The Red Retrieval Chapter 8: Battle Against Crowbar

Byrd and Amber were still walking until they saw a strange man marching their way. With a black and white suit on, he looked rather dashing. It was Corbin! Suddenly remembering him, the two stood still, vibrated a little. Stroking his hair backwards, he normally walked. Then, he saw the infiltrators, which he seemed to not easily recognise. Blinking out of confusion, he confronted the two.

"Aren't you two supposed to be on duty?", he asked.
"Uh... yeah?", Byrd anxiously said, "Why did you ask?".
"Your usual guarding post is way behind you.", he explained, "I suggest that you should turn back."
"Actually, we don't have a map to this place. D'you know where it is?", asked Amber.
"She's right. We can't do our jobs properly without one.", supported Byrd.
"... You can get a map from the High Leader's room. It's upstairs. Just go the way you're headed to, find an elevator, press "2" on the pad, get out, turn right, and you'll find the office."
"Th-thank you.", appreciated Byrd.

Corbin nodded back as the two were on their way. Next, he put his hands in his pockets, looked down, and closed his eyes. He started walking too.

...

Amber had a strange feeling, and she did not like it. As the enemies passed each other, an unsettling, bizarre smile went up Corbin's face. Three steps had passed him. He opened his eyes, and turned his head towards the two. Within two seconds, his hands came out of his pockets with feather swords. Licking his lips, he lifted them up and was about to slash the two of them down, only to be blocked by the spear of Amber, who looked back. Hearing the sounds of clashing, Byrd turned around and was caught by surprise.

Amber then kicked Corbin away. The crow representative stumbled and backed away, before throwing feather knives at them. Amber defended her friend by spinning her spear like a windmill, deflecting the knives to the floor. She quickly took into her defensive stance as the crow man swiped his sword at her.

The weapons clashed and crashed with each other. Amber and Corbin struggled to grasp the upper hand as they try to overpower each other.

"How the hell did you see through our disguises?!", angrily asked Amber.
"It isn't that difficult to recognise that sweet, beautiful face of yours...", explained Corbin, "As well as that filthy face of his. Anyways, you've come here to rescue his poor, bruised, and ridiculous brother, right?".
"If that's what you think, then yeah!", shouted Amber, "And don't you dare insult my friends!".

She slashed the sword away from her, and stabbed Corbin in the chest. As usual, he split into a murder of twelve crows. They coated and enlarged themselves in dark magic, and swooped towards her. With Byrd by her side, Amber created a force field to protect the both of them. The crows violently pecked the force field, making a few cracks on it. She knew she couldn't use her holy magic as it would attract further enemy attention, so she looked at Byrd, who seemed to be coming up with a battle plan.

"You know, Byrd... I would really appreciate it if you help me out here right now.", she worried as her force field is halfway on the verge of breaking apart.
"Just gimme a minute.", he said.
"I don't have that much time! The whole thing's about to shatter!", she shrieked.
"... I guess I have to use this attack.", he thought.

Byrd stomped in front of Amber, and demanded her to back away and deactivate the field. She understood Byrd, and did his bidding.

"Hidden Gem Technique: Spiked Uprising!", loudly chanted Byrd.

Thin points came out of his body, and through his disguise. Byrd metaphorically became a cactus. The crows rampaged their beaks into his body, striking him down without second thoughts. The blue man plummeted down, enduring the minor injuries. Amber wanted to intervene, but she was waved away by Byrd. Soon, the crows dropped to the floor as they squirmed in a lot of pain. Byrd, now crawling to Amber on his back, saw this and smiled.

"... What the hell did you do to them?", asked Amber as she stared at the physically disturbed crows.
"That was my half-lethal attack, "Spiked Uprising", a new technique that I thought of. It allows me to have some or a few functions and parts of a cacti. My spikes were supposed to deflect them back, but their beaks were a little bit sharper. However, as they dug into my skin, I managed to release some toxic substances, and a few dreamy drugs from my open holes into their beaks.", elucidated Byrd.
"Dreamy drugs?", Amber said as she didn't understand.
"It's my way of saying "Hallucinogens"."
"Oh, okay. What's gonna happen to them now?".
"I don't actually know when it can stop. All I know is that I've poisoned them while taking the hit."

He tried to stand up, but as he did, he felt a little pain inside him. He tried to cover the holes in his skin that were dug open by the crows, but he felt more. Amber wanted to help, but her ask was denied once again.

