Return of Chaos

OLD THREATS — ACTION ABROAD

Chapter 43: Hidden Developments

“Ready… go!!”

As soon as the words left Christeané’s mouth, Spike summoned his red and golden greaves onto his arms and then fabricated a shield in each hand, tossing one toward Austin — who readily caught it in his left hand — and chucking the other straight at Christeané. Before the shield had crossed even half of the distance between Spike and Christeané, Mark lunged forward to grab the shield out of the air and toss it aside. Christeané then leaped over Mark’s head, grasping a long elastic tether that was attached to a harness on his chest on one end and to the handle of a hefty hammer on the other; before the Dean even hit the ground, he tightly gripped the tether and began whirling the hammer around in a rapid circle — at which point he released the hammer straight toward Spike. The hammer’s incredible momentum yanked Christeané through the air toward Spike, who deftly deflected the incoming hammer with a left forearm block before thrusting his right fist forward to slam Christeané right in the face.

As the Dean reeled back from the blow, the golden light of protective energy shields covering his body, Austin lunged forward to press the attack. With Spike’s fabricated shield tightly held in his left hand, and his summoned blue and golden claymore gripped in his right, Austin began wildly swinging at Christeané, who immediately dodged backwards away from the blade. Austin made to pursue, even tossing aside his shield to grip his claymore with both hands and swing it down overhead — however, Christeané took hold of his hammer’s tether again and yanked it sideways, whipping the hammer around to smash Austin’s sword out of his hands. Christeané then snapped the tether upwards, immediately redirecting his hammer to smack Austin under the chin and send him flying backwards, the bright flaring of energy shields covering his entire face and upper chest.

Spike then lunged for Christeané himself, seeking to take advantage of the Dean’s apparent focus on Austin. Before he could close into grappling range, however, the Dean yanked his hammer tether once more, snapping his hammer through the air and into Spike’s side. The force of the blow staggered Spike to the side, allowing Mark to charge forward, grab Spike by the arm, and then chuck him several meters away.

“A’ight, stop!” Davídrius called out from the side, prompting the four combatants to let down their guards.

“Oof…” Austin groaned, momentarily shutting off his protective energy shields so that he could massage his chin. He glanced over at Spike to see if his friend was okay; upon seeing that Spike easily jumped back to his feet on his own, Austin turned to give Christeané an annoyed look. “Hey, what was that for?”

“Oh c’mon, you’re a Simulator, aren’t you?” Christeané replied airily. “I know I can take my own hammer to the chin, no problem, and you were within a couple meters of me when I hit you. You’d have been fine even without the shields.”

“Shields that make my Imperator powers practically useless, you know!”

“That’s just how it goes, unfortunately,” the Dean said with a shrug. “This kind of training is too dangerous without protective shielding, especially at your level of skill. Once you’ve better got the hang of things, then we can try training you for battles without energy shields.”

“That sounds super fuckin’ dangerous,” Spike pointed out.

“I won’t lie — it is. But Imperators are actually better suited to fighting without energy shields than most Chaotics. A skilled Imperator can even assert control over matter the very instant it touches their skin, thereby preventing any of the force from actually going through. …Or so I hear, anyways.”

“Wait, is that really possible?!” Austin exclaimed, “that sounds really cool! I wanna try that!”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Davídrius declared as he approached Christeané, Austin, Spike, and Mark. “I’ve only ever heard of one Imperator with that level of skill, and he’s known as one of the galaxy’s most powerful Chaotics. It’ll take decades for you to reach his level.”

“Aw…”

“Who might you be talking about?” Mark questioned.

“Sike Regek — the Supreme Commander of the Black Suns,” Christeané answered. “Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if half the claims of what he can do are just propaganda — but we aren’t here to talk about him.” He offered an appreciative nod towards Mark. “Thanks for helping out. As for the two of you…” The Dean turned toward Austin and Spike. “…Well, let’s start with the good. You seem to have taken our ‘focus-fire’ advice into account — you focused entirely on me, with the intention to take me out. That was good.”

“…But?” Spike prompted.

“But y’all tunnel-visioned too hard,” Davídrius declared. “You tried too hard to take advantage of any openin’ that you saw, without even keepin’ track of where Christeané’s hammer was. That let him and Mark turn the tables on y’all.”

