Republic of Kaldstein, Near Deadlands Border: 936, August 12th, Sunday, 5:00 PM.
“I will not allow you to live,” said Atalanta while extending her glaive—pressing the offensive against King.
To her shocking surprise however, Loki slid in front of her before taking a hold of her weapon—locking her in place as they both pushed against each other for control of the glaive. The sheer pressure caused by both gladean knights wrestling for control caused the earth underneath them to crack, opening fissures on the ground by the second as they input more energy into their struggle.
The sudden reaction of the knight to protect him stunned King as well, who took the opportunity to silently retreat from the field—clenching his jaw with twitching eyebrows. His body began to glow in azure, and a beam of light struck him from above to take him back to the floating island above—returning him to Paradise.
“Don’t get too ahead of yourself, Golden Lightning.” Loki taunted his opponent.
“What are you doing!” furiously roared Atalanta. “Will you still to protect him? He is daemon, Loki!”
“Someone has to protect our home, you know?” the knight’s snarky grin only infuriated Atalanta further—utilizing her anger to push against Loki.
“Gr… what is wrong with you?” she growled. “You went too far, Loki!”
“Not far enough.”
Finding the strength to seize back her weapon, the blonde knight twisted her glaive out of Loki’s hands before striking at his abdomen with the butt of her weapon—continuing her attack by slamming the face of her adversary with the flat surface of the glaive’s blade. Such powerful strike hurled Loki away, forcing to bounce off the dirt before stopping himself by pressing one hand against the ground—crouching in one knee as a trail of dust followed him.
“Ngah…” the knight picked himself back up—fixing his shoulders with a confident smirk. “You don’t want to do this. I still have some strength left in me.” his grin widened.
Responding to his taunt, Atalanta charged directly at Loki while swinging her glaive in multiple directions—releasing shockwaves of lightning from her glaive, which traveled across the air. The knight stepped aside, crouched under, and jumped over her attacks however—landing back on his feet after leaping above the last electric wave.
Once reaching her target, The Golden lightning immediately slashed at him with a horizontal attack of her glaive. “Hya!”
The wide range of Atalanta’s weapon—combined with the absurd speed of her attack, guaranteed a direct strike on her opponent, offering no room to react. Loki’s teleportation ability offered him a way out of his situation however, vanishing into azure particles as Atalanta’s steel blade sliced through them—splitting the air in the process.
“…!” a gasp escaped Atalanta as Loki disappeared from view, scrunching her eyebrows down in determination as she repositioned her glaive—planting her feet firmly to spin around and slash with another horizontal attack, striking behind her with a swooshing sound that parted the air in half. “What!”
Her opponent was nowhere to be seen however, and her blade sliced nothing but empty space. Before she could recover from her spinning motion, a pair of arms suddenly wrapped themselves around her waist—pressing against her abdomen from behind. With enough force to raise her feet off the ground, Loki planted his feet firmly on the dirt while arching his back to lift Atalanta above his head—continuing his motion backwards.
“That actually hurt me,” claimed the smirking knight with blood rolling down his forehead into both eyebrows—slashed by The Golden Lightning’s glaive.
Completely curving his back, Loki slammed Atalanta’s head in the ground with a powerful suplex that bore a hole under them on impact—which lifted piles of rocks as the blonde knight’s head collided with the dirt. The knight released his grip from Atalanta’s waist while straightening his back, stepping back as The Golden Lightning’s body drops flat on the ground.
“Grugh…” Atalanta grunted in pain, struck by blurry vision and ringing ears. “Why are you…?”
“Grah…” Loki was not without injury however, dropping in one knee with panting breaths and twitching eyes. “You know King is the only one who can make use of the fountain… I won’t lose them yet. The order will be rebuilt… everyone is waiting at the fountain to be brought back… to how things used to be. How they should be.”
“You have to let go, Loki.” Said Atalanta, watching the blue sky above blend together with the crimson of the Deadlands. “You know King doesn’t care about us knights, Gladea, or the people we must protect… we can’t go back to those days anymore. Humanity is our responsibility… regardless of the order’s existence.”
“Speak for yourself,” Loki stood up with trembling legs, his shoulders and head dropped. “You can’t stop me… and neither can Ninigi. Stop getting in my way.”
