Careful Not To Break Reality

Thinking back to the very brief memory of the fight between Dolon and Gold, albeit in their gaming avatars in the more simulated environment, Rydel distinctly remember the vastly two different styles of combat between the two. Dolon is the free flowing master of multiple disciplines that chooses whichever styles suits the situation the best and can switch around on a dime, while Gold back then seemed like one that trains extremely hard in one discipline to be able to apply it in any scenario.

But it doesn't matter how good Gold is exactly with relation to Dolon now, he is better than Rydel. And that means it's time to fight tricky. This has always been Rydel's strengths and it might just bail them out of this situation. Armed with the two maces Torelamri has freshly made for him, he would only imagine that the mechanism which springs and coils upon firing is going to be at least as powerful as the version he had before.

He's moving in! Rydel didn't take his eyes off Gold for even half a second, and he knew it too. Instead of waiting around for ages, he decided to attack first! This did catch Rydel by surprise a little bit, as the Golden Raider in last year's War Games tournament tend to take on a more defensive stance. But this could simply be his underestimation of Rydel's power, which was the same mistake he made last year seconds prior to getting cut down by Dolon.

But he cannot fault gold for thinking so, as Rydel is just a mere human holding two white maces while wearing half a pair of gloves.

Here it comes!

With two clean and decisive swipe of the blades, two of the blades cut diagonally across and disabled the shield that Rydel carefully turned out while the other two missed his face by ten centimeters as he hopped back nimbly on his feet. The misses did not deter Gold at all, as steady progress is made by the very simple act of shield disabling and the next connection of the blades will be with Rydel's flesh and blood.

Gold reached in for yet another attack, but Rydel stepped back once again and even had the room and space to give out a swing of his mace, though it got no where near him.

To Gold's surprise, this measly weak-looking human seemed to have been trained quite well in close quarter combat, possibly by an Aquarian. The momentum use of Aquarian exoskeletons gives off an obvious hint, and trained eye will be able to spot it and use it to predict the opponents movements. Human muscular systems work in a fundamentally different way than Aquarians, and is more chaotic. While the motion conveys more information, there are also a lot more noise.

Gold continued pressing on, but Rydel just kept on evading his quick but predictable attacks and occasionally giving back a swing that goes nowhere. Nobody made any real progress in this fight, to the surprise of everybody in this room.

If Dolon is here, than she would have laughed out loud at this current result. Gold, or Golden Raider is the up and coming youngster of the Aquarian Sword Art: unyielding ice and specializes in creating an impenetrable defensive shield. Most, if not all of his training is centered around being an absolutely stud on the battlefield and maintaining their ground. It doesn't matter whether it's the masters of Chaotic Waves or Flowing seaweed, no measure of attack can bring him down, and he consistently put himself to the test. The fight with Dolon, or the Lightning Rod, was the very first and only fight he has lost since coming to his own in the realm of martial arts.

Funny enough, his martial arts works like magic for any aggressive Aquarian fighters, but all the training Rydel has done with Dolon is to prepare to fight against someone extremely aggressive with lots of tools and angles of attack, so when Gold is pressed against time and that he needs to be the one taking the offensive, Rydel can actually handle the offensive pressure just enough to stay safe and out of the way.

Cellica doesn't know that much about close quarter combat, but just by the look of it it seems like Rydel is indeed in a comfortable position, but from Rydel's perspective, there really isn't anything more stressful at this moment. The blades constantly misses him, yet he cannot connect with Gold at all.

'Are you okay?' Cellica asked just to make sure he is okay.

'You two start heading off, I will be stay back to make sure he gets nowhere.' Knowing he will have to fight tricky, the very first thought that popped into his head is to make the prideful Aquarian lose his composure, and hence lose the fight. All this time, he is doing his best at observing Gold's response to both what he does and what he says. It seemed like he is pissed off now.

