I’d just smacked one in the face hard enough to turn her skull into powder. And she got right back up! It was a bit like fighting ferals ghouls in a heavily irradiated area. Actually, no, ferals just rush you. These ponies, they had strategy, they had skill. More like the Marked Men, really.
I make it a point not to fight anything that can heal with radiation with my fists. After all, punching something to death takes a while unless you break the right bones. Only I didn’t have a choice against those guards.
The pegasi had initially used a strategy akin to the ones used when engaging Diamond Dogs or Minotaurs. By keeping their distance and striking as one, they were more likely to inflict enough damage to beat their opponent into submission. Using their size against them was also part of that. Unfortunately, the Courier was proving a much harder-to-hit target than anything his size should have been.
The Courier had chosen to meld two separate strategies together. While airborne, he would treat them like he would a Cazador. While on the ground, he would treat them like a coyote or Nightstalker. This had proven effective to a point. That point being that mutated animals and insects didn’t have much in the way of strategy, where his current opponents did.
As a result of the unexpected or unwanted parts of their opponents’ fighting styles, both sides ended up completely disregarded all strategy and fought on instinct. Here, the human had a clear advantage. Being of a species that had war and battle in its blood, he knew how to move to avoid getting hit and where to strike to do maximum damage. The ponies, being descended from a prey species, were fighting everything that told them to flee and seek safety in numbers. Because of this they were constantly distracted and ended up taking blows that, if not for their enchanted amulets, would have seriously injured them.
The armoured ponies gasped for breath, sweat cascading off their bodies. The fight had gone on much longer than anyone had anticipated, nearly half an hour. Every broken bone, every laceration, even Thunder Strike’s shattered vertebrae, their magical amulets had healed those injuries in moments. Their armour bore the signs of a near-relentless beating, many of the plates bent out of shape, a few missing.
Now, they were running on fumes. They barely had enough energy left to take wing, and any injuries they took now would be permanent, the magic in the amulets expended.
Much to their frustration and the crowd’s amazement, none of their attacks seemed to have done much to slow the Courier. What they didn’t know was that he was nursing a fractured rib, a concussion and enough bruising to make it seem as though he had just gone one-on-one with a Deathclaw. Only experience and a freakishly high pain tolerance kept him from keeling over and giving up. “You all fight like you’re pregnant,” he taunted.
“That’s it,” Storm Surge said through gritted teeth. “You’re going down!” The stallion was sick of the constant taunting, the insults and the snide comments. All he wanted now was to smack the smug smile off his face and grind his skull into the ground.
As he leapt and soared at him, wings stretched as far as they could to provide extra speed, the Courier activated the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. The whole world stopped as the processors built into the wrist-mounted computer calculated his chances, how much damage he would do, and lined everything up. Ten seconds in VATS translated to one one-thousandths of real time.
The human unleashed a punishing barrage of blows that left the guard, even under his armour, a battered, bloody mess. It had all happened so fast that even Luna, with her incredible eye-sight, had trouble making out what had happened. At first, they all thought that Storm Surge had been killed.
After a few seconds of tense silence, an audible moan was heard and the crowd erupted into cheers when he managed, shakily, to get onto his hooves. There he was, with a broken wing, more than half his armour bent into some strange piece of contemporary art and blood pouring from one of his eyes, and still he fought. This was incredibly short-lived as the Courier, without even moving from where he was, brought the tip of his steel-toed boot into his jaw.
“One down,” he said as the stallion collapsed and didn’t get back up. A pair of unicorns stood at the side of the arena, readying their magic to take the incapacitated guard away at the first opportunity they could. “Two to go,” he growled as his eyes focused on the guards, wide-eyed at how their colleague had been treated.
“He’s gonna kill us,” Thunder Strike muttered. “He killed Storm, and we’re next.”
“Pull yourself together,” Cloud Nine hissed as the Courier calmly stepped towards them. “We still outnumber him. Storm was stupid, rushing in like that, it’s what he wanted.”
