Dan’s feet dragged across the sand before he and his teammate came to a stop. He tried to check on his friend. Li was limp and didn’t move a single muscle. His helmet visor was smashed with a few pieces missing. He set his friend down and removed his helmet. Li still wore his mask that covered the bottom half of his face. He shifted his mask downward then took his glove off. It was faint but Li was still breathing. Dan also pressed his fingers against Li’s neck and still felt a weak pulse.

  His relief over his teammate was shortlived as he pointed his Conservative towards Ada. The young Bloodknight didn’t move from her spot and maintained her distance. But Judith was nowhere to be seen anywhere close to the burning wreckage of the strider.

  Then she popped up only a few meters beside Ada.

  “Well, well, well,” Judith said. She was surprisingly still in high spirits even while missing an arm. Dan squinted and saw no bleeding from her severed limb.

  “Very devious Dan. You put on a good show for me by overpowering Natalia and brought the lovers drama between you and Ada. I was really eating it all up. But it was all just smoke and mirrors wasn’t it? Nothing more than just a distraction for your friend to sneak up behind me for a quick kill. I would give you a clap for your efforts but—well you know.”

  Dan was wracking his brain on why it didn’t work. Why was Li laying in the sand unconscious while Judith still stood standing.

  “Unfortunately, your friend made a miscalculation,” she said. “He was aiming to chop me in half but his shadow blade just didn’t have the reach to make it far. By the time I realized what he was doing, I had already began moving away and he managed to take my arm off. One lost arm isn’t enough to stop me. My body has already halted the bleeding. If it had been my head, then that would be a different story.”

  Dan stood up with his jaw clenched at his current situation. Li was down and it was just him against both Ada and Judith. He still only had a sliver of corrosia energy left to spare.

  “Alright then,” Judith said. “Even with one arm missing, I can still end you quickly.”

  “Try it then,” Dan shouted.

  In an instant, his anger pushed him to his berserk mode and he charged directly at Judith. He slid the Conservative back in his scabbard. He prepared for a draw cut fuelled by the amplifying strength of his berserk mode just at the right moment when he got close enough to the lead Bloodknight.

  Warp dancer activated.

  One way or another, Dan would make sure to end this fight. The last of his rapidly draining corrosia would be put towards taking out Judith. Which would leave only Ada left to deal with. Out of all the Kodak agents to kill him, there were far worse options than Ada.

  When he was a mere few meters in front of Judith, he tightened his grip on the Conservative’s hilt and lashed out with a strike, ripping the sword out of his scabbard.

  His blade was stopped, never making contact with Judith. He stared into Ada’s silver irises as her Bloodluster blade halted his draw cut. The conflicting corrosia energies from both blades sparked and forced Dan back a few steps. His warp dance was interrupted and everything around him returned back to normal.

  Judith began laughing maniacally, seeing as how Dan’s charge and attempt to kill her had been stopped by Ada.

  The initial anger he directed toward Judith had fizzled, now replaced with despair and disappointment.

  “You’re no match against Judith,” Ada said. “If you value your life, you will surrender yourselves.”

  He narrowed his eyes on the young Bloodknight. “I noticed you haven’t taken an active role in this fight. You let me fight against Natalia alone uninterrupted. And when our fight was up next, you had a lot of opportunities to kill me in an instant. During Li’s surprise attack against Judith, you could have chopped my head while we were both watching. But you didn’t. I know you don’t want this either Ada.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him then charged. Ada launched a series of quick jabs with her Bloodluster at Dan. He backpedaled, knowing that after his wasted charge against Judith, he only had a tiny speck left of corrosia according to the bar on his HUD.

  Dan lept off to the side. By the time his feet hit the sand, he barely had time to look back and watch Ada move in a zigzag pattern. Her speed increased and her body left behind trailing afterimages of herself. Without even thinking, Dan activated his one warp dance. It was his only method of defending himself against such an attack.

  The two clashed blades once again. Dan’s warp dance abruptly fizzled out and the dark colors of the desert returned back to normal. The corrosia bar on his HUD was now completely hollowed out and only a faint outline of the bar itself remained. It flashed red, signalling his depleted corrosia pool.

  While Dan didn’t feel completely fatigued, the lack of corrosia energy left him without any gas for his special abilities. He highly doubted he could beat Ada through skill and raw physical effort alone.

  Both their corrosia-enhanced blades grinded against each other. It only took a few seconds for Dan to lose ground as Ada pushed up back and his boots dragged through the sand.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “You need to give up,” Ada said. He noted the urgency in her voice.

  Dan took one glance at his friend who still laid unmoving on the ground. The sudden surge of anger gave him the motivation and boost he needed.

  Berserk mode activated.

  The familiar strain of using the berserk from his early days during the heist came back in full force. The bloody tears that streamed from his eyes down his face and the monstrous surge of energy throughout his body. The red energies his body produced were more chaotic. Arcs of red lightning shot out from all parts of his body and drew erratic patterns in the sand around him.

  Without corrosia, the berserk form was now drawing resources from his own body to power it. With his strength amplified, he pushed Ada back and grinded his Conservative against her Bloodluster. He swung and managed to force Ada a few paces away from him.

  Dan launched his own barrage of attacks. His mind only vaguely remembered what he had picked up from his secret training session together with Ada as he struck rapidly. Dan managed a few minor cuts against her armor. Her thighs, arms and even a shallow jab into her upper torso. But Ada still managed to keep up with his speed, always redirecting or parrying his strikes at the last possible moment.

