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SET IN STONE

They immediately began to run as they knew that the intellectual was a foe they could not defeat, they needed to get away from him as fast as they could. While wondering why the intellectual didn't give chase, their run is halted by an invincible wall, bringing them to the conclusion that they were trapped, the intellectual slowly closing the gap between them.

Flourish suggested that the intellectual had created a barrier to prevent them from escaping and Peter added that the barrier had made communication with the outside world impossible, showing them his phone.

The intellectual had caught up with them, he stood a few feet away, watching the kids as if analysing them. Adrian asked the intellectual what he wanted and why he was attacking them.

"THE ELEMENTOR" the intellectual coldly responded "Give me the ELEMENTOR and I'll be sure to give you a quick and painless Death"

The group instinctively created a barricade around Michael, their action a sign of refusal. They took their stance, ready to face a foe who was more powerful than them.

Adrian advised that Nas and Peter take cover but Peter refused, reminding Adrian that he was also and intellectual. A scared and frustrated Adrian snapped, pointing out that Peter would only be a burden as he was yet to get his suit.

The intellectual who'd been quietly watching the children bicker lunched himself at them, the children's confusion and in-fighting had given him the opening her needed to claim his prize, the elementor.

Alexei had noticed that the intellectual had made a move, and used his body as a shield to protect his friends.

"Tsk" the intellectual clicked his tongue "an impenetrable skin. What magic is this?" The intellectual asked as he expected his punch to tear through any of the kids.

"Not enough force, I see" the intellectual added as the crack in the suit began to glow as soft red colour "this looks like it might be fun"

The swift response of Alexei had brought his friends to their senses, and Adrian told Peter, Michael and Nas to go hide, adding that they'd not be able to fight while protecting the three of them.

The intellectual had knocked Alexei to the side and went for Michael, Adrian guarded Michael with his wooden katana.

"This won't break too?" The intellectual asked shocked as the wooden should did not break from his attack.

"Ahhh" the intellectual sighed "so you enchanted the sword." He said looking at flourish

"This is wonderful, beautiful." The intellectual said excited.

Alexei jumped in from behind but the Intellectual evaded his punch, easily evading attacks from Alexei and Adrian, watching them closely as if studying them.

With Adrian and Alexei keeping the intellectual occupied, Phoebe told Nas to go take cover and when he tried to revolt, she reminded him of his uselessness in the current situation because of his lack of magic, and a greatly heartbroken Nas went to take cover with Peter behind a bolder.

Flourish with his wand stretched used his elven magic to create vines from a seed to hold the intellectual but it was pointless as the intellectual swiftly evaded all of his vines.

Alexei attacked with a heavy punch, but the intellectual was able to guard against Alexei's blow to his chest.

"I've seen that before? Is that the extent of your strength? Allow me to demonstrate what true strength feels like"

The intellectual who had been pushed back held Alexei by the wrist as his suit let's of another soft red glow, and he punched Alexei in the face, sending him into the ground and creating a small crater. Michael would not go hide with Nas and Peter, but instead wanted to fight as he did not want to be protected and have his friends get hurt, he'd rather be on the Frontline with them, seeing as she could not make him go away, phoebe gave up and decided to fight together, after all he was a mage with proper and a decent control over his abilities.

Victor was out getting groceries when he got a call from a scared Kendra, stating that she could not find her son and his cell wasn't connecting, adding that she didn't know what to do, Victor assured her that he'd bring back her son, safe and sound, finally easing her worried heart.

Victor who had some time ago installed a tracking software into Nas' phone, tracked Nas' phone and according to the history for that day, Nas had suddenly moved from his school at siluko road to somewhere in Ugoneki before suddenly disappearing from the map.

He'd initially thought that it was a glitch and decided to check again but got the same result, wondering how Nas could move from school to Ugoneki in just mere seconds, deciding it was worth checking, he used his gravity magic and blasted into the sky.

Back in Ugoneki, Michael is doing his best not to get captured, while Adrian, phoebe, Alexei and flourish do their best to protect him, the aim was to keep the intellectual occupied while peter and Nas look for a way to disable the barrier and call for help.

