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The Reluctant Ranger Chapter 30 - Line
🕑 Added 2024-11-09 09:03:15 +0000 UTCNicole’s limbs trembled as she drove her blade through one of the connecting tissues of the massive beast even as it lashed out with a deafening cry that shattered glass. Once again she was forced to phase through the retaliatory strike. Given the ease with which the creature could crush stone and steel, Nicole didn’t think her chances against the monster were all that favorable.
That hadn’t stopped her from fighting. Her friends continued to cut through the remaining machines within the barrier Silver had conjured, keeping the machines from running rampant. Unfortunately Nicole didn’t have that luxury as the centipede tore through buildings like an old Japanese monster movie set.
People were dying with each building the beast brought down. Their screams were drowned out by the beast’s own wailing and the torrent of rain that continued to batter the city. Nicole put all that aside as blades cut deep between layers of metallic chitin, seeking the tender flesh that the mutant fought to protect. It was a breathtakingly delicate dance that took every ounce of focus Nicole could give. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping her upright as she fought on. She couldn’t rest, not yet, not until the beast was dead.
Phasing through another angry swipe, Nicole continued to methodically take the beast apart. Much of her anger was still there, simmering deep, but she’d exhausted herself in expressing the rage she felt over the senseless loss of life. Nicole knew she would see Maraline again, and she would make her answer for this atrocity when she did.
This was far beyond the pale, a war crime by every definition that humanity judged them, not that Nicole could expect alien conquerors to hold to those same standards. No, humanity were in the midst of fighting a war for survival, and Nicole was a soldier in that very battle.
She phased through a return swipe, her very being fraying at the edges as the claw scythed through where she hovered in the air. There was no pain from it, and she never experienced such fatigue when passing through walls and such, but a living being of such immense power was doing something to her from repeated avoidance.
Continued attrition wasn’t an option, not if that was the price of avoiding the blows. No, she needed to finish the fight if she was going to survive much longer. Her blades could pierce its flesh, she was able to score hits, sever connecting tissues, but she was struggling to finish the creature off.
The world narrowed as Nicole focused on the pincers, they jerked in halting motions due to her continued strikes. Feet touched chitin and Nicole kicked off, her blades lashing out as she passed. Blue blood spewed from the wound as the massive claw began to list, then the creature screeched and flailed. The claw snapped off, flying off across the rooftops only to crash down in the distance.
Despite the crippling blow, Nicole remained in motion, her legs bending as she impacted the asphalt, sending spiderweb cracks spreading for dozens of feet as she kicked off once more. A crater was left behind as she launched forward, her focus singular. The remaining pincer shifted as the beast thrashed but Nicole didn’t falter. Her blades found their mark and the scene repeated itself, another claw flew through the air, shattering a storefront as it tumbled through the rubble and came to a halt.
The mutant rolled, crushing buildings flat as it did. Despite being flat against the ground, its carapace still towered over the buildings that remained standing. Nicole landed atop one of the few within two blocks. Legs as long as a city bus clawed at the air, pushed at the rubble, and the beast writhed in agony from the lost limbs. It still wasn’t enough.
Even with the pincers gone, Nicole needed to end it.
Mind racing, she tried to remember all she could about biology class and the insects covered. All she could think of was the same as dealing with any creature; sever the connection to the brain and bring it down from there. Even if it was just an over-sized insect, it would need to be reinforced to survive the larger carapace and the weight of its own organs.
Plan of action loosely in mind, Nicole fell from the ledge, then kicked off the wall with everything she had. Brick and concrete burst under the force of her limbs and with a sharp twist, Nicole flipped around just as her feet impacted the flopping worm. Chitin cracked and splintered under the force of impact, driving the beast into the broken earth.
Crushing jaws came for her, yet Nicole danced around them, shifting her form for a brief moment to maintain momentum. That hollowed out feeling returned, scraping at something she couldn’t put a name to as she came back into the world with thundering footsteps carrying her along the carapace.
Gasping for breath beneath her helmet even as spots filled her vision, Nicole reached the joint at the base of the creature’s spine and dove between the segments. Blades hacked into the exposed flesh, carving away at the tender weakness left so the creature would remain flexible and mobile.
The creature thrashed with renewed vigor as she cut deep, then the joint contracted and threatened to crush her. Sparks flew from her suit as Nicole grit her teeth, willing away the impulse to shift and escape, and forced her blades in deeper. Blood and pus spewed forth, drenching her form. Thankfully there was no smell, the helmet doing an amazing job filtering the air as she continued her morbid work until she finally hit something solid and cordlike.
Even as the creature dropped to the ground unmoving, Nicole continued to carve through the thick strands of connecting fibers. Despite her work the tail end continued to twitch and thrash and Nicole vaguely recalled some detail about secondary brains that some creatures were speculated to possess.
