Chapter 14: Jimmy the beast

Akira desperately tried to get free from Jimmy's grasp but the thing was too strong, it reeled its hand back and threw him into the sand dunes bellow, Akira staggered to his feet as the dragon let out a bellowing roar, Akira drew his dagger in one hand, the blue projection once again manifesting over top into a sturdy blade, he examined his gun to see that the little meter on the side had gained stacks, he aimed the gun at Jimmy as it prepares to slam its claw on top of him again, he held down the trigger, the stacks of energy depleting as energy gathered at the mouth of the gun until he let go, a stream of purple energy blasts into Jimmy causing it to stagger, only to then get hit in the face by a large ball of fire, it was Lan, he had launched his entire self at the monster, he lands on the ground a few feet away from Akira. The two reengage the dragon as Lan takes a more frontal approach while Akira relied on the heavy-hitting power of the gun. The hide on Jimmy was hard enough to repel any attack they threw at it, but they had to try. Soon enough Lila, Alice and the captain of the Seraph unit joined in on the fight. The 4th captain's hand had a strange pattern covering it, around her feet ice began freezing, it seemed her rune's power had increased somehow. With the newfound powerup, the 4th captain plants her hands on the ground directing the ice towards Jimmy encasing his feet and preventing movement, it wouldn’t last long as cracks fractured along the ice, Alice lunged in attempting to cut through the dragon's scales. The sword slides along the pale blue scales leaving behind a faint burn mark, Jimmy was still preoccupied with fighting Lan until it manages to swat him out of the sky slamming him straight into a dune now-turned crater. Despite this he immediately went back into it, switching to his lightning rune and zipping all along the giant body. This wasn’t going anywhere, either they drop from exhaustion or Jimmy gets bored and leaves. Lan takes stance as he holds his hand out, a burst of electricity begins crackling the air around him. He was pushing the rune to its maximum output, the sand around him being blown back from the sheer pressure given off by the lightning flowing around him. The others reengaged Jimmy as Lan launched himself back into the fight, Lily joined Akira in viewing the fight from a somewhat safe distance, “ So is there any real plan here aside from hoping to beat it down?” Lily asked carefully examining Jimmy’s body in hopes of spotting something. An electronic hum chimes through Akiras brain, followed by a familiar voice, “ We’d need to hit her with a power equivalent to the Negative zero,” Cleo says reappearing on top of Lily’s head. “ her?”

“ Yes, “Jimmy” is a girl, did I not mention that,” Cleo says casually, Akira let out a sigh as he refocused his attention to Jimmy, who was swatting at the air trying to get Lan, the others helped by dragging its attention away so that Lan has time to recover. Alice stood off to the side, her blade sheathed and her eyes closed, she seemed to be focusing. The rune pattern on her arm grew as it spiralled all over her hand, the lustrous flame color burning brighter. She shifts her foot to the side, her hand clamped over the hilt of her blade as she draws it horizontally, the sheer force of her draw projected a powerful flame arc that slammed into Jimmy, successfully having cut through her scales, Alice had come to the same conclusion that Cleo had, which was to hit it with an intense amount of power. The only problem is that trying to pull off a move like that requires an immense amount of power, and once used they’ll need time to recover, meaning Lan should be the only one using semi-full power hits. Akira would manoeuvre his way around the field to reach Lan who was still hovering in the air, he managed to reach him before he set off for his next barrage of attacks.

