Michael Brooklyn Morgan "Red Alert"
Act 2, Chapter 5 "Silent Bounties"
The Berserk Amazon posed as a tougher guild to face off against in the event that his invisibility would fail him. The guild mainly was mainly composed of requip users and mages with a lot of brute strength that they seem like the bullies to lanky wizards in a sense. Their strength is incomparable to an average A-Rank mage, but could pale in comparison to S-Ranks. This would pose a problem for Michael if he ever made a wrong move and end up at the mercy of these mages. Looking at the profiles of the individual mages the informant sent, they all look like they were trained soldiers. Michael made a (not so) shocking discovery as he read of their relationship with the Berserk Amazon’s guild master - they were indoctrinated orphans trained for war and bloodshed, brainwashed that they are the alphas of this planet. Not too far fetched with what the Arch Vorbrund Order used to be. As far as he recalled, the order he was in trained supersoldiers of war. When comparing the two, however, the Order had a nobler purpose, while the dark guild used these “super human” wizards to undertake wicked tasks and for their own gain. He doesn’t want to recall what happened back at the headquarters, lest he become overwhelmed with rage once more.
He took a gander of the Berserk Amazon’s guild master while moving towards their camp. It isn’t as far from where he is, and there was more time for him to do his job. Against amateurs, his job was much easier. The previous dark guild masters he faced were clearly amateurs.
As for the Berserk Amazons, Wild Rose is a force to be reckoned with. She is three times stronger than the combined strength of Severo Frostgauntlet and Just Jones, the (now deceased) guild master of Plunder Barrels. He is wary of her as from the profiles given to him by the informant, she could rival the guild master of Sabertooth. ‘Almost’, commented by their informant. Her detection skills are incredible, owing to her overflowing magical power. Her magic, just as her name and temperament, is wild and brutal. It was said that she uses both Take Over magic and Requip magic to overthrow her opponents, the former being ‘Wild Soul’, which allowed her to harness the strength of beasts she devoured through her magic; and ‘The Hunter’, which equips her with the finest garb a hunter could every wear. It was said that she had a very strong preference with spears than any other weapon. Combined with her larger muscular build compared to an average woman, only the bravest of mages would stand against her.
One could say that he’d be a coward to shy away from a duel against a strong woman - that he’d prefer to take her out by surprise instead of fighting her. There’s also no denying that he is capable of enduring the woman’s blows when he has no choice but to face her head on. To him, this combination of words make for an unprofessional statement. He is on a mission, and he has no intention of proving his mettle against her. And when on a mission, the mission is always the priority. One shot through the dark guild master’s head is all it takes for him to be one step closer to finishing his job. With the Strix Sniper, taking her out will be a piece of cake, allowing him to shoot her farther from her magic sensory radius.
He finally arrived a few, staying a few meters away from the camp to avoid the likelihood of detecting his presence. Once more, he activated his armor’s invisibility and went up to a tree to get a better vantage point, summoning his Nocturne Rifle and using his scope to scout the members up a head. From what he could see, the dark guild had the same number of members as the previous guild. Strange, he thought. He couldn’t see where Wild Rosa was. He scoured every angle from the guild, and even had her profile picture up on his user interface to help him in his search. None. Not even a stray dot from far away.
Perhaps she is farther from the guild? To let off some steam before the siege.
Failing to find the guild mistress, he found it appropriate to come looking for her elsewhere. From where the camp is, surely the guild mistress couldn’t have come far. Worst case scenario, she knew someone was coming for her. As a powerful woman to leave behind her loyal subjects is proof that she trusted them, that she trained them to be the powerful brainwashed warriors she could ever hope to train. Not a single step was wasted when he observed the members in their preparation. No idle chatter. Just silence. Still, uncomfortable silence. He recalled his rifle and leapt from tree to tree in a quick pace in hopes of searching for the guild mistress.
Seconds turned to minutes as he kept on looking for her while invisible in his Strix Sniper armor. The danger of running into her in his Mach Cheetah harmor is high as he doesn’t know exactly how strong she is. Her slightly bulky build might deceive him when in fact, she is stronger physically. So far, only minute dots could be seen belonging to animals. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Until he could feel a presence behind him.
