Haven't you watched DBZ?
"Odell, we are here. What's the problem!"
Interrupting the awkward silence, the companions of the mentioned man arrived.
Sebastian turned around surprised that he had not come alone.
As the teenager observed the serious faces all covered in the same gray colors, he knew they were Manifesters too… and not of low level.
At least Handlers, determined by the speed they moved with.
"Don't get any closer! That thing is dangerous." Odell shouted as he grabbed Sebastian and jumped back to a safer range.
Soon, the marionette was surrounded by a square where the edges were people.
"Todd, Willie, use your long-distance attacks."
Without asking why, the two newly arrived detonated their abilities.
Todd, a bearded Caucasian, crated a spinning energy bean in the center of his palm, and Willie, a black man with locks, not clearly showing what his ability was, placed both hands on the ground.
These appeared to have a prior convention. Todd didn't attack immediately, his energy blast flew off his hand circling around the puppet with armor.
Amid this distraction, the ground caved in to the surprise of the marionette whose intention was to find an escape route.
Jumping was discarded from the option, as those energy beams, multiplied thanks to Todd's efforts, defended the 'wellhead'.
They rained!
Stirring the dust inside the pit, the harmless-looking energy sparks finally bared their fangs. Firing a myriad of smaller but faster and more penetrable bullets at the victim.
Ten continuous seconds of metal bouncing and stones being crushed, like listening to hail inside a car.
Was that the ultimate attack?
No!
In the second Sebastian thought 'that was it', claws of stone surged firmly at the border of the hole.
Stabbing to the center!
Bang!!!
Filling the original orifice— Crushing the tenacious marionette struggling still inside.
"Did we kill it?" Todd gasped. Instantly using his ability too many times was still not easy for him.
"Stupid, don't say that!" Odell slapped his nape, "Now for sure it hasn't died yet."
"....."
As if to affirm his theory, a huge explosion of fire blew up the stones that sealed the pit.
Melted, that was a more precise word for the rocks that became lava.
The group swallowed saliva, one reason being the high temperature suddenly filling the environment, but the other was fear, fear of what would have happened if they opted for melee combat.
They all looked with thankfulness toward Odell, who now had 'I knew it!' all written over his face.
Not able to afford the time to chat, a skinny humanoid came to the surface. Shinning color green at its steps, with only its mask and boots left, no one would have recognized a single similarity other than the size.
Sebastian who aware of Sam's perspective that he consumed every segment of the armor to create and restore a shield for the first attacks, then those same flames were used to create an exit.
The marionette was weaker and more vulnerable, he knew it.
But from Odell's point of view…
…
"It's a transformation! That thing has become stronger!" Odell shouted to the others in a hurry, "Careful, it's definitely faster now, and those flames… they can instantly kill us! [Hard Skin] might not protect us at all."
"Yes, captain!" x3
"...…"
"Ahm… Didn't that poppet lose its armor? Isn't that supposed to mean that it's weaker now?" Sebastian couldn't help to reveal 'the truest truth' to the man aside.
"Haven't you watched DBZ?"
"?????"
Sebastian narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.
"Huh? What's it got to do with it?"
"Freezer, Cell, Majin Buu… Which one doesn't become stronger when it turns smaller."
"...…."
The boy was too stunned to speak.
Not against that dimensional logic.
[Good luck explaining all this sh*t.]
'Huh?'
"Captain! It disappeared!" Interrupting the conversation of Odell and Sebastian, one of the group members attracted their attention to the center.
The marionette, as they said, was gone.
"Formation E, now!"
Acting in accordance with Odell's order, the group rapidly assembled back to back, avoiding blind angles while protecting Sebastian at the center.
Sensing Sam who deactivated the ability himself, Sebastian had a bad feeling about the disdain of erroneous over-explanations are going to be created…
"What did I say? According to my experience, currently, that thing is running at a speed that we cannot even see." Attempting to calm his own nervousness, Odell joked to Sebastian. "Now you know… smaller equal to stronger."
"...…"
"Jess, can you detect where it is?" Odell addressed the only girl in the group.
"No, nothing, it's like if it had disappeared from the world, or... it's out of my detecting range."
"How?"
"Impossible."
Todd and Willie immediately denied the likelihood, as they both know that Jessica's detection ability has around one kilometer of radius, few seconds was not enough to escape, not to mention that if the creature have had that speed, it was easier to simply kill them.
"Your detection captures the mana, so it has to be still here, hiding, in a not visible place, not letting its mana out." Odell came with the most likely alternative.
"The hole!"
"The car!"
Being an esplanade, those were the only two hiding places.
Willie and Todd without saying another word performed the precursor motion of their abilities, each one pointing to one side.
"Hey, stop it! That's my car!" Sebastian had to intervene because the one about to attack in that direction was Todd. If the marionette couldn't resist those mana bullets, what chance will the car do so?
"Or… There might be another possibility."
Jessica spoke again, her words abstaining the two men to waste mana.
"What is it?" Odell asked, without stopping to look in all directions.
"Yeah, please keep my car out of this."
"That possibility is…"
Attentive to her words, Sebastian, and no one else, thought she would attack.
To him!
An identical lance to Odell's appeared on her fist. Experienced, skillful, the weapon stabbed courageously to his head!
Clank!
"You."
She finished her sentence.
A silence was propagated after the "chime".
The insignificant body power of a Novitiate was by far compared with a Handler, but somehow, he didn't die.
In the last moment, seeing the hand-lance speeding up in front of his eyes, Sebastian managed to use [Summon weapon - Pan] to block the attack.
Thanks to that [Dager mastery] provided close combat experience, his body instinctively placed the 'shield' in the right place supported by both hands.
Jessica's only accomplishment was to make him recoil, and perhaps the tingling sensation in his upper body.
"What are you doing!"
Odell yelled, but Jessica wasn't stopped by that call. Her lance kept swinging to either hit Sebastian or chase him away.
Despite being confused, the boy was not going to wait for his death, the cracked [Pan] was thrown away, and two new ones were created.
Unconvincingly, the cooking utensils defended hardly but impeccable all the incoming attacks.
If Jessica took two steps forward, he would back up three.
At a certain point, some space was created between the two.
Sebastian saw a chance.
[Dager mastery] came from a shooter, and its natural reflections were not about slashing with the blade but gaining distance and shooting.
No gun?
The fireballs took over the work.
Less discreet, but still with high precision— so many fire weapon masteries were not for nothing.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Jessica, not expecting that the fireballs came in sets of three, was hit by them several times. Finally stopping the indefatigable chase.
"What are you doing!" Odell shouted again, this time his hand clapped over her shoulder and held its body from moving.
His consideration was that fighting with each other while having an enemy in the shadows overpassed the limits of the words 'being stupid'.
"Don't let him fool you, Odell," Jessica reinforced the layer of gray skin where she received damage, "He is behind all this, he has the same mana as that creature."
"You mean…"
"That was his ability!"
"Tell me, what is your intention setting this trap." She added, this time looking at Sebastian.
"?????"
Trap? Again with that?
"Is that truth Mr. Bercic?" Odell questioned.
No! It's not! You dumb ass!
"No, it's not."
"Ha, what kind of thieves will admit that they're thieves?" Jessica had no merci with her words.