Everyday Stresses of Kazuki - Sci-Fi Action/Intrigue Webserial

As the two squared off, as the platforms destabilised around them, Kazuki rushed forward. Slamming his sword down against Lady Antiar's defensive guard, Kazuki was knocked into a bind.

Once again, the two were thrown into a ballad, a mess of spark-clash steel. This time, Lady Antiar showed no hesitation. There were no weak points…

Kazuki leant to the side, igniting his WRIST-SHOT and vomiting a large shotgun blast of plasma. She raised her forearm, using her armour to dispel the attack.

The two continued to edge closer, walking on a tightrope hovering over the freezing abyss.

Kazuki drew his backup dagger, keeping it behind him. He held onto his Black blade with one hand, clashing it with Lady Antiar's. Jabs and strikes probed one another.

Then, an explosion of activity. The blades locked briefly as both sides tried to get leverage over the other. Kazuki's strength started to overwhelm Lady Antiar. She took steps back. Another burst of his exospine brought him more energy.

Lady Antiar met his burst with her own.

Then, the walkway started to give way. Both Lady Antiar and Kazuki kept fighting. On either side of the walkway were Maintenance doors.

Berserker! You need medical attention!' Václavos shouted.

She audibly grunted over the uplink. 'Later!' she said. 'I'll hold out.'

Václavos! Kazuki had an idea. A stupid one... But it was necessary. Gritty diligence bled from each of Kazuki's movements. Lady Antiar caught a glimpse of the man within the Contract-Breaker, hiding under the facade.

Within the interlocking of blades, Lady Antiar ignited her Hazard just as she threw her knuckledusters into a parry, sending Kazuki's blade away, along with his hand. She intended to continue with her cut, to lop his head straight off.

It was not to happen. The collapsing of the walkway started slowly.

Suddenly, a rush of energy broke into Kazuki. Twisting to the side, Kazuki used his backup dagger. The small parrying blade slashed at her attack, disorientating her for a split second. Their dance continued across the steel-framed catwalks.

Acid sprung from Kazuki's hand cannon, the very one Svenn used. The blast singed away parts of Antiar's cape, whilst her armour withstood the blast. She rushed forward, leaping over burning and crying sections of steel.

A brutal blur of two slashed through steel, through several conjoining energy platforms - and through pylons attached to the outer hull.

Everything touched ceased to exist.

Each mistake was taken advantage of. Pressing forward, Kazuki slammed into Lady Antiar, shoving her into the guardrail. She expected a quick counter.

Counterintuitive to that, Kazuki ran. He ran up the catwalk. Lady Antiar realised why. The hover lifts failed in the distance, and then: the walkway underneath them gave way.

Kazuki ignited his ANCHOR once again. Its circuits fried with quick calculations. Slamming his fists forward, he broke through a second maintenance door. His body formed up in a tight hallway.

The muffled gunfire from the living room was ever-present.

"Fuck…" He turned back… Lady Antiar was missing.

Kazuki stook back for a moment, as a white-gloved hand clawed out from beneath the door. Raising his WRIST-SHOT, Kazuki fired point blank.

The plasma shot was sliced in twine with Lady Antiar's plasma blade, just when Lady Antiar's figure leapt up from the doorway - pushing forward against Kazuki. Antiar slowly raised her longsword. Then, a spring of life spurred into the cold steel, heat…

Permeating heat surged throughout Lady Antiar's Champion blade, as a visage of flame and supercharged plasma hung around the blade's edge.

"Honoured or not, one will die today," Kazuki calmly stated.

She spoke nothing. She said nothing. Nothing needed to be said as she drew her own dagger, impaling Kazuki with it. It slid right between his exposed sides... Kazuki stumbled back, as Lady Antiar sent a blockade of kinetic energy.

A crackle from her Hazard shook the room. It was the same power that Lady Antiar unleashed in the arena. Concentrated energy crackled out from her knuckledusters.

