4 Decisiveness: Part 2

The soldiers who had spotted Haru kept flying away from him, knowing they don't stand a chance. Dodging whatever energy blasts that bastard threw at them, they kept hoping to encounter another one of theirs to relay the presence of this intruder on the ship.

"Hey you hear that? That's an alarm ringing! There must be someone there to inspect it! Quickly! Rush towards the sound!"

They flew at full speeds towards the sounds, not noticing the patrolling soldiers due to their panic. Haru recognized that this must be Ava's doing and deliberately slowed himself down, hoping she could handle it.

"Hey you! You've got a transponder right? There's been a breach on the ship. Relay that to central command and have them send reinforcements in this grid. These natives don't travel solo, I'm confident that there must be more of them if a Templar Knight is here."

Ava, now disguised as a knight, made a big show of pressing buttons on the cestus and said, "Command, there's been a breach of security in Grid…"

"Grid 7-A! 7-A!" The soldiers anxiously kept looking back, confused as to why he hadn't caught up to them yet. Ava then beckoned them to follow her.

"I saw the Grid captain around the corner. Best report the intrusion to him as well." The soldiers followed without a second thought, feeling a sudden relaxation knowing the grid captain was nearby. They did not stop to think that a grid captain wouldn't be patrolling on the edge of the grid itself. Ava hit the timer on her watch and spoke quietly into the headset.

"We're moving the plan ahead of time. Alexio, I hope you're ready. You'll be taking the brunt of the lockdown. However, they'll be attacking under the impression that you're here alone. We'll do what we have to on the timer, got it? Here's to hoping you actually heard all that. Haru, there's a hole in the ceiling along the way I came, with a couple of grenades linked together kept behind a couple of barrels. Plant those in the armory and give the trigger signal frequency to my gauntlet. Leo, I hope you're in position as well."

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"Ha Ha! Too Slow; too slow! I am the ultimate warrior! So you'll have to do better than that!" Alexio exclaimed while slamming a brute to the wall with his tendrils wrapped around the unconscious soldier. Noticing the approaching blade behind him, Alexio does a cork screw jump, with the blade passing below him. His heel hit the back of the head of the soldier, who dropped to the ground. Landing back on his feet, he conjured a blade of his own, driving the same into the soldier's head and using his limp body as a projectile towards the three approaching him at once.

"Hah Hah hah. Get him now!"

To his surprise, the last three had good team work, as they caught the dead man midair. Alexio, however, did not miss this opportunity of distraction, launching himself from the ground. He then conjured his tendrils again, grabbing a metal piece midair. He then spun the piece around, gaining momentum and hit the one on the left with all his might, sending him flying. The warrior, however, had reacted just in time by blocking the blow with his forearm. He then used the side wall as a platform, launching himself off of it towards Alexio who was now running full speed towards the other two.

"Damned scum! You're a fool, coming to the ship alone! Your father wasn't wiser though, getting an entire regiment killed under his command! You may be his substitute but even you can't get out of here alive!"

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure." Alexio calmly exclaimed as he turned towards the warrior who was flying towards him. Their blades clashed, creating an impulse which blew the other two back.

"You two! Go! Tell Commander Igor that he's here. I'll hold him off till then. The name's Cragon by the way. Remember it, Commander of the Templar!"

Cragon pushed hard against Alexio, trying to blow him back, but with no avail. Alexio simply used his kinetic impulse to counter the move, sending him flying instead. With not a moment's delay, he leaped above the warrior with his tendrils stuck to the floor. Using them as a medium, he shot himself towards Cragon who hadn't recovered yet from the blow from the Kinetic Impulse. With his fist clenched, Alexio was about to throw his punch when Cragon blocked the blow with his arms crossed. When the punch hit, he felt the bones in his arm crack under the immense force. Despite the intense pain, he did not stagger as he landed on solid ground, immediately jumping back to get a moment to compose himself. Alexio did not stop as he landed, however, immediately changing trajectory using his legs to kick himself off the solid ground. Cragon drew his own blade and rushed at him in hopes to counter him. In the moment before the collision, Cragon thought to himself,

('He shouldn't be able to perform his precise movements at such speeds. I'll swing my blade in a winder arc and from below his waist. Worst case scenario is I'll block his strike, using the momentum of the clash to regain balance and counterattack.')