In instinct, Michael ducked, nearly dodging the attack of a bigger, muscular woman. Her legs connected to the tree as she missed, and the upper half of the tree broke off towards another tree. He leapt away from the attacker, leaving a small gap between the two on the tree branch. “How-” He muttered to himself as he saw the guild mistress, Wild Rose, standing before him. “How amusing.” She said, “To think that you could actually dodge that attack speaks volumes of your experience as a soldier. And yet you’re a coward for concealing your presence and leaving my children no time to defend themselves.” He deactivated his invisibility, revealing himself to Wild Rose. If he was being honest, he’s a little… afraid of her. He had a gut feeling that she’s somewhat stronger than him that his gambits would barely affect her. It’d take a devil’s pact for him to surpass the woman’s strength.
“I’m flattered. Your files don’t do you any justice, however.” He said under his breath. “Are you truly human? Or a woman who cheats her strength with magic?”
It’s true that ordinary people wouldn’t be able to kick away half of a tree so damn hard it blew off to another tree. Even he, a trained super soldier, couldn’t possibly perform such a feat. His comment on her cheating her strength with magic has struck a nerve on the olympian fighter, evident from her distasteful expression on that comment. “If I’m the coward, what makes you then?” Her face warped to a grin. “You’re pretty brave for someone who is about to die.”
“True.” He says as he the pieces of armor disconnected and disintegrated into his cyberspace, leaving only his exosuit and his face. “But I’ve been through alot worse.” Michael leapt from the branch backwards, summoning his Albatross Pistol and firing it against her twice before he disappeared into the darkness. The guild mistress deflected those attacks with her hand as if they were nothing.
She was angry that he was trying to get away from her. She wanted him gone. She wanted him killed. She didn’t want him to interfere with her and her allies’ plans on their siege against Hargeon. Wild Rose sought for his quick death and has seen it fit to use her ultimate take over and requip arsenals - Wild Soul and the Hunter, which, combined, is named Wild Hunter. Her appearance shifted from her take over magic. Fur grew from her skin and she was twice as large. A monstrous but elegant appearance reigns over her form, while ornate armor and magical trinkets equip themselves to their master. Lastly, an ornate bone spear with a wooden decorated shaft appeared as her weapon.
He got down to the forest floor when he heard signs of her using her magic. Hexagon shaped sigils appeared around him and pieces of armor emerged. This time, he used his Hound Infantry armor set to enhance his durability in this battle. The armor pieces connected themselves towards his exosuit’s ports while he was on the run. He can’t even rely on his psionic radar to detect her location, as if magic was actively cloaking her from any types of supernatural sensors. This battle is different from the time he fought a djinn in Desierto, as his opponent gets physical with her enemies.
Once more, his instinct told him to duck as out of nowhere, a fist appeared from the tree he was hiding in, boring a massive hole. He immediately called upon his Eagle Dagger to try and cut her hands. His strength was enough to give her a cut, but it isn’t enough to cut her entire hand off. Not that he wanted to, but because he wanted to gauge her strength and defenses. As he thought, no ordinary man could possibly inflict wounds on her. The attack was followed by another attack from behind the tree. He deflected her attack with his dagger and he had a hard time doing so. One punch from her attack would spell death for him.
The tree fell and revealed her ultimate form to him. “You can’t hide from me!” She said as she lunged to attack him once more. He was able to dodge attack, but it nearly hit him, scraping only the surface of his armor. Stealth was out of the option, and he couldn’t even hide from her even if he wanted to. He fired more rounds from his pistol, only for its attacks to be ineffective against her. “Stop dodging!” She said as she leapt towards him, with her fist to the ground. It narrowly missed him.
And then a thought occurred to him.
She’s large, she’s powerful, and her strength is enough to collapse a building. But her movements to him were sluggish, though an ordinary fighter would see otherwise. If she was large and powerful, then he is, to her eyes, small and nimble. The Hound Infantry armor detached itself and disappeared to his cyberspace, replaced by yellow armor resembling a buzzing insect. It was his Bumblebee armor that emerged from hexagon shaped sigils, attaching themselves to him, along with its Submachine Stingers. The internal matrices were activated just as the armor finished attaching itselves. Lightning coursed through his armor, and just as Wild Rose was about to deck his head off with a decisive blow, a flash of lightning burst from his location. And she hit nothing but still air.
A buzzing sound could be heard from behind her. She turned to see Michael in his Bumblebee armor, with yellow lightning arcing around his armor. It’s not as fast as his Mach Cheetah, but Bumblebee granted him the opportunity to attack from afar and maintain a safe distance between him and his opponent. He brought out his Submachine Stingers, which were equipped alongside the armor itself, and fired a barrage of lightning bolts against her. She defended herself with a shield she summoned from her requip magic. In retaliation and frustration from his barrage of attacks, she hurled her spear towards him. He stopped and dodged her attack. For a moment, he was lightning itself as he flashed away from the spear. On impact, the spear caused a massive crater on the ground, and she darted towards it to throw it against him. The spear destroyed several trees before reaching Michael, who once again dodged with his lightning. “Coward!” She yelled out. He resumed his barrage of lightning against her, but they couldn’t reach her because of her shield.