Gladean Empire, Empire’s Seas: 936, August 12th, Sunday, 5:30 PM.
Rapidly sliding across the blue waters of the empire, the serpent-like specter decided to finally revealed itself by jumping out from under the sea towards the front deck. Its massive body covered the sun above the ship, cloaking everyone on the vessel under its shadow. Water rained down on Claire and her team—now joined by Gaspard and Eric. They observed in awe at the enormous monster flying above them, coming back down in an attempt to crush the entire ship.
“Maulik!” the lieutenant called for the hybrid.
“It’s not a problem,” he confidently claimed—bending his knees before jumping upwards towards the demon.
The lieutenant turned to Gal next, nodding at the unconcerned redhead as she returned the gesture. Above the ship, Maulik placed his hands on the serpent’s body before wrestling the demon towards the front of the ship—sending it flying back into the ocean. The impact of the specter forcefully slamming the water, caused a large wave to overtake the front deck and sweep everyone’s feet.
“Gah!” Eric lost his balance as the wave smacked his feet, dropping on the floor before being carried away.
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“Eric!” Claire leaped at the noble with no concern for her own safety, managing to take a hold of his arm.
Maulik landed back in the vessel, grabbing the lieutenant by the ankle and saving both her and Eric from being swept away into the ocean. “Hold on!”
“Here it comes, young master, miss!” Gaspard reported
Emerging from under the ocean, the giant serpent’s eyes glowed fiercely as water crawled down its black exoskeleton. With a loud and terrifying growl, the specter opened its gigantic mouth before attempting to take a massive bite off the front deck. Its sharp and pointy teeth were like cutting chains of a chainsaw—bent inwards, and with two longer fangs at the front. The creature kept its tongue inside a sheath on its mouth, and its pointy snout resembled a horn at the end of the nose.
“My turn!” Gal said while rushing the serpent with a confident smirk.
Her feet glowing with azure, the hybrid girl valiantly pressed on the offensive against the specter with a rapid slide across the front deck—placing herself under the mouth of the beast. Before the demon could bring its powerful jaws down against the ship, Gal propelled herself up like a missile to reach the monster’s mandible—swinging one foot upwards in order to strike at its jaw.
The serpent’s head violently sprung backwards on impact with Gal’s kick—a light of azure crawling through its veins, and plummeting into the ocean once again with a splashing sound. Watching the demon sink deeper as it disappeared from view, silence quickly followed while Bloodhound and the hybrids kept their watchful eyes on the water.
Following his original orders, Scott observed the battle from the highest part of the ship—lying his stomach flat on top of the bridge. He took a few shots at the water, trying to bring the specter’s attention to the front deck—each shot disturbing the water in the distance, like a lure that would attract the predator to its waves.
“What the—" Scott reacted in shock—watching multiple shadows emerging from the bottom of the ocean, and leading one finger to his earpiece. “Lieutenant, I see something approaching your position, and fast!”
“What?” receiving the call, Claire’s attention was quickly brought to a group of gaunt demons emerging from the water—jumping into the front deck with ravenous growls. “You gotta be… Maulik, Gal, deal with them fast! Eric, Gaspard, help me locate the serpent!”
“On it!”
Rapidly moving to deal with the specters in a frontal assault, the hybrids held the attention of the gaunt demons while Claire and her team attempted to spot the giant beast luring under water. No trails of the creature would appear during their search however, and more specters emerged into the deck looking for pray—forcing Bloodhound to assist the hybrids.
“No way its dead…” mentioned Eirc, slashing off the head of a gaunt specter with his sword.
“Focus!” Claire requested, turning one of her pistols into a glove of obsidian and crimson armor—which she used to obliterate the chest of her opponent with a thrusting punch, destroying its core in a single hit. “We need to find the core of the serpent fast…” she told herself.
Gaspard struck against his opponent with a powerful hit of his palm, cracking the armor of the specter before ending its life with a second attack—fragmenting the demon’s core inside its chest. “We’ve managed to prevent it from destroying the ship for now,” he said. “But we won’t be able to keep this pace for long I’m afraid.”