The explosion sent Kazuki flying. He slammed through the wall, exospine tensing up with agony and stimulants. Debris and dust settled, and Kazuki crumpled onto the floor, straight back into the living room…

Kazuki placed a hand on his face, feeling the burns, cuts, fragmentation scars and bruises all across his façade.

"You fought well, Contract-Breaker," Lady Antiar stated. "Don't make me kill you."

Blood poured out of him. Lady Antiar rushed forward, aiming to stab straight into his chest. Another burst of energy entered into her body.

Despite the hail of death and rage, neither side found it right to curse the other. This was just the job, the mission. Simple as Kazuki thought. Still, there is more of him left to bleed.

The Contract-Breaker had been asking too much, however, as he felt his body feel ever so sluggish, blood pouring out. The kinetic blast shattered some ribs, and Kazuki felt his leg braces weaken under the pressure of broken bones.

Antiar's explosive knuckle dusters had done their job. Kazuki's storm was being weathered.

The Knight went for a killing blow.

Kazuki dashed his hand upwards, sending a WRIST-SHOT blast into her blade. Stepping to the side, Kazuki narrowly weaved the killing blow.

Taking everything to heart, Kazuki's eyes ignited with a golden fervour. He flickered through the past minutes, before rereading Antiar's own moves against her. A twin attack, slashing from all sides, came down upon her.

The sheer ferocity added to it shook the Lady Antiar. She ducked and weaved perfectly out of the range of her own attacks, before slamming back in with the exact same copy.

However: Her's was far more refined. Her blade slammed and crunched against Kazuki's defences. "Dared to use my own attacks against me?" Lady Antiar asked. "Fool. I made those. Did you not consider I knew my own counters?"

Thrusting forward, the Imperial Knight struck true. Her blade gashed through Kazuki's armour before she kicked him away.

Shit. Kaz looked down at his wounds. Ribs cracked… Bleeding all over, arteries and internal bleeding. Not ideal, but useable. Antiar was going to make him suffer a death of a thousand cuts.

'Sharpie...' Kazuki said. 'If you have the chance. Shoot her blade.'

'Huh?!' Václavos glanced over the balcony banister, before returning fire to an escapade of drones bursting through the doors and halls.

'Just do it.'

Kazuki ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding another strike. Steam exploded from his exospine, hailing the end to be close.

"I'm sorry, Contract-Breaker... But there are some rules I cannot break..." Lady Antiar trailed off, raising her blade over Kazuki. He tried to move his limbs... Nothing. Lady Antiar raised her blade closer, before extending her other hand. "But that does not make me your enemy. I cannot break my oath… But y—"

A single bolt shattered her sense of victory.

Sent from up above by Václavos. It slathered half of Lady Antiar's hand off. In the moment, Kazuki saw the visceral sight of blood and fingers, gloved, flutter into the air. She dropped her blade, as her exospine burst into energy.

Her eyes ignited into an amber orange, staring down at him. One opportunity was given.

She leapt forward at the staggered Contract-Breaker. She was fast. Too fast! Her own exospine was breaking at its seams.

Kazuki made a split-second decision. He had been waiting for the perfect moment… He needed time. Wrenching the object from his pockets, Kazuki crushed the stone… the same type that Yuki used to bring Pi to the station.

Kazuki lobbed it forward. Lady Antiar punched it away, expecting a grenade.

The rock bled in flames and ashes.

It was not a grenade.

From within the ashes of the stone, flames burst out. And Pi has arrived, launching and throwing himself forward, the Phoenix knew what must be done.

Kazuki staggered backwards, trying to manually inject himself with his exospine.

Pi was distracting Lady Antiar, flying around and hailing down sharp talons against the Knight. Kazuki wanted to get in the fight himself… Should he have summoned Pi earlier? No… Lady Antiar would have made short work of Pi uninjured.

"Ugh!" Lady Antiar groaned before igniting her Hazard. She shoved her remaining knuckles into the ground. A wide spray of energy sent Pi back into a wall…

Cinders marked where he landed, as Pi's regeneration started in turn.

