The Last Dainv-Chapter 176
Daggers slid out from Stormbreaker's legs, each one as long as a school bus and their edges coated with the same shimmer as Phase Touch. Her lightning rifle dropped to the ground, crashing on the metal plates.
"Criminal One has triggered Stormbreaker's final form!" Yandil shouted. "The Azure Champion activates her true arsenal!"
Stormbreaker turned to Gale, focusing on only him rather than the fight at Hellbringer. The arcing electricity on her back switched off, and closed in on him, no longer caring about long range tactics.
In three big strides, she crossed the distance between herself and the platform that Gale clung to. The first blade came quickly. It cut down the platform in half, missing him as he dodged by launching himself up to another platform.
The second dagger came with no pause. Its trajectory aimed at his centre mass. Gale jumped off the platform, landing on the base floor. Stormbreaker's first dagger already on its way around, slicing towards his direction.
Alter activated. Weber stabbed onto the floor, extending his body upwards. First dagger hit the Phase Touched edge of Weber. A deafening ring blasted from the clash of two phased blades. Gale spun as his form launched to a platform, feet hitting the wall before launching himself into another spin against Stormbreaker.
The blue guardian met his spin head on with two of her daggers, slicing towards him.
Weber hit the bottom of the blade, allowing him to land on to the floor, but Stormbreaker didn't let him recover as she came at him with both daggers again. High slash, low thrust, spinning cut. Each attack made him move, react, stay ahead of blades that could cut him to pieces.
On the other side of the arena, explosions and beams marked hits exploding everywhere as Hellbringer tried to knock all of them off its hull.
Rachel's fist exploded inside the knee joints. Kyle teleported from its neck to the backline before a missile exploded behind him. Lily covered him with shields when he got back to safety just as a beam shot in his direction. Clyde kept shooting shockwave rounds at its eyes. Hellbringer was on its way to dying from teamwork.
Stormbreaker looked like she no longer cared about Hellbringer after bringing in Breath of the Void. She focused only on Gale,
A diagonal cut from the left dagger pushed Gale back. He jumped over a low sweep from the right blade, landing on a broken platform sticking up from the arena floor.
Stormbreaker followed, both daggers raised overhead. Gale ran up the slanted surface as the weapons came down behind him, cutting through metal and making the platform shake.
At the top, he jumped across a gap to another broken section, using it to get some distance. The platform groaned under Stormbreaker's weight as she climbed after him.
Gale pulled out the Ballista again. He aimed at Stormbreaker's chest and pulled the trigger. A hexagonal shield appeared in front of Stormbreaker, absorbing the entire blast. The energy scattered across the barrier, leaving the Guardian completely fine. Guess that shield was still online even in its insanity phase.
Stormbreaker countered fast. Both daggers swept low, cutting through the low platform he stood on. Metal screeched where the dagger touched. He jumped, ballista dematerialized. Blade passed below him. Dainv Combat Arts guided his movements. Weber struck downwards as a pole, launching himself back at the mech.
Dagger met him head on. Gale slid down, letting the blade pass above him. But the second dagger didn't miss, forcing him to actually defend with Weber.
Phased blade again hit phased blade, but this time, Gale had to stand his ground. Hands going numb. Weber almost flew out of his grasp as he flew backwards tens of metres.
The stare at the back of his head grew stronger. Someone was watching, and he could now feel the direction from where it was coming from.
Stormbreaker walked across the arena floor, daggers ready for another round. She showed no signs of slowing down even with some of the damage he already put on her before her phase 2. The Guardian was built for this kind of combat.
She swept both legs in a wide arc, trying to knock him down. The limbs were too big to dodge by going sideways. Gale had to jump, launching himself into the air just as the legs passed beneath him.
As he rose, he saw the trap. Stormbreaker's right dagger was already moving, set to catch him in the air where he couldn't change direction.
Dainv Combat Arts kicked in, letting him twist his body mid-air. He shifted his weight, angling away from the incoming blade. But physics was physics. He moved too late.
The dagger grazed his chest, opening a cut from shoulder to ribs. For a blade that size, even a scratch was bad news. Blood sprayed from the wound as he flew back, hitting the arena floor hard enough to bounce.
