Lukazio took a deep breath as his nerves began tingling. The hot fire of determination burning bright, he shouldered the strap of the firearm.
He looked at the sword, thinking about how strange it was to see an archaic weapon like that here. It didn't really make sense, but he didn't continue to question it.
The pommel felt unusually warm. A honey colored dense material wrapped the handle, giving it a lustrous appearance. The blade was about a meter, or perhaps a bit shy of being four feet. The blade had a silvery blue tint with hints of amber forming a design similar to a hamon line on a katana. [1] Taking a few practice swings, he tried to think about how to approach the coming fight.
Immediately he knew the priority would be to kill Sentry quickly or somehow impede his long range capabilities. Even if he managed to successfully stop Sentry's rifle, he would have to fend off Sentry's suit attachments after that, and in close range.
Lukazio felt a momentary pang of remorse for planning to kill Sentry, but he was cognizant that Sentry would gleefully kill his current host and that this temporary sympathy wouldn't serve him in the long run nor gain him any immediate benefit.
Steeling himself, Lukazio opened the double doors and entered a fairly cavernous room with sets of supplies and small sleeping bags set off to the sides of the room. There were a handful of large crates and other containers as well stashed in a far corner opposite Lukazio.
At the end of the room was a fairly wide set of stairs, with the light from the multihued skies illuminating them.
He had no sheath for the blade, and opting instead for the firearm he left the blade leaning against a nearby wall. Crouching he gripped the weapons handles, trying to understand the firing mechanism, as there was no trigger.
The horizontal handle midway up the firearm was loose. As he gripped it and realized the handle slid-he pulled it too far close to him.
The action was so smooth that there was a clink noise and before he could react a high pitched sound erupted just moments before wildly oscillating projectile of purple energy shot forward, slamming into a nearby wall and devastating a significant portion of the wall.
Descending the staircase gingerly came Sentry. Who seemed to freeze immediately upon reaching the bottom of the steps.
Finally getting a moment to see him up close, Lukazio could tell that there were differences between their races' overall shapes. The body of Sentry's species was wider and overall the limbs were thicker. The helmet covering Sentry's head was blockier and less spherical than he'd previously thought.
The suit had bulky portions sticking out in spots like the collarbone, midsection, elbows, and behind the knees.
Although it seemed as if Lukazio had been studying him for hours, it had only been a few moments. Both reacted quickly and without warning, popping off shots as flammable materials around the chamber caught fire or disintegrated upon being struck by their energy projectiles.
Lukazio evaded the first handful of shots by jumping back and using part of the doors as cover but they were quickly destroyed by Sentry's return fire. Left with a thin portion of wall as cover he aimed for Sentry's own firearm, but missed as one of the remaining five spider-like legs were hit instead.
Sentry used various debris and crates around the edges of the room as cover by grabbing them with the ends of the spider-like leg attachments and sliding them where he was able to use the stacks as a barrier.
Lukazio's shots were damaging this barrier, but not as much as Sentry's shots were wrecking his current position.
Again aiming for Sentry's weapon while the alien manipulated it in some way to re-energize it, he nonetheless missed again and cursed his poor vision. Despite having a great opening, he still couldn't land a hit.
His determination to emerge victorious burning even hotter, Lukazio didn't feel fear as the rest of his cover crumbled before him under repeated shots from Sentry. The new sword slid to the floor in front of Lukazio as its support from the wall weakened.
Feeling inspired, he shouldered the rifle and picked up the sword in his right hand. It was still heavy, but it seemed to fit his hand better in the heat of the fight with his chest burning with emotion.
Analyzing the situation quickly, he realized that Sentry would likely make his move to close range soon, likely feeling frustrated with the pace of the battle.
Lukazio was correct. Sentry already felt immense pressure and was wondering how to close range to end things quickly. Sentry was experienced enough to know that the longer the fight was drawn out, the higher the possibility of a random mishap causing his death.
Studying the damaged walls and height of the ceiling, Lukazio knew Sentry could leap through the air in a parabolic fashion as he did to the others. The reason was simply that the ceiling was too low.
Sentry had already considered this and his spider like attachments, looking worn, instead began crawling along the ceiling. The difference in Sentry's angle and shots from this maneuver forced Lukazio to duck further behind the crumbling wall.
Unfortunately, the first room Lukazio awoke in wasn't large. The remaining wall was nearly gone and the adjacent wall behind left him no further wall from this side to take cover behind.
Instead, he jumped up and ran for the opposite side of the room, where the wall still stood alongside the unbroken rightmost double (now a single) door remained.
Seeing Sentry's tactic through the destroyed portion of the wall and doorway he marveled, but only for a moment as the alien's quick reaction shots landed sizzler on his left arm near the tricep.
