He Is Human Right?

Kratos for the first time in months felt happy again now that he was back in his element. He choked it up to being a Cromwell who were the last descendants of Ares the war god. 

He may not have believed that all his life, but he did now. That meeting he had with Ares felt far too real to be just an illusion. He took a deep breath enjoying the wind against his face and the heat of the sun. 

"You just don't experience this in the Ark. It's not even close comparing real weather to artificial fake weather."

Guilty had to agree that feeling what the surface was like was an eye-opener for her. 

"I also like it more than Ark. Here we are free and not confined to the rules set in place. At least for a little while." 

Sin also had something else to say about the entire war situation. 

"And on the surface, we are not boxed in to be slaughtered like fish in a barrel when the Raptures enter the Ark."

Kratos nodded. 

"That is exactly what I told my Father when he asked me why I was obsessed with being a Commander. Glad you agree with my point of view Sin." 

Sin smiled. 

"Thank you."

Scathach did not like the sound of that. 

"Sin, do you think that will happen one day? Is humanity doomed?" 

Sin nodded with a smile. 

"Yes. Totally doomed and hopeless to a slow death under Rapture experiments is what I would say. Unless we can deal with the Queen and her Heretic guards."

Kratos gripped his gun a bit tighter at the mention of those Nikkes—traitors to mankind who now served the Raptures.

"You know, you mentioning them makes me want to take a stab at them."

They all turned to him and saw a look of mad glee on his face. It reminded them that their lover was just as crazy as they were. Well, of them except Scathach who had yet to exhibit a mental quirk.

Quency pointed at her face with a big grin. 

"You're letting your excitement get to you."

He chuckled as he put on a poker face. 

"My bad. I will be more careful."

Quency shook her head.

"Keep it up, I like to see your expressions. On a more important note, Shifty, how far have we gone?"

Shifty's projection appeared from his watch as she answered. 

"10 miles and it's been an an hour and a half since the start of your operation. Commander, you are quite fast if I may say so."

That was a good pace. Kratos turned to his squad as they were making good time. 

"We keep at this pace and we will get to the first Lord and Masters in 16 hours. Less time than I first believed." 

Shifty was not so sure about that as her sensors were picking up Raptures up ahead. 

"Commander, I think you will take longer than that." 

Kratos squinted his eyes which began to glow a golden tint as he linked their systems to the scope of his Hellgun. He raised it and looked out into the distance and quickly spotted what she meant. 

"Raptures and a lot of them."

Shifty nodded. 

"It's not a hoard and it is not led by a Master, but the models are newer. It could be tricky if you are not careful." 

He lowered his Hellgun and smiled as he turned to the girls. 

"I think this is a good chance to test ourselves. Girls, switch to melee weapons and we charge at them."

Guilty, Quency, Sin, and Scathach all looked at each other before smiling. They let their weapons rest on their backs and grabbed their melee weapons. Guilty her axe, Sin her Katana, Quency her knives and Scathach her spear. 

As for Kratos, he reached for his twin Phaseblades and pulled them out of their sheaths. Seeing this made Shifty confused. Melee weapons were unheard of in the Ark as no squad used them. 

"Wait, I was going to ask about this, but is this wise? And why would you bother when your guns can work just fine." 

Guilty turned to the projection and twirled her axe with a single hand. 

"Because it can come in a pinch and saves ammo." 

Kratos had something else to say as well. 

"And it's fucking fun." 

Shifty watched as Kratos and his squad got crouched down a bit as they tensed to run. Kratos took a deep breath as he felt his biomechanical heart begin to race like crazy as his blood began to rush through him. 

"GO!" 

When Kratos finally ran, they ran behind him which ended up shocking Shifty at the speed he reached. After the many enhancements, and genetic editing procedures he had undergone, he had become beyond human. 

Quickly, they began to cover ground and pick up speed rapidly. Normal 9th gen Nikkes already could run quite fast most of the time reaching speeds of around 40 to 50 miles an hour in a full sprint with some unique ones being faster than others. 

However, 10th Gen Nikkes were entirely different and it showed in just their physical capabilities. The 5 of them quickly began to cover ground and Kratos was actually at the lead.

They settled on a running pace of 70 miles an hour, but even Kratos felt he could go faster if he wanted. As for Shifty who was watching this almost had her eyes bulge from her sockets. 

'He is a human right?' 

How could a human possibly run that fast? She was quickly ignored as Kratos turned to his right where he saw Scathach running at his side. 

"HOW DO THE NEW BODIES FEEL! I FEEL AMAZING!" 

Scathach smiled at the feeling she was experiencing. 

"I FEEL THE SAME! I NEVER COULD MOVE THIS FAST BEFORE! HOW DO YOU FEEL? GOOD!"

"I AM FINE! I AM JUST BUILT DIFFRENT!" 

Quency wanted to snort, as he was built differently. 

"YOU SURE ARE! Also, WHY ARE WE YELLING? WE CAN HEAR JUST FINE EVEN WITH THE WIND!"

Kratos spoke again without yelling at the same time kept his running speed. 

"I forgot about that." 

Guilty giggled a little at that. 

"LET'S JUST YELL! IT"S FUN!"

Just then, they saw the Raptures up ahead. Shifty was right that it was a lot of them, but not enough to call it a hoard. This time, Quency was ready as she got her knives ready. 

