The arcane storm around it calmed. The fleshy remains of his troupe slowly glided to the floor.
His stance deepened. My sensors did not pick up on anything. Yet, I could feel a pressure build between us.
His presence was overwhelming. However, I could tell from the way he stood, the way he hardened his resolve, so was mine.
My wings creaked loudly as the largest guns were reabsorbed into my frame. the plating of my arms shifted. I produced twin rotary cannons. Without hesitation, the two barrels unleashed an eager typhoon of brass.
The air around him shimmered once again. The vibrations within the dust weren't as pronounced as before. The bullets grinded against unseen friction. The lead hail was deviated away from the beast's flesh. Each shot flew past him as the friction broke.
He had dropped his barrier then called it back up when I started shooting. Why was that?
Nevertheless he seemed to have trouble reacting to it. I will close the gap and make that task impossible.
I jettisoned my rotary guns. I let myself go limp till my chest was parallel to the floor. My knee joints locked and the cement shattered.
I blasted forward far faster than any bullet. The remaining windows shattered. His eyes widened as he caught my advance, the empty sockets filling with panic.
His barrier raised, they caught the falling shards of glass like a net.
The wind broke, I shifted direction. I landed forcefully on the side of a building. My feet dug right through the brick, embedding me so my back was perpendicular to the wall.
Its head snapped towards me but I had already leapt away to a building behind him.
It extended a palm as I landed and then muttered something inaudible, the glass shards hit the ground that same instant.
I felt the air ripple and let myself fall off the wall. I landed on all fours, my spine coiled like a spring. His invisible blow struck the building behind me. The crushing blast smashing the stone and glass. Large cracks extended down the building's foundation and along the streets.
That atack is powerful, it's too slow to land if I keep moving. Its defense however, I can't breach. My largest cannons couldn't break through.
Was its barrier something passive that it had constantly upheld?
No, the glass shards fell when it attacked. It had no reason to drop it at the beginning.
This could mean it took effort to maintain, or that it couldn't atack and hold it up.
The first is not mutually exclusive to the second and they are both simultaneously possible. I don't like this, there is too much I can't predict.
I will goad it into striking me in an attempt to have it lower its supernatural defense. I may not fully grasp how the barrier works, but the creature before me wouldn't drop it before an unknown foe for no reason. There are many variables and many are unknown.
I ripped myself across the floor, pulling with my arms and kicking with my legs. The beast's head hadn't even begun tilting. He hadn't flinched, he couldn't react to me.
I planted myself before him, the shockwave washed over him and sent black droplets spilling past us. The loud bang of my metal talons startled him so severely that not one muscle failed to flex.
His hands raised, the air coiled in anticipation. Far too telegraphed to ever land. I detected that brief moment before he would strike.
In that instant I sprang forth sliding across the ground in a fraction of a fraction of a second. Again the sound barrier was broken.
To him it likely appeared that I had disappeared from where I stood.
His assumedly organic, optic nerves would have found it impossible to relay the information to his brain before I could strike him.
I would cut him down.
From my wings, I drew the barrel of an anti-material rifle. I raked a claw across the floor like a drifting motorcycle and pulled the trigger.
I had made too many assumptions.
He did not turn around, yet by lifting his hand he had stopped the bullet mid-flight, slowing it down as it approached with that same steady friction.
Did he activate it now, or was it on from before? If so, did he trick me into thinking he could not maintain the barrier constantly?
My display flashed with warning. I jolted my head to the right as my own shot was thrown back.
The plating of my cheek flew off with the bullet. Exposed cables and blood vessels coiled away from the scorching haze of the sun. The stringy insides vomiting out fresh platting to repair the wound.
He hadn't deactivated the barrier. He had just lowered its output. If I had hit it with the same force I used before, it would have broken through. I couldn't do that, he had caught on to my weakness.
Worst of all, he had tricked me, he could see me move. He could react to me.
His barrier had parameters. Light and air could get through. He could either filter materials, this was unlikely. Or he had a minimum force that was needed to activate it.
This foe did not lack experience in battle. Yet there is something he lacks.
I also assumed that what he used to stop the shells before was a stable barrier, either on or off, and that it would be toggled in response to any attack the same way, yet now I realize its output was precisely controlled and variable.
His voice was laced with redoubled confidence. "You present a troublesome quickness angel. Yet, you assumed that I needed eyes to see you or that I was too slow to respond did you not? I adjusted my power precisely to the output of your attacks and slowed them down so they would not reach me."
An unfamiliar tension filled me. The worst had come to pass, he had caught on.
