Welcome to Chapter 17~
This chapter is concentrated with fighting.. I hope you guys don't mind
ENJOY~!____________________________________________________________________
Chapter 17 : Three WaySayanee hopped off Bahamut’s head and confronted Atsuko. “I have no interest in any Cybers today. You’re the one I want.. And that Rena..”
Atsuko was immediately alerted by Sayanee’s statement. From what Atsuko saw, the only ones left in the cave were Romeo and Rena. Nobody else was with them. “Damn.. Why now of all times..”
“I sensed some anxiousness from you, Atsuko.. Afraid of something?” Sayanee locked eyes with Atsuko for a long time without blinking.
Atsuko stepped back a little from the danger she sensed from Sayanee. “...”
Sayanee bent her body forward a little and with a kick on the ground, she suddenly appeared right in front of Atsuko. The latter was startled from the speed. Despite Sayanee’s leap being really fast, Atsuko still managed to tilt her body side ways to avoid her. To Atsuko’s surprise, Sayanee wasn’t aiming for her at all. She kept running towards the direction behind Atsuko, which happened to be the direction where the cave was. “Crap!” Atsuko immediately pursued Sayanee who was heading towards the cave.
“RAAAGGHHH!!!!” Sasshi thrusted her arm forward at Yuko’s face but got dodged easily.
Yuko flexibly spun her body swung her blade at Sasshi’s direction. With just a single swing of her arm, Sasshi punched the blade away causing Yuko’s whole body to lose balance a little. She then used the chance to land a punch on Yuko but got dodged once again. This time, Yuko shot a successful ice beam that completely froze Sasshi’s right hand. Without even waiting a second, Sasshi landed a powerful punch on the ground, breaking the ice immediately. Sasshi was completely immune to the effects of a frostbite. No matter how much you try to freeze her armor over and over, her armor will still be too hard to break apart from a frostbite.
“You both are wasting my time!” Takamina unclipped a fully charged Judgement laser and shot it right at both Yuko and Sasshi.
Upon noticing it flying towards their direction, Yuko immediately jumped away. Sasshi merely stood there instead and had both her hand thrusted out. Upon contact, the laser scattered into thousands of pieces. Sasshi got pushed back quite a lot but stopped in her tracks as soon as she stomped on the ground hard.
“What!?” Takamina was a little shocked that Sasshi could withstand the laser directly. So far, she had never encountered anyone who could do that.
“RAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Step by step, Sasshi slowly started walking forwards and pushing the laser back.
Yuko was also surprised with what Sasshi just did. Even Yuko knew that she couldn’t really withstand a direct blast from the laser and get away unscathed. Sasshi on the other hand just withstood a direct blast from the Judgement laser and yet still managed to push it back. “Tch... I hate to admit it but I’m actually impressed with that..”
“How about two!?” Takamina unclipped yet another fully charged Judgement and fired it in the same direction. This time, the laser was twice the size and of course the firepower was twice more powerful.
“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!” This time, Sasshi got overwhelmed by the immense firepower as she got pushed back once again. Both her feet were sliding backwards really fast and finally blasted through a rock.
“......” Takamina let out a huge breath from the amount of violent force needed to take Sasshi down.
“Tch.. I don’t believe there’s actually someone else capable of making you break a sweat other than me.. I’m a little pissed off right now.” Yuko looked completely unamused.
“What are you even doing here, Yuko?” Takamina asked.
“To make sure you don’t die before I get the chance to kill you.. Now that you’re safe, I’m gonna carry on with my mission.”
Takamina then pointed her sword at Yuko’s direction. “If your mission is to bring Atsuko and Rena back with you then might as well kill me first right here.”
Annin stood there silently in between Jurina and Ami. The atmosphere became really thick as Annin and Ami exchange glances. Finally, Annin opened her mouth. “Jurina.”
“Huh?”
“You do realize why I’m here right?” Annin asked Jurina while her eyes were still locked on Ami.
Jurina knew exactly why Annin was here. There could only be one reason, which is to bring them back to Omega. This included Rena who happened to be alone in the cave right now. This fact made Jurina really uncomfortable to stay there any longer. She really wanted to get back to Rena as soon as possible but she knew that Annin. As Jurina stepped back a little, the ground behind her got split open a little by the force of an air blade. There was a slit on the ground just a feet away from where she was standing now. “What is this...”
