Shatter

The creatures pounced at us, more animalistic than ever. I could do nothing but dodge, letting the creature slam through the side of the building we were backed up against. It thin turned around again, again coming at me. 

    “Come on!” I said to Kim, grabbing her hand and running through the hole the creature had made.

    There weren’t any people because we had been put on a completely different plane of reality than everyone else. Most likely the Lingzhi avoiding any unnecessary conflict. 

    “Ok, let go now.” She said, ripping her hand away from we once we were a safe distance inside the building. “And we can’t just run away. We’re trapped in another plane of existence.”

    “Well, we can’t fight these things.” I said.  “Can you get us out of here, then?”

    “This transportation spell is way beyond me.” She said.

    “So what?” I asked. “We’re doomed?”

    “Bad choice of words.” She said. “We obviously aren’t going to just lay down and die. At least I’m not.”

    “No, I won’t.” I said, the sound of bricks crashing down following my statement. “It doesn’t sound like we have much more time to talk things through.” I said.

    “Maybe I’ll hold them off while you-” I said.

    “Yeah, that worked so well last time.” She said.

    “You tell me, then.” I said. “What do we do?” 

    “We’ll obviously have to fight them.” She said. “Like, any moment now.”

    ‘An entire plane of existence? The Lingzhi truly don’t want this guy found.’ I thought, ‘But even they can’t keep a pocket plane open forever. I bet It’d close if we die, but obviously, that isn’t really a choice. Maybe if the creatures died, it’d have the same effect. No clue, but it’s not like we have many more options.’

    “Fine, we’ll stay and fight, and if we can kill them-” I said.

    “They’re immortal, dumbass.” She said.

    “Really? I’m the dumbass?” I asked. “They have to be drawing power from somewhere, and if it’s like every other spell I know of they draw power from the caster. If that is true, they have a limit.”

    “I doubt he let the creatures use all his power, he probably set a limit for it, like any passive skill.” She said.

    “Yeah, so guess this powerful trap wasn’t that great after all.” I said.

    The ten creatures came rampaging through the building, destroying it with ease. It instantly swings at me. I formed a barrier of fire around me, forcing it to put its own hand in the fire. It didn’t burn, however. It was strong enough to resist flames. It broke through the fire, hitting me like a boulder, the sheer force of it’s hit throwing me against the wall. Blood dripped down my face from my now broken nose as I slid off my feet onto my knees. 

    Kim was caught in front of another three, all of them jumping at her as if they had coordinated it. Each fist hit her, smashing through the ground. If it had been any normal person, they would be pulp. Kim brushed it off, standing up as if it was nothing. She had turned full metal, prepared for any attack that they could throw at her. 

    I stood up as Kim went on the offensive. I compressed fire in my hand, switching my attack method from flames to explosions. The same one who had attacked me before charged me again. I didn’t flinch, hitting it in the face with my explosion just before it reached me. It got blown over but remained undamaged.

    “We can’t even hurt them!” I said.

    “Maybe you can’t.” Kim said, smirking.

Her blade was hurting them, but barely. In the perspective of the creatures, it must have been like getting papercuts. Regardless, she could do more damage to them then they could her. They continued to pummel her, but she just got back up and again began lashing out at them.

I began to charge up another explosion in my hand, using the small window of time I was given by knocking over one of the creatures.  My time was cut short by another six trying to pounce on me from behind. I used my fire to launch me up, landing on one of their backs. It shook me off, and I struggled to land on my feet. They continued to attack me, but I wasn’t done charging up an explosion that had any chance of doing any damage. I dodged each one’s fist, each time coming closer to getting hit. I could feel it coming, I would eventually get hit. One smashed in front of my face, almost touching my broken nose. The next came directly above me, and there was no place to go. I held up my hand in which I had charged up an explosion, blowing off its fist. Unlike before, this one smashed like stone and didn’t heal. 

‘I was right. This is their limit.’ I thought.

Behind me came another victory. Kim had sliced enough to take off one’s head.

“A head’s better than a fist.” She said.

“Oh, I’m not done yet.” I said.

I was still against seven, even if one of them had only one fist. I couldn’t take that much time to charge up again, I had to find some other option to reach that level of explosion.

