Blue. All he saw was a pale shade of blue.
Tokura didn’t mind blue. Far from it, actually – that
was his favorite color. But this blue – the one of Lara Jade’s steam – had
consumed all of his surroundings. So much so that he could hardly see the trees
or anything else.
What’s worse, the heat from all that steam felt very unpleasant
– like a much more extreme and less fun version of a sauna. One only needed to
sit and sweat it out naked in a sauna and could get out whenever they wanted. The
Earthling however needed to move through the apparently inescapable veil of
steam with his clothes on and his mind focused, which was quite a challenge. Another
blue thing made the situation worse – the almost constant barrage of pairs of
orbs of turquoise flames that formed rings of the same element created by Mia
and Kia Nelaz. Every time one of those rings was dodged, it set fire to
whatever plantlife of the surrounding environment it came into contact with,
the heat from the fires only making the experience more unbearable fo the
trio’s target.
Mr. Braveheart was well aware of the reason the Hera
Trio had adopted such an approach in fighting him. All three girls knew they
couldn’t face him head-on because he would crush them. The only chance they had
was to stall their opponent and make him waste more energy by using long-range
attacks from a hidden location.
Tokura possessed a Flexoid deva aside from his
invisible shield and the Flexoid was the energy compound that allowed the user
to teleport with the highest speed, highest number of objects teleported at
once and longest range. One could even teleport things moving at high speeds
with the azure-colored energy, so long as they could focus on a target of that
type. Hence, the Flexoid was very useful when fighting someone face-to-face,
but not nearly as much in situations like the one the pseudoknight had
currently found himself in.
He kept teleporting the cyan twins’ fire rings away
from him, but with zero visibility and no sensory capabilities, he couldn’t
make out where they were as the fire orbs were sent from different directions. At
the same time the spreading of Lara’s deva all around allowed her to locate
anything within the area it covered, pointing out the enemy’s location to Mia
and Kia. Then they probably teleported each of their attacks from a different
side of Earthling Class #1’s ‘small’ battering ram so as to make pinpointing
their position an impossible task.
The teenager with raspberry-colored hair could end all
this, but he would have to further drain his devas for that purpose and he
needed to save as much of his strength as possible for helping his comrades in
the main battle that lay ahead. If things kept going as they did, however, he wasn’t
going to make it in time for the main event of this Class Battle. Therefore he
had to choose between two unfavorable options: wait till the Hera Trio members
tired enough to let him through, so he could continue with plenty of strength
left, or force his way beyond those three right now to rendezvous with
Earthling Class #1 in a more worn-out state.
The pseudoknight stopped his advance through the
blanket of steam a second after the contemplation process ended, unleashing a
burst of the azure energy compound and forming the shield around him again. The
shield completely blocked out the steam and without it bothering him, he could
finally concentrate. His Flexoid was spread over a very wide area and
with very high density as well, the young man closing his eyes as his energy started eating
away at the steam and thinking:
‘-This Flexoid wave will allow me to discover their
location and they know that. But they also know that if they try to stay clear
of its range, the distance between us will grow enough for me to continue
forward without them being able to catch up fast enough. That means they’ll
have to let me find them whether they like it or not!! And it’s game over
then!!!’
Tokura could still hear the muffled sound of fire
rings being smashed in his shield only to be deflected with equal force after
he closed his eyes, but without actually having to evade them, the sound
provided minimal distraction. That distraction was not enough to impede his
focus on the connection with his energy compound.
Through that connection he saw a shape amid the
darkness. A silhouette of blue energy, not more than 15 meters away. Then
another shape emerged next to it. And then one more.
The ‘small’ battering ram was certain he had found his
targets and half his victory was assured by just that, but then more shapes
that were identical to the three he had already located started appearing. Many
more. Tens. Hundreds. And they weren’t just in front of him, but spread in all
directions.
‘-Did you think
it was going to be that easy, Braveheart?’ – Lara’s voice rang loud and clear.
One of them finally spoke. Because they knew there was
no need to hide anymore. Even if he knew where they are, that wouldn’t make a
difference now. He’d been had.
Trying to sense them was also pointless, so the
pseudoknight decided to return to the more conventional method for locating
objects – using his eyes. The sight he was met with when he opened them came as
no surprise.
Tens of smirking Laras, Mias and Kias were closing in
on him amid the dissolving steam in a number of circles with a continuously shrinking
diameter. Yet they weren’t just walking – they were laughing. Choirs upon
choirs of manic laughter now filled the air to a level that almost made
Tokura’s ears bleed.
Despite blinking from irritation, he still managed to keep
his eyes open long enough between the moments when he closed them to make out
the number of enemy clones – about a hundred for each of them. The closest
group of those clones stopped when they stood about five meters from him in
each direction but kept guffawing.
