User blog:Roinelll/God Eater Next - Volume 2 - Segment 02

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======== G. E. N. - 2 - 02

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A few months earlier...

Would a sane man try to fight a mountain? Definiatelly no, what reason would that person have?

What would you do if said mountain were able to stroll thorough the land? Definiatelly keep out of it's way.

Would you dare stand in it's way then if it were to endanger a human settlement? Even if that mountain is better known as the ruler of plains?

An Ouroboros?

Antarctica was the name of the place before the Aragami came and still bears it however the landscape changed drastically. Where formerly snow and ice reigned under an almost permanent layer of freezing athmosphere, now is a barren wasteland as most of the land had been consumed by the dreaded beasts. Most of the so called Fallen species that very highly resilant to very low temperatures originated from here.

Nearby a settlement almost at the souther pole of the planet a huge crowd was gathering bearing over a hundred members. Each one of them were God Eater of various branches gathered from all over the world. Surrounding the settlement were the various transport methods each team had taken to cross, lined in an orderly fashio ready to move out once the sortie is given.

There were a few requirements to be a part of such a mission, having faced an Ouroboros before and lived to tell the tale. Fenrir could have gathered easily a few hundred God Eaters, but there would be no point in sending inexperienced and still valuable assets against it.

Another requirement was that each team will form pairs, with one of them being a close type and the other ranged. Since most of the bunch was Static type this wasn't such a problem, however mixed amongst the crow were also Variable types which increased efficiency of the team variation.

The appointed leader of the present God Eaters was tall, towering above everyone else easily with his height of 216 centimeters. His short and black hair formed into something that seemed like natural spikes, the eyes glew with a vermillion color as he surveyed the troops at his disposal. Interestingly enough he wore a Fenrir issued sniper outfit tailored for his size, despite that he was an all out melee type himself.

Everyone heard of him one way or another, as he was one of the few God Eaters who so far survived all encounters with an Ouroboros. Baluar as he referred to himself, was an expert at handling the ruler of plains. The other thing that he had been notorious for was his Short Blade, however due to the size of it's wielder it had been customized to fit him. This resulted in said weapon to rival the size of a regular God Eaters largest weapon, the Buster Blade.

Interestingly enough if you were to give into his hand any other weapon it would have only seemed to be a meager toy, so noone questioned this at all. All the more since the finesse the huge God Eater was wielding said weapon was no small feat, rumours say that he is one of the worlds best sword swinging Aragami killers.

Although he is one of the Variable types, interestingly enough noone ever saw him change the form of the God Arc no matter what the condition... Even if there was an airbound Aragami, Bal as he often nudged others to call him simple threw his weapon to knock down the flying beast, then took up his weapon and started to chop it down to size.

The only other person who might come close to his feets was actually the twin sister of his, Nia as she opted to introduce. Only a few centimetres shorter than her brother, aside from owning black eyes and a more femine and slender body the two of them were identical. They even rumoured that the two of them are able to swap weapons, also the were rumours flying about that some times they could even dual wield each others God Arc's when required.

"Okay, everyone listen now. Everyone knows what is at stake here, an Ouro is strolling leasuirely around here and in it's path is this rundown settlement." The Commander was holding a microfon and transferring his deep voice across the audience with the help of a loudspeaker. On his right stood his Liutenant, his sister who was holding onto her own God Arc, none in the slightest smaller than that of her brothers.

"Why were we called then? Couldn't they had simply evacuated the place?" A God Eater known as Robb called the question, a so-called 'heavy weapons expert' from the American Branch.

"Not quite, you see this is a place what Aragami tend to avoid for some unclear reasons. Not this Ouro though, therefore we have to intercept it for multiple reasons." Bal turned towards him, the two shared a team once and while the american was rather thin for his built the skill he possesses wasn't coming short.

"Still not an answer for why the evacuation order wasn't issued." Lili voiced her opinion. She had just recently joined the Far East Branch and while she still was a fresh recruit her undisputed skill with the Sniper and medical aid enlisted her to allow joining such a difficult mission.

"If you have time for talking back, get your gear checked again for the final time. God, I don't even know myself are we clear? Fenrir HQ is adamant that this place must remain unharmed and that's that. Anyone has a witty comment about it?" The commander sighed, there were questions even he wanted to know.

"Over a hundred of God Eaters are present currently. Although most of them are so called veterans at hunting an Ouroboros such as yourself Commander Baluar, I am still wondering that there is something that we weren't been told." Once again Robb was the one to interrupt the slowly descending silence.