"Guide," he heaved, trying to say something.
[Strategic assessment indicates immediate medical intervention required. Recommend acquiring healing consumables.]
"Buy two Vit Vials from Vianne's store. Now."
[Purchase confirmed. 2x Vit Vial transferred to inventory storage.]
Stormbreaker thundered toward him, both colossal daggers aimed at him for a finishing strike.
Gale rolled sideways as the blades crashed down, leaving deep trenches on the arena floor.
Vit Vial materialized in his hand from the space storage. He jumped back, gaining distance from the opponent and gulped down the vial. He threw the first Vit Vial away and materialized the next, chugging it down as well. Warmth came from the liquid, spreading along his veins that visibly closed the wounds, knitting back skin and muscle fibre.
"Guide!" he shouted. "What do I do? How do I beat this thing?"
Stormbreaker's right dagger swept down. Gale threw himself sideways, the blade missing him by millimetres. Metal screeched as the weapon punched through the arena floor, sending sparks flying.
[Analyzing combat situation...]
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The Guardian readied another attack and spun towards him, left dagger moving in a horizontal slash again. Gale dropped to the ground, rolling. Huge blade whistling over his head narrowly giving him a haircut.
[Analysis complete. Enemy designation: Colossal robotic entity. Height: Forty-one metres. Weight: Four hundred twenty-four tons. Weapon systems: Twin daggers. Additional capabilities: Advanced forcefield generation, self-repair, enhanced mobility systems.]
Stormbreaker kept attacking, both daggers working together. High cut, low thrust, spinning sweep. Each move forced Gale to react, to stay ahead of blades that could slice him apart without even trying.
[Enemy demonstrates multiple skill augmentations to increase combat effectiveness. Threat level: Extreme.]
"Guide, I need tactics! How do I win?"
[Probability analysis indicates less than 1% chance of victory.]
Gale jumped back as both daggers stabbed down where he'd been standing. The weapons punched deep holes in the metal floor, electricity arcing from damaged power lines.
[Recommendation: Immediate tactical retreat.]
"There is no retreat!" Gale snapped, scrambling to avoid another sweeping attack. "We're trapped in here! There has to be a way to win!"
[Negative. Victory impossible given current resource allocation, Core Class, and enemy specs.]
"Just give me the maximum probability!"
[Confirmed. Current Breath of the Void integration at 33%. Increase integration to 50% in order to increase chance of winning against the opponent by 2%.]
Great. That was double the 1% and it might even allow him to at least stall enough until he could find where the bastard looking at him was. How the hell does he even integrate the passive skill even further? There was no instructions manual and Gale already thought he was letting it
all
in.
Stormbreaker's advance pushed him backward across the arena floor. With each exchange, she gained ground, forcing him closer to where his teammates battled Hellbringer. The explosions and laser blasts from ahead echoed across the arena. Kyle's cursing and non stop banter while fighting the red Guardian sounded clearer the further he backpedalled to their direction.
The blue Guardian's movements grew more aggressive, her daggers cutting wider arcs that left less room to escape. She was herding him, driving him toward a specific spot.
Gale realized the trap too late. A sweeping cut from the right dagger forced him to dodge left, right into the path of his teammates. Stormbreaker immediately followed with a massive sideways slash, both daggers extended in a cut that would catch everyone nearby.
Kyle teleported to a spot near Hellbringer's damaged knee joint, totally unaware of the incoming attack. The twin blades swept toward him at waist height.
Rachel saw the danger first. She broke away from her attack on Hellbringer's armour, throwing herself toward Kyle's position. Her gauntlets exploded the air that stopped the daggers from reaching Kyle, but caused Kyle to stumble and roll away from the near miss.
"Gale!" Kyle shouted. "Keep that metal bitch in your lane! We're almost done with the big red bastard!"
Examining Hellbringer's state, it was down to one working arm, and the head was completely mangled. No more eyes or sensors inside the sockets where they should have been. Most of the weaponry on its back and arms also showed damage as the only things the machine could fire were its missile chambers and a single laser blaster embedded in its left arm.
