May 23rd - 11 h 8 PM

As Tayla walks away from the alley, Toska stares down Athomas Killian with these red dots surrounded by a void of pitch blackness. The fugitive can sense panic rise once again in his body. A powerful creature like this must be dealt with this instant. If not, he can kiss his newfound purpose goodbye. Without skipping a beat, Athomas checks the status of his mana.

[ MP : 16/100 ]

It’s far from ideal, but he’s able to pull out something

[ Blood Censorship - Blood Apparition : Enabled ]

Using every drop of mana he has left, Athomas adds four more blood orbs to his arsenal, this time appearing out of thin air. Using a victim’s blood costs a lot less mana then { Blood Apparition }, the disadvantage being that he’d need an unconscious victim to pull this out. Toska is anything but that. Athomas feels more secured with six blood orbs hovering above him, but if his next move doesn’t work, the killing machine will have the last laugh.

“I haven’t said my last word, clanker!”, expresses the prey to the hunter.

Toska, without saying a word, gets ready for battle. Its two hands spin around themselves at 360 degrees. Athomas sees this and can’t help but gulp. He desperately doesn’t want to die.

“TAKE THIS!”, he screams while throwing the first blood orb with full strength on the machine’s skull. Toska blocks it by dodging with his upper body and slapping it away with its hand. The blood orb splashes at contact. The machine’s left eye is covered in blood, affecting its vision.

Athomas seizes the opportunity to dash at his opponent. The adrenaline pushes him to take high-risk measures. That same detachment from before appears, as he fully embraces the battle. His survival instincts take over in response to the menace in front of him.

[ Blood Censorship - Bloody Weapon X2 : Enabled ]

Two of the five remaining blood orbs move towards Athomas’ hands and transform into dual blades of crimson color. Athomas proceeds to swing his two swords around with the desperate hope of decapitating Toska’s stomach. 

Influenced by the hordes of sci-fi movies he watched, Athomas doesn’t trust Toska to not react if he goes for the machine’s neck. It could potentially still be able to kill him.

 Toska’s agility and speed remains the bigger issue. It evades all attacks with ease despite the hindered eyesight. If anything, it remains on the backfoot. Athomas’ strength is not fighting, let alone stamina, and so Toska’s waiting for a moment of fatigue from his opponent to crush him.

When it sees said moment, small engine noises can be heard from its left arm. Toska then launches its whole body and goes for a rapid left hook. Athomas barely manages to escape death and steps back. The robot now goes for the assault, only for the fugitive to throw a surprise swing of his bloody weapon to his right. Athomas grabs the blade with its right hand and gets ready for another hook.

“Wrong move!”

Suddenly, the whole blade explodes, gushing all over Toska’s right hand and on a portion of its stomach.

Athomas proceeds to hit the machine on the right side of its elbow and forearm. The weapon then explodes in a bath of blood that stains the right side of the machine’s upper body. Toska has yet to feel any sort of damage from those hits.

Athomas laughs nervously, in a high as he attempts a massive attack, combining the last three remaining orbs together in a massive pool of blood. He sends the blood flying towards the machine, hoping to cover the monster in blood. 

The sound of turbines roars again, as the two engines on Toska’s calves reappears. he traverses backwards at incredible speeds, dodging the entirety of the attack in an instant. A giant portion of the alleyway is covered in blood, from the concrete to even windows.

There is a small pause, as Athomas has to content with what he’s got. Toska has yet to react in any emotional manner, which throws the ex-journalist off his game. Still, he’s not too worried. With a bit of luck, this next move could work if the gods are on his side. Toska remains in battle position, but remains still, almost as if he’s studying his opponent rather than striking him down.

That’s when Athomas smirks, out of character, another subsystem induced trance hitting all the nerves in his brain.

This move could be the 180 flip he needs to get out of there unscathed.

With but a hook as the cyborg’s main attack and not much else, Athomas can’t shake the small tingle in the back of his head that he remains a pawn in this fight. All this time running from the government to achieve the peak of his level 1 abilities. If only he had achieved level 2 before combatting this brute, many more options could have been at his disposal.

Anger replaces fear, as thoughts of destroying this pile of iron floods away all the doubts he casts on himself.

Toska, then, almost understands what’s about to happen.

[ Blood Censorship - Iron spear : Enabled ]

Like coordinating an orchestra, Athomas swings his arms widely, impassioned. Toska grips the bloody part of its face and throws it in the air. 

With a ferocity and speed the machine doesn’t have the time to calculate, its right shoulder, a part of its forearm, its entire right hand and a decent portion of his right torso and stomach gets ripped out. Sounds of metal decomposing, cables being ripped out and components destroyed by the rip & tear screech through the alleyway.

All this scrap, composted and recycled, morphs into disgusting lances, about a dozen of them and around a meter long each, that floats above both fighters. All that is left of Toska’s right arm, untainted by blood, crashes on the ground. 

Successful in his ploy, Athomas looks dead. 

Toska’s terrifying stare hasn’t changed despite the insane predicament he’s in. Tearing the mask reveals a complex group of segments and cables intertwined. The exposed eye looks a lot more human, still plunged in an abyss of black stuck in this cyborg body. The spears could destroy the machine at best, and distract it enough that Athomas would be able to run away at worst.

“Got anything to say, you monster!?”, lets out Athomas, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. He’s craving the approach of his next move. The fugitive can feel his body close to dropping unconscious.

Toska continues to stare him down, emotionless.

Its core, still intact despite missing a chunk of the torso, begins to glow a bit brighter, subtle.

“Burn.”

Just a second later, the entirety of Athomas’ body is engulfed in massive flames.

The ex-journalist yells in pain, unable to process what just happened as the agony takes over his whole being. 

This lasts for a minute, before the flames disappear in a flash, leaving behind but a terrible smell of smoke. None of the buildings, windows, fences or garbage bags were damaged by the flames, like it probably should have been. The spears decompose themselves and fall on the ground. The only thing burnt to smithereens was Athomas, now a pile of ash reconstituting his body like a statue. All traces of Athomas’ subsystem disappears, leaving no trace of existence except for the metal that served as spears.

Then, the glow on Toska’s core vanishes, as the robot approaches the ashes. The hole in the cyborg’s body sucks all of the ashes of Athomas Killian.

“Victim and user of subsystem Blood Censorship, Athomas Killian, has been neutralized. Blood Censorship is ready for analysis, master.”, announces Toska out loud with its horrifying voice.