For a moment Taylor was fixated on their fight. He knew he should be focused on Bolormaa. It was what they came here to do, but he couldn't help it. That was still the face of the one he loved, and he couldn't give up on her yet. Bolormaa came at him, and he wasn't ready. He got his shield out just in time as she charged into him, and he was thrown back. She came at him with cut after cut that he was desperately parrying. He had lost focus, and he was trying to get it back. Bolormaa spun and leapt up into the air as she brought down an almighty blow. He lifted his shield and braced, knowing it would not be enough. He put his hand holding the Assegai up behind the shield to prop it up, and the impact struck with a mighty crash, but he held firm.
Taylor arose as he drove his shield up and delivered a powerful push kick to Bolormaa. She was thrown back several metres. Her weapon flew from her hands, and she crashed into a statue of a Prince. Taylor recognised him instantly. It was Ganbaatar, and it made him smile. Once he had thought that Prince was untouchable, and now many of them lay dead in his wake.
"You are going to die just like they did. There is a force of nature in this universe. I prefer to call it good. And it will always triumph over monsters like you. No matter how long it takes, evil will not prevail."
She looked furious. She reached for a spear that was held in the hands of the statue, and clearly a live weapon. She drew it out and swung it before her, as if trying to be intimidating. She couldn't intimidate him anymore. He had beaten her once, and he would do it again. The other seven had formed up with him into a crescent as they bore down on the enemy Queen. She was all alone. No armies, no tricks. Taylor led them forward once more. The spear was thrust forward with alarming speed. He raised his shield, and it glanced just wide enough that it hit his helmet and not his face. The spearhead cut a deep gash into his helmet, but still he carried on. He closed inside the spear’s length, but she kicked out his left leg, and he went down.
Jafar's guards went in next, but one received her spearhead through his throat before he could get inside her distance. He went down dead instantly. They were fine warriors, but they'd never faced anything quite like her. The other took his chance to get inside, though. He engaged the spear and ran its length. His weapon was held high to cut, but Bolormaa reached out her left hand and took hold of it, locking it in place. The Krys warrior was quick to respond with a vicious and unexpected headbutt that crashed into her nose. She staggered back looking a little stunned.
She had lost her grip on the weapon, and it came for her once again, but she spun out from the blow and struck him in the face with the shaft of the spear. It was a hard blow that snapped his head back, and he tumbled back onto the ground. Jafar and Pitt were both striking forwards her, but she slashed across Pitt’s collar with the spear tip. It borrowed deep, and he let out a cry of pain. Jafar made a swing with the heavy hammer that he had taken from her son. The thunderous blow was powerful, but far too slow to catch her, and it smashed down with such power the floor cracked under its weight. Bolormaa swung for Jafar, but his bodyguard jumped in the way once more. He parried the blow, and Taylor thrust his Assegai into her stomach.
Bolormaa gasped from the impact as she fell back. She was faster and stronger than any of them, but she could not take them on all at once, nor did she have the lightning speed that she used to. Blood seeped out from the wound, and Taylor looked very happy with himself. But her eyes went dark as if she was summoning a new strength inside. Maloney, Taylor, and Jafar went forward together. She feinted at Taylor but snapped the spear around at the last moment and decapitated Maloney. She spun out over his fallen body and released one hand, launching the spear forward in a long and low thrust. It struck the Krys bodyguard in the thigh. As she drew the blade out, he dropped down onto one knee, the leg no longer able support his weight. He tumbled forward slightly, and Bolormaa thrust down into a gap between his armour and helmet.
The spearhead went deep into his body, and he was killed instantly. Taylor had no idea what strength she had found, but there was a glimmer of her former self in her eyes. He prayed she would not be able to sustain it for long. He heard a cry in pain. CJ was down on his back, and both of Alita's blades were in the throat of his marine who had fought him with.
"Alita, no!" Taylor shouted.
He should have known it would do no good. She pulled the two blades in a cross and removed the marine’s head. CJ was struggling to get up, and he looked in a bad way.
