6 Blades of Judgement

"Alright I'm in position. Ava what's your status?"

"I'm in position, Leo. What about you, Haru?"

"Getting there. It's tricky business in these streets, man. The path ahead is swarming with Kridora and it's not even some tin cans I can disable with an EMP. I daresay the Grid captain of this sector is already suspicious of my presence here and his ordering the soldiers to patrol in a way to corner me. Any ideas?"

Ava waited for this moment with bursting excitement. She cleared her throat loudly and spoke in a clear and calm voice.

"Do what you do best and handle the situation."

" What's that sup-"

A silent end indicated to Haru that Ava had cut off communications abruptly. Looking to the patrolling soldiers blocking his way forward, he sighs to the wind thinking of a plan to get around the situation. He couldn't rush at them blindly, since despite his speed the grid captain would be able to report in the intrusion and the ship would into lockdown, sealing the entire corridor before he can reach the command center. He could deal with them all at once with energy blasts but the noise and heat from his ranged attacks would trigger the alarms. Creating a distraction using other alarm units wouldn't work either, since the grids closest to the command center immediately enter lockdown the moment any alarm is triggered. The security drones weren't making things any easier, since any abnormal activity that they detect is also relayed to the grid captain, who may then proceed to lock the area down. Haru was running out of options other than his tertiary gift, the usage of which he was planning to avoid until the last possible moment.

"Damn it! I don't see any option other than this. I wish it weren't a one-off or I'd be spamming this crap ton of fun in the battlefield. Alright, it seems I don't have a choice. Here goes nothing."

Haru sensed for the situation ahead of him. There seems to be soldiers patrolling in groups along the way, with some bunched together in front of doors, some talking causally and some strolling around with weapons drawn. The movement of the security doors showed a thirteen second window from when the furthest one turned away from him in its patrol path.

"That's not gonna be a problem since I can only use my gift for 5 seconds. The problem is, there are 7 separate groups from here to the final grid before the command center is within range. I can manage an extension to 6 seconds but hitting the grid captain in the furthest corner is gonna be tricky. How do I-"

Suddenly an idea hit him. He hurriedly pressed buttons on his gauntlet when a voice came to his ears,

"….Damn this is boring. When will we move ahead, I wonder. Aren't you done, Haru?"

"Ava! Listen! I am stuck just before the command center because of heavy security. I can take almost all of them before I am locked out of the final grid but the grid captain is too far for me to kill with my concurrence strike. I need your help. Where are you right now?"

"I'm 2 levels above you, just in front of the defense plaza. I would raise my energy level to let you know my exact position but these sensors might detect me."

"That's alright. I need you to aim your pulse canon at an approx. fifty degree angle below and fire at the exact moment I say 'now'. "

"Uh huh. Got it. But wouldn't that trigger the alarms before you move into pos-ah I see what you're up to. Ever the tactician, huh?"

"Let's hope it works. Ava, we're moving the plan pivot to me. Alex is switching places with me, in the plan, that is. Leo? You in place?"

"Yeah I got it down. The lower decks aren't as guarded so I can rush the door as soon as the ship goes into lockdown. There on, leave the automated defenses to me. But can you really make it in that small time frame? From what I heard, you've got only a couple of seconds for a correction interval in your rush, haven't you? I'm not sure how you'll compens-"

"Leave the liabilities to me. Just handle things on your end. So, are we ready?"

"I suppose. Is everyone in position? We won't get a second chance at this; mostly because we'll either be dead or harvested if we're captured. The Commander's also-"

"I am the Commander now. Don't sideline me."

Alexio perked up out of nowhere.

"Fine Fine! Lord Richard is here too so we've got to get it right from the start or they'll catch up to our plan and lock him down further. I'm ready too, by the way. Do it, Haru."

