Chapter 16 : Late Rescue
tack tack tack tack .....
Rani's footsteps echoed inside the corridors of this gigantic shopping structure.
She walked in a predetermined pace, not too fast nor too slow.
the artifact which was hung on her back since They arrived here, her katana, was already in her grip. She just needed to draw it out to be able to response to any adversary that might come on her way.
her plasma gun and the visor had been handed over to Mada. He would held on to them until She came back.
for now, She only needed her beloved one-bladed curved sword.
Rani was currently on her way towards the sources of the groan. it was so loud that eventhough there wasn't any other following sounds of similar nature.
She was still able to predict and remember where was that eerie sound came from.
Around the top floor, it was where She headed right now, the route and direction that Rani took as her course. She could even tell that, that groan, was in fact had even reached and be heard outside of this mega mall.
after taking stairs for about thirty minutes to reach the highest floor of this fifteen stories building. Rani finally arrived in her destination.
in there, She smelled an odor that was reek of corpse's stench and other stinky, rotten material.
as a matter of fact, Rani could even infer that excrements were among what She had smelled at right now.
it was still around midnight, and without torch or her visor, the darkness here seemed quite unbearable.
added with the facts that She was underground where not even moonlight was available and there was also no noises besides that groan which had been detected.
'An utter silence with rotten tang as friends, what a lucky circumintances I am in, huh...'
She felt a littel bit dejected. If that dumbass Mada had not injured himself in his self training, She would not be forced to handle this problem on her own. She thought it was stupid of him to take her previous advice too out of the initial context, He had taken in it too far for his own good.
'huhhhhhhh..., I have to focus !!!
this will turn ugly if I make even a slightest slip up while fighting....
.
.
still... that foolish and careless guy.
sometimes He is as wise and cautious as father, uncle, master and other adults.
whereupon for some reason, if it was related to himself, He seems too sloppy and ignorant.
Don't tell me..... He is a kind of a genius fighter who can't even take care of himself ?
no way... that is just too ridiculous.
Doesn't that sound eerily similar like dad?
heh.... that guy is really something....."
She could not put her finger on Mada,
the companion of her journey.
the more She knew about him, the more confusing He became in her eyes.
'...!!!!!!!!!'
"ggggggggrrrrrrrrrr.... arffffff aaarrrffffff.... grraaaaaaaaooohhhhhhh....."
all of a sudden, a big silhouette jumped on her back.
luckly, She had heard a cracky sound of glasses from behind her for a split second before that happened.
Rani had leapt three meters aside in advance from the silhouette's jump trajectory.
sssshhhhhiinnnnnnggggg....
She brandished her katana from its scabbard almost instatly. the next thing She did was to drew it in front of her, between the big doggy shadow and herself.
Gradually, she could at least estimate the actual shape of the doggy shadow from the border line that formed its silhouette.
gulp !!!!!!!
Rani could not help swallowing her saliva upon the nervousness that was attacking her in this dire situation. She had already known what She was facing now.
'no, I take back my word, I am not lucky damn it, who would expect that Skylos is the first Mutant I have to solo. tsk'
Rani prepared her stance, the only two things left to do were activating her Mutation, and proceeding to utilize the Maha clan's martial art She had long perfected with the help of her late master.
[Mutation type : psychokinesis]
[Special trait : Blood Control]
Activate
now, She only had to wait until that beast came closer.
the speciality of Maha's sword style was counter attack. it was not as formidable, fatal, and potent as Mada's dagger's dance of the leaf parchment's poem. but it was still relatively much stronger than the other avarage aristocratic martial arts.
from her place Rani saw the dog shadow crawled back to her. now its shape was clearer, the mini drone from the visor, which was controlled by Mada remotely, had illuminated her front vision.
it was definitely a Skylos.
Skylos, it was a Mutant species that was much more resembling a wolf than a dog.
it had all features one would find on winter wolves in the wild.
albeit many differences that made it looked more heinous, ferocious, and dangerous.
it had evolved to an extent where its hunting effectiveness had reached maximum potential.
Red eyes in the front. saw bladed teeth with the avarage lenght of five centimeters, and two pairs of canines that potruded out from its jaw which extended similarly like Mada's dagger. its body itself was a huge three meters high and seven meters long from its nose to its tail. its forefoots...
it seemed like a human hand. They had five fingers which all equiped with three centimeters long sharp claws. while the hind legs were just like a wolf legs, except they were insanely huge.
its fur was dyed grey with small three-black strides on its forehead.