"Go!" Jafar yelled.
Taylor rushed over to help him, as Jones, Turan, and Jafar rallied to once more fight the Queen. The three were all who stood against her now. Pitt was alive but unable to even hold a weapon. He was struggling to get up as blood poured from his wound, but he couldn't put any weight on his right arm. He managed to get to his feet with his Assegai in left hand and joined them. He was weak, but they needed all the help they could get.
Taylor reached CJ as her blade slashed down towards him. He held out his hands desperately to defend himself, as he had been disarmed, and was badly hurt. Taylor parried her blade just in time and pushed her away from him.
"Alita, it's me."
She didn't listen. She cut as it with her sword, and then thrust with her dagger under his shield. He stopped them both and pushed her back again. They were circling one another now. It was a horror of a scenario. She was the last person in the universe he would want to fight. He had no will to hurt her, and he wasn't even sure if he could. He powered down his shield and his Assegai and came to a standstill.
"Alita, this isn't you. It’s not you at all. Bolormaa, this is her doing, she has twisted and turned you in to something you are not."
She didn’t respond and continued to circle, finally coming at him with a cry. He parried off her blade and beat down her dagger hand as it came at him. He locked her lead arm and grabbed her dagger hand, bracing her against him. She was powerless to fight back in his vice-like grip.
"You don't need to do this. That is the enemy right there!"
He gestured towards Bolormaa. She was hacking and slashing wildly like a whirlwind as the last of his friends fought back. He wanted to go and help them, but he didn't know what to do with her. He didn't want to hurt her, but neither could he let her go on fighting against them.
"Please, Alita, it’s Mitch, you must remember me. You loved me once. Your name is Alita Hariz, and you are a Lieutenant in the Alliance. You gave everything to fight this monster."
"My name?" she asked, sounding surprised. She looked stunned, as if trying to wrap her head around it all. Bolormaa slashed Turan across the back with a vicious blow. He went down onto his knee, and she lined up to finish the job, but Pitt rushed forward and beat her spear aside. He took the blow intended for Turan, and it slashed his throat open. He was killed instantly, but it had given enough time for Jafar to help Turan to his feet.
"You see her? She is the enemy. She is the enemy of all that is good in this world. You fought her, Alita. You fought her with me."
"Get away from her!"
Bolormaa rushed at the two of them. Taylor had no choice but to cast Alita aside so that he could defend himself against Bolormaa's furious attack. She thrust from so far away that he would never have thought she could make the distance, although he knew her well enough to not underestimate her. He nimbly stepped aside and smashed the spear down with his blade. It crackled with fire as the two engaged. Whatever it was made from, his Assegai would not penetrate it, or not from a simple beat.
The two came face to face. She had come at such a speed she could not stop herself. He thrust his blade towards her, but she locked his hand in place, and the other went for his throat. He knocked it aside and locked her arm. She tried to force against him, but they were evenly matched. She could barely believe it, nor could Taylor. He knew she was still suffering from her wounds, and blood poured from the hole in her stomach. She must have been losing strength; that was clear in her face. She looked scared.
"I didn't come here to die. I came here
to bury you," said Taylor.
Jafar's hammer crashed into her shoulder blade, and she tumbled forward over Taylor from the impact. Her right side was limp. She was losing feeling from the brutal blow.
"You could never win in a fair fight," she snapped at Taylor.
"Fair?" He sounded insulted that she would even bring it up, "You want to lecture me on fair after you killed billions of people? Good people who had never done you any harm? Fair that you enslave entire races and send them to their deaths against us?"
He extended his Assegai and ran at Bolormaa with a furious anger, thrusting at her time and time again. She parried them off, but he began to cut down with it like it was a halberd. His heavy strikes were wearing her down. She kept giving ground until finally he came to a stop. She had the spear point at his chest under his shield. She smiled, but it wasn't because of the weapon. There was a crashing sound from above as a cage dropped down onto him. He had no time to avoid it. The steel interlocking bars went straight down to the ground and took the spear with it, snapping it into three pieces. It was utterly destroyed.
