Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t!
Cane blitzed along the Border, replicating the turrets as he went. He knew they wouldn't do much, most likely not even able to pierce the Sky Serpent's scales, but they would still hurt.
At Rank 4, aka Master rank, one's defences would be so strong that even the most powerful calibre turrets, such as the ones on the Border, wouldn't be able to do anything to you.
Thus, they could only provide distractions at best. But Cane and the others needed all they could get.
Meanwhile, Noelle's leap had already brought her to the Sky Serpent's head. With a punishing thrust, the drill scraped off a multitude of scales.
The Sky Serpent reacted quickly, lunging forward to bite her as she fell. Before its mouth could close on her, Krouse had already used Attraction, distracting the monster.
It paused, turned, and hurtled towards Krouse through the sky. As it drew close, the Border's turrets began firing metal storms at the creature. Chuck's own automated turrets also began to fire. As they flew out the barrel, Chuck used Hardening on the energy bolts, causing them to speed up dramatically and crack the Sky Serpent's scales.
Abel squatted down on one knee, firing syringes filled with acid. Although the needle points bent on impact, the contents of the syringe still splashed onto the Sky Serpent's scales when the syringes' glass bodies shattered.
The Sky Serpent had just reached Krouse when a devastating energy blast hit the monster's body, sending it tumbling to the side. That was Noelle again, using Energy Blast.
The Sky Serpent turned, now confused on who to attack. It was swarmed from all directions, but mostly wanted to attack Krouse and Noelle the most. This was an issue, since they were situated at opposite ends.
Meanwhile, Chuck and Abel were worried. While their attacks could damage the Sky Serpent, they'd have to fight for multiple days if they wanted to kill the creature.
It was an impasse.
Deciding on a plan of action, the Sky Serpent whipped its tail toward Krouse. It had decided to take out the most distracting option.
What people might not know about whips, is when done correctly, the tip of the whip could reach speeds and power of unimaginable amounts. Some records of mere mortals using whips showed that it could reach and break the sound barrier.
Now, imagine a Rank 4 monster, which scales of impeccable hardness and muscles of transcendent strength - whipping towards something at full force.
Sounds scary, huh?
Krouse formed his shield the moment he saw the Sky Serpent make its move. The shield was struck and shattered instantly, sending Krouse flying backwards at immense speeds.
Crash!
The wall which Krouse hit crumbled directly, falling on top of his unmoving body.
"KROUSE!" Noelle shouted in anger and panic.
Noelle began to charge up another Energy Blast. Seeing this, Cane stopped running across the Border and instead ripped a metal plate from the ground. He covered the front of a turret with it, jumped on top of the metal plate, before ordering the person manning the turret to fire in Noelle's direction.
"Shoot me!" The turret sent Cane flying towards Noelle. As he entered a 4 metre radius of her, she fired the Energy Blast, which Cane replicated and fired toward the Sky Serpent as well.
ZZAP! ZZAP!
The Sky Serpent was hit twice with insane force. One blast hit the head, spinning the Sky Serpent in the air. Then, it's spin was directly stopped by the second blast, hitting it in the head again.
The Sky Serpent was now confused, but not damaged too much. It opened its mouth toward the falling Cane and Noelle.
ROOOAAR!!!
With the roar came a long stream of fire, glaringly hot and too bright to look at. Noelle materialised a sword with an extremely wide blade, taking behind her Cane and using it to cover the two of them.
As the blade heated up, Abel shot a syringe toward it. When the syringe cracked, the liquid that'd been inside previously directly turned into a freezing gas, nullifying the heat from the Sky Serpent's fire.
Crack!
The intense, opposing temperatures began to crack the blade. Thinking quickly, Cane replicated it before it broke and placed the new blade in front of the two.
At that moment, one of Chuck's energy bolts hit a lucky shot and directly smashed the Sky Serpent's eyes. It dug in a few centimetres, not enough to kill, but it was painful.
The Sky Serpent reared its head back to roar in pain, cutting off the flow of fire. Taking the chance, Abel fired a syringe into the outstretched mouth of the creature.
As the poison entered the Sky Serpent's mouth, Cane and Noelle landed on the ground with a BOOM!
Ouch, damn... That hurt like hell. Cane pushed off the ground toward Abel, replicating his syringe gun as he got into range. Meanwhile, Noelle directly leaped toward the Sky Serpent again.
