CHAPTER 36: LOUD VS SPACE

Minaro and Kofron stare at each other on the battlefield, Kofron pulls out a black and yellow square from his pocket.

The square starts to shake, it turns into a black and yellow rockstar guitar, Kofron smiles and gets into a dynamic pose.

Kofron: Let's do this! Everyone that isn't this guy, cover your mothafuckin ears!

Kofron glances over at everyone to see if they did, no one did, his smile fades into an annoyed face.

Kofron: Hey, y'all gotta cover your ears!

Shima: No! Just don't play loud, dude!

Some of the guardians nod in agreement.

Kofron looks annoyed.

Kofron: … Okay … My concert's ruined.

Kofron starts touching his guitar, he moves a little knob on it.

Kofron: Let me lower this then, you guys are lame.

Minaro stares at him patiently, Kofron leaves his guitar alone and looks up at Minaro.

Kofron: Alright, let's go!

Kofron places his fingers on the guitar and smiles, Minaro runs towards him.

Kofron: Yo, wait! Before you attack, let me play you something.

Kofron quickly flicks the strings on the guitar, and a brutal and aggressive loud noise is heard, Kofron silently laughs.

An enormous visible sound wave shoots out of the guitar at the same time as the noise and passes through Minaro, he stops in his tracks.

Everyone is shocked by the loud sound, they're touching their ears and moving around while making discomforted faces.

Shima: Hey!?

Defei: Kofron! I thought you lowered it!

Kofron looks at them.

Kofron: Haha, hell no! I told you to cover your ears! I play loud, always!

Minaro has not moved.

"I can't move… I can't move at all."

Minaro stares as Kofron appears in front of him and slams a part of the guitar into the side of his head, Minaro stumbles to the side and hits the ground, Kofron lifts his guitar into the air as blood drips off from it.

Kofron: YEAH! FUCK YEAH!

Minaro quickly stands up and tries to punch Kofron, Kofron grabs his arm and holds him, Minaro uses his other hand to summon ice, Kofron jumps away to avoid the ice while still holding him and slams him to the floor.

Minaro gets up, Kofron quickly flicks his guitar, another sound wave is launched and Minaro is stunned again.

Kofron: You can't do anything, buddy!

A rift quickly appears behind Kofron that fires rays, Kofron moves but the rift and rays follow him.

Kofron: Wait, I said I was gonna make this fast. I shouldn't be running.

Minaro can move again, as he takes a few steps and the rifts disappear. Kofron dashes towards him and starts to violently swing his guitar at him. Minaro blocks multiple times and then tries to kick Kofron.

Kofron flicks his guitar and Minaro is stunned, as another rift starts to appear behind Kofron he slams his guitar into Minaro's forehead. The rift starts shooting more lasers and Kofron is forced to move.

Kofron: I hate to do this to ya, but I feel like doing it!

Kofron starts to circle Minaro while the rays shoot past him, Kofron smacks Minaro with his guitar then flicks it and stuns him after, he continues to do that leaving Minaro stun-locked and unable to do anything.

…

"Oh, that's not fair at all." Maya says under her breath.

Mausho looks at her.

Mausho: Yeah, Kofron's pretty busted… Fun fact, his soundwaves can rupture eardrums and destroy buildings too, he could cause a national tragedy if he used his skill at its full power.

Maya is astonished.

Maya: What!?

…

Minaro hits the floor, covered in blood.

Kofron: Have you had enough!?

Minaro slowly stands up.

Kofron: Guess not.

Kofron gets ready to flick his guitar again when suddenly a loud rumbling crash is heard, everyone looks for the source of the sound.

It's coming from the inside of the guardian base, a few seconds later, a thud is heard from the same part of the base, everyone is attentive, and some people are slowly standing up.

Suddenly Liz crashes through a wall at the top of the guardian base, she falls and hits the floor covered in blood and debris.

