Pride's Origin

Chapter 14 - Escape

        Silence permeated the atmosphere as, within the petrified space created by Kura, lay a motionless TM-A26. She simply floated their unconscious, lost in a sleep that was more akin to hibernation than anything else.

    Not one where dreams took place, but one where energy restoration was the only goal, an intention-riddled slumber that robbed from her the joy such a simple task would normally bestow. It was even more so evident based on the cold and indifferent expression her sleeping face gave.

    When Kura brushed her short-cut hair out of the way. There, in clear view, wrapped snugly around her neck was a thin black collar. At the back, there was a small piece that branched off from the collar and was firmly latched vertically to the back of the head.

    Even a fool could tell at this point from their stiff movements, seeming inability to talk, their lack-lustre eyes and now the evidence of this very questionable fashion accessory, that they were being manipulated with the latter being the culprit.

    “So this is how they controlled these two. I need to carefully make sure I get it o… ah. There we go!” The moment the collar was forcefully removed, TM-A26’s body spasmed for a short moment before it went motionless once more.

    The only difference this time was that the slumber this time seemed more tranquil. Her sleeping face now contained more emotion and life to it that she had before. As if the sleep she now entered granted her an ineffable bliss.

    “Ugh, damn it! That last move was a bit too much, I overdrew myself.”

    As a feeling of weakness overtook her, the space surrounding Kura and TM-A26 loosened, and the sphere she had summoned before slowly began to deconstruct before disappearing entirely. Afterwards, the chains that hung from both her arms burst into motes of light.

    When she finally floated down, she supported the unconscious TM-A26 who didn’t seem as if she was going to be waking up anytime soon.

    ‘Sigh…’

    “I guess manipulating space with the Primordial Rondure as much as I did was way more taxing than I had thought,” Kura muttered to herself while looking over to her older sister’s side where the battle was finally winding down.

    A carefully aimed fragment towards the collar caused a much-needed malfunction that resulted in TM-B157 collapsing.

    “Damn it, they’re both down!? I don’t get it, these two can’t be anything more than greenhorns? How can they be this powerful, and where’s my backup!? They should have been here by now!”

    Machyal was now sweating buckets because of the complete reversal. When he came here, he was in complete control. Now when he felt the eyes of the two girls upon him, he knew it was no longer so.

    “Well, well, well, look what we have here. You thought you could beat us? Ha! Wishful thinking, why don’t you tell us what we should do with you?” A nonchalant voice broke the tension among the three.

    Who else could it be but Makoto, who came strolling in during the aftermath?

    “Hmph, maybe if you kneel down and beg for forgivene… Ow!! What the hell! What was that for!? Ow! I was just talking you guys up and… why did you bring that?”

    “You walk in after everything is finished and you’re already talking big. Don’t you have any shame?” Rikona kept slapping Makoto in the back of the head when she finally came close.

    In her other hand was an unconscious TM-B157 who she was dragging by one leg, hence Makoto’s last question.

    “As for the big guy here, I wanted to talk with Kura on what to do with him. C’mon let’s go, even those two idiots wouldn’t dare get any closer to Kura but even so, she doesn’t look to be in good shape,” As finishing up, both she and Makoto headed over to where she was.

    “Kura, how are you feeling? Are you alright!? Why are you so pale, do you need any milk!?” As soon as Rikona arrived where Kura was, she released a barrage of questions out of concern.

    “Oh uhm, yeah I’m fine just a little tired is all. Wait a sec, one of those questions seems a bit out of place, and… why did you bring that?” Kura replied to Rikona to let her big sister know she was okay, though the former’s gaze landed squarely on the scarred man being dragged around like a rag doll.

    Rikona sighed in relief when she saw Kura back to her old self took her up in a tight embrace, “Don’t ever worry me like that again you hear me!?”

Kura heard this and felt the tears welling up in her eyes as she replied, “Shouldn’t that be my line, who was the one who went and got shot?”

    “Uh guys?” said Makoto, trying to grab their attention.

    “Oh shut up, you’re acting like I was the one who pulled the trigger. Still though, who was the badass going all Terminator on everyone’s ass? With the chains and the floating ball. Oh yeah, what was that anyway?” Questioned Rikona, curious of the means her little sister employed.

