Straightening the scythe spear with his left hand on the upper part of the handle and his right hand on the lower part, Vulture tightened both his hands on the handle like he was about to activate its unique feature.
"Hrgh!" He groaned as he lunged forward to me in such speed all of a sudden.
It turned out that the beam coming out from the other end of the handle could also function as some sort of a small jet booster; it brough the whole scythe spear together with him and was about to impale me with the front blade within a blink of my eye!
Laser-like clashing sound was immediately heard and spark shards spurted out by the time I raised the halberd to block the attack from him at just the right time; no doubt that I would be sliced in half if I had been late for about perhaps a few milliseconds!
It also pushed me back at least a few distances even though both my legs had been trying to hold the ground with every bit of strength I had. Either he could still not yet fully control and adjust on how he would use the booster, or that he really did want to impale me before I could have enough time to respond.
"Grrah!" I swung my my halberd as hard as I could to my left side, sweeping away and forcing Vulture to get pushed back several steps.
At first it was indeed extremely heavy to toss him backwards, but as the force from both my hands and the halberd could surpass his and the scythe spear booster it became very light.
Good! So, in terms of defence, this halberd is indeed better than the scythe spear!
But it did not just stop there; he prepared for yet another swift attack.
"Yrrgh!" He activated the booster again but vertically instead, bringing him high up in the air as high as the ceiling from the third floor to the first floor!
"What about this!?"
Raising his scythe spear with his left hand above his right hand, he was about to swing it down hard right towards me with the scythe blade while he was still in the air just before he quickly went back down to the ground in such a blinding pace!
I took yet another same defence stance just like earlier and with both my hands tightened on the halberd handle, the beam blades coming out from all ends lit up far more aggressively and right after that, it clashed once more with the scythe spear on his hands creating even much more shards of sparks, all of which greater in size.
"Get- off!" I swung the halberd hard downwards as hard as I could, creating cracks on the ground as the beam ruptured a small chunk of the surface before I jumped backwards in order to create more distance between me and him.
Just before I landed again after the back-jump, I saw with my own eye Vulture flipped backwards and landed on his two feet with the scythe spear still being held in his left hand and his right hand on the ground, before he immediately gazed at me with smile full of vigor.
There is no doubt that he is clearly enjoying this duel!
Before he had completely stood straight again, he proceeded to taunt me.
"How long are you just going to assume a defence stance and not taking the initiative to attack first, Phoenix?" His smile widened.
"For as long as I have kept in my mind that the halberd is better at defending the user than that scythe spear." I pointed towards the weapon with the tip of the halberd's middle blade.
He had apparently been trying to take my attention away from the stance that I had to keep in order to not getting killed by him since he lunged at me again and swung the scythe spear to leftwards of his perspective just as I pointed the weapon with the halberd.
But it had been my intention all along….
I pulled back the halberd at just the right time before it could clash yet again with the scythe blade and with my right hand in front of my left hand gripping the handle with such a solid grip I thrusted the weapon to his direction, hitting the handle of the scythe spear and resulting in him losing his balance for a very brief moment.
"Krgh!" His left eye bugging out and teeth gritting widely as he was forced to take a couple of steps back.
That is my opening!
Proceeding by releasing my left hand from the handle, I swung the halberd rightwards and forced his right hand to lose the grip on the scythe spear handle as the middle beam blade of the halberd collided with the scythe blade, further lowering his own protection and leaving his right arm completely unguarded.
Finally, now is my turn for the offensive!
I swung the halberd in full circle counter clockwise, nearly grazing his chest by perhaps only a few millimeters, but succeeded in scratching a bit of his right arm just below the shoulder.
"YARGH!" He suddenly had his strength and balance back that he could have his right hand swiftly gripping on the scythe spear handle again, and blocked my second halberd rotation although with his right arm trembling a little.
Realizing that I would no longer be able to successfully attack him anymore, I had my left hand holding back the halberd handle again before taking several steps back away from him. Similar like before, he also backed away from my range of attack but instead of just stepping back he activated the booster again and went up in the air for a brief moment just to do a backward flip jump to gain a greater distance away from me.
