Sixty-Three

A tree trunk length of red energy blasted out of the cannon, cut across the distance instantly, and struck the bug. Its yellow-black aura had condensed, forming some sort of shield, but it was torn asunder. The bug lunged to the side as the beam seared it in half vertically. The ground shook again as the heavy body thudded to the ground. Kon sat there, gasping, as he blinked out the red spots in his eyes as he looked to see where Bosch had gone.

The Knight was nowhere to be seen. The darkness imposed by the storm having reclaimed the area now that the C-Grade aura wasn't lighting the area. Bolts of lightning were his only illumination as he looked around. Hundreds of rift beasts had been destroyed by the cannon fire, cooked by the superheated air as the bolt of energy had passed over them.

Still, hundreds more slowly turned their heads to look at the shaky tower. Kon stood up, pulling his rifle from around his shoulder and holding it against his chest as the rift beasts started toward him. Kon swallowed hard as with a single step they started toward him.

"Fuck," Kon whispered as the beasts started toward him. A bang echoed on the trapdoor and he turned his rifle toward it, lifting to fire as the metal door flew open. A familiar sword stuck out of the door, waving like a flag. Kon held his fire as Diur scrambled out of the doorway, a duffle bag slung across her back, and turned to slam the partly twisted door back into frame.

"What are you doing here?" Kon asked in disbelief. Diur looked at him like he was stupid.

"Saving you," she said. She stomped down on the door, metal creaking as it twisted under the force of the stomp. She nodded in apparent satisfaction as she walked over to him.

"We're both trapped here now. You should have stayed and just been rescued," Kon said as he peered over the side of the tower. The emotions running through him were varied, complex, and not something he wanted to deal with at the moment.

"If you had stayed another few minutes at the relay you would have been able to listen in as your rescue ship came in range. I managed to connect to one of their shuttles. They were still hours away from sending rescue parties, but they promised to send one here, to Camp Alpha," Diur said. Kon stared at her, all his thoughts stripped away in a moment.

"There's a shuttle. Coming here?" he asked, voice deadpan of all emotion.

"Yes. Should be only a few minutes away. We need to set up a beacon or flare or something for the pilots to see though. This area has become quite dark," Diur said as she looked around the area.

"Bosch is down there somewhere!" Kon yelled, spurred by the thought that he wasn't going to die here. That he and Bosch could escape just like everyone else had.

"Kon, there are thousands of rift monsters below. We can't get off this tower. If Bosch is still alive, she'll have to fend for herself until help arrives," Diur said, slowly and patiently.

Kon licked his lips, ideas flying through his head as he tried to figure out a way to get down there and rescue the Knight. After a moment he was forced to nod his head in acceptance.

"Anyways, we're going to have our own lives to worry about. I'll try to find out how to signal the shuttles, you hold the beasts off," Diur said. She merely had to point at the multitude of weapons strapped to his body for him to nod in acceptance. He was much better armed to hold off the swarm than her and her sword.

"I am sorry. If this ends poorly, know that I do regret my actions," Diur said. She turned and jumped, landing near the top of the cannon and started searching amongst the cables and lines for something flammable.

Kon didn't say anything about that, just turned and strafed the side of the tower with laser fire. Dozens of rift beasts were scaling the battered tower, their limbs having some type of weak adhesive. They died as easily as the others had, falling back to the ground when one of the bolts hit them.

He fired the rifle until the battery was nearly drained, a flashing diode warning him of imminent failure. Swapping batteries took a second as he ran around the circular tower, firing down the sides of the walls as the storm seemed to ramp up in intensity. Bolts of lighting began to hit close to the tower, branches scything out and killing scores of the weak monsters.

Kon swapped batteries as he came back around to the trapdoor. It was bucking wildly in its twisted housing, thin insect legs emerging from the cracks of the trapdoor. Kon shoved the emitter of the rifle into the crack and squeezed the trigger, sweeping it back and forth as far as he could go until the battery died. He stood back up and was swapping out the battery as the first of the creature's hopped the railing and landed in front of him.

