"I can't fight right now; my mana pool is too low to change the state of water in the air…" Yunosuke admitted grimly.
"I barely have any left... I'll need some time to absorb the mana orb... Kana," Fuji added, his voice strained.
"Don't worry, I'll cover. My pool is feeling full," Kana assured them, pulling her arms together to form a glowing, compressed fireball.
"Mr. Jona!" Kana yelled, and in response, Mr. Jona swiftly pivoted, manipulating the water he had with him to prevent it from evaporating. The earth manacian stomped his fist, conjuring a defensive wall. The fireball collided with the wall, causing it to burst into flames, but the barrier held.
Kana darted to the side of the wall, preparing to flank their opponent. However, as she neared the corner, a slab of earth erupted from the room's wall, striking her in the ribs with a sickening crack. The impact sent her tumbling back into her room.
Mr Jona wasted no time, swiftly reentering the fray. With a powerful roundhouse kick, he directed the water to slice through the top half of the wall. Yet, the bottom half hurtled towards him. He leapt into the air, executing a spinning evasion that narrowly avoided the flying debris, which instead hurtled towards Kana's position.
Reacting instinctively, Kana ignited flames from her palms, propelling herself upwards and narrowly dodging the wall that collided with the room's barrier and melded with it. As she descended, Mr Jona landed gracefully on the leg he had kicked with, pivoting into a back-roundhouse kick. The manipulated water surged forward, aiming for a lethal slice at their adversary's neck.
The man kicked out forcefully, sending a jolt through the ground as he leaned back to dodge the water slice aimed at his neck. A pillar shot up beneath Mr Jona, locking his leg in place, while the water attack missed its mark and shot towards the side wall.
With a swift pull of his fist, the man commanded the pillar to move towards him, dragging Mr. Jona along. Simultaneously, he swung his arm forward, causing a spike to shoot out from behind him towards Mr. Jona's heart.
Mr Jona tried to evade the spike, but it struck with deadly precision, piercing his chest.
Kana, Fuji, and Yunosuke stared in horror, their eyes wide with fear and disbelief. It seemed inconceivable to them that death could be so imminent that they could be capable of killing—or at least, they had thought so.
"MR. JONA!" Fuji shouted, springing up from the wall he had been leaning against.
"No... Augh... You'll... ARGHHHHH!!" Spikes burst from Mr. Jona's mouth and body just as the wall closed, saving Kana, Fuji, and Yunosuke from the fiend's final attack. They stood there in shock, unable to do anything but watch the horrific scene unfold.
"This is just a dream," Kana muttered, her voice trembling with disbelief. "Yes, just a dream..."
The room fell into an eerie silence, punctuated only by their collective breaths and the faint crackle of the fire above.
. . .
"What's this?" Kami muttered, his voice tense and wary. His friends stood together, their eyes fixed on the scene before them. Arashi was at the side, silently manipulating the water in the air, while Magi and two other figures stood in the room with them. The two others were Yu Shijin and Rengoku Warabi, the next strongest in their team.
They surveyed the grim sight of countless bodies strewn beneath the woman in the adjacent room, each pierced by spikes.
"That's..." Arashi's voice trailed off as he looked up, realization dawning. "That's Mr. Jona..."
"Tsk," Kami clicked his tongue, his expression darkening. "So even teachers can't beat them, huh... Why the hell are they suddenly invading our school?" His gaze moved solemnly over the familiar faces now lifeless among the fallen.
It was almost as if they were all staring at him. Their gazes crawled over his skin, an uncomfortable prickling sensation that deepened his sense of responsibility. He couldn't protect the students with his kind of power; the weight of that failure gnawed at him.
Without warning, the man in the other room lunged at them. Magi surged forward in an instant, slamming his palm into the ground. A powerful wave of earth erupted towards the assailant, intending to shove him back. The man, undeterred, rode the wave with surprising agility. As Magi raised his hand, the wave slowed, then halted. He sent the wave crashing back towards the attacker with a fierce downward thrust.
Kami, reacting swiftly, leapt into the air and snapped his fingers. Sharp wind blades materialized beside him, slicing through the air towards the man. In response, the assailant clapped his hands together, and the earth around him obeyed his command, wrapping him in a protective ball.
"Alright, time to kill him n-" Kami muttered, but spikes shot out from the ball before he could finish.
"What the fu-" Kami started, but the ball began bouncing off the room's walls, its movements unpredictable and chaotic.
"Magi, hold it still for a second!" Kami shouted over the din.
"Alright!" Magi responded, concentrating intensely. He pushed his fingers together, and pillars of earth erupted from the walls, converging to pin the ball firmly into a corner of the room.
"HUP!" Kami swung his arm, sending five razor-sharp wind slices slicing through the air towards the ball. However, the slices vanished as quickly as they appeared, the room seemingly repairing itself almost instantly. The ball remained motionless, showing no signs of damage or bloodshed.
"Shijin, Magi, overwhelm the area with your mana and keep him immobilized," Kami commanded urgently.
"Yes, captain!" Shijin acknowledged, extending their arms as they focused their mana, stabilizing the room and preventing movement from the encased figure.
