Zun - Airport
Anna (@Anza)
Well then, they ended up acting quicker than he had anticipated. The red orbs blinked in and out of existence with the ensuing assault. If anything, the skeleton, calmly and collectedly turned his head towards the chaotic screams and frantic scurrying of citizens and Nomads alike. He would of grimaced if he could, especially after a bountiful amount of bullets whizzed in his directions.
Granted, they either left holes in his clothing, with a decent amount of shots being landed above his frontal bone, causing a part of it to cave in. This was rather annoying as he ducked down as the sound of two bullets rattled inside his skull, but one of the women he was speaking to had already departed before fleeing elsewhere.
The Lich could hardly blame her as he picked the two bullets from his skull and flicked them to the side.
"I suppose we can chat some other time ma'am, apologies for the inconvenience," he prattled, looking up at the lady before rising up once more and bushing his tattered clothes off.
He took nary a glance at the blonde lady before dashing into the skirmish, dodging a couple of bullets fired in his general direction. From what he saw, some of these mysterious black figures were attempting to take up defensive positions, whether it was jumping behind counters to hiding behind pillars.
Whatever the case was, he didn't engage with them, ducking and weaving out of the way towards some unknown objective. It wasn't long before he was forced to engage with some of these individuals as he turned a corner and promptly took some buckshot to the chest. The recoil caused him to stumble just a tad, but he still had enough time to grasp his head and chuck it at the person as they cocked their pump-shotgun.
His body sunk into the ground instantly once his head had started soared through the air. As 'he' flew, the man watched that same opponent trying to quickly level their aim, attempting to blow Aldous' skull to smithereens. Distracted, the skeleton took the opportunity to shoot out from the airport ground, fist first, into the persons chin.
That was an unfortunate part of his attack they had to endure as they stumbled back and fired into the ceiling, completely missing the mark. The others with the soldier quickly took aim at Aldous as he was reattaching his head and opened fire. While they did get a couple of shots off on him, his skills allowed him to duck out of the way as he quickly placed a foot behind one of shotgun guys legs, with the resulting stumbling from the person causing them to tumble over and fall on their ass.
While he didn't exactly neutralize the person, it kept them preoccupied, long enough for Aldous to quickly engage the one to the left of them. As soon as he locked eyes (or at least he believed he did), his went into a crouching stance as they fired at him. The one on the right was more successful in damaging a few rib bones than the person the Lich targeted, bobbing and weaving before going for a straight, followed by a right jab which cracked their helmet.
Instead of attempting to fire, they attempted to reorient themselves after being caught off-balance by holding their gun up to block the attacks, only for a left hook to follow up, causing them to stumble and trip on top of the soldier with the shotgun.
Following that, he went for the next opponent, who had already backed up a few meters by first standing in place as a visible, ethereal glow formed in his hands before tossing what looked to be a skull encapsulated in cyan goo at the assailant. Of course, instead of ducking out of the way, they promptly decided to fire at the ball, giving Aldous enough time to go into a dive, crouching in tandem with the other soldier who decided to duck to avert being hit...
Only to meet the orbs of the skeleton who quickly put an abrupt end to their firing as spines that seemingly came from no where began to mesh with his own, causing his spine to promptly elongate in their direction, directly hitting their head and flying a meter back.
While he had lost a minute, Aldous swiftly recuperated and whipped his head around before noticing some restrooms. Ducking between the gunfire and weaving between any Nomad skirmishes with these mysterious black soldiers, he disappeared into what looked to be the mens room before promptly kicking out a "Caution - Wet" sign.
Outside of the noise erupting from the conflict, the bathroom remained consistently quiet, though it wasn't long before a curious being - an almost dwarf-like skeleton hobbled out, before being followed by a couple of more skeletons in differing shapes and sizes.
Anna (
@Anza), Jasmine (
@Kamen Evie), Nameless (
@DocRock), Oh-One, Yoko (
@Ruler Inc), and Rod (
@wxps350)
Even with the mysterious intruders spreading across the area like tumors flowing through a persons bloodstream, their voracious assault, while brutal and executed swiftly, was brought to a rather abrupt halt.
Even with them taking most of the area, slaughtering a ton of innocents in the process, for every life they seemed to claim, five more of them fell to a Nomad's hand. In fact, due to the numerous amount of Nomad's inhabiting the lobby, it appeared to be as if the former was holding the line here and seemingly pushing the struggling assailants back.