Everyone stands up, everyone is yelling, some people are focused on the hole in the base, Defei, Zeph, Osora, and Iza dash over to Liz to check on her.

A few seconds of madness go by before all of it halts, in just a single moment everyone felt the same feeling of dread hit them. Minaro and Kofron's eyes widen as Rinka appears in front of them and slams the ground, his laugh silencing everyone.

A black shockwave appears, everyone is hit, and several people are launched away and hit the base walls while others manage to resist and hold on.

After the wave, Kofron is on the floor next to Minaro whose head was being stepped on and ground into the floor by Rinka.

Rinka: I'm out!

Kofron quickly opens his eyes and realizes his guitar is gone, so he yells and a shockwave is summoned that hits Rinka.

…

Everyone manages to stand up after the blast, Defei who is holding Liz now, stares at her. She coughs several times and slaps his hand lightly to let him know to let her go and he does.

Defei: Liz! What happened!?

Liz: I went up to give Rinka more substance so that he would stay asleep! But he woke up!

Zeph: And beat your ass.

Liz: Yes!

Defei: … You're okay though, right?

Liz: Yeah, I'm fine.

…

Kofron quickly stands up and goes for a punch, Rinka manages to easily move even though he's supposed to be stunned, Rinka ducks down, dodging the punch and punching Kofron in the stomach hard enough for him to spit out blood, Kofron is launched back.

"What do I do?.. Wait, I don't have to do anything, the guardians are here, they'll hopefully beat him!.. I'm going to sleep." Minaro thinks.

…

Liz puts both of her hands up to her mouth getting ready to yell.

Liz: Hey, we have to make sure this guy doesn't run! No killing, but beat the shit out of him!

All the guardians look very serious.

…

Rinka laughs.

Rinka: Me? Run? You guys are gonna be doing the running! Not me!

Rinka sits down on top of Minaro's back while grinning, he looks around waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly Mausho, Zeph, Iza, Defei, Xika, and Kofron appear around Rinka, he quickly stands up and grins widely.

Shima, Raskan, Sosa, and Osora stand a bit farther away from Rinka waiting.

…

Liz and Zizin stand by themselves far away from the battle. Doa and Maya stand together, watching carefully and anxiously.

Maya: … We need to go help. Don't we?

Doa: I'm not sure if we can. But if the opportunity comes up, we'll go in.

Bukkaru walks up to them and meows.

"What's with all this racket, I can't sleep."

Doa: Really bad things are happening, Bukkaru.

"Oh, cool."

Bukkaru lays back down and closes his eyes.

…

Rinka: I'm gonna kill all of you!

Rinka slams the ground aggressively, a black shockwave appears but this time everyone is only pushed back a different amount instead of launched.

Mausho: Sure you are.

Mausho runs and throws a punch at Rinka, Rinka catches it but fire blasts out of the fist enveloping Rinka's face, Rinka's other fist rushes out of the fire, Mausho manages to block it but is still pushed back pretty far.

Iza shows up and goes for a low punch to Rinka's side, Rinka quickly stomps on her hand, pushing her downward, he then kicks her in the face, she's launched away.

Zeph's monster dashes up to Rinka from behind and tries to bite him, Rinka quickly turns around and grabs its upper and lower jaw before they close and keeps pushing them open until they eventually rip, the monster disappears. Zeph appears where the monster was and tries to punch Rinka, Rinka moves his head and attempts to deck Zeph, Zeph tries to catch the punch but it's so strong that when his palm touches it, it smacks it back and he stumbles back.

A shadow rapidly forms under Rinka, Xika jumps out of it ready to slam his sword into Rinka's chin. Rinka moves his head out of its way and kicks Xika in the chin. Xika's body flies towards Zeph, he jumps away, dodging it.

