—Come on —Miguel told Zein, extending a firm hand to help him to his feet.
—Thank you so much, but... how did you know we were here? —Zein asked, wiping a trickle of blood from his mouth.
—Several commanders informed me about that supposed meeting order they had received. It didn't sit right with me, so I started investigating —the veteran explained calmly.
Miguel took a step forward, interposing himself between the youths and the threat, and took off the heavy coat he was wearing, letting it drop to the ground.
—Step back, boy. There's no need for you to interfere in this —he declared, advancing straight toward Sora.
A few meters away, the imperial general finished getting up from among the debris, adjusting his jaw with a sharp click after the impact he had just received.
—I'm glad you fell into my trap too, Miguel —Sora said, sketching a mocking and arrogant smile.
—Don't get it twisted, I'm not here because I bit your bait —Miguel replied, imperturbable—. Not that your plan was very brilliant either. Did it seriously occur to you to send me a summons letter signed by myself? You should have tried something better, it's pathetic.
As they faced off, Naoko quickly came down to where Zein was to offer support and help him move away from the epicenter.
—Will Miguel be okay? —Zein asked, holding back a wince of pain—. Isn't he too old to fight a monster like Sora?
—Make no mistake, he is ridiculously strong —Naoko responded, flashing a smile laden with pride—. In a profession where people usually die young, don't you think you should fear the old man who's still standing?
—Sure... —Zein murmured, though his eyes didn't stop reflecting concern for the veteran.
Before the tension exploded, Miguel turned slightly toward Naoko, his gaze sharp.
—Keep those supplies ready for when we need them —he ordered her in a clear voice.
—Understood! —she responded, bringing two fingers to her forehead in a military salute.
The silence shattered as Miguel and Sora lunged into the attack, trading punches that boomed like thunder and kicked up gusts of dust across the park. Although Sora tried to impose his brute strength, using magic to sprout metallic plates over his arms, the veteran's experience began to dominate the rhythm; Miguel even pulverized a stone wall with a single blow when the general raised it to slow him down. His fists didn't channel elemental flashes, but pure technique and a raw strength polished by decades of combat that grew denser with every impact. Suddenly, the veteran accelerated the pace, unleashing a barrage so fast and heavy that it forced Sora to back away, his entire body shuddering as he barely managed to shield himself from the punishment.Then, the opening appeared.
Miguel planted his foot firmly on the ground, twisted his waist transferring all the energy of the movement, and threw his fist.
The impact was devastating.
Sora's upper body exploded outright. His head, neck, and half of his torso vanished in a violent cloud of blood and bone fragments, while what was left of his physiology was sent flying several meters backward.
The display of power left Zein and Kiomi speechless.
—How is it possible...? —Zein whispered, astonished.
—He isn't using a single shred of mana —Kiomi commented, her eyes wide open—. He is dominating him using only physical strength. Incredible.
The remnant of Sora's body fell heavily against the cracked pavement, but the truce was short-lived.
The viscous hissing of Sora's regeneration resonated once more. Flesh, bones, and vital organs wove together at an absurd speed before Miguel's analytical and imperturbable gaze. Barely a few seconds later, the imperial general stood up completely, stretching his neck as if he had just woken up from a nap.
Then, Sora vanished from everyone's sight.
Miguel barely had time to react when the general's fist slammed squarely into his side. The sonic impact tore up the ground and sent the veteran flying violently across the perimeter. His body crashed through the first stone structure, then another one, getting lost in a dense cloud of dust and debris that exploded along the entire street.
Sora didn't even bother to pursue the veteran among the ruins. His bifid eyes fixed on the rest of the group, detecting the immediate danger.
Zein, Kiomi, and Naoko were already running toward him in a coordinated offensive. Kiomi was the first to act: the barrel of her musket roared and the projectile pierced the air, impacting directly into Sora's skull. The breach began to close almost instantly.
Zein and Naoko took advantage of the millisecond. Both drew their weapons in synchrony and launched into the attack from opposite flanks. Sora reacted with a brutal backhand aimed at Zein's head, but the boy managed to block using the blade of his sword, planting his feet firmly as the shockwave vibrated through every single one of his bones.
At that very instant, Naoko exploded from the general's blind spot. The steel of her katana gleamed in a perfect, clean arc. Both of Sora's arms went flying before he could process the unprotected flank.
Zein didn't lose his rhythm; he spun on his own axis and delivered a crushing kick to his chest, sending him flying as blood gushed from his severed shoulders.
However, before Sora's body could stabilize in the air, a shadow descended like a meteorite. A striking impact came from the sky, connecting squarely with the general's torso and pushing him at the speed of sound against the pavement of the adjacent street.