'Human, you have drawn this upon yourself.' Gold hopped back, and prepared for an aggressive strike. Everything looked and felt different now, Rydel knew what comes next is going to be drastically different from before.

Gold charges at Rydel, and in response, he simply threw the mace on his left hand at the charging Aquarian. With a swipe of the blade, he planned to deflect the mace, just like what Dolon did, and did not slow down a tiny bit.

Rydel smiled slightly, knowing that Gold has fallen for it. As the mace approaches his golden blades, what will happen next is that the springing mechanism is going to trigger upon impact, and the head of the mace will rapidly expanding, knocking whatever the target back with a force so strong it can knock a blade cleanly off the grasp of an Aquarian exoskeleton.

The blade gently kissed the mace and knocked it off course. The coiling mechanism unfolded and crashed right into the rest of Gold's blade. A small shock wave formed in the process as well as a flash that shines blinding light right in Gold's eye. The mace flew right back towards Rydel and dropped on the floor while Gold was knocked back and had his eye-sights mostly disabled.

Rydel cannot miss this chance at all! Gold was stunned for a little thanks to Torelamri's little surprise, and he sprinted forward, picking up the first mace in the process and went for Gold's torso!

BANG!

A blade stopped the mace on his left hand from making the contact, but no further coiling occurs, as the mechanism is not ready for it yet. But how is this possible? How could Gold still managed block Rydel's attack despite not being able to see?

'You are indeed tricky, human. But it looked like that's all of your tricks.' Gold laughed coldly, 'but you know what you are lacking? Absolute power.' Judging from the direction of the force applied by the mace applied onto the mace, Gold stabbed at Rydel with almost blinding speed and four of his blades made contact with his armor. Rydel almost screamed as he fell back and quickly check for any injuries. The blades were particularly sharp, but the armor he is wearing actually defended great against stabs, but will undoubtedly fail quickly against slices.

He was careless, and now there are four tiny holes on his c.h.e.s.t.

And also from the look of him, Gold seemed to have already shaken away the effect of the flash grenade, and is likely to be prepared for the next one. Rydel swallowed hard, and felt hopeless for the first time in this duel.

'Lady Lily did not tell me why you are here, but why don't you just be a good boy and tell me? I might even let you live!' Gold approaches him with a confident posture and gentle shivers of excitement.

'Not interested, sorry.' Rydel looked down at his hands, and thought of what to do.

It is true what Gold said. No matter how much last minute training he has done, Gold has put in way more hours into mastering the craft of melee combat than he had ever done. The difference in absolute power is substantial, and there really isn't a way to get around it.

Or so he thinks. Hell no.

There may be a difference in absolute strength, but if anything, Rydel is not out of tricks. The first few rounds of sparring between them two actually made Rydel felt better than he should have in his melee skills, when in fact he could and should be focusing on creating a way of outsmarting and surprising his opponents. As long as he puts his mind to it, there really isn't a situation that he could not get out of.

Then and there, Rydel knew what to do. He looked up at Gold, and smirked.

'Fine.' Gold swung his blades around in a whirl as a show of skill, then started seriously charging at Rydel, 'just another day in the office.'

'Oh, yeah.' Rydel replied with a chuckle, timed Gold movements to a dot, and absolutely launched the mace on his right hand towards Gold, immediately followed by the one on his left hand. The two mace now glided through the air and headed straight for the long slander torso of the Aquarian.

'Like I said, you are out of tricks!' Gold kept on the momentum, but instead crossed his blades and braced himself for the inevitable impact of the two maces. With three blades each and a carefully constructed angle of deflection, he will be able to absorb the force, and cut down the defenseless human with absolute ease.

With the very first mace approaching ever closer towards his blades, Gold took in a small breath and braced for it, when suddenly, it disappeared in mid air. This is the mace from Rydel's right hand, so maybe it's special thing is to turn invisible? Gold had no time to be surprised, and instead acted on his instinct and carried on with his parry. The three blades cut through the air, and nothing.