"It's all right, Amber. I can still fight.", terribly convinced Byrd as he still felt a bit of pain.
"You sure? I could just help you ou-", Amber was interrupted.
"I'm fine!", firmly said Byrd.

"NO!", cried out a voice.

The two looked back. They saw a weakened Corbin struggling to stand up too. Suffering from the poison he had consumed, he shook his whole body. His forehead shone with sweats. His mouth had liquids drooling down and out. His eyes were far more bloodshot than they ever were before. His hands held on to his swords. Slowly, he went into a stance of offense.

"You... are... not... getting away that easily!", he weakly said.
"Don't fight it, Crowbar, the pain will only get stronger and worse.", warned Byrd.
"I... do... not... CARE!", he scorned back.

Quickly, the crow man strode his way towards the two. It was crazy that this guy still had the courage to kill his opponents, even if he was poisoned. He violently spun his swords around and around. His reddened eyes vibrated as he had enough of losing. As he kept making his way, a blackened, physical aura surrounded his outlines.

"I CAN'T AFFORD LOSING AGAIN AND I WON'T! NOT TO YOU EGOTISTICAL BASTARDS! म तिम्रा घाँटी चिर्नेछु, र तिम्रा लाशहरू खाइदिनेछु।", he threatened.
"What?", Amber asked with a concerned face as she stepped in front of Byrd, wielding her spear.
"I WILL SLICE YOUR ORGANS IN HALF. AND THEN I WILL CRUSH YOUR WORTHLESS SKULLS!", he continued.
"I'd like to see you try."

His aggression flew off the charts, as he threw one of his swords at Amber. Amber was ready to parry, but when her spear made contact, she felt a chill run down her spine. Another sword was thrown at her, only to be deflected off as well. Suddenly, black wings sprung to life out of Corbin's back. He flew at her at the half of his top speed, successfully putting her in a chokehold while dragging her to a door. His gut was kicked back, bringing his whole body stumbling backwards.

"Maybe, we'll do this in another realm...", he thought.

And with that thought, he grabbed a hold of her torso. Soon, the two disappeared through a pitch black fog.

"AMBER! Ugh...", weakly said Byrd as he limped, "I hope she does okay... I still need to find Dynamo...".

Somewhere in a completely dark area, the two enemies appeared out of the same fog. Amber kicked the man once again, and looked around. She heavily disliked the looks of the place she was transported to. It was just as black as night. Only a moon and a few tall, abandoned buildings stood over her. No sound was heard except from her breathing and her movement.

"What is this place?", Amber questioned.
"This... is my home.", Corbin answered, "मेरो घर... मेरो पाल... My Dark Dimension! I took you here, because I've been wanting to kill you by myself. Two times I had tried to kill you, and at those times, I failed. This will be VERY DIFFERENT!".
"You just gave Byrd the chance to find his brother though."
"Then, it's a good thing that time isn't relevant here."
"You better leave my friends alone!".
"Make me!".

She launched her spear towards Crowbar... and he took the hit. No, this isn't a joke. He actually took the hit right into his chest. He took it! No blood was splattered unfortunately, as the spear began to darken and darken until it broke apart. The chest fully healed and reformed itself. Confused about what was going on, Amber had her spear reappear in her hands.

"My turn...", he grinned with serious madness.

He threw his feather sword at her. But as she was about to block, the feather sword somehow split into ten, all at the same size. She deflected most of them, but two swords managed make small scars in her thigh and face. Amber felt the scar on her cheek, and was shocked by his power. She didn't want to believe that this was real, but it was already proven. The crow man quickly got his wings out and flew at her, spinning his swords once again. The two clashed for the fourth time.

This time was indeed very different as Corbin said. His strength and speed became far better: they were only able to match Amber's levels. She gritted her teeth as she struggled to block faster than her usual self, but more cuts were made on both of her arms. With her spear, she shoved Corbin into the air.

Soaring in the air, he pulled out a ten handfuls of feather knives from his pockets. He threw them further into the air, and had his hands up. The gloves blackened as strings went out of them and tied to the knives. The knives were then let go, and were thrown towards the angel, who ran as fast as she could away from the knives. They came in increasingly hot, and hit the ground nearest to their target. There was simply no stopping to this.

Running out of her stamina, she spread her wings and took to the night skies. Avoiding all the countless knives, she glided and made circles. Although she tried to think of a plan, she was really occupied with all the knives thrown at her. She sweated. There was no end to this chase. Eventually, a knife got stuck into one of her wings. She almost felt the pain coming to her back. The angel crashed down to the ground with nothing on the ground to lighten her fall. The knife was slowly plucked out by her hands.

