6 hours, that's how long they've been surviving…
Leon stared forward with bloodshot eyes. Despite his fragmented memories, he felt that these were the longest and most stressful 6 hours of his life.
'And we still have 6 more hours to go at the latest,' he sighed as he felt despair seeping in once again.
They were already at their wit's end.
Daren was injured again; it was not a crippling injury like the one dealt by the Jaguar but it slowed him down nonetheless. As for Brick, he now looked like an old generator that was rusted, weak, and filled with old black oil.
Rex still stuck close to Talia's unconscious body, protecting her inside the cargo trailer. He and Leon were the only ones who were uninjured.
Kain was also now injured.
Unlike the new Neon Beasts that appeared with each wave, fresh and with full capacity ADE to cause destruction, they had already been fighting since.
They were exhausted, their ADE was already depleted or close to being depleted. They were weak and it was showing as more and more openings appeared in Brick and Daren's blockade.
Sheer willpower was what kept the duo going.
Still, even Ghostwire's cover fire could not mask the openings in their defense anymore. Besides, the NetRunner had been the one expending the most ADE since.
By being clever with their usage, as melee specialists, Daren and Brick could ration their ADE usage to last longer in the siege.
But Ghostwire didn't have such a privilege.
Each shot of the Rifle took a fragment of ADE from his reserve. Keeping this up for 6 hours in an unending siege of such intensity, Ghostwire was like a wilting branch of a tree in autumn.
At some point, his ADE got exhausted, and they were forced to push their defensive line backwards again to directly in front of the entrance to the cargo trailer. The threat to Talia's body was higher than ever before.
There, they made their last stand.
And it was also there where Kain got injured as the Neon Beasts had easier access to him now. The grayish white metallic skin of this Synth was now tainted with greasy black oil, but just like the others, he never stopped.
As for Leon, he was out of bombs and out of ideas. His second makeshift spear was already destroyed. Even the dagger he wielded as his safeguard was now bent after striking against the hide of an especially thick-skinned Neon Beast.
And now, he was stuck repairing one of the pairs of Daren's VX-09 Emberfist gauntlets.
Yes, Daren was now fighting with just one gauntlet out there!
The clash against the E Rank Jaguar did not only leave Daren on the brink on death, but the Neon Beast also heavily damaged one of his gauntlets. As the battle continued, the heat accumulation and wear and tear finally started showing.
And finally, one of the gauntlets shut down, forcing Leon to take on Rex's role as he performed emergency field repairs on it.
Daren didn't have spare parts for his gauntlets, leaving Leon with very little options to work with to patch up the gauntlet for emergency use before elaborate repairs later with the right materials.
In the end, once again, he relied on his extensive engineering knowledge, patching the gauntlet up with a few spare metals and parts that he found.
When the HUD screen lit up, he heaved a sigh of relief.
DING!
~----~
[You have completed a vital field repair for the VX-09 Emberfist gauntlet!]
[Weapon efficacy now at 48%]
[You have gained +1 Ascended Essence!]
[Ascended Counter: 733/1000]
~----~
Seeing this, Leon's eyes narrowed before they relaxed. He was more confident about his suspicions concerning the Ascended Counter now.
Yet, he was worried as he stared at the gauntlet. 'At only 48% efficacy, Daren's combat power will fall even further'.
'And this patched up gauntlet, how much longer can it last?'
Leon's brain whirred but no new ideas to turn the situation around came; he was already out of ideas.
It was amid his worries and fears that he suddenly felt an invisible ripple spread through the cargo trailer, a ripple that impacted him on the psychic level.
Leon froze for a moment; he was used to this ripple. It was the same psychic suppression that he felt in the presence of the Ostrich, the Jaguar, and the Bear. And the only connection between all three Neon Beasts was that they were E Rank.
'E Rank?'
He was stunned as he looked towards Talia.
Rex didn't seem to notice anything yet, and in just 2 seconds after Leon looked at the unconscious body, he detected a change.
Talia's eyelids twitched!
BADUMP!
Leon's heart skipped a beat.
His left hand immediately groped around on the floor of the cargo trailer, picking up his dagger even as his grip on the weapon tightened.
Rex finally sensed that something was wrong, and immediately, this Mechanist rolled to the side, turning to stare at the boss with a wary glance even as he pointed his dagger at her.
Leon's heart fell as the seconds ticked. 'Is she about to mutate?'
'Did she fail?'
His face tightened as his heart turned heavy. 'After everything, do we have to kill her in the end?'
The reason for his thoughts was simple. Daren said typical Trials at the lower ranks mostly span between 12 to 24 hours, meaning that was the average time.
And since Talia's trial started, it had only been 6 hours!
It was abnormal for her body to have a reaction after only 6 hours; a reaction this early meant that she was likely about to mutate!
Leon had only known Talia for less than half a day, and yet, she and her crew already left a deep impression on him. Maybe this was a result of having his memories fragmented, but he didn't want to see her die.
Even more than he didn't want to see her die, he didn't want to see her mutate and become an Echo Siren.
He pursed his lips, his grip on his dagger tight as he silently stared at her. 'Do I have to kill her? Dammit!'
Amid his thoughts, Talia's eyelids quivered again, and then her eyes moved!
Leon feared for the worst, expecting to see her eyes morph into vertical slits like a reptile, but that didn't happen. Instead, he saw Talia's eyes regain focus, clear and normal- a clear sign of consciousness.
Immediately after that, the rift beside her body closed up.
Leon forgot to breathe; Rex froze.
Then, she spoke. "Mr. Leon?"
Leon's eyelids twitched, while Rex quickly rushed to support her body as his emotions overflowed. "Boss… you survived!" The young Mechanist was almost crying.
