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[h3]--The Manbat Rises--[/h3]

[@ERode]

[hider=Rise of the Manbat]Empty streets and diffused light.

Compared to the fervent busyness of the city of Bermuda during the daytime, with Polymaths scampering about and employed citizens either enjoying their day off or working to keep this microcosm of civilization afloat, the nightscape past curfew was one hauntingly quiet. The fog consumed all noise, and the eclectic fusion of architectural styles, while charming in daylight, transformed into garish shadows that loomed just beyond a human being’s ability to distinguish them. Lucretia was focused, but she was no fool. Schwarzritter, as imposing of a golem as it was, could only act on her direct command. If her throat were slit before a full command could be spoken, it was all over. Schwarzritter would remain inert while she drowned in her own blood.

But such dreary thoughts were not worth lingering upon. The German Technologist had no designs to sleuth about in conditions that rendered all her senses worthless, after all. If things felt dangerous, she could just ride on Schwarzritter and make a beeline for her suite. Any Starsteel Formulized wall would fall swiftly to her golem’s weapon systems, unseemly and barbaric as such an escape may be.

Perhaps such barbarism would be necessary after all.

The fog chilled her frail body to the core, every breath of the humid air tickling at the back of her throat, urging her to gag. But beyond that, she could hear it. A sound akin to the billowing snap of bedsheets upon a clothesline. To a ship’s lax sails suddenly being struck by stormy winds. To a singular wingbeat, sailing overhead, then dropping with an audible [i]thump[/i] some dozens of meters away.

Lucretia gulped down the saliva building up in her throat after realizing that she had unwittingly held her breath for a moment there, perhaps out of subconscious urge to not breathe in whatever substance contained in the mist, it could be toxic for all she knew. Unfortunately for all of its advantages, Schwarzritter was no Panzermensch, nor power armor, she couldn't ride in or wear it, where it could otherwise shelter her from harm via brute force or noxious gasses. As of right now, Lucretia could only make the best of her situation by commanding the steel-blue golem to place her on itself so she could piggyback it. 

Now riding on her artificial guardian, the petite polymath tuned the iron knight's circular lights to glow brighter, bright enough to provide effective illumination through the fog like a well-made flashlight, the azure beam illuminating her surroundings and combined with her heightened position, she shouldn't be [i]as[/i] vulnerable as a pedestrian with nothing on their person. Then, just as she was done setting up her escort, a sound - loud enough for her mundane human ears to pick up - akin to a sheet being spread swiftly. A single flap of wings... followed by a dull thud. [color=76c0f0][b]"Scheisse..."[/b][/color] She whispered under her breath; judging by her current situation and recent events, it was irrefutably justified for Lucy to start preparing for the worst, a hostile assailant was hunting her. 

[color=76c0f0][b]"Nnghck... mmngh..."[/b][/color] The horribly humid air assaulted her senses, causing her to wince as a hand went up to cover her mouth in an attempt to stifle a gag. Right now, she wished she hadn't partaken in the rest of the dinner as her body was trying to convince her that throwing up all of that recently-ingested food was in her best interest. For the moment, at least, she managed to conquer her gag reflex and commanded the now-luminous golem to carry her home, while she kept watch for any funny business as best as she could. Twas' obvious that she had no intention to initiate a physical altercation, but would have no qualms defending herself with lethal force if provoked.

The flashlights seared into the fog, but only lit up the water droplets that made it up, creating beams of white that revealed nothing but white. Lucretia herself now clung to the back of her golem, more like a cockroach than a lady, all while Schwarzritter continued forward in plodding, but unhesitating flight.

Another thump, the force seeming to shake it away. The distant sound of a single wingbeat.

Silence.

Whatever it was, it was gone.

Much to her frustration and disappointment in equal measure, even Schwarzritter's many lights tuned to high intensity could achieve naught but illuminating the thick water droplets, which goes to show just how [i]moist[/i] these particular mists were. The unfortunate implications were numerous, two of the major ones were that she couldn't reliably locate this assailant for one, and for two, she couldn't command the golem to float too fast lest she risked careening into a wall or some such.

