The sun had finally risen, bringing a new day for the Gray Ravens. They stayed together the whole night and never once let go. The first one to stir away was Lucia, who was woken up by a slight vibration and low blinking light of a device, after rubbing off the sleepiness in her eyes, her visions refocused and she saw the relaxed posture of Ren laying down on the bed comfortably, his chest slowly raising up and down.
Lucia looked at Ren with a soft expression lingering in her eyes, remembering the moment they shared last night. She then shifted her posture and glanced at the device that woke her up, it was Ren's hand radio. She carefully picked it up and pressed the side button.
"Ren… Come in, Ren…." Lee's voice was buzzing from the radio.
"Lee? Did you guys make it out?" Lucia asked, sitting upright.
"Yeah, we managed to get out of the jammer's range and contacted HQ immediately. We reported what happened and requested backup. The pick-up team will arrive here shortly." Lee reported, and it brought a subtle relief to Lucia.
"Good, where should we rendezvous?"
"15 miles north-east from your position, there should be an old church there, it would be enough to provide cover and wait for us."
"15 miles from here, huh? That should be doable."
"Mhm, where is Ren, by the way?"
"Oh, he is still soundly asleep. I'll wake him up after this call."
"Okay, we're prepared for departure anyway, let's meet up there."
"You and Liv should be careful, that construct might still be lurking around, don't let your guard down."
"Oum." The radio then clicked, and it cut contact with Lee. Lucia breathed deeply, mentally preparing herself for another day of survival.
"Should we go now? I don't want Lee to wait for us." Ren groggily said in his morning voice, which surprised Lucia.
"Ren?! When have you been awake?"
"Mmm, from the moment I heard Lee call out for me." Ren said while also sitting up.
"Ohhh, sorry, I answered it for you." Lucia said while giving back Ren's radio.
"Hmm, no, it's fine, I'm thankful that you were the one who answered it, if it was me, my grogginess wouldn't have understood anything he said…" Ren stretched his arms while bending his body side to side, and noticeable cracks would be heard from Ren's bones realigning. He then relaxed and sighed, his lower mouth piece of his helmet was still down so Lucia saw the genuine smile Ren had, making her smile too.
"Good morning." Ren greeted.
"Oum, good morning, Ren." Lucia also greeted back.
"Are you ready to head out, Lucia?"
"Heh, I'm always ready for anything, Ren!" Lucia confidently said with a smile, it seemed she was more lively now.
Ren also smiled with confidence and nodded. He fixed his attire and reattached the helmet's mouthpiece and then stood up.
"Well then, let's move out."
___
Ren and Lucia managed their way towards the route to their meet-up point, they avoided unnecessary fights and encounters with any groups of corrupted while also keeping a lookout for that construct. Lucia's radar was still jammed and it couldn't help them navigate their path, they only used the extensive knowledge they had and the map Ren possessed.
"Lee, Liv, how far are you guys?" Ren asked on the radio.
"We're still 25 miles away, Ren, and we are about to enter the radius of the signal jammer." Liv was the one who answered Ren's call.
"Okay, thank you for your report, Liv."
"No problem, Ren." Their radio then clicked, and Ren put it back in his pouch.
As they got closer to the church, Ren and Lucia could see a protruding crucifix from a distance. It was a relieving sight to see, but Ren was also suspicious of something, because not once did they see a single corrupted roaming around when they stepped foot in this zone. It was barren and quiet, as if the corrupted just disappeared.
"Lucia, keep your guards up, something isn't right here." Ren said ominously, and Lucia nodded, raising her awareness around them and ready to pounce at any enemy coming their way.
Even though Ren couldn't see or detect corrupted as well as constructs do, but he does have a strong gut feeling, and he knows to trust these feelings because he has been saved by them countless times already, so he doesn't just ignore them.
And that gut feeling just spiked, and it had this feeling like he suddenly fell and his stomach roiled. He abruptly stopped running and motioned to Lucia to also stop, to which she easily complied and halted with a screech of her shoes.
"What is it, Ren? An ambush? A trap?" Lucia asked, but wasn't sure what they were facing.
