A shrill shriek reverberated across the world close to the cargo trailer, scattering the remnants of the storm close by as a cyclone erupted.
From the cyclone emerged a Neon Beast, a Vulture.
The Vulture was gigantic, almost 2 meters tall. Both of its eyes were biotic. Its wings were mechanical motor wings, its metallic beak was as sharp as a blade, and its talons flared with plasma heat.
Its gigantic body was encased in tight armor plating like armor, and this Neon Beast was currently descending towards the cargo trailer with a mad look in its eyes. Its mad and corrupted eyes were fixed on the closest entity, Daren.
Just like Ascended, Neon Beasts also have access to ADE and it was the density of it emanating from them that determined their ranks.
Just like the Echo Sirens earlier, this was an F Rank Neon Beast.
Staring at this descending Neon Beast, Daren showed no signs of fear as he confidently flexed his mechanical gauntlets.
But then, before the Vulture could fully descend to his position, Daren suddenly made a move that took the beast off-guard as he rolled backward, exposing Brick who already arrived behind him at some point.
Instead of a Geneform, suddenly, the Vulture faced a Synth.
The 7 foot tall Synth stood his ground in front of the approaching Neon Beast.
His gray eyes flashed, then orange and violet wisps of ADE emerged around his body. Within seconds, Brick's body changed. His metallic black skin changed as he used his ADE to trigger his innate Class powers.
With a groaning sound, his body slightly hunched as ridges grew around his skin like the uneven surface of a shield, or a tortoise's shell.
Brick's black metallic skin visibly thickened, reinforced.
This happened within seconds, and the Vulture finally hit.
BOOM!
Brick caught the Vulture!
The ground around him cracked, caving in even as violet organic veins squirmed underneath his skin, flooding his mechanical body with power.
Despite the sheer momentum that the gigantic Neon Beast brought with it while descending from the sky, and the sheer mass of the Beast, Brick killed all of it with sheer power, showcasing the raw power and defensive capabilities of a Gene Augur.
The Vulture's eyes flashed with madness as soon as it noticed that it was caught, and immediately it began struggling. It attacked instinctively with its extremely sharp beak at the enemy's head.
Brick moved his head to the side at the last moment, dodging the attack.
The Vulture tried to escape but Brick was not done with his DNA transformation as his energy stimulated his body even more, triggering new changes.
Suddenly, pitch-black metallic nails grew from his fingers. They were thick, sharp, and black as ink. Without thinking, he stabbed the Neon Beast's armor plating with his nails and held firm.
His mechanical muscles tensed as he held the Neon Beast in place.
Then, snarling, he opened his reinforced jaws, revealing rows of sharp metallic teeth with which he bit into the neck of the Neon Beast!
Brick's teeth crushed the armor plating around the beast's neck!
HUM!
With a loud hum, the portable generator on Brick's back came to life, flooding his body with electric energy which Brick's nature as a Synth helped him convert into heat energy.
With his teeth digging deep into the Vulture's neck, then from deep within his throat, fire and heat spread, scorching the neck of the Neon Beast.
The Vulture shuddered.
It shrieked and thrashed its body, its plasma-heated talons tearing gashes through Brick's body in retaliation but the Gene Augur ignored all of it just to keep on dealing damage to the Neon Beast.
This was Brick's reckless style.
And this was when Daren finally moved.
"Impact Surge". The Cyber Gladiator muttered under his breath as he pounced.
~----~
[Cyber Gladiator Ability:]
>Impact Surge (Active): next melee strike gains +40% damage.
~----~
With Brick acting as the meat shield, taking the brunt of the Vulture's attack while holding it at bay, Daren attacked.
As he moved, his golden eyes narrowed into slits like a beast as his whole body rippled with power and agility.
Purplish ADE aggressively surged around his body, converging on his VX-09 Emberfist gauntlets. He clenched his fists, making the gauntlets hum ominously before jumping as he grabbed the remaining half-neck of the struggling and thrashing Vulture.
The Neon Beast still had a mad look in its eyes, rabid and aggressive.
Daren showed no emotion in his eyes as exerting force, he gripped hold of the neck tightly with both gauntlets, and pulled.
That was when Impact Surge took effect.
BAM!
With muscles rippling and bulging underneath his patterned brown scales, Daren pulled the Vulture's neck right out from where Brick's metallic teeth clamped on it!
Dark blue blood sprayed like rain.
