Every Dark Matter point in the cut off arm lit up. Lee Seng and Ritsuka watched as Jiro grunted. Pain flared and Jiro took it like a champ, clutching his arm as it forcefully kept pushing itself into the knob of his arm. He grunted as the threads continued to pump out energy into the dead arm.
Fingers began to twitch as Jiro felt everything in his arm begin to light up. "What the hell is the thread?" Lee Seng asked as his ear caught something prowling in the distance. His senses exploded as energy swirled. Lee Seng cursed and threw his arm up, blocking three large fireball attacks.
"Where'd that come from?" Ritsuka shouted, whipping his head around. Lee Seng growled as wisps buzzed off of him.
"They were creeping just out of passive range." Lee Seng growled. He looked over at Jiro who was still struggling to keep himself together. "I'll protect your brother and get some pot shots off. Do you think you can get them?"
"You mark them on the map for me?" Ritsuka asked, touching his necklace.
"Just did. There's Six of them. I'll handle the range." Lee Seng lifted his hand and fired three cosmic blasts outwards. A tree exploded with another blast sending a Biohuman flying into the air. The last blast slammed against a car, lifting it upwards. Chaos ensued as people scrambled away from the car.
Ritsuka rushed out of the safety of the barrier, leaving Lee Seng with Jiro. Jiro winced and tried to summon his sword to help. Lee Seng turned and lifted his hand at Jiro.
"Heal." Lee Seng let the light hover around Jiro and returned his attention to shoot more cosmic blasts at the enemies.
"They're onto us!" A voice shouted.
"Void Dash." Ritsuka narrowed the gap between him and his enemies in mere seconds. He slashed one of the Biohumans and turned his blade to attack the other one. A barrier flew up blocking Ritsuka's attack and pushing back into the air.
"Now!" The barrier Biohuman shouted. A bolt of lightning flew out from behind the barrier Biohuman. Ritsuka summoned his shield and took the brunt of the damage. Lee Seng's lip twitched. He released a Dragon Celestial firebolt, watching it fly straight towards the lightning user. The barrier Biohuman noticed it and raised their barrier, only to explode on impact.
The barrier Biohuman collided with the lightning Biohuman as Lee Seng pushed downwards. The two Biohumans slammed onto the ground as gravity pinned them in place. Ritsuka flew out of the smoke and slid backwards to a stop. He twirled Obsidian Glass and raised his shield. He slammed the sword against the shield four times, letting it light up.
"Fireballs!" Ritsuka shouted.
"Yeah, I got it." Lee Seng lifted both arms up and squeezed his hands into fists. Two fireballs disappeared into nothing in an instant as a lone fireball connected with the barrier, exploding and filling the space with smoke.
"Shield Rush!" Ritsuka dashed forward, putting all of his strength into the shield as it pushed him in a straight line towards the two remaining Biohumans.
"Ah shit, the other one's coming onto us!" A fire Biohuman freaked out.
"Where's their coin? I don't see it!" The second Fire Biohuman asked as he released a blast of fire from his hand. Ritsuka stopped mid-rush, feeling the flames eat at him as he fought to push it away. The flames ate at him as he let out a couple void slashes at the fire user. The fire user screamed as an arm dropped to the ground and he was sent flying away.
"Oh shit, they're strong!" The other fire user gasped. He began to turn and run when golden stars circled him. Lee Seng appeared in front of the fire user, holding him in place as he floated.
"You came for a coin?" Lee Seng asked. The fire user gulped. He nodded at Lee Seng's answer. Flames began to quietly burn inside of him. He would wait until the person in front of him asked him another question and he would answer with a fire breath. It did well against the other monsters he fought in this horrible set of games.
Lee Seng clearly could hear bells going off. The fire user was building up energy in his lungs. He lifted his hand as if he was going to say something but then summoned the coin into his hand. The man's eyes widened.
"So you were going for this." Lee Seng nodded. "Too bad you can't get it where this is." He made the coin disappear. The man began to say something, releasing his attack onto Lee Seng, who simply turned his face away from the fire. The fire user released a long breath of flames. When he was done, Lee Seng was still floating there.
