Rows of serrated teeth wide open. Long deadly maw stretched wide. A muscular tail swinging in full force coming at the tiny woman who at the time was rapidly firing at the tail that was coming at her.
An explosion rocked the beast, disrupting the attack it had launched at Catalina, making the tail to narrowly miss her. The beast let out a deep shriek. For the first time, the beast had taken true damage. It was profusely bleeding and a few teeth had been thrown off.
The pain made the beast take a moment's pause, but only a moment. Now it had a new target: Barda. Locking on Barda tightly, it went at him with blind fury, foregoing any form of defense. It was now pissed.
"Good, now I have it's attention, what to do with it?" Barda wondered as he quickly ducked the oncoming attack. The speed was impressive, Barda noted as he sprang off the beast's next series of rapid attacks.
Barda noticed that the beast's most formidable arsenal was the tail that was repeatedly being swung at him. It seemed as though the beast intended to flatten Barda, but try as it might, it couldn't corner Barda.
However impressive the beast's speed was, it was still well within Barda's limits. By the time the tail had descended on him, he had already moved from the spot. What was even more impressive was that Barda could predict its next attack before it had descended, so he would move even before the strike had been initiated.
Seeing its movement were futile, the beast started spraying its poisonous gas at Barda. Barda had been prepared for this attack since he had seen it before. He knew he would not be affected by the gas, but he still decided to duck.
As the gas descended on him, Barda quickly dodged and started running in weird movements. All this while he put more distance between himself and the gas spewing fiend. His logic was simple, the beast did not seem to favor this mode of attack despite its obvious advantage, which meant that it was more taxing to it. Moreover, Barda considered that the gas had a finite supply. All he needed to do was maintain a good distance and the beast would be spent in no time.
"Here!" Catalina shouted as she threw her trusted rifle at Barda. At the same time, the surrounding soldiers started offloading at the beast in a bid to aid Barda as he felt the gas. Barda smiled as unexpected help came for him.
Catching the rifle Catalina had thrown in mid-flight, Barda did not begin to fire immediately, for he had spotted something while the soldiers were firing. The beast had quickly stopped spraying its gas, but it still kept at Barda. He was the only one to successfully hurt it, and it was not relenting.
Eyeing his surroundings, a dark thought crossed Barda's mind. Just 700 meters away stood the Feilin family manor. Barda had not realized what part of the city he was in until now, but now that he did, possibilities sprang into mind.
He still had a grudge with the family, and this was a very good way of settling the account. They had destroyed the Markell's home, after all. Tit for tat was a fair game, an eye for an eye, a home for a home.
Barda had already plotted out exactly where he needed to step and how he needed to move until he got to the Manor, for which the beast would take over the rest. There was little that could get in his way, and so he made his approach. Only, something made him pause.
Looking inside the manor hall, Barda saw a small boy run out, followed by his mother. Checking his scans again, Barda found that the manor was so much more populated than normal. Barda couldn't see the faces of those inside the manor, but he could tell many were not of the Feilin family.
Barda's heart froze as he realized what he had almost done. In his desire for retribution, he had almost condemned many refugees. Luckily for him, the boy had come out at just the right time. All this crossed Barda's mind in a fraction of a second. Instantly, he changed direction and speed, baiting the beast to follow him.
Multitasking used to be a difficult, nigh impossible thing once, but not anymore. Given that his movements and reflexes were controlled by the AI, Barda was free to do other things, such as analyze the beast's attack patterns more deeply. He noticed that the beast only sprayed when it had cornered its victim, restricting the prey's movement. That way, the prey would not evade easily, letting the gas do its work.
Barda waited for it, and when it came, he was ready. The beast opened its mouth once more, this time, the way it does when releasing the gas. 2 small holes popped out of the beast's mouth, almost unrecognizable. They were just behind the first row of teeth. The only way Barda had noticed these holes was because they were the origin of the green gas.
Just as the gas was leaving the tubular holes, Barda started firing rapidly. 4 bullets lodged themselves in the tubular holes, causing the beast to howl in pain and wriggle around. Barda knew he had wounded it, but how fatal that was, he did not know. One thing this did do was give him enough time to etch out some breathing room.
It looked like Barda was on the winning side, but he felt frustrated. He and the beast were at a stalemate, which if this kept up, would be disastrous for the city. He needed to find a way to end the fight fast. For a while, he had been concerned about slaying the beast in the most normal-looking way, but the beast had proven to deserve more effort from him.
Barda picked up a random sword and girded himself for the beast's next attack. It seemed that it had learned the lesson, it would no longer use the poison gas on him. However, its onslaught of unrelenting tail whips was about to begin.
Barda swung the sword to meet the oncoming tail. By now, everyone in the city was watching him fight. It was so enthralling to watch as every attack seemed to miss narrowly. While the fight was in Barda's hands, the onlookers were on the edge as they watched this.
Every attack was so fast that many people couldn't even see the tail whip before it had landed, but somehow Barda seemed to get out of the way in time. After some time, it even began to look as though the snake-like creature was missing on purpose.
However, seeing Barda raise his sword to meet the attack felt like a desperate move. Commander Greer had been thoroughly impressed by Barda's performance. As he watched the younger man on the battlefield taking on the monster, his blood boiled and he wanted to join Barda in the fight. One look at the rate at which the tail whips were coming in, he instantly changed his mind. No point getting in the way.
Seeing Barda's latest move, he was confused. 'Could the boy be getting tired?' He believed that there was no way Barda could survive an attack from the beast, and so far Barda had done a good job in evading and sneak attacking. There was no way Barda could hope to win in a melee against such a powerful monster.
Many experienced soldiers who could barely keep up with the fight shared the same opinion, some sighing with despair.
[Power output set at 25% of Maximum output.]
Cling!
The tail and sword met in a loud crash that shattered the sword. The tail's exoskeleton had a white mark on it, and once again the beast was squealing. From the looks of things, the impact had gone beneath the hard outer skeleton.
Barda scurried away to avoid the next attack as he whacked his brain on what to do next. The problem now was not his power but the weapons at his disposal. The beast's armor was just too good.
"...use your magic..." As Barda was pondering on what to do, Lady Arnea's voice carried through the noise of the battle to his ears. It wasn't so coincidental, being a wind mage, she had controlled the wind to transmit her message to him.
Barda momentarily turned to look at where the voice came from, stunned. Perhaps you might be thinking that he was distracted, you would be wrong. A super AI does not get distracted. As he was investigating who spoke to him, he was still scanning his surroundings for a fallen weapon, and he saw one, a spear this time.
[Applying 40% Type-B(Fire) Power in thrust.]
Barda cast a hard glare at Lady Arnea before picking up the weapon on the ground. He then thrust the spear at the beast. This time, the spear went through the beast's mouth and came out the other side. Since the beast's head was arched up as it attacked with its tail, the spear didn't penetrate further.
After receiving an injury, the beast was not going to stick around any longer. It quickly dashed down the hole it had dug and disappeared. A resounding cheer erupted in the city. The dreaded monster had tucked tail and ran, why would they not be happy? Once again, Barda had saved the day!