[THREE HOURS BEFORE JOAN AND ALEPH ENGAGE]

  \\ NEW GREECIA UPSTREET //

  That faint image blurred on screen, it was the same as the ones initially projected an exploded misshapen diagram formed from dead pixels and distortions on the loosely hanging screen of a skyscraper, prior maybe sometime earlier after Aleph when missing, those appeared, now they were faint and only replaying as if designed that way.

  [Asaph..]

  He glanced up from the great crater, the broken building with wires sparking and dangling freely,

  Although these wires were intact and loosely powering and entangling one of the ten-meter display screens that’d been knocked down in the fighting,

  A strange visual distortion occurred on its LED-like surface as it flashed between corrupted recorded broadcasts, each time bits of one randomly popping broadcast exploded into a still,

  Aleph’s ghost messages…. Asaph groaned internally

  diagram built of hijacked transmissions giving a loose image of weak points and how some of these stranger machines encountered worked, they’d seen them all before it was no longer useful or inspiring.

  ‘At first when they appeared it was hoping Aleph was alive but they stopped appearing on new screens conventionally as they passed on patrol or to counter-attack…not it just lingered. As if he lived long enough to send them but just…well..perished…’ Asaph recounted

  Anna looked at Asaph seeing the expression he had when Aleph was verifiably missing for two days, his face just shifted, it was bordering on a lack of expression entirely, he appeared uncanny like a mannequin and his mouth moving was now an oddity he was more silent now.

  She wanted him to speak…cause they had no idea where Saiyah had run off to….

  “Huh, think’is ghost is with us?” Anna slurred her words a bit trying to find topic, her feet were propped up on bits of rock and rubble.

  Asaph was leaning on his own couch of rubble and kicked his foot up, pushing past an armored corpse trapped beneath it, dislodging it, and letting it hit the ground with a thunk.

  Asaph looked at the screen, and shook his head “I doubt he’s dead, but if he was I’d hit him as hard as I could ghost or not…if we can even become ghosts.” Asaph shrugged.

  Anna answered, “What so–?” She pondered his answer, lingering too much on his indecisiveness on topic.

  “Don’t think anything happens after we go?” Anna inquired as if she wanted to take her mind off the droning bombardment, it was loose sounds of sporadic combat...

  They both sat here with space for one more, and occasional expectant gaze toward an opening in this crater of rubble

  He shook his head “It does seem like it but it also seems like we don’t at the same time, I mean…we die and get buried.”

  Anna shrugged “You’re just like me I don’t really believe in anything.” She couched her rifle to her chest and looked down.

  --

  The ground shakes yet neither of them diverts attention from one another, Asaph continues to stare down as a burning smell, smoldering burning material filling his nostrils of the broken helmet, and Anna staring toward him as faint embers flow around him.

  It’s warm….

  After…

  When his eyes do leave he sees it

  The screen changes and it’s not the same anymore…it’s something different..a garbled mess of lettering, of font…Is he alive? What this one hasn’t been seen before, this isn’t warning of a new enemy this is–

  “That one is new.” Anna intrudes on his thoughts. And Asaph growls at her his helmet more broken than before she can see his fangs as he opens his mouth at her

  She chuckles uncharacteristically.” I see you looking at the sign…” Anna speaks defensively…

  Anna’s recent newfound sense of humor and ironically ‘life’ in her voice came with a need to pick at Asaph, and that latter part was pissing him off…

  Asaph’s head tilts up at her, “Why watch my eyes?”

  “Cause I hope so too, that he’s alive…not that he’s effective, no I still doubt him, but if we don’t count him, I’m sure all one-forty-four-thousand of us are still here..he’s damn good at keeping people alive…even with no intel and worse odds.”

  Asaph rolled his eyes…” Yeah, what’s good is we’re alive and still can’t assault that tower, he’s fast, he figured out a target with nothing…but it means nothing if that intuition comes to late.” Asaph went on sharp tirade.

  Anna’s eyes just widened she couldn’t help but smirk “Jealous?”