Peter announced that he'd not be able to disable the barrier, the only way to do that would most likely be to shutdown the suit if only for a few second. When asked how that was possible, he revealed that from his analysis of the fight so far, he believed that the suit was empty, an unmanned suit, adding that the Intellectual could be controlling the suit remotely from anywhere, the intellectual would need to constantly send information to the suit to aid its functionality. This would require a chip or a device to act as it's core, all they needed to do was find the core and destroy it.

It was not going to be easy, it seemed impossible, as peter stated that the intellectual has only been toying with them, not taking them seriously in the slightest, the intellectual had been studying them and their fighting styles, which has allowed him to evade all of their attacks without taking any damage.

When asked if he couldn't simply hack and shut down the suit, afterall it was a technological device, Peter told them that doing that would be impossible as Every intellectual had their suit engraved and registered into their DNA, hence their ability to control the suit at 100% efficiency and from anywhere in the world, using a specially created chip as the mode of connection between the intellectuals and their suits.

A tired Adrian decided to attack and create an opening for the rest of them but soon realized that this was a mistake. The suit had become faster and stronger, it's punches were heavier, allowing one to hit any of them would spell their death. It evaded Adrian's slashes, using its nanobots for the first time, it created a replica of Adrian's sword, in texture and size, with a small streak of electricity, the replica sword turned thinner and lighter.

The suit swiftly delivered a slash in Adrian's back, knee and Achilles tendon, permanently removing him from the fight.

Peter explained that the Z-FANG suits all had a special ability, his dad's suit had the ability to adapt to any environment to aid his survival, and it seemed that this intellectual they were fighting, its suit had the ability to copy, modify and recreate it's opponent's weapons and techniques.

The attacks were very similar to Adrian's, but also very different, it was at least four times the speed and a lot more powerful.

After incapacitating Adrian and leaving him bleeding on the cold and muddy ground, he made his way for Michael but is attacked by flourish's elven magic, creating thick roots from seeds he'd thrown in the direction of the suit.

The suit used it's sword to cut the roots to pieces, aiming the sword at flourish who is already on one knee, ready for the kill, Alexei jumped in, hitting flourish out of the way and taking the hit, using both hands to form an X sign over his head, the force from the swing forcing him into a deep squatting position and on his knees, before being kicked in the opposite direction. He had no injury on his body but the force of the suits swing had broken his left forearm.

A slash of his sword cut through Michaels earth like it was butter, and no matter how much water phoebe manipulated from the stream nearby, it was useless against the intellectual, but she would not give up.

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Phoebe's unwavering determination to protect her boyfriend had become the most annoying part of the fight, getting Phoebe out of the fight was the next point of action but before Michael could get to her, the suit slashed at her wrist which prevented her from manipulating any more water. With despair in her eyes, the sword aiming for her neck, Alexei and michael got to her, an angry Michael took a stance over phoebe, hands on the ground as the earth took different forms and attacked the suit, Alexei using the earth Michael created and the dust from the transforming earth as covers, attacked the intellectual, the dust and earth made it hard for the intellectual to make out where Michael and Alexei were. Michaels eyes had turned White as he bit hard on his lower lip to stop himself from screaming. Peter stated that Michael was expelling too much Mana, he was harming himself.

A few minutes into Michael and Alexei coordinated attack, Michael had begun to feel light-headed, his magic crumbled leaving Alexei exposed.

Alexei magic made it hard for any weapon to penetrate his skin, his magic allowed him near impenetrable skin, enhanced strength and speed.

The suit turned its sword to the blunt edge, taking a samurai stance, foot planted on the ground with enough force it created cracks around his feet. It swung the sword aiming at an airborne Alexei who was unable to evade the attack, but made an attempt to block using his arms to cover his side. His arms, all the way to his shoulders and ribs broke on impact as he coughed out blood before being shot into the distance, only to be stopped by the barrier the intellectual had previously put In place. Everything happened in a matter of seconds.

