Gauntlet 3

Bradley charged!

He tore chunks of fire crystal off his body and hurled them at The Mega Bio Beast or Mega beast.... yeah let's go with that! The Mega beast, it casually absorbed the crystals as though it were nothing and lazily moved forward to consume the rest of us!

But Bradley didn't stop there, he turned into Fire, one with purplish black flame and sprayed buckets of it at the creature, the fire crystals exploded and the flames spread round the Mega beast's body, the creature screamed in agony.

Meanwhile Sir George was muttering something into a dagger and handed it over to Pedro, the dagger was glowing white now, it was so white it looked like it was absorbing the other colours around it... Pedro duplicated the blade into Hundreds, Thousands.... Millions? I lost track of the numbers, as they were literally covering the air around us, he hurled them at the creature, as each one stuck to it, it seeped into it's Flesh and disintegrated it!

Still this was not enough, not even one tenth of it's biomass was gone, it was working but clearing not enough! I lifted Arthur up, the Lizardman was strangely.... lighter than I imagined, Lighter than me at least, I hurled over my shoulders, he protested but I ignored him, he was in no condition to move anyways, We hopped on top of Mr Mothman(Tentative) and flew on top of a nearby tree branch to observe things better.

"We.... are not going to make it if we continue at this pace..." Arthur's Automaton muttered, Arthur nodded in agreement, he had a look of resignation on his face.....

I see what he's on about, Vince is fending off the other Bio beasts, trying his best to subdue their shadows, Barney had made Doubles, some of them were heading towards Lord Darius' Lair, I guess given the situation, his rage would be the least of our worries, the other Doubles were assisting Vince and Bradley....

"Barney can do magic?"

"Yes.... but he only knows a few spells, mostly restoration... it takes a lot outta him..."

I can see that, the poor guy is on his knees huffing and puffing, the heat and stress must not be doing him any favours.

"Is there no way to kill these things faster? There.... there has to be some method were nit employing right?"

Arthur sighed...."We should have bought incendiary grenades, but Pedro insisted we were capable of handling on our own.... needless to say that was a big joke..." His Automaton said, Arthur had a rather gloom expression on his tired face.

I look around the battlefield some more and discover.....

"That bastard is making a run for it!"

"Oh.... it seems he is, he isn't gonna get very far though, Ah! look he's barreling towards Bradley already!" The Automaton laughed, Arthur smiled at this.

Well I'm glad he's amused, no need for anyone of us to die gloomy.

"How long has passed since the battle started?" I asked.

Arthur stared at his left gauntlet, "About half an hour.... Junior.... I think it's best you start running," The Automaton spoke, Arthur's face was filled with despair, The lizardman shook his head in absolution.

".....I can't leave you guys behind, you're my team!"

"You barely know us.... besides this entire operation has been one giant shitstorm... There's no need to drag you into this..."

"Bu-"

"Bradley... I love the guy, but he can be simply too dense at times... Every Familia has it's traditions, Some hunt a specific creature like the Sweet tooth Wyvern, others gather herbs from the territory of aggressive beasts like The Multiking or MoonStormers.... it's something stupid we at the sites like to do to stand out a bit...."

".....and what is Giant's tooth?"

"We go in blind.... we never make an effort to plan or gather information, we always take the route with the most dangerous of Beasts and most importantly....." The Automaton explained, Arthur took a deep breath.... "We incite conflict.... if there is a path of least danger and more danger we.... we will actively search for the most dangerous option outta all of them..." it said, Arthur had a bitter look on his face.... it saddened me, he clearly does not like this method of doing missions, so why....

"Why don't you voice out your displeasure.... or change Bradley?"

"...Despite how reckless he is.... he has never lost a man on his team... from when we first met him on these satellites, till his days as a bandit prince.... he has never lost a man, I do not agree with his methods.... but they are effective in building strong soldiers.... and that is what we are at the end of the day, isn't it?"

There's something awfully familiar about this scene....

I can't place my Finger on it but.... it's Like.... this has happened before.....?

No I'm definitely sure I haven't traveled through Wormholes to different dimensions before, or met with the creatures of Garland or any planet other than earth, but....

"This feels like deja vu...." I muttered, The Mega beast.... I'm pretty sure it's glaring at me.... not us, just me.... it's eyes.... the sorry excuse for eyes it had were cool for some reason, like lifeless or is it soulless...? I don't know but I'm certain, thus didn't despise the others nearly as much as it did me for some reason....

This has happened before....

A version of this has happened back in my childhood.... it was with a Polar bear I think? It had escaped from the local Zoo,I was 8 at the time, I took some of my childhood friends with me, we were gonna capture it and bring it back and everyone was gonna hail as heroes or at least pay us the reward money....

6 of us went into the forest that day.... only 2 returned, Me and Jerry.... he was in a similar state as Arthur was in now.... Exhausted and weak... I could have abandoned him but.... we made it out of there alive.

I was Ashamed.... My friends died because of My Carelessness that day.... Worse still that was the Prelude to Dad.... and that Woman's numerous....

"I can't leave you, any of you.... " I said whilst loading my Crossbow, "I guess I'm in the right team afterall, cuz I'm just as Reckless as our Captain!" I yelled.

Arthur.... or rather his Automaton didn't say anything for a moment.... they simply stared at me, the Automaton's small beady black eyes and Arthur's yellow Reptilian's, They were piercing right into me.... I was getting rather nervous....

FWIP!

I shot the bolt at an exposed fire crystal near one of it's eyes, it exploded and more black flames enveloped it's body, it screamed and thrashed about, the creature moved backwards... it looked like it was heading towards the pile of dead bodies behind it.

"Bradley.... I wonder why he doesn't use that hateful flames as often..." The Automaton said breaking the silence, "It's a surefire way to halt the beast's assimilation... pun intended! Haha!"

I smiled, "Thought you had given up!" I said.

FWIP

I hit another fire crystal, Bradley must have caught up because he reverts back to his Fire Crystal form and chucks more at the creature, he even grabs Gambit and uses him as a weapon! The Slimy bastard burst forth new flames but to Bradley, it might as well been a fire dagger he was using, he slashed and stabbed at the beast as he hurled his crystal.

"Well there's a reason I'm still in the group! When we survive this Junior.... I'll teach you some of the stuff I know.... you'll need it to survive here,"

"Why? What brought about this development?" I jeered him.

"Hey! Maybe I was wrong about you...." He shrugged his shoulders, "I'm bold enough to admit my mistakes,"

".....All this after your tongue been removed!" I laughed, he frowned at this but I raise my hands in Apology, He.... accepts, he should have punched me though, I know I'd punched me if I went that far!

We were terribly outnumbered, Our efforts were barely leaving a dent on our foe, our bodies were Overtaxed and.... yet for some reason, I didn't think we were in trouble..... I didn't think we'd give out before reinforcements came.

"I guess this is What Colonel Fauzer felt during his first trial...." I said whilst nodding my head, "Yeah.... him and Dad,"

I remember the first time I met Dad, Me and Cece were 4 and he had just gotten back from his service.... he was missing a leg.... yet he still looked so strong.... so cool.... he carried us in his arms like it was nothing!

"I hope you're watching Dad!" I said with a sweet smile on my face.