Ignavus : City of Blood

Act 19 : A Meaningless Reveal

Shanice would never believe over the impending atrocity she witnessed below. A ten meters creature has been decimated by the tactic that they were devised. Natasha Gastano was correct despite of mere guessing on the rules conducted. For them to defeat Caedes, they have had to collect homicides in their voyage across the city. It will become penetrated easily if such requirements have been accomplished, proven on the ground as a definitive trophy of careful treatment against the creature up front.

“Gads, please check the beast for me with your device.”

No doubt, the leader would never get overjoyed so easily and celebrate their accidental victory. Shanice will always deliver skepticism against any phenomenon that common sense could never described. An artificial beast made by an eccentric personality should have another form of secret weapon stored within. For that reason, Gads Gilmore was adequately prepared for assessing their capture straight away,”I’m on it, sis. You can go downstairs now, if you want.” He replied whilst setting off another device from his pocket.

~beep-beep~

The bearded man looked around the close-by perimeter before apprehending the lifeless corpse in front of him. Alike to their own confusion, the anti-riot tank was shrouded in apprehensive disbelief. Its personnel were too afraid on checking its probable sign of life and walking away from their fortification to make sure of such achievements they have attained.

Towards the idle-stationed anti-riot tank, Gads Gilmore braced both hands upwards,”I’m not hostile! Please, don’t shoot me!” the bearded man shouted. As requested, the personnel inside the tank laid no following assault towards the brown Caedes, yet still stood guard if any unanticipated situation occurred.

“the head was busted up. If It could survive, I might even wonder our rate of survival at this point.”

Gads Gilmore peeped upon its forehead. He discovered four circular-shaped bullet holes over the snout and the center areas of its eyes. Covered in green-ish colored blood, it would be impossible for such creature to manage itself away from death after being punctured directly into the brain,”No evident presence of a living beast. I suppose it’s no longer thriving in some ways.” He mumbled in his own thoughts and pondering across the other segments of the creature at his front. There are also scattered shrapnels of the electric-powered bullets amongst various parts of the beast itself for the bearded man to contemplate about.

Wounded up in every direction of the beast, Gads Gilmore assumes no less than death resembled onto its physique,”I don’t have to analyse its pulse. It’s fully dead as most of us wished to be.” He concluded.

“So, it’s truly killed by our weapon, Gads?”

Shanice approached him closely for taking a good look at the beast. The curly-haired woman is full of sweat across her vest. Even so, a smile adorned her face and filled with satisfaction over their dwelling achievement at this moment,” My arms got a bit stiff after firing your custom gun too long. I’d do hoping it’s finally taken its final rest or else I’ll be damned.” She pouted.

To make sure of his own deduction, Gads Gilmore monitored any movement on the tracking device shortly after. He was adding the unique heat of the beast in subsequent manner once they have had encountered the two of them near the topmost construction of Brathe’s bastion wall. It is slim in terms of their body temperature when they met them both within the border, since the white Caedes has fairly hotter composure on its wake if compared side-by-side to the beast’s closest counterpart, but their dissimilar affinity makes the most of their difference alongside the warmth produced.

~drap-drap-drap~

Descending down from the third floor of the Police Station building, the three remaining members of their small group finally arrived. John Straverman leads their commotion with eagerness embroidered on his face. Natasha Gastano has gotten equally interested towards the results, too, for the auburn-haired woman to chase the man in close-knitted fashion behind,”You’re fantastic, Shanice! I’ve never thought you could make it, honestly.” Said the black-haired man in a little jester face.

Natasha Gastano added,”I’m seriously thinking you’ll be targeted by the beast, back there. I’m just pretending things loudly, I suppose, but it’s somewhat worked out well for us.” She muttered. Towards her admittance, Shanice rested her left hand upon the auburn-haired woman’s shoulder immediately afterwards,”I’m not believing that at all, Natasha. You’re a smart-ass, remember that.”

