140 The Ones Behind The Masks

"So you're the ones causing the chaos and destruction outside?" Jason asks as his grip tightens on the spike in his hand, "Why? Why did you kill my friends?!"

Lunging forward, Jason slashes the spike towards one of the laughing masked men, but the man simply knocks the spike away with the side of his hand. Before Jason can attack again, Sydra grabs the back of his shirt and pulls him back.

"Why are you stopping me?" Jason shouts, "They are the reason countless people are dying, including Tio and Tina!"

"I stopped you because you're not thinking straight right now, and it is going to get you killed," Sydra says, pointing towards the spot Jason had just been standing, where there was now a large gash in the ground.

When Jason had gone in to attack a second time, Sydra had seen the other masked man flick his fingers, and a thin blade of sand had swept towards Jason's legs. The gash it had created on the ground was several inches deep, which meant that if it had hit Jason's legs, it would have sliced straight through them.

"I'm actually surprised you managed to catch that, Sydra," The masked man that had released the sand blade said, "I'll give you one chance to join us as we take over this kingdom, and all you have to do is kill Jason to prove your loyalty,"

"Sorry, but I don't think we would work well together," Sydra says, "Taking over the world isn't really my thing,"

Lunging into the room, Sydra thrusts the yellow spike towards the masked man on his left, forcing him to dodge back. Following the man further into the room, Sydra continues to attack with the yellow spike, while also dodging sand attacks coming back from the man.

Behind him, Jason has also begun attacking, keeping the other masked man preoccupied so he doesn't attack Sydra. As Jason slashes the yellow spike through the air, the masked man steps to the side while covering his arm in a layer of stone.

"You think those pitiful spikes will be able to hurt us?" The masked man asks, fending off several attacks in quick succession before swinging out his other hand, which is holding several knives. Tossing the knives into the air, the masked man jumps up and covers both his fist with stone, before punching the ends of each of the knives, causing them to fire out like bullets.

Seeing the knives flying towards him, Jason increases the amount of lightning aura flowing through his body and flashes backward. However, the knives change directions to follow him, forcing Jason to try and block them with the yellow spike.

'I'm not going to be able to block them all!' Jason thinks as his eyes dart between the incoming knives. Holding the yellow spike in front of him, he blocks the two daggers that are heading towards his vital spots but is unable to stop the rest.

On the other side of the room, Sydra hears several thumping sounds coming from behind him. Worried, he glances back to see Jason staggering back with several knives in his arms and legs, but still managing to keep a hold of his weapon as he goes back in for another attack.

"Where do you think you're looking," The masked man asks, sending out several thin arcs of sand, "I guess I'm not using enough of my power if you still have time to look away,"

The masked man increases the speed at which he is throwing out sand blades, forcing Sydra to dive through the air if he wishes to dodge them. However, when Sydra lands back on the ground, his feet sink into the ground which is now made from sand.

"Try escaping from this," The masked man says, laughing as Sydra is covered up to his waist in the sand, sinking even faster every time he tries to pull himself out of it. When the sand reaches his chest, it begins to harden, making it even more difficult for Sydra to escape. However, that is when Sydra notices that his aura is able to leave his body again.

'This sand... it's removing the slime from my body,' Sydra thinks, an idea forming in his mind as he starts to wiggle even faster. With even the slightest movement causing Sydra to sink, he quickly disappears under the sand.

"Did he go crazy?" The masked man wonders, staring at the sand in disbelief. Frowning, he walks over to the sand and places his hand on it, sensing for any movements from below, "That's odd, I can't even feel a..."

The man sentence is cut off when a hand tears out of the sand, covered in a layer of lightning. The hand grabs onto the masked man's throat, squeezing it tightly while draining his life force at the same time. Trying to break free of it, the masked man sends several blades of sand towards the arm, but all the damage it causes is quickly reversed by Sydra's regeneration aura.

"Brother! Help!" The masked man shouts, but his words come out garbled as his windpipe is being crushed. Figuring this out, the masked man stops attacking Sydra's arm and instead focuses his attention on the sand trapping Sydra, digging both of his hands into it. As the masked man directs his aura into the sand it starts to move, swirling around in the shape of a vortex.

'What is he doing now?' Sydra wonders, feeling the sand spin around his body. As the sand's speed increases, Sydra begins to feel it dig into his skin, leaving particles of sand inside his body so he can't regenerate, 'If this keeps up, I might actually die,'

Sydra increases his grip on the masked man's throat while directing his lightning aura to his feet. With two bright balls of lightning forming under his feet, Sydra releases light bursts of lightning to propel himself out of the ground. He does this slowly to make sure his grip doesn't loosen on the man's throat, which could possibly allow him to escape.

...

'Where did Sydra go?' Jason wonders as he tosses his now broken spike to the ground. Currently, both Jason and the masked man had some injuries, with Jason unable to use one of his arms while the masked man bled out from a gaping wound in his stomach.

After ripping out the knives earlier, Jason had managed to stab the masked man, but his arm had been crushed by a stone pole that emerged from the ground. The rest of the fight had been both Jason and the masked man dodging each other's attacks, up until the point that Jason's yellow spike was broken while he was blocking several stone pillars at once.

"Without your weapon, how will you block my attacks?" The masked man asks, raising one of his hands into the air while the other one holds the wound on his stomach. As the masked man slams his hand into the ground, Jason prepares for whatever the man is planning.

However, before anything happens, the masked man that had been fighting Sydra is thrown across the room and slams into the masked man fighting Jason, sending them both flying into one of the walls.

"Are you okay?" Sydra asks, his body crackling with amber lightning as he lands on the ground next to Jason. Seeing that Jason has only suffered some light wounds and a broken arm, Sydra nods before looking back towards the two masked men picking themselves up from the ground, "I now know who we are fighting,"

"You mean you know who is behind the mask?" Jason asks, glancing at the two men as they stand up, the one on the left having its masked cracked down the middle.

Raising a finger, Sydra releases a light bolt of lightning towards the cracked mask, causing it to break the rest of the way and reveal the person beneath it. Seeing the face beneath the mask, Jason stumbles back in shock, unable to believe what he is seeing.

"Professor Curtis? Why are you..." Jason trails off as the other masked man removes his mask, revealing him to be Captain Zeis. The two of them are pale, seeming to have exhausted most of their strength during their fight.

"If it hadn't been for us already using most of our aura to awaken this beast, the two of you would have died immediately!" Captain Zeis says, glaring at both Sydra and Jason, "But that doesn't matter anymore, because there is no way you're escaping this place,"

Captain Zeis releases a massive blast of aura into the air, sending it into the Stone Golems, which begin to move. Using this opportunity, Professor Curtis and Captain Zeis run towards the archway while the Stone Golems surround Sydra and Jason.

Stopping right before the archway, Captain Zeis looks back at Sydra, "You were a very impressive student for the short time I had you, so I'll tell you this, the Sky vipers are not willing to let you continue to grow. If you manage to survive this, then you should know that they will start sending more people after you, people stronger than I am,"