"Yea, you see, I'm just not really understanding what you're throwing at me here." Krejit complained as he swept Captain Ilya's leg out from under him. "You told us yourself, the exosuit users of today are weaker than those of the past. You also said that most of Mariquels members were killed long ago."
"I understand that so let me elaborate a bit." Hallman said as he watched Krejit spar with Captain Ilya, Elise and North. "Mariquel does not function like Infinium does. We depend heavily on our Captains and Commanders. Probably about an eighty percent dependence rate."
"From what I saw during the last war, Mariquel has that rate at around fifty percent. Do you want to know what that other fifty percent dependence rate goes into? Technology!"
"They depend on technology over exosuit users." Krejit slipped beside North and kicked him into Elise. "And what technology can they produce that could possibly trump exosuit users?"
"SCM's, Specialty Combat Mechs. Halfway through the first part of World War Three, engineers at Mariquel discovered how to efficiently harness the energy our exosuits operate off and implement them into Mechs." Hellman explained.
"Fucking Mechs, you've got to be kidding me." Krejit dodged between multiple attacks from Elise, North and Ilya as he talked. "You're telling me that Mech's is what we were having such a hard time with for all those years. Big chunks of fucking steel is what we were losing against for so long."
"A brat like you who's never touched an actual battlefield wouldn't understand." Hellman said while barely keeping his cool. "The technology they implemented into those damn Mechs. You couldn't even begin to imagine."
Standing on the battlefield once again, Hellman scanned his surroundings. Lying around him were the mangled bodies of soldiers. All throughout the battlefield there was fire and ravaged corpses of Infinium and Mariquel soldiers alike. And worst of all, the cause of all that destruction was standing maybe a football field in front of Hellman.
A gigantic Mech standing at nearly a hundred feet left Hellman in a traumatized state. Only moments before, he and his battalion of soldiers were celebrating their victory over their battle against Mariquel forces. Then in the blink of an eye, he was standing in a graveyard consisting of those he considered friends.
In the left hand of the Mech, was the crushed and mangled body of Infinium Captain Techno. A surge of energy activated and ran down the Mechs arm. Upon reaching its hand, a beam of red energy shot out into the sky, disintegrating the Captain's body. The body of a friend that Hellman could not even comprehend was now gone.
Falling to his knees, Hellman could only watch as the Mech turned its attention from its hand to him. With new prey in sight, the Mech took a step forward, shaking the ground in the process. But not even that was able to break Hellman from his trauma induced trance as he still continued to stare down the Mech.
The only thing going though Hellman's brain in that moment was nothing but him wondering whether he was to die or not. Then, the Mech stopped after only a couple steps, its sight set past Hellman. Confused by the sudden change, Hellman turned his head to where the Mech was looking.
Behind him, barely struggling to their feet was Infinium Captain Veneto, his left arm torn off from the shoulder. In his right arm he clenched onto a machete like short blade covered in energized electricity. Taking a moment to gain his balance, he raised his head to face down the massive Mech. And just like that, he began to start limping forward.
Before Veneto could take many steps, the Mech raised its left arm and aimed it at him. A beam of red energy blasted toward him that he decided to stare down. In the moment before the beam would have reached him, he phased to the side. Reappearing a dozen feet to the right, he began to run towards the left side of the Mech.
With the sheer power the beam of energy consumed, the Mech would need at least ten seconds to charge up another. Because of this, it resorted to using a barrage of missiles that burst out of a compartment on its back. Sending dozens of missiles into the air, the Mech stepped back as they changed direction and locked onto Veneto.
"Is that all!" Veneto screamed as he jumped into the air and slashed his blade through the air. The slashing movement he made with his blade discharged multiple charges of electricity into the missiles. These charges of electricity tore through the missiles causing some of them to explode which activated a chain reaction of explosions throughout the air.
Emerging out of the smokescreen of explosions, Veneto landed on the Mech and stabbed his sword blade into it. Electricity discharged from his blade into the Mech but did little to harm it. Then, pulling together the last of the energy he had, he laughed maniacally as a shockwave of electricity exploded from his exosuit into the Mech.
The shockwave of energized electricity sent the Mech stumbling back, its left arm slightly damaged. In the last-ditch attempt that only delayed the inevitable, Veneto fell off the Mech and hit the ground under. There, he could only watch the Mech recover almost instantly and loom menacingly over him.
Lowering its left arm, the Mech aimed its palm down at Veneto as red energy ran through its arm. "So, that's it, huh. This is really where it ends?" he thought as the energy moved into the hand of the Mech. But before the Mech had the chance to fire the energy, a beam of yellow energy blasted into its wrist.
The beam of energy pierced through the Mech's wrist, causing its own energy to backfire and explode. This explosion heavily damaged the Mech left hand and sent it stumbling back. After taking a moment to regain its balance, a nanomechanical mesh began to repair the destroyed parts of the Mechs arm.
Now standing on his own two feet, Hellman took slow but meaningful steps towards the Mech. Floating around him were dozens of rifles pointed at the Mech all being enhanced by his own energy. Stopping after only a couple steps, he outstretched his palm up fist in front of his chest.
