Cyber monsters started to sprout from the cracks in the earth. I watched them crawl up around me, fiends of all shapes and sizes that grew in surges. Their howls and grunts echoed through my ears as they inched closer to me.
What a perfect time to shake off all of that energy, I said to myself as a smile etched on my face. Accepting my fate, I dropped my hands to my sides. I tilted my chin up and took a breath of humid air, feeling the cool breeze roll over my misty skin.
I couldn’t move, I couldn’t fight, but I could enjoy these last moments in Thalian.
Hell, I deserved it…
As the cyber monsters drew closer, I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh. But something inside me refused to fade. This spark, this muse, it flickered and couldn’t die out. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, a voice inside me conflicted with my decision to roll over and take shit as it is.
I was swept with a sudden onslaught of chills. My blood ran hot, my body itching to spring up and attack. But I couldn’t—how could I? I was drained, my stamina was shot. What the hell did that matter? I had come this far, and I wasn't going down without a fight! I made them a promise, I made her a promise. That I wouldn’t give up, no matter the odds! No matter the shit I had to trudge through! I couldn’t let them down. With every ounce of strength I had left in these tired bones, I gritted my teeth down and willed myself to move. I gave them a death glare as their piercing yellow eyes iced me over, begging my body to get off my knees. Those fanged jowls around me foamed and drooled, their long tails swinging back and forth excitedly like pendulums. The majority of them were level 160 beasts about ten feet tall, with huge bat ears and long spindly legs. They extended their sharp claws, the spikes on their backs sticking up straight up like daggers as they prepared to chow down on me.
“Come and get me you pencil-necked freaks!” I yelled, my voice shaking with fatigue. I tapped into my cyber mana and unleashed Earthquake, stunning the monsters around me. Not to my surprise, I’d only managed to stun them for two seconds. I tapped into my Earthquake again, but my body started to protest. Without a gateway to summon my bots, I activated my arm and used sonar pulse to spread them out. Ineffective. A yard or two was all I got, but I felt stupid for expecting much from my level two skill. It was great that I could tack on so much exp for world leveling, but it meant nothing if my skills didn’t reflect it.
I was running out of options quick. It’d take me a bit to summon my bots, and even then they wouldn’t be able to buy me much time. I thought about using my cloak charm, but it’d be useless to me if I couldn’t get far quietly. How about my flute? Could it work on monsters? It had the ability to rally a crowd toward the nearest body of water, however, it said nothing about luring cyber freaks away.
Heck, it didn’t hurt to try. Though, as I was readying up another sonar shot so I could pull out my flute, a level 160 Cregekt leaped from the circle and dropped me.
I felt the impact of my body hitting the ground hard. The air was knocked out of me, and I gasped for breath as I felt the weight of the beast pin me down. Its fetid breath was hot on my face, its claws along my arms digging into my skin. Trying to wiggle free was making its grip on me worse as it opened its huge mouth and screeched, but as it was about to sink its long fangs into me, it yelped, its throat being gripped by a big fist.
It peeled off of me like paper, weightless, thrashing and bucking as it was carried away by a hulking figure. I struggled to my feet, trying to catch my breath as I looked up to the giant behind it. My eyes fell on a tall, muscular man with layers of armor and a deadly expression. Those piercing beady eyes… I could recognize them from a fucking mile away…
My breath was stuck in my throat as I stared at the warhead who’d killed me on Earth. It felt like my eyes were about ready to bulge out of my head, the way the blood rushed through my veins feeling like my head was going to explode.
The dragon bitch’s titan guard, Gerald himself…
What the hell was he doing here?! Wasn’t I going through enough shit right now as it is?!
His finding me was just the icing on the cake! Things went from bad to worse at the sight of him, but then he popped that dreaded beast’s head clean off its shoulders, the perception of him saving me making me freeze up like a Windows 10 PC.
