Black flames~

The Cost..of Peace

Blake immediately pulled up her Scroll and contacted Ruby. "We've found him. Try and get to us as fast as you can; we'll lure him out into the open and fall back as close as possible."

Adam heard all of it, undeterred by Blake's strategy. For the moment he had only three adversaries, and that he could best. Until they successfully regrouped with their allies, he still held the advantage.

Adam fixed his gaze on Ilia. She was one he needed to deal with -as publicly as possible- to demonstrate how treachery was dealt with. His memories of her battles were clear to him now, unaffected by any eidetic decay. He knew the arc of her whip and the voltage of her discharge. He knew where to counter and parry and how to cut through her electrical attack as harmlessly as possible.

Sun Wukong was the closest, probably the most eager to fight him. Unlike Blake and ilia, he didn't know what he was facing and didn't have the intelligence to recognize he was thoroughly outclassed. Adam examined him briefly, searching his eyes for rage and purpose… he was seeking revenge. On Blake's behalf? Perhaps on Ghira's?

No matter. The result was the same.

Adam went for Ilia, knowing she would try to withdraw and Wukong would attack his flank. Adam had only briefly clashed with the boy the previous night, but could distinctly recall how his weapon separated and the number of pellets each shotgun discharged. Adam unsheathed Wilt to parry the swing of Wukong's staff, then retreated before the boy could fire at him, letting his pellets spray onto empty air.

The initial impact of his staff had already provided Adam with kinetic energy to channel. Adam set his course to draw out as many melee attacks as possible from the boy, carefully parrying each strike with his blade and then retreating to avoid the following shotgun burst. Ilia and Blake were more measured in their approach, waiting for an opportunity to attack rather than rushing into the fray like their blonde friend.

Ilia moved to attack Adam's flank, striking opportunistically at a distance with an electrical discharge from her whip. Adam didn't try to counter it, simply falling back before the electricity could properly conduct on himself or his weapon. Adam kept his attention on Sun, baiting the boy to keep pressing the attack, chasing after Adam as he seemed to retreat.

Unfortunately, it seemed Sun had learned his lesson from Blake the previous day and regrouped with the other two rather than try to press his apparent advantage. Adam sneered but didn't otherwise let on; he needed more to power his counterattack and had little time to draw things out. He could certainly defeat these three –and he had to kill Ilia- but once Blake's other friends arrived he wouldn't be able to best them all… not unless his opponents acted the way he needed to.

He'd hoped Sun would be foolish enough to do the work for him, but now Adam had to place himself at risk. He refocused his attention on Ilia and her whip, firing a few rounds from Blush to observe her defense. He measured the length of her whip when she deflected the shots, then estimated how much more she could unfurl attacking at her maximum range, and how much power the electricity would lose in transition across an uneven surface.

Adam then moved to engage Sun again, even though he knew it'd leave his flank vulnerable to counterattacks from Blake and Ilia. Sun responded with the same flurry as before, and Adam raised Wilt to parry every hit. Ilia moved to attack and Adam tucked and rolled backward, receiving only a mild shock as the majority of the electrical discharge dispersed on the throne room floor.

He'd nearly collected enough, but he didn't want his Aura to take any more impacts than necessary. He'd need a lot of energy to channel his attack, to fully utilize the power of his Semblance. He needed to provoke Blake to action, to let her projectile rounds further fuel the energy encircling the surface of his blade.