Nicole bent over as she finally stood, huffing out heavy breaths even as she forced her own rising bile back down. Removing her helmet to vomit did not sound like a good idea in the moment. Her eyes were locked onto the still moving portion of the creature and then she looked down at her knives.
Maybe Grace would be up to severing that portion, her axe was certainly more suited to such work than her own weapons ever hoped to be. Still, she wasn’t done yet. Stumbling off the fallen mutant, Nicole barely managed to land feet first in the deep sludge that had formed from the ongoing storm.
Even with that minor miracle, said legs couldn’t support her weight and she fell right over. She barely had the energy to roll onto her back as she stared skyward, the rain still coming down. Once again she was thankful for the helmet filtering out foreign matter, like the water and muck that might have otherwise drowned her.
Heavy footfalls had her head tilt to the side, the other Rangers moving to join her. She flashed a thumbs up, then went back to trying to keep from passing out. She was mostly successful, in that she didn’t black out until Grace was there, holding her up.
She wasn’t out for long, coming back out of it with Grace still holding her aloft and helping her over to a bench that was miraculously intact. It was unfortunately segmented to prevent someone from laying on it, which meant she would be stuck sitting up instead.
“Are you back with us?” Grace asked.
“Barely,” Nicole answered. “I got it, right?”
Grace looked back behind them, at the massive creature that was almost as wide as the entire road. “Yeah, you fucking got it.”
“Good,” she said breathlessly. Nicole was barely clinging to consciousness and knew a nap was in her immediate future. “So much for getting a room tonight. After that, I’m fucking spent.”
Someone coughed and Nicole suddenly remembered they weren’t alone. At least she was wearing a helmet, so nobody else could see her embarrassment. She knew that if she dropped the transformation, she would be out cold almost immediately. That trickle of power was the only thing sustaining her, and even that was at its limit.
“Well, hookups aside,” Kayla said, looking about even as her vines constricted the still flopping portion of the mutant. “Emergency services should be moving in soon.”
“I’ve already signaled them,” Carlos confirmed. Nicole blinked, wondering when the hell he had arrived. “We should be good to clear out once the police take over the scene.”
“How often do creatures like that show up?” Devon asked, looking back at the carcass. “I’ve never seen anything like it on the news.”
Carlos sighed, leaning against the wreck of some car, watching the emergency crews as they hurried into the area, moving to some of the fallen civilians to check them over. “This is the largest mutant I am aware of, almost by a factor of two. This is a concerning level of escalation. Its almost as if—”
“We might have decided to eliminate you?”
Nicole’s head snapped up, sighting in on the deep voice that had spoken those words. Up on a nearby roof, stood a massive figure in black metallic armor. She tried to take in the details, such as the clawed fingers attached to four muscular arms. Their armor was spiked along every potential striking surface, but what drew her eyes was the sword on his back.
A broad bladed claymore at least a foot wide of that same metal, and almost as long as the armored figure was tall. It was an intimidating sight, a true Black Knight in every sense of the word. Dread crept up Nicole’s spine like spreading ice, and she knew that death had come for them.
“Bartran,” Carlos snarled, falling into a defensive stance. “It’s been a while since you graced the battlefield personally.”
“Nearly four years now,” Bartran said, voice deep and reverberating within the metallic helm. “You escaped fate that day, but not this time.”
“Finally decided to kill me?” Carlos asked, hands signaling something to the law enforcement and other responders. They took the hint and began to draw back.
Bartran shrugged, then stepped off the building, falling to the ground like a rock, only to barely react to the impact, despite the ground cracking around him. Nicole had felt the vibrations through the bench, which meant that armor had to weigh even more than it appeared to. Fuck, this massive bastard was looking for a fight, and had come for them just as they were too exhausted to contest him.
Nicole couldn’t even stand up, much less put up a fight against a toddler. They were so completely fucked that it wasn’t even a cosmic joke.
“For those that do not know, I am Bartran, Supreme Commander of the Sylan Fourth Fleet. Death has come for you today.”
Grace gently extracted herself from Nicole’s flimsy embrace, a small voice deep within Nicole’s very being screaming as her girlfriend stepped forward, axe in hand as she put herself between the armored figure and Nicole. Her stance was loose and easy, yet Nicole didn’t miss the tension in Grace’s shoulder, nor how her axe ever so slightly trembled.
“Fuck off with that. Either fight us or piss off.”
“What she said,” Devon added, his shield held tight. “You want any of us, you’ll have to go through all of us.”
“Yeah,” Kayla added, stepping up beside Devon.
