The black-haired girl charges at the enemy. Smiling, he deftly sidesteps her downward slash, moving to his right. The blonde whispers something to the brown-haired girl; both pull up their hoods, drop into a crouch, and brace one hand on the ground. Alexa fires two spheres of wind from her left hand, allowing her to turn sideways so her guard stays up.
The adversary, his machetes glowing, slices the orbs apart and thrusts with his left blade toward the teenager's throat. Seeing it in time, she ducks and counters with a low sweep aimed at his right leg. Confidently, he lifts his foot and snaps a kick into her face. Dazed by the impact, she staggers back—just in time for him to slash toward her forehead. She retreats with a leap; when she lands, she feels blood trickle—only a shallow cut, but a cut nonetheless.
Reyik smiles, certain of victory. He rushes her again, swinging a horizontal cut at her neck with his left hand. She blocks with her katana, sliding backward under the sheer force. Focusing the cold sensation into her muscles, she surges, pushing his blade back—until, with a subtle grip change, the mercenary turns the motion into a sudden stab for her abdomen. She jumps back again.
"Careful," he taunts. "That's smart against someone stronger… too bad it's not enough."
He spins and drives a powerful kick into her stomach, hurling her into a wall. The impact makes her cough blood. Like a bullet, the white-haired man lunges to finish her with a thrust to the center of her ribcage—but stops short as a yellow flash catches his peripheral vision.
Reyik: grinning "Oh, it's you, brat. Time for a rematch. I'll make you pay for earlier—that hurt."
Tyron: furious, launching a left semi-circular kick at his head "I'll be the one who kills you!"
The mercenary ducks and steps back, noticing something odd—chunks of earth lifting beneath his feet. Riding the momentum of his kick, Tyron rises and drops in with a descending slash. Forced to block with crossed blades, Reyik absorbs the impact; the ground cracks as the clash drives him down slightly. He grits through the shock, shifts right, wrenches his right machete free, plants it in the ground—and before Tyron can react, grabs his left leg and hurls him with brute strength into the wall near the recovering black-haired girl.
Seeing everything in slow motion, Tyron plants on the wall and rockets back like lightning. Reyik spins, reclaims his machete, and meets him midair—steel collides, a shockwave ripples the floor. Reyik blocks, retreating, as the ground fractures beneath his feet as if trying to seize him. Tyron lands a left kick to the chin, lifting the mercenary off the ground; Reyik tastes blood, smiling despite the unconscious lightning discharges coursing through Tyron. He answers with a right side kick to Tyron's face, lands, leaps again, and dives to wound him.
Tyron sees it in time and fires a fierce lightning blast from his left hand. Reyik counters with two crimson Flying Blades; the collision explodes, and Tyron slips in with a hook to the stomach, knocking Reyik down—though not before the mercenary buries his left machete into Tyron's abdomen.
Reyik: falling, feeling the floor rise Who's controlling the ground?
He looks up and realizes the blue-clad girl and the light-brown-haired girl both have a hand pressed to the surface.
Tyron rips the blade free and surges forward; a brilliant glow blooms across his abdomen. Reyik doesn't have time to decide which girl is manipulating the terrain before a crushing right knee smashes into his back, holding him aloft. Tyron tries a horizontal slash at his neck—but his body betrays him. Reyik capitalizes, smashing a right heel into Tyron's head and slamming him into the ground hard enough to crater it.
As the glow on Tyron's abdomen fades, he finally completes the motion he'd intended. Reyik lands confidently—only to have his legs seized by massive slabs of earth. Before he can break free, Tyron lunges with a straight thrust for his head. Reyik spits blood into Tyron's eyes, turning his head at the last instant; the blade misses by millimeters, grazing his left ear instead.
As Tyron wipes his eyes, Reyik flares with power, shatters the earth binding him, twists his hips, and cracks Tyron's head with a right kick. A ringing fills Tyron's ears. Reyik leaps, spins, and lands a left side kick to Tyron's throat, then flips to plant himself upside down on the roof. From there, he assesses the battlefield—metal no longer trying to seize him—and fixes on the two hooded girls controlling the surface. He closes his eyes, inhales, and identifies the earth affinity: the girl in the gray hood.
