Chapter 25: (Tina)

  Tina was concerned. She was worried. She'd never battled a Deviant Prime before. That was meant to be the job of Inner Ranks, along with Ryukyu. Aberrants and regular Deviants were the ones Outer Ranks dealt with.

  And speaking of Ryukyu, Tina really wished he were with them. She was confident they would win with him.

  Not to say that her team was bad, either. Valerie and Raven didn't get along, but both were strong. She was lucky for that.

  Unfortunately, the Deviant before them was one she'd never seen before. Vera. The one that beat Ryukyu. She was scary.

  As for Shogai, Jade and Kiara, Tina had heard of the latter from Ryukyu last night, and she for sure had potential. The other two, she didn’t know. But they were friends. So Tina was determined to protect them.

  “Deviant!” She called out as her group approached their enemy, “My name is Tina, Outer Rank 4, and you’re unfortunately trespassing. Can we agree to leave one another alone?”

  It was optimistic to try diplomacy, but there was no harm in trying. Even so, Tina was shocked when Vera openly responded with intrigue.

  “Outer 4, hm? You’re all probably Outer Ranks, right?”

  No one responded.

  “Taking that as a ‘yes’ then. In that case, I doubt any of you want to fight me, and I can’t be bothered to fight you either. I’m Deviant Prime 4, so as a 4 to a 4, I take you up on your offer, Tina.”

  “Oh,” Tina was surprised. Was this working?

  “Well… I guess we won’t attack you if you don’t attack us, then. Have a nice day…?”

  Vera nodded and turned away. She was actually leaving. Were they really about to get away with this? Tina was cautious, expecting a trick. Sekara was already fighting the other four. Vera wouldn’t leave her teammate, right?

  Tina could feel Raven trembling beside her and reached out an arm to appease the fear. Raven slapped her hand away. That was when Tina realised that she wasn’t in fear. She was angry.

  “Raven… don’t you dare…”

  “Seriously, Tina? They show up at our base, threatening us, and you’re just letting them walk away! Where’s your pride!?”

  “Raven, stop!”

  It was too late. Raven expelled purple smoke and vanished in it, leaving Tina groping in nothing but air. Katro was tutting beside her.

  “We were never getting away with that. Not with Raven. Let’s make do.”

  Vera turned to see the smoke cloud approaching her, muttered something about stupid, dishonest Nexeans, and faced her enemies again. Trying to renew that deal was useless, but all it would have done was postpone an inevitable fight. Might as well bring down Vera here and now.

  The smoke cloud enveloped Vera, and Tina could only make out silhouettes. Raven was appearing around Vera in flashes of light. She could teleport to any single point within her smokescreen, much like Xero, as well as create weapons out of smoke. That was her power. It was truly worthy of Outer Rank 3.

  Raven constantly teleported around, not letting Vera react to her location. She then appeared with the group.

  “10 metres. That’s the range of her speed manipulation. Stay out of that radius, and she can’t freeze you.”

  Raven vanished, and Valerie rubbed her hands together before letting loose an ocean of flames towards Vera. As suspected, the flames only slowed down when they were 10m away from Vera, who lazily walked out of the way.

  Tina and Katro awkwardly stood there. The distance rule wasn’t as big a problem for Valerie or Raven, but Tina and Katro were hand-to-hand fighters. They’d be useless.

  “For now, we watch.” Katro said, “Maybe we can find an opening. In fact… her power might not even work on me. Here goes nothing.”

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  Katro sprinted up towards Vera, straight into the radius. He didn’t slow down in the slightest, and a grin spread across his face. Vera noticed this and tried to swat him away, but her hand phased right through him. Katro returned the favour, punching Vera in the face. Naturally, it didn’t harm her, but it got her attention. He was an apparition she couldn’t harm. Her confusion increased when Katro vanished, completely out of her sight, only to hit her again. Invisibility, plus phasing through things. Katro was like a ghost.

  Tina was worried he’d used the latter power too soon. He could go invisible all he wanted, no problem, but phasing through matter was hard on his body. He could only do that for a minute. How much time had passed already?

  Valerie continued her assault of flames, while Raven was trying to distract Vera by teleporting and maintaining her smokescreen. There was frustration from both of them, however. No one could hurt her. But nobody was more annoyed than Tina, who couldn’t even attack her. Raven fashioned a spear out of some smoke, hurling it at Vera, but it still just slowed down before it hit her, crawling to a snail’s pace, and giving her plenty of time to react.

