Milo was beginning to regret his decision. He barely dodged another jagged bone from one of the smaller flesh mounds. The Prototype cut the flesh until it turned inanimate. The seams of his body opened and took the blood that was dripping over the cobalt metal. It was nice to feel constantly refreshed and to have some of the damage to his armor repaired. The issue was that he was wearing himself out faster than the blood could heal him. His dodges were getting closer and closer, the jagged edges of bone or broken claws or a myriad of teeth that had originally struck only air were now hitting the outer shell of his armor.
The other constructs were also falling one by one, and metal limbs and parts were strewn about the outer settlement of the fortress.
Milo deflected a set of claws that were aimed at his head. He could do nothing as another mound of flesh behind him charged in from behind, ready to beat his body into a bloody and oily pulp.
The flesh, however, was quickly intercepted by the arm of a construct, which tore at the flesh's structure. The once yellow lights that lined its body were now blue.
It was times like these when Milo was thankful for his Dormant Aspect... in fact, he suspected Carmen made it the most powerful, simply due to the fact that he would be a Sleeper in the Forgotten Shore.
'I should thank him when I get back.'
Every single construct began to glow with a blue light instead of the yellow.
The stray and damaged constructs began to hone in. They were deadly fighters before, but now they moved less like individual bodies and more like a single hivemind. Attacks schyronized into eachother. Momentum was not wasted, what would be a overcommited swing of a blade in any other scenario was now met with a tossed flesh pile. Constructs too mangled to function properly somehow managed to throw themselves into attacks that would destroy other constructs.
The once towering piles of flesh now began to dwindle. The smaller and more agile pieces retreated back to their parents.
'Two can play at the game.'
The constructs swarmed. Each one stacked onto the other. Forming giant bodies of their own. At the end of it all, three massive piles of constructs were created.
One had a right arm of solid crimson, with two prominent holes in its knuckles. The other had a green arm with a pointed spike coming out of the middle. The last one was similarly built to the constructs. It sported an arm blade on its right forearm.
Milo, meanwhile, had retreated to the castle. Slight sparks erupted from the side of his head.
'This hurts like crazy!'
Milo couldn't participate in the construct pile. Because those in that pile were destroyed. They were still moving thanks to his aspect. Controlling the mental load of three separate avatars was incredibly tiring.
'Seriously, anyone who can do this must be insane. Maybe Pacific Rim was right all along.'
Eva had shown Milo an incredibly old movie, which was very difficult to find, and it looked decent compared to today's cinema. Milo had to admit it was still enjoyable, and it inspired him to create these forms. The only difference was that he had no one to share the mental load with, and he was not connected to the forms.
The forms began to fight against the giant flesh piles with moderate success. They did damage, but neither could land a decisive blow. Not only that, each blow to the giant forms was throwing Milo off his focus. Milo began to let out quiet beeps of pain. Milo grimaced inwardly as he abandoned one of the forms; he had some breathing room, however, it was quickly taken up as he felt his leg go out.
Milo collapsed to the ground, or rather, the sword construct did.
'Come on!'
The sword construct swung at one of the piles. Successfully piercing it, the air filled with sounds of gore as his fingers reached into the giant wound. Ripping the pile in two. The other construct, with the crimson arm, finally fired it. Milo could only manage to make two shots. The flesh pile that had taken the shot suddenly had a half-meter-long piece of metal sticking out of both ends. Both piles grew inanimate.
[You have slain a Fallen Devil, Sentient Flesh Cluster]
[You have slain a Fallen Devil, Sentient Flesh Cluster]
[You have received a Memory: Cocophany of Cords]
'Yes... Yes!'
They were winning; they could win.
"This will not do... not at all."
The epiphany of a thousand voices rang out through the air. From behind the crevice of a mountain, a colossus of flesh stepped out. Each step makes a tremor in the ground. Milo wanted to scream; he really did. He wanted to scream, shout, and throw every curse in the world he could.
'How could I have fallen for such a basic trick?'
Milo never even questioned why the flesh pile had allowed him to leave with his life. The answer now was obvious; it needed him to lead it back here. Milo hurriedly looked over at Carmen's constructs; they were nowhere near the size to fight back the colossus. It had grown since their last encounter, even though it had been only a couple of hours at most. It stood now at nearly one hundred meters.
