14 Chapter 14: The Ultimate LIfe-Form

Like his jet, his movements are incredibly fast. He uses the robotic legs to grab onto the various consoles around him and propel himself forward as if he was being thrown. His legs curl up to his stomach, and his feet connect with my stomach and chest. He kicks me into the door, slamming me with his body weight and momentum.

I drop my blaster and let out a pathetic whimper as all the air escapes my body. I wheeze, sliding down the door to the floor, and quickly scramble away before he can make another move. I crawl for my blaster, snatch it, and crawl behind a console.

"Your heart is still beating? Interesting. Where'd you get to?" he asks, his robotic limbs carrying him around the room high above. I peek out, still struggling to breathe, and shoot a few photon blasts at the back of his head.

The blasts connect, but they hit some sort of invisible shield that keeps him completely unharmed.

"There you are!"

He swings his way towards me and throws some robot arms my way. It pains my stomach, but I roll away and recover quick enough to start shooting frantically. All of my shots hit something else protecting him. What is that?

"How do you like my photon diffuser? No light can touch me!"

I run to the other side of the small room and skid into some more cover. He continues climbing my way without getting tired. I won't have the endurance to keep running from this guy, I need to throw him off somehow.

I shoot the lights overhead of us and start creating shadows. As the glass covering shatters, he instinctively looks that way. I shoot one right above him and the glass phases through his diffuser and scratches his face.

He yelps softly as he rubs his eyes and has his robot arms carrying him away from the falling glass. I quickly sprint over to the light switch and flick it off, then I shoot it. The room is really dim with the only lights coming from the consoles themselves. I can still see, but darker corners are an option now.

I hurry away from the switch before his crashing body can make contact with me. He slams into the wall and creates visible damage to what is supposed to be a highly sturdy metal. That could've been my bones.

"No night vision on all that tech? What a shame," I whisper.

"Did you know that The Keeper is neurologically linked to its owner? Think of the mechanical parts as an extension to myself."

"Keep talking, Deus, that's all you're good for."

I shuffle quietly all around the room, only barely dodging his skimming eyes. He stands under another cover and I shoot the glass. It rains, he gets annoyed and moves away. I need something more effective than this. This is only angering him.

He begins to climb higher to the ceiling. I pop out and try to shoot him, but he spots me and quickly twirls his whole body to dodge all of my shots.

He throws himself at me again with a powerful scream to accompany it. I dodge the front of his attack; his strong fist aiming for my head, but as I scurry away, a robotic limb grabs me by the wrist.

He pulls me off the floor and manhandles me like I weigh nothing.

"Looks like I've caught myself a mercenary."

I squirm and groan as the metallic grip gets tighter, scraping and scratching my flesh. "Ack! Whatever happened to dinner and a movie first?"

I quickly fumble for my outfit with my free hand, snap a metal accessory off of my jacket, and jam the sharp edge into his neck. He releases a loud and intense scream in my face, then his robotic arm hurls me away from him fast and hard. I fly to the wall so greatly, I splat against it like a toy.

I bounce off and roll onto the metal floor. My head spins and an incredible pain travels all around my body. I can't get up, everything feels like it's on fire. I force myself to crawl away to get behind a console, then I try to catch my breath, but every inhale feels like needles in my sides.

An automatic voice booms over the intercom. "Main photon cannons ready for launch."

"You made me bleed, Nev. That's more than any other enemy can claim, but it seems that you've only delayed the inevitable."

I watch him let himself drop from being carried as he walks to the photon cannon controls. He puts his hand on the aiming stick, and I manage to fire off some shots at the console. His diffuser absorbs some shots, but the console does get singed by a few of them.

"Just five more minutes," I say.

He flings himself to the ceiling again with his robot arms. "You brat! You'll wish you died in your Ucello when I rip your limbs off one by one!"

As my head barely creeps out of my hiding space, a robot arm is already attempting to impale me with its sharp claws. I duck, it misses. I stay down, the robot arm peers over the console and tries to stab me while on the floor.

I roll out of the way and into the open. All six arms are now attempting to grab or stab me. It's like he can control them with the precision of one of his real limbs.

I try to dodge them, but one latches onto my ankle and takes me down to the floor. I struggle to kick it off with my free leg, but another just grabs that one and binds both ankles together with the other limb.

I'm lifted upside down facing Deus. Five limbs threaten to end me as they float menacingly in my face. I steady my blaster and shoot at the closest limb. The diffuser only protects Deus, not the arms!

It singes and recoils away, its peak appendage now useless and only its tentacle-like body can be controlled.

