Nicolas slowly walks on his tip toes into the room, trying to not wake Stefan up, despite not even a jet being able to wake Stefan up. Nicolas reaches his bed, he slowly turns Stefan to face him.

"Hmm, no zipper. I'll just slowly get it off him." said Nicolas in his mind.

Nicolas tries to grip onto the hoodie, but his hand goes through it. He quickly backs off and lets out a short cry before covering his mouth.

"What… Am I dreaming or did my hand just phase through it? I'm 100% sure I was able to raise him up by the hoodie when we had a spar… oh, you goddamned cat, you just had to be two steps ahead." said Nicolas in his mind while looking at Stefan with a shocked expression.

Nicolas tries one more time to grip onto the hoodie, but just like last time, his hand goes through it like thin air.

"Yeah, it's impossible to take that hoodie off him. I suppose it was worth a try. I should go to sleep too." said Nicolas to himself as he went over to another room to sleep.

Next day comes, Stefan slowly wakes up as he hears loud thuds from outside of the building. Stefan suddenly realizes that the thuds mean a fight is going on. He quickly rushes outside holding his sword, jumps through the window from where he entered then runs towards the location of the sounds. Nicolas was fighting some sort of child around his age in a black aura. Stefan quickly takes the picture given by Cat from his pocket, it matches perfectly with it! Nicolas notices Stefan.

"Stay back! You're only going to get yourself killed!" screamed Nicolas.

The unknown boy swipes his hand and a barrage of black pellets attack Nicolas. Nicolas blocks the pellets with his arm, which hits directly. His arm starts bleeding. The boy suddenly vanishes.

"Shit, it's a shadow strike!" said Nicolas in his mind.

Nicolas couldn't even finish the sentence in his mind, because the boy already rose from his shadow and appeared above him. With both of his feet, he pushes Nicolas away then backflips onto a building's window. The ground turns black beneath Nicolas and it suddenly rises up and covers his body fully. Nicolas is able to tear it apart, however his efforts are futile because the boy jumps off the building and dashes, striking Nicolas' head with his foot, knocking him to the ground. Nicolas quickly stabilizes himself, the boy sends another burst of pellets, Nicolas runs towards him, deflects the bullets with his arm then punches his right in the jaw, knocking him back a little. The boy backs off, then he recalls the pellets Nicolas has deflected, which hit him directly in his back. The boy charges up energy in his arm, then releases it, expanding his arm and turning it into the head of a spear. It pierces Nicolas' body perfectly, and takes out a spherical object, which the boy crushes. He restores his arm and Nicolas falls down, dead. Stefan just stands there with the sword in his hands, shocked, but tries to keep his cool.

"Who are you?!" yells Stefan.

"Me? Why would I tell you that?"

"It would be a shame to kill someone without even knowing their name." said Stefan with a smile.

"Tsk, fine, my name is Andrew. Happy?" said Andrew, pissed off, about to leave.

Stefan clenches his teeth upon seeing Andrew wanting to walk away. Stefan rushes Andrew and dashes, going for a direct stab. Andrew parries his sword with his arm by raising his forearm from underneath his blade then pushes him away with his other hand. Stefan quickly stabilizes himself. He grows angry, he grabs the handle of the sword with great power then focuses and slashes, a blue slash projectile launches from his blade and hits Andrew directly. Dust rose when the projectile hit him, getting Andrew in a smokescreen. This allows Stefan to get to his side and then successfully stab Andrew in the belly. Andrew looks at Stefan directly in the eyes with a hateful look as he grips onto the blade of the sword.

"How about you have a taste of your own medicine?" said Andrew as he plucked the sword out of his body and swiftly stabbed Stefan with it.

Stefan is both surprised and stunned as the sword pierces his body with ease… however… the sword doesn't penetrate him, instead, it gets absorbed by the hoodie. Andrew is confused and jumps back. After the sword is fully absorbed within Stefan's body, a light blue outline of energy spreads around Stefan's entire body, covering him fully. Andrew is surprised by this and proceeds to strike an attack pose. Stefan prepares himself to dash at him, Andrew is ready to counter-attack. Stefan dashes, Andrew launches a jab, Stefan suddenly stops, grabs Andrew's neck and arm, turns around, slams him into ground then tries to kick him in the head, but Andrew propels himself with dark blasts away, damaging Stefan a little. At this point, Andrew is exhausted from fighting both Nicolas and Stefan.

"Did I just make a mistake? What in the world did I just discover? This can't be true!" said Andrew in his mind as he backed off.

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Stefan prepares to launch a punch, despite Andrew being out of his combat range. Stefan swings his arm and an energy arm the same length as his stretches from his fist, punching Andrew directly in the face. Andrew falls on his back and slides a few meters. He slowly gets up then sees Stefan sprint towards him. Andrew launches a series of dark pellets which Stefan tries to deflect with his arms but it doesn't work.