“I’d stay in metal mode if I were you, Kim.” I said, covering the entire half-destroyed building in flames. 

‘Good, now I can draw power from these flames, but there’s one more thing.’ I thought.

I used a small explosion and the help of one of the creature’s backs to smash through the ceiling. On the roof, I summoned the power of the sun. The rays of light broke through the darkness of the plane and shone on me.

    The seven creatures followed me to the roof, wasting no time in attacking me.  I used fire to blast off the ground again, barely being able to miss all of their attacks. As I was coming down I called the fire from the building and the light from the sun into my hand, taking mere seconds until it reached what it did before. I came down on one of their heads, blowing it off. I called the explosion again, jumping at another and destroying its head as well.  And then again, bringing it down to four. Suddenly from the ground came a giant metal spike, likely made by Kim from all the metal in the neighborhood. It pierced through one of their heads, shattering it. She climbed up it, reaching the roof where I was.

    “Four, you?” She asked, obviously knowing it was one less.

    I wasted no time summoning an explosion and taking down another. 

    “Four as well.” I said.

    There were now only two left, two left helpless to our competition. Before they could even move they were hit with an explosion and a metal spike. 

    “Tied.” I said.

    “No, I killed mine first.” She said.

    “No, you didn’t.” I said. She couldn’t stand to lose. 

    “Yeah, actually-” She said.

    “Eh, whatever.” I said. 

    I didn’t really care, fights always left me feeling rejuvenated. A fabulous display reminding myself that I was powerful, that I could not be stopped. To me, it was the greatest pleasure, my lust for power getting a little taste. It pumped me up to gain more, and more, and more. I would not be left in the dust, and a fight reminds me that I’m not.

    The plane closed, letting the sun cover the entire sky. The building we were on was miraculously repaired, or to be more accurate, never destroyed in the first place. The plane we were trapped in only transferred over living things, and only the ones who were the trap or caught in it. This, of course, meant even the corpses were gone.

    “Wait, if all you had to do to reach that level of explosion why didn’t you do that first?” Kim asked.

“Uh...” I said, my vision beginning to fade. “Multiple reasons…” I stumbled over, now on my hands facing the roof. “One, my body can hardly handle the sun's energy” I coughed up blood, maybe from the creatures, maybe from my own spell. “And burning down an entire building wears my body out to begin with.” My arms weakened and I could feel my consciousness slipping away. “So, I run the risk of… letting the power consume my body.” I passed out, right there on the store’s roof.

“...And now you’re going to milk this for the rest of the trip.” I heard Kim say, pulling me awake. 

I was in a hospital bed, a normal hospital. When I looked over to Kim she was too, except her injuries seemed more serious. The dents of her metal skin became cuts and bruises on her own skin. Her mask, though, seemed impossibly clean and untouched.

“You’re in the same boat.” I said.

“Except I’m not a little b***h.” She said, almost smiling but catching herself. “Okay, time to go.”

“Really? So we were in this hospital for what… thirty minutes?” I asked.

“Try two weeks, now if you’re done with your little nap let’s go.” She said.

“‘Little Nap’? That’s a full-on coma.” I said.

“And so it begins.” She said. “And let’s go the way where we won’t have to check out, or whatever.”

“That’s called sneaking out,” I said, “not taking a different ‘way’.”

“Whatever unimportant way you want to phrase it.” She said.

Our injuries healed about ten times as fast as a normal person's, because we constantly had the universe's energy pumping through our veins, so we hardly needed the hospital except for basic care. Sneaking out of it wasn’t any problem., though it was unnecessary.

    “Now what? We just continue endlessly searching?” She asked.

    “Well, your plan failed. So, yes.” I said.

    “First of all, you were bragging about how it was yours,” She said. “And also, there wouldn’t be any point to it since the Lingzhi already has him.”

    “What do you want to do, then?” I asked.

    “Now we know who has him.” She said. “I only see one choice. I’ll try to trace their energy from their trap back to them. ”

    She again closed her eyes, using her energy sense to try and trace the energy inevitably left by such a high-level spell back to the caster.

    “Damn it!” She said. “All the energy was contained in the other plane!”

    “Ok, so what now, oh so wise one?” I asked.

