It had finally happened. The lengthy journey of days had the end goal in sight. It seemed almost in reabsp; There wasn’t going to be anything more to stop them. All they had to do was just go forward and cross the finish line. That should have been all that o be done.

  Of course, nothing could be easy.

  If it was easy, Yuki’s friends wouldn’t have to fight their entire way through Atntis just to stop those wanting him dead. However, the ease or challenge of reag the Capital wasn’t important. The important matter for them was that they were stopped, again.

  Yuki brought their traveling disc to a halt. “Damn, I thought I threw him off our trail.” The past hour had him trying to out-run or just simply out maneuver against their pursuer. Every time it seemed he succeeded the man showed up again. Escape seemed pointless.

  “It was bound to happen, especially with how many we’ve been avoiding.” Ayumi leaned a little forward examining her surroundings. The risk for others was very high. They slipped past or escaped so many that she stopped keeping track of them past twenty.

  Some frustration seemed to bubble up in Yuki. He looked back at the way they came. “You were doing so well, Ayumi! We only needed awenty minutes and you wouldn’t have hit twenty-four hours!”

  Sweat dripped down Ayumi’s head hearing his response. “That’s what you’re upset about? Our record being broken?”

  “What?” he replied, almost pletely obviously to the danger. “The travel is b unless you make a game out of it.”

  She could only sigh, dropping her head into her hand. “So muaturing…”

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind…” Ayumi didn’t know why she should have expected anything different from him. But the edy act had to e to an end. Their pursuer didn’t enjoy the lighter tone. He unched an attack quickly in the form of a purplish orb of energy. She lifted her arm up to deal with the attack, but Yuki appeared behind her. His arm stretched out matg her.

  The particles of his power spread out in front of Ayumi. It deflected the orb away into the sky until it disappeared. Immediately, Yuki terattacked, swiping at the man. The particles hardened into an edge that sliced through the makeshift barrier setup. Their pursuer went down in an instant. “It’s done.”

  Ayumi looked up over her shoulder at him. It caught her a little by surprise at the face she saw. The moment the attack happened Yuki ged pletely. It wasn’t even just him being serious. She could see something else in his eyes. “Yuki?” In the past, he hesitated and didn’t strike immediately, but it was different. “I could have—“

  “Wait…” Yuki looked around the area again. The disc they sat on disappeared f them to stand on the ground. A ripple came out from his feet wiping out everything that surrouhem. Rocks, trees, even the hills. He forcibly made everything a ft pin of grass. His eyes narrowed. It was as he thought.

  Surrounding them on all sides, more than a dozen MPs carefully spaced out in a mahat avoided each other in a meaningful way. Their Fields still would have interfered with the other, but none of that mattered. Yuki’s Field nearly wiped all of their Fields away.

  She guessed as mubsp; They were all ohey tried to escape and thought to have avoided. ‘It was just simply a trap. They wanted us to think we lost them and that he was the only one. Even Omega knows how to work together when they o do so.’ Unfortunately, the numbers were too great. She looked around for any weakness in their encirclement.

  Looking over at Yuki, a heavy shadow fell over his eyes. His features hardened in preparation to absp; She could easily read his pns. Ayumi stepped out in front of him. “This is more than we handle, Yuki. We o focus on escape.”

  “Maybe for you, but not for me.” Mists of energy began to build up around him. The volume grew rger with each sed.

  “You’ve improved, but don’t get cocky! These are Omega agents most likely. They aren’t like the border soldiers you dealt with.”

  Yuki pushed Ayumi aside to stand in front of her. Determination lowered over his eyes like a veil in front of a deeper emotion, c it away. “My fight with Vangelis showed me a few things. It’s only been a couple of days or so, but I’ve got a better handle on this now.” Gesturing with his hand, he closed his fist.

  Suddenly, in the distahe terrai into began to restore itself, as his Field shrank. It sped in towards Yuki quickly c meters. The distance slowed down after c more thay meters. The border of his Field pushed and released struggling to keep a hard line.

  Ayumi measured out the distance roughly. ‘It’s not a pleted Fold, but he’s getting very close…’ She stared ahead at Yuki’s babsp; ‘If he mao plete even a single Fold, doubling his power from what he already has…’ Yet, doubled or not, she saw it didn’t even matter. Yuki’s power was still on a pletely different level than the grunt Omega agents.

  In mere seds, Yuki wiped out the entire encirclement with his mist. He made the elite of Omega look like children on their first day at the Academy. ‘His power is already…’ Ayumi stifled as much of her surprise as she could.

  Yuki turned away looking back at Ayumi. He dropped his Field and started walking past her. “Don’t worry, I’m here,” he whispered to her, pg a hand on her shoulder briefly. The disc they rode on appeared again, though the design ged a lot from their previous. It had harsher lines and less detail work.

  Everything caught back up to Ayumi in a few moments. She shook it all off her and started to follow him. The peace was brief though, when she discovered that they were still not alone. Several more MPs came out of hidiermio stop them. “Even more…they must have emptied the entire building for us.”

  Pausing, he looked over his shoulder. The ready-to-attack look didn’t have enough time to leave. “Seems they didn’t uand my message.” Yuki started to turn, but Ayumi stopped him.

  “This is pointless, Yuki. They are a different breed, intimidation is not going to work with them. Many are people that actually enjoy the challenge brought on by someorong and you just funting your strength is only going to ehem further.” Ayumi searched through the area again. She had a bad feeling about the situation. In the distahe Capital had finally poked over the horizon. “We’re closer to the Capital, meaning all of those stationed in the Capital are finally reag us. We’re only going to keep getting overwhelmed by numbers and not make any progress.”

