Last stand

Even though the monster was surrounded and had an injured leg, it did not seem afraid or even stressed. It looked as though the Majesty was proud.

It smiled, raising its chin up while getting into a weird combat stance.

The majesty held a wide stance, kept its elbows close to its body while it extended its palms towards its assailants.

One was aimed at the Oath, the other at the modified Chestnut.

The moment they started to attack, lightning erupted from both arms, covering them completely.

Their exchange was longer than any participant expected. The monster blocked and dodged both of the soldiers with skill they did not expect. The majesty did the best it can to offset their flanking by side stepping, constantly forcing one of them to change position and buying itself more time to attack the other.

After what felt like forever in Oscar’s eyes the monster blocked Williams attack with on hand, deflecting his weapon upwards while dodging Oscar’s blow with a sidestep. The Majesty used his left hand and punched the Oath in the side, melting a chunk of armor.

Before the Majesty managed to turn around to face Oscar again, Chestnut already drove its plasma sword in to its foot. The monster shrieked with anger, extending its right hand and sending a bolt of lightning towards Oscar from directly above him.

Oscar barely managed to raise his sword in time. But the moment the light of his blade met the lightning, both bent in a weird way, sending the lightning missed him, striking the ground.

The force of the impact shook Oscar to his core, sending chestnut dragging back a few meters.

‘Chestnut is too small for this type of activity. I gotta act quickly.’ Oscar thought, seeing the Oath’s bat missing with a sluggish motion.

“don’t forget about me!” Oscar yelled at the monster, sending a torrent of flames aimed at his enemies back.

But the monster stepped backwards into the flames, as if it did not care to get burned.

For a split moment Oscar was confused, seeing all the crystals light up on his enemy as electricity jumped from crystal to crystal.

The monster put his arms together again, palm to palm and elbow to elbow, sending shards of metal flying in all directions while the flames on its back died out.

“Shit!” William screamed in the chat, unable to dodge the upcoming attack with his lagging Mech. Oscar ran towards the Majesty swinging his sword, only to see another solar flare slice the Oath in half.

***

“How many do we have left?” Anya asked Kaya while blocking another enlarged boulder.

“Just the green ones, maybe I missed one or two of the yellow ones, but all the red and purple ones are dead for sure!” Kaya replied with a hoarse voice.

“How many jellyfish we have” Anya asked with some hope.

“Three. I sent them hiding so they could still make more of themselves later or maybe call for help.” Kaya replied while biting the heel of one giant, making him fall. “We are on our own. How is your shield?”

“two more good hits and It will break, three tops” Anya answered honestly, looking at the dented and pierced piece of metal her mech was holding in its hand.

With one hand Undying shot a stream of metal shards at a group of giants while swiping the legs of a different one with the other two hands.

“Do you have a plan?” Anya asked.

“One. You group them up. I will finish it with the breath attack.” Kaya said climbing up a fallen giant and biting its neck off.

Without missing a beat, Anya ran towards the mass of giants, music playing loudly from her frame.

It didn’t take long for her shield to brake but that did not stop Undying. The machine wrestled the monsters to the ground, using her hammer to trip them one on top of the other as it stepped on their heads.

It was clear Anya stopped Attacking their center of mass and started to aim for the legs, only going for a head shot when it was as quick as stepping forward.

Within no time Anya was surrounded by ten-meter-tall giants, standing on a pile of their fallen allies, some of which were still alive.

“Shoot!” Anya yelled “take them all out!”

“Your mech is in the way!” Kaya yelled back though her voice was long gone.

“I will eject with Louis’s body! Do it.” Anya’s voice commanded while glowing and growing metal spikes pierced the pile of Giants from the ground.

Undying was suddenly pinned in place.

“KIAI!” Kaya shouted, using every last drop of power from her reactor.

In one last blaze of glory her cascade ended, sending Waterfall crashing to the ground on top of a charred pile of corpses.

All giants were dead, and the battle was over.

Kaya looked around for Undying, for where Anya might be.

It took her a minute to find the annihilated Mech.

Its arms were ripped out while its main frame was half melted. The mech even had a giant hole where the Mech’s Cockpit should have been.

It took Kaya a moment to realize the cockpit itself was missing, probably due to a successful ejection. “Anya if you are alive somewhere fire in the air.” Kaya said through her speakers to an empty battlefield.

Just when Kaya was sure the only thing that heard her was corpses a shot ringed through the air.

