BLAM! A shot is fired from one of the clowns as the Battle Cube activates slowly, reaching its point in around 5 seconds. Damn I hate how slow these things are. BLAM! BLAM! The pistol fires as light flares upon they're mask. A clown with a sinister grin to wide for it to be human. One shot flies by and the other one gets stuck in a liquid barrier set by Aoi. Thank god for her AI. The AI is in its second stage, just like how mine and Yuuzuko's were.
There's a third, but only during intense situations. Yuuzuko swings his swords towards the masked figure and ends up being thrown against the building and cracking the stone walls. What the hell? Who are they? Then I find out I still haven't seen anything when Yuuzuko got thrusted to the wall, "Where the hell is their AI?"
He recovers himself as this masked individual rushes towards Yuuzuko and shoots behind themselves into the air three times losing all his bullets and needing to reload. They reload calmly with their white gloves and black and red suit. Why is he so calm, when he missed? There has to be something about that attitude. Yuuzuko screams in pain as those three bullets fly from where they were shot into him. That's not good, he's already at fifty percent of his health. Thank goodness that the Battle Cube was on or else the situation would've been dire.
"Aoi!"
"Already on it! Give him some healing SuSu!" She yells to her AI. He nods and without uttering a word, but shows his determination as a halo of water drops light rain onto Yuuzuko slowly healing him towards seventy percent of his health.
"Help me! Please!" a woman cries from behind me, wait. "Kazuki, please, help me!"
I turn around to see my mom being held with a scythes pressed against her neck just as two other clowns look back and laugh turning invisible and the room falls silent. My stomach sinks to the bottom, below any molten core, hearing the pounding heartbeat race even faster then pyroclastic flow. I got to make it to her, I have to save mom. I promised her. How dare they lay a finger on her? They need to be taught a lesson! They need to be taught a lesson! They need to be taught a lesson!!! I'm not even sure if Aoi said something to me. These two clowns should be put down. Permanently.
"Aura, flare." I command, my voice serious. Calm. Calculated.
"How dare they lay a finger on her. They deserve to be burned alive."
"Focus. One wrong move and we kill her instead. Track opponents."
"Yes, Kazuki." She says. Both of us both so hot and yet a snow storm could be here and we wouldn't even feel it. The sheer cold sometimes makes me think that the flames will die out. "On your left."
An orange highlight shows themselves in a plain shadow. Got you now, suckers. I want you to fear me. To fear this assassin. Speed Four. Cause Flame. My daggers flicker like a match being set and flare up as the wind picks up more. Reaching a faster speed as I boost towards one of the kidnappers. A flash of bright blue shines as my heated daggers are met with frozen ice and steam dissipates around us.
"Thanks, Hazaki." The rough pitched voice says, it's a man's voice, "I owe you one. Take care of this newbie." He lifts my mom over his shoulder and grins as the wall opens up by an explosion. The wind blows furiously for a moment and settles, "This one is going to rack up a ton of points and loot. You'll get some of my share." He walks out and disappears from sight.
The Assassin class says nothing for a tick, never moving their gaze from me, "Sure." A female voice emanates from behind the mask. "Too bad, takers keepers." She points her dual frostbitten scythes towards me, inviting some sort of confrontation.
As the characters stare each other down, their eyes dart from one crumbling edge of the wall to the other, wary of the potential dangers that lurk in the unstable wreckage. The silence is only broken by the occasional shifting of debris or the creaking of metal as it settles into a new position. Each character's posture is tense and guarded, their bodies poised for action, waiting for the first move from their opponent. The scene is fraught with tension and danger, as they both know that any sudden movement could trigger a fresh wave of destruction and chaos.
In the midst of this precarious standoff, the collapsed wall serves as a grim reminder of the violence that has already taken place and the potential for more to come. It only takes one of us to move first. Two Assassins, one fire and one ice. I'm at a serious disadvantage cause I showed my card too early, but luckily didn't sow all of them. Just make a move.
An arrow of ice flies through the air and whizzes past Hazaki, and I use the distraction to use Speed IV and get close to this assassin and slash my daggers into her stomach, blood oozing out. But her expression never changes, there isn't any indication of it hurting her. Then I look down to where I stabbed her and it's… healing. She has a Life AI. Fuck. She rushes down towards Aoi in a flash just like I can, and wraps her scythe around her and slash. Aoi uses her AI's Liquid Barrier and Water Halo letting her heal and give her a shield. Her gaze alert, her brows furrowed. Returning with a deadly look, one many have seen before, but not these poor souls.
She takes around 15% of her health as damage, but that is slowly being healed by her AI, she uses the momentum from the Hazaki's slashing motion and delivers a roundhouse kick to the back of her neck and slams it against the nearest wall as it chips and breaks, crumbling into dust.
Maintaining strong eye contact against this terrorist, she speaks with a steady tone, "Looks like we haven't met yet." She cocks an arrow and shoots it towards the assassin, but its dodged and deflected. "Well it'll be my pleasure to introduce myself as the Ice Goddess. And you made one dangerous mistake messing with my best friend's mother." Aoi shoots a frozen arrow that splits into five ice missiles, "Prepare to meet me."
Each strand of muscle inside me tightens with a more readied stance, giving her a curt nod. I inhale deeply, exhale just the same and turn towards the exit last left, "I'll take care of the Knight."
"You'll be in for a rude awakening." Hazaki says with one ice missile impaled in her that's healing rapidly. "He's the strongest one in our group."
"Hey Kazuki! Can I have in on that action?" Yuuzuko's voice rings from my right with a devilish grin and blood on his face and back, completely burnt. "I lost him, but I can call it a win."
A grin creeps up slowly into a smirk, a jolt of high energy entering me. Now this battle seems a lot more winnable, "As long as you go all out and use the Shadow Walk passive you have."
He pushes me forward as we head towards the Knight laughing, looking at me in the eyes holding onto my shoulder, "Oh, I've been planning to make my AI reach Stage Three because of today. Now let's go get the bastard."
