Colossus By Choice: Book 1 Verse 11

3001 P.G.E. (Post-Godzilla Era)

[Universal Date: Day 118]
[Planet: Pyrestar]
[Capital: Silver Sun City]
[Location: Silver Sun City – eastern market district]

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The skirmish between the Defence Watch’s eastern forces and the invading Iwi-ki continues to heat up throughout the eastern market district of Silver Sun City. At the very edge of it all along the separation between the market and business districts, the youngling Taum and his new companions, Yun-Tao and Skrill, prepare to join the hectic action raging before them. The ever unsubtle Oxbul forge-wife is about to break from cover and charge right in, but she’s barely stopped by Taum grabbing hold of her right arm; it takes all of his might to even slow her down enough to get her to notice.

She crouches down behind the upturned shop stall roofing with a look of annoyance and confusion.


(Yun-Tao): What? Can’t you see I’m—


An artillery shell of Dragon Element detonates next to them, narrowly missing their cover and completely destroying an upturned cart a few metres away from them.


(Yun-Tao): Can’t you see I’m charging in?

(Taum): That’s great and all, but I distinctly remember you saying that Skrill would recon the area to give us a safe window to focus down Primatus Joa!

(Skrill): I still hate this whole plan, by the way!

(Taum): Nobody cares! Anyways, can you at least let him scout out a path for us like you said, Yun-Tao?

(Yun-Tao): Fine! Make it quick, rat!

(Skrill): Just be ready when I give the signal!


The elderly Radent smuggler scoots over to the corner of his allies’ piece of cover and peeks around the corner; he’s forced to duck behind it when a few stray shots bounce off of the metal next to his head. Skrill takes a few deep breaths again to calm himself down a bit before then poking his head out from cover again to view his surroundings; he ducks behind safety again, pokes his head out once more, and repeats this a third time.

There seems to be no immediate gunfire being thrown their way from the middle of the road, and there are several shop stalls along the right side along the shacks and shanties. Additionally, the heavy amounts of obscuring light and smoke from multiple fires leftover from artillery impacts further up the street provide additional cover.

After taking all this in, Skrill turns his attention back to his allies.


(Skrill): Okay, you 2 can quickly dash over to those stalls along the right side of the road. Keep moving up that side until you reach that side alleyway. I’ll use the roofs to better navigate and scout the market district. Got it?

(Yun-Tao): Okay, got it. Let’s move, Taum.

(Taum): Roger that.


Skrill takes one last peek around the corner of their cover. The way looks clear still, so he motions to Yun-Tao and Taum; they follow his directions and quickly roadie run to some crates. While the 2 of them hunker down and take occasional glances out to take in the current lay of the battlefield, the old man jumps on top of their original cover, scampers up the vertical pole, and makes a big leap from it to his left; he lands on top of the roof of one of the shacks.

Skrill quietly sprints and leaps across a several more sheet metal rooftops before then coming to a rest atop a household chimney. Luckily, the chimney still seems to be functional and obscures his figure in smoke; just in the nick of time, as some of the fighting breaks out into this portion of the market district.

From his vantage point, he can see several Defence Watch knights retreating into the section of the street close to where Taum and Yun-Tao are hunkered down in. These peacekeepers are retreating from the direction of the eastern gate and being cut down by plasma fire from their backs. Only a few knights are left alive from this assault, with all the surviving members sustaining heavy injuries. The youngling Draconi is about to break cover, but he’s easily pulled back down by the much larger Oxbul widow. She doesn’t look any more enthused about sitting this one out, but her stern look tells him that they can’t do anything about this just yet.

Meanwhile, the veteran smuggler is still unseen atop the roofing of the building he’s situated on. From his vantage point, he can see that the ape men have caught up the stragglers and are summarily executing them on the spot; there are over a dozen soldiers currently present, mostly Unblooded warriors with a few Blooded officers to direct them.


(Iwi-ki Blooded): Sweep for any remaining Defence Watch forces in this sector. The rest of the assault force is still engaging the enemy back there, so we need to quickly scout out a location for the ritual.

(Iwi-ki Unblooded): Yes sir!


The white-armoured Unblooded grunts fan out and start searching the area. A few of them are coming dangerously close to where Taum and Yun-Tao are taking cover. Just as 2 of the Iwi-ki are about to discover the pair behind their piece of cover, Skrill throws some loose bricks down into an alleyway to the left of the enemy group and manages to distract them. The rest of the ape soldiers move to investigate the noise, including the 2 that were about to discover Taum and Yun-Tao.

Before the Unblooded warriors can join their comrades, Taum and Yun-Tao quickly pull the pair over the crates they’re hiding behind and quietly take them down. The Draconi youngling and Oxbul forge-wife leap over their cover and move towards the right in an alley; they head around the corner of the small house to avoid being seen by the patrolling Iwi-ki who found nothing in the alleyway opposite to theirs.

