CHAPTER 45: Guillotine

Multiple TA soldiers covered behind the tank as their chief jumped down from her spot on top of it, still holding the struggling man by his head.

"Who was that, Chief?"

"Milky pale eyes, offwhite hair, eight fangs. That's gotta be a thirty-seven…" another soldier pitched in.

"There's only one person that could be. Did you see those silver teeth? The old general…" Chief paused to think of a course of action. "Stay vigilant, and space yourselves back into formation. I was briefed a little bit on his fighting style. He never confronts anyone without being in some sort of tactical marching formation. Expect-"

A faint wind came between Chief and the other half of her soldiers. Where two of her comrades once stood, the street diverged in two new halves. The tank was cleaved in two, along with everything in the path of Antigua's massive blade. The soldiers dropped down and dove for some semblance of cover, but were instantly followed by the golden swords. Fast and graceful, they slipped through the soldiers' defenses and shot through each and every target neck. Ten of thirty soldiers, each gifted with steel-hard skin and amazing skills and reaction times, outperformed by a couple of mere needles. Chief's veins pulsed as she sprinted to take swift cover behind a nearby building. Her remaining soldiers had spread themselves out in cracks and crevices, waiting for their chance to shoot. But Antigua's golden needles were still a massive threat. The way they moved… they didn't seem to be guided by AI. Hardly had all twenty been used unless they were coordinated in unison. They seemed to freeze in the air as soon as the General took their eyes off of them. General Antigua was controlling them visually, a step down from Brandy's bombs. Meaning a distraction would stop their onslaught. The man she was holding, Antigua, was checking up on him. A moment of weakness! In a blur she leaped forward from her alley of hiding and used the forward-facing wall of the building to launch herself towards the two. In close-quarters combat protecting someone, her soldiers could strike from afar. Unraveling her belt to form a strange weapon called an urumi, what seemed like a hundred blades whipped down towards the Ethiopian on the ground. There was no way he could block all of these, right? Antigua didn't seem to be affected by this, casually standing in front of the man as he saw his needles being deflected and wrapped around by the blades and sliced through as they descended like a fountain spray. He simply formed a blocking pose with his blade, which expanded to be the side of a large riot shield. Did he really think that would just work? These whip-like blades will just lash around and behind the shield once metal meets metal, dealing its inevitable blow. When a faint white light started to emit like vapors from the shield, it was already over. The force of multiple sun's worths of gravity smashed into her and all of her blades, accelerating her fast across the city. Equipped with antigravity stronger than most specially-developed antigravity bombs, Antigua's custom-designed weapon still held up to this day. In fact, its blade was sharper than ever and its utility just as relevant. Tangente's ship, the iceberg, was truly a feat of engineering and science unrivaled by anything and everything he had seen in these past one thousand years, that even a blade made of its skin could last a millennium of constant abuse.

Chief, regaining consciousness after her blood left her head, still felt paralyzed and faint as she started her descent towards the ground. As she spiraled downwards, she saw the blur of Antigua catching up to her on the ground. As she started falling near-straight, Antigua had already found the landing point, and with two hands heaved up his mighty weapon. She had lost her urumi in the flight, so with what little strength she had remaining, she reached for the pistol on her hip. Firing multiple rounds, she realized a terrifying truth. Even GMH-countering bullets did nothing to this fucker. Shit. How dare she overestimate one of Tangente's ex-generals like this. She didn't even have time to prepare for her death before the misty white aura of antigravity sent the portable guillotine of a sword into rapid motion. At first, it struck upwards, pitting the momentum of gravity against the speeding blade, distorting her figure as the ground crumbled below Antigua, sending his feet knee-deep into the road. Then, with the added power of Antigua's unfair strength, he directed the jet-speed blade and curved it with her, swinging and smashing it into the earth, cutting clean through the ground and the attacker. Some called this attack [Atlas Strike], as its victims definitely felt the weight of the world on their shoulders. The surrounding street wasn't even cracked, it was shredded. Though its width was rather thin, this newly-formed ravine extending along the road had the darkness of unknown depths. With this power, Antigua could now easily "shatter mountains and break the earth". Antigua lifted his sword and smashed the ladies' head in before throwing it back onto his back, sprinting towards the destination of their first encounter. Now, his men and the TA were having a faceoff with a child and a wounded soldier in its center. Though his men and women were fully capable of protecting and destroying this small weakened party, Antigua wanted to meet back up with that child he protected. As the kid hurried away, he hesitated just for a brief moment, as if wanting to say something. He had seen his daughter do that quite a few times when she was young, always putting off something important to tell him. Antigua's gut was pulling him back to the scene, something was up. As he arrived at the area of the shootout, he saw the child, risking being in the line of fire just to search some rubble. The child's eyes moved around intensely, as if looking for the best place to start withdrawing it using his only arm. Antigua raced along the street, deflecting everything with his sword extended into its riot shield state. The boy looked back to see a behemoth overshadowing him, his shield planted on the ground to offer them both protection. Couldn't let the child or his MOPP gear(providing him protection against CBRN hazards) have any holes in them, now!

