Protectors- Wrath of The Stranger

Chapter Eight: The Journey is Over

Zachary, Spirit, and Kinetic began their battle, but for the first time, Kinetic's lowered regeneration meant that they had a chance of winning. Zachary channeled his Aura, firing it off several times, but Kinetic was faster, avoiding every bolt before slashing out at Zachary, leaping towards him with the blades outstretched. Then he was stopped by Spirit, who manipulated the fabric of time once again. Even in the state of frozen time, Kinetic struggled to break his bonds, his mind racing over every possible strategy, neutrons firing at a hundred thousand times their normal rate. He figured out every weak point of Spirit's technique, and developed a strategy within a heartbeat. Apis quickly taught himself how to control his body to perfection, far beyond the capacity of a normal human, using his own new ability and a sliver of Aura, Apis stopped his own heart, his change from a living being to an inanimate corpse allowing him to fall through the time, which was only frozen for matter, not gravity. Since he wasn't alive, he couldn't be held in place by the ability, and Spirit's energy blasts shot over his body harmlessly, before time began to flow again,

"He moved in frozen time!" Spirit shouted,

Zachary nodded his affirmative, but shot Noctum a look, letting him know that the fight was off limits. Apis felt his heart begin to beat again, and breathed in a fresh gulp of the hot air that Noctum's Aura produced. He ran past Zachary, marvelling at his own perfection, but was caught by his foe, who had stuck out a hand and fired a small rope of Aura to grip at Kinetic as he moved by, more slowly than he had intended to. Zachary transformed into his minotaur transformation, the irony of his similarity to looks compared to Apis lost on the combatants. He tossed Kinetic up in the air, before raising a fist coated in Aura to blast the Acceleration God to high hell. Before Kinetic hit the fist, his mind raced once again, calculating the angle in which he would have to move if he were to avoid the attack. Using his previous knowledge of his body, Apis was able to contort himself around the giant fist of the minotaur, landing on his right hand, body lifted up sideways. Zachary made to stomp him, but Apis just stood up, walking around the man. It was surreal to see somebody moving at such a slow pace that they couldn't even move properly while he was walking around normally,

"Begone," He whispered, before realising that Zachary would be dead before the sound could travel to his ears,

Apis tried to slash at the man's neck, but he thought better of it at the last second. Pulling the blade back. He was glad that his insight had worked, as before he could have had time to saw through Zachary's neck, a ring of lightning-like Aura covered it, having the capacity to kill Kinetic if he were to have been in contact. He had become not only the fastest being in the universe, but the most intelligent in the universe. He was then struck with a fog in his mind, followed by a sharp pain in his chest,

"Begone," Zachary heard as his lightning bolt hit the ground behind him, knocking Kinetic backwards into a fire-hydrant,

Water spilled over him as he calculated what was wrong with his body, using every ounce of his brain-power to do so. He came to the conclusion quickly, and he began to feel the heart pains again. His use of Kinetic's speed had been more efficient than his predecessor, but it was becoming more and more apparent that the rapid firing of his neurons were damaging his mind, causing what would commonly be known as a cognitive disability, while the constant beating of his heart at a massively faster rate was increasing the number of natural palpitations he had by a dangerous amount. Kinetic had not been slower than Apis, he was only utilising ten percent of his speed to nullify damages that couldn't be repaired by his enhanced regeneration. Without regeneration and with freakishly high speed, Kinetic's body had begun to deteriorate at a rapid rate, leaving Apis as a ghost in a crumbling shell,

"I see," Apis grunted, forcing his speed to slow down to a measly mach 10, low enough that his body wouldn't deteriorate,

"What do you see, Apis," Zachary raised his voice, "because it better be the rush of speeding death, coming for you at last,"