    “To trace the energy left by a now non-existent plane of reality would take an extremely advanced tracker.” She said.

    “Yeah, well we don’t have one. I already knew that, anyway.” I said.

    “Yeah, well we can get one.” She said.

    “And how-” I said, realizing what she meant.”They’re our second biggest enemy after the Lingzhi, and you want to ask them for help?!” 

    “They won’t want the Lingzhi to have the Giver. It’s called a common enemy.” She said.

    And that’s how it happened. Kim and I went to the Order, one of the old man’s biggest enemies, and therefore one of ours. I wasn’t too sure about Kim’s whole ‘common enemy’ angle, but we couldn’t risk letting the Lingzhi keep the Giver.  Of course, when we arrived at their plane of existence, which they claimed to own, it didn’t go so well. 

    “You two?!” He asked almost as soon as we arrived. 

    “Oh, so it’s you, the gatekeeper. What’s your name again? Skyler?” I asked.

    “It’s just ‘the Gatekeeper, now.’” he said. “And I have orders to attack you two on site.”

    “But isn’t that punishment reserved for-” I asked.

    “Yes, blacklist criminals.” He said.

    “We have a good reason to come here, and besides-” My plea to let us pass was cut short with a wave if wind that felt like getting hit by a car. 

    “What’s that?” He asked, laughing at me knocked over on the ground.

    “And, besides; you really don’t want to fight us.” I said, standing up, gathering heat in my hand, keeping it low enough so he couldn’t see it.

    “Last time you tried to attack us I beat you like the bratty little kid you are.” He said.

    “We’re the same age.” I said. “And don’t expect us to as weak as we were.” 

    “Don’t know who that girl is, but she can’t be over… what? Fifteen?” He said.

    “I wouldn’t underestimate me.” Kim said.

    ‘We can’t underestimate him either. Not only does he know what type of power I have and how to counter it from our previous fights, but his attacks are invisible.’ I thought. ‘And our most recent fight isn’t doing us any favors.’

    “Time for small talk is over.” He said. “I don’t know why you would come here; I won’t let you escape.”

    “Don’t be so full of yourself.” I said.

    I revealed the fire in my hand, charging at him with it. He hit me with another wave. I got knocked back, the explosion hitting the ground. Kim couldn’t get blown back in her full metal mode, but the air prevented her from getting any momentum with her blade. 

    “Done so soon?”  He asked.

    I created a wall of fire, making it fly in his direction. I ran behind it, waiting for him to destroy it with a blast of air. When he did, I ran through it at him, fire ready in my hand. He quickly countered me with another blast of air, again pushing me back. The only thing he moved were his eyes, making it near impossible to know where he’ll hit next. He did this all to me while also keeping a steady stream of air on Kim, making her immobile. 

    ‘He’s way too quick. Neither brute force or a sneak attack will work. ’ I thought. ‘It’s possible that I could make an attack powerful enough that his air couldn’t counter it, but if I did and it didn’t work I would have wasted a huge amount of energy.’

    “I haven’t even gone on the offensive yet, and you’re already losing.” He said.

    ‘Then again I could use fire to try and surpass his speed...’ I thought. ‘I guess it’s worth a shot.’

    I used fire to launch me into the air, then down at him. He shot air at me, making me launch myself right to the side, then again over to the left to dodge his next attack. I launched myself down behind him, launching my fist at the back of his head. It hit air, pushing again back onto the ground.

    ‘But he wasn’t even looking at me!’ I thought. ‘How?’

“Stupid boy.” Skyler said. “You’ll never be able to hit me.” 

‘Wait… it felt more like I hit something than if I was hit back. It must be some sort of barrier of air around him.’ I thought. ‘He certainly didn’t have this last time we fought. ’ 

“I admit, I envy your perseverance, but it’s useless.” Skyler said.

“Kim, he uses a personal barrier around himself.” I said. “Even if you get close enough it’ll block you.” 

“Not as dumb as last time, huh?” Skyler asked.

He turned around to look at me, stopping the stream of air on Kim. This caused her to fly forward, bouncing off of his barrier.

“It’s just about time to wrap this up, don’t you think?” He said. “Just about time for you to die.”