At a distance of about a kilometre away from the battlefield, three people were currently lying atop a pile of rubble as they watched the entirety of the fight between David and the trio of Li Qiu, Enbi Arin, and Prakash.
"They are putting up quite a good fight, they are really strong for their power levels" Exclaimed Katsurou.
"Too bad, they are up against him" Muttered Hikari.
"And how long do we have to hide here? I can't wait to pummel that bastard into a pulp" Raged Akiko.
"Control yourself and just watch. That sick bastard is currently just toying with them. He wasn't even being serious till now" Commented Katsurou as he urged Akiko to lay low.
"What is your take on this Hikari" Akiko questioned Hikari almost on the verge of losing her temper.
"I….I..Uh…." Just when Hikari hesitated to give a proper answer to Akiko, she was interrupted by Katsurou.
"And what is the guarantee that those three wouldn't turn on us. Can you trust them?" Inquired Katsurou.
Akiko stood up from her spot, finally losing both her patience and temper.
"I don't trust them but from what I could observe, even in such dire straits, they still fight as a cohesive team without even showing any signs of betrayal. And I'm not going there to be friends with them or anything mind you, that crystal bastard is my one and only target" Proclaimed Akiko as she began to walk towards the battlefield.
"You…sigh…fine, but don't expect me to assist them. I'm not responsible for their lives" Replied Katsurou as he lazily got up.
"I'll go first, you bring up the rear" Said Akiko as she began to sprint towards David.
After seeing her sprint away, Katsurou turned towards Hikari.
"Please make sure that she doesn't end up hurting herself too much. I'm useless in close quarters after all"
"Got it" Hikari responded with a wry smile as she too chased after the sprinting Akiko.
After seeing the departing Hikari, Katsurou thought to himself "Why do I keep getting the feeling that I'm slowly becoming a side character" As he shook his head sideways to regain his clarity.
"Well, anyway, time to hunt, my cuties" Commanded Katsurou as he created a 10-metre long blood dragon, a huge 4-metre tall blood tiger, a blood turtle spanning 10 metres in its shell length alone and finally a bird that looked like a falcon but had a wingspan of 12 metres.
Coming back to the previous scene between Li Qiu and David.
"Let me enlighten you before your pitiful death" Said David, as he clamped his hand over Li Qiu's neck.
At that very instant, a highly concentrated beam in the form of a 1-metre long crescent moon slashed towards David's right leg, successfully severing it while also almost severing his left leg too.
At the same time, Li Qiu's body was entirely enveloped by his spirit flames.
David immediately let go of his hold in wariness since the blue flames unleashed by Li Qiu seemed to affect his connection with the system. But at the same time, due to getting his legs severed, David fell sideways onto the ground.
While still coughing up some blood from his mouth, Li Qiu barely managed to create another Thermal Sword as he plunged it towards David's head.
Enbi Arin followed with another concentrated butcher beam at a focal point on David's neck.
"I guess you worms wouldn't understand if I talk nicely, Radial Wave" David shouted as a powerful shockwave shattered both Li Qiu's Thermal Sword and Enbi Arin's Butcher Beam and further blasted them away as they eventually crashed into far-off rubble.
David calmly attached his right leg to his body and within a second, both the damages done to his legs vanished after they were reconstructed by those crystal-like fluids and looked as pristine as before.
"You first, I hate you darting about around me" David muttered as he flickered towards the rubble Enbi Arin crashed into and kicked onto her stomach.
"Bleh…"
Enbi Arin spewed copious amount of blood as she flew due to the kick she received and crashed onto Li Qiu who had just crawled out of his rubble.
"Thud" "Crash"
"Boom"
David followed up with a focused shockwave towards the duo as he approached their location.
"I hate it the most when someone interrupts my talk" Said, David, as he once again fired another round of focused shockwaves onto the duo.
Whenever the duo showed signs of getting up, David hit them with another round of shockwaves which made them spurt out blood from all of their seven orifices.
But David made sure to tone down the power of his shockwaves because he didn't want to kill them yet.
Li Qiu and Enbi Arin could no longer move due to their injuries but could still maintain their consciousness since David went easy on them with his shockwaves.
"Prakash finally woke up, do you want me to aid you now?" Myra suddenly informed Enbi Arin through their mental link.
"We are injured but it's not as serious as it looks like. It seems that bastard just wants to talk, for now, be on standby. The moment it seems like he would attack seriously, come to our aid" Enbi Arin replied back.
"Good, it seems that you worms could still listen" Exclaimed David as he sat on a rock a couple of metres before the duo who were sprawled over dust and pieces of the previous rubble made of rocky concrete.
"Let's see, how should I begin. I guess I'll start with the system" Said David as he shrugged his shoulders, clearly in a talkative mode.
"The ones that you and I call as systems are just some form of electronic instruments that successfully became a container to house Ari"
On seeing that Li Qiu paid some attention to his words, though unwillingly, David smirked in disdain as he continued.
