Time slowed and thickened like molasses, Asuka’s perceptions accelerated beyond all human capacities, even glimpsing into the future at times. She was one with her mother and the spirit of the Eva. Her mother would always be with her, and the beast within the machine practically worshipped her ability to propagate slaughter. It was a hive mind of nine killing machines versus the perfect single warrior.
Asuka cleared the three kilometre gap between them in ten seconds, and it took so long as she leapt and dodged about their fire, like a ballet dancer in the rain. It was hard though, the coordination between the MP Evas perfect, each one covering a different firing lane and switching around effortlessly as the hive mind tracked her movement. The flesh boring bits of flesh struck her at times, but always on her main armour where they did no damage before running out of energy and crumbling to dust. Her bolter fire on the other hand was deadly and accurate.
The MP Evas had to temporarily divert their AT-fields to accelerating their weapons, giving a brief flash where their defences went down every time they fired. By timing her shots perfectly Asuka was able to get a single round into one of the MP Evas before she was upon them. The high explosive-armour piercing bolt tore through the thin armour of the war machine, travelling half way through before detonating.
The Eva was blown in half by the explosion, releasing a torrent of purple blood that ate away at the ground for a moment before going inert. Its Dummy Plug shattered, it would most certainly never rise again.
One down, eight to go.
Asuka hit the formation like a train hitting a tank. She slammed full into the nearest enemy Eva, body checking it so hard that it was hurled into the air, its light armour plate shattered by the tremendous forces involved in the impact. Before it even had time to hit the ground a two round burst caught it in the hips, blowing its legs off in a shower of gore.
Already the group was responding to her assault, less like a pack of wolves turning upon a charging moose, or even an ant colony responding to a stick being shoved into the nest. No, their reaction was more like an immune system responding to an attack upon the body.
Asuka back flipped out of the way of the scything claws of an Eva that tried to sneak up on her. There were several more Evas in front of her and if not for precog she would have fallen for the trap, assuming they were the important targets when the true strike was coming from elsewhere. While its claws went through her umbilical cord and started her count down timer, she landed on its shoulders, crushing one of its claws before she wrapped her feet about its neck and dropped, twisting as she went, incidentally dodging the hail of fire sent her way as the group responded to this change in events.
With an enormous, wet, tearing sound the Eva’s head and most of its spine was ripped off in a torrent of purple blood. The headless thing brought a hand up to examine the damage before collapsing, its entire torso falling apart from the lack of a spine for support, the imploding flesh and metal crushing the Dummy Plug and killing the cloned pilot within.
Two down, seven to go.
Hitting the ground, Asuka quickly rolled out of the way of a barrage from the remaining five MP Evas armed with the flesh boring guns, taking a few hits but avoiding the majority of the attacks. Grinning with insane glee, Asuka kicked her Eva into the air unexpectedly, thus completely avoiding the ravenous beam of white hot plasma directed her way. A small tank division trying to flee the fighting of these titans flashed into vapour in an instant.
No normal human could have known that attack was coming. A tiny part of Tabris, the one in the explosively bisected Eva that had time to be afraid, wailed in terror. It remembered what the Third Child had done, and feared what the Second was capable of.
The rest of the hive mind ignored that part and told it to keep fighting.
Descending from her leap on a steep arc, Asuka turned in mid-air so that her chain-axe would strike with damn near all of the angular momentum and most of the linear momentum she had built up in her roll and leap.
The attack very nearly bisected the enemy Eva from crown to groin, the whirring progressive edged teeth of the chain-axe going through armour, flesh, metal, and the Dummy Plug with hardly any resistance until the acidic blood did its job and turned the weapon into scrap, the head snapping off of the haft and remaining in the steaming remains of the dead monster.
Three down, six to go.
Reversing her grip on the haft, Asuka slams the jagged, broken end into the guts of an MP Eva trying to sneak up on her. Hauling up, she throws the beast over a shoulder so that it collides with another Eva charging in with the intent to disembowel. Somersaulting to the side, she takes a shot at the now exposed heavy weapons Eva, sending a three round burst its way. Only one bolt made it through before it raised its AT-field, but that round managed to take its right leg off at the knee, dropping the Eva flat on the ground.
