"Duck Down!!!"
Hiro gave them the orders before shooting out the beam from Vernier which moved from left to right in 180°, slashing through the DUQUOIS. Others ducked down before the beam was shot. The team members, except for No.7 and No.4 who were pleased to see Hiro.
Being hit by the beam, the DUQUOIS screeched in pain. Further having its pupils contracted, its tentacles moved violently. The ends deformed and then transformed becoming sharp enough to put any needle or a sword to shame. They were directly pointed towards Hiro.
Hiro looked at the tentacles through the display. The display pointed the tentacles on the screen in the form of squares, as to know their location.
"11,...., 12,.. No, there are a total of thirty of them. Counting the ones hiding within the smoke"
The tentacles which were pointed towards him moved at a tremendous speed from all directions. The tentacles surrounded him as they moved towards Vernier. At the blink of an eye, they were about to stab him.
"Hmm..", Hiro grinned and moved the control stick. Vernier jumped from the position it was in, avoiding the tentacles. The tentacles which tried to stab Vernier collided with each other. After jumping from that spot, Vernier flipped while it was midair and landed with a three point landing. The tentacles which collided were entrapped to each other and were struggling to moved back.
Vernier's head moved upwards, showing Hiro the position and the current status of the RIOR which was feared by many, 'The DUQUOIS'. Its large cylindrical body rotated to the direction where Hiro was to see where Vernier was. It got further infuriated upon looking at Vernier. It detached the tentacles which were entrapped to each other and new tentacles spawned out from its body in a fourth of a second without any problem.
The tentacles moved towards Vernier after its edges were sharp enough. Vernier, not sparing a moment, took out a knife and started to run towards it in a linear moment. It ran towards it while the tentacles also moved towards Vernier.
Hiro looked at the upcoming tentacles through the display and moved the control sticks. Vernier started to slash the upcoming tentacles without any problem as it progressed forward. Energy was being summed up on the knife and it projected outwards. The knife projected the energy broadly which made slashing the tentacles easier.
Another tentacle came to Vernier's back from down. Hiro, noticing it controlled Vernier making it rotate backwards and slashing the tentacle. As it slashed the tentacle, many tentacles immediately appeared at its back. Hiro was startled and immediately flipped backwards without sparing a moment.
Hiro looked at the buildings there and made Vernier climb on top of one of it. Vernier ran through the buildings there and moved towards the DUQUOIS. The tentacles tried to get hold of Vernier but it was useless.
A few tentacles tried to stab it but Vernier dodged it swiftly by flipping while being on roof of the buildings and slashed quite a few while being midair. It made the DUQUOIS got into more of a fury than it was ever before. It started producing vines from it body out of rage.
They started to move to towards Vernier, only to be shot by a shockwave released from a sphere of concentrated energy in front of Vernier's arm. More tentacles and vines had come to attack him but Vernier dodged it swiftly and continued to move towards the DUQUOIS.
He continuously progressed towards the DUQUOIS without any problem. By the time it could notice Vernier was standing by it, taking aim. It shot the eye by concentrating energy on the muzzle of its rifle. The eye faced strong impact and its blood which was navy blue scattered around its eye. The DUQUOIS was immobilized.
"Does... That mean we've been saved..?", No.6 spoke.
"Probably so.", No.1 replied.
They all were jolly for the second it was immobilized.
"Yes, we finally did it."
Their celebrations were too early.
Hiro inside his cabin was restless. After immobilizing the DUQUOIS, Hiro still wasn't able to breathe the sigh of relief.
"Run heat scan..", Hiro gave the voice command to the operating system of MECHA.
"Heat scan initiated...", the voice assistant in the operating system replied.
At that moment, a program opened on the display which showed the heat signs of the DUQUOIS of the MECHA.
"No way...", Hiro said as he looked at it.
"Did you think that it would end yet?"
In the spur of the moment, the DUQUOIS' single large eye regenerated. Hiro was stupefied looking at it. The DUQUOIS screamed at its loudest the moment it regenerated its eye. It scared the living daylights of the spectating MECHA pilots. Hiro who was right in front it commanded the operating system to disable any kind of external sounds coming from outside of the cockpit as to not hear the DUQUOIS' loud screams.
