Chapter 11

I sighed, slouching into Fumia’s arms. “We did it!” I closed my eyes, relief running rampant through every nerve in my body. Her katana clicked into its sheath and Fumia wrapped her arms around me. Her bare pale skin squeezed my waist, her warm touch across my bruised body, her cold stare, and her gentle breath. For a moment my worries briskly shifted away like the remains of the Irregular which floated off in the wind just a few feet in front of us.

“Before we celebrate, we need to check in on Yuna and Sakura and regroup with Serpent and Atake.” She slid her arms from under mine and I fell onto the hard dirt floor.

I nodded. Sheathing my blades I opened my palms widely, blisters, bruises, open wounds, filled the majority of my hands with red flowing from my palms and down across my arms. 

Finding Yuna and Sakura where I left them, the two unconscious huddled together. Yuna atop Sakura as if trying to siphon warmth from him. 

“We should bring them to the Cathedral and regroup with Serpent.” 

Fumia agrees. I push Yuna’s pink pigtails behind her head and lift her into my arms gently. Holding her like a mother holding her newborn, I venture ahead of Fumia towards the Cathedral. The winds whirled, the ground crunched beneath my feet, my heart made an audible thudding, but what was louder than all of that was the silence of Yuna in my arms. Her body shivered, her skin pale almost yellow, her lips cracked like the dirt we traversed on. I didn’t want to see Yuna leave us, leave me, nor Sakura, nor Atake, but carrying her body, her breathing faint, the odds were against me.

Stepping into the Cathedral, the tiled floor clacked and echoed through the front hall.

“Tsk, it’s just you.” Serpent’s ocean eyes illuminated in the shadow-filled room. He looked away from me and into Atake’s closed eyes. Gently placing Yuna against the walls of the Cathedral like before, I crouched next to Serpent, his cloth mask draped around his neck. “I saw that flash of light, did you two finally kill that Irregular bastard?” I nodded. “Her breathing is sporadic. I’m not sure she’ll last here any longer.”

“I know, we need to contact the fourteenth ward, but my info gauge was fucked in combat. Unless you have yours working.”

He shakes his head. “Same here, they shouldn’t be so fragile if we’re thrown into combat with them.”

Turning my gaze towards Atake’s wrist, “I already checked. Her’s is busted too.” Serpent cut in. 

“Tsk, we can’t just be stranded here.” My eyes narrowed and I ran over to Yuna, her info gauge still blinking.

A shadow pulls into the doorway, followed by brisk footsteps. Fumia sighed and props Sakura up against the wall, her face stern as always. Disregarding her, I place Yuna’s info gauge onto my wrist. Reaching out my arm I make a fist followed by opening my hand wide. The holographic menu of the device pops open for a second, wavering followed by vanishing.

“What…no, no, no.” I continued to open the menu, and it continued to static out and vanish. Staring up to Fumia, her eyes were already on me. “Does yours work!” 

She shakes her head. 

Were tapped!

A long and heavy thud from afar shook the Cathedral, small pieces of debris falling from the ceiling. 

“What was that? I thought you two took care of everything!”

“We did Serpent. I don’t know what this is.” Fumia retaliated and the ground quaked again before coming to a stop. Again and again, each quake and thud became closer and longer.

About two hundred yards away the ground lifted from the earth and shot into the sky in one spiral motion before falling back to the ground shooting clouds of dust and debris in every which direction, laying waste to the already barren ward. A large cloud of particles surrounded us and the blanked fiery skies above only added salt into the wound. It was now impossible to visualize anything outside.

“You two, get off your asses!” Fumia held her katana, one half of the blade still sheathed.

Opening the info gauge, I swiftly sent a message out to Kenn. We need medical attention immediately-- Before finishing the message the info gauge closed and the message auto-sent.

Like metal clinking on metal, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, again and again in a pattern of six the sound of metal on metal clinked towards us. Staring outside into the fog, like headlights on a vehicle, six trapezoid-like objects moved towards us, illuminating a blinding neon green.

“Ah, shit!” Serpent complained.