“That hammer does seem pretty impressive,” Spike remarked as he eyed Christeané’s weapon. While at rest, the elastic tether seemed not much more than a meter and a half long; the hammer itself consisted of a solid block of metal atop a short handle, currently draped over Christeané’s shoulder. “Just lookin’ at the thing, it’s clear that it’s heavier than a normal hammer…” Spike said, “but that thing hit like a fucking truck!”

“That’s the power of momentum, for you!” Christeané remarked. “Battlehammers like these are explicitly designed to take advantage of the kind of forces a Forcetechnic can throw out. It lets me leverage my strength in ways that I can’t with only my body.”

“Strength and speed,” Austin muttered. “You whipped that thing around so fast… are you sure you aren’t a Velocitechnic, too?”

“Ah ha ha ha!” Christeané let loose an amused laugh before responding, “no, that’s just years and years of training — as well as poor expectations on your end. Remember one of the basic laws of kinematics: force is equal to mass times acceleration. Forcetechnics and Velocitechnics both have ways of increasing one portion of this equation: Velocitechnics can increase their acceleration to way more than should be physically possible, which has a net result of creating more force. Forcetechnics, meanwhile, just output more raw force as a fact. And due to basic algebra, we can see that acceleration is equal to force divided by mass — so if the force increases, so does the acceleration. That’s how I can spin and yank my hammer around so quickly. And since momentum is equal to mass times velocity, that’s how I can use my force to speed up my hammer, and then use my hammer’s speed to yank me around through the air.”

“Ugh… right…”

“Y’all get the picture, now?” Davídrius interjected. “What Christeané just said can apply to all kinds of Chaotics. All kinds of Chaotics have ways of fuckin’ around with those force or momentum equations, or other physics equations, so you can’t expect weapons and projectiles to always follow the normal laws of physics. Know who you’re up against, know their Chaotic ability, and know how that can affect any weapons they’re usin’. Don’t recklessly take any openin’ you see until you can tell at least that much.”

“…Fair enough,” Spike admitted. “Ugh… didn’t think we’d be gettin’ a fuckin’ physics lesson in the middle of trainin’…”

“I guess Kaoné was right when she said that learning that stuff is important as a Chaotic…” Austin muttered.

“Kaoné’s right about most things,” Christeané declared. “If she’s trying to teach you something, you really should listen.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

“Either way, let’s have another go,” the Dean said, already backing away as he gestured for Mark to follow. “Remember what we just told you! Let’s see if you can do better!”

“Right!” Spike and Austin shouted back as they both prepared for another bout of sparring.

As Christeané called out “ready, go!” once more and the four Chaotics resumed sparring, Pierce and Conrad watched on from the side, the both of them sitting down on the grassy hills and taking in the mid-afternoon sun.

After watching for several seconds in silence, Conrad turned to glance at Pierce though the corner of his eye, noting that his friend didn’t seem to be paying attention to the sparring at all. Instead, Pierce wore a forlorn scowl as he stared up at the clouds drifting across the sky.

“…You okay?” Conrad eventually questioned.

“…Huh?” Pierce looked down at his friend, only to shake his head. “Uh… no, nothing’s wrong. I mean, yeah, I’m fine.”

“Uh huh. You haven’t been paying attention at all, have you?”

“What? Of course I have. They’re just sparring, right? And the dweeb fucked it up or something.”

“Oh c’mon. I know you — there were at least two, maybe three points while they were talking where you normally would’ve interjected to needlessly shit on Austin. And yet, you didn’t. What gives? Finally grow a heart?”

Pierce made an annoyed face at Conrad before laying down on his back to stare up at the clouds above.

“…Wow, not even a comeback for that?” Conrad remarked incredulously.

“Shut up.”

“Are you really okay, dude? Seems like you’ve been kinda ‘off’ ever since the Deans told us to sit here and watch.”

“I’m just waiting for our turn to train, and waiting is fucking boring.”

“Yeah, but you don’t usually stew in silence when you’re bored. You usually complain about it.”

Pierce turned to glare at Conrad. “What’s your fucking point, huh? Is this just the ‘make fun of Pierce’ hour?”

