11: Hideout

Seng had used every mobility trick he had on that tour; tight turns, broken roads, little shortcuts, trails through which there is almost no option but to crawl. Carrying Echsos was not a problem, no more than the incredible insistence of that girl to follow them, even if she took great detours.

A small chill ran down her shoulder as he heard Natsume's frantic footsteps towards them. They were about to reach the cliff.

"You have no way out!" she exclaimed from behind when she saw the dead end.

"I don't remember asking you!" Seng turned, only a few steps to go to the fifty-plus-meter drop that would kill any ordinary person. He didn't stop any of his momentum, instead, what he did was make it clear with his face that what he was going to carry out was his plan from the beginning.

He took a couple of backward jumps — testing the remaining distance — when he thought he was in the right spot he used both legs to propel himself into the sunset with such force that Echsos turned his stomach for the fifth time in a row.

Echsos fully understood Seng's plan, yet these extremist methods did not give him security.

"See you with the Brat" he murmured in the air and Natsume heard clearly no matter the good distance between them. "Tortoise."

"Wait!"

Seng and Ehcsos fell into the void leaving Natsume's range of vision. She ran like a mother who sees her son on the brink of an abyss, hoping to see how Seng managed to get them out of that stupidity unscathed.

Natsume liked the paranoid sight, but that was not enough for her to suppress the frustration she felt at not being able to locate them with her eyes. He let out a powerful sigh that released a silvery cloud of that mysterious air that came from her mouth. She scratched her head wondering what she should do.

The option to go back to the painted-haired girl and use her as a guide was present… and the shadow boy is supposed to have no apparent plans to hurt Echsos.

Nevertheless…

"I have to try" she muttered and proceeded to insert her hand into the silver cloud before it dispersed.

———————————————————————————————————

Layd watched from above the hole as Airys squirmed as she applied her energies to avoid looking sore or weak. Layd scratched his head and ducked in strange discomfort from what he saw.

"Are you okay?"

"S-sure," Airys screeched. "W-when I get out of here you will how good I am."

"Hey hey," he sighed "keep in mind I don't really want to hurt you. I only did this because it was a… aggressive situation?"

The plan was that he would use his powers while hiding a hundred meters from them to create two holes. With his resonance it was easy to do that as long as the enemy didn't move. After finishing the holes, he would give the signal by pushing the soles of Natsume's feet so that she would move for Echsos.

However, Layd had a nagging question: How did this guy keep himself from falling? When he undid the surface layer he stopped feeling the presence of him in contact with the floor as well as with the girl who was lying in the hollow in front of him; but instead of being able to go with Echsos, Natsume went out to chase the young man who suddenly came into contact with the ground around the hole.

"Could he have jumped?" He meditated for an answer with the only idea that was not a big deal either, jumping was one of those actions that he was also able to perceive clearly. "That guy is dangerous"

"Come on girl, I'm going to help you out so take me to Echsos."

He felt a strange concern. That guy was definitely someone who might be able to face Natsume and he was barely able to determine their last location before they went out of his effective range — which only reduced the possibilities of infinity to half infinity, according to him—. Such a mess.

"What makes you think I'll help you?" Airys finally got up and realized that the gap was almost three times her height.

"Come on, it's obvious you can't get out of there alone and your partner yelled that at the top of his lungs for us to use you as a guide."

Airys was frustrated by those words.

"Of course I can get out of here" she said to herself and she saw her sword nailed high determined to leap up and reach for it.

It was a real shame that just as she was about to make her first attempt the sword tasted across the ground as if it were being dragged right into Layd's hands.

"Why did you let go of the sword when you fell?" Layd held the sword in his hands to appreciate it. Airys didn't notice it from her angle of vision, but Layd's feet were buried in the dirt at the edge of the gap.

Airys flushed with embarrassment and her eyes filled with tears. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she be her like that clever idiot and figure out the abilities of her adversary? Was it really her destiny to lose before she even started fighting?

"I-it was… It was a bad reflection right?!" she squealed, clenching her fists.

"Do you need help?"

"Y-yes..." she said sniffing as if she was about to give in to the urge to cry.

Sure... if that boy wanted to kill her in that instant, no, he could also create some stakes or something of her with her resonance and forget about her from the beginning. Probably, for sure, Seng with his listening skills found out about those holes... and so he arbitrarily decided not to tell her and use her shadow as a floor.

"Just stay there for a second." Layd dug up his feet and stepped away from the hole.