Ren stayed silent and scanned his surroundings, as he focused on his visual and hearing senses, he managed to pick up on something. He could hear clanking metal footsteps moving at high speed as it left behind after-images of itself. It started to close in on them, and Lucia could also see the corrupted was carrying a large sword.
Ren's hand was slowly inching closer to his gun as he tried to time the corrupted's movements. This corrupted's speed was impressive, and Ren couldn't easily follow it with his eyes, but it had one major flaw, it needed to stop for a short duration to leap again or change directions.
Ren just needed to time it correctly from pulling his gun and firing it at the corrupted to successfully hit it, he finally got this chance when that corrupted tried to deliver an overhead swing from above towards Ren, intending to split him in half. Ren quickly pulled out his pistol and shot at it with rapid succession. The corrupted had no choice but to stop its advances and block the bullets with its humongous sword, and leaped back to dodge the other bullets.
The corrupted finally stopped its movement, and Ren saw what type of corrupted it was, and it made Ren click his tongue. "Shit! It's a Musashi-type corrupted construct."
Musashi-type constructs were droids that were used to control and prevent riots from getting out of hand. They are big and bulky, and would usually carry a riot shield with them, but this one was carrying a large sword and moved with haste and efficiency. Ren deducted it as an oppressor type.
After the initial attack of the Musashi type construct failed, other infected constructs and corrupteds jumped down from the buildings and surrounded them. Ren pulled out his blade and went back-to-back with Lucia.
"Ren, allow me to fight that big guy, could you deal with and hold those corrupteds at bay till I subdue it?" Lucia said as she brandished her sword.
"Yeah sure, just be careful, that corrupted is quite fast, can you keep up with it?" Ren asked in a tone that had a playful challenge in it.
Hearing Ren say those words, Lucia smiled confidently. "Keep up with it? I can outpace it!"
Ren smirked behind his helmet and said no more words. The Musashi corrupted construct used its outstanding speed once again and disappeared from where it was standing. Lucia also followed through and disappeared from her place by pure speed.
Steals clashing with each other could be heard from the air, and sparks of metal could also be seen. Their clash of speed couldn't be traced with the human eye, only blurs and sparks, and the usual sword struggle. Ren didn't sit by idly and started taking down corrupteds and infected constructs on his own, keeping them at bay so that they couldn't gang up on Lucia.
Because of that, Ren got the aggro of the corrupteds and the infected constructs as he tries to lead them away from Lucia's fight. Lucia didn't bother the other corrupteds since she trusted Ren's ability to fight them solo, so instead, she focused on her opponent, and just as she said, she was outpacing the Musashi construct and managed to get a few good hits on it.
But the Musashi's sheer bulkiness and durability managed to tank most of her sword slashes, proving it to be difficult to subdue. Lucia and the Musashi exchanged sword moves after sword moves, Lucia was deflecting and parrying the Musashi's attacks while it tried to overpower and overwhelm Lucia. The Musashi tried to break Lucia's defenses with a large, heavy swing, but it only gave Lucia an opening to strike first with her more agile and faster sword slash, however, it only dealt a small cut on its chest due to its armor.
'Damn it! That was too shallow! How is this thing still able to move at high speed with all that weight?' Lucia ran around the Musashi construct and scanned its body. Her scans detected an abnormal object inside its hips, which would pump out red liquid to its hind legs before the Musashi construct used its dashes, not only that, it also had it on its spine and elbow.
Lucia narrowed her eyes and did another exchange of swords with the Musashi. Lucia parried and blocked the Musashi's attacks and devised a plan, but in order for it to work, she needed to wait for it to take another big swing at her.
The Musashi pushed Lucia back to make room for its winded attack. Lucia prepared for it, and when the Musashi swung its sword sideways, Lucia activated her deadline timing as she leapt off and curved her body perfectly to dodge the incoming attack.
After successfully dodging the Musashi's giant sword and getting around the infected construct, she was now under the influence of her skill, the deadline timing. A universal skill that all the omniframe constructs possessed, it increased their computing capabilities along with their strength, speed, and damage output. Their heightened senses could perceive the world as if it were in a state of moving in slow motion.