"H-how could you not be injured from that?" The fire user's voice shook as he asked his question. "I-I put my all into that…"
"You did, but I'm sort of an… enigma." Lee Seng replied. "You don't have the coin, they do, so I'll just…" He flicked his hand to the left and sent the man onto the ground. Gravity pushed onto him, keeping him in place as Lee Seng landed next to the two men he had pinned earlier.
"Jiro, are you okay?" Ritsuka asked running back to his brother. Jiro grunted as he slowly moved his reattached arm.
"I don't think this is quite finished." Jiro answered. Ritsuka grabbed his brother's shoulders and studied him. He wasn't in too much pain and seemed to be doing better now. "I need to find Hayami and get this figured out. I think I made the window but this is odd."
"Just take it easy, hm?" Ritsuka suggested. Jiro nodded and looked past his brother. He watched Lee Seng pluck two coins off the men and pocket it wherever the other coin went.
"He's scary strong. I thought he was a Fighter/Glass Specialist. He healed me, protected us, and attacked from afar too. He cleared that distance in less than a second, too." Jiro looked at his brother. He was searching for a specific answer from his brother.
"You should see him when he's not confined to that form." Ritsuka answered, turning. "He fights way better with tails moving around. Plus, this isn't his usual tactic. He's usually up in there with me."
"So he is a fighter?"
"He's… a true Specialist, I guess. It's hard to explain."
"They had two coins. Lucky them." Lee Seng reappeared next to Ritsuka.
"You didn't kill them, did you?" Jiro asked. Lee Seng and Ritsuka looked at Jiro.
"No." They both answered.
"They're just doing what they think is right to survive." Ritsuka answered. "Why would we kill them?"
"Well… It's just… Never mind, I think a lot has happened today. It's throwing me off. Let's, uh… What's next? We find more coins?" Jiro switched subjects.
"If I'm given enough time, I should be able to scan this area of the district for coins. I'll mark them on the map Ritsuka has access to and we can go from there." Lee Seng replied. Jiro looked at Ritsuka with a confused face.
"Map?" Jiro asked. Ritsuka turned and nodded at his brother. He grabbed the necklace on him and showed it to Jiro.
"This is imbued with communication and map capabilities." Ritsuka answered.
"You guys came prepared… If only I was prepared for a trip to the Academy after all these years…" Jiro sighed. "This place has gotten creepier ever since that girl started talking."
"Speaking of that, do you have a clue on where she is?" Lee Seng asked. Jiro shook his head.
"No clue. I assume she's operating from somewhere within the Academy district. A power like that would need something to broadcast that much Dark Matter. If we find places like that, here, we could potentially put an end to these maddening games and get all these people outta here." Jiro sighed.
"A strengthening device." Ritsuka whispered. He looked over at Lee Seng. "Do you remember seeing anything like that here?"
"I don't think so." Lee Seng shook his head. He looked up and noticed in the distance a large building. It stood higher than the rest. "Do you think that building has anything?" Lee Seng pointed at it. The brother's turned their attention to it.
"Y'know, I forgot that building existed." Jiro commented. "A high enough place… I just remember that place was where the back-end of the Academy staff were. I'm not sure if there's anything that could boost someone's capabil— Wait a minute… There actually might be something up there! I think we should go there. You'd have to have something that was able to manipulate the Academy's space at will… Release hounds, change environments… It would be there."
"What about the coins?" Lee Seng asked.
"We'll get them if we come across it." Jiro replied. "If we're right about this, she'll be up there and if we go to the source and end it, everyone else will be free. What do you think?" Jiro looked at the two. Ritsuka nodded and Lee Seng shrugged and nodded.
"It's a good place to start, I guess." Ritsuka answered. "Isn't it in the back of the Fourth District?"
"I can take care of that." Lee Seng waved his hand. "Let's see if Jiro's right." Lee Seng lifted his hand up into the air, catching the three of them and rocketed them straight for the largest building.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