The beam of light shattered upon impacting against Ryuzio's headband—disintegrating completely—before the casing even touched ground. Lexnal was taken aback by this result, making his jaw loose.
Ryuzio eyes squished shut from the sharp pain that pierced his forehead, making him break his charge before he got Lexnal into his range. But range had never been a problem for him.
"Dragon Bullet!"
His Ether Gauntlet shot out toward Lexnal, but he had recovered from the surprise of the bullet impact, making him fully aware of the oncoming punch. He turned his torso left as he slid right, avoiding the fist without a scrape of damage.
Ryuzio deactivated his Bullet the moment he opened his eyes, ignoring the stinging pain on his forehead that had broken through his Ethersurge. The elongated Gauntlet turned to red flames as it blended with the air of the southern mines, Ryuzio finally getting close to Lexnal.
The slick-haired skyguard brought his right hand parallel to the ground, but before he could trigger another beam of light, Ryuzio threw a left uppercut to Lexnal's right elbow. The joint bent away from Lexnal's torso, making him release his grip on the weapon.
Ryuzio followed the punch with a right hook, his bare fist blazing with fiery Ether. Lexnal ducked under the blow, swiping his left arm in an arc, catching the falling Subjugator, his elbow sticking out of his bent arm. He thrust the pointy joint into Ryuzio's stomach, choking him of a breath or two.
Seeing the weapon back onto Lexnal's possession, Ryuzio grabbed the wrist of the arm whose elbow had just been stabbed into his abs, then threw his right fist into Lexnal's open left side as the skyguard stood taller, unbending his left arm.
But Lexnal thrust his open right palm across his body, the hand traveling past the underside of his left bicep, interrupting the arc of the oncoming punch by pushing against its forearm. He immediately pulled the hand back, but in the same movement, dropped the Subjugator from the hand whose wrist had been caught, the weapon returning to its original hand.
Lexnal grinned in the very next moment as he straightened his right arm forward, sticking the barrel of the Subjugator to Ryuzio's forehead. "Do you think it won't work even from this range—?"
Ryuzio moved his grip on Lexnal's left wrist down, clawing at the hand with the palm of his own flat on top of it. Ether flared through his left hand as he pushed it down with full force, breaking Lexnal's wrist.
"Flucking bastard," Lexnal grunted with gritted teeth, immediately slamming down the handle of the Subjugator on the fingers gripping his left wrist—
Ryuzio took his hand back the moment he heard a cracking sound, Lexnal hitting his own hand with the gun handle. The skyguard's eyes widened at his own stupidity, nerves popping on his neck as his jaw tightened—
Ryuzio slammed a right hammer fist on the armed hand, breaking the skyguard's grip on it. With the wrist of the other hand being broken, the weapon knocked straight down to the rocky ground. Unsure if a stomp could break it, Ryuzio kicked the Subjugator away instead, finally disarming Lexnal of the dumb energy gun.
Lexnal furious eyes met Ryuzio's satisfied ones as the skyguard grabbed his left wrist as leapt backward, filling a lot of distance between them, ending this exchange that had taken maybe 10 seconds. This was awesomely weird to Ryuzio. The skyguard didn't seem to have his Ethersurge activated, yet he could still walk and talk after a Dragon Bullet and a Gauntlet punch, and also push his body to extreme movements like this leap that had put him out of Ryuzio's range.
But again, range had never been a problem for him.
Ryuzio took his Bullet stance, twisting his body rightward, sliding back his right foot, pulling his right fist behind and covering it with his open left palm. Dragon Cloak made tens of hexagonal Scales burst out from the Scalemark on his right shoulder, which then spiraled down to form Dragon Gauntlet around his right fist.
It was as if he had a mini sun ready to fire.
"If rock lungs is a myth," Ryuzio said to Lexnal as the Bullet charged with blazing Ether. "Then why can't the miners leave?"
Lexnal grinned, spitting out the lollipop he had in his mouth to the side. "You really wanna know?" He opened his mouth wide, his throat swelling. There was a slithering movement in his neck, as if something was crawling out of it. The throat got smaller as something stuck out of his mouth. It wasn't his tongue.
Something purple and green crawled out of the skyguard's mouth and he lowered his face. The slimy thing traveled with a slithering movement from his neck to his right shoulder. He pointed his right hand to Ryuzio, the bug-looking thing of a forearm's length resting its head on the back of his hand, body lying on the forearm.