He dives to skewer her—but an invisible slash slices his forehead. He rebounds to a wall, narrowly avoiding a thrust from the blue-clad girl.
Francesca: stern "How did you avoid my attack if it's invisible?"
Reyik: annoyed "Clever brat. Why pretend you could control earth too? Did you know I can smell other users' Fiu?"
Francesca: smiling confidently "No. But when the terrain's ours, misdirection is enough to keep the advantage."
She cuts along the wall toward his feet.
Reyik flips back to keep to the wall. When he looks again, she's already sprinting along it toward him. Grinning, he slashes down at her head with his left while readying a right-hand counterthrust. She slips the first strike perfectly. He stabs for her abdomen; knowing her blade's reach advantage, she commits—driving a horizontal cut toward his stomach. Realizing she'll land first, he blocks her katana with both weapons. Frozen in that bind, he's hammered by a tire-sized air sphere to the chest. Francesca leaps clear as the blast smashes the wall.
Reyik drops to hands and knees, slowly regenerating a wound that briefly exposes ribs before muscle knits over it. His limbs are seized again by the ground. He sees the celeste-clad and blue-clad girls closing in—then Topaz crashes down with a descending cut. Reyik channels Fiu into his palms and vaults to the ceiling, pinning his machetes there to avoid being split in two—though his legs are severed. Blood spills across the rooftop.
The brown-haired girl frowns; Tyron is ready to kill even with the enemy restrained. The decision has been made.
Tyron: seeing Reyik anchor himself to the ceiling "Don't run!"
He charges at full speed.
Reyik exhales heavily; the fight is slipping. He seals the bleeding, pours Fiu into his thighs, inhales—and grows a new pair of legs: dark burgundy, white barbs along the calves, taloned feet, rugged skin. He greets Tyron with a double kick to the face, then holsters one machete and spins a right semi-circular kick that launches Tyron into the wall near the brown-haired girl, triggering a small blast she barely withstands.
Alexa stares at the severed legs lying inert, then at the mutant before her. "What the hell are you?"
Lightning lifts from the floor around Tyron; the violent presence reminds her of the dark bolts from her vision. She shakes it off as Reyik laughs.
"I see you don't know my techniques. Fair enough—I'll just say they make me almost invincible."
He focuses; the severed parts begin regrowing—bone, then muscle, then the same dark burgundy skin. The green-eyed girl watches in horror. It's a clone—white-eyed. The copy cracks its neck, tears two barbs from its back as they form into machetes, and grins.
"Good teamwork. Let's see how you like ours."
It charges the green-eyed girl.
Emily: serious, binding the clone's legs "As long as I'm here, I'll protect them!"
The blonde instantly pulls the black-haired girl back, loads Fiu into her left foot, and drives a kick into the clone's chest, blasting it free of the earth's grip. Turning to her team, she declares, "If it's special, there's no reason to fear it. Unknown doesn't mean unbeatable."
She surges, speed boosted, slips behind the enemy, and fires a celeste energy burst that freezes the barbs on his back. He snaps at her neck; she blocks, ducks, and thrusts for his head—he sweeps her leg, tossing her airborne. As he slashes at her side, she pins her sword into the ground with her left hand and scissor-kicks him away. He clips her with a right kick as she flies toward the wall.
Seeing the black-haired girl move in, Francesca distracts—charging energy into her blade and releasing multiple Flying Blades that force the enemy to leap. The green-eyed girl follows with a wind blast that pins him to the ceiling. As he opens his eyes, a Fiu sphere detonates—roof torn open. Outside, rain washes away the destroyed clone's blood and the mercenary's original legs left behind.
Reyik notes the three girls' heavy energy expenditure—oxygen debt, slowing movements. To regain mobility, he targets the gray-hooded girl. Tyron closes in midair; the small wounds from Reyik's kick fade under strange sparks. Reyik blocks Tyron's katana with the machete pinned to the ceiling—an even struggle aloft. He shoves from the hip, clears the blade, and snaps his right hand point-blank.
