Slowly we shuffle forward in the dark, illuminated only by the outside light conjured by Imi. The entrance around and on the doors are covered in a plaster that has wires running through them in a grid. What for I have no clue.
Almost all of the Kage in our shadows move forward toward the boxes ahead of us, surrounding them, the blood stains on the ground and on the crates. As we approach I summon a small flame in my hand, slight enough to not give away our position. The blood spray travels on the floor around the corner and into the dark, like something or rather someone was dragged through.
Behind me I can hear some crates being opened and the clinking of glass, I hear Milrich let out a low hmm before placing the drug back into the crate. Looking back I can feel the mana behind me, it's still slow, lethargic except in the areas we walked through as it slowly spreads, as if we had woken the mana up which is weird as it’s just supposed to be energy.
Adoazze taps me on the shoulder and grabs our attention, pointing she directs herself, Milrich, Lock and I to walk around the corner while the others will move around the opposite way. I point to the Kage and motion that they can go over the crates, a three pronged attack. She nods and I direct the Kage via voice chat, letting them know to stay quiet and attack on queue.
Number 5 also adds in the voice chat to move around the crates to see if there is anyone hidden on the opposite side of the warehouse, just in case. As we receive acknowledgements from them I give Adoazze a nod before turning around. Adoazze walks around me and takes point followed by Milrich with Lock and I in tow. I quietly hear the sounds of the others moving away from us until they are inaudible.
As we walk around the warehouse that is still darkened, we follow Milrich as he tracks the blood trail while Adoazze, Lock and I keep watch, looking to see if there is anything around. Milrich stops as we reach what I thought was a stack of crates is instead a Hoist system. The trail ends there and the Hoist is filled with more crates. Whether unpacking or packing we can’t tell.
It’s so quiet, not a sound is being made aside from our shallow breathing, the slight sounds of the others walking around the crates, they should be in position soon. Adoazze and Milrich walk up to the Hoist while Lock and I stand with our backs to them outside the Hoist. Lock, in his combat gear and superman cape looks nervous and is gripping his lightning sword like his life depends on it.
The pressure is immense, I have never felt this before. Like at any moment I’ll get skewered. My heart’s beating so quickly I feel like I’m running a marathon at a sprint all the while standing still. My hands are cold and clammy, wrapped hard around one of my needles that I had pulled out unconsciously earlier. Guess I needed something to ground me a little.
I take a deep breath in and blink, when they open again I feel a pressure on my chest, like something’s just smacked into it. Looking down I see it, a sword point resting on my bare chest as it has torn through my gambeson.
“CONTACT!” Yells Lock as he catches a sword strike with his Lightning Sword and channelling Lightning through it and onto the others sword. I snap out of it as I hear Adoazze, Milrich and the others run forward. I grab the sword blade with my hand, chipping away some of my HP as I pull it forward and twist my hips, bringing the sword with me.
Letting it go and dropping it to the ground I punch with my left arm from down low into a long uppercut, I launch fire in a wall all in its yellow red glory, lighting up the immediate surroundings and a few crates suffer my fear and adrenaline fueled fire, getting slightly charred. I move my right palm over my belt and pull my needles out of their bandolier with Psychokinesis, shooting them forward into the fire hearing the cracks of splitting wood.
As the fire travels a figure runs through the fire and grabs a hold of my arms, I send a kick up between his legs but it goes right through him. Off balance he pushes me back and I land on my back, ethereal yellowy chains lash out above me and wrap around his body, the Greater Beast who looks like a bull standing on its hind legs is my attacker.
He tries to turn incorporeal again, and I can see parts of his body become see-through for a moment but the chains keep him grounded, not allowing the parts touching him to change. I roll onto my side and see Milrich standing behind me, he looks down and barks. “Get up, NOW!”
I quickly jump up, no time to think, I need to fight. Leaving the guy in chains behind I run forward to a skinny elf who’s standing behind a bit, trying to stay in the dark. As I run forward the lights come on. A massive orb of light erupts into the rafters above us and beams of light immediately land into the eyes of all our targets, blinding them like a laser in the eye. I rush forward and bring my arms up into an X shape, two pillars of flat store erupt from the floor smashing into the elf from below, one right into his liver. As he bends over the other smacks him in the head. (I was aiming for the chin) and he goes down like a sack of bricks.
I turn around and see Lock and Adoazze fighting two on their own. “Kage Team, assist Lock and Ado and come back to hold this guy.” I say aloud.