"Well, it's the size actually... A 'common' Ouro is like a dwarf compared to this specimen, how did it get so large noone knows." Bal scratched his head as he explained it, the crow started to murmue once they heard him calling one of the most rarest Aragami as 'common'.

"Does the report estimate it?" Lili asked silently, this explained the unreasonable large number of God Eaters present. A 'Large' Ouroboros, completely unheard of.

"Over 2500 meters. Don't just gape like fools do, I know that it is almost 7 times as big as a normal one. We still have a mission to do." As the crucial info was given everyone stopped staring at the Commander.

"Imagine the amount of cores we can gather from such a beast! The bigger they are..." Then Robb burst out in a victory cry, well by his accounts. His excitement spreading like wildfire amongst the rest.

"The harder they fall!" Everyone shouted together, then the final check of equipment was underway.

"Let's get this party started!" Bal took out a stun grenade and thew it high into the air, the blinding flash revealed his position quite clearly. A tremor shook the earth as the ruler of plains turned in the direction where the sky flared up, although the beast was over a few kilometres away still with it's impeccable eye sight it focused on the sole God Eater. The Ouroboros roared and even from the distance that seperated it from  the Commander could spot the intensifying purple light. This could only mean a single thing, Laser Cannon as some named the attack.

"Well pal, I hope you're up for it." Bal readied his God Arc and patted the shield part, Ymir+ one that he was rather attached to since he often said 'What's the point in guarding if it still damages you?'. And now it will be put to the test in the fullest, he took on such an attack before and successfully blocked it. However not from a Ouroboros of this magnitude, although those present tried to stop him from such a foolish thing he voiced than other than him noone else would be possibly capable of surviving. His will was adamant and everyone know that he didn't tolerate any sort of sacrifices, nor losses.

A blinding flash signaled the incoming attack and it was just in time that the God Eater readied his Tower Shield, the impact of the intense laser staggered him. Adding further to the dismay was that the burst of continous light was actually breaking through the defense of the normally impenetrable shield. Less than 3 seconds and Bal could barely stand, the only thing saving him was one of the Upgrade Unit his sister prepared for him.

Desperate Attempt, was it's official name. He chuckled thinking on how fitting it is for the situation, without it he probably wouldn't  have been able to endure the full brunt of the attack. When the light of the Laser Cannon finally wore off, from multiple directions two dozen streakes of light strode towards the almighty beast. Soon after they struck target the beast reared, reaching almost twice the height it usually bears and let loose a roar that shaked the environment in a few kilometer radius.

"Direct hit confirmed, Eyes succesfully unbound." Nia's voice came in from the communicator in Bal's ears and he nodded in response, finally resting for a bit. But only as much as was enough for him to grab onto his God Arc, then started to spring in the direction of the ruler of the plains.

"Commander, is that a wise thing to do?" Robb's voice cam from the comm unit.

"This thing started to charge at the last direction the snipers fired the shots! Do you want to establisment trampled under it?!" Bal shouted back slightly angered, this Ouroboros behaved differently that the usual ones. This thing clearly turned angry, but wasn't enraged as a 'common' one would turn once the eyes come unbound. Although without it's ocular organ functioning the gigantic beast headed in the direction from where the last attack came.

"You SONUVA--!!" Bal cursed as he blocked another wave of the Root Storm attack unleashed, once again it was a name that God Eaters stuck onto it. The first wave actually ended with 9 casualties, all of them were melee Old-Type responsible to protect the ranged ones. They were pierced by the roots as they tried to casually block the attacks instead of deflecting them with a well timed deploy of the shield.

Which lead to further casualties by the second wave, the partners of the 9 previously fallen God Eaters were killed and another 6 of the melee types followed. The ones that managed to survive this wave either had in their skillset Prepared, or they managed to parry the brutal attack just barely avoiding sure doom.

"Root Storm incoming!!" Nia's voice warned everyone once again, this was the third consecutive attack the Ouroboros unleashed. Towering as tall as possible the beast bore it's unnumerable tentacles into the ground, seeking as many targets as possible before attempting to impale each one of them simoultenously. The number of casualties already totalled 30, almost a quarter of the original attack force. The beast let out a mighty roar and recalled the tentacles, those who were left standing felt an unmistakable dread as the next attack was incoming.

"MOW DOWN!! MOW DOWN!!" Nia's voice signaled another dangerous attack as the Aragami once again towered above them.