I shoot at another that's closest. The same happens, now only four remain with claws. I'm dropped and nearly land on my neck, falling with a heavy thud onto my shoulders.

Suddenly, all the limbs retract back into the suit, and he begins approaching me on foot. "I see you still have plenty of fight in you. Then come on, I'll give you a death of great stature!"

I jump to my feet and aim the blaster at him. I fire off shots aimed at his head, but the diffuser is still fully functioning. If light can't get past the shield but other physical things can, maybe I can take him in a fistfight.

I raise my fist and try to remember what Paxes Bootcamp and Knight both taught me. I keep my left foot leading and inch toward him. I step in for a punch to his ribs, it connects.

He feels it as his face winces, and I go for another aimed for the face. My knuckles slam into his cheek as my hook connects. I throw a left-handed punch going for the temple, but he blocks it with a raised arm in a defensive stance. That's when I see the moving parts on his suit.

On his elbows, a mechanical hydraulic begins to gyrate. He steps back, spins around quickly, and delivers a backhand fist. I manage to block it with both of my forearms, but the overwhelming strength sends me flying away once again.

"My strength, my speed, my agility. It's all more than you've ever witnessed."

His troops' suits had something similar to enhance their abilities. It's like an exo-power armor that uses mechanical leverage to increase the power behind a movement. The right punch in the wrong place could stop my heart or shatter my bones.

"Can't you do anything on your own?"

I get back up and sprint at him. I jump into a flying punch, and when I connect with his block, he staggers. I quickly drop to the floor and try a leg sweep, but when my foot hits his, I'm stopped in my movement as if I just hit a wall instead of a human leg.

He throws a kick that tosses me into a console, shattering it and turning it into a light show of sparks. Pain washes over me again. I don't think it went away, I'm just reminded of it every time a hit lands.

I see that a panel from the console I crashed into dented heavily from my body's impact. I grab the bent edge and rip the panel off of the console. Now I have a blunt metal object. I see his elbows and knees all have the hydraulic cylinder.

I raise my blaster and sprint at him again. As I shoot at his face, he instinctively covers his eyes from the bright light. I slide, aiming for between his legs, and pass through while swinging the metal panel at the hydraulic on his left leg.

It completely trashes the mechanism and his leg locks up.

"Dammit! How can you be this elusive?" he shouts as he grabs his leg with both hands and tries to get it to move.

I run at him from behind, but as I get close, a robotic arm shoots out ready to defend him. I quickly blast it with my gun, and more pop out just to push me away. I shoot all of them, rendering the arms defeated.

"What's wrong, Deus, scared stiff?"

I climb onto his back and throw my arm under his neck. I tug as hard as my tired, bruised body can, choking him with all the hate I have. Kroyoza's spirit burns my heart, they'd want me to strangle harder.

He reaches behind his back and manages to nab the back of my shirt. He tugs too, his hydraulics giving him the strength to rip me off like a wet towel. He throws me across the room, but I safely roll on the floor and get back up.

Deus still desperately attempts to get his leg to move. He's trapped, now is the only chance I'll get to use Knight's secret martial art.

I quickly align myself right in front of Deus who takes notice but never stops trying to rip his leg off the floor. "All tricks you've tried have merely annoyed me. I'll crush you, and Paxes will fall for your failure."

I say goodbye to my right hand and trigger finger. I place my right foot forward, breathe deeply, extend my right arm, and then feel my center mass becoming heavy and fortified. I take a powerful step forward and retract my right fist to my hip.

I let it fly forward as my foot hits the ground, creating a punch Knight calls, "Os Ruptor". My fist connects with the center of his chest. My right hand shatters, an intense sting shoots up my arm and climbs down my spine.

Deus' armor begins to spark brightly. He shakes violently and begins to scream horrifically. Between the flashing lights and the intense pain, it's hard to focus on what I'm looking at. His face begins to boil and peel. His own suit is cooking him alive with a high electrical current.

I didn't notice, but I'm on the ground. I look at my hand, it's crumpled up like wadded paper. The pain isn't there anymore though. Deus' giant body stops shaking and tips backward; falling hard on the floor and sending a small vibration my way,

The cannons never fired, Paxes' freighter is saved. My eyes, my vision is getting floaty. I pull myself up, not even feeling the effort anymore. I limp to a console near me. Which one is the release for the door?

I try a lever sitting on the side. I don't get to flip it, my body shrivels up and falls down to the floor, and my hearing goes away. I think that kick to the stomach gave me internal bleeding or something. My P.V.D can tell me about major damage. I'll check it later, right now I think I'm just going to rest my eyes for a second.