Midnight Arcadia

Chapter 11

Sky’s breath shook as he raised up his fists to once again confront the masked man, Chiyoko’s exhausted demeanor and aura shrinking keeping him company. Sky was honestly terrified, and he could tell that Chiyoko was too. Even though he was terrified, the growing desire to keep his team safe was what kept him going. He didn’t care what happened to him, he could be beaten down until it was hard to even recognize him, but he would keep fighting until his last breath. The masked man’s silver eyes bore into Sky in particular, the wave of shadows emanating from him growing in strength. Sky and Chiyoko brought their arms up to shield themselves from the onslaught. Sky’s eyes widened as the figure was suddenly standing in front of him with his arm raised for a brutal gut punch. The masked man was there coming out of a wave of shadow directly in front of Sky, prepared to launch him through the roof of the train platform. It’s like everything slowed down around Sky as the punch moved in on him. Chiyoko’s face of shock spoke more than any words could as she lifted up her arm and tried reaching for Sky. He did his best to move out of the way, doing whatever he could to avoid the devastating punch. Though it was close, Sky managed to barely avoid the punch, the knuckles of the masked man grazing Sky’s chin. The force of the punch being sent directly into the roof of the train platform, causing multiple lights to go out. The masked man was clearly surprised by Sky’s dodge to where he was caught off guard by Chiyoko’s ice wall of spikes, some of the spikes managing to pierce his arm, causing him to bleed. The masked man let out a grunt of pain, the first break in his icy exterior. Sky took advantage of the situation after catching himself from his stumbling backwards, launching himself forward with his right arm readied. The face of determination on his face even after the complete shock of being nearly killed on the spot. His fist was surrounded by the now familiar red sparks, he landed his punch directly into the masked man’s face, the power of the Spark piercing his Vein’s aura and landing directly. Sky put all of his weight into the punch as the red lightning from the reached the roof and sending the masked man into the wall across the tracks, the impact of the punch burning away Sky’s right sleeve up to his forearm. The red lightning produced from the Spark soon began to flow elegantly, as if turning to water, and flowed directly into Sky. Some of his injuries begin to heal, soothing his exhaustion from his earlier damage. Chiyoko looked pained by seeing Sky land yet another Spark, once again outperforming her but now was not the time to be thinking about this. The masked man stood up from the rubble, not being even close to being taken out of commission but having sustained actual damage. The left corner of his mask had broken and fell away, revealing his snow-white hair and left silver eye even better. “So this is why she’s interested in you! It’s all starting to make sense now!” The masked man says, his tone happy as he cracked his knuckles. Sky and Chiyoko looked at him confused before looking at each other for a moment. Sky kept his guard up as he raised his fists once more. “What do you people even want! I haven’t even met you before today! Why are you so interested in me!” Sky yelled out, getting frustrated by the events of today. The masked man let out a laugh as he loosened his tie. “My lady would be extremely disappointed in me if I let out the secret to soon.” He said as he brought up a finger up to the bottom of his mask, producing a shushing motion. Chiyoko growing frustrated as well threw her arm to the side. “That’s bullshit! You can’t be just a normal gang! Your interest in some unremarkable Veinless boy makes no sense!” She yelled out in frustration, unable to contain what she had been thinking herself recently. Sky glanced over at Chiyoko, but he couldn’t deny what she was saying. It was true that this man’s sudden interest in him was too odd to be a coincidence. The mention of this ‘lady’ was also sending his mind into a spiral. “Never take your eyes off your opponent, boy!” The masked man yelled out as he came out of the shadows in front of Sky and grabbed him by the neck. Sky dangled in his hand as he attempted to struggle in his grasp. Chiyoko sent out more icicles, all rocketing towards the masked man. The masked man looked over at Chiyoko, malice in his eyes as his Vein activated. The icicles were all caught out of the air by tendrils of shadow and broken. “Not again, princess.” The masked man said before sending a huge wave of shadow towards Chiyoko. She attempted to dodge, freezing the ground to slide but she was caught by one of the waves and launched across the platform, her Vein aura dissipating as she was launched out of it. The masked man looked back up at Sky, still struggling within his grasp. “And then there was one. My lady did specifically ask to not kill you. She had hoped this little altercation would have awoken something within you, but alas, you are not ready.” The masked man spoke as Sky began to lose consciousness. In his last-ditch effort, Sky swung his legs back and forth and kicked the masked man’s torso with both of his legs, causing him to stumble backwards and drop Sky. He dropped to the ground and began to breathe heavily for air and slowly lift himself back up. “You people are insane!” He yelled out, his voice raspy due to the lack of air. Sky looked towards the masked man with anger, he had to keep his team safe. They had all done something to help him in this fight and he would be damned if he was going to let this masked lunatic make their efforts go to waste. Sky looked onwards with new-found resilience, prepared to stall for as long as he must for Dai to get here.

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To Be Continued