Mia, Andrew, and Felix creep up the stairs as they hear some footsteps walking around above them.

  “Some people?”

  Felix asks Mia.

  “No. It's likely a kai bane from how heavy they are. Ready your Swordsburn Andrew.”

  Andrew nods. They finally reach the top and end up on the roof. No kai bane in sight. Some vents are scattered around along with a ladder laying on the roof. One skylight window at their feet letting the sunlight through into the building.

  “I don't see a kai bane. Was it perhaps down one floor?” Andrew asks.

  “It might have gone down. Let's head back to catch it.” Mia says as she turns around with Felix and Andrew.

  As they turn back they hear a ladder clatter. They quickly turn around and Andrew readies his weapon.

  “It's here.” Mia whispers.

  “It might have been the wind?” Felix says hopefully.

  “Nope.” Says a hoarse voice to their left.

  Mia turns to her left and shoots kai. She sees a humanoid kai bane with a tail clunking behind it. Her shot was slightly off and it allowed the kai bane to get its move. It interlocks its fingers and speaks.

  “Kai release. Infinite maze.”

  A black barrier forms around the three first years and the kai bane, enveloping them in the kai banes kai release.

  “This isn't good. It used a kai release which boosts his stats while weakening our krafts. it allows it to be able to not miss by hitting anything with kai and embody the user's kraft. By the sound of it, we'll be stuck in a maze, possibly to its control.”

  Mia says with a worried expression.

  “It might not be totally bad though. If it used kai release immediately then it might be a kai release based kraft.” She says trying to keep Felix under control, who currently looks like he's having a heart attack.

  “Let's not spread out during this?” Andrew says hopefully as he turns around to look for the kai bane.

  Mia nods as she looks up to face Andrew, only to instead face a wall in his place.

  “Andrew?!” She calls out.

  “I'm right…”

  Andrew says as he looks back towards Mia except he doesn't see her. Only a wall where she used to be.

  “...here.” He finishes.

  What happened? Did the kai bane separate us already? He asks himself.

  Mia looks at Felix.

  “Keep close to me.” She says as she grabs his hand.

  Felix's face lights up.

  “Aww that's cute.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  A voice says from behind as a chain wraps around their hands.

  “Stay like that.” The kai bane says as it smiles.

  It resembles a human except it's made entirely of chains. Mia shoots kai at the chain holding Felix and her together. It breaks as the kai touches it.

  “Get down!” She yells as Felix ducks then grabs the end of her shirt.

  Mia outputs a giant blast of kai towards the kai bane. The kai bane stretches the chain link to the point of the kai blast mostly going through the holes of it. It pierces some of the chain however it is reattached to the kai bane the moment it is hit. The room shifts around them to form a zoo that is contained by chains.

  “Woah a gorilla, A tiger, monkeys, and a hawk?! What are we gonna do Mia?” Felix asks.

  The chains keeping them still slink towards the kai bane. Mia sees the room around her changing and gets an idea.

  “Felix. Go to that corner away from everyone and everything.” She tells him.

  The kai bane laughs.

  “Sure, go ahead. It will only separate you two.”

  Felix runs to the corner and as he arrives the room shifts and a wall separates them.

  “That's the idea.” She says as she pushes her hands outwards.

  “Ultimate craft output!” She yells out as kai blasts out of her hands, disintegrating everything in the room save for a few chain links.

  She grabs one of them and puts it in her pocket. Now I just have to find Felix again.

  “Smooth kai release.”

  Kai surrounds her body and she runs into a wall. It disappears around her. It worked. The kai bane must be a new one. My smooth kai release is disabling parts of the kai release.

  “Who's there!” Andrew asks, readying his sword as he hears footsteps.

  A pillar forms under Andrew's hands and causes him to drop the sword. As he goes to pick it back up, a kai bane swoops in and steals it. It holds it straight up and readies it. It looks like a grayish human. Andrew rushes the bane, hitting it with a flurry of punches.

