First Mission (2)

"Thanks, but no thanks. We'll find it on our own." I turn to look at Noah who is still searching for the artifact. "Tobi, help Noah search for it."

Tobi nods before teleporting over to Noah. With both of them searching for it we should be done soon. As long as nothing goes wrong. I glance at Aussie. He still seems mad, but this time his anger is not directed toward me, most likely he's angry at the person who gave them the Eyes of Deceit. I look away from him, making sure to pay attention to my surroundings. There's no way I'm allowing anything to go wrong now.

A few minutes later Noah shouts. "I found it!" I turn and see him raising a box over his head. I smile. First mission completed successfully.

"Can you fucking let us go now?" Aussie asks.

"Soon," I reply. I will send Noah and the rest ahead while I watch over these two, just to make sure they don't try anything funny. Once the rest are gone, then I will leave.

"Noah, watch out!" Bella's panicked voice rings out.

My heartbeat spikes as I turn to look at Noah. Two sounds ring out almost simultaneously. The first is the sound of something speeding toward Noah, while the second is clearly the sound of a gunshot.

With a burst of speed, Kane materializes in front of Noah, his arms crossed in front of him. Silently, a deformed bullet drops from where it had hit Kane's arm. Kane straightens, his eyes narrowed as he stares at Noah's assailant: a man wearing a very familiar-looking mask. The man I, along with Charlotte, had fought yesterday.

"You have thirty seconds to give a good explanation for what you just did," says Kane, his tone ice-cold. In response, the masked man lowers his gun but does nothing else. The two stand there, staring at each other.

Slowly, fear begins building in my heart. I have no idea why; even though the masked man is stronger than me I was still able to stand up to him, even if it was just for a little while. Kane and his entire team are here so we should be perfectly safe, so why am I feeling scared? A few seconds later I notice a near-silent high-pitched ringing in my ears, and remembering how the man had used sounds to make me sick yesterday, I suddenly feel a spark of enlightenment. Could the fear I am feeling be some sort of lowkey attack he's building up?

Feeling the need to warn Kane, I take a step forward, immediately drawing the masked man's attention to myself. "You!" A voice dripping with spite sounds out.

The man raises his gun and points it at me just as Kane finally makes a move and punches. Something almost transparent shoots out of his fist toward the masked man, who quickly reacts, turning his gun to Kane and shooting. His bullet cancels out Kane's attack.

The next moment, Kane flies at him. He didn't run, nor jump, he flew, as superheroes do in movies. The masked man hastily retreats to put some distance between them. A smart move. Since his main weapon is a gun, a long ranged weapon, it would be for the best for him to maintain the distance between himself and Kane.

Before he can get too far, however, a barrier appears suddenly, stopping his retreat. Behind the barrier, a boy, one of Kane's teammates, also appears, a wide smile on his face as he gives the masked man a wave. The barrier he had created was in the shape of a dome, trapping me, my team, Kane, and the masked man all within. The masked man turns back, just as Kane reaches him.

Landing, Kane plants his feet firmly on the ground before unleashing an unmistakably powerful punch, the wind whipping around his fist as it travels toward its target. With an effort, the masked man barely manages to dodge the punch, which then lands on the dome surrounding us, cracking it in the process.

Noah reaches my side, his gaze locked on the fight in front of us as he fiddles with the Eyes of Deceit. "How can we help Kane?"

"Are you fucking mad?" Aussie interjects, staring at Noah with a look that asks, 'Have you lost your mind?'

"Please, mind your language." Noah retorts.

"You understand, that those two are like fucking strong. Like they could take out everyone else here on their own. And you want to get involved? If you're looking for a quick way to heaven I can give you some recommendations, if not, then understand this, that punch that guy just did, could like kill the three of us here in one go. Look, do whatever you damn fucking want, just leave him out of this, I need him to maintain this barrier." Aussie nods at me before tapping on the Hilla's barrier I had used to trap him.

Tobi and Adelia join us and with everyone gathered I give my order. "We're not getting involved. Aussie's right, a fight of this level could kill us if we aren't careful. Let Kane take care of it."

"But wasn't your fight with the Majin more dangerous than this?" Asks Adelia.

"Yes. But then I had a Fas… my Familiar helping me. Without it, I'd have died at the start of the fight. We're staying out of this. If he thought we could handle it, Kane probably wouldn't have gotten involved in the first place."

The masked man moves backward as his gun begins firing at what should be an impossible rate for a normal handgun. Kane on the other hand tanks the bullets as though they are nothing, focusing fully on attacking the masked man. Seeing that the bullets aren't working, the man puts away his gun and opens his arms wide, making it look as though he is trying to hug Kane. For a moment I am confused, why would he leave himself wide open, then I remember our fight, but it is too late.

He brings his hands together, unleashing a sonic boom that knocks everyone unconscious for a brief moment. I recover quickly and it takes a second for the world to stop spinning and for my eyes to focus once more on the masked man. My eyes widen as I watch a spider-like Fasuru crawl out of the man. Shit, I think. I had forgotten about it.

Instead of facing Kane as I expected, the Fasuru turns to face us, its expressionless face somehow managing to profess its malevolent intent. It dashes at us but this time I am aware. I summon a barrier that covers me and my teammates, pouring as much power as I possibly could into it. At this point, the speedy spider has almost reached us. Sparing a glance at the recovering Kane, the masked man turns to look at me. He raises his gun and fires once, then turns around to face Kane once more.

The power of a bullet is mostly contained in its small tip, and just like in the Rankings, my barrier proves inadequate to stop something like that. It shatters my barrier, just as the spider reaches me. I steel my mind, prepared for the spider's assault, but it doesn't attack me, instead, it moves past me toward… Noah!

It reaches down and grabs the Eyes of Deceit from the still-unconscious Noah before sprinting away, faster than it had come. As it does so, it turns its head all the way back to look at me, then the three round protrusions on its head vibrate. I feel something invisible hit me and I am immediately brought to my knees as a mind-numbing pain fills me. My teeth begin to chatter, my body shakes, but worst of all I feel my bones begin to vibrate in a way that sends spikes of fear through me. I am unable to do anything to stop it.

I want to cry out, but I am no longer in control of my body as it twitches on the ground. The pain continues, growing stronger with each passing second and soon it begins to eat at my consciousness. My bones begin to ache, and I get a feeling that they are being strained to their limits.

Things begin to get fuzzy and from far away I begin to hear a female voice speak to me. "Ian, please I need you to listen carefully to me. Something… foreign has invaded your body and if we don't act fast, you're going to die. I need you to Focus your Uua, as much of it as you possibly can. At the same time, I need you to circulate it, using one of the Tryer Circulation techniques that you were taught. If you do this, your Uua can erode the thing affecting you, but you have to be quick or your body is going to fall apart. Ian, please, do it, and do it fast."

It takes supreme effort for me to Focus my Uua around myself, but the moment I do I sense it. The tremors wrecking my body have reduced, even if only slightly. Latching onto that small feeling of relief I begin to circulate my Uua. Slowly, but surely my body begins to still, and after what feels like an eternity everything stops.