Old Friends - Part III
Cassius walked forward as the two stared each other down, holding their gunblades in their own stances, standing like stone as the wind and rain tried to beat the two of them down, "I'll give you an honorable death, Arcuris. It's the least I could do for a traitor."
Arcuris smiled under his helm, "I've been looking forward to this."
Cassius charged at Arcuris with incredible speed and power, bringing up his blade upwards at him. Arcuris dodged to the side before bringing his blade down upon Cassius. His rival parried the attack before countering, only to have his own assault countered in return. The two enemies circled each other before committing to another attack. Arcuris did look somewhat more worn as Umbrianas and Sevata were able to get a couple of solid hits in on him. His armor was torn open in two large spots, his own blood on the jagged edges.
"Tired, Arcuris? You're looking a little run down for a fight."
Arcuris rolled his shoulders and assumed his stance once more as he shrugged, "Well, I don't have someone else fight for me, unlike you." Enraged and confident in his actions, Cassius charged forth to Arcuris. As he swung downward, Arcuris dodged to the side before unleashing a furious counter on him, blasting a powerful charge that nearly took his enemy off of his feet. Cassius fought through the pain and swung upwards at Arcuris, bashing a large portion of his helmet off, almost completely breaking it. The two continued fighting as they parried and tore into each other as their armor and bodies were rended.
Cassius was ruthless now, snarling in anger as he continued his assault. In his movements and attacks he was frustrated, never losing a fight to his foe. Arcuris looked as if he was either tired or trying to lure Cassius into false competence as he let a few more hits on him. After a few of these, Arc swung only once but powerfully and it caught Cassius off guard. He cut through Cassius's arm, bringing it through it and into his side before firing off a charge from his weapon.
Cassius yelled in pain a his left arm up to his elbow fell to the ground beside him, his side blasted open and leaking copious amounts of blood onto the landing platform. Arcuris was not done. He kicked Cassius in the side of his helmet as hard as he could, cracking it open before leaning down and pulling it from his head. He started to bash his face repeatedly with his gauntlets as blood stained both of their armor and Cassius's face started to resemble bloody meat.
Arcuris stood up and looked down at the man whom he finally bested in combat. He breathed in an out heavily from a hard battle fought as blood dripped from his head, "I win this round, fucker." He picked up Cassius's gunblade and hurled it over the edge of the platform before looking to Tallian.
Cassius coughed up blood, his wounds slowly healing from Arcuris's rampage. He wheezed and groaned in pain. Tallian uncrossed his arms as his eyes widened. He looked to Cassius before his gaze turned up to Arcuris, "You really have become strong, Arcuris. It seems your days of mingling and wallowing with savages has made you gain strength. Or, did it?"
Arcuris stood up as the rain washed the blood from him and his armor, standing about his three old friends, his looked perplexed as he removed the broken helmet from his head, "Sending in my old colleagues and not fighting yourself? That seems a little suspicious. Even for you."
"Did you actually think you grew stronger from your own perseverance, Arcuris? You think you have some connection to the aether, which is partially correct, but not entirely." He took a few steps forward and smiled, "We merely untapped something dark that has been hiding within you ever since you were born. You have a link to some dark entities, boy. The more you kill and destroy the stronger you become and I know you feel it too."
"What in the fuck are you talking about?"
Tallian tilted his head and continued, "The reason you were ever even considered for the program was because of your family history and It's past. It goes so far back I doubt your parents even know of it." He pointed his head and smiled with a nod to him, "We just needed to give you a little push to do it, to see that power finally come to fruition. We needed you to become the next greatest thing for our nation. The future of our people."
Arcuris remained silent, letting what he said sit in his stomach like an angry swarm of wasps. His blood boiled, his face filled plastered with burning hatred, "What?"
"I did what I had to do to secure the future of our empire. Myself and others like I make the hard decisions so that our home can live on and our loved ones stay safe from the rest of the world." He stared to Arcuris and stopped pacing, "I was the reason you joined the resonance program, Arcuris. I guided you to it."
Arcuris watched him intently as he continued.
"I needed to see what you were capable of. Your family held you back from something truly remarkable." He paused, his voice became troubled, almost trembling, "I was responsible for your brother and your wife. Your brother met his fate with a band of rebels attacked him and his convoy. Your wife's health diminishing health was not your doing. I ordered to have her poisoned."
Arcuris looked down the ground as the blood and rain dripped from his face, down his armor, and to the ground. He held the gunblade loosely in his hand as his other arm relaxed to his side. His head slowly rotated upwards to Tallian, his eyes black and red, swirling with that dark energy he possessed. With demonic speed, he rushed his former commander swinging the gunblade downwards as he hammered on the trigger of his weapon, explosive rounds blasting into Tallian, "You took everything from me!" Tallian put up an unrivaled defense against his attacks which would have put anyone else into the grave.
