Bab 129: Chapter 45: The Shield and the Mass Projector
'Sir Deva! An shuttle is rapidly approaching the point of collapse, and...' Just as Valerie charged their shuttle towards the GBI shuttle and as Rydel leapt off the shuttle to do all of the crazy warping to save the crews of both ships, the soldiers in the command room in the Absolute Being base reported all that they could see on the monitor to Sir Deva, who raised his eyebrows when the shuttle abruptly stopped in the air.
'Lock Down...' Sir Deva said with a low and cold voice, then the shuttle disappeared into the air before reappearing much closer to the ground, 'and the glove...They are both here.'
As the shuttle struggled to regain control and avoid a fatal crash, Sir Deva reached out a hand towards them and contemplated projecting another sphere of mass that way, but decided it against it in the end.
'Why didn't you attack?' Sadie Allen asked curiously, as he looked relaxed now that all of the immediate threat has gone away.
'I don't want the shuttle to crash on top of the base.' Sir Deva said, 'plus, capturing them in a fight is more fun.'
'And you know they will actually come out an fight?' Sadie asked, as he prepared to use the Shields and protect Sir Deva from whatever attack that's coming. He is indeed the ultimate shield in this galaxy while Sir Deva can create powerful attacks from a long range, and the shield itself also doesn't affect Sir Deva's attacks. Honestly, he doesn't know any other pair that will be able to take down them two as they guarded the gate into the main building.
'You guys stay here.' As the shuttle is landed on the far side of the air field away from the building, Valerie turned towards the crew that was rescued from the other shuttle, 'or run away, it's your decision. But this will be our fight, and Cellica should tell you the rest.'
'She already has.' The officer said, scratching his head anxiously, 'you be careful.'
'Well, we are bearers, we should be fine.' Rydel gave him a snap of the finger and a smile before turning over to Valerie who's gearing up with the new weapons upgrades that Torelamri has given him, and the same is true for Rydel. Then, just before they left to face the two artifact users standing right outside of the building, Rydel popped an energy gel into his mouth, as a sweet and sour flavor bomb exploded in his mouth.
It looked like he will be using his artifacts a lot, so it would be best to keep his energy topped up. To be honest, a tropical flavored energy gel isn't exactly going to make any physiological difference for someone that wields two artifacts, but he felt like he is getting replenished at least in his mind. And the mind is half the battle.
Checking that all of the items his renewed fighting style required from Torelamri is within his gear, both in his light armor jacket, the equipment belt and a small back pack. He has the standard rifles and pistols attached, while a few of his special surprise gears are tucked away, plus he has prepared a special move for this occasion. When everything is as ready as it could ever be, Valerie and Rydel stepped outside of the shuttle.
A hundred meters away, Sir Deva and Sadie Allen waited patiently for their arrival.
'I know you are here to divert our attention.' As Valerie and Rydel got closer and closer, Sir Deva has said, 'and we know that Zel is in there, but it is okay, cause our job is to hold you back.'
'So they don't know where exactly Zel is, but it is also strange that he hasn't succeeded.' Valerie said with lowly voice, and Rydel simply nodded lightly.
'However, my want is to catch you all!' Sir Deva said, reaching out a hand and projecting a dark sphere of mass right in front of Rydel and Valerie as the space bends and spiraled into itself.
'I got it!' Valerie said, reaching out with her hand as the spiraling tracks of the artifact Lock Down shined orange and an extended sphere of space that is slightly bigger than the distorted space is completely locked down. The formation of the mass sphere wasn't complete, and the projected mass has no effect.
'Troublesome artifact.' Sir Deva knew how tricky an artifact Lock Down is when fighting it, however, he doesn't have much time to ponder that as Rydel, since Sir Deva's first attack, has charged at the two without a hint of hesitation as Valerie took care of the attack right in front of them.
With the rifle slid into his hands and the fingers on the trigger, Rydel laid down a barrage of fire but none of the bolts made a single dent on the shield. Then, a shot of reflected energy bolt almost took his head off, but he tilted his head as soon as the shot made contact with the shield. Knowing that the conventional weapons are really useless, Rydel is really just trying to figure out the radius of the invisible shield before he launches his first attack.
Reaching to grab a smoke grenade from his belt, Rydel held a single one in his palm and threw it far in front of him, as the thick smoke fizzles out and filled most of Sir Deva and Sadie's field of vision and they threw on the visors for infrared reading. The first thing they saw was Rydel throwing another projectile at them.
'Doesn't he know my shield can deflect anything?' Sadie thought, as he carefully scanned for anything that is flying their way, but there is nothing. The infrared goggles comes with an overlay of signals both from infrared cameras as well as processed layer of ultrasound data, which catches things that are moving but doesn't exactly give off any thermal radiation compared to the background, and yet he can see nothing.
'What was that?' Sir Deva asked, 'what did he just do?'
'No idea.' Sadie said, then, a grenade suddenly appeared right in front of them from thin air.