  “What are you suggesting then?”

  Ayumi looked at Haruo, silent the eime (maybe fotten?). “Haruo remains behind to hold them off. His animals let him take on several at once.” She immediately gnced over at Yuki to see his rea. The st time with Saki was a struggle.

  It was only a sed, but it seemed longer. Yuki looked over at Haruo. “You’re right. You good for it, Haruo?”

  The silent one had little rea to the surprising acceptanbsp; He started walking towards Ayumi. Haruo stared at her in silenbsp; The ck of any sort of emotion made it difficult to read if he set with her or not. It easily made them want to read him as angry, but they waited for his response. “Move.”

  Chapter 229 – Silence Doesn’t Stand

  Ayumi loaded bato their transport, Yuki already waiting. They looked back at Haruo. His broad back seemed willing to be the wall to hold everything babsp; Eveide of soldiers fast approag did not sway him. Several lights expanded out around Haruo, signs of his animals.

  She sat down holding carefully to the edge of the disc as it began to move. “We’re still going to have trouble getting out. Last time, there wasn’t anyone else, but not this time. This close to the Capital, the area is going to be crawling with MPs.”

  He o her. “Then we’ll just o make it difficult for them.” The disc started rising into the air. Below them, fshes of lights and explosio off. The fighting started. Yuki had to dodge a few projectiles tossed at him as he got into the air. They weren’t making it easy on him. The disc rocked around buckled by the attacks. “Ayumi you keep them off us, while I fly?”

  Giveuation, she had to look at him a little in disbelief that he would ask such a question. However, Ayumi saw he was serious. The look on his face told her he had a pn, but likely one she was not going to like. “What exactly are you thinking?” she asked, immediately regretting it.

  “…well…”

  Haruo kept his animals moving around the area, holding back the attacks. He had to keep some of the soldiers fr to go after Yuki. It was a little more intense of a situation than he was familiar with. The numbers weren’t something outside of his experience, just not all of them having powers. He had to py more defensively with so many attackers. ‘Saki never ended up returning. It’s likely this is where I’ll stay, with these numbers.’

  Another of the attackers revealed their power. Water spread everywhere making it difficult for his wolves. ‘I wonder how many I’m able to maintain… I haven’t tried to stress this power yet.’ He directed the wolves away, letting the birds s in for them. Their agility and flight made the water almost pointless. ‘I still don’t even know how it funs. I only know how to make it work, not why it works. It’s very uling not uanding this…’

  He tossed another few items into the air triggering lights. Tigers grew from the light along with a squirrel. The size of the tigers made the squirrel almost impossible to see. It scurried up the leg of one of the tigers before the group charged off. ‘That’s everything on me. I don’t feel tired yet…’

  Kneeling down, Haruo dug his hands into the grass and dirt. He tore back ks, crushing it in his hands. Light suddenly grew from the thin slits between his fingers. A moment ter, he tossed everything in his hands out in front of them. A pack of huskies materialized along with several flocks of sparrows. The t of animals out on the field just tripled. Their light didn’t glow as strongly as the other animals. ‘Hmm, that felt a little weird. I might be hitting a limit, but it is as I thought. I do this as well, but it seems it’s not as powerful. I wonder why.’ Questions tinued for Haruo as he explored his power in the middle of a battle.

  “This is a really bad idea!” shouted Ayumi, back up to Yuki. As she believed, she did regret hearing him out and even moing through with it. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much of another pn.

  “What?!”

  “I said, I never should have agreed to do this!”

  “What?!”

  “I hate you so much right now!”

  “ you talk louder? I ’t hear you!”

  “Nevermind!” She heard him shout again, but ig. Ayumi had worse things to focus on. She looked down at the ground. It was a good twenty or thirty meters away and they were still ied in stopping them. Yuki had to dodge again, it sent her swinging around. Her hand gripped onto the rope harder.

  Yuki’s pn, Ayumi suspended herself underh the disc with only a rope attached between them. The rope was real and Yuki held onto one end while Ayumi tied the other end off around her waist. It anchored on the disore security. Ayumi’s purpose, she had to use her powers to defley ining attacks to give them a better ce of escape.

  The dodging Yuki still had to do made the ride for Ayumi rough. Her Field dampehe effects, but she had to be careful with Yuki above her. Most of her power was only pointed down, due to Yuki’s Field overing much of her above. “ime, I’m ing up with the pn and you’re doing this!” She projected an ice wall below her to halt a fireball. Throwing out her sword and spinning it around in front of her defleg smaller projectiles ing at them.

  She started to notice fewer attacks. It seemed the bulk of the MPs dropped out of their range. The show still made them an easy target for anyone ing for them. Ayumi hoped it would end soon.

  Calmer skies allowed Yuki a moment free to level out the disbsp; Unlike on the ground, he had a better view of the Capital in the distaheir goal. He could only see a thin shape before. From the sky, he could see so much more. It was still far away, but the Capital was huge judging the distanbsp; He saw a massive spire along with a couple e structures. Everything else blended in together, but it still looked beautiful. The white of the Capital shined brightly against the sun, catg the edges with a glow ever so slightly. “It’s like out of a book…”

  Ayumi caught the distant glow of the Capital. She deflected a couple of attacks, but couldn't help but stare for a moment as well. “It’s been two months, but I’ve returned…finally. Things will be different this time.”

  Haruo looked up to the sky, freed for a moment. He caught sight of Yuki leaving in the distanbsp; Their escape didn’t go smoothly. Yet it seemed that they would succeed in time. ‘Ayumi…what’s your endgame? You got exactly what you were wanting sihis all began. You’ve got Yuki by yourself and the rest of us isoted.’