It stood on four legs, standing upright with another six legs pointed out, each of them ending in a sharp point. In the dark it was nothing more than an outline, the streaks of lighting that flashed constantly nearby offered little extra detail to it.

Kon threw the empty rifle at it. Two arms swatted the rifle over the edge as it started toward him, but Kon unslung the second rifle in a burst of speed and shot it in the chest. The bug staggered back, one of its legs slipped on the slick steel, and it fell. Its arms shot out to catch itself as Kon walked up to it, shooting it once more in the back of the head. It collapsed and Kon put his boot under its thorax and shoved, the body rolled and fell between the rails back to the ground.

CLANG! The sound came behind him and he turned just in time to see a rocky arm push through the broken trapdoor. Thick arms pulled up a sturdy stony humanoid body. There were a few marks along its body where Kon's lasers had tried to burn it ineffectively.

Kon drew the ballistic weapon from its holster on his hip and emptied the magazine in a burst of fire and cracking noise. Each of the bullets chipped out chunks of the creature's natural armor, but it didn't stop it as it started to lumber forward. Kon dropped the pistol and grabbed the mace on his hip, cursing as he dropped low to avoid the powerful, but slow, swipe the creature threw at him. Its fingers gouged out chunks of metal, throwing scraps at him as its strong fingers ran across the edge of the cannon.

From a crouch, Kon pivoted and struck as hard as he could with the solid steel mace. Rock exploded and the creature rumbled in pain as its leg failed. It hit the catwalk heavily, pain in its obsidian eyes. It reached out with its hands to grasp at Kon, but he threw himself backward and rolled to his feet.

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He darted back in as the creature overbalanced and fell forward, using a single hand to stop itself from hitting the grating. Kon slugged its lowered head with all the power he had, whipping the mace up and over his back and driving down as if to break the flooring of the catwalk.

More rock exploded as the creature's head disintegrated. It went limp and fell to the decking without another sound. Kon tried to kick the monster off the narrow platform, but its heavy body refused to move.

Above him a loud hiss started followed by a whoosh as a burning pillar filled the night air. Diur had somehow lit something on fire, venting gas sending up a eight foot tall flame that filled the area with light. She jumped off the cannon to land lightly beside him and they went back to back without another word.

Kon put the mace back on his hip and grabbed his spare rifle as they began to slaughter the neverending waves of rift monsters. Time blurred until all he saw was the end of the rifle's sights, firing constant bursts of energy to sweep away the weak F-Grade monsters.

A light pierced the clouds, a warm red of combustion engines firing. Both of them paused as they looked up, but their attention was instantly stolen again as the horde redoubled their efforts.

Claws scraped against Kon's armor, the shriek shrill, as he continuously fired, swapping out batteries as fast as he could. Fingers ran over the empty pouch suddenly and he spat a curse as he tossed the laser rifle away, grabbing the hatchet and mace and swinging as more of the beasts came at them.

Diur cried out in pain, then roared in rage as her aura suddenly doubled for an instant. The pressure she emitted was much more like a familiar blanket wrapped around his shoulders, comforting in the cold, bloody night.

"Just a bit longer!" She rasped. Kon grunted in acknowledgement as he hacked away a grasping hand and then swept the mace around to crush a thorax. He struck with the two weapons in alternative patterns, his lack of training not mattering as he simply overwhelmed the beasts with his superior strength and speed.

A spotlight shot down and illuminated them on the decking. A roar filled the air as the shuttle came flying in to hover over the camp. It was short, ugly, with multiple rusted patches on it. The boxy shuttle spun to the side and doors opened up along its length, revealing a single Knight standing there with a greatsword over their shoulder.

"Coming in!" The man's voice roared from speakers and then the Knight leaped lightly from the shuttle to land on the catwalk. He turned his head to look at the line of monsters and sighed.

"Trash," the unknown Knight said as he unlimbered his massive sword and swung in with ease. A rune fragment appeared above the blade, fiery heat filling the area as the blade carved a swath through the tower.