(Tokura) ‘-Is all that laughing meant as a
psychological attack or are you just insane?’
The laughing in choirs stopped now, but the talking in
choirs started. Not much of an improvement, in the young man’s opinion.
(The Mias) ‘-We’re just expressing our joy of being so
close to you.’
(The Kias) ‘-And meanwhile you seem to be in a hurry
to leave despite the great company you have here. Why not stay with us a bit
longer, sweetie?’
Upon closer inspection, the blue bands of the Nelaz
duo’s uniforms perfectly matched with their eye and hair color, making them all
the more gorgeous in defiance of the annoying sarcastic tone they had just used.
Plus Tokura had a thing for lolis because they had a more child-like
appearance, much like himself.
Lara was a catch in her own right, of course, having a
more mature beauty about her. And a much more mature chest.
Under different circumstances, being surrounded by so
many beautiful women would’ve been the greatest blessing the pseudoknight could
think of. But in the current situation he was more angry than he was stunned by
his opponents’ charms. Angry at himself.
(Tokura) ‘-Nice offer, but I think I’ll pass.’
(The Laras) ‘-That was a rhetorical question. You
don’t have any choice but to stay with us now.’
The teenager with raspberry-colored hair hated
admitting his adversary was right, but no matter how much he wanted to, he
couldn’t deny the truth in the words of the hundred Laras.
His original conjecture that Mia and Kia were
teleporting their attacks all around him was wrong. Maybe that’s how it had
started, but all the while he was trying to escape the veil of steam he had
been trapped in, his foes had been creating clones of themselves and had been
spreading them around. That would explain why the twins didn’t use more complex
attacks, but stuck to only orbs of fire – half of their attention was focused
on making copies of themselves.
The whole reason for forming the veil was to give the
Hera Trio time to prepare something else to delay Tokura with after he broke
through that veil. And it had all worked out perfectly for them: their target
was now surrounded on all sides with no way of telling who the originals are.
If only the Earthling had not been so indecisive about
releasing more power up until now, all of this could’ve been avoided. He
could’ve taken out his opponents before they could implement their latest plan
and would’ve already rejoined his class by the present moment.
But he hadn’t done that. Why? Was it to make sure he
would have enough power to be of use to his comrades when he reached them? Or
was it in order to have enough power to not be defeated by anyone because of
his pride?
Maybe not having the right motivation from the start
was what had led to this turn of events, but wasting more time on regrets was
only going to make things worse. Disposing of the three Martians was what he
needed to do. Looking at their clones gave him an idea how to do that, but the
Hera Trio needed to be distracted for this to work. The best way to distract
them right now was to keep them talking.
(Tokura) ‘-Or maybe you’re talking at the same time
because you’re afraid if just one of you talks, the originals will somehow give
themselves away?’
(The Mias) ‘-We’re all perfect copies, dumbass. You
can’t tell us apart like that.’
(Tokura) ‘-Why are you still talking like that, then?
I don’t imagine you often create so many clones to talk in choirs for no
reason.’
(The Kias) ‘-We have the most melodic voices in all of
Sunbird, so we like listening to ourselves talk. The more of us there are
talking, the better.’
(Tokura) ‘-Self-obsessed much?’
(The Laras) ‘-We choose only the best. Since we’re the
best, of course we’d obsess over ourselves rather than anyone else.’
(Tokura) ‘-Listening all of you talk at the same time is
getting kind of irritating at this point, though.’
(The Mias) ‘-Why don’t you try to get rid of us,
then?’
All the Flexoid that was spread around the area split
into parts that quickly took on a specific shape then, becoming clones of
Tokura as the original revealed his confident smirk.
(Tokura) ‘-I intend to.’
The members of the Hera Trio were shocked as Mr.
Braveheart’s clones swarmed on theirs, retaliating soon enough by sending orbs
of blue flames and focused streams of steam at their opponents, which led to an
all-out melee.
While all the Mias and Kias still used only orbs and
rings of their flames, some of the Laras shaped their steam into drill-like
structures, met with the Flexoid projectiles created by the forces opposing
them. The more the enemies fought, the more blue steam and energy clashed in
the air while the forest was further engulfed in blue flames. Eventually the battlefield’s
color scheme changed so much that it appeared as if the two small armies were
fighting in a sea of endless blue, the groups of clones crushing in each other
much like waves.
The nature of the battle also changed, both sides now
transforming their very bodies into the attacks they had been using up to this
point to clash with the other. So the Mias and Kias became giant flaming orbs,
the Laras – big drills or streams of steam and the Tokuras – energy
projectiles, mass barrages being unleashed by each group.
That’s when the moment the Earthling was waiting for came.
