1.16 Devil Part 6

“Oi!” yells Gears at the dragon as he jumps at the monster with Reinkal mid-swing.

The dragon snaps its head around to face Gears just the Guardsmen boosts forward with his remaining KEPs and Reinkal comes flying down.

The halberd tears into the left eye of the dragon and its yowls in pain. Letting go of Reinkal, Gears drops down beneath the dragon, leaving his halberd embedded in monster’s head.

I can always summon it back later and this leaves my hand free.

Not to mention it should stop the dragon from regenerating.

Gears grabs a molecular blade from his belt and stabs it upwards into under jaw of the dragon.

The dragon roars once again in pain, jerking its head back and away from Gears. It swipes one of its forelegs at Gears and he jumps out of the way. Unfortunately for the American, he fails to see the other foreleg coming at him.

The claws slashes across Gears’ chest, tearing through the already severely damaged outer armour plating and even into the inner armour. Gears jumps back, grimacing at the loss of his chest armour.

At this rate, I won’t even make it to Apocalypse let alone drive off the Harbinger.

Don’t give up. People are depending on us.

Oh, I’m not giving up.

With a snarl, Gears summons Reinkal back to him as the dragon backs up. With his halberd held tightly in his grip, Gears and the dragon circle each other, neither wanting to be the first to attack.

Deciding that this dragon is dangerous enough to use an energy blast on without such a powerful attack being wasteful, Gears aims Reinkal at the monster. Sensing Gears’ intent, the dragon unleashing another continuous blast of fire at Gears.

The beam of black energy lances forth from Reinkal, striking the centre of the oncoming inferno. The beam pushes forwards and through the flames, absorbing them and their power as it does so.

Well, that is a pleasant surprise.

The dragon realises its folly too late, its remaining eye widen in understanding as the massive beam of black energy smashes into it.

Gears boosts backwards through the air as he ends his beam, observing the damage inflicted on the dragon.

The dragon looks unsteady on its feet, the scales on its head, neck and forward body burned away along with most of the flesh, exposing plenty of roasted bone and muscle. The second eye has been destroyed with the horns and fangs both charred.

And yet it still looks so ferocious and deadly. As if all I have done is make it angry.

We have done more than that. Judging from previous reactions to injuries, it must have sustained some serious damage.

It isn’t over yet.

Lion is right. The dragon is visible regenerating.

With its flesh regrowing slowly, but surely, the dragon is recovering the wounds it has sustained and Gears knows he needs to finish this fight soon as letting dragon recover will only prolong it further and increase the chances of him losing the battle.

Gears leaps forward at the dragon, Reinkal ready to strike the monster. The beast flaps its wings and takes off, but Gears swings Reinkal at its armoured belly and the blade becomes lodged in the flesh
.

Gears desperately holds on as the dragon rises. As dragon reaches far above the buildings, Gears spots Apocalypse. The Harbinger is hovering amongst the clouds in plain sight to all those that look up.

Interesting position.

And a good one too.

How come?

By being so far up, the Harbinger seems imposing and you have to look up to see him. Makes seem more dangerous and powerful whilst making you feel insignificant compared to him. In addition, it puts him mostly out of range any potential attacks so he can’t be harmed like you harmed him earlier. Speaking of which, being this high up will stop most people from realising he has been injured by you, keeping up his implied invincibility.

That is a lot of reasons.

As I said, it is a good choice.

Gears looks at Apocalypse. The Harbinger has yet to notice him and the dragon continues upwards.

Perfect.

Just a little higher than we can strike Apocalypse.

What is the plan anyway?

Once we are close enough to get a hit in without Apocalypse dodging it like he did earlier, we’ll stabilise ourselves with our remaining KEPs long enough to take the shot.

Sounds good.

About half a minute later, Gears lets go of Reinkal and pushes away from the dragon. Apocalypse hasn’t noticed him yet and Gears hopes he won’t until it is too late.

As he fires up his KEPs to keep his position in the sky, Gears summons Reinkal back to his hand, aiming at Apocalypse in the process. Not wasting a second, Gears fire off the beam as soon as he can using his enhanced reflexes and reaction times.

As the black energy beam surges forth from Reinkal and lances towards Apocalypse, Gears focuses on every bit of energy stored in his halberd. He pours it into the beam, giving every inch of power that he can.

Apocalypse turns to face Gears, but the Harbinger is too late to respond in time. Gears feels a momentary crushing sensation throughout his body, both externally and internally. But at this point, pain is just a dull sensation to him.

The main effect is on his armour rather than his body. The majority of the remaining KEPs are knocked out and all of his surviving outer armour plating is shattered.

As he begins his freefall, Gears looks at Apocalypse. He may have missed the beam striking the Harbinger, but Gears can still see the results.

Apocalypse has suffered serious damage. His chest and upper left arm have been burned away with the ribs on the left side of the chest showing.

But the Harbinger is still standing whilst Gears has lost an arm with his armour wrecked as he freefalls from a fatal height and the hero has used the last card up his sleeve.