“The last thing I need is seeing you escape.. That, Jurina... Is the safe line. As long as you don’t go beyond that line, I will promise not to attack you.”
This is definitely bad. Annin knew that Jurina wanted to get back to where Rena was so she gave her a warning not to leave the vicinity. Annin was always known as the calm, quiet and the ‘nice’ one but she definitely will not tolerate if her words were ignored and disrespected. After all, whatever Annin says, she will always say it once and once only. Jurina realize what consequence were to befall her if she were to cross the line that Annin made. Despite having a few similarities in the way they view humans, Annin would actually take Jurina down on the spot if she wanted to. Well, at least she was nice enough to issue a warning beforehand. This made Jurina froze in her spot just right in front of the line. “...”
“Don’t worry, Jurina. As long as you don’t resist, I will assure you nothing will happen to you or Rena. So for now, why don’t you help me to take down the Cyber right here?” Annin suggested.
“....” Jurina was in a huge dilemma. She was smart enough to know that she was no match for Annin and that she had almost a zero chance of escaping right now, but at the same time, she didn’t want to return to the Spectre headquarters after risking her own life escaping. She just stood there silently for now.
Ami then held her right hand up and aimed it at both their direction. A tiny hole was seen in the center of her palm. To their surprise, a huge red laser was shot from the tiny hole on Ami’s palm. Noticing it, they leaped out of the way, causing it to blast through at least 10 trees behind them. Jurina noticed that the laser shot by Ami was awfully familiar. “Wait a minute... That laser looks like the Judgement laser...”
Ami nodded a little. “Ah, yes... That’s what they call it... The Judgement laser.. But 30 seconds of charging period? That’s a little slow, don’t you think so?”
“How did you know?” Jurina frowned a little with Ami’s statement. It seemed like Ami knew quite a bit about this.
“Where do you think the prototype for that so-called Judgement laser originated from? Did you actually think it was created by humans?” Ami aimed her right hand at them once again. “I was the one who created this laser. And for your information, mine doesn’t need any charging.”
As soon as Ami said that, she fired the laser from her hand immediately, proving her point. Knowing how deadly it was, Jurina leaped out of the way once again. Knowing the power already, Annin remained standing there with both her blades pointing back at Ami’s direction. The laser was reaching towards her really fast and the force from it was literally blowing her hair back. Without uttering a single word, she held up two fingers in that direction and suddenly, the laser was split in two, flying past her from the side. “...”
Jurina couldn’t help but to be in awe with the amount of power hidden within Annin’s mysterious mask. She then cursed herself for being weak, because if she were stronger than this, she would have no hesitation in crossing the ‘safe’ line that Annin made.
“I see.. Wind blades...” Ami smirked a little. “Which one do you think is faster? Wind or laser?”
“I can give you the answer.” Annin smiled a little.
“I wonder..” Ami immediately shot lasers from her right hand continuously at Annin, about 3 shots of laser per second. Some of them were cut in half by Annin’s wind blades while the others were dodged. Each and every one of the lasers are highly destructive as the whole area got annihilated into a wasteland. Good thing they were far from the other people.
“The answer is neither...” Annin suddenly appeared beside Ami like a black shadow, shocking the latter. “Because Spectres are faster.”
Annin then spun her body and smashed Ami away with her blades, causing her to crash through a few trees. “...”
That was when Annin locked eyes with Jurina. “It’s time to leave, Jurina.”
“....” Jurina was still in a huge dilemma.
“The Omega will forgive you.” Annin convinced even further.
That was when Jurina finally made a choice. She didn’t want to return and most definitely, she didn’t want to see Rena get locked up and tortured again. Rena has had enough for the past 2 years. Jurina too, has had enough. Jurina slowly shook her head. “No...”
“As a fellow Spectre, let me give you an advise, Jurina...” Annin then looked straight into Jurina’s eyes with her very own cold blooded eyes, as if they were piercing through her soul. “Do not resist against me.”
