"SOUGOOOO!"
"LUNAAAA!"
Mika's voice echoed through the air, a desperate plea calling out to them as he frantically cleared the tumbling rocks one by one. Silence greeted his cries, deepening Mika's growing unease.
Never in all his days had Mika felt such a primal fear grip his heart, not even when faced with the menacing gaze of the skeleton queen herself, observing from her eerie perch. Undeterred, Mika pressed on, refusing to entertain the thought that his companions might be lost to him forever.
However, it did not help Mika as he could not ignore his friends' demise.
His thoughts had gone silent, his breathing pattern were disturbed, his gaze uncontrolled, and a trembling body.
Upon the thought that all hope was lost for those two...
...in a twist of fate that seemed almost too incredible to be true, a tempestuous hurricane of magic surged forth, sweeping away the massive stones that had threatened to bury them alive.
Mika gazed in wonder at the swift and skillful mastery of Sougo's magical prowess, a revelation that left him breathless with admiration. Mika could no longer stand, the tension of stress was finally ceased as he breathed in relief.
Every ounce of magic within Sougo coalesced into a dazzling display within his outstretched left hand, pulsing with his raw power.
With newfound understanding and control, he harnessed this potent energy to raise the fallen rocks, manipulating them with a deft touch borne of his magical enlightenment.
Empowered by his mastery, Sougo wielded his wind magic with finesse, lifting the burdensome obstacles skyward and guiding their movements slowly with a similar looking ability like telekinesis. A look of pure astonishment graced Mika's face, his eyes wide with awe at the spectacle unfolding before him.
With the stones under Sougo's control, Sougo hurled the massive boulders at the skeleton queen. The clash of magic and malice hung heavy in the air, setting the stage for round 2 that would test Sougo's newfound ability.
"You're..." Luna was unharmed, but after saving both his and her life, Sougo experienced a strange occurrence. "What?" Luna responded, tilting her head in confusion.
Sougo remained unwavering in his focus, his eyes locked in a steely gaze upon the Skeleton Queen, his mind a wellspring of strategic maneuvers. Beside him, Mika too readied himself for the impending confrontation, plotting his course of action with meticulous precision.
The Skeleton Queen, shrouded in a veil of dust stirred up by the recent barrage of pebbles, emerged from the haze with an ominous gleam in her glowing purple eyes. The remnants of the debris fell away as she revealed her formidable telekinetic abilities, a formidable power that loomed large as a daunting challenge for Mika and Sougo to overcome.
"I'm afraid that her telekinesis will be quite troublesome for us, unless we attack her carefully planned..." Mika voiced his concerns, his brow furrowed with worry. "Let me inform you on this one, telekinesis is the art of manipulating objects with the mind can also be performed with magic. Much like what you did earlier to save yourself and Luna. But, yours are visible while hers doesn't."
With a swift command, Mika instructed Luna to seek shelter, her safety of paramount importance as they delved into their strategic deliberations. "Luna, find cover! Me and Sougo will handle this! Save your worries for us, we'll do just fine," Mika directed, his voice firm with resolve as he and Sougo laid the groundwork for their imminent clash.
"Before we fight, I suggest you refrain from employing explosive magic... We're in a cave after all..." Mika cautioned, his words a beacon of caution amidst the charged atmosphere. With their defensive stance firmly in place, Mika eschewed aggressive tactics in favor of a more cautious approach, acutely aware of the unpredictable nature of the Queen's powers.
Recognizing the key to confronting the queen lay in disrupting her focus, Mika devised a daring plan of distraction, knowing that her telekinetic prowess hinged on full concentration. Embracing the role of provocateur, Mika swiftly divided their forces, each venturing in separate directions to sow discord in the queen's psychic hold with Sougo going to the right and Mika to the opposite.
Relying on normal arrows, Mika conserved his energy by using his practiced aim; later then Mika would unleash only an arrow. The arrow missed the shot, but succeeded in goading the Queen into action, her telekinetic abilities brought to bear in response to the perceived threat.
In another act of distraction, he sent arrows above her with the intention of not hitting her, but to get her undivided attention.
By imagining a sphere of shield protecting her, he figured out how telekinesis worked with his careful observation. From the moment Sougo's retaliatory rock struck a chord of vulnerability within the Queen's defenses, a revelation dawned upon Mika. The numerous assault of heavy rocks, uncovered the flaw of her telekinetic prowess-a weakness born of strain and exhaustion, like cooling down.
