Jane

  Her trek across the desert wasn’t a pleasant one, though she reminded herself that she had been in worse places. Jane looked over her shoulder and saw the massive wall of sand sweeping over the desert. She had a front row seat to the infamous radioactive sandstorms that occurred in Kodak territory. The pair of strider tanks that floated in front of her were captured vehicles thanks to Allen. She watched as the tanks floated on cushions of air over the sand as well as one or two agents hitching a ride on the side of on top of the tank, armed with heavy weapons for even more firepower against whoever they would encounter. Her HUD notified her of an incoming call.

  “You alright out there boss?” Allen said.

  “I’ve had better days. But also worse ones,” she responded. “The sooner we reach Michael’s coordinates and find our boys, the better. My eyes are getting sore from the red skies.”

  The last she saw Michael Cynosa was when he pushed one of his intercepting tier fours out of the dropship. So far, she had no clue where the hell he went. After her tense conversation with her mentor back on the dropship, she knew that begrudgingly she had to trust him. Jane and her team followed the waypoint on their HUDs, which pointed them thirty-seven kilometers ahead.

  One of the strider’s main cannons shot out a bright red beam energy that flashed across the dark desert and struck another strider. The tank crashed into the sand in a series of explosions and flying sparks. The same friendly strider followed up with a round of missile fire, launching the ordinance into the air until the missiles descended and struck a second enemy strider.

  “Uh Jane, we have a problem,” Allen said.

  “Talk to me.”

  “Some fast moving figure just came out of the wreck between the enemy tanks ahead,” he said. “I see a purple glow and its running straight towards us.”

  Jane knew that glowing purple was an infamous color. It was the glowing shade of a viper fang sword wielded by Lola Odyssey, the same Kodak agent who got the better of her back in Amethyst. Jane also got news after the Combat Games regarding the identity of the Kodak infiltrators she had tried to stop. The one wielding the purple viper fang wasn’t Lola but someone else entirely.

  Her sister Judith.

  Whoever it was who was directly charging at them, even with two tanks on their side, Jane knew that the viper fang’s cutting power would be bad news against the lightly armored hulls of the striders.

  “Allen, speed ahead without me, I’ll take care of this lone adversary myself,” she ordered.

  “Understood. Crush them boss,” Allen said.

  Immediately the pair of striders strafed in opposite directions and accelerated to their tops speeds, gliding fast above the sand. Jane broke into a sprint and made a beeline towards the viper fang wielding opponent ahead of her. Jane estimated their running speed and the rate of their increasingly growing silhouette in the darkness. The enemy agent had to be at least a tier three level opponent.

  She grabbed the hilt off her belt and ignited her sword. The nanoscale devices within the hilt forged the pink glowing blade in real time as she continued her sprint. Whoever her opponent was, they ignored the two striders that sped past them and kept running forward towards Jane.

  The two finally closed the distance and Jane dug her feet into the sand, coming to a stop to meet her enemy. She grabbed her Aero SMG off the side of her coat in her other hand. The agent with the purple viper fang continued their run then lept, performing a twirl in the air before coming to a stop a few meters away from Jane.

  She raised the barrel of her SMG at her enemy.

  “Good seeing you again,” she said. “I was too careless the last time and didn’t take you in when I had the chance back in Amethyst. But this time, I don’t need to take you in. I’ll kill you and I’ll get two viper fangs.”

  Jane recognized the condescending tone and the edge behind the Kodak agent’s voice. It had to be Lola Odyssey. She performed a scan of her stats just to be sure.

  Agent: Lola Odyssey

  Age: 27 F

  Shard: Kodak-Cresh

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Rank: Tier 3 | Level 77

  Strength: 120

  Agility: 94

  Endurance: 105

  Intelligence: 66

  Healing Factor: n/a

  “So no more hiding this time?” Jane taunted.

  “You’re about to die anyway. There’s no need for me to block my stats to someone who doesn’t have much longer to live,” Lola said. “At least I can brag about a win in all this mess. You know, your two brats were more trouble than they’re worth.”

  Jane briefly double checked her own stats.

  Rank: Tier 3 | Level 73

  Strength: 90

  Agility: 115

  Endurance: 76

  Intelligence: 84

  Healing Factor: Moderate

  While Lola was a few level highers than her and had the stat advantage in strength and endurance, the gap wasn’t so huge that she was worried. But she remembered that even with their stats equalized, Lola had her berserk mode in her back pocket that would tip the scales.

