*On top of a large building, Dust, Ryuuji and Jin were looking down at the conference center of Orion which is where Hargus had set up its main base of operations*
(Dust): Hargus has set up quite a base. Gun turrets, Heavy armored units with flamethrowers, and anti-air cannons to suppress air attacks. They’ve got all their bases covered.
(Jin): Oh man. If the knights, try to mount an assault on this place the casualties will be severe.
(Ryuuji): Not unless we attack first and claim the place for ourselves.
(Jin): We? You’re not seriously thinking we can take this base all by ourselves. That’s crazy.
(Dust): Rookie, haven’t you seen the order you’re in? Doing the insane, crazy, and impossible is what Shadow Eye is all about.
(Jin): Good point.
(Dust): Besides, we got five very skilled knights to take this base.
*Dust and the others turn around to see Amarti and Zia walking up to them*
(Zia): Apologies for the delay.
(Amarti): We fought a few stragglers on the way here.
(Ryuuji): Glad you guys could make it. How’s your leg, Zia?
(Zia): Its fine.
*Zia stomps the ground with her injured leg a few times to show everyone she’s okay*
(Zia): I’m ready to fight. What’s the plan?
(Dust): Alright. Here’s what we do. Zia, you grab their attention. Amarti, please take out those turrets. Ryuuji, the heavy units are all yours. Rookie, you and I will strike and the others will follow. Let’s begin.
*Everyone climbs down the fire escape and makes it onto the streets where they begin to run toward the conference center getting the attention of Hargus soldiers. As the group runs, Zia takes out her kukris and begins to chant in Elfan. Zia’s kukris begin to glow white. Once Zia stops chanting, she raises her kukris to the sky where she releases a bright flash of light which blinds the soldiers who were about to fire on them. Using this distraction to his advantage, Amarti summons thirty of his blade discs to attack the gun turrets and gunmen stationed on them. The blades slash across the chests and faces of the gunmen and slash the turrets into pieces easily because of their sharpness. As the Hargus soldiers regain their eyesight, they are greeted by Zia, Dust and Jin. Zia uses her kukris to slash through the soldiers near her with ease. When a soldier is about to shoot her from her blind spot, Zia spins around and tosses one of her kukris at the soldier which hits him in the center of his forehead as it spins through the air. The soldier falls backwards and Zia runs to reclaim her weapon as soldiers began to fire at her. Luckily, Zia was protected by Amarti, Dust and Jin. Jin ran alongside her on the right and used his large shield to protect her. Amarti controlled his blades to attack the soldiers firing at Zia on the left. Dust protected the backside of Zia and Jin by jumping in the air using his wires to snatch the guns away from the soldiers. Dust lands on his feet right in front of them with the guns still attached to his wires*
(Dust): Really guys? Firing on a lady? Where are your manners?
*The Hargus soldiers take out electric knives ready to fight. As they charge at Dust, he spins around and around lifting the guns up in the air and causing them to hit the heads of the soldiers hard to knock them out. Dust stops spinning and releases the wire from his hands causing the guns to fall to the ground. Zia reclaims her kukri and ducks behind Jin who uses his big shield to protect himself and Zia and the soldiers pin them down with gunfire. Jin pulls back his sleeve on his left hand to reveal his wrist cannon and fires it off at the soldier where it stops short of the soldiers and explodes to send them flying in multiple directions. Jin and Zia look in the sky to see black drones heading their way prepared to fire on them*
(Zia): Launch me!
*Zia comes from behind Jin and jumps on his shield. Jin activates his shield to launch Zia into the sky towards the drones where she slices through them which causes them to explode. As Zia begins to descend from the air, Amarti uses his blade discs as stepping stones to hop into the air and catch Zia bridal style. Amarti lands on his feet with Zia still in his arms and blushing happily at this predicament all while hugging Amarti tightly*
(Amarti): Uh~ Zia, you can let go now.
(Zia): Just a few more seconds.
*Soldiers quickly approach Amarti and Zia*
(Amarti): Zia, the enemy.
*Ryuuji steps in to save Amarti and Zia by blasting the guards with a fireball to send them flying*
(Ryuuji): Now is not the time for this, Amarti.
(Amarti): Tell her that. Watch out!
