Chapter 38: Four Blind Mice

(Cadel POV)

I realised what was happening the moment I moved to catch Scarlette, who was sent tumbling out of a portal Raven had conjured. However, another portal had opened in front of me and before I could stop myself, I rushed straight into it.

I found myself in a dark place. Straining to see through the black void, I made out that the relatively flat, rocky surface beneath my feet extended around me. There were no visible walls or boundaries—just an empty, shadowy expanse.

It looked like I was in another dimension. I had hypothesised that Raven’s power had transported me to an imaginary place of her making. If that was the case, the whole place should be made out of energy. What would happen if I tried absorbing it?

But before I did that, just how big was this place? I wanted to get a better understanding of my predicament before I shut the place down. Stretching out my hand in front of me, I slowly shuffled my way forward. A couple of steps later, my fingers came into contact with an invisible wall. I continued walking to the side, keeping my hand on the wall. There was a gentle inward curve to it, so I surmised I was in a circular prison of sorts. It didn’t seem like I was able to bypass this wall as well.

Only one thing to do. I readied myself and absorbed the energy of the wall. Instantly, the place flickered, and the forest materialised around me… except I wasn’t at the place where I had initially entered the portal. Absorbing more latent energy from the surroundings, I started levitating over the treetops. In the distance, I could just about make out some flashes and explosions. That must be where my team was squaring off with Kazen’s.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have access to a large burst of energy that I could absorb, like a fireball from Scarlette or one of Daxston’s wind attacks. This was why I tended to not use my Abilities outside of combat. Without an explosive input of energy, it was harder for me to output my own, which was why I couldn’t exactly zoom over to the fight scene.

Still, I floated as quickly as I could over the treetops. Raven had a rather inconvenient Ability, and it was in no way that of a 2-Star. So she’s hiding the true extent of her powers as well, huh? If so, what’s her real Rank? And what was with that realm? It didn’t appear to just be a simple teleportation Ability. Whatever the case, I had to make her my top priority and put her out of commission as soon as possible.

As I rapidly approached the fight, I could observe that things weren’t looking good for our team. I squinted my eyes, trying to peer through the forest canopy. Where was Jonah? As I scanned for him, I watched Daxston blast Scarlette at a dangerously close range, sending him flying through the air. Adrenaline surged through my veins as I found myself being a little ticked off by that. As much as it was fair game, I didn’t particularly enjoy seeing her get hurt.

Once I got within range, I activated my Ability, and in an instant, everything around me froze. The battle halted, and the clamour of combat fell into an eerie silence as everyone was locked in place, unable to move.

I landed in the middle, pointing a finger at Kazen. “Your sashes. I want all of them.”

I could simply just grab the sashes off them while they were immobilised, but I assumed Raven would still be able to activate her Ability if I moved. I didn’t want to risk another one of her tricks. For that matter, I had to rob her of her sight. Using my Ability, I exerted a downward force on her eyelids, forcefully closing them. I did the same to the other members of her team. I expected Kazen to retaliate by blasting one of his plasma beams at me, but I realised he knew better than to supply me with more energy. There were other methods I could have employed such as manipulating light energy, but it was admittedly more amusing, and easier, this way.

I released the grip on my friends, but I instructed them to stay still in case any more portals appeared. I turned back towards Raven, lifting my Ability just enough so that she could talk. “Where’s Jonah?” I demanded.

“Why should I tell you?” Despite being unable to see, her confidence didn’t waver.

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“We have a healer here. I could break your arm, over and over, until you talk.”

“If only she could.” Raven’s smirk was evident in her tone. “Her Ability isn’t strong enough to heal broken bones, isn’t it?”

“Why don’t we find out?” I gestured at Mira, signalling for her to come over.

“If you do anything to me, I’ll let the whole school know about your true abilities,” she threatened.

I frowned. Despite being morally questionable individuals, Daxston and Kazen weren’t the type to leak my secrets. Raven, however, was a little more ambiguous. She was more cunning than she seemed. Honestly, I wasn't overly concerned about my fellow schoolmates discovering my abilities at this point, but I still needed a bit more time to explore the possible consequences and variations of what might happen if my powers were revealed.

