"I am… Failed Experiment 529…" 529's fleshy arm muscles bubbled as his hand hovered by his mouth. 529 tilted his head, revealing his bits of his exposed mouth. The muscles throbbed as 529's arm moved, pointing to Jiro. 529's arm muscles expanded, shooting his arm out to Jiro. Jiro dashed right, listening to Jiro's arm slam against the wall. 529's raised his other arm up, shooting it at Jiro.
Jiro dived into the ground, rolling on the ground as 529 retracted his arm back to its regular size. Jiro jumped forward, lighting his longsword and swinging it at 529's chest. 529's muscles glistened, hardening as the longsword glided across his chest.
'He blocked the attack.' Jiro pulled away. 'Why did he introduce himself as a failed experiment? If he goes by 5-2-9, does that mean there's five hundred twenty-eight other failed experiments just like him?' 529's bubbled, pushing him back and forth in his spot. His arm whipped into the air, exploding and shooting his arm outwards at Jiro.
529's arm hit Jiro in the shoulder, cracking Jiro's aura. Jiro slashed the arm, listening to 529's arm spark as he retracted the arm back into place. Jiro pushed the arm away, barely dodging 529's hand scraping his cheek. 529 tilted his head and slowly raised his finger to his mouth.
'He acts strangely…' Jiro readjusted his grip on the longsword. 'Let's see how he handles this.' Jiro's energy pulled inwards into multiple spots in his body.
"What is that…?" 529 asked as Jiro's longsword exploded with energy. He swung the longsword, connecting with 529's arm and cutting through it. Jiro's energy splattered across 529. 529's blood splattered all over him, not drawing a reaction as a portion of his arm and hand dropped to the ground.
Dark blue energies balled all along the upper-chest, shoulders, neck and face area of 529. Jiro flicked two fingers and watched two balls of energy explode, forcing 529 backwards.
"What is happening…?" 529 asked dryly. He bumped into the wall, feeling something swirl inside of him before exploding. 529 slammed into the wall, feeling the traces of energy fade from him.
'Phantom Sting.' Jiro thrusted his longsword forward, pushing the energy from the tip out towards 529. 529's body hardened in an instant, feeling the energy flood through his body like a parasite trying to take over its host. The Failed One pushed itself forward, slowly taking three steps forward before raising his arm up and swinging at Jiro.
Two explosions echoed throughout the underground floor. Jiro's longsword rattled against the floor as its master slammed on the ground. 529 looked down at Jiro with no emotion, raising his cut hand up. He watched bone fly out and reform the rest of his arm and hand bones. Muscle exploded upwards, quickly rebuilding itself as Jiro launched himself straight for 529.
"Futile effort…" 529 hit Jiro in the head and into the left wall. Jiro rolled into a desk, feeling his aura completely shattered. The Failed Experiment had somehow broken through his aura and made him bleed!
Jiro pushed himself up and climbed onto his feet. He reached for his head, touching the warm blood and looking at it. He smiled, letting out a small chuckle as the fleshy Failed Experiment turned to look at him.
"I haven't had someone break my aura and make me bleed in a long time." Jiro told 529. "I look like I'm messing around compared to you… I've always been a 'eye for an eye' person." Jiro's longsword shook, raising itself and slashing through 529's foot. 529 stumbled, balancing himself on his other foot as Jiro's longsword flew into his hand. He reached for his collar and pulled his shirt.
529 watched as a dark blue energy unloosen and immediately swelled all around Jiro. Jiro's aura reappeared in an instant with his longsword swelling with so much more energy. There was something different about this Biohuman in front of 529 and that was stirring strange things in his chest.
"What is this feeling…?" 529 asked. "Tell me what this feeling is…" Jiro rushed at 529, raising his longsword and slashing. 529 lifted his arm, hardening it and watching as the blade sank a couple inches into him. Jiro pulled the sword out, slashing four more times. 529's muscles reformed, grabbing at the sword and trying to stop the attacks. Jiro ripped threw them, going in for the killing blow.
The longsword embedded itself into 529's chest. The Failed Experiment glanced downwards, reaching for it. A thousand cuts erupted across his entire body, tearing every visible muscle on 529 apart.
