Transcendent Gene-Chapter 312: Savior [6]

BANG!

The world was filled with explosions in an instant when the armored man decided to fight.

His name was Gasper, and he was one of the suit’s test pilots. He never thought he’d get to use it for real combat, but his time came.

He knew how to use his suit. The environment made it hard for him to use it properly, but he was more than confident in killing a kid with its muted functionality.

BOOM BOOM! BOOM!

Rings of light and blasts bigger than heads flew across the room.

Gio fought back, creating walls and barriers out of the room itself and then shattering them into projectiles.

He never considered close combat against a mech suit that was made to fight much stronger enemies, but he knew a few ways to defeat the strong as a weakling.

He used the entire room to his advantage, hiding behind energy tanks and important machines to make himself difficult to hit.

The cat-and-mouse antics continued for almost a minute without any progress. Gio wanted to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the suit, after all.

Gasper, on the other hand, was not of the same mind. He charged at Gio whenever he had the chance, landing several good hits on the boy before he could do anything in return.

Gio’s brows furrowed. He knew he had to be aggressive and approach the enemy. He had to make direct contact with him to even win.

’Tch!’

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

They must’ve improved the suit. The blasts Gio experienced were far greater than what they were capable of a few years ago.

Bang!

Gio ran across the room, zig-zagging to avoid the blasts that came at him.

’He’s being cautious.’

Unlike Gio, who could risk damaging the machines in the room, Gasper couldn’t. His moves were targeted at Gio, but also weak enough to not destroy anything if they hit the surrounding tech.

Gasper kept himself ahead of Gio as much as he could, using his suit to blast into the ground or the walls rather than the energy tanks around the room.

The ceiling and floor were filled with small and large holes he made, and even some of the tanks were scuffed.

’I can’t touch them either, though...’

Gio wanted the tanks gone, but if they exploded naturally, he’d also be injured in the aftermath.

Virtual energy had to be the cause, but he needed the space to lay the final few mines and activate them.

Bang!

Gasper landed in front of Gio and slammed his foot into the ground, sending cracks in every direction and knocking Gio off balance.

"Got you!" Gasper yelled as he raised his arm.

A huge energy blade appeared, cutting at Gio’s neck.

Whoosh!

He barely managed to dodge it. Still, he was ready to counterattack.

’Hekat!’

The snake acted in his stead, bringing the ground up into jagged spikes that stabbed the suit from every direction.

Gio took several steps back and raised an arm.

’Joints are my best bet.’

The moment he immobilized the man, it was his win. Along with the movement of his arm, the rocks and rubble that had been broken out of the ground rose into the air, transforming into murderous spikes.

Xiu! Xiu! Xiu! Xiu!

They cut into the mech suit’s knees, shoulders, neck, and more, but Gasper didn’t bother blocking them.

Gio was standing perfectly. Several guns rose from Gasper’s back, all firing lasers and beams at the same time.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The world was filled with light that blinded Gio’s vision and forced him to dodge based on his instincts alone.

"Khh...!"

His senses helped him avoid most of the blasts, but he wasn’t safe. Burning pain spread from his left arm, his right side, and his thigh.

’Fuck!’

He didn’t want to get injured here, but he didn’t have a choice. Even as those attacks hit him, he placed a mine.

’That’s three. There’s only one left.’

It was on the other side of the wall, but how was he supposed to reach it in this kind of space?

The conditions were more favorable to him than he realized. Gasper couldn’t use the full power of his suit, and Gio didn’t necessarily have to beat Gasper either.

’I just need him down.’

As long as he couldn’t interfere, his death was already guaranteed.

Gio shifted his strategy. He’d been fighting to win, but all of that changed.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

He rolled out of the barrage of energy bullets and commanded Hekat, who raised boulders from the ground and threw them at Gasper.

’Steps!’ 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The snake knew what to do. As Gio ran towards his enemy, the ground rose into steps that carried him higher and higher into the air.

He aimed and fired countless shards of rubble from the surrounding environment, practically showering the opponent in rocks and metallic javelins.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Empowered by Aether and his own physical strength, they were like bullets of their own. They pelted the suit, putting dents in the metal and showing Gio that his strategy was viable.

Nevertheless, he wasn’t safe in the air. He was an even easier target when he couldn’t use abilities that gave him mobility in the air.