"This guy... he actually stepped up his game.", she thought, "And I don't even know him."

She suddenly heard something falling from the sky above her. It wasn't one thing. It was two things. No. Three things? Four? Five? How many? As she looked up, she saw a swarm of knives coming down at her. Everything covered the whole area she was in. Frightened by the sight of this, she summoned a forcefield to protect herself. The entire group impaled into the field with a little of their blades coming through.

"SHIT!", she panicked, "I can't die again! No!".

More knives stabbed into the shield. Amber, with her heart beating faster, sweated. Suddenly, a bright, holy light appeared in her hand.

"Guess, I have to do THIS!", she exclaimed as she aimed it towards the knives.

And so, the light exploded and destroyed every remaining knife aimed at her.

The Inkla angel stood up, and healed herself, getting rid of all the temporary scars which she had gained. Looking around, she wondered if Corbin was still flying around. Having the spear reappear in her hands again, she kept her guard on. It was never known when the crow man will pop out of nowhere and kill the crap out of her. Unknown to her too, a figure stalked her from behind. He crouched down, and quietly chanted a dark spell. After the chant, something grew and evolved out of his back. It was another figure... a monster! Growling strongly, it grew arms and legs, and stepped out of Corbin, who then climbed on top its head.

As Amber knew something awful was about to happen, she looked back to see the monster heavily breathing while it eyed on her. On top of it, Corbin sat comfortably while maintaining his balance with ease. His wings surrounded his whole body to make him feel more cosy. He smiled and giggled without ever showing his teeth.

"Kill her.", commanded Corbin.

The shadowy monster roared as it reached for Amber with its dirty claws. Amber avoided its grasp by jumping on the arm with the support of her weapon. She then sprinted towards Corbin with holy light in her hands, before stopping to shoot a holy beam out of her hands. Abruptly on the way, she was grabbed by another hand from the monster. With a thirst for blood and a deep hunger for flesh, the monster looked at her, and squeezed the heaven out of her. Halfway on the brink of having her bones broken, she bled from her mouth and shrieked out of pain.

"Let go of me!", she cried as more blood came down from her nose.
"Go ahead... eat her!", ordered Corbin looking down at the monster he sat on.

The monster listened to the order, and opened its gargantuan mouth. Inside its mouth was a white, hollow space. With no hesitation, it violently shook Amber, threw her into its jaw, and closed. It licked its lips for it had a satisfying snack.

"Good. That's one down... now two to go...", Corbin said to himself, unaware of the involvement of Liam, X, and Saike in the mission, as he felt much better.
"I finally got rid of that Inkla bitch... Master Silhouette will be pleased."

He jumped down from the monster, and left it alone.

Because of the completion of its task, the dark monster was about to sleep and reduce to nothing. However, it felt something burn from its small stomach. The rest of its organs warmed up. Smoke came out of its mouth, as it groaned from the supposed fire inside it. It struggled to stand up, but it couldn't as the pain was unbearable. It roared out of fright as the colour of its belly and chest began to lighten up. In a few more seconds, the whole body began to whiten itself and burst apart. This was followed by an explosion of holy light that rose up in the air.

Corbin, who was a thousand yards away from the scene, heard the explosion, and looked back. In his view was a spectacular phenomenon of holy light, and a bright figure flying in the air.

"No... No no no no no no no no no no NO! SHIT!", he shouted as he refused to believe until the next few things he said.
"SHE'S STILL ALIVE?!".

Of course, she's still alive. There the angel was, soaring in place. Breathing from her mouth and now enraged, she stared at Corbin from a bird's-eye view. She said nothing. She didn't want to say anything. Not now.

Corbin, looking up at the still-breathing angel, was enraged by the sight of this. He wanted to lash out, but he disallowed himself from doing that. Instead, he pulled out his trump card. Closing his eyes, a dark aura formed around him, and transformed him into something else, revealing a much powerful form than his base or his crow form. The ground rumbled and tumbled as a dark head erupted out of the ground, followed by the rest of its body. It was a giant entity, ready to take on Amber and her angelic nobility.

A great battle between light and dark has commenced.

END of Chapter 8

I didn't see this before!!!!!

Well?

AMAZING

thx

Love how Liam's basically just watching this all unfold because he wants too

hah

He just be like sensing their energy and be like: oh their fighting.....oh... Amber's in a different realm, oh, she might be dead, nevermind then, oh that's lots of power, welp, back to the group

that's a lot to think ngl

Yep

Dangggg

Amazing