Exqua's Storm III

 

POV Sword

We look down at Chris and Dobo's forms. Stroma's corpse is to one side, with half of his body blown away, and his features bloody and burnt, beyond recognition. Strain is lying on the ground, covered in burnt blood, his bloody tattered and torn. I've met up with Neo, Elemental, Airo, Woodsy and Luc. Dobo's back is burnt and bloody, and where his left arm should, there is nothing. Whatever explosion happened here has turned on of our members into a cripple. Without an arm, I doubt it's likely that the Administrator will accept him into the final seventy-five people. Chris, on the other hand, is covered in blood and shrapnel and burns, but his body is intact. Both of them are out cold, but alive.

 

Artee, Ronin, Krim and Framed arrived later, followed by Relic, Avoma, Auvrion and Loflo, and then JJQ, Nyx, Swono, El Casio and Zak. El Casio and Zak were both unconscious, so we leaned them on a rock with Chris and Dobo, who were being treated by Artee. Everyone was silent. Everywhere was silent too. All that was left of the fighting was to take down Exqua, the ringleader of this massive allied force. Screw the mission, screw the Hunters and Prey. They had split up and targeted those who hadn't even been designated as Prey, like Zak and Chris. We were going to kill Exqua no matter what. Me, Airo, Elemental, Neo, Woodsy an Vedix pushed forwards to take out Exqua. The rest stayed behind to treat their injuries. Krim would have come with us, but a spear had run through his ankle so Artee threatened to dismember his limbs if he didn’t stay behind and get treated. We were going to have to fight this without Artee, 004, and the monstrously skilled Krim.  

 

He was waiting for us in an off-branch of the cave, which lead to a large, flat area with a few boulders and rocks littered here and there. He had a spear in one hand, and nothing in the other, along with a pair of axes and a pair of swords on his back.

"So you came," he said quietly.

"Yes," Airo replies. "It's over."

I step forwards after Airo, and suddenly my foot snags on something. I glance down, and see nothing. Elemental's noticed, and I see his eyes dart across the ground. Then they widen. I turn and see what he's seeing. From a particular angle, the ground is covered with thousands of threads, each one far too thin for us to see with naked eyes. It's just the blue light from main cave is spilling through a crack in the rocky walls and the from that angle the threads catch the light. They're using the few rocks jutting out of the ground as waypoints to criss-cross across the whole cave.

"Run," I say.

"Too late," Exqua replies.

He lifts his other hand, blue threads on all of his fingers.

"Welcome to the playground," he says. "Let's start with the firework show, shall we?"

He closes his hand into a fist, someone slams into my from behind and pins me to the ground, and the whole room explodes.

 

After the booms die down and the heat against my back diminishes a little, I scramble to my feet and snatch up my sword. There's no time to waste. Neo's the one who jumped on me to take cover, and a stray piece of rock form the mini explosions has hit him in the head, so he had been lying over me, groaning, with blood running down is face. I push him onto his back, then look around. There's smoke and fire everywhere, and several small craters in the room. Shrapnel bombs. I can’t see anything, and the smoke's getting in my lungs. Then, through the grey wall before me, Elemental and Exqua come tumbling through, with the latter being locked in a tackle by the formed. However, Exqua somehow still has a hold of his spear, and he slips his grip further down the shaft and rams the back end into Elemental's stomach, and he lets go. Elemental lifts his head and I'm met a gruesome sight. One side of his face, mercifully the side without an eye, has been turned into a black and red, cracked mush, and there's blood pouring down his neck. There's about fifteen pieces of shrapnel in his back. Exqua, meanwhile, is basically unharmed, and he gets slowly to his feet, facing down the wounded Elemental.

"Farewell, 002."

"Nope, he's not hopping off yet."
Woodsy comes out of nowhere and body slams Exqua into the wall. I snap out of my trance at seeing Elemental and rush forwards as wall. Woodsy's pummelling him, but Exqua suddenly whirls his spear and catch's Woodsy's fist. Before he can run him through, I leap into the air and launch a flying knee strike into Exqua's face. I thought I had him, but he's somehow got his hand in between my knee and his face, and his head is smushed against the wall. Then he flings me off and I backflip, upright.

"Get it together!" Woodsy yells at me, and he slams his elbow into Exqua's neck, thoroughly winding him. "Now!"

Exqua's head is bent over, as he fights for breath. Woodsy draws back his arm, and I also pound forwards. Then he somehow lifts his head and glares straight at me. I will never forget them. Those eyes, those terrifying, murderous black eyes, filled with nothing but death. He grabs Woodsy's punch in his hand and twists his arm, but Woodsy twist with it and flips upside down, scoring a roundhouse kick on Exqua's jaw. Blood flew, but Exqua's eyeball snapped back to glare and him and he drove the spare right between Woodsy's ribs between he even had time to react.