'Well, what the turb.' Gold didn't bother with the first since it would have completely passed him by now, what he needs to do is to focus on the second mace. As he adjusted the other three blades to parry the second one, BOOM!

The disappeared blades warped right in front of his face, out of nowhere! It gently touches down against his helmet, before expanding rapidly! The first thing he sees is the smooth white surface of the mace, and then he is thrown all the way back as the helmet cracked and his head caught in a violent whiplash. The second mace made impact with his stomach, and the combined power of the two thrown his body all the way back towards the wall at the end of this corridor. A loud metallic bang echoed through the compound as the armor collided against the metal wall.

Gold was left unconscious, and didn't move a single bit.

He was knocked out clean, and Rydel was standing ten meters across, with his left arm out in front and fingers outstretched as his artifact glows bright orange. A smooth take down, with the use of his Glove of Summoning! When Gold expects an impact with the mace, Rydel warped it away and kept it around. It is only until Gold changed his focus and moved on that he once against released it and lets it loose on his face.

'What's going here?' Some soldiers passing by heard the noise and came over to check out, only to see a bloodied Aquarian lying against the wall. They quickly turned and saw Rydel kneeling down in the middle of the corridor and picking up the maces.

'What the hell happened here?' They raised their guns and pointed at Rydel, whose outfit is still that of a normal soldier's.

'Ah, I don't know Sir, he just started attacking me out of nowhere, so I knocked him out.' Rydel put the maces back and started stepping back slowly, 'Um, you might want to check if he is still ok, I don't want to kill anybody...'

'Stop right there!' The soldier yelled, 'this is Gold, and he is the next to take in an artifact! How could you not know such a thing! What have you done to him?'

'Well...' Rydel raised the hands to his side and shrugged his shoulders, 'let's just say...it's a difference in absolute strength.' And with his hands reached out, Rydel warped a giant chunk of material from the nearby lab and thrown it right in front of him, blocking most of the corridor with the distant yelling and shouting sneaking from the gaps from the other side. He turned around and started running back towards the manufacturing room.

He has never run that fast in his life.

'Oh my god! You are alright!' On his way there, he saw Cellica running towards his direction with a rifle in hand, 'you took forever, and I thought you are dead!'

'Oh come on now...' Rydel gave her a high five as they cross paths and both started heading back out, 'I haven't even finished my research project yet. There is no way I am dying here.'

'Oh you...' Cellica laughed with a tear in her eye, 'What did you do?'

'Well, I just took him out, easy.'

'Well guys, you have no idea how tough it was facing off against him.' At the round table in the Aquarian ship, with Ol, Dolon, Dan (albeit in restaint), Mindo, Zel and Cellica sitting around him, Rydel began to tell the tale of how he took on one of the toughest fighters in the galaxy with Cellica rolling her eyes so much it looked like she's straining.

'Well, Golden Raider was no joke. So it seemed like my masterful coaching has worked its magic?' Dolon proudly slapped Rydel on the head as she took all the credit for this victory.

'Yeah yeah...I took him down with my OWN strength, thank you very much!' Rydel crossed his arms and looked at Cellica, 'she knows.'

'Oh OOO KKK.' Dolon laughed, 'I know now. You cheated with your artifact again?'

'Well, speaking of getting out of here, what are we waiting for?' Rydel looked around the room to see everyone that came here all gathered together in the same room, completely ignoring what Dolon's saying.

'Look at that.' Ol pointed in the direction of the base, and something seemed a bit off. It doesn't take the Eye's power for him to see that the mountain itself is slowly shaking. Dusts and rocks rolled down the slope as an incredibly location specific earthquake is happening. But this isn't any sort of earthquake. It seemed like...the mountain is growing?

'No way...'Then, everything popped. The base itself was not built into the mountain, the base, which was the ship that Absolute Being was using, was part of the mountain itself! For some reason, it had decided to fly off once again, possibly due to the potential for involvement of the big GBI forces.

