Crimson Renegades: Midgard

Of Armors and Weapons

The high-tech suit hums an artificial sound as Cato and his opponent cautiously move in a circle, waiting for each other opponent to strike.

"I'm surprised that they let men like you live on this island. The Amazons are not exactly known for their open-mindedness."

Not yet.

He stays silent. The water drip from their weapons as both of them continually get drenched in the rain.

In the distance, the Kraken howls in pain as it gets repeatedly hit by forked lightning summoned from the skies by Eira's halberd.

This distracts Scylla, making her look in the direction of the giant monster.

Now.

Cato jumps in and hits her hand with the baton, forcing her to drop the trident.

"What!?"

The armored man hits her multiple times with his batons. His weapons are not mere sticks. They are wired with tasers and are charged with enough electricity to shock an elephant. Even when he is already way stronger than a normal human, his suit amplifies that strength, and each strike will feel like getting hit with a truck at dangerous speeds.

In other words, even if she had regeneration, Scylla is still going to be beaten up. Real bad.

"Aaaaaargh! What are you!?"

An agitated Scylla extends all six of her heads and produces a sonic scream that flings Cato away.

"Gah! Armor! Deploy Negative Sound countermeasure!"

"Yes, sir."

A cold disembodied voice responds to him as the nanites on his suit work to intervene with his enemy's attack.

Analyzing frequency...

Matching amplitude...

Applying antiphase settings...

The glowing slit above his mouth which acted as the helmet's external speaker reconfigures. It turns into a sonic cannon and emits a sound that cancels out Scylla's sonic scream.

Cato slowly makes his way towards her and punches one of her heads, dislocating its jaw.

"Arrrrrgh!"

As a knee-jerk reaction from the extreme pain, Scylla grabs his head, bashes it against the sand, and throws him away.

As he flies through the air, he tosses several smoke bombs in the air, making visibility even worse.

"What kind of trickery is this? Is this how a man fights!?", she howls in anger while fixing her other head's jaw.

She picks up her trident and slams it into the ground, scattering the smoke.

"No, this is how I fight."

He appears from the sand and uses his wrist blade to cut into her arm.

"Gyaaah!"

Scylla grabs Cato's arms with her tentacles and furiously swipes at his body but no matter how much she attacks, her nails don't even leave a scratch.

"Why won't you die!?"

Cato kicks her eyes with both feet and forcing her to let go of him.

"Nggaaaaaah! You!"

He throws several shurikens at her body but Scylla deflects it with her trident.

"Stand still!"

"You have six heads and yet you can't even see where I'm going or what I'm about to do. If that's not pathetic, I don't know what is.", taunts Cato as he throws a stun grenade in front of her. It goes BOOM with sheer intensity causing its victim to go blind. It was as if staring at the sun itself at close range.

"Stop it!", shrieks a disoriented Scylla. Her head shoots out in all directions exposing the true length of her necks. Cato quickly avoids them and watches as she leans on her trident and composes herself, retracting her neck to their original position.

"Hah.... hah..... Coward face me!"

Taking advantage of Scylla's confusion, he kicks the trident down into the sand, forcing her to lose balance. Cato knees her face and proceeds to bash the monstrous woman's body with his batons.

She slices at him but he jumps behind her. Cato then strikes her in the back with the baton. Again and again and again.

"Enough!"

Scylla lashes out her tentacles and tightly grips Cato's leg. Her spines bury into his pants as she throws him on the ground. Like what she did to Myrina, she smashes him into the ground multiple times and throws him away.

He lays in the ground unmoving and seemingly dead.

"Time to end this farce."

She raises her trident for the final blow.

But before she can even strike, Cato sits up and fires small black objects from his wrists, which then get stuck to one of her faces.

"Huh?"

Beep. Beep. Beep

The sticky bombs explode, burning her face and hair in the process.

"Gyaaaaaaaaagh!", she screams as she drops the trident and she rolls in the sand.

"You really did a lot of trouble today."

He picks up the trident and throws it into the ocean.

"I was supposed to have lunch today with my childhood friend and then we were supposed to attend her graduation ceremony. But then......."

He returns his batons to their holsters and bumps his fists into each other.

"You had to ruin everything."

Cato secures her tentacles with wires and then proceeds to grapple Scylla and sit on her body.