"You wanted something different than just a defensive stance from me, right?! Well, you got one!" I pointed my halberd again towards him just as he landed on the ground after the jump.
"Heh… this… is NOTHING!" He tore away the entire sleeve of his right arm just after he released his left hand grip on the scythe spear handle, fully revealing the straight but thin cut resulted from the halberd beam blade earlier, and finally made a knot on the wound with the torn sleeve.
And with that, the first round of our duel had ended….
"I have to say that you can use the halberd proficiently, Phoenix! Shame that you are not on my side!" Vulture laughed with satisfaction in his voice.
"Likewise, for someone using an alien weaponry I have to admit that you only took little time to be able to use it very well!" I could not deny his proficiency either despite his lack of experience in wielding any.
Just like that, the second round then immediately began when he activated his booster forward again right to my direction, but instead of trying to impale me with the spear blade, he tried to slash me with the scythe blade.
Of course, naturally I would take the same defence stance but that had been what he had wanted all along; so that just when the scythe blade clashed with the halberd blade, he immediately continued by kicking my right knee!
"Hrghh!" I became forced to bend down a little not because of it felt hurt but because I was rather surprised, he would target my knee above all things.
Smirking just before he took a step back and was about to thrust the spear blade right towards my head, I managed to dodge it by rolling over to my right side just before the blade was able to graze my left cheek.
That was too close!
Apparently was not expecting me to be able to pull myself out of that condition but still not all that surprised, I responded to his attack by thrusting my halberd towards his leg, although he managed to block it while being pushed back a few tiny distances.
"Hmph! You have a good respond!" Vulture scoffed but still smiling as he quickly pulled up the scythe spear.
Just then, he impaled the ground using the spear blade and within an instant, gouged out a chunk of asphalt before quickly throwing it at me, hiding himself from my eyesight as the chunk closed in right to my face very quickly!
It was quite a big chunk; about twice the size of a soccer ball but it was nothing the halberd could not cut. Swinging the halberd with smaller strength than before as it split the asphalt chunk into a few pieces, allowing my eye to see him once more.
Turned out, he was already about to impale me again with the spear blade, lunging directly to me and already at less than ten steps away from me!
However, I had been more or less expecting that he would make such move….
I timed myself until he was no more than five steps away, before I tilted the halberd blades' tip that it made the spear blade stuck and stopped at less than two steps away from my body.
"Rrgh!" Vulture grunted, showing a clear sign he did not expect that I could counter his movement.
"Try. Better!" I told him as I kicked the wounded spot of his arm with my left foot, before I proceeded by thrusting my halberd again right at the middle of the scythe spear handle and further pushed him backwards.
"Arkgh!" He released his right hand from the handle as he groaned, but still has his left hand holding the scythe spear very tightly even though he was pushed back.
Beginning to show signs of fatigue as he was slightly panting, his movement was not as swift as earlier but nonetheless still much more agile than I was. Similar as him, I also began to feel like fatigue setting into my body which perhaps it was because of the wind and cold of the ground blizzard which showed no sign of subsiding.
And the second round had ended as well, signalled by the signs of fatigue from the both of us.
Although I must admit that I was impressed that he was able to withstand such piercingly cold temperature, and to have his eyesight seemingly unaffected by the ground blizzard too, unlike the rest of his whole unit.
"By the looks of the sheer bulk size of that halberd, and how you moved up until now, I guess that weapon is about twice heavier than this scythe spear." He said as his panting slowly subsided.
He was perceptive about the halberd, it seemed….
"Which is also the reason why it will be futile to keep on trying and attack me in the first place, Vulture." I sighed.
"So just stop it. Face it that you have completely lost the moment I took down that aircraft."
"Ha. Lost, you said?!" He suddenly tightened his grip on the scythe spear.
I knew right away that I had to be ready if he would make any sudden attack on me.
