The Astral soul system-Chapter 189: Black jade

Xavier’s heavy steps reverberated throughout the ruins of the base as he made a mad dash for his target. He occasionally glanced back to see if he could still see Diane but after a few seconds, she was too far gone for him to see anymore but he wasn’t actually worried. She was strong, he knew that, the same with all his friends.

He didn’t have to look for long before he saw the target,in fact it was more like it was searching for him on its own.

Looking at the watch, he was surprised to see that it said the general was right here. He looked around cautiously but saw nothing.

He was beginning to doubt the map when he suddenly heard a low almost imperceptible whirring sound. Almost immediately reacting, he jumped back out of the way and almost immediately after,a large beam struck the ground where he was standing a second ago.

Looking up, Xavier saw something crashing to the ground and just as he expected, it was his target.

Not wasting time, he immediately dashed forward and attacked, throwing a solid punch. The general retaliated, it’s own massive fist eclipsing Xavier completely.

Their fists struck and this time no one was pushed back,they were evenly matched.

Xavier immediately pulled back, moving to the side and throwing another and striking the general’s chest followed by an uppercut.

Both hits made it budge only slightly as it retaliated, throwing it’s own fist which Xavier deftly dodged, stepping back and putting distance between them.

"You’re strong"

He tilted his head curiously. Something about this one felt different to all the others but he couldn’t tell what.

The general didn’t seem interested in his assessment, charging towards him.

Xavier decided to meet it in the middle, charging as well, their fists clashing once more , but this time Xavier actually took a step back.

Eyes widening, he pushed harder, throwing his other fist and clashing with the robot.

Their fists clashed again, the robot’s fist crashing down against Xavier’s in a fragile stalemate. It wouldn’t last long and Xavier knew that.

Gritting his teeth, he pulled back, using his smaller size to get beneath its guard, throwing a punch directly at its chest. He felt it cave slightly but it didn’t budge, standing strong.

Hearing the familiar whirring, Xavier ducked between it’s legs, getting behind it before slamming his fist into the ground and using the gauntlets active skill

Rock spikes rushed out of the ground, Slamming into the general from behind, staggering it and sending some bits of metal flying.

Getting back on his feet, Xavier got into a boxing stance, his feet shoulder width apart and his fists at face level facing upward.

Not one to wait around, he stepped forward, his entire torso swerving to the side as he barely dodged another swipe before he retaliated again, fists hammering into it’s hard metalic frame.

The advantage didn’t last long though as he was forced to step back again as the general caught up, matching his blows.

As he took a step back to retreat, the general suddenly managed to grab onto his hand.

Before he could react, Xavier heard a short whirring sound followed by a boom before he was sent flying, crashing into a wall and breaking through it.

The entire area was silent for a few seconds before a groan suddenly rang out.

A large piece of the broken wall was suddenly sent flying as Xavier got up, walking out of the rubble.

"That hurt" he winced, looking down at his chest .

Most of his shirt had been burnt off and although there was a small patch of ash on his chest, he looked almost completely unscathed.

"Luckily my ability is a passive"

He muttered, lightly brushing his chest.

Although on the outside it looked like the attack had done little more than revealing his abs, the force had actually affected his insides rather thoroughly,he felt like he’d ruptured a few organs .A weaker person would have fallen over in pain by now, even if they had his ability.

He suddenly clenched his fist even harder and as he did, the retractable claws on his gauntlets extended.

"Sorry,Z. I might have to scuff up your babies a bit more"

He muttered an apology before activating another skill.

The gauntlets immediately started rapidly oscillating, steam rising out of them as he charged forward, careful not to let the high frequency vibrations break his movements.

Arriving in front of it again , he threw another fist, his attack speed increased rapidly.

They clashed again, but this time the robot’s fist didn’t even land properly, getting knocked back by the intense vibrations.

With every strike Xavier delivered it was like there were a dozen smaller punches behind it that repeatedly dissipated whatever damage the general was looking to do.

Unfortunately the drawback to this was that his swings were way too wide to make up for the vibration’s effects on his own stance.

