17 - Icarus

“Ausra! Get the hell outta here!” Kouta yelled, immediately forcing heavy gravity onto the area of the fiery explosion.

“I can still fight, dammit!” Ausra yelled. At that moment, a buildup of soul prowess was felt a few streets away. Kouta quickly looked back, sensing the danger. At that moment, all that was on his mind was stopping Diego from slaughtering everyone but him.

“Dima! Get Ausra and Ichika out of here!” Kouta yelled. “Fucking dammit, looks like Oskar’s in deep shit too!”

“Got it!” Dima responded, quickly portaling Ausra towards her. Now that all distractions were gone, it was Kouta alone versus Hwang and Diego. If he won the fight, everything would end. The very same anxiety that shrouded him two years ago was running rampant in his body again - this time amplified by his already existing trauma.

“It’s just these three pieces of shit...”

“I can deal with them.”

Kouta instantly jumped at Hwang, who barely managed to dash back and escape. The two both released soul prowess from their weapons, the two slashes clashed against one another in the air. Kouta forced Hwang in place and went for an attack, but he felt a burning sensation in his side. He quickly jumped back.

“The invisible cunt is also a problem, but without a doubt...”

“Diego is the biggest threat here!”

Kouta jumped in the direction of the flame. As soon as he closed the distance, the source of the flames quickly vanished from sight, and went behind nearby buildings. The explosive flames continued raging on, devouring all in its path. Already mass panic had begun in the area, as most residents were evacuating and trying to save themselves from a potential catastrophe.

“As much as Diego is a drunk mess sometimes, his strategies always work.”

Ichigo kept on running from building to building, avoiding Kouta’s prowess releases and the piles of debris he chucked at him. With his invisibility on and his soul presence increased, all he had to do was chuck incendiary grenades and stay out of sight to create the perfect image of Diego.

He was eventually cornered into one of the buildings. Kouta was about to take it down completely, but Ichigo prevented that, by revealing himself. He couldn’t allow himself to potentially kill the residents.

“Huh?!”

“This was the guy with the invisibility, right?”

“Does that mean...Diego never entered the battlefield?!”

...

Oskar landed, watching Luca land in front of him.

“Soul Interpretation.”

The streams of water that originated from Luca’s fists shaped themselves into tiny spears. All of them were chucked at Oskar, who tried to avoid them as much as possible, before giving up and relying on blocking. As his forearms accumulated more and more damage, Luca used the chance to break the distance and strike Oskar down.

Oskar dashed back, kicking Luca away and stopping his advance. He summoned his sword and pointed it in the sky.

“Firing off bolts of electricity has always been difficult. The problem with using my palms is that not only is it harder to aim, but it’s also slightly weaker in power.”

“To fully draw it out, I have to buy myself time and use my sword.”

Oskar swung his sword, as a bolt of electricity quickly struck Luca. The latter was stunned in place, gritting his teeth from the pain. Oskar sent a few flying slashes in his direction, which landed perfectly.

“He’s surprisingly easy to counter. All I have to do is maintain distance and hit him with constant bolts.”

Oskar used his electrocution ability again, but this time, instead of aiming at Luca directly, he aimed at the ground. The wet concrete, still covered in a layer of water, amplified the electricity even more.

“You...”

“Huh?” Oskar seemed confused. All of the water returned to Luca for the moment.

“I can finish him off right now. If I use my divine acclamation, he will have no escape against it.” Such were Luca’s thoughts as he condensed the water into his own weapon - a long, thin sword with azure decorations.

“At the same time, it will be the same as admitting defeat. He’s a worthless brat, he’s only friends with Matteo’s killers.”

“I’ll slaughter him without using my acclamation at all!”

“Pieces of shit like Diego...they’ll see what I’m capable of!”

“Soul Interpretation.”

Luca Rosso, who was building up enough soul prowess to release his ultimate technique, soon dropped the idea completely. The presence gradually lowered, concentrating at the tip of his sword. Drops of water were slowly escaping it, as it left an ominous yet charming trail. The trail extended itself to reveal a whip-like weapon.

“Rising Tide’s Will.”

“Another soul interpretation?”

Oskar held his sword, before getting it knocked out of his hands by the incredibly fast whip. It cackled and soon struck Oskar himself, leaving a mark of blood on his legs and later stomach. Oskar dashed back, but it felt as if the weapon itself had limitless range.

“The pressure this weapon is applying is too much. I can’t stand still for a second to try and pinpoint an electric discharge.”

“I’ll have to stop thinking with-”

[CRASH]

Oskar and Luca were both distracted by a nearby building slowly beginning to collapse. The sirens of emergency response teams were already wailing on the streets, while Kouta’s bloodlusted fight against a tricky opponent continued.

Snapping out of the confusion a second faster, Luca launched the whip at Oskar, who jumped over it and dodged it. Oskar released slashes from his katana, but none of them hit Luca in a meaningful way.

“This guy’s durability is good too. He’s using the water to protect himself.”

“Fuck...what should I do?!”

