Mysteries- 2

Winston passed right through the metallic walls, escaping from the rampaging brute behind him.

The metal behind him melted, and out came a raging maniac, swinging around a large black hook with one of his four arms.

"Stop runnin' ye thief!"

The air rippled from the heat as steam inside the pipes began to heat up more and more, expanding until it began to leak right out of them. The metal pathways began to turn into fluids, taking the form of molten metal.

Winston looked at all of this with a smile as he gauged the level of the ranker.

There was only one thing he could think.

Powerful. Strong. Overwhelmingly so.

The moment he got close without flame resistance, he would be burnt to a crisp. Not to mention the physical attacks and speed of the ranker.

The only reason he was alive still was due to flaming jump, paper figurine substitution and door opening. If not for these, he would have already been reduced to nothing but ash on the floor.

Winston's smile widened for some inexplicable reason, yet it could not be seen from under his mask.

The workers all around, that came in all shapes and sizes scrambled around as a blaring alarm started in the ambience. The entire ship flashed red, more than it had already been due to the fire.

Suddenly, Winston turned back, looking straight at the ranker. His eyes scanned the hook he held in his hands; it was by no means an ordinary weapon. His Marauder intuition told him that much. But more than that, the spirit world provided him with the information he needed. The hook wasn't an ignition weapon, but it was perfectly made to move through the higher desities of shinsu, like the one found on floor 100 and above.

And so, that was the reason. Winston wanted it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sound of three sonic booms echoed in succession as Winston used air bullet. The columns of air rushed through the giant wall of fire and rushed at the ranker, however, before they could reach him, the heat scrambled them around, making only a light breeze reach the ranker.

Without wasting any time, Winston's body was enveloped by flames.

The ranker clicked his tongue seeing the display.

"That again?!" He yelled and began to rush ahead, no doubt thinking that Winston would appear further away. However, suddenly, he froze. His eyes widened, sensing someone within a meter's distance from him.

Without hesitation, he swung behind him, aiming to take the head of anyone that dared to get close. However, the slightest expression of surprise he had expressed gave way to a momentary time gap.

That gap was all that was needed.

The ranker's hand grasped air. There was no one before him anymore.

He blinked, opening and closing his hand in succession and wondering whether he was I a dream.

However, Winston's voice interrupted his reverie.

"Looking for something?" Said the crooked voice.

The ranker turned back, looking at the intruder. And in his hand, he found a familiar hook.

"You!" The ranker spat out, the flames around him getting more restless.

"It ain't my fault you didn't have a good enough grip." Winston laughed, summoning his armed inventory and keeping the hook inside it.

The ranker wasn't one to stand around and do nothing.

The air trembled and heated up further. The metallic paths all around turned into vapours as a sea of flames appeared in the compartment Winston and the ranker were in.

And then...

Boooooommm!

Shaaaaa!

Whoooosh!

A gigantic hole was blown right through the ship, taking out the entire bottom portion of the mechanical floater alongside it.

Thousands of compartments fell down, some burning in the gigantic pyre that permeated the air.

Winston stared at the ensuing destruction as he walked out of the flames completely unscathed.

The clouds below disappeared as the flames overwhelmed them with heat, making way for the ship to be seen from below.

Winston's eyes then travelled upwards. But then, a vision overlapped with his senses.

It was himself, in a state of free fall. Then, a fist tore through his head before he could even react.

Winston's hair stood on edge. He tilted his head in mid air and balls of light appeared around him.

Whooosh!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The balls of light, baangs that numbered 11 all rushed straight at the ranker whose attack had been dodged. As one would think, the baangs dissolved into shinsu before they could scratch even a single cell on the ranker's body. On the contrary...

Winston who was still falling below the ranker crumbled down, appearing like a torn paper. And then, his body was suddenly ripped into shreds, scattering into bits that soon burst into flames.

The ranker raised an eyebrow. He looked up where a sole man stood atop a transparent disc of shinsu.

"Ye 'ave plenty of tricks up yer sleeve ae?" The ranker said.

Winston didn't say anything, only prepared himself for the next clash, for he could feel that the ranker was no longer playing around.

Winston's head turned clearer and his eyes turned focused. His spirit vision pierced through the thick fumes of fire around the ranker, taking in the shinsu flow around him.

There was only one phrase he could describe it as. Chaotic. There was no flow to it whatsoever, it was completely chaotic and disordered; meaning he was only depending on his intuition for dodging.