"Each electronic instrument has a certain software or operating system incorporated to it and a certain server to which they are linked to. This gave rise to different races within the system" David laughed at the puzzled looks that appeared on the faces of the duo.
"Myra, I'm directly transmitting everything I hear to you. Make sure you tell Prakash about all these details" Enbi Arin mentally messaged Myra as she maintained a puzzled expression on her face.
David laughed as he continued.
"I for one had an Apple iPhone on myself which became the system currently inside me. Currently, there are four races for us system users"
Li Qiu immediately retorted "I remember there being other Operating Systems and softwares too which were frequently created and used. Why only four?"
David snorted in disdain "Only the Operating System whose main server could successfully become a container to house Ari have the right to call themselves as a race, more like they are automatically granted with an appropriate name. The others are just individual survivors with none of the advantages we possess, without a server, they are almost useless"
"So what are the four races of these systems" Questioned Enbi Arin with a poker face.
"Heh" Sneered David as he gazed at Enbi Arin with disdain.
"The one I belong to i.e. the systems created from Apple products or IOS Operating Systems are called 'Crystal Machina', followed by the system users of Android who are called 'Thunder Machina' and finally the system users of windows are called 'Titan Machina'. I myself don't know about the fourth race. They are quite well hidden and haven't displayed any significant traits till now"
"So what, none of it matters if you're being controlled" Li Qiu snorted.
"Hehehe…..hahaha" David blasted another round of shockwaves onto Li Qiu "You….talk too much, just shut up and listen"
"The only reason I am still trying to talk to you is because...how should I put it...hmm….. I guess you could say that I'm a bit bored and feel that a talk might ease my mind up" Said David as he stood up from his spot.
"Listen up, among us system users there exists a strict hierarchy. We are divided into 5 levels. In our 'Crystal Machina' race, the first level i.e. the lowest level consists of...." David gave quite a long explanation, possibly due to being too bored or due to feeling a sense of superiority in this case as he had pinned down his prey.
His entire talk could be summarised into:
1. The system users are divided into 5 levels in their hierarchy.
2. They are known by:
Level 5: Cardinal
Level 4: Sentinel
Level 3: Ghost Wolf
Level 2: Gargoyle
Level 1: Automata
3. Automata are the lowest rungs which are basically electronic instruments which were successful in housing an Ari. They are helpless without a host to reside in.
4. Gargoyles are creatures that are controlled by the systems i.e. the creature's Will and consciousness are destroyed and the system will take the reins.
5. Ghost Wolves are humans who are controlled by systems.
6. Sentinels are creatures with a system inside them but the Will and consciousness of the creature play the dominant role. In such cases, the system is just used for scanning and compiling of data.
7. Finally, Cardinals are humans with systems, with humans as the dominant factor similar to sentinels.
"And I myself am a Cardinal. My only opponents are other level 5 system users from the other three races of system users. Got it? I myself don't understand why I'm blabbering so much, guess I've been bored for too long" Said, David, as he slowly fixed his stance.
"Welp, time to say goodbye" David proclaimed as he released a huge shockwave towards the duo.
"Now" Enbi Arin signaled as she used her innate ability 'Counter Shield' to create a barrier with the hardness of a diamond and of an elastic nature that reflected the brunt of the shockwaves back at David.
At the next moment, five square shaped barriers created by Myra perfectly formed over David's head and quickly closed in on him from all sides.
Without wasting even a single fraction of time, Li Qiu condensed almost his entire Aria into a Spirit Sphere and hurled it towards David.
The moment the Spirit Sphere reached near David and when the barriers had completely enclosed over him, Li Qiu detonated his Spirit Sphere and watched as the enclosed cube encasing over David was completely filled with his Spirit Flames completely engulfing his silhouette.
But before they could even take in a momentary breather, the entire cube was shattered and all of the blazing Spirit Flames were dissipated by the shockwaves David had apparently released.
"Fun fact, my shockwaves can travel through any medium, air, water, earth, plasma, vacuum, everything. The same attacks will not work on me twice, I guess that's what...."
David's boasting session was cut short when a huge piece of metal, weighing approximately 400 kilograms collided sideways onto his face while producing sonic booms in the air due to its speed breaking past the sound barrier.
The collision clearly removed the portion on his face where his eyes, nose, and jaw were located making David momentarily blind and dumb.
"I'm not done yet" Prakash exclaimed as he ran towards David with another huge piece of metal bar in his hands.
But just when Prakash was 20 metres in front of David, he suddenly saw something slam towards David's right shoulder.
"B-Boom"
The collision gave rise to a huge cloud of dust making Prakash abruptly stop in his tracks.
Prakash stood in his spot as he waited for the dust to settle down since charging blindly into it would surely lead to his own death.
In the meantime, Enbi Arin flickered next to Prakash as she supported him while Myra stood in front of the wounded Li Qiu acting as his shield.