Fragments

Ch.26 - Intervention

"Lilly, find something already!" Amidst the chaotic and unbearably stressful attempts to provide medical help, Ku, in an understandable but irritating manner, rushed the small girl.

"Hold on..! Ah, I got it!" Victoriously pulling out a small, yellow and white tube, she popped its tiny lid off and squeezed the contents into the heavily bleeding hole in Yuu's throat.
It was paste designed to seal wounds, made from condensed nutrients the body could absorb afterwards. For those caught off-guard or injured, yet still somewhat able to fight, it was a great tool to last a little longer developed by Aegis's science teams.

After extensive testing and attempted training, the Guardians came to a conclusion – Lilly's ability was far too unreliable for combat.
Thus, even if quite let down by the truth, the girl trained with her seniors' help to be a field medic, while mastering supportive use of her pistol and its various ammunition types.

Yuu's condition was stabilizing, the wound no longer bleeding as the greenish matter settled in, and they sat him upright, letting him regain his composure and breathing…
"Oh– oh god…" He whispered, interrupted mid-sentence with the unstoppable urge to cough out blood. "So he can just… Weaponize any part of himself? Ugh… I got too confident."
Though his spirit was ready to continue, his body was not – and when Yuu attempted to stand, he fell right back down, getting Ku to catch him once more.

"Don't overexert yourself, you nearly died just now… Let us manage this, you can join later."

"I guess..." He nodded, agreeing to the sensible proposal. "Thank you both," he continued, reaching over to pat Lilly's head as reassurance for her worries.
Seeing a person smile when tiny streams of dried blood hanged off the corners of their lips, was… Bewildering at best.
However, the girl returned the smile, standing up.

"I just can't get rid of them efficiently," Tariru thought, having tilted his head past Min-jun's sword to see Yuu's state with a sigh of steaming breath.
If their deadlock was not so intense, the question of how the Reaper saw anything with a cannon replacing his eyes would've been laid bare…

"Tell me something," the man clad in black and red spoke up, "why didn't you kill me? You could've crushed my head with ease when you threw me away, but you targeted my chest…"

"Boy, I wonder… Maybe it's because your "journey" ain't over yet?"

"Why do you care about that..?"

"Maybe I'm just that nice? Man, if only you knew how much of a puppet you're currently being," Tariru responded vaguely, standing up, while his dismembered right twisted, regrowing rapidly.
"Even right now, you're fighting because of the Guild… And mom's got plans, too. Quite funny, isn't it? Neither one of us can land a killing blow, but we're both here to overcome each other."

"I see… Well, it's alright if you refuse to speak," Min-jun, to the man's surprise, complied.
"...I'll get everything out of you once you're captured, anyway."
Accompanying the determined declaration, the vibrant flames that ran up the sides of his head expanded in size and brightness, growing synchronously with his willpower and adding a feral glow to his eyes…
Afterwards, Min-jun raised his greatsword, unleashing a forward stab with the mighty weapon that'd cleave off the whole right side of Tariru's body, if successful.
Knowing this, the Reaper avoided such danger with a twisting, crouching motion that let him slide past the sword, missing it by a hair.
And, once his left side was turned towards Min, blades formed by Tariru's ribs rose from his back, supported on thin, spiraled-together fibres of muscle like the whip he created earlier. It was a wondrously disgusting and simple creation, where its thin structure allowed for quick, cost-effective, but insanely precise motions.
Such tentacles shot towards Min-jun…
But were met with a hard countering force that turned slashes and stabs into mere scratches.
Clad in angular, green armor, a knightly suit embellished Min's body out of nowhere, combining seamlessly with the huge sword.