Dark stormy clouds blanketed the sky above Los Angeles showering the city with heavy rain. A large, enclosed stadium stood between dozens of skyscrapers. Millions of people were roaming the streets as the day prepared for a concert that was on course of being the largest attended live show in history.
The greatest metal band of today playing nonstop classics from across the genre for an entire week. In the stadium designed specialty for mass gatherings can easily hold a million people. And to celebrate this grand achievement, a festival of similar grandeur will be held across the city.
"I think it is time we should take a break." Ian stated while staring into the dark clouds. Rain fell all around Ian hitting the roof of the skyscraper he was standing on.
"You scared?" Lina coughed from the ground; her face implanted into the concrete ground of the roof.
"Please" Ian laughed as he sheathed his sword back into his cane. "You still have a long way to go before "scaring" me."
Lina pushed against the ground and jumped up from the ground onto her feet. "But I am getting better?"
"I will admit, your understanding of your capabilities is becoming greater." Ian confessed. "With enough training, I'm sure you'll be quite the formidable foe in the future."
Feeling a great sense of satisfaction, Lina could not help but let out a smile. "I understand how nice the feeling of growth is. But do not let your pride in your abilities grow into arrogance. Don't forget that there are always those stronger than you." Allistair said killing her mood.
"You down for drinks?" Ian asked in a more casual tone than how he spoke earlier. "I've been craving a strawberry banana smoothie for a couple hours now."
"I prefer milkshakes." Lina walked up next to Ian and stared up into the sky beside him. "What are you looking at?...oh shit, I mean-"
"I'm not entirely blind you know." Ian explained, his head dropping to view the street below. "I can still see by letting my energy spread all around me. When my energy encounters something I ca feel its presence. But that's not all I see. These broken eyes allow me to witness the flow of energy in its purest form."
"Energy in and of itself is a beautiful thing. I find it a shame that I can't share its beauty with any other." Letting his exosuit recede from around his head, Ian turned to face Lina. A burn-like scar lay across his face going from eye to eye. His blue eyes glowing with silver energy pierced through the veil of lies the world had to offer.
Ian peered down at the stadium that was hosting the concert that was now beginning. A near crippling feeling of dread spread through his body as, from his point of view, the rain began to stain yellow. "What are you." Ian thought to himself while reaching out to grab a yellow raindrop.
The moment the raindrop plopped onto Ian's hand, spikes of yellow energy pierced through his palm and fingers. After drawing back and destroying the energy by clenching his hand, he grabbed Lina by the wrist and pulled her into his embrace. Another raindrop hit his back sending multiple spikes piercing into him.
With a yell of pain Ian let out a shockwave of energy from his exosuit that cleared the area around him of rain. "Hurry!" Ian tightened his grip on Lina's wrist and ran for the door that led to the lower levels of the skyscraper via a stairway. Letting out a yelp of pain, Lina fell as spikes pierced into her thigh.
"Shit" Ian thought as he threw Lina forward through the open door. With the rain now returning to its original curse he sprinted for the door that was only a couple yards away. And right when he was to reach the door, spikes pierced into his ankle causing him to drop and roll into the doorway.
Ian took a second to breathe before struggling to his feet, leaning mostly on his good left foot. "Come on, we need to get the fuck out of here." Reaching down he helped Lina up to her feet and started down the stairway.
"It hurts?" Lina cried while barely getting down the stairs with a noticeable limp. A whimper of pain escaped her mouth as Ian helped her down the steps.
"I know but we need to get somewhere safe so I can get a look at your leg." Right when Ian finished the stairwell began to shake sending the two of them crashing to the ground and down the stairs. "Damnit" He let out, using the railing to help himself back to his feet, then helping Lina back up.
The moment Lina stood back up an explosion swept through the stairwell, sending her and Ian through the wall outside the building. They fell for a moment until hitting the ground hard, ending up in the middle of an alley way. Hearing Ian's heavy breathing, she turned, watching with blurry eyes as he limped over to her.
Grabbing under Lina's shoulders, Ian dragged her over to a wall and let her lean on it. "Your wounds aren't too bad." He chuckled with blood poured from his back onto the floor. "Here" He moved her leg to get a better view of her wound and placed his hand over her thigh, silver energy emanating from his palm.
Ian's hand healed at the same time Lina's wound began to close and heal. Hearing a scream, she turned his head only to see blood splatter across the ground where the alleyway opened to the main street. Even though her vision was blurry, the sire of the blood and hearing that scream caused her to begin panicking.
"Oh god!" Lina whimpered, another splatter of blood hitting the wall beside the first.
Grabbing Lina by the face, Ian forced her to look away. "Stop! I need you to focus on healing your body so we can get out of here!"
