Going back a few minutes, Dolon was hiding behind the very same rock that she would be standing on moments later, and Ol's voice came through the head phones.
'I guess there is no stopping you now?' Ol asked playfully with a smile on his face, 'seeing you disappeared from beside me the moment they were rounded up.'
'Rydel was right, we need to stop sitting back and not do anything now.' Dolon replied calmly, 'by the look of it, it seems like their boss wanted to capture them all and take them in as prisoners, probably for some questioning or something....wait no, seems like they will be executed.'
'In that case, I suppose there really is no stopping you right now.' Seeing lives are at stake, Ol knew that there is nothing more he could do, 'just be careful.'
'Aren't I always?' Dolon shivers with intense excitement as the prospect of some heavy duty combat fills her heart with joy.
'I don't need the scroll to know that you want this to actually happen?' Ol teased her one last time before she sets off, 'who doesn't want a good fight?'
'It's going to be a rather boring one!' Dolon said it out loud, both towards Ol and the forces of Absolute Being.
The soldiers nearest to her looked at each other and laughed, then they wasted no time opening fire at her. In an instant, Dolon activated her shields and drew her blades with one smooth motion and sprints towards the nearest two solders with a sudden burst of speed. The energy and force shields easily negates the bullets, and with a simple switch, the four of her Aquarian leaf blades were switched onto the shield negation mode with electricity running through it's body and two blades made contact with the personal shields of the two soldiers while the other two sliced through their physical armor and leaves a moderately deep wound on their back.
Dolon is not a killer and doesn't want to be one either, so the injury is just enough to make any further movements extremely painful without leaving anything permanent.
However, aggravated assault in the name of self defense seemed perfectly fine, given how the only eye witnesses near by is a few seconds away from having their heads blown off.
Seeing the shields of their comrades go down made some of the forces of Absolute Being hesitate to open fire and instead put the guns back onto their back and drew out their own military blades also.
'Deal with her now, Dan later!' They have reached an agreement and started circling Dolon and closing in on her slowly.
They are well trained all right, and some of them are even at the level of late proficiency to early mastery. With a switft kick of both her lower limbs and knocking the two soldiers back while supporting her body weight by pinning the blades onto the ground, Dolon immediately closes into the whole group without giving them any time to react.
The very first soldier parried the first slice, but the second stab followed suit instantly, shorting out the shields while the third sneaked in between the gaps of his armor and created two few millimeter deep cuts along the obliques and then down the quadriceps. He collapse involuntarily as the muscles failed to contracted and dropped to the ground. The soldiers were no pushovers however and they flooded Dolon by charging in together and one of the soldiers tackled Dolon from behind, or she thought she did.
With the footworks from the roots of the acquiescence of the seaweed, Dolon used the forward momentum of the attacker and rode it, avoiding close range attacks from two stabs at both her torso and her back while dropping the soldiers on top of one another. W
ith another dazzling display of slices, a couple more went down moaning and reaching for injury treatments in their boxes. After taking down ten soldiers in almost no time, it turns out nobody has actually landed a single hit on Dolon.
'Step back! Open fire!' One of the guys shouted loudly as those that can move tried their best to get out of the way and the rest pulled out their fun and prepared to rain all hell on Dolon.
'No! Stop!' The one soldier named Dan yelled, and he pointed the projector at the crowd of soldiers while adjusting for the strength of the singularity to be as small as possible, while being able to create a gravity field to pull them in. The energy input selection was changed and so had the amplifier and resonance settings... Dan ran the calculations in his head at lightning speed before firing away, and a tiny black sphere the size of a sand grain was projected right in the middle of the soldiers formation.
Nothing happens for a while, then all of the soldiers are pulled into the center and piled up in one neat stack, though quite a lot less gruesome than what had happened to the riot control droids. No one was really badly hurt, but there is a lot of moaning and complaining and people kicking each other around.
'Cheers mate.' Dolon threw all the blades back into the scabbard and pointed the Lightning Rod at the human sandwich, and gave them a quick zap, putting all of them to sleep.
'You could do that all this time?' Dan dropped the now burnt up pseudo-artifact device to the side of him, 'why didn't you pull this...'
His questioning was cut short quite literally with a blade at his throat. He didn't even see Dolon move.
'What was that?' Dolon asked in a typical emotionless Aquarian tone, yet Dan can feel the fire burning underneath the surface. It may not be rage, but certainly annoyance.
'Nothing...sorry.' Dan answered carefully, and the blade disappeared.
'Good.' Dolon wipes her hands on her armor and half turned around, then looked back and asked, 'It seems like you will no longer be welcome in this organization? So wanna come with me?'
'Yes! This is the perfect chance to get some valuable intelligence on them!' Mindo shouted and Dolon, but was confronted with a blank stare and he swallowed whatever he was going to say next. This tall Aquarian female just single-handedly took down a small platoon of soldiers in a matter of seconds, albeit with the help of an almost mystical technology, or two.
'Yeah...One bad choice just leads to another, I guess.' Dan gave up and started to take off the so-called pseudo-artifact, but was met once again with the blade against his throat.
