I lunged myself against Iago, slashing down on him, with him quickly avoiding all my attacks, moving side to side with no problem while I struggle to move as fast as I normally move. His smirk just kept getting wider and wider as I missed my attacks, a laugh starting to come out of him.

“And you’re supposed to be the strongest one?! Don’t make me laugh! – After saying this, he quickly punched my face, throwing me off balance, but not enough to throw me down. I looked straight at him, holding my sword tightly in my right hand, as I try to stay on my feet, starting my attacks once again. I had to force myself to go at my usual speed, which was starting to hurt me slowly as I started to land a few strikes, but not with enough strength to do any significant damage to him, as my expression started to turn into a face of frustration

“How are you doing this?! How are you slowing me down?!” I shouted this at him as I continued to force my body’s speed, striking more and more as I went on, my hands starting to hurt more and more as I went on.

“It’s simple one you understand what I’m doing to all of you. Of course, why would I say it when that would ruin my plan for taking all of you out” Iago said this with a happy tone in his voice as he kicked me directly towards my stomach, pushing me back slightly, making me struggle for breath as continue to stand up, my body almost giving up on me.

“I will not allow this to end here” As I said this, I slowly activated Power Overdrive once more, the blue aura slowly starting to surround my body, my eyes switching color once more as I went into attacking once again, now finally doing some noticeable damage to him, with cracks appearing on his armor. But, I could still feel my body struggling to move, even with Power Overdrive activated.

“Now this is starting to get interesting, this is exactly what I've been waiting for” As soon as my last attacked finish, a quick flash of white appeared from his helmet, blinding me for a moment as I missed my next attack. After the flash was gone, Iago’s helmet disappeared once more as he smiled at me. “Now I can finally end this” After he said this, he put his hand directly onto my chest, making his ability clear to me… electricity. When he placed his hand, a spark of electricity passed all throughout my body, making me fall to the ground, paralyzed, as the electricity stayed on the compound that Iago covered us in. I could only turn my head, watching the situation unfold right before my eyes. He slowly walked right towards me, pulling out a knife slowly from under the sleeve of his armor, kneeling right on top of me, pointing the knife right towards my left eye. “Now, I was instructed that if I ended up encountering you guys, I shouldn't kill you, so, since I know that you’re the strongest, I’ll just take you back to our base so that you don’t cause any more problems to us!” He then quickly swung his knife to strike my eye, but right before he got to it, a knife hit his right shoulder, falling back onto the ground due to the armor protecting it, but he stopped his movements, turning his head up “Huh… you? How can you move?!”

The one who threw the knife was Ness from all the way in the back, the scared look on his face being covered by his helmet, sweat dripping from his face as he reached for another knife, throwing quickly so that it scraped Iago’s face, leaving a cut on it.

“Cut it out!” Iago quickly launched one of his own knife, but Ness quickly rolled to dodge it, to then start running towards Iago, pulling out a short sword. His breathing was unstable, almost deep breathing with every step as he dodged all of Iago’s knives, to then push him off me, pointing his sword directly to Iago’s throat, holding him in place with his left arm.

“… Oh… I see the problem… you didn't get wet for my earlier attack, that’s why the electricity isn't affecting you, well then, that hall be an easy fix!” Iago shouted this as another bottle of the same fluid appeared on his arm, trying to crash in right on Ness’s head, but he was held back by Ness’s arm, the tip of the sword starting to dig into his throat, some drops of blood coming out of it as Ness looked directly into his eyes

“O-one wrong move and you’re finished!” Ness said this, stuttering a bit as he held the short sword towards Iago’s throat, starting to sweat heavily, a worried tone in his voice sounding as he said this.

“Tall words for someone so weak. You think I haven’t heard from you?” Iago said this in a dominant tone, almost bossy, as if trying to lure Ness away from him “Do you really think YOU can threaten me?!”