 

Luc came out of nowhere and snatched the back of Woodsy's shirt in one gauntlet,  yanking him backwards, and Exqua's spear glanced off his breastbone. I ducked under a thrust aimed at me and kicked the spear out of his hands, but he suddenly grabbed my face and slammed me into the ground. Me vision swam from the shock, but I fumbled at my belt and yanked out a spare knife, and I felt it slice along his arm. His grip loosened and then Luc charged him full on back into the wall. Before Luc could regain his balance and land a proper punch, however, Exqua ducked under him, wrapped his arms around his chest, placed his feet on the wall and finally managed to get his back of the wall. Woodsy was nursing his bleeding chest and Elemental was trying to move his heavy limbs, which left me and Luc, the current 003, to 2v1 Exqua, who was holding like a monster.

"YOU FUCKING MONSTER!!!" I roar, the blood suddenly rushing to my head.

Stroma. Chris. Dobo. Strain. Elemental…

I leap forwards and my hands find his neck from behind him, and I yank him backwards away from Luc, who's got a knife his side at the moment. I full onto Exqua, and push down on his windpipe. I can feel his lungs fighting for air as I press my thumbs into his neck. Then pain explodes under my right lung - he's driven a razor blade into my body. I ignore it and keep pushing down on his neck. My sword has gone flying into the rubble and smoke beyond. The smoke is so thick that Woodsy, who was just a couple feet away, is now obscured, and Luc groans in pain behind me as he yanks the knife out of his body.

"DIE!!!" I scream. "APOLOGIZE THROUGH DEATH, YOU FUCKING MONSTER!!"

His eyes lock with mine as I squeeze out the last of his breath. Then his other hand flies into my face and my voice cuts of short and he slashes a knife right across my mouth.

 

I fall to the side, blood leaking from my face onto the ground in ribbons. I glance up and see Exqua wheezing for breath, then climb shakily to his feet. He glares down at me, hate filling his eyes.

"You want ME to apologize for being a monster!?" he demands, still gasping for air. "Has anyone ever apologized to ME for turning ME into one!?!?"

Before he can say anymore, Luc clubs him in the side of his face form behind with his chrona-powered gauntlet, and Exqua's left eye explodes. Blood sprays through the air as he falls on all fours.

"The game's over," Luc says. "Die."
Exqua climbs onto his elbows and knees, laughing, his body shaking.

"W… when you give up, that's when the game ends, you asshole."

Then he reached out under a rock in front of him, and I see him grab a hole of something. I want to shout at Luc to watch out, but for some reason my mouth won’t move. I feel it with my hand, and I'm met with a warm, sticky sensation on both cheeks. Then, there's a whooshing and thwacking and Luc yells. A barrage of sharpened sticks fly out of the smoke, and Luc reacts just in time to smash them to pieces, but one singular one gets through and he sidesteps it, but it still grazes his chest and leaves behind a thick red line. Then Exqua stabs behind the knee with a knife and unsheathes two swords from his back, aiming straight for the unbalanced Luc's neck.

"FUCKING DIE!!!" he bellows, his face contorted with rage.

Then this time Elemental body slams him with his back, sinking the shrapnel pieces sticking out of him into Exqua. Exqua shouts in pain and falls backwards, and Elemental collapses to the ground.

"Ugh…!"

"Stop," Elemental gasps, struggling to his feet. "What’s the point? Where all… just trying to survive… aren't we?"

Exqua's breath rasps in his ribcage as he also stands up, cuts and scratches all over his torso and face.

"What is your destiny?" he demands, raggedly.

"…what?"

"What is your future?" he repeats.

"…I will serve the Administrator. As a dog."

"And do you like that destiny!?" Exqua roars, blood flying out from between his lips.

Elemental pauses.

"…no."

"Then," Exqua breathes. "If you don't like your destiny, then don’t fucking accept it, you moron. I'll continue to fight after I kill all of you, who've lost your way. The true enemy is the Administrator. I know… what he can do."

"You…" Luc says, on hand on his chest. "How…"

"Who is the Administrator?" Woodsy demands, who’s now at my side.

Exqua's face twists even more, and it splits into an insane, deranged, bloodthirsty smile.

"C… Central Kingdom's 3rd and youngest exiled Prince," he rasps. "The man who massacred one hundred thousand civilians from the other side in the Central Civil War. Pharolen."