"I-I can't...somebody just." With quickening breathes Lina began to panic. "Blood, there's somebody, exploded blood."
"Lina stop! Please." Ian begged. "There's nothing we can do for them in our current state. Before he could say more, a maniacal laugh that echoed from all around interrupted him. Recognizing that laughter, a chill ran down his spine and he looked to his left down the alley towards the opening onto the street.
The same familiar yellow energy that plagued the rain meandered through the street. With his ankle now mostly healed, Ian stood up before helping Lina to her feet. The two began to slowly walk towards the street as the screams continued and blood and rainwater flowed through the streets.
Glancing at the blood-splattered wall, Lina gasped upon finding an eye looking up at her from the floor. Still moving forward, Lina bumped into Ian who was standing still and staring down at the street. Turning her head to see what Ian was looking at, she could not help but cry as she saw what was lying before her.
On the ground before them lay the corpse of a mother embracing her child in a hug. The head of the daughter had been blown off leaving blood and brain to seep onto the ground around her. As for the mother, her entire back had been littered with spikes that pierced through her stomach into her child.
For a long moment, Lina and Ian simply stood there in shock from what they were forced to bear witness to. Yet that was not the worst of what was to come. Carnage is the only word to describe the scene that played out throughout the streets of Los Angeles in that moment. Corpses surrounded by blood and gore littered the streets all while that maniac laugh continued.
Finally moving their head to peer up in the sky, Ian and Lina were able to witness the cause of all the carnage. Floating in the sky above the street between all the skyscrapers was none other than Rez. With her hands behind her back, she watched the carnage below unfold while slowly floating down towards the stadium.
With a smile that was clear to Ian by the shape of the energy that surrounded Rez, energy swords began to appear in the air around her. In the blink of an eye the swords pierced down into the city below causing mass death and destruction.
Dashing forward, Ian unsheathed his sword and slashed an energy sword out of the air before it could hit a woman lying on the ground. Swinging his sword, a wave of energy released from the blade and destroyed multiple oncoming energy swords. He picked up the woman before dashing away to a safer location.
"You're gonna be okay." Ian tried comforting the woman while letting her down behind a destroyed car.
Sliding on the ground to the car, Lina pushed herself up against the car once there. "What do we do?"
There was a moment of silence while Ian thought through their options. The two could always try to fight Rez but he already knew the outcome to that. They could try to run though, he knew Rez would not allow that. The only viable option he could think of was to try and survive until Paragon eventually arrived.
"Alright" Ian said turning to face Lina. "We need to-" Before Ian, Lina grasped at her throat that now had a knife stabbed into it. Blood poured from Lina's throat as Ian tried to help her. But he was interrupted when an axe flew down from above towards his head. Using his sword, he deflected the axe and dashed back from the car.
Standing on the roof of the car was Felix, axe in left hand and knife in the other. He jumped down from the car and landed right beside the cowering woman. This is where he waved his left hand stabbing the blade of the axe into the womans face, killing her instantly and causing Ian to dash forward in rage.
Felix ripped the axe from the woman and crossed blades with Ian. Blocking the first attack with his axe, he stepped back and blocked the second slash with his knife. Now with his knife blocking the sword, Felix slashed down at Ian with his axe. Catching Felix by the wrist with his free hand, Ian kicked Felix in the stomach, sending him stumbling backwards.
Before Felix could even stand back in a fighting stance, Ian sent multiple jabs with his sword at his head. Dodging the first couple jabs with minimal movement, Felix was caught off guard when the last jab stabbed into his cheek.
"Fucking blind piece of shit." Felix spat while taking a step back and clenching at his cheek. "I'm going to-" Ian phased forward and stabbed him in the shoulder before he could finish.
"Shut up." Ian demanded while backhanding Felix to the ground where he then hit him in the face with his knee. "Fucking amateur."
"Fuck you!" Charging forward, Felix slashed his knife down at Ian in a reverse grip. After Ian dodged that he blocked a jab from Ian with his axe then tossed his knife into the air. Axe still blocking sword, he slipped under a punch from Ian and came back up to hit him with an energy enhanced uppercut.
Ian stumbled back for a moment until he was able to ground himself into an appropriate defensive stance. As Felix caught his knife out of the air, Ian dashed forward with a slash aimed at his head. But Felix once again dodged the attack, catching Ian in the shoulder with his axe, stabbing deeply into his flesh.
Pushing himself from Felix, Ian stumbled back for a moment until coming to a complete stop. Raising his head high, blood pouring out of his shoulder down his body, he looked down at Felix. Blood dripped from his body to the ground, mingling with the already present blood from the earlier slaughter.