The battle continued for a couple of minutes before Bloodhound and the hybrids took care of the specters invading their ship, regrouping in the same place immediately after. The lack of presence from the main target remained as a source of concern for the team, running their eyes across the water in an attempt to spot the hiding creature. The water remained still, filling the atmosphere with nothing but the calm waves of the seas.
“We can’t do anything while its underwater,” commented Maulik. “And if it shows up somewhere else, we might want to say goodbye to this ship.”
“Could it be that we managed to scare the demon off our vessel?” Gaspard suggested calmly.
Claire shook her head however, presenting her spectral gear to the group—its blinking crimson light warning about the danger. “It’s still around…” she said—leading one hand towards her earpiece. “Scott, can you see it?”
“Uh, give me a moment…” a quick pause followed before the young sniper reported the news. “Wait, I see it! It’s coming back up!”
“Which side?”
“Still front deck! I think it’s about t—”
Emerging from the ocean with an explosive burst of water, the serpent immediately lunged at its defenseless pray with a powerful bite of its jaws—accommodating its head sideways to fit the entire front of the ship in its mouth. The rumbling caused by the demon brought Claire to the floor, landing on her butt before lifting her head—watching the massive teeth of the demon coming down on the group.
“Not a chance! Gal!”
Protecting the ship with all their might however, Maulik hopped out of the ship from one side of the deck to put a stop to the jaws of the serpent—with Gal doing the same from the other side, keeping the beast’s mouth open while pushing their backs against the side of the vessel. Both hybrids found themselves in between the cold steel of the ship, and the burning mouth of the demon. Maulik pushed against its razor-sharp teeth with both hands, while Gal’s shaking feet kept its fangs away.
“Gh…! Grunted Maulik. “Now we’ve done it…”
“Hahah…” her confident smirk fading into a nervous laugh, Gal chuckled nervously as her knees continued to bend by the pressure of the monster’s teeth. “Gigi won’t be happy if we don’t arrive home…”
The monster’s mouth looked down towards the front deck, where Claire, Gaspard and Eric remained stunned by its enormous size. The heat emanating from it burned like the sun during summer, releasing an intimidating hissing noise while its twitching mouth attempted to close itself and end the lives of all aboard the ship.
“…!” a gasp escaped the lieutenant, spotting a bright crimson glow inside a large hole just above the creature’s tongue sheath—serving as its glottis and core’s container. “The core!” she yelled while watching the incrusted orb bury itself further inside—becoming concealed from view.
“I can’t… hold on!” Maulik shouted as the teeth of the demon began to sink themselves on his flesh.
Gal’s knees continued to bend closer into her chest, gritting her teeth with painful grunt. “My legs hurt, Maulik!”
“Dammit!” Picking herself from the floor with haste, Claire quickly called upon the spectral bike—which roared into combat at her command. “Keep it busy!” she commanded both hybrids—earning a furious reply from Maulik.
“What do you think we are doing?!”
Forcefully pulling back the handlebars of her bike, Claire propelled herself upwards with a thundering roar of the bike, positioning the gear sideways to ride inside the monster’s mouth—landing near the sheath of its tongue, and continuing her way towards its glottis.
“Tori, are you there?” she contacted the young medic—who replied immediately with concern.
“Lieutenant, what are you doing!”
“I need to destroy the core, but if this thing closes its mouth is all over for me.” She stated while keeping her composure—taking a deep breath as she neared the hole in the serpent’s mouth. “You have the special cartridges miss Yeon issued for you, right? I need you to try and stun it with them.”
“I do, but that’s too reckless. What if—”
“No time to think,” interrupted the lieutenant. “This thing is in the water so it’s worth the shot. I’ll use my gear to keep myself safe.”
“I-I…”
“Tori! I’m counting on you for this.”
“Y-yes! I can do it, lieutenant!”
Out of the creature’s mouth, Maulik’s hands were soaked with blood as the teeth of the serpent began to pierce his flesh—penetrating his palms from one side, and coming out the other. “Whatever she is doing better work…”
On Gal’s side, her knees were pressed tightly against her own chest as the monster continued to slowly push its jaws closed. Both sides of the deck began to crack under the mouth of the demon, the continues force of the hybrid’s backs pressing against causing it to slowly crumble.
END OF CHAPTER