  Asaph retorted a curse at himself––Then shook his head

  “No, I’m seeing what is expected, my non-blood little brother got used like a tool and dumped here with expectations far outweighing his real capability.”

  “But you still care. –” Anna started knowing she wasn’t going to finish and letting Asaph cut in.

  “Yes I care!–” He stopped then growled realizing she invited him to interrupt rather than be interrupted

  He pauses briefly refocusing thoughts from anger and somber “Because–…”he pauses again seeing the way her eyes narrow at him,

  ‘she knows what he I’m about to say…’

  he doesn’t want to finish….

  But they both say it in unison “Because his humanity rubbed off–“ Asaph pauses grinding his teeth but–

  “Rubbed off on you?” Anna laughs finishing without pause or hitch…

  “Can’t say the sames occurred with me even though he impressed me, but you and Saiyah are a bit of the talk of the others. Nothing really good….attached intensely, it’s enough to be monstrous but just enough of a vulnerability to be human.”

  Asaph truly considered “Is it truly so human to care….is that a part of Alephs weakness of being raised by humans, Anna?” He waves off the air

  “I can’t relate, I know you all care deeply about your parents, I share one thing with Aleph, mine were murdered.” Anna just states. And Asaph didn’t seem to have a reply, she waved it off so robotically.

  He’s sure that humanity within Aleph had rubbed off on him and was showing even amid a warzone to have hearing her wave off the death of her parents, biting his chest as it did…

  To A shocktrooper family should be deep! The only cause for a cry or sorrow, It should be closer because they were immortal and unlike any other caste they were close!, you’d know your grandfather, down to some of the original stock of shocktrooper sourced from Earth and the milky way…..yet, it was waved off so easily….

  “Yeah we’re vampires…but we’re not like the others…not because of strength but because––..”Asaph struggles to finish and Anna wasn’t inquiring this time her head was elsewhere but her attention was on him through ear.

  Even she felt interested in what his conclusion was..

  But he didn’t speak it…because he knew it was a dreadful revelation…maybe it’s why they’re hated..

  That little thing they all cared for family but not like them..was it that–

  ‘we have more–‘ Asaph is about to finish recounting a thought he doesn’t want to reread in mind again..–

  But Suddenly! Like two wolves they sniff the air, nearly about to lick their canines…..A heavy laden presence…–It’s something that is incredibly close…letting them know they are about to be in deep trouble or–

  “Saiya–“

  They didn’t seem to confirm that I twas Saiyah, before the two of them could take a look at who seemed to drop in the crater they were on them, the moment a shadow leapt inside….

  “I told you she wasn’t the only one good enough!” The voice irked out with an ease and casualness that confirmed it was friendly.

  Asaph gave a laugh, in time he was helping Juno and the other sergeants command with Anna the two of them were considered good enough to take up Aleph’s position together….but that wasn’t point here–

  Like them stood a shocktrooper, a quick one he was helpful scouting and is the only competition Saiyah has in the stealth department if albeit he is inferior by some estimations still he had one thing she didn’t have, a juxtaposition

  “So did you get her yet?” Asaph asked simply, and the shocktrooper shook his head “No I found her.”

  ‘He doesn’t have Saiyahs ability to stealth albeit he reminds us of her whenever he sneaks around even able to evade sense of other vampires, Vico has one stark advantage, he’s more of a tracker than any vampire has any right to be even on other vampires….’ Asaph weirdly though in his head.

  “I tracked her couldn’t grab her, she was fast, disappeared several times into thin air….” He droned in complaint Vico shrugging, he was under Juno it was clear by the scratches under his helmet, conversation wasn’t tolerated like she had with Aleph and his command squad (Saiyah, Anna, Asaph.)

  ‘She seemed to hate when they talked too much and would slug her fellows…damn strong enough for it to work in getting the message across.’

  “Asaph!” Anna exclaimed tearing him from thoughts!

  Asaph shook his head looking to Vico directly at that visor…

  Vico awkwardly waited for Asaphs reply and just stood visor, that monoeye with a strike-through line shifted, and the

  She just watched him with a smile.

  Asaph gave a nod “Her last location?”

