--back with dante and duke—
Dante's P.O.V
I and duke continued to sprint up the tree branches to stay more hidden behind the large thick branches of the colossal trees, though we both still managed to keep our senses on high alert, as we started to pick up some very strange presence nearby. We kept on leaping from branch to branch, until we finally came to a halt.
"hey duke." I called out to duke's attention and managed to remain as quiet as possible just in case. Duke turned to me with a stoic look on his face, as he was attentive to dante's call.
"yeah?" duke responded with a neutral tone in his voice, while returning his gaze out into the thick forest, trying to still stay alert.
"look, i get why you left your team, you know, trying to stop and keep watch on the 1st reps from eliminating anymore team to something likely to fatal… but… since you're the leader, and obviously with the map, how will your team manage to get a winning chance, if their only way of finding their victims is out of reach?" I questioned duke, trying to keep my suspicions to myself. But duke just gave quick nod in response, as he then stood up to his full height while clicking his guns. I saw this and felt my body entering an almost ready for battle stance, just in case.
'could this maybe be a trap… hmmm, I need to be on guard-.'
"well, you see, just like what I said before. I'm also trying to lead away attention from my ground, if they really want to eliminate the team, they need to make sure I'm down for the count… so it's very highly they will look for me first, and for the map problem, already covered." Duke answered with a neutral tone in his voice, while turning to face dante. He showed that his current gears were different from what the leaders of all reps are required to wear, though the difference weren't too much. "one of my teammates managed to rewire and remove the map locator from my gear and turn it into a portable GPS for them to use, instead of me being with them all the time. And this makes it even better, since obviously it is quite noticeable that I'm the chosen leader of the 3rd reps, it will help remove attention from my team, since it's believed that all leaders are the ones with the map… the moment the map locator is destroyed along with my gears… my team will be eliminated, so yes, without me, they can't take out my team, as easy as that."
"whoa… you really though this through huh?" I said with an impressed look on my face, though in my mind I was relieved that he wasn't leading me to some sort of trap though.
"well… what can I say, I don't mid doing the heavy lifting for my team, even though most of them can be pretty stupid… they're still my comrade now and till the end." Duke finished with a smile on his face, but then reverting back to his usual stoic expression that always painted his face most time. "so what about you dante, why didn't you want to follow your team anyways, sure I understand you told me that you wanted to help me, but I feel there's more to it… or is this just a sick plan to take me out while your team go and take out mine."
"hmp at least the feeling is mutual, but no. again we're not the eliminators okay, I actually did it, to remove attention from my teammates… similar to yours, but mine is somewhat, different…" I told duke, reassuring him that he and his team is safe… but duke stared at me with a confused look on his face, though it wasn't noticeable at face glance due to his normal stoic facial expression. "you see… just after my fight with lance… when we were at the medical care treatment facility."
--suddenly flashback—
I laid on my bed with a distorted seems of balance, with everything spinning… though I still managed to get up from my bed. I opened my eyes to see lance sited on the other bed just opposite to mine, as he was sending daggers at my direction… but then managed to release a deep sigh at the end, with him staring back at the screen mounted just above the main door entrance of the room, showing the battles currently going on with the other reps.
"what are you… who are you?" lance spoke out with a angered tone in his voice, as he finally turned his attention fully at dante, but still seems to be hurt, holding his head with his right hand… feeling a sudden headache coming over him.
"I-I don't know what you mean-."
"SHUT UP! DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME!" lance stood up from his chair and summoned his spear, aiming the tip to my head, just in between my eyes, as I jolted back, with a rush of adrenaline pulsing through me. "I first thought you might have a hidden sacred arm with you… but no, I was wrong… you don't have any on you..."
"what do you mean?" I called out to him, being confused at the current situation.
"AT THE FIRST ASSESSMENT! YOU DESTROYED THE DORM, KNOWN TO BE ABLE TO MEASURE THE UNQUANTIFIABLE! DURING OUR BATTLE, AT THE FINAL MOMENT I WAS ABOUT TO CONCLUDE MY FINAL SPELL!" lance roared out in both rage and fear, dropping his spear to the ground, he started to grab his head as if his head would have burst if he kept on going. "…I saw it… I saw something in you that- that! Just felt too bizarre to exist… i-I saw something worst than anything I've imagined… the power was something that couldn't be appended by logic…"
"w-what did you see, lance… just relax, pleas-." Dante tried to calm down lance, but ended up being caught off by his sudden scream.
"I SAW THE END! YOU'RE THE END! I CAN'T LET YOU LIVE! YOU'RE THE END!" lance roared out and tried to reach out towards me with his bare hands, though my senses kicked in and I managed to dodge his attack attempt and also launch a quick jab to his head, knocking him out and also pushing his towards his bed.
'i-I'm the… end… how?'
--end of flashback—
"you see… I just have a feeling that he'll be after me the most… and I can't risk my team getting in the way of that… he might decide to take them ou-." I was about to conclude my sentence, but then a sudden fog horn blew, and alarmed everyone of the incoming hamjis. I saw duke sighing again and glaring at the path just ahead of us, as a magic circle came over his right eye.
"hmp… they're already here, talk about speed." Duke commented, while slowly pointing his right gun at the incoming hoard of hamjis coming our way. Then suddenly steam started to evolve from his gun, as he then took in a slow intake of air and breath out a large release of hot steam. The hamjis continued to make there way towards our path, but just below the grounds, but then duke jumped down to the ground, just in front of the hamjis, while pointing his gun directly at the head of the first hamji just in front of him. "and more work… damn.
Sacred arm: fallout."
The moment the hamji was shot in the head, a sudden blast of force pushed back the hamji and the rest behind, as this took them several miles away, reaping apart some trees in the way and then finally exploding at the end.
Duke stretched and blew away some of the smoke exhausting from the tip of his right gun, before throwing them up in the air, making them to fade away in the process. I came down from the branch I stood on with him, landing just beside him while eyeing the huge path of destruction that one of his bullets caused.
"whoa, talk about getting one shot." I said with a grin on my face, as I thought my pun was really funny. "but whoa now I see why your match just last more than 20 seconds."
"well like I always say, if it doesn't stay down… gun it down. Well though from the explosion I'm hearing very close, I'm guessing the assessment has official being, meaning that those 1st reps will be quite busy with these hamjis… giving us a clear chance of monitoring them." Duke pointed out, while preparing to continue sprinting.
"and due to the amount of hamjis around, they won't be able to sense our presences in the midst of theirs." I said, while duke was nodding his head in agreement, as we both launched up into the trees and continued our pursuit… but we both failed to acknowledge strange being far, far above us, as the being watched with a sinister smile on his face.
"it's almost time."