However, he took the high ground for a reason.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

He barely dodged a blast headed for his neck and threw his arm out.

Bang!

"Agh!"

His shoulder was blown open in the process, taking most of the strength out of his left arm.

Yet, at the same time...

The metal chunks he threw turned into knife-like shards coursing with Aether. They blasted through the air, stabbing into several nooks in the armor.

Gasper held his arm out, not thinking anything of it. It was the same as every other volley Gio had thrown and was equally insignificant.

Whirr!

–until the knees of his suit refused to bend, leaving him unable to face Gio properly.

Gio’s eyes widened.

’Now!’

He didn’t expect to land such a perfect shot. He didn’t think the chinks in the armor could be exploited this fast, but that was a matter of the past.

It may have been luck, but knowing how to use luck was a power, and he knew how to use it better than most.

He slammed down from the air like a comet and wrapped his body around the man’s back, using pure momentum to throw him to the floor.

Bang!

The weight of the suit was no joke. His landing put a crater in the ground about an inch thick, and one could only imagine the pain transferred into the fleshy body within.

Gio slammed his palm into the mech suit’s chest and forcefully inserted Hekat’s energy into its structure.

Bang!

The first burst was a blow of pure force that shattered several of Gasper’s ribs and pierced his lungs.

What followed was a consistent flow that couldn’t be stopped.

The suit’s inner workings were burned into Gio’s mind. Hekat instantly understood the mechanisms and enacted the law of change, breaking them one by one.

Gasper felt it. More than the rib fragment in his lung, he felt the weight of the suit pressing against his body. The systems used to help him bear that weight were gone.

"Puha!"

The suit’s head deactivated, revealing his face to Gio for the first time, but he didn’t seem to mind.

He spat out a breath of air, glad that he could take it at all. His eyes burned holes into the young Sequencer’s head as blood foamed from his mouth.

"Get...!"

Bang!

He could barely speak, but that didn’t stop him from fighting.

He somehow managed to raise his arm from the ground and throw Gio off of him.

Boom!

Gio’s eyes widened as he rolled to the side, barely avoiding the fist that bit a chunk out of the floor next to him.

"Come...back...!"

Gasper’s every word was accompanied by a burst of blood from his mouth, yet his will was impenetrable. He crawled across the floor, following Gio and using everything he could to keep fighting.

"AAAARRGH!"

He roared, using all of his energy to pounce and pin Gio to the ground.

’How...?!’

Gio didn’t understand how the man still had the strength to even move, but he couldn’t question it at this point.

He tried his best to escape the man’s grasp, but Gasper was adamant. If his life had to be lost, that was fine, but he would take Gio with him.

’Damn!’

Gio gritted his teeth and fought back, wrapping his hands around Gasper’s neck. Hekat’s energy shattered the armor protecting him, leaving him with no defense against suffocation.

Gio’s energy was practically nonexistent, while Gasper was already dying from his collapsed lungs. They rolled around, fighting like dying souls battling for the last spot into heaven.

It was a crude and unimpressive battle, but it was the most important of them all.

Gasper’s eyes told stories that Gio received with a cold gaze. His desperation didn’t come from nowhere, but his justifications were no longer important.

This was the end for him.

’There.’

Gio finally managed to lead the battle where he wanted to be.

That was all he needed.

Crack!

He gripped Gasper’s neck harder and threw him to the side.

"This is the end!"

He pushed his foot against the wall behind him.

Or rather, he pushed his foot into the energy tank behind him. Virtual energy coalesced into a mine within a second, and by the end of the same second, Gio staggered to his feet,

Snap!

Not a second wasted.

Even if it meant he was inside, he could not afford one second of wasted time.

The sound echoed loudly through the empty room that housed only destruction.

With a single snap, Gio released every thread tied to his body.

And though Gasper didn’t know what that snap meant, he knew one thing.

’Shit.’

It couldn’t be anything good.

Whether it was the mines in the room or those across the facility, all of them were set off at once.

All of them erupted with incredible force, using the energy in the tanks they blew up as fuel to grow stronger.

Bright blue light.

The first major success Gio saw since regression was marked by a flash of bright blue light.

And the last thing Gasper saw in his life was a flash of bright blue starlight that brought down everything he stood for.