Negative Freeroll

Grey rolled to the side, dodging out of the way of a barrage of Shrapnel. He snapped up his hand cannon and fired. A Reaver went down after a couple of shots, but they were far more durable than regular Vandals. Guardians referred to these variants as Majors to differentiate them from their regular versions. They were a far greater threat than regular ones, also known as Minors.

He leaned to the side as an Arc Spear narrowly missed his head. The Hunter thrust his off-hand to the back and elbowed the offending Wretch in the face. He reeled back in pain, clutching its face. With one swift motion, Grey pulled out his knife and stabbed it in the forehead. He then Blinked away from another Molten Welder shot, blasting away the Wretch's body and reappearing behind some cover.

Corrin had found cover behind some debris, watching as the Hunter tore through the opposition without much issue. She didn't know how the man managed to… to blink around the battlefield. It was like an instantaneous warp spell, targeting a single person.

Only the most advanced mages could use such spells in her world, yet Grey made it look simple. She wasn't even sure if it was magic, though she could think of no other explanation for such feats.

To say she was out of her depth would've been an understatement, but that did not mean she was helpless. A fact she proved to any lowly monster who attempted to take her head amidst all the chaos. With the flurry of battle she hadn't even noticed the cut on her forehead, or the aches of her limbs.

Grey did, however. Taking a second to reload his hand cannon, he glanced over to Corrin. A Dreg went down from a slash of her sword. He noted that she had taken some injuries, mostly bruises, but there did seem to be a cut on her forehead that was dripping blood.

Her armour was protecting her from most of the injuries, but it still seemed to expose too much skin. He held out his palm, Saratoga appearing.

"Heal her up, buddy," he told him.

The Ghost obliged, floating over to Corrin. "Gonna heal you up," he told her. "This'll only take a second."

Corrin had hardly even noticed him floating up to her amidst the chaos. Cuts and bruises were par for the course for a warrior, and she paid them little mind until they were pointed out. They weren't even that bad, anyway, and they would hardly slow her down.

"That isn't necess—ah!" She jumped back with a startled yelp as the spirit's shell suddenly seemed to split open, its components spinning around his core as a sphere of blue light was projected around it. Corrin watched in awe as the light suddenly seemed to flow into her. Instantly she felt rejuvenated, as though she'd just been hit with a healing spell.

It didn't require a staff or any sort, however. Not that it could hold one, anyway, given its lack of arms or body in general.

The Ghost's shell returned to how it was before. "Now if you excuse me, I have to get back to my Guardian," he said, but Corrin was a little too stunned to reply. Each passing second only served to create more questions for the princess. A moment later, the spirit then vanished as he transmatted himself back to Grey. "All done."

Grey nodded. He sprung out of cover, firing Austringer. Another Reaver went down from a combo of precision headshots. He rolled towards another and swapped to his Badlander shotgun.

Springing back up, he blasted the Reaver away with an Arc-charged buckshot round. Behind him, Efyriks growled, and slashed with his lower wrist blades. Given how the Captain stood head and shoulders taller than the rest of his crew, those blades were the same size as the Shock Blades Marauders carried.

The Hunter sidestepped and then whirled around and fired Badlander. Efyriks' Absorption Shield immediately shattered, Arc on Arc instantly removing it. As Grey pumped his shotgun, the Captain vanished in a flash of red light, reappearing a few steps away. He fired his Molten Welder, Grey dodging out of the way at the last moment. The Shrapnel fired grazed his shields.

"Too close," he muttered. Efyriks gave a loud growl, the remaining Reavers and surviving Fallen coming to his side. Grey gave a rather annoyed click of his tongue as he put his shotgun away.

Then, he thrust his shooting hand into the air.

Immediately, he was engulfed in supercharged Solar Light, flames enveloping his person, burning like a raging bonfire. Corrin had to shield her eyes as the energy collected around the Hunter.