Mausho runs towards Rinka and goes for an electric kick, it connects but Rinka ignores the shock and grabs Mausho's leg and flips him over Into the air upside down then tries to punch him in the stomach, before the punch connects Mausho grabs Rinka's arm with his legs and holds on, trying to bring him to the floor but Rinka manages to keep his arm up and even lifts it higher.

Rinka: You look pathetic right now. Like a scared child.

Mausho: Just wait till you see yourself after this fight.

Rinka tries to slam Mausho to the floor but Mausho lets go and uses his hands to catch himself then he kicks Rinka in the stomach with both of his legs. Rinka is pushed back, Mausho quickly gets up and goes for a fire punch. Rinka punches Mausho in the arm, he is thrown away and onto the floor.

Rinka looks up, he spots Defei flying with water, he propels himself toward Rinka, Rinka quickly moves and Defei flies past him, landing and facing away from Rinka.

Rinka: Too slow! Get better!

Rinka tries to punch Defei in the back of the head as he is turning around, water shoots out of Defei's feet, and in a couple of the blinks of an eye he does a whole 360 to dodge the punch, he hovers over Rinka's arm and kicks him in the face, launching him away.

Rinka stops himself and stares at Defei who lands.

Defei: Too slow… Get better.

Rinka grins and then yawns.

Rinka: Don't get so cocky, I'm still a little sleepy, I did just wake up after a pretty lengthy nap, it's only natural you'd be faster than me right now.

Defei propels himself at the same speed as before towards Rinka with a kick ready.

Defei: Sleepy or not, I'll always be faster than you.

Rinka: No you won't.

Rinka uppercuts Defei in the leg, causing him to fly out of control and away.

Rinka looks over in a different direction and focuses on Shima talking to Liz and Raskan who is staring intensely at his watch.

"They're ignoring me."

Rinka runs towards them, Sosa quickly opens his palms as wide as he can and places them next to each other while interlocking his fingers, making a wall and trusting them, an invisible wall slams into Rinka. He looks annoyed and punches what he assumes hit him and it disappears as Sosa shakes his hands in pain.

Defei, Mausho, Zeph, and Iza run up to Rinka at different times, Defei throws multiple punches at Rinka, Rinka blocks and catches one of his hands and throws him away, but Defei propels himself while in the air and slaps Rinka in the face with hot water, then quickly turns around and propels himself to kick Rinka.

Rinka dodges it and as Defei flies past him, Rinka grabs him by the back of his clothes and slams him to the floor, and then kicks him away.

As Rinka looks somewhere else, Raskan appears around him, his hair starts to expand and grow rapidly, the hair morphs into a giant arm that starts swinging around, Rinka dodges it multiple times and then grabs the hair tightly and starts to pull.

Raskan's hair quickly changes back to hair instead of an arm and it starts getting longer, wrapping around Rinka's arm tightly, constricting it.

Rinka: Get this dirty hair off of me!

Raskan: Man, It's not dirty! I showered today! With watermelon soap!

Rinka hears scurrying, he notices the monster and Zeph on top of it are coming towards him. Rinka tries to slam the ground but is suddenly hit by a wave of pain that doesn't stop, his eyes widen as he spots Xika from far away swinging his sword rapidly.

Rinka yells as he tries but can't muster his hand to hit the floor and he feels the circulation of his other arm going away. He lifts his arm with Raskan, into the air and starts quickly slamming it into the floor knocking the wind out of Raskan. Raskan retracts his hair, falls, and jumps back. Xika is still swinging and is now hitting Rinka's face.

Rinka dashes toward Xika, Sosa puts both his hands in a fist and moves them as fast as he can up and down. Rinka is slammed to the floor and kept there, he's hit multiple times from above.

Rinka: Getting me… Closer to the ground was… A mistake!

Rinka tries to slam the ground but Kofron yells and shoots a loud sound wave that stuns Rinka.

…

Zizin stays in place, Liz walks up to Doa and Maya.

Liz: You guys look really nervous, are you okay?

Maya: That guy is really strong and… Well we've encountered him before… He killed our friend.

