Soketsu raised his halberd and scowled in frustration. From a purely technical standpoint he knew he should be content. In a sense his plan had worked; he did separate his opponents with a well-placed taunt… It’s just that it was the wrong one that decided to engage him.

Since the man’s visor was still open, Soketsu used the opportunity to take a closer look at his new foe. He seemed young, probably in his early thirties, though the circles under his piercing green eyes might have thrown him off. Other than that he looked remarkably unremarkable; his sharp chin and slightly hollow cheeks kept him from being handsome, but at the same time he didn’t look particularly ugly either. In fact his features seemed more familiar than anything— yet Soketsu couldn’t place the man anywhere within his memories.

He didn’t have much time to ponder though, as his new opponent stopped a few paces away from Soketsu and firmly planted his feet. Upon closer inspection he seemed to be about half a head shorter than the Rover, however his armor made the two of them appear similar in size and bulk.

Soketsu: "Who are you?" Soketsu asked after a moment of silence with the barest hint of a disdainful wrinkle on his brows.

His opponent didn’t answer. Instead he let out a mirthful snort before opening his arms.

????: "Can’t you tell by the gear?"

Soketsu hesitated for a brief moment, but then he steeled his face and somehow managed to point an even harsher glare at the man.

Soketsu: "I know who you are dressed as. What I want is a name." He hesitated for a second and then forcefully added, "Now."

Gabe: "Oh well…" His armor-clad opponent spoke with mock disappointment as he gave Soketsu a polite bow and scraping. "The name is Gabriel Zhul. For my friends it’s Gabe. I used to hold a number of fancy titles, such as Emperor of the Fairies or Professional Dinosaur Puncher, but the one you would be most familiar with as you are right now should be the First Prophet of Nov’Elsfaan… That is unless you are familiar with obscure 300 hundred years old sports records, in which case you might know me as the 22nd Bowling World Champion." He paused and then in a conspiratorial hush he added, "I had a phase."

For a few seconds the two stared daggers at each other (or rather just Soketsu, the armored man seemed rather amused) until the silence was broken by a single word.

Soketsu: "Liar."

Gabe: "Oh, come on!" The armored man threw his hands into the air in an exaggerated act of obviously faked outrage "I tell you, I won that cup fair and square! It was even in the record books!"

Seeing that Soketsu was giving him the cold shoulder (in reality he was quite bewildered, he was just too hurt to let it show), the man finally dropped his shoulders and shook his head with a sigh of defeat.

Gabe: "Okay, fine! I admit I wasn’t entirely straight with you. You see, I only punched one dinosaur till now, and even that was more like a Lovecraftian crossbreed of giant prehistoric raptors and the horrors crawling in the empty blackness of the space between spaces… It’s a long story, but to get to the point, I’m technically not a professional dinosaur puncher. Only a hobbyist. There, happy now?"

There was a telling twitch in Soketsu’s face, which when translated would have said ‘Oh my god, I exchanged Pabloc for this…’, but he immediately got it under control and even managed to get his slacken face into a proper determined scowl again.

Soketsu: "Impersonating someone is a crime."

Gabe: "Um… Yes? So?"

Soketsu: "Impersonating someone who lived three hundred years ago is not a crime, it’s just stupid."

Gabe: "I still don’t…" The man suddenly cocked his head to the side with a childish glee in his eyes. "Oh! Wait, I know! You are doing a thing!"

Unperturbed, Soketsu continued.

Soketsu: "However, impersonating the founder of the Order, is blasphemy." He paused for a moment to let the words sink in. Instead he was met with vigorous nodding.

Gabe: "I knew it! It’s the classic buildup! Well executed too! Five stars!"

Soketsu fought down the urge to hold his head in his hand. That was probably what his opponent wanted anyway, to have him break his stance. Or at least so he hoped. The other alternative was that the man was annoying him for no reason whatsoever.

Soketsu: "Now, I am not the most pious of men, but even I find this charade in bad taste. Not to mention tedious. I’ve had a rough day, so I would appreciate if you would just tell me your real name instead of making me jump through hoops. I had enough of that for a lifetime."

The armored man let out an irritated sigh and shook his head lightly.

Gabe: "So you don’t believe me, huh? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You were always as stubborn as a-"

Soketsu: "Okay, stop." Soketsu raised his voice with a tired glower. "Listen, I am sick and tired of you people acting familiar with me and talking over my head like I was a child. I already had a rough day, so you either give me a name now or I will just keep calling you imposter. Your call."

Gabe didn’t seem to be taken aback either by his words or his glare and just rolled his eyes in what looked like mild bemusement.

Gabe: "Oh come on. Did you really forget this face?" He said while pointing at himself accompanied by a silly grimace. "Really?"

Soketsu: "I told you it is useless, imposter." Soketsu scoffed.

Gabe: "Wait, you were serious about that ‘impostor’ thing?" The man frowned in disbelief. "For your interest, I am not impersonating anyone, so you can just call me Gabe as usual. Just try it and—"

Soketsu: "That’s enough!" Soketsu finally snapped and snarled at the man. "I have a mission to complete and I have no time to listen to madmen. Either get ready to fight or get out of my way."

For a split-second it looked like the armored man might snap back at him, but in the end he just let out a disappointed groan.

Gabe: "The guy tries to be a good sport and makes small talk so that the idiot can recuperate himself, but nooooo…" He grumbled for a moment while circling his shoulders. "Fine, have it your way."

With that his armor’s visor snapped shut with an almost liquid grace. Once it was secured into the helmet a dozen or so white dots appeared on its angular surface, arranged in a symmetrical pattern. For some reason it reminded Soketsu of the eyes of a giant spider.

With an oddly mechanical hum the armored man assumed a threatening stance with one hand stretched forward. Soketsu could immediately tell from his posture that he was well-trained. He didn’t know exactly what he was well trained in exactly, but the mere fact that he could take up a martial stance put him leagues above the riff-raff he usually faced. The next time he spoke, Gabe’s voice was distorted into a deep, computer-modulated sound.

Gabe: "You are the guest in this place, so you can have the first strike. It’s on the house."

