Chapter 134: Man vs Machine II
'Crap, definitely cracked a rib with that hit.' I groaned as I stood up to re position myself. The Phobos had already discarded Zircon from his cannon and threw her away. I smiled devilishly at that mistake and aimed to stand my ground a moment as he was now too close to use my minigun.
As I continually dodged his blows, as he struck for my left pauldron, I let it make contact, rending through my armour and creating a large gash into my shoulder. "Urghhh" I grunted in pain while I manipulated gravity on my arm to keep the sword in place.
"You fought well less being, but your lesser brain cannot-" Alexios' radar picked up an object moving towards him at frightening speed. He tried to remove his sword from the shoulder of his foe, but it would not budge, even after using three times the recommended force.
A blunder on the Phobos' part as Zircon pierced deep into its back and continued to flail around. The robot seemed to feel pain once more as his grip on his sword released as he instinctually attempted to remove the sword on his back.
I took this opportunity and threw a haymaker at the Phobos' head while empowering myself with Gyrokinesis. The Phobos seemed to get his bearings after the swing and decided I was more of a threat than the sword in his back.
What was once a duel, turned into a full on fist fight. Powerful blows, quick jabs, kicks, knees. and on top of that the Phobos kept attacking with those spears that manifested from his body the whole time.
I could tell I was currently losing, Holes kept appearing in my armour and across my body from the spears, more and more bones were cracking and breaking. In my lapse of thinking, The Phobos Punched me square in the side of the head sending me reeling into a nearby pillar.
He still could not deal with The sword in his back just yet, first he would need to kill the tough lesser human. "As I said, you fought well, but you decided to fight me alone, a great flaw on your part. As a reward for such a valiant effort, I will make your death quick." Alexios stated.
In truth, if he had the equipment, he would turn such a fine warrior into a Phobos, sadly he did not have the means currently.
As he moved forward, the warriors helmet had crumbled from the impact, and he could see half the face of the man before him. purple eye, purple hair, the face was now dyed with blood, yet the lesser human began to laugh.
"What has you so amused at your final moment lesser human, I will give a warrior such as yourself final words." The Phobos said to me. I still had some fight in me, but I was pretty fucked up so I decided to feint defeat. The Phobos was now looming over me and ripped its sword out of my shoulder.
"I argh! I was not fighting alone, She just hasn't introduced herself yet." I said.
Alexios was confused by the statement. "What nonsense are-" Alexios was stunned as a large figure suddenly appeared right behind him on his radar. It was too close and he could not turn around in time as it rent apart his back shell.
I used the opportunity of the surprise attack to Kick the Phobos away and stand up. Zircon took the opportunity to remove herself from the Phobos' back and return to my hand.
Alexios was puzzled at what he saw before him. A blue creature, feline in origin he suspected, appeared from nowhere. The creature was massive and its muscles should not be theoretically capable for a creature of its size and its claws were almost if not sharper than the sword the lesser human was wielding.
Alexios attempted to stand and it took great difficulty. The surprise attack as well as the sword moving around for so long had messed up his gyroscope balancing and significantly damaged hundreds of other crucial components.
Alexios was now heavily on the backfoot, for one he had sustained significant injury and two, He had no data on fighting creatures as large or unique as the one that had appeared.
I charged at the Phobos, much slower than before, while Sapphire circled around him and waited for an opportune moment.
Alexios was in a bind as once his opponent's sword was swinging towards his shoulder, he felt the large beast go in for an attack. He weighed his options and voted to defend against the beast and sustain injury from the lesser human as another attack of the beasts magnitude would end him.
The Phobos turned around to block Sapphires attack with his sword. Which was a mistake. Sapphire is not a living being. She can take significant injury and not worry about dying from it or not.
So as the Phobos struck deep into the beasts massive shoulder muscle, Sapphire bit down on the Phobos' shoulder, immobilising it while I pierced Zircon into the back of the Phobos' skull and emerged the other side, a mixture of blood brain and circuitry.
Even with a sword through his head, Alexios still tried to fight. However, his cannon was out of use, his left arm was immobilised and his leg hydraulics had ceased function. The last emotion, or process he had before he ceased to function was regret, as he failed to protect his Lords temple.
Seeing the lights shut off on the Phobos, I was taking no chances as I began to use Zircon as a wooden spoon and stirred the things brain matter like soup.
After the adrenaline of the fight wared off, I felt hurt. Really hurt. Looking around, The fight below seemed to have ended and most of the mercenaries were watching me, and more warily the blue beast behind me.
I went to wave my hand in the air to signify I was ok, but exhaustion took hold of me and I passed out onto Sapphire who was already lying down in preparation.
...
When I awoke a Familiar face was greeting me. "Morning kat, how you doing?" I said as I stretched. I paused mid stretch with an 'ooh!' as I felt some pain in my ribs. As Kathrine was about to respond, a large tongue entered my vision and sandpapered my face. "Hey sweetie, are you ok? You did great I am so proud of you." I got a few more doses of sandpaper to the face before Kathrine interrupted.
"Apollo, I am glad to see you are ok, but what is this thing." Looking back at Kathrine, I also noticed behind her, A perimeter of mercenaries surrounding Sapphire, guns drawn.
"One sec Kat. Sapphire, you go home now ok? You are making all these good men jealous with your chonk." Sapphire let our a roar of affirmation before simply disappearing into thin air, causing the mercenaries to grow perplexed.
"Thanks for not shooting the big girl, folks. I would hate to have woke up and you all be dead." I said, making the guards feel weary, as I stood up slowly.
"Apollo please stay sat down, you are extremely injured I saw the footage." Kathrine stated. "What footage?" I asked. "Caleb, the self obsessed pervert, likes to video the battles he fights in for later viewing. He caught a large portion of your fight with the large robot and you should not be alive. None of us could have beaten that thing."
I ignored Kathrine's plea and stayed standing up. "Honestly I am fine. I heal faster thanks to my Psionic energy. Don't worry about me, what's the report on the battle." Kathrine was angry at my lack of self worry, but let it slide for now. "30 dead 13 wounded. 15 death are from the scythes, 9 from Tuarox and 6 from the serpents."
"Ah shit, they are going to hate me now, I suggested the strategy that got so many killed." I said as I rubbed my exposed side. 'Fuck that kick did a number on me.'
Kathrine reached up and rubbed to sides of my face with her hands. "Sweet heart, that could be further from the truth, look." I did as she asked and looked around. After realising I was standing up, the mercenaries that were in the fight, and the ones that I assumed came down with Kathrine were looking at me with something akin to reverence.
"Without you, all these men and women would have died to that thing you killed. They owe you their lives and they will not forget that." Upon realising this, I felt a little shy. The looks they were giving, I had not expected them. However to show I appreciated them, I picked up Zircon and raised it above my head in a 'hero salute.'
There was a pause in the mercenaries ranks, before they all began to cheer in celebration of the victory over such a formidable foe.