Left with no other choice, she was forced to march onward on her golem's upper back, its torso leaning slightly forward to accommodate her position and keep its mistress stable. With her eyes practically useless, her mind defaulted to her other senses to keep track of her surroundings; a grossly pale imitation of what Egoists could achieve, but even still, that wingbeat was loud enough for her to notice, but after that... nothing, and it scared her; there was no telling that the assailant had left, they could simply be far too quiet for her to observe.

In any case, as long as she could return to her dorm, then all would be well, she was sure of it.

All would be well. All should be well. Through the abandoned streets, Lucretia continued to cling, floating atop her indomitable guardian, senses strained for any more signs of danger. But was it the fault of her meager senses that she picked up nothing? Or was there truly just nothing there?

In the unknown, it was the savants, the prodigies, who could draw the most possibilities, the most dreadful ends. In her homeland, she could rest assured knowing that the government was watching her. In her own home, she could rest assured knowing that her servants were loyal and well-trained. But in Bermuda? ‘Freed’ from oversight? Lucretia was alone, and the vertigo of that freedom weighed heavily upon her mind. Her lips were drying out. Her throat was growing itchy.

She could taste salt, coating her mouth. She could feel the slime of the sea, permeating her nostrils. And yet, there was still nothing. No more footsteps. No more wingflaps. No gunman in the shadows, no assailant hopping from roof to roof.

[i]She could not even hear the thrumming of Schwarzritter’s floatation systems.[/i]

With her Iron Sentinel around, Lucretia could muster just enough courage to stay [i]mostly[/i] composed. Even without her family or servants, Schwarzritter was there with her and he was all that she needed to get through this. In the fog-choked streets of nighttime Bermuda, Lucy's gag reflex was acting up again as the unpleasant smell was getting to her once more, her body practically giving her an ultimatum, either she empties her stomach now at her own behest or it would eventually force her to do so. [color=76c0f0][b]"Mmmbfh...!"[/b][/color] And this time, the white-haired technologist caved in. She barely eked out a command for Schwarz to stay put, turned her head to the side, and lurched forward...

[color=76c0f0][b]"Nnn... eeergh...!"[/b][/color] 

...regurgitating half-digested roast duck among other foodstuff, her pale complexion reddened as her small body strained, ejecting most of what she ate, no doubt much to Robespierre's chagrin had the Frenchman knew. [color=76c0f0][b]"Haa... ah... uuurgh..."[/b][/color] Tears flowed from bloodshot eyes, an instinctive reaction that usually accompanied vomiting, the girl took a moment to catch her breath and bask in the catharsis before wiping her tears and instructing her knight to move once more.

[color=76c0f0][b]"...?"[/b][/color] 

Except she couldn't... speak? No, she was positive she had just spoken as her brain recognized the tone of her voice, albeit the words were muffled to incomprehensible mumbles like trying to hear through several layers of padded material. Furthermore, just to be absolutely sure, her hand went to her throat, confirming the vibrations of her vocal cords; there was only one other conclusion from this, she had somehow lost the ability to hear, and any arguments against this hypothesis would crumble when coupled with the fact that she couldn't hear Schwazritter's Peizogravitas buoyancy engine either. Upon this realization, Lucretia's eyes widened while her pupils shrunken, dread quickly settling in, more like a rapidly approaching tsunami than a slow creeping wave. For the first time in thirteen years, Lucretia felt truly afraid for her life, that she might be killed. 

In the face of perceived impending doom, all of her knowledge, logic, and pragmatic stoicism crumbled to give way to full panic. She hugged Schwarzritter hard and began shouting commands at it at the top of her lungs, though her voice came out harshly croaked due to the physical exertion just now, but it wasn't like she could hear herself anyway.

However, though Lucretia couldn't hear her own voice, Schwarzritter certainly still could, and in all its absolute mechanical obedience, it followed her orders to the letter. In one of her frantic ramblings, it recognized one particular command, something that compelled it to charge forward as fast as it could. [color=76c0f0][b]"...?!"[/b][/color] Surprised by the result of her own unheard voice, she held on for dear life as the golem flew aimlessly through the fog, uncaring whether it was heading straight to a wall or not; all its mistress wanted was to get out of there by any means necessary, and it would oblige.

So the order was heard. So the machine acted.

