The Colosseum has become the Lion's playground, it's like a cage trapping those attempting to retreat. Gibert tells group to fall back but the elevator is nowhere to be seen. It must be something planned by Leonidas in order to force his opponents to fight. With no other choices, Junko and Nova dash forward, both taking turns attacking him. Nova uses electric beams while Junko throwing metal plates from the surface.
Unfortunately for them, Leonidas doesn't have any trouble protecting himself. He creates a tall white wall with a scream and blocks off all the incoming projectiles. After said wall disintegrate into thin air, he uses a blast of scream.
"Lethal Lullaby!"
Chella and the others can't dodge it in time, each of them is knocked back into the sturdy metallic walls of the Colosseum. The force of the attack is to overwhelming for them, even a wall of crystal could barely shield them from such a display of brute force. Their eardrumps are almost destroyed.
Each of them is struggling to stand on the territory that belongs to a fierceful nemesis. Leonidas doesn't have patient waiting for his foes to either fall unconscious or say that they surrender. To him, backing away was never available as a choice.
Chella has to forcefully get herself together and helps the others stand up. The headache doesn't stop, right now her body is exceeding itself in desperation of not falling. Thankfully Evaline also has some strength in her to assist the others.
Displeased by his opponent's lack of prowess, Leonidas folds his arms.
"Is that all you've got? And here I expect way more from you because you handled my apprentices."
"..."
"Oh... my bad. That attack of mine caused quite the state to you. It looks like I'm just mumbling to myself now."
"..."
Chella can see Leonidas approaching her... but how would she continue fighting in her current state? His physical and power are overwhelming for her. Yet, in such a situation, she suddenly feels something sparking in her mind. That's right, if she could drag the Lion into the mindscape, they would be equals.
Right away, her focus is spent on the large man in front of her, just as he's about to reluctantly end the fight with an instant kill. His vision becomes blurry as he feels like being dragged away by something. The disappointment that was on his face earlier quickly changes into one of a thrilled beast.
And with that, Chella traps her opponent into her mindscape, leaving the others the opportunity to recover themselves. But the injuries still need to be treated well. Nova, despite being unable to stand up, desperately crawls on the ground in search for any wires nearby.
"What are you doing Noelle!? Don't try to move!"
Gilbert's concern for his granddaughter has made him momentarily forgetful about the damaged eardrumps. For Nova, she already has something that she must do now that the situation has gone way out of hand. The gang needs all the help they could get. Evaline is assisting Junko, both of them noting how Chella and the Lion cease to make a single motion. Gilbert however, guesses that Chella has trapped the man in a mindscape. Which would give her the chance to subdue his devastating Addition. Right now, her mind is the only cage that could contain the beast that holds authority over their survival.
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Meanwhile, in Chella's mindscape...
Here lies the two sentient being enthusiastically exchanging punches with each other. Due to not having an innate experience with her powers, she could only surpress the Lion at most. The ongoing brawl fills the surrounding with nothing but the sounds of fists clashing against one another. One could say it's an arena if there were anyone who would dare to bear witness. Aside from the combatants, the place is as empty as a desert, not a single sign of life in plain sight.
"Now that's what I expected from someone rumored to be a great obstacle."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"What is the meaning of that?"
"Just ignore me rambling. Eyes on the battle!"
"Tch!"
Leonidas lounge himself forward and gives Chella a direct punch. She barely dodges by bending her body by few degrees to her behind. She's curious about about the organization he works for. Whovever it is that commands from behind, they must've issued an elimination order. Even if she defeats the Lion later, will she be able to stand up to many who might possess powers equal to him or even stronger?
As if on cue, she feels something telling her not to lose focus. Her mentality is the key to keep her powers in effect as long as she needs to. The fight just goes on, the two keep testing each other's durability without either intending to stop.
Suddenly, as if expecting something to appear, Leonidas speaks up.
"Give out your best. I know this isn't your trump card. Spice it up! I need more spices!"
"What?"
"You aren't deaf right? I know you're still hiding... something. I can sense it. My instinct urge me to the enticing sense of dread into reality."