"I do not suppose that even if you can defeat me, you are thinking of getting away with that gunship? As it also crashed right after you rammed it to this aircraft?!" He yelled and pointed his right hand towards the crashed aircraft right behind him.
I was sure that the gunship could still fly since a shell shot from a tank turret would not even budge it a little, so crashing to a little part of a building should not cause any damage to it at all. The stealth aircraft though, I was not so sure since the right half of its cockpit had been destroyed. Then again, I still had the feeling that it could still fly.
"Nevertheless, it was a mistake from the start to think that I have lost, Phoenix…." He had his right hand gripping on the spear handle again.
Huh? What is he going to do now?
"And therefore… a mistake to let me gain my pace again!" He yelled.
Suddenly lunging to me again, I took another defensive stance to block his attack.
But that was not his intention from the start….
It was to approach me within a blink of an eye, and then to grab me and to bring along with him elsewhere away from the runway instead! Deliberately made the scythe spear stuck with the halberd, he brought me up in the air and pushed me further away from the runway as he used the booster function of the scythe spear again!
"Grgh! Where the hell are you taking me, you piece of shit?!" I had my right hand holding the halberd handle tightly and my left hand pulling his t-shirt.
"Heh. Well, can YOU tell?" He widened up his eyes, clearly taunting me if I dare to make a move while I was mid-air and was totally not in control.
With such height to the ground below, there was absolutely no way that both me and him would survive if we were to fall!
"Look at you, helpless! You should have been afraid of me right from the START!!" He suddenly swung his scythe spear away, freeing the spear blade from being stuck with the halberd blades!
"Garghh!" I fell with a loud thud, but just about three meters down as it was actually the rooftop of the main building right below me.
"What the-?!" Vulture seemed to miscalculate his actions, again.
"You- Why is the roof- Rrghh! YOU SON OF A BITCH!!"
He proceeded to stop using the booster function and tried to attack me with the scythe blade again right after dropping down from mid-air, with his left hand in front of his right hand at the handle. Of course, it was not a hard attempt for me to block his attack at all with the halberd.
What I did not expect, and maybe it was also the same for him as well, however, was that the spot on the rooftop exactly on where we were standing collapsed down in an instant!
Both me and him landed by falling hard to the fifth floor of the building; right at the cafeteria zone.
"Urgh! Fragile frooftop, huh?" Vulture groaned as he quickly got up on his feet.
"More like the impact resulted from your actions, you piece of shit!" I rushed towards him since I had got up earlier than him right after the fall.
"Nah, blame these weapons, not me!" He raised his scythe spear and took a defensive stance.
Loud laser-clashing sounds were heard as I swung the halberd beam blades against the scythe spear a few times, spurting countless shards of sparks and giving more enlightening on the rather dark cafeteria as many of the lights on that floor had been turned off.
But since he was clearly still not completely steady yet, I realized it was my turn to go on the full offense.
With my right hand in front of my left hand on the handle, I first swung the halberd to my left side, and continue it by thrusting it directly towards him. He blocked both attacks, but that was just exactly what I had wanted.
I released my left hand from the handle and tightened my right hand grip on the handle before swinging it as hard as I could, and forced him to lose his right hand grip on the scythe spear.
With only just one hand holding the scythe spear, I knew exactly that there was no way he could block the next attacks that I was about to do. His left eye, quickly changing from displaying rage and fury to showing horror and frighten as he realized he practically had nothing to guard against my next attack.
Still with my right hand holding the handle tightly, I swung the blade in full circle counter clockwise, grazing him not on the right arm, but directly on his right chest and made a full straight burnt cut mark as that part of his t-shirt was torn.
Screaming in pain as the first rotation hit him good and, the second one scratch his lower right torso a little, creating another burnt cut mark and tearing a bit of the t-shirt on that spot.
Adding a finishing attack to his two new wounds, I had my left leg held my body as I spun around quick and delivered a straight kick using my right leg to his body, pushing him backwards and forced him to fall to the floor, before he eventually backflipped on the ground and held his lower right body with his right hand.