“No… no I don’t… but that won’t stop me from trying!” Ness slowly thrust the sword more into Iago’s neck, more blood starting to come out of the wound on his neck “At this point, I’m the only hope left for the team right now.”

“Well, I don’t see you using any other type of abilities to try to keep me down!” After saying this, a barrier of electricity came out all around him, covering Ness. But he stayed there, enduring it as he continued to keep Iago down on the ground “This shouldn't take that long to get you away from me!”

Ness stayed on top of Iago, shouting in pain because of the electricity continuously flowing through his body “I just need a few more seconds!” He then thrusted his sword even more into Iago’s throat, but, just as the tip was about to reach his throat, he passed out, falling to the side of Iago, his breathing alternating between quickly and slowly.

Iago slowly began to get up, covering his neck to try and stop the blood flow, struggling to talk or move after the huge use of energy and the wound on his neck. But, right as he got up, Mark came into his view, tackling him back onto the ground, beginning to punch his face quickly as Iago’s on the ground, his fist slowly starting to glow as he began to punch him faster and faster. He did not say it at this point, but this was another one of his attacks, 2nd Power, Rampage Flurry.

Ability Description: 2nd Power, Rampage Flurry

This is a S̹̹̬͈̦̤̳̑̏̈́ͥ̋ͦ͌h̙̳͍̰̤̞͔̏͆̚y̭̫̤͎̩̻͉͍̽ͬ̍̑u̟͓̥̲͎̙̜͂͑̑̏̋̔͆͞l̉̽͗̏ͫ͡͏̥͍n̮͚̈́ͬ̏͆̊͗ͣp̶͚͕͉̰̬͍̣͕̺̓ͯ̍̅ͫͭt̘͍̺̲̣̘͙̞ͩ̇͠h̙̹̼̖ͣe̵̬̗̩͔̪͍̜̺̠͛̅̇͗͟r͉̻͖̺̯̩̎̉͆̍̄̽ͦ͞͞[File Corrupted] technique. As shown before, it is mostly a punching flurry. It keeps getting stronger and stronger with every punch he deals, but, if he gets hit, all the power will go away.

After half a minute of Mark continuing to punch Iago, Iago finally fell unconscious, which, along with making Mark stop punching him, finally made all of the electricity and the blobs disappear from our bodies, which allowed me to finally jump up and recover all of my mobility “Fucking finally, I was starting to get stressed with all that electricity shit. Are all of you alright?”

“Well, Mark seems to be doing fine. I am also doing pretty ok, even if I wasn't able to talk for a while” Martha said this from the back, still trembling a bit, but finally back on her feet “But, I’m not sure if Ness is alright… I think we should probably go back now and get him to the hospital wing”

“Yeah, I agree, he really took a shock in that last attack. Even I could feel that” Mark said this as he went over to Ness, picking him up as the portal back to base opened, followed by all of us going back.

After a day of Ness in the hospital wing, he finally woke up, staying in bed for most of the time before we went into the room he was in, greeting him back.

“Hey Ness, are you feeling okay?” Mark said this as he entered the room, followed by Martha, and then finally me, closing the door behind me, then with all of us sitting around him.

“Well, I feel a killing headache, I cannot see clearly yet, my body is trembling heavily, and my hands can’t stop shaking under the blanket… yeah, I’m feeling pretty good” Ness said this, his voice trembling, but with a happy tone.

“Well, at least you’re awake now… but, Ness, why didn't you think of another way of attacking him in another was, I mean, there must've been another way to knock him down without getting in danger” Martha said this in a calm tone, not wanting to anger him.

“I couldn't… I can’t… there was no other method.” His happy tone went away slowly as he said this, his eyes slowly starting to adjust.

“What do you mean there was no other method? I mean, abilities are here for a reason, you don’t have to ignore them” I said this with a calm tone, trying to get him to speak.