*A heavy armored soldier fires off his flame over at the group. Amarti jumps out of the way with Zia while Ryuuji just ducks the attack before realizing that he’s encircled by five heavy armored soldiers who fire their flamethrowers at Ryuuji engulfing him in flames. As the heavy armored soldiers stood there emotionless firing their flamethrowers, one of the soldiers saw the silhouette of Ryuuji running towards him in the flames. Ryuuji soon came running out of the flames totally fine with no burnt marks or burns over his body. Ryuuji punches the soldier who saw his silhouette square in the face shattering his protective mask in the process and sending him flying. The remaining soldiers stop their flamethrowers and backed away slowly shocked at what they just witnessed Ryuuji do as he turned around slowly to face them with a scowl on his face*
(Heavy Armored Soldier): Impossible! How are you unharmed?
(Ryuuji): Blazing Knight, remember?
*As soon as the soldiers heard Blazing Knight, a look of fear appeared on their faces. They had all heard stories of the Blazing Knight. A one-man army who would leave a blazing trail of destruction and bodies of his enemies on the battlefield. Crushing anyone who opposed him with ease and absorbing attacks like they were nothing. It was said that he had retired from the battlefield, but his blazing spirit would sometimes appear to aid his kingdom in battle. Should his spirit ever appear, you should surrender. One of the soldiers screamed, dropped his flamethrower and ran away for his life as if he had seen death itself. The other soldiers followed suit and ran away as well leaving a somewhat confused Ryuuji standing there*
(Zia): Your reputation precedes you, Ryuuji.
(Ryuuji): I wonder what terrible stories they’ve heard about me to make them run away like that?
(Dust): The stuff that nightmares are made of. Come on, let’s go.
*The group busts through the front doors of the conference center and runs into the main lobby where they’re greeted by gunfire from soldiers and gun turrets. They quickly duck behind pillars to protect themselves as the firing continues*
(Amarti): Ryuuji! Tell them who you are to get them to stop.
(Ryuuji): I doubt they could hear me over all this noise. Let’s go with plan B.
(Dust): Alright. Rookie, you’re up.
(Jin): I’m on it.
*Jin takes out a square disk from his utility belt and loads a yellow ball into the middle of it. Jin flings the disc along the floor where it lands by the gun turrets and a few soldiers.
(Dust): Well, that didn’t work. Time for plan C.
(Jin): Wait for it.
*After five seconds, the yellow ball gets launched from the disc into the air and blows releasing an electric wave which shocks nearby soldiers and shuts down the gun turrets. Jin flings another square disc on the ground. This one having a grey ball loaded inside. Rather than the ball launching into the air, the ball remains in the disk and begins to emit a magnetic wave which pulls the guns of the soldiers toward it and leaving them defenseless*
(Jin): Shall we?
*Jin comes from behind the pillar with his brass knuckles on and charges at the soldiers confidently*
(Dust): Color me impressed.
*Dust and the others soon followed and fought to incapacitate the remaining thirteen soldiers. Ryuuji took out three soldiers with a blazing roundhouse kick to two of them and a headbutt to the last one. Dust also took out three soldiers by sliding underneath their attacks and using his wires to cause two soldiers to fall down face first. Dust returned to his feet and ran toward the soldier still standing where he hit the soldier with a dropkick which sent him flying towards Ryuuji who hit him with a lariat in the back of the head and neck area. The two soldiers that Dust tripped up with wires were starting to get back up. Dust managed to curb stomp one of them face first into the ground leaving his back exposed to the third soldier who had returned to his feet. The soldier attempted to tackle Dust from behind, but Dust sensed his presence and hit him with a spinning back elbow to the jaw to knock him out. Amarti quickly took out two soldiers with his disc blades, slashing across their bodies with ease and not cutting deep enough to fatally hurt them. Zia fought against three soldiers with her bare hands. She hit the first soldier in the throat with an elbow strike clogging up his windpipe. The other two soldiers attempt to stab Zia with their knives only for Zia to grab the arm of the soldier on her left and swing him into the soldier on the right. This caused the soldier on the right to stab the soldier flung into him in the shoulder. This got a scream from the soldier who was stabbed. Zia took advantage of this and grabbed his knife to stab the third soldier in the leg. As the soldier screamed from the pain, Zia delivered an upward palm strike to the jaw of the soldier which lifted him off the ground biting his tongue and passing out from the pain and impact as he fell to the ground. The soldier who was stabbed in the shoulder pulled out the knife and tried to attack