“Relax, dude,” Conrad replied. “It’s not like you don’t take jabs at other people all the time, anyways.”

“…Hmph.”

“Really, though. Is something up?”

A moment of silence passed, followed by a deep sigh escaping Piece’s lips. “…Yeah. I guess.”

“I knew it. What’s going on?”

“It’s… about Liask.”

“I should’ve known. Is this about why she wasn’t there to see you off? Did she finally see through your little charade?”

“Hey, she suggested it.”

“Yeah, but you had to’ve known that ‘faking’ a relationship was a bad idea. Especially with a girl who pretty clearly liked you for real.”

“Ngh…”

“So, did she dump you? Like all the others?”

“Don’t say it like that, you inconsiderate asshole. And… she didn’t explicitly dump me—“

“So she dumped you.”

“Fuck you, dude,” Pierce retorted with a scowl, only for his expression to relax into a troubled frown as he returned to looking up at the sky. “…But I guess I can’t really deny it.”

“What are you so down for, then?” Conrad questioned. “You clearly never actually liked her, yourself — not romantically, anyways — otherwise you just would’ve dated her for real.”

“That’s the thing… I don’t know.”

“Oh boy. Am I about to hear you make another speech about how you were about to discover true love, and that this girl would’ve been the one for you, if only she stuck around a little longer?”

“Shut up, you ass. This is about her brother.”

“…Oh,” Conrad responded meekly. “…Ha ha, uh… sorry.”

“Hmph,” Pierce grunted back. “…That’s why I didn’t feel comfortable going out with her. It just… didn’t feel right, like I’d be taking advantage of her, somehow. I feel like she should be blaming me for what happened to Trenon, but clearly, she isn’t, and… I don’t know what to make of that.”

“…I see…”

“I never really considered the idea of a relationship between us, because of that. But then, she went and suggested, uh… ‘fake dating’. And then, a few days ago, she figured out that I knew she liked me all along. And that, uh… didn’t go over very well.”

“You don’t say.”

“Yep. So that’s how it is… haven’t talked to her since.” Pierce let out another sigh. “…Except… I feel so… queasy. I’ve never felt quite this way after a breakup. I… think I actually miss her.”

“…Do you, now.”

“Is that really so hard to believe?”

“Sorry, man. But I feel like I’ve heard you say those words dozens of times, only for you to bounce back perfectly fine a day later.”

“But Liask is—“

“—‘Different’?” Conrad shook his head. “C’mon man, listen to yourself. Maybe the ‘fake dating’ just got to you.”

“…Hmph. Maybe…”

“I say, just give it a couple days. We won’t even be back in Tresnon for that long, at least. If you somehow still feel this way at that time, then, fucking, I don’t know. Go for it, I guess. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Liask doesn’t wanna talk to you again.”

“…Yeah…” Pierce muttered. “…Ah, fuck me. Why am I feeling so uneasy about this? How did I manage to fuck even this up?”

“You tell me,” Conrad replied with a shrug, his attention drifting back to the sparring going on in front of the duo. Christeané had already stopped the sparring once to give Austin and Spike more advice, and they were gearing up for a third round; as they did, Pierce and Conrad both lapsed into silence again. The silence continued as they watched the sparring continue, with Austin and Spike both approaching the match in a much more reserved manner than their initial bout. Conrad watched them trade blows with Christeané and Mark for some time before sighing loftily and joining Pierce in observing the blue skies above — only for a loud cracking and an earthquake-like rumbling to snap both Pierce and Conrad’s attention to the sparring match.

“What the…?” Pierce muttered as they both beheld a massive dirt cloud that seemed to have exploded out of the ground.

“Fuckin’— stop! Stop!!” Davídrius shouted, jogging forward to ensure that everyone was okay. Austin and Mark had already backed away from the dust cloud, and as it began to disperse, Christeané and Spike both stumbled out of it, coughing and spluttering.

“…Sorry…” Spike eventually apologized, once he and Christeané were clear of the settling dirt.

“Hey, it’s fine. You saw an actual opening, and you took it,” Christeané responded, giving Spike a reassuring pat on his shoulder before wincing and rubbing his side. “…Oof. I’m gonna feel that one in the morning…”

“Well… this is why we came to a Tier 5 World, right?” Mark questioned with an uneasy smile as he beheld the scar left behind by Spike’s blow: a massive crack in the ground, surrounding a small crater at the top of the hill.

