Chapter 6: Arrival

  I was certaiacker had struck from behind. Their approach had been calcuted, entirely separate from the two newers we had already noticed. The ck of coordinatioween them firmed that they weren’t allies. As my head reattached itself, I attempted to activate the metallic body ability, but nothing happened. So stolen powers are oime use only. That left me with my body and senses enha ability, which I had wisely kept active, along with my inal power.

  The group behind me was in shoo one had seeacker. Invisible? I shifted my focus from sight to sound, straining to catch even the fai noise. Footsteps—soft and calcuted—circled me, growing louder with every passing sed.

  Suddenly, Benjiro pointed into the seemingly empty spad shouted, “There! Someohere!”

  Got you. L my ter of gravity, I dashed toward the sound. My fist collided with something solid, sending the figure hurtling into a nearby rock. Their invisibility flickered and faded, revealing a hooded woman clutg a massive ax.

  Closing the distance, I grabbed her throat and lifted her off the ground. “Invisibility, huh? A clever power, but an assassin should use lighter ons and move quietly.” My grip tightened as I added, “Uhat’s your curse.”

  She struggled but didn’t respond. Just as I was about to pull back her hood to see her face, a massive boulder came hurtling toward us. I released her a back, avoiding the impact as the ground quaked beh us.

  When the dust settled, two figures stood before us. The first was a t mass of muscle, a living mountain. The sed was a much younger man, calm and unnervingly posed.

  “Not bad,” the teenager said, his voice cold and analytical. “Are you the leader here?”

  The rger man interrupted with a booming ugh. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll crush you all like the others. We’re from the Lion Cub anization. Join us, or die.”

  I met their gazes with a smirk. “Why would I follow someone weaker than me?”

  The giant scowled, his face twisting in rage. “You always make it hard.” His body began to expand grotesquely, muscles swelling until he loomed 120 meters tall. He grabbed a boulder the size of a house and hurled it toward us.

  I unched myself into the air, meeting the projectile mid-flight. With a single punch, I shattered it into debris. ""Being big is impressive, but size alo just makes you an easier target. True strength is knowing where to strike and when."" I taunted, flying toward his head. Spinning midair, I delivered a powerful kick to the side of his skull, sending tremors through the earth.

  Before I could follow up, Akira darted past me, his wings spread wide and his body augmented with goril-like strength. His punch to the giant’s chest created a shockwave that forced the massive foe to colpse slowly, his colossal frame leaning forward but not yet hitting the ground, his massive hand swinging out in a desperate terattabsp;

  “How did you do that?” I asked, momentarily stunned.

  “bination of animal traits,” Akira replied simply, his focus unbroken.

  The fight wasn’t over. As the giant fell, his massive form began to shrink slightly, reverting slowly to a smaller but still imposing size. Using the momentum of his colpse, he swung a massive hand toward us. I hesitated, relut to reveal more of my own ability, but the situatio me no choice. Activating my ghost-like power, my body turned intangible, and his attack passed through me harmlessly. Akira, however, wasn’t as fortunate. He transformed into a turtle, his shell abs the brunt of the hit, but the impact drove him deep into the ground. From a distance, I spotted him reverting to his tree form to recover, his injuries severe but not life-threatening.

  The teenager appeared in front of me, his expression cold, his eyes tightly shut. “The power of a ghost,” he muttered, his tone more curious than impressed. With his eyes still closed, he pced his hands on the ground, creating a bck portal before disappearing. Seds ter, he reemerged behind me, his eyes remaining closed as his voice cut through the tension. “Bckhole: Instaru.”

  Expeg his attack to pass through me as before, I activated my ghost form, fident it would render me intangible. But this time, the effect failed. His power ected, and my surroundings shifted violently as I ulled through a bck void.

  The vast emptiness of spaveloped me, the infinite cold and silence pressing in. My surroundings firmed it—he had teleported me into space to kill me. Below, the p shimmered like a distant jewel, its beauty stark against the void. Teleportation. Clever, but not clever enough. In my ghost-like form, I didn’t need oxygen, and the freezing temperatures couldn’t touch me. Survival wasn’t a , but I had no time to marvel at the view.

  Around 500 kilometers? Let’s see how fast I return. I willed my body forward, streaking toward the p’s surface like a et, the atmosphere igniting around me as I desded.