The straightest line, the most direct route. Without regards for itself, Schwarzritter surged through the mist, charging with an obstinacy that even bulls could not match. It took all of three seconds before the iron giant smashed into a building, electricity spark over its form as it contacted the exposed copper wiring within the walls. Powerful as it was, Schwarzritter was ultimately a [i]flying[/i] object, and Lucretia’s own arms could not withstand the inertia and momentum that she had to contend with. The small girl flew through the air even as her machine toppled, her body skidding upon a long counter before slamming stomach-first into a hefty cash register.

It was good that she had already emptied out the contents of her stomach, for what came out after was nothing more than bile and water, coating the salt within her mouth. Nothing broken, nothing life-threatening. But for the sheltered Princess of the Iron Tower, that was already much more than she had ever suffered before. Exhaustion and fatigue were one thing. Brute force was another.

Had minutes passed? Or an hour? Schwarzritter hummed, awaiting instructions. Her senses were still dumbed, her body without strength.

And in her eye, fixated as it was on the opening in the wall, she saw it. A creature descend. A silhouette rendered silent by her deafened ears. A powerful stature. A barreled chest. Four limbs coated in fur, and wings that drew the silhouette of a bat. A whip-like tail, swaying back and forth like an adder. And the face of a human, yet extended outwards like that of a double-sided battle axe.

He tilted his head at her, then opened and closed his mouth in rapid succession.

But she could not hear.

With her eyes closed and ears useless, Lucretia was obviously not acting in the best of mind as she clung into that cosmically unlikely possibility that Schwarzritter's charge would be a smooth sailing, hoping that the path to the castle was a complete straight line. It only took as little as three seconds for the repercussions of her folly to come crashing at her, or more aptly, she crashed into it. Her magnum opus smashed into a building's wall with little consequence, Lucretia's ingenious design combined with the best materials money could buy was far too much for the architecture to handle; Schwarzritter merely toppled briefly before righting itself after, the sparks from the severed copper wires a mere minor annoyance. 

[i]However[/i], the same couldn't be said for its mistress as the Iron Princess was dethroned by the simply physics of inertia; the savant's underdeveloped body proved no match as she helplessly slid on a counter before repeating what Schwarzritter just did, except replace the wall with a cash register, and unlike her steel knight, she was the one who lost the duel. [color=76c0f0][b]"...?!"[/b][/color] Pupils shrunk and jaw wide open, the breath was knocked out of her as she let out a silent scream, voiceless yet one look at her would immediately reveal that she was in great pain. Shock of both the physical and mental kind reverberated throughout Lucretia as her vision tunneled, her glands pumping as much adrenaline as it could as her untrained body did all it could to boost her physical capabilities in the face of peril.

Alas, if everyone could suddenly turn into a superpowered warrior when pushed, the world would have no need of Egoists. Applying a force multiplier to a low baseline would still result in meager results. Consequently, Lucy couldn't do anything but twitch helplessly on the store's counter; the sheer amount of trauma was too much for the young polymath as her consciousness gave up right then. 

..........
.....
...

[color=76c0f0][b]"Aaah?!"[/b][/color] Awakening with a jolt, Lucretia's chest heaved up and down. The flow of time became irrelevant to her, whether it had been only a couple minutes or hours, all she knew was that the assailant was returning, a literal multi-limbed furred abomination with chiropteran wings and a lizard tail, made worse by the mist covering it and how it stared at her, chattering its jaw like a rabid hyena. Thus, despite its humanoid face, Lucretia never registered this entity to be human, forgoing any sense of empathy as fellow sapient beings. 

This... this [i]thing[/i] was hunting her, it was going to kill her! 

That very thought managed to convince Lucy's body to move as she forced an arm to point straight at the creature, frantically wailing with the loudest unheard voice she ever made in her life. 

[color=76c0f0][b]"Schwarzritter... vernichte! VERNICHTE!!"[/b][/color]

Without delay, the Black Knight of Steel engaged combat mode as the inner side of its 'palms' opened up, revealing a multi-barreled automatic assault cannon mounted on each arm. With extreme prejudice, it proceeded to fire hails of armor-piercing bullets at the winged figure, in all its unflinching focus to eliminate the target.

A puppet was only as powerful as its puppetmaster, and general orders were followed to the letter, rather than to the intent. As Lucretia gave her panicked order, the devil rolled his eyes and leapt up, right as Schwarzritter opened fire. Armor-piercing bullets shot through the mist and continued to shoot through the mist, targeting the direction that she had first pointed. Steam hissed as the compressor worked at full power, pumping out bullets at rapid speed towards nothing.

