Out of This World Gaming [~ read description]

Chapter 34: Fighting for Ziazan's Freedom

The entire room seemed to have been filled with screams as the bodies in which those sounds emanated lurched to other sides of the room to avoid the giant legs of a corrupted consoleoid, whose feet managed to crack the wall on contact. 

The band of fighters regrouped behind a stunned giant before he turned around. "Doesn't this remind anyone of anything?" spoke Zander out of the blue. "With the way we're fighting, we're not even close to what you're thinking of." Larkspur answered as she raised her katana; it had a faint, reddish aura, but it fled each time it was summoned. "I got this!" "Iris, no!" 

Ken's pleading failed to resonate with a dark-aura smothered Iris as evident by extending what appeared to be midnight blue, feathery wings on her back and taking flight. She flew up to Ziazan's head and attempted to punch it, but was blindly swatted away by his hand. She grunted and fell back towards the ground only to land on something soft. 

Iris looked at the figure that caught her and scoffed. "Why help me after all you've done to me?" she interrogated. The two females looked up to see the corrupted consoleoid rush them, to which Iris grabbed Ken's palms and flew the both of them out of harm's way. Even with flight, Ziazan's hands swatted at Ken until he grabbed her. "Iris!" she stopped in her tracks and hovered, witnessing Ken's imprisonment until she caught a glance at a long blade being thrown and burying itself into Ziazan's hand. "Pick on someone your own size, you corrupted monster!" Larkspur scolded loudly. 

She ran away from the group that was huddled together in a corner, and that very corner of the room was filled with nothing but pleading and calling her name loudly, and even Stephanie couldn't help but reach her hand slightly outwards when she saw her attempt to take this battle into her own hands. 

Beside her spawned a copy of herself, a copy that was only seen by Clover and Zander until this moment. These copies surrounded her and pounced onto Ziazan's legs where they punched and kicked, only to prompt him to raise his leg and shake it back and forth to detach the attackers. They disappeared upon hitting the floor, all except for Larkspur herself. She dropped to her knees and held her head. 

Larkspur looked up to see a gigantic foot that intended to crush her. "Begone, Cube!" a menacing, deep pitched voice bellowed from the corrupted consoleoid. With no mental energy for another illusion and with no time to get away, tears welled up in her eyes and streamed down her face when she closed them. 

"I can't allow this!" 

She felt her body fly into a different direction and tumbled to a stop. She was sprawled on the floor and saw Minako's body get crushed and stomped on by Ziazan's foot. She stood up and covered her mouth with her hands, and tried to block out the shrieking and crying that came from Ken and Stephanie. The more he raised his foot, the more scarlet and white chunks she saw get splashed up out of the small crater he created. 

Zerrin covered her face with her hands and screamed as she uncovered them. She summoned a large bow and a larger arrow with a blue, watery aura, and fired it into Ziazan's hand, loosening his grip on Ken. The researcher screeched during her plummet before her arms were caught by a flying Iris; the both of them landed safely on the ground next to Larkspur. "How do we defeat this?!" Larkspur interrogated Ken. "The Identity Choker has to be broken. I'm sure you've already noticed that when a choker gets damaged, the primary consoleoid ability will deactivate." Ken answered. "Breaking it will kill him." the eldest replied. Iris pushed the two of them away and flew after them just as Ziazan's arm collided with the floor. 

"Sotoro!" the young man faced Ken. "Your Aero Portals! If I'm right, speedy thing enters, speedy thing comes out!" she hinted as the three of them ran from the massive consoleoid. The idea clicked with the young man and he had all of them huddle together before half of them were sent to the other side of the room with portals forming underneath individual pairs of feet.