Influence

Gen then thought, 'What do I do now? There's no way I can kill it the same way as the other grunar. Light is too rusty right now, it won't be able to pierce the skull without the help of my essence, and Scar is not a good spear to use like that.'

The grunar then began to move towards Gen, approaching quickly, but Gen rolled to his left, and as he got up, he struck him again in the right shoulder.

The blow didn't stop him again. The grunar turned toward him and quickly arrived at the same speed as before.

Gen then ran towards the grunar, stuck the tip of his spear into the ground, and threw himself over it.

As he fell to the other side, Gen rolled as he touched the ground but got up as quickly as he could, looked at the grunar, and, seeing it, thought, 'Another attack? Don't you get tired?'

The grunar was approaching quickly, but as he saw it coming, Gen thought, 'He seems to be slower than before. Is he getting tired?'

The grunar then came towards Gen, and he again rolled to the left, but this time, the grunar moved to the left along with Gen.

Seeing this, Gen thought, 'Damn!', and then was hit in the legs, which made him roll out into the desert.

Gen then knelt on the sand with his hands on the ground, looked in the direction of the grunar, and saw that it was already turning to come towards him.

Gen then thought, 'Looks like it is starting to notice my patterns. It's going to be dangerous if things keep going this way. It looks like I'm going to have to use more of my spear essence than I can, but I'm going to get exhausted doing it and probably won't be able to help the others ... well, I don't have much of a choice in this situation.'

Gen then stood up and began to get the sand off his body as fast as he could, but as he was reaching around his waist, he felt something wet on his hand.

Gen then looked at his hand and thought, 'Blood? Why is there blood on my hand? Did I hurt myself like this? It's not possible.'

He then touched his clothes and thought, 'The blood is just on the clothes. It's not mine.'

Gen then looked in the direction of the grunar and then thought, 'That's right. Just because my attacks don't stop him doesn't mean they're not hurting him. That makes things easier.'

The grunar continued to approach, and Gen took Scar off his back. He then got into position and began to breathe as he thought, 'Wait. Closer. Closer. Now!', and then he threw Scar, saying, "Javelin!"

Scar flew towards the grunar and hit it in its right shoulder, penetrating it with its blade, which made the grunar scream and stop moving forward.

He then thought, 'Looks like I was right. He's still getting hurt. It'll take some time, but I'll take it down.'

Gen was about to attack the grunar again when he suddenly heard, "Arg!"

He then looked in that direction and saw that another one of the diamonds had been hit by the quick grunar, knocking him unconscious.

Gen then thought, 'There's no time. I have to end this now before they all lose.'

Gen then moved towards the leader of the grunars and struck him in his injured shoulder, which caused him to scream and walk backward.

Gen then advanced towards the grunar again, and seeing him coming, the grunar turned and started to run.

Seeing this, Gen said, "Hey! Come back here, I don't have the time to run after you!", but the grunar kept running.

Seeing the direction he was going, Gen said, "Damn it! Look out! He's coming for you, diamonds!"

Hearing this, everyone turned towards him, and seeing the grunar leader coming towards them, one of the diamonds said, "What do we do now?! It's coming here!"

"We'll have to run. It's the only option."

"But what about the two who got hurt? Are we going to leave them behind?"

"..."

"I-I'll get its attention and take him somewhere else. In the meantime, you guys try to buy time with that quick grunar."

"... Okay, good luck."

"We'll give it our best shot!"

One of the diamonds then broke away from the other two and threw a knife in the direction of the grunar leader to get his attention. The knife hit the grunar in the middle of his forehead and made a small cut.

The diamond then said, "Come at me! I'm not afraid of you stupid pig!", but the grunar leader ignored him and kept going in the same direction.

Seeing this, the diamond said, "Why aren't you coming to me?", and then threw another knife at the grunar, which hit him but was again ignored.

He then said, "No. No! Run!"

