Cross Conviction

"Okay, okay, I get it now... You're in a different league, big guy."

Grizzler turned away from Gustavo and Magnolia to see Max once again risen from the bed of fragmented stone. "You're kidding..." the sergeant groaned.

Max spit blood onto the shattered bricks at his feet and wiped his mouth, leaving an azure streak across his sleeve. "Nah, sorry. I'm used to getting slapped around a little."

"Stop it, Max!" Emmy interrupted, "If you can stand, then run! Get to the field and get help, please!"

The boy narrowed his eyes, peering past Grizzler through bruised lids. Beyond the enemy, Max spied Sturm, shakily pushing himself off the ground. Realizing that his sword-wielding friend's tenacity rivaled his own, a smirk came over his face.

"I know this looks pretty bad..." started Max, "But I know this guy is just as worn down as we are. I think we got a chance."

Seeing Max and Sturm ready to challenge the titan once more, a spark flashed in Gustavo's eyes. "Listen up, you two!" he urged, "If you can keep him busy for about three more minutes, he's finished!"

Eyebrow raised, Grizzler's expression conveyed equal parts confusion and insult. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Turning to Gustavo, Magnolia expressed similar disbelief. "Yes, what are you suggesting?"

Max looked down at his clenched fists. The outer skin on his knuckles was torn and bruised, giving way to his soft blue dermis. "Three minutes, huh? Alright, I trust you..." Max answered in a hushed voice, speaking more to himself than his allies. "Better give it my all, then."

The wind picked up, swirling the morning fog through the glowing columns of light cast through the treetops. Now back on his feet, Sturm adjusted his crooked visor cap as he heaved against a building pain in his chest. Though the situation was grim, Gustavo's confidence inspired Sturm to stand against the odds. The young swordsman shakily prepared his blade, battling against his own body to maintain a presence on the battlefield.

Emmy's eyes widened at the sight of the two badly injured knight candidates readying themselves for continued combat. "I see..." she spoke under her breath as the dawn's light sparkled in her wet eyes, "There is no room for reservation, now..."

She stood back up, rubbed her sore palms together, and took a deep breath. Then, to the girl's surprise, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Startled, Emmy turned her head to find herself joined by a straining Eduard. Still racked with pain from his earlier defeat, the knight candidate stumbled and shifted his weight against his teammate for balance.

"What are you- …?"

Eduard cut Emmy off. "Three minutes, r-right?" he grimaced. "Come on, we can't leave it all to them..."

For the first time since beginning his assault on the candidates, Grizzler was forced to acknowledge the uncertainty of his situation. Despite his immense advantage in strength and durability, he was now facing down six opponents. While the greatest threats had sustained significant damage, the sergeant had been heavily injured as well. Between the gashes to his legs, the grizzly gouge to his shoulder, and the deep cut across his chest, the colossal Iron knight had lost approximately five liters of blood- more than what was present in the average human body. Now, there was a glimmer of concern in the man's intense, twitching eyes.

"You think you're little alliance is going to be enough to kill me?" Grizzler growled, his clenched teeth grinding and crackling under immense pressure. "Let me tell you something..."

The giant's boiling rage radiated from his body in the form of malicious heat as he fumed, rendering the air thick and humid. Sturm held his left arm over his nose and mouth, shielding his face from the hot draft while his open jacket fluttered steadily.

"It doesn't matter how many feeble raindrops pool together..." Grizzler continued with a suppressed rage that threatened to burst forth at any moment. "You can fill a bucket, a bath, a pond, or the whole God damned Rhine..."

Sensing immediate danger, Max prepared two large calcified plates on his forearms and crossed them in front of his body. Several meters away, Emmy crouched down with Eduard, ready to respond at a moment's notice.

"Even the greatest waves of the Atlantic crash and break against the cliffs of a mighty mountain!"

With that, Grizzler raised his massive fist high into the air before slamming it down into the ground at his feet, immediately stirring the earth below to life. As the terrain buckled, the young candidates struggled to maintain their footing.

"T-this is a fucking earthquake!" Max sputtered as he stumbled back.

Sturm drove his scimitar between two bricks, steadying himself against the trembling ground.

Is this the full strength of an elite Iron Knight? Sturm pondered internally. It's incredible...

The intensity of the tectonic event only seemed to increase as Grizzler reared up and let out a blood-curdling roar, causing the birds within a two-kilometer radius to stir and take to the sky in droves.

Magnolia tripped back and latched on to Gustavo's arm for support. "What in the Lord's name is happening?!" she fretfully inquired.

"Grizzler… the Tectonic Knight," Gustavo answered solemnly, his eyes cold and urgent, "I see that it's more than a simple propagandized moniker..."

Without warning, the titanic sergeant launched himself toward Emmy and Eduard with astounding speed, leaving fractured terrain in his wake. With her life and that of her teammate at risk, the female candidate acted instantaneously and on raw instinct. Emmy pushed her aberrance to its absolute limit, drawing the heat from the surrounding atmosphere, and freezing the humid air before her into a icy barrier. When Grizzler impacted the frigid wall, it exploded into a hail of icy shards, blasting Emmy and Eduard many meters backward.

Before the giant could pursue his intended targets, Sturm and Max charged at him in unison. As he had done many times before, Max began his assault by jettisoning both of his claws toward his enemy. Though mostly ineffective, the biological weapons broke against Grizzler's armor-plated back, drawing his attention. The boys' paths crossed several times, confusing their opponent's fury-overridden senses, and allowing them to close the distance to the massive knight.

Grizzler threw a powerful punch but split only air as Sturm ducked beneath it, rushing between the giant's arms to slash upward across his abdomen. As the sergeant reeled, Max then impaled his right thigh with newly-replaced claws, breaking them, off inside the enemy's flesh. Momentarily halted, the colossus howled in pain, gripping his punctured quadriceps.

