CONTENT ADVISORY

MAY CONTAIN EXCESS BLOOD/INJURY

“You can’t stop-ugh.”

Rachel cut the goon off with a quick stomp to his face, knocking him out cold. The group looked around at all three unconscious goons unimpressed.

“We’re these guys for real?” Karla chided.

“These guys were easier to defeat than Crimson Riot, and there was only three of them! The only significant one was the earthquake guy, and Silver took him down in one strike!” Karla complained.

“You should be thankful it was easy. Less of a waste of time,” Kiara scolded.

“More importantly, less innocent people hurt. The quicker, the better,” Rachel stated.

“I barely got to do anything though….” Karla pouted.

Rachel glanced around the area surveying the damage as Silver and the others stepped towards her.

“At least the damage to the city was minimal,” May spoke up, looking at the bright side.

“We arrived quickly enough, so that is to be expected,” Silver responded.

“True…” Rachel mumbled.

“Something wrong?” Silver questioned.

Rachel narrowed her eyes in thought, sighing, before turning and noticing civilians starting to come back out again.

“Nothing to worry about. We should probably head out now,” Rachel spoke, glancing around at the growing crowd.

Silver nodded.

“What do we do about these guys?”  Mizu asked.

“We’ll leave them here. The people can decide what to do with them,” Rachel responded.

As the members of Gale Force began to walk away the crowd suddenly cheered. Turning around in surprise, they noticed four guys standing in the distance wearing what looked like navy uniforms.

“The Government!”

“They’re here to help us!”

“Defeat the kingdoms!”

“The AMG can save us!”

“We believe in you guys!”

The crowd cheered at the four men as they slowly stepped forward. Rachel narrowed her eyes.

“Sweet!” Karla cheered, getting into the sudden excitement.

Rachel widened her eyes as Karla stepped towards them, “Thanks for coming to help! We’ve got these guys ready to be locked up right over-”

Shink!

Karla’s eyes widened; her words cut off as blood splattered before her. Rachel stood protectively in front of Karla, having pushed her back as Aaren’s sword pierced through Rachel’s right shoulder.

Rachel’s eyes were widened in shock at Aaren’s speed, she just wasn’t fast enough to block his attack. The wound turning black, Rachel reacted quickly kicking Aaren away, his sword pulling out as he slid back from the sheer force.

“May!” Rachel shouted right as she kicked him.

May responded, creating a giant ice wall around the group stopping the other three agents right before they could reach them.

“Rachel! Are you alright?” Karla asked in a panic.

Rachel’s wound turned smokey black as it crawled down her arm almost like an infection. Applying pressure to it, Rachel responded from her kneeling position, “I’m okay, don’t worry about me.”

Rachel narrowed her eyes as she calculated the situation before her. That attack was too fast to just be some normal rebelling civilian and yet, I don’t sense that any of them are mages. However, that sword was embedded with magic. With this type of magic using Prism wouldn’t be wise. Sorry Prism.

The sudden sound of explosions shook May’s makeshift ice dome, causing the others to look up.

“They have bombs too?!” Karla spoke surprised.

“Seems so. What do we do now?” Kiara asked.

Silver turned, “Rachel?”

“We’ll go on the offensive,” Rachel spoke, using her light magic to purify the magic infection from her shoulder. “Karla, May, fall back into the alleyways, use them for cover and to provide support when needed. The rest of us will each take on one of these guys. There’s four of them and four of us, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

I cannot use Prism in this battle, so we’ll go with this strategy.

“Be careful, these guys may not be mages but they are utilizing some kind of magic weaponry, so don’t let your guard down.”

The others nodded. Rachel placed a hand on Karla’s shoulder, “Ready?”

Karla nodded with a nervous smile.

“Now May!”

“Right!” May nodded swiping her hands across her as her icy dome turned into small snow flurries.

Immediately, Rachel, Silver, and Kiara rushed forward, knocking back three of the four agents before them. Karla helped May as they both quickly fled toward the city’s alleyways.

“Oh no you don’t,” Calen muttered, his shoes glowing as he sped over with lightning speed towards the two. A sudden torrent of water however invaded his vision as he skid to a quick stop to avoid the sudden blast.

Turning towards the source, he noticed Mizu’s hand directed towards him as her empty eyes remained forward. Mizu closed her hand, Calen immediately glancing around to see small droplets of water surrounding him on all sides, before shooting towards him with astonishing speed. Calen quickly used his speed to dodge the attack as he snickered at her, “You’re going to have to be quicker than that if you want to hit me.”