Liz: Oh.

Doa: … I know you're the guardians but I can't help but feel nervous.

Liz smiles.

Liz: … Well, today you'll learn to never feel fear when we're around. We've got this.

…

Rinka laughs, he slowly rises even while Sosa is hitting him, the void wrapped around his arms, shoulders and now his hands, is intense and flaring out of control, Sosa's attacks stop.

Sosa opens his hand, blood drips off of them, Rinka had done something that no one saw.

Rinka: Did you really think you could keep me down? No one keeps me down!

Osora quickly starts firing bullets at Rinka, Rinka's void armor appears on him and the bullets become useless, Xika swings his sword but the blows are useless.

…

Nunda's only skill is the void, an endless skill with infinite possibilities. Just like Rinka, he has a plethora of "Void Attacks" or as most refer to them, "Void Techniques."

Void Technique 1 "Void Aura", a technique that Nunda uses in some battles for the entirety of the battle, this technique gives Nunda a certain condition, the longer Nunda fights for or the more damage he takes increases his physical capabilities and strength. This strength increase does have a limit though.

Void Technique 2 "Void Punches", the void wraps around his shoulder and fist and it increases the strength of his punches to an extreme degree and makes it so that if an opponent is hit by them, they have a chance of feeling weaker and even unable to move.

Void Technique 3 " Void Armor", the void wraps around Nunda's entire body to protect him from anything.

Void Technique 4 "Void Knives", the void is used to create knives, reminiscent of Nunda's actual knives. These knives are much stronger as they can steal someone's energy if they are impaled. Nunda chooses to ignore this technique unless needed, he's not too crazy about knives.

…

Rinka holds a void knife with each hand, Zeph's monster dashes and tries to bite Rinka, Rinka turns and jumps over it, slicing its face in the process.

He lands back down as the monster disappears, Rinka then spots Doa and Maya, he grips his knives tightly.

"Oh, I know them, I wanna kill them first.'' He thinks, then glances somewhere else as he feels something touch his hoodie.

Zeph grabs Rinka by his hoodie, Rinka looks confused because he can't seem to move, a sense of danger is halting him.

"What? Why is this guy scaring me?"

Zeph: You know-

Zeph throws Rinka away and then appears in front of him and punches him in the face, Rinka hits the floor, Zeph stares at him.

"How did he get so much faster!?"

Zeph: To normal people, you would be considered a monster, but to us, to me! You're nothing but a pathetic shell of whatever you're trying to be, a villain, a psychopath, a murderer? I can't even tell.

Zeph looks back at Liz and she nods.

Liz puts her hands up to her mouth to get ready to yell again.

Liz: Guys! You're free to go all out now, I feel strong enough to be able to heal now!

…

Zeph: Alright!

Zeph looks away from her and back to Rinka who is now in front of him and throwing a punch.

The monster appears above Rinka's arm ready to bite it off, Rinka quickly pulls his arm back and jumps away.

Zeph dashes towards him while grinning viciously and starts throwing multiple punches, Rinka blocks and then tries to stab Zeph's head, Zeph ducks and uppercuts Rinka, the monster appears and swings its tail, slamming it into Rinka.

Zeph: I could play the role of a villain better than you!

Rinka hits the floor, Zeph jumps and slams his feet into Rinka's stomach.

Zeph tries to step off Rinka, but can't, he realizes that Rinka managed to stab his leg and is holding onto them.

Rinka: Shut the hell up. You freak.

Rinka slams the ground and a shockwave appears, he still feels something on top of him and something else digging into his skin.

The shockwave passes, Zeph is now crouching on top of Rinka and holding onto his arms tightly.

Zeph: Was that supposed to do something?

Rinka: Get the fuck off of me!

The Aura on Rinka's shoulder and arms start to jitter violently again. Rinka slams the ground again, this time Zeph is launched away, he lands a couple of feet away safely.

