*In the sewers, everyone present was staring in shock at hearing the Eclipse speak to them*
(Dust): Oh shit, it’s a level B.
*The Eclipse charges at Dust who jumps into the air over the Eclipse to dodge the attack. The Eclipse crashes into the wall making a crack into the surface before backing up. When Dust landed, he jumped on the back of the Eclipse and wrapped a wire around its neck hoping to cut through it and chop its head off. Sadly, his efforts were in vain as the creature’s neck was too muscular for Dust’s wires to cut through. The Eclipse thrashed trying to reach for Dust with its hands. Back with the others, they snapped out of their daze and began a counterattack. Jin forged his gatling gun to begin firing while Gael shot off energy balls made of light magic and Alita used her photon cannon to blast the Eclipse. Their attacks managed to strike the front part of the beast’s body, missing Dust but having little effect. Sanada sneaked under the barrage of attacks to reach the Eclipse in an attempt to slash it only to get swatted by a tail whip which sent him flying off to the left side. The Eclipse grabbed a boulder from some nearby rubble and threw it at Gael, Jin, and Alita. The three of them jumped out of the way as the boulder became lodged into the wall behind them. The Eclipse returned its attention to Dust where it finally managed to grab him and tossed him towards the others. As Dust was flying through the air he looked up and saw Hibana’s drone flying above him going in the opposite direction. With quick reflexes Dust fired off his wires to attach to the drone and save himself from crashing into the wall. Back on the ground, the Eclipse got on all fours and crawled towards Jin rapidly. Jin tried to slow it down with his gatling gun, but the bullets didn’t faze it at all. Realizing his efforts weren’t working, Jin dropped the gatling gun and ran towards the Eclipse where he fired off a flash bomb from his wrist cannon. The flash bomb temporarily blinded the Eclipse long enough for Jin to slide underneath it and emerge out on the other end by its tail. Jin grabbed the tail and attempted to cut through it with a machete, but once again the layer of muscle was too thick, and the weapon got stuck in the tail*
(Jin): What the?
*Jin tried to pull the machete out, but it wouldn’t budge and the Eclipse shifted its body to hit Jin in the chest with a back elbow to send Jin flying backwards into the guards rails of the stairs leading up to the monitoring station. Alita was firing her photon cannon at the Eclipse from above getting its attention. With the Eclipse distracted this allowed Gael to come in from the opposite side and strike it*
(Gael): Wild Fang!
*Gael struck the side of the Eclipse with a punch and palm strike combo to send it off the ground where it flipped onto its belly and landed on its back. Dust let go of the drone and dropped onto the belly of the Eclipse holding razors attached to wires in both hands along with Sanada who recovered from the attack earlier. As if reading each other’s minds, both men began slashing relentlessly at the belly and neck of the beast tearing away at its skin and muscles*
(Alligator Eclipse): RAHHHHHHH~!
*The Eclipse let out a sharp cry of pain before pulling itself up and attempted to chomp at Dust who jumped out of the way along with Sanada. The Eclipse returned to its feet gripping its stomach as black ooze was dripping out. Muscle tissue in a greyish color could be seen by everyone*
(Dust): Rookie! Activate the drainage system.
*Nodding while on the ground, Jin pulls himself up and hops over the guard rail to the stairs and runs up to the monitoring station. Once he enters, he runs over to the controls and pulls on the lever that says emergency draining. A flashing red light and sirens go off as the door starts to open on the opposite side of the monitoring station. Water began to flow towards the door and down the drainage tunnel*
(Dust): Push that bastard down the tunnel.
*Everyone except Jin rushed the Eclipse. Sanada made it to the Eclipse first where he dodged a slash attack and slid between its legs where he quickly rose to his feet and slashed at the back part of its right ankle to bring it down to one knee. Gael jumped up to the knee and leapt off it to reach the face of the Eclipse. He spun around to deliver three windmill kicks, but they were all blocked by the Eclipse with its arm. Gael got swatted down to the ground hard. Dust took advantage of this distraction to deliver a missile dropkick to the left side of the Eclipse and then pulled himself up with his wires to allow Alita to fly up to the face where she shot her photon cannon point blank which seemed to do a little damage. The Eclipse rose back to its feet where it took a slash at Alita who dodged the attack but the Eclipse managed to catch her with its mouth. The Eclipse tried to close its mouth but Alita used her strength to prevent that from happening*
(Alita): Your breath is most foul.
