Chapter 8 - Down Under

Fise looked down at the ground and began to claw at it, digging up the dirt in an effort to find Andrew. 'Crap! I need to save Andrew! Did he go underground?! No!' Fise stopped.' I need to get my shit together, I need to move away from here!' Fise turned around and ran back towards the tree, which creaked loudly as a snap echoed out from the destroyed trunk.

Fise ran past it as it fell and smashed into the ground behind him. He weaved through the trees which were the target of Andrew's attacks during his training. 'Andrew was taken into the ground so I,' Fise ran straight at a tree and placed his foot on the roots at the bottom, jumping up towards the branches. 'Need to get higher!' He couldn't reach the branch he was aiming for, a thick one with fewer leaves around it. Fise placed his hands on the trunk and he stopped himself, some of the bark torn by his fingers. He pushed down and flew up, catching the branch before swinging to throw himself above it. The branch swayed a bit as he landed onto it so he placed his hand on the trunk to stabilise himself.

Fise looked towards the spot Andrew was at before being taken underground. He looked at the dry earth there and the darker soil which he had dug out. 'How many enemies are there? If it was a group shouldn't they have attacked together? Maybe there are 1 or 2 enemies and one had the power to take them underground. What if their power looks like they have taken people underground but actually teleports you somewhere else?'

Fise looked down and saw the shadow cast by the sun spread the image of the tree and himself on the ground, trying to figure out the enemy's powers. As he looked down he saw something scurry up the tree behind him, only a little glimpse. Fise's eyes widened.

[Time Stop]

An outstretched palm scratched open a wound on Fise's arm, which came up to protect him, as it stabbed forward before slicing into the side of the neck, cutting a bit into the blood vessels. The force pushed Fise backwards and he began to fall down. The force of the landing didn't injure him but he quickly jumped away. Just as he did so a black silhouette quickly fell onto where he was, falling straight through the ground as it bent and some dirt was thrown out, just as if jumping into water.

Fise began running towards where Andrew was 'buried', marked by the dry ground there. He ran past it and into the woods. Fise hopped over roots and weaved through the trees. 'What could their power be?' he thought. 'They can take people underground. From what I saw they can also move underground. And can't do it remotely, they probably need to touch you. Also, why didn't they just drag me into the tree?' Suddenly, he felt the ground get softer and felt something grab onto his leg as he stepped down onto the ground. It went 10 centimetres deep and forced him to stop himself using his other leg. He slid along with the ground for 2 meters as the force his speed had pushed him forwards. Fise didn't waste this opportunity.

[Time Stop]

Dirt went everywhere as Fise's leg shot out of the ground, an arm being pulled out behind it, which let go from the force. Fise put force into his other leg and he shot forwards, running again. 'Crap, I don't have much time! I need to think of something!' Behind him, the arm dove into the ground again but this time the other arm appeared a few meters in front and did the same thing. It resembled swimming. Fise looked back and saw this before the arms dive fully into the ground. Fise turned to look forwards again.' How do their powers work? They seem to swim through the ground. But if they can do that why didn't they when they attacked me before? I wouldn't have seen them if they swam up through the tree. So I guess they can't go through plants, and they also can't go through people as they clearly touched Andrew before to drag him under, and maybe the reason he only had an arm out before being submerged was because they needed 2 pulls. Though, that is a big assumption.'

He kept running through the trees which were bundled together closely. He jumped off trunks some times when there wasn't space. Eventually, he reached a small clearing and as he stepped into it he felt the ground soften again. This time he was more prepared.

[Time Stop]

His foot shot off the ground and he did a roll before jumping back into the thick woods.

'The time between attacks shortened! It was around 15 seconds after I ran from the tree that they caught me, and now it was almost like 10 seconds after. I need to figure this out! If the time gets shorter I won't be able to stop time, in time! The ground was dry again, so that must have something to do with it. Also, they can't swim through living things. So I need to see what they have in common what do living things have in common? Air, they all need air, but I clearly saw their arms in the air, so that's not it. What else?' He tripped over a root and shook the tree as it broke from his speed. Fise kept going but felt something drop onto his neck. Something wet. 'That's it! What all living things have in common is water! So they cant go through water, it even explains why they can only attack from dry ground!' Fise saw in front of him a patch of dry ground under a tree and smiled. 'I got a plan!' He looked around the tree and saw only other trees.

'Perfect!'

He ran faster towards the tree. When he got close to the tree he felt something try to grip his leg. Fise smiled and kept running. He stepped to the right and stretched his left hand outwards. It hit into the tree and he held on. Fise spun around the tree. The hand was pulled out of the ground and revealed a woman with short hair. Before she could realise what happened something slammed into her side and made her fly through the air. She got stopped by a tree a few meters away. Fise landed after the kick and looked at her.