It didn’t seem to matter though as hit after hit landed on the metal frame.

In a desperate attempt, the robot fired another beam directly at his chest but Xavier took it head on, gritting through the pain and dealing the damage back to it ten fold.

Metal crunches under his fists again and again, the vibrations carrying the force past the metal shell and into it’s insides where something much more vulnerable had to face them.

After a few minutes, Xavier suddenly realized it was no longer moving. Stepping back he looked at the robot general. It stood, tall , menacing even,completely still with only little signs of damage on the outside but it seemed completely dead, motionless.

Xavier,let out a strained breath, deactivating the oscillating function, and the moment he did, he felt the bones in his arms screaming in agony, the adrenaline quickly wearing off

He’d hated using this skill ever since he found out the drawback to the user, and the gauntlets themselves. Luckily they’d held together .

<General II is gone>

He reported briefly before suddenly spitting out blood.

Xavier coughed slightly, holding his chest.

His current condition was like the mech. On the outside, Pristine,menacing and even somewhat scary, but his insides were a mess.

He glanced back at the robot standing tall, feeling the urge to salute or something like that to acknowledge a strong opponent.

He gave a brief nod and was about to turn away when he noticed something seeping out throughh the metal frame.

**********

Next was Jade.

The soft patter of her feet was completely imperceptible amongst all the chaos,in contrast,her heart was completely heavy.

The makeshift scabbard she’d made for glacier’s edge had frozen over and was useless so she had to run with it in her hands.

She kept looking behind her every five seconds, specifically at where Neo was. She’d found somewhere to hide him before leaving but he was still completely defenseless and it was bothering her, even more than the thought of taking down the general.

Spotting another group of machines, she activated her shoes’ active skill, sliding on the ground like it was ice and just avoiding them all together for someone else to take care of. As much as it bothered her,she just couldn’t afford to waste time now.

"Focus on the task at hand"

She kept repeating that to herself over and over again but it didn’t help with the pit in her chest,in fact it just made it worse. If she wasn’t careful she was going to start hyperventilating again, and then she’d be no use to anyone.

The sword in her hand suddenly let out an imperceptible hum and a cool wind rose from the blade,to the hilt, and finally into Jade herself, filling her with a strange sense of calm, temporarily cooling her nerves.

She let out a deep breath her eyes becoming sharper as she increased her speed towards the target destination.

Coincidentally, the location of her target wasn’t at all far from where Gary’s was located, though she didn’t know if that was good or not.

The base was burning around her, at this point it was mostly rubble but she couldn’t exactly do anything about it now.

She quickly arrived where she was supposed to be. How did she know? Well the ten foot tall robot general surrounded by rubble and blood was a pretty good indicator.

She hesitated, sizing it up. For a second it looked like a simple statue. Standing there silently.

It’s eyes suddenly lit up and it took a step forward.

It’s eyes flickered for a second before a menacing mechanical voice came from it, booming loudly

"Surrender, little girl"

Jade took a step back, shocked.

"You can talk?"

"Surrender"

"Why are you attacking us?"

"Surrender"

"Can you stop?"

"Surrender"

"...I can’t"

Jade said through gritted teeth. She really didn’t want to do this and it was appearant, everything about her was off, her stance,her shaky hands, even her voice. She generally avoided head on confrontation but In this case it seemed she had no choice.

Unfortunately, appearances could be very deceiving

The robot immediately started charging it’s ranged attack,a beam of energy charging in its chest.

Eyes wide,Jade immediately activated the shoes, sliding out of the way. She immediately began circling it as fast as she could, making sure to keep her distance.

Having no intention of letting her go,it chased after her, razor

She kept avoiding it for a good few seconds, unsure how to approach but the general had no intention of keeping things that way, immediately pursuing her, it’s razor sharp blades for hands barely grazing her armor.

She barely avoided it’s pursuit, backing up as fast as the shoes would allow.

Unfortunately the ground was covered in rubble, slowing her down just a bit. The attacks were swiping directly in front of her face, missing by just an inch.

’This is bad, this is bad. This is so-’