'Yeah. And when that thing flies, I do not want to be on the radar.' Dolon leaned back onto the seat and started to relax, 'since we have everything we need, all we really have to do now is to just wait until they leave the system, and we head off too. Leave everything to Cellica, and it's a job well done.'

'Right.' Rydel signed and sat back down again, 'awesome! Everything worked out perfectly then! I am gonna go take a nap now...'

'Not just yet!' Cellica suddenly exclaimed and stood up with the artifact fully activated and looking right at the direction of the mountain, 'someone is coming! And coming fast!'

'How?' Rydel asked as he shot back up and all the built up relaxation is completely flushed away with one sentence.

'I am not sure, but they seem to know where we are exactly! There are a few hundred people riding on some sort of small air sh.i.p.s coming towards us!' Cellica made lots of tiny adjustments and tried to gain as much information from the swarm of enemies she saw coming out of the base, 'did they track any of you coming back?'

'I made sure there are no more tracking on him...'Dolon tried to say out loud.

'Yeah I threw all the devices and trackers all away!' Dan responded too, and shut up immediately as Cellica furiously turned around and glared at him, red pulses now flashing across her face as she scanned through all the spectrum, and stopped at the high frequency range.

'They are tracking your suit! Especially the jacket! It's giving off a steady amount of radiation!' Cellica shouted at him, 'we need to figure something out!'

'Zel? Get us out of here?' Rydel turned to look at the quiet Zel. He tried to sit up and activate his artifact, but was shot right back into the chair and started wincing in pain.

'I...can't activate it... Lady Lily's tempering is really affecting my performance, and I was hyperactive before trying to send out the signal.....' Zel rolled over his legs and struggles for air, and everyone just let him be. It's time to figure something else out.

'But we are pinned down, so the only thing to save the whole ship, will be to distract the forces away.' Dolon said coldly, 'Dan, you will be able provide way too much intelligence for the GBI, so we cannot let you run way once again, plus you might spill the beans to them.'

No one else said a thing.

'So it seemd like apart from taking off and getting shot down, we only have one option left.' Dolon slowly stood up and looked around.

'Wait, what are you talking about?' Mindo asked, 'are you saying one of us will take his clothing and drop it somewhere far off?'

'Not just dropping it.' Dolon looked at the ground vehicle parked at the exit of the ship that Cellica and Rydel used to approach the cave, 'it will be taken far and out away from the ship, so the attention is drawn away from you guys. And thanks to Mindo's genius actions, we cannot use a single bloody droid to do the work.'

'Wait, what do you mean you...' Before Rydel finished his sentences, Dolon raised her arm, and instantly activated the Lightning Rod. Six jolts of lightning shoot out independently and knocked out all six beings in the room in an instant. As the smoke settles, none of them is moving around at all, but all steadily breathing.

'What is going on...' One of the rookies treating the injured women at the back ran out, but he alongside the other rookie was knocked out cleanly also.

Dolon looked around at her friends all seated in weird poses and sleeping like no one else's business, and scratches her head.

There is no other way. To save the people she cared about, this is the only way.

She's the strongest one here, and she's also the one that knocked out the whole platoon of soldiers. With her as the bait and taking Dan's clothing, the pursuers will for sure follow her instead of searching around for the actual locations of the grounded ship. As long as she can drag this out and maybe even hide in a cave somewhere out of reach from the ship, and the forces of Absolute Being, the victory will be hers.

And if she is caught before, then it's not so bad either. It's also been a while that she has seen real combat. It is only when lives are on the line do things get truly exciting.

Just now in an instant, she has given each of the five members the amount of dose to knock them out for a good while, at least quite a day or two. With precise control and distribution, she was able to perform the attack with absolute perfection.

'Damn, I am good.' Dolon walked towards Dan and reached for his clothing, when suddenly her arm is grabbed by a human hand.

It was Dan's. He wasn't knocked out.