User blog:Roinelll/God Eater Next - Volume 1 - Segment 06

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After C parted from the Instructor, she had to go and cool her head. That idiot referring himself to as Crimson really managed to piss her off. And though she let her rage loose and barraged the unfortunate target with fury, she was at least thankful that nothing major happened. Sure, she reconned that it might take a week or so to recover, but at least he'll know not to mess with her next time. Just like others before learned of it, just like anyone will learn not to mess with her.

She sighed and gazed up towards the sky, the weather was somewhat nice. A bit hot, but at least some breeze was blowing although only moving the dry air, yet that made it bearable. Suddenly she senses something and turned her head into that direction. It was roughly where one of the entrances of the ARW is to be found. Her curiosity taking over she started to stroll towards in that direction, trying to pinpoint what exactly is that feeling.

She then felt it expand suddenly as that something was approaching the gate and although that thing was still far away, but she could make it out. C picked up her pace and eventually broke into a sprint towards the wall. Shortly after the klaxons across Pit started to whine and the loudspeakers which were set up alongside certain points through the settlement came to life with static noise.

-- Attention!! Aragami incoming from the northern direction. All civilians head to the prepared shelters. I repeat... -- A female voice rang loud and clear, cutting right through the wail of the horns. She constantly repeated the warning, which made C realize this is most probably a prerecorded message. In irritation the hooded girl upped her pace, not caring about exhausting herself as she now run with full throttle towards the northern end of the settlement. Around her the residents filed in order towards the next possible safe houses, their behavious clearly revealing this wasn't the first time such a thing happened and although they were a bit rattled about the sudden alert, but still behaved in an orderly fashion.

The girl ran past one of the focal points for such events, and as she passed the multitude of residents slowly filling up the space, she just grimaced. The idea for these safe houses were similar to the ARW, a building created by multiple layers of anti-Aragami materials. Though their use only came really useful against Aragami with capability of flight, since if there would be one that can break trough the ARW, how could something foolish as these crude contruct hold that thing at bay?

Finally she managed to arrive at the base of the ARW, though by that time C was completely exhausted. Leaning with back to the wall she started to take deep breaths. The sensation of the approaching danger multiplied or to be exact, the one she felt was actually something large, accompanied by several smaller ones. The siren's stopped blaring, meaning that most of the residents had evacuated safely.

"This... can't be right." Finally catching her breath she glanced up the ARW bearing a height of 20 metres, and sighed. Hoping that noone would notice her during the crisis she started to focus and from under her hood a purple light started to emit. With one hand she reached for the wall, and shuddered as she made contact with her palm on the surface of the ARW. Taking a deep breath, she then backed a few metres away from it waited for a bit and broke out in full speed running forward.

Before actually colliding with it, she jumped upwards and rotated her center of gravity so that she landed on the surface on the ARW with her left feet, still keeping the momentum of the sprint C forcefully brought her right leg down, denting the wall on that spot, but that gave her ample stability to keep moving. In short she run vertically along the ARW a few times her legs were slipping almost, yet in a short time she reached the top. It was a 4 meter wide along the entrances in order to fortify them, while the wall generally was 2.

As the purple light faded from under the hood, exhaustion once again took it's toll on her as she sat down on the very top. Although it didn't take even a minute to get up here, the girl felt as she ran a few kilometers pulling as much as twice her own weight in the process. Leaning on her right arm, panting heavily she reached for the dark mask under her hood and after flipping the safety lock she removed it. Placing the mask onto the top of the wall with the lid face down. On it were a large number of pads on the inside, the one on the middle actually being larger compared to the rest.

C flinched as suddenly the cellphone in her pocket ringed. It took her a couple of tries to reach for it. The call wasn't from anyone known, and since she shared the number only with a select choice, that could only make a single candidate that would try to make contact. Forcefully ceasing her panting she opted to take the call.

-Chit? Why don't we meet up?- The voice of Jack reassured that, her guess was correct. It also revealed impatience, however that also made the girl a bit surprised... He didn't notice the alarm?

"Only if you have the required Fc." Not giving it any more thoughts than that, C was at least happy that there will be an improvement to her monetary fortune.

-I do, meet up at the entrance to Hole.- The Instructors answer fortified that he wasn't aware what happened in the last few minutes.

"Give me half an hour, I have to finish some business." Feeling that she isn't able to hold her calm demeanor she quickly aborted the call, and slumped to the top of the wall. Her exhaustion didn't decline at all, and that really annoyed C.

"Maybe I should have just left the call unanswered for the time being." The girl grumbled and turned to her back, her legs reaching over the perimeter of the ARW, hanging above the outside the area it was protecting. Cursing inwardly that maybe she shouldn't have used up so much of her stamina, C finally fought herself into a sitting position. Although, now being unable to focus on her senses as much as before but that wasn't nessecary anymore.