“Still, that was a hell of a blow, just outta no where!” Austin exclaimed. “Dude, Spike, you gotta give me some warning next time! You almost got me, there!”

“That’s what I was about to bring up, actually,” Christeané remarked. “Spike, you did a good job keeping track of both Mark’s position, and where my hammer was, before you went to attack me. But you did seem to lose track of your own friend’s position, which is no—“

“Shit! Everyone, back off!”

“What—?” Christeané responded in confusion to Davídrius’s exclamation, only for the latter to speed up to the crack in the hill and fiercely chuck a hefty rock at a small creature that was crawling up through the crack — a small, silvery, bug-like creature. Under the force of Davídrius’s throw, the rock obliterated the creature, turning it into a small cloud of shimmering silver that the Dean rapidly retreated from.

“What the…” Conrad muttered as both he and Pierce stood up, concern written across their faces. “Was that—?”

“Yeah, it was,” Davídrius replied irately. “Fuck. They really are here?”

Pierce and Austin both turned to give the Dean a suspicious look. “Were you expecting them?!” Austin questioned incredulously.

“There’s no time for questions, right now,” Christeané quickly interjected. “If the metallic infection really is here, then we need to get out of here, quickly. The Nayasis settlement should have some portable shield units that we can use to cover up that crack; we need to go get those ASAP, before any more of those damn bugs show up!”

“The man’s right! Let’s get goin’, people!” Davídrius declared as he began leading the group back toward the Nayasis settlement, leaving behind the cracked foothill — and the settling silver dust from the creature that had emerged from it.

*

“Woooo! You go, girl!!”

Kestrel responded with silence to Phoenix’s cheers, instead focusing on her own motions as she manipulated the winds around her to gracefully guide her body through the air, soaring through the sunlit skies of Karania. Wordlessly, she zipped through the air to a hovering column of stone, dived down beneath it, and then pulled into a tight upward climb on the other side to avoid the hovering metal wall on the other side of the column. After a second of upwards flight, she shot out above the wall and column, grabbing a thin rod that hovered above them to whirl around 270 degrees and continue flying parallel to the top of the wall. Just as she came out of the whirl, a handful of ice pillars manifested in the air before her, partially blocking her path; with barely a reaction, Kestrel deftly slalomed through the ice pillars, emerging from the other side a mere few seconds later to pull into another upwards climb and continue flying through the air.

“Damn, I wish I was half as good at flying like that!” Sky remarked as she watched Kestrel continue to maneuver through the hovering obstacle course that Kaoné and Rebehka were creating on the fly. Afternoon sunlight shone down on the Deans, Twy, Sky, Phoenix, and Danielle, who were all standing on a large platform hovering a hundred meters or so in the air over the coastal waters. The city of Kani stood some distance to the west, and the waterborne research facility stood nearly a kilometer to the east, but no one’s attention was on them; all eyes were currently on Kestrel as she gracefully demonstrated her aerial capabilities in the skies over the waters.

“I agree…” Twy commented, affirming Sky’s previous remark. “She makes it look so easy…”

“That’s Kestrel, for you!” Phoenix exclaimed. “She did track alongside me and Pierce, you know. She always excelled at the jumping and more acrobatic events, and you can sure as hell see that here!”

“I do have to admit, I’m impressed,” Rebehka stated as Kestrel returned to the group and gently alighted on the platform. “I hear it’s easier for Aerotechnics to get the hang of flight than other Chaotics, but even considering that, your flying form was… honestly? Beautiful.”

“Mm…” Kestrel grunted in acknowledgment; while she wore on her face the same stoic expression as ever, her inability to make eye-contact with Rebehka was lost on no one.

“C’mon, don’t be shy!” Phoenix said, “you should own what you can do! Damn, I sure wish I could join you, up there…”

“I could turn into a jetpack, for you!” Danielle suggested.

“Well, hold on, now,” Rebehka quickly interjected. “We aren’t just flying for fun, here. Not right now, at least.”