Tallian responded by slashing his own weapon into Arcuris, who was weakened from fighting the others. Arcuris was not phased by the slashes and gunshots as he kept screaming in bloodthirsty rage, "It was all you!" He broke through Tallian's defenses and slashed and blasted him a couple of times, rending and tearing through chunks of his reinforced armor and flesh. Tallian responded by slamming the weapon into Arcuris chest, sending him several yards into the hard surface of the landing platform with inhuman strength. "That's what I wanted to see from you. But you're still holding back from me. Why must you be like this, Arcuris?"
To Tallian's surprise, Arcuris invoked the powers he recently given to him from the mysterious wraith-like creature. A churning chaos of red and black energy ripped into existence and howled in fury as It made It's way into the world. A large, terrifying creature with no eyes and a fanged maw floated near him, seemingly connected to him. It's robe was pitch black with red flowing runes, glowing along the trim. The creature screamed at Tallian as Arcuris bared his teeth with blood covering his armor.
"I will fucking bury you!"
What followed in Arcuris's assault was rage incarnate. Everything all at once snapped in his being and all what was on his mind was bloodlust. With gunblade in one hand and dark, primal energy infused with his other arm ending in a crimson claw, he tore and rended through Tallian's defenses, shredding his armor and causing grievous wounds as the creature around him swung it's malicious talons in unison. They moved at unparalleled speed and power, making even Tallian shudder at the monstrous display of pure power.
Tallian weathered the attacks from Arcuris, his body and armor torn and split open. He roared in pain before unleashing some dark power of his own, firing a blast of energy from his hand that sliced into the air and threw Arcuris backwards almost to the edge of the platform. Tallian Charged him and threw brutal punches and swings and broke bones and bloodied him. As Arcuris weakly reached for the gunblade, Tallian stepped on it with such power he broke it
into three pieces and even left a cracked platform underneath. Arcuris's own strength was waning from taking so much damage before and during the fight with Tallian that his powers were fading. "Now, that you lying here in a pool of your own crimson regret, I won't ask nicely for you to come along-"
Tallian was assaulted from behind by none other than Umbrianas. His wounds were healed, his hands gripped on his massive sledge as he shook with anger, "You lied to me. You lied to us!" He was not the only one to attack. Sevata screamed in rage as she swung her chainblades at Tallian who was taken aback by the sudden change in his underlings.
He swore at them as he fought back the attackers, seemingly starting to look weakened from everyone trying to subdue him, "Traitors, all of you!" He may have been hurt but he was still more than capable of returning attacks, cutting and slashing into both of them, using his now revealed magic on them as well, making sure to put them both to the sword.
He breathed in heavily as he peered down to Umbrianas who knelt down, "Of all of the ones who knew better, Umbrianas! How dare you and Sevata both turn on me like that traitor over there!" He pointed the gunblade to the roegadyn as Tallian's eyes were now completely crimson, as if possessed by some unnatural creature.
"I was a fool, we were fools to have trusted you after what you said. Monster!" Umbrianas charged at Tallian swinging the massive hammer. He dodged to the side and stabbed Umbrianas through his heart, firing a blast into the armor. The Roedadyn groaned in pain as blood dripped from his lips to the ground, his visions slowly going dim before he fell to his chest. His eyes slowly closed as he muttered one last thing to Arcuris, "I'm sorry, Arc…"
Arcuris watched as Umbrianas, his friend, spoke his last breath. He yelled in anger, trying to stand up once more before Tallian rushed over and snatched Arcuris by the neck, lifting him up as he looked into his eyes, "Enough!" Tallian's eyes were not his own, "Now, we will return home, brother." He smirked evilly as some other creature seemed to take a hold of his former commander.
Arcuris smirked as he chocked from the clenched gauntlet around his neck and his own blood, "You've got about ten seconds to surrender."
Tallian gave an evil, dark chuckle as he glared into Arcuris's eyes, "Oh, and what are you going to do-"
The facility exploded in a violent rapture of metal and fire. it was so powerful it shook the entire area as it threw up a massive plume of blue fire and smoke into a mushroom cloud above the area. What was once part of the mountain was collapsed into a massive landslide of destruction.
Out of the destruction walked Arcuris, his armor torn and shredded beyond recognition, his body torn and bleeding as he walked, holding one arm as his body started It's healing mechanisms. He stopped as his eyes caught Sevata, laying underneath some rubble, wheezing as she was pinned by sharpened rocks. He stumbled over, pulling the rocks and debris from her before looking over her. She suffered heavily and was bleeding profusely. He pulled one of the emergency syringes for himself and jabbed it into visible skin to administer the healing serum.
"W-Why would you help me, after what we did to you?"
He said nothing in return.
She spoke weakly but she would live as she continued, "You're going to Garlemald."
He stood up and began to walk off from her, "Tallian will either be looking for any survivors if the fucker didn't get incinerated in the blast." He peered to her once more before he turned back to the forest, "I suggest you go back to yours in Yangxia, Sevata."
He turned and walked into the darkened forest of the Black Shroud as the cool winds soothed his skin.
