What greeted the Vessels were burning buses when they arrived at the bus station near the border of that town. Several people were frantically running just to escape from the fire. The police and several firefighters were doing their best to settle the situation. But what those people didn't expect was the arrival of a bunch of skeleton-like creatures led by what appeared to be a water-type creature.
"Great! Why do we have to deal with a creature related to water again?" Eichirou whined when he finally saw the full form of the Triske Monster.
"Seriously, Eichirou-san. Do you still have the right to say that?" Misae retorted rather incredulously. "I know your power is related to water but doesn't give you the right to complain about the monsters we have to fight."
"They just appear whenever they want to. I guess the broken Tarean Seal was really big enough for these troublemakers to come out," Shuichi said distraught.
"Let's go. We'll discuss this later," Itsuki said that the others agreed on.
Placing their Heaven's Medallions on the slots of each of their Celestial Shifters, they recited their transformation call.
"Spirit Shift, Start!"
A few seconds later, the Seitengers donned their suits and weapons and started fighting off the Gargonemas led by the Triske Monster who never said anything even after he saw them. SeitenEarth soon found that a little weird.
"Onii-chan, what's wrong?" SeitenLight asked while trying to fend off the Gargonema on her end. She noticed that her brother was paying attention to the Triske Monster instead of the Gargonemas going after them.
"I'll let you guys deal with this," was the only thing SeitenEarth said before he charged after the Triske Monster that was just standing on one part of the burning bus station looking at the scene.
'Wait... Just looking?' That was when the green warrior decided to use his inclination with the power of the earth to detect any other disturbances besides the ones that his comrades were dealing with at the moment. He closed his eyes to concentrate.
It didn't take him long to figure things out. But before he could even do anything to attack, the Triske Monster was already in front of him and punched him hard, sending him flying.
The others soon noticed this and were surprised to see SeitenEarth getting thrown off and then hitting the building. Due to the impact of the attack, the green warrior collapsed to the ground, but still trying to fight off his dizziness so he wouldn't lose consciousness.
"Itsuki!" the three older Seitengers yelled in worry and faced the Triske Monster.
"Onii-chan!" SeitenLight exclaimed before rashly turning her attention to the Triske Monster whom they don't even know the name. Come to think of it, this monster hadn't even said any word since they arrived. Could it be that her brother already noticed this? "What did you do to my brother?"
"Just this!"
SeitenLight only heard those words before she found herself also flying and eventually feeling her body hitting on something hard. As soon as she dropped to the ground, her transformation disintegrated and she was struggling to even move because of the impact.
"Erika! Are you okay?!" SeitenEarth could only shout as he tried to stand up despite the searing pain hitting him. He managed to do so and approached the struggling Erika.
"Onii-chan..." Erika could only say in pain. "What happened? That monster..."
"Yeah, I know," SeitenEarth replied along with a nod and turned his attention towards the Triske Monster still standing. "That Triske Monster standing there is just a trick. A double."
"A double? Then—-" But Erika's words were soon cut off when they heard more screams coming towards them.
The siblings were surprised to see the other three Seitengers getting thrown off and hitting some of the buildings' walls, as well.
"Guys!" both of them yelled in shock.
SeitenEarth immediately recovered from it and soon focused on the enemy. But to his surprise, the Triske Monster just standing there earlier was nowhere to be seen. "Where is he?"
"Right here."
Once again, SeitenEarth found himself flying as soon as he felt being punched hard and soon after, hitting the hard pavement. The pain he was feeling earlier doubled after that. But he mustn't lose consciousness now or his teammates—-
Wait, his teammates! He tried his best to look around the area to find both Misae, her transformation undone, and Erika. He sighed in relief somehow because Misae was with the red warrior while his sister was tended by SeitenWater. Extracting the blade of his HyakuReiDer and stabbing it to the ground, SeitenEarth used it as a support for him to be able to stand up.
He closed his eyes once more and concentrate. This wasn't the dream world where he couldn't use his powers over the earth. He just needed to put enough effort to do the task right—- and that was to find where the Triske Monster was.
SeitenEarth's eyes snapped open inside the helmet as soon as he was able to detect the monster's movements and location. With that, he took out his HyakuReiDer from the ground and inserted his Vessel Medallion Heaven Tiger into one of the two slots before pushing the required button. The blade of his weapon emanated a green-colored glow and he waited for the right time to deliver his attack.
