Don was simply standing there. Everything once again became grayscale, and nothing seemed to be moving just as before. Don didn't fully understand it. He didn't understand how the activation of his Evolution Seed Power differed from The Original Seed Power. Since he had time, he tried to piece it together. It wasn't like the three before him were going anywhere. In fact, they were barely even moving.
"The activation of my Original Seed Power is my will to protect and save others. I still don't quite get what my Seed Power is. I can hear the flow of my own blood and racing of my own heart. Everything slows down, and I can even see the propelling effect from bullets and arrows. However..." Don paused in thought and placed a hand to his chest. "I feel nothing. I hear nothing. Everything is empty.... everything is still..." Don would lower his arm and look around for a moment.
"This is the third time already, and I know nothing. Well... I guess I can ask the others. I have yet to even tell them, but I suppose after this, it would be best." Don would return his attention towards Lax, Ego, and Avidity. Don looked at the yo-yo that was flung in his direction. It was trailing at a snail's pace, maybe even slower. It took forever to reach Don, and when it did, Don simply leaned away from it. He wanted to get a good look at the weapon.
Even if the weapon itself was nothing but a mere toy, the pitch-black glow alone made it seemed dangerous to come in contact with. The glow was only pitch-black due to the grayscale his vision displayed. There was no color. The glow was actually bright dark green to everyone else, but it was merely black to Don. Don didn't know about the plasma weapons, unlike others. He did know that these people had bizarre weapons and that in turn lead to his caution.
The next thing Don would evade was the boom-a-rang which he glanced over as he leaned away from it, then came something interesting. It was a slash; however, the slash itself was moving at a walking pace. Don would evade the first slash and saw a second one he evaded, but a third was hidden behind the first two. He didn't have time to evade, so Don would bring his arm around and flick his wrist to bring out his hidden blade, which he deflected the slash with. A short sound was made. It sounded like metal clashing, but it stopped halfway through.
"I know who to kill first." Don would mutter and approach Lax at a walking pace. Any slashes that came out were deflected like before, and once he was standing right in front of Lax, he would thrust the tip of the blade. The blade clashed with the armor but did not pierce through. Instead, it slid around the armor.
Lax would jump back once he saw Don appear in front of him, which startled him. He slashed outward to cover his opening, which was deflected.
"The hell!?" Ego remarked when he saw Don appear in front of Lax. Avidity was just as confused because she thought she hit Don with the boom-a-rang. After all, it looked like it went right through him. Ego was also confused, but what just happened overtook his previous confusion. "A teleport Seed Power? No... Was it a Speed Seed Power?" Lax had noticed his first two slashes went through Don while the third was deflected. After that, it looked like his slashes were deflected mid-strike, which was odd since they were nowhere near Don at the time. "I don't understand, but..." Lax was getting this feeling in his gut again. Like with the supposed mines, this one was the same, if not just as bad. It was telling him to draw out his own Sin Weapon, or he would die.
Don noticed Lax had jumped back when he tried to pierce his armor with his hidden blade. Don saw the slashes and deflected them with his hidden blade with ease, but now they were back to square one. Again, Avidity and Ego were trying to hit Don with their weapons, and Don continued to evade them. But, again, any slashes Lax threw out were either evaded or deflected.
Since Don had the time, he would think about what he could do. "If my blade doesn't pierce through, I doubt my guns will... but it's worth a shot anyway." So, Don would pull out his Desert Eagle, aim it at Lax, and then pull the trigger; however, unexpectedly, the bullet slowed to a stop just after leaving the gun. Don tilted his head to the side with a confused expression. When he shot Richard's leg off, it didn't have the same effect, but then again, Don actually pressed the gun's barrel to Richard's leg back then. The same with Richard's other body parts he blew off.
Don would try something else now. He approached Lax and pressed the barrel to Lax's chest, then pulled the trigger. Lax once again noticed Don was in front of him and jump back, but instead of covering his own opening, he was forced back by some kind of force, then a second force hit him in the side head. Lax would groan in pain and look down only to see there the chest part of his armor had a dent. "What!?" Lax looked up but only saw Don just standing there.
"The hell is going on!? How do our attacks keep missing!? He isn't even moving, and then he suddenly appears in front of you!?" Ego exclaimed with agitation. "I don't get it either..." Lax would groan. All they felt they could do right now was continue to try and hit Don, but this time Lax was actually debating on bringing out his Sin Weapon. The only reason he didn't want to do it was that if anyone that did would severely be punished and possibly stripped of their NS Armor. If they didn't get the orders to use the weapon, they were not allowed to. The only one who could give them the go-ahead was Ire, and that was only if Ire asked the High Commander.