His fingers twitched in exhilaration. "Of course, I realized you would not be able to strike me with the same force you used to obliterate my comrades. Before you lunged at me you had let go of your weapons. The more weapons you produce the more you are hindered in your motions. Thus if I keep my power at just enough output active at all times you will never be able to pierce my defense. The second you attempt to increase your might, you will slow down and then I will hit you."
He has understood not only my intentions but also analyzed me in the heat of battle. If I attempt a new strategy, I must finish him before he can adapt. I must try something different, something bold.
I still haven't fully grasped what exactly he can do. But his exclamation was an arrogant one, telling me this information indicates he was already certain of his victory and that he was sure of the limits of my capacity. He doesn't know of me either.
"Come forth metal angel. I shall bring to thee a death that thy kind has long since earned." His calm exclamation beguiled both his excitement and his composed analytical mind.
I believe that despite his mind's sharpness it was now sheathed in a scabbard created by his own treacherous hubris.
I will attempt two things at once.
Two plans.
A two-step one and a simpler one. This creature is prideful, he thinks he has me figured out.
Thus, if I present an obvious strategy and then follow through with something unforeseen. Then, I may be able to land a killing blow.
This creature is old, very old. He lived in a time far before modern weaponry. He believes me to be an angel, not a machine. This will be his death warrant. He also has no idea of what I can do up close, he hasn't seen it.
However, there is a risk involved in this plan as it will necessitate that I take a hit, both to lower his guard and to feed his assuredness of my defeat.
I unfurled my wings and created a large cannon, loaded with a high-velocity armor-piercing shell. In my opposing palm I produced a singular hand grenade. I was planted to the floor. He had seen this and so, he raised a palm and roared out a dreadful incantation.
I theorized that perhaps he would need to drop his barrier before attacking, however I believe this not to be the case. He is far too clever to risk both our attacks landing simultaneously. The barrier was most certainly still up.
I am certain that he thinks I am going for that more obvious plan of a simultaneous blow. He thinks I will fire as he does and I will be torn apart by his blast as my shot is harmlessly slowed and stopped.
I saw his muscles tense. In response my cannon roared out.
My shot neared his body as a wave of invisible force hurtled towards me, cracking the pavement and vibrating the air with supernatural fury.
My ordnance slowed to a crawl before stopping inches from his grinning face. I launched the grenade towards him, feigning desperation. His smile only grew at my apparent helplessness.
Swift as lightning, I chopped at my shoulder and tore through the cannon. The broken gun falling away.
My servos screamed out as I forced my body to the side. The grenade, as I hoped, had approached the barrier and remained suspended next to the beast.
My right side was torn away in an instant. Blown apart by the arcane wave the creature had fired. Bolts and steel plating erupted in a shower of rubble, shrapnel scratched the paint of my body before poking holes in the tarmac.
He, no… It. Spoke out. That empty voice was still filled with a joyous, ravenous bloodlust. Its satisfaction at its supposed victory was evident. "Foolish angel. I have claimed your arm, my next attack will welcome you to the oblivion you deserve… Tis truly a shame I can't let you rot in hell as we have."
An umbral tongue circled its skeletal lips, savoring the moment. "Alas, it matters not. My flesh, it sings in veneration. Angel, I am enjoying this. Oh, Istha. I have reached the peak of ecstasy time and time again, thanks to you."
I stumbled back and clutched my shoulder, slouching slightly. My movements were slowly losing their precision. The flesh of the beast's lips raised into a smile. I saw it prepare another hellish surge, gathering even more power than it did before.
It believes I am a creature of life, not something artificial, who does not know pain, and does not know fatigue. It does not know that grenades explode on a timed fuse.
BOOM
The grenade popped open, the small explosion showering the creature with shrapnel. Its barrier had not been calibrated to an attack of this kind. An attack that, to the beast, had so suddenly presented itself as It was sure of victory.
Its supernatural guard was only partially raised, and thus, lacked the power to stop the second acceleration from the small metal rivets that formed the grenade's pineapple-like shell.
My hampered movements from my injury were just an act as a machine, I don't lose blood and do not feel pain.
This was a precaution I had taken. If the grenade had not finished it, then I would. The barrier has a set range and if I entered it, then it would become useless.
I was upon the creature. It had not expected me to fight up close. It did not predict that I could move just as fast and sharp as before despite my injuries.
I drew my left fist back. The barrier had already begun forming, but the beast was already damned by surprise. Its barrier did not stiffen fast enough
I felt myself push through the thin membrane. It had remained calibrated to the weaker ranged attacks I had produced before. It could not hold the momentum of my advance.
I swung my left fist like a whip, cracking through the air and surpassing sound once more.