By then, his eye showed the very same flaming rage and anger directly to mine, to which I respond by giving him a fully undeterred determination and a firm, vindicated stare.
"I will say this again," I pointed my halberd right towards his face with my right hand holding the handle extremely tightly and the beam blades lit so aggressively, "You miscalculated AND misjudged your target, Vulture!"
"Yrrargh!" Stabbing the nearest table, he then threw the table directly to my face.
And like what I had done before on the runway, I slashed it into two pieces while expecting him to lunge right at me again.
But what he did next was completely beyond my comprehension….
He kept on throwing tables and chairs to me, quickly depleting their numbers on the cafeteria. What made it even more absurd was that he seemed to want me to destroy the tables, with some of them fell to the first floor and broken to countless pieces as it hit the ground when they had been slashed and tossed away from the barrier handrail by the halberd at the same time.
It was when the numbers of both the tables and chairs had become less than ten, when I became aware about what he had been planning all along; to clear the entire cafeteria away from any obstacles so that he could move freely as agility and sudden movements are his advantage when wielding the scythe spear.
Even though he was beyond angry, he could still utilize his nimble mind effectively too….
But I know just how to disrupt him from doing it.
I stepped on one of the tables, jumped, and lunged in order to thrust my halberd blades to him.
Getting caught off guard but he was able to evade just before his left arm was grazed by the right blade of the halberd, he jumped and rolled away to his left side, sliding for a few distance on the floor before he could get on his feet again.
And I had expected on what he might do next; a boosted lunging thrust with the spear blade at the tip.
So, instead of blocking his attack with my halberd again like before, I quickly ran towards him instead and slid down just before the spear blade reached me and kicked him from below!
As a result, he was thrown off the course of his intended direction and crashed to the rest of rows of tables and chairs there, before the booster on the other end of the scythe spear no longer activated because he had his grip on the handle loosen due to the impact.
"E-NOUGH!!" He suddenly activated the booster again without getting up, dragging his body along with the scythe spear on the floor.
I had no time to get away from his way and thus had to block his next attack without getting up either!
Forcing the nearing spear blade by making it stuck again between the halberd blades, he did not bother to free it anymore, and kept on dragging me along with him all the way towards the side edge of the fifth floor which was only barriered by glasses and handrails.
"Grghh! What are you-"
"You think I have not calculated about a possibility of an outcome like THIS!?" He ranted while having his eye glaring right at me.
Crashing the barrier and breaking the glass, we immediately fell to the floor below!
And we did not fall to the fourth floor; it was to the third floor instead!
A couple of louder thudding sounds echoed throughout the entire third floor, and I could not deny the pain that I felt upon impact against the floor across the left side of my body.
"Hurghh!" I tried my best to hold the pain and to get back up on my feet again.
Vulture however, had not fallen like me as he could use his booster to slow down the fall and use it as his advantage to have the first move and attack me again!
"Haa-!" He raised the scythe spear and was about to slash me with the scythe blade when he was still in the air.
I must see if the reaction because of the collision between the halberd and scythe spear blades would be powerful enough to send flying and fall to the floor below. Maybe then, even though it would not kill him just yet, the impact of the fall would be enough to finally make stay at where he was.
So, I thrusted my halberd upwards diagonally and not to his direction, but to the scythe blade instead!
The impact was greater than I had imagined; the glasses of the window around us became shattered and broken the moment the weapons clashed with each other!
"Yrghh!" He groaned in a very loud voice.
It barely did anything to him; he just backflipped in mid air and landed with one of his knees bent down. I was also pushed back several distances that I had to stab the floor with the rear beam blade of the halberd in order to truly stop.
At first, I had not realized it, but I quickly noticed that he had been panting heavily the moment he landed again. I also felt heaviness in my chest, that I could not hold the halberd handle as tight as before for a few moments.
It was then when I realized the impact earlier might not gave a push that I wanted, but it clearly came with a serious consequence, draining the energy of the wielder for both weapons. From what I had felt just then, it was as if the weapon forced the wielder to maintain the balance of the body no matter what it took.
