The Breaking Point

Chapter 17: The Breaking Point

The air was thick with the reverberations of Mira's gravity field collapsing the path behind them, cutting off the bulk of the swarm. Dust and debris filled the narrow pass, and for a moment, a fragile silence that only sharpened the senses.

Caden whipped his katana around idly, the soft hum of its energy blade cutting through the tense silence. His smirk was still in place, but his eyes made their way across the remaining Proximars. "So, Ryan, what's the plan now? Or do I start killing them until something interesting happens?"

Ryan just shrugged and ignored the jab, his attention drawn instead to the other surviving Proximars. Larger and more menacing, these were proximars made to adjust to human tactics. Their rocky armour gleamed in the fading light; their alien eyes were alive with a sinister intelligence.

"Focus!" Ryan yelled his voice firm in command. "Darius, Ava hold the line. Selena's team, cover the flanks. Mira, prepare for another gravitational shift if this gets dangerous. Caden."

"Yeah, yeah, I do what I feel like," Caden said, chuckling as he trod forward and unsheathed his katana. "Don't worry, flashy.".

The Proximars did not wait for strategy. With a guttural screech, they surged forward, their bladed limbs slicing through the air. Due to the bond forged in desperation for survival, the team moved as one.

Darius roared as huge hammer fists crashed into the ground, the force seismic in the release. A running shockwave ran across, throwing the first wave of Proximars off balance. Ava's psychic energy flared bright, sending waves of force that slammed into the creatures with precision. Selena's team worked in unison, blades sizzling through the swarm in practised efficiency.

But it was Caden who stole the show. His movements were a green blur, his katana slicing through rocky flesh like butter. Each step, each strike was like a deadly dance that left a trail of destruction in his wake.

"You're showing off," Ava called out, her voice strained as she launched another psychic wave.

"Of course I am," he said, grinning, ducking under a Proximar's bladed limb and driving his katana upward, splitting the creature in two. "What's the point of surviving if you can't enjoy it?"

"Focus, both of you!" Ryan snarled, and his spear flared to life as he launched it through the air and impaled a Proximar, pinning it to the cliffside, and Cadan frowned a little when he heard Ryan order him. "I'm going to kill him for sure when I leave here" he said annoyed.

The tide of battle shifted with every passing second. The proximars were relentless, their attacks coordinated and cunning. The team fought back with everything they had, but the strain was beginning to show.

"Ryan!" Selena's voice cut through the chaos, urgent and sharp. "We've got a problem!"

Ryan spun around as a new wave struggled out from the cliffs above them, silhouetted against the darkening sky. These were bigger, more heavily armored, a different class altogether.

"They just keep on growing bigger, don't they?" Caden said with growing irritation. "They're adapting faster than we thought," Ryan growled, teeth clenched. "Mira, collapse the cliffs! We need to cut them off before they surround us!

Mira hesitated, her gravity field sputtering out as she stared up at the unstable rock formations above them. "If I do that, the whole pass might cave in!"

"We don't have a choice!" Ryan shouted.

Before Mira could do anything, a deafening roar resounded across the pass, and the ground shuddered; the team stood in terror as a huge Proximar came into view out of the shadows: a towering behemoth with huge, obsidian-like armor plates and eyes aglow with malign intelligence.

The falter in Caden's grin showed once. "New." "And challenging" He added

The creature roared the second time, a guttural sound of rage, before its bulk dove toward them, each step crushing grounds.

"Fall back!" he yelled, which broke through most of the shock that had just consumed the team's minds. "Mira, get that gravity field up! Ava, distract it!"

Yet Caden wasn't moving his gaze, entranced by this behemoth which had appeared. His katana was loose at his side, lifeless.

"Caden!" Ryan shouted.

Caden merely cocked his head to one side, the smirk returning. "I got this."

He stepped forward, and his whole body hummed with energy. The team stood in stunned silence while Caden took the behemoth on solo.

Caden's katana hummed in his grasp as he took slow, deliberate steps toward the Proximar behemoth and the creature did the same. The huge creature loomed over him, its obsidian-plated body sucking up the fading light, many eyes locked onto the lone figure standing before it.

"Caden, fall back!" Ryan barked, but Caden didn't so much as glance his way.

Mira's gravity field flared to life, pressing against the creature's motions, but it barely slowed. Ava sent a psychic blast against its legs trying to knock it off balance-the behemoth just barely staggered.

Ryan muttered a curse. "Damn it, he's gonna get himself killed.

But Caden didn't budge, a grin creeping back onto his face. His heart was pounding, but it wasn't fear-no, this was excitement. This was the fight he had been waiting for.

The Proximar behemoth roared and lunged forward, its bladed limbs slicing through the air.

Caden moved.

The world blurred as he ducked beneath the first strike, his katana flashing in an upward arc. Sparks flew as his blade scraped across the behemoth's armor, leaving only the shallowest of marks.

"Tch." Caden clicked his tongue, pivoting on his heel as the Proximar swung again. He barely dodged, the wind of its attack rushing past him. "Alright, you're tougher than the others. I like that.

Darius slams his fists into the ground, sending another shockwave rippling toward the creature, but it braces itself, its claws digging deep into the earth.

"It's not working!" Ava shouted.

"We need to hit it at its weak points!" Selena exclaimed, twin sabers spinning in her hands.

Ryan's mind raced. "We don't have the firepower for this…" He glanced at Caden, frustration flashing across his face. "Damn it, if you've got something up your sleeve, now would be a good time!"