"No way...", No.2 spoke.
"It should've died..", No.7 said in accordance with No.2.
The DUQUIOS' skin started to deform and reconstruct itself. It moved from the spot it was in. The tentacles, the vines and the creepers started to move back towards its main body. From the spot it moved was a wide hole hole. It started to build limbs while being surrounded by greenish miasma as it came out in small wires joining each other. They all joined with each creating a humanoid body for the DUQUOIS.
The DUQUOIS changed the way it looked. It looked more humanoid, having four limbs and having bipedal motion. It had a head like a human but with one large eye and a wide mouth with sharp teeth, and major difference of having maroon skin. It had vines and tentacles, about eight of them popping out from its back. A human being-like figure was also popping out from the center of its chest with something glowing at the left end. It was the same height as any MECHA, being twenty meters tall.
"Still... It looks to gruesome..."
The DUQUOIS' appearance was enough bring fright to any ordinary human and even more to a MECHA pilot. Hiro, however, as if he were possessed took the on the offensive first. He moved Vernier to give a straight right hook to its face but it blocked with its hand. Holding Vernier's fist, the DUQUIOS lifted it and threw it back. Vernier went flying and crashed its back on the truck terminal in the factory.
Hiro, being shook by the impact Vernier faced. He immediately moved Vernier and jumped away from the spot after getting up to dodge to shockwave beams which were launched from its tentacles. The shockwaves which had come hit the truck terminal, destroying it.
Vernier sprinted towards the DUQUOIS while holding a knife in its hand. It moved quickly towards it without any problem. It appeared in front of the DUQUOIS and stabbed the human-like figure on the chest and tried aiming for the shining spot on its chest. The DUQUOIS felt an excruciating pain after the part was stabbed.
The tentacles ferociously moved and caught Vernier by the four limbs and held it. Making Vernier immobile to move as it struggled. The DUQUIOS slowly walked towards it and held its hand out. It moved its hand towards Vernier's neck and grasped it tightly with its right arm. It was strangling Vernier with a single arm.
"Error..."
"Error..."
"Losing functions..."
"Checking status...."
"Switching to backup power..."
The light within the cockpit had turned red. Hiro struggled while being inside the cockpit. He was feeling stressed out.
"Is this what you can only do despite the power I've given you?", the Demon asked him
The DUQUOIS strangled Vernier as hardly as it could. The nerves which showed the flow of blood with the DUQUOIS were popping out on its arms. Vernier struggled for a while until it finally stopped struggling.
The DUQUIOS noticing that Vernier had stopped struggling had smashed it to the ground and started to move away from it. The RIOR started to go to the ends of the factory to get move away from that place. Its moves were really unpredictable.
The spectating MECHA pilots were then scared for their lives.
"What's going on... Didn't Hiro try to fight it?", No.4 asked.
No.1 bit his lips out of agony and spoke, "No one can defeat it.", raising his voice.
"Are you still annoyed because he's a commoner?", No.7 asked and continued, "He might be a commoner but he has more experience than us."
No.1 couldn't do anything but accept the fact. He replied to No.7, "I know it and you guys also don't know that he is wielding the national treasure."
The rest of teammates were shocked at his words.
"So that.. means..."
No.1 looked down and said, "Yes, it means that even the national treasure cannot defeat the DUQUIOS."
"But why would the national treasure...."
"I know...", No.1 disrupted No.3's dialogue and continued, "That MECHA is the Royal Family's most valued treasure. An artifact found by the Royal Family decades ago but no one was able to wield it."
"We could've probably won if the commoner didn't wield Royal Family's treasure.", No.3 spoke.
"No we wouldn't.", No.1 replied raising his voice. It surprised everyone within the team.
"No person within the royalty was able to wield it. Even the people, who weren't the pilots within nobility tried to wield it but it was unsuccessful."
"Then, that means..."
