Chapter Five

Part One: Strongest Tag Team 

 It was now the dead of night with the cracked moon, Luna, being only light from above. Arsyle and his small team continued to trudge forward; he was accompanied by 5 Abyssus Units and his personal guard, Duo. Arsyle attempted to grasp any information he could from the vacant, destroyed Enclosure, while on the other hand, Duo tensely followed behind, with her hook claws readied. She turned her head slightly, and was greeted with a mangled body of a soldier lying in the dirt. Duo froze for a brief moment. It was terrible to see so many people fallen, and to her the worst part was that no one would remember them, nor mourn their death. She quickly snapped back into reality and caught up with the rest of the group. 

“What is the quality of the Batch that we are collecting, sir?” She asked curiously, while joining Arsyle, who was in the middle of the squad. 

“Oh! Straight to the point! I like it!” He smiled, still analyzing the wreckage as they walked. He quickly pulled out a notebook and handed it to Duo. All without even looking at her once, as he was far too entangled with the sights before him. 

She cautiously took the Notebook from him and read what was on the page. “Batch:26A? Sir, this Batch did not pass the perseverance test, I don’t see how they are anything worth putting effort into.” 

Arsyle stopped what he was doing and turned to Duo. He gave her an intense look. As soon as she made eye contact with the Intrinsic, her heart dropped. Duo tensed up. 

“I-I’m sorry sir, I didn’t mean to spout out my opinion. What I think means very little.” Claimed Duo, nervously correcting herself. 

Arsyle exhale heavily and shook his head out of disappointment. She was acting like a whipped dog, and he knew why. The reputation of the Intrinsic’s treatment of humanity isn’t hard to categorize as nothing but cruel, so he couldn’t blame Duo for her behavior. 

“No, no… it’s fine, Duo. Your opinion is greatly valued.” He responded solemnly as he turned to take his notebook back from her. “To be frank, Batch:26A isn’t half bad when it comes to individuals.”

Duo lifted an eyebrow at that statement. 

“773-A has the accuracy of a machine, and 618-A has almost perfect vision, she could see for miles if she tried. 555-A is also a skilled one, his resourceful hand practically makes him an engineer.” He eagerly informed her, as he put his notebook back into his pocket. 

There was a pause as they continued on their way. Still not a soul was in sight, Duo wasn’t quite sure if Arsyle was correct about the possibility of this Batch still being alive. If this was the damage from the attack, she doubted three normal humans could survive this. No matter how unique they might be. 

  

A few moments later they reached an open dirt road that led to a giant warehouse, which sat upon a hill in the distance. Arsyle stopped walking briefly and put his fingers to his head as if he was heavily contemplating. 

“My word... Now that I’ve seen the Rift Site in its entirety, I’m pretty sure they didn’t manage to dispose of a single Abyssiti.” He stated nonchalantly. 

There was a long silence. Duo gasped when she realized what he meant. Arsyle watched as her facial expression plunged into anxiety. There was a possibility that there was an Abyssiti still nearby. Then almost on cue, around them the air began to get heavy. The sudden dense air put a strain on everyone's breathing. They all knew what was coming.

“Shit.” Cursed Duo under her breath. “Where is the Abyssiti?! Do you see one sir?!” Panicked Duo. She frantically looked around with both of her hook claws drawn out for combat. 

Arsyle calmly looked around the area, “I don’t see one. It must be on its way toward us, however.”

Duo quickly called out to the surrounding Abyssus units. “You five prepare for Abyssiti defense. Protecting the Intrinsic Arsyle Cosme is top priority.”

The Abyssus squad all nodded their heads and prepared themselves for combat. Each one was geared with plasma rifles, made to specifically destroy Abyssiti. Everyone was on high alert. Duo scanned their surroundings, there was nothing but abandoned Living quarters and a single Abyssus Cannon around them. It didn’t matter though, she was ready to pounce at any given moment. Then they all felt the air get even heavier than before, weighing on them like a ton of bricks.

A humanoid blur slowly appeared from behind the inactive cannon. It’s body seemed to be shifting in and out of reality with each step. It was an Abyssiti, however it wasn’t enormous like the ones before it. Yet, this entity was still several feet larger than the average man, and its limbs were thin and slender. Everyone looked in horror as it paid Arsyle’s Squad no mind.

 Unbeknownst to them it wasn’t any of the Abyssiti that attacked the Enclosure previously. Arsyle’s eyes widened with intrigue at the mere sight of its shifting gas-like body. While everyone else was in fear he was nothing but thrilled.

“C-Class Abyssiti! Take Aim and fire!” Commanded one of the Abyssus units. His squad of 5 aimed their guns at the distorted anomaly.