After all, that girl was too emotional to let her get out of there with him at the range of a punch or something.

———————————————————————————————————

When Seng dropped down he made sure to use his sound manipulation so that Echsos' screams wouldn't be directed at Natsume's ears. He then performed his favorite maneuver:

Two meters down there was a cave under that cliff —a cave that he had discovered in his childhood days while he practiced much more dangerous things by the orders of his guardians — that he happened to see directly into the sun when it began to set. It was about five meters wide that became about one meter when advancing and had a height between two and almost three meters depending on the place.

That's why it was his favorite place.

His shadow reached the entrance of it and all he had to do was wait until he was in range to solidify it and create an extra space of ground in which to fall and then walk super relaxed to the cave as if it were something routine.

Echsos let go as far as Seng could. He writhed on the ground resisting the intense urge to vomit, he had never been on a trip as hectic as that; a little bit more and he lost his mind.

"I guess you already know, but if you want to talk I'll use my ability" Seng took a rag that he had on a rock on the wall to wipe the sweat from his face.

"S-seriously… how can you bear those movements?"

"Habit."

Echsos leaned against the wall. The place showed that it had been modified by Seng. The walls and the floor were smoothed, there were small rocks on the walls that acted as ledges, it was noticeable that a little further down he had prepared a place for a fire and maybe he even had a kind of fireplace or something. What struck him the most was the small amount of insects that he had walking around with so many fruits in one corner.

"The Brat will most likely come in a couple of hours with those two" Seng commented.

"Why didn't you tell Airys about the foot trap when you heard the noise?"

"Oh I see you find out."

"I can read your soul" he clarified again.

"Well you see, I… /"

Seng fell silent as he received the noise that was not expected at all directly to his ear.

Natsume was heading downhill. Her gaze met Seng's silver eyes and she immediately returned a grimace of superiority for having noticed.

"It doesn't matter; she's going to die" Seng thought when he saw her so far from the entrance of the cave.

Natsume did not hesitate to stretch her right arm in the opposite direction; the one that brought the silver air around, and as she did so, a gust of wind arose from there, pushing her enough so that she was able to do a somersault and she fell standing a meter inside it.

"I said I was coming for you," she stomped the ground with the toe of her shoe. "Echsos."

"Natsume please listen to me!"

"Shu upt!" yelled like a frustrated older sister "We've been in this mountain range for days just because you wanted to leave! And what do you do when we find you?!" she rebuked her with such force that she became her mother.

"B-but…"

"I said hush!" She pointed her hand at him. "It's the second time brat!"

Seng enjoyed the show with one hand on her mouth —mostly so as not to explode and interrupt— she was a funny girl.

"Now!" Natsume thought as she sensed Seng's low guard.

The silver air that she had accumulated under her feet exploded causing her to be thrown up to the wall to Seng's left, she bounced with subtlety using another of those accumulations of air to finish surrounding the aforementioned and thus reach Echsos.

Seng's quiet laugh continued.

"What an idiot."

Seng's shadow grew behind it until it assimilated a wall that covered the obvious only exit.

"Is this really your plan?! Give me the best position to use my shadow?!"

Natsume had Echsos in her arms. Tremendous mistake. She couldn't see anything, everything was dark. Of course someone with such a resonance would benefit from sunlight, why the heck didn't she guess?

Seng's effective range of shadow varies from one to five feet depending on the intensity of the light he receives, however, he is able to extend his shadow beyond that distance in exchange for it being only visual. that it would not resist a baby's grasp; just like the edges of that wall.

Natsume started kicking and punching to the center. Good thing Seng was going to carry out the second and necessary part of his plan.

"P-please stop!" Echsos implored, taking his stepsister by the arm.

She fought a minute to free herself.

"Let's get out of here" she said as she threw Echsos to the ground.

She positioned herself and released more of that silver air.

"What are you doing?" Seng released his best casual gaze through what was now a wall of ice instead of shadow. "Go ahead, I wait on this side."

"Sister," Echsos drew her attention with a soft, sincere tone. "Trust me."

"I don't have time for this Echsos" she returned a worried face. "I'm running out of time" she muttered to him in vain because Seng listened anyway.

"Trust," Echsos mused.

Natsume clicked his tongue and sat up.

"Good choice," Seng tapped the thin wall of glass-like ice and smashed a huge block out of it. Nor did he have time to build a sturdy wall of that size. "Let's wait for those two." he leaned against the wall.