"This isn't the last of me which you will see, just wait, you were lucky… lucky as hell boy. This won't repeat!" said Andrew out loud.

Andrew charges up energy in his legs and turns around. Stefan tries to grab him before he gets to do anything. Suddenly, the coat of energy disappears and the sword jumps out of him. Andrew rapidly dashes. Stefan picks up his sword and tries to catch up to him. Andrew drifts into an alley, Stefan still chases after him. Andrew jumps and runs on the walls of the building upwards and manages to jump over the building that makes up the dead end. Stefan tries to jump over the building but fails, so he stabs the building and then jumps over it using the sword and leaves it stuck in the wall. Once on top of the building, Stefan tries to look for Andrew, but it's futile. He was gone. Stefan catches his breath for a brief moment then goes back down and takes the sword out of the wall. One he lands down he is suddenly grabbed by behind, with a hand on his mouth and the other one on his neck.

"Don't say or do a single thing, otherwise…" said the person who was holding him.

The person sounded like another child his age, Stefan reaches for his sword but he suddenly feels hot on his neck. He looks down and sees a flame come out of the stranger's palm. Stefan slowly lets go of his sword, then with all of his might and power, stomps him on the foot. The other boy yells in pain, Stefan takes up this opportunity and punches him, knocking him back into trash cans.

"What's your problem? Leave me be!" said Stefan angrily.

The other boy slowly gets up from the trash.

"You're one of those damned officers that want to kill everyone in this place, right?" said the boy with a serious expression as he strikes a fighting pose and his fists light up with flames.

"No, I'm here to kill the police. At least an important member of their team." said Stefan in a disturbed tone and a frown.

"So, that dark guy was their ally?" said the boy, still in a fighting pose, but his fists stopped being lit.

"Yeah, I almost got him. If it weren't for this alley I would've caught him-"

Stefan's words are cut short since he hears the sudden screams of soldiers.

"Freeze!"

Stefan quickly draws out his sword, the soldier starts firing his assault rifle, Stefan parries the bullets with his sword then the other boy casts a fireball and launches it at the soldier, burning his face. The soldier screams in pain and drops his rifle. Stefan lunges and stabs him right through the neck, disgusted by what he's done, he performs a final slash on his neck and walks to the boy with a mad expression.

"I'll boost you, jump on the building." said Stefan.

"Okay?... Also, my name is Rares.".

Stefan boosts Rares up onto the building. Stefan stabs himself and uses his sword to power up.

"I'll call this… sword mode." said Stefan, as he jumped, then punched a hole through the wall, then propelled himself upwards once more and reached the top of the building.

Rares looks at the city from above, then turns around and sees Stefan. He's seemingly shocked by his new appearance.

"Whoa! Is that still you?" asked Rares with an amazed tone.

"Yes, if I stab myself with the sword I enter this "mode" to say the least for around a minute or so. I don't know how to cancel it so I'll just wait until it ends." said Stefan.

Rares analyzes his body in this new form, but he's just confused about how it all works.

"What are you looking at? Let's go already! Do you really think that soldier was alone? Get going." said Stefan with a frown.

"Oh, yeah, once we reach a safer spot I'll tell you more about those people." said Rares.

"Alright, follow me." said Stefan, then vaulted off the building and sprinted.

Rares follows Stefan, vaults off the building as well, then breaks his fall by blasting flames from his palms, then he sprints after Stefan. Stefan suddenly stops and his mode deactivates. He catches the sword and puts it behind his back. Rares catches up with him then Stefan leads him back to the boxing gym.

"Come on, leap through the window." said Stefan, then proceeded to enter through the window.

Rares follows him and enters as well. Stefan goes into the bedroom and lets himself fall on the bed. Rares follows him and sits down on a different bed as well.

"Ok, so, about the military… They have a local base here. They don't have cameras. They lack funding. This organization was supposed to disband long ago, but they kept it alive with minimum funding. Most soldiers here just want to kill. They don't even care about money at this point… I can't imagine what they are even looking for-" said Rares, before being interrupted by Stefan.

" Elementalists. They're after elementalists. They're after you. "

Rares is shocked by his statement.

" I'm a what? I thought everyone had powers-"

"No. Wrong." said Stefan , then let out a deep sigh and covered his face with his hands.

Rares notices Stefan's bad mood, but decides not to question it.

"Ahem… Anyways. I found something, no, some things, that might or surely interest you." said Rares.

"Just, tell me already." said Stefan.

"Ok, so. Recently I joined a terrorist group, but it took mere days until we were spotted. Everyone died, except me. I stole a bag full of explosives and ran away as the military raided our hideout. I know where their base is located. Do you know what I'm thinking about too?" said Rares with a smile.

Stefan smiles as well before speaking.

"Oh, you crazy bastard. Of course I do." said Stefan, excited.