08/02/4014 AD – 20:32 – Lavamelt – Nuclear Wasteland
The crash of light created an explosion that scattered particles of shimmering light and obscuring smoke; it soon cleared and Flaaregon was completely unscathed.
Crystrx jumped onto an open communications line, "Alliance and Rebellion forces, bombard that thing with artillery! All flight units, attack!" At her command, Mylialta, Grav Bombers, White Ravens, and Heygrasaults all began to take to the skies; the Rebellion were more hesitant with their deployments. Several Carazstars aimed their energy cannons at Flaaregon and opened fire, the blasts hit the wings of the beast, but no damage was dealt.
"The wings act as shields!" Hyperzio revealed as he attempted to get close. "Attack from alternate angles; force it to split apart its wings!" He aimed his Angelic Cannon and shoulder cannons at the top of the crest that was sticking out from his tucked in head. Flaaregon seemed unaffected. Suddenly, the long tails extended, dashed upwards and thwacked Hyperzio; the tail then came back down and smashed the disorientated Hyperzio into the surface.
"Hyperzio!" Anmarina cried out. She engaged her water blades and rushed at the phoenix. Just as she was about to strike, the water evaporated from her arms. "What?!" The blue Wyperian was then smacked by Flaaregon's wings, throwing her into the ground.
"It's exposed! Fire!" Crystrx ordered. Mylialta unleashed waves of missiles, Grav Bombers used Flaaregon's Carazstar length wingspan to their advantage and commenced a sideways bombing run along its back. White Ravens fired their remote missiles at the creature's head. Explosions spread all over the body as it let out a screech. Fire began to form in Flaaregon's beak, but this time, the attack immediately launched, spreading a much weaker beam of fire that washed over the fighters within ranges. More explosions decorated the skies.
"That attack destroyed fifteen of our aircraft!" a soldier cried out over open comms.
Meanwhile, Alexis looked on at the battle with Kira, Alpha, and Jonathon.
"Here we are!" Millenicel descended to the group with a Heygrasault following him; the pair landed just behind the group. "This will take you away from here, Lexi".
"What?! Why me?!" Alexis cried out.
"Because you can't do anything", Kira pointed out quietly.
"What do you mean?!"
"Your armament", Alpha explained. "You have two pistols and a sword; you don't have a visor and the Darkcrusher can't even fly".
"Oh I see!" Alexis's face brightened. "This will take me back to a ship to re-equip".
"No", Alpha said coldly.
"Why not?!"
"We don't have a spare flight pack".
"Okay then I'll borrow a spare flight-type A.M.R."
"We don't have any".
"What?! You've had like three Skystorms!"
"One of those was a proto-type suit. The one I'm wearing now is a special variant that was gifted to me; I'm not letting you pilot it".
"Grrrr", Alexis slammed her first into the side of the Heygrasault; she knew they were right.
"Alpha; Fated, Coru, and Vice are about to deploy", Jonathon announced. "We better go".
"Yes, Sir", Alpha's thruster wings expanded.
"Hey, hold on a minute!" Alexis grabbed Jonathon's arm. "You said that Darkcrusher can't fly! Coru uses an older version of Darkcrusher!"
"Yeah, but he's just an A.I.", he explained. "His lightweight thrusters enable flight because he weighs next to nothing himself; he's just an A.I. chip in a fake body".
"Then what about Vice's Finalrage?!" Alexis spat. "There definitely aren't any strong thrusters on that!"
"Vice is using a flight pack".
"What?! But you just said-"
"There isn't a spare? Yes, Vice's flight pack belongs to Vice". With those last words, Jonathon and Alpha took off.
"Sorry sis", Kira frowned as the flaps on her back opened up, allowing her feathered wings to slip through.
"You're not going to leave as well, are you?" Alexis almost sounded heartbroken.
"Well, I mean, I am an Angel... and I have missile spears, that'll be useful against an oversized animal!" Kira flew off, leaving her sister all alone with just the pilot of the Heygrasault for company.
"Hey... how badly do you want to help?" came a sly, mysterious voice.
"Not enough to let you have your way", Alexis walked onto the dropship before it took off.
A bolt of lightning struck Flaaregon from the sky. Whilst it didn't seem to do any damage, it appeared to at least annoy the creature. He stared down to the scorched ground and laid its eyes upon Hyperzio; fire began to form it its mouth.
'It has intelligence?!' Olicleaver realised as he began observing from the ground.
"Not so fast!" Anmarina flew in between the Deity and Hyperzio. Concentrated water formed in one hand as her Angelic Cannon materialised in the other. Flaaregon launched its attack, as did Anmarina. The attacks collided in mid-air, closer to the woman; the sheer force reduced her health to eighty-seven percent.