Skrill continues to watch from his position carefully, waiting for an opportunity to jump over to the rooftops near his allies’ position; just as he prepares to make a huge leap, he stops himself. His keen sense of smell has caught onto a scent in the midst of the ape soldiers, directing his eyes to the area; he spots several large barrels of processed oil, several of which are leaking. The old rat looks down at his holstered compact, a Pyrestar Casting Y90 Kinetic Draw-String Compact to be exact, then back at the oil barrels. Before making his leap, he draws his gun out and whispers encouragement to himself.


(Skrill): *below his breath* Just breathe, old man. You can do this. Just like when you were a youngling.


The elderly smuggler backs up a bit and makes a sprinting leap across the rooftops. While he’s still in midair, he manages to turn around enough to aim his compact at the centremost barrel and pull the trigger, letting lose a small steel arrow from the draw-string that punctures the metal plating and causes a large leak; Skrill ends up landing hard on his back on the edge of the roofing he was aiming for. Both of these actions end up creating a large amount of noise, prompting the Iwi-ki soldiers that were patrolling around to investigate.

Just as some Unblooded grunts are about to turn their searchlights on Skrill’s hanging feet, a fireball is launched from the right alleyway next to the shack he’s sitting on top of that hits the oil slick, causing it to ignite with flames that quickly spread to the other oil barrels and detonate their payload. The resulting explosions engulf the majority of the whole block, either blowing the ape warriors away outright in the case of those caught in the epicentre of the blasts or setting the ones on the outer edges of the danger zone ablaze. While they contend with this chaos and confusion, Yun-Tao and Taum come charging out from their cover and begin gunning down the survivors in quick succession; Taum finishes off the last Blooded elite with a shot to the neck from his compact and a leaping kick.

The immediate area has been secured for the moment, giving Taum and Yun-Tao time to scavenge the battlefield for supplies; Skrill takes this opportunity to catch his breath for a bit before he getting back up and scurrying across the rooftops once more. He moves up another 2 blocks and surveys the rest of the market district stretching out before him; he can see signs of battles being waged between the Defence Watch and Iwi-ki further in the distance.

Most of the equipment the ape soldiers had on them have been left burnt and ruined by the flames and explosions, though there are some salvageable pieces of gear lying around; Yun-Tao takes a few grenades from a belt that a Blooded officer had on him, and Taum picks up some Thunder Element rounds for a draw-string compact. Taum walks over to Skrill’s position up top with the ammo in hand.


(Taum): Skrill!

(Skrill): Hmm?

(Taum): Catch!


The youngling throws the ammunition to the old man, which he catches in his free left hand.


(Taum): Was the only thing I could salvage, and you can make better use of it than me.

(Skrill): Thanks, Taum. I’ll be sure to put them to good use.

(Taum): No problem. How’s our path look now?

(Skrill): Fighting’s a lot further up ahead, and I don’t see any signs of patrols in the next stretch of road. I think we’ll be able to safely head up the main road again if we make sure to check our corners.

(Taum): Got it. Yun-Tao, did ya get that?

(Yun-Tao): Got it! Let’s go, people!


Taum and Yun-Tao continue to make their way down the main street of the eastern market district while Skrill stays ahead of them by running and leaping across the various shanty rooftops. True to the old man’s scouting, the immediate path ahead is clear of hostiles; only the signs of battle remain around these blocks. The trio passes through quickly, only stopping to check their surroundings and scavenge ammunition and equipment from the bodies of those who fell in battle. Unfortunately, as was the case in their last skirmish, most of it is unusable, whether it be due to battle damage or, in this case, most of the Defence Watch knights and Iwi-ki warriors from these areas putting identity locks on their casters and compacts.

Regardless, the 3 companions have managed to replenish their ammo stocks for their current loadouts and picked up a few extra pieces, including some flash pods for their Slingers, a pair of binoculars, and a few smoke bombs. Once all of this new equipment has been loaded up, the trio continues moving forward.

After travelling for a few more blocks, Skrill stops at the corner of his current rooftop and surveys the area; Taum and Yun-Tao similarly come to a stop to await his assessment. The elderly Radent smuggler sniffs the air a bit and is stricken by a sudden sense of dread, as seen by his whiskers completely straightening out despite them ordinarily being droopy and bent. Skrill takes out his binoculars and looks through them to get a better view of what’s going on off in the distance. Through the lenses of his binoculars, the old man can faintly make out signs of active battles being waged through all the smoke between the remaining eastern Defence Watch forces and the invading Iwi-ki.

One figure is absolutely clear from his perspective: Primatus Joa..

The mere sight of this greying veteran sends a chill down Skrill’s spine; his hands are left trembling ever so slightly in spite of his best efforts to keep them steady. When he puts his binoculars down and looks down at his 2 allies, the expression on his face says it all; words aren’t necessary here. This unspoken information unnerves the youngling Draconi almost as much as Skrill himself, though Yun-Tao simply smiles and snorts loudly; she clearly savours the opportunity to enact vengeance on the big ape now that she knows where he is.


