Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The initial storm was over and done with. The pirates realized they were better equipped, and their training was more potent than some ragtag group of races. All of them moved with purpose.

Over the Scouter channel, Hurst’s voice rang out. “Good job boarding the vessel. From here in the Needle, I’ll be watching from your Scouters and offer guidance to grunts on the ground. Good move on the cover, Genesis.” For once, she didn’t feel disgusted being called out like that. Hurst continued, “Everyone split into groups of four, one will have five, but that’s fine. I’ll give directions individually.”

In a few moments, everyone grouped up. Genesis was the group of 5; Gree, of course, was a part of this squad. The other three consisted of a gunner, someone with a thin long straight blade, and a dual wielder of a spear and dagger. Hurst chimed in again, “Genesis, since you’re with the bigger group, I need you to go below deck towards the cargo bay and secure whatever might be down there. This ship is a fairly common model, so I’ll send a map over.”

In the corner of her eye, her scouter had obtained the map, but her brain downloaded it and improved upon it. Now the map was minimized and in the top right of her vision. “Alright…follow me, guys. You heard Hurst.” She set a waypoint to the cargo bay, her vision having nearly translucent arrows point her the way there. 

The actual travel wasn’t bad. Everyone was on high alert to make sure no pirates got the drop on them on their path downwards. Surprisingly, it was quiet on their end. Elsewhere in the ship, there was the sound of combat. Something wasn’t right here. While they had killed 30 pirates beforehand, there should still be a more significant number. Something was tingling in the back of her brain. Her Umbral was acting up again. Some instinct told her to run or not move in a certain way. Genesis wasn’t enjoying it.

Then they got to the cargo bay doors. Her head was ringing something fierce. Something wrong laid behind the doors. The spear guy moved to open the door…

Then it happened.

“GREE GET DOW-”

THOOOOOMP!!

She reached out with her hand and forcibly made the massive hulk of red lizard get down with a panicked burst of Telekinesis. He was flattened along with her to the metal floor. Her selfish thoughts only saved them from being unharmed. Above them, a burst of orange energy in the shape of a crescent moon carved through the entire opening door and slammed into the other three still standing.

Thanks to their strength, they used their own Ki reserves to protect against the energy. Alien blood bloomed from the trio as they were shot down the hallway several hundreds of feet like missiles. They were alive, but barely. Looking back, their armors were cracked entirely through with a fist-width slash showing scorched and bleeding alien flesh.

Genesis and Gree were met with loud laughter and clapping as the duo got up. In front of the two in the crack of the massive cargo bays was a single man in black and crimson cloth with a breastplate of shining red. In the crock of his arm was a glowing orange cutlass. He looked human, if not for the fact that his head was that of a rhinoceros and his body was a deep blue color. 

“Good, good! Two live!? That was just a practice swing! Ah, one of you looks nice enough. I suppose I can skin the lizard for a new purse and sell the girl. What say you two, give up?” He looked cocky with a wide grin. This man was stronger than Genesis. She could feel her instinct screaming at her.

The Captain wasn’t alone. There were ten other pirates in the area. They all laughed as if their Captain had just said the funniest shit ever. Genesis grit her teeth, “Surrender? With those terms? You’ll have to lop my arms off, you endangered species.” The Captain narrowed his eyes. Gree laughed, “Well, I’m with the lass on that one.” He dropped his gun. It’d be too slow for this fight. Instead, he pulled out a slightly larger battle axe attached to his waist. “Maybe his horns would sell better than you. What say, you, Genesis?” 

Genesis scoffed, then got serious. “Gree, don’t slip up. That slash, he can easily do it multiple times. “ She dropped her beam rifle and brought the war mace from her waist, giving it a flip around in her hands to get a good feeling for it. The duo prepared for a fight that would end in lives being taken.

The Captain frowned and stopped clapping. He took his glowing cutlass and stood there, sliding into a dueling stance. Genesis and Gree’s weapons lit up with Ki. Genesis’ with purple, Gree's with red. It was a standoff for several seconds. Muscles tensed. Even the peanut gallery of ten pirates stopped laughing. The tension was tight; all it’d take now would be one single move to ruin it and start a brawl.

Genesis was the first to start it. Then, with a movement of her free hand and pure spiritual energy, she released a burst of psychic power in the middle of the group. It hit the Captain from behind, who only mildly grunted, but the rest of the grunts were shot backward into cargo containers. “Go, Gree!” The lizard man nods and shoots off the floor with a flying technique to move forwards alongside Genesis.

The duo both swung their weapons at the Captain at their highest speeds. The Captain recovered quickly from the blow to his back and turned his cutlass to meet the other weapons.