A blinding light appeared in his hand as the molten, flaming form Shin Malphur's infamous Last Word materialised in his hand as he summoned forth the Golden Gun. Practically every Hunter of the Gunslinger subclass instinctively crafted their Golden Guns after the renegade Hunter's signature weapon. After all, he was the one to invent the technique.

Greyson brought the weapon to his hip and held the trigger. Then he rapidly brought his hand down on the hammer, fanning the gun.

Bolts of pure Light crafted from sunfire were fired out, enough to completely disintegrate a lesser enemy and other Guardians in single hits. Each shot lit up the entire area and caused shadows to dance on the walls, and each shot caused a Fallen to disintegrate into nothing but glowing ash and cinder. Efyriks took a few more hits, but even he couldn't withstand the Traveler's Light. He too was soon reduced to ash. The shots left molten holes in the walls where they had overpenetrated each enemy.

Then all was quiet, Grey the only one left standing.

Corrin felt the hair on the back of her neck rise, and once again it wasn't all so unfamiliar. It was like witnessing Ryoma or Xander in power, both of their weapons were blessed with immense power.

By all accounts, her own Yato possessed mystical strength, but few things she'd ever seen rivaled the destructive power of this single man.

The flames surrounding the Hunter vanished as he spun his Golden Gun on a finger, the spectral weapon disappearing soon after.

"Come on," he told Corrin as he pulled out Austringer. "More of 'em are coming. Whoever manages to kill us gets to become the next Captain. We're leaving."

Corrin glanced from him to the smoking piles of ash and then back to him. She opened her mouth, closed it and shook her head. "Right… uh, let's find somewhere safe... Then... Questions. So. Many. Questions," the princess shook her head and lowered her blade. She'd hang onto it, just in case they ran into more trouble. "Right then, lead the way."

Grey nodded. "This way," he said, making his way over to the staircase and kicking the door open. There was a skeleton in a corner half-buried under a pile of dirt and debris, a plant sprouting through an empty eye socket. The Hunter paid it no mind, however, simply leading Corrin up the stairs and to the roof. The door was already unlocked, letting the sunlight pour through. He led her through it, and they were at the top of the building.

Much of the fog had cleared by now, giving Corrin a clear view of the long-abandoned city of Chicago in all its glory. She gasped at the sight, putting a hand to her mouth. "What… what happened?"

She'd never seen such widespread destruction before. An entire city, completely decimated. Not even the war back home had leveled such destruction. What was worse was as far as she could see, there didn't seem to be an end in sight. Was the entire world destroyed just like this?

Her companion merely grunted, and seemed to be prepared to answer her question when hatches and doors in the roof opened up, and from them came more of those Fallen.

Grey pulled her into the cover of an A/C unit as Arc bolts sailed past. The Hunter popped out of cover and swiftly dropped several of the Fallen with his hand cannon. More were coming, however, a Servitor and several Shanks rising up the side of the office. Corrin winced as more of those bolts sailed past her head.

The Hunter didn't really seem in the mood to deal with them now, however. He'd done what he'd come here for. He pulled Corrin out of cover, making sure she was behind him. "Knees apart," he said, as he performed the action of mounting something.

"Wait, what?" Corrin asked, giving Grey a questioning look. "Knees apart?"

She didn't have time to dwell, however. There was a flash of light beneath them, and suddenly, she was seated. Corrin gave a yelp of surprise and instively wrapped her arms around Grey's waist, before glancing down beneath them to see something she could hardly describe.

It was no horse or cart, but clearly a vehicle of some kind, constructed out of wood and steel. There were two metal prongs on either side of the front, making it almost resemble a fork. Intricate engravings were etched into the metal. Not only that, but the whole thing seemed to be floating a couple feet off the ground.

"Might wanna hang on," Grey told her. "We're going for a ride."

He didn't wait for a response as he gunned the throttle of his Sparrow, and the Bronco shot forwards. Corrin tightened her grip around him as it did, the vehicle boosting to a speed of over two hundred klicks an hour in mere moments.