“The name’s Haruppi..” The Spectre smiled and finally revealed her name as she continued sucking on her lollipop while staring back at Umeda.
“H-Haruppi?” Paru was on the verge of laughter hearing her name.
“Cute name you have there.” Umeda chuckled a little.
“But of course that’s a name I rarely use..” The Spectre then removed the lollipop from her mouth and pointed at Umeda. “I’m better known as my other name.. Katsuzetsu.”
“Never heard of it.” Umeda scoffed.
“I’d be surprised if you have heard of me.” Katsuzetsu then placed her lollipop back into her mouth slowly as her eyes shifted from Yuki to Umeda. She then smiled. “So... Who should I start with first?”
Yuki pulled Paru behind her and stepped back a little. “Stay behind me, Paru.”
Two blades protruded from Katsuzetsu’s back and electric were seen escaping from them. “How about both at the same time?”
As soon as she said her sentence, each blade shot an electric pulse at Yuki and Umeda respectively. Umeda used her speed to evade it while Yuki dragged Paru away and dodged it. “Damn it, I’m not gonna play any more games! You’re mine!” Umeda managed to reach Paru once again.
At that time, Paru flinched a little and held her hand up from Umeda’s action. All of a sudden, a powerful shockwave was released from Paru’s body and it was concentrated directly on Umeda. Nobody saw that coming at all since it was completely involuntary. In that instant, Umeda felt her whole body slowed down from the push of the powerful force and was immediately sent flying away, piercing through the clouds. It seems that the force sent Umeda flying to a place very far away since she was nowhere to be seen in that vicinity anymore. Paru herself was shocked with what she just did. Even Katsuzetsu was shocked with the scene. It definitely wasn’t because Umeda was weak because she sure isn’t. This shows that Paru’s power might even be much stronger than she orriginally thought it was. To be able to send a Cyber Commander flying away effortlessly just like that was something that none of them had expected.
“Ugh..” Paru suddenly felt weak on her knees as she started tottering about. She started coughing a lot of blood out of her mouth and felt like she was about to faint soon. It seemed that the move earlier sucked up too much energy from her. Even her nose started bleeding. It seemed like she accidentally released a little too much of the power within her and it is now straining her body.
“Paru, are you ok?” Yuki asked.
“Y-Yea...” Paru wiped off the blood from her nose and mouth.
Katsuzetsu smirked. “As expected..” She then locked eyes with Yuki. “Well, no matter.. One down. One more to go..”
Yuki got on guard with her scythe. “There’s no way I’m letting you take Paru.”
“Kashiwagi Yuki, was it?” Katsuzetsu asked.
Yuki frowned. “How do you know my name?”
“Yeah.... How do I know your name?” Katsuzetsu rolled the lollipop in her mouth and took it out. “Maybe you can grab the answer from my mouth.”
“Don’t worry.. I will.” Yuki immediately leaped over towards Katsuzetsu and landed a scythe hit on her.
The hit missed as the latter manage to sidestep. Seeing this chance, Katsuzetsu went in for a side blade slam on Yuki with an incredible speed. Even though Yuki managed to block it successfully, it was an extremely strong hit. Yuki literally felt the pressure of the hit sinking onto the scythe’s handle. From the measure of the strength of this hit, Yuki could easily deduce that it was of a completely different level even when compared to a Beta. Katsuzetsu smirked a little with a lollipop in her mouth. “You look suppressed. Was this too much for you?”
“Not exactly.. But I’ll have to admit I was a little taken aback by the strength... You seem to be of the level of an Alpha... Which means I can’t go easy on you.” Yuki started increasing her strength and now slowly pushing Katsuzetsu back.
Katsuzetsu’s eyes widened a little from Yuki’s sudden push. Both her feet were sliding backwards with every step Yuki took to the front. Some sparks were seen from where the scythe and the blade clashed. Katsuzetsu then stomped her foot tight on the ground, not allowing Yuki to move further. “My my... First battle after I came back and I have to deal with someone troublesome..”
“I’d like to think of that as a compliment..”
Paru looked at her own hands for a short moment and thought, “I can’t just stand here and do nothing... I definitely can’t use my Judgement against someone of that level, but I may still be able to fight... As long as I know how to use these weird powers.. Even though it strains my body, I have to try.”