Her eyes were unveiled now, so she started to scan the area outside of the settlement. It didn't matter which direction she stared into, most of it was riddled with craters, remnaints of an old city littered everything. And though a few buildings still stood more or less intact, they were still at the brink of collapsing. And there was no sight of the source of the alarm, at least for now. C knew that for no reason it wouldn't have forced the residents to evacuate, not to mention that even she felt the incoming source.

On the horizon a silouette appeared and although it was still a moderate distance away it was definiatelly big. The thing was in a rather frenzied movement rushing right towards the section of the wall where C was sitting. In a few minutes she could make out a few things, the first was that the large Aragami was stalked by a dozen of smaller ones.

The small ones had a large white boned head, with two large potruding fangs sprouting from the lower jaw, their necks and backs covered in lightbrown fur, the stomach and also the legs having a dark grey color which ended in two large white claws. Though they boasted no arms, a large and flat tail swung being them bearing a demonic visage, and having a couple spikes covered at the end. Ogretails, C recalled their name from her memory one of the Aragami categorized as small, and also the most numerous at any given moment. Although their size was relatively small to the more dangerous species, compared to an average human they were rather huge. Boasting a withers above of 2 metres, having a torso lenght of easily 4 metres without counting the 3 metre long tail.

The second thing was that the Ogretails were chasing something far larger than them, whenever they managed to get close to it, and they reared their head and tried to bite into the much larger target, but they either missed, or were trampled in the process. The Aragami they targeted had been referred to  by the God Eaters as a Quadriga. The easiest way to describe it would be a metallic skeleton upper half fused onto an armored, four legged body like some kind of mythical entity. However the first legs were much like the caterpillars of old military vehicles, while the hind legs were solidified by such a thick armor that even the powerful jaws of the Ogretails were unable to bite through it easily.

The Quadrigas abdomen looked like a demonic face split in half right in the middle, the back covered in a turtle like hard shell, having on each side of its body a large metallic Pod attached. Behind the skeleton a large circular shield provided for thick protection, while at each side there was a large halfcircle with 4 portusions resembling a huge open palm and stretched fingers. With a height of over 8 metres, lenght of similar volume and a width of 5 truly lived up to the classification of large.

"Oh for the love of... Seriously? Those dumb Ogretails had to chase that Quadriga, HERE?!" Biting back a swear and frowning in the process C grumbled. Aragami tended to devour everything that aren't resembling them, which could mean that they even desired to consume each other in the process. And while a single Ogretail wouldn't stand a chance against one like a Quadriga, the superior numbers of the smaller beings able to overcome the sheer might or their target for predation. The sought after prey the smaller Aragami targeted wasn't that far away from the ARW, maybe at most 2 kilometres which gave a rather scary though to C, afterall if it keeps up it will just collide with it, maybe even crash right through it and at her current condition that wouldn't be something to be happy with.

"... Coming up here was a really bad idea." She noted to herself with a sigh, and decided to focus on the hunt that unfolded below. A pair of Ogretails jumped at the behemoth, both of them biting into the left appendige resembling a large open palm at the same time and dragged the giant beast down to the ground. The Quadriga stumbled from the sudden shift in its gravitational center and tumbled, flipping a few times in the process and squashing two eager Ogretails in the process.

C shook her head seeing as how the numbers of the hunters dropped to 8 from the initial dozen, still they didn't gave up. The two that brought the Quadriga down finally managed to catch up with the rest, where 4 of them chewed on various places trying to bite trough it's powerfull shell with little luck. The Quadriga howled and stomping on the ground with rage, it's body actually starting to overheat emitting black smoke, with a sudden vertical jump it shook off the Ogretails who fell to the ground. It didn't take long until it crashed down on them pulverizing three instantly, while following the impact a smaller quake knocked the remaining ones to the ground.

"Did those dumb Ogretails really think of being able to hunt down a Quadriga? ... Why am I talking to myself anyways..." Uttering for herself in disbelief as the giant slowly but surely decimated the hungry would be hunters. One of the Ogretails roared at the large Aragami, while two of them raised their tail high above their back, preparing to release the spikes stored in them. the remaining two rushed once again towards the Quadriga, which in reponse opened up the Pods on its sides. Both of them unfolded wide revealing dozens of red shells inside which ignited and were launched at those who dared to oppose it.

As the ones chosen to stay away were decimated by the rain of explosive shells, those who gotten close to the Quadrida opted to bite into the caterpillars. A foolish choice as the girl saw it, as the Quadriga reared back then smashed it down, pasting the lesser beings into the dust. After successfully subduing the Ogretails the large Aragami started to scavange them in it's surroundings. Slowly, but surely the Quadriga devoured them one by one regenerating it's damage while doing so. Although, by the time he finished with the 6th two Ogretails roared in the distance, they were the ones that were trampled over earlier in the chase.

