Cycle: Chronicles » Places

         “Testerran...” Ian was completely shocked by the beast standing before him. He knew it was him, for he was the only Alpha that seemed to not have mechanical parts. This was not the case of course, however he allowed himself to appear in this manner, using his ability.

The alpha looked at him for a moment, before laughing, “I can’t believe you are standing before me once more! Hahahaha, do you not realize how futile your attempts are, human?”

Ian’s usual happy face was filled with a glare of pure hatred. Without a word, he charged towards the Alpha, his graphene bones allowing him increased speed. Just before coming into contact with his enemy, both his arms from the elbows down reformed into long, sharp carbon fibre blades. Testerran laughed as his own right arm reformed into a strange stone-looking material, which seemed to be able to withstand the strikes of Ian’s blades. Strike after strike, Ian pressed on with his rage-induced flurry, whilst Testerran nonchalantly blocked each successive strike.

“You humans will never learn...” Testerran laughed just before deflecting Ian’s left blade strike, using his right arm, and then followed through by turning his own left arm into a sharp blade, with which he stabbed straight through Ian’s gut.

“He’s still too fast!” Ian thought to himself, as he propelled himself off of Testerran’s blade. His body quickly healing itself, as if being weaved back together. “You say that, yet you don’t seem to improve at all.” Ian mocked, though his mockery was short-lived as Testerran charged at him.
Through reforming his right leg into a spring mechanism, Ian was able to jump out of the way just in time, however, he was quickly chased after by two extending appendages, protruding from Testerran’s back. As he landed, he used the spring to bounce again. With his now increased momentum, he began spinning round to kick the strange appendages, though just before striking, he reformed his left leg into a blade and sliced through both of them.

Testerran laughed heartily, his deep voice booming through the ruins of Moscow. “You are quite the funny little fly, the way you jump around attempting to avoid being swatted.” He returned to an upright position, “However, even the fastest fly dies in the end.” With that, his skin seemed to reform into some strange form of armour, what material it was, was difficult for Ian to determine. Testerran pressed his hand into the ground, before ripping out a perfectly formed sword, it’s stone-like appearance was misleading as to what it was truly made off however, the material was far stronger than stone. Possibly the strongest material Ian has ever seen, comparable to the strength of graphene. Testerran lunged forwards once more, too fast for Ian to react, and struck Ian slicing roughly 4 cm deep across his chest. Having attempted to propel himself off of the attack, Ian flew straight through the building behind him, which cracked his hardened skull.

“I can’t die to this beast.” Ian thought to himself, as he lifted himself up once more; “I have to bring my combat abilities up to his level.” With that his skin became layered in carbon fibre, the layer provided some protection, whilst at the same time, did not hinder his movement. Out of his back, two large wings sprouted, using graphene bones, and long dark brown feathers all of which were tipped with a serrated titanium-nickel alloy. Staring through the rubble at the figure of his enemy, Ian used a powerful flap of his wings and began making momentum towards Testerran, his arms reformed into blades once more, he began his next onslaught.


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Mavis saw Raziel get thrown straight through the building behind them, in an attempt to slow the alpha that was chasing him, she began converging as many bodies as she could on top of it, however they seemed to move slower than she had planned, she attempted to increase the speed at which the bodies converged, though even with the increased numbers they did little to slow the alpha down. Noticing how ineffective her attack was, she followed through by forcing multiple bodies to rupture, releasing a highly acidic blood onto the Alpha’s body. Although this stopped the Alpha in his tracks, it was but for a moment, as he shook the acidic blood off of his body, before turning his attention to Mavis.

At that moment the alpha was struck by a large rock, that came from the direction of Raziel, through the surprisingly high impact force, the alien’s left arm was completely disconnected, though its high speed regeneration quickly fixed the problem. Raziel continued to pelt his enemies with high impact rocks, though the damage each strike was doing was becoming progressively less.

“I can’t keep striking so many times back to back.” Raziel thought to himself, “But what else can I do?” His body suddenly was not moving as fast as before, a moment of shock shot through his mind, “Shit!” he thought, as the alpha charged towards him, though its charge was cut off when a wall of blood flowed in between the two of them.