Hoooo~

He exhaled, and with that, the destruction started.

Winston immediately crumbled into bits of paper that soon caught on fire. Appearing some 100 meters away from his location, transparent wings, shaped like mechanical angel wings materialized behind him to keep him afloat.

"Ye can't even float properly! What balls do ya 'ave to raid a ship I protect!" The ranker yelled out and Winsfon again crumbled into paper as a wave of fire swept over him.

Appearing another hundred meter away, Winston looked back.

The ship was sailing in the opposite direction from them. However, that was not what Winston looked at.

Instead, it was a strange man, somewhat 7 feet in height that stood atop the ship and waved out to him.

His eyes shrunk down into needles as he took in the figure of the man. It was the same person that he had encountered in the test. And with his presence came a sudden realization.

The man atop the ship smiled at him, and in response, he narrowed his eyes, staring at him with open hostility.

This man was the reason he had been discovered by the ranker; his intuition told him so. Something was wrong with this man's presence here. And he was not one to wish to find out.

The moment Winston had an opportunity, he would kill that man.

Just as he thought that, his body was overtaken by flames, only this time, he completely dissolved in them and appeared again a hundred meters in the other direction.

As he did so, Winston rushed at the ranker with wild abandon.

The ranker, seeing his target charging at him smiled maliciously with a maniacal grin.

Winston snapped his fingers, utilizing flaming jump and flame control to gain temporary immunity to the fire. Then, taking out a silver sword, he began to duel the man in the sky.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Whooosh!

Shaaaaaa!

Explosions rang out in the air along with hundreds of sonic booms as blows rained from both sides. Winston's sword expressly cut through the flames and air alike, while the ranker, being bare handed matched Winston in terms of ferocity and speed, perhaps even surpassing him.

Winston had already taken note of the disadvantages he was at.

He could not truly express his full strength.

Diffusion Boundary would be blocked as the shinsu was too chaotic to gather in a stable layer around him. Any baangs he made would be ignited the moment they formed. And with how dangerous the flames were, Winston had to keep repeating flaming jump, slowly but surely slashing down his shinsu and spirituality reserves just with that.

There was little he could do to counter the ranker. Even with the sword, his attacks dealt little damage. The shinsu reinforcement of the ranker far outclassed his own, a fact that he saw through immediately. It was not even a matter of finesse or technique. It was simply a matter of volume. The amount of shinsu the ranker could utilize at once was more than 10 times his own, further putting him in a tough spot.

And so, despite all of this, why did he choose to rush at the ranker instead of retreating?

What was bubbling up inside that mind of his that he would take such a great risk?

Whooosh!

Fooorrrrrrrrrr!

Winston ducked under another punch from the ranker and snapped his fingers, disappearing in the fire that burned around them. The fire had already turned into a gigantic ocean above the clouds, making all the rain clouds disappear and leaving a singular sphere of red and orange hanging in the sky.

The ship had drifted off amid their clash; evidently, the workers did not wish to get caught up in the cross fire.

Winston crumbled down into paper as he accidentally took a hit right to the chest and appeared some distance away. He slashed at the ranker, an attack that was ignored and countered.

He vanished in a puff of fire again.

"Stop disappearing!" The ranker yelled in rage.

Just then, everything ceased.

"Hehe." A low chuckle permeated the sky, overwhelming the sound of the crackling flames all around and ringing directly in the ranker's ears.

He turned back, looking at the illusory figure of Winston that had appeared.

Then, the figure began to fade away into a blur, leaving behind nothing but a blob of shinsu that soon disappeared due to the fire.

There was silence for a moment. Nothing but stillness in the ranker's eyes as the fire calmed down and retreated back into his body.

Whoooosh!

Then, his body rushed out without wait, heading right towards the direction the ship had headed towards!

"Hehehe.." another low chuckle sounded in his ears, making his eyes turn a shade of crimson red.

~~~

A/N: Gasp!

Here's another chapter.

Throw some stones plz. Need more popularity.

Also, I saw some criticism about the exposition, so I've decided to fix some of it. Sadly, I've already written like 10 more chapters in advance so that's that. But I tried to edit the chapter to make it not seem as repetitive anymore. Do keep the criticism coming. It helps me improve my writing which is the main reason I do this and comments in general keep me motivated. Cheers.