Chapter 23: Taken Down

Finn jumped up onto the Titan-class Phantom's head, visualizing the creature in his mind to help him gauge how high he needed to go. He had an idea of how big the creature was based on the amount of noise it was making with every step, and having already climbed up once, the second time wasn't as difficult.

The Phantom tried throwing Finn off, but he could tell when an arm swipe was coming for him from the wind that arrived before the actual strike. Using his quick reactions and taking advantage of the monster's slow, sluggish movements, Finn was able to dodge all of them — so far.

There was no telling how much longer he could hold on for, as each time the monster swiped at him, he had to jump off briefly before reattaching himself to it using the sharp claws on his gloves to stab into the creature's soft body. Luckily, the Titan had a huge frame, leaving little room for Finn to actually miss.

Still, he couldn't keep doing this forever, as his stamina was slowly starting to run out. Even with Ghost blood, his energy was limited. Iris realized this, and quickly took aim while hovering in the air behind the massive Phantom. It was a bit difficult since she had not mastered the art of staying perfectly stable in the air yet, but she slowly began to understand the swaying patterns of her wings and skillfully adjusted her own aim to match them.

Narrowing her eyes, she pulled the trigger as the reticle of her gun aligned with the top-left gland of energy on the back of the Phantom. The bullet flew out of the chamber silently, like a trained assassin hidden in the cloak of night.

"GRAH!" The Titan-class Phantom roared deeply in fury as the gland exploded, sending black liquid flying everywhere.

Iris quickly dodged out of the way to avoid being stained, then immediately let out four consecutive bullets while the creature was stunned, each one hitting another sac on its back.

The Phantom shrieked once again, its thunderous cry of anger so powerful that it caused specks of dust to fall down from the ceiling, as if threatening to cave in at any moment.

"Are you out yet?!" Iris yelled into the room where the three others were.

"Not yet, but it's thinning!" Octane shouted back. "A little more should do the trick!"

Iris gritted her teeth as she skillfully unloaded the chamber of her six-shot revolver and reloaded it using the bullets Archon had given her, utilizing skills she had learned before during her dark past.

"Finn, just hold on a bit longer…!"

Finn bit his lip and quickly jumped upwards to avoid an arm swipe, before immediately smashing back down and driving his gauntlets' blades into the Phantom's head. However, it did absolutely no damage — it was like this creature's entire body was made of a substance close to water, and only hurting its glands could kill it.

Iris swung the chamber back into place with immense dexterity and took aim once more. But right before she was about to shoot-

"Ngh-!" Finn groaned as the Titan suddenly flung its head around, throwing him off and sending him crashing into a wall.

"Finn!" Iris shouted in concern, preparing to fly over to him.

"Don't worry about me… focus on the Phantom…!"

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Finn wiped the blood from his mouth and slowly got to his feet, facing the massive abomination. It swiped down at him with one of its massive clawed arms, but Finn felt the wind of it raising its arm first and dove to his left to avoid the attack.

The smash tore through the concrete floor, sending chunks of debris flying everywhere. Finn got lucky and didn't have to move, but Iris had to quickly dodge away, throwing her aim off once more.

She quickly circled around to the back of the Titan-class again, but it kept rotating as well since it now knew Iris was there and trying to shoot at its weakness.

"Tch…!"

Finn, realizing something was up, knew he had to do something. "Iris, what's going on?"

"We only need one more sac to be destroyed, but it keeps spinning around — I can't get an angle!"

Finn took a deep breath. "… In that case, I'll take care of the last gland."

"W-What? Do you even know how to shoot- ugh!" Iris was blown away by the wind generated from a sweep of the Phantom's arms, but managed to stabilize herself using her wings before she hit a wall.

"... I don't need to," Finn replied coldly, voice dripping with venom, then activated the blades on his gauntlets menacingly.

Iris's eyes widened as she realized his plan. "Wait, are you trying to destroy the glands at close range? They explode when you destroy them — you'll get corrupted by the Phantom blood!"

"… It's now or never."

"Engh… fine!"

Iris agreed after some hesitation and stopped moving to let the Phantom fully catch up with facing her directly. She then circled around to form a straight line between her, the Phantom, and Finn, who was ready whenever he got the signal.

Iris swerved to her right to avoid getting hit by a chunk of debris the Titan had picked up and thrown, then made the call out.