'Keep that thing on, we also have some questions about it.' Dolon warned, and Dan nodded nervously in response.
'We have questions too!' Mindo said right after, but again nobody even acknowledged him.
Dolon waved at the two rookies to usher them up and started walking ahead.
'Where are you going?'
'To our ship, out of enemy sight and safe. Wanna join?'
Going back a few minutes before the confrontation between the GBI forces and Absolute Being went completely off the rails crazy, Rydel and Cellica are both making very steady progress towards where Zel is, or at least where they think Zel is.
For some reason, Zel's artifact seemed to have stopped working, so Cellica couldn't track down the exact location of where he is using the spatial energy readings he very helpfully provided in the email.
By reading through the layout, however, there are a few locations that are quite interesting and are worth a visit. The key rooms are probably guest rooms and some sort of detention center, which they have located in to be in two separate regions of the whole base. Also if someone is to squint at the map, it looks a bit like that of a ship's layout.
'Right, let's go through this route.' Rydel has been working on the map and trying to plot out a route which allows for maximum coverage of the key areas and more while Cellica made sure nobody's around. And that is strangely the case here.
There didn't even seem to be a need for their clothes mimicking the uniforms worn by the crew of the organization here as they barely ran into any of them. They have moved past the manufacturing area and are now moving past the labs Currently, Cellica is able to see through the doors as well as through one or two corridors before things gets too complicated and hard to make out, but right as she turned the corner and looked around, she sees through the doors into a lab and two people moving a container with a third person in it. They have already unloaded the container onto a trolley and started heading back out when she saw the missing right arm on the person in teh container.
SHIT THAT'S HIM. Cellica whispered sharply and pulled Rydel back a few steps behind the corner, HIS RIGHT ARM IS MISSING RIGHT?
Maybe, he chooses a color for each different day. Rydel replied while trying to peak around the corner, but Cellica pressed his head down and kept him hidden while pulling out the pistol and setting it to the classic stun option.
When the two pushing the trolley had completely exited the room and turned the other way, she stepped out and took them both out with two clean shots. As their bodies dropped to the floor, the pair then approached and looked over and into the container, to see Zel looking right back at them.
'I thought the show will go on for me, but you really came, ha...' Zel smiled as he sees Rydel and greets him, 'It's good to see you man.'
'All good?' Rydel asked, 'let's get out now and talk later.'
'Good idea.' Zel nodded the best as he can as Cellica reached into her communications and alerted Ol on the communications channel, 'the cargo is secured. We are extracting. Now, can you walk?'
'Don't worry, he is tough.' Rydel said as he pulled out his mace and knocked the handle against the corner of the container and shattering it. Then Cellica cut Zel out of the restraint as he nodded at her in gratitude.
The whole job was done in a matter of minutes, and they hurriedly stuffed both of the unconscious crew member into a storage room near by and pushing the container back into the lab so it looked like nothing had happened in this corridor. Now, it's time to run away.
Or so they thought.
'Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen.' Someone spoke out at the end of the corridor then the sound of footsteps started to approach the trio. They turned around to find an Aquarian male walking steadily towards them, dressed in complete golden amour with the hilts of six blades pointing out the back, 'do you happen to see a guy and a girl sneaking into the base?'
'No, you can check the storage room for that.' Rydel pointed right at the room as the trio tried to sneakily get away, 'we need to leave now, sorry we couldn't be of help.'
'Do excuse me. The base is packing up and leaving anyway, so where may you all be going?'
He asked coldly, knowing full well what's about to happen. Two of his hands reached behind his back and pulled out the blades, holding it by his side, 'I will do what Lady Lily wishes, and be prepared to die.'
Rydel swallowed dryly and whispers to Cellica quietly, 'step back, I may have a plan.'
'Be careful, he seemed strong.' Cellica and Zel stepped back a few meters, but didn't act like they are running away so the Aquarian won't be alarmed as much.
'No kidding, I might have seen him before.' Rydel pulled out both of his brand new maces and asked directly at him, 'do you happen to play games? The War Game?'
'Ooooh, are you a fan?' The Aquarian sounded surprised at this comment, 'Yes, I am Golden Raider in the game. So you know how strong I am?'
'What's your name in real life?'
'For you, just call me G.'
'Well...G,' Rydel got into a ready stance and activated the compliance mechanism in his macing and started the coiling process so that he can catch Gold by surprise, 'all I remember about your performance is how Lightning Rod took you down in one move.'
Gold didn't say a thing. He remained still like an iceberg, and reached for the other four blades from his back.
'Um...Is pissing him off his plan?' Zel asked Cellica, who shrugged in response. She has her gun ready at all times and she is confident enough in her shot that she will at least be able to damage Gold if Rydel is in mortal danger.
She has no idea who Golden Raider is, however, so she can only guess that he is fairly good at melee combat if he is going around carrying six blades. What the hell is Rydel thinking?
Right now, he is not thinking at all.
Got to keep the distances up.