In that moment, Leon felt all the pent-up pressure and worries that had been accumulating in him for the past 6 hours evaporate.
BOOM!
Hearing the loud sound that rattled the cargo trailer, Talia's eyes narrowed as she quickly looked outside. First, she saw a battered Brick and Daren, both heavily bleeding but still somehow fighting.
She saw Ghostwire and Kain just behind them, both also injured, and also the rows of rapidly advancing Neon Beasts that were assaulting them.
In that moment, she felt a cascade of emotions as her eyes moistened.
Then, calmly, she said to Rex. "I can stand".
Startled, Rex removed his hands from her, allowing the newly promoted NetRunner to stand.
In that moment, Leon truly understood the aura of an E Rank Ascended as he felt a dominating aura emanating from her. It was mild, but it was there- a subtle reminder that Talia was no more an F Rank Ascended.
She felt like an entirely new person.
As Leon stared at her, he noticed the gray in her gray-green eyes suddenly vanish, replaced entirely by a glowing neon green.
Overclock Mind!
To the others, it was 6 hours but to Talia, she had a 60 hour temporal gap away from her crewmates.
She just survived a harrowing Trial, she was exhausted, and she was confused, this was why she directly used Overclock Mind to deal with her confusion and get a grasp of the situation at the fastest possible speed.
The neon green also reflected in her biotic left eye, and immediately, taking all the information in front of her as her source data, Talia made an inference.
'There was a storm, yet from the changes in the sky, it's been approximately 6 hours in reality…'
'So the time dilation was 1-10…'
'Daren is heavily injured, but his life is not threatened. The others are also injured; they've been facing a Neon Beast siege for 6 hours…' she inferred calmly.
'8 Echo Sirens, 3 Shard Howlers, 2 Hell Hounds, 3 Abyss Crows…'
The inferred information settled in her mind, then she took a step forward. Within a few steps, she was outside.
This was when Ghostwire and Kain realized what was happening as from the corner of their eyes, they saw her. 'Talia is awake?!' Their eyes widened.
Then…
An invisible wave lashed out like a serpent.
Data Lash!
The concussive psionic whip avoided all the allies in range, accurately targeting every single Neon Beast in the vicinity. Despite this being her first time, her experience enabled her to use the new ability fluently.
Due to its power being dispersed across multiple Neon Beasts, it was far weaker than a single-target Data Lash, but this was enough against F Rank Neon Beasts.
All the Neon Beasts jerked in unison, some directly collapsing on the ground even as the aerial beasts briefly lost their ability to fly.
Before Brick and Daren could react to the sudden change, they saw the shadow of a familiar figure walk past them, leaving afterimages like a ghost.
BAM!
Talia directly walked into and smashed against the nearest Neon Beast!
She was a NetRunner, but after her promotion to E Rank, all of her stats experienced a qualitative increase.
She was still a NetRunner, but at the same time she was now a beast with a vastly enhanced physique and raw strength.
She smashed into a Shard Howler, and her knee kick directly caved in the rib of the Neon Beast, smashing its inner organs to meat paste!
The Neon Beast was crippled instantly!
Her green ADE flared around her, and it was thicker, stronger, and heavier than ever before. Her ADE sent an electric current through one of the gadgets hidden underneath her coat, a magnetic coil.
Instantly, the magnetic coil did the energy conversion as the electric current was converted into magnetic energy as a magnetic field was triggered.
Inside this magnetic field, the uplink discs hidden inside Talia's coat reacted, and with the direction of her green ADE through the magnetic field, they flew out one after the other.
Whoosh!
Talia controlled the magnetic discs and started a massacre.
The discs rotated with speed, gliding and cutting through the beasts with devastating power, far more power and speed than Talia had ever exerted before as the tyrannical ADE of a Neo NetRunner flooded the battlefield.
Leon stared in a daze, then he realized something. 'This is her normal fighting style? She held back against me back in the data vault!'
She didn't just use the uplink discs and the magnetic coil, Talia also used her dagger as she moved in and out between the Neon Beasts like a ghost.
Anywhere she entered, blood and oil rained.
Within just 20 seconds after she came out of the cargo trailer, Talia eliminated all the physical-form Neon Beasts!
There were dozens of them, and yet, Talia eliminated them in 20 seconds!
Only the first Shard Howler that she knee-kicked was still barely breathing, but with her free right hand, she calmly pulled out her modified rail-pistol and aimed at its head.
Bam… bam…
Two shots and the Shard Howler closed its eyes forever.
And then, she walked in the direction of the Echo Sirens who seemed frozen in the presence of this E Rank NetRunner.
They were frozen in fear.
Data Lash!
The Echo Sirens shuddered as if a large amount of damage was just dealt to their souls, and then, Talia's eyes glowed neon green again.
Immediately after, something that transcended Leon's understanding happened. Talia's body turned faint, then she turned into a ghost!
Neural Projection!
Echo Sirens were wraith-like Neon Beasts, beasts whose souls were made of code and that exist as code. And so, to combat them, Talia directly transformed and entered the augmented reality where they live.
Not just her body, her modified rail-pistol and dagger also transformed with her, becoming faint with ghostly green wisps surrounding them.
Then, she moved while pulling the trigger.
Bam… bam…
With her ghostly dagger and pistol, Talia attacked and dealt direct damage to their illusory bodies, eradicating them within less than 10 seconds.
And then, silence descended over the battlefield.
No more Neon Beasts were coming; the others escaped inside this wasteland as soon as they saw the lady's massacre.
Thud!
Daren collapsed on his butt in exhaustion, then he said. "Wow".