Fragments

Ch.25 - My Strength

A scratchy sound of something being dragged across the factory's pebble-ridden ground mixed in with distorted, distant explosions and rupturing impacts that felt neverending.

The fierce duel… Had concluded.

Dust and destruction settled, and after an intensely long moment of silence, the sound of flesh crashing into a hard surface echoed.
Reuel was stuck to the wall, impaled on a detached, wide, white spike through the abdomen, blood staining his whole upper body. The expression on his face was lifelessly grim, streams of dried blood made his eyes look darker and infinitely more depressing, and whatever excessively muscular, intimidating features he possessed, were now a mere facade.
"Gotta keep you in place so you don't get up again," Tariru monologued, both his arms transforming into their original appearance, completely identical to a human's, while he brushed through his spiky hair. "There," he continued, "now my capabilities won't be instantly revealed… That "prototype" will take advantage of anything I show."

Although Tariru felt a strange sense of closure, hoping his victory over an Ecclesian wouldn't go unrecognized, he knew another, incomparably more difficult battle was imminent, and that rewarding feeling couldn't be more ephemeral…
So, when a portion of the factory's wall was blown out opposite to where he and Reuel were located, blue and gray smoke flooding the area, he let out only a sigh.
However, the Guardians that just breached the building couldn't afford to give their target even that morsel of recovery – thus, a cyan greatsword flew through the smokescreen first, piercing Tariru's side, which made him stagger and nearly fall.

Time was of the essence. Several traps and surprise attacks slowed them down greatly, and only 18 minutes remained – during that time, they'll need to defeat their target, capture him and get Reuel somewhere safe.

"Man, what do you guys have with cutting me the moment you appear? Before you sliced my hand off, now you impaled me…"
He focused on the bloodstained blade and gripped it by its edge, before pulling it out and snapping it in half like a twig.
"It's starting to piss me off."
The damage faded almost instantly and the wound closed, regenerating seamlessly, but as Tariru raised his head to observe his attackers, he only stared down the rifled barrel of Min-jun's firearm.
"Huh… You got yourself a new toy?" He asked while slowly standing up straight, and occasionally glancing at the others, who stood farther back, save for Yuu – he took up a position between the "backline" of Yin, Ku, Lilly and Min-jun, their only remaining "frontline" due to Reuel's rogue loss.
Rosea's presence was lacking, because medical and science teams commanded by Station 1 required reinforcements.

"That doesn't matter," Min answered sternly. "You're coming with us."

"Coming with you guys? I don't understand, your friend over here wanted to kill me. Don't tell me he went alone and the true goal is capturing me alive~?"

"... I wouldn't suggest resisting. You're outnumbered greatly," Min-jun continued, trying to be reasonable despite the searing hatred he felt towards Tariru. "Surrender."

"But what can you do if I resist? Beat me up a little?" Tariru continued to tease, while gently pushing his forehead against the weapon's gunbarrel.
"Go on, shoot. I know you want to…"
Despite their numbers, their mission requirements greatly disadvantaged the Guardians from taking action, and the vivid display of Reuel's complete defeat, combined with the devastating attacks everyone saw he could unleash, all contrasting with Tariru's lack of injury left a lingering question – what unearthly capabilities did he possess?

"I'm sick of your ramblings…"
Min-jun used just how close the Reaper was, uppercutting him with the P90's stock while sweeping his legs out, which resulted in a quite ruthless fall…
And once Tariru was on the ground, Min-jun once again held him at gunpoint – although it was becoming an empty, overused threat by now.