Ryuzio didn't break his stance all through this. But he was really amazed at what he was looking at. Not in an awesome way, no, in a weird one. He hadn't seen many people do what Lexnal just did. Another reason why he must hurry to that Grandshrine place in Welkis and get a skyjet. The Skies was indeed filled with wonders.
###
Ernash fired a shot at Hitryel following Lexnal's at Ryuzio.
Hitryel smiled demonically. 'Smoking idiot!' He brought his cuffed hands to the red beam's path, ducking his head right after. As expected, the streak of light drilled through the chains connecting the cuffs, freeing Hitryel's hands.
"Fast," Ernash said, dropping his weapon. "But are you strong?"
"Huh?" Hitryel said, annoyed. "Pick that up. Do you think I need a handicap against someone like you?"
Ernash snorted. "The arrogance of you brawlers amazes me. The world is different outside the Nonagon, you know that?"
"The last man to mention that was punched across a road by me," Hitryel said simply. "Just a warning to not disrespect me by holding back."
"Those intimidation tactics don't work out here," Ernash said with a shrug. "But don't worry; I didn't drop my Subjugator to go easy." He brought a hand to the front, open palm facing up. "I did it to use my Ethersurge." Something inside the pouch tied to his belt glowed with a multicolored light. "I'm a Halfbright. I can only Harness."
That meant he couldn't store Ether to use any Skills. Then what was he trying to do.
"Most skyguards are Halfbrights," Ernash said, hand still held to the front. "That's why Subjugators are our main weapons. Any Bright can use them as long as the weapon is loaded with gemslugs." Particles of light burst out from the pouch and floated toward the hand held out to the front, dancing around the arm before settling on the palm. "Just like Halfbrights only able to Harness can use Etherskills as long as they have gemspheres."
"And what's that?" Hitryel said, raising a brow.
Ernash took out a ball of glass the size of a big marble from his pouch. "This is a gemsphere." The surface of the sphere was perfectly smooth and glossy, and the transparency of it revealed the piece of a blue stone at its core, the glow of which was dimming. "It stores Ether directly proportional to the material at its heart. And guess what completes a gemsphere? That's right—a pure lucentum crystal!" He put it back into the pouch. "Do you finally understand why Lexnal's plan is so brilliant?"
'With the control over lucentums,' Hitryel thought, 'they can control over the ammo of weapon, ammo of Skills, and fuel of skyjets… This Lexnal guy sure was onto something…'
"Too bad," Hitryel finally said, bringing his fists forward, the broken chain attached to the cuffs of each wrist hanging down separately. "It won't last for long. After I defeat you, I'll just ruin his entire business for hiring someone who doesn't apologize after touching a warrior's weapon."
"You were just a brawler, kid," Ernash said with a sigh, hand open in front. "Don't make it sound bigger than it actually was."
"Who's talking about the smoking ABC?" Hitryel said. "That place was only dulling my skills. Even its best fighter was pathetic. So I got out of there to see what the world has to offer. So far I've only found a clown that breathed fire and a skyguard that keeps begging."
Ernash closed his fist, grinning. "So you don't have a Heart on you."
"Heart?" Hitryel said. "You must love explaining, huh?"
"Heart Hostage," Ernash said, taking his fist back. "That's my Etherskill. I use it to take the most precious thing my target possesses."
"So you weren't faster than the eye, after all, huh?" Hitryel said with a grin. "But again, too bad, I didn't bring Kelty's gloves to this fight. They'd lose value just by being around someone like you."
Ernash laughed. "Who said that a Heart has to be a physical thing?"
"Huh?" Hitryel said, confused.
Ernash brought his fists forward. "Since I've already done a lot of explaining, let me just show you instead."
Hitryel pumped Ether throughout his body. 'He can't possibly steal a non-physical thing that I possess. That'd mean losing something like my Flow. But I can use it. So was that to throw off my guard.' Thinking about it was probably what he wanted. Maybe that's why he'd said it. Hitryel wouldn't lose focus. Not to something like this.
Ernash activated his Ethersurge at the expense of some more gemspheres in his pouch, a smoky red aura erupting from his skin.
'Hold on… He's actually useless without that pouch!'
Hitryel closed the distance slowly, knowing what he had to do to end the fight quickly.
###
Collect! Takes a second!