“Things seem to be reacting normally again...” Mavis noted to herself, before she made the acidic blood crash down on top of the beast before surrounding it in a large box. On the outside, Mavis began surrounding the box in weapons made out of dry, hardened blood.

Taking advantage of his chance, Raziel began making distance between himself and the alpha though his movements were far slower than they should have been. The beast quickly burst out of the acidic prison, the damage done to its body quickly healing as soon as he was out of it. Mavis immediately directed all of her blood weapons in the direction of the alpha, which took up a somewhat defensive position. The weapons pierced lightly into its body though their momentum helped propel the beast backwards into the building behind it. Raziel then followed through by pelting the building with another three rocks, the force of which caused the building to collapse in on itself.

Raziel came to stand next to Mavis, breathing somewhat heavily. “What the hell is that thing capable of?” he looked towards the building, waiting for any sign of the alpha’s movement, “We didn’t kill it, did we?” despite having asked this question, he knew what the answer was.

Mavis simply replied with a simply shaking of her head, confirming Raziel’s worry, the beast was most likely getting ready to strike back at any moment. “We can’t discern the extent of its powers as of yet, however, we do know that it cannot be fought one on one.” She stated blandly.

Both of them quickly turned to the moving rubble of the building that they had just collapsed, as the alpha began pressing his way out, his wounds completely healed.

“Here it comes...” Raziel stated, as he readied himself for more combat.

The alpha began charging towards them, quickly picking up momentum as it got closer, both its fists clenched tightly as it planned to break the two apart.

“Predictable.” Mavis stated softly, as blood needles suddenly began rupturing out of the ground under the alpha, each successful hit ripped straight through the alpha’s tissue. Despite this, it continued charging towards them, healing its wounds on route. “Predictable.” She stated again, as the needles rained back down upon the alpha, shattering into acid droplets as they hit it. The extra drop formed a pool of acid, which it was forced to avoid, or lose its feet. “Get ready.” Mavis stated to Raziel who looked at her in confusion.

The alpha jumped at them, its desire to kill, so intense that they could feel it weighing down upon them. A pool of blood broke between Mavis and the alpha, slowing its momentum, though the blood seemed to move slower than she planned, and thus the alpha was still able to strike and dislocate her left shoulder. “Now!” Mavis shouted ignoring the pain coming from her shoulder. Raziel immediately struck the alpha from the side, increasing the force of the strike as much as he possibly could, which caused the beast to be rocketed away from them once again.

Raziel turned to look at Mavis for a moment, “We can’t keep this up for as long as he can... we need to figure something out, and fast.”

Mavis nodded in agreement, though something was bothering her. Her reactions, her abilities, everything she was doing seemed to be acting slower than it should have, she was putting far too much focus in for what she was doing, something wasn’t right. “Insane strength, speed and high regenerative capabilities...” She thought to herself, “As well as the ability to slow another person down considerably... this doesn’t make sense! There is no link between those two powers...”


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Kat lifted herself out of the blood red snow; there were bodies everywhere, most of which were human. They were burnt, shredded and completely destroyed. She quickly collected herself, despite her lengthy enrolment in the EDF, she hadn’t as of yet, seen such a massacre. She heard the voice of one of her squad members, and decided to carefully hurry over to them, though when she got within visual distance, she noticed two of her squad members, surrounded by grunts.

Her fear told her to run, and she wanted to, but no. She wasn’t going to let her comrades die, even if that was the easier option. She closed some more distance before throwing an EMP grenade right into the group of grunts, “GET DOWN!” she shouted, before the grenade exploded, messing up the mechanoids’ robotic attachments. As one turned to face her, she triple tapped whilst aiming at its head, all three bullets pierced through the skull of the grunt before it could even react. Two of the remaining four grunts charged towards her, whilst the other two went after he comrades.

