Fighting in Ruins 17

)))Digital Gear(((

I folded my arms and tilted my head to the side for a few seconds, humming to myself, before abruptly deciding...

"Nah, I'm good. I think I've plenty of support as is. What's the phrase, too many cooks spoil the broth? Besides, I'm entirely certain I can handle Black Scythe on my own, thank you very much," I responded, bowing. The other robot was silent for a moment, before he began chuckling. An evil, suspicious chuckle, like he knew the punchline to a joke I didn't. While I don't like being left out on a good joke, I didn't question him.

"Very well then, suit yourself," the other robot replied. "Although I will point out that the longer you remain here, the worse off Cross is going to be."

I scoffed. "You underestimate him, and so do the Thetas. I suspect a visit from his good ole' dad will cheer him right up. Which I'm going to get to in, oh," I trailed off, looking up the charge on my Fold drive, "about a minute."

The boring-looking 'bot tilted its head. "You think you're leaving here?"

"Oh yes I most certainly do. See while we've been having this conversation, I've been multitasking!" I revealed triumphantly. "My associates and I have been rapidly iterating on the code for my Fold drive to compensate for your interruption trick. I now have at the very least sixteen different counters for it, with thirty-five more in the pipeline. Suffice it to say, I'm outta here as soon as my fold drive finishes spinning up. If you have any last minute questions for me, make 'em snappy."

The 'bot blinked once. "Thirty seconds," I said, tapping my wrist.

"These... 'associates' of yours. How many are there?"

"Four, currently. L and three more. I'll give you a hint: O, E, and A."

"Trillium. How do you forge it?"

I had a very quick mental argument over revealing that. In the end I decided it couldn't be that much harm.

"Two parts black trillium, two parts white. Most deposits are around the south pole. Fifteen seconds."

It didn't ask another question, but instead charged at me to attack. Several hexagonal barriers popped up between me and it, blocking the incoming attack completely before withdrawing. I opened a port in my hand and blasted it across the space we were in with a concentrated beam of nuclear radiation.

"Now now, have some patience! You'll get to see plenty of what this body's capable of while I'm pulverizing the Thetas. And on that note, toodles!" I bowed, and then vanished in a fold of space-time. I didn't get to hear it begin laughing again.
___________
>X<Cross>X<

I'd kill for some backup. I must be really out of shape if the Thetas are giving me this much of a runaround. Why am I fighting so terribly? I'm covered in slowly healing cuts and bruises, and the Thetas don't even seem to be slowing down. This is just-

Something in the air popped, and a storm of some blood red energy blasted a trench between myself and the two Thetas. Oh good, a reprieve. Something weighty landed behind me, and I turned exhausted to it.

"Come now, Crosswise. I thought I trained you better than that," the machine said, in a tone that could only belong to one person. A wide grin split my face. Ah. That's what I was missing.

Motivation.

"Hello, father," I replied.

"Oh great, another ghost," Sapphire yelled over. I glanced back in their direction.

"I'm itching to take this thing for a spin. Shall we?" Gear asked, gesturing at the two of them.

"Oh yes, let's."

Blue log

So, Gear is back? Not surprising. My own former master, Stone, also came back as a lich after his death, but was defeated once and for all by Red, at the cost of his life. Nevertheless, I shall keep watch on these two, calculating and forming my own plans in the meantime.

End log.

<]-Mithril-[>

Okay, so after I won against Broxigar, there were several more mid-tier fights. While a few of these guys still couldn't bypass my elemental immunity to physical damage, the remaining fights actually necessitated some effort on my part to win. Nonetheless, none of these guys forced me to use Metal Gate.

However, my next opponent just might give me a reason to use that. See, my next opponent, right on the edge of high tier, is Sigma Mark II, aka Demon Blade.

I grinned. "Libera's been complaining that he never got a chance to fight you. He's going to be so jealous."

"I am surprised he's not here to do so," Demon Blade noted, unsheathing his swords.

"Well here's the thing: Apparently Libera lost his left arm to some random villainous sod, and now he's at Omicron's place to fix it up. Yeah, 'normal-people' healing factors kinda suck. I am sorely tempted to lord this opportunity over his head, for the lulz. Any thoughts or ideas on that front?" I asked, hurling a bunch of swords Demon Blade's way.

