Blackbeard let out a cry of pain, staggering back as the Seraphim ripped its flaming spear from his hand.
Without a moment's pause, the machine pressed its attack, charging forward.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Every swing of the spear generated a powerful shockwave, shaking the very foundations of the warship.
Blackbeard was thrown back again and again, forced onto the defensive by the relentless assault.
The Seraphim was a whirlwind of fire and steel, its combat skills a beautiful but deadly dance that left Blackbeard no room to breathe.
He was the one being beaten.
With a furious roar, Blackbeard took a deep breath and was instantly covered in an impenetrable shroud of ultimate darkness.
The spear strikes and air waves that had been hammering him were now simply absorbed into the void.
The black light around him only grew more intense.
The Seraph's glowing eyes narrowed.
Its internal processors analyzed the situation, trying to calculate a way to breach this absolute defense.
In the next moment, a terrifying wave of darkness erupted from Blackbeard, centered on his body.
It expanded in an instant, enveloping the sea for miles in every direction.
Monstrous waves churned, and a flock of giant seagulls caught in the blast were simply annihilated, erased into nothingness.
"Go to hell, Seraphim!" a voice, cold and full of hate, echoed from within the darkness.
"You will die this time!"
The spear in the Seraphim's hand became a blur, thousands of strikes raining down on the dark sphere.
But the darkness was absolute.
It condensed, growing thicker and more powerful, and then lashed out.
Huge waves of pure darkness, heavy as liquid night, slammed into the Seraph's body.
The Living Armor, which had seemed indestructible, groaned under the repeated impacts, the violent collisions echoing like thunder.
Even with its advanced construction, the Seraphim was outmatched.
The relentless, overwhelming onslaught was an unprecedented level of oppression.
CRACK!
A massive wave of darkness slammed into its chest, and the Living Armor dented, cracks spreading out from the point of impact.
A spray of azure bio-coolant gushed from the wound.
The machine felt a sensation akin to pain.
This dark power was too tyrannical, too dangerous.
But Blackbeard had gone completely mad.
His eyes were blood-red, filled with an insatiable killing intent.
"DIE, YOU DAMN SCUM!"
He pressed his hands together, and an attack combining the crushing gravity of darkness and the world-shattering force of a quake bombarded the Seraph's body.
There was a dull, internal explosion from the machine's chest, and it coughed up another mouthful of azure fluid.
"NO!" the Seraph's synthetic voice hissed, its body bursting into a strong, defiant radiance.
It raised its spear one last time and charged.
But it was no use.
The attack, however domineering, was no threat to Blackbeard, who was now completely shrouded in his dark, all-consuming field.
The Seraph's final, intrepid assault was simply swallowed by the void.
The machine knew.
Its chance of winning was zero.
"Unit PX-823," its internal comms crackled.
"Operational limits exceeded. Armor integrity critical. Requesting authorization for self-destruct sequence."
...
In his top-secret laboratory, Leon, who had been watching the entire fierce battle unfold, felt his pupils shrink.
"I didn't expect Blackbeard to become this powerful," he whispered, his face grim.
"I'll have to prepare new countermeasures."
In the next second, he pressed a single, metallic button on his console.
....
On the distant battlefield, a dazzling golden flame bloomed from the Seraph's body.
The energy of its internal reactor began to compress, faster and faster, turning the machine into a miniature sun, a volcano on the verge of a world-shattering eruption.
BOOM!
A deafening noise echoed from within its body, a sound that promised to destroy the world.
"Damn it!" Blackbeard roared, realizing the machine's intent.
"You want to take me with you?!"
He laughed, a disdainful, insane cackle. "You think blowing yourself up is enough to kill me? THATS JUST A DREAM!"
He pressed his hands down, and the full, overwhelming force of his darkness converged from all directions, a colossal black tsunami preparing to crush the exploding star.
He wouldn't just survive.
He would completely smash this Seraphim, and with it, the last vestiges of the Marines' foolish hope.
The Seraphim exploded.
A blazing inferno raged in the void, the terrifying power turning the world into a sea of fire, the very space around it seeming to burn.
"Damn it!" Blackbeard roared, throwing up a desperate shield of darkness as he was thrown back by the blast.
The ultimate heat and raging flames of the explosion impacted his defensive field, and he felt it begin to burn away into nothingness.
When the flames finally died down, a soot-covered and furious Blackbeard climbed from the ruins.
He had underestimated the machine's final, desperate move.
Its self-destruction was absolute.
He clutched a bloody gash on his arm, his mind reeling.
The machine had no rationality, no fear of death.
The moment it calculated it could not win, it had chosen to take him with it.
He looked up, his expression grim.
Four more of the armored Seraphims were floating in the sky opposite him.
In a straight fight, he had no fear.
But what if they all decided to self-destruct?
He had barely survived one explosion.
Four at once would be his end.
He couldn't act rashly.
He had to wait and see.
Then, a cunning, cruel light appeared in Blackbeard's eyes.
He violently raised his right hand, and a brilliant, vibrating white sphere of quake energy condensed in the void.
He didn't aim it at the Seraphim
. Instead, with a deafening roar, he launched the attack at the Marine warships still scrambling for formation below.
As programmed, the four Seraphim instantly prioritized the protection of the fleet.
They abandoned their positions and dived toward the warships.
But they were too late.
BOOM!
The shockwave hit the fleet, and the warships were reduced to splinters.
A heart-piercing cry of pain and terror echoed across the sea as hundreds of Marines were annihilated.
"ZEHAHAHAHAHA!" Blackbeard's mocking laughter filled the air. "This farce is over! You Marines have no right to stop me!"
With his diversion successful, he dissolved into a black shadow and fled into the distance.
The four Seraphim, their primary targets destroyed, immediately corrected course and shot after him in hot pursuit.
BOOM!
A coordinated laser blast struck him mid-flight, and the huge impact sent him tumbling through the air.
But his new, unnatural body was firm.
He coughed up a spray of blood but continued to flee frantically toward the horizon.
He didn't look back.
He just ran.
Then, a gut feeling, a cold dread, made him glance over his shoulder.
His soul almost left his body.
It wasn't just four Seraphim chasing him anymore.
On the edge of the Red Line, a silver tide was rising.
Hundreds, no, thousands of Seraphim were pouring into the sky, their golden eyes all locked on him.
The self-destruction of one had nearly killed him.
A thousand of them... it would be a death from which there was no escape.
A deep, primal fear, a terror he hadn't felt in years, gripped him.
His powerful body trembled.
He wouldn't fight.
He wouldn't even try.
He just ran.
But they were gaining on him.
The atmosphere grew still and silent, the calm before an execution.
He was truly afraid!
A huge, strangely-shaped figure burst through the waves.
A beam of pure, dark light shot from its mouth, colliding with the sea and carving a massive blade of water that slashed up at the four pursuing Seraphim.
"What?! Reinforcements?"
Blackbeard stared in shock.
He had no allies here.
Who would possibly come to his aid?
The mysterious creature moved at incredible speed beneath the waves, positioning itself directly under the Seraphim, ready to fight.