A force pushed Jun forwards, as he stumbled out of the lift, tumbling onto the floor. He swiveled his head towards the force.

Not only could he not find what caused the force, there was no lift to be found as well.

Just an ajar door on the side of a building.

His hands moved, searching for his wound, but there was something in the way.

A tongue, writhing around his stomach, constricting it like a large tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

A surge of electricity shot towards Jun, hitting the building above before quickly dispelling, accompanied by a large crackle.

Ryan was still engaged in combat with the Riftwalker. He was relentless in his attacks, but his exhaustion was evident. Jun knew he had to intervene immediately.

The Riftwalker leapt upwards with an immense jump power, arms tucked by its side. Aware that it was vulnerable to Ryan’s bolts of electricity in a tight space, it took to the air to evade them.

“Ugh!” Ryan tried to aim his next shot, but the Riftwalker’s speed was far superior than anything he had ever encountered.

The Riftwalker thrust his leg into a wall, rebounding it towards Ryan.

Charge Form: Ohm.

A field of electricity surrounded Ryan's body in anticipation on the attack. He poured a huge amount of rift energy to conjure it, in hopes that it would stop the incoming punch.

But the punch he expected never came. Instead, the Riftwalker came to a stop in front of Ryan.

“Huh?” Ryan gasped, as the field dissipated. The Riftwalker then pulled back its fist, and launched it at an ungodly velocity at Ryan’s raised arms, sending him crashing into a dumpster in front of Jun.

Jun knew he needed to do something.

The words he uttered rolled off his tongue as if he had memorised it as a child.

First Level: The Hell of the Untruthful Tongues

Tongues burst out from each side of the alleyway, restraining the Riftwalker’s arms and legs.

What just happened?

Both Ryan and Jun were equally confused.

Ryan coughed, blood dripping down his chin.

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If the field had completely dissipated, Ryan’s body would have been obliterated. But it hadn’t. A residual amount absorbed some of the shock from the punch.

He turned to Jun, and noticed something.

He barely had any rift energy left, but in a last-ditch effort, he aimed towards Jun, firing a burst of rift energy at him with his left hand.

Jun ducked in surprise, as the beam narrowly missed him.

As Jun turned to see where the beam hit, he realised too.

‘Electrical Riser.’

The place Jun exited Hell from, much to his disbelief, was out of an electrical wiring cabinet (commonly found at the rear end of buildings, in the alleys).

The rift energy wrapped around the wiring, turning into an arc of electricity. It shot back at Ryan. Like a conduit, the arc entered his left arm, and out the right, which was aimed at the subdued Riftwalker.

The beam sliced through the Riftwalker’s left side, severing its leg. The tongues moved away and decayed.

The Riftwalker collapsed.

Ryan breathed heavily.

Had he taken down a four-chambered Riftwalker? Was he capable of doing so?

The Riftwalker started to get up, its leg regenerating.

Ryan knew in his heart, it was too good to be true.

The Riftwalker started crawling towards the duo, both injured and out of action.

They knew they had lost.

“Equivalent Exchange!” A shout reverberated from the entrance of the alley.

“Equivalent Exchange is the name of my prowess. By shouting out my ability and pouring in rift energy, I can engage in a trade with an entity. However, the deal is not one-to-one. The target must always gain more than I lose, and lose less than I gain. An increase in the rift energy input will lead to a higher exchange rate, but never one-to-one. I can only engage in one exchange at a time, but I can cast it repeatedly.”

The Riftwalker faced the monologuing man who had entered the alley. He wore a clean, pressed white shirt and tapered pants.

“In exchange for info about my prowess, tell me yours.”

The Riftwalker, lacking a mouth, was unable to speak. But a small amount of rift energy left its chamber and hurled towards the man, transforming into a slip of paper.

“Velocity Shift. You can condense your body’s speed into a single point, such as a limb, at the cost of the velocity of other parts of your body. Interesting.” The man read aloud.

The Riftwalker, now fully healed, jumped towards the man.

“I guess you can move or attack; but not both at the same time. Well then…” The man brandished a dagger and a sword sheathed on his back. He threw the dagger towards the Riftwalker.

It shot past the Riftwalker, missing by quite some margin. It continued its sprint.

“Equivalent Exchange! Swap our positions!”

The man vanished, as a dagger clattered onto the floor in his place. He reappeared, directly above the Riftwalker.

“Like I said, it’s not a one-to-one transaction.”

Even as the man and the dagger swapped positions, the man would only reach somewhere between them and not where the dagger was, which was well past the Riftwalker.

The man imbued his blade with a vast amount of rift energy, magnitudes more than Ryan’s previous attack.

Lifting the sword above his head, he plunged it into the back of the Riftwalker.