  “Downtown, the signs that point toward Fifth Street, she went into a tunnel, didn’t follow her we had other things to do, some strange units is sneaking around…..I think we should close in…because She seemed to know where she was going..”

  Asaph and Anna both rose a brow at that.

  The Shocktrooper spoke to his fellows’ think they found him..he might be alive…she seemed…determined..”

  From that it was clear Aleph was alive If she felt it there was sure as hell no doubt in their minds.

  ‘Where the hell were you…..’ Crossed thoughts of all three….

  Albeit Pondering on that didn’t make them slow one bit as they kept pace with their racing thoughts.

  After it was confirmed, they moved out of the crater, seeing the skeletal remains of wrecked skyscrapers first thing they got out, only the shortest of buildings out of the way of their fall when the charges were activated were safe.

  Aleph commanded them to pre-emptively prepare armored attacks, Asaph didn’t question Aleph on that wasn’t what a trained soldier was to do, but a thought comes to mind even though he doubted they’d have lost to the tanks.

  ‘Some things shouldn’t be done just because you can.’ Asaph told himself that he could likely pummel a tank's tracks and turret.

  those attacks did come and they didn’t have to deal with them, roads were destroyed and blocked, and the skyscrapers were massive structures so when it came down destroyed it eviscerated the with shockwaves as it crushed the ground roads entirely.

  -

  They ran on uneven ground with Vico ahead

  “She better damn well be there!” Asaph huffed stern and Vico flinched “What was this tunnel you saw her go into!? A subway?” Asaph spoke almost catching embers in his throat.

  They didn’t lag they were racing down wide streets in a blur, Vico being outpaced quickly forcing him to throw his all, a car the size of a pebble grew in size, Vico didn’t even slow down a centimeter when he dove over it, and sprinted the moment the tip of his armored boots struck the ground.

  But his superiors were still far ahead of him…

  The embers that were through the air only grew stronger now as time passed, they were in a run, banking and winding a street…and it kept growing

  “What are these embers? Did they finally decide to use artillery?”

  “No I don’t know either it just started appearing…same with those flashes in the sky!”

  There was a practical nuclear winter over them, the barrier this city had gone, the only light was the lingering remnants of battle and fires that were reignited or began to rage again…

  The embers grew monotonous and were coming from above rapidly, but it wasn’t just embers it was small drifting heat….and it intensified nearing ground…they looked up….

  ….

  “Is that a ship!?” Anna cut through the silence of their sprint aloud first and the others picked up their eyes seeing bits of debris gliding down.

  ‘What the hell...’

  ‘Things just got worse someone came to help…and they sure as hell didn’t win…cause that ship that’s falling…it’s purple!’

  -

  [PRESENT]

  \\ New Greecia downtown //

  That’s where they cleverly watched.

  Three of them, Hera, Miriam, and most of all Joan keeping a close eye on the target as they were preparing to walk away, they could see the people from the underground marked for death those who had refused their worthy place, now chosen as unworthy to live even by others….

  And worst of all one Joan might remember, no she could remember, as a child…that preacher, she recognized him from then, it burned into the readout of his form in her synthetic eyes, a twist of the mechanical retina as an orb swam spinning ridiculously before adjusting.

  Her eyes became like binoculars, she didn’t need to use the large bulky and additionally white integrated scope of her rifle, she was lining up a shot…..

  Her enemy had such a strong bulky helmet.. Would it even pierce? No point wasting the chance with ammunition to kill, take out her primary target…the one who killed her mother and brother with a swift shot to the neck, hit some people first. Let them and the preacher freeze up, ensure he stays still then strike his skull. These were the thoughts Joan and with some omissions and dedication to the tactical aspect, Hera was thinking too.

  They watched and observed.

  Towering monsters, the nearby abandoned cars served to highlight how massive the two were compared to the rest, they stood far above them…clearly they couldn’t use them..

  “Can a beast like that feasting on blood, can a vampire just sense us anyway?” Hera spoke barely above a whisper, asking something so undeniable. The tension in Joan and Miriams face grew into deep expression of inner anxiety even hesitation realizing stress of the battle had them forgetting something so deeply ingrained.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  They sense our blood. Is the thought in unison?