Though he was momentarily taken aback by the proposal, Soketsu didn’t hesitate for long. He firmly planted his feet and locked all his attention onto his opponent, and a moment later he could already feel the pre-combat anxiety subside to give way to a detached serenity as he surveyed his situation.

First, the area of engagement. The now familiar factory floor was in the same condition he left it, save for the hole in the wall and that one broken machine. All things considered, the place looked as serviceable as a battleground as before.

As for his opponent, he had to admit he had no idea what to think about him. He seemed mad, or at the very least excessively quirky, which was just as bad. He had no doubts about his strength (he did punch him through a wall after all) and he obviously had combat training, but that was all he could gather from their brief and very one-sided exchange. Also, he couldn’t help but wonder about his armor.

It was… unusual. He had seen plenty of plate armors before; the Templars of the order wore breastplates as part of their uniform and their riot-gear involved a full-body kit, but what the impostor was wearing was completely different. It was not just the material or the incessant humming noise it made; its very shape was unorthodox.

First off, it wasn’t made of large metal sheets, nor was it fastened together by belts and clasps. Instead it looked like it had about a hundred individual platelets glued to a single, full-body wetsuit. Not only that, but said under-suit had the shape and texture of muscles with the skin removed and they were seemingly moving on their own. The whole suit flexed and relaxed in accordance to Gabe’s movements, but there were just enough discrepancies between tensing and movement to make him look decidedly unnerving.

Looks aside, the real question was the utility of said armor. The interlocking platelets covered all of the vital spots but at the same time they left large areas completely uncovered, plus he had no idea about the arms and back of the suit as those were covered by the man’s black coat. Still though, one thing he could assume with high certainty was that there were probably no shoulder-pads under the coat.

Now, he couldn’t tell the material of either the plates or the under-suit, but considering the track-record of the place, they were probably made of some crazy pre-Devastation super-alloys or something. Probably the same applied to his coat too.

Now came the final issue: the weapon of his opponent. Or rather, the lack thereof. If the stance of the man was any indication, he was a hand-to-hand combatant. That was the first good news Soketsu heard all day, as it meant he had the advantage of reach over his foe. It wasn’t much, but one takes their silver linings where they can get them.

After considering all of these things, he decided on a course of action. Not a plan though. Plans generally involve more planning than ‘rush him and see where the chips fall’.

Soketsu closed his eyes, emptied his lungs in an almost meditative stream and simultaneously forced the viridia in his veins to speed up to dangerous levels. Of course the viridia wasn’t actually in his bloodstream, but he always visualized it as such. It was easier to move it like that.

In mere moments the exercise pushed his wounded body way over its limits, something that was risky even under ideal circumstances. He took one final sharp breath to steel himself and suddenly— disappeared.

His rush was way beyond human capabilities… well, even more so than usual, that is. With each green-tinted step he kicked the floor strong enough to embed his footprint into the concrete and the air was positively sizzling around him with friction and flashes of emerald light. His foe seemed to be in a standstill (which wasn’t due to some kind of time dilation as much as him simply not moving an inch) and Soketsu readied his halberd to thrust at the small space between the platelets on his target’s abdomen. He lashed out without hesitation, a restrained battle cry barely trapped in his throat.

There was a sharp ringing of metal as the spear point struck with lightning speed and enough force to skewer a bull elephant. Soketsu could already see his enemy ran through in his mind, his armor pierced from front to back like a piece of cardboard and his blood splattering through the air— but then reality politely raised its hand and objected, yanking Soketsu back to the present with a bone-crunching jolt of resistance.

Soketsu: "What… the…?"

The sight before Soketsu’s eyes was baffling, and that says something considering the insane day he had. The attack he put all his weight behind stopped dead in the air so abruptly and indomitably that he almost lost his grip on his weapon. He blinked once and, since the scene didn’t change, had to conclude that he didn’t go delusional and that his weapon’s spear point was indeed securely held in his opponent’s extended hand. He blinked again and for a moment he wished he was delusional.

His attack wasn’t just stopped, it was caught. With only one hand. Without his opponent even changing his posture. Soketsu shock was so great that he could almost feel time coming to a near standstill around him as his brain was desperately trying to come up with a coherent thought that could hope to explain what just happened. However this only meant that he could get an even better view of his opponent’s counter attack.

It started with Gabe firmly yanking his weapon back by the spearhead, pulling the dazed Rover along with it and completely unbalancing him. Then his foe took a lithe step forward, his leg moving in a sweeping circular motion as he allowed the Soketsu’s weapon to pass by him and stepped right into the path of his unbalanced tumble. A split second later his left fist lashed out, catching Soketsu right in the solar plexus and stopping his forward momentum. In the same motion he pulled back his right hand and with an oddly twisting motion he delivered a brutal palm strike at Soketsu’s side just under his armpit.

For a split-second Soketsu was blinded by white-hot searing pain as his already battered ribs cried out in agony and he blacked out just long enough for his legs to lose their strength and he fell back and to the side. Without missing a beat Gabe followed after his toppling form, taking another step towards him with the same circular motion and he drew back both of his arms.

Soketsu could once again feel a hazy pang of familiarity tugging at his thoughts when he looked at his foe, but he didn’t have much time to ponder. A mere split-second later the armored man’s strike connected and the world around Soketsu suddenly flipped upside down. Not only that, it was also passing by at alarming speeds.

A painfully long instant later he recognized the reason for the latter as another bout of agony assaulted his chest, this time from two separate points. It was a double-palm shove, his mind deduced with surprising efficiency. It was using the Green Demon style and the strike with the left hand was a split-second too slow— at least that’s what a strangely annoying corner of his mind told him.

He would have normally took a second to wonder just what a ‘Green Demon style’ was, but his tumbling through the air reminded him that he had more important things to worry about. Like not breaking his neck on landing.

With little more than base instinct he managed to regain his senses in mid-air and hastily planted his halberd into the ground to stop himself before he hit the floor. The blade, just as overflowing with viridia as his body, easily embedded itself into the concrete and gave him the leverage to land on his feet instead on his head.