  “Fine…” she growled, “then how about an attack faster than the speed of sound?”

  All the smoke in the area stopped expelling outwards and instead contracted inwards, as if in reverse, into Raven’s body. She glowed purple, and the smoke reconstructed itself as a bright energy. The energy was shaped as glowing wings and a mask on Raven’s head resembling the skull of a bird. Tina had seen this form before, and there was no way Vera was avoiding these attacks.

  A very small, condensed ball of purple energy formed at the tip of the beak and shot at Vera like a laser. It still slowed down, but not nearly enough for her to avoid it. Vera felt her own blood for the first time in what must have been decades.

  Raven didn’t stop. She fired beam after beam, puncturing Vera again and again. The wounds were healing, but Vera showed worry. Valerie followed up by using her fire. She didn’t aim at Vera, however. She instead put up a thin wall of flames between Vera and Raven. As Raven’s beams passed through the wall, they turned from purple to orange. When they struck Vera, she screamed.

  “Burns don’t heal easily, do they?” Valerie smiled, and Raven continued her constant stream of attacks. Katro reappeared beside Tina, having used up his minute.

  “We weren’t really needed, I guess. I underestimated those two.”

  Tina couldn’t help but agree as she watched the beautiful glows of purple and orange. Valerie and Raven were a powerful duo.

  “Stupid Nexeans…” Vera muttered, and Tina’s eyes widened. Vera was growling.

  “I just want to go home!”

  Vera appeared next to Raven, faster than she could see, and punched her. The wings guarded Raven slightly, but she still flew into the cavern wall, falling to the ground afterwards, her aura fading. Zinnia quickly ran up to her to get her back into the fight, but things were suddenly really bad. Tina cursed her stupidity. Of course, Vera could speed things up, not just slow things down. Now that she was on the offensive, they needed a new plan.

  “Sekara isn’t worth all this; she’d better be grateful.” Vera locked eyes with Tina. Her next target.

  All of a sudden, an explosion came from the other team. It was huge and bright, so bright. Vera stopped in her tracks to cover her eyes, and Tina did so as well. Who was that? Xero didn’t have that power. It must have been one of the new three! Shogai? Maybe Jade? Even as the light faded, Tina needed to blink the stars from her eyes. Vera wasn’t attacking, presumably doing the same thing. Sekara was dead. Surely she was dead.

  Raven and Zinnia were disoriented, and Katro was dizzy. Valerie was used to brightness, so she was in a better state than the others, but she was also recovering, eyes shut.

  Vera’s guard was definitely down. “I wonder…”

  Tina jumped towards Vera, tagging her. Vera glared back at Tina with narrowed eyes, and then those eyes widened. A conflict of emotions. This was the hard part. Was Vera mentally strong enough to keep control of her own feelings?

  Vera wanted to run, but she was also pulling herself together. At the same time, she was hesitant about whether this was worth it. Fear was a terrifying emotion and devoid of all logic.

  Vera tried to hit Tina, but Tina rolled out of the way. Good, she was too distracted to use her power. If Tina could hit her again, she might be able to stall until Valerie and Raven can finish Vera off.

  Unfortunately, Vera remembered her power sooner than Tina expected. Being very much within the radius, Tina felt her limbs freeze. It was as if she were trapped in honey, her movements all sluggish. Vera was blinking, still hesitant, but if Tina’s effect wore off, it was over for her. Tina would have crossed her fingers if she could. All she needed was for someone, something, to scare Vera.

  A roar cut through the silence of the battlefield. It shook the ground and made Vera release her power. Tina fell to the ground, panting. She was smiling. She knew that roar.

  “Sekara is dead.” Vera said to herself, “No one is going to report this. I should be asleep. I’m done.”

  Vera turned away. A strong arm lifted Tina and flew her to safety. No one stopped Vera from leaving.

  It was Ryukyu. He gently settled Tina onto the ground and reverted to his human form, unconscious. Valerie held him up.

  “That idiot, I told him not to exert himself; he must have flown here with half his brain shut off.”

  “Vera didn’t know that.” Tina said, “She saw Ryukyu as another enemy; she didn’t have the motivation to fight.”

  No one argued. Raven was walking up to the group, with Zinnia insisting that her ribs hadn’t healed enough.

  “The Deviant thought Sekara was dead, right?” She said through staggered breaths. "Let’s go and confirm that."

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