around him, and some even landing on his bare torso and pants.
... Step, step, step!... Pshiiiiiiiiiffftt~!!
Heian Ciemnosc heard someone walking over and effectuating something just as he closed his eyes. When he reopened, he saw miss Rila look up at him, and a brand new thing appeared between space and the spaceship, as her Neutral Energy covered what remained of the medium-sized spaceship and that thing she created in the middle of everything.
It was light blue, watery... and was none other than his Elemental Eye barrier. However, it was molded with not just her Neutral Energy... but some blood essence, too!
"Miss?" Heian Ciemnosc asked, frowning and feeling hella used up. She looked up, glad he was still conscious, and said, while holding her arms. Meanwhile, Heian Ciemnosc noticed the Elemental barrier was stretched to cover the spaceship's front, like a cone... But, what's more... he found the enemy Frigate advancing right towards them!! They had turned, twisted, and rotated nonstop for minutes before finally stopping, but were now about to be charged at by a Frigate!!
"There's not much to do now. Something has to be done... now... or it will be too late." Miss Rila paused, drank her blood back, and continued. "The goods are safe so far. But the third time will be... That Frigate is coming, and I can't activate more of my blood essence without dying. I need help, Heian Ciemnosc... When it comes, don't let it crash against your array formation. We've already seen how it deals with physical might. You must- must... must do this, will you?"
"..." Heian Ciemnosc analyzed the stretched-out Elemental Eye barrier. It had become like a tube, from the rear to the front, and focused on protecting the latter, passing by in the middle of the long corridor, also connecting with the half-destroyed central command. It was like a comet turning into a weapon of massive destruction, but instead of harm, it was to protect the spaceship's goods, not its people.
"..." Heian Ciemnosc turned his head to look down at her before nodding. Miss Rila became visibly more relaxed, and after closing her eyes and clenching her fists, she protruded her lips as a dozen droplets of blood essence exited from them.
"Now... it's just my turn as well," Miss Rila said as she slowly opened her eyes, and they looked determined for anything!
Kick! Wheeeeeeshhh!
Heian Ciemnosc's left foot was swung, and Vocón Link acted like a whip as it hit her stomach. Just before the hit landed on her, and her skin turned paler than any ordinary moon, she extended her tongue for half a meter, bringing the last of her blood essence drops with her, just as her eyes lost consciousness...
'Good luck, then,' Heian Ciemnosc thought as he turned his head immediately to the right, where the Frigate only needed 8 seconds more to make short work of the mini-fleet. Just 8 seconds... 8 seconds!
...