After a moment of recuperation he rose from the rough landing and faced his opponent, and for a moment he almost wondered why Gabe retreated so far. Then a sudden chill ran through his spine from the realization: It was not the armored man who moved, it was him. Even by a conservative estimate, he was thrown for almost twenty meters.

Not only that, he had to realize with another startled twitch that if he didn’t stop himself, he would have surely collided with the large metal door leading into the underground factory, which was a scant few meters behind him. With cold sweat on his brows Soketsu audibly gulped.

Gabe: "If it was anyone else, I would have called that a splendid effort." Gabe was still standing at the exact same spot where he laid his nigh-embarrassing beatdown upon Soketsu and was casually cracking his knuckles. "From you? Disappointing. Damn, at this rate I will start feeling bad for you…"

The armored man shook his head hard and let out a groan.

Gabe: "You know what? I am not really comfortable with beating you up any further; or at least until Pabloc comes back with his medical gizmos, so… how about we take a break?" Saying so, Gabe began walking towards his unsteady opponent with open arms as a sign of non-aggression. "I even sweeten the deal for you a little! I bet you are curious how I caught your attack, right? I can tell you if you want…"

Soketsu was in a pinch. He felt, hell, he knew that his foe could end the battle with a single stroke if he wanted to. He was playing with him, confident in his superiority. Under any other circumstances he would have been offended to the core, and to be perfectly honest a part of himself wanted to blow the lid and lunge at the armored mad again, but his better judgment held back the impulse.

Gabe was right after all. He was too exhausted, too badly hurt and just generally too beaten both physically and mentally to stand up to the overwhelming speed and power of his foe. The armored man had the upper hand and they both knew it.

What Gabe didn’t know however, was that Soketsu still had an ace up his sleeve. A very dangerous ace that was difficult to use even under the best of circumstances and was just as likely to kill him as to save his sorry skin, but if there was ever a time more fitting for gambling he dared anyone to point it out to him. All he needed was time and the right opportunity, and his opponent was apparently arrogant enough to give him the former on a silver platter. As such he slowly exhaled and turned inwards.

[Soketsu]: "Kay… Ready the seventeenth." His command was grave enough that his partner didn’t even try to argue. That, or she was just too exhausted to bother with speaking. Soketsu hoped it was only the former, but in the end he also added, "After the previous battle the air around here should still have a lot of exhausted viridia. Once you are ready, tap into that and conserve your strength."

There was still no spoken answer, but he could still feel the equivalent of a tentative nod in his head. With that settled he slowly let his weapon down and addressed Gabe.

Soketsu: "I’m listening."

The armored man abruptly froze on his tracks for a moment.

Gabe: "Really?! Wow! I… I didn’t actually expect that!" For some reason his voice seemed altogether too foolish considering the situation. "Okay, just let me remove this…" With that the armor’s humming subsided and his visor opened once again. "… Here you go. So, where was I…? Oh, yes I was going to talk about these…"

Gabe nonchalantly approached Soketsu, though he seemed keen to keep way out of his range. Whether it was for a reason or just by reflex, Soketsu couldn’t tell. Once he deemed he was close enough, Gabe lightly tapped at his armguards with his fingers.

Gabe: "I want to level the playing field a little, so consider this a lesson. But first a question: Have you heard of the Seppuku line of weapons?"

The only thing he received that could be remotely considered a reply was a glare sharp enough to cut glass.

Gabe: "Oh come on! I’m nice enough to give you time to rest a little, at least be so good to answer me when I ask!"

Soketsu let out an exasperated groan and finally responded with an irritated voice.

Soketsu: "They were… disguised weapons created by the First Prophet. They are rare and fabled armaments of legends."

Gabe: "They are?" The man’s brows rose in a quizzical arc and then he shrugged. "Well, sure. Of course they are. I made them."

The mad scientist paused for a second and then leaned forwards like he wanted to whisper something. Of course it was just a gesture at best, taken that they were still a good six or seven meters apart.

Gabe: "Just for the record… You guys do know that they were cooking utensils, right?"

Soketsu: "They were shaped like utensils," Soketsu posited with barely contained indignation. "They were created by His hands to be easily concealed and strike without warning."

Gabe: "Errr… Just between you and me, I originally built them because of a stupid bet I had with Ahaz," Gabe said with an embarrassed smile. "Of course he claims that it was part of another of his grandiose plans and I played right into his hands and yada-yada, but just between you and me, I think he is just a sore loser." Seeing his passive-aggressive audience’s glare, the armored man swiftly cleared his throat. "But back to the topic! So, do you know how they actually work?"

Soketsu: "No one knows." Soketsu answered tersely. "They never managed to figure out how they worked or replicate them. They were the creations of a genius no Order scribe could hope to live up to." He said with a pointed stare, but his foe only chuckled mirthfully in response.

Gabe: "Kahaha! You are such an unabashed flatterer! Still it would have been easier to explain what my armor does if you knew how the Seppuku Spoon worked. Oh well, I just have explain that too, I suppose." Saying so, Gabe began walking in a circle around Soketsu while heavily gesticulating. "To put it simply, they were reflecting incoming forces by reversing the vectors of anything hitting their surface. You know what vectors are, right?"

The armored man paused for a moment, but Soketsu’s silence quickly prompted him to groan out in frustration.

Gabe: "Seriously? What did they teach you over at the Order, flower arrangement? I thought they had at least a semi-decent science education…" Gabe shrugged his shoulders and glanced over at the hole on the now distant wall. "Pabloc doesn’t seem to be about to get back any time soon, so I might as well…"

With that the armored man casually walked over to one of the heavy machines and with a screeching noise he began scratching illustrations into its metal cover with the tip of his fingers.

Gabe: "All right kids, class is in order! In Euclidian space, vectors represent physical quantities that have both magnitude and direction. Velocity, acceleration, mechanical forces… stuff that make no sense if they have no direction associated with them." Saying so he scratched an arrow onto his ad hoc blackboard. "We represent them by arrows like this. Is this clear?"

Soketsu awkwardly nodded.