It must have something to do with the blades themselves; as they had each of their own pulling force and thus when they collided directly with each other in such speed, the reaction in the form of vibration became greater and accelerated as well.
"Well?!" I taunted Vulture once again, still feeling my chest a little heavy. "So much for your denial of having a miscalculation!"
"Heh. At least I finally managed to drain your energy out, Phoenix!" He was also still panting.
Since he was totally still out of breath, I knew right then that I might as well make him spill something that had bugged me ever since knowing he betrayed us. Even if he might not say anything, at least there was still some probability that my words would make him angry again and draining his energy even more.
"I wonder what they will decide to do to you once they found out that you no longer had your body in perfect condition." I pointed my left hand to his right eye.
"Because I have this feeling that if you consider your entire unit as collateral damages for what you want, then chances are you are also no more than a mere tool to them."
"Heh. So, you have not known yet…." He only shook his head and smirked.
"Do you know who sent me here and giving me this objective in the first place?"
Must be someone having a position very close to the Supreme Leader of the North Korea themselves….
But I wonder who-
Wait, could that be….
"You remember what I told you earlier back on the runway? That is right; the right-hand-man of the Supreme Leader himself!" He widened his right arm.
"In other words, MY UNCLE!!"
Mother of God… they really do have a plan to conquer the entire Korean peninsula by using the stealth aircraft and expand their influence from there!
Cannot they see that the whole world should no longer be divided amongst ideologies and mindsets like that anymore?!
I was at loss for words. Either his uncle would lose his position and therefore the end of the military career for him as well should he failed to deliver the stealth aircraft, or worse; the two of them planned to overthrow the current Supreme Leader through the stealth aircraft.
Nevertheless, I knew right away that either of the two possibilities would lead the whole world to chaos. He must be stopped!
"If you think… that you can still turn all these things around, then you are gravely mistaken, Phoenix." He continued.
"We both have entered this chaotic battlefield far too deep to quit now. There is absolutely no turning back."
Activating the booster again, he lunged towards me again despite knowing that I would be able to block him. Responding in the exact same way as before, he did not stop the booster and just kept on pushing me towards the broken window.
I quickly realized he wanted to push me out and made fell to my death outside; he had become more desperate!
I tried my hardest to block and unable to be moved by having both of my feet stood as firm as the muscles inside my legs could make me, but the boost from the scythe spear was too strong for me to not keep getting pushed back and closer towards the window.
So, with that, there was only one option left….
"You want to send me flying outside, huh?!" I grabbed his t-shirt hard with my left hand just after I released it from the halberd handle.
"YRRGHH!!" He tried to loosen the grip of my hand with extreme desperate, but to no avail.
"Since you are also a bird like me, then I am going to take you with ME!!" I lifted both of my feet off the floor, sending the both of us flying outside in an instant.
Still in mid-air, he kept on struggling to be able to be free from my grip. I had the upper hand there because he could only use his right hand and it had been wounded quite seriously, while my left hand had just a few tiny cuts.
"GET. YOUR DAMN HAND. OFF OF ME!!!"
"ARE YOU SURE?! THEN, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, PIECE OF SHIT!!!"
I slammed my head hard right towards his right forehead, making him to scream in pain as his grip on the scythe spear handle loosened, making us all freefalling down to the ground right outside the main building and while still in mid-air, I also kicked him away from me that we both landed far away from each other and in a very rough way.
"Hrrgh!" I desperately tried not to scream, as the hard landing really hurt.
I could not see him clearly and directly anymore since I was back outside very close to the spot where our duel began.
…and to my left side, was Flint's body… still lying there….
"Flint…." I sighed hard and panting heavily, no longer could contain the heaviness inside my chest.
"I thought that you were Yeon, Mayor!" A very heavy but familiar voice said to me.
"Good thing I decided to rush here first and made sure before I made a shot."