“Smart-ass.... yes, You’re the-“

Natasha flustered a bit against the compliment from their leader, but suddenly goes furious once Gads Gilmore started to do the similar on her shoulder,” Don’t you dare bumping me up like that, punk.” Warned the woman in glaring motion. Gads Gilmore withdraws his right arm as soon as He captured her hatred onwards.

~bzzt-bzzt~

“Hey, your phone’s buzzing, babe.”

John Straverman noticed of such intensive illumination that appeared inside her pocket. Elisa takes out her phone immediately to find that it was shining up by WIC company and its white background on the screen,”Aldo’s at it again, what’s that man gonna announce this time?” Shanice groaned. Akin to their leader’s utmost hatred, Elisa herself heaved a sigh after feeling the familiar tone of her touchscreen handheld, as well,”I don’t wanna take a look, but it’s gonna be important to us anyway.” She moaned.

~beep~

Elisa switched its viewing mode into the augmented screen for their five-personnel team to perceive. It is useless for the woman to do so, however, since Aldo Meridic has hijacked the available flat monitor surrounding their position in the same period nonetheless.

‘Hello to you all, Axeport city residents!’

His cheerful character appears obscure under the white-folded screen. It is a stellar combination of charismatic, yet pestilential charade that the mega-billionaire personality has unveiled throughout the journey of survival game. Aldo Meridic would always pose a heartfelt introduction in every announcement that he was determined to speak out.

A maniacal pitch filled with irony and sadistic conjecture, indeed, one renowned atttitude of the man thus far.

‘I am impressed for you who were able to eliminate one of my Caedes! Let us see the footage together, shall we?’

The screen suddenly switched off and gotten exchanged in immediate fashion with one certain video playback from some battles occurred on the city ground. It was taken from a hundred meter above the actual contest, so it is a little bit fuzzy for the five of them to determine,”Hey, is that the brown pudding that we have been squished earlier? I’m not feeling it myself, Am I?” John Straverman prompt a guess over the emergence of a creature at the middle.

“Yes, it’s standing alongside the white ones that were arrived a moment ago. I’m wondering when would it be snapped from us, I can’t locate drones anywhere at some point.” Gads Gilmore verified. Shanice tried to take hold of its exact location over the cloudy nightfall of the sky, but no sort of flying machine were roaming above them to be seen nearby,” It could be way smaller for a normal human eyes to perceive.” She purported.

“What about searching them by your goggles, Shanice?”

Back again, Natasha suggested one thoughtful mechanism to consider. Gads Gilmore has equipped his handmade goggles for dealing against heat-based creatures and mechanical device around them. It could encapsulate some small fries within the empty airspace by conjuring a heat-seeking visual grid that otherwise difficult to be observed.

~flip~

Shanice wears the goggles and turned on the feature for discovering their desirable objective. In merely one minute taken on activation of its heat-capturing function, the curly-haired woman eventually capable on perceiving each petty surveillance drones of WIC company at once. She could zoom in and trace the movement of every device in more detail afterwards. It has three-leaves logo was imprinted on each side of its rectangular shape to associate its demeanor as one part of WIC company’s property. Furthermore, its capacity on hovering airborne has also been supplemented with a small circle of three-lenses high-quality camera which resembles realistic mannerism from the shot recorded.

“You’re a genius, Natasha. I owed you one.” muttered the curly-haired woman towards their new teammates of the battlefield. In the other way around, Natasha felt that nod with utmost sincerity and applied herself in return,”I’m just make a wild guess. I’m glad if it’s the correct one for you.” She answered in under a blushing face.

~blitz~

Now, the video footage followed the brown Caedes and tracked its staggering movement across the street of Brathe. It neglects the presence of the white-colored creature as it was landed on unreachable position of the Police Headquarters. As the camera constantly shadowed the trail of the brown beast, it should be assigned primarily for receiving the full picture of its rampage throughout the day.