As the vehicle travelled forwards, Corrin realised that it was heading straight for the edge.

"What are you doing?!" She cried with wide eyes, but her frantic cries could barely be heard over the roar of the engine.

The Hunter merely grinned, the Sparrow shooting past the Fallen as the edge got closer and closer. A Vandal rolled out of the way in a narrow miss as he promptly proceeded to drive off the building.

"YEEHAW!" Grey whooped in delight as the Sparrow began to fall. Behind him, Corrin's own screams of terror rivaled his own. She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the wind in her ears as the vehicle began to fall.

Thankfully, it didn't last long. The Sparrow landed on the side of another skyscraper, a collapsed one leaning against the one they'd just left. He continued boosting downwards, down the side. The ancient windows beneath them shattered from the Sparrow's jetwash. Corrin dared to peek, eyes wide with a mix of fear and wonder.

They reached ground level soon enough, the route leading them into the darkened interior of a parking garage. As Grey rounded a corner, so did a pair of Fallen Pikes, emerging from the darkness. Their riders boosted their vehicles forwards in pursuit of the Sparrow.

"We've got trouble!" Saratoga cried. "Two Pikes, right behind us!"

"Yeah, thanks for pointing that out," Grey muttered, voice dripping with sarcasm.

The Pikes opened fire with their Arc Repeaters mounted to the front. Grey swerved to the right and out of the way of the shots. The exit was up ahead, and he could see daylight. He boosted forwards and emerged into a half-flooded street covered in the rusted remains of cars. The Pikes also emerged still hot on his tail, and even worse, so did another pair from a corner.

"Not good," the Hunter muttered, dodging past obstacles and enemy fire. He pulled out his hand cannon and fired back, but firing while on a speeding Sparrow was remarkably difficult, and why many Guardians preferred not to.

But Grey had been doing this long enough to master the skill. He fired, and a Fallen rider was struck. It fell off its Pike as the vehicle spun out of control and crashed into a storefront, exploding on impact.

Putting away his gun, he reached behind him and pulled out what seemed to be a small mace-shaped metal object. Corrin looked over, curious and terrified. "What is that?"

Grey didn't answer. Instead, he primed it and tossed it to the side. It impacted the roof of a car that had been flipped on its side, and then attached itself there. Then the device activated, projecting several beams of red light in the air in front that pulsed every second.

The Pikes behind continued riding forwards, seemingly oblivious as they rode straight into the beams.

The red light intensified, beeping and then detonating, spraying burning Solar energy outwards. The Pike closest to it was caught in the blast and took the full brunt of it. Its rider was blasted off first, and its vehicle disintegrated when the components holding it together melted.

The other two were still right behind them, however. An Arc bolt whizzed by Grey's head, much too close for comfort. "Ah, hell!" He cursed.

"Now what?!" He heard Corrin cry out from behind him.

"Just hang in there, kid," Grey reassured her. "This ain't my first rodeo."

The princess wasn't really listening, however. She hated how helpless she felt in that instant. Lost in a world beyond her understanding and completely at the mercy of this stranger, unable to help as they were being chased by monsters who seemed hellbent on killing them.

As another bolt streaked past, she turned around, glaring at the Fallen behind them.

She didn't understand their weapons, nor did she understand why they hunted them. What she did know was that she couldn't afford to die here, nor did she wish for her benefactor to come to harm.

He couldn't fight as effectively if he had to protect her. Corrin grit her teeth and loosened her hold. One hand moved to the stone she wore around her neck. She was relieved to sense familiar magic within it. However she'd come to be in this world, it seemed she'd brought her magic with her. Perhaps she could put it to use here.

"Keep going," she told Grey, before taking a breath and forcing herself to stand, shakily getting to her feet on the rapidly-moving vehicle as she grasped her Dragonstone. Her deep blue cape and silver-white hair blew in the wind as she rose to her full height.