Droplets of blood stamped my face as my mind tried to process what was happening right now. In my internal breakdown, I noticed the cyber beasts began to look at each other, exchanging confused and worried looks. But they were convinced they’d be able to take on the war tank as they turned back to watch him pull out his mighty sword hauled behind his back.
The insanely huge sword was twice as big as a Buster sword, Gerald lifting it with ease. He cocked his arm back and held onto the hilt tight, pivoting his body to attack. Threatened, the monsters all leaped in unison. Understanding what Gerald was ready to do, I ducked, laying flat on the ground when he swung his sword a full 360 degrees.
A red disc dispersed from the sword, slicing through the air and cutting through the cyber beasts like a hot knife through butter. Blood splattered everywhere, the metallic scent filling my nostrils. I shirked back and covered my eyes from the rain, my heart thumping with how easy Gerald got rid of the horde.
When the dust settled, the cyber beasts laid in piles of mangle body parts. Gerald stood in the center, his sword still in hand as he looked around, the predator in him probably looking for another kill.
Then… his gaze fell on me.
For a moment, he just stared at me in silence. I hope he wasn’t changing his mind about sparing me, but if he were, I wasn’t about to sit there and make it easy for him!
So I pushed myself on my feet again, balling up my fists tight as I growled, “You son of a bitch!” I blared, all of the pent up rage from seeing him again resurfacing. “You got a lot of balls to think that I’d—”
“Dry loot…” he blurted out, interjecting me.
His eyes went to the field, noticing how the Cregekts’ hashed parts began to deteriorate, leaving no loot behind.
But that was the least of my worries…
I went full metal and marched right up to him, pointing my blaster at him. “So you’re really going to play dumb and forget what you did to me?! You fucking ruined my life!”
“L-Luu… ccyna…”
“I don’t care who made you do it! You didn’t think for a second as you were crushing my god damn head in your hands that you had a choice?!” I seethed, my fingers twitching along my grip.
Gerald’s expression was unreadable as he looked down and away from me, his grip on the sword hilt loosening. “I… didn’t understand,” he mumbled, his voice barely above a whisper.
“I had my whole life ahead of me!” I growled. “I wanted to turn things around! To do better! But then you came around and snuffed my breakthrough! Because of you, I never had the opportunity to make a change! All of my regrets and my shortcomings… I felt like my existence was a big fucking mistake! Try having your worthless life flash before your eyes while being scared shitless in a dumpster alleyway in the dead of night, where no one could hear you scream as your head gets shattered to bits!”
“I didn’t know…”
“Of course, you didn’t know. You never bothered to ask!” I retorted. “You never bothered to ask why?! Why do this?! Why follow every word of that heartless dragon woman?! Or are you so deep in her shit that you can’t even think for yourself anymore?!”
Gerald didn’t move. He just stood there, his apologetic eyes fixed on mine. The tension between us was rickety—pulling and pushing, rising and falling. I couldn’t understand how all of a sudden I started feeling bad for him. The asshole who hadn’t batted an eye when he killed me, the asshole who’d slaughtered countless humans in Lucyna’s name! The same asshole who wouldn’t think twice about putting me down again, but for some reason he was standing before me stumped with regret.
I get that he was overloaded, and that Lucyna turned him into her puppet… but some things…
Some things just couldn’t be forgotten…
“I repent,” he said simply, his voice making me lower my arm a bit. The glowing blaster in the center of my palm faded, and I listened to him again when he said, “I sow my blood, my body and my spirit to Senterra. Utilize me as you see fit.”
“Say what?”
Gerald stored his sword into its sheath. Then he brought out his spear from his inventory, and dropped it on the ground. Dragon scales along the body, dark ruins along the blade–I instantly recognized the weapon that had impaled me in the dirty alleyway.
He took to one knee and laid his arm across the other standing knee with one fist on the ground. Bowing his head to me in respect, he vowed, the words coming from his lips nothing I’d expect in a fucking million years…
“Words cannot express my shame and sorrow. I will follow your every command, hero of Senterra…”
