“Perfect Synchrony…” Ver said, “Krakening Manifestation…”
As lines of Wave pieced in between cracks within the Kraken’s shell with its light, more and more of the legendary beast’s Wave became sieved straight into Ver’s body, filling her up completely like a balloon until she started to elevate off the ground as the Kraken's massive body compressed and formed around her as a purple armor.
A handful of tendrils grew out from her back with flames burning over its surface, and Ver held the single blade of the Sky Splitting Sword in her hand, ready to take on the Cerberus’s next attack.
With the three heads glowing like a trio of suns, the Cerberus then cocked his head back before throwing himself forward, unleashing the full force of the blasts from the Wave he had just pulled from the environment and the fighters around them.
Ver gripped tightly around the handles of her Sky Splitting Sword before steadily taking a half step forward, turning her body until she’s facing the Cerberus side-on as the Sky Splitting Sword rapidly expanded within her hands and the Kraken wrapped its tendrils around Ver’s hand for support.
Then, she swung it like a bat, smashing the blast waves straight back at Cerberus as the impact created a shock wave that shot outward and blew back the Fisher family Wave users in all directions. The ground underneath Ver's feet cracked before the Kraken also slammed its tendrils into the ground to keep her steady. Lera planted herself firmly with vines wrapping around her legs before she created rising columns of rock on the ground that tossed those Fisher family Wave users further back into the woods away from them.
“Let’s go on the offensive, buddy.” Ver said, her body slowly morphing in shape as Lera watched her closely. However, as she looked closer, she realized that it was the thin layer of Wave around her body's that's rapidly morphing before her long dark blonde hair was also covered up by the Kraken's shell. With a single puff, she had become completely transparent, vanishing from the sights of everyone around and disappearing into thin air, “Kraken’s Cowardice!”
“Why aren’t I surprised by your cowardly trick? Was this what you used to run away all those years ago?” The Cerberus laughed simultaneously with all three heads each holding a slightly different posture, “You can try to hide, but there is no disguising your signature in the Wave!”
“Lera!” Ver called out from somewhere far away, though her voice sounded like that of a ghost, “I am ready.”
“So am I!” Lera smiled, slashing her hand straight up as a dark aura suddenly rose up from the ground and covered the entire battlefield. Immediately, the Wave users that were circling Lera were frozen in place as they struggled against the near-infinite resistances of Void Domain.
A Cast glowed upon Wu’s wrist, indicating the activation of Void Domain as he smiled lightly. Rache, holding the trident out in front meters away from him, immediately sensed the shift in the local Wave and the increasing resistance to his own Wave usage. Instead of fighting it, however, he simply relaxed, drawing back his own Wave and holding onto the spear instead with his raw physicality before he lunged forward.
Fighting was all about intuition for him, and years spent in the ocean had taught him to go with the flow, rather than fight against it. Even without any enhancements from the Wave, years of working hard labor works following diligent weapons and Wave training ensured that Rache could fight under any circumstance, including when his Wave is fully exhausted. Though he only started to push against his limits when he encountered Rote.
However, Rache's current speed was still far slower than the other opponents that Wu had come across.
As the trident spun forward like a spiral, Wu jabbed rapidly to the side before catching the body of the trident briefly with his gauntlet, pinching and yanking himself forward and closer to Rache’s body while pulling out a short pistol with his free hand. As the barrel rotated upward to point at Rache, Wu pulled the trigger.
The pistol fired off at point-blank range, the Cast embedded into it activating and unleashing a blast of Wave that blasted Rache back as Wu let go of the trident. He landed hard on the ground before rolling up onto his feet with the trident still in hand.
"You said PORA's responsible for that day, but I only saw PORA's aid to our city in the aftermath," Rache said, pressing himself up and pointing the trident at Wu.
“How could I convince you of the truth?” Wu asked, “I have nothing against you, and I am sorry for what happened to this city when PORA invaded the island...We tried to stop them, we really did, but they were far stronger than we could have imagined...”
“There’s nothing you can say to change this.” Rache shook his head, “All of you Academy devils are full of lies for your self-preservation, and this is just another one of them.”
“I can explain everything!” Wu pled, lowering his pistol, “You were here that day, did you see what happened?”
“Everything I saw, i engrained to my mind!” Rache said, charging forward once again as Wu leaped back and blasted off the ground to create more distance with the rifle in hand, and he aimed the barrel at Rache without firing, “Everything! I remember everything!”
“Then you must remember the blasts from the floating island as it was declining.” Wu grunted as he took yet another big step back with the booster firing under his feet, “That was us! We were trying to stop the descent!”
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“No! You were merely firing at the city!”
“You idiot.” Wu said, pulling the trigger as a concentrated blast of Wave exploded under Rache’s feet and forced him back, “With how unconcentrated the blast was, there was no way it will reach the city. We set it off in that direction so it will slow the descent of the island! Like how I am blasting at you to move away from you!”
“How do you explain why PORA was here to help us by activating the Defensive Casts then?” Rache said, pointing the tip of the spear at Wu still as he slowly lowered onto the ground, “They were able to blow apart the island before it wiped Costa city off the face of this earth!”