  Taki

  The battle began with a fsh of movement. The woman lu him, her body a blur of agility and precision, her heightened senses guiding her every a. He closed his eyes and flung a bck hole in her dire, but she twisted mid-air, defying gravity as if she could feel the movement of the air itself. Her enhanced perception allowed her to anticipate his moves, disappearing from his sight and reappearing behind him. As her strike neared, he smirked, his eyes still shut.

  "I knew you'd try that," he murmured. A baterialized behind him, f her to vanish again. This time, she reappeared in front of him, her fist colliding with his face before he could react. The impact sent him hurtling into a massive boulder, leaving a deep cra the stone.

  For a moment, my eyes stayed fixed on the young man sprawled against the rock, blood dripping from his face. Then I noticed something else—the woman’s right hand was gone, vanished into nothingness.

  The young man staggered to his feet, fury etched across his battered face. "Bckhole: HumanX," he snarled, his voice trembling with both pain and power. Turning toward his ally, he barked, "Hey! Stop pretending to be dead a up! I need your help!"

  From the ground, a gruff voice groaned, "I hate this job, man." The massive, muscur figure slowly rose, t over both batants as his form swelled to five times its inal size.

  Uerred by the loss of her arm, the rioward the young man, her remaining hand ched iermination, her heightened reflexes giving her an edge. But the t giant stepped in her path, his enormous fists swinging with devastating force. She dodged his strikes with incredible precision, leaping high into the air before delivering a bone-shattering punch to his face. The giant staggered back, crashing into the earth, struggling to rise.

  But then it happened again. Her remaining hand disappeared, just as before.

  "Why do you think I teamed up with him?" the young man taunted, his voice cold. "With HumanX, anything that directly touches me—or those under my influence—is effectively removed from the fight, rendered unreachable and powerless. With his colossal strength, we could wipe out entire worlds."

  The woman stood before them, trembling from blood loss but refusing to falter. He approached her, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her effortlessly into the air. "Don’t be scared," he sneered. "Even though you’ll start as sves, you might get promoted. And as far as I know, beautiful wome promoted faster than others." His grip tightened, mog her resistanbsp;

  As he prepared to end her life, the grouh them trembled violently. A deafening roar shattered the air, and the earth exploded. Emerging from the chaos was Akira, his form monstrous yet majestic—a humanoid white tiger with eyes bzing with fury. His roar sent shivers down my spine as he locked his gaze on the young man and his giant ally.

  The giant was still struggling to rise when Akira charged toward him, seemingly aiming to deliver a finishing blow. But the young man tightened his grip on the woman’s neck, shouting, "Don’t move, or I’ll kill her!"

  Akira hesitated just long enough to bait the young man. Shifting his focus from the woman to his fallen ally, the young man closed his eyes and began summoning a bck hole beh his feet to teleport toward the giant. That was the opening Akira needed.

  With blinding speed, Akira abandoned his charge on the giant and redirected himself toward the young man, whose eyes remaiightly shut as he initiated his escape. Before the teleportation could plete, Akira struck, his razor-sharp cws sshing across the young man’s side. The impact threw the young man out of his portal, leaving him sprawled on the ground, writhing in pain.

  The giant, regaining much of his strength, attempted a sneak atta Akira. His massive fists swung with relentless force, but Akira dodged them effortlessly, not even b to look back. Frustrated, the giant grew rger still, his colossal body t like a mountain as he tried to crush Akira under his weight. Yet every attempt failed. Akira’s focus remained unwavering as he advaoward the fallen young man.

  The young man, his face pale with desperation, hurled bck holes at Akira in a st-ditch effort. But Akira dodged eae, drawing ever closer. Raising his cwed hand for the final strike, Akira’s movements began to slow. Roots sprouted from his body, entwining around him until he froze mid-strike, transf into a t tree.

  The battlefield fell silent. The young man, gasping in terror, began to rex—only to be caught off guard by a sudden kick to his face. The woman, missing both her hands, had managed a desperate, ued attack with her foot. She could barely stand, her legs shaking uhe strain, but a defiant grin pyed on her bloodied lips. "Wele back, Cap..." she muttered weakly, colpsing immediately after.

  All eyes turned skyward. A figure floated effortlessly above us, his presenanding and sere was Ray, unharmed and us from above.

  "Eight minutes and a half," he mused aloud. "Not bad. Tell me, what’s your name, woman?"

  Through bored breaths, she replied, "Maki. Zeying Maki."