Gabe: "Good! Now that we are on the same page, this is what the redirection field on a Spoon does." With that the armored man returned to his illustration, scratched the out the end of the previous arrow and draw a new arrowhead to the other end. "Any questions?"

Seeing Soketsu’s less than satisfied expression, Gabe let out a tired sigh.

Gabe: "Okay, so to elaborate: When a sufficiently strong force is applied to the redirection field, it… well, to use layman terms, it hacks reality into thinking that the said force was actually going the other way around, so then reality flips out and rushes in to fix the ‘mistake’, thus reversing the actual force of the vector. So if, say, you took one of the aforementioned Seppuku Spoons and hit a wall with it, the counter-force you would have received from hitting the wall would be flipped around to become more force behind your strike, which in turn creates more counter-force. Repeat the process a few million times per second and you will end up with enough hacked force to cleave through concrete like it was butter. Trust me; it’s more fun than it sounds like."

Soketsu: "I can imagine…" The Rover spoke sardonically, but Gabe didn’t seem to mind.

Gabe: "Of course we also had other variants, not just the Spoon. Like The Fork that was designed to create aimed shockwaves using the air-molecules between the prongs or The Ladle, which was just a bigger version of the Spoon. Ah, and of course there was The Whisk. Its wireframe was actually a series of interlocking field-generators, each one with the capability of a Spoon. The coupling actually put their output to the fourth power! That little thing had enough destructive force be an actually viable weapon against the big thingie back during the Devastation, though if I remember correctly you thought it was silly."

Suddenly finding something familiar in the mad scientist’s monologue, Soketsu raised a brow.

Soketsu: "Thingie?"

Gabe: "Oh you know; the huge monster with the funny name that Nov’Elsfaan dropped on us three hundred years ago." Finally recognizing his audience’s confusion prompted the mad scientist to shake his head. "More on that later, I suppose. I went a little off-topic here anyways. The thing is; my whole armor is coated in a similar redirection-field, except instead of reflecting incoming vectors it absorbs them for later use. Neat, huh?"

Soketsu appeared to be in thought for a moment before speaking up again.

Soketsu: "So it’s something like a defensive magecraft."

Gabe’s expression visibly hardened after hearing the word.

Gabe: "Magecraft?"

Soketsu: "You say you ‘hack reality’, whatever that means. It sounds like magecraft to me."

After a moment of deadpan stare Gabe groaned out in exasperation.

Gabe: "Listen, I am not even sure I can explain this to you. The basic principles of the system themselves are so advanced that you couldn’t even comprehend them unless you spent years studying the Core Theory’s practical applications. I mean, we are talking tying up and stuffing Newton’s laws of motion into a closet as just the first step here."

Soketsu: "So it changes the laws of nature. Ergo, magecraft."

Gabe: "No, it’s science." The armored man insisted. "Core Hacking is to magic what alchemy is to chemistry. It’s sufficiently advanced science that looks like magic."

Soketsu: "Or maybe it’s just sufficiently advanced magic that could be mistaken for science?" Soketsu mused with a smile as irritatingly cocky as he could manage under the circumstances.

Gabe: "What?! That doesn’t even begin to make any—" For a moment it seemed like the mad scientist was about to lose his temper, but then he suddenly halted mid-sentence and cocked his head. "Now that you mention it, it actually does make a bit of sense. A weird, twisted kind of sense, but sense nevertheless…" After a moment of pause the armored man suddenly relaxed his stance and gave a thumb up. "I approve."

[Kay]: "Ready."

Kay’s voice was barely more than a whisper at the edge of his hearing but it made Soketsu exhale with relief, much to his opponent’s apparent surprise.

Soketsu: "Are you finished?" The Rover asked with a taunting glare as he readied his weapon. "I think we have wasted enough time with this."

Gabe: "Wait, what?" Gabe said, his approving thumb still standing tall as he cocked his head to the other direction.

Soketsu: "I said we wasted enough time already!" Soketsu repeated with a threatening growl.

Gabe: "But… You still don’t get it!" The scientist threw his arms into the air in a gesture of outrage and on the way down pointed at the hole. "And Pabloc isn’t back either!"

Soketsu: "All the more reason for me to end this now. I have indulged your delusions long enough. It is high time I returned to my mission, impostor."

The armored man froze up for a moment as he looked over his opponent in disbelief and then dropped his shoulders in resignation.

Gabe: "Fine! Whatever!" The man grumbled while his visor closed once again. "I go out of my way to explain things to him and let him catch his breath, and this is what I get…"

Still complaining, the scientist lowered his body as his armor’s artificial muscles tightened around his skin. Soketsu did the same while holding his weapon high, ready to lunge at any moment.

Gabe: "All right. Your call. If you are in such a hurry, I will make this quick."

The second he ended his sentence the armor’s hum suddenly turned into a high-pitched whistle and the next moment his body suddenly disappeared with the rumbling noise of rushing air filling the space where he stood. His approach was so fast that for a moment it looked like he just materialized out of thin air next to Soketsu and he immediately brandished his knuckle in a left hook.

This time Soketsu wasn’t caught off guard. He nimbly avoided the punch and planed his feet for a vertical swing, however he was instead forced to jump back by a lightning-fast backhand-strike delivered by Gabe’s right. He tried to intercept it with his own plated gauntlet but his raised right fist was swept aside by the inexorable power behind his opponent’s strike and it sent him reeling back.

Soketsu glanced up and clicked his tongue. He was pushed aside, but not far enough to make a break for it. On the other hand he was momentarily out of his opponent’s range, so he decided to capitalize on the opportunity. It only took the Rover a split-second to regain his footing, and the instant he did so he pulled his weapon into a one-handed thrust aimed at his opponent’s throat.

In theory the idea was straightforward: the neck was one of the few areas no armor could adequately cover without completely restricting head-movement, so it was his best bet at finding the weak spot of his foe’s defenses. Said strike however was intercepted by a swift palm that simply pushed it aside just enough so that it sailed safely over Gabe’s shoulder.

Soketsu’s first reaction was to try and pull the halberd back while hooking the beak of the weapon into his opponent neck from behind, but the mad scientist instantly launched another palm-strike towards his side before he could put the idea into action. Not willing to take the risk of further rib damage, Soketsu dived in the direction of the attack and allowed it to push him aside.