Miguel had returned.
Though part of his garments were in tatters from the previous impact, the old warrior stood imposing, exhaling barely a faint mist of fatigue.
—I told you not to interfere —Miguel declared, locking them in a severe gaze loaded with authority—. This is no fight for children.
The veteran's tone cut deep, sparking a flash of frustration in the three youths who had just risked their lives to cover his back.
—We are not children! —Zein shouted at him, his fists clenched and his breathing heavy, as he watched Miguel turn his back on them to lunge once more against Sora.
Miguel charged at Sora again as soon as he touched the ground. The clash of impacts shook the foundations of the entire street; the fists of both met in a violent and deafening rhythm. The imperial general fought with a purely physical nature: deflecting strikes, blocking with disdain, and responding with a monstrous power that fractured the pavement at every step.
Sora threw a straight punch at his face, but Miguel evaded with a subtle movement of his head and counterattacked with a devastating hook to the abdomen that forced Sora to yield a step. Before the old warrior could capitalize on the advantage, Zein appeared from the left flank with an upward slash straight to the neck, while Naoko slid behind, sweeping her katana against his tendons. The blades bit into the flesh without resistance, severing an arm and opening a deep gash in his back.
—I ordered you to retreat —Miguel muttered, without taking his eyes off the enemy, notably irritated by the insubordination.
—You won't achieve anything alone against a monster that doesn't die! —Zein replied, planting his feet and readjusting his guard, his adrenaline rushing—. We have to fight together!
Sora let out a hoarse laugh upon hearing the rebels' debate.
Then, he moved.
The ground exploded beneath his boots as he lunged straight to crush Zein. Miguel interposed himself in the trajectory, taking the hit cleanly in the stomach to halt the momentum, and returned a savage right hook that twisted the general's features.
The impact destabilized Sora enough for Naoko to cross the perimeter in a leap, slicing off both of his legs. The general's mutilated body fell to his knees... but the advantage was an illusion.
The lower limbs sprouted back before the severed parts finished hitting the pavement.
From the rooftop, Kiomi's musket thundered. The bullet pierced Sora's shoulder and disintegrated part of his side in a shower of blood, opening the perfect breach for Zein to step in and drive his sword squarely into his chest.
Miguel granted no respite and continued unleashing an implacable combination of direct punches. Sora received the punishment head-on, imperturbable, using his own body as an anvil.
It was then that the atmosphere grew heavy. Something in the rhythm of the combat began to change alarmingly.
The speed of his mutation was accelerating. Each time it took less for him to reconstruct; the tissues joined before separating and his arms returned to their place almost instantly, adapting to the damage received. Sora was no longer just resisting the punishment; he was assimilating it.
The cuts closed before the blood even managed to gush out. Even Kiomi's long-distance shots seemed to lose effectiveness, impacting with a dull sound that denoted an unnatural resistance.
Miguel noticed it on the spot. And even so, he did not take a step back.
The old warrior's body tensed completely as he brought his arm back, concentrating every single ounce of his physical energy into a single and definitive point of impact. It was the same devastating technique that minutes earlier had disintegrated the upper half of the imperial general. A single clean blow would suffice to pulverize him again.
Miguel unleashed his fist. The impact connected squarely in the center of Sora's torso.
But this time... the flesh did not yield.
A sonic shockwave exploded around the point of contact, cracking the pavement in a radius of several meters, but Sora did not even move. His skin had turned grotesquely thick and dense, acquiring an armored texture. The monster was adapting to the punishment, modifying his own cellular structure to neutralize the veteran's physical strength.
Miguel's eyes widened a fraction of a millimeter. Out of pure military instinct, he aborted the offensive and jumped backward in a reflex movement.
It was just in time.
Sora's counterattack passed brushing the veteran's face with a violence so immense that the simple air pressure destroyed the facade of the building that stood behind.
Kiomi, reading the opening from her elevated position, pulled the trigger without hesitation. The enchanted bullet crossed the alley seeking the general's eye, but upon impacting against his forehead, the projectile rebounded with a metallic clink, leaving barely a superficial scratch that was erased instantly.
—What's wrong? —Sora asked, breaking into laughter with an arrogance that chilled the blood as he swept his gaze across the four of them—. Are you no longer even capable of leaving a scratch on me?
Miguel led the charge again, refusing to yield ground. Zein and Naoko flanked him immediately, coordinating their thrusts in perfect synchrony, while Kiomi maintained an incessant covering fire trying to locate some vulnerable point in the enemy's new armor.
It was useless.
