Duelist Ra’ventrii’s fight card was splashed up on the screens above the arena. An image of her armored form rotated as her statistics were laid out next to it.
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Rank: 4th Tier, Top Seed
Win Streak: 14
Odds: 37:1
KO Bonus: +7
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Next to her fight card was her opponent’s - duelist Ledoss, a Reborn Anew. Unlike many others, his armor was sleek and light. It clearly provided an amazing amount of flexibility, similar to the Ra’ventrii armor.
Unlike it, however, its outer plates were scales rather than feathers, and were colored an offwhite with gold accents. It
Shin Shoryuken!!!
The stars glittered brightly up in the sky as dark waves lapped up against the dome’s edge. And just inside that edge, in a dark area of Lacroseth City, was a nondescript Red Zone.All in all, the Zone was unassuming. It consisted of a few low buildings with relatively simple designs and with muted colors. In fact, anyone who glanced in its direction wouldn’t have been able to tell much difference from the rest of the city around it.Otherwise, everything else inside was practically invisible to the untrained eye - the central security and communications tower, the multiple disguised guardstations, the discreet plain-robed guards patrolling the zone, the popup autoturrets embedded in the ground everywhere.All of them looked relatively normal. Or at least, they were disguised to look no
Colviss stood in the middle of the gathering hall she had called home for the past few months. She watched with stoic silence as the Drogar all around her packed everything up and got ready to move out.The many racks of weapons and armor all around their temporary base had some of their contents packed into crates and cases. But the majority of them went directly to their deployment kits, and were being equipped right on the spot.Among them was Felothi, who was wearing a loose slash-resistant combat suit. He attached a number of blood red armor plates over it, and adjusted their fit using reinforced mesh straps.He slung one of the many standard rifles over a shoulder, slid a MedGun in his thigh holster, sheathed his blade on his waist, then filled his armor’s container slots with all of the ammunition and m
Eva and Szereth stood in his lab and pored over the Ra’ventrii armor as it hung suspended in midair. Hanging next to it was a highly translucent holographic readout of all of its statistics and settings.Though Szereth was deep in the weeds and explaining every stat, Eva found herself unable to concentrate. Part of that was her trait, of course.But most of it was because of Ledoss. More specifically, his words.“I think I gotta stop dueling,” she said.Szereth stopped in mid-explanation, turned to her with a quizzical look on his face, and opened his mouth to protest. But just as he was about to speak, he came to a realization.Every fight she had with a Reborn had been tough, and it was only go
The Admiral’s temporary lab was in the midst of yet another highly productive cycle. Load bearing antigrav drones flew in every direction as they brought their cargo from sector to sector. Recycled and raw materials to shield frames to fully-completed antigrav shields.Off in the corner, the testing range was still in full swing, blasting antigrav shields in a real-world stress-test. The shields almost always worked perfectly and captured the vast majority of the bullets fired at them.They only failed when they held more than they could handle and the whole thing short-circuited. There were also the rare cases where the frame itself was struck, and caused the antigrav field to fail or weaken.In another corner, they were scanned for defects and other flaws. A vast majority were fine, though some held a
Shadows from the gondola above crept across the ground below, not that most Guards or Feds even noticed. They were all focused on the firefight right in front of them.The chaos of the battle meant that all eyes remained on the enemies only meters away from them. The last thing they needed to do was take their eyes off their enemies. Doing so would have incredibly lethal consequences.At the lead gondola, Colviss stood at the prow and watched as the fight below played out before her. She watched as many of the Drogar she had trained fell to their enemies. Their fates had long been sealed, and it was a fact that she had come to terms with. They were all meant to die. Or most of them anyway.It made her wonder why Savoth even paid her to train them. Wasn’t he simply wasting Coin by doing so? It&rsquo
As the dust cleared and the noise settled, Colviss pulled herself up off the ground. She grit her teeth as she looked all around her and saw many Drogar dead or dying. Or worse. Some were twisted, mangled heaps that were somehow still alive and breathing.She took a peek from what remained of her cover and looked at all of the shields. Though they looked comical, they were nothing short of devastating.Unfazed by their losses, the Chosen ran up to fill their ranks. At least to whatever fortifications and standing trees were left. And they foolishly shot at the shields.Colviss watched as the shields captured all their ammunition, and fired them back with overwhelming results. More Drogar were lost.She quickly realized there was no way to beat them. If they got lucky wit
Both Eva and Severas dismantled the terrorist gondola crews, and sent all six of them plummeting to the ground one after the other. Each one smashed into the ground with a heavy, wet CRUNCH as they landed on numerous Chosen. Even armored, their bodies were no match against tons of titanium, and were easily crushed and mangled from the impact.And all it took was the first one to send them into a frenzied panic. The utter destruction of their barricade combined with the falling gondola caused most of them to lose their wits.Seeing the deaths of their friends, and the shock of the attack caused many of them to simply run. Mass panic had set in, and more than half of them ran towards the prisoner compound, where they could find safety in numbers.Little did they know that their numbers had been reduced to a few hundre
Colviss blinked at Miko after her ludicrous statement, and laughed. She found the idea of any child, human or Drogar, having any lethal capacity as pure fantasy. On top of that, Miko’s short, skinny frame didn’t help dispel any ideas regarding human frailty.“You? Annihilate me?” Colviss said. “I figured humans could do better than send their fledgelings to fight. Seems I was wrong.”“And you believe your size makes you powerful?” retorted Miko. “Or perhaps that your age does?”“Of course not. Ra’ventrii is clearly ‘smaller’ than me, but I know what she’s capable of…”“I see. So it appears that you need a demonstration first. I can appreciate requiring scientific