  Too focused, they struggled to think about anything else but that intense worry as they kept watch, up from the abandoned automobiles halfway there in the street, up past the carcasses of Polaries and their human “gods” the immense bodies in sight, then the clear wrecks of machines, even that entrance to the underground had two wrecked heavy turrets on it, it was clear they were for heavy anti-armor usage yet were just…broken…..

  Bits of rubble around the feet of those two shocktroopers as they initially didn’t move out from the open, so comfortable in their positions…..

  “I’m going to take the first shot, Hera and Miriam open up when I fire, hit anyone leading the group, but that man there.” She pointed ahead toward the Preacher and Aleph “They’re mine…”

  -

  [Joan]

  From twenty-three meters away in the rubble of a building

  There was a moment Joan considered failure what she might do if something went wrong…

  She settled on anticipating telling Hera and Miriam to retreat and then charging suicidally at him, at all of them, two shocktroopers in her sight…one of them was troubling to look at as if her eyes were catching up on the ability to look at them…the other one was her target….She knew it, that visor was the same color..

  ‘It’s come down to this..’

  Is all she can think as she inhales deeply, Miriam and Hera awaiting her shot.

  On exhale her finger raises as she mouths “Strike!”

  Suddenly! her finger lances downward curved on the trigger

  The plasma propellant ignites the projectile, it heats up and the nanites endure catastrophic overload, most of them burning out and dying but others living despite the velocity they exit.

  Eight-ninety-nine million meters per second was what she hurled at her first target bracing to hit the second....

  From her position she’s above and the round had exited…

  a projectile carrying nanites emerges, it’s part ionized bolt of plasma at the head with a pure payload meant to kill any vampire….

  To think it wasn’t them that had invented it didn’t have her second-guessing the nature of this weapon…

  All she questioned was the speed of her mind as she read the shot coming out leaving her barrel and how it traveled…

  , orange particles of clustered nanites swarm, and the ionized bolt thunders through air immediately on approach! Joan could barely read her shot, it’s nearly totally a blur, and only through pure adrenaline did time slow enough with her augmented mind to just barely see it before it approached her target, it had its own heat and scorched ground underneath it,

  ‘four-percent the speed of light, no margin for error–!’ Joan’s finished thought could’ve been but–

  The two shocktroopers guiding the group from the tunnel with them seem to notice almost immediately…..

  Theres a palpable tension, and even from her earlier command Hera and Miriam don’t fire…

  He caught it…

  As the round had barely left its barrel traveled his head tweaked in half second, his arm swept through the air in a wide arc and it struck his hand, the cloud of nanites that came afterwards meant to linger in the air after hitting the target to cause additional damage in an area of affect seemed to neutralize at tightening of his fist.

  The crowd was terrified and that second shocktrooper seemed to fade out of sight…

  But he stood…

  Joan saw him and they both locked eyes…. ‘why wouldn’t he be able to sniff her out before she’d have fired, he wasn’t human…but even most prey can kill a predator with chance…’

  -

  “Lay low, engage the fallen-gods,.”

  Joan quickly points “The Vamps’are mine!” Joan bundled up her fear and cloaked it with rage…Her eyes consider the deaths she witnessed, what she lost and it didn’t hold her back, it had her leaping from the rubble.

  Twenty-three meters apart…

  She killed distance to ten meters in about maybe moments, Joan watched with a grimace under her helmet and pain in her eyes as she saw beams carve overhead, the first it struck was a woman with child, her stomach bulged under a ragged dress.

  It carved through her like a knife into a cake, rather than melt it went straight through and into a man, the screams that erupted almost had her close her eyes for too long.

  As the woman’s face flopped into two pieces, bits of fragmented bone scattering across the ground, her augmented senses made it clear which bit of flesh, viscera, and bone hit the ground first and how it exploded from the center of where her head

  ‘A faint gurgle…’ Haunts Joan’s thoughts as she skids, in the middle of the street counting the steps it would take for her main target to clear distance.