    “Uhm guuuys!?” called Makoto, now louder than before.

    “Ooh yeah, those blueprints are something else lemme tell ya, plu-”

    Makoto clenched his jaw before shouting, “GUYS!!!”

    “WHAT!?” shouted both sisters at the same time.

    “Oh no, please don’t stop on our account. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of your reunion after all,” a hoarse voice sounded behind the girls who were on the ground.

    When the two sisters looked behind them, they saw two normal humans surrounded by four ‘high-levelled’ Taliums.

    “Hmph, Machyal, were these two really the ones you called backup for?” The man with the hoarse voice commented when he saw the girls in each other’s embrace on the ground.

    “You should have brought more, don’t get fooled by their appearances. Especially the younger one, she’s on an entirely different level! Way above anything we’ve ever seen before, so be careful,” Machyal disregarded the mocking tone of the man who spoke up earlier.

    “Ah, well, aren’t they just cute? Well, Venko, based on what little Machy said, we should probably bring them back with us, shouldn’t we?” The woman who accompanied the man advised in a seductive voice.

    “Anyone suspicious of being a Talium is to be brought back to the association either voluntary or by force,” the man called Venko stated, not finding much threat in the young girls.

    “Tch, who the hell do you think you’re looking down on?” Kura’s anger surged when she felt the stare of this Venko character.

    He was obviously an average human, with an ordinary disposition if anything else. The kind of person you wouldn’t afford a second glance on the street. Yet his eyes, his eyes were anything but, he stared upon them as if they were used to staring at others from a high place.

    “Listen bunny, I hate to admit it, but we’re gonna have to get out of here. We can’t take on any more Taliums at the moment, and I can’t exactly bring out a sphere thingy like you did. Plus, you’re practically running on empty, and we both had problems with just two.” Rikona whispered to Kura with a grim expression.

    She looked back at her older sister and Makoto with a worried look, “I think I have a way for us to escape, but I’m gonna need some time.”

    “How much?” asked Rikona.

    “Well, I’m recharging as we speak. So if you can distract them for around a minute or so, I’m… 60% confident in getting us out of here,” answered Kura.

    “Oh, just that? And here I thought you were gonna have me do something crazy like NOT fighting 4 Taliums at the same time for a minute or so!” said Rikona in a sarcastic tone.

    Kura’s faced puffed up in slight anger when she heard this, “If you’ve got a better idea I would love to hear it, cuz I’m not too keen on sending my older sister as a distraction either, but it’s the only idea I’ve got.”

    “… Are you all done over there? I missed dinner for this, so if you don’t mind I would like to wrap this up quickly,” Venko’s voice dripped with condescension.

    A while after he finished speaking, his eyebrow shot up in surprise, “So it’ll be just you? Your sister won’t be joining us?”

    Rikona stepped out alone, which caused him to be a little taken aback, “First of all, those ‘almost Taliums’ you brought are all lucky that they even get to face me. Second, I want to know what qualifications a regular human like you has to look down on us?”

    “Interesting, so you run yourselves ragged facing one of our own each, and now you want to take on all four at the same time by yourself? I can’t say I understand your thought process. As for your second query, we’ll get to that much later,” Venko stated, not minding holding a conversation with her, already seeing them as captured already.

    “Well, in that case, if we’re going to be analysing the thought process of a distraction, I don’t think we’ll get much out of it,” replied Rikona coolly.

    Venko’s brows furrowed when he heard this, “I’m sorry, I’ll have to ask you to repeat that, did you say a distraction?”

    “That’s right, a distraction. As in, a delay so that I can kill time to achieve a purpose.”

    His hoarse voice started to take on a colder tone, obviously not too keen on being tricked, “Oh, and what purpose have you achieved?”

    “This! Kura NOW!”

    A couple seconds passed with nothing happening…

    “I-I mean now!!”

    A couple seconds more passed with nothing happening…

    “Was something supposed to happen?” questioned Venko looking around for something to happen, and not just him. Even the woman who accompanied him along with Machyal and the Director were looking around as well.

    “Uhm hold that thought,” said Rikona, looking over her shoulder. “Hey, Kura, what the heck’s going on? You’re embarrassing me in front of the bad guys here,” stated Rikona, believing that she set the stage pretty well.

