Center of the Deadlands: 936, December 31st, Monday, 6:30 AM.
The battle between Bloodhound and King continued, with the power of the spectral gear being the only one capable of facing the daemon now that Loki had been taken out of the conflict. However, refusing to meet his end at the hands of the man he once served, the order’s champion was able to maintain his consciousness through Tori’s field surgery—escaping death once again thanks to the miraculous hands of the young medic. Nearby, Scott observed the fierce battle that unfolded, waiting for signals from the lieutenant to take his shot.
“I feel like I should be helping more…” the man said to himself, zooming in on the spectral bike as it circled around the giant, providing Claire with enough space to shower him with a rain of crimson bullets.
“Imagine how I feel,” Eric said while inspecting the fight with a pair of binoculars. “This guy is…”
“Big, I know. He doesn’t seem to be trying either…”
“What?”
“He is moving a little slow. I don’t know how to explain it, but he is sizing up the lieutenant, at least for now…”
“Great… and the only knight in our side is out of the picture.”
You think Loki would help us if he wasn’t injured?”
“I meant Ninigi.”
“Of course… I really hope he is alright.”
In the battlefield, Claire pulled the trigger on her pistols in a smooth motion while keeping them tightly pressed with her fingers. Both Juno and Jupiter began to shake slightly as they absorbed the fog of the Deadlands around them, converting its energy into fuel they could merge with their own strength. The crimson veins running through their body glowed even brighter, with their increasing power, which only grew in magnitude by the second.
Distracted by the spectral bike, as he became trapped at the center of a flaming ring of crimson, King attempted to slam the motorcycle with a strong vertical swing of his sword in an attempt to escape. The gigantic blade of his weapon failed to encountered the bike during its trajectory, the powerful impact caused by it however, created a sharp burst of rocks that erupted from the ground and into the bike—flinging the gear away from him with the resonating force of his attack.
Now able to retake his focus towards his opponent, the daemon turned around calmly to settle his eyes on the bright crimson light of Claire’s pistols. Her hands trembled, struggling to contain the large quantity of energy that her weapons had absorbed. King raised his chin at the sight of the frowning girl, whose clenched jaw revealed the limits of her strength to the daemon’s eyes.
“If that is all you can handle…” King began, breaking into a sprint towards his foe while holding his sword in one hand. “You have just wasted my time, girl.”
“…!”
Shocked by the absurd speed behind the giant’s chase, Claire felt obligated to release all the energy her gear had absorbed in order to defend herself. A drop of sweat rolled down her cheek as she clenched her jaw, curling her toes to glue herself tighter to the ground. Her attack would not be enough to deal with the daemon, and at the speed of his approach, her chances of successfully landing her unstable attack against him had been reduced to nearly zero. Even with highly observant skills, as well as being conditioned to make quick decisions in dire situations, the giant allowed her not time or space to consider her choices once his eyes fell on her.
It took no King no longer than a second to reach his target, halting his advance in a blink to stomp the dirt in front of Claire—his sudden stop causing the air around him to burst. Merely a few feet away from each other, the absurd height difference between both contenders was at full display as Claire arched her back slightly. Her eyes slid upwards towards the raised hand of the daemon, the bright glow of his blade shrouding his face with a shadow.
Before he could bring it down, a loud bang echoed strongly in the distance, announcing Scott’s attempt to stop the daemon. Its speed and power split the air in its trajectory, meeting no force strong enough to stop its advance. Way beyond its capabilities however, the large and piercing bullet met its match before it could even scratch the cheek of its target, as the invisible aura around the giant reduced its body into a pile of ashes the scattered with the wind.
“He was wrong about you…” the giant claimed, proceeding to bring all the weight of his weapon down on the tiny girl in front of him. “Perish!”
Despite the imminent danger that could end her life in a blink, the lieutenant narrowed her eyes and crinkled her nose with an angry frown, resisting the urge to close her eyes through the giant’s attack. However, Claire’s confidence in her own plan never wavered as her fingers remained pressed on the triggers, kicking into motion by the sudden emergence of an intimidating beast of crimson armor.
Before King’s blade could reach the lieutenant, a horned specter of amber glowing veins burst into action by grabbing the giant’s sword—its strength matching his. Enraged and full of vigor, with a physique that rivaled King’s, the specter launched a fast hook with his second hand against his opponent’s chin. His fist however, was immediately caught by the giant’s palm, bringing both fighters into a wrestling match for control of the battle.
“You…” King reacted, surprised by the presence of the horned creature. “How are you…”
“Out of the way!” yelled the lieutenant, her voice alone prompting the specter to vanish into a cluster of crimson particles—leaving the daemon at point blank range. “You can keep your Paradise,” she told her foe while letting go of the triggers in her pistols.
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A bright flash of crimson erupted from Juno and Jupiter, as they quickly released the contained power within them in a single ray of blazing energy. Unable to escape from her attack, King was quickly caught by the crimson hell that Claire’s spectral gear had unleashed upon him. Sparks of lightning crackled around it, the sheer strength of the beam forcing the daemon’s feet to slide away through the dirt—unable to keep his grip on the ground as her struggled to resist.
“Ngh…” King tried to place his sword in between him and the flaming ray that ripped through his torso like a drill, though unfortunately for the giant, the sparking waves of lightning that crawled all over his skin had caused his muscles to contract—restricting his movements, and forcing him to endure the direct heat of Claire’s attack. “Grr… Aargh!”