“You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to take out someone who isn’t thinking straight.” The pegasi looked up to see the Courier looking down on them, wearing a twisted smile. “Or someone who isn’t paying attention.”
The ponies dove out of the way as his left fist travelled through the space that Cloud Nine’s head has just occupied. As the turned to face him, they were shocked to see him clutching his hand and swearing in pain. “Motherfucker! Fuck fuck fuck my fingers fuck!”
Punching someone while using knuckle dusters is usually absolutely fine. They tend to absorb the blow and you only get a little bruised. Punching the ground, on the other hand... You’ll be lucky not to break every finger and half the bones in your hand. I did that, as well as twisting my wrist.
And of course those bastards took advantage of my moment of distraction.
The Courier was distracted from the pain in his hand when a pair of armoured horseshoes collided directly with his spinal column. He fell face-first and got a mouthful of dirt. “And stay down!” he heard Cloud Nine yell triumphantly, quickly followed by the crowd.
“Not fucking likely,” he said as he pushed himself up with his good hand. The crowd, as one, gasped.
“What!?” Thunder exclaimed as the Courier turned around slowly. “B-but your spine!”
“My spine is made of a super-durable tungsten-carbide/titanium-carbide alloy and embedded with shock-absorbing technologies to withstand everything you can throw at me,” he calmly explained. “I am unbreakable.”
“Your hand says otherwise,” Cloud Nine retorted, keeping a straight face.
A large portion of the crowd tried to hold back their laughter, while the rest just gave in. It wasn’t particularly funny, but given the circumstances there was little else to laugh at.
“Cracking jokes? Really?” he asked, completely unamused. He blinked when he noticed something was off. “Wait. Where’d the other one go?”
He got his answer when he was suddenly assaulted with an electrical current. He let out a pained scream as his entire body screamed in agony. As he fell, he was dimly aware of a male voice yelling out “You just got thunderstruck!”
There was a mass of cheering, the ponies convinced they had just seen two of their number take down this savage soldier from another world. The combatants, on the other hoof, were cautious. They weren’t sure that electrocution was going to be enough to keep him down. They were right.
“That’s it,” the Courier growled. “No more playing. You think you’re the only ones with a few tricks up their sleeves?” As he stood, his right hand uncovered and hovered over his Pip-Boy, the fingers dancing around on the screen. “Guess again.” His finger tapped something only he could see. That was the last thing that Thunder Strike knew before his entire world became pain.
Even with one arm, the Courier did a fine job of turning the stallion’s face into a rather crude aerial picture of the ruins of DC. Thunder Strike had lost consciousness halfway through the assault, but still the man kept on attacking, the speed he moved at too much even for Luna to see what he was doing.
Cloud Nine was now shaking in her horseshoes. She had seen this being brutally take down two of her colleagues, two of the best fighters the Night Guard had to offer. And all he had to show for it was a self-inflicted injury.
She now knew that he hadn’t wanted to fight all three of them at once as some sort of boast. He had wanted to give them a fair chance. And even with their healing amulets he had managed to wipe the floor with them. From the very start, the outcome had been obvious. “Two down,” she heard the Courier say confidently. “You gonna surrender?”
“The Night Guard never surrenders,” she answered, sounding much braver than she was feeling.
“Then it looks like I’ll have to break every bone in your body,” he replied, grabbing his head with his good hand and eliciting a frightening cracking. Cloud Nine saw an opening. It was only a moment later that she realised that she had fallen right into his trap.
In the moment she started galloping towards him, the Courier planted his injured hand on the ground and, using it as a support, swept his legs in a circle, the saturnite shin guards connecting with three of her legs. She went down with a pained yelp. She was sure that, at the very least, one of her legs was broken.
As she groaned, the Courier knelt down and whispered to the mare. “At this point, I’d take out my revolver and paint the ground with your brain. You’ve lost this.” He grimaced, trying to ignore the pain throughout his whole body. “Last chance to surrender,” he offered.