'SHIT!' Sadie and Sir Deva looked at the grenade and tried to move out of the way while Sadie tried to deactivate and reactivate the shield, but there wasn't enough time. The grenade exploded outwards, sending a shock wave outwards and sending both Sir Deva and Sadie Allen flying to the sides. Thankfully, Rydel didn't choose the kind of grenade with projectiles, but rather shock waves, since he isn't exactly a cold-blooded killer.
'Of what use is the best shield in the galaxy if you can't stop a grenade?' Sir Deva yelled.
'But the shield is still up!' Sadie argued back, and they both realized that Rydel's artifact can very easily penetrate through the shield. The shield merely creates a barrier in known space, a no-crossing zone, but Rydel's Glove allowed him access into a parallel dimension in the center of his palm, which bypasses the shield, quite literally a work around.
'That just changes everything.' Sir Deva said, getting up onto his feet and cracking his knuckles, 'we can't just sit and poke.'
'We won't, and I will show him that.' Sadie Allen said, springing back onto his feet to see the approaching Rydel, and expanded out the radius of the shield like a rapidly blown balloon.
Rydel can see Sadie Allen reaching out with his hands, and he knew he must be doing something with the shield. However, he can't do anything if he can't see it. Sliding the rifle back into his hands, he laid down another flurry of fire just to see where the shield is, and all he saw is a quickly approaching transparent wall that crashed right into him.
BANG! And Rydel was sent flying backwards towards Valerie, who ran forward and caught him. The impact felt worse than what could be produced by a shock wave grenade in close proximity.
'He can use shield to attack too.' Rydel said, giving Valerie's arms a loving squeeze as thanks before standing up, 'what do you think? Should we tag team, or split up?'
'As well as our romantic chemistry is...' Valerie said, giving Rydel a slap on the butt, 'I don't think our artifacts synchronize as well as theirs do.'
'Ouch.'
'I will take care of Sir Deva, and you can deal with Sadie Allen.' Valerie said, walking by Rydel's side, 'we can both counter them individually, so let's use that to our advantage.'
'Alright.' Rydel said, his face looking over distraught and depressed by what Valerie has said, 'but you sure we don't have combat sync? Are you sure? Even with both of my artifacts?'
'Well, your style revolved around dynamic creative approaches, while mine is more calculated...' Valerie gave him an innocent shrug, and as the space around her began to compress and bend as Sir Deva projected yet another sphere of mass at her, she locked it down with another swipe of the finger, 'also, I don't think Zel has succeeded. So whoever wins first will go in first.'
'Shit, it's a race now?' Rydel said, shaking his head 'fine. Okay.'
'Don't underestimate us!' Sadie Allen yelled, as he sprinted towards the unsuspecting Rydel and Valerie, his shield rapidly expanding again, but this time much smaller. As Rydel and Valerie has split up, Sir Deva and Sadie also tried to split up, but instead they wanted to have different dance partners. Sir Deva
Seeing the quickly coming shield, Rydel sprinted back and away from it to avoid getting rammed again, but Sadie Allen planted his feet hard in the ground and changes direction towards Valerie, who's a lot closer to them.
'Valerie!' Rydel screamed, warning Valerie of the approaching Sadie Allen, who looked unconcerned by the approaching Sadie. Her arm with the artifact glowed, and it was actually Sir Deva who raised a hand towards her.
'Don't get caught!' Sir Deva warned, and it was too late. A region of space is locked down right in front of Sadie Allen, and he could already feel it. A portion of the shield that extended out in front of him is frozen in place, and the shield's inherent indestructibility yanked Sadie Allen back like a seat belt and froze him in place. He tried to deactivate the shields, but instead he felt a sharp pain throughout his body almost like he was being ripped apart.
What the hell? Sadie Allen has never felt this before in all of his training, and he certainly doens't know what this is. As he winces and froze in place, Sir Deva moved.
Knowing that the Mass Projector will always give an indication of where his attacks are coming from, he know the big sweeping attacks that are so efficient against smaller groups of defenseless individuals are no longer suitable for combat against Valerie. He had to find another approach, and one of them is to take advantage of his overwhelming physical prowess and get into close quarter combat! With a smoke grenade tied and punctured lightly around his waist, Sir Deva moved with a spray of smoke right in front of him, which should give him some indication of where the regions of Lock Down is. Seeing smoke that's always twirling and moving froze in place is a dead giveaway, and Sir Deva should be able to maneuver around it.
There it is! Sir Deva spun around a column of Lock Down right as it is about to form, and got even closer towards Valerie. He realized that just as his very own artifact, Lock Down also has a certain wind up time, though it is much shorter than his, that time still existed nonetheless.
Valerie quickly projected a few zones of Lock Down over Sir Deva, but his path of running is too erratic and he is moving too fast for her to properly aim. Unlike Sadie Allen, who's shield forms globally around him, Valerie can only lock down a small region of space at any one time. And with Sir Deva already in front of him and swinging a forearm into her body, Valerie pulled out a pistol and shot into Sir Deva's shoulder in the same time!
