“Damn,” cursed Chiharu, understanding her situation. ‘He wants to force my hand.’ She looked back at the others. They could do nothing. It was a hopeless position for them. ‘They’ve had all of their powers stolen. I’m the only one left.’ Turning her gaze back into the distance where the Captain stood. ‘He’ll just have them steal mine as well. What can I do?’

Little options remained for her. While she thought, she had to fight. The soldiers kept coming at her. All of her physical attributes were already sealed. She could feel the difference in her body. ‘It’s less seen, but that weakling really did screw around with our bodies. I’m not getting everything I wanted out of it…’ Each dodge felt sluggish. Her mind wanted more out of her body, but it couldn’t deliver. It was so used to faster responses. It seemed as though she controlled her body remotely and the input had lag. ‘Such a disconcerting feeling…when I see him again I’m going to punch him…’

Chapter 212 – The Rising Tides

‘She’s keeping up,’ noted Simonides. The child continued to impress him on her stubbornness. He knew the sort of trap he set for them. It was designed to not lose anything. ‘However, there’s a limit to the human body. Even though she understands the trap, I’ll keep her fighting. She’s only got two choices. Use her powers and lose them or collapse from exhaustion.’

He didn’t want the second option. It was the only option he didn’t want to happen. As he told his soldier, the risk was too high. ‘I won’t know what she’s capable of, something she’s probably considered.’ Inside the risk remained some weakness as well for her. ‘She’s human. Watching your comrades, friends caught suffering will make you act against reason. As much as your mind knows what you should not do, your heart will always move on its own. No matter how much training you have, your humanity will be the weakness.’

Simonides tightened his hands around the binoculars. ‘If I must, I’ll play the villain for this stage. There is too much at stake to play with soft hands anymore.’ Anything that needed to be done would have to be done. It was the only course. Strange things, secret things were in motion that he didn’t understand. He only saw shadows running in dark hallways, never allowed to see the whole picture. He couldn’t allow himself to be stationary with the future of Atlantis at risk.

Chiharu slid back a meter. A sword from one of the countless soldiers managed to catch a piece of her chainmail. The links remained intact, but it did give her the sign. She slipped up. She needed to do better. She needed to be better.

Completely surrounded.

Panting lightly, Chiharu found herself with a momentary pause in the action. It gave her more time to look at her dilemma, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing to have. The more time to think the worse the thoughts got. She spun downward.

Her eyes closed. She obliterated the thoughts from her mind. Everything had to be clear. Only focus had to remain. ‘I am what I am, nothing more and nothing less. Ninja.’

Chiharu withdrew a small orb from her back pouch, keeping it firmly in her left hand. The hardened look surrounding her eyes told everything. She had to move. The orb flew out of her hand at the ground. Smoke blasted out everywhere for several meters around. Everyone caught inside could only see shadows or faint figures, nothing clear.

Orders screamed through their earpiece, but it was too late. Groans and screams only escaped. The soldiers on the outside could only look on, listening to the voices of their comrades. None of them knew what exactly happened, but the sounds were enough to guess. It bloomed into fantastical images only possible in the mind. It was more than enough fuel for fear.

When the smoke settled no sight of Chiharu remained, only her victims. Spread around the area, the soldiers laid tossed about unconscious. Small trails of blood dotted the grass blades, but not enough for anything lethal. They were alive, even if they couldn’t fight.

“Where’d she go?” shouted one of the soldiers.

“There’s no orders!”

“She’s got to be somewhere!”

“She couldn’t have just disappeared!”

“No, she did disappear,” answered Simonides, as he tried to sort out what happened. ‘She’s still got some tricks to use. The smoke concealed whatever her power was to disappear.’ It frustrated him a little to know it dragged out. A little bit of him sort of enjoyed it as well. Someone gave him a challenge and made him think. It was certainly an appealing thing to have. However, he forced himself to remain focused.