He didn't want to get closer so he got in position and concentrated. Aura gathered on his hand before he threw it and an aura punch flew through the air. The woman got ready to dive away but when she hit the tree before, branches started to shake and off them came little droplets of water. When they reached her, instead of splashing off of her they stabbed into her skin, drawing blood. The aura punch hit her on her left cheek and exploded making her spin her head sharply to the right. Fise smiled and prepared to launch another aura punch when something hit his side and made him stop. Then he saw something come towards him from the front. It was an aura punch. Fise guarded against it with his arms and it barely hurt but then another hit his liver under his guard. 'What?'

Then another one hit, and another. Fise then ran to his side and saw that from the woman came blobs that turned into aura punches. Tens of them.Tens after tens after tens. Fise was bewildered.

'She's too strong, how can she make so many?!' He jumped to the side and avoided around 5 aura punches which slammed into a tree. 'I can barely make one but she can make so many? Again, Andrew, who the hell is after you?!' Fise ran around the other way and protected his chest and face as he bobbed and weaved between the one hundred aura punches coming his way. Scratches and rips appeared on his shirt as bruises began sprouting on his forearm. 'Crap, she isn't running out of aura! I have to do something.' Fise thought. Then he smiled.'She's not the only one with aura punches.'

He abruptly changed direction to face the woman, making a few aura punches to miss, and began to run towards her. 'My aura punch won't reach her from here, I need to be at least 5 metres from her, right now,' He dodged an aura punch that tried to hit him in the head by ducking. 'I'd say I'm around 10,9,8,' An aura punch came from his left and he had to jump under it to avoid it, but something hit his leg. He fell and rolled immediately as multiple aura punches crashed into the dirt creating small craters. He stood quickly and again began running towards the woman once again, feeling a few aura punches hit his back. He got within 4 metres before 5 aura punches crashed into the ground in front of him

Fise covered his face and protected himself by crossing his arms. Dust rose before something broke through it. 10 aura punches flew at Fise. He dodged to the right, making 4 miss him. 3 hit his arms before another one hit him in the back of the knee, turning to come from behind. This made the last 2 miss him from above as he kneeled. The dust cleared and he saw the woman stand, menacingly looking down on him.

"Die."

She outstretched her arms towards him and the Fise saw them. A hundred Aura punches surrounded him, some bending down to get him as they tried to come from every direction. They closed in on him and were about to hit. Fise was frozen still, looking at the woman.

"You've been an inconvenience. But now you're gone," she said. A 'boom' echoed off the trees as a dust cloud rose upwards. A few trees groaned and fell around them. The dust quickly cleared as if something pushed them away.

An aura vigorously burned. The woman stood, her head looking to the left as a small streak of blood rolled down from her mouth. She turned to look forwards at the figure in the dust. She then saw a smiling face and her aura burned even more aggressively. The smiling figure was breathing hard and blood fell onto the ground from it, quickly evaporating away. Fise stood. His right eye was shut and he brushed the blood from the corner of his mouth before spitting some on the floor. He brang his right arm to massage his left shoulder, trying to make it feel better.

"How are you alive?" The woman asked. She knew that he could still be kicking, but at least not standing, not after that.

Yet there he was, smiling as he held himself. She then saw the miniature holes and small trenches around the little meadow. Those were definitely not there before; it must have been made by her aura punches. She clenched her teeth as she realised she mostly missed.

"Dumb luck. When you threw those aura punches in front of me so I couldn't get closer, I protected myself by crossing my arms. As I did that I threw an aura punch. I saw how you seemed to arc your aura punches by bending them so I did the same. I specifically made it fly around the trees so you wouldn't see it, also the reason I got a meter closer than you than the minimum I needed, and that it would take enough time so that when it hit, you will be making your final move, and when it did hit, it made your control over the aura punches weaker. To hit me, you needed to unbend the aura punches by bending them the other way. By breaking your concentration I made you bend them too much, which made most of them miss me as the veered off course."

'Good, I'm buying time for my wounds to heal. My left shoulder dislocated when an aura punch hit me in my upper arm. Because my defending form was too rigid and basic, the impact did way too much damage. My hip got hit straight on, along with my right eye. The force and shock made me bite my tongue. I need to make sure that doesn't happen again. It's good she decided not to attack me yet, though I don't understand why.'

