Chapter 405: Battle against General Sylvari Charr! [5]

BADUMP! BADUMP!

Feeling his heartbeat accelerate, Leon stared at the distant silhouette of the General with a dark look on his pale face.

In the past 1 minute, he’d tried everything.

Despite the harrowing pain of his injured soul, he’d locked in and pushed his mind, body, and ADE to the very limits, trying to survive and always stay ahead of the General but in the end it was not enough.

By now, if the ChronoSystem hadn’t shut down, Leon would have tried to use his remaining Character Summon Cards already.

Even more importantly, he would have used the ChronoSystem functions that were applicable in battle, but sadly, the system was now switched off.

Inside the cockpit of the Bulwark MK, he smiled darkly.

’It was a good run I guess’.

Any other D Rank Ascended would have felt proud, even triumphant if they managed to last a staggering minute against a bonafide C Rank Ascended.

This reality reflected in the 2 D Rank Ascended who were now far from the battlefield but were now watching it with a stunned look on their faces- Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq and the assassin.

The Lt. Colonel had a stunned but complicated look on his face.

When Leon saw him through his myriad eyes that were invisible in the sky, he grimaced. ’To hell with you!’ He gritted his teeth.

If Leon was a regular D Rank Ascended, he would have felt proud at his achievement. He’d lasted this long alone against a C Rank Ascended, but he was no regular D Rank Ascended.

Leon didn’t care about heroics, all he cared about was survival and growth, rising to the peak of power in this world so he could regain access to his memories.

That was the driving force behind his life in this world since awakening from his slumber a little more than 4 months ago.

And this was why despite the fact that his ADE was almost depleted and the fact that more than half of his war machines were already destroyed within just a minute, he didn’t give up yet.

He stood his ground, pointing the great plasma Claymore of the mech suit to the ground even as the red eyes of the Bulwark MK glared back at the General.

The General?

Well, he had a look of suppressed annoyance on his face.

Clearly, he was not proud of the fact that he had to spend 1 whole minute in an intense battle with a mere D Rank Ascended without killing him yet.

From the past 1 minute of intense battle, Leon already dissected and understood the General’s combat style perfectly and his approach tonight. This was why he knew what was going to follow next, and he was not wrong as...

Neural Projection!

BZZZ!

General Sylvari Charr disappeared from his location and instantly appeared above the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame, having been forced out of the mech’s neural node due to the NS-99 "Blackout" Signal Dampener.

The moment he appeared, the air trembled as the blade of the great plasma Odachi was already cutting down in a curved vertical slash at the mech’s shoulder.

Having predicted his appearance, Leon reacted.

BZZZ!

Enhance!

He poured all his remaining ADE into the blade of the great plasma Claymore, swinging it up to meet the General’s Odachi.

The air groaned in the wake of their passage, and then...

CLANGGGGGGGG!

This time, even within the cockpit of the mech suit, Leon felt the vibrations of the titanic clash just before the General’s superior might overpowered the mech suit, forcefully throwing it to the ground with harrowing power!

For a brief moment, all the sensors of the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame were scrambled as Leon’s sight inside it became blinded.

But Leon still had 25 other fields of vision through the invisible C-5 drones, and through them he knew that the General was now towering above him, already swinging for a second slash with his Odachi to severe the mech suit in two!

Leon’s ADE was exhausted after that last swing, he couldn’t use any ability anymore as he lost control over all the remaining Doom Rover v0.2s.

He transferred custody of them to Davis.

With the tiny ADE remaining in his Neural Core, he dedicated all of it to the 25 invisible C-5 drones that hovered somewhere in the sky.

Leon prioritized sight in this moment of truth.

Whatever was going to happen, at least he wanted to see it. And at least, he wanted to keep on resisting till his last moment.

Davis commanded all the remaining Doom Rover v0.2s to unleash a barrage at the General, but he didn’t even blink as leaving his defense to his energy shield that was almost depleted too, he focused on damaging the mech suit.

Inside the mech suit, seeing the General’s priority, Leon’s brain whirred.

’Think, think, think godammit!’

He thought feverishly, but this time Leon could not find any way to escape his predicament. Not with the ChronoSystem gone, not with his ADE depleted.

And so, just before the great plasma Odachi made contact with the surface of the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame, Leon ejected the cockpit!

The cockpit rapidly ejected from the side of the mech suit, carrying it to safety alongside Leon even as the Odachi made contact with the stacked energy shields of the mech suit.

The Odachi cut through the 2 stacked energy shields like a hot knife through butter, overloading and overpowering all their limits with the brutal power of a C Rank Ascended!

But just as the shields popped like bubbles, just before the Odachi’s burning blade edge could cut into the mech suit, something else triggered.

Leon didn’t just eject from the cockpit, he left a gift for the General.

Reactor Fail Safe!

He triggered the Reactor Fail Safe system of the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame before ejecting out, the mech’s self-destruction button!

This was his final gift to the General.

The process was already on when the blade of the great plasma Odachi struck the mech’s surface, and then a total internal detonation took place!

KABOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

...

Leon lost consciousness from the sheer force contained within the shockwave of the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame’s self-detonation, but it only lasted a few seconds.

A few seconds later when he regained consciousness, his head throbbed.

RINGGGGGGG!

His ears rang with echoing sounds that increased the pain in his soul and the splitting headache that was driving him insane.

On the ground, he wheezed then coughed blood, coughing thick coagulated blobs which caused him even more pain then he rolled on his back, totally spent and exhausted.

Finally, the last threads of his ADE became exhausted and instantly, he finally lost access to all 25 C-5 drones.

At the same time, with his ADE exhausted, Undying Roach also deactivated and the full weight of all his injuries finally set in.

Leon groaned and wheezed, his chest painfully heaving up and down with difficulty as he breathed through damaged lungs.

Suddenly blind after his connection was cut off from the 25 C-5 drones, only now did he realize that his real eyes were also blind as blood from cuts in his head already blurred his vision completely.

Leon strained to raise his hand and wipe the blood from his eyes, and the moment he did, a flash of lightning illuminated the skies.

And that was when he saw General Sylvari Charr already standing right beside him, towering above him like a Giant.

Leon froze.

He blinked, tense, but then he relaxed.

He paid closer attention to the General and realized that after over a minute of battle where he pushed his body and mind past all conceivable limits, he finally managed to make the General bleed.

Synthetic oil was flowing through a breach in his mechanical body.

His last gift to the General through the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame finally managed to overwhelm the defense of his energy shields, breaching them and shredding his military uniforms, leaving them in tatters even as numerous cuts were left on the mechanical body of the Synth.

Even in his pain, even in his hopeless situation, Leon grinned as he looked up at the General.

With his bloodied lips, he said. "Finally got you, huh?"

The stress of saying those words broke his body down as he fell into a coughing fit, coughing blood all over his body as he started drowning in his own blood.

"Ugh...!" He groaned in a soft voice.

Standing beside him and towering above him, General Sylvari Charr didn’t say a single word as he just stared at him with his Odachi on his right hand.

For over 131 years, this General had dreamt of this moment, he’d dreamt and had nightmares about it.

He’d wondered how he was going to feel when the moment finally came, he wondered how happy he was going to feel, but now he only felt hollow.

He grimaced, then he said coldly. "Pathetic".

He raised the great plasma Odachi, about to stab the Mechanist’s head finally to end his life and that was when Leon’s bloodshot eyes suddenly looked away from the General and focused on the sky.

Noticing this, General Sylvari paused and turned to look at the sky just in time to see the net that he spent over a hundred million Neo Credits erecting shatter.

CRKSH!

The net of ghostly blue shattered like glass, and in its wake was...

"...!"

...

[Special Appreciation to byrdseede, Adamantis, and Darks4int for the Golden Tickets! Thanks for the support!]