THUD!

"This is for ruining my date today."

Cato punched Scylla's face with his right fist.

THUD!

"This is bombing the place and killing all of those people."

Cato punched Scylla's face with his left fist.

THUD!

"And this is for hurting my teacher."

He raises both of his arms.

"Hiiiiiiii!", mutters Scylla, now shaking her boots

Scylla, now a bloody and tearful mess, covers her face in a futile effort to block what comes next.

Cato slams his fights on the ground beside her face, throwing mud and sand everywhere.

"But I'm not like you. I heard your conversation with Professor Myrina. It isn't vengeance, you want. It's justice. You deserve to be heard so I won't kill you. Still, what you did was wrong and I'll make sure you get what you deserve."

At this point, Scylla has now passed out with tears and blood running down her face.

Cato stands up and removes the sand from his jacket. He looks around to see that the battle is over. The Amazons have successfully suppressed the fishmen who are now returning to the sea after the defeat of Scylla.

There are only two problems left though. The barrier hasn't been restored yet and Eira is still out there fighting the Kraken.

"I wonder how she is doing."

Meanwhile in the ocean, ten miles away from Augur Beach.

Eira struggles to breathe as the 100-meter long cephalopod pulls her in the water with all of its limbs tightly latching onto her body.

"Let...... go!"

She uses her free hand to slice at the offending protrusions and breaks herself free. The tentacles immediately regenerate and one smacks her into the coral reefs below.

"Guhah!"

Annoyed, Eira jumps towards the Kraken with all her strength while cutting away all incoming tentacles.

It regenerates too fast. I can't keep on severing its limbs forever and even if I jump out it'll immediately target me. I have to end this now.

She temporarily assumes her lightning form for a few seconds, instantly appears in front of one of the Kraken's eyes, and then stabs it, dyeing the water with a nasty green color.

"Groaaaaaaaaaawarrggghh", the Kraken roars in pain, killing nearby fish and other aquatic animals.

"Hnnnng!", Eira winces as she isn't immune to it either. Since sound travels faster in the water than in the air, the sound of a gigantic creature's howls of pain is louder than when it is above the ocean.

She perseveres to stay conscious and twists the halberd, making the Kraken thrash even more.

One tentacle grabs her and throws her so hard she flies past the ocean and into the side of the Aegis watchtower facility.

Cato sees this and tries to call her through her watch

"Eira, are you okay!?"

"I'm..... fine.... *cough* just a little winded. I tried killing it by aiming for its heart but it wasn't enough. Its healing factor is too strong. It also seems to have some kind of protective shell underneath its skin. I thought this thing was an invertebrate?"

"How about your lightning?"

"Well, that's the problem. I can try and fry it all in one go but I'm afraid that if I use my full power, part of the island might get destroyed even from afar. I can't keep using brute force, at best I can paralyze it again and again but that doesn't really work for long."

The Kraken howls creating waves in the ocean as it inches closer to the beach.

"I'll hold it off. If you have any ideas, I'm open to it.", says Eira as she jumps back to confront the Kraken.

Cato wracks his brain for a solution. Should he go back to the armory and take a weapon that's suitable for taking down a Kraken? Or should he help her in fighting the giant creature? Maybe they can figure something out together?

"Armor, initialize flight capabilities"

"Affirmative, sir"

His escrima sticks move sideways as gears and metal shift to make room for a jetpack. The sole of his boots expands to accommodate thrusters optimized for supersonic flight while Cato moves his fingers in a circular motion as the propulsors on his palm begin to glow white.

Before he can take off and do something about it, his comms start beeping.

"Hello?"

"Hi, hello! Is this Cato Sinclair from the Thermodon Science and Technology Division?".

The voice from the other side of the call seemed excited despite the horrifying situation they're about to face and it threw Cato off.

"Yes, This is Cato. Who-"

"My name is Iona Pantazis. I'm one of the engineers working in the Aegis. We would like your help reactivating the Vulcan Crystal.

There seems to be an impurity that formed inside it when the shield was destroyed. The Vulcan crystal is a lost technology given to us by Zeus, many years ago. None of the other staff here are specialists when it comes to Magitech. Eitri isn't answering our call so

you're the only one we can ask help from."

An idea pops into Cato's head.

