Chapter 16 - Cuts and Bruises

Hundreds of trainee soldiers charge at Gavin, as he begins to fight them off, punching, kicking and countering multiple attacks from dozens of different people at once. Gavin also easily dodges the attacks by using his instinct ability, as he then continues to move through the crowd as he fights.

Suddenly, a high-ranking looking officer stands in Gavin's way, as he cracks his neck and his knuckles as he prepares to fight,

"So, you're the intruder, huh."

The officer questions Gavin, as he continues to stretch,

"sigh Dammit... All I was tasked to do was watch over these idiots train, but now I have to deal with this"

The officer says with a tired voice, as he does one more warm up, before putting on his fighting stance,

"I'm Officer Marshall, and I'm the second commanding officer next to the general. It's a pleasure to meet you, intruder, and goodbye."

The officer introduces himself with a seemingly sarcastic yet serious tone, as with a single move of his hand, Gavin's instincts go crazy, as he quickly jumps to the side, barely dodging a powerful, invisible slashing attack.

"What the hell was that..."

Gavin says in confusion, as he pants after barely dodging what seemed to be death.

"Huh, you can see it... Interesting..."

The officer says with a smile as he starts to get excited,

"Heh, alright then... for the first time, I get the feeling that this... this is going to be FUN!"

Officer Marshall yells excitedly as he runs at Gavin, preparing to attack as the trainee soldiers around them only cheer him on.

Meanwhile, back inside the building, Courtney and the lava general continue their face-off, as Courtney continues to throw Embursts at the general, as he only continues either dodging or catching her attacks.

Courtney switches up the battle, as she transforms into a more close-combat based phoenix form, her wings turning into huge powerful flaming arms instead, similar to her form in the Great Destruction of Fallis Incident, as she then begins to throw hands with the general.

The lava general smiles excitedly at the sudden shift in the battle, as he quickly turns his whole body into lava, as he catches one of Courtney's punches with his hand, creating a powerful shockwave on the hit.

"Huh, not bad..."

The general says with a chuckle, as he then sinks into the ground, attempting to land a sucker punch on Courtney after reappearing behind her. He then uses his Aura, infusing its power with his punch as he attacks Courtney, creating a sonic boom as it moves.

Courtney almost barely notices the attack, as she quickly catches it with both her hands at the last second, creating a powerful shockwave that cracked the walls of the building, as the lava general continues to throw punches at Courtney, breaking the sound barrier and creating shockwaves with each hit landed, while Courtney can do nothing but keep moving back and defending, blocking each attack.

Back outside, Gavin and Officer Marshall continue their fight, as the officer throws punches at Gavin, followed by another powerful slash attack. Gavin continues to dodge every attack, as he also tries to fight back, throwing punches, elbow strikes and backhands.

"Impressive, you've kept up with me until now... Might as well tell you about my power."

The officer says as he begins to get cocky, explaining his ability while he fights Gavin.

"So basically, my power is... well, pretty simple. It's cutting and slicing, it's a power I inherited from my father, who is a very, very powerful man by the way..."

Officer Marshall explains as he easily dodges every one of Gavin's attacks, before jumping back and preparing an attack,

"All I have to do, is make a simple hand movement..."

He continues, as Gavin jumps towards him and into the ground to do a ground smash, but the officer jumps away, dodging it easily,

"...and everything in the direction of the attack, will be cut!"

The officer casually explains as he launches a slash attack, as Gavin barely dodges it again, this time it grazes right past his chin. Gavin then charges towards him and attempts to tackle him down, shouting as he does, but Marshall only moves to the side, causing Gavin to crash onto a wall, while the officer only laughs at him,

"Hehe... Anyway, my attacks' slashes' size and angle depend on how much effort I put into each hand movement, how far the slashes go (which has an infinite distance by the way, only stopping when it hits a physical object), and what angle I put it in."

Officer Marshall yet again continues to explain, as Gavin gets up from the rubble, groaning a bit in pain before cracking his neck and stretching a bit as he starts to get annoyed.

"That's it!"

Gavin yells in frustration as he charges at the officer once again, but quickly stops before he could actually hit as the officer moves to the side, as Gavin then stops in his tracks, adapting to his style. Gavin moves along with him, doing a low sweep as the officer then falls to the ground.

Gavin then attempts to stomp his head down, but the officer quickly moves as he makes another slash attack, as Gavin quickly manages to dodge it again, as the attack cuts a cloud apart.

The two then get up and fix themselves as they then charge at each other, as Gavin's fist suddenly sparks once again, as a strange, familiar feeling washes over Gavin. An extremely powerful, intense pressure follows by as he does.

Gavin feels a bit paralyzed by all this, he feels himself about to pass out, but he manages to push through it, he shouts as he forces himself to move, throwing a powerful punch at the officer as a shockwave is created when the punch lands straight to the officer's face, creating what looks like a black and red burst of energy, launching the officer dozens of meters away through a wall into a nearby building.

"O-Owh! What the hell!? That hurt a lot!"

The officer exclaims angrily as he quickly gets up, stumbling a bit from the pain, but manages. The two then stance up once again, as the two go ahead and throw a punch at each other, leading into a fist clash, creating a big shockwave around them.

Back inside, Courtney and the lava general continue fighting, as the two push against each other, sumo wrestling style. Courtney then ends their clash by letting go and moving backwards, causing the lava general to be outbalanced, before landing a low sweep by using her phoenix tail. This knocks down the lava general, as she then flies up, doing a nosedive kick with her flaming talons straight towards the general on the ground, as he then rolls aside before sinking into the ground in his lava form once again, as Courtney crashes onto the ground, creating a huge explosion.

