The beginning of the End (Artefact Battle) (PvP)

[Albert Wesker]

His advance was halted, only for a few moments. But the interruption only served to add another dose of fuel to the fire of insanity that burned while Gregar's power flowed rampant through his systems. Slowly, his head turned back to stare at the young shinobi. For a brief instant, there was only a blank, cold expression on his face, same as always. Calculating, mechanical, starkly observant, but not much else. Then it cracked, splitting into a leering, malicious cast, and in a blur of movement the soldier program lunged forward, closing the distance between himself and the young Mitsuki in an instant, his massive hand closing around the ninja's face. A resounding, thunderous impact as the boy's head was slammed into the invisible ground of the nexus was the next thing heard, followed shortly by a wet snapping noise and a wheezing rattle of breath. Colonel's clawed boot was covered in blood, and left a clear trail as he charged heedlessly across the nexus toward the Red Hood.

He struck the vigilante with a wordless roar, sword flashing in a green arc and carving a bloody gash across chest and ribs as the man made an infuriatingly agile leap back, spinning about to face the new threat. The respite was only momentary, and Colonel pursued with a single-minded determination, his sword striking in a frenzied blur, first from this way, then the other, hammering in from above, scything in a vicious horizontal arc, putting the Red Hood on a frantic defense. It was far from perfect, however, even with the vigilante's clearer thinking and higher skill. The sheer force behind every blow, along with the maddening rage and frenzy that drove them overwhelmed him in a matter of moments. A devastating blow sheared through one of his knives, sending the broken fragments of the blade flying in all directions, and making any attempt at defense virtually fall apart. In a blur of emerald and crimson, the vigilante who had called this entire mess together was impaled on the cyber soldier's blade, lifted half a foot off the ground.

With nary a trace of grace or respect to be found, Colonel reached up, over the Red Hood's shoulder, and ripped the sheath bearing the sword that had been the bait for all of this off of his back. "This...is mine now," he said shortly. And with apparent disdain, he flicked his arm to the side, throwing the bleeding vigilante off his blade to roll along the ground. Keeping his sword arm pointed out toward where Red Hood lay, he let the sword flicker and die, transitioning into the massive barrel of his Gregar-empowered buster. A dull glow of power built up in the mouth of the weapon, spitting sparks of golden and green light. And Colonel grinned. With a sound like thunder, a hailstorm of bolts of energy sprayed from the buster. A fusillade of white-hot impacts hit the Red Hood and the ground around him as he desperately tried to regain his feet, perhaps to make some foolish last stand or put up one last bit of fight. But it was in vain, as the blistering onslaught of fire swiftly tore him apart, putting him back down and taking the last bits of fight out of him.

Without stopping, the soldier navi swept his buster around, readying another identical charge. A second volley of white-hot energy blasts tore apart the blank landscape of the void, leaving a smoking, charred arc as he swept the angle of fire across the remaining fighters, scoring warning hits on some, tearing others apart as far more solid hits were landed, and missing some entirely.

His buster smoking, Colonel slowly lowered his arm, letting it transition back to sword as the surge of power Gregar granted him finally overtaxed his systems. EMERGENCY VENTING flashed across his HUD, and a brilliant flare of violent exploded around him, great clouds of steam and sparks blasting out as the bestial fury bled away, reverting him to his base state. He was badly beaten and damaged, a fact made all the more apparent by the departure of the excess power preventing him from noticing. Sparks flickered weakly in the numerous tears and gashes in his armor, and his gait was unsteady as he turned about to trudge off as quickly as he could from the aftermath of this battle.

His peace was short-lived, however. The pounding of footsteps sounded behind him, rapidly approaching. "I'm...not done yet, toaster man!" He recognized the voice right away, in no small part thanks to the childish insult hurled at him. A weak clang followed shortly after, a blow landing on the back of his head and staggering him in his already off-balance state, and leaving something draped heavily across him. Presumably Joline. A moment later she started to slip, and plopped down to the ground to just lay there. He stopped, turning to look back at her. She stared up at him, defiantly, though it was clear, even with his less than perfect understanding of how humans and the like worked, she wasn't going to be staring at much of anything much longer.

With a grimace on his face, he shifted the sheathed Blade of Kusanagi to rest at his belt for now, until he could manage a better place to keep it, and reached down with his now free hand. A weak "Nonononono....." went up from Joline before she finally lost the struggle to remain conscious for good. With surprising dexterity and care, given both his current condition and normal lack of anything even approaching empathy or awareness of others, the soldier navi scooped the young woman up, supporting her as best he could with one arm as he turned to go back on his way, for one of the gates in the distance.