The swing hit Valerie right in the stomach like a freight train despite her effort to reduce the impact with one of her arms. She lost control of the region of Lock Down that held Sadie Allen in place, and Rydel reached out to catch her gently with the Glove before putting her back on the ground next to him.
Meanwhile, the pistol that Valerie pulled out fired out a short black rod that found itself dug deep into Sir Deva's armor, and the impact sent him back a step. It wasn't any ordinary pistol and ammo, but it still doesn't have enough energy in it to damage Sir Deva. There might have been a small bruise, but that will be it.
'Are you okay?' Rydel asked.
'Yeah, just take care of your man.' Valerie said, 'Don't let him run towards me like that again.'
'My bad my bad...' Rydel rolled his eyes and ran towards Sadie Allen and slapping Valerie on her round muscular butt as he went past, 'oops.'
'Cheeky.' Valerie said, facing Sir Deva once more Despite what she said, Sir Deva's punch does pack...quite a punch. Her arm that was held in front was the artifact arm, and the innate protective mechanical properties of the artifact has protected her from the worst of it, and yet her arms are still shaken by the amount of force Sir Deva outputted. And that was just a swing of his arms.
The match up turns out to not be as easy as it seems in the end.
'Sir Deva!' Sadie said, 'should we still switch?'
'No, not anymore.' Sir Deva said, waving Sadie Allen away, 'perhaps this isn't a bad match up in the end.'
Then, as Sadie Allen backed away to face an approaching Rydel, Sir Deva faces Valerie once again. A new strategy will have to be used by them two if they would want to win a clean fight. Thankfully, Sir Deva already found an approach that works. It appeared that despite all of Valerie appearances of control of Lock Down, Sir Deva might still be able to take advantage of his physicality in close quarter combat.
'Alright.' Sadie Allen nodded and left Sir Deva as he side steps gradually away from both him and Valerie. His objective is to try to delay Rydel as long as he can. The intel they have is that Rydel may be the single most potent artifact users, the only one alive that possessed two artifacts, the second one being the Lightning Rod. Realistically, there is no way that Sadie can truly defeat Rydel with how his powers can actually go through the shield by warping whatever things he is throwing directly in the space he was aiming for. However, that does not mean Sadie doesn't stand a chance.
However, to find out how he might be able to overcome the poor match up, like Sir Deva just know, Sadie will have to try a few things. Looking carefully at Rydel, Sadie focused especially on how he moves, the rhythm of his steps and the sway of his body. Then, at the time of his choosing Sadie charged at Rydel, keeping the radius of the shield to be as close to his body as possible, thus reducing the amount of space that Rydel will be able to attack through with the glove.
Seeing the charge of Sadie, Rydel paddled backwards at a slower speed, reaching into his pocket and grabbing a shock wave grenade. Hitting a much smaller target that's moving is far more difficult, and Rydel wasn't sure if he can actually hit the target. Reaching out his hand and sensing the distortion and shapes in space with the Glove, Rydel released the grenade at a distance that's a fraction further.
The grenade made its way through, however, it was in the space that Sadie Allen once was at, but not anymore. Taking gigantic quick strides towards Rydel and closing the gaps between them at an even faster rate, Rydel knew he missed and has to take out yet another shockwave grenade, this time sneakily dropping in on the ground right beneath him. Then, he started running.
The first shock wave grenade exploded from right behind Sadie Allen, and its impact instead pushed him towards Rydel with a slight shove. Learning from the traps that was laid down by Torelamri, Sadie Allen carefully scanned for the environment as he ran over the area that Rydel was on just now, though knowing the powers Rydel's two artifacts give, he doubt he will be trapped in a time flow death spear. Instead, he spotted the shock wave grenade that was dropped on the ground.
Instead of evading to the side, Sadie Allen stomped the ground hard and went directly over it before it explodes, and he surfed the second shock wave as he crashed into Rydel!
Manifesting the blade that is the Lightning Rod from his right hand, planting his feet hard into the ground, Rydel spun his body around and swung the blade, clashing it right against the surface of the shield with a loud bang that sounded like a thunder cracking in the distance. A storm of electricity flooded outwards, zapping everything around and altering the smell of the artificial air on the orbital ring through chemical reactions. The electricity branches out from the 'Lightning Blade' and covered the surface of the shield, yet the more defensive artifact does not give away a single inch in this colossal clash, reflecting all of the storms of electricity back into Rydel.
Rydel screamed as he put all of his strength into block Sadie Allen's attack, as he had both him on the body of the blade with Sadie Allen placing both hands on the surface of the Shield. Finally, Sadie Allen dropped back onto his feet from mid air after the second shock wave grenade sent him flying and Rydel was able find his footing with getting hit overly hard.
'You are not invincible.' Sadie said with new found confidence, 'but I thought you were from your resume, a man that walked alone, and the one that gathers the powers of two artifacts onto himself. I have seen your tricks.'
'Well, it looked like it's time to update my resume then.' Rydel replied, his eyes locked onto Sadie Allen, 'you ain't seeing nothing yet.'
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone