Metal to Mettle Part 2

Even after so many months, I can still feel that metal pool as clear as day. From it, I saw countless possibilities; my desires laid bare before me. Since then, I have always wondered if this was how it felt for my dad and all those like me. That question, unfortunately, got answered today; in that last clash, I could feel that women gaze into me and I into her. I saw the same metal pool as before, and in an instant, I knew the story of Ferra.

Through that pool, I saw a mischievous and petty girl who spent her days playing tricks and spitting lies. It was an innocent existence until that day took it all away from her. From the 8-year-old's perspective, it looked like the entire world was on fire. Through her father's admission, she didn't look and covered her ears, but they only dampened the surrounding carnage by only a little. After what felt like a hellish eternity, Ferra's left eye burrowed from her father's shoulders to see only a stray blast of thunder!

The next time the girl woke up, it was to a pungent smell. And when she gazed at it with her right eye, she saw what was left of her father's singed corpse. From that one sight alone, Ferra's humor-filled aura shattered, revealing nothing but the same metallic pool as I had before. In said pool, the young girl began to cry for what felt like hours. At every teardrop, the pool repeatedly resounded until the possible question became too hard to ignore.

"What do you want?"

The girl thought about the question for a long time; she thought about the sadness of losing her father and accepted the reality of never getting her back. But what she wanted to do, in the simplest form possible, was a very simple thing.

"I want to hurt."

From there, Ferra's powers awakened in full force, turning her immediate surroundings into a ring of metallic thorns. Years later, Ferra found herself living on the streets undercover, getting by from meal to meal. Or at least until she tried and failed to pickpocket a faceless figure that she would soon call The Don. They were the one person that they respected amongst all others, if only because they were the only beings in this world that could help her wage her war on those who live. For if she could never find the people responsible for the Massacre, then she will declare all humanity as her enemy, which means that she will no longer be a human. Vicioso, Eridani, and Alihain were all opponents in their own right, but they had goals to achieve above all else. Ferra was far different.

While I had my Metallic Style, Ferra's Demon Works had only one objective: to make us suffer. And this was made even more clear when I found out all I needed from her revolting technique: Quicksilver. Each of my friends' bodies laid deadly mercury that spread and hardened in their bodies like a toxin, fueled entirely by Ferra's burning hatred. But that hatred only fueled my resolve even more because I knew that every second I wasted was one step closer to death!

Brandon Pov

Okay, Brandon, this the moment. The moment where all that effort, all that hard work will, no must pay off in one pivotal moment. Aphele's armor was heavier than I imagined, but all that training and sparring with him made sure that it fit like a glove. I was following the ripped trees and broken branches until I finally found the assassin amongst a garden of glittering metal shrapnel. For once, the woman's confident persona shattered, along with her mask. From there, I saw a dark-skinned woman with a buzzcut, but that shakiness all faded away upon my arrival.

"Well, I can say that this day has been full of surprises. But I guess nothing has changed because you will die all the same."

"If you think that, then you're severely underestimating me."

"Funny, because Aphele feels the same way. He thinks you can't handle me, that you're nothing but a brat that thinks he has to bark louder to be noticed. It's kind of pathetic really," she said tauntingly.

The quote left me with a mix of both bewilderment and anger, but those words soon faded away at what mattered.

"It doesn't matter what you say or what you do, lady, because I have a promise of my own. I promised that I would live to see another day; I will live to take another breath. I will live to break my limits. I will always live to take another unforgettable journey and-"

"You will die as nothing at the hands of your reaper, Ferra!" the woman said as she summoned a glaive out of the broken shrapnel!

From there, we both stopped talking as we ran full force across the Ever Autumn forest! However, Ferra was the one that struck first, using the polearm to flip into a strong dropkick that I shell guard! Despite the force of the blow, I was still able to push her back! From there, I tried to close the distance between us, but in a surprising move, Ferra spun the glaive so fast that a flurry of leaves obscured our sight! Knowing what came next, I reacted accordingly, unleashing my Hummingbird Hammer! Sparks started to fly as my kicks collided with her jousts like a piston! Through the jousts, Ferra upped the ante, forcing me to catch the tip of the blade with my armored hands!

I almost thought that I had her until I backed away from the spear as the tip extended! With my back arching over, I leaned forward to flip into an upward Joey Dropkick! From there, we engaged in a midair struggle for the ages. But Ferra had an answer for every blow, using her glaive to hook me in and throw me straight into one of the surrounding trees! In an instant, a pile of leaves from above completely covered my presence. Not taking a single chance, Ferra closed in with her glaive alight with murderous rage! But that rage was exactly what I was looking for. Up until the last possible moment, I lied in wait, collecting my mana towards my feet. Upon her strike, I used the cover of the leaves to obscure my dodge just enough to unleash the heartiest Tiger Roundhouse of my career! Flesh and bone meet splintered wood as Ferra finally manages a flinch, but I wasn't done.