Rinka stands up and notices that all the other guardians are sitting down now, talking to each other, or staring at him.

"This is disrespectful, I'll kill them, over and over again, even after they're dead."

…

Doa and Maya stare at the relaxed guardians, confused.

Maya: Um, what's going on?

Liz: Well now that I can heal anything I'd like, we don't need everyone to fight at the same time to beat that guy. A lot of us prefer working solo or 2 at times, but never the entire group.

Maya: You guys are stronger by yourselves?

Liz: Yeah, because when we fight with all of our potential we don't leave room for anyone to join us, if they do, they risk getting hurt by collateral damage and we don't want that so we hold back.

Doa: … Now that you're free to injure Rinka without worrying too, you can go all out.

Liz: That too. It's good you noticed that too.

Doa: … Please make sure not to hurt him too much.

…

Zeph and Rinka dash toward each other, Rinka swings both of his knives, Zeph dodges and lunges toward Rinka to punch his stomach.

Rinka stabs Zeph in the forearm and pushes him to the floor, Zeph quickly uses his other hand and punches Rinka in the face. The monster appears and tries to scratch Rinka, he punches its arm clean off.

The void on him is now enormous and almost painful to look at since it was moving so much.

Zeph goes for another punch, Rinka quickly grabs his arm and punches him in the stomach, launching him away.

…

Zeph hits the floor, rolling, and then stops, he quickly gets into a sitting position, the guardians stare at him.

Zeph: Alright, I got hit, someone else go fight.

Osora: Oh, we switch after every hit?

Zeph: Yeah. So that everyone can take turns kicking ass.

Defei: That's fair.

…

"Now he's sitting too! What the hell! They're all getting on my nerves! I just wanna rip them to shreds!" Rinka thinks

He dashes towards the guardian but he hits something invisible and bounces back, Iza falls from the sky and slams her hands into Rinka who manages to block the attack.

Iza throws punches at Rinka while he blocks and gets up, the punches start to get faster and stronger. Strong enough that Rinka's arm starts to shake.

"... Wow, she's hitting them so hard I can't move them and fast enough that if I do, she'll hit my face." Rinka thinks.

Rinka ducks down and tries to trip Iza, his leg hits her, but she doesn't budge and only keeps throwing punches, Rinka quickly blocks again, he looks annoyed.

Rinka slowly stands up again.

Rinka: … If you wanna throw so many damn punches, let me do the same!

Rinka stops blocking, his void knives disappear and he quickly starts throwing punches at Iza, they manage to keep hitting each other's fist but never each other, until Rinka lets himself get it so he can catch Iza off guard and hit her, he throws the strongest punch he's thrown yet and it strikes Iza in the face.

She doesn't budge.

Iza: My turn.

Iza throws her strongest punch yet and Rinka is slammed into the ring, he bounces back up and stumbles around.

Iza turns around and looks at the guardians.

Iza: Did that count as getting hit?

Mausho: I mean, you ate his punch, so keep going.

Iza sighs and jumps out of the ring while touching her cheek.

Iza: It hurt a lot though. Someone else go fight.

Rinka slowly walks over to the guardians when suddenly Xika pops out of the ground and tries to strike him in the back of the head. Rinka turns around and almost grabs Xika's sword, but is stopped when he's hit by it several times.

Xika sinks into the floor again and appears behind Rinka, he uses his sword to trip Rinka. As Rinka falls, Xika appears under him and uppercuts him in the stomach. As Rinka is in the air, Xika strikes him multiple times, Xika then goes for one big swing on his back.

Rinka quickly moves and punches Xika's sword out of his hands then in the stomach, Xika is launched away, Rinka follows and starts to pummel him but Xika sinks into the floor.

Rinka turns around and spots Shima walking toward him.

"You'll be the first, I'll definitely kill you. You look weak."

The void around Rinka finally stabilizes, he has reached his strength limit, he dashes toward Shima.