And for all of Schwarzritter’s power, it was still an existence that could carry only a limited amount of ammunition. Once steam ejected from the cannon without any bullets to follow through, the devil popped back down once more, gesticulating broadly towards Lucretia, mouth opening and closing once more. It was still the second night. During the first night, she had exhausted herself against Sukoro’s masterwork. During the second day, she had spent it asleep, then pursuing that same man. Throughout it all, she had not yet established the weapons delivery system.

Now, her great knight could only rely on its physical mass against a demon of physical aptitude.

Lucretia's tactical acumen was basically non-existent at this particular moment; all of the test runs she conducted at operating Schwarzritter went out of the window for pure survival instinct. When it came down to it, the German girl was more engineer than soldier after all, probably possessing an even wider gap between the two roles than even a certain Russian polymath. She didn't sign up to be involved in an altercation with a monster, hell, she didn't even expect monsters to exist in Bermuda in the first place, what was that about this being the best prestigious academy in the world?! The management would hear of this! She, nor her family, would let them live it down!

Latching onto any feelings that could offset fear - anger being a potent one - Lucretia's brows narrowed in wrathful hatred, like that of a cornered deer who suddenly turned from skittish to being the bravest animal in the world. Even after Schwarzritter's ammunition ran out, she kept repeating similar commands as the Steel Sentinel wasted no time in folding its cannons to switch for a pair of gigantic claws while simultaneously charging at the creature to shred it into bits of gore and viscera!

Of course, obviously enough, Lucretia didn't have the composure to realize that the creature wasn't actually attacking her for one reason or another.

The devil scratched his head, then bent his legs.

Schwarzritter was fast, but only for a large, floating device. Just as airships could not match locomotives in speed, a machine whose function was to float weightlessly could not match the substantial strength of a fleshful being. Schwarzritter’s claws struck nothing, the lithe form of the demon slipping past effortlessly. Gliding through the air, he plucked Lucretia off the counter, dropped down behind the bar, pulled an aluminum nozzle out, and pressed the trigger.

Water, cool and carbonated, blasted into her face, then her mouth, then her ears. In the firm grip of the devil, Lucretia could do nothing more but flail her limbs ineffectually.

And then, it stopped. In the darkness of the bar, Schwarzritter’s churning gears and thrumming engine sounded still as it savaged the area in front of it with its claws. Fluid droplets, water mixed with tears, snot, and salt, pitter-pattered against the linoleum floor. A sigh sounded, and then the devil plopped her back atop the counter, posturing her to sit upright. He took a step or two back, leaning against the shattered glass cabinets that held a couple bottles of wine. [b]“Well, you cooled off now?”[/b] A voice a touch impertinent, but with no real malice. [b]“And could you turn that thing off?”[/b]

With the mist obscuring her vision and something deafening her ears, Lucretia had no reliable feedback to examine the results of her commands; like a fish flopping on dry land, out of her element yet still trying with everything she had to fight back. It was unfortunate that she couldn't hear the sounds of forged steel claws swishing through empty air, or even the terrible squelches of shredded flesh and bone; like a musketeer firing blindly, she could only hope that her shots achieved [i]something[/i].

Alas, all she achieved was being a minor nuisance to whatever figure that spooked her. He simply glided into the hole in the wall and effortlessly snatched the diminutive girl off the counter; she must've weighed like nothing to someone of his strength, so fragile like a twig that he had to exert conscious effort to [i]not[/i] accidentally snap her spine in two. To no one's surprise, Lucretia was screaming murder as her dainty fingers tried to claw off the assailant's wrist.

Fortunately, the stream of clean water forcefully shut her up before she could utter a command that could end up in Schwarzritter committing regicide on its own master. [color=76c0f0][b]"Mmmbfh...! Mmmmmngh!!”[/b][/color] Like a kitten suddenly being doused in water jets, the white-haired technologist squirmed and flailed futilely. 

Then, the 'waterboarding' was over as quickly as it came, leaving an utterly showered teen as droplets dripped off her face and damp silver locks clung to her body. Her expression was still that of a panicking rabbit kit caught in the palms of a man, eyes shrunk, lips pursed, frozen in fear. It wasn't until the... 'creature' [i]spoke[/i] in the Lingua Franca Academia that some amount of realization began settling in, gradually reigning over the crippling terror. Fear slowly shifted to disbelief even as the uh... uhm... entity took a few steps back, giving her space to take it all in.

