8 Crimson Rage: Part 2

"Alright then, what will you do now?"

Alexio calmly began to walk towards the injured Igor and his soldiers. The grid captain was about issue the order to attack when several rays of plasma appeared and began accelerating toward the group. Some soldiers including the Grid captain and Igor managed to jump back while others weren't as quick. Igor looked on with distaste at the impaled soldiers below him and turned his attention towards Alexio who had his hand up. His hair remained black albeit tinged red with his Iris blood red. Contraptions in the shape of fins were attached to his forearms and legs and panels of metal covered his chest in the shape of a star. Igor wasn't sure what had transpired but he was aware of what that device was doing.

"Tch. So that thing on your back was an overclocker, after all. Clever little things, aren't they? They allow one to raise their energy levels beyond what their body can handle and store away most of the excess energy to use at one's discretion. It's like this was made for people like you, who're bound not by ability but by one's own endurance. This...changes things."

Igor descended back to the ground with the other survivors of Alexio's attacks. He seemed as calm as can be but was trying to think of ways to get around this situation. When nothing came to mind but his own cursed gift, he flew at Alexio with a battle cry.

"Damn you! Just die already!"

Alexio did not bother taking even a defense stance when Igor brought his plasma blade down with all his might. At the last moment, he swerved to the left as his blade passed beside him with a very surprised Igor. Using this momentum of vulnerability, Alexio landed a punch on his stomach. Coughing blood, Igor went flying up towards the ceiling. By now, the remaining soldiers had realized what was going on and began charging Alexio. He turned towards them with lingering distaste in his eyes,

"Too slow. Be gone from my sight! Hrraah!"

Alexio threw his hands to his sides as the surrounding aura suddenly grew in size and intensity, blowing everyone around him away.

"Heh. Kinetic Impulse comes in very handy in situations like these. Glad I practiced this with Ava. Huh?"

Just then, he noticed Igor kicking himself off the roof panels and rush at him with incredible speeds. His eyes seemed almost manic but he had still not used the axe strapped on his back, which seemed strange. Alexio leaped to the side as Igor landed on solid ground with his sword buried in it. Alexio again leaped towards Igor, who was stuck to the ground for an instant, and landed a spin kick which sent him flying. Alexio rolled over with the same momentum as he felt another sword thrown towards his head. As the blade passed above him, Alexio grabbed it with his tendrils and turned its direction towards the attacker. The Grid captain barely managed to dodge the counter attack by jumping up which was exactly what Alexio had hoped for. The captain could only look up in acceptance of his fate as he felt the burn of a plasma blade at his throat which sliced his head off.

"Idiot. That throw was to bait you into jumping so you'd make the mistake of taking your eyes off of me. And that was a mistake that cost you your life. Now, where were we?"

Alexio looked to the remaining two soldiers now gripped in fear with resentment in his eyes.

"Fear? You don't deserve to feel fear because you don't deserve to feel alive. You only deserve the cornucopia of death and destruction that I will bring to you. Die!"

He rushed at the two soldiers who were frantically trying to activate their own swords. Just as they attempted to counter his swing, he disappeared right before their eyes. One of them barely managed to register the wift of air going behind him as Alexio chopped both the soldiers from shoulder to waist in one strike. During this time, Igor managed to regain his presence in the fight only to realize that he was now facing this immense presence alone. Descending down from the wall he had been thrown to, he looked towards Alexio with an anxious face, the latter only looking to the ground at the corpses he's piled up. Igor racked his mind so as to figure out a way out of this mess when Alexio spoke in a calm voice,

"You know already what you have to do. Stop trying to think of ways to fool me because I won't fall for your childish tricks twice."Like a child angered by the taunts of his parents, Igor furiously pressed various buttons on his gauntlet and spoke in a panicked voice,

"Central Command! This is Igor speaking! I am cornered in the prison wards by the commander's son. Send in the elite guard at once!"

"B-But sir! There will none competent left to guard the consoles! What if he's not alone? We haven't yet found any-"

"Shut your damn hole! If he was here with the others, they'd be helping him right now instead of wasting their time with trinket soldiers. He came here for his father and he shall get his father, when this fool of a son is tortured right beside his father!"

"The elite guard are on their way, sir. I hope you know what you're doing."

Alexio couldn't hold back anymore and burst out laughing. Igor turned towards this curious reaction with a perplexed face. How could he laugh in such a situation, with many warriors on par with his own power now headed this way to ensure Alexio's certain defeat. But then something struck Igor's mind.

'Why did just stand there, waiting for me to argue with my soldiers instead of preventing me from calling in reinforcements? Why, the answer is simple. He is misinformed of the power that the elite possess. That must be it. Does he think he can take me down along with the elite and take control of the entire ship by himself? A foolish child! Never underestimating your enemy is the essence of a fight! And this one is essentially over.'

The elite guard, tall brutish warriors clad in silver armor and possessing a weapon of their choice, now marched in from the quick access doors. They disappeared in the midst of their march, reappearing all around Alexio, cornering him like a defenseless dog.

"I win. Now then, tell me, do you think you have a chance to defeat me?"

Slightly confused by his initial declaration, one of them spoke in a determined voice,

"Defeat you? Nah I wanna destroy you. You and your pathetic dirt ball of a planet. Sir, give us the order and we'll kill this fool. He's already pretty beaten up thanks to you."

"Go ahead. Do what you want to. I just want his head on a spike when you're all done."Igor retreating back from the battlefield a little when Alexio suddenly shouted,

"BLOW IT! BLOW THE LID NOW!"

On cue, the native soldiers who had been captured by the Kridora brought out the grenade that was handed to them earlier by Alexio. Fixing it to the wall supports present conveniently just opposite to the prison cells, they formed a shield in front of themselves as all of them pulled the trigger simultaneously.

"You should've really thought about the infrastructure of this place. Maybe hire someone next time, ya dumbass!"

"What the-What's going on?"

The supports all around the prison complex exploded simultaneously, spreading a fissure through the ground below them at a fast pace.

"How? How'd you know?"Igor had only so much time to ask before the ground gave out, spilling Igor and the elite along with Alexio to the room below them. Caught up in the simultaneous turn of events, they forgot of the enemy in front of them and one of the elite found himself falling through the hollow with a sword buried in his stomach. Alexio had managed to jump off of the debris towards the ignorant one and impaled him almost immediately."Too bad. Try again next time, dude."

Five people and one corpse dropped to solid ground. Igor did not even register the death of one of his elite as he had now begun to realize Alexio's plan. But before he could act upon it, Alexio threw a plasma ray at the only console in the room holding just one prisoner. This room had been built on Igor's direct orders, only to satisfy his arrogance and wickedness. And now this one mistake had come to bite him back.

"What, you think I wouldn't realize where you'd keep him? You thought I couldn't tell that he was sent with fifty soldiers while I see only fifteen prisoners in the entire complex with so many empty cells, didn't you? I know how you think, you bastard. I know why you imprisoned him here. You make him listen to the screams of his own men as you torture them to death, slowly and painfully. You want to reduce him to a shriveling mess, reminded day after day of what he's done. That's why his prison is just below the others and that's why there are so many of us missing. I saw right through your hubris and now we will obliterate you for it. Me and my father."

The final gate opened as the one imprisoned in this tiny cell was brought to light again. Alexio expected to see his father, not as a regretful and scared man but one burning with vengeance because that's how he knew him. Alexio expected him to lunge at the first chance he gets, unable to control his wrath. But what he saw was completely unexpected.

"What the fu-"