It sheared through monsters and steel with equal ease, half of the tower sagging as monsters were turned to ash. The man turned his head back to them, tilting slightly when he saw Diur wasn't human.

"All right, kids, into the shuttle," the man said, waving a hand at the hovering craft. It was slowly creeping closer, lowering as it did so. Diur jumped with a burst of power and landed easily. Kon jumped a moment after, Diur catching one of his flailing hands and helping him into the shuttle. The Knight landed on the shuttle a second later, rocking the ship slightly.

"Fat ass!" a voice came from the font of the ship and the Knight chuckled as the shuttle gained height.

"Sir! Knight Bosch is down there!" Kon screamed as he realized the ship was pulling away. The Knight turned to look at him for a moment then cursed.

"Evelyn's in trouble again, Birdy!" the man yelled.

"Don't call me Birdy!" the other man, the pilot yelled back. The shuttle swung back over the battlefield, the door still open, as the unknown Knight leaned over the edge, not seeming to care about the possibility of falling. The man looked around for a second before pointing a finger in the dark.

"There!"

"I see her," the pilot confirmed a moment later. The shuttle swung toward where the Knight had been pointing and Kon sighed in relief as the Knight hopped out of the shuttle. In the dark he couldn't see well, but the man appeared a second later with Knight Bosch's limp body across his shoulders.

Blood was smeared across the broken and tattered metal of her suit. The new Knight lowered her to the shuttle floor gently before he stood up and spoke back to the pilot.

"K.I.A. Get us off this shit hole, Bird," the man's voice had lost what little emotion there was. The shuttle rose up, wind whipping through the bay as Diur and Kon stared down at Bosch's body.

The giant hole in the center of her chest was undeniable proof that the stern Knight wasn't going to be rising again. Hot tears slid out of Kon's eyes as his legs gave up and he slumped to the floor of the shuttle, not able to tear his eyes off the fallen Knight.

"Shit! Something is going on over there," Bird yelled a few minutes later. They were flying below the stormline, water and lighting chasing one another as they flashed around the shuttle. Kon looked around and saw what it was that the pilot was talking about.

Lightning fell on the plateau in sheets. A wall of power slammed the plateau that had been their home for so long, turning the night into day as the heavens unleashed their wrath. They all sat there in silence as more and more lightning fell on the plateau, tornadoes spawned, great columns of destructive black winds raced across the edge, destroying the entirety of the surface.

As fast and violent as it had begun, it ended. The lighting stopped falling and the numerous tornadoes broke apart. The shuttle turned, edging closer to the plateau for a second before the Knight screamed, fear in his voice.

"PULL UP! PULL UP! GET US OUT, BIRD!" Then an aura crushed them down, more powerful by multiple magnitudes than the C-Grade's presence.

It smelled of ozone, feral winds, and fresh rain. It spoke of fury, wrath, and vengeance. It burrowed in his body, washing through him like his innate defenses weren't there. Diur cried out faintly next to him while the Knight cursed as the shuttle started to rocket upward as the door panels closed.

"B-Grade ascension. Full evac, everyone off planet now!" Bird was screaming into his com as the sudden acceleration made him slide toward the back of the open shuttle bay.

He made it a few inches before they all stuck in place with a single wave of the Knight's finger, a single rune fragment holding them. The shuttle rose faster and faster, the pressure increasing as the Knight held them all still until suddenly all the pressure disappeared.

"And we're clear! Off planet," Bird said. The Knight's power faded away and Kon slumped to the ground.

"She has succeeded," Diur whispered, tears of joy in her eyes as she looked toward where the planet would be, staring through the solid bulkhead. Kon just stared at the ceiling. Exhaustion hit him, stronger and harder than he'd ever felt before. They'd made it off planet.

"Don't worry kid, we'll take care of you," the unknown Knight said a moment later. He was looking at Kon but Kon couldn't be bothered to reply. The crash from the fights hit, from the months on planet on constant alert, Diur's betrayal, Alice and Eveleyn's deaths, all of it hit him and buried him under a mountain until all he could do was look up blankly at the ceiling.

"Off planet."

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