CHAPTER 15
SHATTERED CAGE REVEALING LIGHT
Kamari took off into the forest at high speeds, hurriedly spearheading toward Amber. After he quickly caught up, Amber noticed him jogging beside her, then stopped as Kamari grasped onto her shoulder. Asani halted also.
“What is it?” they both asked simultaneously.
“It’s Hikaru,” Kamari replied. “We should approach with caution.”
“What do you mean!” Amber asked frantically.
Kamari began running again, so the others followed. “Look, there’s no time explaining, just make sure you follow my orders when we arrive.”
Amber gave Kamari a suspicious glance, but he didn’t catch it as they continued running. Asani took a quick look back, quietly wondering how Kamari survived.
“What about Nanu?” he questioned. “Did you defeat him?”
Kamari smirked. “Lets just say he’ll be napping for a while.”
“Why’d you leave him alive!” Asani roared, eyeing Kamari in disbelief.
“Because I don’t answer to anyone, so shut up and focus on the task at hand.”
As they raced through forest depths, the landscape shook violently, almost causing Amber to topple over while she ran. Looking up ahead, they all spotted Hikaru fighting relentlessly inside vast barren deforestation, chaotic destruction reigning outward for several yards.
“This area is completely desolated,” Kamari said, tapping Amber’s shoulder. “That means we’re in range of danger.”
“I know what it means,” Amber said sharply. “And I’m not afraid, so back off.”
Kamari grinned. “Then get a move on princess.”
He streaked ahead at a super pace and got ten feet behind Hikaru within the blink of an eye. Kamari gazed at Hikaru, carefully taking notice to many cuts that covered his body, and severed gashes all over his clothing. He used structural visibility, taking a more detailed inspection, and spotted particles of light slowly destabilizing the dirt Hikaru walked on. A portal opened, then he browsed to his left, briefly watching while Amber and Asani exited this passage as it closed behind them. Wild currents of white hakq flowed in every direction. A flicker of light struck Kamari’s shoulder, ripping a small scratch on his upper arm. Amber took one look at Hikaru’s injuries, and lunged forward. Seizing her wrist immediately, Kamari pulled her back before she could waltz within the hazardous area.
“Let go!” Amber shouted, struggling to break free.
“No,” Kamari yelled.
“He’ll die!”
“And you’ll die if you get close!”
Amber stopped fighting.
“There’s a reason why I allowed us entry on this course that you both randomly selected,” said Kamari. “We’re behind him—”
“Meaning that the focus of his energy is aimed in front where Wah is,” Asani interjected.
“Exactly, and if we approach where the currents are strongest, it’s game over,” Kamari finished, peering down at Amber’s face as he released his hold.
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She shrugged her shoulders defiantly, showing her want for hasty action. “Well what’ll we do then!”
“That depends on how long our little enemy can stay in that odd form,” Kamari answered, peering relentlessly at Wah’s structural creation.
Amber turned her head, watchfully examining his eyes as they faded into a misty transparency, almost allowing her clear view within Kamari’s eye sockets until he quickly blinked, and they returned normal. She gazed upon Hikaru’s many cuts once more, watching as small beads of blood ran down his arm then quickly disappeared. Amber thought about lunging forward again, but Kamari placed his hand atop her shoulder before she could.
“Trust me,” he lipped.
Amber gave a harsh glare, but didn’t get the same, which caused her to become nostalgic: She remembered Kamari grabbing her hand in the woods while she felt afraid; his fatally injured body that lay limp until disappearing through void darkness, and the moment her eyes opened after hearing a simplistic clash of blades, then realizing that her life had been saved. There were no reasons to doubt his intentions anymore. Kamari returned his attention back toward the fight, watching as Hikaru threw punch after punch, gaining no results with every wasted swing. He carefully assessed each situation, adequately taking in every possible ounce of knowledge about this strange hakq. He looked at subatomic particles, and instantly realized tilted balance inside inverted energies that Hikaru possessed; just as hakq allowed storm warriors manipulation of its energy into matter by converting itself into a solidified form, it also possessed an ability to destabilize any type of mass, and convert it into hakq. Kamari shook his head slowly in disbelief at how he could miss such an obvious potential trait carried by every warrior of the storm. Although being only in small unsustained doses, he himself used hakq power in this manner various times, and yet he’d never noticed hidden potentials of it once. Still, he witnessed that there were great disadvantages when using hakq in this form; though it could dismantle an opponent with a single strong current, it also took a toll upon the user, slowly eroding skin cells, which explained unsightly deep gashes that appeared on Hikaru’s flesh. Amber gawked at Kamari in wait for taking some sort of action.
“Do something!” she pleaded.
Kamari nodded calmly.
“Wait!” Asani screamed over roaring winds, grabbing Kamari’s sleeve. “If you stop your comrade’s assault, we’ll have to fight Wah ourselves.”
Kamari jerked his arm free. “Amber, put some kind of shield up for your protection— this might get ugly.”
“Just be careful.”
Amber placed a bright blue barrier made of her pure hakq around Asani and herself, while Kamari raced toward harm’s way. He molded structural creation into the form of Nanu’s, then created a magnetosphere around his body for defensive safeguarding. Turning on super speed to get close, Kamari appeared in front of Hikaru within the snap of a finger. Hikaru wildly swung at his face, but Kamari easily averted this swift assault by quickly sidestepping left, and whipping a punch into Hikaru’s cheek.The density of the magnetic shield held up against Hikaru’s ability to destabilize it, as nothing but durably thick purple barrier bashed against his features, and made him stumble over. After gaining back balance, Hikaru once again attacked with a powerful left hook that just missed Kamari as he ducked his head, then back peddled away. Suddenly, an idea sparked inside his mind. He could use the circle of youth to defuse this fight without incident.
Kamari descended down on one knee, then touched solidly stable ground with both palms. A dense light tore through the surface, rapidly stretching its circumference outward around himself and Hikaru. Pressing his hands harder against earth beneath as Hikaru charged forward, Kamari caused energy around them to shoot upward like a geyser, knocking his attacker down. Vivid yellow phenomenal forces continued ascending sky-high, while Kamari focused completely on Hikaru’s white hakq. Amber looked onward from outside with wide eyes, fixedly staring at this vibrant cylindrical spectacle. From inside, Wah’s jaw dropped as she gazed through fearsome synergies Kamari emitted, wondering who he could possibly be, and how such a skilled fighter managed slipping through scouting reports; remaining unidentified. Her mind loosely fathomed if he could be the rumored unknown nemesis that threatened Elitist’s superiority.
She watched as Hikaru lay with his back against disturbed dirt, changing in physical appearance, rapidly growing smaller by each passing second until reaching eight years of age while synchronistically screaming. With raging currents of white hakq finally ceasing, Kamari switched his technique into reverse, countering dramatic effects of youthfulness. Hikaru’s body stretched out with growth, bones maturing, limbs growing longer, and skin cells multiplying with every second, until ultimately, he reached the age of sixteen once again, and Kamari halted. He lifted himself back upright, standing up in exhaustion. As light gradually died down, the cylinder wall of power became nothing more than a flat circle. Feeling it safe, Amber emotionally dashed for Hikaru, overrun with panic. She knelt down beside him on both knees with her hands covering her mouth in suspense.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“It’s…. painful,” Hikaru replied slowly.
Kamari watched as Wah fluxed back in her natural form. He turned toward them. “I hope you can still fight Hikaru— otherwise, we’re in deep shit.”