Although it was walking normally, at first, once the Abyssus units began firing their plasma guns; it began to move rapidly towards the nearest unit, seemingly dilating time. The plasma beams fired from the rifles did indeed deteriorate its body upon impact, however the wound on the Abyssiti closed quickly. Within a blink of an eye it snatched the rifle out of the unit's hands and tossed it. Duo watched in horror as it shredded through him like he was made of paper. She would’ve urgently shouted out to him, but she staggered. She didn’t know his name. 

“You’ll pay for that!” Shouted Duo. As she strained her voice out of pure spite. Now furious, she clasped her two hook claws and charged at the entity without restraint. 

The Abyssiti launched its arms at Duo with breakneck speed. Its black tendril extended at her, but almost instinctively, Duo swiftly leaped out of the way  dodging the attack. While mid-air, she then followed it by slicing away the entity's arm. She put so much force behind both of her hook claws that it came clean off with a hiss. Duo pierced the ground with the hook claw’s as she landed, dragging them across the dirt with her until she came to a stop. The arm hit the ground and dissolved into the air with a noise that sounded like someone pouring a bucket of broken glass. The Abyssiti seemed to be unbothered by its loss of a limb and it was apparent why. Not even a full minute later the limb that was lost reformed itself as a static noise rang out.

The remaining 4 Abyssus units rallied themselves to prepare for another barrage of shots at the Abyssiti, however, Arsyle put up one of his hands. Commanding them to stop. 

“Do not fire your weapons.” He snapped. The Abyssus Units were shocked by his command, but followed his orders and put their rifles down. “If you shoot...you are risking shooting her, which I cannot allow.”

He was referring to Duo, who was currently avoiding a volley of swipes from the entity; her ashen-brown hair rippled in the wind. Each strike from the Abyssiti would’ve decimated her completely, but each time she managed to narrowly dodge. Her lightning fast reflexes were nothing short of awe striking. 

 “You’d have to close the distance if you want to strike. Try to inflict as much damage as you can!”

Shouted Arsyle at Duo, who was locked in combat.

Suddenly a guy armed with a single Hook claw jumped over the idle Abyssus cannon with inches to spare. It was Impressive for a human, let alone someone in armor. It was Crest, and his intimidating dark grey eyes were fixed on the Abyssiti. If looks could kill, the Abyssiti surely would’ve been reduced to ash. 

As he landed he swung the hook claw in a flat arc. It's blade landed flush with the torso of the Abyssiti, ripping open the creature. What would be blood- ended up being a strange black and grey cloud that closely resembled giant shards of glass. The entity writhed in pain and a horrid screech rang out. The nearby Abyssus units covered their ears, while Arsyle intensely watched the Abyssiti. Unphased by its screech, Crest attempted to leap away, however before he could leave the ground the Abyssiti gripped his leg. 

“Tch!” Grunted Crest as he was slammed back down into the dirt roads. Despite what seemed like a fatal blow, the Abyssiti recovered from its wound and loomed over him; it launched its arms at Crest. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief, this was it. He then prepared for an impact, yet, it never came.

Duo swiftly jolted in between the two and effortlessly cut away at the entity once again, but this time she managed to slice away both arms. With the same shattering noise, the arms vaporize. 

“Go for it now!”  Shouted Duo at Crest as she used the same landing strategy as before. 

Now that Crest’s leg was released, he quickly grabbed his hook claw and jammed it into the chest of the Abyssiti. He twisted the blade as the Abyssiti screeched directly in his face. 

He stared intently at the face of the entity as seven glowing white patches in place of their eyes stared back at him. Looking into death like this, didn’t phase him in the slightest. He no longer feared his demise. 

Crest placed both of his hands on the handle of the hook claw lodged in its chest and dragged it up its body to the top of its head. Viciously tearing the entity completely in half. In one fell swoop he silently watched as the Abyssiti hit the ground and began to entirely dissolve into the air without a trace. The body of the creature just fizzled away like it never even existed in the first place. 

Crest exhaled and collapsed onto the dirt ground, dropping his weapon. He was drained. Arsyle on the other hand was nothing but relieved by the result of that encounter. He walked over to where Crest was and offered him a hand. 

“Well now. That was certainly thrilling. Truly. Only the Federation's strongest units manage to kill an Abyssiti.” Crest looked up at the Intrinsic. His calm grey eyes glared down at him; for some reason they seemed to be oddly mournful. Crest cautiously took his hand. 

He got back up on two feet and dusted off his Abyssus unit vest without a word. Arsyle looked back at the 4 other Abyssus units accompanying him. 

“Luckily we made it out with minimum casualties.” He informed as he then looked over at where the unit was ripped to shreds moments before. All that was left behind was his dismembered body.

Duo looked over at the remains of the fallen soldier. 

A wave of intense guilt washed over her, as her hands began to shake. She was trembling, her hook claws almost fell out of her hands. She attempted to collect herself, but to no avail. Duo sharply looked away and tightly gripped her weapons. With that she marched forward without looking back.