*Alita opened its mouth wide enough for her to fly out and escape*
(Dust): It’s an alligator. What did you expect?
*Pushing off the ceiling with his legs, Dust came falling from the sky where he flipped around to deliver an axe kick on top of the Eclipse’s head. Once Dust landed safely on the ground, Alita followed up the attack with a moonsault kick to the jaw of the Eclipse*
(Jin): ‘Cuse me.
*Jin came running behind Dust with his hammer in his hand. He leapt up to the Eclipse to deliver a hammer shot square in the head of Eclipse mustering up all of his strength in the attack. The Eclipse began to stagger back towards the drainage tunnel only to stop. Using his wires, Dust pierced the boulder lodged in the wall earlier from the Eclipse. Using his strength he pulled the boulder out and threw it at the Eclipse which crumbled on impact. The Eclipse was now at the edge near the tunnel staggering but refusing to fall down. Sanada ran in to deliver a spinning slash attack to the chest of the Eclipse which was enough to make it fall down into the tunnel. However, the Eclipse refused to go down alone and used its tail to grab a hold of Sanada’s leg and pull him down with it. As soon as they saw Sanada fall down the tunnel everyone rushed to the tunnel with Dust leaping down after them followed by Jin. Gael was about to jump only to get stopped by Hibana’s drone*
(Hibana): Hold it! You can’t go down there! That tunnel leads to grounds outside of the kingdom’s walls. You go down there and your collar will explode.
(Gael): We can’t just leave them to fight that thing by themselves! They need me.
(Alita): Should our top priority not be restoring power to the generator?
(Gael): Man screw the generator! Bro’s a top priority to me. I don’t care if I do get my head blown off, I’m not going to abandon him.
*As Gael gets ready to leap down the tunnel, Alita wraps her mechanical tail around Gael’s waist and slams him to the ground where she gets on top of him*
(Gael): What the hell are you doing!?
(Alita): If you intend to rescue Sanada, then it would be wise to do it without the collar. I shall remove it.
*Alita uses the index finger on her left hand to reveal a pick. She inserts the pick into the keyhole and her eyes light up with various colors like a rainbow*
(Alita): I see. It is Schlomer’s Yarn Ball Lock.
(Gael): Yarn Ball Lock?
(Alita): Imagine a room filled with multiple threads of yarn. Only one of them leads to the key that will unlock the collar while the others will lead to a false lock and activate the collar. Hibana, would you kindly assist me?
(Hibana): Uh sure. I’m not too familiar with these collars, so I don’t know how much help I’ll be.
(Alita): Not to worry. I have already found the correct thread to follow. Simply log in and I shall guide you.
*A back port panel on Alita’s neck opens for Hibana’s drone to use. The drone pulls out a flash drive in the form of a pick and inserts itself into Alita’s port*
(Hibana): Okay. I’m in. Woah you weren’t kidding. It is like a room full of yarn. Which way do I go?
(Alita): Do you see a blue thread?
(Hibana): Blue thread. Alright. I see it!
(Alita): Good. Follow that thread and do not stray from the path. Tell me when you reach the end.
(Hibana): Got it!
*Hibana begins to follow the thread all while staying quiet and concentrating. Alita and Gael were also quiet for a few seconds not saying anything*
(Gael): So, what made you change your mind to help me back there?
(Alita): When you said you didn’t care if your head got blown off I felt a great discomfort in my chest. I’ve never felt anything like it before. I felt that if I didn’t stop you the discomfort would only get worse.
*Gael chuckles*
(Gael): That’s what we call sadness. When a friend gets hurt or going through something difficult you feel sad for them and want to help them any way you can.
(Alita): I see. Because we are friends I did not want to see you die. But the fact that you were willing to die without concern for how I or the others would feel made me sad.
