Act: 40
"How is that possible?"
The golem moved its hands together capturing him the moment its arm rebuilt, trapping Shizu inside, and tightening its grip.
"Shizu! No! You bastard! Pyro Gale!"
Daichi charged up another attack, firing the beam out his mouth and towards the golem. Hoping that this would be enough to distract him and drop Shizu. But the golem remained unfazed and kept its grip that slowly got tighter.
"Buddy, I'll get you out! Pyro-"
"Stop."
Daichi froze from hearing his voice.
"I've got this trust me. Just let me at him alright, Pyro Gale-"
"That won't work on him!"
As Shizu shouted in a muffled tone.
"Listen to me... And I think this should work..."
Shizu had his arms pushing against its hand, trying to force himself out.
"Don't worry about me right now, I know I'll be able to hold it off for a while longer. Now hear me out!"
Its grip became much more tense.
"Correction, you may need to hurry soon. So... listen up, the only way that you'll be able to get me out is with a new move that may or may not work but it's the only shot we've got."
"I'm listening!"
"Pyro Gale doesn't have enough explosive damage, it seems. What I want you to do is light your entire body on fire, grip onto your right arm, and concentrate all the heat there, conducting the flow from the tip of your fingers up to your elbow."
"You know buddy I'm amazed at how you're able to talk, think, and hold your ground at the same time! Yet I will make you proud, I'll try and do this as fast as I can."
Daichi said with a forced smile on his face. Activating his Star and in response, his body went up in flames.
"Shizu!"
Grabbing his right arm, beginning to concentrate all the energy into his right arm, the flames surrounding his body began to fade as it traveled throughout his body and into his arm. He started to notice the flames and felt the fire shift through his muscles and blood, that's when he felt it. The fire built up all the way to his fingertips knowing that he couldn't allow it to travel back throughout his body he tightened his grip around the cubital fossa and elbow to stop any flow or leaking by activating basic star energy in that area hoping it would block that current flow.
Daichi glanced at Shizu and back at his arm as he started to see his entire arm glow brighter and light up in flames more intense than normal.
"Buddy! Normally my flames don't hurt me this much… But I kind of feel a sharp pain that I'm pretty sure is not normal!?"
"Argh! It's fine! You're just not used to your flames being held in a specific area. Maybe. Think of it as overheating your body. I don't know how to describe this either but just... uh put more Star energy in it and increase the amount of heat you can normally produce. This is all on a whim, after all, I can't use Star energy like everyone else."
*DIE*
Daichi looked back at the golem with shock.
"It... Spoke? Damnit! Aghh!"
Not knowing at all what to do he only pushed his body further and continued to put more Star energy in his arm. The flames grew and grew, up until his whole arm was no longer noticeable, just pure heat.
"Ahhh! For the first time, my arm burns!"
"Fight... It!"
"More! More! More! More! I need more Star energy!"
"Inferno Uplift!"
His arm changed from an orangish-red color to a bright yellow. Slowly the flames began to merge into his arm causing his arm to change and glow the bright yellow color that he managed to produce.
"Damn! I think I did it, I'm not sure how long I can hold this for. Whatever, let it go!"
Daichi ran up to the golem, the golem ignored him, still focusing on crushing Shizu. He leaped in the air and with his newly created move, winding his arm back he released the surging flow of energy.
*Boosh*
Striking the golem in the chest a giant hole was created in an instant destroying and burning the golem except for its hands. His new move had been so powerful it burnt the sand behind the now disintegrated chest.
The golem's arms dropped to the ground releasing Shizu from its grip. Daichi ran up to him, tossing the arms away in the opposite direction.
"Buddy are you ok!"
"Ugh... Sadly. Impressive though."
"Yeah! And it's thanks to you!"
He ran up to him hugging him tightly.
"Ok, ok your arm it's burning my back..."
"Oh sorry."
"Finally, that's over, let's focus on one thing. The ruins again...!"