"Serpent!"
Tyron rockets back as a cobra of pure energy lunges to devour him. He channels Fiu into his blade and unleashes a massive Flying Blade—yellow energy cleaves the serpent in two. Reyik smiles, letting the cut shear off his left arm as another clone regenerates from the legs on the roof, landing beside him with a machete.
Reyik: displaying the new arm "You know the drill—take out the one with earth affinity. Without her, I can fight freely."
He tears a barb from his elbow and turns to Tyron. "Brat, I'll give you the honor—I'll kill you myself so you can tell your friend about me."
The clones sprint for the brown-haired girl. The black-haired girl pants, "How do we kill this bastard?!"
Francesca: legs braced, katana raised to her waist "I don't know! Buy me time—he said it himself, he's almost invincible. We'll find a way!"
She freezes mid-thought—remembering how the white-haired man dodged her first Flying Blade by guarding his head, and how Tyron's thrust was avoided the same way. The earlier clone's total destruction came from the master's concentrated-energy technique.
She shouts, "The head! If you mortally damage the head, he can't regenerate or split! The clones resist elemental attacks—but not direct Fiu contact. Their bodies are unstable, like isotopes, under concentrated energy!"
Alexa: "What does that mean?!"
Francesca: charging Fiu into her right hand "Use the most powerful, exhausting technique the master taught us—or overload Flying Blades!"
She forms an energy sphere and charges the clone with the original arm, hiding the sphere behind her back. She slashes his throat; he blocks with a left-hand barb and counters at her belly. She slips aside without breaking the bind and fires—the sphere detonates, obliterating the clone. Exhausted, she stumbles and rolls.
Before she can recover, the clone with the original legs kicks her into a wall. She coughs blood, opens her eyes, and sees her black-haired teammate crossing blades with the enemy.
Reyik blocks Tyron carefully, conceding the truth—the blonde has found the weakness. If this drags on with her standing, he could lose. He loads Fiu into his left arm, avoids a thrust to his forehead, and plants a straight kick to Tyron's chest. A clone seizes Tyron as the original snaps in with his machete toward the blonde.
"You're too smart, brat. I can't let you live—you'd be trouble later!"
Tyron imagines that monster touching a single hair on her head. He slams his captor into the ceiling and incinerates it with a surge, then intercepts Reyik with a sweeping cut down the upper back to the waist. Reyik fires barbs from his artificial arm; Tyron dodges two, but one embeds in his right leg and another in his left shoulder. He surges forward, swaps hands, and blocks the strike at Francesca.
Reyik counters with a shallow cut to Tyron's abdomen, then tries to take his throat with a right-hand barb—blocked with difficulty. Francesca sees Tyron accumulating wounds. Alexa keeps one clone at bay. The regenerated clone heads for Emily, who holds firm to keep their advantage.
Francesca gathers what little Fiu remains and darts ahead of Tyron, palm glowing. She takes two hits—one deep at the waist, another on her left shoulder—but lands her blow, forcing the enemy back. Tyron rips the barbs free and launches a flurry, lifting the foe skyward. Francesca saves her last Fiu to help Emily with the onrushing clone, trusting Wind to handle the one she pinned.
Alexa hammers the creature's abdomen; it slices her cheek with its tongue and fires barbs at her chest and throat. She dodges, blocks a neck slash, ducks, and releases a point-blank blast that smashes it into crates of explosives. She dives flat—Emily shields her with a massive slab of earth. A shout echoes: "SERPENT!" The earth shatters; Alexa takes the attack full-on, left nearly unconscious, wracked with burning pain. She retches; cramps seize her. That technique again, she realizes—but she forces herself up with her sword.
Emily braces as Francesca staggers to help. The order is clear—hold the line—but the clones are too fast for her limited control. She hears Francesca call, "Emily—make a tunnel behind you!"
