Anthem's Fall

Chapter Sixty Seven

The three quickly recovered and halted in space, falling into readied positions. They were not in the high atmosphere above the city anymore, and the tall roofs reached upward, not far below their hovering feet. The sounds of the streets rose to greet them.

"So, I guess even one-on-one duels have fallen to the wayside nowadays," Gravitas said through heavy breaths. "Honorless bastards."

To his surprise, Darien—without a semblance of a verbal comeback—charged him this time, thrusting a kick at Gravitas's midsection. Gravitas spun out of the way, turning just in time to duck below another one of Hoff's incoming fists. By nothing but sheer practiced reflex, Gravitas lowered his shoulder and flexed his arm tightly against his side, blocking another monstrous blindside kick from Darien. Though the properly sustained kick inflicted no injury to him, Gravitas was punted in a soaring arc across the sky of the city from the rocking blow. To Gravitas's surprise, he soared straight past the thrashing rotors of a helicopter. From the open side door, the black lens of a camera along with a cameraman and pilot watched the aerial brawl in vacant disbelief.

"Get out of here!" Gravitas roared to the helicopter as the two giants tore after him.

Gravitas watched Hoff veer from his direct path and fly straight through the spinning rotors, surely just to anger him. The narrow steel shattered against the Lord General's body, and Gravitas held up a forearm as long blades of shrapnel shot out in every direction. The helicopter fell from the sky, twirling and spinning out of control toward crowded streets.

Gravitas darted down after it, but Darien got in his way. The giant lost his senses and launched a furious and uncontrolled punch at Gravitas's face. Gravitas took advantage. He dodged his head to the right, and Darien's right fist passed just above his left shoulder. Gravitas then turned his body, jutting his own right shoulder upward into Darien's armpit. In the same movement, Gravitas reached out and grasped Darien's extended arm. In one swift downward yank, Gravitas twisted Darien's arm so that his huge palm faced upward, and brought it down forcefully against his own slender shoulder. The giant's elbow hyperextended viciously. Ligaments and tendons stretched and tore apart; the bones connecting at his elbow separated with a loud pop. Darien's face took on the sick pallor of a child that has fallen from the top of the jungle gym, and he let out a terrible expulsion of air. He was in too much pain to cry out or scream. The Royal Guard simply fell in shock toward the city, his right arm flopping limply.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Hoff screamed as he stared at his falling comrade in disbelief.

Gravitas said nothing. Instead, he silently watched Darien fall, taking careful note of where the giant was going to land in the maze of skyscrapers. He would finish him off after he was through with the Lord General. Below them, the crashed helicopter smoldered in an intersection.

Hoff panted for breath as he watched Gravitas. His enormous shoulders were held at a tender angle, and he was failing to hide winces from the several broken ribs on his right side. He made a grunting noise as he pressed a hand against his ribs. "You really think you can defeat us?"
"You're already defeated," Gravitas called, still watching Darien plummet between two rows of buildings.

"I'll tear you apart!" Hoff snapped.

Gravitas turned to him humorlessly. "Then do it."

The Lord General clenched his fists in an obvious attempt to swallow the incapacitating pain in his side and his growing panic. He did not try to reach for his remote to call for help, which Gravitas guessed was the result of his pride. Instead, Hoff lunged toward Gravitas. Their arms met and they grappled violently with one another, pushing back and forth, to and fro, across the brilliant blue skies over the spires and gravel rooftops.

"It was stupid to lock arms with me!" Hoff grunted heavily between breaths. "Y—you may be quicker than me. But I'm certainly stronger than you! Vengelis Epsilon himself avoids grappling contests with me."

Gravitas focused on not losing control of the situation. The Lord General's arms were six or seven times the girth of his own, and Hoff was indeed remarkably strong. For a time Gravitas refrained from using his full strength against the general, and even allowed Hoff to push and pull him through the air. Gravitas was hoping to trick Hoff into thinking his strength was less than it really was, though he was careful not to allow himself to fall in danger of any precarious hold.

Then, just as Hoff began to grow overconfident in his superior strength, Gravitas, quickly summoning his total power into one movement and pulled downward on Hoff's enormous arms. The giant fell forward awkwardly. Gravitas then ripped his arms back and swung a powerful punch at the giant's chin, connecting brutally.

Hoff's huge head rolled from the blow.

Gravitas then spun, rounding on the general and launching a kick straight into his side, precisely hitting his already broken ribs. Hoff let out a wide-eyed howl and arched his back in agony. Gravitas leapt at the opening, and leveled a punch into the exact same spot, and another, and another. The Lord General's side was bleeding profusely from the beating. Hoff fell toward the city, his upper body locked in a painful and immobile condition.

The fight was over.

For a time Gravitas watched Hoff fall, and longed to show him mercy, to extend to this oblivious soldier a sympathy that he had never given to another. Then he thought of Kristen Jordan's beautiful face and felt a smoldering fury seep out of his very heart. This Lord General, this soulless and thoughtless monster, would have stripped her of her life without the slightest hesitation. All of her brilliance, all of her hopes and dreams and all she might yet come to be would have been devoured by this grotesque man's hunger for conquest. His crimes ran too atrocious for forgiveness. And so Gravitas exploded down toward the plummeting Hoff. With the full gathered momentum of his approach toward the free falling general, Gravitas reached back to full extension and launched a killing blow straight into Alegant Hoff's liver. Hoff made a gasping gurgle sound, and his body lurched toward the buildings below.

Gravitas then turned and accelerated toward the southwestern end of the city, where Darien had descended into the assemblage of shimmering skyscrapers.