Standing outside the remains of the Nozomu residence, the kitsune-clad figures slowly crept their way toward the crumbled building that supposedly housed the supposed Tansu vessel. After tracking down the individual, demanding him to stand down, then ultimately subduing him by force, taking him out with an explosive dagger, the troops of Unit Katsuryoku went to retrieve the Tansu vessel's body.
"Notify Katsuko of our success." A masculine voice reverberated from behind a fox mask, reaching the ears of the other identical troops nearby.
In response, one of the troops disappeared with a single bound in a flash. Looking back to the totaled house that the Tansu vessel resided in, they were forced to lift several displaced pieces of the building. It was a shock that the walls of the house hadn't abdicated their hold on the roof.
After countless minutes of searching, a troop stumbled across a chest that only received minimal damage—a few scratches and indents scattered all over it. However, it was open and completely empty.
"Hey," A troop from the front of the fallen house called out. "Have you found the body?"
The masked troop towering over the chest quickly replied, "No, sir!"
With the quick-witted reply, the troop's eyes returned to the chest on the ground.
Suddenly, a small, static noise could be heard, garnering the masked troop's attention. The troop then left the chest in the rubble of the home, walking over to the source of the static noise, crushing fallen boards of the house with his boots.
Then, the static noise returned.
"Come out! You're completely surrou—!"
*CRACK!*
In an instant, a blue-ish glow surged toward the troop, striking him in the torso with extreme force, both impaling and launching the troop several meters back, crashing through the home and landing outside.
"What was that!" A troop in the distance snapped at the abrupt event, brandishing his sword quickly. Many other troops did the same.
Without warning, the heads of the other troops in the home started to fly off their bodies. The masked troops outside watched in shock and fear, seeing no visible cause for the quick decapitation of their fellow followers.
As the last troop fell to the ground, a head rolling across the rubble, a person in white appeared in a blur, bewildering every remaining kitsune-clad figure present.
The eyes of every Unit Katsuryoku member widened. Standing before the masked troops, Kaminari Nozomu stood tall, glaring at the soldiers through their fox-like masks.
Covering the majority of Nozomu's upper body was a long, hoodless, white cloak. On the back, the word "spark" was horizontally translated into kanji. Accompanying Nozomu's new piece of clothing, lightning danced off of the cloak, encompassing his entire body ominously, eliciting audible cracks and pops.
In Nozomu's right hand, he held onto the head of a deceased troop. Using his left hand, he tore off the fox mask from the head, revealing an emotionless face. Nozomu turned the mask that resided on his left to face him, observing the item intently.
"...A fox, huh?" Nozomu voiced, alerting every kitsune-clad soldier in the vicinity.
In a moment of anger—*crunch!*—the fox mask in Nozomu's hand was crushed to pieces with a single squeeze, the remnants of the black mask slipping to the ground silently.
Nozomu's eyes returned to the remaining kitsune-clad troops, an ominous wave of apprehension and nervousness washing over the soldiers simultaneously.
"I don't know how you managed to enter Buraun, or how you know what I harbor, but what I do know is… that you're all about to be dead within the next few moments." Nozomu declared, his left arm retracting to the side of his body.
A masked soldier suddenly steeled himself. He crouched, digging two fingers into the ground below him. "We're prepared for an encounter like this men! Don't tarnish Lord Phoenix's name!"
Underneath Nozomu, yellow magic seeped from the ground in the form of tendrils, lunging themselves at the white-haired man. However, Nozomu's body flickered and vanished before any of the yellow tendrils could reach him.
Oblivious to the attacking troop, Nozomu appeared behind him, reeling a fist back and slamming the troop's head into the ground, leveling the area around him.
Pulling his fist from the ground, Nozomu saw the blood that clung to his knuckles, a droplet occasionally falling every few seconds.
"Bring out the Juggernaut!"
Hearing those cryptic words, Nozomu steered his attention to his left, looking on as a hulking soldier clad in heavy plates made of what appeared to be some sort of alloy appeared, jumping down from a rooftop. The alloy plates concealed this particular troop's entire body from head to toe.
Nozomu deadpanned. "You have to be kidding me…"
Conjuring a handful of lighting into his palm, Nozomu extended his right arm toward the Juggernaut, discharging a palm-sized lightning strike at the bulk soldier.
*Fizzz!*
Once the lightning made contact with the Juggernaut, it instantly died out, proving itself to be ineffectual against the alloy plates.
The Juggernaut brushed off its shoulders, revealing a red hue that resided in the palm of its hands. The Juggernaut then assumed a stance, bending its knees and hearing the alloy plates rattle from the motion.
"Your lightning will prove to be useless in this fight, Tansu vessel!" The Juggernaut soldier proclaimed, lunging at Nozomu.
Nozomu narrowed his eyes. As the bulk adversary rushed forward, the white-haired man analyzed the situation.
'I'm not sure if I can take down this Juggernaut person with pure power—not with what I currently have, at least.'
Throwing a punch, the Juggernaut watched as his fist came close to colliding with Nozomu's face, only for the white-haired man to vanish and reappear behind him, releasing a powerful kick that sent the air around them flying.
However, the Juggernaut latched onto Nozomu's leg, tossing the man down the entire pathway that they stood on, seemingly throwing Nozomu into a completely different section of the village.