The first grunt caught her by surprise at close distance, and attempted to smash her head, using its arm which had taken the form of a club. In order to protect herself, she struck her rifle against it, she then spun round the strike, turning the rifle around the club, until she had a point blank shot at the grunt’s chest. She held down the trigger as long as she could, before she had to evade the second grunts attack. She rolled away, and repositioned herself, though she had lost her rifle now, and she was staring down two grunts, one with a club, the other a sword. Both grunts began a simultaneous charge towards her, though the one with the club was somewhat slower after being shot with almost a full magazine in his chest. Using her left hand, Kat pulled out one of her pistols, whilst equipping her electric combat knife in her right hand.

“Don’t underestimate me!” She shouted as she opened fire on the alien with the club, the barrage of shots causing it to stumble. The second grunt, with the blade had closed in within that time. Using her combat knife, she was able to parry its strike before stabbing it once in its back. She then shot multiple bullets into its back to slow it down. She turned to see the grunt with the club preparing to strike. Without enough time to dodge, she raised both her arms to protect her head, whilst already pushing herself backwards, to decrease the force of the strike. Though she was still sent flying a few meters, and she definitely heard the bone in her left forearm crack. She winced in pain and a moment flashed through her mind, of the possibility of her comrades dying because she took too long here. A burning passion ignited within her eyes as she lifted herself up once more. “I won’t give up, I refuse to give up!” She told herself, “No matter what it costs me, I will slay these beasts!” focusing mainly on her right arm, because of injury, she charged at the grunt with the club, as it too charged at her. It swung widely, and she ducked under the strike, kicking in the creature’s knee with her right foot, causing it to slip and fall in the snow. As it fell, she rose herself back up and stabbed her combat knife through its head using both her hands. She changed her view to watch the one with the sword as it quickly made its way to her, whilst pulling the knife out with her right hand, she grabbed her second pistol of her belt and began firing at the charging grunt, of the six shots, four entered the beast’s skull, killing it.

She quickly picked up her other pistol and her rifle, reloading them one by one, whilst hurrying in the direction of her comrades. As she reached them she saw that one of the grunts had been killed, one of her comrades was lying on the ground motionless, the other was at the mercy of the grunt. “I can’t risk hitting him if I shot, then...” without even completing her thought, Kat broke into a sprint, pulled out her combat knife and jumped onto the back of the grunt. She wrapped her left arm around its neck, whilst viciously stabbing it with the knife in her right hand. The beast struggled, attempting to shake her off, and even rammed its back against a wall, in an attempt to crush her, but she had already done too much damage to it, and it fell shortly.

“Captain Baines!” Her subordinate shouted, “Are you alright?!” he was worried and looked around scanning the area for more possible enemies

Kat lifted herself up slowly, “Relax Evans.” She stated calmly, “I’m fine, is Luit..?”

“No, he’s alive, ma’am” Evans replied, “He was just struck quite hard.” Almost as if planned, Luit began regaining consciousness, just then. “Luit!” Evans shouted, “You’re ok!”

“Evans!” Kat hissed, “Keep your voice down, we’re in the middle of hostile territory.”

It was just then, that another grunt revealed itself to them. Kat quickly lifted her weapon, ready to fight again, as did her injured subordinates, though they did not have to. With a loud shot, blood spurted through the creature’s head; it had been shot by a member of CAT 3.

Denise then arrived shortly afterwards with a member of her medical squad, “Katarina!” she shouted, noticing that Kat was covered in blood.

“Don’t worry,” Kat replied calmly, “It isn’t mine, it’s theirs.” She said whilst pointing to nearby dead grunts. “Could you patch up my arm?” she asked while raising her left arm, which had now been even more severely cracked than before, because of the rough fight she had just finished.

“Of course.” Denise replied, as she began injecting the healing nano-machines. Her comrade immediately went over to take care of Katarina’s subordinates. “Are they the only two sur-“ Denise was cut off by Kat’s hand gesture, she immediately knew the answer, “This attack was a suicide run, at best.” She thought to herself.