With everyone out of the way, only his prey was left. Michael who was still protecting Phoebe attacked the intellectual, he wasn't going down without a fight. Defeating Michael was easy work, he was afterall exhausted and out of Mana. Michael wouldn't stay down, with each and every defeat, his eyes turned a Whiter colour as did his hair.

"The mission is to bring you back alive, nobody said anything about bringing you back in one piece" the suit said as it delivered a heavy slash from his neck across his chest, felling the shocked and bleeding elementor.

Phoebe would not let Michael be taken, she attacked the intellectual suit as it removed michael from the ground, using her legs to manipulate water. She lack control compared to when she had the use of her hands, but giving up was not an option.

Nas begged her to stop fighting as she was losing too much blood but she would not listen, the intellectual laughing as it evaded all her attacks, delivery fatal blows, beckoning on her to get up whenever she was knocked down.

Nas and peter, unable to see their friends suffer any longer jumped into the frail. The intellectual held phoebe by her neck, chocking her when Nas punched it, the punch had no effect but it dropped Phoebe down and face Nas. It directed a punch at Nas but Nas is pulled back by one of flourish's vines, allowing him to escape only by the skin of his teeth. When the dust settled, the punch had created a small crater in front of the Intellectual who just stood there observing the kids, as if taking in data from the recent addition, Nas and Peter.

Phoebe asked Nas what he was doing, but she's ignored, he simply asked peter and flourish who just woke up with a brain splitting headache, to take phoebe, Michael and Adrian to a safe distance, he was about to do something very stupid, and life threatening.

Peter reminded him that he was no match for the intellectual to Which he agreed, but stated that he had a plan, looking directly at flourish. He was going to give them and avenue to escape and call the ACE Assembly, the intellectual was after Michael and Michael was at death's door, saving Michael was their number one priority. But In order for his plan to work he's going to need flourish's help. He asked Flourish to place a buff spell on him, this would allow him to act as a meat shield.

Flourish explained that he could do something prevent Michael and the rest of the crew from dying, using his vines he'd connect phoebe, Adrian and Michael to himself allowing them to feed of his mana, with this they'd stay alive as long as he was alive.

Nas then asked Alexei who just came back to the fight and bleeding heavily to help him as he'd need Alexei to use his speed to distract the intellectual and he'll try to destroy the chip. From touching the intellectual once, he knew the amount of force needed to break through. Alexei asked how he planned to break something even his super strength couldn't, and Nas just said he had an ace up his sleeve. Alexei using the last of his mana hardened his skin to keep his broken bones in place.

"Are you done?" The intellectual called from a distance, he'd been waiting for them, he simply didn't consider them Enemies, just toys he could play with.

The kids hesitated, and the intellectual took the Initiative to go to them Instead. Adrian and Nas attacked, Nas equipped with flourish's buff.

Just as Nas is about to land his punch, he bit hard on a small seed in his mouth, and flourish felt a small shock run down his spine, this was Nas' ace. There's a seed that the elves used to boost their abilities in dire situation, it's called, the DEVIL'S CONTRACT, it boosts ones physical and magical abilities to the highest possible level only for a few minutes, it's after effect varied depending on the dosage, just like every other drug. It had been labelled a banned product as most people used it for recreation, some used it as a way to cheat during sporting events. Flourish seemed to be the only one who noticed, "how did Nas get his hands on one" he thought, slowing reaching for and caressing one of his pouches as it to look for something, then he realized that Nas had stolen it from him while he was distracted, he remembered telling Nas a long time ago about the devil's contract seed and how every elf carries one with them incase of dire situations.

Combine the effect of this seed with Nas' martial arts training that allowed him bend iron and tear the bark from a tree, Nas possessed a level of super human strength the intellectual had not accounted for.

He used all his might to punch the hole through the suit aiming for the heart region, the Intellectual had not guarded Nas' attack, the information it had from Nas' first attack deemed Nas an enemy of inconsequential value, focusing only on Alexei. This was it's undoing.

Nas is immediately able to get a hold of the Chip and with another burst of strength, he destroyed it, the suit shut down as soon as it pulled away from Nas. Peter was correct, the core would be at the heart region, copying the anatomy of humans.