Paru then aimed both her hands at Yuki and Katsuzetsu’s direction. Nothing came out. She then concentrated harder and all of a sudden, she started feeling something weird flowing within her body. Her eye slowly turned from black to purple. At that time, Katsuzetsu shot a side eye at Paru, noticing it and immediately leaped backwards causing Yuki to trip forward a little. Coincidentally at that moment, Paru managed to fire a powerful shockwave from her hands and accidentally sent Yuki alone crashing past a tree trunk. She felt some of her ribs fracturing from the impact. “Ugh...”
“Y-Yuki sensei! T-That was an accident! I didn’t mean to do that!” Paru’s eyes turned black once again and started panicking as she just attacked Yuki instead of Katsuzetsu.
This gave Katsuzetsu the chance to attack Yuki who is off guard. “I’m finishing this off with my next move..” Katsuzetsu imbued electricity into her blades and hopped towards Yuki. As she swung her blades down, some electricity could be seen escaping from them.
Yuki immediately hopped up once again and swung her scythe upwards to defend. Katsuzetsu’s hits this time were much more powerful than the one before. For some reason, Yuki could feel her hands trembling, not from the amount of strength she was using but instead something released from Katsuzetsu’s blades. “What the..”
“You’re lucky these Judgements were made of titanium.. They’re not very good conductors of electric aren’t they? I wonder if it’s the same for human bodies...” Suddenly, Katsuzetsu’s index finger and came in contact with Yuki’s chest. From the tip of her finger, she released a very strong electric current that stunned Yuki badly.
“UGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!” Yuki fell onto the ground and started convulsing uncontrollably from the continuous electric current flowing within her body even after Katsuzetsu removed her finger away. Yuki had definitely never expected her to release an electric current from her finger nor did she knew that Spectres were even capable of doing something like that, which was why she accidentally let her guard down. She should have been more careful about this.
“I bet you were....’shocked’ that I was able to do something like that, am I right?” Katsuzetsu smirked a little as she showed her index finger to Yuki. Some electric was seen escaping from it. “By the amount of electric current I implanted into your body, I’d say you will continue convulsing like that for at least 5 more minutes.”
The only person left standing right there is Paru. In an instant, Katsuzetsu appeared in front of Paru. Before Paru could even react to it, Katsuzetsu already placed her index finger on Paru’s forehead. “Gotcha..” She then released a small amount of electric current on Paru’s forehead, knocking her out immediately. As Paru’s body toppled forward, Katsuzetsu lowered her body a little and allowed Paru’s waist to lay on top of her shoulder. “It’s my win this time.”
Yuki was still convulsing pretty badly on the ground. Yuki not wanting to give up, managed to force her muscles to flex to withstand the convulsions and slowly stood up. She was using a lot of strength to hold the convulsions in place that a tiny vein was seen on her forehead. “Y-You’re not taking Paru..”
“Standing up even with that much current flowing in your body right now.. I did not expect that. Impressive..” Katsuzetsu smirked while carrying the unconscious Paru on her shoulder. “But I doubt you can do anything more than standing right now. Your convulsions are taking away too much of your strength.”
“It’s......not!” Yuki raised her scythe and leaped over at Katsuzetsu’s direction.
The latter could easily dodge against the attack since it was much slower than Yuki’s normal attacks. Katsuzetsu was right. The convulsions in Yuki’s body were sucking up too much of her energy. “You’re strong, Yuki...but you’re still not strong enough to protect someone from a larger threat like myself.”
“Just......who are you....” Yuki asked while her whole body convulsed.
“Like I said, I’m merely someone who came back after a long holiday.. Better luck next time..” She winked and flicked her now empty lollipop stick away before taking off from the scene.
Yuki’s legs finally gave way and started convulsing all over again. “P-Paru!!!”
Kawaei was then alerted by Paru leaving her radar. “The target is moving away from the radar? Just what is Umeda doing?” Just then, the radar started going haywire. The dot was all over the place. “Somebody left traces of EMPs to mess with the radar.. Who could have done this?”