The general then exits the ground through another part of the floor,

"I'm impressed, Courtney, you've actually managed to take on me in close combat... You're actually pretty strong."

The lava general praises her, as he starts to pant, also starting to feel annoyed, as Courtney smiles and chuckles, panting and sweating a bit, but ready to keep fighting,

"Thanks... pants You too... pants"

Courtney replies flatly, as she then fully transforms into her true phoenix form, before flying into the air and nosediving at the general, flying straight towards him with full force as she breaks the sound barrier, making multiple sonic booms as she utilizes her momentum while she makes her way towards him.

The general then counters this as he uses Aura Release, which manages to catch Courtney off guard, distorting her a bit, breaking her momentum and guard as the general then dodges her attack. He then grabs onto her tail and starts to swing her around, before throwing her at full power towards the other side of the hall, into the outside where Gavin and Officer Marshall are fighting.

The wall explodes as Courtney is thrown outside, she untransforms out of her phoenix form in pain, as she realizes her arm is broken. She then sees Gavin fighting as she calls him out,

"Gavin, run!"

She shouts towards him as Gavin immediately notices. He turns to Courtney's direction as he sees her on the floor, while the general walks out of the hole in the wall after her,

"Courtney!"

Gavin calls for her in worry, as the officer takes this chance to land a hit on Gavin, but Gavin manages to catch his attack, as he quickly counters it with a punch straight to the nose, causing the officer to fall to the floor groaning in pain as his broken nose bleeds,

"Just run, I'll catch up!"

Courtney tells Gavin, as he immediately listens, nodding as he begins to run towards an exit ladder leading to the roof.

Courtney quickly tries to transform back into her phoenix form, as she tries to fly away, but her broken arm/wing slows her down, as the lava general then catches her by her tail once again as he throws her back.

"Leaving so soon?"

The lava general mocks her as Courtney struggles to fight back,

"Eternal Flamethrower!"

She shouts as she desperately blasts a powerful fire attack at the general, who easily blocks it with a lava shield.

Courtney then takes this chance to transform into a phoenix while the general's vision is still blocked, as she then tries to fly away. The general quickly notices this as he begins to throw lava projectiles at Courtney, as she barely manages to dodge them, before turning back to the general, putting her wings up in the air as she absorbs sunlight in the night sky, creating a magnificent spectacle as Courtney creates an artificial sun, brightening the night,

"Ultimate Move: Divine Morning Star!"

Courtney shouts as she launches the attack at the general, who manages to block the hit, even absorbing it, as Courtney takes the opportunity to continue flying away towards Gavin.

Meanwhile, Gavin starts making his way towards the ladder, when suddenly, his danger sense kicks in, as his body instinctively makes him jump. The lower part of the building in front of him is cut clean in half, destroying the ladder and the only safe way he can escape from there.

Gavin then turns back to see Officer Marshall chasing after him,

"Oh no, I say when we're done..."

The officer says with a grin as he begins to spam a barrage of slicing attacks.

Gavin quickly dodges to the side away from the slashes, before rushing towards the officer, attempting to throw a punch. However, the guy manages to duck as Gavin passes by him. Gavin quickly manages to redirect himself though, as he then slides around before doing a jump, shattering the ground before launching himself towards the officer.

The officer quickly notices this, as he manages to counter before Gavin could do anything,

"X-ecution!"

The officer yelled as he made a cross formation with his arms before striking, making an X-shaped slash attack towards Gavin. Gavin manages to catch this though, as he decides to cancel his own attack, throwing himself to the floor and barely dodging the officer's attack. Gavin then rolls over to the officer, getting up once again to do a counterattack, throwing one more punch to the officer's face, knocking him away into a wall once more.

The officer quickly gets back up from the rubble, as Gavin also quickly resumes his assault. The officer steps back into the rubble, picking up some huge rocks and throwing them at Gavin. Gavin catches these rocks on time, as he quickly counters and throws it back at him. The officer quickly slices apart the rocks, while Gavin weaves through the officer's stray slashes.

Gavin then goes near the rubble as well, picking up some more rocks and launching them with full force at the officer, each projectile even creating sonic waves as they get launched. The officer struggles to dodge and counter, but manages to break them apart with his slicing attacks,

"Seriously? Using the same attack I did? Get creative, dude."

Officer Marshall scolds him as he manages to catch one of the rocks in his own palm, crushing it,

"The hell you mean? How am I supposed to get creative when this is all I got?"

Gavin replies as he charges at the officer, while the officer tries to defend himself with more slicing attacks thrown at Gavin, but he manages to dodge through them.

Finally, Gavin manages to get to the officer, sliding right under the guy between his legs, confusing him, as Gavin gets up behind him and lands a devastating sucker punch to his nape, knocking him out.

Gavin then finally returns his focus back to escaping, going back and just climbing and parkouring up whatever remains of the building, as he finally makes it to the roof.

He then turns around to watch the spectacle as Courtney creates the huge ball of fire, as the explosion then blinds everyone around. As Gavin turns back, he watches as the exhausted Courtney desperately flies towards him from the light,

"C'mon, Courtney! Let's go!"

Gavin calls for her as Courtney quickly makes her way to Gavin, flying as fast as she can towards Gavin despite her broken wing.

When suddenly, the lava general gets up from the destruction, his fist turns into a huge ball of lava after absorbing Courtney's super powerful attack.

He then grunts and roars with all his might, as he fires the fist of lava towards Courtney with all his power, as Courtney finally makes it to Gavin...

SHOOOOT

A loud, sizzling, explosion sound can be heard, as Gavin is flashed by the bright light created by the general's lava projectile as a huge explosion happens right in front of him and Courtney, knocking Gavin away.