The Six Guns - 48 Chapter Forty Eight

As Siran has a stare down with Predator, the rest of the crew approaches to help. “Stay back!” Siran demands. “He’s too dangerous! You’ll only get yourselves killed!”.

“Then what are we supposed to do!?” Zia asks.

“Run” Siran says, “run and don’t look back”.

“But we can’t-” Zia says.

“You have to!” Siran yells. “I’m not letting this… thing kill any of my friends!”.

“Friends…?” Predator asks as he looks back over at the crew again. “More… Friends… ha ha… HA HA HA…”. Predator leaps at the crew, but Siran stops him by making the ground shoot up from beneath him. Predator was sent flying over the crew, and as he lands, Siran jumps over the crew and punches Predator right in the mask with a distortion spell. Predator’s mask cracks and pieces fall off, exposing what looked like a single slowing eye behind the mask.

“Run for it!” Siran yells.

“But what about you?” Rose asks.

“We’re not leaving you here to die!” Zia says.

“I’ll be fine! Now go!” Siran yells. Finn and Alex had to pull most of the others away as the crew finally begins to run away. As the rest of the crew gets a safe distance away from Siran, the ground starts to rumble. “So, Naris” Siran says, “let’s begin”. The ground caves in beneath both Siran and Predator. A large rock easily three times the size of Vivi’s house shoots up from the ground and begins to fall over on Predator. Predator swings a fist at the giant rock that’s falling on him and the rock is cut horizontally. Predator reaches back and grabs the air, but when he swings his fist again, the rock flies back at Siran. Siran redirects the rock straight into the air and then leaps up to grab the rock with both hands. With the rock in his hands, Siran spins and creates momentum, then uses distortion magic to increase the velocity of the rock as he throws it. The rock flew at an immense speed, as if fired from a rail gun. The rock hits the ground and there was a moment of silence.

Suddenly, Predator shows up behind Siran unharmed. “Futile…” Predator says, and Predator creates a fire in the palm of his hands. The fire grew bigger and bigger and Siran jumped back to create some space between them. Siran threw up six different digital shields, one behind the other in layers. The fire in Predator’s hand grew bigger and bigger until it exploded. Four of Siran’s shields all shattered, and through the flames, Predator jumped at Siran again. As Predator passed through Siran’s last two shields like it was nothing, Siran began to roll into his back. When Predator tried to land an attack on Siran, Siran planted his feet on Predator’s chest and kicked him backwards.

“Strange…” Predator says, “not… as much… power… as I… thought”.

“Somebody sounds like a sore loser” Siran says. Siran creates a spear of reactive endo and throws it at Predator. Predator redirects it to the side of him, but the power from the spell attracted lightning again and it struck down on Predator’s arm. The lightning cut straight through his arm, leaving what was left of his left arm glowing red from the metal melting.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew ran away to hide at Vivi’s house. As they get there, they had a lot of debate about what they should do. “What if we need to run further?” Alex asks. “We might not be far enough away!”.

“Well, this is as far as I go” Vivi says, “if they destroy my house, then I’ve got nothing else left”.

“I think we need to go back!” Zia says.

“But Siran-” Finn says.

“I don’t care about what Siran said!” Zia interrupts. “I’m going back for his own good! I am NOT losing anyone else that’s close to me!”.

“Yeah!” Rose says, “she’s right!”.

“You guys really are a lot like Siran” Vivi says.

“I think, in some way, we all are a lot like Siran” Satomi says.

“Come to think of it” Mikoto adds, “Zia, you and Rose are both afraid of losing people close to you. Alex is always afraid of what could go wrong and always tries to have a backup plan. Finn is friendly and silly, but even at your lowest you still try to help people. Holly, you traveled the world just for knowledge and to help people and I’m not sure if Siran has done that, but it sounds like something he’d do. Vivi, even when you act tough towards people, you still sympathize with everyone. Demetri lacks in a lot of common areas, like how Siran described himself in the past. Tanya, you either remind him of his need to look over other people, or remind him of his friends he had during the catastrophe. Robin, you’re pretty antisocial, just like how Siran was before he learned magic. Ruby, he’s already told you that he was just like you when he lost everything close to him. Then Satomi and I both probably remind him of himself when he tries to create a sense of family among us”.

“But through it all” Zia says, “Siran is still Siran, and I’m not letting him put himself in that much danger without some help!”.

“Then, does that mean he trusts us as much as he trusts himself?” Rose asks.

“I think that’d be an insult” Alex says. “I think he trusts us more than he trusts himself”.

“All the more reason I should go” Zia says. “Sometimes it takes going against what someone says to show you really care about them”.

“Then I’ll go too!” Rose says.

“No, I’ll go alone” Zia says, “and I’ll bring that idiot back with us. Even if I have to drag him back by his ear”.

Vivi laughs and asks “Are you his mother now?”.

“I’ll be right back” Zia says as she storms out of the door.

“Should we stop her?” Tanya asks.

“I don’t think we can” Vivi says. “She’s clearly driven to do this. What are we supposed to do about it?”.

As Zia approaches, the fight between Siran and Predator rages on. Siran pulls out his gun and shoots at Predator, but Predator slaps the beam from the gun and deflects it. “You think… you can… beat… me… with that… little strength?” Predator asks.

