Chapter 313 - Prelude To The Catastrophe (Part Two)

"And wait, what the hell are you talking about again?" Mom stood to my left.

"Ah?"

"You were speaking gibberish." Dad weirdly stood in front of me. 

"Why are you guys blocking me?"

And the hell did they mean by gibberish? I was speaking just fine, thank you very much!

"That thing doesn't look beatable," Uncle mumbled. 

Huh?

Wha?

This guy?

The world's most terrifyingly terrifying terrorist saying he couldn't beat something without even trying to fight it?

Was that a joke?

"That's great and all but we don't have a choice," I said.

She was targeting me. So, it was more like I didn't have a choice.

"You just got married, kid. Would be a shame if you were to get injured or something," he said. 

And that's why they were standing in front of me? And that's why it was okay for them to get hurt instead?

I didn't want to disagree, so I jumped up, and then flew straight for the purple soldier- my saber turned into a scythe. 

I was glad my family was here; I was glad they were here for me. 

But-

But!

I didn't want them to get hurt either. 

The soldier was really fast- and the last time she came for my head straight away. 

It was about time I returned the favor. 

Clang!

This time I went from the top and she blocked. And she blocked with just one hand too. 

She didn't freaking flinch an inch. 

So much power. 

She just flicked me back like I was nothing. I landed near mom and the others. 

"Do you even listen!" Uncle complained. 

"Uh-huh."

Well, I certainly did hear them.

Grandma chuckled. "This family has become so odd."

'Yeah, you're the last person I want to hear that from…'

Everyone kept their distance. No one blindly charged in. 

There weren't any students or actually even teachers here. Just my family and the headmaster. 

And yet, I didn't feel confident. Something about this whole thing just irked me. 

I had a bad feeling and it just wasn't going away. 

"Well." The purple soldier cracked her knuckles, neck, and even waist and smiled. "I suppose you were just warming up. Shall we get serious?"

And wasn't she courteous?

But I wasn't pulling any punches. 

"You are kind of right," I said, not quite averting my eyes from the soldier. "She doesn't look beatable." 

"Then-" Uncle started. 

"I'd appreciate if you could take care of the others." There were far too many black soldiers here. 

He grinned. But he wasn't convinced. 

"Actually-" The purple one pointed her sword at me. "All of you can come at me at once, if you'd prefer. I don't mind. Look, I'll even order them to stay put." And she proceeded to do just that. 

Every single one of the black ones disappeared. 

Well, my family was going to intervene regardless of what I said to them. And we were always going to gang up on this soldier anyway. 

But I didn't expect her to actually want that. 

'So, she's confident she can take us all?'

Or maybe she was just plain stupid. 

"Change of plans then-" Uncle cracked his knuckles. 

He dashed, I kind of followed him.

***

Uncle and I charged ahead. Dad and the headmaster were just behind us, while the geezer was up in the sky. 

I never really worked with other people like this before- sure didn't matter. 

I trusted them, and they, me. 

'Greatsword.'

My saber changed shapes and I dashed straight for the soldier. 

Oddly she hadn't moved an inch. 

She just stood there- not even taking a defensive stance. 

"HAH!" I slashed and backstepped immediately. 

The rest of us also attacked her- blood spilled everywhere. 

But she didn't move. 

Rather she just stood there. And then-

My chest felt warm. And- 'Blood?' I crumbled to one knee. 

'What the- hell?'

Breathing increased. Pain.

It gradually came- but increased exponentially. 

Stabbing pain. I clutched onto my chest and glared. 

The same happened to Uncle and the rest. They were all bleeding from various places. 

"The hell was that?" The headmaster hadn't attacked and he was just fine. 

"I got a cut just where I cut that thing," Dad stood in front of me. "Think, it might have transferred our attacks back to us."

The purple soldier grinned. "Impressive. Your species has decent intelligence it would seem. I suppose calling you UM-23-13 wouldn't be that flattering now, would it?" All her wounds disappeared. 

"The hell is that?" I stood up; the cut wasn't that deep but it was a cut regardless. 

I actually had a semi barrier protecting my body, if it weren't for that I might have cut a bit too deep. And since I was cutting with my saber- the wound had already cauterized. 

She just grinned and taunted us with a finger. "Unholy monkies…"

Wait…wait, what!?

I get that we had the same ancestors as monkeys in the evolutionary tree, but unholy?

Really?

People around me were just glaring seriously, so it sufficed to say, they couldn't understand her. 

'But what the hell is so unholy about us?'

Anyway- "Let's see how you like this." My body shook but I focused on a small plasma ball.

It was possible her powers only worked on close range? And even if she reflected back the ball- it was small enough to be blocked by my barrier. 

I shot!

It flew straight and a hit. 

"ARGH!"

I threw up blood and fell on the floor. 'The hell?'

Now I had a small hole on my chest, barely missing the heart. 

The barrier did nothing! The damage was almost instantaneous.

"Don't attack mindlessly." The headmaster yelled. "Damn it!" He cursed, still holding his ground. 

But now the purple soldier walked our way, or rather my way. 

Vines popped up and grabbed onto her.

"Grandma, you, okay?" I managed. A bit of my lungs might have got compromised. 

I was getting healing from my saber but it just wasn't enough. 

The pain only increased. 

"Fine. Looks like she can't do anything if the vines are only blocking her, rather than attacking."

But the soldier- she just smiled and turned, red?

The vines caught fire and slowly melted. 

"Maybe, we should also consider, running," Dad said. 

I couldn't agree more. "But it's targeting me. So, it'll be more accurate to say, maybe you should consider running."

"You know, we're not letting you fight that thing alone!" Mom wasn't having any of this. "If we're going down, we'll all go down."

"You can't just all risk your damn lives for just one guy!" Seriously! I was just one guy. 

They kind of looked at me funny. All of them.

"Well," John sighed. "You always were the thickheaded one."

"Yeah," Marcus agreed. 

They also got silent agreement from the rest of the people here. 

Um, excuse me, I was right here!

"What's our family motto?" John asked. 

"We're seriously doing this, in front of that thing?" My eyes twitched. No, my whole-body kind of stung. 

I was definitely healing at an abnormal rate but the wounds were definitely still here. 

"I don't mind as long as you can show me a good fight." The red soldier shrugged and changed back to purple. 

'The hell is wrong with all of them?'

"To cause destruction?"

"No!" John made a dramatic face. "We stand together!"

Yeah, I kind of didn't believe in that. After all, mom me and Elsa were kind of always alone anyway. 

Yeah, our family was always there for us. Yeah, if I tried to, we could have just lived in the mansion with the others. 

But in the end, 'we stand together' never really clicked with me. 

Sigh. But still- "Fine. Don't blame me if you wind up dead." 

He grinned. "If you're prepared to take a life-" He looked ahead and made a fist. "You better be ready to hand over yours."

But in the moment, I didn't realize that- that we were perhaps making a very big mistake.

After all, just moments later, everyone fell on the ground, throwing up.