The city exhaled.Not wind.Not sound.
Something thicker—heavier—like the streets themselves were breathing out tension.
Gray smoke seeped from broken windows, crawled along alleyways, spilled from shattered rooftops. It didn't rise. It spread, hugging the ground, swallowing light.
Rin shifted uneasily. "Okay… I officially don't like this part."
Aren didn't answer. He had stopped moving.
Lucy noticed immediately.
"Aren," she said quietly.
He raised a single finger.
Listen.
The smoke moved against the wind.
That was wrong.
A ripple passed through the haze—then a figure stepped out of it, boots touching broken concrete without a sound.
A girl.
She wore a dark combat coat, its edges dissolving into vapor. Her hair drifted like it was underwater, silver streaked with ash. Her eyes glowed faintly through the smoke—amused, sharp, predatory.
She clapped once.
Slow. Mocking.
"Good coordination," she said, voice echoing from every direction. "Most teams panic after the first illusion."
Rin pointed. "HEY! YOU! Smoke Lady! You cheated!"
She laughed.
"Oh, sweetheart. I studied."
The smoke exploded outward.
A citywide expansion.
Every street flooded. Every rooftop vanished. The skyline blurred until buildings became silhouettes drifting in gray nothingness.
Lucy's pupils narrowed. "Smoke Manipulation… no—"
The girl snapped her fingers.
—and the smoke hardened.
A wall slammed into Lucy from the side, dense as concrete. Aren reacted instantly, twisting space just enough to deflect it—but the impact still hurled both of them through a storefront.
Glass detonated.
Rin shouted, "LUCY—!"
Something grabbed his ankle.
Smoke solidified into a hand and yanked.
Rin hit the ground, skidding across asphalt as the smoke rose around him, forming figures—dozens of them.
Smoke Saints.
Each one wore distorted Academy uniforms. Each one carried a false flag.
"…She's making constructs," Lucy realized, climbing from the rubble. Blood trickled from her temple. "They're not illusions. They have mass."
The girl's voice echoed again. "Smoke Compression. I give shape to fear."
Aren vanished.
Not fleeing—hunting.
The first construct turned—
—and split apart as a blade of compressed debris tore through its torso. Aren emerged from the smoke like a ghost, eyes cold, movement surgical.
But the construct didn't fall.
It reformed.
Aren's eyes flickered.
"Regeneration," Lucy muttered. "She's anchoring them to the smoke field."
The girl appeared on a streetlight above them, legs crossed casually. "Name's Nyx," she said. "And you're Team 9."
Her gaze lingered on Lucy.
"You're the problem."
The smoke collapsed inward.
A dome formed around the block—sealing them inside.
Rin cracked his neck, forcing a grin. "Okay! Cool! Fun! Totally survivable!"
Three constructs charged him at once.
Rin moved.
Not clean.
Not elegant.
But fast.
He slammed his fist into the ground, releasing a shockwave that shattered pavement and launched smoke bodies skyward. He leapt after them, spinning wildly, fists glowing as he smashed one, two—
A third wrapped around his arm.
The smoke hardened, crushing.
Rin screamed.
Lucy raised her hand.
Light lanced through the fog.
A radiant sigil ignited beneath Rin's feet, nullifying the compression just long enough for him to rip free and crash-land beside her.
"Don't fight the bodies," Lucy snapped. "Fight the field!"
Aren reappeared behind Nyx.
She smiled.
"Found me?"
Aren struck.
The rooftop collapsed—but Nyx dissolved into smoke an instant before impact.
Her voice whispered directly behind Aren's ear.
"Too slow."
Smoke spears erupted from the ground, impaling the space where he'd stood. Aren barely twisted aside—one spear still tore through his shoulder, pinning him to a wall.
Lucy's breath caught. "AREN!"
Nyx descended slowly, smoke swirling around her like a throne. "You three are good," she admitted. "But you're thinking like fighters."
She snapped her fingers again.
The city shifted.
Buildings folded inward. Streets warped. Gravity tilted.
Lucy staggered as the ground angled sharply downward.
"She's rewriting terrain using smoke density," Lucy realized, heart racing. "She's turning the city into a maze."
Rin coughed, eyes burning. "…I can't see!"
Lucy closed her eyes.
Then opened them.
Her aura flared.
Light didn't spread—it cut.
Perfect geometric lines carved through the smoke, forming a temporary corridor of clarity.