*CRACKLE!*

The trio of blows erupted into a tri-color burst of Ki energy that caused tiny sparks to explode from them all. The Captain easily pushed them both back. Gree skidded back while raising his weapon in pre-emotive defense. Genesis didn’t do the same. Instead, she used the momentum to shoot herself backward and use the mace for its wonderfully intended purpose. Crushing skulls.

The pirate didn’t even know what was coming to them. A quick spin and a loud -crack- followed by a wet thump of meat caused a wonderful pink splotch of viscous fluid across a storage container. One down. The alien’s skull was 3/4ths of the way caved in, thanks to the enhanced power of the mace. She raised it and flicked the blood off.

The Captain ROARED at this and went into a crouch. A bad premonition shook Genesis’ body, a shadow of death. She dove to the side, using her jet pack to aid the movement. Just in time, too, as the Rhino-man had crossed the space between them in seconds, having slashed just where she used to be. Instead, his massive bulk smashed the heavy-duty cargo containers like crumpled paper. He just had a hard time prying himself free.

By now, the other pirates had recovered from the concussive blow. Gree’s axe met the neck of another alien, creating another casualty of war. He took a deep breath, then when he exhaled, a beam of red Ki shot from his maw towards another pirate, the furthest one. It impacted his stomach and scorched a hole through him. There’s the third.

Genesis wasn’t idle either. At the same time, she gripped a cargo container with psychic power behind one pirate. She ripped it out of the stack, smashing the alien like a hammer and throwing it into another. The sheer weight turned them both into a crushed mass. Four and five out of ten. A roar came from behind Genesis, and she dove forwards, but a -burn- was brought along her tail.

The Captain had clipped her with his sword, leaving a thin, long cut along the top of her tail. “FUCK!” Her purple blood drooled from the fresh opening as she was forced to turn her attention to the much stronger opponent. The Captain’s eyes were bloodshot and red, seeing the death of his companions. “KILL THEM, YOU THRICE DAMNED FOOLS!”

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The other pirates scrambled to respond. It was terrible, mainly due to the fact the duo had, in a few seconds, killed half of them. The Captain raised his sword as it glowed brighter. “GREE, DODGE!” With a blindingly fast swipe downwards, an energy slash comes toward the duo. With the warning, they managed to get away, but they were clipped. Genesis got a burning cut across a bicep, and Gree got slashed across his thigh. She hissed, but she couldn’t stop as Gree and herself were assaulted by the remainder in that split second.

She wasn’t some martial god, but using her martial arts and weapon, she managed to knock thrusts and slashes aimed at her to the side or redirect them to a less vital area. She was getting pinned while Gree slashed and cut at the pirates trying to pin him down too. Though there were only two over there. It led to them slipping up and getting carved halfway through with Gree’s axe.

It got stuck in the alien’s bones, so he had to fight the other with bare claws. She had to turn her attention to the three enemies. She was getting peppered with minor cuts here and there. The Captain wasn’t going to be idle either. This whole time he was charging up an energy sphere in his hand…which finally shot forwards.

Genesis flicked her hand and used Telekinesis to shove one of the three into it while blocking a sword strike with her mace. The result? Explosive. The Ki blast turned the pirate into giblets, popping him and filling the air with scorched meat. The concussive force of it shoved her back due to the close range. She used her tail at this moment to wrap around one of the pirate’s throats and -squeeze- with all she’s got. 

He didn’t get much help. His neck broke, and Genesis dropped him to the floor. “TOU!” A quick step forwards, and she shot the tip of her Ki-enhanced mace forwards. There was a sickening wet crunch. The last alien’s chest caved inwards as he shot across the room, landing behind the Captain, painting the cargo boxes an azure color with his blood.

The Captain glowered. He wasn’t clever with the use of his subordinates. But he was definitely one who ruled with power. A power that now brought itself to bare with her. It was a flurry of strikes that forced her backward. The Rhino-Man was roaring at her incomprehensibly. His anger seemed to make his power soar. The strikes rocked her down to the bone, even with her enhanced frame and body.

She had to block and parry each one. Each time she dodged, she’d receive light burns from the heat emitting from her opponent’s Ki-reinforcement on their cutlass. Her own mace was getting a beating. Even if it was made of superior materials, the man’s power started to hack into it centimeter after centimeter. Genesis’ arm was going numb. “Gree, help me damn you! I can’t keep this up.”

From behind, Gree suddenly sped up with his strikes, fighting like a savage beast toward his opponent. There was a short instance where his opponent had a lapse of judgment and paid for it in blood. Claws raked across the alien’s throat, sending scorching hot blood across the floor and leaving him in a gurgling puddle on the ground. “Coming, coming!” He turned to rip out his axe from the corpse it got lodged in, using some force to cleanly cut the entire body in half with added energy. 

