Encounter’s End

After a second that seemed like an eternity, the Colossal Soarer squeezed and crushed the heart it held. It then slowly glanced over at the remaining three of Kuraran's elite.

"We've gotta leave.." Noda finally said, breaking the silence.

Esten opened her mouth to say something, but Noda abruptly stopped her before any words could come out. "No. There's not a single chance we'll win. And there isn't time to explain or discuss it. The reason why's pretty damn simple anyway."

"I... have to agree. Our precious Gahn was taken care of in a flash. None of us would last the least bit longer." Cindra tried her best to act calmly.

"That's right." Agreed Noda. "So, where the hell's the Gruxx? We've got about ten seconds to get on it before another one of us drops."

A Gruxx is a large creature that is able to essentially swim on land. It accomplishes this with its fascinating scales. They shift and change shape and form as the Gruxx 'Swims' across any solid surface, allowing it to perform the seemingly impossible action. It is commonly used for transportation throughout Obliviana.

"It is a few miles away. We did not want it getting caught in the battle." Esten answered.

Noda clenched a fist. "Tch... shit. Well, I'm gonna do what I can to survive then. But I've gotta admit, it isn't much. I couldn't even see that fucker when he moved."

The new Colossal Soarer's attention was fully focused on them now. Instead of bursting forward for a second kill, it began to chirp. Its chirp was ear shattering, far louder than that of the regular Soarers. Brief moments after its chirping began, nine more Soarers of the same type approached from the distance.

The heartbeat of Noda could be felt throughout his entire body. It's intensity and rate rapidly increased upon him seeing what had just occurred before everyone's eyes.

Esten's expression remained the same as always. However, a drop of sweat fell from her forehead. She discreetly swallowed as well.

Cindra suddenly pressed her lips against Noda's cheek, then turning to do the same to Esten. She licked her lips slowly once she had done so, before briefly chuckling. "My my, the skin of you both is so gentle and smooth. I had expected that of Esten, but our lovely Noda? He seems to be more of the rough yet still satisfying type. Hehe... I should have played around with it far more often."

"The fuck are you saying...?" Noda looked at her intensely.

"Simply put my dear, I have a wonderful little strategy on my mind that will allow the two of you to escape and live on. Reporting to Kuraran what we've learned, so we don't end up in such a dreadful situation again."

He closed his eyes, took a quiet, yet deep breath through his nose, and reopened his eyes to give Cindra the same intense look he had before. "There's ten of 'em Cindra. What're you gonna do?"

"Well you see darling, the extent of what my arm can accomplish, is far greater than your adorable self may think." She answered with a confident smirk, stepping forward in preparation to execute her idea. The blue of her arm exploded into a tremendous aura. Her eyes also began to illuminate a substantial, blurred blue color.

Watching her, Noda said. "Wait a sec, pervert."

"Hm?" She glanced back. "Have some final words for me my lovely dear?"

"Yeah. I do. I wanna let you know that whatever it takes, however long we've gotta wait, we'll find a way eradicate these things from the world. They were a minor pain in the ass before, but now they've crossed the damn line. Killing you... Gahn... plus, making me retreat. It pisses me off to say the least. And when something pisses me off too much, it dies. Simple as that. So... get your ass out there, give your life for ours, and know it's worth it."

She smiled at him. Not with any strange touch to it this time. It was a plain, joy filled smile. "Thank you, Noda. Even with your aggressive nature, your heart itself has always been oh so wonderfully loving."

"Cindra." Esten had one more comment for her. "For once, the filthy berserker is correct. Your sacrifice will be used efficiently and productively. I can assure you the Colossal Soarers will meet a dreadful end." Her hands trembled. "I promise."

"You're so adorable when you show your emotions, Esten." After taking one final gaze at her comrades, she resumed her approach toward the new Colossal Soarers.

The aura of her arm continued to increase, and the blue hue in her eyes grew deeper and more prominent.

The Soarers made small, strange noises. Little clicks and chirps, among other indescribable sounds. Once Cindra grew close enough, they all prepared to charge forward. Each of their pants briefly lit up, before enormous bolts of energy bursted from them all.

Licking her lips, Cindra unleashed nearly everything she had. Her arm blasted outward, transforming into a complex, gigantic series of ten foot tall blockades that tracked the terrifyingly quick movements of each Colossal Soarer, remaining in front of them.

