'Shit, they know about Reia.' Akira hearing the words lonely queen from the half tiger meant that they were either from the military or the Rebels. Akira looked at the weapons they were using and with the minimal light, it was hard to tell.
'It looks rather primitive and an older model of what the military has. They must be Rebels and if they recognise Reia, we will most likely be killed.' Reia during her time as the lonely queen killed many Rebels so it's not a surprise if stories went around.
Akira letting go of Reia's legs quickly pulled out his sword and swung down at the half tiger in one motion. Infusing his corruption essence into the sword, Akira cut open the half tiger's chest, killing her.
With Reia in one hand and his sword in the other, he did not have many options as there were still 5 members left.
The members turned around to see what happened, but as they turned, Akira threw one of his swords at the half spider piercing her chest. The sword missed her heart, however the corruption started eating away at her and was in excruciating pain.
"AHHHHH!" She screamed while grabbing her head in pain wanting whatever was eating away at her to stop.
Akira pulled out his other sword and members started realising what was going on.
"Kill them!" The old man gave the order and they started to prepare to shoot Akira. Their guns started to glow grey powering up to shoot.
"Tch this isn't good." Akira hoped to kill one more, but they were quick with their response. Thankfully they were on the stairs, so Akira managed to get out of the way before they fired. Getting around the corner, Akira put down Reia who had surprisingly not woken up from the noise.
'Looks like I got to protect sleeping beauty, she better repay me for this.'
Akira pulled out his other sword while the sound of footsteps of going down the stairs was heard.
'Let's see how they handle lightning.' Akira sprinted around the corner, surprising the Rebels while he charged his other sword with lightning.
Throwing his sword at the staircase it released an electric shock causing the bodies of the members to seize up and let go of their guns.
Akira then pulled out his rifle and fired at the 3 members hitting them all with corruption bullets. They all began to scream in pain falling to their knees unable to do anything.
'Good thing they haven't figured out the corruption's weakness.' Akira had one fatal weakness when it came to using corruption on people. If the person were to use their own essence or is currently using it, the corruption that would eat away at their brain would be absorbed by the person's essence instead.
So it was important for Akira to disarm anyone before he would shoot them otherwise the constant flow of essence would negate the corruption turning them into normal bullets.
The old man who was further up the stairs was examining Akira's sword that was in the half spider's body.
'Where have I seen this sword before.' The old man went to pull out the sword, but upon getting close a mist filled with lightning appeared around the handle.
'Mist and lightning, who was the boy that had the 2 essence types.' The old man pondered on this while the other 3 were trying to take out Akira.
"Hey there, hope you know it's not good to touch other people's belongings without permission." While walking up the steps, Akira picked up his sword that was lodged into the steps and holstered his gun on his back.
"Heh, now why shouldn't I take away the belongings of a military dog." The old man finally figured out who the sword belonged to. Akira entered the light where the sunlight was able to reach, revealing his face fully.
"Akira, the one that accidentally killed his best friend while in the academy." The old man had a smug face while Akira's face went dark from the comment.
"How do you know about that?" Akira had his suspicions, but as of right now he couldn't care less and only wanted to kill the man in front of him.
"Ha! It's your old headmaster, don't think something like that could easily be hidden, if it wasn't for your family covering it up, I would have kicked you out." The old man had a grin trying to provoke Akira.
"So you're the bastard that Reia lashed out at before she graduated from military school because you couldn't control your hands." Akira slowly walked up the steps getting closer to the old man.
"And I would do it again."
The last comment made by the old man pushed Akira over the edge, as during his teenage years attending a military school, one of his upperclassmen was Reia. The day before Reia's class was about to move on to the military the headmaster had tried to lay his hands on Reia thinking she would be helpless.
However, Reia with her sword went to kill the headmaster before he could get close, but only managed to cut his eye leaving a scar. But because she attacked the headmaster, Reia was unable to move straight to the higher ranks, forced to go through the normal process.
Without saying a word Akira dashed up the stairs closing the gap between him and the old man.
Akira slashed downwards with his sword, but the old man brought his arms in front of his body. 2 gadgets that were under his sleeves glowed a brown before releasing a shield made of essence covered his body.
Akira collided with the shield and sparks of essence went all over the place.
"Tch." Akira clicked his tongue as essence shields are one of the most powerful shields, requiring an immense amount of energy to break. One downside though it required a huge amount of essence to use, but for a veteran, it would be possible for them to hold a shield for hours.
"Is this all you got Akira?!" The old man did not give up on trying to provoke Akira even further.
"Is the coward going to come out of his body shield and fight me!" Akira had no way to get around the old man and found it extremely petty that he wouldn't fight Akira head-on.
"I don't need to." Suddenly the shield started to glow sending out an invisible wave.
Without realising it Akira was sent flying back down the stairs by an invisible force sent out by the shield.
Crashing into the wall and hitting his head once again, Akira gritted his teeth in pain.
"How pitiful to be put to the floor so easily." The old man walked down the steps approaching Akira intending to kill him. The old man was now at the bottom of the stairs, about to approach Akira to finish him off.
"It won't be that easy." Akira was about to try to get up in one last attempt to kill the old man.
However, Akira's head was spinning and was unable to see straight, making his chances of survival extremely low, until suddenly a purple light appeared from behind the old man.
Reia who had a face full of rage and intent to kill, charged her sword to the max creating a lightning blade. The old man turned around and a wave of fear washed through his body as it was the same look Reia had when he received his scar.
Reia jumped at the old man slashing down with her sword as fast as she could.
The old man however, was able to pull the shield in Infront of him just in time, managing to barely block Reia's sword.
However, due to the amount of essence Reia put into her sword the shield started to crack. Bolts of lightning flailed around where the sword contacted the shield creating smaller cracks in the shield.
"Shit." Trying to pull away from Reia to avoid breaking the shield, The old man attempted to walk backwards up the stairs. Reia however, pulled back her blade and hit the shield one last time causing it to shatter.
Reia's sword continued its trajectory, cutting the old man's handoff. The old man grunted in pain, throwing down small metal boxes on the stairs while blood poured onto the floor.
"Die." Reia went to finish off the old man, but suddenly a wall of essence was created at the bottom of the stairs.
"HAHA, next time you won't be so lucky." The old man grunted while continuing to walk up the stairs, trying to use this opportunity to escape. The metal boxes the old man placed down where small essence banks when placed together will create a wall that will last for a certain amount of time.
"BASTARD! GET BACK HERE!" Reia, still having her sword covered in lighting, continued to bash at the wall, but no crack was being made due to most of the essence going into destroying the shield.
Reia considered going through the hole they fell in, but the drop was too high for Reia to jump up.
The old man continued to run away while the essence in Reia's sword drained away with each strike.
Akira, who recovered from being blasted into a wall, came up behind Reia putting his hand on Reia's shoulder.
"Reia, it's too late, we won't be able to catch him at this rate." Akira could see tears starting to form in Reia's eyes as she still continued to hit the essence wall.
"I swear I will hunt that bastard down!" Reia's list of people to kill grew.
'Why didn't I pull out my rifle.' Akira cursed himself as he had the perfect opportunity to kill the old man since his back was turned for a moment but he was too disoriented from hitting the wall.
"Next time I see that old man, he is dead for sure." Reia took one last hit at the wall before falling to her knees out of breath.