//------------------------------// // Chapter 59 // Story: 64 vs. The Underground // by Jman9877 //------------------------------// 64 vs. Aurum Part 2 3rd Person POV 64 watched Aurum rush towards King Blackbeak, with obvious intent to kill. The Guards looked oblivious, as if they didn't see their Captain about to behead their king. Time slowed down in 64's eyes, as he began to see everything around him. Dolus was cradling her injured leg, being held up by two Gryphon Guards. The bullet wound didn't make an exit wound, meaning she would need immediate medical attention or else there could be complications in the future. Novus was being held on the ground, a guard on top of each of his legs, along with one guard his his talons around his horn. If Novus jerked around or struggled in anyway, his horn would snap, and those took forever to grow back. Frenzy was cowering in his chair, his hooves thrown over his head and his eyes clenched shut. This was the first time he had seen actual unwarranted violence happening, and worst of all he felt as if he could do absolutely nothing. He couldn't move, he couldn't help fight, and he couldn't protect himself. All he was was a scholar, not a warrior. Aurum had a crazed look on his face, the Crown giving him the kind of look a mad king would give to his subjects. He was the one contacting the bodyguards everyday. He was the one making them go on wild goose chases to perform these tasks, all so he could usurp the Throne. Blackbeak eyes widened at the sight of the Captain of his Royal Guard rushing towards him, with his own sword no less. Blackbeak instinctively went to grab his sword from his scabbard, but only found emptiness where a handle was supposed to be. It was in the hands of his assailant. 64 knew that if that blade hit Blackbeak in anyway, these Non-Aggression talks would go down the toilet. Not that there was any where else they could go in the state they were in. He had to stop Aurum from killing Blackbeak. He started to charge his arms with magic, causing them to burn the talons of the Guards holding them down. The instant his arms were free, 64 cast a barrier of magic around Blackbeak, causing Aurum to crash into it. "He's attacking the King! Stop him!" 64 yelled, pointing at Aurum. None of the guards surrounding 64 moved an inch, and Aurum's laughter filled the room. "Oh 64... do you think I would pull this little stunt if I didn't have the loyalty of all the guards in this room? One of the best perks of being the Captain of the Royal Gryphon Guard is having the ability to select each and every guard for an individual assignment. It just so happened that the all of the ones loyal to me just happened top be in this room." Aurum explained, getting up from the floor. "Each of these guards is under my control now, willingly might I add. Right boys?" "YES YOUR HIGHNESS!" They all shouted, causing 64 to narrow his eyes. Novus was still being restrained, but if 64 released him, he might be able to help him deal with the guards. Dolus on the other hand was out, not being able to do much with a bullet hole through her leg. 64 had to think quick, or else everyone in this room would be dead. Conjuring a Long sword in one hand and flames in the other, 64 looked around him to see who was going to strike first. He saw that no one was going to move unless he made the first move, looking around to see what he could use. 64 reached out with his magic and grabbed Blackbeak's seat, using it to smash the back of an unsuspecting Guard. When his partner next to him turned to see what happened, 64 rushed forward and delivered his knee in the guards beak, sending his smashing into the wall behind him. 64 ducked to avoid being impaled in the back of the head, seeing a Halberd's pike where his head was moments ago. He reached up and grabbed the blade, using it to throw the Gryphon still holding onto the handle over his shoulder. Once he was on the ground in front of him, 64 stomped his foot onto his chest to make sure he stayed down. "Guards! Subdue Project 64 at all costs!" Aurum ordered, still attacking the magical barrier surrounding Blackbeak. The guards holding up Dolus dropped her to go after 64, causing her to go crashing to the ground with a painful yelp. "Come at me yourself why don't you!?" 64 taunted, grabbing the foreleg of a Gryphon attempting to slash him with a halberd and snapping it at the elbow. "Or are you afraid I'll beat you into next year!?". Aurum didn't respond, instead focusing on trying to break the magic barrier. A pair of guards attempted to stab 64 in the back, only to be deterred the handles of their blades being sliced in half. 64 decided to go on the offensive and lunged at a guard with his sword, managing to stab the Gryphon through his shoulder. The Gryphon screamed in pain as he was lifted into the air by the blade, and swung around as 64 turned to face his other attackers. With the Gryphon still stabbed on his blade, 64 held his sword outwards as guards tried to attack him, instead attacking the poor Guard being used as a shield. When the guards realized their mistake, they recoiled with mortified yells, giving 64 the window of time needed to dispel the sword and rush forward. Dolus looked up from her position on the ground, and through blurry vision she watched as 64 managed to rend a Gryphon's head from his neck. As the gore from the attack spurted out of the deceased gryphon, she suddenly felt sick to her stomach. The reason she often fought from the shadows was because she could never handle the sight of blood. She always managed to incapacitate her enemies with poisons, or even performing quick actions such as snapping their necks. Seeing 64 just... create so much death with such barbaric actions... she couldn't believe that he was capable of such things. 