  He was stationary at first but now he leaned forwards…

  And then! Dashed at her, he was like lightning, but she moved like thunder,

  ‘DEATH!’ Her training like a second mind drummed in her ears

  Her senses and training acted faster than her mind, the supercharge of fluid surrounding her brain had her rolling out of the way of the fist that unholstered from his side,

  It shot forward sailing into a miss and upward arc, then came back from the side without missing a beat in this deadly rhythm she narrowly evaded his second hit

  He seemed personally angered he didn’t have that tiger’s gait, now he suddenly jumped into a mindless angry dash like a blind lion, from a crouched position he cleared ten meters in less time than it took her to clear the twenty.

  Disallowing her opportunity to fire off several more times and limit his window to evade or deflect!

  She didn’t halt raising her rifle even as the window was closed by his sheer speed and simply went to prepare to dodge whilst keeping it to her hip; in the moments it all slowed again. Yet she was brought to further horror to see he moved in real speed despite her advanced overcharged adrenaline, that same adrenaline which made the surrounding massacre of those people a lifetime…

  She wasn’t amazed, it had her bewitched and stark thought.

  ‘Should mankind not be god but, the God if that preacher is true why would he deny me vengeance for what I’ve lost…why should this evil prevail!!’ Screamed her head as it bounded left and down, evading a hit.

  She wasn’t going to consider sending a strike, if the palm of his gauntlet could take the impact of her rifle's projectile so could he, but it was still in her hands, though she felt confident in what she did next.

  Her palms and wrists screamed at her as she evaded narrowly another strike, feeling the wind of it through her helmet like a speeding freight train had just stopped instantly ahead of her the moment it missed, yet as he followed through, she kept leaning backward in evasion.

  Landing on her palms, letting her rifle cling to her chest, gathering all her strength.

  She could hear the hiss of her cybernetic muscles tweak under her false skin, and her eyes adjust, a nano-second calculation as her legs came up in the air and she wrung through a kick with a twist of her hips from her position.

  Her foot screamed and she could hear the bones in it shatter audibly, the metal skeleton in her left ankle and foot exploding, blood oozed out the tight lock of her armored boot but his helmet was struck so hard the rocks nearby them both bounced off the ground.

  She could hear the rattling of distant intact windows, and his helmet had been knocked so hard it twisted unnaturally to the left–No! It was his entire neck, she could hear the faint crack..

  ‘If you were human, that neck snap should’ve killed you!’ She laughed to herself almost wishing she was fighting a human like she was fighting to get her leg back to herself to strike again.

  It was a grim mistake to press close-quarters advantage...… That helmets monoeye visibly activated flashing red!

  Her leg was grabbed! She could see the moment that shots happened directed to him, as the automobile nearby him shook again! But this time from the moment he wrestled her by grip of her left ankle and flung her half-haphazardly like an animal into the automobile.

  The door of it dented inwards, and she could hear the shattering of glass, and the alarm kick up!

  And she fought hard going to kick with the other leg but was simply wrestled and launched by one handed grip as if his vision hadn’t been obstructed by the twisted helm…..

  She soared through the air and saw the second story of a ruined building and concrete wall her body screamed, had he simply hit her himself she was sure she’d have been out, but he opted to throw her.

  His mistake!

  She was in pain but was still up, her armor shielded her enough from such a hit…her mind immediately assessed she was launched back ten meters away into the building…

  get very large in very little time!

  She launched with velocity, her rapid approach had her heart hammering as she flailed helplessly and crashed into the concrete building….her vision swam, yet she was half-way to her feet when!

  As she scrambled back up that ambient alarm of the car seemed to chase her….

  ‘How is it?....’ It got even louder and sounded more akin to a train’s horn!

  Something huge shadowed over her for maybe moments, she threw her body further onto its back, kicked her legs up and toward her face! back-flipping up and away!

  SLAM

  The Car landed inside, the doors exploding off of it as it hit the interior part of the building, the ground underneath her rumbling from impact, one of the doors that flung off the crash’s car came at her with a whistle and smoke,

  and with pure adrenaline, her arm shot up and she backhanded it. Yet in these same moments…

  It happened again!