Shima swings her whip around, Rinka lets it hit him so that he can grab it. He does and yanks Shima closer to him so that he can punch her, she quickly slides under his fist and hits his armor with her chainsaw, Rinka pushes his arm down which slams Shima to the floor and he holds her there, he throws a punch and she moves her head.

Shima: Hey, you messed up my hair!

Several vines appear over Shima and Rinka that trap them in, the vines start shooting thorns that hit Rinka's armor. Then a vine quickly rushes and slams Rinka into the wall, Shima stands up, Rinka's void knives appear again and he slices the vine pinning him up.

Several vines appear that attempt to hit Rinka, he dodges them and slices them in the process, he then dashes towards Shima.

Rinka tries to slice her and punch her multiple times, she barely dodges the attacks, Rinka then slams the ground multiple times, Shima grabs herself with her vines to prevent being taken away, he looks up to see if Shima is alive, she punches him in the face. Rinka quickly punches her in the stomach, she hits the vine wall and all the vines disappear.

Rinka dashes towards her as she tries to get up, a bullet is fired and Osora appears right in front of Rinka and punches him in the stomach, he stumbles back.

Osora quickly ties his scarf to his head and grabs an ammo box from his bag, which he takes a handful of bullets from and scatters them into the air.

The bullets land and Osora appears behind Rinka.

Osora: Don't move or I'll shoot.

Rinka laughs.

Rinka: You can't shoot me even if you wanted to.

Rinka quickly turns and ducks and as he looks up to punch Osora, he's met by a gun staring down at him.

Osora: You didn't know where I was pointing this gun.

Osora shoots the bullet, it flies towards Rinka's eye, then the bullet disappears and Osora appears in its place, kicking Rinka in the face and launching him away.

Rinka lands in front of a bunch of trees, he stands up slowly while looking back into the forest, he senses something, Rinka tries to run into the forest but is stopped, Minaro grabs him by his hoodie.

Rinka: What the hell? Let go of me.

…

Defei: Hey! He's trying to run away!

The guardians stand up and start running towards Rinka.

…

Rinka quickly punches Minaro in the stomach, then runs into the forest, Minaro chases after him but is suddenly impaled in the stomach and stopped in his tracks by a flat curvy metal rod that appears seemingly out of nowhere.

Rinka is then grabbed by the shoulder and stopped, Rinka looks at who stopped him.

Out of the forest walks Yutsu, the skiller boss, holding his palm up, the metal rod coming out of it.

Minaro tries to break it but it's no use; he's tired at the moment.

The guardians stop and stare, they're a bit scared to attack even though Yutsu was not striking fear into them, instead, he felt almost like a random non hostile civilian. Yutsu's metal retracts and Minaro kneels to the floor, blood pours out of his stomach.

Yutsu looks at the guardians then at Rinka.

Yutsu: Let's get out of here.

Rinka: Do we really have to leave? I still haven't killed anyone yet!

Yutsu: You'll do it later, let's go.

Yutsu smacks Rinka far into the forest.

Yutsu: Sorry for interrupting everyone, shows over.

Yutsu runs into the forest, the guardians take a couple of seconds, and then chase after him.

As everyone runs, a bunch of flat metal rods head into the air and rush around like a ferocious snake trying to hit everyone, the guardians move around and dodge, the rods eventually return to Yutsu.

Rinka, who is ahead of Yutsu, stops running to let Yutsu catch up to him.

Rinka: Where are we running to?

Yutsu snaps and a portal appears in front of him.

Yutsu: To here.

Rinka and Yutsu disappear into the portal and it starts to close. The guardians try to run faster, some are able, others aren't.

Defei propels past all of them and appears in front of the portal when suddenly Rinka's fist flies out of it and hits Defei in the face, launching him back.

The guardians stop running and stare as the last thing they see is Rinka waving goodbye to them.

The portal finally closes.

TO BE CONTINUED…