Mayu too was extremely disturbed by the fact that Paru was taken away. “Damn... You’re supposed to be protecting her, love... What’s going on..”
“I’m getting a little impatient with you right now, Mayu.. I will make this fast.” Kawaei stretched her hands forwards and ordered. “Bahamut........ Cripple her.”
Mayu’s eyes widened from Kawaei’s statement. “....”
Bahamut let out a loud and powerful roar at Mayu and started swinging its claws at her. “ROOOOAAAARRRRRR!!!”
“Wow!” Mayu had to rely on her boosters to evade the claws quickly with her Mach speed.
Despite being so huge, Bahamut was as swift as any Cyber there is. The movements were smooth and fast, as expected from Kawaei’s strongest invention. In just a few seconds, it managed to grab Mayu in one of its claws and tried to squeeze her tight. “You forced me to this state, Mayu. I didn’t want to do this because we knew each other better than anybody else.. But the fact that you sided with the humans and mocked Core was simply too much.”
“Grrrrr!!!!!” Mayu was forcing Bahamut’s hand open with her Terra strength. She was actually holding up quite well against Kawaei’s ultimate drone. Any other common Cybers would be crushed right away.
Kawaei then smirked a little. “Oh, Mayu... If only Bahamut has one hand...” With that said, Bahamut’s other hand came clasping together and this time, surpressing Mayu even more.
“GAAAH!!” Her hands started closing in from Bahamut’s strength. Mayu was starting to lose her cool. Her expression changed completely from her usual cool nature into an expression of desperation. This simply showed just how powerful Kawaei was. She could literally force Mayu to this state.
“I have to make sure you don’t escape.. So forgive me if I break all your limbs. I will reattach them back for you once we return.” Kawaei said as both Bahamut’s hands closed in and crushed Mayu in its palms.
Immediately after that, Bahamut’s hands got blasted open with a strong explosion. Bahamut’s hands suffered very minimal damage but on the other hand, Mayu was seriously injured. She just detonated a few of her self created nanobombs inside Bahamut’s hands. The explosion did almost full damage on herself. She was seen falling off from the sky and landed on the ground with a strong impact. “Ugh....”
“A foolish act of desperation like bombing your way out won’t get you anywhere..” Kawaei shook her head as she landed Bahamut right in front of Mayu. “I thought you’d be smarter than this, Mayu..”
Mayu slowly stood herself up. Her whole body is convulsing a little from the amount of short circuits and snapped wires in her body right now. Both her boosters were completely destroyed so she won’t get to fly anytime soon. Not only that, her right hand was torn off her shoulder, revealing a few hanging wires with some circuit leaking from it. Her goggles were broken into pieces and there were scars all over her face and body. “I cannot be caught right now.. I still have some unfinished business to deal with..”
Mayu tried to use her boosters but to no avail as they were completely broken. Without her boosters, she can’t move at Mach speed anymore. “D-Damn..” Mayu then snapped her fingers, summoning an army of drones to attack Kawaei.
“Another act of desperation... When will you learn?” Kawaei controlled Bahamut and swung its claws to destroy all the small drones with a slash. To Kawaei’s surprise, upon impact, the drones exploded in an extreme burst of light and electricity, blinding her sight and short circuiting Bahamut at the same time, rendering it immobile. “An EMP!?”
Mayu took this chance to totter away from the scene as fast as possible. She didn’t get to escape too far. Unlucky for her, it only took Kawaei a few seconds to reverse the effects of the EMP and bring Bahamut back on its foot before pressing its foot on Mayu, immobilizing her. “Nice try, Mayu.”
“Argh!!” Mayu felt her whole body being crushed under Bahamut’s foot. She could literally feel the pain all over her body.
Kawaei smiled a little. “You rigged the drones with powerful EMPs, Mayu. Most impressive.. You even managed to stop Bahamut from working for a few seconds.. Nobody has ever rendered Bahamut immobile. I’ll give you that.. You’re smart.. But not smart enough against me.. You lost this one, Mayu.” Kawaei said as she removed the goggles from her eyes and strapped them back on her forehead.