He had never tried creating so many clones, but
thought that it should be possible to match the enemy’s numbers when doing this
with a 100% output. If he succeeded, he could turn the three’s tactic against
them, waiting for the battle to become chaotic enough that they wouldn’t notice
the original had moved on ahead. The ‘small’ battering ram would still need to
deal with them later, which wasn’t the best option, but helping his classmates
took precedence.
A pine tree signaling the transformation of the
deciduous vegetation into that of a coniferous type came within his sight just
beyond the borders of the blue-colored area and he chose it as a teleportation
destination.
When he was about to teleport, Tokura felt something
hot drawing close to his back, luckily putting up his shield by instinct fast
enough to deflect what upon turning around was revealed as a gigantic ring of
turquoise flames and pale blue steam. Something probably created by the
original Hera Trio, who had caught on his plan before he could fully execute
it.
(Kia) ‘-You won’t be getting away from us that easy!!’
(Tokura) ‘-Just how persistent are you?!’
(Mia) ‘-We came here with a mission and we will carry
it out!!’
(Lara) ‘-At all costs!!!’
The ring kept on spinning, suddenly blowing up in a
two-element storm that swept the whole battlefield, spreading a lot of steam
and fire all around, impairing Mr. Braveheart’s vision once again and forcing
him to keep his shield up.
(Tokura) ‘-Damn it!! Damn all three of you!!!’
Although they were his foes, Tokura had to give Lara,
Mia and Kia credit for being very loyal. Ulura wouldn’t have fought so
valiantly to buy them time if she was participating in the Class Battle and
their places were exchanged. She treated her classmates as nothing more than
pawns. And Nepalo, Hock and Gorudora of the Ares Trio were no different. Yet the
people from their class put their faith in them.
What about Mr. Braveheart’s classmates, though? They
put their faith in him and he had betrayed that faith because of his pride and
selfishness.
The Hera Trio weren’t going to let up. The only way
now was to stop them for good. And as the Earthlings’ ‘small’ battering ram, he
couldn’t afford to worry about how much energy that would cost him anymore. He
couldn’t afford to worry about anything but his friends from here on.
The new veil of steam prevented the shielded warrior
from seeing where the Martian ladies’ clones were, but he could still feel the
presence of his clones, teleporting in front of one of them. Right then a giant turquoise fireball was smashed in
his shield, originally aiming for his Flexoid clone. In the moment of contact
Tokura ran his azure energy compound over the surface of his shield, a part of
it being transferred to the fireball as it was deflected.
The fireball’s nature was slightly changed with that, ensuring
one of the real Nelaz twins would no longer be able to negate it so easily. Thus
nothing managed to stop it from hitting one of Lara’s clones transformed into a
steam drill nearby. As the two attacks cancelled each other out, the
pseudoknight teleported next to another of his copies, deflecting an attack
meant for it and running his Flexoid over it to ensure another enemy clone will
be taken out by that attack.
The Hera Trio’s clones began regrouping after that,
but it was too late. Their attacks were being consecutively deflected back at them
in a slightly altered state with high speed, ensuring no one would escape the
onslaught.
Before long the relentlessness of the Earthling who
had finally shown his true power led to the demise of the originals, proof of
which was that all their remaining clones suddenly crumbled into tiny drops of
blue flames and blue vapor.
The victor took a deep breath and started absorbing
his Flexoid copies back in himself with a wave of his hand, walking through the
receding steam. He stopped when he found the real three, each of them being
bloodied, bruised and burned, breathing heavily and looking at each other. When
their opponent’s shadow loomed over them, their attention was turned to him, but
although they had lost, smiles full of triumph formed on their faces.
(Lara) ‘-We got you, Braveheart. We may not have kept
you here for as long as we wanted, but you sure used up a lot of energy while
dealing with us, right?’
(Mia) ‘-That means your class is doomed all the same
at this point.’
Tokura narrowed his eyes, turning his back on the
defeated warriors.
(Tokura) ‘-You did good. You fulfilled your duty brilliantly,
so take pride in that now and rest.’
(Kia) ‘-Ha! What’s with the praise, Earthling?
Shouldn’t you hurry up to see if there’s anything left of your friends?’
(Tokura) ‘-I just wanted to commend you before moving
on. (he turned to them only partially to show a face burning with
determination) If it wasn’t for what you did here, I wouldn’t have remembered
my duty: to always risk it all without a second thought to save my friends. So
the only thing you ensured with your actions was your class’ demise at my
hands!’
He vanished with a burst of Flexoid, reaching the pine
tree he was originally planning to teleport to within a second and moving
forward.
The forest was on fire. The ground was shaking. Huge
amounts of crimson energy ripped the skies just ahead. Yet none of that fazed
Tokura. Saving the Earthlings was the one thing that really mattered and their
‘small’ battering ram would not fail them again.
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