POV: Aria Akari
In a panic, my breathing quickened as unnecessary doubts clouded my mind from being unable to do anything to save Rai, who was on the verge of death as his organs were failing due to them being ruptured during his fight against Wrath.
"How could this have happened?! I thought Rai was winning against Wrath, so how is it that he's unconscious now?!" Everett questioned nervously as Arthur crouched down beside me and checked on Rai's pulse.
"You're wrong. It may have appeared like Rai was winning with ease, but gravity is one of the few elements that can cause severe internal damage through the natural application of pairing it with an attack and not only was Wrath able to land several gravity empowered attacks, he was also able to land multiple fatal attacks on Rai, who somehow endured one of them without natural defenses of his own Aspect. It's a miracle that he's even alive right now, but if we don't get him to a hospital soon, he'll die." Arthur explained grimly as Sarah approached us and activated her Aspect, releasing her Aspectual Force naturally as he crouched down beside Arthur and placed her hand onto Rai's chest.
"I'm nowhere near reaching my Exhaust Limit, so I can at least stop the internal bleeding of his organs in order for us to have more time in reaching the closest hospital as I don't have the means to save his life unfortunately." Sarah voiced in a solemn manner, but amidst healing Rai to the best of her ability, her eyes fell upon the cliff we descended from as her expression grew pale.
"Sarah-"
"ARTHUR!" Sarah screamed out, horrified as our attention was directed towards Pride, who leapt from the cliff towards us as we were unable to sense his presence due to him concealing his Aspectual Force.
Pride?!
Caught off guard by his unexpected arrival, his sudden appearance ingrained fear into all of our senses with the sole exception of Arthur, who seemed to have expected this as he activated his Aspect just in time for him to clash his bare fist against Pride's gauntlet, creating a shockwave from the sheer power of their fists colliding as the earth beneath us was unable to withstand Arthur using it as his own personal cushion, shattering into many pieces as everyone witnessing their clash lost their balance from the drastic shift of the terrain.
Could it have been that he was waiting for Rai to fall unconscious?!
"I knew you were waiting for this, you coward." Arthur asserted with a derisive grin, rousing a scowl from Pride as Arthur shoved him away and tried to unsheathe his sword, but despite Arthur's extraordinary instincts, Pride's intuition prevailed as upon landing landing in the riverbed, he propelled himself forward with a forceful step, preventing Arthur from fully unsheathing his sword by placing the palm of his hand onto Arthur's bent elbow, forcing him into an exchange of hand-to-hand combat as Arthur came out victorious by sending Pride away with a spinning back kick.
"One of you grab Rai and get as far away from here as you can! His objective isn't to kill either of us, but Rai alone!" Arthur ordered with a shout, encouraging Sarah to place Rai on her back due to being the only one having the strength to carry him as we immediately followed a rough outline of the river with a sprint, using the outer edge of the forest to conceal ourselves upon leaving Arthur behind as we fully entrusted him to handle Pride.
There's no need to worry, Aria.
If it's Arthur…
Then there's no way he'll lose to somebody like Pride.
POV: Pride
"Have you ever thought about changing your name from Pride to Cowardice? I think it would suit scum such as yourself quite well." Arthur mocked with a widening grin, but despite the unfavorable condition of his body, he had every right to mock me as even with his current state, there wasn't a chance I could defeat him without risking my life.
I'm aware that I'm a coward for my actions as I even went against Wrath's final wishes, but none of that matters as I refuse to let that boy escape after what he did to him, let alone I can't let any of them escape without them experiencing a loss!
Arthur is too strong for me to handle, but there is a way I can escape from him and gain enough time for me to have the opportunity to kill the boy.
"You speak nonsense because you're stalling for time in order to recover your energy. Instead of babbling with that mouth of yours, how about you come and show me why I should change my name, you utter freak." I retorted as Arthur began laughing until he faced towards me with a sudden, yet silent frown.
"It'll be my pleasure." Arthur replied as in the moment he tried to unsheath his sword, I used my Aspect, which was a Normal-Type Aspect that specialized in speed as I then maximized every muscle residing within my legs to increase the output of my speed tremendously, destroying the muscles within my legs as amidst appearing before Arthur, I used Aspectual Restoration to restore my damaged legs as I prevented him from unsheathing his sword once more with the palm of my hand, inspiring an utterance of annoyance from him.