With that said, Kawaei snapped her fingers, summoning a drone that locked Mayu within a plasma shield. She turned her dragon buckle and clicked on it, causing Bahamut to finally disappear into thin air. She then clicked on her watch and reported to both Ami and Sasshi. “I got Mayu. I’ll return first. Wrap up now. Unless you’re still able to go after Shimazaki Haruka.”
As soon as Kawaei sent the message, she flew off on a drone with Mayu locked inside another drone.
*BOOM*
The rock that Sasshi got smashed on suddenly exploded into tiny pieces with dusts filling the air much to Takamina and Yuko’s surprise. From within the heavy dusts stood a silhoutte of someone with a blue dot on the shoulder. As she stepped out of the area, it was seen that Sasshi was clearly nowhere near from being dead yet. There was not even a single scratch seen on her solid armor but the right side of her face was ripped off from the sheer force, revealing the endoskeleton within her head.
“What the...” Both Yuko and Takamina were actually surprised that Sasshi survived a blast from two Judgement lasers combined. That amount of force could have easily vaporised a tank into ashes. Just how solid is her armor, they will never know.
Sasshi then warned them. “You both will get a taste of my wrath next time. Lucky for you, I have better things to do now.” As soon as she finished her sentence, Sasshi sprinted towards the direction where Katsuzetsu took Paru away. With every step she made, it was as if an earthquake was happening.
Yuko’s eyes widened for a moment. “She’s going after Katsuzetsu. Tch..” She then aimed her fist at Takamina. “I’ll be looking forward for the very day I can finally end our battle once and for all, Taka.”
“.....”
Yuko placed two fingers on her forehead and flicked them out, bidding Takamina goodbye for now. “Till next time.” She immediately turned around and chased after Sasshi.
Seeing her main threat disappearing before her very eyes, Takamina sighed a little in relief that Yuko wasn’t going for Atsuko and Rena after all. She then rushed back to the cave to check on Rena and Atsuko. “Hopefully Atsuko was able to hold her off.”
All of a sudden, a huge red laser shot up in the sky, coloring it red. As the laser ended, it was seen that Ami was standing about 50 meters away from them looking very much alive with her right hand aiming into the sky. She then brought her hand down and aimed it at Annin and Jurina’s direction. “This isn’t the end yet.”
Upon saying that, Ami lowered her hand and left the scene to pursue Paru as fast as she could.
“You’re not going after her?” Jurina asked.
Without even giving a second look at Ami, Annin eyes remained locked at Jurina. “I’m not too concerned about that Cyber considering who Shimazaki Haruka is with right now.. I believe you remember Haruppi?”
Jurina’s eyes widened in shock from the mention of the name. “Katsuzetsu? She’s back?”
“Apparently, she is.. But of course that’s not really the main topic here, isn’t it?” Annin immediately went back to her main reason.
Jurina shook her head. “I told you I’m not going back there, Annin. I’m sick and tired of cowering in fear under the dictatorship of the Spectres.. I want to live freely without restriction. I want to live my life to the fullest just like Rena did.”
“We may have similarities in our views of humans, Jurina but let me clarify something with you. I will not hesitate to use force even if it’s you.”
“You can’t force me back there, Annin.. I’d rather die than to return there.” Jurina clarified.
Annin nodded and pointed at the line she made on the ground with her air blades. “Step beyond the line then.”
“W-What?” Jurina was stunned for a moment.
“You said you didn’t want to return right? That you would rather die than to return? You have to step beyond the line to confirm your sentence, Jurina. Because I already made a promise that I won’t attack you as long as you’re within the line.”
“....”
“If you step out of that line, not only I won’t pursue you anymore, I will leave Rena and Atsuko alone as well. The both of you will be free to go.” Annin told. “But bear this in mind... I’m not gonna let you leave unscathed.”
“I don’t want to see Rena locked up like an animal anymore, do you understand?”
“All these just for Rena?”
“You know how I feel about Rena, Annin. I’m not gonna turn my back on her once again just because I’m too weak to fight back against an Alpha.. I’ll be choosing my own path to move from now on.. Even if it’s death.”
Annin smiled a little at Jurina’s burst of confidence and nodded. “I heard you, Jurina.. Please step out of the line now.”