(Yun-Tao): He’s up ahead isn’t he?


Skrill can only manage to nod through his nervous body language.


(Yun-Tao): Good. Let’s get over there and cap that horn drooler!


The boisterous bruiser of a woman charges forward at full speed, snapping Taum and Skrill out of their fear-induced states and prompting them to run after her. It doesn’t take the 3 of them long to reach the edge of the site of the current and largest firefight between the defenders of Silver Sun City and the invading assault force. The scale of this battle is well and truly massive, engulfing the entirety of almost half of the eastern market district; neither side is gaining any ground, with both seeming to be quite even. At the centre of it all, amid the hails of gunfire, a smaller and more personal area has been isolated in the middle of the main road not too far from the eastern gate.

Primatus Joa is engaging none other than Captain Gairi himself personally. The battle between the 2 is a proper 1-on-1 duel, with both combatants having lost their ranged weapons and needing to rely on melee implements and personal equipment that could fit on their persons. The Defence Watch captain makes use of his custom Rathian Longsword against the ape commander’s large unknown kind of Switch Axe; the clashing of steel on steel is truly a sight to behold. Captain Gairi, though slightly smaller than Primatus Joa, is nonetheless quite a powerhouse and is only slightly pushed back in direct power clashes.

The captain is highly skilled in the way of the light blade, effortlessly parrying or sidestepping the ape commander’s stronger but slower overhead and sweeping slashes. However, the Iwi-ki veteran is no slouch either in the dance of combat, as Captain Gairi is unable to land a clean blow due to the Primatus making use of his weapon’s own heavyset momentum to perform evading fade slashes. The 2 warriors are relatively evenly matched in strength, speed, and skill; they’re left to pace around one another and size each other up as they look for openings in one another’s stances.


(Primatus Joa): And here I was thinking we would be met with relatively weak resistance. I suppose I shouldn’t have doubted that youngling’s words.

(Cpt. Gairi): Lucky for me that I didn’t, then. Our reinforcements from the other sectors are coming, and my sector’s contingents are keeping yours at bay as it is. Face it, commander of the Iwi-ki, you’re outmatched.

(Primatus Joa): That’s all well and good. But a good commander knows when to adapt to changing battlefield conditions. All forces, retreat from the new ritual site!


At the behest of Primatus Joa’s order, the invading Iwi-ki forces break off from their engagements with the Defence Watch and retreat back from where they came through the eastern gate. The greying commander joins the others under his command in fleeing the battlefield in turning his back on his enemies and falling back; Captain Gairi attempts to get in one final strike with his Longsword, but a collapsing pillar from one of the large shacks nearby blocks his path. The city’s defenders all cheer after apparently forcing the enemy to retreat, though the captain seems to be somewhat concerned about this sudden withdrawal.

He doesn’t have long to ponder on this as Taum, Yun-Tao, and Skrill finally reach him. The youngling Draconi seems quite glad to have caught up to Captain Gairi who also seems relieved to see the young man, though Yun-Tao seems to be quite upset at this turn of events; she’s kicking around debris and screaming in frustration.


(Yun-Tao): Godzilla dammit! We just missed him! Captain, you gotta let us go after him right now! You have to—

(Cpt. Gairi): I don’t have to let you do anything! I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t let civilians pursue the enemy. We need to regroup and recoup our losses.


The frustrated Oxbul widow huffs and puffs as she stares down the Defence Watch veteran. Before anything can come of this potential standoff, a bright red light that’s rising up into the air catches everyone’s attention. At the centre of the light appears to be an Iwi-ki Blooded soldier contained in a crimson bubble of energy akin to Dragon Element. Before anyone can even react, crimson streaks of Dragon Element lightning shoot out from his body in all directions below him and hit the ground, tearing up huge portions of the eastern market district.


(Cpt. Gairi): Retreat! Everyone retreat!


Everyone in the vicinity immediately heeds the captain’s order and falls back towards the eastern business district. The area of influence of the ape warrior’s Dragon lightning grows larger and larger, quickly growing to a circle several hundred metres in radius within seconds and still continually expanding. Any retreating Defence Watch knights that are caught within the direct path of the electrical streaks are instantly vaporized and turned into crimson energy that’s quickly absorbed by the Dragon Element.

Once the sphere of influence reaches over a kilometre in size, all of the lightning bolts are suddenly absorbed back into the Iwi-ki Blooded elite’s body; he falls down to the ground as a bright red light.

Upon hitting the ground, the ape man’s body erupts into a massive explosion of blinding white light that completely engulfs the entire kilometre wide sphere of influence. Most of the Defence Watch have made it out of the blast zone, including Captain Gairi, as well as Taum and the others. However, the force of the blast blows them all back, knocking them unconscious.