Sturm and Max exchanged a knowing look before the former pulled the stick grenade, which he had stashed away during his visit to the armory, from his jackboot. "Get ready, Max!"

Though initially surprised, Max answered with a resolute nod as he watched Sturm quickly unscrew the grenade's cap and pull the woven cord.

"Five seconds!" shouted Sturm before tossing the explosive at Grizzler's feet and hopping back a great distance with Max in tow.

The giant glared down at the armed weapon through one strained eye. Realizing the danger it posed to his weakened state, Grizzler stomped his foot down with Olympian might, popping the grenade into the air, before kneeing it back toward Sturm and Max.

"What?! No!" cried Magnolia from the sidelines.

"Run, you two!" added Gustavo frantically.

Time seemed to slow to a near-standstill. Sturm's heart pounded, each reverberation sending a hurtful pulse through his core. The warmth in his chest battled against the cold sweat settling on his skin. In this moment, which felt like an eternity, the boy's heightened senses experienced all of these sensations with excruciating clarity. The swordsman attempted to turn to Max but found his body movements noticeably slowed. Thoughts swirled in the young knight candidate's mind. thoughts of Heaven and Hell, of his allies' fates beyond his expiration, and his father's inevitable response.

And then, he acted.

Without any further consideration, time flowed forward and Sturm's body moved on its own. He grabbed the grenade from the ground and raced back toward Grizzler.

"You damned fool!" the giant hollered in shock and anger, "What the hell are you doing?!"

Sturm wouldn't have known how to answer such a question even if he desired to. The truth was that he didn't know why he had enacted such a strategy. In the moment, it just seemed right. However, the boy soon found his charge brought to a sudden end as, with one final throb, his left heart broke into spasm. Clutching his chest, Sturm tripped, sending himself flying forward. Certain that he was about to die for nothing, the young candidate felt his grip loosen on the grenade's handle as he fell.

This certainly would have marked the end of Arthur Sturm's journey to knighthood, had his faithful friend not snatched the explosive from his hand at the last second and blitzed onward. As Sturm crashed to the ground, overwhelmed by the agonizing palpitations, he watched Max's desperate rush through blurred vision. Just before self-professed "calciumancer" was within range of Grizzler, the boy's entire body was overtaken by a series of crustacean-like interlocking plates, the likes of which he had never before displayed.

Max, now shielded from head to toe, gripped the grenade's wooden handle with such power that it began to crack and splinter. Channeling one final burst of energy into an act of pure desperation, Max smashed the explosive into Grizzler's sternum. The Iron Knight's horrified gasp was promptly interrupted by the deafening explosion. The ensuing concussive fireball engulfed both the sergeant and Max along with him. Pale face shifted orange by the combustion, Magnolia stood covering her mouth as her white dress fluttered violently against the shockwave.

The flames soon gave way to a thick, smoky shroud that obscured the results of the explosion. The remaining knight candidates anxiously waited with bated breath, praying for Max's survival. To their horror, the figure that soon emerged from the plume was not that of their friend and teammate, but that of the giant Grizzler as he tore forth from the cloud with a vengeance. The enemy then barreled directly toward Gustavo, black soot training from his charred uniform as he charged.

Astonishingly, Gustavo did not attempt to flee. Instead, he stood tall, staring down death with unlikely conviction. It seemed that the young assassin's death was all but inevitable, when Grizzler came to an abrupt stop less than a meter away, covering the boy in dust. As the dust settled, Gustavo's figure became clear, now holding his finger upward toward the sergeant's face as if he were holding a gun. Grizzler, clearly strained, delivered a panicked grunt as he lifted his chin into the air and clenched his jaw tightly.

Against the skin of his clavicle, the titan felt the cold, damp body of a small, squirming creature. Within a few seconds, a familiar orange head was poking from his bloodstained collar.

"N-no..." Grizzler stuttered in horror, "That's impossible, I... I killed it!"

"You killed a piece of an orange peel," Gustavo snapped back before removing a half-peeled orange from his coat pocket and taking a bite from its succulent flesh.

Grizzler began to sweat profusely from his brow. His breath rapidly became heavier, causing his armored chest to rise and fall quickly.

"I wouldn't complain anymore if I were you," Gustavo said nonchalantly, "If Naranja touches the inside of your mouth, you'll be dead within a minute."

The frog's throat inflated and began to vibrate, bellowing a shrill call in apparent agreement.

Grizzler's jaw quivered in response. "Beaten by such a small, insignificant animal..." he huffed, "How could I lose to such a pathetic aberrance?"

The sunrise's orange light danged between the dust particles still floating in the air and rained over the woolen visor of Gustavo's ski cap as his eyes remained obscured by shade. "You didn't lose to me. Don't you get it? You lost to all of us."

Though Grizzler's blood swiftly carried liquid rage through his veins, he managed to remain still.

"If Sturm and Max hadn't worn you down, none of us would have survived long enough for Naranja to squeeze through all that armor," Gustavo explained, "And the Recovery Team helped us figure out what you were capable of."

The giant's face twisted into a snarl, though he was careful not to allow his lip to rise enough that it might provide an entrance for the frog threatening his life.

Gustavo then lifted his head, allowing the light to flourish across his face. "Of course, it's all thanks to Magnolia that Naranja could ever get to your face in the first place."

Tears of joy ran down the normally short-tempered blonde's face before falling as sparking stars to the savaged earth below. She had contributed greatly to the defeat of one of the most famous Iron Knights in all of Germany, and she couldn't deny that it was a wonderful feeling.

"Now..." Gustavo spoke up once more while Grizzler glared down at him through inflamed, anxious eyes, "Shall we negotiate?"