Chapter 58 - A Man Worth The Strength of a Thousand Soldiers
"DON'T YOU ALL DARE TOUCH HER!!" Yelled Raphael on top of his lungs, yet all Claire's pursuers had their hands reaching out to her.
He rushed to Claire's side and pushed her away from them. "Aackk!!"
"I'LL HANDLE SHIFTER WIELDERS! YOU HANDLE THE GUARDS!"
"G-Got it!!"
Both were now faced with opponents to deal with.
"You disappoint me, Novick." Captain Wright told him as he transforms his shifter weapon into a spear preparing to fight him, as well as the other top ranking fighters from the special infantry troop.
Raphael also prepares himself, transforming his own shifter into a sword. "Too bad for you, I never try to live up to anyone's expectations!"
Despite the number being 13 soldiers against one, none of them stand a chance against Raphael with their seperate strength alone. So with all their force and power combined, they launched themselves to attack him.
"Haa!!..." even the strongest man in E.D.L. had a difficult time dealing with one opponent after another. Still, none of them can even put a scratch on Raphael.
Then as it was Bernadette's turn to strike at Raphael, he quickly shifts his shifter sword towards her direction to block her attack. "It's a shame we have to fight like this, Novick!"
Raphael then ducks as a few energy bullets have been sent flying to his head. "Tsk!! You seem to enjoy this though!"
"Heh, perhaps you're right about that." She smirks and swings her shifter falchion at him.
Meanwhile, Claire who was left to deal with the guards is confident enough that she can take them all down. Though she's trying to be careful not to kill them as well.
"Give it up, bitch!! Nothing good will happen to a traitor like you!!" Said one of the guards, pissing her off.
"You should ought to shut your mouth if you dare to fight me!"
Claire knocked them out cold one by one, and after getting done with the last guard, she was already going to grab the knob of the door that leads to the rooftop until her hand was shot.
"Aahh!!" Turning around, she puts on a devastated look upon the person who had fired at her. "Captain Wright... I can't believe you're doing this to a helpless woman."
The captain who is now confronting Claire managed to slip pass by Raphael. He glared back at her with a disgusted look. "You of all people here have no right to call me your 'Captain'! You're nothing but a traitor and a threat to E.D.L.!! You make me regret taking in someone like you!—"
"Do you really believe all those false accusations!? For a Captain, you lack so much trust in your subordinates to believe rumors over them!"
"My judgement is not so shallow to easily believe in something that isn't true—" He quickly got in stance, prepared to attack her with his shifter spear at any moment. "—And I can prove those accusations are not fake as you claim it to be."
"That is ridiculous! You're lying!" She says, not buying into his words.
"Their description of a blonde woman wielding a shifter weapon on the leg exactly describes you! No one else can possess all those traits but you!"
Failing to turn the situation around, Claire's devastated look faded into an infuriated expression. "Tsk. It's hard being unique after all."
"Showing your true colors now, huh." Captain Wright makes the first strike at an incredible speed. Claire barely managed to dodge, getting her left hand cut off.
"AAAAGHH!!" Her voice caught Raphael's attention, getting him distracted while fending off the others.
His eyes widens after seeing Claire in visible pain. "CLAIRE!!" This moment made an opening on Raphael.
Bernadette took this chance and stabbed him with the tranquilizer. "HAA!"
"WE GOT HIM!! WE GOT NOVICK!!" Felix announced, though there was still a few minutes until the tranquilizer can fully take effect on Raphael.
"WRIGHT, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!" Raphael was about to attack Captain Wright, but the others grabbed onto him, stopping him from getting near their Captain. "LET ME GO, ALL OF YOU!!" He demanded.
"CONTROL YOURSELF NOVICK!! THAT PERSON YOU'RE PROTECTING IS A TRAITOR TO THE E.D.L.!" Said Bernadette.
"CLAIRE IS NOT A TRAITOR!! SHE CAN'T... BE!!..." Even when there's a lot of strong people holding Raphael down, on every step he makes drags them all with him.
"CLAIRE!!" He desperately calls out her name and became even more furious seeing her cry because of her wound. As their eyes met, Claire can't do anything but ask for help.
"...Raph!!... help me!..."
"C-Claire!!"
However, his movements starts to become sluggish and his vision turning blurry with the tranquilizer finally kicking in. "L-Let go of me!... I need to... help... Claire—" then the most strongest man in E.D.L. falls unconscious.
"RAPHAEL!!" Losing her only hope to get herself out of this situation, Claire slumps to the ground and falls in despair.
Bernadette then immobilizes the unconscious Raphael to prevent any chaotic things from happening once he awakens. "We've successfully secured Novick." She declared.
Then as Captain Wright turns to Claire, he sees her crawling away. "And where do you think you're going?" He shoots her on the right leg to stop her from crawling away.
"AAHH!!"
"The only place you'll be going is behind bars."
"Arghh!! Ahh!" He grabs her by the hair and roughly drags her near to Raphael's body.
"Tie her up and stop her from bleeding." He ordered. "We can't have her die yet."
While being tied up, she faced Raphael and desperately tried to wake him up. "Raphael!! Raphael, help me!! Raphael, please wake up!! I don't want to be taken away!!" Though he remains unconscious no matter how loud she screams at his face.
"Raphael!!... Raph... Raphael?..." she gradually lost her patience, and change her tone. "Raphael... I can't believe this... you... YOU FUCKING USELESS PIECE OF SHIT!! YOU CAN'T EVEN FUCKING DO ANYTHING RIGHT!!"
Everyone who was watching over her got all shocked by her sudden display of behavior. Claire cursed at him relentlessly and Bernadette find it hard to watch, knowing that the woman whom Raphael cared for the most is berating and lashing out on him.
Captain Wright who can't stand Claire's disgusting foul mouth kicked her on the head, knocking her out cold. "Tch! Take 'em away!!"
"Yes sir!" As his subordinates carried the pair away, Captain Wright is still left with a bitter taste in his mouth. "I can't believe that woman turned out to be that kind of person. And that idiot Novick!! Just what has gone into his mind to go crazy and protect that vicious woman!?"
"...will he be punished with her?" Bernadette asked.
"No. I won't let that happen..." Captain Wright clenches his fist and looked determined about it. "...we can't lose our strongest asset."
"For a strong asset, it was quite unusual that we captured Novick without much problem."
"It's because he had a deep sense of protection which was making him weak. Raphael wasn't designed to be that way, but rather his purpose was to be a destructive weapon meant to destroy the I.E.A." he glanced at Bernadette with a serious gaze. "So it would be an entirely different story if he was trying to kill us."