This was the breakthrough he had been waiting for. He allowed the momentum of the strike to carry him and he landed in a roll, only to spring to his feet a moment later and rush towards the nearest factory line.

Gabe: "Hey!" The armored man cried foul. "Where are you going?!"

Instead of answering Soketsu amped his speed and jumped over a conveyor belt. While he feigned disinterest in the mad scientist’s explanation, he was actually listening quite closely, and even though he didn’t really understand the particulars, one thing became quite clear to him: if he told him the truth about his armor, something he was inclined to believe after their first skirmish, he was not going to be able to beat the man in a fair fight. But then again, no one said he had to fight him fairly…

He could hear his opponent’s heavy steps thumping behind him as he dived behind one of the large machines.

[Soketsu]: "Kay, can you turn on the eye again?" He asked hurriedly as he circled around his cover, keeping it between him and his opponent.

[Kay]: "I… don’t think so." His partner replied. "It’s eating too much viridia. If I turn it on, there won’t be enough left for the seventeenth."

[Soketsu]: "I don’t want you to turn it on for long, only for a split-second."

There was a moment of pause so loud Soketsu almost forgot to keep circling his cover.

[Kay]: "… I think I can do that," Kay said hesitantly, "But what would that accomplish?"

[Soketsu]: "I just need a snap-shot of his position to know which way to run to get behind him."

[Kay]: "Oh…" She spoke, audibly impressed. "I think I can do that. How about one shot every three seconds?"

[Soketsu]: "You can do it on repeat?" Now it was the Rover’s turn to sound impressed. "Can you make it two seconds?"

[Kay]: "I’ll try."

The first flash of the area was slightly disorienting. The Mystic Eye of Depth Perception was not just for perceiving the area around the user, it also helped processing all the visual information the human brain was not built to handle by itself. Still, after the third or fourth flash Soketsu was able to block out most of the unnecessary details and only focus on the important bits, such as the armored man sprinting right at him from the left and…

Soketsu: "Oh crap!" He croaked as he dived to the side, rolling over yet another conveyor belt while his opponent rushed past him like an oncoming train.

Gabe: "What’s wrong with you!?" Gabe bellowed as he teetered to a halt. "Stand still already!"

Soketsu had no intention of doing that. Instead he sprung to his feet and got behind another machine. He didn’t stand still this time. Instead he swung around his cover and came out on the other side, getting behind his opponent just as he vaulted over the conveyor belt as well.

He held his halberd at the bottom like a giant club and delivered a bone-crushing two handed swing at the back of his foe’s head with the flat of its edge. There was a jarring lack of impact, yet the sudden halt still managed to nearly wrestle the halberd out of Soketsu’s hands. However, he wasn’t the only one who was shocked, as Gabe also stumbled forward, more in surprise than due to the actual attack.

While the clumsy strike didn’t even scrape the proverbial paint-job on the helmet, it still accomplished what Soketsu was hoping for. He already figured that even if the man was telling the truth about his vector-whatchamacallit magic, it still had to let some force through, otherwise it would be impossible to know how to grab onto something like he did with his halberd.

Sure, the actual impact he delivered with his two-handed swing only seemed to gently knock his opponent on the back of the head, but it was enough for what he had in mind.

After the first moment of surprise the mad scientist spun around to face him, but by that time Soketsu was already diving behind the next machine.

Gabe: "Hey!" He yelled indignantly, but by that time the Rover was out of sight again.

Soketsu heaved a desperate sigh and focused on the image delivered by his mystic eye. His mouth soon twisted in a satisfied grin, as it appeared his tactic was effective after all. As he expected, or at the very least hoped, the armored man’s advance took a more cautious approach. Instead of rushing around the machine he only seemed to carefully tiptoe around it like he wanted to surprise him.

This in turn gave Soketsu ample time to position himself for another hit-and-run at his back, and while he didn’t do any damage per se, his goal was never to strike the man down. Not yet, at least.

What he was aiming at was his confidence. By striking and fading repeatedly he made the mad scientist unsure about his position and slowed his advance. Of course they both knew this stalemate was not going to last. Without a reliable way to get through his opponent’s defenses Soketsu was going to run out of viridia rather sooner than later and the fight would end just as surely as if he fought and lost fair and square.

Thinking about that, Soketsu threw his back at his newest cover and tried to get his ragged breathing under control. Right, this tactic was not going to bring him victory, but it was never intended to do so on the first place. What he really needed was a distraction to create an opportunity to actually use his trump card, and all of this was just preparation for that. He glanced at his feet and smirked.

He was at the site of his battle against the mechanical guards, and their pieces were right where he left them. In this case he was interested in one piece in particular, the severed arm and blade of one of his foes that was now lying at his feet. He closed his eyes for a moment and checked for Gabe.

The mad scientist seemed to be standing right on the other side of his cover, one of the largest machines in the hall. Good, he murmured. With one last sharp intake of breath he readied himself and using the butt of his halberd he picked up the severed metal arm from the ground and tossed it over behind the next machine in the line.

It made a loud clanging noise upon impact and he could actually hear the mechanical hum of his opponent’s armor rise in pitch as he tensed up. Soketsu couldn’t help but smile as he readied his weapon, already going through the necessary incantations in his head… and then he froze.

The armor’s mechanical hum on the other side rose even higher and the next flash of information his mystic eye delivered confirmed his fear: his opponent didn’t take the bait. Then there was an ear-piercing shriek of grinding metal and Soketsu could only gaze in dumbfounded disbelief as his cover suddenly rushed at him and sent him tumbling forward in an undignified sprawl.

Then, as if that wasn’t crazy enough, by the time he got back on his feet the machine was gone, or to be more precise, it was gone from original its place. Instead it was sitting on the shoulder of his opponent, the enormous apparatus nearly dwarfing his form underneath it. Then, with a small show of effort the armored man tossed the immense machine to the side and dusted his hands what Soketsu imagined was a smug smirk under his faceplate.