While they dealt with the blockades, she took a lengthy breath. "Everything I've done, all of the things I dreamt for, what I planned on doing tonight, the next day, and the next. All of it and then some has become obsolete. If I'm being honest, it doesn't matter to me what happens if I'm not alive to see it. The awful Colossal Soarer's could live or die after my passing, and it wouldn't mean the tiniest bit. I won't be here anyway. But it was either myself, or myself and my lovely comrades. It seems I was destined to die here either way. So... I may as well make the most of my last moment."

Following Cindra's statement, her body tensed up. Cracks developed in her body, that leaked the same blue aura her arm was made of. Grinding her teeth together, she fell to a knee, grasping at the ground, doing everything she could to push through the agony.

She was preparing to let loose more power than she could handle. So much strength that it would temporarily put her far above the level of the new Colossal Soarers, at the cost of her life.

Finally, all of her skin and armor blasted away. All that was left, was an outline of her body created from the newly released blue aura, and a darker blue aura in place of her eyes. She aggressively eyed the Colossal Soarers as they destroyed the last of the blockades. Once completely finished, they turned their attention to her as well. Yet again readying themselves to execute their signature attack.

The aura from the destroyed blockades returned to Cindra's body. Barely uplifting her power to put her at peak potential ability.

She kept her aggressive stare even when the Soarers bolted in her direction, the usual bolt of energy shooting behind them.

Before they could even reach her, Cindra moved at near light speed, slamming and striking her fists against each individual Soarer within a second, sending them all flying backward a mile or two.

Stunned and shocked, the Soarers all looked at each other from the ground. They slowly stood up, and once their sight reached mid level, they were met with hundreds of thousands of monstrously sized buildings Cindra had created. The Soarers attempted to use their speed to dodge this, but didn't even come close, getting crushed as soon as the buildings collided with them.

The ground was blown to pieces, the desert like area being turned into a wasteland of rubble. Cindra reabsorbed all of the aura she used.

Out of all ten, a single Soarer managed to just barely hang onto life. Blood leaked and poured from its mouth. Even so, it narrowly spit out one final chirp before dying.

No longer able to speak, Cindra's gaze met it for a brief moment, before shifting to something off in the distance.

One more Colossal Soarer was approaching. This one, had incredibly detailed armor and weapons. Even beyond the level of Cindra, Gahn, Esten, and Noda.

She eyed it for some time as the Soarer made its slow advance toward her. Once it had gotten close enough, she prepared to dish out another attack. However, she was caught off guard, to the point where she couldn't help but to stand there in shock upon the revelation she had just discovered.

"Your strength.... I must say, was pretty astounding. Take a look at this place, it has really been messed up. But you know, I'm interested. Just where exactly did that ability of yours come from?" It spoke with great articulation.

Unable to say anything in this state, Cindra simply stared at the vocal Soarer.

"Not much of a speaker, is that so? Well, it doesn't matter. If you're what's considered an 'elite', then we won't have any problems." The vocal Soarer gently raised a hand. When it did so, the tone of the sky deepened into a scarlet orange color.

Cindra was slowly losing strength, however, she had one final outburst left in her. Morphing all of her remaining aura into one hulkingly massive sphere like object. She had no idea what this Soarer was capable of, but the considerable change in the sky was enough for her to know it was something that could take everything she had remaining to deal with.

Regardless, this last effort of hers was in vain. Before she could execute her move, a laser like shot of flame from the sun annihilated her into nothing before even she was able to register what happened. Not a single amount of Cindra remained. Not her aura. Nothing at all. After eradicating her, the shot continued, blasting into the ground, decimating everything in sight and then some. The damage being far greater than that of Cindra's building attack, leaving a colossal sized crater starting right at the Soarer's feet.

"Our power, the power of higher ups like me, is just much more than anyone like you could handle." the Soarer said. It examined the extensive damage for some time, before turning around and slowly walking in the direction it came from.

Meanwhile, Noda ran with such power and speed, that each footstep left a small crater upon the ground. He glanced back, noticing the floor was crumbling away from the impact of whatever had occurred with Cindra.

"Tch... I dunno what the deal is with the whole fuckin area getting torn up, was she seriously that strong? I don't think she'd put us at risk like this though.. but there's no damn way that's the dumbass flies either. Well, guess I didn't exactly see 'em do anything except kill Gahn. Whatever the case is, I'll think about it more once I've actually survived."