The energy burn through his suit made him hiss in pain briefly. Nonetheless, he was thankful the material could take a few hits or the shot might penetrated through to his heart and lungs.
Lukazio lodged the handle of the firearm in his left armpit and gripped the horizontal pump-trigger with his left hand. The action was difficult because he figured he had less than two seconds or less before Sentry reached the doorway or opposite side of the wall.
Nonetheless he managed and was firming up his grip on both it and the sword when Sentry dropped down from around the wall and let out a three-burst of shots right at Lukazio pumped the action of his firearm.
The resulting blast from the energy projectiles colliding blasted both combatants backward.
Sentry's suit had suffered a grievous amount of damage on the front, revealing a segmented and scaly torso in greenish-yellow with tiny antennae-like protrusions throughout that waved and moved in waves.
Sentry's blocky head vaguely resembled an eel carved from wood, with a dense group of dozens of glowing antennae instead of eyes. A third grouping sat in the middle of its 'forehead' moving furiously.
Both attempted to shoot the other, to no avail as their weapons no longer functioned from the blast!
Lukazio's suit seemed to lose some power and he felt gravity increase slightly but he gritted his teeth and forced his muscles and bones to move faster, to respond to his commands more quickly.
He likely imagined it. However something similar to the placebo effect [2] can have a powerful and motivating influence on the human mind.
Shocking himself, Lukazio reacted on instinct raising the sword quickly and leveling it horizontally slightly above eye-level.
Intercepting the four sharp spider-like legs as they swung down in an overhand swing simultaneously, the blade rang in a beautiful song that caused the powerful burning feeling to erupt throughout Lukazio's whole body.
It was desire. Fierce and proud as he held strong with Sentry pressing downward.
Disengaging, the combatants eyed each other before Sentry's legs opted for a chaotic all over assault.
Each of the four legs struck at different angles and Lukazio took several painful hits as his suit took damage under the onslaught.
Still functional as they originated from the back of Sentry's suit, they suddenly changed tactics as they struck as one with a terrible force in another overhand attack.
This time blocking was easier and Lukazio recovered faster. He jumped using the force in his legs, and swung the blade cleanly slicing through one of the legs.
The remaining three went wild attacking him but he managed to block or dodge most as the two traded blows.
Lukazio tried several different slashes and thrusts but didn't score much. A surprise punch from Sentry shattered Lukazio's chestplate and the force almost left him breathless.
As he shook he head and drew a deep breath recovering he then took a nasty gash to the left side of his face from a spider-like leg.
Lukazio saw another leg from the opposite direction and raised the blade to intercept with the backedge. Like a key fitting into a lock, the leg-blade slide into a perfectly sized notch.
His wrist flicked hard, reflexively and involuntarily. The thick edge of the backside of his blade shattered the spider-leg into dozens of shards.
Several things happened at once. The sword itself seemed to cry out in ecstatic song- which Lukazio could almost understand. With the beautiful note peeling in the air like a choral bell, the small shrapnel flew and struck Sentry almost exclusively. Ripping huge gashes into his segmented body, the alien began leaking a thick orange gel.
The realization that he could disarm the legs occurred to them both, as Sentry immediately changed his style. He began using his suit and shattered rifle to deflect Lukazio's swings. He was fighting defensively and it was a battle of attrition now.
Lukazio's fighting improved quickly but he learned from painful experience. He still took numerous hits. It simply wasn't possible for him to continually keep blocking multiple hits coming from opposite directions.
Although the buoyant choral notes energized Lukazio and increased his performance, it had the opposite affect in Sentry.
Feeling demoralized, a growing sense of dread began to fill the warrior.
When Lukazio managed to use the sword-breaker to destroy another leg, leaving two, Sentry almost turned around and ran away.
Intending to complete his original objective of returning with intel- Lukazio had other plans as he pressed his advantage. He managed to dodge, albeit a bit slowly, a few more attacks before finding an opening and unleashing a powerful downward swing that smashed through Sentry's defenses- tearing a large gash through its midsection.
Sentry stumbled, attempting to right himself before falling backwards. After he collapsed, the glowing appendages on his face began turning dark.
Its thick orange lifeblood pouring out, Lukazio actually felt some measure of sadness and regret. However he knew it wasn't as much as if he were the one dying.
Sighing, he idky wondered if there was more to do, when his vision turned hazy and faded to blackness.
[1] The general shape of the blade is that of a backsword, a straight, single-edged sword, approximately 39-40" (99-101cm) and not including the ricasso or pommel. However the blunt edge is thicker than a typical backsword with the aforementioned notches in the backedge. The notches are not ragged, but vary in shape slightly, with differences in length.
[2] the placebo effect, a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.
"orthodox doctors dismiss the positive results as a result of the placebo effect".