The large beast turned towards them, deploying it's front legs to open the front armored shell and although C couldn't see what's happening exactly she read more than enought to know that under the opened shell, three cores showed up and one of them started to materialize a large rocket propelled shell. With a roar the Quadriga let the ranged attack loose which reaching the target impacted into  the Ogretail and a short moment later exploded. The force of the blast ripped both remaining Aragami to small pieces.

Finishing the massacre, the giant returned to scavange the remains, but since more than enough time ellapsed since they were struck down the bodies already were highly advanced in their disintegration process. Ignoring the ones that were too late to devour it turned to the ones struck down the last, they too were starting to turn into a black puddle or Oracle Cells. With nothing more to feast upon the area the Quadrida turned it's head around to see if there is anything else nearby, though with it's poor visual prowess nothing registered.

"Argh dammit... Really?! Did it have to come THIS WAY?!" C couldn't help but sigh in frustration as the beast started to lumber towards the ARW surrounding Pit. Although she did manage to recover somewhat, if the girl would try to descend  that would most probably strain her in the process much like the climbing did. So she couldn't do anything else, but watch and wait as it approached. It took a while, but eventually the Quadriga reared itself and roared as he recognized something deemed edible within it's range of senses.

To much surprise of C, it turned around and faced into the direction it came from, once again spreading it's legs and from the movement it was repeating from before she was sure this one will be most probably a long ranged attack. Surely as she predicted, another large rocket propelled shell emerged from the released armor heading towards something in the distance. Interestingly, the beast didn't stop as it prepared another shell and consequtively launched that aswell and it didn't look like it's going to stop any time soon.

Turning her attention at the same target the armored beast focused on, she spotted a tall silouette running towards it, barely swaying away from the first shell flying towards it, which zoomed past and exploded shortly upon colliding with the ground. As the figure closed in and evaded the second shell aswell. Eventually rushing past the engaged Quadriga, he finally stood between the ARW and the beast.

"You're not going to get past me, ARAGAMI!!" The one who took up stance against the beast was non other than the gaunt kid, Matthias. C on the end just facepalmed thinking that this idiot just pulled the worst possible move ever. Although the Quadriga had to recover it's position from the deployed state, it simply opted to open up the missile Pods on its sides. C heard the kid down below utter an 'Oh momma' before ducking away as the spray of rocket propelled shells barraged the area, or smacked right into the ARW she was sitting on.

"YOU IDIOT!!" C screamed as the tremors caused by the impacts made her slide forward and she quickly tried to channel her power into the hands. After the purple light started to glove she thrust her arms forward into the anti-Aragami material or the ARW trying to slow her fall down by the caused friction. The strain that hit her was twofold and she was screaming with pain from both fronts, one of them was caused by the interaction due to touching the material was highly unpleasant and the other was due to her fingers actually digging into it as she skid down on its side.

"H.. WHa?!" The kid looked up to see her first fall, then although somewhat slowing her descent still continuing the drop. Momentarily panicking for a moment, he then chose to disengage from combat and ran towards the girl. However it looked grim upping the pace to the maximum amount he could muster, it would take another few precious seconds to get to her and catch before plunding into the ground.

"NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!" C screamed even louder as she chose to pull one of her arms back, the light intensifying from her hood, and finally smashing her fist into the ARW. Her body jerked from the sudden stop, but the light faded and she lost the strenght to keep herself from the fall.

"It didn't happen." Matthias given the extra time gained from the reckless act of the girl managed to get there and caught her. And although she didn't crash directly into the hard ground, the landing wasn't as soft she would have liked it. With a groan he pulled herself as small as possible mostly due to the pain in her hand, but also there was another problem. She left her mask on top of the wall, and wouldn't want to reveal what her hood was conceiling at all costs.

Another volley of small warheads exploded in their vincinity, showering them with debris both from the ground and form the broken off particles originating from the ARW. The Quadriga didn't forget about them as it turned towards the duo, rearing backwards with both pods open it started to rumble forward, constantly showering it's surrounding with explosive shells.

"God... What the hell were you doing up there anyways?!" He bit the curse back and decided to fling her over the right shoulder while running away from the rampaging beast. C on the other hand just  reached down towards the waist of the kid and started to search around the many back pockets.

"Med ... Pack." She barely could produce the sounds, but Matthias understood the intention and reached for an injector which he kept at the front of his vest. Shortly after that, he reached back the the pocket where he kept the higher end recovery items and searched for a Restoration Pill and loaded it into the gadget, finally holding the head of it at the bare legs of C, he injected the dose. She hissed as the fluids dispersed trough her body and screamed.