  A second one came in and she just narrowly heard metal being crunched, a car-alarm sound, and then it takes off in her direction loudly.

  It came through the hall of the building again and it had her tucking and rolling immediately.

  She then bolted into a sprint, the sounds of weapons fire adjusted, her rifle latched to her stomach as it seemed like one after another was coming in from behind her.

  Her helmet rumbled with voices.

  [“JOAN, THE SECOND ONE ISN’T AS FAST BUT THEY’RE SOMEHOW JUST FADING IN AND OUT LIKELY STEALTH, WE HAVE THEM HANDLED, WE’LL GET BACK TO Y–!”]

  Her heart was hammering harder than ever as they cut out

  After still in the midst of dodging launched automobiles again, another car came, she was in the midst of a hall of gods-only know where, and angled her rifle, she aimed through the window at her target in the few times she could see.

  Utilizing pure speed to evade incoming projectile cars thrown…..evading one after another until he merely begins to approach the building in a sprint.

  Counter-charge!

  The aggression let her know her enemy wasn’t as composed as before.

  ‘I have a chance!’

  In the heat of the moment even as her foot screams at her, she reaches a point of the wall with no window, and thrusts herself toward it, she has little space to move yet she dashed toward it, and she’s through the wall.

  Concrete explodes around her in a dizzying area, and she stands on a chunk of it knocked down as her augmented muscles hiss and pulse...

  Metal rebar scratching her armor as she lances out like a spear out of the building.

  Halfway through the air she can target him, just barely and take a shot.

  Her beam strikes a joint!

  Got him!

  He was erratic as if angered, and it seemed to have heightened the moment she had those people fired upon….

  ’Good!’ It is all she can think as she hurtled toward the ground, tucking and rolling into dirt as this shocktrooper held his neck,

  She was in the middle of the street as she faced him down alone…. In distance, Hera and Miriam stopped firing at those humans who were now in cover all around screaming and crying, no they were fighting the other one still…

  ‘Please make it’ She silently prayed to man…

  She can hear the fire and the hiss of rounds as she aims, firing a consistent barrage pinpointing each joint if possible.

  “AM I REMEMBERED!?” Her heart cries in pride lacking true confidence as she expects him to hear her voice over the bark of her nanite-projecting rifle.

  Each impact that strikes him, sparks against the armor, and he’s clearly taking more hits than projected…likely whatever latent ability he has, but she knows it’s working.

  When he goes to charge, he’s slower…but she unloads fast!

  Until

  ‘Click!’

  He had been standing there taking the hits…. why?..

  He doesn’t speak…

  She emptied more than half of a hundred shots into him, and he just stared silently.

  “You got nothing to say!? You mass-murdering demon!” She screamed like an angry zealot her voice laced with the pain that had fostered into a rage.

  He doesn’t speak, and she instinctively charges…she realizes it..

  ‘I know he’s weakened by what I did even if I can neutralize it but he has to be slower, why he stopped he’s goading me to strike close…he doesn’t think I can do it…or maybe…!’

  ’Hera! Miriam!’ Joan feels as her life flashes before her eyes at the sudden realization of what might be happening, of what might have just occurred….did Hera and Miriam die?––The second one!

  She could feel the wind curve around her but it never touches her due to her awareness, she ducked dodging something she couldn’t see, she couldn’t feel, and her cybernetics don’t even give her awareness of, her eyes shot from left to right, Yet saw nothing!

  Joan gets halfway closer to him…. She glances into the purple visor and plants her foot into the ground launching into the air, her heart is hammering she can almost hear it inside of her sealed armor as she leaped over

  Landing in a tuck and roll as she slides and goes to reload, taking out a strange tubing from a slot in her armor…glancing at two of them!

  One with a red visor, a female-ish appearance, a detail mostly noticed the moment her eyes work hard, and still her main target with purple visor….

  Neither of them speaks, and one holds a blade in her grip...

  That almost killed her…

  “Even if you don’t remember me, pleasure to be the one to see you again.” Joan speaks curtly with boiling rage ‘If only to kill you Bastards! ’..