Using her momentum, I unleashed a twin constrictor scissor hold that throws her to the ground! With Ferra trapped and open, I focused all my mana into my closed fist, punching down at full force! Unfortunately, I was still far too slow with Ferra in that short time using the Glaive to make a hard helmet! Before I could unload another haymaker, Ferra headbutted me straight back into the tree! Once I got back up, she was already gone, with her presence now too weak to track. The silence started to envelop the entire forest as somehow, Ferra's voice echoed into something far greater.

"Ah, it's been a while since I've been able to cut loose. Luckily for me, this war has given me plenty of targets, and I think you'll be the first subject to practice my new moves. Fight back and fight hard, little specialist, because I'm about to show you the real power of my Demon Works!

At that moment, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flurry of shurikens aiming my way. In an instant, I unfurled another Hummingbird Hammer to deflect them all. But immediately after that, another set of shurikens quickly followed from behind! In a second, I turned around and unfurled the same move, deflecting them all with ease. The pattern then repeated as dozens of shurikens and kunais started coming from all directions! Using the armor, I managed to deflect them all! However, this time they stayed in the air. A cold sweat started to drip across my face as I realized what was going to happen next. All at once, the previous projectiles were all collected together in a whirlwind of leaves and metal!

Amongst all the chaos, I couldn't predict the pattern anymore as instead, I was forced to brave through each weapon as they tore through the armor piece by piece. Frustration grasped my entire body, but I managed to use all that to fuel my focus, knowing that this was not the end of it all. I haven't practiced my mana sense that well, but that didn't mean that they didn't work well with my regular senses. Through the tiny cuts and blasts, I collected all my focus through the storm! And fortunately for me, I was proven right, as to my right, I felt a projectile far faster and far bigger than the previous ones with pure bloodlust behind it!

Once again, I made sure that I waited till the last possible second, avoiding the mini scythe-like weapon at the last possible second forced it down with all my might! Through the lack of leaves, I saw a weighty rock right in front of me! Using that to my advantage, I unleashed an Avocado Sweep and kicked it to where it had been launched! At once, the rock cleared me a path through the whirlwind, a path I took without a second thought! In a full-on blitzkrieg, I charged like an animal, chasing after the rock as it sailed across the air straight towards Ferra! In response, all she did was make a blocking motion, but something didn't feel right. Before it was too late, I flipped back in a crouched position.

"Aw, so you caught my bluff, impressive! I was expecting to catch more rookies like that. But I guess I can still break you all the same. I call this Demon Works: Titana Thread, and I think I'll call you it's first victim!"

With a simple hand gesture, the rock slingshotted it's way back to me! Taking initiative, I faced the rock head-on, pulverizing it without a second thought and spreading the dust around. At least then, I could see some of the strings. But those were now the least of my worries. From on high, Ferra descended with gripping speed with a scimitar in hand! Using the short space of time, I kicked up a screen of leaves in between us. With that small opening, I unleashed a feisty Rhino axe kick at her raised sword! But even amid our shockwave, I tried to twist into an Anaconda Sweep! I was about to follow up with another attack, but Ferra immediately sidestepped amid a metal coil! Along the way, the metal coil morphed into a bola that wrapped around me in a tightening grip! From there, Ferra tied the string to her hand; I could feel her muscles tighten along with her mana.

With her speed kicked up into another gear, I felt a fast, wind knocking kick to my chest that sent me upward! Almost as soon as I was launched, Ferra came in from my left and unleashed a violent slash right into my helmet! It managed to hold, but it still felt like a bat to the head! The blow was so sudden that I almost didn't hear Ferra's next raving.

"I'll give Aphele this; that armor is as tempered as his will. Which makes me want to break it all the more!"

For a half minute straight, she kept her promise, bombarding me in a barrage of subsonic slashes! Despite the various angles and directions, she still struck with terrifying precision, carving into Aphele's armor bit by bit. By the time she had finished it up with a swing that sent me sailing through the air. But I almost didn't mind the feeling because my skull went numb from the pain. In that pain, all my pushed down doubt boiled over into one question.

"Am I going to end up like Basa?"

These past few weeks of training, I've been training harder than I ever have, hoping to escape Basa's fate. They all had to sacrifice so much for somebody who had nothing but his fists to fight. But every day I see the same sniveling coward in the mirror, the same answer keeps bubbling up.