"The Malignant's are slaughtering us! Where are the ECLI-*gurgle.*"One of the intruders tried to radio in before promptly taking a heel to where their throat was, subsequently crushing their windpipe as they stumbled back, only to be skewered with three other of their compatriots by harpoon before flying back across the room to the woman who tossed it, giving a thumbs up to the martial artist, who gave the same friendly response back, before ducking under a pistol whip from another and headbutting them.
The ongoing melee continued, with a few new soldier's joining the fray. Despite the overwhelming amount of numbers, they were slowly being whittled down, even if it wasn't obvious to the naked eye. However, that all came to an end when, seemingly, a new threat began to emerged, whether coming down from a rope like a spider, emerging from a blind spot, or almost coming out of thing air between the intruders and Nomad's.
Based on their dark color scheme alone, it was blatantly obvious that they were associated with the intruders in plain black, however there was something almost seemingly different about each and every one of these units.
Outside of their jet black hoods and white mechanical masks, each with differing designs than the rest, they seemed to carry around a melee weapon of their choosing, whether it was a hooksword or a labrys, it had a mechanical, inorganic look to it with its sleek plating, pulsating red and blue wires running across some of them, and even had a holographic keypad on a few as well.
However, one of the most curious parts about them was either their asymmetric arms or legs; they looked to be augmented, replaced with machinery and tech that provided some form of offense and utility. Smooth metal plating, sharpened claws on some that made them look factory new,
Some of them strutted calmly through the battle, as if they had already claimed dominion over the airports lobby floor, while others performed acrobatics before landing and quickly darting at the closest Nomad. Whatever the case was, even if the Nomad's couldn't tell, relief passed under their helmets as some tried to get out of range of these people they considered Threat Level One Malignants.
They had varying levels with success as they were radioed by one of them.
"ECLIPSE Unit's reporting in to assist the SHADE's in inoculating the vicinity. All SHADE Unit's, inhibit the Malignant's while we amputate."Despite there not being too many of them, with the ratio being one for every thirty soldiers, they were shown to be plenty efficient already. One Nomad in a turban had attempted to approach to perform an array of attacks, only to spectacularly miss, in no part due to the technology they had. The one he had attempted to assault had anticipated this and shot the more mechanical of their arm towards a pillar and latched onto it before flying back towards it.
They were distracted long enough for one to sneak up from behind, and provided a rocket powered kick to the mans back, launching him forward. If that wasn't enough, another who was on cue, dashed and held a halberd out at the precise angle. The Nomad didn't know what hit him as his neck made contact with the weapon, cleanly severing his head.
The headless body flew towards the one that grappled to the pillar, though the ECLIPSE unit seemed unfazed as the nonchalantly held an arm out and caught the now headless man. Taking merely five seconds to survey the area, they disposed of the body by tossing at another Nomad who was busy juggling them and the other units providing suppressing fire.
This was enough for that other group to secure a kill on said Nomad as the corpse had knocked them off balance enough for the ECLIPSE to exploit an opening. The ECLIPSE unit paused, watching as their compatriot front-flip over a projectile their opponent shot at them, gracefully soaring through the air as they unholstered what looked to be an older, Winchester rifle and strangely shot out some form of gas instead of a bullet.
This left some reaction on the Nomad who hacked and coughed inside the cloud before the same ECLIPSE unit who shot that had clicked something on the gun, causing it to unfold and turned in what could be defined as a serrated whip. It wasn't long before they began choking and bleeding out the Nomad as the weapon dug into her throat, the woman desperately scratching at the persecutor behind her, arms lunging as she tried to free herself from the shackles of the unit.
However, instead of asphyxiating or letting her bleed out, they snapped her neck; more efficient and wasted less time as they tossed the body to the side and began engaging another Nomad in a bloody battle, utilizing their adept acrobatics and transforming weapon to their advantage. The same could be said for the same ECLIPSE soldier who had tossed the body, who was now combating another Nomad who looked to be a fencer.
Regardless, the tides were turning in their favor; while the amount of casualties on their side decreased minute by minute, the amount of Nomad bodies were slowly beginning to pile up.
Xaltwind
Renose
Ogo
SkyeOfStars
Vec
Neziul
Crusader Lord
Scrawl Banditta
Sho Minazuki