  The strain on his muscles, specifically in his arms, gradually grew with each attack. The aches and pains slowly crept up the longer this fight continued.

  Dan could feel something warm run from his nose and even his ears. Ada must have picked up on this as her eyes widened and she momentarily lowered her Bloodluster.

  “You’re pushing yourself too far,” she said. She backpedaled a few steps. “You have no corrosia left to work with. You have to stop.”

  Dan coughed and blood splattered out of his mouth and all over the inside of his mask. “Your concern is misplaced.”

  He rushed for another attack. He tightly gripped the Conservative with both hands as he lept and crossed the distance. Ada raised her blade and parried his attack. But Dan kept the barrage coming. Dan hoped that the amplifying effects of his berserk mode would overwhelm the young Bloodknight.

  But even he could feel his own strength rapidly waning as Ada still kept up with him, either parrying or swerving out of the path of his strikes. He had been weakened so much that now his berserk was only making sure he stayed in this fight.

  “Are you insane?” Ada shouted. “If you keep this up, you’ll kill yourself from overexertion. Please, just stop. I’ll talk to Judith and present her offer again. You can’t die like this.”

  Dan was breathing hard. He didn’t know what kind of damage was done to his lungs but each breath he drew caused a stabbing sensation in the right side of his torso. He heard himself wheezing.

  “I stand by my words, Ada.” Dan coughed up so much blood there was no point in keeping his mask on. He ripped the accessory off his face and let the dry desert air hit his nostrils. His nose and mouth were wet with saliva and blood.

  “I’ll never join Judith or admit defeat. I mean, after all the trash talk that came out of my mouth, I gotta stand behind it. Even if it costs me my life.” Dan began laughing to himself. “If you’re so good Ada, you should have ended this fight ages ago.”

  Ada stared at him. Her usual blank expression was completely wiped away and replaced with concern and pleading. “Why? Stop this.”

  Judith somehow laughed even harder at the exchange. She slapped her knees with her remaining arm. Her ugly cackling filled the desert air. Dan hoped that her laugh wouldn’t be the last thing he heard before he died. He glanced and saw the giant wall of dust and lightning that was the sandstorm coming close. From eyeballing it, he guessed less than a few kilometers worth of land separated him from the storm. The winds around them picked up as the storm got closer.

  Berserk mode activated.

  Dan’s hands shook as he forced himself to grip the hilt tightly. He charged once again. Midway during his charge toward Ada, the entire world around him suddenly flashed with bright contrast before a sharp pain inside his head stopped him in his tracks.

  Warning: Suffering from seizure. Healing factor is compensating.

  His healing factor prevented him from being completely incapacitated. But now, he was in no shape to continue this fight. If this was an actual seizure, then it was a cocktail of many things at once as he struggled to remain standing.

  Even with him wobbling from side to side, his body felt restricted as if his limbs were wrapped in chains. His blurred vision combined with the blood and grains of sand getting into his eyes was an irritating and shitty combo. Then he began twitching all over. Eventually, he couldn’t remain standing for much longer and he collapsed to his knees.

  “Oh my god,” he heard, though it was muffled. “Dan!”

  He stared at the ground and coughed up more blood. His Conservative was still in his hand, though he was barely holding onto the hilt with his weakened arm. Dan mustered just enough energy to lift up his other arm and drag his coat sleeve over his eyes. He opened his eyes and saw Ada standing a few steps in front of him. She held her Bloodluster in one hand with its blade pointed away from him.

  His hearing cleared up and he could hear Ada clearly again. “Please, that’s enough.”

  Dan looked up at her and flashed her a smile. “Showing mercy isn’t part of your job description as a Bloodknight, is it? You said it yourself, to defy Judith means you die. This is the life you chose. You need to see this through.”

  Dan didn’t know whether it was the seizure but he saw Ada’s arm shaking. The blade of her Bloodluster left jittery trails of magenta. He craned his neck up slightly and saw Ada looking down at him. His jaw was clenched and he could hear her heavy breathing.

  If Dan was going to die here, he might as well get it all out. “Kodak took your best friend Cammy away from you.” He watched as Ada took a step away from him at the mention of her dead friend. “If you’re so dead set on this path as a Bloodknight, it’s only fitting that—” he coughed with more blood flowing down his mouth and dripping from his chin. He continued. “That you let Kodak take me away from you as well.”

  Short of saying “I love you,” this was the closest thing to a confession of his true feelings to Ada, someone who was supposed to be his enemy. But even in his near death state, he still acknowledged that somehow, bonds could transcend the division between rival shards.

  Dan never once thought he would see a Kodak agent shed tears. But Ada did. Her silver irises stared back at him, even through her attempts at wiping her face. A powerful shout snapped them both out of this moment.

  “Ada, hurry the fuck up and wrap this up,” Judith said.

  The young Bloodknight glanced at her superior than back at Dan.

  “Well, what are you waiting for?” Dan asked softly. “Follow your orders and get the job done. Severe our bond and become the Bloodknight you always wanted.” He spent his waning energy to look back at the unconscious form of Li. “Sorry buddy. Looks like we both failed.”

  Ada shut her eyes and gripped her Bloodluster with both hands. She reopened them as she lifted her sword back and prepared to swing.

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