Sora Brontarion
Mira burst through the crust of the river floor. She fought against the roaring current as earth exploded from the river, forming jagged spikes to impede Nerena's progress through the water.
Nerena's annoyance bled into me. We were so close to our base—so close to victory, but the pillars and spikes were blocking our way.
We had to take down Mira.
I didn't want to fight her. But this wasn't war; it was just a game in the academy. An academy that focuses on merit and status more than anything.
Despite what I wanted, I had to put my personal ideals aside. Voen was of no use. He didn't have enough cosmic energy to use his flute again. So it was just Nerena and me, and it didn't help that I couldn't breathe underwater.
Just as I was getting ready to pop my bubble and enter the water, Nerena stopped me, wagging her finger. She shot through the water, b-lining straight for Mira. I watched as she maneuvered through the obstacles of spikes in the water.
In water, Nerena was something otherworldly. The quiet girl became the most dangerous creature. The closer Nerena got to Mira, the more I noticed something.
Mira wasn't good at holding her breath underwater. No longer traveling underground, she kept returning to the surface to regroup.
Just when she resurfaced, Nerena used her astral tentacles to pull her back down. I saw Mira struggle against Nerena's astral tentacles, submerging her; Mira's fear flowed into my psyche. The same horror prey felt when hunted.
But no matter how hard she tried, nothing prevailed. Nerena was the superior in this element, and she had no intentions of letting up.
Before, I had only seen Nerena use her astral tentacles to restrain students. But now she used them to change the flow of the current and destroy the structures Mira created.
I didn't have to look at Voen to sense his shock. We watched Nerena land strike after strike on Mira, causing her to lose her breath and rapidly inhale water.
I winced at the sight. One more strike landed, and Mira was knocked out.
Nerena placed Mira on the shore before she cleared our path.
We traveled submerged through the river's current. Five minutes passed, and we finally arrived at the shore near our base.
As we started to dry ourselves off, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as a surge of rage washed over me. I looked at all my comrades– no, I couldn't pinpoint whose rage it was. All I knew was that it seethed with bloodlust.
"Sora…."
I turned my gaze back to Voen; his face looked like he had seen a ghost.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't think the game is over yet." The rage was increasing by the second. It was almost unbearable.
I slowly turned to see what Nerena and Voen were staring at.
The War Titan had found our campsite.
My body stuttered, fear taking over as I stared into the eyes of an unbeatable foe.
I wanted to be the leader everyone could rally around.
But the overwhelming cosmic energy emanating from the War Titan made my desires seem like fiction.
Desperation from Voen and Nerena crept into my mind.
My pulse thundered. I searched the base for any way out, but there was none.
So I poured the last of my cosmic energy into cloaking my body in lightning and hurled myself head-on at the titan.
Nerena followed behind me, her exhaustion clear. Her camouflage flickered more than usual, which caused a pit to form in my stomach.
Each strike I threw was sluggish, exhaustion making my arm feel like a brick. With blinding speed, the Titan dodged with ease and countered with a jab to my abdomen.
Rolling to my left, I barely dodged the attack. I aimed my next attack at the knee of the titan. A cracking sensation radiated through my hand. The body of the titan now was like a steel beam. My eyes watered as the sharp pain intensified. I wanted to get far away from this monster. But I looked at Nerena and Voen, their determination pushing me forward.
Dodging another strike from the titan, I caught a glance at Nerena using her astral tentacles. She threw numerous strikes in tandem with mine, but it wasn't enough in our exhausted states. The titan made us look like children, evading our barrages with minimal effort.
A voice cut through the chaos.
"Cover your ears!" We disengaged, as Voen rushed forward with his flute in hand.
He took a deep breath. And a devastating screech erupted from his flute and assaulted the Titan.
Voen looked unstable, the backlash of forcing a constellation ability with no cosmic energy.
The pit in my stomach grew as I watched The Titan stumble back a few feet, regaining its composure in seconds. The Titan's uppercut to Voen's stomach was too fast for me to see. All I saw was Voen's body folding around its fist. The metallic figure was unrelenting as it backhanded Voen, sending him flying back to the shallow end of the river.
I concentrated all my energy into my legs and left hand and dashed forward. Cutting through the terrain like a bolt of lightning, I landed a strike on the Titan's chest. My fingers shattered as I tore the synthetic flesh, but I didn't care. All that mattered was wounding the monstrosity.
The Titan staggered back, holding its chest, which allowed Nerena to wrap two of her astral tentacles around the Titan, giving her an opening to land clean strikes.
My body wouldn't move, no matter how much I willed it. I had no cosmic energy, one of my shoulders was severely damaged, and my right hand was broken.
She was on her own now.
The titan recovered quickly. It wrapped Nerena's astral tentacles around its arm and pulled her in. A reverberating boom shook the base as I watched the titan slam its fist into the body of my teammate, sending her crashing into a nearby tree.
The titan disappeared from my sight, and before I could even think, something grabbed my braided ponytail and yanked me off the ground. I was face-to-face with a beast of malice.
I braced myself for the devastating strike to come.
The Titan ripped my dimensional storage open, scattering everything across the ground.
The Titan had expected to see totems. When none appeared, its fury only intensified.
The titan pulled its hand back for a strike.
A thick white fog began to creep in, curling around us. The grip on my hair slackened, and I collapsed to the ground.
"It's about time you woke up. I was beginning to think you were ignoring us."