"Oh shi—"
Before she could fully acknowledge her mistake, Nebula had already grabbed Aisha's leg and flung her body back to the cliff she jumped from.
"Mind your business." She said as she continued walking forward.
"Ahh— Ooh!" Aisha screamed as she flew without control when out of nowhere, someone reached out their hand to catch her by the head.
"So this is where you've been?" The unknown woman said as she stood on a strange flying board, with Aisha in her hand.
"S– Sister Alya." Aisha stuttered as she looked at the woman's face.
"You're in big trouble with mom." Alya threw her sister on her shoulder and turned her board in the other direction, flying back to the city.
"Wait, Sister Alya, are we just going to go home like this?"
"Yup." Alya answered with a bored expression on her face.
"But that woman... Uhh." Aisha didn't really know what to say. She was the one who had attacked the unknown person first, and the white weapon probably belonged to her anyway. Nevertheless, Aisha wanted revenge, but she as hell couldn't get it... At least not without her sister's help.
Seeing her elder sister ride slowly back home, while looking around the highlands, Aisha suddenly knew what to say. "Sister, that S-ranker hit me."
Alya's board suddenly stopped in mid air. "What did you say?" She squeezed her little sister's leg. Alya wouldn't get mad if someone actually beat her sister in a fight, it was her own battle, so the consequences must also be hers to bear.
So caring for her sister's petty grudges was out of the question. "Did you say, S-rank?"
"Y– yeah. Remember? There are other divisions of this island that has been revealed. And did you not consider the fact that there—"
"Could be others I haven't fought yet!" Alya's mouth suddenly widened into what could only be described as a beastly smile. Her canines were human for sure, however with the grin that was on her face, they were just as sharp as a blood sucking monster's.
She lifted her sister with one hand and threw her into the distance. "Get those idiots out of here."
BOOM!!!
Alya bent her knees and shot back into the outskirts at a speed no ordinary buoy-board could hope to imitate, as the air resistance pushing back against her body was so immense, it could turn a car into a plate.
Needless to say, she had gotten to Nebula in point five seconds.
BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!
As she stopped abruptly, the built up wind pressure surrounding her body blew right past Nebula and then the ground in front of her.
Nebula stopped walking as the floor in front of her was gone. With a sigh, she turned her head to look over her shoulder. Nebula could see a woman in a matching grey hoodie and pants sitting on a strange floating object. Apart from the object though, Nebula also noticed the look on the woman's face. She was familiar with the expression on Alya's face because of how long she had spent living amongst beasts and animals.
Alya was hungry, but her type of hunger wasn't something that could be satiated by any ordinary meal.
"You didn't get harmed by the intensity of that stop." Alya looked ahead with excitement. "You're really an S-ranker aren't you?"
"Let's get this over with." Nebula sighed as she turned her back towards Alya and took her hands out of her pockets.
Alya didn't question what Nebula was doing. It might as well be a trap, but her philosophy was to break out of traps just as she broke into them.
She did a back flip, leaving her board in the air and then grabbing it with her hand as she landed on the ground.
The 'board' wasn't a board at all, it was a weapon, a very heavy weapon. The weapon's design was complex, but simplifying it; it was like a thick metal board with two wide square spaces in each end of it, forming handles. And on the opposite length of the metal board, was a protruding point, making that end look like a wide isosceles triangle instead of a flat surface.
At the center of the board, in the middle of handles was a round doughnut like object passing lengthwise from one side to the other. That 'doughnut' part would spin when Alya rode the board.
The excited woman grabbed her weapon by one of its two handles and swung it at the woman in front of her, not holding back her strength.
BOOM!
Alya's weapon blasted through the air, however, even when it had almost hit its target, Nebula had no intention of moving.
"!!!" The sharp length of the weapon sliced cleanly through Nebula's body. Alya stared with wide eyes, the woman she had just spilt in half, unaware of the punch that was already making its way to her face.
BOOM!
Alya burst through the air from the strength of Nebula's punch, breaking through a cliff and flying a few hundred meters further.
Nebula's upper body attached itself to the lower part as white puffy smoke connected them together.
She stomped on the ground and flew in the direction Alya did.
Seeing her approach, Alya stuck her feet in the ground and swung her weapon to the side, creating a crescent slash of wind just from the strength of the attack. Nebula careied her arms to block the crescent slash, but Alya had already rose her weapon above her head, swinging it down vertically.
BOOM!!!
The ground rumbled as Nebula dodged the attack, allowing Alya's weapon to hit and make a long crack on the floor.
Taking advantage of her vulnerability, Nebula swung her leg in a roundhouse kick motion, slamming Alya's side into a nearby cliff.
BOOM!