"I see. Just one question. Is the barrier strong enough to block a tsunami and thirty thousand celsius worth of purple lightning descending from the sky?"

"Yes!"

"I'm on my way then.", he answers with a smile.

"Thank you!", Iona says with excitement as she drops the call.

Cato then calls Eira as he flies into the sky throwing dirt and mud everywhere as he takes off.

"Hey, Eira? I have a plan."

"Really?", she asks while avoiding and slashing incoming tentacles.

"Yeah. I'm going to give you a chance to go all out. Just give me a few minutes."

"All right then but hurry. It's been thirty minutes since I summoned Siegrund to the mortal plane. Any time now and I will have no choice but to fight this thing bare-handed."

"Got it."

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Yes!", the strangely energetic girl answers his call.

He lands in the large hole where Eira landed when she was thrown by the Kraken earlier.

"I'm on the east wing of the building. Sending your system my location now. I don't know my way here so guide me."

"All right!"

I seem to be inside the cafeteria.

He opens a double and finds himself in a white hallway. Inside a loud ringing can be heard and red emergency lights flickered.

"Go left and then right."

"Okay."

That Scylla..... she was really tough. This prototype suit should have been able to increase my strength tenfold but it did nothing except dislocate her jaw and at worst, I was only able to deal with bruises all around her body. Not to mention she was able to resist the electric shocks and didn't even flinch. Something is definitely weird here. I still remember when we had a lesson on mythology.

She wasn't supposed to be that tough. Scylla may be a mythological being but she doesn't rank so high when it comes to overall potential.

To understand why Scylla's power seemed so strange, let's expound on a bit of context. Ever since the Apocalypse, this world has become more complicated. It had changed so much that the categorization used by humans to separate all living beings no longer applied. Organisms like gods, monsters, demons, and other beings that existed outside the branches of the phylogenetic tree had begun to populate the Earth. It was due to this reason that scholars all over the world created a new system that separated existing

living beings into three groups, Cognizants, Monsters, and Cryptids.

The Cognizants are beings that are either demihuman or possess features that would make them pass as humans. They consist of 75% of the total Midgardian population and are further segregated into thousands of different races.

To be classified as a cognizant one must :

1) Be sentient

2) Belong to a race with a high population count

3) Have a sense or form of morality

Monsters are beings that could be considered the opposite. To be classified as a monster, one must have all of these characteristics:

1) Closer in appearance to animals than humans

2) Non-sentient

3) Does not possess any form of compassion and morality. They simply cannot be reasoned with.

If we go by these standards, Frankenstein would never have been considered a monster. Rather, he would have been classified as a cryptid.

Cryptids are separate from the normal monster and cognizant classifications in that they could be considered a mixture of both. These entities are the pinnacle of their evolution and thus exist by their lonesome or, in rare cases, as a small group.

Since every entity on the planet possesses extraordinary powers and abilities, the characteristics that define us are differentiated into 6 major attributes.

Strength: which measured a creature's ability to lift, destroy or throw objects using nothing but physical prowess.

Speed: which measured how fast an individual being can travel within a set amount of time.

Agility: which is determined by how fast a cryptid can react to external stimuli and its ability to maneuver in a limited amount of space

Toughness: which is a combination of a being's overall pain threshold and its ability to take damage before passing out or dying.

Endurance: measured how long a living being can operate in the face of extreme circumstances

Intelligence: the evaluation of a living creature's analytical ability, memory recall, cognitive skills, and capability to process information in correlation to the number of senses they have.

There's another attribute called Threshold which uses a unit of measurement called Amros that measures magical potential. Not everyone and everything has magic so it is considered a special attribute.

The total power ranking is usually on a 0.1-10 scale and is reliant on the total average of all applicable attributes and the destructive power of the abilities they possess. To put things into perspective a primordial dragon ranks a full ten but a creature such as the Bigfoot is only ranked a measly 1.2 since it's the weakest in all aspects besides intelligence. Slimes are not considered cryptids because, at this time period, they're already considered commonplace except for the Gargantuan Emperor Slime which ranks 6 on the power scale due to how dangerous it is.

Some cryptids are strong because what they lack in pure attribute, they make do with special abilities.

