The Dark Ages [Dark Data]

[Samus Aran]

Damage Counts according to my calcurations:
Hiro: 12
Okor: 6
Samus: 9

Samus stepped forward, aware of each heavy click and whirr within her suit. They’d gotten this far. Genuinely, she felt relieved. The day, though it had been merely a matter of hours, felt somehow … spiritually, longer. It had taken every ounce of her focus to get to this point alive and intact.

This was it. The final battle.

Samus surveyed the enemy.

The Black Knight himself was nearly seven foot tall – perhaps his natural height, perhaps a byproduct of dark power infestation – the hunter guessed a combination of both.

Naming his sword. Proud, just like she’d guessed.

Three of the knights charged forward. He and his favourite remained? Arrogant. Lucky for her.

“I’ll be your opponent!” said the morning star-wielding knight, as he leapt the distance towards Samus.

The Hunter instinctively raised her cannon, clicking the missile trigger.

Click, click.

That was the problem with relying on instinct and muscle memory. It took Samus half a second to remember that her missile systems were disabled. Long enough for a morning star to graze her helm.

She had, of course, been quick enough to duck backwards. In that moment, her suit changed, growing outwards to take on its normal, bulky appearance. In confined quarters such as this, speed wouldn’t help as much as raw defense. Robbed of her various tricks and upgrades, this would be a brawl. A fact Samus did not appreciate. She was a tactician, a fighter who relied on positioning and exploiting her opponent’s weaknesses through versatility. Right now she had a gun, a grappling beam and her wits.

Still, it was more than morning star boy. As he lunged, swinging with wild fury, she pivoted, keeping her opponent on her left hand side. As she blocked and feinted with her left arm, she hooked her right arm under, taking potshots. Each crashed against his steel armor, seemingly doing nothing. But she had to trust. None of her previous adversaries had shown much in the way of weakness or fear. But they had all fallen, one by one, to persistence and attrition.

Okor, meanwhile, was handling the greataxe wielder, while Hiro battled the crossbowman. Samus always made sure to keep an eye on what else was happening.

That fact saved her life in the coming moments.

As she circled around, she found herself with her back to the Black Knight and his remaining vassal, the sword-and-shield wielder. Her target indicators were fuzzy, but still up, and out of the corner of her eye, she spied a HUD-arrow lighting up.

This was one moment where muscle memory and intuition did save her. Out of habit, out of instinct, she jumped – and as she flipped, the massive sword of the Black Knight cleaved her previous position in twain. The morning star-wielder ducked, avoiding its swathe with a hoot. “Careful, boss!”

The Black Knight growled in displeasure at his miss. “Shut up, worm!”

Not so arrogant after all, Samus noted, as she twirled in the air to land behind the Black Knight. His next vassal, the sword-and-shield wielder, came at her directly in the next moment, forcing her to dodge sideways.

The Hunter’s heart thudded. They’re cornering me …!

The Black Knight turned, and despite his helm-clad head, she could almost see the evil grin. Feel it like a veil of malice descend upon her position.

That was when Hiro sunk a katana halfway-deep into the Black Knight’s side.

The obsidian knight gave a roar of pain and swiped, far too late to catch anything but the hacker’s shadow.

“Thanks,” breathed the Hunter as she stepped in to counter the shieldman’s sword with her arm cannon.

“I just saw an opportunity to stab him,” quipped Hiro. “Thanks for getting his attention.”

The Black Knight rounded on the crossbow-wielder. “Keep him busy!” he spat.

“Yes, boss!” The crossbowman replied sheepishly, raising his weapon once more to target the hacker.

Samus took a moment to survey the stands. Crowds filled them. More illusions, or dark-power infested humans from the real world? No time to find out. The shortsword-wielder and morningstar-wielder were coming at her from either side, and it was all she could do to jump backwards, quickly assuming her Predator form to take on a burst of speed as she continued blasting away. It wasn’t risky as long as she kept her back to the wall. Theoretically.

She’d run into Okor and greataxe-man’s territory, and as she backpedalled from her own opponents, a similar opportunity to Hiro’s jumped into her head. The Hunter smirked despite herself. She turned and shot several times at the greataxe wielder.

Predictably this annoyed the knight, who growled. “Can’t you two keep her busy?!” he snapped, before receiving a deadly punch in the face from his opponent.

With his opponent down, Samus saw about getting the undead walker’s attention. “Okor!” she cried, and shot his grapple beam straight at him.

Bemused, the plague knight raised his hand, letting the grapple beam attach.

“Swing!”

“Hmm …. I see.” He gripped the blue beam and wrenched, as Samus herself leapt off her feet and retracted the beam to give it some motion.

Okor’s strength never failed to impress. He swung Samus round, and as the axeman stood, he received a blue beam to the face, flooring him yet again. The momentum continued, and finally Samus let go, flying back towards her two overeager pursuers.

Two feet met two faces. Samus only wished she had two guns, but elected to shoot the morning star-wielder first before resuming her run-away tactics.

With the fight in full swing, only one question remained on Samus’s mind. She had not the time to ask, but her mind asked anyway.

Where’s Madotsuki?

Her mind flashed back to Shinnah the gnome.

Not. One. More.

As the Black Knight closed in on Hiro, Samus ran into the giant’s back and thrust her cannon-arm into the back of its knee. Another roar of pain.

Hiro dodged out from between his two opponents. “Could’ve been faster,” he gasped. But his face showed something like gratitude.

Samus grunted as she ran in the opposite direction.

Just don’t die, she thought.