He jumped into the fray, letting out a war cry. Gree brought his axe downwards into a full-force blow. This caused the Captain to falter and block the downward strike. There was another deafening crash of Ki vs. Ki, force vs. force. There were two losers of this clash. Gree was shot backward, hitting another crate and denting it with his mass, while the Captain was forced back again.

Genesis took this moment to shoot the mace forward again, increasing its speed with Telekinesis and her arm strength. There was a wet THUD, and a breaking noise as her strike smashed straight into the opponent’s armor surrounding his legs. But the Captain’s thigh was broken, given a severe bruise by the singular lucky strike. He howled in pain, trying to keep fighting through it.

“YOU LITTLE SHITS! I’LL CARVE YOUR EYEBALLS OUT AND HANG YOUR GUTS FOR ALL TO SEE!” He was going insane, his anger reaching enough heights that his body had formed an orange aura around himself. Genesis and Gree were both moderately tired after this fight, the two covered in cuts and burns. But their fighting spirit ignited. Twin auras of purple and red clashed against the power of the orange one. This was still on the low tier of powers in the world, so the ship won’t explode, but an inexplicable pressure was put down on the area.

Then they clashed.

It was explosive, like bullets being shot from a gun, only to all meet in the middle. This happened several times, and each time all three of them were being rocked back. Small shockwaves were formed from their blows as they all controlled their Ki to power up. This was eating up their stamina to even put small dents in their opponent’s defenses.

The Captain was only getting glancing blows and small slices over his body. But he powered through them all with sheer tenacity and force. Weapons kept coming to blows only to blow everyone away in a brutal fight to the death in the depths of a ship. Blows shattered against blows. But something had to give at some point. 

Unfortunately, it happened to be Genesis’ mace.

Another slice made by the sword hit a crucial point in the mace’s structure. The weapon itself shattered as the blade started to come toward her face. Gree wasn’t able to block this. Her brain went into survival mode, sheer instinctual overdrive, as the sword came to her face. She wanted to live.

The second was drawn out into infinity as her brain heated up to provide a fix. Then she found it. Telekinesis once more as she remotely infused the pieces of her mace, still filled with her Ki energy. Then, with her will on overdrive, she forced the shards forwards like flak as her body moved to the right, trying to keep herself compact. This saved her life.

The Captain was startled as the weapon shards suddenly burst forwards, aiming to take his life like a burning flak. It sunk into his armor and his unarmored bits like burning coals, his blood gushing from some holes formed by the burning shrapnel. But his sword strike wasn’t entirely halted.

Like cutting sashimi, that cutlass raked a good foot-long gouge of flesh from Genesis’ left arm. Her blood erupted from the fresh wound as she screamed in burning pain. Gree followed up with a wild swing, using his entire body in a non-standard upwards swing that resembled a golf swing. The axe cut the air and smashed into the Captain’s chest armor. Gree’s muscles bulged as he put his full power into the swing, enhancing his body with all of his Ki to do so. 

CRAAAAAAAACK!!!

Gree’s power swing had smashed the front of the Captain’s armor. Then sunk into the Rhino-man’s flesh halfway. The massive man flew into one of the cargo boxes, creating a louder din and crumpling the box inwards like a crushed can. Blood soared in the air and dripped from Gree’s axe. He was panting and entirely exhausted from the fight. He took to a knee, barely being able to be conscious after using so much Ki for that.

“I’m…gonna hah, pass out. Fuck. His crew was shit, but he was…strong. Whew.” He ran a hand over his head. He was overheating from so much fighting. As for Genesis, her body went to work sealing the massive wound on her arm. It’d take some time to regenerate, but she was not in the clear at all. It was still a nasty wound, and the rest of her hurt.

But she didn’t wait. She pointed a finger toward the man embedded in the cargo boxes. She concentrated energy on the tip from her finger. She shot a small ray toward the considerable bulk of the Captain. There was a scream of pain as he was hit and pierced through the stomach. Genesis did it thrice, aiming at the man’s right chest, left arm, and finally through the neck. Their aim was off due to their tiredness, and their hands were shaky. Only when the Rhino-man stopped moving did she finally relax, covered in sweat and blood, hers and her opponent’s.

“Always…double-tap Gree. Okay?” She then fell backward, depleted of Ki and stamina just like Gree was. Over the scouter, there was a crackle, then a voice, “Hurst here, congratulations on killing the Captain. I’ll be there in a few minutes. The other Security Forces are cleaning up. Get some rest. The battle is won.” With that, Genesis finally closed her eyes in some attempt at inner peace. She’s killed and lived in the middle of a bloody mission. She reeks, she’s sore all over, her body needs medical attention, and yet…

She absolutely loves it.