"If this is your limit, then this fight is over." Nebula said with an indifferent expression.
"Hehehe. Hahaha!! Funny! I was about to say the same thing!"
A line of purple flames suddenly blasted into the sky and started to descend towards Nebula like a five hundred meter massive blade.
"Crap!" Nebula exclaimed at the size of the purple flame blade.
Using her leg strength, Nebula jumped off the ground towards its source, the point where the blade had come from.
She could feel the harsh blaze of the purple fire right above her head, and just when it was about to hit, she had already reached Alya who had her arms outstretched, with her giant weapon at hand and the purple flame pillar connected to its flat tip.
Nebula kicked off the ground and moved to the side to dodge, when the attack slammed hard on the ground, obliterating everything in a six hundred meter line and the breadth of a hundred meters.
Taking advantage of the same weakness Alya had when using her heavy weapon, Nebula clenched her fist as the colours of the rainbow started moving around that arm.
With her might, she swung her fist forward. However, just when it was a few inches away from Alya's stomach, it suddenly broke apart and burst into white puffs.
"!!!" Sensing even bigger danger, Nebula kicked back and retreated. This proved to be the right course of action as the air around Alya suddenly shook from the intense heat now surrounding her body. The ground below her burnt black and then into molten lava. Soon that lava also started to bubble as the air started to make little 'bang' sounds.
Alya smiled maniacally as her brown iris had a purple light surrounding them. Her clothes were no more, obviously, but with a tap on her slim black neckband, two black lines crawled down to her chest, and then turned into a dark piece of clothing to cover her bust area and then down the sides of her stomach to connect to another band that was around her waist, forming thigh high pants and then a black waist cape over it.
Alya dug her fingers into her sharp, rough brown hair and ruffled it even more. "Ah~ The heat feels good, doesn't it." She groaned with pleasure, her grin non–receding.
Nebula clicked her tongue in frustration. 'This is going to take longer than I thought.
———
On the hill closest to the city at the center of Ogmore province, three teenage boys had their head down, shaking in fear, with one boy already passed out, and another typing down something on a digital tablet.
"So this is how it should be!" He yelled as he kept on moving his hands frantically over the screen in his hands.
Aisha flew from the bottom of the cliff, landing beside the blonde haired boy writing down notes like a madman.
"I've taken the rest back to the city, do you guys wanna go too?" She asked.
"One of the boys on the floor carried his shivering head up. "Y– yes please.
Aisha put two of the boys on her shoulders and carried the remaining two below her armpit. Just when she was about to fly off, she looked over her shoulder and warned, "Don't get too caught up in your research Imran. Especially not around that madness." She shuddered.
Because far away, into the distance were two small figures running around the outskirts of the highlands, but as those small dots clashed, massive waves of either purple or rainbow coloured lights blasted through the atmosphere, threatening to tear the whole place apart.
Aisha had seen the aftermath of the so-called monster battle that took place in the highlands previously; a few craters and broken cliffs. Compared to the ongoing battle though, that was just child's play.
However, without showing any signs that he heard her warning, Imran kept looking into the distance with stars in his eyes, doing whatever the heck he pleased.
***
[Name: Nebula.
Level: 70 (S-rank)
Strength: 80, 000
Stamina: 75, 000
Agility: 50, 000
Energy: 55, 000
Ability: Golden Cloud (2nd Lock)
[
•Cloud Shifter: Changes the user's shape into any living creature slain by them. (Stats are sorted out to match the physical traits of the creature.) e.g. Turning into a cheetah like beast directs the user's stats towards agility.
Energy Consumption: 7500EP/ Rank of slain creature. (Capped at Rank 6.5 beasts)
•Cloud Trimmer: Increases the height and size of the user from ten to fifty feet tall.
Energy Consumption: 10 feet increase = 100EP.
•Cloud Trapping: When lethal damage attacks are inflicted on the user, the physical form turns into cloud form, hence the attacks cut through the user without causing harm to the physical form.
User can only take three of these attacks within a 24 hour cooldown time. And 25 percent of each attack that draw out cloud form is absorbed and can be stacked with the attack power increase of Cloud Iridescence.
•Cloud Crafting: User can create objects with a white substance they can produce. This skill also provides low level hydrokinesis and aerokinesis.]
•Cloud Iridescence (Special):
Increases all of the user's stats by 75 percent.
Increases attack power by 75 percent.
Activates 'Full Rainbows' eyes that help the user see the best path of movement in a battle.
Time of activation: 30 minutes./ Cooldown: 24 hours.
[Passive: Flight, Area-thermoregulation.]
———
[A/ N: "As we grow, we learn." Nebula's stats are probably the most balanced I've written, so I'm going to change the information of Asher's abilities to follow the lines of that balance.]