Scylla is only ranked 4 since she never had any outstanding physical attributes. Her endurance, strength, and speed weren't that great or that's how it was supposed to go. The one I faced today wasn't the same person I read about in the books. There is no way

Professor Myrina could be beaten that badly if Scylla was in her normal form.

The only reason she would've let her guard down is if she underestimated her enemy. Myrina is not that kind of person. This situation happened not because of arrogance but because of ignorance. The Kraken too. That thing isn't supposed to be resistant to lightning and it shouldn't have that strong of a healing factor.

Something is definitely up.

As Cato nears the end of his analysis, a voice calls out to him from the end of the corridor.

A mature woman wearing glasses with brown hair and olive eyes meets his eye.

"Here Mr. Sinclair! ", shouts Iona as she waves her arms to get his attention.

"Oh right!"

Realizing that he wasted a minute thinking so much, he sprints towards the main power station.

"Wow! That must be the suit that Eitri was talking about the other day. I almost didn't recognize you. So fascinating....."

Like Cato, Iona was also one of Eitri's many students but she specialized in physics since she didn't possess the Threshold for magitech research.

"Ah yeah, we can talk about it later. Anyway

She leads him to the control room where they monitor and regulate the crystal. As they enter, Cato notices a mysterious glow that intensifies with each step he takes.

"See that? That's the main power source of the East Area. You would've seen it through the windows in the hallway if they weren't closed up due to the emergency protocols in place."

In the middle of the complex lies the enormous Vulcan Crystal. It is floating inside a transparent vat filled with yellow liquid. The crystal itself was transparent yet it glowed ominously, painting the entire place with a dandelion hue. A 20-meter space exists between the vat and the cylindrical structure surrounding it. This space is filled with treated water from the sea as the temperature of the crystal exceeds beyond normal livable conditions. At its size, the Vulcan crystal consumes 13,625 liters of water per day which is five times more than that of a nuclear reactor.

A holographic screen in front of them showed various data about the crystal, its current condition, the entire blueprint of the facility, and other functionalities.

He looks at the data and notices something wrong.

"Iona is it okay if I dig a little deeper into this....", he utters with a concerned look on his face.

"Oh is there a problem?"

"I don't think that impurity was caused by the feedback. I think it's something else."

She nods her head and permits him to access the system.

"Let's take a look shall we.....", Cato declares as he holds out a finger and sticks it into one of the console's ports.

A prompt appears, asking the user for administrative control.

"Miss Iona, if you please"

Iona holds down a button and says her name, greenlighting the process.

"Voice Recognized. Welcome, Dr. Pantazis", the UI greets them as Cato gains access to all of the files and controls in the system.

"Thanks."

Ah yes.... no problem."

An excited Iona watches her favorite senior as he works.

"Armor, search for anything unusual about the Vulcan Crystal. Cross-reference data on its condition for the last month and available information when it was first used as a battery."

"Yes, sir."

Downloading data... complete.

Organizing...

Searching for inconsistencies...

Time table complete

Beginning crystal diagnostics...

Analysis complete.

The holographic interface inside his helmet shows him the interpreted data.

"This is..."

He puts the pieces together, the undeniable truth has now laid bare.

"What's wrong? Iona asks him, concerned with the change in his tone.

"It's not an impurity caused by the feedback... This was done on purpose... The crystal simply overloaded. There's no way to destroy it since it's a perpetual power source of divine origin. Which means they had to overwork to the point where it had to temporarily cool off a part of it to maintain its structural integrity."

Iona's eyes widen.

"It had been accumulating strain for the past weeks.... small enough to be dismissed by the system as a fluke but large enough to cause real damage. The amount of power needed to stockpile stress on the barrier needed to be equal on either side. It's like hitting a piece of wood with two hammers till it broke. The Kraken and Scylla on the outside would've sufficed, but who could be strong enough to attack the inside..... Besides Eira, me and the queen....the only person with that amount of firepower would be... unless...."

The girl waves at him to get his attention, confused by his soliloquy.

"Wait, stop! stop! Please slow down. What is going on?"

It was at that moment that Iona wished she never asked. Her curiosity had failed her and now she was about to hear one of the few things she dreaded the most.

"Yeah. It wasn't the explosions that caused the barrier to break. That simply wasn't possible. Iona, I hate to break this to you but this whole thing was sabotage."