A mass of energy formed around Hellman's fist as dozens of more rifles floated off the ground around him. He then clenched his fist, activating every rifle under his control to fire a beam of energy. Taking a second to properly analyze the threat of the beams, the Mech raised its right arm and a hexagonal based energy shield formed from its palm.
While the beams of energy continuously fired into the shield, Veneto jumped back onto the Mech. Landing beside his blade that was planted into the Mechs armor, he grabbed it. He then began to run along the body of the Mech, his sword ripping through its armor and sending electricity sparking throughout its internal systems.
Veneto sprinted across the Mech until he suddenly started to slow to a stop. "What the hell?" He thought as he began to float up into the air right off the Mech. All around the Mech there was a field of anti-gravity that he was now caught up in. An anti-gravity field that caused him to float into the air right above the Mech.
With the beams of energy still barraging into its energy shield, the Mech turned its attention to Veneto. As its energy shield began to crack from all the energy it was enduring, it raised it pointed its left palm at him. Red energy began to flow from its core into its left arm, where it traveled into its hand.
"Hellman, you hear me?" Veneto yelled as red energy flowed into the Mechs palm. "Just wanted to let you know...I really enjoyed serving under you. I'm glad I was able to call you and Techno frie-" Before he could finish, a beam of red energy shot out of the Mechs palm and disintegrated his entire body.
Having to watch another friend die, Hellman suddenly just stopped, losing all the will he had left to fight. All the rifles around him fell back into the mud as he fell to his knees right alongside them. But then, he raised his head, staring into the night sky, directly up at the Moon and the stary night sky.
A surge of energy exploded from Hellman's exosuit, sending a shockwave of energy across the battlefield. This energy that he produced washed over the ground, wrapping around every rifle there. Then as he rose off the ground back to his feet, every rifle on the battlefield floated into the air.
Each rifle was overflowing with energy as they turned in the air to all point at the Mech. Which was already preparing to fire off another beam of energy at Hellman. Before the Mech could fire the beam of energy, Hellman clenched his fist tightly. This caused the rifles to release their built-up energy all at once.
Hundreds of beams of energy pierced through the air towards the Mech. In response, the Mech fired off its own beam of red energy and formed another energy shield for protection. But the beam of energy meant for Hellman only made it a measly distance before it was intercepted by dozens of beams of energy.
When the beams of energy collided, it caused an explosion of energy that rippled throughout the battlefield. Massive craters now littered the battlefield between where the Mech and Hellman stood. Yet that did not stop the onslaught of energy beams that marched onward towards the Mech.
Analyzing the situation before itself, the Mech allocated additional energy to the energy shield. But it was to no avail, as the beams of energy simply pierced through the shield. Once through the shield, the beams of energy ripped through the Mechs arm, leaving it mangled and inoperable.
Then, as the Mechs right arm was left destroyed, another barrage of beams ripped into its left side. Because of its already damaged state, its left arm was destroyed quicker than the right. Now with both arms destroyed, the Mech tried to back off while preparing another energy weapon in its arsenal.
But the Mech never got the chance to put this weapon into play. Before it could finish preparing to use the energy-based weapon, a massive beam of energy pierced through its chest, where its core laid. The core which enabled the Mech the ability to utilize energy. The core that allowed the Mech to operate.
Standing there motionless, the Mech could no longer function as its core began to pulse with energy. The pulsing slowly began to increase in intensity as it soon began to release small shockwaves of energy. Then, as Hellman realized what was happening, the core exploded, encompassing the whole battlefield in a series of violent explosions.
Hellman let out a sigh as Krejit stared at him. "We lost so many good soldiers to those damn Mechs...so many friends."
"Far too many friends." Arazia said as he entered the training room.
"If these Mechs were as strong as you said they were, then how did you beat them?" Captain Ilya asked aloud.
"Luckily for us, there were not many of them." Hellman explained. "I don't know for sure, but I can imagine the process needed to make the core of the mechs was a strenuous one. In our fifty years of war against Mariquel, we only ever came across seven different Mechs."
"The only effective way we found of dealing with these Mechs was exosuit users with masterful control over energy manipulation." Arazia explained as Vermont entered the training room behind him.
"Is that Captain Vermont?" Krejit questioned Hellman.
"Our very own." Hellman answered.
"What the fuck happened to him?" Krejit examined the glowing purple eye of Vermont as he walked past Arazia.
"I had half my head blown off." Vermont walked past Krejit up to Hellman. For a moment, he simply stared down at Hellman before saying. "I need to fight."
"You want to fight." Hellman repeated.
"The other captains haven't been enough to satisfy this things urge to fight" Vermont pointed up to the part of his head that had a piece of Dues Venandi mended into it. "After fighting with that man, this, this thing wants more." As he spoke, his purple eye glowed with a greater intensity than normal.
"It needs someone strong to face, someone who can give me a challenge." Upon Vermont finishing that sentence, the eye began to burst with energy. The part of Dues Venandi in his head was forcing him to turn around and face Krejit.