*Gael took a minute to think about what Alita said to him*
(Gael): Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you sad. It’s just, I owe bro so much. It’s thanks to him that I’m here today. If something bad were to happen to him and all I did was sit back and do nothing I couldn’t live with myself.
(Alita): So you would go as far as risking your life for him?
(Gael): Not just him. I’d do the same thing for everyone in Shadow Eye. Including you.
*Gael’s statement causes the discomfort in Alita’s chest to fade away and be replaced with a warm feeling. Was this the happiness that Sanada talked about earlier she wondered*
(Hibana): Okay. I reached the end of the thread and came to a lock. Looks like it requires a four key combination.
(Alita): The numbers you are looking for are 9188. If those numbers are correct the collar should come off. If not, then you’ll lose some body weight.
(Gael): Was that a joke?
(Alita): Yes.
*Gael begins to laugh*
(Gael): Not bad. You heard the girl Hibana. Put in those numbers.
***
*While Alita and Hibana were removing the collar around Gael, the others were busy fighting against the Eclipse. As soon as Dust and Jin landed outside of the drainage tunnel, they saw Sanada and the Eclipse fighting each other in a mud field. Sanada’s movements were slightly slowed down due to the soft ground and he was forced to go on the defensive and guard against the Eclipse’s attacks. The soft ground didn’t seem to slow down the Eclipse’s movements at all. Dust and Jin ran toward the Eclipse to help Sanada. After the Eclipse managed to kick Sanada back first into a tree, it turned its attention to the others where it flung some black ooze from its chest at Dust to blind him. Jin was planning to use another flash bomb to blind it but the creature saw it coming and jumped out of the way to dodge the bomb which instead went off near Sanada to temporarily blind him. Once the Eclipse landed it used its tail to grab Jin around his waist to squeeze the air out of him while delivering a shoulder tackle to Dust which sent him flying backwards into the mud. The Eclipse then flung Jin in the air with its tail and then jumped to deliver a hammer fist to head of Jin which made him hit the ground chest first so hard that he bounced. The Eclipse then turned back to Sanada whose vision was still blurry from the flash bomb. Luckily, he got his sword up just in time to block the stomp of the Eclipse. However, Sanada could barely hold up the weight of the Eclipse and was beginning to sink into the mud. All of a sudden the Eclipse was hit on the right side of the head by an energy ball of light magic*
(Gael): Hey! Ugly!
*The Eclipse turned its attention to the voice that was coming from the drainage tunnel. When it turned to the drainage tunnel it saw Gael standing right inside of it*
(Gael): Don’t forget about me. Come on!
*The Eclipse accepted Gael’s challenge and ran toward him letting out a mighty roar. Gael smiled and ran toward the Eclipse as well. The Eclipse began running on all fours with its mouth open baring its monstrous teeth at Gael who wasn’t scared or panicking. With one final step, Gael lunged at the Eclipse and it bit down on Gael’s plastic arm*
(Gael): Bet you think that hurts. Sorry to say but I barely feel anything in that arm. Making it serve as the perfect set up for this plan.
*All of a sudden a red light begins to flash in the Eclipse’s mouth and a loud beeping sound could be heard. Dust watching from the sides quickly caught on to what was happening as he saw what Gael was doing. When Gael lunged his plastic arm in the mouth of the Eclipse he was holding his collar. As soon as Gael left the drainage tunnel he activated the collar’s protocol to explode within a few seconds after being outside of the kingdom’s walls. Dust acted quickly and shot off his wires which wrapped around Gael’s waist. Gael detached the plastic arm from his body and Dust pull him back all while he smiled and flipped off the Eclipse with his good hand. Dust caught Gael and quickly turned around to use his body as a shield to protect Gael*
(Dust): Get down!
*Sanada and Jin heard Dust and got down as the collar within the mouth of the Eclipse went off taking the head of the Eclipse and blowing it to pieces. The body of the Eclipse fell to the ground with the head nowhere to be seen. Sanada and Jin return to their feet covered in mud and Dust stopped shielding Gael and let him go. They all saw the remaining body of the Eclipse slowly start to disappear into the air*
(Gael): Yeah! Now who’s the apex predator?