Thinking back to the very brief memory of the fight between Dolon and Gold, albeit in their gaming avatars in the more simulated environment, Rydel distinctly remember the vastly two different styles of combat between the two.
Dolon is the free flowing master of multiple disciplines that chooses whichever styles suits the situation the best and can switch around on a dime, while Gold back then seemed like one that trains extremely hard in one discipline to be able to apply it in any scenario.
But it doesn't matter how good Gold is exactly with relation to Dolon now, he is better than Rydel technically for sure. That means it's time to fight tricky. This has always been Rydel's strengths and it might just bail them out of this situation.
Armed with the two maces Torelamri has freshly made for him, he would only imagine that the mechanism which springs and coils upon firing is going to be at least as powerful as the version he had before.
He's moving in!
Rydel didn't take his eyes off Gold for even half a second, and Gold knew it too. Instead of waiting around for ages, he decided to attack first!
This did catch Rydel by surprise a little bit, as the Golden Raider in last year's War Games tournament tend to take on a more defensive stance. But this could simply be his underestimation of Rydel's power, which was the same mistake he made last year seconds prior to getting cut down by Dolon.
He cannot fault gold for thinking so, as Rydel is just a mere human holding two white maces while wearing half a pair of gloves.
Here it comes!
With two clean and decisive swipe of the blades, two of the blades cut diagonally across and disabled the shield that Rydel carefully turned out while the other two missed his face by ten centimeters as he hopped back nimbly on his feet.
The misses did not deter Gold at all, as steady progress is made by the very simple act of shield disabling and the next connection of the blades will be with Rydel's flesh and blood.
Gold reached in for yet another attack, but Rydel stepped back once again and even had the room and space to give out a swing of his mace, though it got no where near him. To Gold's surprise, this measly weak-looking human seemed to have been trained quite well in close quarter combat, possibly by an Aquarian.
The momentum use of Aquarian exoskeletons gives off an obvious hint for potential movements, and trained eye will be able to spot it and use it to predict the opponents next moves.
Human muscular systems work in a fundamentally different way than Aquarians, and is more chaotic and harder to read as a result. While the motion conveys more information, there are also a lot more noise.
Gold continued pressing on, but Rydel just kept on evading his quick but predictable attacks and occasionally giving back a swing that goes nowhere. Nobody made any real progress in this fight, to the surprise of everybody in this room.
If Dolon is here, than she would have laughed out loud at this current result.
Gold, or Golden Raider is the up and coming youngster of the Aquarian Sword Art: unyielding ice and specializes in creating an impenetrable defensive shield. Most, if not all of his training is centered around being an absolutely stud on the battlefield and maintaining their ground. It doesn't matter whether it's the masters of Chaotic Waves or Flowing seaweed, no measure of attack can bring him down, and he consistently put himself to the test.
The fight with Dolon, or the Lightning Rod, was the very first and only fight he has lost since coming to his own in the realm of martial arts.
Funnily enough, his martial arts works like magic for any aggressive Aquarian fighters, but all the training Rydel has done with Dolon is to prepare to fight against someone extremely aggressive with lots of tools and angles of attack, so when Gold is pressed against time and that he needs to be the one taking the offensive, Rydel can actually handle the offensive pressure just enough to stay safe and out of the way.
Cellica doesn't know that much about close quarter combat, but just by the look of it it seems like Rydel is indeed in a comfortable position, but from Rydel's perspective, there really isn't anything more stressful that he has done in his life.
The blades constantly misses him, yet he cannot connect with Gold at all.
'Are you okay?' Cellica asked just to make sure he is okay.
'You two start heading off, I will be stay back to make sure he gets nowhere.' Knowing he will have to fight tricky, the very first thought that popped into his head is to make the prideful Aquarian lose his composure, and hence lose the fight. All this time, he is doing his best at observing Gold's response to both what he does and what he says. It seemed like he is pissed off now.
'Human, you have drawn this fate upon yourself.' Gold hopped back, and prepared for an aggressive strike. Everything looked and felt different now, Rydel knew what comes next is going to be drastically different from before. Gold charges at Rydel, and in response, he simply threw the mace on his left hand at the charging Aquarian. With a swipe of the blade, he planned to deflect the mace, just like what Dolon did, and did not slow down a tiny bit. Rydel smiled slightly, knowing that Gold has fallen for it. As the mace approaches his golden blades, what will happen next is that the springing mechanism is going to trigger upon impact, and the head of the mace will rapidly expanding, knocking whatever the target back with a force so strong it can knock a blade cleanly off the grasp of an Aquarian exoskeleton.
The blade gently kissed the mace and knocked it off course. The coiling mechanism unfolded and crashed right into the rest of Gold's blade. A small shock wave formed in the process as well as a flash that shines blinding light right in Gold's eye. The mace flew right back towards Rydel and dropped on the floor while Gold was knocked back and had his eye-sights mostly blindsided.
Rydel cannot miss this chance at all!
Gold was stunned for an instant thanks to Torelamri's little surprise, and he sprinted forward, picking up the first mace in the process and went for Gold's torso!
BANG!