The two diamonds that were still fighting turned around and saw that the grunar leader was still heading in their direction. One of them then asked, "What now? What do we do?"

And the other replied, "I don't k-", but before he could finish speaking, he received a blow on his back from the quick grunar.

Upon seeing this, Gerald and Karin tried to run towards them but were blocked by the grunars they were facing.

The diamond who tried to get the leader's attention fell to his knees on the ground and said, "It's over ... there is no way to save them. Damn it!", but suddenly something very fast passed by him, he then looked forward and saw Gen running towards the grunar leader and then said, "It's no use, Gen, he's too ... fast.", and then he thought, 'What's going on? How is he that fast? It even looks like he's teleporting.'

Gen was rapidly approaching the grunar leader, each step he took seeming to cover several meters. Then he heard in his head, 'Stop, Gen! You're pushing yourself too hard. You know you're going to pass out if you keep using the essence like this.'

'I can't, if I stop using it, I won't be able to help them.'

'Gen! Stop being stubborn, you know that even if you keep using it, you won't get there in time! And besides, there's no reason you should put yourself at risk for people you just met.'

'DEHJI! THAT GRUNAR WAS MY RESPONSIBILITY! I SAID I WOULD TAKE CARE OF HIM, AND I WILL! THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER SACRIFICE BECAUSE OF ME!'

'... Gen, I don't know what you're talking about, but how do you plan to deal with him? You know there's no way you can get there in time.'

'Don't worry, I'll make a way.'

Gen continued running towards the grunar, and after a few moments, he saw that the grunar was only a few feet away from the last diamond.

He then said, 'It has to be now!', he then held up Light as if he was going to throw it, started breathing, and then thought, 'Eli, release it now!'

'... No.'

'ELI! I DON'T HAVE TIME, I KNOW THE RISKS! RELEASE HER!'

'I SAID NO GEN!'

'WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?! IF YOU DON'T RELEASE HER, I'LL RELEASE HER BY FORCE!'

'GEN! CALM DOWN! There's no reason to release it!'

'What are you talking about?! They will die if I don't do something!'

'No, they won't.'

'What do you mean they won't?! The grunar leader is almost upon them.'

'Relax, Gen. He's here.'

'Who's here?!'

Gen then started to look around, but he wasn't able to see anyone different, and then thought, 'I'm not seeing anyone, Eli.'

He then saw that the leader was practically in front of the diamond rank and said, "Damn! There is no more time!", the diamond was about to be hit. Everyone was looking in his direction, thinking, 'It's over.', when suddenly, a cage appeared out of the wind and trapped the grunar leader, making it stop. It then tried to crash into the bars of the cage but was unable to break them.

Everyone then thought, 'What happened? Who locked him up?'

While they were thinking about this, the other grunars were being locked in cages one after the other until they were all locked up.

Everyone still didn't understand what had happened until suddenly they heard someone say, "Whew! Looks like I got here just in time."

Everyone then turned in the direction of the voice and couldn't believe who they were seeing.

Gen, in the heat of the moment, shouted, "Raja!"

And Raja said, "Hey Gen, you're looking kinda bad. Is everything okay with you?"

"How did you do that?"

"Well, you could say it was thanks to you."

"What do you mean?"

"Your words brought me enlightenment that made me level up."

"You leveled up? What level are you at?"

"As of today, I am at the level of Influence! Hahaha.", Raja said with a wide grin.

"Level of influence?!"

"Yeah!"

"But Raja, your essence is that of the mirage, and that cage is clearly real. If it weren't, it wouldn't have been able to trap the leader of the Grunars."

"Gen, that cage is a mirage. They all are."

"What?! Then how are they imprisoning them?"

"You seem to have forgotten what we talked about a little while ago, Gen. The cage may be a mirage, but that's not what matters. What matters is whether or not people believe it is real. Once they believe it, it affects the world around them and becomes real."

"That's how influence works."