Just like that, they killed a peak F rank Neon Beast that was already approaching the boundary of E Rank.
Daren didn't stop moving after that though.
Immediately after pulling out the neck of the Vulture, his mutated lizard tail swept across the ground with the force of a Nile Crocodile, knocking a Shard Howler that tried to ambush him off-balance.
Just like the Echo Sirens, Shard Howlers are not natural Neon Beasts.
These are Wolf-sized Neon Beasts made of fractured glass and metal, with glowing veins pulsing under their transparent metal skin.
They move in packs, and their howls disrupt electronics. They are fast, aggressive, and reckless, and most importantly, they are corrupted Neon Beasts born from failed Cyber Gladiators.
Apart from the Echo Sirens, they were the Bio-entities that Kain's scanners first detected, but the Vulture overtook them to arrive first.
But now, they were here.
Daren and Brick didn't allow them pass though.
Daren's tail barely knocked the first Shard Howler off-balance when he smashed down with his left gauntlet.
He smashed down not to hit the Shard Howler with his gauntlet, but to direct his new weapon at it- the sharp metallic beak of the Vulture!
BAM!
The beak stabbed with almost no resistance all through the glass and metal ribs of the Shard Howler, ravaging its innards and emerging from the other side of its body as it howled in agony.
Stomping the ground with his left leg as leverage to get momentum, Daren's right hand with the gauntlet finally swung forward.
Before the Wolf-sized Neon Beast could react from that lethal blow, Daren caved its head in with an even more devastating punch with his gauntlet.
Glass and metal shattered under the force, the Neon Beast dying immediately.
But Shard Howlers are never alone.
Another pounced at the Cyber Gladiator, but aware of its presence, immediately after punching the first Howler to death, Daren raised his right hand with the gauntlet again to block the pouncing Beast.
"Kinetic Absorption". He muttered.
~----~
[Cyber Gladiator Ability:]
>Kinetic Absorption: stores 5% of damage taken as energy for counterblow.
~----~
The Shard Howler tried to grind its teeth through the VX-09 Emberfist, but the gauntlet's inbuilt energy shield held its ground against the grinding force, and in the process started overheating.
Instinctively, Daren triggered the Heat Vent Modulator.
BZZZ!
A 3000 centigrade field erupted around the gauntlet, creating a visible orange effect as the excess heat of the gauntlet was discharged as thermal plasma between the knuckles.
At that moment, Daren became Spitfire.
His eyes gleamed even as the thermal plasma burned through the metallic jaws of the Shard Howler, almost melting it entirely.
As the Neon Beast whimpered in pain, Daren's left gauntlet swung again, bringing the dead neck of the Vulture with it, and with it came the metallic beak that seemed sharp enough to pierce the heavens.
The beak pierced and crushed the head of the Shard Howler, ending its life.
2 kills in 2 seconds.
Daren was not the only one fighting though. There were 5 Shard Howlers in this pack, and with Brick just beside him, he took care of the rest.
Their teamwork was seamless as together they took down the Neon Beasts.
Unlike Daren though, Brick's fighting style was more reckless and unbridled as a Gene Augur. He relied less on finesse and augmentation and more on raw power and instinct; he fought like a beast.
With his sharp metallic nails and nimble movements despite his size, and with his metallic teeth that could crush metal, he was unstoppable.
He mauled the Shard Howlers, literally.
His fighting style meant that he was more exposed to injuries and mishaps than Daren. It seemed reckless, but was it really?
As soon as the fifth Shard Howler fell down dead, Brick used one of his Class abilities for the first time.
~----~
[Gene Augur Ability:]
>Cell Repair (Passive): fast HP regen.
~----~
On the spot, his accelerated healing took effect as the blood stopped flowing and within just a few seconds, all the injuries in his mechanical body were healed as he returned to pristine condition.
The combo of a Synth + a Gene Augur was truly a devastating one.
They dealt with the first wave of Neon Beasts, the pack of Shard Howlers, the Echo Sirens, and the Vulture, but it was not the end of the siege.
The siege of the cargo trailer was just starting.
Brick looked back with a stern look in his mechanical face; he was staring directly at Leon and Kain. "Stand back and take out any beast that escapes us".
"Try to support us if you can".
Kain nodded seriously; Leon also nodded.
DING!
~----~
[More Bio-entities detected…]
~----~
A Rhinoceros lumbered from the distance.