“Over my dead body,” Cloud Nine spat defiantly.
“I’ve killed and eaten things that put up more of a fight,” he said, shaking his left hand in an attempt to get rid of the numbness. “Seriously, just give up. For both our sakes.”
There was a tense silence, and the crowd waited with bated breath. “Fine,” the mare said warily. “I surrender.”
“I declare the victor of this fight the Courier!” Luna declared, the Courier standing up and raising his fist high in the air, a triumphant smile on his face.
Author’s Notes:
VATS, Implant GRX and the Ranger Takedown. And that’s not even half of what he’s packing.
We never get told what your spine gets replaced with in the game. There’s my guess.
You got Featured just wanted to say that, Now to read
Edit: I am LOVING the fight scene, awesome description. Nothing beats the Ranger Takedown
So awesome
Anywho dat Vat usage so many places to hit so much time in a minute
Rather unfair, healing amulets that regenerate crippling wounds in seconds. Then he has to near-kill them to put them down, I hope he didn't actually finish any of them off, that'd be rather un-cool.
Then again, a unicorn comes up and lifts him in the air and he dies shortly there-after of radiation poisoning... so there's always that.
Sweet!
Ah...the ranger takedown, saved my Courier's life in some fights. Good battle
i know what your spine gets replaced with ... metal made from pure Chuck norris blood. chuck norris blood is very rare but extremely valuable if you want to survive (Puts on Bear grills impression) In the Wild (Takes off clothes) Now watch as i drink my own urine to survive... In The Wild :3
yes another chapter
i.imgur.com/4NQiR.gif
me before finding this updated
finding this
duringthis guy kicks ass
after...i got nothing
I just love the GRX Implant. It make everything better.
by that i mean there are no proper emoticons to display my thoughts. on the other hand, that was one of the best fight scenes i have seen in a fan fic for a long time
778450 FINISH HIM! Also, said unicorn would be arrested for murdering him.
Keeping wtih the Fallout theme, this is my mind from this chapter...
boudoirgamers.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/fallout-3-4.jpg
i shall show my thoughts about this chapter and your work in this image:
[img] http://glup.me/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/epic-win.jpg [/img]
the dog is you, thats how much win you have
Poor, poor ponies. They had no chance.
HELL YEAH! WE HAVE A WINNER!
strange, its almost as if a veteran of nonstop combat was, get this, BETTER than the ones who weren't in real combat. lol i cant stop thinking about him using a displacer glove instead *lovely POP sound*
those night guards are just luckey he wasnt aloud any weapons and yet even with healing armor they got the hay bucked outa them
so the moral of that story? dont buck with the Courier
778600
The Marked Men, Tunnelers and Deathclaws of the Divide openly fear him.
He killed the Monster of the East with his own helmet.
He destroyed a robo-scorpion the size of a small mansion.
You do NOT fuck with the Courier. He fucks with you.
Good chapter, good fight scene which punished the courier enough to make it so it wasn't all HURR DURR unbeatable - while still being the victor.
Nothing like some deathly violence before nap time
We know he never got his spine and heart back, but did he grab his brain?
778609 by the way i have a theory that the Courier is ether a decendent ,reborn or possibly somhow combined with chucknorris
ive love fallout games though my Courier there was only one thing that could stop him and casue me to run like a babby and even then it was only when i first started and accidently raan into a pack of them .... and thats deathclaws.... seriously have you tried killing a deathclaw at lev 3-4 ish? and with no good weapons? well its difficult
778633 Yup! It's not too fun though... Have you tried running straight to "Gun Runners" a soon as you start the game? Them cazadors....
Anyone for Caravan? I hope thats brought into it, love that card game, never lost. Even in real life, got me $200 from it.
For some reason that reminded me of Akuma's Raging Demon.
That was a nice and suspenseful fight. It seemed like the Courier was going to lose a few times there, but he pulled through!