Mika recognized that the true key to victory lay not in conventional attacks but in leveraging the sheer weight and volume of objects against her. After Sougo's hurled the rocks, striking her left wrist: elicited a momentary pause for her next attack.
This seized Mika's opportunity because of this information he had accumulated.
With a calculated gambit born of necessity, Mika embraced a daring offensive plan that proved more effective and would upend the battle.
Mika finally set his sights on a more risky strategy: exploding the tomb; Ironically when he told Sougo not to.
"This might sound crazy, though I did forbid you to do this... Sorry, Sougo. I'm going for the offensive maneuver!"
As Mika's arrow soared high above, imbued with destructive magic, the whole tomb trembled under the weight of his audacious gambit. The explosion sent thunderous sounds, the ceiling was demolished, burying the three deep within the bowels of the tomb.
In the aftermath of Mika's decision, the dust settled to reveal a scene of destruction and upheaval, with debris strewn haphazardly around them. Yet, amidst the rubble and ruin, a glimmer of hope shone through as Sougo swiftly saved himself and Luna by harnessing the power of his wind magic; the same as he did last time to create a protective cocoon around himself and Luna, now guiding them to safety with practiced ease.
"Whose brilliant idea was that?!" Luna's voice rang out in the darkness, a mixture of exasperation and relief coloring her words as she and Sougo were both okay, thanks to Sougo's quick thinking that ensured their safety.
The plan worked pretty well, hence, Sougo's keen senses detected no ominous energy from the defeated Skeleton Queen. This left them unharmed and free to continue their exploration of the treacherous caverns.
In the dimly lit confines of the narrow cave, Sougo took the lead, his steps measured and purposeful as he ventured deeper into the shadows to locate Mika, Luna trailing close behind.
The place was too dark to see, making Sougo inadvertently stumble down a rock with each step. Nevertheless, Sougo kept going. Luna was all quiet and followed deeper with Sougo.
After a minute-long search, Sougo paused his movements. He couldn't see anything, so he found it pointless. Thus, he closed his eyes trying to sense as faint of energy as he could.
A violent gust of wind swirled around Sougo, a profound transformation took hold, stirring his innermost being and unlocking a dormant power within him. Luna, gently pushed back by the force, watched in awe as a newfound sense of heightened awareness dawned upon Sougo, his perception sharpening to an extraordinary degree.
The verdant hue danced and swirled, a manifestation of the wind that now enveloped him, serving as both a shield and a guide on his journey through the labyrinthine tomb.
With each passing moment, Sougo's senses sharpened to a razor's edge, granting him a power that far surpassed any previous state he had ever been in. His senses of hearing, smell, sight, touch, and taste had been amplified exponentially, leading him to believe that he could now utilize his wind magic passively, without requiring active use.
Sougo navigated the shadowed corridors with unerring precision, his movements guided by the ethereal green currents that danced before his eyes. Embracing this symbiotic relationship with the wind, Sougo relinquished control to its guiding hand, allowing it to lead him unerringly through the twisting passages of the tomb.
"What is this feeling...?" A sense of unease began to gnaw at Sougo's consciousness. A powerful aura of ominous energy weighted the air, seeping from the very walls of the tomb like a noxious miasma that threatened to suffocate him with dread. "What is that...?"
From the tomb's corners, he felt a sinister air that was so strong it made Sougo perspire and made him uneasy. He thought there was something ominous and dangerous emanating from the depth of the tomb because of the dark aura, which became more intense as he explored deeper.
With the unsettling force more frightening than demons, Sougo was forced to stop. What he had seen that Luna didn't see, was a door generating a huge amount of unknown energy that frightened Sougo to the bone.
Luna's asked with a tone of concern about his abrupt stop and silence, "What happened?"
"Step away... I must destroy that door..." Sougo raised his katana, pointing upwards.
The tension gripping him was unlike anything he had ever experienced; the overwhelming stress he felt, coupled with the deafening cries emanating from beyond that door, left him stunned. Although those heard cries belonged to strangers...
There were his daughter's...
Despite Luna's deep concern, she obediently retreated without a word.
Sougo, channeling an immense amount of energy into his blade, prepared to unleash a devastating slash capable of demolishing a massive building.
Then, Mika managed to stop Sougo in time...
"HEY, STOP! DON'T BE AN IDIOT!"