"WHOEVER KILLS THE MOST GETS TO GO ON A DATE ALONE WITH KRATOS ALONE! FAIR!" 

Kratos nodded as the raptures noticed them now. 

"FAIR! NOW KILL THEM!"

That got them excited as they split up and rushed straight into the Raptures. Kratos gripped his twin swords tight as he charged at a large Rapture that aimed its weapons at him. He saw them begin to power up, but before the machine could even comprehend what happened, he slashed out with the sword in his right hand. 

With a single cut, a large green glowing diagonal cut opened on the Rapture causing it to split into two even pieces. Kratos got away from it as its internal systems blew up, but he already moved on. 

He noticed a group of Raptures rushed toward him, but he just charged right back at them. Quickly, his mouth split wide open in a grin as he began to dodge the energy beams by tilting his body forward in such a way he looked as if he would trip. 

However, no such thing happened as he avoided the Rapture attacks and got between them. He pulled his left leg back and kicked the first Rapture with the full power his new body could release. 

Shifty was almost horrified when the entire front half of the Rapture smashed into its back half. He spun and sliced through the 5 Raptures around him. He lept out of the encirclement as the Raptures exploded behind him once more. 

Kratos rushed at another charging group of Raptures which began to pelt his direction with energy beams. However, he ran directly at them, and with the computation power his eyes granted him he avoided all the beams. 

When he reached the Raptures he cut them apart with single sword slashes that left green splits on the Rapture's bodies. He was not the only one destroying Raptures left and right and Guilty was the most violent. Her expertily crafted vibro Axe was massive and she wielded it as if it was light as air.

She moved through the Raptures cutting them apart with the axe and crushing them with her punches and kicks. But just as raptures encircled her entirely, she seemed to smile as she stuck her tongue out of her mouth in excitement. 

She gripped the handle of her axe tightly before she began to spin. She released her axe and spun around in a circle tearing through every Rapture in its way with ease. When it finally stopped, she extended her hand and the teleporter arrays in its handle brought it back into her open hand. 

Guilty took a deep breath as she enjoyed the smell of burning Raptures. She had few memories from her time as a human, but she had one that stuck with her was when she ripped the arm of a gangster. 

She could no longer remember why that happened, but her strength had come a long way. She was blessed with strength as a human which became even more insane as a Nikke. And that strength had grown once more in this enhanced body. 

Just as she got distracted, a Rapture got in close and aimed its gun at her head. Before the machine could even fire, she raised her fist and smashed down on its top. This caused the entire machine to crumple in on itself. 

Now, her area was clear so she moved on after taking count. She was going to get first place to get another first. On another note, Quency was less destructive with her knives so no explosions happened with her. 

She seemed to just slip in between the Rapture's sensors before stabbing it in its main processor leaving them husks with intact cores. Far less flashy, but better if Cores were the main goal. 

While she fought alone, Scathach and Sin were fighting side by side. Sin rushed through them slicing with her katana leaving purple cuts while Scathach stabbed them through. All the while she left bright red holes wherever her spear stabbed. 

As a squad, they managed to finish off the Raptures with no damage to themselves. Once they were all done, Kratos placed back his swords into their sheaths after turning them off. 

"Status report." 

He turned to see the girls walking over to group back with him. At the front was Guilty who had a smug smile while Quency, Sin, and Scathach seemed annoyed as hell. 

"Let me guess, Guilty won." 

Guilty nodded. 

"I destroyed 43 of them." 

Quency seemed to lose her joy which was a rare thing to see. 

"I only got 24." 

Sin shook her head. 

"28 here." 

Scathach gave her a number of kills as well. 

"32." 

Finally, Kratos told his numbers. 

"I got 38. This was a big group which makes it weird that it was not led by a Master. Anyway, when we get back to the Ark, Guilty you will get your date." 

Guilty seemed to beam at this. 

"Right." 

While she celebrated her victory he pulled out his phone and called up his father. Kronus picked up the call quite quickly as he was waiting for this. 

"Son, Raptures?"

"Quite a few and only a few miles from an Ark elevator. I will send the exact coordinates." 

When he sent them over, Kronus noted them down. 

"Stick around there to make sure Raptures don't collect them. My men will be up there from our family-controlled elevator to collect them and bring them back to our lab." 

Shifty as a Central Government employee tried to remind them of the law. 

"Wait, but all Raptures destroyed are considered Central Government property. You can't just take them and personal elevator?"

Kronus spoke up from his phone quite annoyed. 

"I am Kronus Cromwell, I have the permission of Enikk to do as I please as long as I act in the Ark's best interests. Which is what I am doing, so unless you have more questions I will get back to work." 

Shifty would need to ask, but she decided to not bring this up. Either way. Kratos and the girls relaxed a bit and waited for the collectors to show up. They did not wait longer than an hour before a large convoy of trucks, workers, soldiers, and Nikkes arrived and began to collect the Raptures onto the trucks. 

Kratos was about to move on when one of his Father's guards walked up to him. And it was the leader. 

"Sir Kratos, you may proceed. Your Father sent me to ensure the safety of the collection team." 

Kratos nodded. 

"Good luck." 

"Good luck to you as well." 

With that, Kratos and his squad continued on their way. Their first use of melee weapons not in simulations went just as well as they expected.