“And PORA just had the perfect tool to do so. The Revolutionary Manuscript, exactly when and where they needed it.” Wu said, “Wasn’t that convenient? Even more so, they fired off those attack right as the island was starting to slow down, and PORA made sure that our efforts at saving the entire island and the entire Costa city was in vain in a SINGLE MOVE!”
“Just because something's convenient doesn't mean it's the truth." Rache shook his head, "There was no way you could have slowed the island enough. It's an entire fucking island.”
“Just think about it, please.” Wu replied as Rache slowly approached him once again, “PORA was exactly there at the right place and the right time, and their actions of blowing up the entire island were the exact reason that splinters of that landed everywhere. Even if you don’t believe that they were responsible for dropping it off the sky, consider how they have been taking advantage of the aftermath…”
“Shut it.” Rache cut Wu off, purging doubts from his mind before he dashed forward with far greater speed than before as Wu dropped into a lunge also, narrowly avoiding the next thrust from Rache before closing into Rache’s body, his pistol now directly connecting to his One-Shotter gemstone before he turned the tip of the gun at him again and prepared a far greater blast.
If Ver’s armor from the Kraken was a reference for how strong the armor constructed from the body of a legendary beast can be, then there’s no point for Wu to focus solely on attacking Rache’s physical body with his blue and white armor still looking flawless after all this fighting. Rather, he wanted to disable him from fighting, which may then aid in convincing him to listen to reason, or at the very least, gives them a chance to actually talk.
Wu reached out and pushed daside the body of the trident, keeping it aside as a strength enhancement Cast lit up on his arm before he fired off a massive Crater-making blast concentrated inito the size of a table tennis ball straight at the stem of the trident.
A sharp cracking sound filled the air before the trident snapped in half cleanly as the metallic tip fell onto the ground. Shoving Rache back with one arm, Wu then kicked the tip of the spear in the other direction.
“NO!” Rache shouted, going into a blind rage before he waved the half of the spear-like a stick at Wu, slamming him right on the shoulder as his shields caught the brunt of the impact. He then slid towards the broken tip and held it with one hand.
“This spear was given to me by my father…” Rache said, turning over his shoulder and glaring at Wu,“That was my father’s hunting spear…”
Wu blinked a few times with visible panic as Rache’s breathing became faster and faster, and suddenly, a light blue line pierced through the dark aura of Void Domain, connecting him and the Cerberus who’s been battling Ver on the other side.
“Come!” The Cerberus shouted as Rache grabbed onto the line of Wave before the Cerberus yanked on it and sent his body flying towards him. Then, a blue bubble formed around his body that pushed back the Void Domain before they galloped away.
The rest of the House of Fisher Wave users also dispersed, and Lera slowly reduced the intensity of the Void Domain from her Cast array before wiping away the sweat along her forehead. Ver emerged from her invisible form with her Sky Splitting Sword in hand, and they watched as the Cerberus galloped away with blue platforms forming spontaneously under its claws.
“What was that at the end…” Wu asked, “Did they just…”
“Overcame Void Domain. Yeah.” Lera said, “I didn’t think that was possible…”
“It’s possible if one’s affinity with the Wave is strong enough…” Wu murmured, thinking back to his intimate training sessions with Fatera back at the Academy before his face slowly turned red, “Fa…Fatera was able to move in it just a bit…”
“The Cerberus’ ability to manipulate Wave directly could be a reason why.” The Kraken said through Ver’s voice as its shells retracted back into Ver’s body before all of the dark patterns returned to the squid mark over her right eye, “If they eventually became fully immune to Void Domain, that could spell trouble for us…”
“If we could convince him of the truth, then perhaps we don’t need to fight him…but from what it seemed like, PORA had been taking control of Costa city and the House of Fisher…” Wu said, “Can we pay Costa city a visit to see what it’s like?”
Ver nodded, opening up a whirlpool Purple next to them, “This safe house will have to be ditched anyway. Though…disguises up, and Wave suppressed. We don’t want to cause any trouble on their home turf.”
As the Cerberus pounced its way back towards Costa city, Rache was grasping onto the broken halves of his spear. Once they arrived, he hopped off the back of the beast before it vanished into his right eye as the guards parted ways and saluted him as he entered. He marched straight towards the memorial without even looking at them.
The memorial was set up on the Western edge of Costa city, where rebuilding was deemed a lower priority task. The rubbles were simply removed, and everything flattened before being turned into a public park. Rache found the tombstones for his parents, and he knelt down in front of it before slowly placing the spears upon it.
“I am sorry.” He murmured, “I was there. I saw the ones responsible, but…they were full of tricks, and I couldn't kill them…”
He heard sounds of footsteps from behind him, and he turned to see Rote standing a couple of meters behind him. Rache rose up with a stern look as Rote approached him.
“Your intelligence was correct.” Rache said, leaving the broken spear on the ground, “They were from the Academy, and they were strong.”
“I am just glad you came back safe.” Rote said, reaching out with his hand before caressing Rache on the chin as he leaned into it and felt for its warmth, “But next time, don’t go rushing out so recklessly.”
“I need more strength than before.” Rache said, grabbing onto Rote’s hand, “My spear’s done. I need…something far stronger and more durable.”
“We…could work something out.” Rote said, his eyes looking away as ideas floated into his head, “But first, you need to tell me who you’ve encountered and what they can actually do.”