"What's the matter, kid?" Antigua yelled over the gunfire. The poor kid had to be going deaf by now. These guns were much louder than their normal counterparts.

"Help me get these piles of rocks off my dad!" The boy screamed back, flinching and clutching his arm as it braised a rock. "But don't let the rocks fall! They are all leaning on top of each other!"

This boy was smarter than most. He knew they were unstable, so he only did a light examination before waiting for assistance. The only problem was, they were waiting in the middle of a warzone. Antigua was stuck for a moment. He had an idea to use his sword to remove the rubble, but they were under constant fire. Perhaps he could adjust a little…

A voice could be heard echoing around, bouncing through the alleys and into the open street where Antigua and Kade resided.

"Why are you wasting your time protecting them? How foolish, giving up vital time in your plans to save a few ants amongst a colony. They're only human. Not like you and I." The voice radiated mocking confidence. When did someone like that get here? Were they another Chief? Or Higher?

Kade's eyes widened. Ants? Only human? The TA, were they all monsters? That explains a lot. They couldn't care less about casualties. It seemed more like they would flaunt them, like a game of sport they just hunted. With a circular gale at its trail, the attacker lunged forward in an all-or-nothing burst, making Antigua step back and attempt to close his hands around the harpoon-like attack. It was caught, but not stopped. The bayonet dug itself inside the giant man and slashed across, another scar added to the collection. A burst of bullets shot through Antigua, the specialized gun penetrating suit, skin, and muscles. Layers of bullets rained down near his eyes, one finding its mark. But this sacrifice would not go to waste. Gripping the wrist of the bayonet man, he struck. With the impending force of a freight train and half the speed of a bullet, the man's head almost separated from his body, his neck stretching as it dealt with the blunt force of inertia. The man's entire body whipped unnaturally, unable to escape the vice grip held by the general. Antigua flung the ragdoll into the ground, lifting himself up in the process.

Finally, he was free from that vice grip. The bayonet man was still holding onto his most important possession as he rolled away from a kick that sent powdered rock spraying like smoke from a bomb. That punch was something else. The ringing, the spots in his vision, the putrid feeling of puking. Everything. He was scared. Scared of getting punched like that again. His hands were shaking. He didn't know if it was from the hit or from his fear of this silver-fanged monster, but all he could do was put distance between them. Antigua, clutching his eye with an enormous palm, summoned the golden blades back to him. One by one, they took their time to dig themselves out of the ground where the chief had hit them into. Of the twenty blades, only three were still functional. Antigua's milky yellow eye glared down at the bayonet man as he escaped into a crevice between the building. The sight of countless ACI units falling from rooftops and crawling from the many alleyways like exposed roaches made Antigua's skin crawl as gas grenades were thrown down into the street and the glint of numerous guns atop the buildings and inside shadows gleamed with killing intent. It was like that day all those years ago, when rebellion stirred against him, only for him to eventually join their side. The rough scratching of metal on concrete came closer as Antigua's friend, the youthful child-sized vamp with quite the appetite, dragged Antigua's weapon to his side. Barely leaning the hefty gadget into his hand, the small-figured vamp spoke with heavy breaths.

"The boy and soldier are safe, and our forces have withdrawn with any nearby civilians to cover the other positions you said. Oh, and Antigua, wait- AT LEAST LET ME GET AWAY BEFORE YOU LET LOO-"

There was no time to wait, the triggers had already been pressed. ACI's advancing, one thousand bullets on their way, there was only one thing to do now. [Atlas Siege: Age of Decay]