Kami dashed forward, deciding against using his air mana for now.
"Warabi!" he exclaimed, launching into action.
Warabi sprinted towards the man from behind Kami. The man stood up swiftly, assuming a defensive stance.
"ARGH!" Kami charged forward with incredible speed. The man pivoted sharply to the left, throwing a heavy punch directly into Kami's path. Yet, the real threat emerged not from the punch itself but from a sudden eruption of earth, a pillar bursting forth from the wall despite the efforts of Magi and Shijin to immobilize the room.
Reacting swiftly, Kami dodged to the side, propelled by a gust of wind he summoned. The strain was evident on him; he was expending much mana to control air in this earth mana zone that Shijin and Magi contained. Despite their efforts, the man seemed to effortlessly manipulate the earth around him, defying their attempts to restrain him.
"Alright, stop," Magi intervened, his voice tense with frustration. "Let's conserve our mana. We need to wear him down instead of focusing on..."
Magi's words were cut off abruptly as they relaxed their mana restrictions.
"Field: Stone prison," the man intoned sharply. His fingers moved with blinding speed, and stone pillars erupted from the walls at chaotic angles and speeds.
"DUCK!" Kami's voice rang out urgently as he swung his arm wide at the man. A rush of mighty wind drowned out all other sounds as everyone braced themselves. The man flipped horizontally in mid-air, narrowly evading Kami's slashing attack. However, the blow's force caused the room's upper half to slide and collapse, and a swift counter from Magi and Shijin destroyed the pillars.
Seizing the moment, Shijin leapt into action, flipping gracefully before launching a drop kick infused with wind energy towards the man. As the attack neared, a stone pillar surged from the ground, intercepting the wind blast. The pillar, though sturdy, showed signs of damage as it chipped under the pressure.
Without hesitation, Magi appeared before Shijin, his fist smashing into the pillar and shattering it into fragments that clattered to the ground. At the same time, Kami wound up and unleashed a powerful roundhouse kick aimed with precision. Simultaneously, Shijin rebounded off the ground, using the momentum from his swinging legs to release a concentrated gust of wind towards their adversary.
As the man leapt to dodge the slash once more, a sudden gust of wind pushed him off the crumbling edge of the wall. It seemed like it was all over. They all rushed to the precipice, but to their astonishment, the man landed on the roof of another room, looking up with a determined glare. Only then did they begin to grasp the complexity of their surroundings.
"The endless number of rooms moving…what is th—"
"It's the Kinetic Fortress of the Quons," one of them interjected, voice tinged with awe and dread. "It seems they are the ones attacking us…"
"So those were from the Quons?!?" another exclaimed in disbelief.
"But why would they suddenly attack?" Shijin asked confusion etched on his face.
"I bet…" Warabi muttered, eyes narrowing with suspicion, "It's that first-year Quon member, isn't it? He's the only one linking our school to the Quon family."
"You might be right," Kami said thoughtfully. "Kazami Quon was impressive, though. He fought Arashi the other day."
"It was a tie," Arashi admitted, a condensed ball of water orbiting his head with a mesmerizing dance.
"And that's because he went easy on me."
"Huh?!?" Shijin, Warabi, and Magi exclaimed in unison, their shock palpable.
"You wouldn't believe it…" Arashi began, his voice trailing off as memories of the intense battle flooded his mind.
. . .
"What's the progress?" The minister demanded, striding up and shrugging off his heavy coat. The colossal wall loomed before him, as did his anxious subordinates.
"Every time we cut the wall, it regenerates so quickly we can barely scratch it," one reported, frustration evident in their voice.
"Let me give it a try." The minister crouched down, punching the ground with force. The earth responded, rising and morphing into a massive floating fist. Rings of earth formed around his forearm. With a fierce swing, he hurled the earthen fist at the wall. The rings on his forearm compressed, transferring their energy into the strike. The earthen arm crashed into the wall, creating a crack but not breaking through.
He withdrew his fist, the rings expanding back to their original positions.
"Interesting... everyone, prepare to move in. Take all your supplies and what you need. We might have only a fleeting moment." He turned to Secretary Gaeun. "You take charge once inside. I'll coordinate the outside forces."
He rotated his fist, transforming the rocky hand into a sharp spike. The rings around his forearm began to spin, making the spike rotate at intense speeds.
"Ready to enter in... 5... 4... 3..." The Minister's voice was tense. He thrust his fist into the wall. The rings compressed again, and the spike drove through the wall's layers with a sickening crunch. As it penetrated, it ceased rotating, and he released his fist, creating a tunnel within the spike—a narrow path for his team.
"Take care, Sir. I'll do my best," Secretary Gaeun said, urgency in her voice as she hurried everyone through the tunnel. The wall began to press in, threatening to crush the tube. The minister strained, veins bulging as he fought to keep the path open. When Gaeun finally squeezed through, he released his grip, and the spike snapped shut with a thunderous crack.
"If the beast is this strong with earth manipulation... we're going to need more help to defeat it," he muttered, staring at the wall as it swiftly regenerated, the sense of impending danger hanging heavy in the air.