Dan watched Ada as her sword went from hanging in the air to sweeping down in an arc toward him. If he was going to die, he would see it with his own eyes. In his near death state, it was strange how little details could occupy one’s mind. The increasingly violent winds in the background, the mini whirls of sand behind Ada and Judith, and also the trail of purple energy left by the Bloodluster.
When Ada’s sword stopped just short of Dan’s neck, he assumed he had already died and his mind simply hadn’t caught up to that grim reality. It was only Judith’s voice that snapped him out of the supposed hallucination.
“Ada what the fuck are you doing?” she shouted. “Why the hell did you stop? We’re on a time crunch here with that sandstorm breathing down our backs.”
Ada steadied her breathing and slowly turned to face her boss. “I-I won’t kill Dan Orion.”
For someone who feared Judith’s power and had been pleading with him to take her up on the offer, Dan managed a weak smile at Ada. But he wondered how the lead Bloodknight would react to this.
“Are you fucking serious?” Judith said. Dan blinked several times in an effort to get his bloody tears out of the way. He got a small kick from seeing Judith pissed off.
“I’ve given you so much Ada. I took you in when you were barely just a teenager and gave you a suit of armor, powers, weapons and a purpose. You would have been another casualty statistic without my intervention. And this is how you repay me?”
Dan couldn’t see Ada’s face, but she still faced her superior even in the middle of her screaming. He never recalled any occasion where Jane or Michael ever had to raise their voices at him.
Judith stopped and took a deep breath. “Well then, if you won’t kill him, then I will. In the end, it seems like I can only rely on myself to get things done around here.” She slowly walked up to Ada and seemingly passed her, not paying attention to her disobedient subordinate. “Get the fuck out of my way.”
Without even looking in Ada’s direction, Judith lashed out with a backhand that launched Ada spinning in the air before she tumbled into the sand. The sudden anger he experienced seeing Ada being treated no better than Kate surged him back to his feet. Even through all the aches and burning muscles throughout his body, he still had just enough left to stand against his final opponent.
Judith’s twisted expression then morphed into glee when she saw him back on his feet. “Now we’re talking. If you’re going to die, then die proud.” She held out her remaining hand and summoned her golden blade into existence. The space around her became illuminated in the brilliant gold lighting from her blade. “It would be a bit anticlimactic if I just cut you down right now. So, I think you need a bit of motivation to kick your dying physique back into gear.”
Dan coughed. The combination of the dry, sandy air plus his injuries from overexerting himself weren’t nice on his body. “You just love your theatrics don’t you? I don’t believe any shard worth their salt would condition an agent to make light out of this many combat situations.”
“Kodak can’t take all the credit,” Judith shot back. “There are just some things that are home grown, you know? Anyways,” she pointed the tip of her golden blade toward him. The bright blade made of unknown energy was one brief jab away from piercing his entire face. The skin of his nose could feel the ambient heat radiating from the blade. The scent the golden blade emitted was a combination of heated metal and something accrid akin to a strong cleaning product. “If you can’t fight to defend yourself, then perhaps something else will motivate you to unleash it all in one final show of the powers within you.”
Judith slowly moved her golden blade away from Dan’s face and pointed the archaic weapon past Dan’s arm. He slowly turned himself to see what the hell she was pointing at and he swore his heart became irregular at Judith’s sick idea.
Her blade pointed in the direction of Li’s unconscious body. His fight against Ada had been so intense that they had moved a considerable distance away from Li’s position. They were about two dozen meters away from the stealth specialist.
Dan slowly turned his head back at the lead Bloodknight. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
Judith’s face crept up with a toothy grin. “I think we both know that I would. Feel motivated yet to unleash it all to protect your defenseless comrade?”
“I told you this before, you bitch,” Dan said with an added edge to his tone. “If you do anything to him, I’ll fucking destroy you.”
His threat generated a small chuckle from the lead Bloodknight. “Here’s your chance to be a hero. I won’t even need to teleport.”
Judith blurred into action and rushed past him. Ignoring the extreme pain throughout his body, Dan spun around and knew he only had one technique he could use to catch up. He screamed from the effort it took.
Warp dancer activated.
Warning: Zero corrosia left. Use technique at your own peril.