The daemon roared furiously, as his body became absorbed by the crimson beam, ripping a trail on the ground that expanded far into the distance, proudly displaying its destructive path with strings of hissing steam. The fog around it became a tunnel that surrounded the broken dirt, exhibiting King’s gigantic azure blade lodged in the ground. The lieutenant’s hands trembled, as they too had to endure the demonic power of Juno and Jupiter to keep the ray steady—eventually dropping her shoulder while huffing through pursed lips.
Claire dropped to her knees with panting breaths, sweat rolling down her drenched face as she struggled to catch her breath. Though accustomed to combat, combined with the aid of her spectral gear and battle experience, such powerful being had forced everything out of the lieutenant like no other. She exploited every technique that she learned over the year, both at the academy, and at the training grounds with Sovereign’s assistance—whose knowledge of the gear had been passed onto her for the most part.
“Lieutenant!” Scott called out to her through comms.
“Scott… how are… things there?” she breathed.
“Everything seems fine in our end. We uh… we all saw what happened over there, are you alright?”
“I’m coming to you… we should… get Loki out of here…”
“Copy! Eric and I will keep an eye out just in case.”
“Thank you, Scott…”
“Just focus on getting back, lieutenant. We got your back.”
Having witnessed the absurd amount of power that Claire’s spectral gear was capable off, Loki’s eyes remained glued to the scorched trail they had left in the distance—a power just as destructive as his own, and that she failed to reveal during their fight at the emperor’s palace. His brows twitched with frustration, both at his terrible current state, and the strength proven by the gear he saw as mere toys for a girl—his anger fueled even further by the distracting redhead kneeling next to his broken body.
“Mister knight!” Tori called to him. “Look! This is a photo of Eric in his pajamas. He was trying to sneak out of the barracks at night!”
“How did you get that!” the noble yelled at her from afar.
“Stop talking to me…” growled the order’s champion through gritted teeth. “You are… annoying…”
“I-I’m just trying to distract you from the pain…” she gave a meekly response, furrowing her brows at the aggressive expression of her patient. “I’ve been reading books about treating patience ever since I was a child… distracting them can be useful to calm their anxiety, or whatever worries they may have… and, um…”
“Tch!”
“Ah! S-sorry…”
Finally regrouping with Bloodhound, Claire almost collapsed in front of Scott and Eric as she stumbled into them—caught immediately by the young noble. She grabbed Eric’s shoulder and pulled herself away, breathing deeply to calm her fatigued heart. The pair bombarded her with questions about her state as they took her to the wound knight, worries she managed to clear despite the terrible state of her uniform—torn and covered in dirt. At their arrival, Tori’s emerald irises gleamed with happiness after seeing the lieutenant, picking herself up from the ground to meet her with a bright smile.
“Lieutenant!” She stepped in front with pumped fist. “I knew you’d be fine!”
Her innocent positivity drew a relieved chuckled from Claire, her smile alone lifting a large height off her shoulders. “Thank you, Tori… but I’m afraid this isn’t over yet.” She claimed, moving her gaze towards the injured gladean knight—whose intimidating glare almost punched a whole in between her eyes. “I know King isn’t dead yet… and to be frank with all of you… I don’t think I can win against him…”
“Of course… you can’t.” Loki told her, taking the attention of Bloodhound members onto him. “That man is a daemon… even a gladean knight would struggle against him. If he wanted you dead… he would’ve killed you the moment you showed your face.”
“…”
“Or so I thought…” the knight corrected himself, causing the lieutenant to raise her eyebrows with a puzzled look.
“What do you mean?”
“Urk!”
“Mister knight!” Tori kneeled rushed to his aid, kneeling next to him once again. “I told you not to move too much…”
“Leave me… alone…”
“We’ll take you out of here soon,” announced Claire, moving her eyes towards the marksman of her team. “Prepare our transport, Scott. We’ve spent too much time in the Deadlands…”
“Ma’am!”
“Eric,” she called to the noble. “You will help me and Tori carry our guest into the truck… make sure he doesn’t break any bones.”
“Got it.”
“You better not touch me…” protested the knight, hyperventilating through quick and shallow breaths. “…I can’t… feel King’s presence at all…”
“I-is that a good thing… mister knight?”
“Either he is severely wounded and healing… or I just lost my ability to perceive a gladean knight’s pathway…” Loki told them, and while his words focused on the powerful daemon, his mind remained occupied by a blonde woman he had known since childhood. “I still can’t feel Atalanta’s either… what… happened to her…” he wondered.
“Let’s get you out of here…” Claire said, kneeling close to his head to gently shove her hands under his back. “I hate to admit it, but you are the only one I can see defeating someone like that…”
“If Ninigi were here…” Tori expressed with a sad frown, grabbing Loki’s lower back from the side. “N-not that I don’t believe in you! I know you can do it too, mister knight!”
“Shut up…”
Stepping into position, Eric squatted in front of the knight before grabbing his feet, nodding at both the lieutenant and the young medic. The trio slowly pulled the injured man off the dirt, though despite their careful movements, Loki groan and cried in pain as he felt a series of punctures crawling through his body, like a dance of twisting swords that tore through his flesh with every motion.
“Argh! Ngh… Uck…”
“Relax… aren’t you a gladean knight?” Said Claire.
“I… should’ve killed you…”
“You’ll be fine, mister knight!” Tori announced chirpily, offering a bright smile to the agonizing man. “If it helps you to hear it, you are unbelievably lighter than I thought!”
“Stop… talking to me…”
END OF CHAPTER