"Yes, he was the only person who was able to wield. A person with no connection to royalty or nobility."
"But that's the roy...."
"Royal Treasure, right?", he said and spoke with pity
"The Royal Family didn't create it."
His words silenced everyone who was listening to him.
The DUQUOIS didn't care much about the mass produced MECHAS after smashing Vernier to the ground. It started moving in the direction opposite to them. It looked like it was really pissed off and tried to leave that spot. The remaining who were there couldn't leave the spot they were in due the intimidating aura the DUQUOIS gave off.
They couldn't go and try to kill the DUQUOIS as it was able to defeat the national treasure 'Vernier' itself. The only they could do was to cower in fear as the storm passed away. It swung through the poles and the plants there. It was going to leave the factory.
"But, the city...", No.7 asked No.1.
"Leave it....", He replied.
"What do you mean.."
"Exactly as I said, we'll just try to take refuge within another city."
"You are doing a crime of insubordination."
"What other choice do we have left.", No.1 asked No.7 and requested him, "If we have another way, please tell me."
No.7 couldn't answer the question.
"See..."
The DUQUOIS was moving through the poles there and was near the end of the factory.
"I won't let you..."
The DUQUOIS sensed a presence at its back. It turned backwards as it sensed a presence. It was shocked to see the presence. It was of Vernier. Vernier, who was standing on the pole, while clinging to the rods beside it looked at the DUQUIOS without a difference. Hiro, who was inside the cockpit looked at it with a murderous look.
The both of them looked at each other like arch enemies, who would try to kill each other at every interaction they had. The stare continued for a while. It was Hiro who decided to take the offensive here.
He controlled Vernier through the inside and jumped from the spot right onto the face of the DUQUOIS. The DUQUOIS also went on the offensive, a moved a sharp tentacle towards Vernier at high velocity. Vernier stabbed the tentacle with the cutting edge of the knife at the sharpest point of the tentacle, tearing through it symmetrically.
It was falling down freely as it cut through the tentacle and the moment it reached the eye it grabbed the tentacle which was cut in half. It took advantage of the moment and swapped the torn parts of the tentacle, to make a support to stop from falling. Taking the advantage of inertia, it fell to the back of the DUQUOIS. As it fell to its back, the torn tentacles were fastened its neck.
Vernier hanged to the tentacles, it rotated and tightened the grasp on the tentacles with its arms, strangling it. The DUQUOIS struggled trying to remove it from the grasp of Vernier. Its monstrous arms moved back towards Vernier. At that moment, Vernier jumped backwards rolling midair, giving a three point landing.
The DUQUOIS moved towards it and smashed it arm on Vernier. But it flipped downwards, dodging the DUQUIOS' arm and the arm hit the ground, breaking it. Vernier went ahead and stabbed its arm within its eyes.
The DUQUOIS screamed in pain and took out the knife. It could only act based on instinct. So, it only had a few chances of killing the DUQUOIS. The skin of DUQUOIS hardened. It tried to get ahold of Vernier again with its tentacles but Vernier dodged it really quickly without any problem and moved swiftly. It moved in a really flexible method to avoid the tentacles.
The DUQUOIS at that time released its vines and they each landed in a different direction. The vines as they scattered and landed took humanoid forms. They came to attack Hiro, showing hostility towards him. Vernier took out small cannons from its body and began fighting back and dodging their attacks. Hiro dodged and moved swiftly, killing every of the spawns which had come from the DUQUOIS.
However, they were killed brutally but with precision. Hiro who was killing them had a monotone expression on his face, grinning slightly.
"Yes... become.."
The demon spoke merrily with its scary voice.
Hiro went on a rampage killing the spawns of the DUQUOIS. A spawn came up to Vernier trying to stab it, Vernier held its arm with its mechanical arms and broke them, smashing its face. It then smashed the body to the other hostile spawn coming towards it. The cannons fired without a care towards the spawns.
"Yes.. become like the one....."
Then, Hiro grinned the same as another person. The person who looked like Hiro with the same face cut but with slightly different facial features. He looked like another person who was smiling psychotically with blood face. The one who lost everything to the war.