"If I want to change, then all I got to do is act now and try even harder!"

If I'm going to die today, then I'm going to fight till the end! My body snaps back right as I rebound off of one of Ferra's strings. And as I saw Ferra's outstretched sword, my body used the momentum to deliver the mother of all Rhino axe kicks! The force completely changes my trajectory away from Ferra. Next thing I know, I land a hard tumble across the field of leaves, shredding away my armor more. Along the way exhaustion started to take over my muddy eyes, the only thing in front of me being a small river and cliff beside me. Realizing how close I was to collapsing, I immediately started to get back up until I felt the bola around me started to tighten. I tried digging my heels to the ground, but it was pointless as Ferra started to create a small net-like dome around us.

"There is no escape Brandon. You will die when I say so, and that won't happen until I drag your beaten corpse hostage for your friends," she said in a creeping tone.

I didn't even try listening as I tried to keep moving, but all escape started to fail! In one swift tug, my world came crashing down as I felt a stab to my side! Burning pain erupted from my entire body as I felt blood trickle down on a metal sword. Ferra grew an uncontained, deranged smile, like a monster just waiting to see my struggle. And at awe of such a face, my rage burned far hotter than my pain! To the bitter end, this bitch, this demon sees me as something even worse than a coward; she sees me as nothing. Which means that I must show her everything!!! In that small space of time, I counterattacked with full force, unleashing a ramming knee that makes my bones rattle. Disbelief took over her face along with shock as I then headbutted her hard against her net! Once again, my chest throbbed so badly that, in that case, I had to let it out!

But I didn't whimper; I roared with every fiber of my being! My right leg started pulsed with might, coiling the very air itself with each passing nanosecond! All that power finally let itself loose in one final gambit!

"King Leo Grand Slash!" I shouted to the very heavens themselves!

With the speed of the bullet and force of a missile, my mana let itself out in one last violent, forceful bluster across the forest! Leaves trees, and everything in between shook and tore along with my armor! In an instant, Ferra, the sword, and the bola were sent throttling as I once again collided with the ground. For a good couple of minutes, the pain of my wound was replaced with my throbbing right leg. In one violent shock, exhaustion started to take over as my breathing became more ragged. Still, through it all, I had just enough time to rip off my undershirt and use it as makeshift bandages. Through the biting pain of my squeeze, I realized that I dodged a major bullet. Ferra made the wound incapacitate, not kill and Aphele's armor only left my leg too bruised to walk on. In a way, I guess you can say I did-

Before I could even finish my thought, a string of metal wrapped around my throat! The string almost immediately vice gripped around me as I was soon forced to levitate off the ground. Out of the cloud of dust I made, I heard nothing but overpowering dread at every oncoming step! And out of this smoke, I saw a metallic demon, drenched in dark grey armor. Silver teeth and hollow eyes matched demonic spikes as the hard seemed to draw the light from every tree. At that moment, all the booming voice said this.

"Demon works: Iron Maiden!"

The words shivered me to my core as the thread kept me in midair, utterly powerless as the figure started emanating a cold concentrated mana. Then, without even a word, the figure summoned a deadly, rusted over scythe for one incredibly violent Horizontal Slash! Aphele's armor is completely undone, as my blood sprayed towards the air! Gravity claimed my body like a noose as all I could do was see the figure's cold dismissive eyes from up above. Blackness started to form around my half-dead body, sapping my life with every passing second. In a flash, I see it all, my friends, my sister, Basa, and even most surprisingly myself. Or, at the very least, a shrimpy, almost decayed version of me, completely submissive as he saw his body start to fade. In response, all he did was give a fake smile as he said.

"I guess this is it, right?"

The cold yet truthful words reverberated across my aching body, and in response, all I could do was fight! Because if this is truly the end, if this is truly my limit, then no matter what it costs, I'll change into the person that will take Ferra down with me!

Ferra Pov

I'll give the Don this; they certainly know how to keep things interesting. I never thought that taking on a group of deputies would be this much fun. Or at least it was until I met that brat, Brandon; he was more trouble than it was worth. But I'm sure both The Don and I will be in happier spirits when I bring Aphele to them; they always did love rarities. After retreating my scythe, I turned my attention towards Aphele's direction, only to hear a sudden snap. I quickly turned around and saw nothing. I was almost about to just chalk up to my previous excitement, but that all turned to fear real quick as a chill rattled up and down my spine! I tried turning back, but the black, violent blur struck first with a blow that shook the forest itself!