"Alright!"
*Crumble*
"..."
*Sigh*
"Are you kidding me!"
Shizu turned around watching as a small ball floated in the air, recreating the golem from small bits of it once more.
'Why the hell is this thing not dying! Ok, so physical attacks don't work, and nor does your fire as of now. Yet that's all we-'
"Resurrection!?"
Shizu sprinted at the ball with his glowing hand reaching inside as it was building itself, gripping on tightly he crushed the ball and waited.
Nothing happened. Each pebble dropped down to the sand and the golem wasn't showing any more signs of re-building itself.
"Seriously."
"Shizu! What'd you do for it not to come back?"
"If I'm guessing this correctly the fire was able to penetrate it due to reaching a certain temperature, though not successful enough to destroy it. Why? Is it an element? Physical hits don't even work? Although my Star?"
"..."
"Huh?"
"..."
"Light! You have to be kidding me!? We probably should help the other students. If what I'm thinking is true, I happen to be the only one here with a Star capable of using light! We must hurry to the ruins or prey we come across another team. We will help them as that's our job as Rankers!"
"Alright Buddy, I'm with you!"
Shizu and Daichi both ran for the ruins as fast as they could.
- - - -
*Team Skill*
"Four, come on now."
"Hm? Aikawa you really can't handle a couple of golems? Quite sad now I see why Hano liked, no, loved me. Sit back and watch a pro handle this."
"Blossoms appear."
A reformed katana made of cherry blossom petals formed in her hand. Swiftly she sprinted towards the golems, spinning around while cutting at them. She herself moved like a petal gracefully floating in the wind. And within seconds the golem's hand sliced apart falling on the sand.
"Now that's how you take care of things. So Aikawa, move your ass to the ruins already."
"I fucking hate you. Refrain from saying "Aikawa, it grosses me out."
She turned her head and sprinted to the ruins, trying to leave Chisaka behind though she was able to keep up.
To their surprise they were stopped by another golem, this time it had been covered in armor.
'Heh, my turn to show this pink-haired bitch who's better!'
"Blossoms appear."
Sprinting past her she spiraled around cutting the golem to pieces, sliding past it in style.
"God you're slow? You little chain hoe. Just another easy win for me."
"Do you want to fight it out, here and now! I'm really starting to get sick of your shit. Now that you're a part of the student council you think you can boss me around now and mock me."
*rustle*
The golem rebuilt itself, spinning its torso around and hitting Chisaka in the gut, sending her flying a couple of feet.
"Hehe. Hey, look out. Oh, wait too late, my bad! Ha-Ha."
Blood dripped from Chisaka's mouth as she stood up forming another katana in her hand, running towards it she jumped, slashing, and cutting at it, to as many pieces as possible but it seemed to fail. This time the golem took no damage. It quickly grabbed her by the head, tossing her down in the sand and proceeding to kick her away. Though it wasn't done, it leapt in the air ready to slam down.
*Thud*
Rolling out the way she stood back up with blood dripping from not only her mouth but now her nose.
"Hey, Chisaka. Looked like it hit you pretty good-"
"Shut up! Petal Storm! Eat this you stupid shit!"
A tornado of pink petals swirled around the golem trapping it. Chisaka closed her hands in response, causing the petals to shrink and destroy everything inside until it had turned into a small ball. Loosening her grip, the petals disappeared and so did the golem.
"Pft! Once again you were no help."
"Oh, now that you got hurt, I should've helped. Don't say that remember you said you'd take care of it alone."
Aikawa shrugged her shoulders and continued towards the ruins.
*Rubble*
Chisaka's body flew over Aikawa's head and into the sand. The golem charged for Chisaka again.
"What the hell?"
"Star activate."
Using her chains, she went to grab her body, moving it out of the way and behind her.
"My turn."