Seeing this, feeling the utter contempt that emanated from that gaze, infuriated Felix to no end. "Who the hell do you think you are!?" He yelled with energy swelling from his exosuit and swirling around him. "Who are you to look down on me!" Dashing forward, he threw his knife at Ian before slashing up at him with his axe.
Ian dodged the knife throw before walking forward and dodging under the axe slash. He then tripped Felix, causing him to fall to the ground and yell in anger. Jumping off the ground Felix tried to dash at Ian but was stopped when a pair of arms wrapped around his neck in a chokehold.
Enhancing her arms with energy, Lina put everything she had into keeping Felix in the chokehold. Blood dripped from her neck as she tightened her grip because of how desperately Felix was struggling. In a desperate attempt to break her chokehold Felix pushed her back into the destroyed car but she held on.
Because of the chokehold Lina held Felix in, it gave Ian the opportunity to walk forward and draw his sword. "Stop...STOP!" Felix choked out before Ian slashed him across the face. The slash traveled from his chin up to his to the side of his head near his ear and caused him to let out a cry of pain.
But that single slash was not enough for Ian. Raising his sword into the air, he delivered another slash into Felix. And another, keeping this up until there were seven slashed across Felix's face. Then, Ian raised his sword into the air in a reverse grip, still looking down at Felix, and stabbed his sword down into his eye.
Unable to even scream at this point, Felix fell slump and Lina let him drop to the ground. Simply looking down at Felix, Lina and Ian stood there for a moment before Lina looked up at Ian. And before she even got the chance to act, a blade of red energy pierced through her back and out her chest.
The blade of energy then ripped out of her body which let Lina fall to her knees. She turned her head back and peered at the ominous figure that loomed over her. And all she could see before herself was none other than the seven-foot devil himself, Atroz Muerte.
"Are you prepared for death?" Atroz asked simply while staring down ominously at Ian.
"Is anybody?" Ian responded while moving into a defensive stance.
The two exosuit users stared each other down for a moment before beginning their fight. The first to act was Ian who dashed forward, jabbing his sword at Atroz's body. Not that attack worried Atroz, leading him to grab Ian by his wrist along with his sword. Jerking Ian into the air, he then slammed him down into the nearby car.
Taking a step back, Atroz watched as Ian pushed himself off the car, falling to the ground before him in the process. "Are you already finished?" he asked with Ian struggling to get off the ground at his feet.
"Sorry to disappoint." Ian could barely rise to his feet and raise his head to look up at Atroz. He had already been wounded from his earlier fight and his body was feeling the pain. At this point, the bare minimum of standing was all he could muster. A situation made even worse by the monster that stood before him.
Hearing a slight chuckle from behind Atroz, Ian peered past him to see Felix rise from the ground. "You're not looking to good motherfucker." Felix laughed while limping over to Atroz. Before Felix could continue, Atroz turned his head to give him a stare that shut him up instantly.
Atroz continued this stare for a moment before turning and walking away. "Kill him."
"Of course." Felix obliged while picking up his axe from the ground. Taking a step forward he drew back his axe, preparing to slash down at Ian's head. But he never got the opportunity as a beam of yellow energy pierced through his elbow then down into his knee, severing his left wrist and right leg from his body.
Falling to the ground, Felix screamed in agony at the loss of his two limbs. This caused Atroz to stop in his tracks and glance back at Ian. Seeing Ian standing there in confusion, he began to analyze his surroundings. Not that it took him long to find the man standing not thirty feet away on top a piece of destroyed building.
Holding his rifle in his hands, Lone Star looked down at Atroz with utter contempt. Energy surged through his exosuit as his rifle morphed into dual pistols. Raising the pistols, he began to fire at Atroz, who blocked the energy bullets with his sword. After blocking, he rushed forward, slashing through the rubble Lone Star was standing upon.
Lone Star jumped off the ruble before Atroz's blade could reach him and continued to fire down at him. Landing on the side of a building, the pistol in Lone Star's left hand dematerialized and wrapped around his wrist. Aiming his palm at Atroz and a burst of fire shot from his palm down him.
Still standing in the same spot Atroz left him, Ian examined the blood drip from the hole in Lian's back. A pool of blood formed around her body as he stumbled over to her and fell to his knees. In his vision, the energy that composed her form was slowly fading which caused him to race through multiple emotions at once.
Ian was angry that she was taken in such a cruel manner. Sad that he would never be able to spend more time with her. He flipped through these emotions until eventually standing up and tilting his head to look at Atroz in the distance. "I'm sorry." He said while reaching for his sword, electric like silver energy sparking from his exosuit in the process.