There were two eye-catching characteristics that cought Rani's attention the most.
the firs was spikes that popped up on its back which had various size. They were big and became smaller starting from back of its neck towards the end of its tail.
And the second was the tail itself.
As a matter of fact, it was covered by an exoskeleton. the tail was like a long-three meters whip that was made of entirely out of bones. its tip was sharp like a spear.
it was moving around as if it was self-conscious.
'...'
Rani had just realized the deep the shithole She was in.
After witnessing such horror, Rani was standing cold on her feet.
She was still vigilant but was too tensed nontheless.
if this continued, her reflex and reaction speed would fall short from what it should have been.
No doubt She would experience an insta-death if She was not quick enough to fix this.
'huhhhhhhh haaaaaapppppp huuuuuuu hhhhhhaaaappp....'
She repeatedly took a deep breath and released it slowly, trying to calm down her racing heart beats.
'come..... let's see who is going to be someone's breakfast in the morning....'
whooosshhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!
The Skylos jumped right towards Rani. its saliva was sprinkled all over the place, thinking it had already caught a prey for dinner
The moment its front claws almost touched Rani.
Rani instantly focused her mind on the Skylos until her eyes seemed almost rolled out of their sockets.
She had not moved her katana at all. it was still drawn in front of her.
'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'
"raaaaaggggghhhhhhh ggrrroooooaaaaarrggghhh.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
blood spurted from the Skylos eyes, ears, nose, even from its butt hole and the protuduges of its back spikes.
almost every big orifices on its body had bled profusely as though its body was exploded from the inside.
the Skylos had an unbelievable expression on its bestial face.
it might be a beast, but it had developed a basic acumen to understand the situation it was in currently.
This.... was Rani's Special trait : Blood Control.
----------------
Rani's Mutation ability was almost as over powered as Mada's Special trait : Adaptation, or might be even stronger.
but there were an apparent downsides that incovenienced Rani and prevented her from using it for so long.
one, It was a cruel way of killing one's enemy.
Their blood was literally evaporated then exploded from the inside.
yet, the force generated from that would not be sufficient to effectively bursted everything into ashes. They would feel an excruciating pain that lasted for several seconds before their brain completely stopped functioning.
Two, Rani could only use this once a day.
all these times, What Rani had done was only activating her Mutation state.
She had intended to conserve her mental power as much as She could to maintain her Mutated condition.
But, the moment Rani directly used her Special trait : Blood Control,
it would conjure fatal side effects that rendered her useless in an ongoing fight if it was used twice a day consecutively.
in the condition where She had exhausted her mental power, Rani would eventually fall unconscious . She would then become a shameful troll and a burden on the battlefield.
Three, the other reversal effects was when this Psychic attack might hit her allies if They were in her line of sight, the moment She lost her composure because of this, her own brain wave that initiated the attack could be reverted back to herself and harming her instead. She would technically speaking, take her own medicine.
Four and last, for the same reason the Special trait : Blood Control could only be used once a day, She had purposely saved it for the most dangerous situation, like now.
still, it was hard to judge whether it was worth it to use this lethal skill indifinitely. The undisputed fact was, although the skill was deadly, it was not a hundred percent instant kill.
There was no guarantee if it would still work well towards the high level Mutants or someone, or things with high regenerative abilities.
if They could withstand the initial explosion and bear the horrible pain without losing consciousness.
They could survive and continued the fight in which, certainly would not be in favor for Rani.
----------------
This happened as Rani had been worrying. She had anticipated such development where her enemy was not knocked down right away even after receiving her ultimate.
She proceeded to be prepared for the following course of action She should take, a frontal assault.
The Skylos unfortunately indeed had a cheat-like regenerative ability. It recovered miraculously in about twenty seconds. eventhough it had lost unimaginable amount of blood and inner injuries, the only thing that could be the evidence that it was hurt few seconds ago was its current enervate condition.
while it tried to stood on two feets, like a human, Rani felt goosebumps run all over her skin. inwardly, She was in terror.
'What the hell.... this thing must be at least a Humanoid class Mutant, not a beast class.
shit ! We were barely got away from slauthering the Mutant bugs colony in the entrance cave with the two of us working together. now I have to fight this myself ?! damn You, Mada."