"DEFLECT IT!! DON'T YOU DARE TO BLOCK!!" Bal shouted at the same time their target performed an impossibly fast complete spin, what was dangerous that it's full weight now empowered by the centrifugal force was seeking to stike everything in it's vincinity by the elonganeted tentacles. Even the Commander staggered as he parried the impossibly heavy blow. From the corner of his eye he saw, that others weren't as lucky as him. Some of them were sent flying and by the looks of it they would land easily hundreds of meters away, just to bounce up and come crashing down again.

Finally the annoying thing was unbound, the Horns. The remaining gunners unloaded the specially prepared 'IOD' classified bullets on their target, however by the time it succeeded almost half of them were wiped out. With that great cost the Ouroboros was rendered totally blind, unable to locate it's attackers the mighty beast randomly lashed out at his surroundings attempting to strike down those who had angered it only to fail.

"Next target will be the Tentacles." Nia commented as the the God Eaters entered the next phase of bringing the ruler of the plain down. The losses of their comrades steeled their wills even further instead of demoralizing them. Defeat for them wasn't an option anymore, even if that meant that death was awaiting them.

"Gunners load 'HDH' bullets and aim at the Spine, everyone else when it staggers start hacking at the Tentacles." Baluar gave the order and started to dash in the direction of the Ouroboros, and saw as the balls of light shot high into the sky. The Commander smirked as the beast crashed down from the simoultenous fire unloaded on it, almost by his feet so to speak. Those who were in range simply jumped on one of the humongous tentacles and tried to sever it as quick as possible. During the meantime the gunners used Oracle Ampules to restore their reserves and wait for the next moment to strike.

Some of them succeeded and moved onto the next one, but with a terrifying roar the almighty beast once again raised itself. Baluar actually did the unthinkable, digging his God Arc deep into the third Tentacle he tried to sever as the beast raised it high into the air. Within seconds he found himself almost a kilometer high, but that didn't really mean much to him. The rain of the HDH bullets started once again in the meantime as the ranged God Eaters started the second volley.

"Let's see how will you like this." With a ferocious grin he gripped the handle of his God Arc, gathered as much strenght into his legs as possible and kicked off. In his way downward all of the tentacles that came into reach had been severed instantenously with the added force of his descend and the power of the jump he started with.

"Did you think on a way to stop?" Nia asked casually as she witnessed the insane action of his brother, but instead of replying he just deployed the shield mid fall. A smaller tremor resulted signaling the impact of the God Eater.

"Let me guess, it's going to fall on me?" Bal, who survived the drop once again due to the Prepared skill installed into his God Arc looked upward, only to see the giant Aragami topple forward.

By the time the God Eaters who were unluckily hurled away by the Mow Down, and managed to survive the fall got back to engage the beast it was downed for good, as both the Spine became unbound and the Tentacles had been reduced by a large volume. This resulted in the beast unable to move nor attack, yet it still stood tall enough and everyone know that this is where the real problem will begin.

"Gunners, alternate on attacking the unbound parts. We cannot have it regenerate those, especially the Tentacles or the Eyes." Baluar warned the remaining 44 God Eaters and sighed heavily, out of them 27 were ranged which left barely enough melee ones present.

"Bladers, I want a small team who have access to Prepared to go in and severe the legs. We need to take this Ouro down for good!" What he was requesting actually would require the death of those that go in, as the falling Ouroboros would crush them flat with it's weight.

"Let us go, you know we've toppled a few Boros before." Robb was calling on the comm, and Bal immediatelly recognized who he could meant with that. Aside from the american the usual team consisted of Lili and Daniel a shady, annoying bastard who noone really liked. All three of them started to sprint towards the immobilized behemoth.

"There is something strange going on... I know that this Ouroboros isn't a regular one, but something strange is going on." Nia voiced her observations. Bal looked up and noticed what she had meant, the large bone like protuding stumps were slowly turning from their usual color of green to dark greyish. It took a while until the Commander understood that it wasn't the body changing, but the  Chaotic Moss as the God Eaters often refered to it, that covered the upper body of the beast.

"You guys also see that the Boros is changing?" Baluar asked in the comm link and he got in response affirmative and also confused answers.

"This might explain why was it so different from a regular one, right brother?" His sister checked for any other irregularities of the Aragami, but found nothing other than the Moss turning into a dark grey.

"Out of the way! It's falling!" Robb's voice warned everyone of their success. The ruler of plains roared, flailed with it's numerous intact tentacles as it toppled finally robbed of the last line of defence it had. The remaining God Eaters roared in an euphory, while it took a great deal of sacrifice to stop the giant they finally succeeded.

"Good, Team Omega assemble." The Commander gave the order, and swallowed. The sacrifices were too much and it still required more. He hated this line of work for this.

---End of Chapter 2015,08,21