The colossus wasted no time destroying the two constructs. Its hands simply crushed them into bits. Milo collapsed to the floor; he had died. No, really, he died twice in fact...
The circuits in his mind had begun to spark; his head went aflame as his systems couldn't bear the load of dying twice over. The last thing Milo remembered hearing was a warhorn and the charge up of something.
***
Carmen let out a sigh. This dumbass kid was seriously running through all his backup plans like butter...
"Thats what young love will do to you, I guess. Wait... I'm twenty, why the hell am I saying this?"
Carmen moved the joystick and watched as the colossus was in view.
"Stay still for me, baby."
FWOOM.... FWOOM... FWOOM
Carmen heard the familiar sound of energy charging up in his railgun, and eventually the warhorn sounded as well.
ZIP....
FWOOSH
The first projectile was a direct hit, and the colossus screamed in pain. Another charge followed, but the colossus was beginning to retreat.
FWOOM... FWOOM... FWOOM
"Let me get one last hit."
ZIP....
FWOOSH
The projectile has missed, destroying a nearby mountain instead.
"Damnit!"
Carmen turned his attention away from the screen. He instead summoned Carmen's Armor and pulled up the HUD of one of his spare constructs. It was a crude thing, a lesser version of the ones he had now. At least, until Milo destroyed them all. Damn bastard...
The constructs optics scanned the surroundings. It eventually landed on a smoking construct with a faint blue light emitting from it.
The construct scooped up Milo and began to move back into the base. Carmen dismissed the feed, standing up from his chair, and he moved throughout his workshop. Stopping next to a microphone, his voice boomed out through the fortress.
"It is safe now, mourn the dead, and rebuild. I will continue to make more defenses."
Carmen heard the door to his workshop scan something, and then it opened. The construct dutifully placed Milo on the floor. Carmen picked up Milo by his arm. The construct itself was heavily damaged on the outside; its right arm had been torn off entirely, and its body from the midsection down was destroyed. Some small pile of flesh had likely been sent out to try and destroy him; however, the constructs were much more resilient than a human, and the pile didn't know that.
Carmen looked at the door that led to his last resort. His true last resort, if need be, this damn thing could fight a Corrupted Terror and, at the very least, retreat to tell the tale. Carmen sighed and looked at Milo's defiled corpse one last time.
"Looks like you'll have to become my weapon kid, especially since she's going to die soon."
Eva was beyond repair, even with his hammer memory; the head refused to close entirely. Eva was essentially brain-dead; the only way for her to live was for her to become a Master, which was out of reach for now.
The fourth moon made sure of that. Soon, Carmen would have to tear that down...
***
Milo felt his senses come back to him. They were much clearer, and he even had a proper HUD of his own.
{Operational Test...}
{Testing Response Sensors}
Milo raised his right hand; it was massive. He closed it into a fist.
{Response Sensors: Functional}
{Testing Audiotorial Sensors}
"Hey, kid? Can you hear me?"
Milo looked up, and looking at him through a display glass was Carmen in his armor. The man's stance suggest exhausition. He was also tiny, incredibly so. Milo nodded in response to his question.
"You are an incredible pain in the ass to take care of, you know?"
Milo ignored the friendly insult; he was already interfacing with the giant mech he found himself in. He identified a camera in the cockpit and hastily tapped into its feed.
Milo's construct, what was left of it, was horribly charred. A fresh but basic right arm had been placed, and his midsection was completely missing. Thousands of wires connected to the stump of his midsection, his back, and his head.
'You've got to be fucking kidding me...'
Milo tried to move his construct's hand, but it was inactive; instead, the mech's hand moved. The hand crashed into the ceiling, and dirt fell onto the mech's head and shoulders. Carmen swayed uneasily.
"Be careful, bastard. I barely turn you on, and this is what you do? I just wanted to let you know you are still alive. Until then, I need you to wait. Eva should be back in tip-top condition soon."
Milo nodded once again, and he felt the life flee from his veins as Carmen powered off the machine. Now it was just his thoughts, and the memory of his body being crushed and his consciousness being overloaded with the feeling of death itself claiming him, twice over.
No way to talk to himself, to sigh, or to even feel around, he could only think... if he had a functional body, it would've been crying...