Center of the Deadlands: 936, August 12th, Sunday, 3:30 PM.
“Ha!” Sebastian roared as he swung his gigantic sword against a group of four gaunt demons—splitting them all in half by the waist in a single motion.
Alone and surrounded by a large horde of specters approaching from all directions, the Heretic unit battled for their lives as their opponents grew not only in number, but in strength. Fending off their assault back-to-back, Aria and Xun took down the smaller threats nearby—ranging from alpha to delta threats, with mostly humanoid specters among them.
The major in the other hand, picked up the larger threats in order to prevent their advance on both of his comrades. This task was made easier thanks to his spectral gear—powered up by a string of crimson veins running across both of his arms—and the combined efforts of Xun and Aria to keep most specters away from him.
“Woah!” Sebastian abruptly pulled backwards to avoid the claws of a slashing monster. “Hey, I’ve never seen you before!”
Armed with claws and fangs, the black exoskeleton of the demon displayed the shape of a dragon—its crimson veins glowing intensely within the fissures of its body. Its thinner frontal arms were equipped with wings, using its back feet to walk on the ground and slash with its claws—a sharp tail armed with a razor at the end of it. Despite its similarities to a dragon however, the creature exhibited a considerable smaller size in body—although large enough to be as tall as Sebastian in height.
“Major!” Xun spoke through comms, a screen suddenly popping up in front of her face as she piloted her mech-suit from within its cockpit—displaying the picture of Sebastian’s smiling face. “That’s a wyvern,” she said. “Don’t be fooled by its looks, that thing is classified as Lambda threat in my database.”
“Sounds dangerous,” casually replied Sebastian.
“It is, stay out of range from its tail or…”
“Bring it on then!”
“Let me explain!”
Smirking with excitement and confidence, Sebastian leaped at the specter with his giant sword lifted above his head in both hands. He brought it back down with all the strength of his muscles, slamming the steel blade on the ground—shattering the scorched earth on impact, and raising piles of rocks in the process.
As the wyvern jumped upwards to avoid the major’s attack—flying high in the air, its advantageous position inspired the creature to counter with one of its own. The monster propelled itself downwards with its back legs aiming at Sebastian’s back, curving its feet slightly in an attempt to sunk its claws on the man’s flesh.
“Gotcha!” Exclaimed Sebastian with a smile, presenting his shotgun to the demon as he aimed its cannon directly at it from over his shoulder.
With a loud bang that triggered crimson sparks from Callisto’s cannon, the wyvern was pushed further away into the air as the powerful shells pierced through its armor. Recovering quickly however, the demon flung its wings downwards to gain back its balance—roaring at Sebastian before thrusting downwards against him.
Leaping backwards with ease, the major avoided the claws of the demon as it slammed its feet on the earth. Unknown to Sebastian—as a screen of dust elevated by the wyvern’s attack concealed his vision, the specter slashed at him with the sharp razor attached at the end of its tail. Its black armored blade successfully connected with the major’s thigh, slicing it open in a horizontal cut that poured blood from within.
“Major!” Xun cried out through the comms in concern for Sebastian.
“Ouch…! Don’t worry, I’m alright.” Claimed the major with little care.
“That’s not it!”
Continuing with its vicious assault, the wyvern jumped directly at Sebastian with its feet pointing directly at his face. The major smirked as he could easily avoid the direct approach of the demon, but despite anticipating its attack, his feet wouldn’t obey his command—keeping him frozen in place.
“What the—!”
Taken off guard by his unresponsive legs, the major was forced to block the claws of the monster instead—vertically placing his sword in front. The wyvern’s feet clashed with the steel of Sebastian’s blade, forcing him to slide away in the dirt—leaving a trail of dust in his path. He buried his giant sword on the scorched earth, utilizing its cross-guard to lean his body in.
“Oof… damn…”
“Are you alright, major?” Aria’s voice joined in through the speaker—followed by a furious Xun.
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“I told you to be careful with it!” she scolded the major. “It says here that those things were used to weaken gladean knights back in the day, robbing them of their strength with a single swing of their tail. I can only imagine what it would do to a human being.”
“I don’t like the sound of that…” Aria said. “On my way to provide assistance, major!”
Standing himself firm once again, the major stretched his arms and fixed his shoulders while replying to the pair. “Nah, I can deal with.” He stated calmly. “You two help each other out. I shouldn’t be playing around too much right now anyway.”
Smirking confidently at his opponent, Sebastian’s bright ambers were suddenly absorbed by the same glow of the specters, transforming his eyes into a familiar crimson. That same powerful light took over his heart as well, spreading across his body through its veins inside. Now fueled by the power of the demons, the energy within Sebastian crawled its way into both his giant sword—Ares, and his sawed-off shotgun—Callisto.