The blades of the swords barely managed to penetrate a few millimeters into the armored skin before being expelled by the immediate regeneration. Miguel's punches no longer made the behemoth stagger, and Kiomi's magic metal proved harmless.
Sora began to advance in a straight line, walking with total parsimony in the midst of the whirlwind of steel and gunpowder, as if the resistance's attacks had ceased to exist.
A backhand from Sora forced Miguel to cross both arms to block, making him retreat under immense pressure. The next impact connected squarely with Naoko, sending her flying several meters through the air until rolling along the pavement. Zein tried to seize that millisecond to sink his steel into the general's unprotected side, but Sora, with inhuman reflexes, stopped the blade, catching it directly with the palm of his bare hand.
The armor of his skin did not even flinch before the edge. With a macabre smile, the imperial general prepared a straight punch to the boy's face.
It was right on top of him. Zein had neither the space nor the time to maneuver. The fist descended with the force of a demolition and... Zein vanished.
Sora's impact pulverized the asphalt right where the boy had been standing a fraction of a second before, kicking up a curtain of debris and an expansive shockwave. For an instant, the imperial general frowned, bewildered at striking the vacuum.
On the rooftop of an adjacent building, a flash of light preceded Zein's reappearance. The boy fell to his knees, desperately gasping for air, while a small figure remained standing behind his back, her hands still extended.
It was Lyra.
—Lyra...? —Zein managed to articulate, his heart in his throat—. How... when...? What are you doing here?
—I thought you wouldn't be able to handle this without help, so I came to save you —the girl responded, crossing her arms with an expression that mixed pride and stubbornness.
—No! —Zein stood up abruptly and grabbed her firmly by the shoulders, panic reflected in his eyes—. You shouldn't be here! It's too dangerous! I ordered you to stay with Alexander!
Before Lyra could reply, the rooftop floor vibrated. Sora had jumped from the street, materializing behind the siblings with his arm raised, ready to crush them both. However, a shadow crossed the air at lightning speed: Miguel appeared in a downward trajectory, delivering an implacable kick to the general's face that sent him back to the street floor in a burst of dust.
—What is the girl doing here? —Miguel demanded from the edge of the roof, without taking his eyes off the crater below.
—I don't know, but she is leaving right now —Zein declared, his jaw tight.
—I'm not leaving! You need my help! —Lyra protested, planting her feet firmly—. With my portal magic we can disorient him when he attacks, deflect his blows, and...
—I said no! It's madness —Zein interrupted her, with a severity he rarely used with her—. You could die, Lyra. Besides, the portals Kio taught you consume too much energy; you'd run out of mana in minutes. We would only manage to confuse each other on the map and end up attacking each other by mistake.
—But, Zein...
—No buts. You go with Alexander right now and you stay with him, understood? —he ordered, turning his back on her to focus on the front once more.
Below, the combat granted no respite. While the siblings were arguing, Sora had gotten back up. With a demonstration of brute strength, he ripped an immense block of concrete from the facade and threw it in a parabolic trajectory straight toward the rooftop where they were located.
The massive projectile covered the distance in a blink. With no time to dodge it, Zein threw himself backward to cover his sister with his own body while the girl shielded her face with her arms.
Just before the impact, a row of thick stone walls sprouted in perfect succession from the edge of the roof, creating a staggered shield that intercepted the concrete block, making it shatter into harmless pieces.
Behind the collapsed structure, Alexander appeared running, visibly exhausted.
—Forgive me, Zein —he managed to say, catching his breath—. As soon as she arrived at the shelter and explained to me what was happening, she slipped away from me in a careless moment. I couldn't stop her.
—Take her out of here once and for all and protect her, please —Zein pleaded with him, without taking his eyes off the street.
—No! I'm going to stay and fight with you! —Lyra insisted, clinging to her brother's clothes.
—You cannot be here! Understand that this is an execution zone!
—I'm not a child anymore! —she shouted at him, her eyes filled with a helpless frustration.
Zein turned to look at her. The silence prolonged for an instant as their gazes clashed. In Lyra's features there was no whim, but rather the same blind determination that he carried every time he wielded his sword. Seeing that she would not take a single step back and that forcing her to flee would only put her at greater risk in a besieged city, Zein let out a long, heavy sigh.
—Even if I order you to leave, you're going to find a way to come back, aren't you? —he murmured, defeated. Then, he looked askance at the newcomer—. Alexander.
—Yes?
—Watch her back, please.
Alexander softened his expression and nodded.
—Leave her to me. I won't let anything happen to her.
—Thank you so much —Zein responded.
Without wasting another second, the boy propelled himself from the edge of the rooftop, throwing himself once more into the epicenter of the chaos to halt the behemoth's advance.