Mizu narrowed her eyes before she raised her hand.

Bursts of air came from each strike as Kiara and Takashi exchanged crushing blows with each movement of their fluid martial arts. The two remained silent as they clashed, each impact speaking for them as the two locked eyes with intense glares.

His fighting style is almost like a mirror reflection of my own. It feels almost like I’m fighting another version of myself.

A fierce clash from them both bound them as they both pushed against one another with ferocious pressure. In the mist of this, Takashi smiled, “Impressive. Never have I faced a foe with skills such as yours. For that, I commend you.”

“However,” Takashi glared.

“Those without honor, will never be able to defeat me.” At that moment, Takashi released a powerful blow with his gauntlets, the blow much stronger than his previous as Kiara was thrown back, the wind knocked out of her.

Sliding back to her feet, Kiara looked back in shock as Takashi charged right towards her.

Gun shots rang through the air as Silver deflected each and every magical bullet fired towards her. The hooded man in front of her continued to fire with his twin charged pistols, this time firing slightly more powerful shots that its previous. Silver however remained unfazed, easily deflecting the shots, tearing these ones in particular through the hood of her opponent as the hood shredded to pieces.

Silver halted, her movements showing her surprise as her face remained emotionless. “Agent 66, or should I say, Jace Calico.” 

Jace lowered his gun with a small laugh, “I’m surprised you remembered the name of a petty foot soldier like me, General.”

“I’m surprised you survived.”

“Like your army would stop me. I never fail a mission, and I don’t plan to change that today.”

“Really? The way I see it. Nothing has changed. So how is your mission successful?” Silver taunted.

Jace glared, shooting at Silver as the sound of bullets on metal pierced the air.

“Spirit Wave!” Rachel called out as she threw waves of light towards Aaren. Using his sword, he seamlessly cut through Rachel’s attacks before he sped towards her with unnerving speed.

 Rachel twisted out of the way before aiming a blast towards his back. “Spirit Burst!”

Aaren whipped around quicker than lightning and sliced the attack in two, the attack exploding behind him as he returned the shadow of his blade back down onto Rachel.

Rachel countered the attack with her own daggers as sparks of light versus dark magic combated against one another.

I’m no match for him in terms of sword skill, however-

Adjusting her hold, Rachel’s daggers began to glow brightly.

I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Rachel’s daggers exploded, knocking Aaren back as Rachel quickly threw another wave of light towards him. Aaren dodged as the attack sliced his cheek, bursting forward for his counter attack as Rachel aimed bursts of energy at his feet.

Tripping and quickly readjusting, Aaren swung his blade, Rachel countering with slashes of her own magic. The two bounced around, countering each other’s strikes, both deeply focused as Rachel tried to end this battle quickly.

Due to the negligence of her injury however, Aaren slipped in an attack with the hilt of his sword onto Rachel’s open wound. Pain coursed through Rachel’s veins as she faltered, crying out as her vision momentarily blackened.

Using the presented opportunity, Aaren swung his sword, aiming for a fatal blow. However, Rachel countered faster this time, catching his sword with her bare hand before blasting him back with her magic.

Meanwhile, Karla and May ran through the alleyways, looking for a spot to aid the others from afar. Due to the amount of magic she used earlier, frost coated May’s body as she breathed rather heavily. As they ran around, two figures watched them closely from nearby as Sage took aim with his sniper.

“Where do you think your going little rats?” Koen smiled, flicking off the pin as he tossed his weapon.

Karla’s ears twitched, immediately turning rapidly to see the small grenade slowly fall before her as the sniper behind it took its aim.

“May!” Karla yelled, throwing May behind her, before crossing her arms protectively in front of herself just as Sage shot the grenade.

With a massive explosion, Karla and May were thrown back, blasted right into Rachel as all three of them slammed harshly into the opposing wall.

As Rachel got up, Mizu and Kiara were thrown next to her, Silver flipping back in front of them as the agents backed all of them into a corner. Karla and May down, and Kiara and Mizu weakened, Silver stood protectively in front of the group as the AMG slowly closed in. Rachel’s vision blurred before her as she stood, the sounds around her growing more muffled as her blood loss became apparent that she was out of time.

However, as Aaren raised his sword, a loud roar pierced through the city.