Both weapons took into a form similar to the specters, rigged in black armored exoskeletons and crimson glowing veins running across their bodies. Sebastian’s appearance took a similar shape itself, with the right half of his body mutating into a spectral appearance—his glowing crimson eyes ready to take on the draconian beast.
“Let’s do this!” roared the major, breaking into a rapid sprint towards his opponent—ripping his word out from the ground in a single motion.
Not allowing itself to be intimidated by the major’s new power, the demon met his charge with one of its own—jumping forward to fly at its foe with incredible speed. Both fighters met at the center where they clashed into a lock, with the wyvern biting down on Sebastian’s shotgun—its sharp fangs gnawing at the weapon’s reinforced structure.
“That’s gonna be a pain to clean…” Sebastian whispered with furrowed brows—promptly pressing the trigger on his weapon.
Instead of releasing its usual set of shells however, Callisto ignited into sparks of crimson electric waves that crawled into the wyvern’s body—forcing the monster to convulse in the air at the horrifying magnitude of its power. Having staggered his opponent long enough, Sebastian pulled the shotgun away from the wyvern’s mouth—pointing its cannon directly at its face.
“Boom.”
A thunderous bang echoed across the region as the crimson shells of Callisto exploded out of both cannons. The distance between them and the specter was short enough for them to ignite in less than a second, decimating the monster’s face into dust, and penetrating further into its body—completely destroying its armor and hidden core within it. What remained of the wyvern’s pieces crumbled like rubble on the dirt, disappearing into embers that joined with the red fog of the Deadlands.
“Phew!” Huffed the major, whipping the sweat from his half human half specter face. “That was easy. Xun, Aria, you both doing well?”
“N-not as… much as I’d like to…” Breathed Aria in response.
“My suit is running out of power, but this horde is not dwindling in numbers, major.” Xun reported.
“…!” Sensing a powerful attack approaching from behind—Sebastian rolled forward across the ground to land in one knee, quickly pulling himself back up to face his ambusher. “Oh hey… it’s you again.” He casually stated.
With a tall and muscular body, fissures of crimson running across its obsidian armored body. An ogre like specter stomped into the battlefield with an intimidating growl, joined by a second specter of identical appearance—the large and sharp fangs in their lower jaws sticking out of their mouths.
“Major?”
“Don’t worry,” Sebastian replied immediately—soothing Xun’s worries. “It’s just this guy again, and he brought his brother too.”
“The troll huh?” Aria spoke. “I hate that guy, he’s too tall for me to hit in places that aren’t his legs…”
“We’ll keep slowing them down over here, major.” Xun said. “You deal with them, and join with us when you can.”
Smiling softly with closed eyes as he shook his head slowly, Sebastian huffed a chuckle before open them back up, replying to his team. “No… let’s retreat for now.”
“What?”
“I’ll deal with them by myself while you fall back,” the major instructed. “Then I’ll join you in the nearest camp south of here in two minutes, got it?”
“Wait, on your own?” Aria inquired. “I mean, I get that you have all those cool powers and all, but…”
“You are both tired and need rest. Xun’s robot is about to run out of batteries too, and that’ll make your retreat much harder.”
“It’s a mech-suit, not a robot.” Protested the small woman inside her cockpit. “It is also powered by a unique type of fuel stored in the back that blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Researched by the genius scientist Jacob Foley, and further explored by myself to blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, and they are not batteries.”
“Damn… not even I paid attention to all of that.” claimed Aria.
Slicing the arm off of one of the trolls, Sebastian skillfully stretched his arm holding Callisto against the second opponent—blasting its chest open, and catapulting it a great distance away by the sheer force of its crimson shells. With the first specter staggered as it held its now chopped off arm with the other, the major holstered his shotgun to pick the sword in both hands, waving it above his head to slash the troll’s legs in a horizontal attack. His successful strike completely sliced both limbs off the demon, forcing its face against the dirt.
“See ya!” the major plunged Ares’ spectral black steel on the monster’s back, pulling it closer in his direction to split the troll’s body in half by its center—ending the life of the demon as it dissipated into embers. “I took one down already,” he informed both girls on the comms, resting his giant sword on one shoulder. “Are you both gone from the battlefield yet?”
“Ah…”
“We are on our way, major…” Xun replied—cutting communications.
With his team running back to safety, Sebastian took a long glance at his surroundings before the second troll recovered from its wounds—his confident and playful smile now faded into a focused and concerned frown. “So many…” he said under his breath. “Way more than you usually want me to deal with… what are you doing, Sovereign?”
END OF CHAPTER