Raten peered at the oncoming mass that were quickly making their way towards him. 'Crap! More soldiers!' He cursed within himself and leaped back with the intent of getting to a higher ground level. "They're like a swarm of insects on the ground." Jumping skilfully, he gripped onto the edge of a building and scaled his way to the top.
"Over here!" Ace hollered out to Raten from a building a small distance away from the one he was on, getting the latter's attention pretty quickly. Next to him were the rest of his squad as well as Squad Passion and the Vice Captain. They were unmistakably regrouping. Some of them looked hurt, others out of breath.
He was about moving over to meet them when he heard a sound, reminding him of something. "Raten!!" Nalia screamed at the very top of her lungs as it looked like the poorly maintained tower was quaking as a result of the vibrations. On her end, she wasn't only scared that they might topple over. She was also terrified because of what was happening to Squad Rose. Their energy was being sucked out of their body and they were quickly becoming nothing more than shriveling bones and flesh.
Before Raten could do anything, a blade was swung at him. He quickly countered the surprise assault with the White Devil. His opponent was a soldier and more of them could be seen scaling up the structure, some even jumping up to the building from below. "I don't have time for this right now!" He shaped a blade in his other hand and pierced the man right through the heart. He pulled out the blade, expecting the man to plop to the ground but he just dematerialized.
Making this discovery, he informed the others. "Everyone! They're just like the Spirit Beasts! They're not real!" He relayed to them, grinning afterwards as he chanted a spell under his breath, "Silver Net!" He forged large, spider web looking objects that covered and crushed the soldiers that had appeared in the building.
He moved up in the air confidently but he hadn't predicted that the soldiers were capable of manifesting and casting attacks, almost getting hit in the air. But the reason he hadn't been hit wasn't because he had evaded it -since it was impossible for any regular person to dodge mid-air- but because someone had arrived, creating a forcefield out of Energy. It wasn't Ace or Florian as he had expected but the Vice Captain, Raldin.
"Get to our friends! We'll cover you!" Annie yelled as they all landed on the together, all being covered by Raldin's forcefield. They had come to his aid.
The soldiers were circled all around the forcefield, they looked to be incapable of breaking through it even with all their numbers.
"Get ready, Annie!"
"You got it!"
Raldin counted down to three and afterwards, he dropped the forcefield.
Annie acted instantly. "Swirl-filled Heavenly Blaze!" Annie projected a sizeable wave of fire magic that was released in every direction, covering a wide distance and getting rid of numerous soldiers at the same time. 'On a usual day, this spell is dangerous in battle as I might hurt my teammates. But not in a situation like this one where we're all together abd the enemy is all around us,' she thought, clearing enough of a path to allow Raten to get to the tower.
Raten moved quickly, pushing himself to the limit, surrounding himself with needles and silver nets. He did it pretty well but it was taking a lot out of him, considering he had been battling with a lot of his strength for a while. But so far, he encountered no problem with the others not too far behind, helping him deal with the soldiers that were too much for him.
A bulky one jumped down from above and behind him, going for a punch to his head but Ace intervened, kicking the soldier across the face and dematerializing him. His feet were sparkling with energy, moving much faster and providing him with the ability to run up buildings, gaining the upperhand against the more built soldiers.
Florian on the other hand remained on higher ground as he wasn't a skilled fighter in close combat compared to the others. He contributed to the battle by sniping down enemies with condensed energy lasers he emitted from his index finger, assisting his teammates whenever they were in trouble.
"There you are!!" To his surprise, a bulky soldier had smashed right through the room that Florian was stationed in. The debris from the walls and ceiling shook up the floor. "If you hid yourself here, you must not be so strong. More power for me!" The bulky man charged at the teenage boy but he acted quickly, sliding through the soldier's legs, turning and getting back on his feet.
"It's a good thing I have a gift then." Florian pulled out chains that were tied by his side and with a powerful diagonal swing, he thrust a blade attached to the end of the chain and vanquished the soldier in one strike. "Whew, that was a close one." He retracted the entirety of the chain back to him with a button on the handle.'Thank you, Ace.'
The chainspear he was wielding had been temporarily lended to him by the spiky haired teenager.
Meanwhile, on Raten's end, he had made another discovery. The soldiers were clones of the soldiers they had killed earlier. He had seen the same faces quite a few times so there were multiple of the same individual soldier.
That was when he had a reunion with an old friend. The Metal User was overcome by petty vengeance. "Time for a rematch!" Raten faced the Force User head on, ceasing the needle spell and opting for reinforcing his arms with metal instead. The Force User looked ready to take him out, forming a forcefield around himself but it wasn't going to work this time around.
Raten slammed both hammers against the ground with his added strength, creating a small crater on the ground while also creating a powerful tremor that easily crushed the Force User and the others around him. He was about to proceed but stopped when the dust had settled and he noticed the Force User a few feet back, barely standing.
His legs had been destroyed and so had most of his torso. He would have been bleeding out profusely if it wasn't just a Spirit copy. The Metal User threw the hammer into the air and with its projection, it would land on the Force User's head.
However, a wave of metal propelled Raten towards him before the hammer had made impact. "Thanks for the weapons, by the way." He grabbed the hammer mid-air and pounded it into the Force User's head, prompting his dissipation. 'Damnit. I let my grudge get the better of me.' He chastised himself, promising never to make this kind of mistake again in the future. Under the right circumstances, the action he had just committed would be fatal in battle.
At last, he had gotten to the tower. Wasting no time, he made the metal around his arms more liquefied and formed limbs out of them that he used to carry his body to the top of the tower. 'Faster.' He urged himself, ignoring how his breathing was growing sporadic.
"Raten! You're here. Quickly, they need-" Raten already lifted her off her feet, carrying her bridal style and carried down the other teammates and jumped down the tower with the aid of his power.
"Ah, shi-" Raten had to mold walls of steel around them as it seemed that the soldiers had doubled in number while he was in the tower. They seemed endless and the others were struggling as well, even their Vice Captain.
Suddenly, the tower toppled over, finally having taken enough damage and pressure, falling in their direction. The raven-haired male forged pillars of metal to keep the tower standing while fending away the soldiers with the metal. His chest constricted and his vision started to blur out. He was at his limit. 'I… can't take… anymore.'
"I found it!" A voice yelled out from a distance.
In an instant, the soldiers disappeared. It was a beacon of hope and a sign that their struggle had come to an end, leaving the majority of them relaxed and plopping to the ground in utter exhaustion. They turned their heads to the origin of the voice they had heard, their supposed saviour and it had come none other from Katie who had made her way to the building behind the tower, holding part of a cracked black crystal in her hand.
That was the last Raten saw before passing out peacefully, snoring atop Ace's shoulder who had gotten closer to ensure the Metal User didn't fall flat on his face.
"You can rest now, roomie. You've done your part."
_ _ _
End of Explica Mission Arc