The barrier is broken and the kids began to run. Flourish is angry at Nas for stealing from him, he wasn't sure what would happen to Nas when the effect of the seed wore off, it would usually just cause a series of migraine for an elf, maybe a couple hours of pain and severe hallucinations for a regular mage, but flourish had never experienced it being used by a none supernatural human, he'd heard stories, but not very good ones. They needed to bring him to the hospital as soon as possible.

Peter had Adrian on his back, Alexei had Michael in his shoulder and Nas had phoebe in his arms, while flourish ran after them, as he tried to contact the assembly. No less then a few seconds, the suit came back online and ran after the kids,

"An oversight, it won't happen again" it hissed

Nas noticed that the intellectual was still hot on their heal, he was sure he destroyed the core. Peter proposed that maybe there was another core, something they did not account for as most intellectuals used just one core, to represent the heart. In the case of this intellectual, it was most likely that the next/supporting core would represent the brain, meaning the core would be in its head. But, they had a problem, the Intellectual was closing in fast, flourish was running out of mana as he was sharing his with the injured to keep them alive, Alexei could not fight anymore, leaving only Peter and Nas. The previous attack worked because they took the intellectual by surprise, that will no longer work, he'd seen Nas attack and understood his strength, the suit had probably copied all of it.

Nas told flourish to use the last of his Mana to create a shield that would protect the team from the attack of the intellectual but flourish explained that because he did not have sufficient mana, the spell would not hold.

"I know"Nas said shocking the team, they knew what he was planning to do, but could do nothing to stop him, what other choice did they have?

"Make sure to keep him safe" he added with a smile looking at the unconscious Michael.

He threw Phoebe at peter who caught her, but just before he could reprimand Nas for wanting to sacrifice himself, flourish created the shield from roots that form a giant orb around them.

Nas turned to face the intellectual, took a deep breath and ran to meet it,

"I know your strength, how would you fair against your own attack" the intellectual said as the suit gave of a soft red light.

Nas held back the intellectual punch, his muscles constricted, veins running through his entire body, his legs firmly rooted into the ground, determination in his eyes, as he's pushed back a distance by the punch.

Nas directed a kick at the intellectual but it caught Nas' leg, slamming him, back first, into the ground. Nas got back up, another punch directed at him, but he's able to evade behind the intellectual, arms lock around its waist, initiating a sumo slam. The intellectual is able to stop the slam, using its hand to push against the ground, before falling back first into the ground, all of its force on Nas. Phoebe who'd awaken is seen crying, tossing and asking that she be let out of the root orb, Alexei and peter holding her back.

Nas caught another punch from the intellectual with his left hand, the force breaking his bones, but he held still, not letting go. The intellectual used it's other hand, and Nas caught with his right, still not letting go of the intellectual. With his leg still firmly rooted on the ground he grabbed the intellectual by the wrist even with the pain from his broken hands, he took in a deep breath and drew the intellectual closer, his eyes had turned blue and the root of his hair was slowly turning gold.

He drew the intellectual into a resounding head-butt that left him bleeding from his fore head. The Intellectual who'd been pushed back did a twist in mid air, created a small orb the size of a gold ball, from his nanobots.

"You really are something, oh son of iron and fire" the intellectual said as he landed. Peter screamed at Nas to run as the orb reached him, Phoebe let's out an ear piercing scream when she saw Nas' smile before he's hit by the orb, followed by a huge explosion and Nas' scream. The effect of the explosion pushed Phoebe and the rest of the team a certain distance after destroying the root shield, Phoebe wants to run towards Nas but she's knocked out by flourish and they began to run again, using the dust as a cover.

Nas is standing, covered in burns, his body letting out smoke, The intellectual laying on the ground in front of him. After a short exhale, Nas fell on his back, the devil's contract had done its job, the effect had kicked in, Nas only took one seed, so a couple hours of intense pain seemed to be his price, not like that mattered much, not after being burnt by an explosion, he hoped his friends were able to escape.

The intellectual suit got back up. "That was unexpected" it said as it walked towards Nas, the suit

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