*Gael lets out a howl*
(Jin): Geez! What did you do?
(Dust): Isn’t it obvious, rookie? He jammed his collar into the mouth of the Eclipse. Pretty ballsy move if you ask me. If I hadn’t pulled you out of there that blast would have seriously messed you up. You’re lucky I noticed the collar when you ran past me.
(Gael): I had faith that you would see the collar in my hand, piece together what I was doing and save me. After all, bro says you care about the people around you.
*Gael made a cheeky smile all while Sanada smiled as well*
(Dust): Don’t push your luck, pup.
(Sanada): Whatever the case. His strategy worked. He saved us all and defeated the Eclipse in the process. Well done, Gael.
(Jin): Yeah, you were awesome.
*Gael could sense a disturbance in Jin’s aura. He sensed multiple emotions. Happiness, anger, jealousy. These three emotions and more were at odds with each other in Jin’s aura. While Jin’s words were sincere they carried a hidden meaning behind them*
(Sanada): How did you get the collar off?
(Gael): Alita and Hibana did it. Those two make quite the team.
(Dust): Where is Hibana and miss android?
(Gael): Working on the generator. You better get up there, Jin. They’ll need you to put the finishing touches on it.
*Gael’s words snapped Jin back to reality*
(Jin): Oh, right.
*Jin ran back towards the drainage tunnel where Dust, Sanada, and Gael joined him. Using Dust’s wires they managed to climb their way back up to meet with Alita and Hibana’s drone*
(Hibana): There you guys are! What happened? I heard an explosion and- holy shit! Gael what happened to your arm!?
(Gael): Wild story. How we doing up here?
(Hibana): The wiring is all completed. We just need to make it strong enough to transfer power.
(Jin): Leave that to me. This should only take a few minutes.
*Using his tools and metal manipulation, Jin was able to fix and replace any parts he needed to*
(Jin): Alright, we’re all set to go.
(Hibana): Good. I’m about to transfer power to it right now. You guys might want to get to a safe area. I’m sending a lot of power to it.
*Back at her apartment, Hibana began to focus on the electricity she had stored up in her server rooms. Lightning soon began flowing around her body visibly and her eyes began to glow yellow. Hibana began to focus on her drone in the sewers. Hibana’s drone began to have its body encircled in blue lightning. The drone fired the lightning at the generator which began to light up and transfer power to the central reactor*
***
*On the streets of Brister the lights of light poles were starting to come back on along with lights in other establishments*
***
*Back in the sewers. The drone stopped shooting out lightning*
(Hibana): It worked! Power has been restored to the kingdom*
(Dust): Great. Now that our work is here is done let’s return back to the surface. See if we can get in on any last-minute looting.
(Alita): Might I recommend looting the clothing store for some better attire?
*Alita’s backhanded comment managed to get a good laugh out of the group*
(Dust): Now that, was a good joke.
(Hibana): She’s learning.
Author’s Note: How’s that for a good rumble? This is the first time we’ve seen the group really struggle with an Eclipse. A lot people ask why I don’t utilize the Eclipses more and the quick answer is I want the encounters with them to be special. Unlike everything else the Eclipses don’t present a moral code for our characters. It’s either kill or be killed. So these fights will be a bit more intense and brutal. When I was trying to come up with the ending to the fight my original plan was to have Alita get swallowed up and tear her way out. I Also thought about having Sanada and Dust do a team-up attack but I couldn’t come up with a good one and I wanted to shine the spotlight on the younger knights here. I then got the idea of Gael getting his collar removed and using that to kill the Eclipse which I thought would be a cool way to end the fight and show off some of his intelligence. From there the question was how would I remove the collar and then I remembered watching The Mandalorian and the scene with IG treating Mando which was a great scene. So I figured why not do that with Alita and tweak it around to add in some humor as well as progress Alita’s character development. In the end I was very proud of this fight. Out of all the fights I’ve done this volume this is one of my top 3 favorites. Okay, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.