022 crossed our only defense, attacking Mark first to put him out of commission. Mark luckily dodged the attack moving to the side with almost incredible speeds. Again, this was one of his powers, that being 5th Power, Star over the World

[Ability Description]

5th Power, Star Over The World

This is a S̹̹̬͈̦̤̳̑̏̈́ͥ̋ͦ͌h̙̳͍̰̤̞͔̏͆̚y̭̫̤͎̩̻͉͍̽ͬ̍̑u̟͓̥̲͎̙̜͂͑̑̏̋̔͆͞l̉̽͗̏ͫ͡͏̥͍n̮͚̈́ͬ̏͆̊͗ͣp̶͚͕͉̰̬͍̣͕̺̓ͯ̍̅ͫͭt̘͍̺̲̣̘͙̞ͩ̇͠h̙̹̼̖ͣe̵̬̗̩͔̪͍̜̺̠͛̅̇͗͟r͉̻͖̺̯̩̎̉͆̍̄̽ͦ͞͞[File Corrupted] ability, which allows the user to see the rest of the world at 0.1* the actual speed, allowing the user to respond to anything with speed and precision. It could almost seem like time has stopped for the user.

Of course, it wasn’t long before 022 tried attacking again, moving quickly behind Mark and hitting him once again, knocking him forwards towards a building, making a crater of the side of the building. He then tried to attack Martha, but a whistle coming from Iago stopped him, making him standing still right in front of Martha, making her shrivel up a bit with fear. When he was standing still, I turned my body towards Iago, shouting at him.

“What did you do to him?! How did you trigger Power Lust?!” I screamed this at the top of my lungs.

“Oh, nothing much, just used the ability of my helmet” Iago said this while taping the left side of his helmet “It allows me to copy one ability being used by my opponent and give it to one of my partners. Sadly, 022 did not possess the second soul, so I could only trigger Lust”

Power Lust… even though it was the first time I had seen it, my father had explained it to me from his time as a Sylph Hunter. Power Lust was an attempt to activate Power Overdrive without a second soul, which would end up with the Sylph being filled with rage, returning them to an almost animal state, and compared to the water-like aura flow of Overdrive, Lust has a more fire-like aura flow. Even though it doesn’t enhance as much as Power Overdrive, it still gives a 2.5x attack multiplier, as well as deactivating the pain nerves. And due to them being in an animal like state, they do not hold back with their attacks, so in some sense, they could still end up being stronger. But, it did come with a comeback. When it is deactivated, that person’s energy will be used heavily, giving them blood red-eyes and leaving them heavily damaged, if not dead after a long usage

“This can get him killed you know?!” I said this with an angry tone of my voice as I summoned my double buster, preparing myself for an attack.

Iago simply laughed maniacally at this, almost wheezing “Do you think we care if any of our teammates die!? We can easily get new members! There’s always people with an evil conscience in the world, we can easily get new members” Iago said this as he lifted up the whistle he was holding “Now, I don’t think I have a need for the two of you, but Martha has something we could use, so now, disappear!” Iago blew on his whistle, making a strong frequency that triggered 022, making him turn towards Ness and me.

“Ness, leave him to me” I said this as I turned to see 022, holding my double buster tightly

“But, you said we should-” I cut Ness off from continuing his sentence.

“Yeah, but if he gets what he wants, we will not be able to win. Based on his ability, he’s either going for her flames of hatred or her demonic form. Either way, we cannot let him access those. So go and beat him!” I said this with a leader-like tone, slowly activating Power Overdrive.

“So, you wish to die alone? So be it!” Iago then commanded 022 to attack me, to which he lounged against me, making both of us slide down the street, with me stopping the direct impact with my buster.

At this point I could no longer see the rest of the team, once again, I was all alone, fighting the Masked Assailant. Once he stopped the sliding, I was launched back, almost crashing into a building, but stopping just centimeters in front of it.

“Well then, what happened to not being consumed by rage while fighting?” I tried to be snarky, but I knew he would not understand me due to his instincts being the one in control. He lounged once again, this time with his fist in the air. I quickly dodged, making him punch the building, which caused a shockwave that launched me to one side, leaving a crater on the building and making it fall down due to a weak structure. This was dangerous, really dangerous, I never thought I would ever see someone with Power Lust activated, and it honestly scared me to the bone. But, I wouldn’t die against him, I had to win, if not, then how could the others win? Ness hadn’t found his true element yet, Martha, even though she had her demonic form, she didn’t know how to control it, nor how to use her Flames of Hatred, and, up until now, I hadn’t seen all of Mark’s -th powers, none of them at that time would have been able to dealt with him. Even so, I was sure I couldn’t be able to defeat him, even with all of my power. But I had to try.