Lady Antiar remained, glaring with killing intent. It was not directed at Kazuki. But Kazuki could not make the gamble, he would not risk it all.

There was a level of regret in her killing intent. Did she intend to kill Obadiah after killing him? Maybe. Maybe she'd use him. Maybe. Even if it was a probably, or a must: Kazuki could not accept it.

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She would gamble whilst Eliza's life is on the line? No. Kazuki needed consistency. He needed to be there himself… Because… Only he can assume the role of the Contractor.

Whatever game she was playing at has failed. All for the Contract, Kazuki said… But what good is this Contract?

A voice stuck to Kazuki. "Why continue?" Kazuki found himself unable to move for just a moment.

The voice was Victoria's. It was a projection. He felt eyes peer at him from behind, bloody red. Kazuki's senses told him a figure stood behind him, half his height. His sixth sense told him it wrapped its arms around him, stopping him…

"No." This was not the time to mistake ghosts for real… Even so, it clung to Kazuki's leg bracings. He couldn't move…

Yet its voice was sweet.

Why continue? The thought kept pushing itself back in. He was doing this for the Contract. That was all!

"No." The voice spoke directly into his mind. Victoria's voice was clear, a perfect projection of memories from what she sounded like.

Kazuki knew it well.

No? The Contract was all that mattered, Kazuki told himself.

"No."

The voice repeated. Was Kazuki going insane? Of course, he was… Kazuki lost himself the moment he killed Victoria.

"No."

He found it frustrating. Now of all times to have a split-second pep-talk?

He has to kill Lady Antiar! He has to reach Eliza before the reaper does… But Kazuki is a reaper. He doesn't deserve to save her for her. This… The Contract was all that mattered.

The Thought interjected. It overrides his concerns. It was a command, a query that overrides all.

But no? No. No. No. Noah's words bled within his guts and brain. He didn't deserve to protect her. No. His mind was truly bleeding… Kazuki felt like laughing at the mental agony engulfing him.

He must move, or he must die. It seems his mind has chosen for his body.

He didn't deserve Eliza. Not even to protect. He doesn't. At all. Absolutely not.

She was the only innocent one left… And Kazuki dragged her into the industry. Whilst she may not have been killed, Eliza must have seen the bloodshed.

She must have known their horrors. That is something Kazuki should not have shown her at all…

But… Eliza chose this. She chose to help him. In any and all ways. She went above and beyond for Lilly's team, and for Quinn. Even when faced with her father… She endured. Eliza survives.

Kazuki does not deserve her.

Because he earned it. Who but him can say they have expended more for her than he has?

Through blood and steel, through mud and snow. He is the Contract-Breaker. Kazuki Izumi Geminorum-Ryzaku, Prince of Traisia, member of the aristocracy.

Fourth of the Seven Mercenaries. Kazuki is the Contract-Breaker. And he does not bend to the will of a word. This was what he wanted. He wanted this, Kazuki reiterated the thought.

Blood and steel sacrificed have earned Kazuki that right to protect her. And blood and steel sacrifice will continue that legacy.

In that single moment, all switches dialled to a thousand.

His mind and predictions created a plan. It was not perfect. Never perfect. A plan it was nonetheless.

Antiar knew his fighting style. Rough but clean; fast but hard; always outpacing the clock, Kazuki thought. She was adaptive.

But Kazuki understood her. She's orderly. Paces herself. Consistently fast. Equilibrium.

If that equilibrium was disturbed... He wins.

And through blood and steel, Kazuki shall win once more - because Kazuki raised his hand to his exospine's power port. His lands hovered over the red switch, attached to a string.

"Only a Contract-Breaker may punish another Contract-Breaker." Kazuki's snarl boiled with steam and kinetic fuel. Blood dripped down from the fragmentation scars around both eyes.

His hand was shaking, quivering. Steeling himself for the pain, Kazuki curled his fingers around a switch.