“Thanks for understanding..” Jurina turned around and stepped right in front of the line that Annin made.
As Jurina raised her foot, Annin reminded once again. “You do know the consequences if you were to step out of that line, right?”
For a moment, Jurina hesitated. She knew for sure that if she were to step outside, Annin’s next attack would most likely be fatal. But she already made the choice. “Promise you will convince the Omega to grant us freedom after I take this step?”
Annin nodded. “You have my word as an Alpha Spectre, Jurina....”
“I have no regrets then.” Rena’s freedom was more important than all of these so she took the step. As soon as Jurina placed her right foot outside of the line, Annin shot a wind blade that sliced through her in that very instant. That’s right. THROUGH her. That cut almost severed Jurina’s body in half literally. Jurina is split open cleanly from her right shoulder down to the left side of her torso. The only thing left conecting the 2 torn parts of Jurina’s body was about 10 cm of ‘meat’ left at her bottom left torso. If that 10 cm of her torso was sliced off as well, then Jurina would be in two pieces literally and will officially be pronounced dead. As if this wasn’t fatal enough for Jurina already. She didn’t even get the chance to react to the incredibly fast attack as she laid on the ground motionless on her own pool of blood with her eyes still half open. The red fluid continued leaking from her split body and her mouth. The amount of blood on the ground was eeriely great, soaking into her clothes and skin.
Annin took a step closer and bent over a little to look at Jurina’s condition. Jurina was still motionless with her eyes half open. Hardly any Spectres could have survived that attack. This very attack might even be fatal for an Alpha, what more to Jurina who is a mere Beta. Annin then shook her head. “Was it really that worth it? Trading your life for freedom?”
“....”
“As promised, you and Rena are free to go. I’ll convince Omega not to pursue you both anymore. Whether you survive this or not depends entirely on your own will to live. Goodbye.” Annin then turned around and started leaving the scene. As she was at a distance away, she slowly turned her head back once again and stared at Jurina’s motionless body for a moment. A soft smile then crawled onto her face as she started walking away once again. “Guess I’ll see you again, Jurina. Take care.”
Sayanee reached a cave and entered it without hesitation. She then started sniffing around. “As I thought.. That crazy Spectre must be here..”
Romeo suddenly came out from behind a huge rock and ambushed Sayanee with a successful bite on her left foot. “ARGH!”
“GRRRR!!!!!!!!” Romeo’s bite was getting tighter around Sayanee’s foot. He didn’t seem to have the intention of letting go at all.
“Get off my foot!” Sayanee pulled her right foot to the back and with a swing forwards, she released a full powered kick at Romeo that sent him crashing onto the wall of the cave instantly. That very kick literally broke EVERY SINGLE ONE of Romeo’s bones upon contact as his blood splattered all over the cave.
Sayanee then continued searching for Rena in the cave. Sayanee knew Rena was somewhere in the cave but for some reason, she couldn’t find her. Rena’s smell still lingered around the cave. It seemed that Romeo did a good job hiding Rena’s unconscious body before Sayanee reached. “Where the hell is she!?”
She then saw a patch of dirt on the ground that doesn’t seem like it belonged at that spot, with a few swipes of her foot, she brushed the dirt aside and finally revealed some fingers. Romeo managed to bury Rena in the ground to hide her from the enemy but it all went to waste as Sayanee already found her. “There you are..”
“Stop right there!” Atsuko came running into the cave and immediately slammed both her Judgement swords on Sayanee while the latter blocked it successfully.
Atsuko’s strength was simply no match for Sayanee obviously as she got pushed back by the brute strength exerted by the Alpha Spectre. Atsuko forced all of her energy out of her body to defend against the attack. That was when something caught Atsuko’s attention. Her eyes widened at a furry thing laying on the ground behind Sayanee soaked in blood. “No.....”
During that short moment where Atsuko let her guard down, Sayanee managed to deliver a successful headbutt right on her face, knocking her backwards before slamming her onto the wall with her blade. “You humans seemed to have a habit of getting distracted easily.. Time for me to end this fight..” Before Atsuko had the chance to react, Sayanee imbued both her blades with flames and hopped towards her.