It was also at this moment that Lucy realized that she could hear again. The water... aah! The mist clogged up her ear canals! The obscuring fog, the demise of her dinner, and the deafness, it was all the thrice-damned mist's fault! It now came to her that this four-armed winged person thing - an Egoist? - was likely trying to help her, not hunt her. [color=76c0f0][b]"..."[/b][/color] If Lucy wasn't already red from adrenaline-fueled exertion right now, one could bet that her fair cheeks would be blushing as red as the spilled wine.

She was silent for a good ten seconds, body trembling with the utter embarrassment at her pride and dignity. [color=76c0f0][b]"...S... schwarzritter, bleib stehen..."[/b][/color] She mewed out the command, but due to the lack of noise pollution, Schwarzritter's sensors still recognized it and the golem retracted its claws as it stood rigid once more. That done, Lucretia refused to make eye contact with the bat-winged Egoist, green eyes shifting left and right, it was incredibly obvious that she was currently suffering the level of awkwardness that'd drive a person to want to crawl into a hole and disappear.

He stared at her a bit longer, then shrugged.

[b]“Well, if you’re alright, then I’m leaving. Thought it’d be something big, but I can’t really call this an opportunity.”[/b]

The petite girl was starting to be more curious than embarrassed now, especially after what this strange figure said, [color=76c0f0][b]"What opportunity?"[/b][/color] She didn't really give him a chance to reply before focusing on the one thing that started all this, [color=76c0f0][b]"What's with all this fog? It's not a natural phenomenon, I'm sure of it. Who or what did this? For what reason?!"[/b][/color] 

[b]“Those are answers that I can’t answer, little lady.”[/b] He reached into the shattered canbinet and pulled out a bottle of wine, snapping off the top like one would a piece of straw. The Egoist drank from it deeply, then gestured the bottle towards Lucretia. [b]“You drink?”[/b]

[color=76c0f0][b]"What?! WHY?!!"[/b][/color] It took her less than a second to immediately erupt after the stranger's dismissal of her question. He clearly knew something, but he just refused to tell her, the [i]nerve![/i] Was this whole thing his doing? There was no proof of that... but the fact that he so nonchalantly withheld crucial information about this clearly hazardous phenomenon didn't bode well on her image of the man-bat. Her eye twitched at the wine offer, she had just vomited everything and after smashing against metal with her belly, she wasn't in the mood to be consuming anything. [color=76c0f0][b]"ANSWER ME!"[/b][/color]

He looked at her, eyes widening at the outburst, before laughing. Laughing hard, doubling over and clutching his face. [b]“Because,”[/b] the Egoist managed through chuckles, through unexpected mirth, [b]“I don’t know?”[/b]

[color=76c0f0][b]"Guuu...!"[/b][/color] Lucy's face couldn't be anymore red even if she wanted to; anger, exhaustion, frustration, and shame all mixed together in a slurry, pushing her stress levels to the limit, physically and mentally, [color=76c0f0][b]"THEN YOU SHOULD'VE SAID SO!!!"[/b][/color] For someone so small, she screamed quite loud alright. [color=76c0f0][b]"Ah..."[/b][/color] It was then that her body started to crumble from all the strain as she blacked out for a second there, causing her to [i]almost[/i] flop forward before her consciousness returned and she barely managed to right herself, all of her gusto had been spent as she couldn't even sit up straight anymore, [color=76c0f0][b]"Nnngh... at least... take me home... I'll... haa... pay you..."[/b][/color]

He drained the bottle dry, then finished the glass too. Letting out a satisfied sigh that smelled strongly of alcohol, he said, [b]“I’m not in the habit of demanding pay from little ladies. Where to?”[/b]

[color=76c0f0][b]"...suit yourself."[/b][/color] Lucretia sighed harshly, she had this distinct feeling that he was underestimating her just because of her stature, but she was far too tired to even entertain that thought, she just wanted to sleep right now, [color=76c0f0][b]"The English Castle... dor... mi... to... ry..."[/b][/color] At that moment, her strength truly gave up as she began falling forward, her vision darkening as the price of adrenaline took its toll on her body...
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