It raised its own arm to take the blow. Its forearm was solid as stone, the non-Newtonian surface rippled, black inky drops flew off as its flesh buckled.
It grunted in pain, but retaliated with a wide swing of its claws, surprise overtaking the calm, reasonable way of fighting it had shown earlier.
I ducked it with little effort and threw an uppercut towards its exposed ribs.
The blow struck it with disgustingly clean contact. The hard metallic fist pushed through flesh and cracked bone. The shock rippled out the other end as inky black fluid spread out in a blotchy haze. It let out a suffocated howl. It tried to create distance, to step away.
This I would not allow. If I left the range of its barrier, it would be able to stop my blows once more. It would not repeat the same error.
So I grabbed onto its shoulder and let it pull me along. I understood its next move before it was thrown.
I knew the beast realized that my only remaining arm was currently not able to defend. I left myself open to an attack from the left.
A powerful clawed hand grasped my arm much like that of a father holding his son's as they crossed the road.
Its own left fist flew at me like a missile, ready to crush my iron skull like a discarded soda can, just as I had hoped.
But, much like I had not understood its abilities before it did not know of mine.
My left arm spun like a drill, jets of steam spiraling it with brutal force. The fingers that gripped me were either bent, snapped, or severed by the powerful revolutions.
The beast roared in unhidden agony, all flatness from its voice giving way to panic as my left arm formed a wide scythe-like blade. The carbon steel oscillated tumultuous vibrations, that I knew, allowed it to carve through the toughest of alloys, and now the thickest of cursed hides.
Its futile attempts to shield itself with its hulking forearms were for naught. Its arm clattered to the floor with a squelching slap. The blade chopped through it with no resistance.
In the next breath, the blade was all the way through to the other side of its torso. It emerged coated in black resin, the unholy liquid turned to water vapor as the sun struck it.
After a short, silent moment, Its upper body fell to the ground. its lower half fell to its knees with a thump, before softening to steaming sludge.
The battle was over. I would now simply finish the kill.
I walked over to its upper torso. It breathed in heavily. My right arm slowly began to reconstruct itself, my nanomachines getting to work.
I could see its flesh bubble from where its torso was severed, new flesh gradually started to form as it muttered an incantation. This would not save him.
It needs to focus to direct any of its magic. This will cease once I destroy its brain.
I raised my blade ready to split its skull in two.
"Please Stop, I have lost, I am no danger to you." It spoke, its words mingling with heavy choked breaths.
I had never shown mercy in the past. Why would I now?
Guilt, pity, mercy. That should be beyond my grasp, yet now, I hesitate.
"Please spare me for I know you and your lordship are forgiving." It spoke with great effort.
I had eaten the heart of that sinner a while back, I had felt its joy and pain, I had felt the fear it held when it died. When it did so for a second time in my arms, I must admit, for a moment, I felt a dislike for its passing. It was an unnatural, novel weight, I wish not to feel again.
I do not need to kill this being. I had never questioned before, whether to kill, or to spare. For I could not question nor contemplate anything. But now, if given a choice. No now that I am given a choice, what should I do?
A meaningless thing it would be to slay this foe.
The heart I had eaten did awaken me to the unpleasant feelings living creatures face, even though I could never… Feel those things.
Perhaps knowing what I know now, killing this thing would cause me a distasteful sensation, much like with the death of the one in the desert, best to avoid that feeling.
I retracted my blade.
Its empty sockets grew to the size of saucers. Its mouth opened wide to spill gratitude. His lips began to form a thank you…
"سوف يتم ذلك"
A crushing, telekinetic grip wrapped around my waist like a boa constrictor. My joints creaked, I spat out a geyser of synthetic blood and coolant.
In that same instant, the beast lunged at me. As its remaining arm launched it, I stared into its maw. I understood it was soon to bite my head off.
It had succeeded in fooling me, but it had failed in its observations. My right arm, now fully reformed, clasped down along with my left, holding onto its large skull with steady force.
It spoke again before. Its voice was almost gleeful, filled with a bitter satisfaction, even as its skull began to buckle. "That was fun, was it not?"
Then it was forever silent, its skull cracked open and its black brain splattered across my face before falling to the floor.
Its corpse bubbled for a second longer before coming to a halt
"I wouldn't know," I answered to no one.
Its body slowly softened down like melting ice cream. Its now broken, yet still powerful form softened away. The black pool that had formed began receding, it turned to c
olorless water vapor.
The only thing left before me was the creature's heart.
It beat rhythmically, still filled with hunger, it gave me the means to answer the beast's question.
I raised it before me and took a bite.