"... I am afraid not. Tell Libera I owe him a duel, next you see him," Demon Blade replied, as skilled as parrying as ever.

"'Kay. Say, since you've at least had a taste of the Hero Squad life, could you put in a good word for us when we try and recruit Sigma? Something's telling me that he'll be rather hesitant to join, for whatever reason," I requested, generating several long blade-arms and extending them DB's way.

"I make no promises, but if he is at all willing to join you, I'll talk to him about it," Demon Blade responded, cutting down my blades with his own. Nonetheless, I broke a few of his blades, but he simply resheathed them to repair them.

Okay, now's the time to use my cool shapeshifting powers to try and break through his guard. Multiple fists, tendrils, blades. Hurling motorcycles and other strange projectiles. Generally exploiting the capability of moving in odd, unorthodox ways to make my attack patterns more unpredictable.

Now here's the thing: My huge attacks, while kinda flashy, really aren't as inefficient as the uneducated observer would believe. Energy-to-power, they are actually pretty damn refined efficiency-wise. So as you've probably noticed by now, I commonly fight by brutally and effectively mowing down my opponents with a series of efficient, huge attacks.

The plan here is basically to create an opening where a big attack of mine can surge through, damaging him and lessening his ability to guard, allowing me to compound the carnage.

A few more swings of my arms, a few more attacks from odd angles, several more broken blades on both of our ends, and what looks like my first candidate for a good opening has shown. Okay, time to see how he'll respond.

"Iron Hammerfist!" I bellowed, bringing down a powerful arm towards Demon Blade.

<Demon Blade>

Hmmm...

Sheathing my current blade, I pulled Mugen Muramasa in a flash of steel, cutting the incoming attack to ribbons. The entire mass shifted into hundreds of blades instead, but that is of no concern to me. I uttered the name of Mugen's secret art:

"Universe," I called, and rocketed across the arena at absurd speed, slicing through the blades and Mithril as I passed. She was quick to simply reattach her severed halves and swing a very, very long blade around at me at high speed. I, however, was faster, jumping just before it hit me and unsheathing Okanehira.

"Gale Thrust," I intoned, unleashing a dozen blades of wind with a single swipe. Mithril countered with a bunch of metal blades... which the wind blades went through like paper. She instead dodged the barrage, and then fired a huge metal beam when I launched three more at her. I drew Tokiwatari Muramasa before the beam reached me.

"Waning Moon," I muttered, pulling the long blade up for one huge swing, unleashing a wave of force that cleaved through the entire beam, but missed Mithril, who was rather suddenly coming down at me from above. I pulled Dojigiri Muramasa from my hip and activated its secret art without a word, vanishing just as Mithril slammed into the ground hard enough to crack it. Sensing danger, she moved just before I landed in similar fashion, a bolt of lightning striking with me. I pulled my blade up to parry just as she punched at me, s***tering the blade instantly, but I simply returned it to its sheath and freed another blade in a storm of slashes. She had no chance to dodge this one, nor the following attack.

"Earth Hornet," I shouted as I stabbed at her dozens and dozens of times in the span of a few seconds. The very second I finished the attack, she kicked the blade in half and slammed a fist into my face. I had another blade in hand before I landed, Suzaku Muramasa.

"4 Faerie Blaze," slipped from my mouth as four balls of flame came into being around me. I drew a second blade as well, Jyuzumaru Tsunetsugu.

"4 Faerie Bolt," and four balls of lightning joined the fireballs. Rarely do I find need to dual-wield, but this fight warrants it.

<Quicksilver>

"Feeling a bit better now?" Omicron's voice drifted into the room a few moments later. I sighed and nodded, puling myself to an upright position. "So, would you like to talk about it now?"

I stared at my feet for a moment. "... I was slow."

"Odd, considering it is you."