“Hayk always told me to be original. Right now, I feel like the only way to play this right is to be as blunt as possible.”

Oskar raised his blade, charging it with electricity. Unlike previously, this time he stood completely still. Despite the many hits he took from the whip, and the excruciating pain he had to endure in those moments, he stood completely still.

“Focus all your power!”

Oskar’s clothes were already heavily damaged. Luca continued his relentless attacks, a bit surprised at his opponent’s strategy.

“What are you trying to do? Hit me with another lightning bolt?!” Luca yelled, swinging the whip with tremendous power. It hit Oskar’s right leg, forcing it to weaken and getting Oskar to kneel. “Your lightning won’t do shit to me! You’ll miss it!”

“It’s not the electricity that I’m aiming for.” Oskar said.

“It’s easy for me to magnetically attract other objects to me. But attracting independent objects to one another at a distance is much harder. And because of that...”

Stolen novel; please report.

Moments after, a small motorcycle was almost flying towards Luca from his side. As he turned around to try and deflect it, a car came in from the other side. Squished between the two vehicles, Luca panicked. He surrounded himself with a sheet of water armor just in case, but that was probably the worst decision he could’ve made. He surrounded himself with a layer of water, trying to escape the deadly trap.

At that point, Oskar’s weapon was already facing him.

“This was my goal.”

The iron had made it easier for Oskar to aim. Luca, who was stuck and had difficulties even breathing properly for the moment, was an easy target. Most importantly, the water that Luca surrounded himself with in order to escape the trap, was a perfect setup for massive damage.

The bolt of electricity had delivered almost lethal damage to the elemental. His skin, now charred with red wounds, was bleeding profusely. Luca himself yelled in pain as the massive release of electricity forced him to appear in such a miserable position.

“Fucking...damn it!” Luca screamed, before knocking the vehicles away and freeing himself from the trap. His body was revealed to be heavily scarred, with the ground beneath him decorated in his blood. He unleashed a large wave of water onto Oskar before disappearing from the battlefield. Because of the aquatic smokescreen, Oskar failed to pinpoint another bolt.

“Holy shit...I actually didn’t do bad...”

“Why’d he refuse to use his acclamation? He was flaring with soul prowess for a moment, I thought I was done for.”

Oskar sat down on the ground, holding onto his wounds.

“Why did he retreat in the first place?”

“Ichika, Ausra and Dima are all off the battlefield now, and Sakuto’s separated. Did they plan to gang up on Kouta after removing us from the equation?”

“That makes no sense.”

“They’ll just become collateral damage. Both Kouta and Diego benefit too much from fighting unrestrictedly based on how their soul expressions function.”

...

Kouta jumped from building to building, street to street, chasing down the impostor that acted as Diego. Hwang was trying to catch Kouta off-guard with unsuccessful attempts of firing projectiles and shaking the ground. Ichigo was trying to survive.

Realizing that Ichigo’s skills of evading him and utilizing his invisibility are far superior, Kouta decided to instead focus on Hwang. It was their second clash, so Kouta was familiar with his enemy’s attack patterns and tricks. Ichigo was a far more troublesome matchup due to his quick wits and flexible toolkit. For a brief moment, Kouta closed his eyes and concentrated.

After a small rumbling sound, pieces of broken concrete, street signs, and Kouta himself were starting to float above the ground. Kouta swung his sword up, raising the debris and the people caught in the attack’s radius even more.

Ichigo retained his invisibility, but unfortunately for him, Kouta already knew what type of soul presence to look for. Now that they were elevated above ground, there was no point for Ichigo to maintain his cloak anymore. He revealed himself, trying to focus a beam of light to strike Kouta down.

Kouta foresaw the buildup of light in Ichigo’s palms - the small indication that an attack is incoming. Despite the environment around him being extremely dangerous, he could maneuver in it freely. At this stage of the fight he was the one with the overwhelming advantage.

“Mr. Hwang!” Ichigo yelled, trying to control himself. “Regroup!”

“Shut it!” Hwang yelled back in response. “I’m gonna kill this freak-”

At that instant, a heavy release of soul prowess slashed his chest, leaving behind a deep and bloody scar. Hwang was knocked back, still in a floating state. Kouta rushed towards him, grabbing him and throwing him up into the sky. He tried to send another flying slash, but it was intercepted by that of Ichigo’s.

“Still, I don’t get it...”

“No, no...don’t overthink it!”

“Focus all you have into killing him, right now!”

...

Sakuto slowly got up, holding his head with his hands. The powerful gust of wind that knocked him far away did little damage by itself, most of Sakuto’s dizziness was a result of the long and painful wall-breaking journey he took across two streets. He quickly unsheathed his weapon, but his opponent had already left the battlefield.

“Huh...why? Why’d he leave?”

He quickly checked his phone and read Dima’s message.

“Kouta is getting ambushed by all of them, isn’t he? I don’t know where or how Oskar is, he’s likely in a war of his own...”

“Why in the hell would my attacker separate himself from me?”

“He was a high speed soulful, he could’ve continued fighting me and probably did heavy damage to me. Where the hell did he go?!”