"Well, you're a little smartass, aren't you?" she said as she took a step towards him."You seem to learn fast from my aura punches, so how about I teach you another lesson?!" She angrily shouted. 'He thinks he knows all about my aura punches and then tries to show me that they are weak? That I am weak? No, I need to calm down, so to help with that. I'm killing this little fucker!'

'Crap, I need more time. Run away!' Fise tried to start running away when suddenly something hit him hard in the stomach. He bent down and got on his knees. He felt his stomach contract and his throat sting before it burnt its way into his mouth and he vomited out. Only water came out from the time he drank a while back. He tried to move as to not stick his head into it but then a hit came down like a sledgehammer on the back of his head and his face got buried underground. He felt his ears pop and he tried to feel which way was down when something else smashed into his side which made him get his face out and bounce on the ground before another hit made him stand up and slowly spin before falling backwards in the opposite direction he got hit from before he got corrected by another hit. And they kept coming. A hit to make him stand that way, another this way. They stopped quickly and he stood, disoriented.

"You learn from my attacks, huh? Well, I just thought you a lesson. But now, get ready for the whole semester." She had recovered enough aura to do this and she didn't hesitate. Fise barely had time to raise his hands before they got snapped like matches. 3 seconds of maybe hundreds of aura punches descending onto Fise before the woman stepped forwards and began punching him again and again. She then hit him up from his chest, satisfied at the resulting 'crack', before onslaughting him with a hundred punches. The force was too great and he became too flimsy to keep breaking and one final punch sent him flying through some branches and up in the air.

"Tsk."

The woman breathed heavily, disappointed at the fact that the boy didn't last long, but she began to calm down. 'I should have dragged him down and punched him there, I'm sure that he couldn't have flown off then. But this is fine too. I'll go back to kill the other one and then I can finally leave this shit hole.' She started to walk in the direction of the training grounds before leaning on a tree. She had used too much of her aura too fast, she could barely move. She slowly slid down and looked up through the canopy at the sky.

Branches snapped, birds flew and dust rose as something smashed through the canopy into the forest ground below. Fise spat out blood as his ribs ripped into his lungs. He turned his head to the side to not choke and looked around, trying to not go into shock. He could feel his legs, so his spine didn't suffer much damage, if anything it was his only backup plan; to not get hit in the spine. He really didn't expect such power from someone who just surrounded him with aura punches, considering how much aura that uses up. He moved his hand so he could stare at it but it groaned in pain. 'Fine, five more minutes.'

He was surrounded by tree and leaves, some not dry as they fell with him, and branches from the trees above. It was starting to turn red as the sun began to set.

"Man, that was a stupid plan," Fise said out loud. He needed to get back to the training grounds so that he could dig up Andrew. Fise stood there for 5 more minutes and most of the superficial wounds were closed. He stood up and began jogging towards his destination.

It took him 2 minutes but eventually, he arrived there. Looking around he saw the dry dirt and went towards it. He stood over it and then leaned down. Fise began to dig quickly. After half a minute he was about 30 centimetres deep. He then got an idea. Fise concentrated on his hand, on the aura surrounding it. He spread it out, made it longer, and bent it in. He made a shovel. With that, he began to dig.

In the woods, the woman stepped over roots and fallen branches. She felt like she was starting to feel better after she exhausted herself and began to sink into the ground. Slowly, she submerged until only her head was sticking out. She took a deep breath and dove down. Under her was a black void, the same to her sides. But up above her, she could see the roots and trees, the blades of grass, the flowers and their roots. The ground was invisible to her and she began to speed up. After about a minute she stuck her head up above the ground and took some deep breaths. It seemed that she hadn't fully recovered, as usually, she could hold her breath for much longer than a minute and a bit. As she did so she heard some sounds in the distance. It sounded as if someone was digging. 'He got there before me? He should have been dead! Why didn't he die?! Why?!' a realisation hit her and she cursed herself. A Guarded only has a few weaknesses. The prominent ones are the spine, heart and brain. Anything else can be regenerated quickly but getting paralyzed from your spine, or getting your blood supply cut off was much harder to recover from. The lungs aren't very important either since a Guarded could easily live through both lungs collapsing as the have a lot of energy and oxygen compared to normal humans. Guarded also can't get concussions as the aura protects the brain first and foremost so quick stops that could cause brain damage to normal people would be nothing to a Guarded. But she was exhausted of her aura. Right now she was super weak, weak to the point that her lungs and oxygen levels were back to normal human standards. But she didn't have time to recuperate. 'If the boy digs up the other one, I'm as good as dead!' She wouldn't win in a 2v1.