Oh man, that sure was fun!
778644 meh i once tryed with my fully upgraded char to fist fight a deathclaw ......
i won ... though i went through 2 super stim packs
all in all WORTH IT
My Courier has so much health regeneration waiting 2 hours ingame can heal at least 300 hit points and a sneak crit with a holo rifle takes every thing but a deathclaw down in one hit.
Also what level is your Courier? (I assume level 50)
I do like how needlessly brutal the Courier was throughout this fight. His lines were so cool as well! In any fighting game or movie, the Courier as he's depicted here would be the final boss. That's what he reminds me of. He feels like a video game villain. I could so picture him and Solid Snake beating the shit out of each other on top of some tall structure.
And I did like the three night guards as well. I like that they actually presented a decent enough challenge for him. Sure, they were still fodder, but I've got to respect characters that last that long against someone that hideously overpowered.
All things considered, probably my favourite chapter so far.
778872 The thing that makes the courier so op is his guns, without them and only Love & Hate, it can be hard to take down multiple enemies. Plus they had those gay-ass healing amulets...
Does he have the bloody mess perk? Or the Mysterious Stranger? That would be hilarious.
778623 I don't know about his brain, but he definitely got the heart back. That was how he got knocked out the first time.
The Courier is op. Nothing gets him down (Fuck you, you sick bastard)...actual, ALCOHOL.
He showed the guards at least to not FUCK with him (FUCK YOU, sick bastard)
778623 I think it was in one of the first few chapters that said he did.
yay new chapter this was a good one to
So, his spine was replaced, and so, did it stay replaced entirely? If I recall correctly, when you switch your spine back in, it describes something about how some of the parts of the mechanical spine remain (or something), and so, IIRC one again, THAT gives you a strength boost of 2 instead 1 like the purely mechanical spine.
ALL PONIES ARE NOW HIS BITCHES!
778661 I play on very easy, and cheat , so I won´t presume about my Courier, but the best way I found to kill a deathclaw, is half a mile away, with an AntiMatter Rifle... sneak critical...
THIS IS WIN
Especially after this fight, I have no doubts that this Courier could (in the words of one Doc Mitchell) go deathclaw hunting with a switch.
well we know that your courier is very well trained in guns and unarmed fighting, what other skills is he well trained in. sneak, explosives, energy weapons? It would be interesting to know.
Woot! And the courier wins!
This means i get to keep my rent.
Great fight scene, can't wait to see what Luna has to say.
And looking forward to what comes next.
778609
You do not kill Courier.
COURIER KILLS YOU!!1!
Ha Magic, YOU CAN'T DEFEAT THE SAVIOR
I can't tell if you are hinting he didn't kill those ponies like the description makes it seem, or just forgotten he has the Bloody Mess perk.
now you all can keep your ranger take down but what about a scribe counter?images.wikia.com/fallout/images/9/91/Scribe_Counter.png
Have him show them his scars, so they know what is like to fight in the Mojave without healing amulets.
Piercing Strike would be useful in this situation. Actually, I'm pretty sure he has it, or else both of his fists would probably be a bloody mess by now.
Oh, and Piercing Strike and 100 Unarmed can kill (and sometimes explode) a Powder Ganger in one normal punch. Don't try to mug The Courier. However, I'm sure somebody in this story will think it's a good idea to try and fight a cybernetic super-human with implants that make him regenerate knife wounds in less than a minute, the ability to pause time to decide how to smash your head into the ground, and one who is packing several different firearms, some of which are unique, and one of which is a .50 Cal.
779433 According to his brain, he once went after a nightstalker with a pocket knife. And won, obviously.
779061 No, I don't want you to- BAM!
SO MUCH WIN
780000
He used that against a Diamond Dog earlier. While wearing the Displacer Glove.
loved it amazing fight!!!
780059
Does that make him something like the Joker? "You wanna know how I got these scars?"