Taylor grabbed hold of the bars of his cage. It was only two metres wide, and he was powerless to stop her from thrusting through the gaps at him if she wished to. But she smiled at him with her wicked and evil grin as she turned to face the others.
"Bolormaa! Come back here!"
Alita watched everything that was happening, her weapons lowered as Turan and Jafar faced off against her. Jones was helping CJ back up, something Taylor never thought he would see. CJ looked rough, but held his weapon in hand, willing to fight. That was when Bolormaa noticed that Alita was frozen solid. Her weapons were still lowered, and she was making no attempt to join the fight.
"What are you waiting for? Fight them!"
She looked into Bolormaa's eyes as if considering whether to follow the order or not.
"Attack them, now!"
Alita made eye contact with Jones, and then Taylor. There was a glimmer of hope in her face as though she had recognised them.
"Fight them!" Bolormaa screamed.
"No," she replied sternly.
Bolormaa could not believe it, and it brought a smile to Taylor's face. Alita didn't seem to want to fight at all, but at least she wasn't fighting for the enemy. Bolormaa growled furiously as she charged at the four left opposing her. As she closed the distance, she suddenly leapt to one side and swung for Turan on the left flank. With his leg wound, he was too weak to move out of the way. His good leg was struck and cut off at the knee. He crashed down hard, and she thrust her spear into his back as he lay face down.
Jafar swung for her, but it was too late to save Turan. He was gone. She parried off the hulking hammer and slashed nimbly to the hand that wielded it. He let out a cry of pain as he lost his grip on it, continuing to attack with the blade in his other hand. She parried off strike after strike until she was backed up against a wall. He pressed her spear against her body so that she could not use it, and the hulking Krys Lord smashed his elbow into her. He grabbed her and tossed her back out towards the other two.
She landed hard but recovered quickly, rolled back onto her feet, and thrust towards CJ. He was barely fast enough to parry it, but he just about managed to. Jones thrust in and stabbed into her arm. She shrieked once more but grabbed him by his helmet and threw him into a statue. He landed head first and hard. He collapsed in an unconscious heap, but CJ thrust his own Assegai into her flank before she could come back to finish him. She grabbed the hilt and pulled it out, holding him firm with one hand while it was still in her body.
Jafar's roar rang out as he charged in to help, but she slashed across his face with the spear. The blade cut through one of his eyes, and he staggered to one side as blood gushed out across his face. She drew out CJ's Assegai, and he was powerless to stop her. She turned it around, and thrust it deep into his torso.
"No!" Taylor cried.
He never thought he would care for CJ, and yet in that moment his loss seemed equal to the loss of any of his friends. Bolormaa cast him aside. He was still breathing, but he was down and unable to get back up. Jafar had recovered somewhat, and facing off against her once again.
"This company of rejects you have brought here, Taylor, they could never have beaten me!"
She was bleeding from several major wounds, and she wasn't so stable on her feet. She circled about Jafar as if waiting to make her kill, but he would not be intimidated.
"It's time you joined your place with the rest of your kind, buried," she spat and thrust forward.
Jafar blocked the blow, but another came after it, and then another. One glanced his flank, but didn't do enough to cause injury. She rotated around quickly through and hacked into the opposing flank. The blade struck deep, but he charged forward and struck her with a thunderous punch to the face. She staggered back, and he slashed across her torso. She collapsed to the ground. Jafar lifted his sword as he closed in to finish her, but she turned quickly over and thrust her spear deep into his chest. He fought to keep on going, but she got up and used the spear to keep him at arm’s reach. Finally, his legs gave out, and he dropped down onto his knees. Taylor couldn't find any words for the despair that he felt. Bolormaa yanked the spear from his chest and blood spewed out as he collapsed to the floor.
Taylor was breathing heavily as the anger flowed through him. He was shaking the bars of his cage, desperately rattling it, but it couldn't be moved. Bolormaa was pacing back and forth before him triumphantly.