Lady Antiar charged up a powerful blast to finish Kazuki off. Her fist glowed with the Hazard Shard - the jewels around her head illuminated the black room. Her wounds were cauterised by the Hazard itself.

Kazuki stood firm. The bullets from the battle above them were nothing more than a distraction. The ringing came to Kazuki's ear.

And he finally gripped the switch.

He flung his fingers far, pulling the switch off.

An explosion crackled out of Kazuki's back. Smoke rose. Smog smothered him. Colourful lights ignited the smell of iron and death. The steam engines running through his body choked steam from his mouth and nose. Golden eyes bled a deeper liquid, melting away the cold.

Exospine activation protocol: Overclock, Activated.

Lady Antiar's attack was a mere inch away.

Now.

Now was the time for a decisive strike.

A burst of green fire exploded outwards. His body shot upwards, igniting a shield on the torso. The charged explosion shattered all furniture in that half of the room, sending Kazuki backwards.

A hue of blue hung from his golden eyes. Visible through an emerging smog.

Smoke erupted throughout the room, rising up from the ground. 'SHIT! KAZ!? Arbiter's been hit!' Václavos shouted.

Nihara and Václavos lobbed grenades down the hall and room, sending shrapnel into the upcoming drones. Half a dozen were cut down in a single moment. Lady Antiar walked forward, as the smoke slowly set to the side.

His face was clear... The fragmentation scars bleeding across his face were nought but scabs. No blood came out of them. It had already been cauterised. The scars remain.

Slowly, the cocktail of drugs ruptured through his body.

He gave her nothing short of the most lethal death stare given in the galaxy. It wasn't a threat. It was a promise.

A promise of destruction.

Fuck her.

Fuck this.

Fuck honour.

He'll kill them all.

She readied herself for another strike, only for Kazuki's speed to finally outmatch her. He bled forward, sparks and blood spluttering with his speed. He slammed his Black blade forward, cutting her short. She took out her dagger, parrying blow after blow.

Even half a hand down, Lady Antiar fought ferociously.

He kept coming. Every parry she tried to counter, throwing anything at him. But he just kept throwing more and more blood and energy away. All the while, his eyes kept themselves planted on her.

He kept throwing Antiar off her balance, even as he bled and bled and bled.

More blood left him. But he can think straight. It was neat. It was all that mattered.

The cocktail of drugs mixed in with blood spurred him forth. Slowly, Kazuki got higher and higher. His mind started to fracture at the seams.

Amidst the spite, he finally disarmed Lady Antiar. His blade had simply thrown hers to the side with sheer tenacity.

His overclock kept running, as Lady Antiar shielded herself from the upcoming blasts and attacks.

It smashed into her, again and again. Again and Again. From all angles. Kazuki changed his grip to get a better stab in. The two engaged in a vicious cycle of attack and defence, where only Kazuki could win. Lady Antiar's body-shield activated.

Lady Antiar dies now.

Digging his blade in, Kazuki struck the projector with a thorough cut. Her final defence ceased.

With one thrust, Kazuki shoved his blade forward. Her ignition Hazard charged up for one final salvo, only to be met with the unflinching steel of Kazuki's blade. The blade penetrated Lady Antiar through her guts.

Her eyes grew wide at the sight, falling over. Kazuki ran her forward, impaling her once more. She tried to rip the blade out.

She… really did try. Lady Antiar was pinned.

'Arbiter! The drones are letting up! Seems we weathered the storm!' Václavos reported. 'We must have killed what?! Tens? Hundreds?!'

'More? Less? Does it matter?' Nihara snapped. 'Just get me a fucking… medic.'

Kazuki was flinching in his face. His whole body was shaking. He nodded at Václavos. 'Stand guard,' he said. The Phoenix had healed fully, perching on his arm, before pointing to Nihara and Václavos.

Pi spread his wings, allowing small, warm embers to cover Kazuki's arm. His already clotting wounds sealed up at a mere touch of its embers. Then, Pi soared, rushing up to Václavos and Nihara.

