Honour

"So what's the plan? How are we beating this guy?" Silccer tried his best to keep up with the steady-paced Tarksun in front of him.

"'WE' are not doing anything. 'I' am taking him down, whilst 'YOU' hide and wait for me to be done!" Ira noticed that Mouth was now missing another arm, leaving him with only the one.

"There's no way you win 1v1! Just let me help you!" He shouted after her.

Ira smirked. She suddenly pulled at the control sticks. The Tarksun pivoted, changing course to head directly for Mouth. Silccer hesitated, choosing to stay behind and watch. Ira only accelerated, and as she did, she started to pick up more vibrations pulsing through the ground. A single worm burst out from up ahead, once again having grown larger. Its forest of cascading knives threatened to envelop her. But as it got close, it predictably fell short, diving underground. She was still more than 200ft away.

Mouth turned to face her before freezing still from the vibrations. Inside the cockpit, his eyes had grown tired of Ira's eerie determination. She was struggling for no reason, and his Breaker would catch up to her one way or another.

She made a sharp turn before she could breach the 200ft limit. She was running away from him again. Mouth squinted. The rumbling followed her. Even Silccer watched in confusion, as it seemed like she was just fucking with him. She was running at an angle, as if drawing a spiral pattern around Mouth.

"Every Breaker has a downside. A payment. Some worse than others, some are paid immediately, some take their toll years from now. But the worse the toll, the stronger another aspect of it can be. There are loopholes, there are workarounds, and there are combinations. But even the very act of trying to circumvent a payment diminishes its effect on the Breaker. Breakers are inherently balanced. In a way... They are honourable." Ira's mech screeched out as she continued running.

Mouth kept his eyes on her as she ploughed through more buildings, leapt over electrical towers, and avoided the taller apartment buildings.

"To produce such powerful worms, the cost must be pretty bad. And that vibration effect would only add to the final amount due. I assume you pay a bit of it by letting it affect you. I think you're sacrificing control of them to pay for it since any normal person wouldn't keep chasing me, knowing ranged attacks don't work against me." She continued to ramble.

"Very talkative for someone with no paths to take for a victory." Mouth finally chimed in.

"Hah! I'm just passing the time, it should start taking effect soon."

Mouth tilted his head. The ground beneath him cracked and shook. It shifted like jelly, rippling as if waves.

"You're not on a planet dumbass, you're on an island! Your stupid worms tunnels will easily collapse the entire thing! And they only get bigger as well! This place is going to be 90% worm in a minute!" Ira laughed. "And in the chaos of this place falling apart, we will have our final showdown! Your worms won't be a factor cause of their size. The ground will be too disjointed for those vibrations anyway! LET'S HAVE OUR FINAL BATTLE?!" She turned her sights towards Mouth one final time.

The worms were growing too big to just be underground. They pierced the surface here and there, spewing earth up as they did. The island was slowly cracking, erupting in every direction. As Ira predicted, Mouth ceased the vibrations. He was a sitting duck. He had to move. With little footing, he made a leap from his section of land onto one of his worm's backs. It shifted slowly, too big to make the fast movements it'd showcased in the early birth of the skirmish.

"Yo." A cloud of dust cleared to reveal Ira on the same worm, posed menacingly.

Mouth clenched the only fist he had left. This was it.

"Vanguard." She shouted. More dust cleared to reveal that Silccer had also barely made it onto the same worm. "Hold this." She pulled some levers in her cockpit, causing her Tarksuns left arm to come undone. She casually tossed it to Silccer, who had to use both arms to catch the massive metallic limb impacting him. Small spurts of liquid sprayed from Ira's new exposed end before quickly ceasing.

"But... Why..." Bewildered, Mouth could only gawk at the woman he was presented with.

"Because I love a fair fight." She dashed straight at him.

Mouth needed to get his blood flowing, and so returned a scream of his own. The two charged forward. Both planted their feet mere inches from each other as their reeled up their punches. But before Mouth could even swing, Ira's fist found its way to his Tarksuns side. Dark red liquid burst from underneath the plating where she'd firmly planted her strike. Mouth swung, but it was slow enough for Ira to quickly move out of the way. A stylish barrage of strikes followed, causing Ira to look more like a whirlwind of wild swings and kicks. More red liquid covered Mouth's Tarksun, enough so to make him slippery to the touch.

Ira slid into place, her Tarksuns dreadlocks practically glowing with sparks of yellow, prepping for the fatal blow. "Dead on!" Her fist sliced through the air, piercing Mouth. After a moment, she ripped out his Tarksuns spinal structure. She turned away from him and crushed the slimy black spine into two.

The massive Tarksun looming over her slowly fell to its knees before slumping into the black metallic fur of the worm beneath him. The worms showed no signs of relenting, still raging on despite their Tarksun being decommissioned.

"Alright, Vanguard, we're done here." She started to walk into the dust.

"How are we done? And don't you want your arm back?" Silccer rushed after her, holding out her arm.

"Oh yeah." She grabbed it off of him and slammed it back into place. After a few clamping sounds, it was functional once more. "Alright, let's get gone."

Silccer clenched his fists in his cockpit. "Where are we going?" He jogged after her.

"Someplace where I can take a shower... And eat something, maybe?" Ira leapt to another section of the mass of worms that now made up the island. "Oh, and then you're going to take me to the Empress."

"You're actually serious about that?"

Ira didn't reply. Choosing to let a chuckle out to herself.

He shook his head, "I can't take you to the Empress... I'm just barely a 4th."

"Fuck does that mean?" Ira continued to casually tread on the beast below.

"Means I can take you to a 3rd at best. If I can get in touch with them."

"Nice, I take a shower, you get in contact with 'em. We eat together while we wait for the bastards to show up."

Silccer breathed out a nervous sigh.