Judith’s sprint through the desert with her golden blade gunning for Li was substantially slowed. But because of his failing body and lack of corrosia, the warp dance was nowhere near as effective. As he pushed his legs and powered through the insane burning sensations in his muscles, his warp dance flickered. Judith’s form flopped back and forth between her moving at real speed and her slowing down due to the warp dancer’s effect.
Glare activated. Effectiveness 0%.
Glare failed.
Dan’s legs felt like they were set on fire within his armor. The burning feeling was so insane he could barely feel the ground beneath his feet from the excruciating pain. But he ignored his screaming body and pushed forward. Li deserved a better fate than being taken advantage of as the weak link.
Judith reached Li’s position first and raised her golden blade into the air before she brought it down toward the stealth specialist’s body. Dan barely reached his teammate and extended his Conservative.
Berserk mode activated.
His corrosia-enhanced sword intercepted Judith’s blade just in the nick of time. Her golden blade was maybe mere centimeters away from Li’s torso. The blood rushing from his eyes due to the strain obscured his vision once again. Only the golden light from Judith’s blade pierced through the red that filtered his bloody eyes.
“There’s the Dan I know and love,” Judith said while laughing. “Always ready to take on the next challenge, even when your body is dying.”
“I won’t fucking let you,” Dan said in a raspy voice.
He collapsed to one knee as the toll of both chaining the berserk after his warp dance and his failed glare attack caught up to him. He was just barely keeping Judith’s blade from reaching his teammate. But this was a fight he was losing rapidly. Even with all his effort poured into holding up his Conservative against the golden blade, Judith’s single arm still had sufficient strength to continuously apply the pressure.
In tiny increments, Dan knew he was losing the power struggle. No matter how much he wanted to prevent his friend from dying such a cheap death, his body was giving up. His HUD blared warning messages regarding his injury diagnostics.
Warning: Injuries are critical. Seek immediate medical assistance.
Imminent kidney failure.
Numerous skeletal fractures.
Internal bleeding in lungs, intestines, numerous muscle groups, etc.
Heart arrhythmia.
Elevated risk of aneurysm.
Dan didn’t pay attention to the list beyond that. He already knew he was fucked. He could feel it throughout his entire body and the amount of blood leaving his eyes, nose and even ears. His chest pounded so hard and erratically it was as if his heart swelled to twice the size and threatened to explode in his chest. A sharp pain in the back of his eyes was like someone stabbing his eyeballs with needles.
At this rate, his healing factor wouldn’t save him.
No! I can’t let him die like this, he wanted to shout. His throat was so caked with blood and bile he couldn’t say it out loud.
Even through the blood leaking out of his ears, he could hear Judith’s obnoxious cackling through the intense howling winds in the background.
“You will both die here by my blade,” Judith announced. “Fight it, run from it, make peace with it. Die with your pride intact, knowing it took someone of my caliber to finally put you boys in the grave. If I can’t reattach my arm, I’ll get a cybernetic one and engrave your names on it just for you.”
Judith’s golden blade inched further and further down as Dan’s strength waned and all of his injuries ate away at him. Her blade was maybe a hair away from touching and slicing through Li’s armor until sudden blood splatter hit Dan’s face.
The lead Bloodknight coughed up a wad of blood and he eyes widened in shock at the sword that had impaled her through the left side of her torso. Dan couldn’t believe it either as he fixated on Judith’s injury. Her strength weakened which allowed him to marginally push back against her golden blade. Then he noticed the erratic purple energies that covered the blade through her chest.
Dan tried to lean his body to the side while still keeping his Conservative stretched out and preventing Judith from killing Li. Every muscle in his body screamed and burn, even his facial muscles. But Dan mustered up the closest thing he could to a smile when he saw Ada. She had plunged her Bloodthirster through her boss’s lung.
Somehow, he had finally gotten through to her.
The victory was just as short lived as Judith’s bewilderment. Even with a corrosia-enhanced blade through the lung and one missing arm, Judith was still standing. She twisted her neck and looked over her shoulder at her traitorous subordinate.
“You little fucking rat,” she seethed. The lead Bloodknight delivered a kick faster than Dan’s eyes could detect and launched Ada away. She tumbled along the sand and came to a stop.