64's eyes were now red as he managed to send his magic infused fist through the chest of an armored Gryphon, his clenched fist sticking out of his back covered in feathers bones and blood. As he pulled his hand out, he turned and saw that none of the other guards were willing to attack him. They all stood around him with the weapons pointed at him, but they were shaky, nervous, and downright scared for their lives. "Blackbeak!" 64 growled, his voice raspy and deep. "The lives of these Gryphons are in your talons! They are traitors to your kingdom, and are followers of Aurum! Do you forfeit their lives!?" "Without a doubt! Do what you must!" Blackbeak answered, scowling at Aurum who stopped attacking the barrier and turned towards 64. The human charged his arms with magic and zoomed forwards the the Gryphon directly ahead of him, causing the Gryphon the scream and attempt to flee. With a sickening crunch, 64's hands wrapped around his neck, completely shattering the bones inside. Not skipping a beat, 64 gripped the dead Gryphon's neck and spun him around, throwing him towards the nearest guard before attacking. Frenzy was still cowering in his chair, his eyes shut tight and hooves over his head. He was absolutely terrified at the noises being made in the room, and refused to watch the developments happening. 64 was acting monstrous, a savage grin on his face as he snapped the spine of another poor Gryphon guard. The screams were enough to cause Frenzy to clench his teeth in fear, hoping that the screams would stop. The guards holding Novus down looked at each other and nodded, all getting off of the changeling and rushing towards the door. A crazed 64 turned his head and saw them trying to run, but charged magic in his hand and sent a large blast of flame at the ground in front of them. As they fled, the ground exploded around them, causing all of them to explode in a blast of gore and flames. Not a single guard was left in the room... All of them were successfully decimated by 64. He was breathing heavily, his chest heaving in and out as the flames on his arms continued to burn. Aurum glared at him, standing next to the protected Blackbeak. "So... Equestria finally managed to create something I thought they wouldn't be able to..." Aurum grunted, his Golden armor glowing a bright yellow at this point. "And what was that?" 64 growled, not turning around to look at him. "A killer." A pause followed his words, allowing 64 to slowly turn around, giving no sign that the flames starting to engulf him were going to die down. "Well then I guess we're both on the bad side of the moral scale. I just have to ask you one question... why the hell did you make us do all of those ridiculous tasks?" "Well, let's start from the beginning. When you arrived in Volaticus, I needed a way to make sure I could contact you without getting my talons dirty. Thankfully you and Frenzy were both so willing to hand over your bags to me for an inspection." Aurum explained. "After that, it was quite simple. You, Novus, and Dolus were looking for ways to steal secrets from Ethaxial. So, I simply gave the means to collect them." "What reasons were needed for getting rid of 2 guards?" Aurum chuckled, rubbing his chin with a talon. "Those 2 guards... it's ironic that you were the ones who managed to get rid of them now that you are trying to stop me..." "JUST FUCKING TELL ME!" 64 yelled in anger, the flames on his arms flowing over onto his hands. "Hmph. Those 2 guards were going to sell me out to Blackbeak before I could do anything about it. They were the only one's knew of my plans, yet weren't willing to participate. Thankfully, you managed to dispose of them quite nicely." Aurum taunted, before his armor exploded in yet another burst of yellow magic. "That's it! You're fucking dead!" 64 bellowed, rushing towards Aurum. The Gryphon steadied himself and concentrated, as a ball of yellow magic began to form in front of him. 64 lept up and attempted to stomp on Aurum's head, but the Gryphon aimed and fired the yellow ball of magic at 64, the beam of light headed right at him. 64 saw the beam headed towards him and shot a blast of magic while he was in the air, countering the magic with flames of his own. When Aurum saw that 64 was undeterred, he jumped into the air and hovered as 64's foot stomped on the ground, creating large cracks in the cement floor. Without skipping a beat after he landed, 64 ran towards the wall in front of him and run halfway up, before launching himself off the wall in attempt to grab Aurum and pull him out of the air. The gryphon flew left to avoid 64's grasping hand, but as 64 landed on the ground he turned and formed a Javelin in his hand. The fiery spear shot towards Aurum and managed to hit, but the magic dissipated against his armor. Aurum laughed, "My armor at the level drains the magic from any attack sent at me! And all your attacks are based on magic!" "Not all of them!" 64 refuted, picking up one of the Halberd's the fallen guards had dropped and jumping up towards Aurum. Aurum zoomed back onto the ground and launched himself up at 64, tackling him out of midair and onto the floor. Aurum pulled out Blackbeak's sword and attempted to stab it into 64's neck, making 64 throw his hands up and grab the blade in his hands. Thanks to the metal plating Grey Streak put into his hands, the only part of 64 that was injured were his palms, but it caused the blade to be covered in his blood, making it very slippery. Gripping as hard as he could, 64 held the blade just above his neck, but Aurum was jerking the blade downward to try and stab him. "Don't worry Project 64! I'll make this quick!" Aurum growled. 