Jeff moved to flank Grace on the other side, his spear held at the ready. “You have no idea how hard it is to not make a comment about what you could be doing with arms like those, you know?”
“Really?” Kayla hissed.
Jeff shrugged. “Hey, if I’m gonna fight death, I’m doing it my way.”
“With inappropriate humor?” Devon asked.
Grace shook her head, taking a step forward as she leveled her axe upon the foe before them. “Whatever works. We’re Rangers and we’ll hold the damn line no matter what comes our way.”
Nicole wanted to protest that, but what could she do? She tried to force herself to her feet, but her limbs trembled at the attempt. Heartwarming as the solidarity might be, she wanted nothing more than to scream at being reduced to a spectator. Instead all she could do was hold onto the hope that by taking out the mutant, the others were still fresh enough to stand against the specter of death that had come for them.
“I admire your bravery,” Bartran said, unslinging the blade from his shoulder. “Foolish and misplaced as it is.”
Then, the street exploded and Bartran was right in Grace’s face. Nicole’s heart leapt into her throat as his massive sword came down on her girlfriend. Grace brought her axe up, catching the sword’s blade on the handle, and shifted so it slid along the length and collided with the axe head.
Grace had to drop to one knee, but she was alive. A boot the size of her torso kicked her down in the next instant and crushed her into the concrete with a shower of sparks. Nicole fell from the bench, barely able to keep herself from landing face first as she reached for every scrap of power she could feel, even if the well seemed to be empty.
Vines lashed out, grabbing the leg as they attempted to fling the Commander aside yet all they managed was to pull the limb off Grace. At that same moment Jeff dropped from the sky as though he were Cu Cuchulain himself. The spear impacted a pauldron, jerking the imposing figure aside and off balance. Devon pushed himself into the opening, using his shield as a battering ram and put some distance between them as Grace stumbled back to her feet.
All of that had transpired before the first pebble fell back to the ground from his initial motion. Nicole had barely been able to follow it, and she was by far the fastest of those on her team. She knew they were outclassed, but could they even get away from the force of nature that had come for them?
Maybe if two of them worked together to stall him, but what good would that do? No, they needed to defeat him. If he was the Supreme Commander, that would put him higher in the ranks than Maraline. Losing him might just cripple the invasion, forcing the invaders to retreat.
Bartran rolled his shoulder, a wide grin coming to him as he took in the Rangers before him. “Yes, you are certainly troublesome. It is no wonder The Prime Administrator wished for you to all fall today.”
Before anyone could ask what he meant by that, the monstrous man backhanded Devon away. The Paladin crashed into the fallen mutant, leaving a deep indentation in the carapace where a perfectly formed impression held him in place.
Carlos was there now, fighting with his own weaponized emergency tool. They traded blows, and unlike Grace, he didn’t buckle under the force of Bartran’s attack. Something about that didn’t sit right with Nicole even as she finally managed to get wobbling legs underneath herself. Was there really that much of a difference between Carlos and her own team? What made him so different? Why did Bartran think he needed to eliminate them while letting the other Rangers continue to fight against their invading forces?
She wanted to help, but try as she might, she couldn’t keep a steady leg underneath herself. She was completely exhausted, she’d given it everything she had and more, and yet… Watching on as Devon’s shield shattered, as Kayla’s staff was cleaved through? She couldn’t just sit idle. She refused to sit there and watch her friends die, not as long as she continued to draw breath.
Carlos struggled, his battle quickly turning defensive even as the rest of the Rangers attempted to rally. Nicole managed one step, then another, but it was far too slow to make a difference. She couldn’t even form her blades, the trickle of power remaining was far too feeble to manage that much.
Grace crashed into Bartran, her axe cleaving a furrow into his armor. The man growled, spinning to swing his blade at her with frightening speed. Nicole watched in horror as Grace barely managed to duck the blow, spinning with the motion to bring her axe back around for another strike. One of the man’s four arms caught it by the shaft and the man grinned down at her even as he brought the sword up.
Carlos attempted to distract the man, but another limb knocked him away. Jeff jumped, but Nicole could already see that he would be too late. Devon’s shield wasn’t reforming, and Kayla couldn’t bring out her vines without her staff.
With dawning horror, Nicole realized that she was about to watch Grace die. Her wonderful girlfriend who she had only known for a few weeks now, but had become a cornerstone of her life. She couldn’t allow that. wouldn’t allow that.
Something broke within her, and Nicole surged forward, her entire body protesting the motion. The distance closed in a blink, and she caught the broadside of Bartran’s blade with her own body. The impact was unlike anything she had ever experienced before, a shower of sparks flew in all directions as the kinetic shield broke and Nicole found herself soaring through the air.
When she impacted the ground the world went dark.