Soketsu: "Oh come on…" Soketsu gaped in dismay. "That’s just unfair…"

That machine was big. As in, it had to weight several tons at the very least and the mad scientist just picked it and somehow even raised it over his head. The entire concept was so ludicrous that for a moment he even forgot to run away. Sadly, that one moment was all his foe needed and he charged at the dazed Rover without further ado.

Still in shock over the insane sight, Soketsu swung his halberd by sheer instinct rather than any conscious effort. The armored man once again stepped right into his swing, deflected his blade by his armguard and grabbed him by the collar. A split-second later his body was hurled at the floor so hard it drove even what little air remained out of his lungs.

Soketsu could once again feel that annoying corner of his mind dryly complaining about how the mad scientist’s throw was ruined by his legs being too far apart and not providing a solid enough foundation. He didn’t have much time to think about such things though, as his foe’s heel was raised as soon as he hit the floor, ready to crush whichever unlucky body part happened to be under it. Soketsu frantically rolled out of the way at the last moment, but by the time he was on his feet his foe’s relentless assault was upon him once again.

The situation was quite grave no matter how he looked at it. His plan was in tatters and it didn’t seem like Gabe was gracious enough to allow him to get out of sight and try again. That left him with no other choice but to stand his ground and fight, and if he still had any hopes about coming out on top of a direct encounter, the still vivid image of his armored foe handling a giant machine like cardboard box was enough to shatter them.

Not only that, his opponent was also faster than him, even in the heavy armor, and his relentless assault robbed him of the ability to utilize his longer reach. In fact his weapon’s length appeared to be a disadvantage in this situation, as he could barely block or parry any of his opponent’s hand to hand strikes with it, yet letting it go would have cut his direct connection with his partner’s viridia reserves, meaning instant defeat.

And on top of that, as if all that wasn’t bad enough, Gabe’s attacks were downright devastating. Even though Soketsu’s body was filled with viridia to the brim and was supposed to be as hard as iron, the mad scientist’s fists delivered considerable damage even with glancing blows. Even worse, from time to time he would suddenly use one of those sweeping steps before delivering a palm-strike that somehow always managed to get through his guard.

The most disconcerting thing about those strikes however was that they dealt more damage to his psyche than his body. Each time the mad scientist threw one of those, the ever-louder corner of his mind kept screaming about sloppy executions, wrong footwork and throwing around terminology that sounded like it came from an old kung-fu movie, like ‘Green Demon style’ and ‘Ardent Palm strike’ and there was something about ‘green oil on grey canvas with red stripes’ or something like that. It all sounded silly yet said inner voice felt very, very serious about it.

Which in turn only made it all the more distracting, especially when it was chewing him out for not avoiding something no living being on the planet had any business dodging. You think you can do better, asshole?— He grumbled between two strikes, and it made him pause for a moment. A moment in which Gabe almost broke his skull with another palm-strike, but that’s beside the point.

The important bit was that, as far as he knew, he could do better. After all, he was arguing with himself. Considering that he had nothing to lose, he decided he might as well give it a chance.

With that he focused his eyes on Gabe and let his bottled up instincts loose, and its effects were immediate. What was previously just some annoying, incoherent mess off thoughts suddenly became obvious knowledge. Yes, the scientist was using the Green Demon style. It was the world’s only viridia-fueled martial art, which in practical terms meant that it was movie kung-fu, except without kicks. Kicks are dangerous and usually cause more problems that they were worth. He didn’t need those, and apparently nor did his enemy.

Except the armored man wasn’t using viridia. And his footwork was incredibly sloppy, a pale imitation to the proper and well-honed craft of his…

Focus; he glared at himself, a decidedly unusual thing to do, and forced himself to look at the practical applications of this newfound knowledge while also trying not to think about where it came from.

Without any prompting his right hand lased out on its own and parried one of the mad scientist’s strikes before he automatically took up an unfamiliar stance. Or rather, it was a familiar stance, except not. It was complicated.

He put his halberd behind his body, its blade pointing downward, and he extended his right hand towards his enemy in a position that was nearly mirroring the armored man’s own and he focused his attention onto his adversary’s feet.

True to form, the mad scientist’s left feet swept forward in preparation to another palm strike. Soketsu’s body responded without hesitation. In a sudden motion his left foot darted forward, blocking the way of his opponent’s movement. Gabe stumbled in surprise and his previously unerring palm-strike didn’t even come close to Soketsu.

This was the Rover’s cue. He tightened his grip on his halberd and was ready to bring out his trump card— but then his extended right hand instinctively lashed out at his target. Before he could even recognize what was happening a strong current of viridia blazed through his hand and he delivered a palm-strike not unlike the ones the armored man was raining on him right at his enemy’s heart.

The act being instinctive of course meant that he didn’t really think it through. If he did, he might have remembered Gabe’s spiel about his armor and might have thought twice about it.

Soketsu entire arm erupted in a flash pain, from the marrow of his bones to the pores of his skin. While striking his foe’s momentum-stripping defenses with the halberd was already far from comfortable, punching the same armor was on a completely different level. Hell, it was on a completely different plane of existence. One filled mountains. Angry, spiky mountains that really didn’t like being punched.

And it was the same pain and thought that led to his subsequent shock and disbelief when the mad scientist actually stumbled back from what seemed like a gentle shove. He gazed at the armored man in agape wonder as he took a step back, shook himself and after a moment of hesitation let out a sudden ear-piercing laugh.

Gabe: "Finally! That’s what I’m talking about!" He cackled with audible mirth as he began to clap. "What took you so long? I was almost worried for a while back there."

Soketsu: "What are you… talking about?" Soketsu said, his throat suddenly very dry.

Gabe: "Your thing," Gabe answered enthusiastically. "You know, your kung fu and stuff."

Soketsu: "It’s not kung fu. It’s the—" The Rover said reflexively, but then hesitated before continuing. "It’s the Green Demon."

Gabe: "Whatever, it’s the same for me."

Soketsu: "The same? THE SAME?!" Soketsu bellowed with an intensity that surprised even himself, but he didn’t stop. Or rather the flow of pure, unbridled indignation didn’t let him stop. "You steal my style, butcher it and then dare to call it the same as kung fu?! Have you no fucking shame?!"

