11 Scuffle! (3)

Relovan then touched the strip beneath his earlobe and began speaking once more.

"This is Relovan. I have just subdued two of these Personal Knights on the Higgins Highway. From here, I will continue to make my way further into the city. I suggest that the rendezvous point be someplace close enough to the Hotel that we have a clear view of the Void Lords so we can strategise. Anybody with location suggestions is more than welcome to table them."

Relovan looked around as he allowed himself just a moment to catch his breath. His upper torso still felt like it was burning from the earlier near miss, and despite the greaves having knee guards, his knee was in a bit of pain.

"Even grunts like these are problematic." Relovan said as he took a deep breath. "So I'm down to five rounds of Cryo and Regular ammunition and five smoke grenades."

Relovan then took another breath and made his way back towards his motorcycle. The butt of his pistol began to transform in his hand, going back to its regular size with something of a flourish, before being holstered once more. The cape fluttered triumphantly as the Human Police Enforcer had taken down two subordinates of actual Void Lords. He hopped onto his bike and spent a few moments calibrating the navigation system on the console, setting the Hotel as the destination before riding off with a loud wail. He had to navigate the bike through the torn roads and around the rubble, all the while being on the lookout for both fighting Knights as well as civilians that required assistance. Thankfully, the First Planet police had quickly moved to take care of the citizens, evacuating them from buildings as best they could. As Relovan rode deeper into the city, emergency vehicles that had been damaged in some way and abandoned grew in number. Sections of buildings had also been damaged, street signs and lamp posts had been uprooted and strewn all over the place, and in spite of the relative infancy of the scuffle, things had progressed rather quickly. Car alarms bleated away and after a few minutes of travel, yet another tremor hit. This one was particularly violent and appeared to originate from somewhere to the East of where Relovan was. He stopped the bike once again and as his gaze fixed on a rather new looking smoke cloud.

He let out a slight sigh before riding off towards the smoke cloud itself. He no longer had a helmet on because his had been destroyed despite not actually taking a hit. Due to there being no flow of traffic or operational traffic lights, Relovan was able to make his way towards the danger zone with relative ease, his only concern being whether or not he could avoid the stationary vehicles and bits of rubble that littered the road. Soon enough, the condition of roads and buildings became worse and worse, and the bike was now beginning to work to not only maintain speed, but stability as well. As he took a corner, Relovan was suddenly confronted by the clashing of two more Knights from opposing sides. One of Vox's Knights was standing in the middle of a small crater with his legs spread and his fists clenched and pressed against each other. A mass of unbelievably hot flames swirled around him and formed a twister of sorts, burning and melting almost everything in the surrounding area. Conversely, the other Knight was doing the exact same thing, only with Storm Essence. Juxtae's Personal Knights appeared to be female, like the previous one, and while she was standing with her arms by her side and her feet pressed together, she too was standing in the middle of a swirling tempestuous twister. Streaks of lighting danced all around the twister, with most of them striking the floor and creating flashes of light. Vox's Knight looked at his opponent with the most intense scowl.

"Know your role, weakling! You do not have the right to fight like a man!!" He bellowed.

The moment the brute said this, he attacked the other Knight, dashing towards her. She responded in kind and dashed right towards him as well.

"Fight like a man?! If anything, I'm fighting like an idiot!!" The woman roared right back.

Moments before the two made contact, Relovan suddenly sensed immense danger, however he was too close to get away. The two crashed right into each other, and Relovan watched as an Essence Dome was created right before his very eyes, growing in size with each passing moment. The sound of the rear wheel screeching on the tarmac could suddenly be heard as Relovan completed a semi-circle and tried to at least go back in in the direction he came and get as far away from the growing dome as possible. He was unable to get far however, as shockwaves the pulsed out from the dome caught him and launched both him and the bike into the air – along with many other vehicles that were behind and in front of him. Before he knew it, Relovan had been thrown off the bike and watched as cars, sign poles and rocks all flew past him. He found himself turning in midair, and as he did, a rather large rock caught him on the side of the head, causing him to spin and twist some more. Another large piece of something hit him in the midriff and a second or two later, he smashed into the back of a large vehicle – which ironically turned out to be an ambulance – and crashed into a building.

Relovan, who was surprisingly still conscious, looked up and realised that he had to move – and quickly. He pushed the rubble that had hit him in the midriff off of him as all manner of rubble and particulate smashed into the wall that the ambulance he had crashed into had smashed through. Upon successfully removing the large rubble, Relovan pulled himself out from the indent that he had created in the back of the vehicle and leapt down towards the ground. No sooner had that happened, did a bunch of vehicles, street lights, trees and more crash into the building – destroying the wall in the process. Relovan hit the ground with a thud but had no time to even think about that pain he was in as he immediately scrambled to his feet and began running as quickly as he could. Rubble and the like immediately crashed into the spot Relovan had vacated, however a fresh shockwave from the still growing dome caught him while he was running and launched him off of his feet, sending him flying back once more. It wasn't as powerful as the initial ones however, so it sent him into a vehicle, but the vehicle itself was not forced off its wheels. He plopped down onto the road below with a splat, and lay there for a few moments, catching his breath. Once he had done this, he rolled over onto his back and then gingerly got up. His breathing was ragged and wheezy, blood had found its way out from his mouth and nose, and as he attempted to stand to his full height, he groggily shook his head. He grimaced as his right hand roamed around his torso assessing the damage.

"Breaks and fractures." Relovan mumbled as he reached for the utility belt.

He pulled out two small gun shaped syringes and pushed a button on the both of them, resulting in a small cap popping off, and a multitude of small spikes to slide out from within the 'barrels'. Wasting no time, Relovan jabbed both syringes into either side of his ribcage and pushed the buttons a second time. A small red status bar suddenly lit up on the side of each gun, and as they deposited whatever was inside them into Relovan, the level of their respective status bars decreased until completely empty. The Enforcer pulled both out at the same time and tossed the now empty Health Serums onto the ground and spent a few moments just breathing deeply and recovering. Around a minute later, he was no longer hunched over in obvious pain and the grimace on his face was replaced with a wrath-filled expression. He began to walk towards the dome, which had stopped growing and was now starting to decrease in size. He rolled his neck slowly as he touched the tender part of his head which had been struck earlier. The sounds of combat echoed throughout the area, and as Relovan got closer, he reached down to the belt with his left hand and pulled two small marbled sized balls that clacked in his palm as he clenched his fist. He started walking faster as he got closer, and soon enough, the fighting pair came into view. As they did, Relovan unholstered his pistol which started the process of transformation almost immediately.