Caden only smirked.

Then he vanished.

In a blur of motion, he was behind the behemoth in an instant, katana flashing toward the joints of its armor. The blade sliced deep this time, dark red ichor spilling onto the ground. The Proximar screeched, as its movements faltered a bit.

"There it is," Caden murmured, eyes gleaming.

But the behemoth retaliated faster than expected. A massive claw came sweeping toward him, and for the first time, Caden was just a fraction too slow.

The impact sent him flying.

He crashed into the rock wall with a sickening crack, dust and debris exploding outward.

"Caden!" Mira cried out.

For a moment, everything was silent. Then, with an almost lazy groan, Caden pushed himself up from the rubble, rolling his shoulders. He wiped the blood trickling from his lip and let out a breath.

"Alright," he muttered. "That hurt." His eyes sharpened. "Now I'm really interested."

The behemoth roared once more, charging right for him.

Ryan gritted his teeth. "We need to help him before he kills himself."

"We will," Selena said, moving forward. "We attack as one for as long as we remain a team."

The team tensed themselves to join the fight.

Caden smirked, clenching tightly onto his katana.

"Let's end this."

Caden smirked, but his stance had changed his feet opened wide, katana angled low, ready to strike. The Proximar behemoth growled, the reverberation traveling through the canyon. Then something changed.

The Proximar's obsidian armor rippled like something inside it had shifted. The glow in its eyes brightened and its frame straightened out from a hulking monstrosity to a smaller size. Its breathing turned sharper, more deliberate.

Ryan's eyes widened. "No way."

A low hum vibrated the air, something instantly recognizable.

The Proximar's body pulsed. Energy pumped down its legs, swelling into its core, fortifying every inch of its structure. It was emulating Caden.

Caden clicked his tongue; for one moment, true surprise flickered in his gaze. "Oh? You're learning?"

The beast's reaction was instant: It disappeared in one burst of amazing speed.

One second later, before Caden could manag to raise his katana in defense, a huge claw slammed into him. The sheer power shook the atmosphere into ripples of force.

Caden was blasted backward before he even registered the hit. He barely managed to twist his body mid-air, slamming his katana into the rocky surface of the ground to slow his momentum. His boots skidded across the canyon floor, digging deep into the dirt.

The moment he stopped moving, the Proximar was already there.

Its claw shot forward.

BOOM!

Caden took another hit head-on.

The impact sent him flying again, slamming into the cliffside with a bone-rattling force. The rock crumbled around him.

"Caden!" Mira's scream cut through the air.

Ryan cursed. "That thing is copying him!"

Selena's grip on her blades tightened. "If it's learning from Caden it means it can learn from us tok, we have to hit it from an angle it can't predict!"

But the Proximar wasn't done.

Its body trembled, energy crackling across its form. Then, with another deafening roar, it launched itself toward the crumpled debris where Caden had fallen meaning to finish him off.

Mira raised her hand, a desperate gravity pulse shooting out to slow the beast. Ava hurled a psychic shockwave. Darius charged forward towards the Proximar

Nothing materialized. None of it was enough.

The Proximar tore through their efforts like paper and Darius was slammed into another wall.

It reached Caden as its massive claw descending for the killing blow.

A sudden shift.

The debris exploded.

And in that instant, Caden moved.

Faster than before. Faster than anything they'd seen.

His katana carved upward in a brutal, decisive arc. The Proximar staggered, a deep gash splitting across its armored obsidian chest.

Caden landed, his breath steady despite the blood dripping from his lips. He wiped it away, his smirk returning.

"Not bad," he admitted, rolling his shoulders. "But if you're gonna copy me…"

A deep hum resonated from his body and he was covered with a green light.

".then you better keep up."

And Caden moved striking at the Proximar from various angles giving it grievous injuries and soon a heart size core appeared in the proximar's chest.

The Proximar stumbled, its obsidian armor cracked with a deep, glowing gash. Caden exhaled, rolling his shoulders, his katana still humming with energy.

Ryan and the others readied themselves to strike the final blow.

"This is it! Finish it now!" Ryan ordered.

Caden grinned, his body surging with energy as he prepared the final blow.

Then a chilling vibration ran through the air.

Something was coming.

A shadow blotted out most of the sky from above.

A second, even larger and more refined Proximar landed behind the wounded behemoth - its armor an even darker shade of abyssal black - and locked its multiple eyes onto the battlefield, and then-

It opened its mouth.

A deep, guttural hum vibrated through the canyon, as energy condensed between his fangs into a spiraling sphere of raw destruction.

Ryan's eyes bulged. "MOVE!"

A beam of pure energy burst forward, destroying everything that stood in the way.

Caden had no more than a split-second to move. He crossed his katana over in front of himself, bracing for the impact—

And then he was gone.

The world blurred in a kaleidoscope of colors as the force of the blast hurled him through the air at impossible speeds. The wind roared in his ears, his body tumbling violently.

The canyon vanished beneath him.

Mountains, rivers, forests-all passed in seconds.

"What the fuckkkk" Caden said and then-

BOOM.

He crashed.

The dust settled, and Caden groaned, forcing himself onto one knee. His body screamed in protest, but he knew that he was alive.

He looked up next.

Before him lay the battlefield: burning wreckage, clashing soldiers, and the echoes of war machines and robots thundering in the distance.

The front lines.

Caden exhaled, wiping the blood from his lips, and chuckled.

Well,I'm totally fucked" he said, rising and grasping his katana.