Shortly after, the Juggernaut soldier followed suit.
"We won't let Lord Phoenix down!"
XXX
Despite Tanjo fleeing, Oshieru couldn't fret. He stuck close to his students, his tachi sword gleaming in the sunlight. As the village continued to be breached by unknown warriors, the instructor of Class 1AB stood tall.
"We can't worry about Tanjo right now! What we can do is prevent the invaders from reaching this crowd of people!" Oshieru stated, standing in front of his students.
The invaders were closing in on the center of the village quickly. It was unnerving how many there were, hopping from the rooftop of buildings.
In the minds of every student in Class 1AB, they could only think about their family, home, and potential death. But, tossing those thoughts to the side, the students triumphed over their emotions, preparing to fight.
"What do we do then to prevent them from reaching this crowd, Mr. Oshieru?" Meisei asked, looking up to his instructor.
Oshieru observed the front of the massive crowd of villagers.
"I'll handle the front! I need you guys to assist any stranded villagers, as well as ward off any stray invaders if possible. Stick close to each other in case of emergency!" Oshieru ordered, dashing away from his students.
The students of Class 1AB turned to one another, looking into each other's eyes.
Akogare stepped forward. "We got this! This is a turning point in our lives! This is where we become warriors!"
Naderamu nodded, walking to the right. "He's right. We need to fortify the crowd as much as we can—we need to use what we have learned so far and protect all of these people!"
"With Tanjo gone, we're down one helper." Sukudo sounded, gaining the attention of his classmates.
"Well," Utsukushi started. "We'll just have to give this all that we got!"
XXX
'Almost there.'
Tanjo continued to rush to the source of the explosion that he had seen prior to him running. During this, his mind was clouded with worry. The explosion from before was dangerously close to his home.
It was difficult running through waves of frantic villagers, having to navigate himself through every village pathway all while crowds of people stomped their way across Buraun.
Finally, Tanjo had managed to turn onto the pathway of his home, his eyes darting to the Nozomu residence. The sight nearly gave Tanjo a heart attack.
'Wh-what happened!?'
His home was razed to the ground. Every other house in the block was relatively normal, but his house was ravaged from the inside out. Walking through what used to be the front door, Tanjo's eyes scanned the contents of the fallen home. The ceiling was falling, the walls were crumbling, and the floor contained piles of rubble.
Tanjo had to swat away smoke that drifted toward him. Everything around him was demolished; the back of the house was the only area that wasn't entirely damaged.
'Where is Old Man and—!'
"Hold it right there!"
Tanjo froze, the sound of a muffled voice behind him made the jet-black-haired boy jolt in fear. Turning around, Tanjo saw a figure concealed behind a fox mask and black clothing pointing a sword at him threateningly.
"You must be a warrior here, yes? Stand down now!" The figure demanded.
Tanjo obeyed, getting onto his knees. The figure got closer, sticking his sword to Tanjo's neck, letting blood trickle down his blade. The teenage boy, panicked.
'I need to do something!' Tanjo rationalized, an idea storming his mind.
Subtly pointing a palm to the ground, going unnoticed by the masked figure—*boom!*—Tanjo released a small blast, distancing himself from the figure with the sword.
As the masked figure stabilized himself, Tanjo went to strike.
'Remember all of those times sparring with Akogare!'
First, Tanjo landed a solid blow on the stomach of the masked figure, then used his other hand to hit his opponent once more in the face.
*SHING!*
Tanjo bent backward to avoid an incoming jab from a sword, backing up swiftly. The masked figure's free hand formed a small amount of purple magic, sending a beam toward Tanjo.
Reacting quickly, Tanjo maneuvered around the purple beam, hearing as the attack crashed into the back of the house. Clenching his hand into a fist, Tanjo lunged at the masked figure, going in for a heavy blow.
"Hah!"
But Tanjo's arm was caught by the masked figure.
"You brat!" The sword-wielding man yelled, pushing Tanjo to the ground forcefully.
Tanjo grunted from the pain of being pushed into the rubble on the ground, closing his eyes from the impact. Slowly, Tanjo cracked open his eyes. Suddenly, something caught the teenage boy's attention.
'...No…'
A small, furry body could be seen lying on the ground, surrounded by debris and rubble. Its body was curled, eyes closed, and its ears drooped downward. Blood stained the fur that coated its body.
'...Kit!'
Kit. The kitten that Tanjo rescued not too long ago. The kitten that used to be malnourished, lost, and dangerously close to death. Tanjo was happy to bring the kitten into his home and was extremely elated when the Old Man accepted its presence.
Kit was Tanjo's first living thing to rescue. After failing to save Mizuki, Tanjo clung to the feeling of saving Kit. Now, that very kitten was unresponsive, lying on the ground in its own blood.
At the sight of Kit, something within Tanjo clicked.
For the first time ever, Tanjo experienced unadulterated rage.
XXX
Woo! Another chapter down! A lot seems to be happening, right? This is all leading to the end of Volume Three! What will happen to Nozomu? What might the students of Class 1AB do to save the villagers? And, more recently, what will Tanjo do? Stay tuned for more!
Have a Great Day!
Peace - Cr1ticalz_