Despite being poisoned, that only seemed to enrage the Sky Serpent further. In an instant it whipped its tail around like a sling, directly slamming into Noelle's body and sending her flying off.
"Sh*t!" Abel shot a syringe toward her predicted landing zone, turning into a huge ball of soft foam once the syringe broke.
Splash!
Noelle landed safely, but she would be out of commission for at least a few minutes. Without anyone else blocking it, the Sky Serpent then rushed toward Cane, Abel, and Chuck, intending to finish the fight.
Chuck reacted fast and planted an expandable shield bubble, which Cane quickly replicated. While the Sky Serpent began breaking it apart and attempting to enter, Chuck's eyes narrowed. As a small hole formed, Chuck called to the others.
"Hold it for a minute! I'm gonna need some time to activate my Mech!"
Mech? Chuck has a mech? Wait, I should focus the big issue. Shaking his head to clear off his thoughts, Cane replicated the pistols in his backpack, making them seem like they materialised in his hands.
He then opened in full auto, alternating between the pistols. They reached the Sky Serpent, and like a pure stream of energy, began to push it backward.
Meanwhile, Abel shot a syringe of harmless gas. That is, harmless to everyone else within the shield bubble.
To the Sky Serpent, it activated the poison even further - causing the damage to rampage down the body of the creature. At this point, at least 10% of its organs must've been damaged.
The Sky Serpent shrieked in rage and opened its maw once more, preparing to blast fire into the small opening within the shield bubble.
Abel's eyes narrowed as well, and he lifted up his syringe gun, firing a slew of syringes. As they flew through the air, they seemed to double - the result of Cane.
The fire and the syringes met in mid-air.
Fwoosh!
The very same expanding foam which had caught Noelle earlier now appeared once more, blocking the fire. In the next moment, the foam froze from a different syringe, forming a barrier which blocked out the small hole.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Sky Serpent continued to attack the shield bubble, attempting to find an opening. Meanwhile, any new hole created by it would be quickly sealed by Abel's foam. Then, one minute was up.
Chuck stood up, and a small module was placed on his chest. It quickly grew and expanded, creating sparks and forming a large, sturdy figure.
Chuck was now encased within a 3 metre tall humanoid robot. He pressed a button inside of the suit, disassembling the shield bubble. Then, Chuck leaped toward the Sky Serpent, catching it off guard.
Fwoosh!
An outstretched hand shot out a continuous stream of fire from the palm. Facing the fire, the Sky Serpent matched it with its own fire breath, whilst simultaneously retreating. The other hand of the mech revealed a deck of cards, which had Hardening applied to them.
Swish! Swish!
They flew out toward the Sky Serpent's open jaws, braving the fire and slicing rows of grooves within the Sky Serpent's mouth. Now enraged, it blasted toward Chuck at high speeds.
Chuck's mech had a predictive pathway system, allowing him to dodge in time. As the Sky Serpent shot past him, Chuck pointed both fingers at the moving body and unleashed Air Bullets. They crushed the scales of the Sky Serpent, leaving large cracks all over its body.
As the Sky Serpent fully went past, the tail whipped out and struck Chuck's mech, slicing off the arm.
"AGGHHH!" Chuck screamed in pain. He... had just lost an arm. Abel was about to send a healing syringe toward Chuck's arm when the mech healed the wound by itself. Now, new skin grew over the open wound, but Chuck's arm wouldn't be coming back.
As Chuck kneeled in pain, the Sky Serpent turned around and prepared to whip its tail back into Chuck. Then, the creature snapped its head off to the side.
Cane turned to look, and saw Krouse walk out of the ruined rubble unharmed. Krouse had used Attraction once more, distracting the Sky Serpent and saving Chuck. Seeing the situation, although Chuck was still in pain, he directly activated Air Bullets once more, crushing the air into the Sky Serpent's scales.
The Sky Serpent roared in pain, retreating further. Looking at it now, most of the Sky Serpent's scales had either fallen off or gotten crushed into pieces. It was bleeding from many places, including its mouth, and one of the Sky Serpent's eyes was directly closed - blood dripping from the eyelid.
At that moment, Noelle had also woken up and rushed over to the rest of the group. She took in the battlefield. Most of the turrets had been destroyed by the shockwaves of the battle, and the people had all fled.
The two opposing parties looked at each other once more, and prepared to face off.
Round 2.