Zia only for her to spin out of the way and wind up behind the soldier where she jumps up onto his shoulders and locks her legs around his neck to deliver a reverse hurricanrana landing him square on his head to knock him out. The remaining soldier who had recovered from the elbow strike was back on his feet and ready to fight. Before the two could begin fighting, the soldier was hit in the back of the head by one of Amarti’s flying disc blades which managed to knockout the soldier easily. Jin took on the remaining two soldiers where he dodged their knife attacks with ease waiting for his moment to strike. Thanks to Raika and Jade’s training, Jin had become quite proficient in close quarters combat and dodging his opponent’s attacks. Jin’s opportunity finally came when he dodged the knife attack of the first soldier and struck the second soldier in the chest with his brass knuckle knocking the wind of him. Jin pulled the soldier into a hug, spun himself and the soldier around, and then did an overhead suplex flinging the solider back first into the wall leaving a huge hole in the wall. The first soldier turns to face Jin only for Jin to fire off his wrist cannon and hit the soldier directly in the face. A mini explosion went off on contact and as the smoke cleared the soldier’s eyes were rolled into the back of his skull. The soldier stumbled around a little bit before he fell face first on the ground unconscious. With the soldiers defeated, the group was getting ready to head towards the main conference room down the hall, but before they could, a big soldier carrying a gatling gun appears out in front and begins firing at them which forces the group to duck for cover. Ryuuji hides behind a pillar, Amarti and Zia turn over a bench and hide behind it, and Dust and Jin take cover behind the receptionist’s desk*
(Dust): Don’t suppose you got another one of those disks, rookie?
(Jin): No. I only had time to make two.
(Dust): Then I guess it’s time for plan C.
*Dust jumps up from behind the desk and begins running toward the soldier with the gatling gun weaving and zigzagging to avoid the bullets. Dust soon starts to run on the wall and jumps into the air where he fires off his wires from his arms to grab the chandelier. Dust gets pulled toward the chandelier and grabs hold of it where he shifts his body weight to swing the chandelier forward and lets go it when he’s right over the soldier. Dust descends from the chandelier and manages to strike the soldier in the face with his fist and rolls out of the way just in time for the chandelier to drop on the soldier crashing into him. Everyone peeks from behind their covers to see the damage Dust had caused and once they saw the soldier was gone and Dust was still standing, they came out and headed down the hallway to meet up with Dust and continue to the main conference room. The group bursts into the conference room confidently except for Jin who was a little worried and expecting an attack. The attack didn’t come and instead the group was met with silence as the remaining soldiers and their commander were surprised to see the group still alive*
(Amarti): Good evening. As representatives of Brister we’ve come to discuss the terms of your surrender.
(Hargus commander): Then you’ve come to die.
*The commander waves his hand up giving his men the order to fire at them but before they could fire, Amarti launches his disc blades at the eight soldiers knocking their guns away. Zia takes out her kukris and tosses them at the soldiers slicing their chests before returning to Zia’s hands. Zia puts her kukris away and the group stares down the commander who was shocked by what he saw. Realizing he can’t win, the commander gets up and tries to run away out the backdoor only to get caught by Dust who launched wires from his hands to tangle up the commander. The commander tries to hop away only to fail and fall to the ground. Amarti walks over to the commander and bends down in front of him. The commander looks up to see Amarti smiling at him calmly*
(Amarti): Like I said, we’ve come here to discuss the terms of your surrender. Now we can talk, or you can fight him.
*Amarti points to Dust as the commander quickly glances over at him. Dust gave off a menacing glare and aura as if he was begging the commander to fight. Dust’s glare threatened the commander who began to go wide-eyed and sweat slowly dripped from his head before he looked at Amarti*
(Hargus commander): I’m. . .open to discussion.
Author’s Notes: Been a while since I’ve done an action scene. I think this one might be my best so far. It delivers on the action, the teamwork, the chemistry of the characters, there are a few comedic moments, and everyone gets a chance to show off their skills. It’s action scene I had fun putting together and shows off just how good these are and how well they work as a unit. Now that Hargus has been handled, we can focus on Blood Moon and just in time as we’re entering the home stretch of this volume. Thanks for reading as always and look forward to the next chapter.