He had to think back to the other fights the girl had with his soldiers. Bakkhos didn’t have a lot of information for him. Draining her strength with his Field did a lot to weaken her ability to fight. ‘He did mention her disappearing on him a couple of times. It was something he had no explanation for. He never saw it happen, so he didn’t know what sort of power she used.’

Simonides knew he had a puzzle on his hand with her. The more he watched her act the clearer that truth became. He just didn’t know how complex of a puzzle. ‘Her cautious nature has held on to her secret so far. But will you be able to keep it up the entire time?’

Smoke rose up from the ground. It was in a different area. He knew how obvious it was. Simonides already began sending out orders to Abeiron, but it was too late. She acted before he finished. Kunai flew out of the smoke in several directions. The kunai disabled the fighting arm of the soldiers. Out of the smoke, Chiharu jumped away towards Seiji.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

The soldiers reacted in the field quickly after the resurfaced Chiharu. Her short sword rattled up against one of the soldier’s swords as she forced her way through. A few more soldiers tossed to the side brought her before Seiji. He still struggled with the red material that kept him down.

He caught the presence of Chiharu and looked around as much as he could. “Can’t believe you’re the one rescuing me…” A bit of a smirk popped up on his face.

“I could just leave a muscle head like you behind,” she commented. She tried to cut the material, but her sword just glided over it as if it didn’t even touch. Chiharu worked from a different angle. Nothing still.

Seiji pulled at his arms, but didn’t feel anything give. It was just as solid as before. “Thought you would have gone for Fumiko. She’s the one that can’t handle herself in a fight without her fire.”

She didn’t want to listen to his complaining. The fact her sword failed to do anything only made things worse for her. “And you would have kept recklessly charging into those swords thinking something would happen and get yourself killed. She’s at least smart enough not to do something stupid.”

“You know as much as this arguing is nice, you might as hell want to dodge!”

Chiharu turned around suddenly, finding a soldier already swinging her sword. A raised arm was all she could manage. The light armor strapped to her forearm took most of the blow. One of the straps tore loosening the whole piece, nearly tearing it apart. Once most of the attack finished, Chiharu pushed back and wrapped her hand over the blade. She kicked the blade out of the woman’s hand and ended with another kick in her elbow. The force popped it the wrong way, completely disabling the woman as she dropped to the ground in pain.

Unfortunately, the situation only grew worse for Chiharu. More soldiers closed. She couldn’t do anything. ‘The only way to free them is going to be finding the one doing it.’ They pushed her back, forcing her away. Even though she couldn’t help him she tried to fight back to reach him.

The mob did everything to keep her back. Her body’s movement slowed. Bruises she received during the fighting started to speak up. Everything seemed to be sliding from terrible to worse. The speed in which she lost her footing even surprised her. ‘What do I do?! I can’t show him my power, but…’ She caught a narrow glimpse of the muscle head between two of the Atlanteans. They dragged her to the ground trying to restrain her. “Let me go! Damn it!”

“Chiharu!” shouted Seiji, the bindings kept him from seeing what happened to her. “You bastards! I swear if you do anything to her! Not even hell will want you after I’m done with you!” The red bindings groaned at Seiji’s struggling. A faint glow flashed briefly from his bandaged arm. It pulsed softly.

Fumiko could only hear Seiji’s shouting. She felt the panic of the unknown boiling up inside her. “Seiji! What’s happening?! Is Chiharu alright?” After they captured her she gave into the struggle, knowing she could do nothing about it. However, her body felt on fire again. She couldn’t give up silently. “Chiharu! What are they doing?”

‘Sis!’

“Chiharu!” Her fist tightened up. Magic circles rapidly appeared on her arm at her beckoning. Nothing happened with them, but they continued to flash down her arm. More and more appeared slowly disappearing. In mere seconds, it seemed her arm was a blaze with dancing lights. “Not again! Chiharu!”

“Desperation surfaces,” Simonides remarked. He watched Seiji and Fumiko begin to respond to the tension. ‘The unknown is worse than what you can see. It makes everything seem more frightening. It will be the fuel to bring everything out of them. Show me what you have kept in reserve.’

