“You think they’re done with the tournament?”
Zeo asked, taking a sip of his soda. He, Annabelle, and Kiria had just returned from the hellishly long line at the Ulty’s restaurant, and were just arriving outside the Radecross stadium.
“Maybe” Kiria responded, double-checking her phone. “Reina said they were starting the final match a few minutes ago.”
“So Tyger didn’t win it after all, huh?”
Annabelle’s ears drooped low. “Yeah….Cain neither….”
With a sigh knowing she had to play the bad guy, Kiria stated, “It’s alright. They tried their best. I’ll call the city authorities about it after we eat.”
No….We should be the ones to stop Mistral!
He wanted to interject; to ask Kiria for another shot, or more time, but he wasn’t exactly sure what to say. He’d already given the cliche motivational hero speech to win her over the first time; after losing their one lead, the same old spiel wasn’t going to work a second time. Not with Kiria.
But even if he did know what to say, he was never given the chance. A massive explosion atop the stadium wrested their attention. A deluge of screams from within the building soon followed.
“Mistral?!” Kiria asked. “Are they attacking the stadium?”
“We gotta stop them!” Zeo yelled, reaching for the handles on his swords and racing into the building.
Annabelle called out for him and attempted to follow, but Kiria held her arm out to impede her. “It’s too dangerous, Annabelle. Head back to the hotel and wait for us there.”
“But-!”
And then Kiria rushed inside as well.
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
Meifang’s instincts saved her from being crushed under a pile of pulseon bodies as she flipped out of reach of the rapidly-expanding shadows forming around her.
The instant the monsters hit the floor, she recognized them as one of the pulseon species found within the mountain outside the city. They were quadrupeds not unlike wolves, with bodies of violet stone. Rather than canine jaws, however, their faces were more akin to buzzsaws. She’d spent time training against them when she first arrived in Radecross, so she wasn’t worried about falling to them herself, but….
A wave of screams erupted from the bleachers. The entire stadium was thrown into chaos as the people tried and failed to flee to safety. There was no order to the scrambling, and it was made even worse by the pulseons dropping into the building near the exits.
One of the beasts pounced at her, its saw blade face swirling in an attempt to chop her into bits. Meifang stepped to the side at the last possible second, launching the bottom of her foot directly into the monster’s temple, cracking through its stone armor and caving in its skull.
She instinctively began to rush towards the bleachers, but came to a halt immediately when she realized the forcefields around the fighting arena prevented her from being able to reach them. Forcefields didn’t work on pulseons, so they had been able to descend without trouble, and could even attack the stands from within the battlefield itself. She, on the other hand, would have to take the long way around through the locker room, and by then, there’d certainly be casualties….
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
The chaos caught everyone in the audience off guard, especially Reina. While she’d been excited to watch the finals of the tournament, she’d found her mind distracted by the looks on Tyger and Cain’s faces back in the locker room, and the tension between them that was so dense it was like being crushed between two moving walls.
She was so distracted that she hadn’t even really heard the first explosion, figuring it was nothing more than one of the combatants’ attacks (she hadn’t even realized the match had already come to a conclusion). It was the sudden cries and screams of the people around her that pulled her from her thoughts.
The mass wave of those in attendance trying to scramble to their feet and run to the exit was like a wave swallowing her up. Popcorn and candy exploded in all directions, and she even took a few accidental kicks and elbows to the tail, body, and head.
“Aaah! What happened?!”
Of course, no one was cognizant enough in that panic to hear her and answer her. But when the space around her was cleared of enough bodies, she sprung into action, jumping up and kicking her leg up high.
The grapple-greave opened up and shot the wire out, which clinched itself around one of the stadium rafters overhead. Her body followed suit as the wire tugged back on her, until she was hanging on the beam upside down, now with access to a comprehensive overview of the stadium.
Her eyes immediately locked onto the strange purple wolves that had infiltrated the arena from all directions. “Whoa, what the heck are those things?!”
A woman’s scream pierced the air nearby. She spun around in a circle, having recognized the voice as one of the seating neighbors she had befriended. The woman was being chased by one of the pulseons.
“D-don’t worry! I got you!”
