66 Planet

Immediately, Riku pulled out his knife toward the direction of the projectile. Likewise, Shizu stood up tense and ready, her cards already tucked away in between her fingers as they faced... empty space.

That.. shouldn't be possible?

"Nyx?" he quickly called out to the goddess as his eyes strained at the dark expanse of space in front of him. "Is a Champion near?"

"N-Not that I know of?" she confusedly replied. "W-Wait... There is!"

*WOOSH WOOSH*

Before Riku could even ask for more, two more lasers suddenly shot at them from seemingly nowhere. His speed quickly kicking in, the former assassin used his knife to deflect the blue projectile aimed at him. Meanwhile, Shizu simply ducked into the side of the boat as horror dawned on her face.

"What was that?" she asked aloud, her chest heaving as she did her best to get a hold of herself. "Where did that even come from?"

"Get a hold of yourself, Shizu," he hissed at her. "I need you to throw out a few cards at the given direction."

"Huh? We can't even see whoever this is," Shizu whined. "How am I supposed to-"

"Just throw them at the general direction I tell you to," he insisted. "Now, get ready."

By the sidelines, Nyx simply stood back as she did what she usually did whenever they were in battle and simply snacked on the nearest food available to her. In this case, she used her godly powers to salvage the octopus balls she spotted laying helplessly on the deck of the boat. Riku didn't mind seeing people eat food off the floor, but he supposed that Nyx did remake the plate and placed the balls back on their proper place, so that counted for something.

*WOOSH*

Riku blinked as he picked up the sound of another laser aimed straight at him. Using his knife to block, his eyes widened as he felt the force of the blow much more prominently than the last time he tried to block it. Also, unlike the last attack, it didn't feel like he merely deflected light. In fact, his knifed pinged against the projectile, proving that the attack had much more mass than compared to last time.

'They're watching then,' he surmrised. 'Whoever this is, they knew that I could deflect actual lasers and just switched to actual projectiles.'

He didn't know what it was that was thrown at him, but he at least knew that it was deadly if it ever hit them. It also glowed brightly for some reason. Almost looking like the stars that dotted the current world around them. Still, he needed more information.

'Can you tell me about who this might be, Nyx?'

'Not until you see them in person, my Champion,' Nyx stated. 'I'm sorry.'

Riku clicked his tongue. He would've thought that being actively attacked by said Champion would be enough for the rules to allow Nyx to tell them who it was, but apparently, it wasn't. He could always just coax her to break the rules again, but he really didn't want to push his goddess's luck with her constant rule-breaking anymore now that he knew that it had consequences. No, he had to do it the old fashioned way then.

"Shizu, throw a card at four o'clock."

"W-What?" his fellow Champion asked in confusion. "What does that even-"

"Think of the ship as a giant clock and throw at the direction of the number I tell you," he quickly told her, his senses working overtime as he estimated where the attack could've come from. "Again, five o'clock."

Shizu blinked for a brief second before her resolve finally shone through. Peeking her head out of the boat's side, she deftly threw a random card at his specified location. Predictably, it hit nothing, something that Riku already took into account with how much time had already passed since the last attack.

"I didn't hit anything..." Shizu pouted.

"Then we keep trying," he told her. "We can't just-"

*WHOOSH WHOOSH*

Two more projectiles came right at them from the starboard side. Quickly, Shizu ducked as the projectile aimed for her embedded itself onto the side of the ship. Meanwhile, Riku raised his knife and cut through the ball of rock that threatened to cave his head in. Looking back, it almost looked like a ball of solid iron, and its insides glowed for some reason... Like a miniature planet, almost.

Still, such information didn't matter if they couldn't pinpoint where such attacks were coming from in the first place.

"Two o'clock, Shizu."

With his instruction, the fortune teller peeked out of her cover once more, her cards sailing right through the air to his specified direction. For a brief second, nothing happened, but then...

"Was that... a splash of water?"

Riku smacked his lips as he witnessed the cards seemingly disappear into the ether with splash of water. It almost looked like it got absorbed by some kind of sphere with nothing but a faint sound of its disappearance being the only sign of its former existence.

"It's a barrier," he clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Whoever this is, they're blending into the sea."

*WOOSH WOOSH!*

Yet again, two more projectiles began flying toward their location. Riku and Shizu were ready to block and duck respectively, but unlike last time, the two projectiles suddenly swerved downward toward the boat itself, their impacts making a huge splash right in front of their faces as the boat shook and shuddered at the attack.

"Woah there! We're going to take on water at this rate," Nyx exclaimed despite looking unworried whatsoever about their current predicament. "I can patch it up, but it won't be quick."

Riku simply nodded while Shizu quickly threw another set of cards at the direction of where the attacks came from. Like last time, however, the cards only seemingly disappeared into a wall of water, never to be seen again if they even hit their target. However...

"[Fate's Edict! The Sun: Inverse Position!]"