She hesitates—exhausted—but refuses fear. She opens a broad tunnel, trapping the left-arm clone while gasping, burning. The black-haired girl, hands trembling as her nervous system falters, summons a vortex mouth and hurls the second clone into the tunnel. Francesca nods in thanks, channels warmth into her katana, and fires a blazing Flying Blade that destroys both copies. She smiles—and collapses flat on her back, bleeding freely from shoulder and waist.
Tyron lands a side kick to Reyik's gut, launching him. He sheaths his katana and pours Fiu into his palms—unleashing a massive lightning blast. Reyik counters with twin energy surges and appears in front of him, driving a knee into Tyron's chin. Tyron tries to punch—but his body won't obey. He tries to draw his blade—nothing. Reyik lifts his left leg and drops a brutal guillotine kick across Tyron's back, smashing him through the roof again.
Tyron tries to rise; his body spasms, controls misfiring. Healing sparks fade. He screams as his hands are pierced. Looking up through the pain, he sees Reyik smiling.
Surveying the ruin with calm, Reyik notices the brown-haired girl is no longer controlling the ground—she's trying to keep the dying awake—while the "big brain" lies bleeding, utterly spent. He closes his eyes briefly.
Emily: panicked "Alexa—stay awake!"
Alexa: shivering "I'm cold, Emi… everything's blurry… my muscles hurt."
She coughs blood.
Emily freezes—who to save? Francesca is defenseless; Tyron is down. Then footsteps echo from the tunnel. She turns—the clones are back, now with a third bearing one original leg. The blonde is closest—likely the target. To her relief, all three attack Emily instead. Exhausted, she holds them off for moments, backing away, taking small wounds step by step. A barb sinks into her right shoulder. Not much time, she thinks.
Anger flares; she kicks one clone away, punches another—just enough for the last to spear her through the waist. She collapses into warm blood.
Reyik accepts a machete from a clone, straps both on his back, and applauds.
"You fight well—spirit, teamwork—but…"
Each clone moves to a fallen teen as the original lifts Tyron by the throat, slowly crushing it.
"…that's useless against someone far stronger. Still, I regret killing you—you showed pride. Maybe next life, don't cross my work."
Alexa: seeing a glow aimed at her forehead No… I can't die like this. I have to avenge Valeria…
Emily: bleeding, crying I'm scared. I don't want to die… Cami, Dad… my friends—this is my fault…
Francesca: a foot on her neck So this is how I die—not to someone better, just stronger. I won't suffocate like this…
She remembers the master's words.
Tyron: consciousness fading I can't fail Antonio. I must avenge him. I had that power—and ended like this…
…Will he come in time to save us?
Alexa: Can he save us all…?
Francesca: We never tested if he was telling the truth…
Emily: There's no other choice… Please come, Master…
All four: "…Jayden Damnare."
In the forest, a teacup hangs in midair as a kettle floats above the cabin porch. Rain is ripped aside by a massive gust racing toward Guarly.
At the warehouse, Reyik and two clones stagger as a crushing wind floods the space—the teens vanish in an instant. They turn to the back, where the brown-haired boy is set down last, the newcomer casually gripping the left-arm clone by the face.
Reyik grins. "What are you going to do—don't you know if you destroy it—?"
Jayden crushes the clone's head like a grape, blood splattering his hand. In a heartbeat, before the white-haired man's left arm can fall, Jayden draws a sigil on the back of his own hand, flashes it, and touches the black-haired girl's forehead—the mark turns dark. He appears before the original, aura murderous, tears off the regenerated arm, replaces it with the normal one, and crouches by his students.
"Of course I know demonic techniques," Jayden says calmly. "They were created by monks of a sect seeking immortality. You can manipulate regeneration almost at will."
Reyik: worried yet smiling "Heh… figures. You belong to the—"
Jayden grabs him by the throat and hurls him across the hall with his clones.
"I thought about humiliating you—maybe leaving you paralyzed—for interrupting my tea," he smiles darkly. "But for even daring to think that…"
His grin sharpens.
"I'll humiliate you—and then I'll kill you."