She held her arm out, and the bow-bracer kicked into action, unfurling the limbs of the mechanical bow stored within. The thin, red laser formed between the two ends, giving her the string to work with. The bracer on her opposite arm opened up its own compartment, granting her access to a collection of little metal arrowheads.
When she placed the arrowhead along the laser and pulled back, the energy within the head began to build up, and a perpendicular laser formed the base of the arrow.
She took steady aim and fired. While she hadn’t been familiar with pulseons whatsoever, it was a safe bet that firing the arrows at the purple armor would be ineffective, so she instead aimed for the small exposed flesh where the head armor ended, and the back armor began.
Her aim was perfect, and the laser arrow dug its way through the pulseon’s skin. The beast immediately froze in place, convulsing as the laser began to bounce around within its body, frying its organs and killing it from inside.
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Reina prepared to drop down and check on the woman directly, but from her vantage point, she caught sight of more pulseons advancing from all directions, and knew she had to prioritize taking care of them first.
But the monsters were fast, and she didn’t have time to line up precision shots on all of them before they could start turning people to mincemeat. She brought her hands to her chest, and formed a sphere between the palms.
ICE!
Exhaling a cold breath of frost, she readied her bow once more, this time without bothering to take out any more arrowheads. The tips of her fingers had a layer of thin, pale blue light shimmering on the surface, and when they made contact with the bow laser, they immediately formed several arrows made of pale blue ice.
The ice arrows, rather than striking the flesh of the pulseons, hit the floor in front of, behind, and around them — wherever they could. As soon as the projectiles struck, they immediately exploded outward in clouds of cold that solidified even quicker.
The wolf pulseons — at least, those whose heads hadn’t been caught in the ice — howled and yelped as they were stripped of their agency, unable to break free of the frozen pillory they found themselves imprisoned in.
Reina moved to prepare laser arrows to finish them off, but there was ultimately no need for them, as a green bolt of lightning suddenly zoomed in from the entrance, carving a path across the frozen wolves. Immediately after, the beasts’ heads hit the ground.
With a bright smile, Reina held her hand up (or, uh, down, technically) and waved. “Hey, Zeo! That was awesome, dude!”
Confusion lit up Zeo’s face as he looked around the stadium. The last thing he’d been expecting was for someone to recognize him. It took him a moment to trace the source up to the ceiling, where he spotted Reina hanging upside down. He wanted to ask if she needed help getting down, but something told him that, since it was Reina, he needn’t worry. She likely went up there of her own volition, and she was probably enjoying herself.
All of the pulseons in his area of the arena were cleared out, but there were plenty more still causing havoc. And so, he crouched down low, tapping his fingers against the sides of his boots.
« ART! »
〚 RIDE THE LIGHTNING! 〛
Zeo practically vanished into thin air, whisked away by an arcing green lightning bolt that managed to skillfully cut its way through the crowd without bringing harm to any of them.
The bolt cut a line between a pack of pulseons and a retreating crowd of civilians, and Zeo manifested directly at the center of it.
His swords interlocked horizontally across him, catching the swirling buzzsaw face of the leading wolf pulseon.
He shifted his body and spun in a circle, using the leverage to send the monster flipping over onto its back.
The rest of the wolves charged in just as Zeo’s twinkling blades began to carve well-trained Typhoon Style techniques into their flesh. “You’re going down!”
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
Kiria battered her extended metal rod against the skull of the final wolf pulseon in the lobby before turning to the crowd. “Go! The exit is clear!”
She kept her eye towards the doorways leading into the stadium proper while the crowd rushed to flee the building in case she came across more of the monsters, but due to the efforts of herself and Zeo, those doors appeared to be safe for the time being.
However, before she committed to racing towards the hall leading to the other end of the stadium, she caught a familiar green tint out of the corner of her eye, way up in the ceiling.
She rushed inside past the departing crowd, confirming her suspicions as she noticed Reina hanging from a rafter. “Reina! Are you okay?!”
The chameleon girl smiled and waved at her. “Oh hi, Kiria! I’m fine! I’m shooting the monsters!”
The sigh that came from Kiria’s lips was one part relief, and one part disbelief. Of course Reina of all people would meet a situation like this with an upbeat, silly attitude. But still, she was also quite proud that she was doing whatever she could to help the innocent civilians out. And, judging by the assortment of pulseon corpses scattered around the floor, she seemed to be doing a damn fine job of it.