Lucia didn't waste any more time since the duration of the deadline timing skill was very short, so she unleashed multiple sword strikes with her sword and energy blade, aiming at the red cylinders that pumped that red liquid into its limbs.
When the duration of the skill ended, all of Lucia's attacks simultaneously landed on its target, cutting through the Musashi's defenses and cylinders precisely. The Musashi took a lot of damage, and its strength significantly dropped after its cylinders were destroyed.
The Musashi stabbed its large sword into the ground and used it as a support to steady itself. Lucia took advantage of the Musashi's weakened state and delivered one final strike, cutting through its neck, decapitating its head from its body.
The Musashi's headless body dropped to the floor, and Lucia unsummoned her energy blade, then headed off to Ren's side to check up on him or possibly help him deal with the corrupted.
Lucia arrived at the place where she last saw Ren, he wasn't there, but only the body of dead corrupteds riddled with bullet holes, and bullet casings scattered around. Lucia followed the pathway where more dead corrupteds lay, forming a trail towards the church. She quickly ran in that direction, thinking Ren had escaped towards the church to find shelter to rest in.
As she followed through the path, the piles of dead corrupted only multiplied but some mixed with slashes from Ren's blade, and along the path of rubles that leads to the gate of the church, she found two empty serum pods, one of it is the physical enhancing serum and the other the anti-virus serum.
Lucia quickened her pace in worry for Ren. She jumped over the ruined gate and pushed through the church's old, rotten door. Inside the church was fairly big and spacious, with intricate artworks of angels and saints that people worshiped and prayed to.
Lucia ran through the church's long corridor, and she could barely see a slouched and tired figure, surrounded by dead corrupteds and infected constructs far from her, but she could see the glint of the Gray Raven insignia on this figure. Lucia smiled at ease after realizing who it was.
"Ren! Are you okay over there?!" Lucia called for him, and her voice reverberated inside the halls. Ren whipped his head back, and Lucia was shocked to see that half of his helmet was broken and his grayish-blue eye was staring back at her with panic and worry.
"Ren!-"
"Don't come here, Lucia!" Ren screamed out before he was blasted off of his feet with an energy induced sword slash across his chest, Ren's body passed by Lucia with a trail of blood and some of it speckled on Lucia's cheek, Ren roughly slammed on the churches wall forming a spider web crater, as he then coughed out blood from the impact. Ren was heavily wounded and bleeding from the multiple sword slashes across his body and the large, gaping sword slash across his chest. He slumped down and went unconscious.
"REN!?!" Lucia was about to dash for him, but she then took a sudden step back when she saw a blur of white and red appearing in front of her.
"You should worry more about yourself, Lucia!" The figure said with venom in their voice before they swung their sword upward, releasing a close-range sword slash at Lucia who blocked it with her sword but she didn't anticipate how strong it was, ending up with her being sent away in the air before slamming towards a pillar and taking it down with her as dust picked up and covered her.
The dust dissipated and Lucia was seen on one knee while clutching her head as her vision started to static and glitch, she tried to wobbly stand and looked up at the enemy which shocked her to the core and her vision became more glitchy as memories she didn't know existed resurfaced when she looked at the construct in front of her.
She was almost the spitting image as her but with white hair, a noticeable earpiece, red scarf with a mix of black, three Gray Raven dog tags, a shirt with a deep collar cut, a faded dark-red jacket with folded sleeves, pouches on her waist and jacket, the synthetic skin on her arms were gone and it revealed the metal parts underneath, but her left hand was colored in deep red with a hovering band rotating around it, a dark red thigh high sock on the right leg and a heavily bandaged left leg, black heel boots, and on her back side was a slightly large metal scabbard with the sword sheathed.
"Hah?- wha- Who- Who are you?..." Lucia stammered but managed to ask out.
The construct narrowed her eyes at her, deciding whether to tell her or not, but decided to tell her anyway. "You can call me… Alpha."