520 felt himself falling apart. Strange things inside of him were starting to grow. These things… He had felt them before… 'What are they…?' 529 questioned before falling into pieces.Jiro pulled the sword away, letting the fleshy man crumble into a pile of nothingness. He sucked in a breath and wiped his brow.
"It's been awhile since I had to do that." Jiro whispered. Jiro took a step back, watching the cut meat bleed a strange red-orange hue.
Lee Seng stood at the fork in the road looking off to the right. 'They couldn't have gone that way. Keng knows the way…' He stepped forward, listening to the sound of something squelching. It was a crumpled body and moving away from it was Ritsuka's brother, Jiro.
"Oh, I thought I heard fighting earlier." Lee Seng turned to acknowledge Jiro. Jiro let out a sigh and acknowledged Lee Seng. "You fought that thing we saw earlier?"
"Nothing much. It was maybe a Platinum monster at best." Jiro responded. The longsword disappeared as he moved his hand to prop himself on the desk. He took a moment to breathe.
"There's something wrong with you." Lee Seng stepped into the room.
"It's nothing. I've been dealing with this for a while now. It'll go away after a while. It's apart of my Negative. Just give me some time to breathe. It'll be over soon." Lee Seng nodded and glanced behind him.
"Did they go ahead?"
"Yeah. They, uh, went ahead… Although the other one that has tails didn't really look like he wanted to."
"Sounds about right." Lee Seng nodded. He leaned against the wall and folded his arms together. He played with his comm device, letting his eyes glaze over with energy as he looked at the mass of flesh. "Hello? Everyone all good?"
'Lee!' Keng's voice was the first to respond. 'Are you okay?'
"Yes, I'm fine."
'Is my brother okay? Is he there?' Ritsuka's panicked voice came through second. Jiro tapped the bracelet, re-establishing the connection.
"Yes, I'm fine. Just a bit out of breath." Jiro answered.
'What? Is your asthma coming back?'
"It's just the Negative. Y'know how it likes to manifest itself as asthma. I just need to catch my breath for a couple minutes and be fine." Jiro reassured his younger brother. "Did you make it to the access points?"
'Almost there.' Keng answered. 'Whatever noise you guys made, must've spooked the others we saw earlier. We had to hide ourselves. I think they're running towards you.'
"How many?" Lee Seng pushed himself off the wall and stepped out of the room. Sun blade flashed into his hand as the faint sound of footsteps in the distance appeared on his radar.
'I dunno… Maybe five? Six? There weren't a lot of them. They all looked the same, too. All had an odd amount of eyes on them.' Lee Seng pushed his energy outwards for a moment, closing his eyes. He could feel his energy stretch further than it ever could with ease. He could feel more than six coming towards their direction. They were coming from all directions.
"Can I bring someone into the Soul Home?" Lee Seng asked.
[No. You can only bring yourself and/or Keng into the Soul Home, resulting in both of your bodies to be exposed as both cannot dwell within the other.]
Lee Seng sighed and opened his eyes. He looked over to Jiro. "How long do you need, Jiro-san? Three? Four?" He twirled the Sun blade in his hand like he had always done when he was waiting for Akio to fight him.
"Four minutes tops. It doesn't last that long." Jiro answered.
"Alright." Lee Seng nodded, turning his attention to the front. He could see the strange humanoids rushing towards him. Jiro's ears finally caught up. He pushed himself onto his feet and started forward.
"What's that?" Jiro asked.
·?θm 'They're coming for you! You should stay away if you can! Protect my brother, Lee! His asthma could trigger if he pushes himself too much!' Ritsuka warned.
"I didn't push myself that hard!" Jiro gasped for air. "I'm not dying of whooping cough or anything."
"Don't worry, Jiro-san. I got this." Lee Seng spoke in Japanese. "Just sit back and relax. You're flying with Lee Seng Air." Lee Seng's lips curled as the humanoids grew closer. "Keng, you just get them to the access points and close it like planned. Jiro and I will catch up with you."
'Are you sure?' Keng responded in Fox tongue. 'Maybe we should go back for you.'
"We're nine tails now." Lee Seng switched to English. "Don't worry about me… I've just learned a lot about these guys… and I'm definitely connected with them." Lee Seng turned and reached out for 529. 529's flesh shook, flying straight at Lee Seng and disappearing.
[Energy has been replenished! Mastery has gone up!]
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