“If you are ok fire twice!” Kaya said with a shaky voice, hearing two shots in response

“Mayday ! Mayday! We need help here! Oath is down” Oscar’s voice shouted through the chat.

Before Kaya knew what she was doing she was already heading towards the Majesty.

Slithering slowly over the barren battlefield.

****

Anya could see Kaya Waterfall slithering away.

‘Maybe Oscar and William needed help.’ Anya thought, climbing out of her ejected Cockpit.

She looked around at the ash and rubble, trying to find where Louis’s body was ejected.

Anya rubbed her head and back while checking for injuries.

Before she got out Anya made sure to take her Mech’s mandatory pickaxe and her prepared gun of choice, the old reliable shotgun.

She climbed out of the small crack in the metal, moving crystalline charred corpses out of her way using her pickaxe.

The burning asphalt choked her lungs while the smell of blood and gore made her want to puke, but Anya steeled her resolve.

After a few steps forward, stepping through the smoke, Anya managed to see the metallic sarcophagus she was looking for atop a small mound of dirt, ash and blood. “There you are!” she whispered to herself calming down. “don’t worry Louis. We are not leaving here without you.”

Before Anya managed to climb the small mound, a scratching sound broke her concentration.

The scratching sound was quickly followed by a gnawing sound and the echo of metal bending.

Anya raised her pickaxe and snuck around, trying to get to the mound from a blind spot behind a huge piece of rock.

With the shadow of Victory Arch Anya remained unseen, seeing her last opponent up close.

The last Fallen on the battlefield.

The Devourer did its best to rip apart the metal that kept it from its long-awaited prize.

It was clear that all the monster wanted in its life was to eat that very thing that killed so many of its allies before.

Anya could almost feel its frustration and excitement as she snuck behind the skinny and deformed, mouth covered eldritch terror.

It stopped moving for a moment, raising its head and looking around with what looked like six different eyes that slid on its body freely. Anya stopped her breath.

after a moment of looking, it once again focused all its eyes on the now exposed Body of the French man. Anya did not pass on the chance and drove her pickaxe into its brain.

“Not my friend Kurva!” she said, watching the monster’s body go limp.

***

While Oath fell to the ground, both legs and one arm missing, the Majesty closed in on the Captain with a smile.

The majesty raised both hands up, amassing lightning in both, preparing for the coup de gras.

A flash of light interrupted the Majesty, causing it to turn its head quickly.

Before the monster knew what hit him Oscar slashed upwards, using the monster’s spinning motion to cleave its arm clean off.

The monster shrieked as it fell to the ground grabbing its stump, sending electricity in all directions and pushing Chestnut away.

Oscar could see his mechs warnings that his heat resistance was about to fail but he pushed forward.

With sirens blazing Oscar ran forward and swung for the monsters head.

But his blade was stopped.

In front of him, the bleeding monster grabbed its own detached hand and swung it at Oscar’s blade.

The severed limb was covered in electricity and plasma deflecting the plasma sword to the side while the monster rolled forward, standing up.

‘When I was young, I always imagined myself sword fighting monsters. In reality this is not so fun’ Oscar found himself thinking as he was smacked by the electrified limb and was sent tumbling backwards.

Oscar could see his mech starting to catch fire, as the fuel cell on his back began to give out to the heat. Before he thought about it for too long the firefighter ripped out Chestnut’s fuel cell and tossed it at the monster.

In response the Majesty reflexively hit the flying tube of metal, causing a huge explosion to rock Old Paris.

The monster was covered in bruises and injuries from the shrapnel but looked otherwise in good condition as it slowly walked towards the smaller Chestnut.

“OY! I am not dead yet!” William shouted, firing from atop the ruins of the Oath with a handheld sniper rifle, hitting the Monster on its good shoulder.

The monster looked back with a look of betrayal and disgust, pointing its severed arm like a wand towards William as lightning started to crackle.

The monster roared once again, letting it voice be carried by the empty street.

Oscar started to run towards his enemy, only to have the Majesty turn around sharply and hit him on the side, sending him flying while a distant laughter started to fill the battlefield.

It came from all around, as if more Fallen were about to crawl out of the ground to the Majesties aid.

“Above you!” Kaya’s voice was heard in chat as Waterfall coiled like a spring on top of a particularly tall building.

Oscar looked up as the metallic dragon descended downwards like some form of divine punishment, biting the Majesty’s head off from above in one chomp, sending up a huge dust cloud.

For a split second its body just stood there, completely headless and covered in electric sparks.

By the time the monster’s body fell on its knees all the sparks were completely gone.