I run forward and another elf jumps over the stacked crates next to me and tries to tackle me but I jump past him just in time, I quickly spin around as this guy jumps back up from his crouch. He’s practically naked aside from some cloth around his waist, his whole body is covered in tattoos, black and dark.
He pushes forward with his arms and the ink from his arms flows out of his body and into two inky water-like whips, I jump to the side again to dodge however I smash into some crates with ink getting onto me.
I can feel my HP declining as it tries to burrow into my skin but to no luck, instead it tries to wrap around my legs, arms and mouth to stop them from moving, I reach out with my mind and touch on my needles behind him stuck into the wood. They move forward and sink into his back only a little as they are being blocked by larger patches of ink that have amassed around where they would have impacted. I keep trying to drive the needles in but without much luck. It’s getting hard to breathe, a critical weakness of the Protection of Body Power.
Suddenly the ink loses cohesion as the others run around the corner finally. One of the numbers runs towards the elf and reaches out with his mind, using Elemental Avatar to effect the water in the ink and move it away. Instead the elf loses some of its control but I can see the clone straining to keep it contained. He instead gives up and then moves towards the elf, tackling him in the side to break his concentration.
The ink falls away from me like oil on water onto the ground as the Power is interrupted. Some of the Kage arrive moving in black inky dots along the open floor and into the elfs shadow and around his body, holding him tight. The clone, (Number 3) stands back up and uses Elemental Avatar again to place heavy weights of stone on top of the elf, hoping that he does not move as Number 1 arrives on scene next to Milrich.
I don’t even have a moment to breathe as the Hoist starts to move behind Milrich, who is now containing two more Elves and the Greater Beast from earlier. As the hoist descends he and 1 move away from it dragging the unconscious enemies towards us to get them out of the way.
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Lock is still in battle with the first guy, they are a whirl of mana and Power, lightning blasts from both sides crack out as both try to get the upper hand, their lightning swords smacking against each other while the red colour of their Protection Powers keep any excess electricity from damaging them.
Adoazze has also captured two others, an elf and a human but she’s just standing there on the opposite side of the warehouse from me, looking on as Lock fights this Trax lightning user. There is just too much lightning and charge around for anyone else to get in there and help safely. If that's even an option in a real fight.
I hear a yell from behind the crates stacked behind us. “All Clear back here. Red, Yellow, Two!” yells Imi, I look at Milrich who gives us a nod, must be an all clear sign.
The Hoist quickly returns and three more people rush out, but aside from Lock who's still fighting, Adoazze and Milrich, we’re ready.
One guy exits the hoist first and holds a hand up, Milrich and Number 1 suddenly fly backwards at speed smacking into a pile of crates as his ethereal chains disperse into light. He moves to bring his other hand up but I and numbers 3 and 4 shoot needles into his hands, even the copied needles created with the Shadow Clone Power work to full effect. Stabbing deep into his hands from the front and side like he tried to pet a porcupine.
He is about to move forward again as another needle lands in his neck, only penetrating a short amount, his eyes quickly glaze over as he falls to the ground. A quick glance shows that Dr Roselin had sent that one, might have been a knockout drug.
Another jumps over his sleeping comrade and turns into a dark smoke that flows around the floor leaving deep groves and cuts as it passes. As one, myself and the clones breathe out a mixture of air and fire, covering the floor and blowing the smoke upwards. It quickly changes into the shadowy appearance of a person with two long daggers who glides towards us, needles saturate the smoke as it flies but no hits. As it lands the smoky dagger slashes up and down number 3 next to me before breezing behind him and kicking him into the fire covered floor.
I turn towards the smoke man and spin my arms around, trying to gather enough wind to try and blow him away a little, instead it only pushes him away from me and so decides to attack Number 2 who was standing next to 3.
Number 2 seems to have gotten water from somewhere as a whip of it flashes out from behind him and into the smoke, instantly it has an effect. The smoke flares upwards towards the rafters like a fire getting a ton of air at once, instantly soaking up all of the water. The smoke dissipates after a moment leaving no trace of the smoke man behind, as I look up I catch a glimpse of him just as he falls from the rafters above us onto a crate unconscious.
The fire along the floor has quickly gone out with 3 only receiving some minor burns on his gambeson and hair. There are still two more combatants. One ignoring Adoazze and Lock as they cannot get close without getting hit by the stray lightning. While we were fighting the smoke man, one of these guys has changed into a large beast that appears like a large bull like animal but with clawed hands for front paws and four horns, two bull like and two goat like, it is covered in fur that does nothing to hide the massive muscles under its skin, it’s also the size of a massive tiger.