'Phew, thank goodness I didn't take much damage during out fight with Flaymaclaze', she calmly thought as she looked back at her protected friend. 'At least we-' Anmarina was slammed into the ground from a lash of Flaaregon's third tail. The crystal embedded into the tip of the tail began to glow a pinkish-red before it emitted a swirling beam of fire that blasted Anmarina.
"ANNA!" Hyperzio cried out. His visor turned red as he pulled out a holo sword. "Why you!" But the electric Angel was put in his place as the tail whipped him across the wasteland.
'Hyperzio: seventy-three percent... and Anmarina: seventy percent', Olicleaver read off his visor. 'This thing has done more damage in the last thirty seconds than Flaymaclaze did over thirty minutes!'
"Olicleaver!" Dracolast landed next to him. "Are you able to calculate a weakness for this thing?!"
"Not exactly", Olicleaver scanned Flaaregon for the tenth time. "All I know is that its wings are essentially giant shields; when fighting an animal, I would usually suggest taking out the eyes, but..." A squadron of Mylialta flew towards Flaaregon and fired a cluster of missiles towards its head. Explosions covered the ten-meter head in smoke. Flaaregon was unaffected. It retaliated with a mouthful of flames, incinerating two more Mylialta.
In what could only be described as a display of pride, Flaaregon screeched and spread its wings wide letting some excess lava fall off its body. Two spheres of light suddenly smashed into the Deity and caused a shriek of pain; the Lyshaspeare's Saberail guns had taken their shots.
Crystrx didn't let the small victory go to her head, "Miracle Spear, FIRE!" a pre-charged beam launched off. Flaaregon had to rotate its body in order to get its wings into position to block in time; the beast looked angry, glaring at the Lyshaspeare. Magma began to form in its mouth as it began to swallow much more of it than before.
"Evasive manoeuvres!" Crystrx barked.
"It's no use!" an officer cried out.
"Staruthia! Can you project a shield?!" Crystrx panicked as she turned around; Staruthia wasn't on the bridge anymore.
"I'm on my way outside now!" she explained over comms, but I'm nowhere near the hangar!"
"Weapons?!" Crystrx asked in desperation.
"Miracle Spear and Saberails are still charging!"
"Turi-Cannons?!"
"One Tri-Carazstar is down, and the other is still in orbit!"
"Well get it down here! Hurry!" Crystrx's face turned pale as she watched Flaaregon aiming its beak towards the command ship. "All artillery, focus on its head! Quickly!" It was too late. Flaaregon threw up an enormous beam of flaming energy. Crystrx's life was about to come to an end.
"I don't think so!"
Flaaregon's beam hit something in front of the Lyshaspeare; a miniscule silhouette could be seen as the flames started to diverge towards the sides of the ship. The flames began to die down.
"Heh... so much for fire attacks not being able to damage me..." Elimiphlaren laughed as he looked at his health gauge. "Sixty-two percent left; I reckon I could block another one of those..."
"Elimiphlaren?!" Crystrx cried out in disbelief.
"Attention all A.E.R. forces!" Elimiphlaren shouted over comms. "The Lyshaspeare is our best bet at taking this thing out; until then, follow the U.A.'s orders! All artillery, fire!" And with those words, the four Shutenghen began to rain energy blasts down upon Flaaregon. The combined base-ship artillery from both sides kept Flaaregon's wings from moving quickly. The beast turned its head towards the group of A.E.R. base ships and opened its mouth, magma forming inside. A plethora of missiles hit the bottom of the beak causing it to screech and spit out the molten liquid. Fated, Coru, and Vice all hit it with rockets from their Hyloe, Fumvee, and Flight Pack, respectively. The attacks came from below and the A.I. quickly scattered. The enraged Flaaregon flung one of its tails towards Coru.
"Just what I was waiting for!" Alpha smirked as he caught the tail with his crossed arm-slashers.
"You can't cut it with that!" Dracolast called out from across the battlefield.
"Who said anything about cutting it?" Alpha's chest guns flipped up and began to shoot the tail's crystal. The bullets didn't scratch the crystal, but certainly seemed to bother Flaaregon. As soon as the tail began to glow pink, Alpha launched off before he was caught up in the incoming fiery blast.
"With the base ships all keeping the wings pinned, we only have to deal with the tails, claws, and beak", Jonathon explained calmly as he evaluated the situation from above. "Unless this thing has anymore tricks..." Flaaregon looked up at Jonathon with intrigue.
"Errr... it can't understand English... can it?" Jonathon was taken aback.
"I don't see how it possibly could..." Olicleaver said nervously. Flaaregon screeched once again as it expanded its wings. This time, bright orange orbs spawned in the middle of the gaps that separated the half-wings from each other; there were a total of ten orbs. The orbs converted into thin beams that shot upwards, each one piercing through the base-ships above. Debris came falling down as Flaaregon began to rise to the same altitude as the fleet.