EVERWONDER

Commence

Toshio brushed off his pants as he got up from the ground he was previously scurrying on. He assumed a trembling fighting stance, breathing in and out to remedy his panic, which would prove to be of little use. A twitching scowl spread across his face, one that suggested he was on the brink of tears, which he was. Each passing second was tantalisingly pressuring. Seeing them up close, he noticed that the soldiers had sleek futuristic armour and small helmets with no openings except from a pair of eyeholes, which had protective lenses over them. The soldiers, most probably due to the biker's recent decision, were having a silent stand off with the pair, none of them doing as much as brush their legs across the ground. At any moment, those soldiers could all lunge towards them, and there'd be no hope of surviving.

Growing impatient, the biker raised her arms into the air before slamming her hands into the ground, spreading a body-tossing quake across the surface, alongside a thin layer of black smoke, which was drifting just above the sands. And before anyone could do as much as touch a hair on her head, she immediately pranced onto a soldier in front of her at remarkable speed, punching them in the chest mid air, forcing them to tumble into their bike. The biker was panting, cradling the hand that she had punched with using her palms before turning to two other soldiers with an ear-tickling grin on her face.

"Alrighty!" She said, mockingly, as she stretched her arms and fingers. "Who's up next? Or is this a table for two I'm gonna have to serve up?"

Meanwhile, the other five soldiers had targeted Toshio. Two of them began by charging head first into him, frightening Toshio and causing him to slip his way out of the attack. The soldiers banged into each other, temporarily stunning themselves and leaving three more for Toshio to deal with. He noticed that there was very little to work with: The helmets that the soldiers wore were practically impenetrable, the stick in his hands was surely going to snap, and there was no way in hell that paper was going to prove much use in combat, but maybe it could prove use as a distraction. Thinking back to the tutorial, Toshio had a rough gauge on how much paper he could summon for now without getting tired: 2 A4 pages, which was more than enough. He stuck his hands behind his back, which caused the soldiers to close in on him , but right as it seemed like it was curtains for him, Toshio flung three paper aeroplanes far out, two of them being torn halves of the same page, propelling them at full speed in opposite directions. Toshio looked out for a moment before turning to the now confused soldiers. "I'll give you guys a little hint:" He said, trying to put on a brave face. "Only one of those has the message in it." Immediately, the three went off, retrieving their bikes and speeding off into the distance.

The biker had knocked down one more of the soldiers, but one was still going strong, their armour being a darker stone covered in moss, and they seemed to not be running out of aura or energy, whilst she was on the edge of running out. She tried to slug a punch into their chest, but that only resulted in a bruised knuckle and a deduction of 15 HP. But for whatever reason, the soldier wasn't fighting back, merely dodging and absorbing hits. That soldier moved far differently in comparison to the others, they danced around the biker's punches, doing all sorts of backflips and cartwheels, and the biker was growing restless. The smoke that enveloped her arms was dwindling, looking more like a thin steam. She continued throwing punches before getting fed up and using the rest of her energy to throw one towards the soldiers face, but to her surprise, the soldier caught the punch, standing still before saying the words "I am not your enemy" in a heavily distorted voice. The biker drew back her hand, shifting into an unstable fighting stance. "And how the hell am I supposed to believe you on that? What are you gonna do, ask me to join you?" The soldier chortled. "Don't be ridiculous. If I was with those guys, I would have killed you when you were snooping around the city." The biker reacted with a look of shock.

The soldier walked up to the biker, stopping when they were shoulder to shoulder. "But, let's be real here, if anyone else came out here today, they wouldn't be asking anything." The soldier walked up to Toshio, who was spectating just a few metres away. On their way towards him, they kicked the passed out soldiers, checking to see if they were still conscious. "Out cold." They then continued to walk towards Toshio, before pulling a transparent ribbon from their inventory and putting it into Toshio's hands. "Here's a tip: I found you because of that rod in your inventory. It has a tracker on it because it's not yours. Wrap it in this. The next time you see me, I may not be in this suit, but I cannot show you my face right now." They tapped a button in their inventory, which caused a glass tablet to emerge from it. They spent a few seconds looking at it. "The others will be coming back soon. Leave here immediately. And by the way-" They hunched down slightly, wiping a streak of sand on Toshio's forehead and brushing his cheeks, which caused him to become flushed. "You sort of impressed me... paper boy." They said, before walking back to their bike and speeding off into the distance.