She dashed at the golem, blocking its attacks with her chains, and striking it in return creating multiple puncture holes along with severing its arms and legs off its body though nothing seemed to work. Leaping back, she put her hands in the sand. The golem charged at her at full speed while it had its arms and legs attaching back to its body.
"Heh. How do you like my trap!"
A barrage of chains with sharp points at the ends of it jabbed the golem, keeping it in place and breaking it so it became nothing.
*ruble*
"You're kidding me! This thing is not dying!?"
She looked back at Chisaka. Then back to the golem.
"We're out."
Using her chains, she carried her unconscious body and ran for the ruins. Hoping to lose the golem in the process which didn't seem to happen the damn thing only got faster and faster. Until they found some hope. Two other students and as she got closer, she realized it was Taku and Oto, who themselves happened to be fighting two other golems.
"He's all yours. Thanks, and bye."
Aikawa ran past them and straight for the ruins. The golem proceeded to stop and target the two boys.
- - - -
*Team Sound*
The two looked off in the distance at the same time from a loud explosion sound coming from the ruins.
"We have to hurry... Taku."
"Yeah yeah, I know. I too can hear."
They ran in that direction for quite some time before coming across paths with two golems that had dropped down from the sky covered in armor.
"Heh. Sit back Oto I can take them on!"
"... are you sure... we can... fight- No… I'll leave it to you then."
"Just what I like to hear!"
Taku slammed his fist against his palm ready to throw down.
"Ice Fragments"
Putting his arm out he fired a barrage of icicles at the golems' heads causing them to stay in place swiping at the endless ice that came their way. Taku had stopped to see how much damage he had dealt only to notice that they were unfazed by his move, nor were they scratched. Not even a moment to waste, they only sprinted towards him.
"What! Oh yeah, you think you're all that!"
"Check this out! A new move on the spot. And I call it... Uh, Ice... Cuffs? Yeah, that's it!"
"Ice Cuffs!"
A light blue Star symbol appeared underneath both of the golems' feet, which formed Ice quickly engulfing them and holding them in place. Attempting to move but failed. The only thing that could function was their upper body.
"Ok! Oto, we probably can just run past them and head straight for the ruins, sounds like a plan? Good, we're going now!"
"Sigh..."
"We... could just fight... them... but alright... I guess..."
Right as they were about to leave, Aikawa happened to sprint past them shouting something that the two couldn't understand. Along with Chisaka strangely flailing in the air encased in her chains. Not to mention the other golem following from behind which also had a set of armor. As the golems spotted Taku and Oto, it broke focus off her and now focused specifically on them.
"Why! Damn you student council, always running from your own problems. But sure, worry about someone who's just trying to go to the roof and eat."
The golems broke free from the ice walking over to the newly arrived golem and started to glow a dark red color from the center of their chest, most likely where their core was located.
"So, about what I said Oto. What can you do fighting-wise because I think I- May! Need your help-"
"...I guess..."
"What do you mean, I guess! We are not losing to anyone, especially this asshole of a guy Takao and most importantly Shizu!"
"Now let's get this started-"
*Urrenen*
Taku's eyes shot open as he watched the three golems begin to break apart exposing their cores that moved together in the shape of a triangle, starting to connect shaping into one singular core. In response, Taku took the opportunity to attack while he had the chance.
"You think I'll sit and watch. Wrong!"
"Dual Ice wall!"
Both pieces of ice shot from the ground in the shape of a pillar at an angle crushing the core as the walls contacted one another.
"Sooo easy! Oto, remember I was worried for nothing!"
A shape appeared behind Taku made of rocks that took the form of a hand that hadn't fully solidified, only had the shape, the rocks were still forming together, and the armor was materializing over it at a rapid pace. Grabbing him tightly it lifted him up in the air and his ice walls broke.
*Clank*
*Shift*
The body of the golems rotated around piece by piece transforming into one giant golem that had thrown Taku straight to the ground. Firing a beam from its hand incinerating where he had landed.
"Taku!"