“But once our lessons are over, I’d be more than happy to stay here with anyone who’d like to fly,” Kaoné said, and then turned to look up at Kestrel. “For now, though… I agree with Rebehka. Your form was very good, you seemed to have a good control of your speed, and an awareness of your surroundings… there honestly isn’t much to critique. Going forward, I’d say you should start training with using your powers both offensively and defensively while still flying as quickly and gracefully as you just did; master that, and there won’t be many Chaotics who can touch you.”

Kestrel looked back at Kaoné, simply staring for a few seconds as she digested the Dean’s words — followed by a quick nod of acknowledgment.

“It’s worth pointing out that, as an Aerotechnic, you have something of an inherent advantage over other Chaotics when it comes to flying,” Rebehka added. “I have a feeling I might not need to say this to you, but: don’t let that make you complacent. Just because it’s easier for you to fly, doesn’t mean that another type of Chaotic can’t ever match you.”

“How many Chaotics can even fly, though?” Phoenix questioned. “I sure can’t. Most of you can, but none of the guys can fly, either, except for Austin.”

“Chaotic flight is common enough that you need to be ready to deal with it in a fight,” Rebehka asserted. “Pretty much any Chaotic that can manipulate matter can fly by ‘riding’ the matter they’re manipulating — such as the platform we’re all standing on, right now!”

“I guess my bubble ‘flight’ falls into that category…” Twy mused.

“Aerotechnism does as well, technically. And then there’s Pyrotechnics, who can fly by detonating the air around them, like a rocket thruster. Transtechnics can transform into a form that flies, Manipulator and Imperator Psychotechnics can manipulate their own bodies to fly, Gravitatechnics can manipulate gravity to fly… you get the picture.”

“And then there are other Chaotics who can’t fly, but still have ways to launch themselves high into the air to reach a flying opponent,” Kaoné pointed out. “Velocitechnics and Forcetechnics are the obvious ones.”

“True,” Rebehka replied, “but since they can’t fly — well, let’s see if any of you can answer this. Since Velocitechnics and Forcetechnics can’t fly, is it a good idea for them to try and catch a flying opponent in the air?”

“Well Davídrius does it all the time, so… yeah?” Sky answered. “I mean, how else are they supposed to reach a flying enemy?”

“I don’t think that’s right…” Twy said. “We’ve already been told before that Davídrius has bad combat habits. Besides… what happens to him if his flying opponent just dodges him?”

“That’s exactly the problem,” Rebehka stated. “Chaotics who can’t fly will often still try to close the distance between themselves and a flying opponent, since most Chaotics do better in close-range fights. But once they’re in the air, they have no way of naturally altering their trajectory until they hit the ground, again — which leaves them vulnerable. As a Chaotic who can fly, sometimes a good strategy to use against an enemy who can’t is to try and bait them into jumping after you, and then nailing them in the air while they can’t dodge your attacks.”

“That said, some of those Chaotics have tools to help in that situation,” Kaoné added. “I don’t know if any of you have seen Christeané fight, but he has a special tethered battlehammer that he can use to change his trajectory mid-air, just through sheer momentum. It isn’t quite flight, but it’s close enough to catch opponents off guard. And those kinds of battlehammers aren’t uncommon among Forcetechnics.”

“You make it sound like any fight between two Chaotics will inevitably end up in the air!” Sky remarked.

“Depending on who you’re up against, it very well might,” Rebehka replied. “On the ground, with few exceptions, you can really only move in two dimensions — but in the air, you can move in all three. That makes it easier to dodge incoming attacks, as well as harder for an opponent to target you. The lack of cover in the air can also be beneficial, sometimes. It means you can’t really hide, but it also means that it’s a lot easier for you to spot an incoming attack and react to it.”

“…Which is why we’re practicing your flight skills, today,” Kaoné finished. “It’s a very important skill to have, as well as being relatively harmless and very fun to train!”

“I wish I could fly…” Phoenix muttered.

“Ah ha ha…” Kaoné responded with an uneasy laugh. “Uh… sorry to make you watch all of this…”

“But at the same time, observing is still important,” Rebehka declared. “You may not be able to fly, Phoenix, but as we just went over, it’s likely that you’ll face flying opponents in the future. You’ll be better prepared to face them if you know exactly how different types of Chaotics can achieve flight, and how well they do so.”