She slowly made her way towards her spear, and almost reached it when the shield shattered suddenly. She grabbed her spear and threw it towards him. He dodged it once more using his lightning step, however, he couldn’t anticipate her second attack and was caught unaware. Her fist connected as she successfully dealt a blow against him, leaving him flying towards one of the trees. He was hit hard, and as he hit the tree, he coughed up blood in his helmet. This is proof that her strength was unparalleled, and not even his exosuit, let alone his armor, could save him. It’s as if he was just a ragdoll to her.
He was paralyzed for a brief moment as he fell to his knees, the shock and trauma he endured prevented him from doing anything as Wild Rose walked towards his location. Adrenaline coursed through his veins and it took him a while to get his bearings and narrowly dodged the guild mistress’s spear attack, creating a crater as the spear’s tip hit the ground with such force. He forced himself to move away with his lightning step, but suffered another casualty as her spear flew and pierced his armor, grazing his skin in the process. He was weak, and was played with as she lunged towards him and tried to punch him again. He dodged, but he couldn’t dodge the second attack with all the pain, shock, and trauma affecting him. As if he was just a punching bag to her, and a durable one. He hit another tree as he flew like a ragdoll, the impact causing a crater on it.
“Pathetic.” She scoffed at how fragile he was compared to her.
He slipped in and out of consciousness while she walked towards him. His strength failed him when he needed to get away from her. This was a situation he couldn’t get out of, and he was at death’s door. The guild mistress of Berserk Amazon grabbed him by the neck and looked up to his bruised and bleeding body. “Is this your limit? I expected a fight.” Wild Rose said as she choked him, and he was trying to get away from her. But he failed. He lost. All hope was lost until he saw the light. Am I dying? He thought.
It wasn’t until he lost consciousness when he felt something stir within him. Something eldritch. Something powerful. He felt the presence of someone familiar, or something. Some... things. Eldritch markings appeared on the left part of his body, excluding the leg, although it couldn’t be seen from all the armor he was wearing. On his right was the familiar devil-ish power that he felt coarse through him in his bouts of anger which transformed him into an avatar of rage. A surge of power rose from him, and a blast burst forth from his body, knocking her away from him.
And there he was, his wounded body floating and unconscious. He opened his eyes to reveal a set of peculiar eyes - both of which are different. But he was not in control, as if another entity, or entities, had taken over his body. The forest was now filled with winds so powerful and foul that creatures fled from him. With his left arm, he used his telekinesis empowered through eldritch might to take hold of the woman, grabbing her with little to no effort and moving her towards him and raising her 10 feet from the ground. She tried to break free from his telekinetic grasp but failed miserably. Their eyes met, and it was at that moment when she was hit with this dread. She was afraid.
“Unhand me!” She yelled at him, demanding her release, “Let me go, you coward!”
The force around her tightened to the point where she started to struggle breathing. His face doesn’t show any emotion. He was feeling nothing, because he was unconscious. But it was unsettling to her that he wasn’t showing any emotion. Not even remorse or sadness. He obliged and let her go, leaving her to fall. She took this opportunity to land the killing blow to him with another one of her bone spears. He anticipated this. With the devilish power on his right, he conjured an ethereal demon arm that not only deflected her attack, but it also shattered her spear. With his left, he moved her to hit a nearby tree, and then smashed her face to the ground. This might of his has now surpassed hers.
“Wh-who are you?”
No response.
In a desperate attempt to kill him, she leapt towards him with her hand curled to a fist. And with his right arm, he ended the fight. She wasn’t able to reach him when all of a sudden she stopped in her tracks and fell to the ground, revealing an ethereal hand grabbing her heart.
She was dead, at last.
He regained consciousness after a few seconds, unaware of what transpired while he passed out. He connected two and two together when he scoured his surroundings and assessed the damage that had been done, some of which were caused by supernatural forces. Clearly, the only one capable of such supernatural feats was him. He panted and laid low for a while to recuperate from his fight against the guild mistress of the Berserk Amazon. It was his cue to leave the scene when he heard footsteps coming from deep within the forest. He donned his Strix Sniper armor to sneak away without being seen, unable to recuperate from his wounds.
MEL @ WW