"Is this how it ends? You want to kill me like a caged animal, or do you want to fight me like a champion. As you tell people you are. Have this moment recorded to share across the universe for ever after?"
Bolormaa's cockiness and arrogance had returned as she walked among her vanquished enemies. She was leaving a trail of blood, although seemed oblivious to it.
"That's right. Let’s end this the right way. The way it was always supposed to end!" Taylor shouted, barely able to control his anger and despair.
She stepped over to her throne and pressed a button. The cage retracted into the ceiling. He was quick to move away from the spot, but he looked down at his Assegai to see it completely destroyed. Bolormaa was closing with him now, but she stopped and waited for him to arm himself.
"Choose your weapon."
She stretched out her arms as if to let him take whatever he pleased, but he turned his attention to Alita. She was still staring in to space, as if oblivious to it all.
"Fight her with me. Come back to me now," he begged.
His words were clearly compelling to her and having some effect, and yet she would not move.
"She is not yours to command anymore, Colonel."
"I never owned her, and neither do you!"
She still didn’t move.
"Choose your weapon!" Bolormaa insisted.
Taylor slowly reached behind his back and drew out the Pauri Tao, brandishing it in full view for her to see. The expression on her face instantly changed.
"Where did you get that?"
"A friend called Zaya, he said to be sure to remind you of that when I strike you with it."
She tried to cover her fear of the weapon, but failed.
"Come on, Bolo. Let's dance, you and I. Let's put an end to this madness."
There was a calm and cool nature to his tone as though he was absolutely confident of a victory. He activated his shield, holding the huge spearhead as though it were a short sword. She ran at him with her spear and let out a high pitched battle cry. He parried off the spear and thrust towards her, but she dodged the blow and swung for him again. He leapt over the low cut and drove in against her again. He cut down with several cuts as he closed, forcing to try and parry with the centre of the shaft. The Pauri Tao lit up with a flash as it struck her spear and slashed it in half.
The sight of it stunned Taylor. The weapon was responding to his opponent, or at least the weapons she used, as if it was made to destroy them. But Bolormaa struck him in the
face with a hard punch, and he fell back. She delivered a brutal uppercut that launched him off his feet, and the weapon flew from his arm. He landed on his shield arm, and the power source was smashed from the weight of the impact. She didn't let him breathe for a moment and rushed forward, delivering a crippling kick to his stomach. Even through the armour he felt his ribs crack, and he cried out in pain.
She reached down and picked up the blade Jafar had been using. She stood over him as if ready to finish him.
"How could you ever have defeated me? I am Bolormaa! I am a God, and you are nothing but a man."
She lifted up the sword to deal the final blow, but she let out an ear splitting cry as a blade was thrust into her back. She spun around with a knee jerk reaction and cut with the blade. The sword cut deeply into Alita's chest, the one who had struck her. She reached around and pulled out the blade from her back. To her horror it was the Pauri Tao.
She was stunned as she stared at the bloodied blade. Taylor leapt up and grabbed the hand holding it, striking with all his force at her elbow. The joint buckled inwards as it snapped, and she let go of the weapon. She backed off a few paces, but Taylor followed after her with an unwavering will to end it.
"You will not hurt another being in this world. That is my promise!"
She cut frantically with Jafar's weapon to try and keep him away, but he parried each of the blows with the Pauri Tao, until he was moving faster than she could back away. He stopped her sword mid swing with his one hand and thrust the Pauri Tao into her stomach. She froze as if stunned by the impact.
"I am Bolormaa. I am your God."
"You are nothing."
He drove the blade home so that it went right up through the middle of her body. She instantly dropped to her knees, and the light in her eyes was fading quickly. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but he drew out the blade, spun around, and decapitated her with one single blow.
It was over. She was dead. He breathed a sigh of relief, but as he stood over her body, he heard a whimper. It had come from Alita. He rushed to her side and lifted her up into his arms. Her wound was terrible, and he had no way to stop it.
Battle Beyond Earth - Box Set (Books 6-9) Page 85