I quickly turned around and I was right; it was Alek. He must have regained his consciousness while I was duelling with Vulture. Luckily, he did not have his forehead bleeding like Flint, although he also already had another serious injury with him; a broken ribcage because of Vulture's .44 Magnum round fired straight to his body armor-protected body.
"Good to see you are able to walk, Alek." I nodded and could feel the heaviness inside my chest relieved a little.
"Ha, it will take more than just Magnum rounds to put me down, Major." He said proudly.
To his back, was none other than Takeshi, who still had my Browning Automatic Rifle with him and even carried the alien heavy shield with him, despite his skinny and rather short stature. They told me that they had to spend some time in dealing with the remaining soldiers numbering in about a dozen.
Although almost all of them were killed, they managed to capture three, but Takeshi insisted on still taking the shield just more safety precautions.
He was right though, because the shield was practically the only guaranteed protection against attacks from the scythe spear and the halberd.
"So, where is he now?" Takeshi asked while still scouting our surroundings.
"The moment I landed I could no longer find where he had fell thanks to this stealth aircraft." I gestured my head towards the aircraft and sighed hard.
"If I have to guess, then I would say he is somewhere on the other side of it."
"Do you think the fall may have killed him?" Alek asked.
"No." I replied immediately
"He must have somehow activated the booster again prior to his fall. Even though he must have hit the ground pretty hard a split second of the boost itself is still enough to reduce the impact of the fall by perhaps at least two thirds."
Upon hearing it they both went back on full alert and had their weapons and shields at the ready.
"Stay on your guards, and no splitting up." I said in a low voice before beginning to walk slow and have my halberd protecting my front side.
I decided to take a look from the right side, having both Alek and Takeshi had their shields at the ready behind me. When we finally got to the opposite side, there was no one there; only the sight of the half-opened cockpit and the opened rear hatch of the tilted aircraft was all that our eyes could see.
Something is not right…. the thudding sound just now clearly was coming from here….
So where is he?
"Mayor, we will check inside." Alek told me.
"Have your hand holding the shields firmly once you are on board." I nodded and tried to take a look at the surroundings again.
They arrived right in front of the hatch, and put both of their shields on it just before they climbed it up. With them having each other's backs, I began to look at our surroundings.
But something apparently happened just when my eyes were looking away from it….
"MAJOR, LOOK OUT!!!"
"Hrarghh!!" Something very hot and burning suddenly slashed my back from behind!
I fell down to the ground, losing my grip completely on the halberd handle and for a brief moment I could barely move my body, something else then forced me facing up, and it was Vulture all along!
He had been waiting for the right moment so that both Takeshi and Alek let their shields down and from the inside, rammed them out and stormed right towards me before slashing me with the scythe blade!
"Hmph, so the rumor was true all along, huh?" He scoffed while wielding his scythe spear.
"A single stab or slash from an alien weapon is still not enough to kill you, even when the cut is deep."
Judging by his torn and messy t-shirt, his body was also full of bruises and I could tell that he was holding back his pain caused by his wounds. He could even have trouble standing up, but his sheer anger and wrath upon me helped him in still having the strength to wield the scythe spear without any trouble.
But he had ignored that both Alek and Takeshi too already had their resolve to end the betrayal by their own hands….
One of the shields was suddenly thrown right towards him by them, and hit him in the head, forcing him to turn his attention away from me, and to repel the second shield thrown at him by swinging the scythe spear to it. Of course, none of the shield was broken to pieces.
"MAYOR, NOW!!!" Alek screamed
I grabbed the halberd handle again as tight as what was left inside my body could make me, and with my right hand in front of my left hand on the halberd handle, I thrusted it forward right to his body, piercing his left chest and through his back!
"YRAARGH!!!"
I waited for about five seconds before I finally pulled it out and released both of my hands completely from the handle, a thudding sound followed soon after; the sound of Vulture's body collapsing to the ground face down.
But… I also fell down to the ground as I could barely hold the pain in my back anymore….
Nevertheless, the traitor… had finally been eradicated….
Although I wonder how I would get out of the archipelago alive since I almost could not move any part of my body….