“High-speed attacks...”

“Diverted attention...”

His eyes suddenly opened wide. He lunged forward, screaming at the top of his lungs, as if trying to save the air in front of him from getting assassinated.

“KOUTA!!!”

Sakuto’s prediction that the attack was using separation and diversion tactics was by no means incorrect. Kouta’s entire mind was clouded by the thought of killing both Hwang and Ichigo, the two soulfuls that had previously injured him and escaped - more specifically Hwang, who almost mortally wounded his closest friend and was the reason this entire shitshow was happening in the first place.

William’s soul expression was one that allowed him to manipulate the wind currents around him. Using that to his advantage, he granted himself great speeds by consistently pushing himself with the aforementioned winds. Even in an environment where gravity causes , he would have accumulated enough speed to retain his momentum...

“He deserves to live a good and happy life. More than me.”

Ichigo’s eyes sparked with hope as he saw his ally break into the battlefield at missile-like speeds. He wielded his soul-bound weapon, aimed for a clean execution.

At the last moment, Kouta turned around. He managed to counter the incoming assassination attempt. The heavy counterattack launched William back, but the elemental didn’t lose his spirit at all. He nodded at Ichigo, signaling with his hand. Ichigo nodded back, and shrouded himself in invisibility again. With a strong gust of wind to propel himself, William had no trouble getting to Hwang and evacuating him.

“The hell are you doing?! Get me back in there, I’ll kill this fucking guy!” Hwang yelled while being dragged out of the fight by William.

“It’s all a plan for separation!”

Sakuto tried to recollect himself, and turned towards the direction of the street where he split off from the group. He reached forward with his arm, as if trying to grab onto his last hope.

“Their plan was to surprise Kouta with this guy’s speed!”

“Their objective was to kill Kouta-”

[KRRRT]

It felt as if the lights had gone out for just a second. Sakuto opened his eyes, he couldn’t fully comprehend this odd sense of being paralyzed. He lowered his gaze to a shining rapier piercing his chest.

“Mission successful.” Diego smiled, unleashing an explosive flame into the wound. Sakuto grit his teeth in pain, leaning forwards to escape the scorching blade. He tried turning around and swinging his own weapon. “That’s one less of you.”

Diego saw something strange, something a little gray but a little colorful too. He felt that something was off about Sakuto’s presence. He quickly swung his rapier again, sending Sakuto’s unconscious body flying into the wall of a nearby building with a flaming slash. Blood slowly dripped from Sakuto’s wounds, as his eyes started to dim...

“I hope Luca did his job too, you’ll see your friend in hell.” He smiled.

“God I missed this sensation...”

“Ugh...”

He got a little dizzy, he felt his heart beat faster. He even saw someone approach him.

“I feel like I’m gonna-”

“Hey, you alright?” A voice asked Diego.

“Yeah...the hell are you doing here?” Diego asked. The visitor extended his hand, helping Diego get back on his feet. It was the odd soulful attendee of the comedy show who presented himself as Joseph, but whose real name was...

“I saw you getting active.” Mukawa replied. “You stabbed the guy in the back and set him on fire, pretty sure he has turned to ash by now.”

“Yeah...I kinda remember doing that.” Diego said, scratching his head.

“Well, after that, your soul presence was very high.” Mukawa explained. “I’m talking too high. You did some kind of weird dance, shot a few fire arrows and lost consciousness.”

“Yeah, I did...” Diego said, now he sounded truly concerned. He quickly grabbed his box of mints and popped two of them into his mouth.

“Fuck... am I really losing it? Even with double the dose?”

“No, it had to have been the fight. It stimulated my brain or something, forcing me to go over the edge. I don’t even remember the details.”

“But it felt damn good...”

“You sure you can drink after taking those?” Mukawa asked, getting a cold can of beer out of his pocket and handing it to Diego.

“Why wouldn’t I? They’re just mints.” Diego said. “Good on you for bringing me some refreshments though. I guess I owe you a thanks, Mukawa. It’s a shame you don’t drink, would’ve loved to share some booze with ya.”

“Spread some good words about me in the GSC if you wanna be thankful.” Mukawa sighed. “Don’t want people thinking I’m inactive.”

“You’ve got some worse allegations there.” Diego chuckled.

“Then spread some even better words about me.” Mukawa sighed. “I’ll take my leave.”

“Catch ya later then.” Diego said, cracking the can open and walking away.

“What the hell was that guy doing here? Oh well, a beer is a beer. Beer can looks right out of the store, I doubt the drink is spiked...gonna have to get the bucket out once I’m back at HQ...”

After waiting for a while, Mukawa approached one of the piles of rubble. He quickly disassembled the small pyramid of concrete slabs he built to conceal what was beneath. Removing the larger slab revealed Sakuto’s body. It wasn’t conscious, there was blood pouring out of his wound paired with some nasty burn scars on his chest.

“I certainly hope you’re worth the investment, Sakuto Hitori.”

“With that scary presence of yours...”

“It would be a shame if you fell in the wrong hands.”

The end of Part 1