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Ian’s blades clashed with that of Testerran, though it was obvious that Testerran had the stronger weapon, because of this, Ian was forced to rely on parrying and dexterity more so than strength. He pressed off of Testerran’s blade, creating distance between them. Testerran quickly charged to close the gap, which was exactly what Ian was waiting for, in one powerful flap of his wings, Ian flew up above Testerran he turned his bodt horizontally and then flapped his right wing once more, causing him to spin powerfully downwards. With both of his blades outstretched, he cut a small line through Testerran’s back. As Ian landed, Testerran reacted by extending a fist from out of his back, in Ian’s direction, though it was quickly deflected by Ian bringing his reinforced left wing down in front of him. Ian jumped back making distance between his nemesis and himself once again, as Testerran simply repaired the insignificant injury that Ian had inflicted.

“You really think that one as weak as you could beat me, human?” Testerran laughed, “You can’t even get me to fight at full strength, hahahahaha,” Testerran’s gaze became stern, “and you even have my DNA...pathetic.” With that, Testerran slammed his palms against the ground, and a multitude of tentacles stormed in Ian’s direction.

“Don’t underestimate human resolve!” Ian shouted as he brought his wings down and began slashing with them, cut away at the tentacles that closed in on him. One tentacle suddenly pierced through his left wing, though he simply grinned. He cut the tentacle apart using his left arm, and then absorbed the tentacle into his wing. He jumped back, as his feathers rose perpendicularly to his wing. They then began to fire out at an intense speed, piercing straight through rock, and even cutting into Testerran’s armor, albeit barely. The feathers quickly reformed after his attack, just in time for him to use his wings to block a sudden fist coming at him from his side.

Before even fully repairing Ian’s minimal damage, Testerran was before him once more, swinging his right fist at full strength, though Ian quickly noticed the white powder which seemed to be implanted in his fist. “Shit!” Ian thought to himself as he quickly brought his wings to wrap around his body as a defensive layer. When Testerran’s fist connected with Ian’s wings, there was a loud explosion, as Ian was sent flying several meters, into the area where Mavis and Raziel were fighting their enemy.

Both Raziel and Mavis stared at the strange object which landed in front of them, before it unwrapped itself, and they were able to identify it as Ian, though his left leg had become completely mangled to the point that it was completely unrecognisable, though it quickly reshaped back into a normal leg.

“Ian!” Raziel shouted. He was surprised to see Ian in his full battle form; it was a rare and strange sight.

Ian turned to look at them for a moment, and then to their enemy who was pulling himself out of the rubble. Ian jumped back to group with his comrades, “So what’s he capable of?” he asked them.

“High strength, speed and regeneration.” Mavis replied, “It also seems capable of altering the speed of others.”

Testerran arrived thereafter, smashing through another building as he did so.

“Is that..?”

Ian nodded

“Mavis,” Ian began, “Can you hold Testerran off, whilst assisting us with blood strike?”

Mavis nodded, “I can’t let this strange feeling control me.” She thought to herself, “I’ll just have to over-compensate on everything.”

With that, Ian reformed his blade arms once more before stabbing both into a nearby body, covering them in blood. Mavis focused herself on the blood within Testerran’s body first, forcing the body to somewhat lock in place, though it was straining her focus heavily. Ian jumped back, landing his feet in Raziel’s hands, before Raziel launched him at full speed towards the other alpha, whom was just beginning to charge towards them. As a result of Raziel’s power, Ian pierced deeply into the alpha and with his momentum pinned it against the wall. With that Mavis turned her vision away from Testerran and towards their other target, “Crystallize.” She murmured to herself, as the blood around Ian’s blades crystallized. The blood within the alpha quickly followed, as its entire body became immovable, only its high speed regeneration keeping it alive.

Mavis returned her view to Testerran, just in time to notice that her grip on him had weakened, “Too slow!” Testerran shouted triumphantly, though the force of his strike was nullified by Raziel just barely in time. “What?!” Testerran questioned, surprised. Two barbed appendages came flying out from his sides, targeting Raziel.

Suddenly Ian appeared between them, reforming his foot into a hammer, he struck against Testerran’s right side, causing the alpha to be knocked in the other direction.

Mavis attempted to follow Testerran’s movements so that she could once again stop him.

“Mavis,” Raziel began, “Just focus on re-crystallizing the other’s blood. We’ll handle this one.”