Stopping just outside the doorway their green eyes lit the room. Their face was utterly grotesque. With colorful frills on either side of their latex textured dome-shaped head. They had an overbite where their spirally wire-like teeth were revealed, their salvia dripped from their mouth, one droplet was at least one gallon.

“An Original,” I said under my breath and gritted my teeth. The twelfth Original, Teras Savras.

“We’re already down three people, do you think we can do this?” Serpent questions the look in Fumia and my eyes.

“I’ve almost killed an Original alone before--”

“And you almost died doing that, but there are three of us now. The twelfth Original as shape-shifting abilities we know that much from our studies.”

“But why has it stopped?” I stared into their green eyes which were transfixed on us. “Matter of fact, why is the Cathedral the only building left standing?”

Serpent took a step forward, his chain link scraping across the tiled floor, his scimitar in his other hand. “Let me test something…” Shooting himself upward like a spring, he released his chain link into the jaw of the statue still Original. As it clashed onto their jagged teeth the Original lashed forward, tossing Serpent onto his back and almost out the doorway into their unhinged jaw. Swiftly retracting his chain link Serpent rose to his feet. “I don’t know what it is. But no harm can be done to the Cathedral by MechaBeasts.”

“We don’t know that for sure, we’re endangering of both us and these three if we just stay here. Our best option is to lure this thing away from the Cathedral.” The room felt almost like a sauna as I broke into a sweat. The warm breath of the Original felt as if they were baking us alive.

“Kanade’s right--”

“He’s always right to you isn’t he Fumia.” Serpent retorted.

“Oh stop bitching, what was your plan? To stay here and wait for backup? We’re practically sitting ducks right now, we don’t have time to waste when we can finish this right now and focus the backup team sent on helping these three.” Fumia enraged pushed her bangs behind her ears and tightened her ponytail. Holding the grip of her sheathed katana, her palms red and blistering. 

Running out the door I performed the sword skill Burst Stream. Their massive jaw tried scooping at me, but I evaded. Consecutively slashing my swords forward and back, switching between blades on each swing as I danced around the perplexed Original, digging and scraping at their latex-like skin. Moving out of the doorway and consumed by the putrid fog their emerald eyes vanished into the mist. 

“ARGRAHH!” My back felt numb, peeling away the cloth of my clothing followed by my engraving five claw marks into my skin. I pulled away but they tossed me onto the ground, stomping me like an ant. As I pushed up with all my strength, I could barely even budge an inch. Like a canvas for an artist, their claws drew across my back. “FUMIA!” My voice raspy and sirening help.

“Kanade! I’m a little preoccupied--” Her wind of her blade passed near me and she grunted in battle.

It had been at least two minutes. With no other options arising, I forced myself to break my promise, once again. Shutting my eyes tightly, everything grew silent, like a veil disconnecting me from the outside world. My inhale became the only audible sound. As I exhaled a cold breath, I saw the outside world from a different lens.

“GRAAAAAAAA!” The ground rumbled as the Original stumbled. I had lifted myself from their grasp. Glancing around, my eyes like headlights illuminating through the murky air. I could see Fumia as she dashed from side to side. Stopping in place, wounds would appear across the surface of the Original. And for the first time, I could see the Original clear as day. They were massive, standing at least seventeen feet in height and eight in width. The skin wrapped on their six limbs were pliable and a creamy color like the latex-like material on their face. Their large metal hooves sported six claws, with one protruding from the back rather than the front like the rest. While their torso was coated in thick scales which protrude slightly from their skin. Their tail drooped onto the ground, also covered in rich green scales. Although they were massive, that was also their biggest draw back.

Fumia was now at a visual disadvantage, and I had to do something about it. “Fumia! Switch off!”

“Okay!” Her light footsteps as she darted away echoed louder than my own thoughts.

Taking a deep breath in once again, I felt my heart rate slow tremendously. I positioned myself low on the ground as if I were about to take off in a sprint. I slung one blade over my shoulder, the other parallel to my foot. Exhaling, I charged forward, the Original roared but before it could turn and face me, I was already off. The wind felt warm on my skin and my hair whirled back above my head. Running across the opponent, in a spiral I flung myself into the air, landing at the back of their head, and reversing the spiral, finishing where I started. They broke into a vile green substance making small puddles of it across the ground as I finished the sword skill Typhoon, my most potent sword skill. Where I ran the fog had cleared, and it only continued to clear as the Original propped their limps out and the latex-like material began stretching and changing shape. That did nothing to them? I sighed.