Suddenly, the camera stopped hanging towards the beast. The tiny drone chose to traverse across the north and gazing upon the convenience store instead of taking the follow-up sketch from the brown beast around the western exit.

‘Let me introduce you to the five combatants that I admired.’

It is flying past the curly-haired woman and goes focused towards one of the personnel across the back. The drone highlighted her face and affixed the creased wrinkles of distress that appeared at the bridge on the middle of her eyebrows. Without the blonde-haired woman’s notice, the drone has captured her entire fit-structured physique and stored them all in the footage,”What? That man’s a p*****t!” Elisa enraged. Despite her wrath, the drone continues to seize the five person’s picture and gained them as its own property in the process.

‘I’m apologize to anyone that I addressed, but the drone will act alike with the mind of a movie producer. They were designed for a flawless recording to the home audience throughout the New Pangaea continent. Yes, you’re a star now, women stranger! Quick, create your team’s name or I’ll assign them out for you all.’

Shanice was hushed-up in silence, but her eyes flared against the augmented footage before them. She flickers her eyes back and forth towards the flying drones above them and making a direct eye-contact onto its lenses at this instant,”I’ll destroy that camera, I mean it.” She rattled.

At around the same period, John Straverman has been plunging into utter rage after the drone dared to capture their motion up close. He was gritting his teeth and pulling his own fist into cracking up in order to lessen the tension driven all over his body,” I swear, I’ll whacked some sense to that man if he’s near.” He spelled out his ire to himself.

“I won’t put a nickname on our team, I can’t choose which one suited best for us.”

Leering over the bearded man, Natasha Gastano flashed a squinted eyes towards him at once,” You’re totally an i***t for a nerd.” She ridiculed in rather-disgusted voice. In adjacent to the auburn-haired woman, Elisa shuttered herself with no following commentary upon her blatant mockery, but her narrowed look indicated the similar to the tone implied.

‘Okay, the ebony-skinned one is their leader named Shanice Gilmore. She is now attained eleven kill-streak, guys! What an awesome player she is.’

Aldo Meridic recapped her figure in utmost excitement,’ For the self-assumed leader from my company, I expected top quality of service from everyone in my team, so her top-caliber human management is my dedication of excellence to the product of WIC company in that regard.’

The madman billionaire swapped onto the next figure on the screen,’Now, I consider him the vice-captain of their team. His name is John Straverman, once a hired investigator and a beast tamer for my company’s research division. A joker, sometimes, but you can see why a sharp-witted hitman like him could be counted on the group of the greatest.’

‘And he killed four people this time around. I wonder how many of you will be murdered by him soon.’

From appalled attitude that he has presented earlier, the black-haired man grows even more sickened by his ploy. The billionaire madman has been using them for unpaid advertisement of his product. They were lurking around the city of unknown by his ordinance, merely to become a pawn for his own beneifts. It is appropriate for the man to be exploded after such display.

‘Now, I don’t have time to explain the other three. They have no murder to compliment, so why do I have to? I better get on the pack and revealed what’s what in my game.’

The screen goes back into its white background once more. Rather than showing the logo of WIC company, now the central areas of the board were written up with seven-letters word instead. It is a meaningless word to the perception of those participated in the game. Let it be the former employee of WIC company or the common citizen of Axeport city, neither of them has the idea of its complete connotation.

For the employer and the owner of the game, otherwise, it grows into means of pride and a mystery to resolve.

‘Ignavus.’

Aldo Meridic stopped himself into intermittent pause after reading the words away, then goes forth after a full minute of silence.

‘When you are powerful enough to discover the truth of my beautiful beast, I will reveal its secret for you to garner. In every two kills of nearby human, you can have five thousand bullets less. I have programmed my Caedes to become impenetrable against non-murderer, but vulnerable towards those brave killer amongst the crowd and will require ten thousand worth of bullets to eliminate.’