Haru charged up his energy levels to as high as it can go, pulled out both his swords from their sheaths and rushed around the corner into the pathway as the 13 second window began. The ones in his immediate vicinity were taken by surprise and that's what he aimed for. He landed just in front of the group and jumped over them in a butterfly twist. As soon as they were in vicinity, he swung his sword at the closest idiot and his concurrence strike activated. The ones below him couldn't quite fathom what they saw. Even though he swung his sword at one of them, all of them felt the pressure of the blade at their throats. In the moments their blood spilled out, the soldiers saw a faint image of a person swinging a plasma sword at their throats. The wisp was tinted blue with a blurry and transparent body and had a blade of the same shade. As one of them started to fall down from the blow, he looked to the side to his brethren. All of them had been sliced at the same time by the same wisp with different styles of strikes with one of them sliced by the man above him. Realization dawned on him as he fell to the ground with acceptance of death at the hands of Haru, the wielder of concurrence strike.

"6…come on..."

Haru, however, did not stagger for even an instant as he leaped again with fearsome agility, running along the wall towards the next four with his top speed and then sliding along the ground as he reached them. With the momentum of the run, he skidded right beside one of the ignorant idiots talking about their day and cut his entire upper section from the lower. In the same fashion, all the others were dissected by the same spirit in different ways as he brought his sword down on the ground, using the imbedded sword as a pivot as he flew in a wide arc above the lone soldier who had managed to somehow recover from the initial surprise and was about to raise an alert. He sliced his skull clean in two as he threw his second sword at one of them who was a bit further than his concurrence strike's reach. Haru then jumped up to the ceiling and subsequently kicked himself off the roof, landing in the middle of a group of five patrolling the sector. Using the impact of the landing, he cut the one in the middle clean in two with the other four being sliced in the same way by his image.

"3… damn it…I'm behind schedule….!"

Changing the grip on the sword to backhand while grabbing the other one from the corpse, Haru ran at incredible speeds towards the final 3. They had at last noticed something was up and had begun to draw their weapons. Jumping with utmost effort, Haru spun his torso like a screw with his swords spinning like a blade towards the soldiers. The one in the front managed to raise his gun horizontally to block the strike but to no avail. The swords went through the gun and his head, killing him and the others instantly. Haru landed on his left shoulder and immediately pointed his hand in the opposite direction, blasting at full power and propelling himself ahead.

"2…yeah!"

The grid captain noticed his presence and was about to raise the alarm when Haru shouted,

"Now!"

On cue, a blue energy wave pierced the entire section just in front of the captain who impulsively guarded, buying Haru another two seconds. With the momentum of the propelling blast, he did a cork screw jump with one blade on his side and the other thrown at the grid captain. Unfortunately, the final two soldiers were somehow ready for his strike, evading to the sides as his blade passed by. But Haru was not affected by this to even hesitate for a moment. He kicked the soldier on the left with the back of his foot and the one on the right with his free hand. Both of them went flying in opposite directions with the one on the left finding himself impaled by an actual sword and the other with his gift.

"Alright 1! You're finished!"

Doing a barrel roll on the ground, Haru came up just in front of the choking captain who was just about to fall and grabbed his head and forearm. With both his hands free, this was an easy feat as he blasted both his head and the communication gauntlet with point blank energy. The grid captain went flying and slammed to the wall, dead.

Not yet finished, he grabbed the one sword he could and leaped towards the closing door to the last grid and made it just in time, the end of his coat caught in the door. Taking it off, he spoke in an exhausted voice to Alexio,

"I'm in! 10 minutes! That's all you got to get him into the lower chambers before the entire ship goes into lockdown! Don't fail, Alexio!" And then dropped to the ground, worn out.

"Don't you worry. Igor will fall just like the ones he commands. After all-"

Alexio got up from his cozy spot and faced the prison wards, flipping off the security drone which had just spotted him before smashing the doors open and triggering an alarm.

"The blade of our resolve is already at their throats. Time to swing the blades of judgment for their transgressions."

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