“Atsuko!” At the very last moment, Takamina appeared in between the both of them and held a Judgement shield up to protect Atsuko from getting a direct hit. As the flaming blade slammed down on the shield, not only did the titanium shield dent badly from the strength, it exploded into pieces from the explosive fire power of the blades. The impact blowed Takamina back a few feet and crashed through a rock.
“Ugh...” Takamina held onto her right arm and groaned a little. There was a huge patch of bruise that looked really painful on her forearm. Her eyes then rolled towards Romeo who was lifeless on the ground. Takamina’s voice shook a little from the bizzare sight before her very eyes. “R-R-Romeo?”
With eyes wider than ever, Takamina glared at Sayanee. She was literally so angry that she couldn’t even raise her voice at all. Her voice was soft and yet concentrated with pure anger. “You killed him.”
“....”
“You killed my best friend.” Takamina slowly stood up once again and activated two Judgement swords without breaking eye contact with Sayanee. It was as if the pain on her arm was completely numbed. She couldn’t feel anything right now. All she wanted to do is to kill Sayanee.
Sayanee could obviously tell that Takamina was beyond angry. She wanted her to feel what she felt two years ago. The feeling of losing someone she cared about in front of her eyes. “This is exactly how I felt when that woman right there murdered my younger sister..”
As soon as Sayanee said that, she hopped outside the cave, while on mid air, she shot a fireball at the top, causing large boulders to fall and covering the entrance. Takamina wanted to kill Sayanee off so badly right now but to no avail as she was stuck inside the cave. She screamed and kept slashing off the boulders again and again but there were too many and that alone wasted a lot of her time. “I WILL GET YOU, YOU HEARD ME!?”
Standing outside the cave, Sayanee continued. “It’s frustrating, isn’t it? Seeing the one you cared so much about die before your very eyes and yet not able to lay a hand on the murderer.. And I sure as hell am not going to give you the chance to lay a hand on me for now. Live with that feeling as long as you can.”
“Get back here! Get back here! Get back here!!!” Takamina finally slashed off the last remaining boulder and leaped outside. Sayanee was gone. In the end, Takamina was left with no chance at all to avenge Romeo. Sayanee managed to successfully provoke Takamina in the worst way possible as she lost her cool completely. “SHITT!!!” Takamina slammed both fists on the ground in anger and cursed herself.
Just like the very moment she lost her family, the history seemed to be repeating itself. Romeo was like a family to her. He had been by her side for almost 15 years but Romeo died a heroic dog. Not only did he attack an Alpha to protect Rena, he also hid Rena properly and thus, wasting Sayanee’s time in searching for her until Atsuko comes in.
Rena was then digged out by Atsuko as she started coughing out some sand from her mouth. Rena had finally awaken after being unconscious for a long time. Takamina on the other hand carried Romeo on her arms and laid him beside her family’s tombstones. She then carved some words on a boulder and placed it in front of Romeo’s dead body. “To the bravest friend I have ever seen in my life. Rest in peace.”
Confused, Rena slowly crawled over towards Romeo and tilted her head. She then poked Romeo to see if he was still alive. “Doggy.....?”
Atsuko patted Rena’s head. “He’s in a better place now, Rena...”
The fight has finally ended. In the end, Ami and Sasshi didn’t get to chase after their target as their radars were messed up by traces of EMP left by Katsuzetsu so they went back home. The same goes to Yuko who was pursuing after Sasshi. After she lost track on her, she too went back to the Spectre headquarters. Umeda was actually sent flying to another country by Paru’s force by accident, confirming the extent of Paru’s weird powers. It took her some time to return home. Yuki finally got back on her feet while Jurina remained laying on her own pool of blood, still motionless. Whether she survived Annin’s attack or not is still unknown.
Nevertheless, the huge three way fight ended in both Cyber and Spectre’s favour with Mayu in the hands of the Cybers and Paru in the hands of the Spectres. Team Taka on the other hand suffered a complete loss and the death of Takamina’s best companion, Romeo.
With Paru now in the hands of the enigmatic Omega Spectre Yui, an extremely disturbing secret about Paru’s past will soon be revealed.....
Chapter 17 : Three Way
END