Once the building fully fell down, he quickly turned towards me again and ran towards me, punching continuously. I tried to block all of his attacks with my sword, but could see it slowly start to break as it tried to keep up with the force and the speed. He was slowly speeding up, making it harder for me to keep up, until finally, my sword broke, making him punch me right on the chest, cracking a few of my ribs. Since Power Overdrive was activated, I did not feel the pain, but, besides pushing me back, I could feel them almost piercing my lungs, so I knew I now had limited time, and without my sword, it would now be much harder to beat him. He continued his flurry of punches, with me now trying to intercept them with my own. There was some heavy backlash, due to him having an armor, and the tremendous amount of force being exerted by both of us, cracking the bones in my arm, making them almost noodle like by the end. I still persisted, enduring the broken bones. 022 also had his bones broken, but his armor served as support for his arms, keeping them sturdy as he continued his flurry. Meanwhile, I was just there, trying to block the attacks with my broken arms, trying to stay awake

“What’s wrong?! Can’t hold up!?” 022 said this with an excited tone in his voice as he continued to attack, my arms now getting cut from the armor “I imagined more from the strongest!”

“I’m just getting started!” I bluffed, I couldn’t hold up any longer, but I could still do my Novas, although, charging a full one would take a while. That’s when I got an idea… a really stupid idea, but an idea nonetheless. “But, it’s funny, how the one that’s been consumed by anger now is you”

“It doesn’t matter!” 022 attacked after shouting this, punching directly into my stomach. With some of the energy I had, I activated Ghastly Illusion, quickly phasing through his attacks. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this quicker, maybe just the heat of battle and the thought of helplessness being in control. I quickly dodged his attacks, charging some small novas in my hands and launching them towards him, breaking bits off his armor. He continued to attack, some attacks getting through, but most being dodged (While launching Novas, I had to deactivate Ghastly Illusion). After some more attacks, he finally snapped roaring on spot, his roar putting a crack in the ground

“That’s enough!” He then charged a Nova of his own, one as big as a car, launching it towards me. That’s the opening I was waiting for… I had it. I jumped over his attack, and charged one big Nova, using all of the power from my Power Overdrive, passing it on to the Nova, making just as big as a house.

“Power Nova!” I then launched it towards him, which quickly consumed him with a blinding light… this lasted for about 10 seconds, which made me cover my eyes. Once it was over, I uncovered my eyes, seeing him on the floor, the blood red aura slowly disappearing, his armor fully gone. I walked slowly towards him, trying to keep my Power Overdrive on to not feel any pain. Once I got on top of him, my eyes were still adjusting. I used the last of my strength to summon one normal long sword, preparing to strike him… but, then my eyes fully adjusted, allowing me to see his face… I recognized that face… the blue and grey eyes before they turned blood red, a scar on his right cheek, and, even if it was longer, it was his hair still had its style…

“J-James?”

I found him… I found him… this was not how I expected to find him… but, I found him… my Power Overdrive was now starting to falter, I couldn’t keep it up much more. I had two options, take him with me back to the base, where he would need to be restricted from moving, or leave him there, at their mercy… I was the only one that knew how to cure Bloodshot Eyes, so he would have a better chance with me. Then again, he would need to be restricted. Still, I had found him… I was not going to let him go now. I carried him, running quickly back to where we appeared on the city. My Power Overdrive was just about to run out, so I had to hurry.

I was finally seeing the rest of the team in the distance, the portal was open, and both Martha and Ness were fighting Iago. They were not having much problem, due to it being a 2 against one, and with Ness having their . Mark was still struggling to stand, but had managed to get up, his helmet fully off.

“Guys! We have to run!” I shouted this from a distance, the pain in my lungs and arms starting to get to my mind, but not fully as I continued to run towards the portal.

Iago turned his head to see us, huffing in anger as he saw that scene “How could you defeat my perfect experiment!? There was no way that you could’ve win agai-” he was cut short by one jumping punch from his back by Martha with her Flames of Hatred now activated, knocking him out almost instantly on top of his platform.

“You know, even with all of that armor, he takes as much as I did before” Ness said this before looking over in my direction, a tone of fear appearing on his face “What the hell are you doing?!”

“We’re taking him hostage. I’ll explain later, I don’t have much time” I said this as I quickly jumped through the portal, holding James as I did. Martel was in the waiting area, clearly waiting for us. As soon as I jumped in, the expression on her face changed from happy to surprised when she saw James

“Why the he-” I cut her off before she could finish, running towards the hallways.

“No time to explain, I’m almost fucking dead” I said this as the last of my Power Overdrive went away. Now I was at the mercy of my own stamina and adrenaline. I had to get to the training room before I fell dead. I was not going to die now that I finally found him. My eyesight was blurring, I could feel myself tumbling as I walked and started to feel James’s weight as I got closer and closer.

I finally got to the room, the door opening automatically as I got in front of it. I quickly launched both myself and him inside of the room, James finally falling out of my arms, his armor clanking against the ground. Meanwhile, I finally laid down with my back on the floor. I could feel all the pain in my system now, the immense pain from my shattered arms, my ribs poking at my lungs, the pain in my skull from his head punch, everything. My vision continued to get even blurrier as I laid down, my whole body going numb, before I finally fell, losing consciousness

END OF CHAPTER 16.