Chapter 80: My Turn

I see . . . so that is what you look like upon genuine shock. Look and smile, brother. Your labor was not for naught. I will ensure that you have caught up to him, beyond death.

Huh, this was the right first move based on his reaction.

. . .

As fast as his injured body lets him, Zahtan reaches for the compass on him and looks at it in bewilderment.

Nothing! There is no new input! Why is it not telling me anything about what, who or how?

He looks at the large piece of stone right in front of his sphere that had floated up from the ground and blocked his view before the ritual was completed.

The mighty beast is able to launch himself off it successfully, heading straight towards Aayn. As he does, he comes into view again.

Zahtan swiftly attempts to aim again and finish the ritual, but the piece of stone follows his movement, almost in real time, and continues to block his path.

Tsk.

Zahtan grits his teeth, looking at the compass again.

Still nothing . . . which means that whoever is doing this, is a being like One.

He recalls back to his surprise of running into them with no forecast from the compass. He then performed a few tests inside the game and confirmed that indeed . . . even this universal device no matter the world and its laws, a device constructed with years of cumulative data and research could not catch such beings.

He looks around.

Someone is out there somewhere, messing with the operation and supporting Iza undetected, covering for its current blind spots.

Interestingly, this particular kind of ability displayed reminds him of one certain pilot . . . is it a pilot?

. . .

Aayn takes out his sniper and quickly aims it at the forehead of the beast heading straight for him and takes his shot right as he lunges.

Iza, completely in instinctive mode, usually doesn't bother dodging such a thing and tank it as bullets cannot pierce his not Haco's skin when they are in fight mode, but this time is different . . . he knows that not only will something get through the skin but also the seven stronger bones underneath it.

So, with whatever sense of training and self-control he has left, he uses it to focus on one thing, never get hit. And as such, his first action is to make himself into a smaller target, so he shrinks to the size of a normal white tiger and the bullet misses.

Having missed, Aayn prepares his multi-featured mechanical arm.

The equipment I have will never let me be able to face that thing head-on, at best it will only grant me the mobility to attempt to dodge or weakly deflect him, so first, let's test something.

He aims his mechanical arm as it turns into a shotgun and fires.

The beast creates ice beneath his feet on the ceiling and multiple barriers to slow the bullet. He uses the ice he created as ground to leap and dodge to side, turning himself into a cat as he does.

When he is out of the line of shot, he turns back to a tiger and continues to create ice.

As I thought, it's afraid of getting hit! It doesn't know what is the weapon that can kill and so has to dodge everything.

It's fear of death . . . no . . . it's fear of what his death will be for the future and the past that brings some more sense to his instinctive approach, long ranged attacks and focus on dodging, that is how he should hunt this man.

. . .

Sheehan and Vision watch the spectacle in silence and a thought crosses Sheehan's mind.

Shouldn't this be over already? Is the ritual incomplete?

He looks in Zahtan's direction and sees what is going on, large pieces of stone are being launched at hum but the barrier protects him and there is a large slab that always obscures his line of sight to Iza.

His thoughts race to adapt to the situation yet again . . . at first he thinks to himself, if only he had the other offspring, he would have more firepower. But it was taken during the games by Daki, so that backup is out the window, he needs to find a new way to adapt to the situation with whatever he has now.

". . . Selena—"

. . .

What is that protective clear fluid sphere around him anyway? I couldn't control it to crush him, nor could I control him through it even though I can see through . . . and I can't seem to be able to break through it . . . if that is the case, I'll just encapsulate him completely and block all view –

The slab right in front of the sphere that covers the line of sight is destroyed, the sphere acts on the offensive and pierces through the slab, luckily though, there is no clear line of sight yet as one of Iza's large ice projectiles blocks it just for second . . . long enough for Dara to react and start placing continuous slabs around Zahtan.

He takes a glance momentarily in the direction of Sheehan and sees him looking around with a frozen boy next to him, but a glance is all he can afford as the sphere continues its onslaught in an attempt to give Zahtan just a good three seconds, that is all he needed to finish it, that is the pact, the time needed to be served fully.

They don't even have to be in one go but can be cumulative and can be chipped away at, this, both Sheehan and Zahtan understand, and also that, that isn't on their side.

For extra precautions, Dara starts to place slabs farther from the sphere as well, the purpose is to block his view, no matter what, he now knows fully that is what they need.

. . .

And so, each battle ensues . . .

. . . the beast blinded by its range to hunt only Aayn . . .

. . . and the man fighting an entity he has never seen or known about before . . . an alien if one may say.

. . .

"Selena, follow the instructions I gave you . . . "

Sheehan tsks.

How annoying that I have to resort to this . . . if only he didn't take the other crystal.

"Do it now, Selena," he says and his insulating barrier and protection drop, and he begins to freeze over and turn into ice.

"Interesting, what do you have in plan for me, Daki?" muses Sheehan, just as the frost completely takes over.