“Oh this?” Siran asks as he holds up his gun, “this is my limiter”. Siran holsters his gun and cracks his knuckles. “I use this to keep my power in check. I can only use so much magic with a gun, but now I’ll change that”. Siran uses reactive endo in both of his hands. The white light changes into the shape of a kukri blade, and then solidifies into an actual dagger. With a dagger in each hand, Siran charges at Predator. Predator dodges each slice Siran dishes out. Siran kicks Predator to the ground and Predator rolls on his back, fighting to get back on his feet. Predator successfully lands on his feet, but as he looks up, Siran is coming down at him with a blade. Predator uses a shadow step illusion technique and gets behind Siran. Siran continues to dash forward, once again creating space between the two of them. As Siran moves forward, he looks over his shoulder and throws one of his blades. The blade pierces right through the center of Predator’s back. A large hole is ripped into Predator’s back, but Predator barely even budges. The knife continued to fly and lands in the ground with an immense impact. The ground seemed to explode as the knife hit the dirt, with dust flying into the air.

Predator turns around and begins to run up to Siran. However, suddenly Predator stops moving and collapses onto the ground. Before Siran had a chance to celebrate, Predator gets right back up. He looks down at the hole where his stomach would’ve been, and puts one hand over the hole. “Damn… Reactive… Endoindustria…” Predator says.

“Wearing out finally?” Siran asks.

“Not… done yet” Predator says.

“Syr!” Zia shouts as she runs to the scene.

“Zia! What are you doing here!?” Siran asks.

“Friend…” Predator says as he crouches over. Predator then charges at Zia.

“No!” Siran shouts. Zia raises one foot as if to prepare a kick. When Predator gets close to her, she kicks down to create momentum and throws a punch downwards on his mask instead. Using buff spells and a wind elemental spell, the force from the punch sent Predator’s face into the ground.

“Zia, why are you here?” Siran asks.

“Getting you out of here” Zia says as she activates clairvoyance magic.

Predator stands up and starts attacking Zia. Throwing punches and spells at her at a high speed. However, Zia was able to dodge all of his attacks.

“I told you that I’d be fine!” Siran yells.

“I’m not taking that chance!” Zia responds, “because I can’t risk losing you! I could lose my family all over again, but not you! Please not you, Siran!”.

As Predator prepares another attack, he growls “ENOUGH!” and punches the ground, creating a shockwave that sent Zia flying backwards.

“Zia!” Siran yells as he dashed towards her.

“You’re… still… too soft” Predator says as he stands over Zia with his hand in the air. Lightning began to cackle, and Predator was about to strike her with lighting. However, Zia opened her eyes and sent Predator flying with a kick from both of her legs.

Siran stopped running and suddenly the sound of a metal bat hitting a helmet rung through the air. Predator was sent flying upwards into the air and below him stood Satomi. “We decided” Satomi says, “that we couldn’t stop Zia from trying to rescue you, but we also wanted to kick some ass”.

“So we all came” Vivi says as she approaches the battlefield.

“Guys!” Zia shouts in excitement.

“Now, finish it!” Alex shouts, “before he has a chance to land on his feet!”.

Siran looks over, surprised at first, but then nods his head. Siran created another spear of reactive endo and throws it upwards. The spear flies above Predator’s body, then points down at him. When the spear began to fall, it suddenly moved like a bullet, impaling Predator and bringing him to the earth with an explosion. A shockwave of power destroyed the ground beneath him. However, as the dust cleared, Predator’s mangled body still stood. His limbs coming off, his mask shattered, wires exposed. It was now clear that Predator was nothing but a machine… a robot. Although, whatever the case may be, he still stood. Predator raises his one hand and points at Siran. Before he could say anything, the power from Siran’s spear creates an electrical charge that attracted lightning. A bolt of lightning struck down right through the center of Predator, cutting him in half vertically and melting most of his body. The crew stood still in silence, watching, waiting, expecting something else to happen. But it never did happen. Predator has finally been beaten.

“We… we did it!” Satomi says.

“Well, it was mostly Siran” Zia says.

“The important part is that we’re all still alive” Finn says.

Without saying a word, Siran walks up to inspect the remains of Predator. “Are you okay, Syr?”.

“A robot” Siran says.

“What?” Mikoto asks.

“It was just a robot” Siran says. “This means they can make more of them”.

“Which means we’re not out of the woods yet” Ruby says.

“Is this what they were planning with the endo all along?” Tanya asks.

“No idea” Ruby says.

“Well let’s hope that they don’t make more of these things” Rose says.

“Looks like we need to move faster than we previously thought” Zia says.

“Yeah” Siran says, “if we don’t get some military support any time soon, they’ll likely have plenty more of these things running around”.

Meanwhile, back in Omnium Guild. “That immense power” Markwood says in awe. “You’ve witnessed what Naris’s endo is capable of through Predator’s fight. We haven’t even gotten close to what we’re really capable of!”.

“W-What do you mean?” Kyle asks.

“I mean” Markwood says, “we need more power! You saw it through Predator’s eyes! There’s still more to be had!”. Markwood stands up and begins walking to this machine that contains a giant flask several times large than any normal house, absolutely overflowing with Naris’s endo.

“What are you doing?” Agatha asks. “Too much and it’ll kill you!”.

“I’m doing what is necessary” Markwood explains. Markwood then grabs these handles on the machine and endo is transferred from the flask to Markwood. Markwood grunts in pain as a massive amount of power flows into him. The shock was immense, but the feeling of the power was irresistible. When Markwood finishes, he collapses to his knees and fell silent for a moment.

“James Markwood?” Garreth asks. “Are you still alive?”.

Suddenly, Markwood stands up and his sclera, the whites of his eyes were a darker shade now. They were a light gray color, as if a shade were forming under the skin of his eyes. What looked like blood started to leak into his irises, as the color of his eyes changed from brown to red. Markwood smiles and says “Join me”.
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