  She immediately lunged with her sword barely grazing the upper arm of her enemy. Jane had to end this battle fast before Lola got the chance to power up.

  The two swung and clashed viper fangs. Just maximized her agility stat and proved to be the somewhat quicker and more nimble of the two. Even in the sandy terrain, Jane’s footwork was superior as she sidestepped numerous attempted wide slashes from Lola. Her pink viper fang managed to put more nicks into Lola’s armor than the other way around.

  To an outside observer, both agents slashed and jabbed at speed that no ordinary human or low-tier agent could follow. In the darkness of the desert, their duel was a dancing lightshow of pinks and purples.

  Lola came at her and pressed another attack. The agent lept into the air and spun rapidly in midair. Her purple viper fang pointed directly toward Jane like a human-sized power drill. Jane sidestepped the ridiculous attack and even managed a slash across Lola’s side during her crazy midair spin.

  The Kodak agent crashed into the sand before using her arms to push herself off the ground. Jane caught a glimpse of the damage she had just caused. The torso area under Lola’s left arm had a clean cut through it, though she didn’t know how deep her cut was.

  Lola didn’t have her usual trash talk, which Jane assumed as a sign of her opponent taking this fight seriously.

  “That’s a lot of flash but no substance,” Jane said. “We’re in the middle of a desert with no spectators. Your moves are broad and pointless.”

  “Oh yeah,” Lola said. Jane saw bits of red static that roiled throughout her armor. “I defeated you once, I can do it again.”

  Jane knew that Lola was powering up to her berserk form, but she also knew it took time for an agent to get into that state. She swung high and forced Lola to duck. She followed up with launching a barrage of quick jabs. Lola backpedaled, holding up her viper fang and attempting to anticipate whatever strikes she couldn’t escape from.

  The red static had disappeared, which signalled to Jane that she failed to power up.

  “Earlier you disparaged my two subordinates,” Jane said. “But even Dan Orion could power up to his berserk faster than you can. It must be embarrassing for someone a decade your junior to wield your trump card.”

  Lola ripped her helmet off and Jane saw the familiar pale skin and bloodshot eyes, common traits of all Kodak agents. Even in the dark desert, the twisted features and clenched teeth were plain to see.

  “I don’t know what Judith Blight sees in that brat. He’s nothing but a low class bum who got lucky,” she spat. “You know after our battle, that little shit followed me through the city streets and actually tried to take me on. He got a lucky hit on me with a grenade and I still had to recover.”

  “Interesting,” Jane said, still keeping her viper fang pointed at her enemy. “Dan told me his side of that amusing story in between training sessions. Even if you were fatigued from our battle, the fact that Dan even did some damage to you had me in stitches. I guess he’s not such a bum after all.”

  Kodak agents always had problems controlling their rage in combat. When Lola’s face twisted at the remark and she charged, Jane wasn’t in the least bit surprised. Against any other lower-ranked agent, Lola’s incredible speed alone would have ended the fight immediately. Anyone else would hae been impaled from her reckless jab.

  Jane sidestepped the attack as Lola overextended herself. All she focused on was her opponent’s outstretched arm carrying the dangerous blade that would easily slice through her tier three suit if given the chance. In one fluid motion, Jane simply flicked her wrist with her sword-wielding hand and severed Lola’s arm at the elbow.

  The furious charge of the Kodak agent ended with her suddenly stopping her charge and dropping her only weapon into the sand. To Lola’s credit, she didn’t scream obnoxiously. Even with the blood squirting out of her severed limb, she still turned around and stared back at Jane with eyes of burning hate.

  But that only lasted a second as Jane scooped up the purple viper fang and charged in with both swords. She crossed her arms and lashed out with an attack. Her arms which carried two viper fangs stretched out from the body, pointing upwards towards the dark red skies. Lola fell to her knees, blood spilling and gushing from the giant X-shaped incision in her torso. Her body split into multiple severed pieces as she fell face first into the sand.

  No trash talk, no gloating, the Kodak agent simply laid in the sand in pieces and blood.

  Jane, knowing that her opponent laid dead at her feet, wanted to make sure it would stay that way. Agents are capable of surviving events that would kill any normal man. Just to be sure, she brought down her pink viper fang onto Lola’s skull, splitting her head in half in one clean cut.

  She spun around swords, flicking whatever blood was still on her blades before retracting the glowing blades. Jane placed both hilts onto her belt. Now, she was in possession of two viper fangs.

  Jane accelerated to her fastest sprint speed and she bolted across the desert. She had other places to go.

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