It was the medic. A good one at that. Sadly, no medical doctorate… As such, the Phoenix started to lick them. A… suitable substitute for a degree. It was… cute.

Kazuki kicked Lady Antiar's longsword up from the ground. He grabbed it, raising it, preparing to lop her head off. It heated up with plasmic energy.

"Eliza's in the middle..." Lady Antiar muttered. Kazuki paused. She spoke louder, "Hostage... Front. Obadiah behind. Three guards on either side of the room. SMGs. Pistols. Suits lined for fifth-grade protection. Short work. Easy work. Obadiah has a knife and muzzle tucked away."

She grabbed her uplink, clipping it off whilst bleeding. Looking up at the half-crazed Contract-Breaker, she threw it up at him. He latched onto it. He looked at it. He opened it.

Projection?

An image came out.

His mind memorised it perfectly.

It was the layout of the room. The office. Guards... Hmm.

Kazuki dropped the device, crushing it under his boot. His voice sounded high, a mixture of apathy, hate, spite and calmness all mixed into one concoction that Lady Antiar listened to. "Why fight?"

"Honour..." Lady Antiar muttered. "I… You should have listened to me…"

"You fought for Obadiah... Honourless..." Kazuki raised her longsword against herself. Lady Antiar will not see another sunrise.

She spoke, "What could I do... I promise to protect her? But I am bound to the Board? I understand… Kazuki. I tried to play both… Couldn't… And this is it, huh?" She was asking herself these questions. Kazuki had no time for this! He raised his blade, ready to strike at her. The sight was similar to ritualistic suicide… but of course, Lady Antiar didn't choose this outcome. "Contract-Breaker..."

Kazuki's grip tightened… Then loosened slightly at her next words.

"That's what I am... isn't it? You broke your contract... for her?"

Kazuki paused in his execution. He nodded. She smiled at that fact. Kazuki took a few steps back. What did she say? His exospine was spluttering out with energy. Kazuki turned off his overclock.

The damage had been dealt. Too late. Even at moderate levels to his exospine, Kazuki could feel the burns across his back. No stimulants or painkillers helped him weather it.

Burns and blood scarred across his back, more than usual.

Damage he cannot undo... Kazuki sighed, releasing huffs of large steam out his mouth and power charge. It kept coming... and coming. It wasn't stopping.

"You… stupid boy… Why?! " she cried.

"Who'd believe me?" Kazuki asked in turn.

Lady Antiar chuckled. "No one." Both knew the answer. "I thought I could play both sides. Win both sides... No. No... You were right after all... I soared too close to the sun…"

The irony of her boss being called 'Sir Icarus' was not lost on Kazuki. Perhaps it was the other way around, this time… That ancient Punika tale seems to stick, even after thousands of years.

Blood was leaving her quickly. Best to end her suffering now. But... Kazuki stopped himself. He lowered the longsword. He shoved his hand into his pocket and took out a medical injector. He dropped it at her feet. He uttered one word to her as he walked away, "Live."

His injuries hurt, but he knew he could live with them. He's lived with a broken spine for more than a decade. He can handle a little bit of pain here and there.

This will be just another burden… And now: Eliza is just within reach. He must merely clench his fist, and all will be opposed shall be made to suffer him.

He approached the door leading to Obadiah's office. Eliza... Elizabeth... His one objective. His mind was getting harder and harder to think, everything was blurry in his head.

Kazuki slowly approached his gas mask, half-broken on the ground. Kicking it up, Kazuki slapped it back on his face. The one-way visor was still active… Then, Kazuki reapproached the door.

The door was locked… Oh. Kazuki stood by it for a moment.

What will he do? She... hates him, but he's doing this for her? That didn't matter. No. He was fine with that.

After all, he is the Contract-Breaker.

Contract-Breaker. The one who bled for his blood oath to Victoria. That was who he was. He is the Contract-Breaker... He is Kazuki... He's always been that scared boy… Even now.

They are the same.

They have always been the same.