Elena exhaled slowly, steadying her aim as her crosshairs settled on another Chimerian grunt patrolling near a jagged ridge. Her finger tightened on the trigger.

Whizz

A muffled crack, barely louder than a whisper, and the target collapsed mid-step, a clean hole drilled through its skull.

She didn’t stop. Moving with the fluid precision of a seasoned marksman, she shifted her sights to the next soldier. The Chimerians were spread out, their formations not yet solidified. They were still unaware of the growing death toll in their ranks.

Another shot. Another body down.

To her left, two more snipers followed suit, their suppressed rounds finding their marks with eerie synchronization. Within seconds, a dozen enemy grunts lay motionless in the dust, their deaths unnoticed.

Elena clicked her comm. “Perimeter grunts are thinning. We’re keeping it clean.”

Arthur’s voice came through, crisp and focused. “Good. Keep going. We hit them hard before they know what’s happening.”

More than fifty ECHOs advanced through the battlefield, their stealth modules active, making them invisible to normal vision, infrared, and even thermal scans. They moved like spectres, gliding through the craters and jagged rocks without a sound.

One ECHO, slipped behind an unsuspecting Chimerian and drove a combat knife up through the gap in its armor, twisting it before silently lowering the corpse to the ground. Another ECHO used a suppressed plasma dagger, stabbing into the soft joint of a grunt’s throat before yanking the blade free.

The Chimerians had no chance to react.

One by one, they fell, their bodies vanishing as ECHOs used their spatial orb to remove them from the field. The eerie silence continued for several minutes as nearly a hundred enemy soldiers were wiped out.

Then…

A guttural, alien snarl echoed across the battlefield.

The alarm had been raised.

…

A deep, reverberating roar shattered the eerie quiet, followed by a chorus of guttural battle cries. The surviving Chimerians whirled around, weapons raised, searching for their unseen attackers.

Then the dropship doors hissed open.

A monstrous figure in red crystalline biomechanical armor stepped out.

The Chimerian commander.

It was massive, easily nine feet tall. A menacing double-bladed energy axe rested in its clawed hands, its edges crackling with violent arcs of electricity.

Arthur’s eyes narrowed. “There you are.”

Before he could move, the battlefield erupted.

The Chimerian elites, more than fifty of them, surged forward. Unlike the grunts, these warriors were prepared for close-quarters combat, their heavier armor shrugging off standard plasma rounds. They met the advancing ECHOs head-on.

Clash!

Blades met energy shields. Plasma weapons struggled to penetrate their reinforced armor. Sparks flew as weapons clashed from both sides.

Leo parried a Chimerian elite’s glaive, twisting his body as he fired his sidearm point-blank into the alien’s exposed joint. The energy bolt sizzled against flesh, forcing a pained snarl from the creature.

Samir, wielding a pair of plasma short swords, weaved between two elites, slicing into gaps in their armor with swift, precise strikes.

Elena remained at a distance, her sniper rifle picking off enemies whenever an opportunity presented itself.

Arthur didn’t linger.

His focus was on the real threat.

The Chimerian commander.

As the towering figure stepped onto the battlefield, Arthur sprinted forward. His steps creating craters and his sword igniting in a flickering red glow at its edges.

His movements creating shockwaves through the ground causing the nearest Chimerians to lose balance, the elite Chimerians couldn’t even react to his movements as he cut through a few of them.

The commander turned its head toward him, its glowing yellow eyes narrowing.

Arthur grinned as he lunged at the commander after putting his sword away.

…

Arthur’s figure cleaved through the air, leaving behind afterimages as he lunged at the Chimerian commander. The massive alien warrior snarled, its double-bladed axe spinning in a brutal arc to meet him. Arthur didn’t use his sword against the Chimerian commander as he wanted to test the durability of his armor. So, he cocked his fist back and punched towards the Chimerian commander.

Clang!

The impact sent a shockwave rippling through the battlefield, the ground beneath them fracturing like brittle glass. Dust and debris exploded outward, momentarily obscuring the two titans. Arthur felt the raw force behind the strike, enough to shatter a meter thick titanium wall, yet his stance remained firm. His armor absorbed the force with ease, dispersing it harmlessly. Though even without the armor he could have withstood it.

[A/N: With Arthur’s durability of 131.6 GPa, he can withstand 25.97 kilotons of force in a three inch cross sectional area.]

The commander’s glowing yellow eyes widened slightly in surprise. It had expected Arthur to be cleaved in half, or to be at least sent flying like the others it had fought before. Instead, Arthur smirked and pushed forward. His armor had absorbed the impact effortlessly. The Chimerian commander, however, was forced back a step.

“Not bad,” Arthur said, moving his hand and forcing the axe back. “But not enough.”

Before the commander could react, Arthur pivoted and delivered a devastating knee strike to its abdomen. 

BOOM! 