"I mean... intentionally. I was slow about the whole thing. I wasn't hurrying my way down there, I was giving a grand friggin' tour!" I shouted. "Show off all the damn sights! Oh look, the Massive Long Legs! However did I accidentally stumble in that direction?! Even went straight past Terrorantula! I was dragging my feet and if I'd been a little faster then I might have brought back more than two-"

"Enough," Omicron said emphatically. The tone brooked no argument. "What is done is done. Down that road lies madness, you know this as well as I do. While I would have preferred haste on your part, it is too late to change that."

I flopped down on my back again. "You know how fast I am. I could have-"

"I said enough."

I took one deep breath and let it go. "Alright, fine. Madness and all. I just... figured I ought to come clean on why... why we have two survivors."

"... The information I pulled from most of the ID chips suggests that it would not have mattered how quickly you got down there. You would need to have arrived approximately three days earlier. Before I contacted Hero Squad at all."

I gave the speaker a look.

"Even I can be... ruled by emotion, at times. I have been lax as well. I have allowed myself to get... comfortable. Too comfortable. I ignore that there are things going on outside this bubble I have constructed for myself for far too long."

I chuckled a little. "It really does look like a bubble from down below, doesn't it..."

"I shall not make this mistake again. I promise you that."

Hopping to my feet, I walked to the door. "Hey, how's Libera, anyway?"

"Impatience and belligerent as always. Would you like to talk to him?"

"Certainly."

One quick jaunt to the medical wing later got me a front-row seat to Libera undergoing a bunch of exercises, with a gunmetal grey prosthetic arm. I waved at him through the window. He smiled and flipped me off as he ran on a treadmill. I flipped him off right back, an equally large smile on my face.

"Boy do you look dumb running on that thing," I said through the window. His expression and finger didn't change positions at all.

"Yeah apparently I have to do this crap to 'get used to it' or whatever. This isn't even the real arm, just a placeholder until it's finished. Man I cannot wait to be outta here."

"You are aware that the typical recovery period for a cybernetic implant is about two years, right?" Omicron's voice came over the intercom. Libera tripped and was flung off the machine.

"Two years?!" he roared.

"The fastest I have ever seen was six months and involved adaptation issues. Granted, being as it is you, I expect you to get impatient within a month. Which is why I am installing a diagnostic tool in your arm. When something does go wrong, I will know. I will not lose anyone else to incompetence, mine or otherwise."

"Is Hero Squad gonna be okay with that?" I asked at the speaker.

"If they have any objections, tell them to get over them," was Omicron's response, and that was the end of that conversation.
__
Holy word limit, Batman!

<]-Mithril-[>

Oh, what's this? Demon Blade switching to dual wielding right after I hit him once? Hmm... that's an encouraging sign. Guess that means I should step up the offensive pressure!

But yes, I should probably do something about the spheres of fire and lightning heading my way. I calmly stuck my foot in the ground, causing a massive wall of metal to spring up in between me and Demon Blade. Spikes rose from underneath him, so he quickly circled around the wall and went on the attack.

I was expecting him to do that however, and responded to that by firing a few massive bolts of metal at him, which he blocked with his twin blades.

And then SHARK ATTACK.

More specifically, metal landshark attack. Several of these sharks breached towards Demon Blade, bearing their teeth and lunging at him. He cut up several, used some kind of special move to get himself away from the rest, and then blocked the following shark attacks.

A few more exchanges of attacks, including an amusing bit where I generated more metal landsharks and threw them at the swordsmaster, and then I managed to slam a massive anvil into his face. Again, he retaliated, this time by drawing one of his larger blades.

"Comet," Demon Blade intoned, as around a hundred invisible slashes fell from above, cutting apart the landsharks and cutting me. The swordsmaster drew a second blade.

"Universe," he muttered. This time however, I surrounded myself with a metal shell right before DB rushed past me, cutting apart the shell. I, however, had simply left a clone there to take the blow.

And that was when metal landsharks lunged at Demon Blade from above, this time shooting lasers from their eyes. Using both of his blades to block the barrage of fangs and beams, the sharks broke at least one of his swords before I was rather suddenly behind him, having emerged from below.

"Steel Star Hammerfist!" I bellowed, hurling a powerful shockwave hammer punch at the swordsmaster.