I can't let him unsheathe that sword at any cost as the moment he does, it will be the end for me.
Forcing him into an exchange of hand-to-hand combat, I allowed for him to take control over the exchange as in the moment his back was facing towards the mountainous wall of the cliff they once descended from, I upped the tempo of the speed within my attacks as I parried his arm away, disrupting his balance as with every fiber of my being, I smashed my fist into his abdomen, destroying my right arm completely at the cost of sending him crashing into the wall of the cliff, burying him beneath tons worth of rubble which granted me the one opportunity I desperately sought.
Amidst taking some time to heal my mangled arm through Aspectual Restoration, I immediately sought after the group of teenagers who carried the boy as I even destroyed my legs simultaneously in order to maximize my speed, despite expending an enormous amount of energy through Aspectual Restoration as nothing else matter other than killing that boy.
At any cost…
Within the minute, I soon caught sight of them as their movement began to falter from the mere sight of my existence, causing the girl who carried the boy to slip on the mossy carpet of the forest, causing her to stumble with the boy down a steep hill that resided beside a waterfall of the river.
I'll kill that boy!
As I approached them from descending down the hill, Aria and the weakling of the group tried to protect the girl and the boy, but there was a fatal flaw in their protection and it was none other than the weakling, who I immediately targeted first as I slugged him with a gut-wrenching uppercut into his abdomen, sending him flying until he landed against a nearby tree, gasping for air with saliva trickling down the corners of his mouths.
"EVERETT!" Aria cried out as she rushed towards me with a spinning high kick aimed for my head, but unlike the boy who could stand on par with me without even using his Aspect, Aria was pale in comparison as I effortlessly slipped under her leg amidst grabbing her ankle and using my momentum to spin my body, I hurled her into a large boulder residing beside the river as she crashed into her with her back, creating a human-sized cavity upon struggling to gather her breath from the impact.
With only the clumsy, frightened girl who I had nearly killed earlier remaining, I approached her and the boy as she remained firm in front of him, protecting his body with her own as her enervated stance conveyed to me that I would have to get through her in order to kill the boy, prompting me to strike her face with a strong backhand, sending her to the side as clenched my fist tightly, coating it with my own aura as with the scream of Aria calling out the boy's name, I attempted to end the boy's life by impaling my fist through his chest.
Though, my fist would never make contact with the boy as my arm would be restrained by an invisible force of wind, preventing me from even budging an inch further towards the boy, despite using every ounce of my remaining strength.
What-
"Well, what do we have here?" A man voiced from on top of the general area of where the waterfall resided, urging me to turn and face them immediately as I was unfamiliar with their voice, but upon turning to find the source, there was no one to be found until I felt their hand resting on my shoulder, urging me to face them as I was met with a tall, black haired man who wore a carefree expression, but as I gazed into his mint green eyes, I was met with a cold reality as I began trembling in fear from realizing the identity of the man that stood before me.
"Ryan… Zephyr?" I uttered in trepidation, baffled that someone of his caliber would appear before me as my body was enveloped in cold sweat while my mind ran amok, searching frantically for any solution that would aid in my survival against the walking disaster of a man that towered above me.
Ah.
"I can understand that this kid can be quite the handful sometimes, but you see, it's not his time to die yet." Ryan said with a lighthearted grin as I immediately stood from my buckled position and tried to strike his face with my fist, but my desperate attempt to survive would be in vain as Ryan parried my arm into the air with an effortless swat of his hand, stepping forward with such finesse that it seemed as if the wind itself had beckoned to his calling and in the moment he hovered his hand over my forehead in the gesture of a flick, I felt the impending doom of death dawning upon me.
I'm going to die.
"I do hope you survive this. I have some questions to ask you later." Ryan added with a solemn frown as he flicked my forehead with a tremendous amount of force, sending me flying backwards through the expansive forest at an unfathomable speed until my body slammed against the Exterel Mountains themselves, creating a giant crater upon impact as my consciousness slipped away from me.