Staring around, Fumia glanced at me through the clearing fog. Making my way to her side she spoke, “That was impressive. But look, their wounds are regenerating. Along with the shape-shifting you’d think the Irregulars and the twelfth are the same. But their regeneration is far slower, and only the white parts on their body can shift. We can do this.”

“Ah!” I npd and sling my white bangs back. Their tips painted maroon.

As Fumia and I ran beside each other, the Original’s front two limbs became long cylindrical tubes with a large metallic flat surface at the front and hole punches circling the silver front plate. The flat surface began spinning like the wheels of a vehicle and the holes covering the metallic plate began flashing a bright orange. Before we could react, bullets began flying our way. Dashing to the side, Fumia did the same. As we fled bullets zipped over our heads and flew behind our backs, biting at our skin every so often.

Getting out of harm's way, we sought shelter behind the ruins of a nearby building, bullets still raining. 

“The twelfth Original, also known as the GunMecha…”

I gasped as Serpent walked from the shadows towards us. His eyes narrow and gleaming onto me. “Where did you come from?” I got no response, just empty stares. 

“In any case, the GunMecha was last seen twenty-five years ago. They kept the bullets raining which led to most Front Lines fighters committing sucide due to the pressure. And without say they just fucking vanished. This information was sourced directly from Kiriya’s office.”

“H-huh, why’d you go in there?” My eyes narrowed.

“Does it matter? It got you two pieces of information you wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

“Tsk--”

“Kanade, Serpents right on this one. We didn’t take into consideration that there could be info we could have used to prepare ourselves. What else did it say on this Original?”

Serpent turns his gaze to Fumia, “Nothing you two don’t already know.” 

The wall we sat behind grew fragile, crumbling down as the bullets pecked away at it. Swiftly changing our current location, the bullets stopped. But the ground thudded as the Original began hunting us as if this were a game of cat and mouse.

“The only reason they took the winning side is because I told Fumia to take a step back for my sword skill. And as I finished up I ended up distancing myself as well. That’s on me, this could have easily been over with. But what we need to do now is keep them within arms length.”

The two nodded and Fumia began to speak, sweat dribbling across her forehead. “We should have one front attacker and two side hitters. Serpent and I will take care of the sides, Kanade you’ll be alone at the front, okay?”

I nod. “Their just around the corner, should we--” Glass shattered, walls crumbled, metal clanged, and bullets whistled. “Damn them!”

“This could be stupid but it’s all I could come up with, the GunMecha has a slow rotation, if we outrun those turrets I have a straight path to my side hitting postion.”

Fumia and I glance at each other for a brief moment before agreeing. The three of us make a break for it. I ran parallel to Fumia and Serpent ran opposite to us, with there only being two turrets, this task was rather easy, until it wasn’t. My heart pounded slowly, echoing through my head and I fell behind Fumia. As she got into position, I fell to my knees, finding it difficult to breathe. The lens which opened my eyes wavered and the world around me once again became hazy. “Gaaaaa, aaa, gaaaa,” The words didn’t form from my mouth, only a cold dribble of saliva. But I would not falter, the Originals torrent crossing back towards me, I took in a deep breath once again. The veil of silence reappeared and the lens fell over my eyes as I exhaled. This could kill me… I thought to myself, but I would rather risk using Concentrated Breathing again than leaving these two on their own.

Rising to my feet, three bullets bit the back of my shin, but I took off running. Under their jaw, I shot myself upward and gouged their emerald eyes out using Ripple. They roared and swung their tail towards me, grazing my chest, I dug my blades into it. They wagged their tail up and down flailing me around like a ragdoll. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” 

“Kanade, what the hell are you doing!” Serpent’s chain link wrapped around my leg and pulled me to the ground. On my descent, I slashed a chunk of their tail off.