“I mean, I get that, it’s just…” Phoenix trailed off, only to shrug and sigh. “Oh, whatever. I’ll just have to deal. Don’t let me get in the way of you guys.”

“Actually… let’s work on that,” Rebehka mused, and then glanced between Phoenix and Sky. “…Sky, you’re up next. But what we’re going to do now is that Phoenix is going to keep attacking you from here for about, oh, a minute or so. We’ll see how well you can dodge — or how well Phoenix can aim — for that time.”

“Ha!” Sky turned to give Phoenix a challenging grin. “You’ll never touch me!”

“You clearly don’t know who you’re up against,” Phoenix responded in kind.

“I know we all have energy shields, here, but do remember to be careful!” Kaoné called out as Sky took to the air with a burst of flames. “Try not to get carried away!”

“Got it!” Sky replied with a casual salute as she made some distance between herself and the hovering platform.

“Alright. We’ll start on my go,” Rebehka declared, holding her hand up in the air as she looked between Phoenix and Sky. “Okay… go!!”

The Dean dropped her hand as she uttered the word, and immediately after she did, Phoenix threw her right hand out toward Sky. “Chaos Cannon! Chaos Cannon!” she declared, firing off two Mach-speed purple projectiles that streaked through the air. Sky quickly blasted the air beneath her feet, launching herself upwards just barely in time to evade the projectiles before lighting the air under her feet and palms in a constant streak of flames to continue maneuvering through the air, leaving in her wake the thunder of roaring flames. Just as she did, another two purple projectiles shot by, one nailing Sky in her shoulder and sending her careening off to the side. Phoenix immediately followed with yet another “Chaos Cannon”, hoping to take advantage of the opening Sky had left for her — only for the Pyrotechnic to pre-emptively blast the air once more, rocketing her downwards and evading the projectile.

“…Wow!” Danielle exclaimed, moving over to the edge of the platform to watch Sky begin flying low over the coastal waters. “Her flight really is explosive! I wonder if Kate could fly, that way…”

“She certainly won’t be sneaking anywhere, with that…” Twy commented, just as another explosion sounded from below as Sky sharply altered her trajectory to evade Phoenix’s rain of Chaos attacks. The Pyrotechnic had been making distance between herself and the platform, so as to give herself more time to react to Phoenix’s attacks — and Phoenix’s accuracy was dropping, accordingly. Taking note of this, Phoenix switched off of using Chaos Cannon and called out, “Chaos Arrow! Chaos Arrow!!” Two arrow-like streaks of purple energy shot out of her hands and began arcing through the air toward Sky. The arrows moved much more slowly than the Mach-speed projectiles of Chaos Cannon, but as Sky began to evade them, their advantage became evident: they continued arcing to track the Pyrotechnic through the sky.

Phoenix smirked to herself as Sky began flying in an erratic manner to try and shake off the homing projectiles. “Chaos Arrow, Chaos Arrow, Chaos Arrow,” Phoenix quickly rattled off, adding a storm of arrows just as Sky managed to shake off the first two by juking them into colliding with the surface of the water. A brief moment of silence ensued as Sky caught her breath, only to catch sight of the incoming arrow storm and immediately launch herself parallel to the water’s surface, flying further out over the coastal waters in an attempt to make even more distance between her and Phoenix.

“…She’s starting to get pretty far out there…” Twy muttered, noting how Sky was now well over half a kilometer out from the platform — all while Phoenix continued adding to the stream of Chaos Arrows, throwing in the occasional Chaos Cannon in an attempt to throw Sky off. “…Can Chaos Arrow really track her from here?”

“I think Arrow can track a target from about a kilometer away or so, if I recall correctly…” Rebehka replied. “Though even that can vary based on the power or skill of the Chaostechnic in question.”

“I’m concerned about the direction of this exercise, though…” Kaoné said, watching as Sky’s flame-driven aerial dance over the waters brought her closer and closer to the waterborne facility in the distance — and thus also, the projectiles Phoenix was firing. “…Phoenix, stop!”

“Chaos— huh?” The Chaostechnic stopped mid-invocation to give Kaoné a confused look. “What?”