“No… you don’t understand”

“Then explain to us, what can you do?” Martha said this in a dominant tone on her voice…

Ness stayed silent for a bit, before finally speaking up, a grim tone on his voice “I can’t do anything, I’m… I’m just a human”

Humans. Those are hard to find currently. Most of the world are sylphs or hunters. The only way that a human could exist is if both of his parents were human, or if only one was and he wasn't trained in his sylph or hunter abilities, or simply did not inherit the genes.

“Even though I did have a hunter mother, she never really trained me, and after a while I did not have the time to finally get a hunter ability, which means, I’m blank. I cannot do anything… I’m useless” He said this, some tears coming out of his eyes as he said this “I was fine without them until now, which is why I never complained before about it, but now I cannot contain this guilt of not being able to help. That last attack I tried was only as a distraction… I was willing to let myself die just so that bastard couldn't get away, even though I d-don’t know any of you guys, I know that you’re j-just as good without me as y-you’re with me” His eyes fully teared up, his voice cracking at the last part. Seeing him cry hurt, but, it made sense. It doesn't feel right, but I understood why he felt like that…

“Ness, there’s no need of feeling useless-“As I was saying this, Ness cut me off.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE’S NO NEED?! DO YOU THINK IT FEELS GOOD BEING LIKE THIS!? DO YOU THINK IT’S NICE NOT BEING ABLE TO HELP?! DO YOU THINK IT’S FINE BEING UNNATURAL BY THIS WORLD’S STANDARDS?!” His tone changed to an angry one, his eyes still tearing up.

“That is not what I meant-“

“SHUT UP! THERE’S NO WAY THAT SOMEONE LIKE YOU, THAT CAN BASICALLY TURN INTO A DEMIGOD WHENEVER HE WANTS COULD MAKE ME FEEL BETTER! THERE’S NO WAY THAT MARTHA, WHO CAN BASICALLY TURN INTO A DEMON AND KILL ANYONE WITH A PILLAR OF FIRE MAKE ME FEEL BETTER, AND THERE’S NO WAY THAT SOMEONE WHO CAN PARALIZE ANYONE IN PLACE MAKE ME FEEL BETTER! SO, YOU CAN ALL FUCK OFF!” As he finished saying this, sparks of lightning came out of him, covering all of the room like a shock wave, throwing all of us back.

After a few seconds of literal shock, Ness quickly looked over himself, his eyes finally adjusted to the world, his trembling going away… he was dumbfounded, his face was slowly going from angry to morbidly surprised “W-what was t-that?! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” He was going crazy, more lightning coming out of him as he put his hands over his head as he tried to keep calm.

“Ness, calm down, if you keep going like that, you could cause an accident” I said this while slowly standing up, walking towards him in a calm manner

“How am I going to calm down WHEN LIGHTNING IS COMING OUT OF MY HANDS?!” He shouted this at me, sending a lightning bolt right towards me, shocking me on the spot, but not throwing me back. I kept walking slowly towards him until I was finally close to him, placing my hand on his shoulder, shocking me all throughout my body

“If you don’t calm down, how are you going to analyze what’s happening to you” I said this in a calm tone, trying to calm him down, using some sylph powers to pass calm thoughts to him. After a few seconds, the lightning finally stopped, with my body finally being able to calm down from all of it before falling on the ground after all those shocks.

“… what happened to me… what did I just do?” Ness said this as he checked his hands, which were still throwing out some sparks.

“Well, this might be just a theory, but, maybe the shock affected you deeply, and in some way, infected your hunter genes, reactivating it and giving you some form of electricity powers” I said this in a calm tone, still breathing heavily on the ground

“It could be a possibility… but, it definitely requires some investigation” Ness said this, laying his head back, a sigh coming out of him “But, shit, why the hell is that I got these powers now?”

“I guess we’ll find out soon, but, if you need help, just ask, after all, I can kill people with a pillar of fire” Martha said this laughing a bit, and then, all of the room was filled with laughter coming from all of us… it finally felt like a turning point for all of us… this one was probably our first real bonding experience, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

END OF CHAPTER 14