For a while the mad scientist was seemingly taken aback but then he just sighed.

Gabe: "Now listen, I didn’t butcher anything—"

Soketsu: "Yes you did!" Soketsu interrupted. "Your stance is all messed up, your wrists are too slack and your basic posture is like a—"

Gabe: "Excuse me, princess!" It was the armor-clad man’s turn to exclaim. "I’m so, so sorry for not following on your exact footsteps! How thoughtless of me not to consider your poor, brittle feelings first before changing your stupid martial art!"

Something cracked inside Soketsu. Without any words, or for that matter, thinking, he lunged at his opponent without any further ado. With an almost animalistic roar he plunged his weapon into the ground, embedding the spear point into the concrete like it was butter, and lashed out at his opponent like a cornered serpent.

As for the exchange of blows that followed afterwards, he would have been hard pressed to remember any of the details. It was all just one huge blur of movement and pain and exhilaration and exhaustion framed by the ground-shaking vibrations of shatteringly powerful strikes and counters streaking through the air.

He didn’t know how long the exchange lasted, but it couldn’t have been longer than a few seconds. He just delivered a straight palm-strike at his enemy’s solar plexus. The armored man didn’t even flinch. For some reason this only made him even more furious, but even that felt distant somehow. Like, he knew he was furious, but he didn’t really feel it. It was like he was submerged in deep water and all the thoughts and emotions normally filling his brain sounded like a distant white noise.

Not all emotions though. Only those which didn’t serve his victory. Also, for some reason, annoyance. Like how annoyingly slow his movements were. He stopped and thought for a moment, or at least his mind did, taken that his body continued countering the mad scientist’s latest attack, an obviously botched yet by some miracle still effective piercing strike delivered with two extended fingers.

At first he almost started wondering which of his forms his enemy twisted into this attack, but then he shelved the thought. He will have time for that. First he needed to get an edge. He needed more viridia.

For a few moments the question itself was perplexing. He should have viridia, yet he didn’t, and it took him an agonizingly long time to remember why.

Right, he put the halberd down to be able to fight properly. All he had to do was to grab it for a moment and recharge, and so with his next dodge he reached around and—

[Kay]: "SOKETSU!"

Suddenly the dissonant serenity of his mind was burned away by a voice so loud it would have popped his eardrums if it wasn’t just in his head.

[Soketsu]: "Wha…?" He mumbled inside his head, suddenly feeling woozy and unbalanced.

[Kay]: "What are you doing?!" His partner bellowed again, her voice unusually resonant in his head. However it was soon drowned out by his own detached thought again, urging him to continue fighting now that he had Viridia again.

He tried to let go of the handle and return to the fray… but for some reason his hand refused to loosen its grip. It took him several long, confusion-filled split-seconds to realize the reason: there was something there. A word tugging at his mind that took way too long to picture: ‘seventeenth’.

In a flash of determination he suddenly tightened his grip even further and tore the weapon out of the ground. He could hear some more protests from the girl, but he couldn’t make them out over the noise of his rushing thoughts.

He kicked the ground underneath and rolled back, taking a glancing punch at the head. There was no pain, only a slight echo of annoyance. A second later he was on his feet again, blazing halberd raised defiantly at his opponent. He was Soketsu. He needn’t wait for opportunities.

Soketsu: "EVER 6: FLASH QUAKE!"

His halberd’s blade suddenly flared up with the familiar green light, rending the very air around him as he once again drove the weapon into the ground in front of him. The blade once again entered the concrete, but this time it was different.

In a blinding burst of green a web of cracks spread out under his feet, throwing both him and his armor-clad opponent into the air in an explosion of green flames. The mad scientist overcame his first shock with commendable vigor, regaining his balance mid-air and landing on a nearby conveyor-belt with a cacophony of twisting and breaking metal. Upon landing he immediately began searching for his opponent.

He didn’t have to look for long, as the Rover’s form was right above him, floating in the air amongst the blown up debris held in place by the enormous amount of viridia leaking from the pores of his body. His whole figure was bathed in an eerie emerald glow from head to toe as he pulled his halberd behind his back. His weapon’s contours were hard to see as the insane amount of tangible power distorted the very air around it, but even at a cursory glance, its brilliant green blade had seemingly grown to the size where it looked more like a grossly oversized battleaxe instead of a halberd.

Soketsu: "Lord of Lords, our master and guide, Nov’Elsfaan..."

Even through the thumps of falling concrete and the crackling of the viridia-filled air, the Gabe could still hear Soketsu’s monotonous chanting. It didn’t sound like a litany, more like a dry passage read from a technical textbook, yet somehow that only made it all the more ominous.

Soketsu: "You, who had shown us the light of your infinite wisdom, please guide my hand…"

Gabe: "You gotta be kidding me…" The scientist muttered between clenched teeth.

The air around them became heavy. The power was literally swirling around Soketsu’s body as he kept chanting with an increasingly passionate voice.

Gabe: "Are you out of your fucking mind?!" Gabe suddenly bellowed at the man with a voice loud enough to wake the dead. "You cannot use that! It’s going to kill you! Again!" Soketsu didn’t seem to care.

Soketsu: "… and help me smite my enemies with your fury!"

The swirling abruptly stopped as he reached the end of the sentence. His halberd’s edge suddenly extended even further, glowing furiously as if it was about to devour the surrounding space itself. Soketsu locked his eyes upon his enemy as a delirious smile rose to his face and he declared:

Soketsu: "THE LAST HOLY IMPRINT! EVER 17: CHAMI’S JUDGM-"

Gabe: "LIKE HELL I WOULD LET YOU DO THAT!!!" Just as the Rover was about to release his final technique, a brilliant crimson light of even greater intensity blew into his eyes from the scientist’s direction. "DROP IT, NOW!!!"

The armor-clad man’s palm, pointing towards him, was bathed in blinding radiance as a small, swirling shape of ruby light forced its way into existence within it. Soketsu had no idea what it was but he knew it couldn’t be anything good. He didn’t really care though. He used all his might to swing his weapon, his mind is still serene and insensitive to the panic slowly building up in his chest. It was too late.