64 was trying to use magic to augment himself, but Aurum's armor was absorbing any magic he was trying to output. Thanks to the blood on 64's hands, the blade slowly started to slide downwards towards his throat, causing him to grunt in exertion. "Just a moment!" "GET OFF OF HIM!" Novus ran at Aurum and tackled him from the side, sending the Gryphon sprawling onto the floor, allowing 64 to get up and channel magic once again. Using it to quickly repair the damage to his hands, he looked over and saw Novus trying wrestle Aurum to the ground. The Gryphon sent a punch into the changelings cheek, giving him the time to wrap his talons around his neck. 64 ran over with the Halberd in both of his hands, the pike end pointed directly at Aurum's mid center. The pike connected, but instead of the point going straight through Aurum's chest, the point broke against his armor. "YOU AND YOUR FUCKING ARMOR!" 64 screamed, sending his foot into the side of Aurum's head. The gryphon stumbled off of the changeling and lashed at 64 with his talons forcing the human to jump backwards in defense. He wouldn't be able to do anything unless his armor stopped braining magic like it was, so 64 started to think of ways to do so. The answer hit him like a ton of bricks, but the challenging part would be getting him there. "FRENZY! WE'RE GETTING OUT OF HERE!" 64 grabbed Frenzy in a magical grasp and pulled him into a near bridal style carry, motioning at Novus, "You! Grab Dolus! Illudere, Vulnus! You both have 4 legs that aren't broken! Run!" The human ran towards the exit with his entire body charged with magic, allowing him to burst through the door in an explosion of dust and magic. He looked behind him and saw that Aurum was flying after him, which was exactly what he wanted. He didn't waste any time trying to stay ahead of the Gryphon, smashing through walls, bowling over guards, and doing anything he could to just get where he needed to go quicker. "I NEVER TOOK YOU FOR A COWARD 64! NOW LOOK AT YOU! RUNNING AWAY FROM YOUR IMMINENT DEMISE!" Aurum taunted, zooming after the fleeing human and having some difficulty keeping up. 64 was trying to get the fuck out of the castle, and was headed straight for the drawbridge exit. Finally, 64 reached the Castle Main Entrance, remembering the large entrance room. Not wasting a second, 64 smashed through the large double doors and ran towards the drawbridge, seeing that it was still up. Using his magic, he began to lower it slowly as he made his final approach. "Hold on tight Frenzy!" 64 ordered, as he began to run up the still lowering drawbridge. With a final leap, 64 jumped across the remain portion of the moat, successfully landing on the other side onto his back. Frenzy was curled up in his chest shaking like crazy, but 64 shoved him off and got up. It wasn't over yet. Aurum watched as 64 jumped across the moat, his armor glowing even brighter in anger. He zoomed faster and faster towards the human, prepared to rip his throat out with his own talons. He noticed that 64 had stopped fleeing and was now instead waiting for him at the other side of the moat. "I'VE GOT YOU NOW PROJECT 64!" Aurum screamed as he flew across the moat and straight at 64. With the flick of his wrist, 64's hand shot out and managed to grab Aurum's neck just as he was about to make impact, as the Gryphon struggled and failed to rip 64 apart with his talons. 64 just stood there with his eyes narrowed, his hand slowly adding more pressure to Aurum's neck. "W-what... H-how!" Aurum choked, suddenly feeling himself get weaker and weaker as every second rolled by. "You might want to look at your armor." 64 suggested, pointing down to it. Aurum struggled to do so with 64's hand wrapped around his neck, but looked anyway. He was expecting his armor to still be glowing with magic, making him stronger than any other Gryphon imaginable. Instead, he saw that his armor was a pale yellow color, lacking the golden shine it once had. "I will say this about the Castle. It's Magic Retention Fields is one of the best ever constructed..." Aurum's eyes widened in realization as he realized what happened. He had cross the moat that he had 64 cross on the day he got there, and taunted the abilities that the Retention field possessed. He had now passed through it, while his armor was fully charged with magic no less. "N-no... I refuse... T-to end like this..." Aurum choked, gripping the arm 64 had extended as tight as he could. "Don't worry, you won't." 64 consoled, dropping the Gryphon on the floor. Aurum gasped for breath as he stared down at the floor, hunched over on all 4's. He slowly looked up at 64 who was standing over him, who was holding something over his head. Aurum realized what it was a few moments too late, as a large axe came down onto his neck.