"Hey, kid!" The Hunter cried in annoyance, looking over his shoulder. "What the hell are you doing? Get do—"

Before he could finish, Corrin leapt off his Sparrow, flipping backwards and twirling in the air with all the agility of an Arcstrider, Fallen shots whizzing by her as she went airborne. Grey slammed on the brakes, the Sparrow coming to an abrupt stop. He gazed back at her, ready to fend off the Fallen to spare her from her apparent suicide.

He didn't have to, however. In the air, Corrin gripped her dragonstone tightly, and allowed the familiar magical sensation to wash over her.

Corrin couldn't remember the first time she'd transformed. It had been at a point of extreme emotional duress, having witnessed the assasination of her mother. The beast she'd become went on a rampage, tearing through the enemy forces in an attempt to get at her mother's killer.

In the end, had it not been for Azura Corrin knew she'd still be trapped as that feral beast.

Her draconic heritage had proven to be a great asset during the war, she hoped it would be here as well. Her body was engulfed by a spinning vortex of blue light. From the outside, only the outline of her form would be visible. Her limbs extending, horns protruding. Wings grew and talons were barred.

"What the hell is going on?!" Saratoga exclaimed through his and Grey's mental link, well and truly lost for words. "She's... she's changing!"

Grey could only watch in astonishment from a distance. They got their answer soon enough, however.

Corrin let out a roar as she landed dead centre in the road, the blue light dissipating as she hit the ground. Her claws dug into the cracked earth, her tail shifting back and forth. Her neck, fully extended, turned to face her pursuers. She huffed.

The Hunter blinked, a great beast standing before him. "What. The hell."

Corrin had somehow transformed into something that resembled a dragon of all things, with wings and horns and a tail.

The Fallen Pike riders were too all too stunned to react. Corrin wouldn't give them time to, however. Opening her mouth, she blasted her pursuers with her breath weapon, a concentrated blast of magic that took the form of a cascading spiraling wave.

One was struck, its rider and Pike sent flying backwards from the attack that was strong enough to blast a hole through solid rock.

The other finally snapped out of its stupor, and opened fire. Yet, the shots seem to merely splash off her armour... or her scales, fizzling out after a moment. Seemed Corrin's ability to tank hits in this form hadn't changed much either.

Huffing in annoyance, she reared back and stomped her forelegs into the ground, hard. The resulting impact created a shockwave that blasted the final Pike into a wall, killing its rider.

Then all was quiet once more.

The Hunter stepped off his Sparrow, the vehicle vanishing a second later. Cautiously, he stepped towards the dragon, his gun at the ready just in case. "Hey, kid," he began, not really sure what else to say. "You in there?"

The beast merely turned around to face him, head tilted to the side rather playfully. Learning to communicate while in this form had been a major challenge, but in time she'd learned to project her thoughts for others to hear.

It certainly made coordinating on the battlefield easier.

"Yes, I am here."

Grey rose his brow as Corrin's voice echoed between them. She was there, and she could understand.

She continued. "I apologise if I startled you. I dislike being… dead weight."

She folded her wings to her side, head swiveling about once again. With her extra height and senses she could see for miles. All laid in a state of decay.

"What happened to this city?"

She looked to Grey, her body language betraying her curiosity. The Hunter took a moment, before sighing. "The Collapse happened," he told her. "Five hundred years ago humanity nearly went extinct... were it not for the Traveler."

Corrin tilted her head. It certainly seemed everything had come down around here. Humanity as a whole, almost wiped out. Corrin shuddered to think about it. She had more questions. What was this Traveler Grey spoke of? Where had humanity gone, if they weren't fully wiped out?

She hoped the Hunter would be able to answer her questions. "I see no other enemies about, perhaps now might be a good time to... oh!" She let out a deep and rumbling laugh. "I realise I've yet to introduce myself properly."

Corrin stood to her full height, standing as regal as could her in her dragon form. "My name is Corrin. I hail from the kingdom of Nohr. Clearly…"

She looked around once again before settling on Grey.

"I am far from home."