"Become like the one whose blood you share."
Hiro went ahead and killed the final spawn which was summoned by the exhausted DUQUOIS. It and Hiro looked at the DUQUOIS. For the first time, the DUQUOIS felt something called 'fear'.
From afar, within the vicinity of the factory, the remaining MECHA pilots looked at the battle between the pilot 'Hiro' and his MECHA 'Vernier' who were up against the notorious RIOR called the 'DUQUOIS'.
"What is going on..", No.1 muttered as he looked at the situation there.
"Is it possible for a MECHA to move like that?", No.4 spoke out her thoughts.
"This is the first time I've also seen it.", No.1 said.
The rest were speechless looking at the way Hiro piloted Vernier. At that moment, they got a notification on their display. It notified them of the reinforcements which were arriving. They were overjoyed upon being notified. The reinforcements had arrived when they got the notification. There were Air Cruisers there and also fighter jets were also coming there. Many soldiers from the terrestrial military were coming within the Air Cruiser. Air Force pilots were coming within their fighter jets. Navy was also called for more manpower. They were going to descend to support and save the pilots.
They were descending towards the remaining who had been grouped. They lost altitude and many soldiers who had come to act as reinforcements were shocked to see him.
"Bravo 2, losing altitude..."
"Bravo 1, same status.... But do you see that MECHA over there."
"Sandstorm Incoming!"
The DUQUOIS launched the beams and shockwaves from it tentacles. But Vernier dodged it swiftly again and stabbed it with another knife in its abdomen. At that moment, the DUQUOIS summed up a large amount on energy in front of its eye and launched it. It caused the wind there to dissipate the moment it was dodged and it moved linearly towards Vernier.
The beam which was launched and was about to hit Vernier but was dodged by it. It rolled to its left side to dodge the beam. The beam hit a tanker, causing another explosion. Vernier then concentrated another great deal of energy into a sphere upon its palm and circular patterns of energy appeared in front of the sphere. Vernier shot it towards the DUQUOIS as the the circles there accelerated the shot. The DUQUOIS tried to block it with its right hand, causing it to blow away.
Vernier quickly sprinted towards it and gave a hard blow to its mouth, pushing it away from that spot. Flying away from that spot, it landed on the ground. It screeched as it spat out blood. It struggled to move. Vernier looked at it from the top while the sandstorm was approaching towards everyone within the vicinity.
As the sandstorm was approaching, the Air Cruisers were quick to descend. The fighter pilots went ahead and landed within the Air Cruisers to protect themselves. They all were descending towards the MECHA pilots.
At that time, Vernier charged energy again at the palm of its right hand. But this time, it was quite large. It was being continuously concentrated. Hiro who was inside the cockpit kept on charging the final shot he was supposed to give. The circles made up of energy were appearing in parallel to each other to accelerate the shot.
"Take this!"
Hiro said it as he launched the shot. The shot was large and passed through the circles, having more acceleration. The DUQUOIS who was the receiving end got up on its knees and joined its hands to show that was praying. It felt that that the large shot was granting it the salvation it really wanted.
The concentrated mass of energy was shot towards the DUQUOIS. The moment the DUQUOIS received it, it was being atomized. And after it atomized the shot, it hit the ground causing a great amount of wind pressure to scatter. At the moment it scattered, sandstorm also came rushing in. To the scattered wind pressure, the Air Cruisers lost control and were trying to not collide to each other. The remaining MECHA there grabbed a pole or a building to not fly to the pressure.
The violent pressure fell down and the sand storm passed from that place. They all got control of the Air Cruisers and were safe but it was a tough experience for them. The MECHA pilots didn't say anything and they were staring at one spot.
They were staring at Vernier, who was sitting on the roof of the power plant there with one leg on top while the other was on the hanging down. With an arm on its folded knee, as the sky was still brownish due to the sandstorm. Its slender body, not being affected by the sand, looked as if it wanted to tell the world.
"Don't underestimate me."