Day 2 Evening

[Albert Wesker]

Once more, back into the fray.

His entire body ached almost unbearably, even with his damage management systems mitigating the impairment to his functions. His chest was now caved in, sporting the rough outline of a hoof imprint gouged into the plating. His already labored breathing came in little more than sharp, ragged gasps, punctuated by the hiss of excess air escaping through his ruptured exterior. His internal readouts were a mess; awash in CRITICAL SYSTEM ERROR this, and MASSIVE SYSTEM DAMAGE that...things he already knew, that he was already well aware of.

If his systems hadn't been so purposefully robust, he wouldn't even have had the chance to contemplate going back for a round 2 against this cyberdemon. He would have been so much scrap after the first rumble with the massive beast. And yet...

The blade of his sword whipped out, a flash of steel heralding its separation into its bladed sections. His left arm was now almost useless; he was limited to only his sword arm. He would have to make do with it. It was lucky he had always been a one-armed sword specialist, he thought, as the blade-sporting whip lashed out, striking the massive, cybernetic demon right around its throat.

The reaction was immediate, and a fierce reaction it was. Colonel was nearly pulled off his feet, and he could feel the hilt of his weapon straining against his grip. The goat-like monstrosity took one step forward, planted its hooves, and jerked its head forward, trying to wrest its neck loose from the stranglehold the navi had it in. It was all he could do to hold fast, tightening the noose, as it were.

The creature was busy with its own problems though, being hammered and harried by the other three. Smith and his almost comically-oversized gun laid down a steady stream of fire. The human, Ryner, did his best to keep the beast distracted, putting a shot from his flare gun right into the demon's eyes. Of course, that did only seem to make it mad, more than anything.

It stamped its hooves madly, an inhuman, shrieking roar of pure, maddened, animal rage going up from it as it redoubled its efforts to break free, whirling about and bringing its rocket launcher to bear. A salvo of its deadly projectiles rained down before, behind, and around the soldier navi. He was left battered and scarred, charred and scorched by the blasts, his vision filled with static and dropped to one knee.

A second hand grasped hold of the sword-whip just above the hilt, and the robust physique of the program, Matrix, hovered into view. "Bring him down!" he shouted, a simple, effective plan. And Colonel was all too happy to oblige, pouring on all the strength he had left to put forth, setting his crumpled posture defiantly against the debris-strewn ground.

System stress rising past tolerable levels. Continued activity will result in irreparable damage.

"Disable notifications....divert all system processes to combat routines." The myriad of warnings and advisories on his HUD vanished in the blink of an eye. Sparks flickered and flashed out of the countless tears and holes in his armored exterior, and there was a great grinding and whirring of servos and gears as he gave a last, final effort and pulled so hard the stress finally got to even his undamaged limb, and with a sharp, grating pop-krak, sparks flew from his shoulder.

But the cyberdemon, like a towering oak, fell backward, overbalancing, and hit the ground with a thunderous crash.

"While it's down...finish it off!"