Taking a deep breath, he
told
the void to help him internally. At first, nothing happened as he forced himself to dodge forwards through Stormbreaker's flank. It followed him but sent another sweeping strike that herded him back to Hellbringer.
Now, Gale just got pissed off. Once again, he called for the beings from the in between.
You are allowed in.
The tealed reds of the arena grew into a colour Gale never knew existed that was beyond the physical scope of human eyes. A snicker came across from the room. Time seemed to have slowed down. Looking back at the group, it looked like he was the only one who wasn't frozen.
Whispers came into his ears.
Find me
. It repeated millions of times.
An image of a sword veiled in darkness punctured through the ceiling of the arena.
Again, it whispered to him,
find me,
until it crescendoed into a deafening volume.
The snickers turned into a laugh. At every shadowy corner of the arena, billions of eyes and mouths all laughed in his direction. The intricate lines, symbols, and patterns on his skin changed their shape. Denser, more complicated, and the rhomboid patterns exponentially multiplied.
Time returned to normal. The veiled sword at the top of the arena disappeared, but the sharp mouths and eyes all at the shadowy corners stayed.
[Warning: Breath of the Void integration at 62%]
Tendrils suddenly swept through the whole arena, finding, searching. He could now physically see an outline of the tendrils rather than just feeling where they were. Non-euclidean in nature as if the horrors of the world compressed into the entity that he controlled, that even Gale himself felt a pang of fear from.
At the southwest corner, he could see a vague blurry living 'prey' that the tendrils wanted. Although it was still not enough to fully see what that was, it was enough for him to know what to do.
Stormbreaker moved again, both daggers raised for another attack. Gale ran away from his team, leading the Guardian toward the opposite side of the arena.
With cold calculated efficiency, each dagger missed him by a hair's breath. No wasted movements, just complete spatial control, as if the movements from Stormbreaker were telegraphed to him one second before.
Gale reached the arena's southwest corner, Stormbreaker following him, unable to touch a corner of his clothes. Each step she took shook the arena floor. The Guardian's focus on him alone gave the others their best chance against Hellbringer.
Stormbreaker predicted his move. Her right arm pulled back the dagger. She threw the dagger ahead of his path, the blade spinning end over end before stabbing deep into the arena floor. The weapon blocked his escape route, forcing him to change direction, and he wasn't willing to try to Phase through an already Phased blade.
Perfect.
Gale had counted on her doing this. He spun and ran the opposite way, leading Stormbreaker even further west across the arena floor. The Guardian chased after him.
At the arena's far edge, Gale stopped running. He turned to face the approaching Guardian, Weber blade appearing in his grip. The integration fed him everything crystal clear, the way Stormbreaker's armour shifted as she moved, the angle of her approach, the exact timing of her attack.
Stormbreaker launched herself forward, left dagger raised overhead for a finishing blow. Forty-one meters and four hundred tons of metal and machinery came at him like a falling building.
Gale dropped to the ground and slid forward, passing between the Guardian's huge legs as she committed to the downward strike. Her dagger smashed into the arena floor behind him, sending chunks of metal flying everywhere.
He rolled to his feet and jumped, bringing up the X1 Balista. The weapon appeared in his grip, energy building in its barrel as he aimed at Stormbreaker's damaged chest.
Two shots fired, dark green beam streaking toward its target.
Another hexagonal shield materialized, eating the blast completely. But the defensive move made Stormbreaker pause for a split second, her movement pattern briefly interrupted as systems sent power to the barrier. The last shot hit the spectator's forcefield, causing it to flicker for two whole seconds.
Weber blade ready. Filled it with essence and everything he had. Alter lengthened the blade. Phase Touch encased the edges.
Reflection activated.
He slashed the air in front of him, aiming at a specific spot in the benches of the spectators. A blade shot out as he finished the motion, a reflection of the blade sent not towards Stormbreaker.
Something in the spectator benches moved fast, trying to dodge. It was too late. The blade struck true at the thing's hand. Sparks flew from the hit on the benches as the blade carved through multiple other seats.
The vision glitched suddenly. Visual artifacts formed everywhere, starting from Hellbringer and Stormbreaker. The giant robots stopped moving altogether like someone hit the pause button.
Chapter 176
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