Seeing another one of his allies get hurt by Judith, a hiss left Dan’s throat. Whatever trash talk or words of hatred he had lined up for the lead Bloodknight couldn’t leave his mouth. He was so overcome by something primal that he simply couldn’t string together the words. Dan’s arms surged with newfound strength. Unstable red static and a matching radiant aura enveloped him.
Ultra Berserk mode unlocked and activated.
Warning: Use at your own peril.
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Dan let out a screech that threatened to tear apart his own vocal cords. But it got Judith’s attention. She looked at him with genuine shock and didn’t have an immediate remark to make about the changing situation.
His Conservative blade also became enveloped by the violent red energy his body produced. His sword gradually pushed black against Judith’s blade.
“What the fuck is this?” she shouted. “How? Where did all this bullshit come from?!”
Dan’s renewed strength made him stand back on his own two feet. He began slowly taking steps forward, further pushing back against Judith and her golden blade. But even with this sudden power boost, he knew he had to make the most of it. If his body was already breaking down from using the regular berserk, then this strange ultra variant might finally kill him. He screamed one simple phrase.
“I’m fucking done with this shit!”
Dan pushed his Conservative hard against Judith’s blade with such force that he briefly overpowered the lead Bloodknight and threw her off balance, stumbling her. He lunged and winded his sword back. His feet left the ground as he flew towards Judith who still hadn’t recovered.
In one furious swing, his Conservative backed by the unstable red energy sliced across Judith’s midsection in a diagonal line. The attack sent rippling distortions through the air and his face felt the intense heat from the strike. The ground hissed and sizzled when the tip of the Conservative dragged through the sand at the end of his arc, leaving behind a strange fused substance as a result.
Judith staggered backwards and fell to her knees. Her golden blade disappeared as her only remaining hand was used to keep herself from completely collapsing face first into the sand. The attack didn’t chop her in half, but Dan saw the excessive amounts of blood gushing out of her sliced open midsection.
The violent red energy and static that had empowered him in his time of desperate need fizzled out and faded. Without any of it to keep his body going, Dan also dropped to his knees. He kept one hand gripping the hilt of his Conservative as he was on all fours. Hit took a lot out of his just to take shallow breaths.
Dan’s ears heard nothing but the violent winds in the background, the grains of sand pelting against his coat and armor, and the ragged breaths from both him and Judith.
He heard a low chuckle coming from the lead Bloodknight. I fucking swear, how is she still alive? He thought.
“You,” she said weakly. “You’re a monster. Just. Like. Me.”
Dan opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. His throat had been thoroughly strained from his intense scream and he could barely breathe properly.
“Only two previous adversaries had ever damaged me like this,” she continued. “A zenith-ranked Church agent, much more powerful than the cult master you eliminated for me. And Michael Cynosa. It’s been fun Dan. But you, Li and Ada will all die here together.”
Dan didn’t have the strength to lift his head up to see Judith.
He didn’t need to look up to detect the glowing ambience of Judith summoning her golden blade once more. Dan had literally thrown everything he possibly could and demanded more than what his dying body was willing to give. And it still wasn’t enough to kill this crazy bitch.
His body was so broken and worn down that he couldn’t even mutter a “fuck you” before Judith got the last laugh in killing him.
He heard rapid footsteps in the sand, presumably from Judith charging at him preparing to finish him off for good. Instead of his head getting cut off, a sudden impact and a grunt of the lead Bloodknight and Dan was still alive, though barely. He felt something get jammed into his neck and suddenly, a surge of energy ran through his entire body. He coughed up more blood before he was finally able to take proper breaths again. His neck muscles didn’t ache as he lifted his head up and saw his savior rescue him yet again.
An Alpha agent in white with a boxy, angular helmet on his head looked down at him and Dan instantly recognized the voice.
“It’s a miracle you’re still alive Dan. I thought I would be rescuing a few corpses,” Michael said. “I’ve never seen Judith Blight in that kind of shape before. Well done kid. But I’ll take over now.”
All around him, visibility had dramatically dropped and he could only see maybe a few dozen meters ahead of him. Intense winds carried shifting walls of sand and dirt. The sandstorm was coming at them hard.
