The Battle of Death Mountain: Gamma

[Albert Wesker]

From the look of things, they had managed to at the very least put a dent in the horde so far. There was a significant number of corpses and broken pieces of dragonlings piling up. The situation had gone from bleak at the outset, with the small group hopelessly outnumbered and locked in a contest to just try and survive and buy time, to one that actually looked like they might manage to hold the line after all. Just optimistic thinking? Maybe. But it was optimism or grim resolve in the face of death in a situation like this. And he'd already come to terms with death being just a stumbling block and temporary thing — hopefully, at any rate — but it was still something he'd rather not have to deal with.

Which meant only one thing: let fly with everything he had.

Induct Missile was still reloading for another volley and was offline. Using another Neo Screen Divide so soon might overload his saber systems and shut them down for a brief moment. That was a risk he couldn't take.

Again his left arm was flung out to the side, his fingers closing about the handle of another weapon as its digital blueprint materialized in his grasp. A flare of blue light suffused his arm as the thing was shoved entirely into a corporeal state, weighing down his arm with its sheer bulk. With a heave and a flourish he brought it up, bracing the massive frame of the tank cannon against his shoulder. He took a long moment ti sight in on his intended target, letting the so-called 'wizard', Dresden, take the focus for a moment with the frigid assault he let fly, only to immediately be met with a vicious retaliation as several of the horde's number crashed upon a shield he brought to bear.

"I believe this qualifies as quite the golden opportunity for some crowd-control, sir." his digital assistant piped up cheerily.

"Dresden! Hit the deck!" A single glance back his way was all the wizard needed to get the point. He let gravity do the work for him, and as the claws of the dragonlings raked against his shield, he fell back with the impact, putting himself between the ground and his barrier. And then Colonel depressed the trigger of the massive cannon, and it responded with a dull rumble and a belch of flame as its payload left the barrel, and hit the largest of the horde full-on in the torso, exploding in a massive blast of fire and thundering force. The space around the wizard was quickly cleared, and with the cannon discarded, Colonel himself wasted no time in charging into the fray directly.

"I feel I should point out the fallacy in judgement of this plan, sir; charging right at them is not exactly wise."

"I'm aware," the soldier program responded shortly.

And then he crashed into the mass of the horde, his saber and bare fist pitted against the claws, teeth and fire of the drakes and dragonspawn. And for a few brief moments, he held his own; flashes of green energy and bits of scale and hide were the predominant sight among the chaotic melee. Then shreds of his cape, and slivers of his armored frame began to join them. Flashes and sparks of electricity as his inner workings caught glimpses of the red light of the steppes soon joined the display, before the cybernetic soldier was slowly overwhelmed.

"I don't want to say 'I told you so', sir, but..."

"Save it."

His entire body lit up with a violet glow, and flickers of the same color showed through the struggle. His saber crackled with a surge of power that he could hear even over the din of the battle about him. A surge of strength as the dull glow about him surged into a powerful aura, blazing like violet flame, had him rising up out of the poor situation, throwing the drakes off of him and sailing straight up and back out of the melee. His cape shredded, covered in tears and scars in his coat and metallic frame and looking decidedly worse for wear, but he was still whole. "Screen...Divide!" And a single slash of his saber sent a blade of emerald lightning scything through where he had stood previously, carving deep wounds in many of the dragonlings, scattering the group this way and that, breaking their bestial, pack-focused attack apart. He landed heavily, dropping to one knee from the impact.

"Press the attack while we have an opening..." he managed to get out, forcing more strength into his words than he really had in him.