Gabe: "I WARNED YOU!!!"

[Kay]: "Soketsu!!!"

The shapeless radiance suddenly lanced out at Soketsu like a tight beam of solid color, rushing right at the Rover’s chest. He had no chance of avoiding it. By the time he could even react the impact already hit him and shattered the dissonant serenity clouding his mind with a shower of blinding pain. His halberd was almost torn from his hand by the untold amount of pressure as he was propelled towards the ceiling by what felt like getting hit by an overloaded freight train.

He hit the cold concrete and rebounded like a ragdoll, sending another wave of pain tearing at his consciousness, yet he still held onto his weapon. For some reason he felt like he was holding it in a weird way, which actually turned out to be because his arm was broken at three different points, but that particular pain was lost in the sea of agony assailing him. His thoughts were filled with a single notion: ‘I can still do it. I can still swing it. I can still finish this.’

It didn’t go any further than thoughts though. He was just about to obey gravity when a sudden flash drew his attention on the edge of his vision. To his momentary surprise, Gabe was seemingly flying towards him in mid-air with his visor open as another red pulse of raw kinetic force was coalescing in his palm.

Gabe: "I SAID DROP THE GODDAMN THING ALREADY!"

Soketsu had no strength left to defend himself as the impossible amount of pressure hit his chest. His weapon was finally torn from his hand as he was once again sent flying with the speed of a bullet, crashing right into the huge metal door through which he entered this underground complex on the first place.

The immense structure stopped his flight with a deafening groan, his body leaving a giant dent on its spotless exterior. For a moment, he was embedded motionlessly into its surface like a grotesque piece of modern art, but gravitation soon claimed his body as he quietly fell to the ground with a dull thud echoing throughout in the hall. After that— he didn’t move.

The momentary silence was broken by the surprisingly soft touchdown of the armored scientist. He looked over the motionless body by the broken gate with a difficult expression and painfully shook his hands.

He raised his leg, but before he could take the first step a bright flash of green claimed his attention. Behind him Soketsu’s halberd burst into countless particles of light and immediately reformed itself into a small, humanoid form. The stark naked young girl frantically rushed past him to his broken partner’s side without even looking at him.

Kay: "Soketsu! Soketsuuu!!!"

She fell to her knees beside him and took his head into her little arms, crying. She kept calling for him with a weak voice apparently not caring about the armor-clad man approaching them.

Kay: "So-Soketsu! Please, wake up! Please! Please…"

Gabe was almost standing beside her by the time she finally noticed him. As she raised her eyes she looked like a little animal. Scared, yet fierce and hostile to his presence. For a second, her eyes kept jumping between Gabe and Soketsu and then she suddenly stood up and threw her body between the two. Naked as a newborn she threw her arms up as if forming a line between them with fiery resolve in her eyes.

Kay: "Leave him alone! I won’t let you touch him anymore!"

Her arms and legs were shaking with both exhaustion and fear and her breathing was completely ragged, yet her eyes showed unwavering determination. The man stopped on his track for a moment as he looked deep into her eyes. Then he took a step forward. And another. With each step, the girl’s legs trembled, yet she never averted her eyes.

Kay: "…"

In the end, they were standing right in front of each other. For a few seconds the standoff continued, as neither of them averted their eyes. Finally, still with a somewhat difficult expression, the man raised his hand.

The girl instinctively twitched and closed her eyes. The following moments felt like eternity, but instead of pain she could only feel the rustling of something warm around her body. As she finally opened her eyes she found a black lab-coat strewn over her. For a few moments her confused eyes kept jumping back and forth between the black cloth covering her body and the man clad in crimson armor as he lightly patted her head.

Gabe: "It’s a little dirty, but please bear with it for now." Gabe told her with a warm smile that seemed both bewildering and yet completely natural on his face. "I’m sure our boneheaded friend would be sad if you were to catch a cold."

She was utterly befuddled by the turn of events as the scientist turned his back on them. In the background, as if just waiting for the right moment to appear, Pabloc’s figure could be seen in the company of the little blonde girl from earlier. They were accompanied by a set of floating stretchers and some medical equipment. As they arrived Pabloc turned to Gabe after shaking his head in disapproval in face of the general destruction.

Pabloc: "Was all this really necessary?"

The armored man smiled wryly in response.

Gabe: "Not at all, but it was cool."

The scientist sighed and shook his head, half in disapproval and half in twisted amusement.

Pabloc: "You never change."

Gabe: "About time you noticed. But still…"

He gave a painful groan as his armor slowly went quiet and he removed his gloves.

Gabe: "… I might have gone a little overboard this time." He whispered with a self-deprecating chuckle. "Please take care of those two. I think… I’ll just… take… a little nap now—"

And with that, like a puppet with its strings cut, he collapsed. Pabloc caught him in his fall. Even with the armor, or maybe because of it, the man was surprisingly light. After taking the time to shake his head again, this time more in amusement than disapproval, Pabloc slowly laid him onto the spare stretcher he was really glad he brought along.

Pabloc: "… And here I though the word ‘overboard’ didn’t exist in your dictionary." Pabloc mumbled to the sleeping man and punctuated it with a small sigh.

Afterwards he readjusted his glasses as he looked over his surroundings. With a flick of his hand he raised the unconscious Soketsu onto the second stretcher. While the Rover seemed to be in really bad shape at first glance, a cursory inspection told him his condition wasn’t actually life-threatening. Considering the Soketsu-shaped dent in the gate, Pabloc couldn’t help but smile in admiration of the man’s crazy fortitude.

In the meantime Lily was trying to make conversation with the crying Kay, smiling innocently at the girl as she was looking over the treatment of her partner. She looked a little too pale too, the scientist noted, and he automatically made a mental note about checking up on her too. Pabloc’s lips suddenly curved into a smile as he let out a huge sigh. Soketsu wasn’t even back for a day and he was already getting back into his old routines. Go figure.

Pabloc: "What a day…"

And with that he scooped up the girls as well and left the ruined factory floor, returning back to the depths of the complex once again.