    Kura seeing this blushed before apologising, “Oh sorry sis, really, I just needed a little more time, I don’t really have this down to a science yet. I-I’m good now, go ahead, say it again.”

    Rikona sighed when she heard this, “No, no, the moment’s ruined, just forget it.”

    “Damn, I think my ass just clenched shut in shock to how cringy that was,” stated Makoto, who assumed the role of a spectator at this time.

    “Okay, I’m gonna have to stop you right there. That was more bullshit than I could handle.’ Venko said, visibly annoyed by now.

    He turned to the expressionless Taliums beside around him, “All four of you go capture the two girls and kill the i***t to the side, please. He seems like a smart ass… and I hate smartasses,” commented Venko, who was getting a bit tired of the useless banter while muttering under his breath, “A waste of my f*cking Friday.”

    Makoto paled when he felt the killing intent from the Taliums, “I swear to God if I die today, I am gonna kill you guys! That rough-voiced asshole is just jealous of my smart ass, just cause it’s way smarter than his. His probably can’t even s**t right.”

    Ignoring Makoto, Kura closed her eyes and took a deep breath to concentrate. She quickly found the same feeling she did as when she summoned the Primordial Rondure.

    Shortly after, her eyes snapped open, and the air suddenly got heavier. The sphere from earlier began constructing much faster than before as the clear collision of chain links materialised from both hands.

    Seeing that Kura was readying herself for their eventual escape, Rikona wasted no time in delaying the already approaching Taliums.

    She charged what little energy she had left and focused it towards the Taliums with as much force as she could muster.

    “Cerebral Rupture!”

    The Taliums all felt the burning pain in their heads and wasted no time in escaping in different directions.

    “Tch, I still need more practice with this move, moving targets like this are a pain! Plus some weird energy inside is shielding them so it’s not even as half effective as when I did it to Mayuri. Well, that’s just as well, it’s not their fault so I’ll try to not kill them,” Rikona then unleashed her aura and pressure in its entirety and constructed an invisible force-field, which all 4 Taliums smashed into.

    After regaining their bearings, they started to unleash blow after blow upon the field, quickly sending cracks all over the surface.

    When Venko saw this, his eyes lit up in surprise, “Oh incredible, I have ne’er seen any of ours doing anything like this. Is this what you meant, Machyal? It doesn’t seem all that much though, ours are about to get through after all.”

Machyal looked over causing his face to pale entirely, “It’s all over, call those four back now!”

    The woman who accompanied Venko, heard this and pouted in displeasure at Machyal’s loss of composure, “What are you on ab…”

    Duuum!

    A palpable pressure descended before she could finish as a chilling voice with unquestionable prestige rang out, “Primordial Rondure, break.”

    “What is that?” This time, it was Venko who spoke, totally absorbed, as he saw the same scene Machyal did earlier.

    A sphere seemingly composed of countless parts came together out of thin air and levitated in front of Kura.

    Cra-Crack! Boom!

    The four Taliums had finally broken through when the Primal Rondure was summoned.

    The backlash from the shattered force-field flung Rikona back, forcing her to cough up blood along the way.

    Rage burned anew in Kura’s eyes when she saw this, but she knew this would be a drawn-out battle if she stayed any longer, and for what she needed to do now, it would take all that she had at the moment.

    Her cold eyes fixed squarely on the still shocked Venko and his cohorts, “I’ll come back for all of you, count on it.”

    The Taliums that were rushing towards her were all blown away at the same time, creating long trenches in the ground as they flew back.

    “Fractured Rift!”

    When she said this, Machyal’s group only saw a large space around Kura and her group fractured once more like fragile glass.

    One of the bigger fractured pieces suddenly fell off, showing a much different location, and Kura safely brought everyone through.

    As soon as they left, the fractured space quickly mended itself, and the place returned to normal, leaving a dumbfounded look on the opposing group.

    Venko promptly retrieved his jaw that was on the floor before he looked in Machyal’s direction and calmly stated in a soft voice.

    “I’ll need to bring you back and politely have you brief me on what the f*ck I just saw if you don’t mind.”