He just hoped it would work, though. At least for a while.
"Onii-chan..." Erika could only utter as she and SeitenWater watched how the green warrior would deal with the situation where they couldn't even see where the Triske Monster was at the moment.
The other Seitengers could only watch with bated breath. What was SeitenEarth planning?
Before any of them could comprehend the situation, SeitenEarth noticed about four rays of laser beams fired from the western direction to the approaching Triske Monster from under the ground, as if swimming it. He took that as an opportunity for now and stabbed his HyakuReiDer to the ground, earning a pained scream from down under. It wasn't long before the ground where SeitenEarth stabbed his weapon exploded and soon after, revealed the real Triske Monster which was a water serpent-manta ray hybrid sort of a creature.
The Seitengers were surprised at the sight of the monster coming out from under the ground.
"He was there the entire time?" SeitenWater could only ask.
"I think so," Erika replied with a sigh. "Onii-chan said that the one who first appeared to us was just a double."
"Itsuki's power to sense using the earth is incredible," the blue warrior commented in awe.
"But where did those beams come from?"
It was the same question that bothered the other Seitengers even after the monster escaped for the time being. The injury that SeitenEarth gave to the Triske Monster was a deep one, judging it from the smoke coming out of the monster's body through that injury. So it was obvious that it needed to retreat just until the injury would be healed.
They had to prepare for the Triske Monster's next attack then if it comes to that.
SeitenFire was about to approach Itsuki who disabled his transformation soon after. But he was surprised to see the composer collapsing to the ground, letting go of his HyakuReiDer in the process.
"Onii-chan!"
"Itsuki!"
Immediately, the others, even the still hurting Erika, approached the unconscious Itsuki.
"That last attack he did must have taken a lot out of him," Shuichi commented.
"Not only that, using his ability to sense disturbance using the power of earth must be truly exhausting," Eichirou added.
"In any case, we need to head home. It's better if I could heal Itsuki there," Misae suggested.
"Can you even still do it, Misae-san? You're injured, as well," Erika said without bothering to hide her worries not just for her brother but also for the archer.
Misae smiled and ruffled Erika's hair. "It'll be fine. The wind around the area of the mansion somehow becomes a booster for me to do this thing."
"How is that even possible?" Eichirou asked with a frown.
The archer shrugged. "I don't know. I'll ask Hideoki-san or Nanami-san next time."
xxxxxx
On the rooftop of one of the buildings near the site of the Tarean attack, Helen could only watch the situation there. She didn't know what to feel, though. But the first thing she did as soon as the situation was temporarily settled was to smile, especially when she saw a particular someone she realized was one of the Seitengers.
"I guess this is where everything will become hard for the two of us... Erika..." she muttered and looked at the two cylindrical items in each of her hands.
The one on her left hand was the item she was always holding—-the same one that vibrated when it detected a Tarean attack a while back. The cylindrical item on her right hand, however, was the one she used to fire four laser beams towards the Triske Monster that was approaching the green warrior earlier.
"So the previous SeitenEarth's successor is a male one, huh? And to think it's even Erika's older brother..."
Helen heaved a heavy sigh a few moments after saying that. She did that without removing her sight from the items she was holding.
"Helen! What are you doing up here? Shouldn't you be staying in the lobby?"
Minako's words soon disrupted Helen's flow of thoughts and stealthily hid the two cylinders. "How am I supposed to stay in the lobby when there's a lot of people using it to hide from those creatures? Besides, I know I'll be safe here."
"How would you know?"
"I just... know."
The older woman sighed in retreat soon after. "Fine. You win. But come to think of it, things had gotten a little weird in this town since that earthquake in Mt. Kumamoto."
"Earthquake?"
"Yeah. You didn't know? There was an earthquake there that killed most of the children and teachers who were having their field trip around the area. But speculations were going around that the victims weren't killed by an earthquake, but by those creatures attacking earlier."
Mt. Kumamoto... Helen knew that place very well. Studied everything about it, even, with the help of her mentor and guardian who was a former historian. 'The location of the Tarean Seal created from the power of the first SeitenEarth...'
"Anyway, I think the situation has been dealt with. Now we can go to the Mizuhashi mansion and finally let you see Mizuhashi Hideoki."
Helen nodded and smiled. But behind that smile, she was trying hard to hide both her fears and worry. 'I can't believe that the Tareans had gotten so powerful... But what was that the reason why there were particular in attacking this place?'