Iron angel (Book 1 of IA)

[24] Runannan's Cut

The truck came to such an abrupt stop that I swear I could have gone throw out the truck, if it hadn't been for the five mobile suits sandwiching me.

"Holy shit! What the hell was that?" I screamed.

"Bad meats." Isa muttered. She inspected her gun one last time before getting out of her seat.

"Bad meats? Wait, sir, what bad meats?" I asked out in a panic.

"Be quiet! Stay here, unless you want to become dead meat. Everyone else, formation A!" Isa barked. In a matter of seconds, the entire squad flushed out of the steel doors at the back, leaving me behind like some sort of unwanted poop. With my abilities and skills, well; I would say they were quite right. And being the only person left behind in potential transport assault, I did the only thing reasonable; I looked out of the window.

The window was at an awkward angle and it was next to impossible to get a good view of what's going on. As soon as the last person left gunfire sounded outside. A smell wafted in, it was a bit like cooking steel. Scorched probably.

"Formation D! Protect the vanguard at all costs!" Isa scream came from outside, along with several other battle cries.

"AGRHHH!!!"

"FUU!!!"

"There're-"

The squad's desperate cries were drowned out by an explosion. The same explosion knocked me out of my seat. Next thing I knew, I was seeing double everything until a pair of faces showed up. The figure, or figures grabbed me by the shoulder and shook me so hard, I was yanked back into reality.

​The face belonged to none other then my team commander herself; Isa.

"Sir, what's going..."

"Mission abort, run unless you want to become dead meat!" Isa cut me off as she yanked my entire body straight up, and half dragged me out of the back of the truck. It had begun to rain, just a few droplets, a few droplets and a dark grimace in the sky. I knew something bad was going to happen. Once on the road, Isa finally let me go as we ran in the opposite direction of the truck, only to find our way blocked by a giant cluster of boulders stacked together in a slope shape.

"Sir, how are we going to get by this?"

"Be quiet!" came a filtered metallic scream from Isa's MS. She got into a stance and looked ready as if she was going to punch her way through the mountain.

SCRCHHH!!!

But before she could get started, an ultra-sharp metallic sound cut through the air. It was like a thousand knives rubbing against another at the same time. It was so sharp, I felt like my ears could've bled. Isa shoved my entire body down against the floor and hit the ground beside me. Another burst of pain shot through my head. Last second before forcefully shut my eyes from the pain, a brilliant white flash passed above me. I opened my eyes and looked up, for a moment, nothing seemed to change. It was only moments later that I felt the earth behind me began to shift, and when I looked again my jaw dropped. Across the boulder behind me was a clear visible cut, like a clean slice on butter. Yet there wasn't any sign of debris. No physical projectiles had been used; a cut in the mountain made by pressurized air, and if it came from the main transport truck twenty meters away.

Such power in such distance...

Paralyzed in fear, I slowly and cautiously turned to view the main transport truck, or what was left of it...like one of those books that shows the 3D visuals of the inside of a vehicle, the top half of the truck was sliced into 4 pieces; each fragment sliding off in perfect symmetry. It would have been a pretty cool to see, if it weren't for the fact that I very much could be the perpetrator's next crafting piece.
I gulped as my eyes shot to him.
He was well over two meters tall, muscular built and had long spiky silver hair. He was bare chested and wore nothing but a pair of white jump suit pants. A lighting flashed across the sky, and just like the boom it followed, the rest of the horrific details were forever imprinted in my mind.
Scars. Countless scars, mixed with a charade of different tattoo's, that left not a single square inch of his body uncovered. His eyes were silver, like orbs of liquid mercury dotted into eye sockets. Just looking at it made me feel sick and dizzy, as if I got mercury poisoning or something.
He held no weapon, but the man was a S level threat. Danger equivalent to everything I had faced so far, times 10. Everything just seemed so unreal at the moment. I had come so far, and this one man held greater weight than everything I ever faced. It's like he was the final boss of the game or something. Except I knew, in this game called life, you only get one life.
As the man walked closer, what was once ticklish droplets of rain grew into a merciless watery hell. Beside me, Isa began to stand up, though what was once the confident knight in shinning armour, now looked tiny and powerless in comparison of the demon before us.

CLANG!!!

Sparks danced off like butterflies as the silver bodies collided, creating an ear tearing metallic ring that echoed through the air.

SCRCHHH!!!

I stood completely shocked to the scene as I watch the two trade blows with one another, Isa miraculously managed to stand her ground with spear in hand. But what intrigued me the most was the fact that 'Soul Steel's' arm seemed to materialize into a blade every time he made contact with the spear, perhaps I was dreaming, no. It would all be good if this was all a dream. Isa, who was visibly exasperated in her armour, found her back against the boulders; there was no more space to dodge.

"Hee...hee...hee...HEEEEEEYAAA!" the man let out a typical supervillain laugh, perfectly timed with the roar of thunder.

Isa, unfazed by his laugh, made a spitting to the side gesture as she leveled her spear towards him once again. Though I could not see her eyes through the visor, I could just feel the 'will to survive' radiating from every part of her body. Seeing Isa's determination to live, a wicked scythe shaped grin appeared on the side of the man's face. And that's when I realized he was looking right at me.
My heart skipped a beat, and I found myself unconsciously backing up, backing up and backing up...until my back finally hit the railing. I looked behind me, it was too late. Down below was a slope a few degrees' shy of a vertical drop, and at the bottom it was completely dark. Like the welcoming matt to hell or something.

"YOU DUMB MEAT!!!" Isa yelled, her voice clear and furious even through her helmet and the gale. But it was too late as the man turned and fully faced me. In an about a millisecond, the man stood in front of me, arms pulled back to delivering a killing blow. Time slowed down to a fraction of a second, as I spend the luxury of that fraction of a second, closing my eyes and waiting for the inevitable death. Instead I got knocked back and sent flying through air, thinking I was in heaven or something, I opened my eyes at the last second and found out another figure has taken up my place to have their stomach opened up; Isa.

​It was like being stuck in a portrait of timeless horror, unable to interfere and only able to see the pain. Blood soaked through armour like a bloody spouge, with a long sleek silver body coming out of her back. She was 'sir', she was 'bully', she was 'hero', now she was just a human kebab on a metal stick.

​Curses...

​My body felt stripped of its organs, weightless; with my mind feeling even emptier. Time then resumed itself as I continued to fall, along with half of the mountain quickly falling in behind me.

"AHHH!!!" I screamed haplessly, I did the best to curl into a ball as I skittered down the slope.

Next thing I knew, there was a golden glow coming from my arm. Although startled what the mysterious light is, it took me a moment to realize it was the CES shielding me, though it only stretches across one arm, which was nowhere near enough to shield the whole body. For the last few meters of the cliff, I half rolled and half tripped with the CES absorbing most of the damage. Then I hit rock bottom, rolled several onto my back. At that point, I was completely out of energy and was just another bloodied rag doll laying on the ground. There was no more time to turn around, so with one last desperate attempt, I threw my left arm on top of me as I tried to use the CES to shield myself as much as possible. Followed by the next instant, a tsunami of rock and dirt washed over me. And by the time it all stopped; I feel no more...

Q: What is your worst trauma?