He looked in a separate direction, then seeing Esten was struggling to keep up. Without having time to explain, he shifted the positioning of his feet, bursted to the side in one smooth and powerful motion, scooping Esten up in his arms, then resuming his forceful sprint toward the Gruxx.

"....what in gods name are you doing, dirty brute?" She questioned.

"Saving your ass, that's what. You know Esten, you've gotta learn that it's fine to get assistance from other people. There's no reason to get so pissed off just so you don't look weak."

"What a moronic thought. If that were to be truly how things are, I would have become 'pissed' over Cindra deciding to save us. Is that not considered as receiving assistance?"

"Shit. Guess you're not wrong about that. In that case, it seems you're just a little shit about it naturally."

"I did not need your-..."

"Not the time, lemme focus on getting us through this crap and then you can complain all you'd like. Alright?"

"You... alright then. That's fine."

Off in the distance, the awaiting Gruxx finally became visible. The crumbling ground behind them was catching up, so Noda tensed his muscles, his eyes lit up red, and he launched Esten forward toward said Gruxx.

She understood what he was doing, and adjusted her body mid air in order to land on it flawlessly and gracefully. She patted the lengthy, scaly creature, indicating to it that it could begin its traversal back to Kuraran. The Gruxx was intelligent enough however, to know not to increase its speed too much until Noda was on.

Back behind her, Noda bashed his fists against considerably sized debris that was flying forward in front of him from the crumbling ground. It had nearly caught up completely. He picked up the pace as much as he could, digging his feet into the floor below, eventually leaping onto the Gruxx at the last second.

Once he made contact with it, the pace of the Gruxx thunderously increased. It elegantly glided and swam across the surface at speeds of 600 miles per hour. Escaping the area, leaving the crumbling ground far behind.

Both surviving elite warriors heavily panted. After catching their breath, they settled down and made themselves comfortable on the back of the Gruxx, beginning to discuss some things.

"So... I think we should go over what we're gonna say to everyone once we're back." Noda said, his eyes fixated on Esten.

"Can I not get an ounce of relaxation, disgusting devil?"

Noda didn't say anything for some time.

"Yeah. Guess a rest's overdue."

The two sat in silence. Esten closed her eyes, laying her blades on the surface in front of her. They took in the cool breeze that blew across their faces as the Gruxx glided across the landscape.

"Alright. What?" Esten suddenly said.

Noda's eyes shifted back to her. "First off, we'll need to break the news that those pieces of shit killed Gahn and most likely Cindra. Then, we're gonna explain how they did it, what we saw 'em do. We'll need to ask if Cindra was capable of wrecking the place to the extent we saw a moment ago too, cause if it wasn't her, that means we're in even deeper shit than we thought."

"Then we'll construct a plan accordingly with the assistance of everyone back in Kuraran's thoughts and insight. Especially Setsuna."

"That's right. I'm itchin to see what they've gotta say. To be honest, I have no clue what we'll do. We obviously can't take 'em on directly. And if we take too long comin up with something, they'll come to us and slaughter the entire capital."

"Whatever they have to say, I'm certain it will lead to our success. We have made it this far because they are competent. Such considerable deaths will not be enough to cause any kind of panic."

"I know it won't. And for those deaths... and for the deaths they're probably gonna cause in the future.... we'll make 'em pay. No matter how fucked up the world is, its still got everything I care about. The things I dream for, what I wanna achieve, the people I love. And right now, the biggest threat to those things are these damn bugs. So whatever it ends up takin, whatever we have to do to accomplish it, they'll without a shadow of a fuckin doubt be butchered down to the last one." Noda said this with a severe and hostile glare in his eyes.

"And this is why a filthy berserker like yourself has managed to gain and hold a spot among us. Even with your small mind, your strength of will is... admittedly remarkable. Never lose that about yourself."

"Never in a trillion years would that ever happen. It's who I am. Ingrained into me. Now, we've got a long ass ride ahead of us still, so how about we eat some of the shit we packed while we talk these things over?"

Esten nodded gently. "Yes. That's perfectly fine by me, brute. Just... leave Gahn and Cindra's meals where they are. I'd rather not throw up thinking about-.."

"Yeah. I'll leave theirs."

The two continued their discussions while consuming the meals they had packed. In front of the setting sun, the faint outline of a tremendous castle could be seen. It was Kuraran, where they would be arriving within the next several hours.