Meanwhile, Don was still evading their snailish attacks. "So the bullet doesn't go through, but it did leave a dent. They still feel the force behind it as well. Perhaps..." Don would holster his Desert Eagle and remove his traveling back to pull out several standard grenades. He would pull the pin from one. Everyone knew it wasn't easy to pull the pin, but Don managed to do it without struggle or stress. He then tossed it at Lax.
There was a problem, though.
The grenade stopped in the air-midflight just like the bullet did after it felt the barrel. Don made his way towards the grenade, took it, and tossed it again. It did the same exact thing.
"Hmm..." Don was slowly beginning to understand a bit more about his Seed Power. It seemed that things only worked at full speed if he was touching them. Since he held the Desert Eagle when he pulled the trigger, the bullet left the barrel at its normal speed.
But!
Once it left the barrel entirely, it slowed down to a stop. There was a brief moment that the bullet was still in animation, just like the grenade. But, this wasn't all either. Lax managed to jump back right after Don touched him. He recalled the same thing had happened when he pierced Ion's neck with the tip of his blade the first they met.
If this was the case, that meant whatever Don touched could move at normal speed. Don would test his theory. He was no scientist, but he wasn't dense either. He would take the grenade and make his way over to Lax, and without touching him, he would place the grenade right next to Lax's head. He would walk over to Avidity, pull the grenade's pin, place the grenade next to her head, and then did the same for Ego. After that, he decided it would best to create distance between them and himself and just waited it out.
It felt like forever until the grenades finally went off. The explosion was in black and white, of course. The aftermath of what happened took forever, but Lax, Avidity, and Ego were thrown aside in real-time.
Don didn't have time to wait for any smoke to clear, so he moved towards them. He noticed a good portion of the visor was missing from where the explosion occurred, but no damage was done to the flesh. "Wow, they have some pretty sturdy armor. I'd love to get my hands on something like this one day, but for now..."
Don would once again do the grenade set up. Sure this would be the last of his grenades, but he would be taking out three threats. However, just before Don was able to pull the pin of the first one, he saw a massive beam coming in his direction. It wasn't going at a snail's pace either. If anything, it was a full-on sprinting pace. Don had enough time to evade it, so he did.
Ire sped up to his group on his bike and swerved to a stop so he was between his group and Don. "Ire~" Avidity cried out with delight. "Ire..." Ego would grumble. "Ire." Lax would acknowledge.
Ire looked over his team. Their visors had parts mission, and Ego was missing an arm. Avidity looked like her arm was a bad condition. Their armors were also pretty beat too. Ire would sigh heavily since he knew the Engineer was gonna got off on him again. Then, Ire would turn from his team towards Don. "I would ask why you were all just standing there letting him place grenades next to your heads, but... I can take a guess." Ire would remark. If one could actually see their faces, Avidity, Lax, and Ego had a surprised expression.
"Grenades?" Lax inquired, and Ire nodded and got off his bike. The bike would dematerialize, and the same frame-wire working would display a gun in his hand. It wasn't the same one from before though, this one had a different look. It still resembled a pistol, though.
"Wait, never mind that! What do you mean he was placing grenades next to our heads!? He wasn't even moving?!" Ego exclaimed, and Ire sighed. "Just sit there and let me deal with this. If I had not arrived in time, you three would be dead." Ire would remark while stepping towards Don.
"I know you are using some kind of Seed Power. It probably has something to do with Space or Time. Quite the rare Seed Power indeed. If anything, that damn boy is to blame, but know this... your power is useless on me." So Ire would boldly state while aiming the gun at Don.
Don had overheard Ire talking about them just standing there when he placed grenades next to their heads. Did that mean Ire could see him moving at a normal pace? Even if he did, Don didn't even understand his own Seed Power. The comment about Time and Space was just as odd to him as the mentioning of the boy. Sure, the boy told them they had the tools necessary to survive, but what did he have to do with the Seed Power? Did he gift them the Seed? For now, he decided to focus on Ire.
He didn't say a word; instead, he approached Ire. He knew that the only way to properly injury Ire would be with a massive amount of force, like a grenade or cannon. Still, right now, Don only had three grenades, which meant he only had three chances to below a large enough hole in the armor for him to do any kind of damage with his other weapons.
Don would use his first grenade to test something. If Ire could react to Don, he wanted to know just how fast Ire could react. So Don tossed the grenade, and shortly after Don tossed it, Ire began to move. The grenade stopped in mid-flight, but Ire continued to move, if anything, at a walking pace. Don didn't pull the pin from the grenade, though, since he didn't want to waste it. So he moved to the grenade to recollect it.