Clearly startled by the opponent's peculiar inquiry, Chella reluctantly braces herself.
"I don't know... what you're implying."
"So I'll have to FORCE it out of you? Fine, challenge accepted."
Leonidas's visible muscles suddenly become more tense than usual, he's preparing something that surely won't be good. He turns his face upward, the wrinkles clearly displays his efforts in whatever he is planning for the youerialng maiden. A white beam could be seen coming out from his mouth. The white energy begins to gather at one spot on the sky and eventually enlarges itself, turning into a meteor. A giant while sphere has been created by the sheer power of one man who is larger and far more resilent than an average human.
"Acoustic... Annihilation!"
Chella couldn't fathom how he's still able to use his power, not to mention this attack seems much more destructive than the one nearly crushing her eardrumps. This is HER mind, she should be the one with authority especially when she's the one who initiated the mindscape strategy.
As a hardcore fighter, Leonidas would be unconcerned with her expression if he could see it. He firmly believes in the gut that has been with him through countless fights. He expects her to pull up something that could even counter his strongest attack yet. Though Chella clearly isn't sharing the joy with him. She knows that if she's hit, she will be dead right when Leonidas breaks free of her mind cage.
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After settling for a place to rest, Gilbert and the others begin to treat their injuries. None of them say a thing even if their eardrumps aren't damaged.
Nova, still putting up some strength hopefully in order to help with something. She couldn't stand seeing Chella putting her safety at risk without contributing something, hence her action. Finally she manages to find some wires, carefully cutting it and proceed to channel her very own electricity through the material.
As far as she knows, her electricity doesn't only overdrives devices and machine or fry things up, but also tamper with the digital archives of information and functionality. To put it simply, she can hack machines, the nearby ones at least.
Gilbert now realizes what his granddaughter is doing, he failed to notice it when she re-awakened her Addition. He shudders to think how harder her life could be if the old neighborhood knew about such an extend of her power. Some would shun her, others might worship or exploit her, which all means she won't be able to live a normal life. Yet, Nova is bright-hearted and she like to achieve greatings. All he could do is to look after her til his very last breath. Looking at her putting efforts into helping them all, he reaffirms his conviction once more.
With her ability, Nova is able to identify a chamber meters below which happens to be a recovery room. She looks at Junko and draws a small circle on the ground with her index finger. Despite the lack of vocal conversing, the Japanese girl nods and and creates a deep hole with her Addition. She then levitates herself and others down the hole, landing on a chamber consisting lots of medical equipments. Gilbert quickly find some medicine in order to properly treat their bleeding ears.
He gestures them each to use the small tube that contains a substance supposedly able to ease the aching pain of their ears. Evaline creates some crysthe tal pillars to block the door in case someone hostile comes, she blocks off the hole earlier as well.
Finding some unused tablets, Nova gives each to the others one and decides to use them as a temporary mean of conversing.
[We'll use these tablets to communicate until our ears recover.]
[Agreed.]
[Good idea, little Noelle.]
[Please use my usual name, grandpa."]
Evaline is still struggling with the technology in her hands. Nova saunters close to her and displaying an example, the blonde is able to write on the screen by herself.
[This object is so fascinating. Can I keep it?]
[Sure, it's like we legally own these anyway.]
Gilbert also treats others wounds of other. They are all still in shock about the Lion's Addition. Junko persnnally expected the enemy to be a swiss-army knife but it turned out to be even worse. That humongous man was simply holding back on them, expecting to be sated through battles.
And now, Chella is facing off against the monstrosity all on her own while her allies are stuck recovering from their injuries. All of them share the lingering feeling of helplessness but what choice do they even have other than recovering. At least Nova was able to find a place for them to treat themselves. Junko feels bad for dragging others into her business. It should've been her facing against the infamous Leonidas. But to her regret, none are blaming her for their current state. After all, a human feels nothing else but helplessness when failing assist one another. However, things don't have to end this way. As long as they're still alive and breathing, there will still be hope.
The bright-minded Nova comes up with some idea as she enthusiastically move her fingers on the screen.
[How to you feel about... hunting a beast.?]