“What’s the matter?” she pressed. “Are you that—” she abruptly cut off her own sentence with a frown.

The reason for that was because I had absorbed all sound energy in the surroundings. She—and everyone else—was unable to hear a thing. She was robbed of her senses of sight and sound. No matter how stoic she was acting, I was certain she had to be feeling uneasy at this point, being in a completely vulnerable state.

In the dead silence, I gestured at Kaede and Mira to retrieve the sashes from Kazen, Spencer and Daxston. It was cruel, but if Raven had any more tricks up her sleeve, it was more logical to have my friends take the blow for me since I had a higher chance to remedy the situation. Scarlette was still winded, so I let her rest up for the moment.

My friends understood what I was getting at. As they cautiously approached the boys, all of a sudden, a dozen or so portals sprung up around them. Kaede gave a sudden yelp as she jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding one. The portals disappeared and sprung up elsewhere a few seconds later. Raven had memorized the positions of where everyone on her team was. She was trying to guess where we were by randomly spawning portals around them. It almost felt like a game of whack-a-mole.

This wouldn’t do. I motioned for the girls to stop while enabling sound again. If she was being that stubborn, I had to respond in kind.

“Scarlette, you’re up.”

Scarlette took the hint and grinned, though she was clearly hurt.

“You may feel a little hot,” she said as she raised her arm and launched a blast of fire right at Raven.

However, just before the fire hit her, two more portals opened up. The first one was right in the path of fire, while the second one appeared behind Scarlette.

The flames disappeared into the first portal and reappeared through the second one, engulfing Scarlette in her own flames. Raven had successfully timed her counter-attack through sound and instinct alone. This girl was no ordinary opponent.

Scarlette let out a startled gasp as flames briefly engulfed her. She frantically patted herself down, desperately trying to extinguish the fire before it could spread. While she did have some resistance, it seemed she had to be mentally prepared if she were to ignite herself with her own flames… which in this case, she wasn’t.

“You little—!” she growled.

Meanwhile, I was starting to feel the strain. I wasn’t good at maintaining a constant activation of my Ability. We needed to do something, and fast. Suddenly, all the portals disappeared.

“Did she run out of energy?” Scarlette asked.

Suddenly, a gigantic portal opened up beneath us. The plan was obvious—letting gravity make us fall into her portal.

However, I had been expecting this. She would have done this to herself if she could. The only reason she hadn’t was because I was absorbing all her kinetic energy, leaving her unable to even fall into her own portal if she tried. She would have just stayed levitating above it. I had already learnt that touching the portal wouldn’t be enough—we had to fully pass through the portal to be transported to that void realm.

Therefore, I applied the same logic to us and manipulated our downward kinetic energy in the opposite direction, effectively making us hover above the portal.

Jonah was still missing, but we had to quickly put an end to this. If we had to make sacrifices to ensure our safety, so be it.

I rapidly decreased the air pressure around Raven and waited. It wasn’t very long at all before her breathing started to become laboured. Lower pressure meant fewer air molecules, which meant less oxygen. She was about to pass out. It was an incredibly dangerous move—in fact it may have broken the “no going overboard” rule.

“…okay…” she finally gasped. “You’ve proven your point…”

“And?” I asked.

“Let me… talk…”

I allowed her to take in some air.

“… thanks. I can admit when I’ve lost. You can take our sashes.” Her previously calm face wore a look of frustration. Was that it? I expected her to display more defiance. Was she baiting me into letting my guard down?

“How do I know you’re not lying?” I pressed.

“Look, I’m not stupid. If I transport you somewhere again and go after your friends, you’ll just come after us again, and I’m sure you’ll be less lenient with us next time. The fact that you can break out of my Void is super annoying though.”

What she just said was factually correct—it seemed she understood the consequences of going back on her word. She also didn’t appear to be lying.

“First, give Jonah back to us,” I ordered.

A portal appeared beside me, dumping Jonah out of it.

“Hey! What the—” he sat up, rubbing his head.

“I’ll explain later, let’s grab their sashes,” I told him.

The girls on our team quickly got to work. Raven was the closest to me, so I started walking towards her.