She immediately submerged again and started to quickly swim towards the sound. The trees parted and she looked upon the training grounds. Next to a tree, there was the boy she just fought leaning on it. And next to him was a blonde boy, the target they were after. He stood looking out around the area. Her face scrunched up in annoyance. 'Should I just run away?' she thought as she looked to her left. 'No. If I run away where would I go? Our team leader has left towards the city and if we leave the higher-ups will make sure we would never have existed.' She turned towards the boys and quickly swam up to them. She went right under the blonde boy and quickly grabbed his leg, dragging him down under. But something happened.

She went down alone. She was confused and looked at her hand. Her fingers were gone, stuck in the ground in front of her, and her hand burned with black fire. She immediately grabbed her forearm as she took the aura away from it, and crushed it, before turning her aura around her other hand into a blade and cut it off. She swam away, trying to hold her breath for longer as her arm was burnt to nothing. She looked back and saw the boy on one knee with a hand on the ground. She saw as he lifted his hand and struck it in the ground, deep to his elbow, before he spread his fingers.

5 tendrils of black fire spun like drills off his fingers and dug through the ground towards her. She began swimming faster. One of the tendrils appeared to her right and she quickly went deeper as it went above her. As she did so she saw one come from behind her and twirled to the right, dodging it. She was now facing towards them again. She saw one coming in from the left and dove downwards before dodging to her left as another came from in front. 'How do they know where I am?' Then she saw that from under her that the other tendrils were coming towards her. She couldn't dodge. She was out of breath. What could she do? The tendrils got closer and then they were only half a metre away from her.

Andrew looked out over the field, controlling the tendrils with his fingers before he saw that across from him the ground was opened and a woman flew out, jumping to the tree behind her. 5 tendrils followed and headed towards her. She grabbed onto the tree and cut a branch as she smacked 2 of the tendrils away, which were 'cut' and began to disappear, before she dodged to the left and 2 more smacked into the tree, dissipating behind it. Then the last tendrils came towards her head. She held the branch up to block it and it drilled through it, but she turned it a little. The tendril shot through the branches and past her ear before slicing into the tree and dissipating. The woman snapped the branch before it was torn to pieces from the force of the tendril and her snap. Andrew stood up and looked at her.

They stared at each other. He saw her determined eyes and that glint that showed she would not refrain from killing. The woman looked over the field and saw blood patches on it that began to dissipate. She was confused, when did they get there? Then she realized as she put her good left hand on her bad right hand and heard a droplet of blood fall to the floor. When she bled, her blood rose to the top and gave away her location. She should've known, but it didn't matter anymore. She took a step. So did Andrew. They began to approach each other and then they both jumped forwards full speed. They met in the middle and the woman sent a jab to his head which he dodged and he sent one to her chest which she twisted her body to dodge. But Andrew sent a kick which was going towards her centre. She twisted and got further way but Andrew used the force of the kick and span around to grab her left arm with his left. He grabbed the other one too and then pulled making her arms cross as she closed in on him, but before she could get too close, a large force hit her in her middle. Andrew's kick. He pushed hard and her bottom ribs smashed apart as both of her shoulders dislocated since he was still holding her arms with an iron grip. But he wasn't done. Andrew spun once, twice and threw her through the air at incredible speeds. She was stopped by the tree he used to be under and felt her organs sloshing around inside and then she slid to the ground. She looked up to Andrew as a black armour began to surround him.

[The Black Knight]

'I need to run!' she grabbed onto the trunk and began to push herself into the ground but suddenly she felt something slash into her skin. She looked down and her eyes widened. "Water?!" Water then entered her eyes perfectly, blinding her, before it slashed into her skull. There was a sound as if something plastic fell to the ground and then steps as if a bull was charging at her. She then felt her organs burst and spine snap as a knee was smashed into her with such power it went through her and snapped the tree's trunk. 'I...lost?' she thought as she lost feeling in her lower body.

Andrew stepped away and the tree groaned loudly. 'I can still make it out, I just need to-' her thoughts were stopped forever as the tree fell on her and snapped the rest her spine before crushing her body along with turning her brain into paste. Andrew kept the suit on as he looked at the tree, swinging his hands to clear the dust. He then saw the white vapour come from under the tree and from the blood that exploded out. Fise walked from behind the broken tree stump and went to the other side to get the water bottle which had a slice at the top. The fight was over. Fise looked at the tree and felt tears build up. 'I killed someone again? I killed someone-' he stopped thinking that by slapping himself. This was the world. Their world. Which was now his world too. He had to live with it. He turned away and went to get their stuff. He has finally entered the world of the Guarded.

FOREST PANTHER VICE LEADER:

GUARDED

DEAD,

KILLED BY ANDREW (FALLING TREE)