"JUMP!!" Her warning came just in time, and luckily he could react similarly fast in evasion. Though both of them fell to the ground, but at least the lumbering beast marched past them. Both of them stood up quite battered, and stared as the Quadriga used it's caterpillars to perform a U-turn and stared down at them menacingly. The kid gulped as he realized this is not going to be pretty, but then something zipped past him. As he turned to the back he saw the weakened girl slumping forward her left arm extended forward. Before questioning what the hell did she try to anger the Aragami a flash exploded behind him and the Quadriga roared in surprise.

"Hey, that's my Stun Grenade! Oh wait, quick thinking... Thank you, are you feeling better?" Initially Matthias wanted to snap at her for taking something without asking, but that brought them some time. However that fall and how she tried to slow it shouldn't be completely healed with only this.

"Give me all of your items and fight the Quadriga. I'll be providing support." C demanded and without an answer threw another Stun Grenade at the armored beast. Problem was that the effect inflicted didn't last longer than 8 seconds, and there were only a single grenade left in her possession.

"You're insane, but... I doubt they'll allow us to enter right now." Understanding the point she tried to make, the belt was handed over along with the injector. While he lifted the Silent Cry X and targeted the Quadriga. Firing a few rounds that bounced away ineffectively from that hard shell, he frowned.

"Aim at the Exhaust. The things spreading on each side of the skeleton torso." C gave him a pointer while loading another ampule into the Injector, and used that shot to restore the God Eater. Following the advice he aimed at those parts and let a shot loose at the new target. This time the beast howled as it didn't bounce off and even broke off a small  piece.

"Try these bullets. The first one should be rather effective." The girl handed two cases to him and threw the last Stun Grenade to buy him some time. Although many questions popped into his mind, he didn't hesitate and loaded both of them into the proper chambers. Once again aimed at the Exhaust and pulled the trigger, which fired of a small and fast bullet. It was effective, however apparently didn't deal enough damage.

"You're using a freaking Assault Gun part! Just fire away!" The irritation in C's voice bothered him seriously, but still kept to her advice releasing a continous barrage of bullets at the Aragami. Interestingly he expected to run out of his Oracle Reserves, but somehow he felt them regenerate with each hit. The beast howled and reared as the barrage slowly but surely chipped away the weakpoint.

"That's an experimental bullet. It works on the principle of Oracle Regeneration, the second bullet I've given you is similar, however it lacks a damage dealing child module. Excelent for recharging your Oracle Reserves, however their damage is almost non-existent. Disable the Pods. I wouldn't like to become barraged by a storm of the Quadriga's missiles." The girls explanation quite surprised Matthias about the bullets, but seeing as how effective they were he understood that her knowledge on Aragami and Oracle technology exceeded his.

"Anything else I should be looking out for?" His inquiry now being honest, he never expected to be able to stand up to such a beast. The constant barrage made it reel back at a periodic cycle, and slowly but surely even the Pods cracked and were rendered useless.

"If goes down and the chest armor opens, don't hesitate to aim at there and fire away. Should it get up, just blast the Exhausts until it goes down again." Just as she finished the sentence, the armored beast buckled and fell forward revealing three cores behind the demonic chest armor. Redirecting the focused stream of carnage there the God Eater couldn't help but chuckle, afterall he was present with the Alex twins when the three of them took down a Quadriga before. However the two situations were quite different, as now the lumbering Aragami was much like a helpless kid being picked on by him, a bully determined not to let this change go of creating suffering.

"I've... faced one of these before with my team. I was rather useless that time, and was forced to act as a support. Problem was, that the two of them easily ripped through such a beast due to their experience." Matthias admitted this, while feeling mixed emotions about the current situation.

"So, you foolishly wanted to commit suicide even knowing that you stand no chance against a Quadriga?" The reprimandation that he gotten in return from the girl stung with the pain of truth. Worst thing was that she didn't even bother to look at him while the speech, keeping to his blindspot.

"Oh yea?! What should I have done then? Leave the Aragami to march into Pit?!" He snapped back at her for both the words and her behaviour.

"You could have lured it AWAY, then use a freaking Stun Grenade and sneak away. Quadrigas might have superior hearing, but their eye sight is extremely poor." Another cold shower rained from the secretive girl.

"How should I have known?! I'm just a simple God Eater!! I barely joined a month ago..." In fact he never saw her before at all, not quite understanding the knowledge she possessed. However the chance was there she was stationed in a different unit, or even another branch altogether.

"Fenrir has the NORN Database... Just read it up when you have next time. It's quite comprehensive. I'll pay you soon for the consumeables." She walked to his back and reattached the belt to his waist and placed the injector to his feets.

"Hey?! Where are you going?! What about the bullets?" He had also much more question towards her, but she just chuckled instead.

"Keep them." That was the only answer she had given as she left the God Eater alone with the beast.

"... So I've got it to stagger continously... Buuut.... How the hell am I supposed to kill it?!" Matthias' head dropped as he winced about his current situation.

---End of Chapter 2015,07,04