The magic circles suddenly came to a stop as though they found something. Threads of magic spun down Fumiko’s arm pushing into the ground. Light broke up from the earth in the form of lines. They sped around quickly drawing out a symbol. It grew out further away from the center, Fumiko. While it continued to expand, the light grew more intense. “Huh? What’s happening? I thought they took my magic away from me.”

As though to answer her question, a forest of thin pole like vines smashed through the earth. Chunks of debris flew up into the air from the velocity. They pierced the ribbons that kept her down. However, they kept expanding out further than the circle could keep up. Screams of pain erupted with blood sprayed through the air.

It all took Fumiko by surprise. When she stood up everything was still in a daze for her. A water drop fell on her arm. It was warmer than she expected, but was enough to snap her back to reality. “What…” Another drop of water fell on her arm followed by another and another. Then as though someone tossed a bucket of water at her, half her face was soaked. “…copper…” Her eyes widened when she finally understood it was not water.

She actually looked around her finally. The vines that came out from her stretched for meters with thorns all along the surface. It looked like a briar patch, if made from the bodies and blood of humans. Fumiko screamed in horror. “What…what have I done?!”

Even Simonides leaned back surprised at what he saw. It made him grind his teeth together. He couldn’t see clearly from his point of view, but he knew that there were some that didn’t survive the attack. ‘Damn! Again and again!’ His hands tightened around the binoculars to the point it seemed like his fingers would snap.

Then he saw Seiji break free from his bindings, the MP taken out by Fumiko’s attack. Their position suddenly turned around on them. They had their backs up against the wall. ‘I’ve got to focus. If I don’t stop them now this’ll all be for nothing.’ He motioned to Abeiron. “Get squad 15 to get the Field back up! I need them restrained immediately!”

He focused back on Fumiko and her new power. ‘What the hell is that? What do I tell them to seal?’

Seiji staggered a little in his step, but he found his footing quickly. He immediately flipped around to find Chiharu. “I’m coming! Now get the hell out of my way!” Soldiers already started to form up to slow him down. However, the Field down, all of his strength returned. He simply plowed through the wall of men that tried to form. Nothing would stand between him.

The restored powers didn’t last for long. An easy opening from a closing soldier drew blood from Seiji with the swing of his sword. It didn’t faze him much. Seiji changed his target for a moment, slamming his hand over the man’s face. “Don’t think you bastards will stop me from getting to her!” The bandaged arm glowed briefly before the man started to shake violently. Seiji released him and turned back to Chiharu.

Left behind, the man collapsed to the ground unable to control his body. Spasms bolted around his limbs. On his face, a paper talisman stuck from his forehead over his nose and sealed his mouth shut. One of his squad mates rushed over to him. “What’s wrong?!” When he saw the talisman he tried to remove it, but it was attached firmly. “Why won’t it come off?!”

Dispensing with a couple more in similar fashion, Seiji charged to the cluttered mess. His arm glowed brightly as he swung through clearing the entire swarm. “Hey, brat!” He grinned offering a helping hand for Chiharu.

Her face thinned a little at his sight. An ever so slight curl of a smirk came through her lips. “Muscle head, always butting in when you don’t belong.” She stood up on her own.

“Hell, you looked like you could use some help.”

“I had a plan.”

“Sure, brat.”

“More than you, muscle for brains.”

“Stretching your vocabulary there, brat.”

Chiharu noticed the soldiers starting to move again. “I’ll give you a Japanese lesson later.” She retrieved her sword preparing for the next round of the fight.

With his back against Chiharu’s, Seiji smiled. “I look forward to seeing what a brat like you can teach!”

In the center, Yumi looked a little relieved to see everyone back. Her face twisted a little at the sight of Fumiko. No words could help her. However, something else needed her attention. There was movement next to her. She was late in recognizing it until it was too late. Her face went white as the clouds in the sky. Her eyelids stretched open until her eyes could pop out. Every part of skin ran cold with sweat. The beating in her heart doubled. She was ill prepared for it.

A groan came out and then a voice. “Yumi? What’s going on?”