“Your attacks are getting too close to the research center!” Kaoné replied. “Remember to watch out for the backdrop! After all, if your attacks miss your target, then they’ll still hit something!”

“Oh… right. Sorry…”

“She’s going right for the research center…” Rebehka commented, still watching Sky. A scowl then crossed her face as she leaped forward, crafting a pathway of ice through the air that she deftly skated upon. “I’m going after her!”

“Oh, Sky…” Twy muttered. “Just how oblivious to your surroundings can you be…?”

Sky, however, was now too far away from the platform to be aware of any of the previous conversation. Her attention was instead focused on the stream of purple arrows chasing after her, tracking her movements like hounds. They were faster than her, but far less maneuverable; several times already, Sky had managed to juke around many arrows by suddenly blasting the air beneath her or to her side, to rapidly change her trajectory through the air. Merely dodging the arrows wasn’t enough, however — even after evading one, it would still curve around through the air to resume giving chase, only stopping after hitting something, like the surface of the water.

“…Ngh! Agh—!” Sky grunted in exertion as she suddenly changed her flight direction with yet another blast of flames, her head beginning to pound from both repeatedly detonating the air right next to herself as well as constantly changing what direction she was flying in. Four purple arrows shot past her as she began skimming the surface of the water, now at a lower altitude than all of the arrows chasing her — so low, in fact, that she could have reached down with her hand and touched the gentle waves below. As she flew, three arrows curved down towards her, only to just barely miss Sky and disappear into the waters.

Tentatively, Sky looked up at the air behind her, quickly counting out six remaining arrows chasing after her. Just before she returned her attention to dodging, however, she noticed that a trail of ice was appearing through the air, making its way toward her. “…What the—? Oof!!” Sky began to question the appearance of the ice, but was cut short as she slammed into a wall — or rather, what had felt like a wall. Momentarily stunned, she fell out of the air and into the waters below, where each of the six remaining arrows found their mark on the energy shields protecting her body. In both panic and frustration, Sky generated a massive plume of fire all around herself, instantly evaporating the water in her immediate vicinity before launching herself skyward with a blast of flames. As soon as she cleared the water’s surface, she began hovering in place, quickly searching the sky for any remaining arrows… only for her attention to be drawn to the air to her side. The waterborne facility off the coast of Kani stood before her, with several massive structural support columns supporting the main building over the water… and a vertical sheet of golden light appeared between Sky and the building, the light slowly fading.

“Sky! Are you alright?”

“Huh…?” Sky turned around just as Rebehka skated up to her. “Uh… I’m fine, I think. I think I lost the duel, though, ha ha…”

“There’s certainly a handful of things we need to talk about,” Rebehka admonished, and then shifted her attention to the giant research facility before them. “But…” she muttered, and then crafted a small ice spike in the air over her shoulder before launching it through the air toward the research facility, on a path such that it would thread between the support columns, but hit none of them. Before the spike crossed even a few meters, however, it instead slammed into an invisible wall — an invisible wall that was quickly replaced by the golden glow of flaring energy shields.

“Those are energy shields… right?” Sky questioned. “Why is this place shielded? Is it super secret, or something?”

“It shouldn’t be…” Rebehka muttered, warily eying the fading energy shields. “…Not on a permanent basis. The fact that they’re up now can only mean—!”

Before she could finish her thought, the deafening sound of rending metal filled the air as a massive hole exploded outwards of the research facility’s underside — and out through the hole burst a large, silver dragon, its maw wide with a roar as it turned through the air and made a dash straight for Rebehka and Sky. In a reflexive panic, Sky blasted the air beneath her to dodge out of the way, but the dragon instead slammed into the energy shield before it could reach either woman. It drew back for a second, stunned, before lashing out, slamming the energy shield repeatedly and causing it to brightly flare up.

“What the—! What’s going on?!” Sky exclaimed in confusion.

“Another critical infection? And here? Damn it…!” Rebehka scowled in frustration. She then snapped her attention back to Sky, shouting, “we need to get back to the others, fast!”

“Uh, right!” Sky responded uneasily, quickly turning around and blasting off toward the hovering platform in the distance, Rebehka hot on her heels as they left behind the shielded research facility… and the metallic dragon trapped with it.