"Okay, Finn… everything's in position. The Phantom is roughly 10 meters to your direct front… it's all up to you now!"

Finn tightened his fists and adopted a running position.

"… Copy."

Sprinting exactly eight steps, each step being approximately one meter, he leaped up into the air as high as he could possibly go.

The Phantom spun its deranged head around, sensing danger in close proximity, but it was too late.

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Finn carved the blades on his gauntlets deep into the creature's back, side-by-side as he slid downwards. His two hands each tore down one column of glands, exploding black liquid out of each one and staining Finn's face completely.

"GRAHHHHHHH!" the Titan-class Phantom shrieked louder than ever as its sacs were completely taken down, and it fell forward in defeat.

"Gah..." Finn backed off and fell to his knees in a similar fashion, gritting his teeth as he bore the incredible, sizzling pain of the black Phantom blood getting on his skin. Steam evaporated from his face as he clawed at it in agony.

"Finn!" Iris quickly rushed over with her wings, flying past the defeated Titan-class Phantom and crouching by Finn's side. "Don't touch it with your hands — it'll contaminate them too!"

Finn did as told, forcing himself to resist the urge to touch his own face as he continued to groan in pain.

Meanwhile, the three who had originally been trapped inside hurried out of the room just in time to see the massive Titan-class Phantom's body dissipate into grey fog, fading away to nothingness.

Their emotions went from one of shock to concern immediately as they spotted Iris crouching near Finn, holding his body up gently.

"Finn!" Octane rushed over and bent down, furrowing his brows. "Oh, crap… his entire face got hit directly by Phantom blood…"

"… This idiot… he tore open the Titan-class's glands at close range… no wonder he was hit directly," Storm muttered, expression unknown, hidden beneath his mask. However, his eyes held signs of worry. "At this rate, he's going to die."

"Thanks, Sherlock," Iris snarled, glaring at him. "He ended up like this to break you three out, and you call him an idiot?"

"That's not… ugh."

Storm averted his gaze, unable to bear the weight of Iris's malicious gaze.

And then, to everyone's surprise, even among all the pain and suffering, Finn managed to spit out a single word.

"… Archon."

At this, Octane, Storm, and Reaper immediately realized.

"That's right… where's boss?!"

[Subject-ARCH0N energy signature detected: 541 meters. Status: Severely injured, but alive.] Reaper said monotonely, before turning his single glowing red eye in the direction Iris and Finn had come from, and quickly floating that way.

"We'll be back!" Octane yelled, before immediately dashing off as he followed his companion. Storm did the same.

"… Ungrateful bastards," Iris spat in venom as she glared at the disappearing figures of the trio, before glancing down at Finn in concern. "How are you feeling?"

"… It's seeped into my skin. I can feel it… flowing through me."

At this, Iris froze. "What?"

"Like I said, it…" But Finn trailed off as the pain suddenly began going away.]

"H-Hold on, Finn… you said you can feel it flowing through you?"

"…" Finn fell silent, too busy trying to figure out what was going on to answer her question.

"Answer me, Finn!"

"H-Huh? Uh, yes… I feel like I've gotten… stronger, somehow."

"That shouldn't be…" Iris covered her mouth in shock, as the black liquid on Finn's face faded away as if nothing had happened. "D-Do you feel any pain? At all?"

Finn shook his head. "No. At first, yes, but now…"

He slowly got back to his feet on his own and tried to move his body around. It worked perfectly fine, and any sign of the agony he had just suffered was nowhere to be seen.

Iris shook her head in wonder. "The blood… it seeped into your skin, rather than burn it. What is going on…?"

Finn knew, of course. This had to do with the existence of Ghost blood in his veins already. He understood now — what Zelestria had meant when she said Ghosts represent hunger, and humans represent life, or rather, food.

When paired together, those two form a single concept: consumption. The blood in his body grants him the ability to consume. Whether that is other people's Angelicas, more Ghost blood, or something else Finn hasn't discovered yet, his body could absorb it all and convert it into strength for himself.

Still, this wasn't something he could tell Iris. The effects couldn't be faked, but he didn't trust her enough to tell her about the root cause of said effects. Besides, he promised Zelestria he wouldn't sell her out. Therefore, he responded the way he did.

"I'm not sure either, but…" Finn sighed, then began walking in the same direction as the other three had gone, preparing to head back to Archon. "… I'm just grateful I didn't die."

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