Growling it swipes at Imi and Dr Roselin before being stopped by a large wall that slides in the way, the massive claws rip into the stone wall, cracking and breaking parts of it, its claws undamaged.
Number 5 who had created the wall creates more walls around it as he runs on top of crates around the large person turned animal, creating wall after wall trying to close it in. Number 4 in the meanwhile is getting its attention, sending needles and small rocks towards its face and nose but only a few get through, being dodged or blocked by the horns.
Number 5 finally gets behind it and creates another long wall effectively placing it in a giant U shape corner. As he sprints towards Number 4 they both let out a massive stream of fire with little effect. Out of breath they walk slightly backwards and pull small vials from their Inventories as the creature struts forward in apparent superiority. The amber liquid inside them is quickly swallowed as the creature runs forward.
It slashes at them but its arm is caught by Number 4, the other arm swipes but is caught by 5. A glowing yellow colour glows from within them as the creature tries to walk backwards on its hind legs or pull them away, but it’s useless, it’s like they have glued themselves to the creature. Slowly the yellow glow appears in the creature's skin and flows under its fur. As Imi and Dr Roslin move out from behind the wall to take stock of the overall situation the clones let go of the arms and jump backwards almost into Imi and Roslin. As they do, yellow chains follow them, attached to the creature.
They grab onto the chains and pull, more ethereal chains sink out of its fur, covering it in a mass of twisted chains. Slowly it shrinks, and shrinks and shrinks with the creature becoming smaller and smaller until it has transformed back into a person, the chains effectively cutting off the Power being used.
The fourth and final guy who exited the Hoist is the last to leave it, peeking out of the Hoist behind crates he points a crooked, old finger at the main group of clones he can see in view; myself with numbers 2 and 3.
“Hemorrhage!” he yells in a sickly, gleeful voice as he moves out of cover, we don’t even see him exit the Hoist as 2, 3 and I fall to the ground. It feels like our own blood is trying to jump out of our skin, just barely holding on as Protection of Body tries to kick in. We can’t do anything other than scream out as our very blood decides to move out. Our skin becomes redder and redder until a blast from some broken crates smacks into the last enemy, forcing him into the back of the Hoist, ragdolling into crates on the way. The Kage closest to them quickly captures him as the Power stops.
Taking in a breath I see a flashing Interface window appear in the corner of my vision.
Log:
WARNING! Protection of Body under effect from higher ranked Power, Suppression of status effects and further damage may be affected while the attacking Power is active.
---
Alert! Higher Ranked Power has been deactivated.
Well that’s handy… I look up from the ground, the only fight ongoing is Lock’s but his foe is quickly distracted by the fact that all his friends have been taken out. He spends too long looking around him as Lock seizes on this chance and stabs forward with his sword, landing a direct hit to his opponent. The amount of electricity being flung around cuts out suddenly and is only surrounding Lock’s foe, a bolt of electricity arcing around each joint of his body before he falls.
Lock remains standing for a moment, looking down at his defeated foe before he too kneels down, sword in the ground leaning on it as Adoazze steps forward, now finally able to move around to the rest of the opened area. The smell of ozone is intense, it’s like nothing I have ever smelt.
Adoazze carefully steps around ensuring not to touch either Lock or his opponent, a soft glow spreads from her hand towards Lock. She crosses over and yells out to the rest of us.
“Everyone OK?”
She gets a few “Yes” as replies but it's mostly groans as I, 3 and 4 try to peel ourselves off the ground and from Milrich and Number 1, who are trying to untangle themselves from the broken crates that had broken their horizontal fall.
Falling out of the splinters, snapped wooden boards and package stuffing Milrich asks, “How by the Tides did we not break any vials?”
“That was the Kage, they managed to break our fall a little. Any vials that were in the way were quickly removed. But some of them…”
Looking up at me after a short pause, Number 1 says. “Sorry, we have casualties. Ten of the Kage overdosed on broken vials. I don’t think they’re coming back.”
“Dammit!” I yell smacking the scorched ground. “Koda, Wotjek?”
“Here, We’re OK” says Koda, transforming into his full bear size white standing over the tattooed elf holding him down. Wotjek also appears in full size and softly stands next to us as he tries to get us up onto our feet. Letting us lean up against him or using his paws to lift us up. Adoazze and her team start to take stock and heal up anyone who needs it. My only thoughts right now are on the missing, probably destroyed Kage and my body.
“Ouch”