"Rin," she said calmly. "Run straight. Don't stop."
"What about you?!"
Lucy stepped forward.
"I'll make her blink."
Nyx's eyes widened—just a fraction—as Lucy vanished and reappeared midair, light sigils spinning around her like clockwork halos. She drove her palm forward—and reality cracked.
The impact blew a skyscraper's façade clean off, sending concrete slabs tumbling like meteors.
Nyx was hurled backward, smashing through three buildings in rapid succession.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM.
Smoke scattered violently.
For the first time—Nyx coughed.
"…Interesting," she muttered, standing slowly from the rubble, eyes glowing brighter. "So you can hurt me."
Aren ripped the spear free from his shoulder and dropped to one knee, breathing hard.
Rin skidded back beside them, battered but standing. "Okay," he said shakily. "I officially hate smoke."
Nyx raised both hands.
The smoke answered.
The entire dome compressed inward, pressure rising like the bottom of the ocean.
"This ends now," Nyx said softly. "Let's see how long your teamwork lasts when the city crushes you."
Lucy stepped forward, bloodied but unshaken.
"No," she said.
Her eyes burned with resolve.
"This is where it begins."
Rin's teeth grit as he pushed off the cracked street, muscles screaming.
"You're gonna pay for what you did, smoke lady!"
He leapt.
Air ruptured beneath his feet as his fist ignited with raw force, momentum spiraling into a single, reckless charge straight for Nyx.
She didn't flinch.
Didn't step back.She just smiled.
"IRON SMASH."
The voice hit before the fist did.
A blur of metal and muscle tore through the smoke from Rin's blind side.
BOOM.
Rin never saw the punch.
He was gone—his body folding around the impact as he was launched through one building, then another, concrete exploding outward like paper caught in a hurricane. Windows detonated. Steel beams bent. His silhouette vanished into the city with a thunderous echo.
"RIN!" Lucy shouted.
Before she could move—
"JUDGMENT RAIN."
The words were quiet. Almost bored.
The sky screamed.
Dozens—no, hundreds—of glowing blades materialized above Aren, suspended for half a heartbeat like a divine verdict.
Then they fell.
Aren's eyes sharpened.
Time slowed.He moved precise.
One step left. Pivot. Duck. Slide.
Swords slammed into the ground where he had been, shattering streets, embedding into walls, reducing rooftops to ruin. Aren twisted between them like a phantom, every movement calculated to the millimeter.
A blade skimmed his coat.
Another grazed his cheek.
None struck true.
The rain ended as suddenly as it began.
Silence.Smoke drifted.
Two new figures emerged from the haze.
The first was massive—tall, broad-shouldered, arms wrapped in steel gauntlets that hissed with pressure. Cracks glowed red along the metal like overheated veins. He rolled his neck once, unimpressed.
"Tch. He flew farther than I thought."
The second stood atop a tilted street sign, cloak fluttering, eyes half-lidded. Floating blades slowly dissolved into light behind him as he yawned.
"Still dodging, huh?" he muttered. "Annoying."
Lucy's breath steadied—but her mind raced.
Two more. Heavy hitter and precision controller.
Nyx stepped forward, smoke curling lovingly around her feet.
Her smile widened.
"This," she said pleasantly, "is my team."
She gestured once.
"Team 15."
The iron-armed Saint cracked his knuckles, metal shrieking.
"Name's Bastion," he said. "I punch things until they stop moving."
The blade wielder tilted his head slightly toward Aren.
"Veyl," he added. "I don't miss. You just move well."
Rin crashed back into the battlefield in a spray of rubble, skidding across the street before rolling to a stop.
He groaned.
"…Okay," he coughed. "That one… definitely hurt."
Lucy stepped between him and Nyx without hesitation, light gathering around her like a silent vow.
Aren straightened, blood dripping from his shoulder, eyes locked on the three of them.
Three enemies.
Perfect coordination.
A control specialist. A brute. A precision executioner.
Nyx's smoke thickened, pressure rising again.
"Now," she said softly, eyes glowing,
"let's see how long Team 9 survives against a real formation."
High above, unseen by all—Academy observers leaned forward.
"…Team 9 has engaged a high-tier control specialist."
Another voice murmured.
"And they're still standing."
The city groaned.The smoke screamed.
And the real fight—finally started.
AUTHORS NOTE: Please Vybrant is posted 8pm after every 2 days.And thank you for reading the story and please tell me how it was.