David stood calmly before the cave's entrance that he had just sealed off. He appeared without an ounce of panic, as if the new danger that was presented never affected him.
Only seconds after that, dozens of flying airships materialized in front of his noble figure, protecting the gate to his comrades.
However, David knew that those weren't his only enemies. Somewhere far from here, there was the sniper who shot off his arm, and judging from the powerful blast of condensed energy and the speed of the bullet, it was probably an electromagnetic cannon. Meaning that it would at least take quite a while for the weapon to reload.
As he was thinking, the airship in the middle, which was also the biggest, slowly descended and a platform slid down to open the vessel. What emerged from the inside were five massive white exoskeletons that radiated an incredible amount of energy and exuded tremendous pressure, and armed with huge blasters and blades. The design was simple, yet one knew at a glance that their mere presence could change the tide of a battle.
Each step they took resounded loudly across the mountain range, announcing their presence. They only advanced a few meters before stopping, keeping a small distance between them and the blond, injured man.
"David Kasanova... what pleasure it is to meet you here."
An old mechanical voice spoke, dragging its words as if it could transmit their invisible weight.
"To think that you were hiding right under our nose. I should thank that unique monster for bringing you out of your rat hole. And to think it could injure you, the human calamity, to this extent!"
A cold laugh invaded the place, creeping into the ears of the listeners.
This was Colonel Basor Verdra, the most feared commander from the Federation and the one who possessed its strongest army. But he was ultimately David's most troublesome enemy, who had relentlessly chased him down for many years.
Still, David remained silent, unbothered by the constant yapping of his opponent.
Even though the fight with that monster had used up all his energy, he was still thinking of a way to escape from this predicament.
However, the exoskeletons didn't let him have any moment of respite as they had already charged at him. While two of them stayed behind to shoot David with their blasters, the remaining three released an onslaught of slashing attacks toward him.
Despite the relentless assault, he was composed with an immovable poker face, countering and dodging both blades and guns.
Although David only had one arm and was on the brink of collapse from his previous injuries and fatigue, he didn't fall and fought back with everything he had.
At some point the mechanical voice had stopped addressing David, noticing that he remained undisturbed to its provocations.
As the fight dragged on, David's injuries were piling up and his exhaustion bearing down on him.
He couldn't help but glare at the airship with resentful eyes, and hoping that Eliza and Isaac would escape safely.
***
Inside an airship, a man in his sixties carefully observed the monitors displaying the ongoing fight. Colonel Basor squinted his eyes at the sight of David holding on against his most exquisite soldiers, the Vanguards. They were a very costly, but powerful unit that could easily rival a high-destructive class beast. Yet, five of them couldn't even completely overpower a single injured person.
This was the strength of David, the human calamity.
Even the shot of the electromagnetic cannon which could reach a speed of Mach 10, he had managed to dodge it, although not perfectly.
Nonetheless, it was only a matter of time until they finished him off. David couldn't resist for much longer no matter how tough he was.
Interrupting his thoughts, was the sound of steady steps behind him.
"Sergeant Alexei, reporting!"
The Colonel tilted his head to glance at the soldier who had just arrived.
He was the sole survivor of the expedition team charged to investigate the canyon and inform the camp of any anomaly encountered. And following the information provided, Colonel Basor hurriedly came back from the meeting in the Federation's main base with a top-notch execution force to eliminate a unique monster.
Never would he have expected to encounter his long-time nemesis instead. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kill David once and for all!
Refocusing on the matters at hand, the old man addressed the sergeant,
"You may speak, soldier."
Alexei started, with both hands behind his back.
"Yes, sir! As instructed, a squad went to the place where the human calamity and the unique monster previously fought, and they indeed found the latter's body, with a hole on its abdomen. It was soon confirmed to be the same monster that had exterminated the thirteenth platoon's squad."
The Colonel answered with a nod of his head.
"Hm. You are dismissed."
Then the soldier saluted before leaving without a word. As he departed, Colonel Basor refocused on the screens to observe how the fight was unfolding.
***
The Vanguards dominated the fight with a quick succession of attacks and great teamwork. David's skillful evasions weren't enough to get him out of this situation. Every slash, he was cut; every gunshot, he was grazed.
In a final desperate struggle, he let himself be pierced by a blade, allowing him to get closer to a Vanguard, then grabbed its head before strongly compressing. It didn't take long before the head got completely crushed, becoming a mishmash of metal, skull and oozing brain fluids.
This unexpected sacrifice caught the other Vanguards by surprise and David took that opportunity to remove the blade in his stomach then hacked the nearest enemy, thus beheading it.
The severed part limply fell onto the ground along with the heavy metallic body.
However, following this, David collapsed to his knees. He was out of strength and had already lost too much blood.
As the three other Vanguards slowly distanced themselves from the kneeling David, the only lingering sound was his irregular breathing, ragged and difficult.
Then the mountain shook as a shot from the electromagnetic cannon was fired. Rocks were shattered and dust covered the scene like mist.
One minute passed before the area was cleared, and all that remained in the center of it, was David... with his upper body completely gone.
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[A/N]
What an unfortunate death huh? I have to ask though, did you see that coming? I'm sure you all thought that David would be Eliza's number one protector but… oh well, I had other plans for him, hehe.
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