As the two were about to collide, Cragon swung his plasma blade. Alexio, instead of swinging his own blade, used his bare hands to stop the blade's momentum, swinging the now staggered soldier in a wide arc and flinging him towards the wall with all his might. Despite his bleeding hand, Alexio did not hesitate for a moment as he leaped towards Cragon with his tendrils conjured in both hands. He wrapped those around two poles on opposite sides and used the momentum of the pull to fling himself even faster at the soldier. As Cragon collided with the wall, Alexio landed on his stomach and subsequently impaled him with the plasma blade. He dropped down from the wall and looked at his injured hand.

"H..How'd y…you do that?"

"I saw it in your hand movements that you were gonna attempt a low swing thinking I can't outmaneuver you. I didn't have enough time to dodge your blade and strike you at the same time. So it was a simple matter to block it with my right and swing you towards that wall."

"G..Grabbing a plasma blade, just li…like that? It was a mo…moment's exchange. Why didn't you hesitate? Why didn't you hesitate thinking of the pain that this will result in? Did you grab my sword out just out of the moment's impulse?"

"Nope. That was the only way I could think of to stop you. You people should really stop underestimating the Commander of the Templar. Yes, I was faster and stronger than you in every aspect of the fight. But that's not the reason you lost." Alexio's blade, which still stuck Cragon to the wall finally faded. He coughed out more blood as he dropped to the ground, dead.

"You had neither the resolve nor the decisiveness of the moment that we have, who fight for our home. Take this to the grave you'll come to loath just as much."

Alexio looked around in the mess. The ground was covered with blood, both his own and that of his enemies. Thanks to the fact that he was spotted in the training grounds, the brawl he just had wasn't noticed yet by anyone. But now he needed to raise an alarm, which will be accomplished by the two he let escape. He then looked at his injured hand in distaste.

"I gotta stop making things challenging for myself, especially in the middle of a war. I decided not to use ranged attacks, supers or the actuator on a whim and this happened. These scratches and especially this palm will take a while to heal. Anyway, I ain't even sure this thing will even work when I need it to. Time to listen in to what the others are doing." He tapped his headset to find Ava in the middle of reports.

"What to do now? I can't take them out with guns blazing; that'll raise an alarm. There's no guarantee I can take all of them even with my gift at the same time."

Alexio neither knew what the situation was nor the time it'll take to handle it. Even so, he decided to leave things to Ava as he sprinted out of the training grounds towards the prison wards, praying that he doesn't encounter any more high spirited warriors in his way.

"Come in, Ava. Where are you? I'm almost at the prison wards; had to deal with a little detour but now I'm back on track. ETA 5 minutes tops."

"Tch. I'm already at the armory but we've run into a problem. Haru was spotted and is now chasing a few soldiers across the damn ship like an idiot. It's only a matter of time before they spot someone else and the entire ship goes into high alert before Leonid is in position. What do I do?"

Upon understanding the situation, he became confident in his belief that he can't do anything to help. So, like a capable commander, he left things to Ava and the others and continued on his way.

"Handle the situation. That's what you do best."

Alexio had to punch through a wall and slice through a couple of incautious soldiers before he finally arrived at the main deck. The alarm had not rung throughout the ship yet which meant none of the others had been found out. He hid himself behind a panel, waiting for Ava's signal.

"I'm in position. The prison wards are directly below me and it's becoming increasingly tempting not to break everyone out. Whatever you're doing, Ava, make it fast. It's not long before someone with a communicator or an alarm trigger notices one of us."

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Ava finally arrived, as a Kridora soldier, in the far corners of the grid with the distraught soldiers behind her. They frantically looked around for the commander but the entire area was empty. Ava turned around and gave them a look of confusion.

"That's weird, I could've sworn I saw the grid captain strolling around here."

As she saw the fourth and final one catch up to the group, she smiled to herself, waiting for the moment all of them stood completely still. The moment they stopped moving from their positions, she walked into the middle of the group. Moving as fast as possible, she touched all four of them on the exposed part of their armor and started walking away.

"What was that about? Where are you goi-"

One of them suddenly sporuted spikes from all over his body, including his eyes and skull, dying instantly. Another froze to ice and fell to the ground, shattering like a statue. The other two started to vomit out blood continuously before they died due to lack of breath.

"I'd expect a little more caution from you lot, seriously. One man starts to chase and you lose your minds. My gift, germ-shift, has now judged you for your carelessness in a war with death. Sucks to be you, who don't have the resolve and the decisiveness of the moment that I have, since I've got something to lose in this fight. Unlike you, who lost everything just by challenging us."