Chapter 10 - Conflicting Ideals

717 21 8
                                    

The Calibur and the Bow clashed, with two Riders facing each other in a fight of ideals. Horobi's destructive way of protest and Zero One's duty to stop the terror. One way or another, one of them will prevail. After the clash of the weapons, Horobi followed up with an attempt of stabbing his armor with her Acid Analyze, but Zero One saw this and reacted by propelling himself backwards with the form's built-in Wing Fairlencers, avoiding the attack, dropping the Calibur in the process. Now in the air, he begin attacking by dive kicking on her, but Horobi responded by firing energy arrows from the Bow, forcing him to dodge first.

"You will never understand." Horobi said as she keeps firing the arrows. "Just how important Daybreak is to us! Once the poison that is the IS are gone, society will return back to its peaceful equal life!"

"But there are other ways to do it!" Zero One responded in kind, continuing to dodge the arrows. "And many of them don't involve terrorizing the innocent! What you're doing now won't change the society, it instead just make it worse!"

"What choice do we even have?!" Horobi roared as she jumps up to try to stab him again. Remembering that the stinger can extend, Zero One swoops down to grab the Attache Calibur and intercept the attack. "No matter what we do, those corrupted imbeciles always denied our requests! The only way to make them realize is by force!"

Zero One twirls his Calibur to remove the stinger, and rushes to deliver a solid punch to her face. The punch land, yet she then wraps him with the stinger and kicked him away, propelling him backward.

"Gah!" He cried, after hitting a wall behind him.

"No matter what..." Horobi then slowly walked towards the downed Zero One, pushing the Force Executor to close the Expanded Jack, before pulling it again.

[スティングディストピア]

"We will get our revenge!" She then dashes towards Zero One, with the stinger wrapping around her right leg. Seeing the impending danger, Zero One quickly pushed the Progrise Key to initiate his own finisher.

[フライングインパクト]

The Fairlencers then blows a strong magenta wind, propelling himself upward just in time to dodge the initial hit from Horobi's finisher. "Then I have no choice but to stop you right here and now!" He then adjust himself before diving at her, with his foot being covered in the same magenta wind. Seeing this, Horobi folds her leg, and delivers a sideway kick upon his diving kick, connecting the two.

"Flying Impact!"

"Sting Dystopia!"

The explosion that was made from the kick blew the two away from each other, with Zero One ended up rolling upon landing. What's worse however, is that his suit cannot withstand anymore damage, forcing the Driver to detransform him back to (Y/n). The teen then groans in pain from the debris. He tries to get up, but he then sees his own hands, realizing that he's no longer Zero One for now. 

'That was close! But...' He thought, until he saw Horobi staring at him.

"... You're Zero One..." Horobi said. Now knowing who she's fighting with, she decided to detransform herself while walking towards him. (Y/n) went defensive, as he tries to find another Progrise Key to transform, fearing that she might try to attack him in this state. However, she stopped just at a close distance, enough to give him a chance to run away. "Why do you fight? What is it that you want from stopping us?"

(Y/n) stared at Horobi in return, contemplating about what she said. However, he already have a reason why.

"... I understand why you're doing it, Horobi." He said while standing up despite the pain, "But even so, I couldn't just sit by and watch people get hurt and even die. I might be an outsider, but I have to fight for everyone's sake." He then reminded of Mizuki, Kotona, and then Izu, who are fighting in their own way.

"So that's why, the one that will stop your terror..." He then points his thumb to himself, with a fierce look on his eyes. "Will be me!"

Horobi stared at the boy's gaze, seemingly interested of his resolve. Being a one man hero takes a lot of bravery, and seeing that he's not even scared even by a bit, makes him even more interesting to her.

"Then prove it." She said, and as if it was on cue, a giant explosion occurred, and from there, three giant mechs are marching towards the park, wrecking the buildings along the way.

" She said, and as if it was on cue, a giant explosion occurred, and from there, three giant mechs are marching towards the park, wrecking the buildings along the way

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

"Prove to me that you can stop us." Horobi said, as she then transforms again and jumps away. (Y/n) tries to stop her, but then he realized something even more worrying.

"Oh no, the Officer!" He yelled, and runs to the direction where Kotona were going earlier, hoping that she's okay.

Abandoned Warehouse,

While the chaos ensued at the park, Izu clenched her fists upon seeing the giant mechs. She was briefly distressed when she sees (Y/n) almost getting finished by Horobi, before he managed to counter it. She turned to Zea as she hoped that the AI would let her finally help their President in any way she could.

"Not to worry, Izu." Zea said, which it then gestured at the Printer. "The Progrise Key is almost complete. All that's left is to deliver it to our President." Izu then nods in acknowledgment. She then closed her eyes, as data of (Y/n)'s current whereabouts are being downloaded into her memory.

"President (Y/n)..." Izu mumbled. "Please wait a little longer."

Somewhere Unknown,

The viewer of the fight were dissatisfied over the footage of the it being cut off from the explosion. Despite this, they already gauge the strength from the two fighters.

"Powers that are on par with the IS, maybe even stronger. Not to mention the benefit of privacy with that mask of theirs." She said. "I wonder... will they be on par with my own personal IS?"

"Lady Amatsu?" Someone else then entered her office, that being a secretary of sorts. "The Vulcans and the Valks are ready to be deployed. Would you like to send them in now?"

The shadow that were covering the woman's face then got removed, revealing her physique of a woman in her thirties with short light brown hair and lilac eyes. On her desk, there's a single item resembling a Progrise Key on it, although what kind of Key it is is not visible.

"Not now. I want to see where this goes." She then ordered, which the Secretary then nods before leaving. 'Lady Amatsu' then returned to her desk, as she waits for the footage to be restored.

"I'm looking forward to see the end of this chaos. Now entertain me, oh Hiden Lapboy~"

(... Surprise?~
As always, I hope you guys enjoyed, and Peace Out!~)

Progrising Beyond StratosWhere stories live. Discover now