  Right before he got to the kai bane, it attached an invisible chain to a nearby wall. Each punch makes the chain send purple streams of light creeping on it towards the wall.

  Once a stream hits the wall it shakes from the impact of Andrews punch. He hits the kai bane twenty times in a second. Each blow makes the chain grow brighter. After twenty two punches the chain glows until it's white.

  After the twenty third it snaps off the wall and hits the kai bane, knocking it into the walls. It breaks fifteen of them then on the sixteenth wall it transforms into a trampoline and bounces back ten walls. It would have been saved by a trampoline sooner however it was moving too fast due to the punches and whiplash activating.

  “Whiplash. It activates on me causing me to take double damage if the dummy I've chosen doesn't have enough kai to take the hit. The more in the theoretical negatives of kai they would be in, the extra damage I take from the hit. You hit so hard and fast that I couldn't disconnect the chain to avoid the drawback. No matter though…”

  It says as it continues walking back through the rubble, finally one wall away from the room again.

  “I'll just make you the dummy so you diminish your kai with each hit.” It says with a giant smile, made from bloodlust.

  Andrew smiles as the chain attaches onto him. A chain? Is that what connects the dummy to the user? I couldn't see it earlier so I guess only the dummy and the user can. Andrew charges up a punch and the kai bane smiles harder.

  “Yes! Destroy your kai!”

  Andrew grins as he launches the punch right into the chest of the kai bane. The chain instantly glows to a blinding light for a thousandth of a second then whips back three times faster than the speed of sound. Andrew tries to dodge the chain after it snaps back and he would be successful if it wasn't an imaginary chain.

  The chain goes right through the kai bane and rips through him and looks as if a hole is punched right through him. The kai bane instantly drops to the ground, dead. Andrew picks up Swordsburn from the ground and rips off a finger from the kai bane.

  “It would've been a good plan, if I had the kai to spare.”

  Mia runs through each wall trying to find Andrew and Felix.

  “Felix! Andrew! Yell if you can hear me!”

  She belts out as she goes through another wall and steps on something that clicks.

  The click activates an explosion instantly along the entire floor, stronger than an rpg. The explosion launches her forward and she tumbles through some more walls. Her smooth kai release gets disrupted and as she's about to activate it again she sees a tail hit the floor. She instantly fires kai towards it. It pierces the tail and the kai bane squeals.

  “You're the kai bane that activated the kai release. Killing you will deactivate it.” She says as she shoots more kai at it, disconnecting the tail.

  it tries to run away and leaves a blood trail behind it. Right as she is about to get to it, she hits another wall.

  “Ugh. Smooth kai release.”

  Kai surrounds her body again and she rushes the kai bane. It looks behind itself and by the time it turns it's head, she's right behind it. She coats her hand in kai then chops at the kai banes neck, decapitating it. The head falls on the floor and then the kai release is dismantled. Felix is sitting nearby and Andrew is staring at his sword.

  “We should find Jason and Leo. They don't have advice from you like we did.” Andrew tells them.

  “Agreed. They don't have my experience on kai banes. They probably don't even know that kai banes can regenerate easily.” Mia states as she helps Felix off the ground and leads them both downstairs.

  Kai calamities are the next tier of beings like kai banes. Kai calamities are formed from truly despicable people dying, a mass amount of people with low kai dying, people with hard core unfinished business, and nasty fears. Kai calamities formed from unfinished business are almost always people that use kai. Fears worthy of being a kai calamity are darkness, heights, and spiders. All kai calamities are S rank and have unique traits outside of a normal kai bane. Evil people dying become much more ruthless and near impossible to reason with. The mass people are much smarter. If they have unfinished business then they are much more determined than the others. Fear kai calamities can stop anyone in their tracks if they fear what they're manifested from. Regular kai banes can become kai calamities if they get to s rank level.