"Lucky you then." Krejit responded to the challenge. "I was just getting bored of these second rate-" Before he could finish, Vermont lunged forward, grabbing him by the face. "Good speed." He thought while Vermont raised him into the air then slammed his face into the ground. "Decent power as well."
With Krejit on the floor, Vermont took this opportunity to send a powerful kick into his stomach. This kick sent him flying across the training room directly into a wall. But instead of crashing into the wall, Krejit landed on it with his feet. He then stretched out his arms to the side and a pair of insect like nanotechnological wings spread from his back.
"Thats bullshit." Elise let out. "You're telling me all I had to do to get that powerful is to die." Turning to Ilya, she gave him a crazed smile. "Ilya, hit me with your best shot."
"Captain Ilya, I command you to ignore Captain Elise." Hellman ordered as he watched Krejit walk down the wall back to the ground.
"From what I've heard and from what I see, I think I understand." Krejit announced. "When that purple eye of yours begins to glow, it does one of two things. One, it analyzes your opponent and gouges their skill level. And second, it supplies you with additional energy on top of what your exosuit already provides."
"You also reported that you were able to successfully activate overdrive before your death. Which restructured your body to enhance your natural ability to manipulate energy." Krejit drew back his arm and a serrated blade formed down his elbow to his wrist. Jumping into the air, his wings propelled him towards Vermont at an incredible speed.
Unable to dodge, Vermont raised his guard to block the incoming attack. In the blink of an eye, Krejit was now standing behind Vermont. His arm was covered in Vermont's blood as he held his severed left arm in his hand. "It's too bad you're still so inexperienced. You might have actually made an entertaining sparring partner."
"That so." Vermont chuckled as he turned around to face Krejit. Multiple cards of energy formed in the air around Vermont as he spoke. "Can you please take this fight more seriously. You're starting to bore us." The cards fired off towards Krejits back, causing him to dodge into the air.
"Specialty energy manipulation!" Krejit thought as he flew around in the air effortlessly to dodge the cards. "He's manipulating dozens of these cards with a severed arm. To think he just unlocked these abilities a couple days ago and he's already mastered them."
As Krejit zigzagged through the air, Vermont walked over to his severed arm and picked it up. Raising it up to his elbow, nanotechnology reached out to the arm and began reattaching it. Once his arm was reattached, he outstretched his other arm up and more cards began to form around his hand.
Vermont raised his other arm and ripped off the bandana that covered his eyes. With the bandana gone, he turned his head to examine Krejit with his purple eye. After a moment of examination, his purple eye pulsed with energy. This resulted in his orange energy cards gaining a light aura of purple energy.
These enhanced cards then shot into the air at a quicker speed than the others towards Krejit. "Even more?" he thought while dodging through the air. But one of the cards suddenly changed direction as he moved and pierced into his arm. "And they're getting faster." Covering his hand in green energy, he grabbed the card and crushed it.
"Guess I should probably stop holding back now." Krejit thought as Vermont disappeared from under him. "Fuck did he go!" Flying higher into the air, Vermont reappeared under him and grabbed his leg.
"What's up?" Vermont asked sarcastically as he and Krejit fell through the air back towards the ground.
As Krejit reached down to grab Vermont, Vermont jerked him to the side and began to spin him around in the air as they descended. After a couple seconds of spinning, he let go, sending Krejit flying into the wall. Although, this time he did not land on his feet, but hit the wall back first.
"Did I do too much?" Vermont questioned in his mind as he fell back to the ground. He examined the hole in the wall Krejit flew through and in the dust, saw a slight green glow. "Oh shit!" Right before his foot would have hit the ground, a green flash crashed into him at a speed so fast he could not even comprehend what had happened.
All Vermont could remember from that moment was the green flash and then everything turned black. And after a short period of darkness, he struggled to open his eyes. Letting out a groan, he opened his eyes only to see Hellman, Arazia and Krejit staring down at him in amazement.
"See, told you I didn't kill him." Krejit announced to Hellman.
Pushing up off the ground, Vermont stumbled to his feet. And if not for Arazia's assistance, he most certainly would have fallen over. "What happened." He said while staring at the crater in the wall behind him.
"Idiot Number Two here forgot to hold back!" Hellman answered angrily.
"Sorry about that." Krejit apologized. "Just got a little...annoyed after you threw me through that wall."
"It's fine." Vermont accepted. "Thanks to you, the urge has died down a bit, can feel its satisfaction from the fight."
"Captain Ilya, get in here." Hellman yelled out. Because of the earlier battle, all the captains were ordered by him to vacate the room. A second after his command, the door to the training room opened and Ilya entered. "Help Captain Vermont to the Medical Bay."
Ilya, following the command from his superior, walked out of the training room with Vermont. That left Arazia, Hellman and Krejit standing alone in front of a broken wall.
"You need to promote Vermont." Krejit insisted after a long moment of silence between the three. "He's far too strong to leave off as a Captain."
"You know it doesn't work like that." Hellman answered. "But I understand. I'll speak with Jay about it, after witnessing his power for myself in an actual combat scenario."