Judith still stood up across from him. She held up her golden blade. But now, the brilliant blade of energy flickered and dimmed because of her weakened state.
“Well, speak of the devil and he shall appear,” Judith said in between breaths. “So many surprises and headaches in one day.”
Michael contacted him through the private channel.
“You don’t get to rest yet Dan,” Michael said. “I have a team ready to pick you and Li up. I’m sending you a waypoint now. Wait there and they’ll get to you before the sandstorm hits. Don’t worry, I won’t let you die here. Radiation sickness is not a pretty way to go.”
“I’m sure it isn’t,” he said.
Michael grabbed something out of his inner coat and held out what looked like a small cylindrical object. Then he moved his thumb and ignited a blue-glowing blade exactly like Jane’s viper fang sword.
Dan’s HUD immediately updated him with a new waypoint. He turned around and rushed towards Li’s body. Clashes between blades roared behind him. As much as Dan wanted to spectate an epic duel between Judith and Michael, he had to get the hell out of this desert. He reached Li and snatched up his body, carrying him over his shoulder. While his body wasn’t back at a hundred percent, he could at least still maintain a decent run.
It would have been easy to simply start running now while Michael kept Judith preoccupied. Dan briefly witnessed flashes of the breakneck pace of the tuel between tier fours. The only thing his eyes could keep track of was the streaks of gold and blue through the shifting sands. Even with all of her injuries, Judith was still keeping pace with Michael. In the midst of the chaotic battle, Dan saw Ada’s form still lying in the sand. In the end, Ada had chosen to help him. And if he just left her there, she would be killed by Judith for her betrayal.
Plus, it would have been rude not to thank her.
Luckily for Dan, Michael’s battle with Judith moved further away and deeper towards the incoming wall of incoming sand washing over the landscape. While carrying Li over his shoulder, he rushed over towards Ada. He briefly stopped and crouched down to pick up her Bloodluster sword then made his way over to the young former Bloodknight.
He crouched down and placed her Bloodluster into the magnetic lock on her hip and carefully lifted her up. He managed to keep her steady under his other arm while her blade pointed away from him.
Dan ignored the distance clashes between the two monstrous tier fours and made a dash towards the waypoint in his HUD. Even while carrying two agents, Dan put Michael’s healing stim to good use by pushing himself to his limits with his run. He had one and a half kilometers of distance to cover before he reached the pickup point where Michael’s team would find him and get them out. The only complication he could think of is explaining to them why he carried an enemy agent with him.
During his run, his mind bounced between different explanations he could give so that no one would just execute Ada on sight. He figured that the only way to make sure she lived through this was to tell them that he had captured a Bloodknight agent and she was their prisoner. But he would make sure that Ada would be treated more humanely than he was when he was imprisoned by Kodak. He owed her that much.
Dan kept his eyes forward. The chaos behind him, whether it was Michael’s showdown against Judith or the incoming sandstorm. He knew that his priority was to leave and never come back to his place. Dan’s peripherals caught the sight of a familiar golden crescent of energy cutting through the desert a good distance away from him.
It was unbelievable. Judith still had some fight left in her to be launching energy attacks with her golden blade. How did he ever think he had a chance actually beating her in a proper fight?
Dan continued his steady pace across the desert. Thanks to the healing stim from Michael, he was able to keep a consistent pace of thirty kilometers an hour even while carrying both Li and Ada. He could still feel the aches and pains in what felt like literally every fiber of his being. But at least he wasn’t at death’s door.
“What’s going on?” a whisper said. Dan briefly looked down and saw Ada had woken up.
“We’re getting the fuck out of here,” he responded.
“Why did you save me? I’m your enemy aren’t I?”
“You stabbed your boss through the chest. I’d say that was a pretty badass resignation letter. Both Li and I would have been dead without your intervention.”
Ada turned her head around to look at him. She smiled faintly before remaining silent for the rest of the run.
Eventually, Dan reached the waypoint that led him to the destroyed remains of a strider tank. Blackened, twisted heaps of alloys rested in the sand. While the fires had long been extinguished, his nose could still pick up the burnt scent left over from the tank’s destruction. Dan slowly and gently dropped Ada first then Li’s unconscious form in front of the mangled tank.