  The woman charges ahead…This shocktrooper wasn’t as quick albeit that was still faster than Joan was.

  Yet she spoke…that voice was haunting it was sweet, womanly, yet crude.

  “Pleasures all mine wench!” and then swung for Joan, bits of her helmet caught in the blade were sparated like a kitchen-knife separates inedible fruit sections.

  Joan flipped backwards but was quickly caught up by the much slower due to weakening primary target.

  ‘His rage is his weakness, he’s aggressive, getting in her way…I don’t know why he cares about the humans that greatly but that’s my advantage!’

  And to the outside view, the battle between the three is a blur, the wind picks up around them,

  a tornado of punches flings at Joan blurs of purples as the arms throw calculated strikes each for her head and each missing, Joan is just barely able to evade, each missed strikes

  as she backs up and evades puts her farther and farther. They’re next to a car and Joan is sure if any hit lands against her helmeted head it’ll kill her, the sheer velocity has cars going up a bit

  and then crashing down., most unable to get to max effectiveness as it appears the lead shocktrooper barrages punch toward her getting in the way.

  Yet it’s still in some form of co-operation.

  ‘Two minutes and I have an opening.’ Joan calculates, and so she lasts.

  Her body is burning, her foot is screaming at her.

  After when things don’t appear viable, she considers ‘I have to take two hits!’ She takes them from Aleph, in his weakened state she can feel organs rupture the moment his fists collide with her armor, but it didn’t kill her as it should have.

  She’s close enough to see leaking blood pouring from underneath the seams of his helmets, the nanites in his body doing work…

  Joan’s blood explodes from the broken opening of her helmet….Just as she planned!

  The stronger one pulls off as if thinking he can finish it, and that’s her damned mistake.

  Joan considers all the times lost, that could’ve been continued how she could’ve taught her brother to properly worship man, maybe had a better chance to bring her mother to the truth, that’s gone now, but that doesn’t matter, she’s got vengeance for them.

  ‘This is for you little brother, mama!’

  She hips the rifle as the tornado of fists slows into dodge-able powered strikes each blow that could finish her, She dodges one of Aleph’s critical strikes for her neck….enduring a tornado of punches and having taken two that nearly killed her, feeling the internal bleeding from her replaced augmented organs, she fires twice to the throat of one that peeled off.

  It was a surprise that caught them off-guard, and with it they stumbled back, as if the nanites acted quicker with where they landed and landed with a thud.

  A sudden pause, as Aleph stared at Joan…

  Joan laughed.

  “You angry?” She spoke with blood, and her helmet seemed to release an augmented hiss, as she reached up and ripped it off...

  “You don’t get what it takes anymore but I’m still inviting you to try!” She raised her rifle again.

  And braced for the final stretch! She’d have her revenge doubly so!

  For Hera and Miriam!

  For her mother and brother!

  For her “gods”!

  For Mankind!

  S2N2

  He doesn’t make any action immediately in her view and for a moment it seems as if he’s paused

  “You’ve done enough to make me consider my last words but also enough to disgust me, God willing should I win I won’t make your death quick…”

  It was the only words he spoke, Joan frowned as her helmet was off and blood trickled from her lip, her face dirtied, armored battered.

  She felt one thing in the moment he spoke those simple words…FEAR

  But what was fear to a She-Nephilm, but a driving force to win

  He made the first move!

  When he moved at her, it was at her speed, at her capability, it was the greatest advantage she had in this fight…She could see it, she was nearly equal with him…She had pride..He had to fight at her level!

  Yet After the first few punches came her way she had only one thought!

  ‘Damn he’s good!’

  She took them with grace, she didn’t note the pain or the way a tooth flew out her open mouth from the sheer kinetic impact against her chestplate transferring to body….she’d have had twelve concussions had that fluid not been around her brain..

  She retaliated and he seemed to let Joan go all in on him, sending a barrage of punches his way, each hit arcing left, to right, yet his head deftly moved, his footwork became tight and he pressed into the ground weaving each hit like a trained boxer.

