Number 5 - The Oghqoa Sewers.

Right after Wellingpar throws the small knife at the man on our side of the tunnel he is upon us, as he brings a knife out from his belt we get ourselves ready to fight, as he rushes forward I punch forward with my fists sending a wave of fire at head hight but it goes right through him and he runs right through me, turning so his fist is the last to pass through.

Just before it does it turns solid where my spine would be, obliterating his hand in the process and taking a large chunk out of my HP, as he’s now between myself, Number 4 and Lock, they can’t get a clean shot or risk hitting me with Lightning or another Power, we dodge around, trying not to get touched by him but again and again he lands a punch or kick that turns solid and takes out HP or adds damage to the Damage Translocators.

We jump over and around pipes and crates spinning away to try and get away from him, when we do have clean shots it just passes right through him. Even from blind spots he sees it coming, it's like he has eyes in the back of his head.

The Kage surround us either on the walls or roof making quick attacks to try and take out an eye or keep an eye on the shadows to see if his eyes or another part of his body takes physical form again.

On and on we go for what feels like minutes, dodge a kick and he spins using his momentum to move into another direction towards Lock. Miss a punch to his head and his shoulder rematerialises, taking out his shoulder and some of out HP with it. We can’t keep this up, we will attrition quickly at this rate.

I then get notified by one of the Kage, Wellingpar is landing hits on the guy he is fighting through some kind of Power of his. Which means if he can finish him off we might stand a chance. But it looks like he’s in the same predicament.

These guys are mad, Power after Power we chuck at them but still nothing, they don’t even flinch at nearly loosing an eye or damaging their hands or feet which I can somewhat understand if you have a Power healing you each time you take damage. I back off for a moment to catch my breath, Number 4 and Lock are keeping him busy. Through the communication crystals I let them know that I’m going to see if I can come up with a plan and will swap out Lock in a few.

I get no responses back other than the gunting of trying to move past the mass of pipes and crates… Crates which are filled with a mana booster drug which can cause sickness or poisoning in the right amounts.

I quickly run forward and take over from Lock, as I do so I send a short message to the Kage, telling them to grab vials from the crates and be prepared to throw them on my signal. I also send a message to Number 4 and Lock that I have a plan and to get as far away from this guy on my signal.

Grunts and out of breath breathing are all the response I get as Lock and 4 keep up their attacks with renewed vigour, we are moving further and further back down the tunnel and away from Wellingpar’s fight just incase.

After more dodging and close calls saved only by HP and Translocators the Kage come back, vials in shadowy, ethereal claws hiding in the dark corners of the pipes, roof and crates, Our adversary has taken station on top of the main pipe that runs down the tunnel with Lock, Number 4 and I fighting in a circle around him, keeping him stationary as we launch as much material towards his face and any other part we think is becoming physical. Fire, Lightning, Stone, Waste Water, even Air to try and knock him off balance to no avail.

With the Kage ready I coordinate with Number 4 and Lock. When Lock is just behind him he pulls back as 4 and I cover the area in fire, fire from our fists cover his entire body and air spins the fire into a mini twister, spinning around him.

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At that moment, when he has no visibility, no physicality and no idea whats going on I instruct the Kage to loose their barrage. The fire immediately dies down as dozens of vials are launched toward the man.

I don’t know why, or how but as the vials land either at his feet or on his body the liquid in them react immediately, even within the vials that were about to pass right through him, the contents of dozens of vials immediately are absorbed into his body causing the Power to flicker him in and out of physicality.

30, 40, 50 vials are shot at him, we can feel his mana increasing and increasing, whatever mana is not immediately absorbed or misses him lands in its liquid form, we can feel it, almost like a thickness to the very air it takes up.

He starts to scream a silent scream, as he faces down the tunnel and launches Power after Power down it in an attempt to get rid of the excess mana in his system. Fire, Blinding Light and even creating papers and books out of thin air but nothing is stopping the mana in him, his skin starts to glow a green red mix, green from the healing Power no doubt but the red I don’t know.

Soon that dies down as more and more of the mana in his body is ejected, I have long ago told the Kage to stop and Wellingpar also seems to have finished with his fight, watching on as the man empties his entire mana pool out in panic.

We watch on in horror, I didn't mean to do this, I had thought the increase in mana would disrupt his Power and allow us to get some hits in, not cause… this.

Slowly his Powers die down and he faints, falling on the main pipe and sliding down landing with his face looking in my direction in wide eye’d, silent pleading. Even without a Power to check it I know his mana is dangerously low for someone who needs the mana to survive like we need the air to breath.

We take a moment to catch a breath as we had held our breath watching this play out. Now that each guy is out for the count I direct Number 4 to start checking them out with the first aid knowledge we know, Lightning and stuff is not really healthy for people you know. I shake my head a little, jokes are not right for right now.

Lock is out for the count, sitting against the tunnel wall recovering his mana, I still stand to take stock of the situation for a time but slowly sink down to the floor. Looking behind me at the vast amount of high density mana vials behind us I get a strange feeling, what would happen if we just leave these here?

Most likely confiscation, destruction or kept in some storage room for who knows how long. If these guys don’t give us any answers then all this will be for nothing, and we don’t even know if this will be enough leverage to get Ol Original out of lockup.

At the very least, if we take some of these, a crate or two then we can at least run some experiments. Maybe even find a way to use these for our benefit, to just leave them here would be a horrid waste. I look on at the man we had fought and realise that he has taught us a valuable lesson on how to handle these drugs.

Discreetly I message the Kage through the Voice Chat despite it still acting funky,

“I want every member of the Kage Team to secretly collect vials from the crates in the tunnels and hide them in some manner. I want as much as we can carry.”

I almost feel a hesitation from the Kage for a moment before they silently move away from us, Number 4 sees them move and looks at me, before looking away as I shake my head. I will explain my actions to him later, right now we need to get these guys in restraints.

After Number 4 checks them all out and they appear to be somewhat stable, Wellingpar uses two of his Powers on these people. Some kind of healing Power which glows their skin a rich green colour and his Luminous Shackles Power that he had used in his exam fight with Lock, holding them in place.

As the reinforcements finally arrive some time later I feel the Kage return, sliding into my shadow. I receive a message from one of the unnamed Kage, letting me know that they had recovered 100s of vials of the booster drug and have hidden it within themselves. I will need Number 2 to explain or figure out all the different abilities that the Kage have, it seems there is more to them than our System Interface Power can see.

As the Adventuring Teams who reinforce us take over the scene, Lock, Wellingpar and I’s walk back toward the Teleport Platform silently, spent from the fighting we had just gone through, fighting against people is definitely not what I had thought. There is no witty banter, no after fight quips, just silence and tiredness, an obsession to sleep well into the afternoon and considering it is late at night that is a definite possibility.