Path to Cult Master breakdown:
Supernatural progression: 83 / 100
He pressed his back against the blackened heap of metal and stared back at the landscape behind him. The still raging battle between Judith and Michael still had cutting waves of gold energy slashing through the desert ground. The giant wall that was the radioactive sandstorm was still rolling towards them, threatening to wash over the whole wasteland. The flashes of lightning within the giant wall mixed in with the impulsive energy wave spamming from Judith might have made for a marginally impressive sight if he and his friends weren’t about to die.
Ada slowly got back to her feet and leaned in the spot beside him.
“You know, I was happy to see Michael again,” Dan said. “Still, I don’t know if we’ll survive this.”
“Judith smashed my helmet with that kick of her’s. If no one else arrives, then I’ll die from the radiation sickness,” Ada said.
Dan turned to face the ex-Bloodknight. “Listen, thanks for saving us back there. But you only traded one set of problems for another.”
Ada’s face softened. “You liberated me from the chains Judith placed on me. If I die, it would be because of my own choices, not because Judith decided I was no longer useful.”
“It still means you’ll die with me here.”
“Someone once told me that if you love someone, you should also protect them as well. It’s part of a packaged deal.”
Even with a radioactive sandstorm engulfing the desert and coming at them, Dan ignored the impending threat and just simply appreciated Ada’s company.
“If we die, then scoot over. You need to make room in your coffin for me,” she said.
The strange joke caused a chuckle out of both of them. Li still remained unconscious, though Dan wanted to assume that the stealth specialist would appreciate the brevity given everything they had just survived.
“You know, Li and I had this pretty morbid talk. After Judith killed Adam, we both knew we were up next. Even though the two of us didn’t know each other for that long, he still told me he wouldn’t ever forget the crazy shit we’ve been through together. You said to face off against Judith meant death, but after that talk, we both agreed that’s how we would go out. We just came to those terms and lived with it. If that’s where our story ended, then we’ll go out fighting against probably the most dangerous enemy we’ve ever encountered.”
Ada stared at him then smiled.
“If I’m dying here, I’m grateful I’m around my friends,” he said.
No words needed to be exchanged. His hand and Ada’s reached for each other. They both grabbed tightly.
“I have a strange final request,” Ada said.
Dan tilted his head at her. “How bad can it be? We’re in the middle of a wasteland about to be swallowed up by a radioactive sandstorm.”
She reached for his cheek. “Stick your tongue out please.”
“Come again?”
“Do it.”
Dan just went along with the odd request. After the intense strain on his body from using everything he had to fight Judith, his mouth was filled with more blood and bile than his own saliva. He stuck his tongue out and tasted the dry winds and caught some bits of sand grains.
Ada wasted no time and closed in. Her tongue made contact with his and began sliding along the sides before both their lips made contact with each other. For a moment, he felt nothing else but just the shared intimacy between him and Ada. The dry winds, his broken down body, the burnt scents from the charred tank remains. All of that drifted away. It was strange that his first kiss was when he was about to die.
However many seconds or minutes passed by, Ada slowly pulled away from him.
“You taste like blood and sand,” she said playfully.
“And you taste… nice I guess. Though I think I was still mostly tasting myself, which means more blood and grains of sand.”
“Want round two?” she asked.
“No complaints here. Besides, what else am I going to do?”
Both agents came together once more and pressed their lips against one another, Dan wrapped his arm around Ada’s lower body. But since she was fully armored, his gloved hand felt nothing but hard armor plating. Ada’s tongue wormed her way through his lips and he didn’t resist. He simply invited her inside. While his eyes were shut, he saw bright orange dominate his view through his closed eyelids.
He opened his eyes and pulled away from Ada. Both of them looked at the bright headlights from a vehicle that was about a dozen meters away from them. Dan looked down and saw the vehicle floated above the sand, It was another strider tank. His heart rate increased at them being spotted by an enemy strider until he looked up and saw a silhouette of someone on top of the tank’s energy cannon.
“Hey Dan!” A female voice shouted out to him. The bubbly voice sounded exactly like Angie’s.
“So you’re my rescue team,” he said happily. An intrusive thought crept up in his mind that his teammate probably witnessed the entire make out session between him and an enemy agent.
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