The air cracked apart as the alien was hurled back like a cannonball, smashing through jagged rock formations before skidding to a halt nearly thirty meters away, its massive form carving a trench through the battlefield.

The Chimerian coughed, violet blood dripping from its mouth. Its armor had absorbed much of the blow, but the sheer force had still shaken it to its core. It growled, slamming its axe into the ground to steady itself, muscles flexing as it rose.

Arthur didn’t give it a moment’s respite. In a burst of speed, he closed the gap, his fist a blur of motion. The commander barely managed to raise its weapon in time.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Arthur sidestepped. The weapon struck the ground, shattering the earth where he had stood a second ago. But before the Chimerian could lift its weapon again, Arthur was already in its space.

Crack!

His right hook slammed into the commander’s side, caving in part of its crystalline biomechanical armor. The force sent the alien warrior skidding back dozens of meters again, its boots carving trenches in the dirt.

The commander snarled, shaking off the blow. It had never faced an opponent who could match its strength, let alone surpass it.

Arthur didn’t give it time to recover. He exploded forward, his speed breaking the sound barrier. In an instant, he was in front of the commander again, his fist driving into its gut.

BOOM!

The impact lifted the massive alien off the ground, sending it hurtling through the air like a ragdoll. It smashed through a jagged rock formation before finally regaining control, digging its clawed feet into the ground to stop its momentum.

The commander’s breathing was heavier now, its chest rising and falling rapidly. Arthur arrived a second later and continued his assault.

The battlefield trembled with each strike, the force of their blows tearing up the ground. Arthur’s strength overwhelmed the commander’s defenses. The alien warrior found itself backpedaling, struggling to keep up with Arthur’s relentless assault. Every clash sent shockwaves through the air, warping the very atmosphere around them.

…

Meanwhile…

Leo ducked under a Chimerian elite’s glaive, his enhanced reflexes barely keeping him from being bisected. He retaliated with a burst of plasma fire, but the Chimerian twisted its body, letting the shots graze harmlessly off its reinforced pauldrons.

“Persistent b*stard,” Leo muttered, rolling to the side just as another strike nearly split him in half.

The elite Chimerian snarled, lunging forward.

A second later, a blur of motion appeared at Leo’s side – Samir.

The dual-wielding swordsman weaved through the chaos like a phantom, his plasma blades carving deep into the elite’s armor joints. Sparks flew as one of his swords found a gap in the alien’s shoulder, slicing through tendons and forcing the warrior’s arm to seize up.

Leo didn’t waste the opening. He brought up his sidearm and fired point-blank into the elite’s face. The plasma bolt punched through, leaving behind a smoking crater where its skull used to be.

The alien crumpled, lifeless.

“Thanks for the assist,” Leo huffed.

Samir gave a half-smile. “You were taking too long.”

…

Back to Arthur’s Battle

The Chimerian commander roared, switching tactics. Instead of trying to match Arthur’s brute strength, it twisted into a lower stance and swung its axe in a wide, sweeping arc, using centrifugal force to enhance its speed. The attack generated a violent air pressure shockwave, carving a deep trench into the ground as it raced toward Arthur.

Arthur didn’t dodge. He braced his stance, raising his left arm to intercept. The axe slammed into his forearm, but instead of cutting through, it stopped dead against his armor with a deafening clang.

The commander’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Arthur tilted his head. “That all you got?”

With a casual flick of his arm, he ripped the axe away, tearing it from the Chimerian’s grip and sending it flying.

Before the commander could react, Arthur’s fist shot forward like a missile.

Boom!

The punch connected with its chest, crumpling its armor like tin foil. The Chimerian was launched skyward.

Arthur bent his knees slightly, then launched himself after it, leaving behind a crater where he once stood. He caught up with the Chimerian just as it began to plummet, grabbing it by the throat and slamming it back into the battlefield with the force of a meteor.

A massive shockwave erupted, flattening nearby terrain and sending smaller Chimerians flying.

The commander coughed violently, struggling to rise. Arthur stepped forward, pressing his foot against its chest, pinning it down effortlessly.

“You’re strong,” Arthur admitted. “But this is a war…so you need to die here.” As he took out his sword.

The Chimerian commander snarled, its pride refusing to accept defeat. It lunged one last time, only for Arthur’s blade to pierce straight through its chest.

The red glow on the edges of his weapon burned through its body, cauterizing the wound instantly.

The commander coughed out violet blood from its mouth. Its yellow eyes locked onto Arthur’s with a mix of rage and grudging respect.

Arthur twisted the blade. “Die knowing you fought with your all.”

With one final push, he drove the sword deeper. The light in the Chimerian’s eyes flickered, then faded.

Arthur exhaled, pulling his sword free as the massive corpse slumped lifelessly to the ground.

“Well…That took longer than I expected.”

He turned his gaze toward the battlefield, where the rest of ECHOs were still fighting.

The battle was far from over.

***

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