  His feet shuffled, and he spun in a kick that had her reeling, she just barely blocked it with her arms and quickly went to load her rifle knowing he was slower he wouldn’t be able to dodge.

  Yet he kept up aggression, with a charge he had a hand on the barrel, and socked it out of her hands, her fingers fractured and she ached in pain, unable to form a tight fist even the cyberized portions of her hands were bent out of proper state.

  “I know what human pain is.” He spoke as if that was explanation…but to her it was.

  ‘What….is that why he’s suddenly so good at evasion!?...’

  And it must’ve been, she had to rely on her feet, she had her own tight-footwork, she had limited martial arts compared to a shocktroopers martial-arts it provided her some ability to dodge.

  She let him serve five more punches, evading, even someone at her own level could damage her now,s he was decently injured and the few hits he had landed nearly broke her armor down.

  She was running on fumes and even worse, she was having to fight at the peak of injury, all she could feel was pain, he should’ve been weaker by now, but he was still putting his all into this.

  She needed to land a critical headshot! That had to kill him!

  She used her feet, sacrificing the left of the hardened metal skeleton in her left leg, and with it she kicked him hard, pure fumes yet still so strong, the impact whipped the area around them with shockwave and with it.

  Thunk!

  The helmet came off, and she saw his face…pale…his eyes had purple iris, his mouth poured with blood….and his expression had one simple thing..

  Rage the detail of his face was irrelevant the nanites were working part of his face had melted, and fought against whatever regeneration he had…

  She stared at the partially enraged look of a now cheekless skeletal face that hurled punches toward her head, each she evaded, she rolled and pummeled her hands into the ground to fix her right-hand crying out in a rage as she leaned onto her back as he came to stomp her whilst she was low.

  His foot was missing as it impacted the heavy concrete denting inwards into the ground.

  Her own hands grabbed the rifle knocked it away, and soon she landed the hit.

  The fight ended once he limply slumped forward, even this powerful vampire who had taken gods-knows-how-many-hits slumped and hit the ground when the nanites shot out and impacted his skull…

  Yet even then he faintly twitched……

  Joan’s vision was dimming…it was growing dark….

  But she must’ve won…right?

  [Asaph prior to and after the final blow given to Aleph]

  Asaph, Anna and Vito were quick to approach, they smelt blood and even worse had that foul sense that something was up, there was hordes of human bodies up ahead more than should be gathered, yet it fluxuated,

  Their Vampiric senses even in the midst of a full sprint outpacing any car that may have even dare speed on these winding roads was still In prime, like hunters they could sense incredibly well still

  they could accurately red from past the many concrete ruins and intact residential buildings maybe a few hundred and then it cut down incredibly, yet the presence of blood grew and didn’t shrink it pooled around nearby them…

  “It has to be her all that killing, but that’s unusual like she just went wild–“Asaph pondered on it.

  “Fifteen dead in a moment, heart palpitations of the crowd should be consistent with gunfire, I was reading these people when we first attacked, it’s the same...but that’s not us!”

  Asaph leaned his head in low and heard the low sounds….

  Energy weapon…. far quieter than kinetics but still produce enough noise to be heard even from a distance.

  When they arrived in minutes it was nearly not enough time for him to save either of the two by the time they got there whatever intense fight they had heard basically was over in barely thirty minutes, he saw a crowd of people around their bodies nearly to engulf them, many bloodied corpses, leagues of people, trails of blood that led to the mob murmuring amongst themselves, in an instant he picked out the leader from subtle movements.

  He was coming from the street possibly thirty meters away, and he couldn’t be bothered to count how long it took him to be grasping the arm of whoever this man was, wrenching the grip into his ironclad fingers until he saw the pressure of his grip turn the limb red.

  The man cried and the crowd grew terrified….

  They’re humans….

  Asaph was quick, he would’ve been quick to ice them all…but something looked different.

  They all looked like vagrants

  Asaph narrowed his eyes, seeing the two on the ground….

  He didn’t have it in him to spare or pity anyone but he did, when faintly a hand from the floor grasped his foot…

  He’s still alive!