Her super refined senses were tied so totally into Unit 02, Asuka saw the next attack coming and knew that she could not dodge it completely, but she still had enough warning to get mostly out of the way. The support Eva had used the slaughter of its comrades to assume the perfect position to fire, the others having already vacated its line of fire. A high pressure stream of boiling, acidic blood painted her side, melting away armour in a cloud of acrid smoke, but Asuka was already rolling away.
Within her Entry Plug from the upper thigh to just under her breast on the left side, Asuka’s skin melted away. She snarled in pain, but refused to let it distract her. Instead she practically threw her Eva over to where the legs of the partially exploded Eva were lying. Grabbing a foot, she pivoted like an Olympic hammer thrower for a half rotation before she hurled the limp limb through the air. Tumbling end over end, it smacked the acid spewing Eva in the head, knocking it back.
Asuka charged, leaping up to plant a foot on one of the Evas knocked over, crushing its skull under Unit 02’s weight before kicking off into the air, deploying her back-up progressive claws from her now empty right gauntlet. She slammed it down with all her might into the torso of the Eva, piercing the Dummy Plug. As the twin progressive blades began to dissolve, she violently twisted, ripping out the guts of the Eva while shattering her weapon.
Four down, five to go.
Pain exploded along Asuka’s left flank as the half of the Eva lying on the ground fired a salvo of rounds into the side that had been most damaged by the acid, the high velocity, biting slugs penetrating her flesh and chewing deeper for several seconds before dissolving away. The blood began to taint the LCL in the Entry Plug.
Asuka emptied her bolter into the bastard, exploding its head and torso.
Five down, four to go.
She started to get another magazine but when she tried to eject the one already in place she found the mechanism had been corroded into a single mass by all the acid blood flying around. Tossing it aside in disgust, she whirled around just in time to catch a charging Eva slamming into her. It had used the distraction of the sundered Eva well.
A long blade slammed through right shoulder while another one skittered across her torso armour, looking for a gap to plunge in and begin ripping out her Eva’s guts. Asuka held off its other hands while it snapped at her face, drool flying off its shiny, metallic razor sharp teeth to splatter across Unit 02’s helmet.
Asuka head butted it.
Teeth shattered and the thing reeled back. Releasing one of its hands, Asuka reached up and wrenched on the blade in her shoulder, snapping the limb off at the closest joint. Getting her legs beneath her, she planted her feet on the MP Eva’s chest and kicked out, throwing it off of her.
Quickly regaining her feet, Asuka felt Unit 02 being hauled back. She had forgotten to eject the remains of her umbilical cord, and one of the MP Evas had taken advantage of that by grabbing on to it. Snarling, Asuka ejected the cord with a thought and then spun around faster than she should have been capable of.
If it could have looked surprised the Eva would have when Asuka suddenly grabbed a hold of the cord and jerked on it, hauling the Eva towards her and the blade she had ripped off of one of its brothers. The weapon was still sharp enough to ram through its lower jaw and out the top of its skull with the force Asuka put in it. She then kicked straight out, impacting the MP Eva full in the chest. Armour shattered and flesh caved in, the entire Eva hurled back into the lake in front of Central Dogma, a Nike Swoosh carved into its chest.
Whirling about seeking any combatants still standing, Asuka discovered that the heavy weapons Eva had regained its feet, sort of. It was using its claws and its gun as crutches while it carried something else in its left hand. It looked like a long spear made out of two pieces of metal wrapped around one another, bisecting in the middle to form two long prongs.
The MP Eva braced, and then hurled its weapon with terrific force.
Asuka moved to get out of the way, but she felt it begin to alter course to strike her.
She held up a hand instinctively and projected an AT-field.
The prongs struck the hexagonal orange wall and began to slowly yet inevitably slide through. Asuka blinked in horror just as her field dissolved entirely, and then the copied Lance resumed its regular speed and crashed into Unit 02’s face, taking out two of the eyes on the right side.
Asuka stumbled back a second step. She saw the other three MP Eva’s beginning to rise, their injuries not enough to destroy their cores or Dummy Plugs, their regeneration allowing them to get back in the fight.
She stumbled back a second step, her whole Eva starting to list over with the weight of the spear in its head.
She took one more step back before her power clock ran down to 00:00:00.
In the warp, a daemon clapped with glee. It had had its encore performance.
From Thousand Shinji by Academia Nut