The Phantom Riser

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - THE STRONGEST

System Update

Jovak Leonard

Skill Move: Bang; creates a powerful soundwave by the mere clapping of hands. It is especially useful for dispelling concentrated energies.

***

With a single clap of his hands, Jovak pushed the fire dragon and Victor a considerable distance. The fire dragon reciprocated with a large gust of fire but Jovak maneuvered around it using a skill move.

***

System Update

Jovak Leonard

Skill Move: Warp gate; absorbs attacks and reflects them back to the opponent.

***

The warp gate appeared like a vortex, some sort of black hole maybe, absorbing the fire blast from the dragon. But instead of the gate appearing before the dragon and returning its attack, it appeared behind Victor, who made absolutely no attempt to evade the attack. It had no effect on him. Jovak could have guessed it. Victor still donned the fire cloak. It would wear off any moment, but it would be odd if he was affected by fire-based techniques. Especially if you consider that it defends the user against other attacks normally. But what he didn’t expect was to see the fire cloak power up after being hit by a fire attack.

***

System Update

Victor Vaneki

30 secs have been added to the fire cloak. Output up by 15%

***

Whatever damage it was supposed to deal had been converted to fuel. And his fire dragon was looking more powerful than ever.

***

System Update

Victor Vaneki

Skill move: Flare; it releases a great amount of fire in form of an explosion.

***

Victor’s fire dragon encircled them, keeping them in some sort of barrier. The aim was clearly to control the range of his attack. But that made Jovak a bit suspicious. Kiro would still be caught up in the attack. The fact that he still chose to launch it must mean that the sphere he was in was more than enough to protect him from the blast. And if they were the only two, what reason would he have to control the range of his attacks. Who was he scared of hitting?

Isaac jumped in front of Jovak. “Please, protect the others, I’ll take him out,” he said.

***

System Update

Isaac Wayne

Special Skill Activated: Surge; the user emits a large amount of energy that wipes out a specific radius.

Range: 100m

Usage: 3 times

***

The amount of energy that Isaac and Victor released was so immense, that there didn’t seem to be any need to try to defend. Well, perhaps that was what Jovak was thinking when he made no attempt to protect his team. Or perhaps the very concept that Isaac thought he needed help against someone lower than him was so baffling, that he wasn’t sure how to respond.

“I didn’t say I needed your help, Isaac,” Jovak said.

***

System Update

Jovak Leonard

Skill Move: One; absorbs all energy around the user and compresses it into a small sphere.

***

It was just like water going down a sink or a whirlpool. All the energies from Isaac and Victor were compressed into a tiny dense sphere. It was small enough to completely hide in Jovak’s fist. Victor knew he was in trouble. His fire cloak was almost exhausted and Jovak had in his hand, enough energy to wipe out the entire area. But Jovak had a more specific thought in mind. In an instant, he bypassed Victor’s fire dragon and was right in front of Victor. Victor had no time to react. In one swoop, he slammed him with the compressed energy and shot him completely out of the picture. Not even a sign of Victor’s existence remained. His dragon slowly withered. In a last ditched attempt to avenge its master, it tried to squash Jovak, but he effortlessly stopped its claws with his bare hands. “That’s enough beast, your master stands before you.”

***

“Say hello to my friend, Lucas,” Kiro said to Ardan, who was genuinely bewildered by Kiro’s statement.

He looked around more times than necessary to be sure he didn’t miss someone. Well, that shouldn’t have been possible, considering how small the space was. Maybe this ‘Lucas’ person was invisible, he thought. That would explain it.

“I’m not invisible, I’m right here,” Kiro said.

Ardan was now frightened. At first, he thought Kiro was just pulling a prank. Maybe trying to intimidate him. Scare him enough to force out information from him. But Kiro’s response was a reply to a thought he had. How did Kiro know what he was thinking? Who exactly was this guy? And, did his voice just echo? Ardan could have sworn that Kiro voiced echoed when he responded to him. Or was all of it just an illusion?

“Don’t think too much about it, I’m right here,” Kiro said, pointing to his head. He was in Kiro’s mind? How? From where? “So many questions… I’m in his head. I’ll be in yours in no time,” Kiro said.

Ardan desperately banged at the walls of the force field sphere in a desperate attempt to get out. He knew very well that there was nothing he could do against a mind reader. It would only take seconds before they got everything they wanted from him. He was that weak. Thoughts ravaged through his mind. He scanned through all his options faster than he ever had. He completely forgot that Kiro/Lucas was hearing everything he was thinking. The one thought that should have never run through his mind. Something he would never have thought he would consider. Kill himself!

No sooner than he had pulled out a knife had Kiro encircled his hands in separate force field spheres. The knife he held was within the sphere and there was nothing he could do with it. It was so small that he couldn’t even move the knife. With the spheres, Kiro attached his hands to different ends of the sphere they were in, stretching his hands across. With one hand on Ardan’s head and another on his chest, Kiro scanned through Ardan’s memories in search of where Karenia could be and maybe how to get there too. It only took a few seconds for him to pinpoint her location. “So that’s where you were. I hope you had enough rest, cause the final phase of my plan is about to begin.”