An Old Promise Of Friendship(1)

"Prison of silence."

Without wasting any time, Mahiru used her restricting move to capture Lex. Since she was tasked with kidnapping him, this was the most efficient way for her to do things.

"Same tricks don't work twice."

Extending his hands outwards, Lex emitted force from his palms. A barrier formed around his hands which repelled the incoming water.

This time, he didn't gather the water in his hands. Doing that required a lot of energy and power, something that Lex couldn't spend at the beginning of a fight.

"You can have it the hard way. The result will remain the same." Mahiru replied calmly. "Bubble saga!"

Numerous bubbles shot out from Mahiru's fingertips, filling a major area in front of her. 

Since Lex didn't know what effect the bubbles had, he stayed away from them. He decided to check Mahiru's ability to gather more information on her.

'System scan.'

[ Error! The system scan is too low-leveled to provide information on the chosen target. ]

After reading the words, Lex internally facepalmed. To use the system ability on Mahiru, he needed to upgrade the system scan.

What were the conditions for doing that? Neither he nor Elfie knew them.

"You are not going to do anything about the bubbles?" Mahiru raised an eyebrow. She was satisfied by the bubbles in the room and stopped summoning more of them.

"I have a feeling that the moment they are destroyed, they will explode."

"That is one way to use these bubbles. I used them as explosives in the past but since then, I have come up with many new ways to use them."

An ominous feeling spread throughout Lex's body. He once again exerted force from his palms, ready to repel anything coming his way.

"Bubbles are quite special. Most people think of their childhood when they hear the term bubbles. They are pretty things. However, bubbles can be deadly as well." Mahiru snapped her fingers.

All the bubbles present in the room shot towards Lex. He immediately jumped back while pointing his hands forward.

'Repel all the bubbles. I can't let them come close to me.'

Lex imagined a tiny needle force bursting the bubbles. This allowed him to pop all the bubbles closing on him. Much to his surprise, the bubbles burst like normal bubbles without doing anything special.

'Something is not right.'

Lex felt that there was something that he was missing.

"You don't have much fighting experience, do you?" Mahiru questioned.

"How do you know that?"

"Besides the research that I did on you, your fighting stance reveals your incompetency while fighting. You defended your front but your back is wide open." Mahiru informed.

Lex didn't need to turn back to realize what was happening. He could feel bubbles sticking on the bottom of his spine.

He tried shaking them off but they stuck to his body. Lex was tempted to use telekinesis to remove them but that could damage him as well.

'Shit, I can't use telekinesis all around my body while fighting.'

[ The bubbles sticking to your back possess the ability to slow you. I think they are going to weigh you down. ]

'They must have a secondary attack as well.'

With gritted teeth, Lex launched an offensive attack. He thrust out his palms forward, releasing two compressed shots in the forward direction.

His attack burst through multiple bubbles at once, heading directly towards Mahiru.

"You are too inexperienced to fight me." Mahiru smiled humorlessly. 

A mirror made from water appeared in front of Mahiru. The incoming attacks crashed with the mirror, breaking it into tiny pieces.

However, the broken pieces of mirror turned into droplets of water. The droplets of water absorbed the impact of Lex's attacks before vanishing.

"Well, that was expected." Lex sighed.

If he was being honest, he expected Mahiru to counter his attack completely. His chances of winning were nonexistent and the only thing he could do was still until Rio returned.

'Rio must have known this would happen. There's a chance that she is fighting a battle right now. I am on my own until she returns.'

[ I am also here, you know. ] Elfie grumbled.

'Of course, I haven't forgotten about you.' Lex reassured Elfie. 

He then looked at his spine and saw dozens of bubbles stick to his back. He tried moving a bit and was slowed by the bubbles.

'We need to do something about these bubbles.'

[ We also need to do something about Mahiru. Let me think of a way to take her by surprise and earn some time to save ourselves. ]

"How did you enter the mansion so easily? They are security measures all over the place." Lex asked, hoping to stall Mahiru.

Unfortunately, she easily understood his plan.

"You are trying to stall for time, aren't you?"

"What if I am?" Lex countered.

"Its useless. Rio is facing people holding abilities that counter her ability. She won't be coming here anytime soon. As for you, its time to end this."

Mahiru clapped her hands as all the bubbles in the room popped simultaneously. However, the bubbles on Lex's back didn't pop.

"This will hurt." Mahiru added before clapping her hands for the second time.

*Boom!*

The bubbles on Lex's back finally exploded, throwing him to the ground. He muffled a scream as his clothes were burned and his bareback was exposed.

Scratches and blood was present on his back, caused by the exploding bubbles.

[ You were right. They did explode… ]

'Thanks for saying that but we have more important thing to do.'

Lex tried lifting himself up but felt something weighing him down. Lifting his face, he saw Mahiru standing directly in front of him.

"Since my prison of silence doesn't work on you, I will just use some exploding handcuffs. If you move your hands while wearing them, they will explode and destroy your hands." Mahiru warned.

She put one hand in Lex's direction and began to creating the handcuffs. Lex resisted by preventing the water molecules from forming.

"Resistance is futile." Mahiru said calmly. She continued the same process and eventually managed to form the outline of the handcuffs.

"Fu…" Lex tried his best to push back but was the difference in their strengths was overwhelming.

If only there was something he could do…

[ And cut! That was the perfect line to build suspense. Now let me handle the rest. ] Elfie said cheerfully.

Lex's eyes blanked out for a few seconds. This confused Mahiru but it also allowed her to form the handcuffs completely.

When the light returned to Lex's eyes, he directly stared into Mahiru's eyes.

"Hey, Mahiru, do you remember a certain thing?" Lex questioned.

"What thing?" Mahiru asked while frowning slightly.

"Do you remember the promise we made with each other?"