“ I see, this is slightly more annoying but if it’s the only way then I have no choice,” Akira had explained the plan to Lan, who was reluctant to follow it at first but having seen what Alice was able to do he couldn’t argue against it. Akira and the others would distract Jimmy while Lan prepared his super strike, the Seraphs 4th captain continued to pin Jimmy down by creating large chunks of ice that held her arms and legs, while the others kept it's sights locked elsewhere. From beneath Jimmy green runic circles appeared around her, bursting forth from them were giant vines that wrapped around Jimmy's limbs further restricting her movement, Off to the side was Lila, who had her hands planted on the ground, two smaller runic circles around her palms as she focused. “ I GOT IT!” Akira grabbed at his head as Cleo suddenly yelled, “ Jimmy is infused with tons of the fragment's energy, all you would have to do is reach her head and siphon ALL that energy into yourself!” Cleo had finally given them a plan to beat Jimmy, all he had to do now was scale the giant beast, what could go wrong? “There's also like a 75 to 80% chance that the energy within Jimmy might be too much for your body and you might rupture, let's hope you don’t,” Cleo includes, he’d have to thank her for telling him about his potential death in her plan. The others continued to hit Jimmy while Akira reached the base of her foot, he wasn’t sure how he’d get to the top. Akira felt the scales to see if he could find a foothold, all he needed was a small spot where he could place his foot, then he could boost himself up using his boots ability. After searching he eventually does find a rogue scale that's sticking out just enough for him to boost off of. Akira managed to launch himself a good distance into the air, he didn’t have time to search for another foothold, he’d need to boost himself again the second his foot touched down. “ Almost there,” Cleo urges him on. Akira pushes the boots to their limit with this last one, they’d be jumping a distance greater than what they can, but he made it. A sputtering sound emits from the boots as they seemingly broke, fair enough. Akira carefully scaled his way to Jimmy’s head, when he had reached her forehead he was almost thrown off by Jimmy’s sudden movement, he thrusts his palm onto the surface of the scaly head, he could feel the fragment sink through the tough scales and dig into flesh, a burst of energy pules from the point of contact, Akira could feel the energy being redirected into him, at the same time Jimmy began shrinking in size, flailing around in a desperate attempt to throw him off, but it seemed the fragment had physically connected to Jimmy, acting as a tether between the two. Jimmy collapsed onto the sand as her size had been reduced by a lot so she was around the same size as Suzuki now, and all the fragment energy she had was now gone. Akira pulls his hand back and slides down the dragon's face onto the sand floor, she stares at him, tired. “ Well fought Jimmy,” Akira pat Jimmy as she closed her eyes to rest. He’d have to find her a new name later, for now, they’d have to inform Taro about their success. Alice and her captain made sure everyone from their unit was accounted for before they headed back to the Sanctuary, Lan insisted they drive to the village and that they would all fit, somehow. " Guess I beat the odds," He thinks to Cleo, but if he did absorb all the energy from Jimmy why didn't he feel it?

" I redirected the energy into both Frans again, you would've been just fine though," Cleo says mockingly. They were close to calling it a day, the moon sitting high in the sky, its light touching everything. But the sound of something landing on top of Jimmy caught everyone's attention, a person stood. The moonlight illuminating his figure.

“ Adam,” Cleo called out, “Adam” cocks his head to the side as if unsure if Cleo was referring to him or someone else, he jumped down onto the sand before walking towards them, Lan had already gotten to the front, putting himself between Adam and everyone else.

“ Ahh, Cleo,” Adam says squinting his eyes to get a better look at us,

“ Seems you survived as well, I assume that's him?” He points to Akira. Now that he was closer his details were more clear, and shocking. He wore regular pants and a shirt, but underneath it was a sleek metal plating, he was a droid. “ You were never supposed to wake up, I always knew killing you was the only way to put you to sleep!” Cleo yells angrily, Adam pretends to look offended at her rude comment, Lan glances back at Akira and Cleo, unsure of what to do. His eyes go wide in shock when he notices Adam had somehow gotten behind him, now standing in front of Akira. He grabs his wrist and examines the fragment with great curiosity, “ Huh, guess you only have this, how unfortunate,” He lets go. Before he could do anything else Lan had struck him hard, launching him away from Akira and the others. Adam got up without a single scratch, “ Im impressed, seems the world had advanced while I was gone,” Adam said, “ Allow me to properly introduce myself,” He bowed politely, keeping his head and sight forward, “ I am Adam, and I'm here to bring an end to everything touched by humankind.”