And so, Kiria decided to buy into Reina’s vibe, if only for a moment. She reached into her bag and pulled out a chocolate bar, tossing it skyward into Reina’s open hands. “Good girl!”
“Wow, thanks Kiria! You’re the best!”
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
While the back rooms of the stadium hadn’t been hit as hard by the influx of pulseons, the monsters did still populate the halls, Cain learned on his way out of the building.
The first wolf pulseon he encountered leaped at him from behind, and he just barely managed to duck beneath it. The action put strain on his upper chest and shoulders, which were still aching from his match against Meifang, but he gritted through the discomfort. He’d need to if he wanted to survive.
“Ugly little thing, aren’t you?” he muttered to himself as the wolf spun around to face him once more.
When the buzzsaw blade on its face began to spin, Cain narrowed his eyes and nearly let out a groan at the same time. He’d need a weapon to deal with that.
His eyes scanned over the area near him. He didn’t have much time before the beast sprung, and needed some line of defense against the saw blades.
SWORD!
His hands shot up to his forehead, then darted out to grab hold of one of the stainless steel rods lying in a pile by the wall. He brought the weapon up in front of him just in time to ward off the incoming attack using the defensive swordfighting technique stored within his mind for encounters such as this.
Sparks flew from where the saw and rod made contact. The monster was strong, pushing forward into Cain, who began to curse the fatigue from the tournament catching up to him. Ordinarily, he would have been able to push the monster away and begin his own assault, but it was taking nearly all of his remaining energy just to hold steady and not lose ground.
The beast eventually relented. Or, rather, was thrown away from the clash as Tyger rushed in and slammed his fist into it.
The pulseon shot across the hall and smashed up against the wall, shaking the entire room.
Tyger flicked his hand out a few times. “Damn, that thing’s tough.” His punch had formed an impact crater in the armor, but hadn’t quite pierced through. The monster was still alive, and was getting back to its feet. Not only that, it was soon joined by another.
“The hell are these things?” Tyger asked. His lack of knowledge did not surprise Cain.
“Pulseons,” Cain answered. His lack of a derisive follow-up comment did surprise Tyger.
Both pulseons’ buzzsaw blades began to whirl, and the monsters crouched low, ready to pounce.
“Use your Metal Install,” Cain said. Tyger obliged, slamming his knuckles together.
METAL!
The wolves leaped in unison, but Tyger took up position in front of Cain, holding his arms out wide. The pulseons appeared to have bought the bait, aiming their blades for Tyger’s arms in an attempt to saw through them.
However, the Metal Install had made his flesh even harder than the pulseons’ blades, as the monsters soon found out. Hot sparks gushed out just before the saw blades began to snap off.
The monsters leaped back, howling in pain. This time, Cain rushed past Tyger, slamming the metal rod against the injured pulseon’s neck, right where the exposed flesh was, killing it.
Tyger went for the other, throwing a fist into the monster’s face to stun it. Then, he grabbed hold of the tail and spun around in a half-circle before throwing it through the ceiling and up into the cosmos, where it joined the stars.
“Aw, shit!” Tyger suddenly muttered, staring up at the hole he’d created. He glanced over his shoulder at Cain, with a bit of panic in his eyes. “Uh, you think that’ll be expensive?!”
But Cain was already making his way through the hall, and Tyger hurried to follow. “I’m not going to thank you.”
“Didn’t ask you to.” Tyger growled, then looked Cain over, top to bottom, noticing that something was off about the way he was moving. “You alright, man?”
“I’m fine.”
Tyger didn’t really believe him, but Cain wasn’t the type of person to sway to protest, so he didn’t even bother trying.
However, when he noticed Tyger push open the double doors leading to the arena, rather than continuing down the hall towards the exit, Cain whipped around. “What are you doing? The exit is this way.”
“Yeah, but there’s still people inside,” Tyger said. “A hero always protects the innocent.”
Ignoring Cain’s eye roll, he then continued, “Look, man, I know yer hurt. Go ‘head and get outta here and rest up. I can clean up the rest of ‘em.”
Color him surprised when Cain shoved past him through the double doors towards the stadium.