Ire stopped moving after a moment and fired a bullet from his gun. The bullet made a sci-fi pew sound, and a thin red beam shot towards Don. It came at him at the same pace as Lax's slashes did, so they were manageable, but what Don found interesting was that Ire was still firing and even approaching him.
Don still showed no expression, though. So then, since he only walked around while his Seed Power was active, he decided to charge Ire. This time he pulled the pin, and once he got close enough, he tossed the grenade at Ire.
The entire time Don was 'playing around,' Ire noticed Don wasn't really moving, but then he saw Don toss out the grenade. If Ire blinked, he felt like he would have missed it. Instantly, Ire moved from his position at a sprinter's speed and fired a barrage of bullets at Don. He watched Don evade them as if they were moving at a snail's pace, but to Ire, these bullets were moving at a speed relative to a supercar going at top speed.
Ire felt he needed to get closer so Don wouldn't be able to dodge them as easily, but Don seemed to charge him to his surprise. He only saw it for a moment, but Don seemed to flicker from one spot to another, and just as soon as Don was in front of him, he saw Don had tossed the grenade at him.
"Shit.." Ire would jump back as fast as possible, and thankfully he did because the grenade exploded. The forced sent him further back, and it did dent his armor, but that was all. Ire instantly brought his gun up, but before he could fire, Don was in front of him again.
Don had knocked the gun aside and tried to trip Ire by sweeping his legs. Ire was still surprised by the sudden appearance of Don, that he didn't notice Don had swept his legs up. So he was beginning to fall. It was then he noticed Don had pulled back. He didn't understand why, but after the first couple of seconds, he noticed it.
A grenade was set just above his chest.
"Fuck!" Ire exclaimed, and the explosion went off. The blast sent Ire into the ground and the stomach part of his armor to be slightly open. Sadly for Ire... Don wasn't a merciful man. As Ire was groaning and rolling over, he noticed another grenade right beside his head, and just before he could react or get out another word, it went off and sent Ire rag dolling away.
"Ire!" Avidity exclaimed once she saw him hit with two grenades. "The hell!?" Ego remarked with a baffled expression. "If Ire can't win... that means..." Lax looked towards Don. In truth, he wanted to help Ire, but who knew they were exhausted. They could barely even stand up as it was.
Don would flicker his other wrist to bring out the other hidden blade and steadily approach Ire, who was steadily getting off the ground. "I see..." Ire would remark as he dropped his gun, which seemed to dematerialize a second later.
"Is this what pain is?"
"Is this what fear is?"
If one could see it, a wide grin would curve across Ire's face.
"I like it." Ire would remark then bash his fists together. A wave of red energy expunged from his body, and the core of his suit gave off a vivid bright light. "I'll die anyway... so let's see what you got, Seedling." As Ire spoke his words, two gauntlets appeared on his hands. They weren't normal gauntlets; they had this crimson glow and barrels on the gloves' knuckles.
"Ire used his Sin Weapon!?" Avidity exclaimed.
"Ire's Sin Weapon? Gloves?" Ego asked since he had never seen them before.
"Yes. Ire's gloves are called Berserker's Gauntlets. They heighten the attack power to an explosive rate. It uses his core as fuel, but he can destroy skyscrapers and can even fire bullets from the barrels where the knuckles are. Although Ire never uses his Sin Weapon since it can kill him if he overuses it, the fact that he is using it now means that he knows he will die either way." Lax would explain.
Don overheard the explanation but didn't make any expression or hint that he did. Instead, he continued to approach Ire. The moment he was within fist's reach, Ire tossed his fist out. Don evade and went for the opening on Ire's stomach with the hidden blade. Ire would knock the strike downward with his free hand in the nit of time since the tip of the blade had just pierced his stomach. He would then follow up swift calf kick. Don would move to Ire's side to evade the calf kick and, this time, tried to pierce through the opening in Ire's visor. Ire managed to evade again in the nit of time by leaning back; he even covered his stomach with his hands so Don couldn't pierce it.
Don noticed that Ire had covered the opening he tried to create and decided to take a few steps back to reassess what he could do, but Ire insisted on a fistfight and charged at Don. Ire threw out a flurry of fists which Don evaded. Ire was by no means slow though, Don was simply faster. Their fight left several after-images of themselves that even Lax, who seemed to have a keen eye, was finding it hard to follow up. To Avidity and Ego, they looked like a blur. It would seem like Ire wasn't going to give Don a chance to develop a plan, but who knew how long this would last. Both of them were using up a lot of energy right now, it was starting to become a battle of attrition now.