Rani did not want to give this abomination enough time to fully heal itself, so She started her second plan. She activated her katana.
the combo of her artifact and Maha clan's martial arts, would certainly be able to out pace the regeneration speed of this creature.
[Turning on...]
[Registering new user.....]
[!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
[User had been Registered]
[Subject 256]
[Confirmed]
[Medium authority]
[Opening option of device functions.....]
[Two authorized functions available]
[1. Automatic force shield]
[2. Energy blade ]
[Option two selected]
[Initializing activation....]
[Activated]
The sharp edge of her Katana glowed up. it was essetially the same with Mada's ligt saber. albeit Mada's saber was purely formed by the heated intense LASER. while Rani's katana was heated only on its sharp edge, the back and main parts of her katana were still made of metal and did not change.
She continued her action by using her family Martial arts.
by the time the Skylos saw what She was doing, Rani had started her offense.
She hop towards the fully aware Skylos, which was still caught off guard by Rani rapid advance.
Rani's katana was moving around 360 degrees in full circle while She fell back towards the ground right in front the defending Skylos. She was like a fast, unstoppable spinning top which fell on the earth surface. scratching, chopping, and crashing everything on her path. the after image that made out of traces of light from her shining katana was like a spiral light, that drilled the hard the ground.
rumbles, blasts, explosion, tremors, all inhuman sound and inconceivable phenomena were unfolding in the mega mall.
flakes from the ceiling fell, and rubbles started piling up.
in the center of the ongoing havoc.
the exhausted Rani gave slashes after slashes to the Skylos. She withstood the tiredness and swung her katana without gaps, fearing that might give time to the resilience dog to recover, which She could not let that happen at all cost.
The skylos itself had shockingly defended againts Rani onslaught with the same fervor. its two forefeet which now had become its two hands had been crossed with each other to protect the ventral side of its body.
eventhough its skin should be stronger than common metal used in this era, it could not fully withstand the destructive of heat of Rani's katana that even melted concrete.
in a matter of few more seconds, it was not long until its two defending forefeet.... or hands, to be torn and completely shattered.
the burnt flesh in the deep cuts which number was uncountable, had rendered its regenerative abilities to be ceased. it could not keep up with the damages dealt by Rani's assault which had been going on for about two minutes.
The Skylos tried to launch a counter attack using his leg, kicking Rani's abdomen from a difficult angle.
The Kantana's first option [Automatic Force Shield] was immedietly activated. It was shattered the moment the Skylos's left-hind leg touched the thin membrane of energy.
The Skylos then proceeded to throw a reverse kick, using the ankle of its right leg, it made Rani flew towards the wall. Rani ended up crashing to the hard surface, making it cracked and crumbled under her inertia, coughing a handful of blood in the process.
it was not over yet.
The Skylos, upon seeing Rani's limp body leaned over the broken wall by her back, leapt up high and intended to crush Rani under its weight.
Moreover, the Skylos hind legs also had series of sharp claws that could potentially bleed Rani to death. from the audience point of view, this was a bit of an overkill.
in her heart Rani cursed the heaven why should She had a stupid boy as her companion, She felt a bit betrayed to be dying as a virgin
'If Mada came with me, We might have a chance againts that monster..... to be dying alone... after running away from father to prove my worth,this is the last ending I wanted to have on my list...'
Hic..... slurppp...
Rani started crying, She lamented the unfortunate fate that was about to befall her.
'at least..... I want to have someone hugging me in my last moment. It's ...too cold...if my master was still alive..... I wouldn't have to go through this in the first place..... why....
why oh Ancient Humans....this is unfair...'
"huhhhhhhhh.....hahhhhh, hahhhhh....sorry, it took me awhile to come up here"
NGIINNGGGGGGG!!!!!
BAM !!!!!! KABOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
rumble.....
an explosive light that blinded everyone just bursted out after a boy's voice was heard in Rani's ears. Her diminishing consciousneas came back along with her hope.
PULVERIZER. one of the plasma gun's function had been utilized.
after fighting Rani, the forefeet of the Skylos both had gone. its body was full of gruesome scars which couldn't be easily healed.
Now, not even the upper part of the Skylos body existed. Only the still standing lower-half remained.
"missed me already, princess ?"
----------------
tobe continued
.