"Seriously?" Boss 24 asked, crossing his arms.
Boss 25 immediately took up position beside him, his weapon beginning to glow fiercely, a sign that it was at 100%.
Kiro lunged at them. Boss 25 sidestepped, but his ally didn't. The punch caught Boss 24 on the jaw and sent him flying around the entire planet. Kiro caught up to him, seized him by the throat, and the Boss instantly exploded. It had been a decoy.
While Kiro was still disoriented, Boss 24 appeared behind him. Metal hands burst from his back and dug into Kiro's shoulders.
"What the sh..." Kiro began, but he never got to finish.
Boss 25 fired a heavy charge at Kiro, and the explosion swallowed him.
Boss 24 pulled away in time, but a slash caught him across the cheek and left a reddish mark. He whipped his head around.
Eduin had appeared beside him and hit him with a flurry of slashes.
"Error. Mode 2," his cyborg half announced.
Eduin was thrown back hard. He drove his swords into the ground to stop himself, his eyes wide.
A great surge of electric energy wrapped around Boss 24. His arms turned to diamond and his hands to platinum, and his eyes went completely purple.
Without wasting a second, he drove a punch into Eduin's abdomen. Eduin spat blood at once, but he quickly answered with a slash across the Boss's torso.
Eduin was flung backward, his own sword sinking into his arm and severing it. Blood sprayed, but the limb quickly regenerated in a gray tone.
Eduin stabbed his sword into the ground and caught his balance. Boss 24 appeared in front of him in a flash, and the cyborg threw a punch at his face, but the gray arm stopped his fist.
Eduin stared at him, a wide grin spreading across his face. Boss 24 understood at once, but Sone, in ball form, slammed into his back and drove him violently forward.
Boss 24 recovered instantly and turned on Sone.
Without hesitation, Sone fired spines at the speed of light. They hit the man's body and bounced off.
*My technique is useless if they just bounce off,* Sone thought.
Instantly, weapons unfolded from the Boss's back and fired at Sone's torso. He slid back a few centimeters.
A clock began to chime. Boss 24, Sone, and Eduin all turned toward the sound.
Kiro had overloaded his body with massive energy, and the sky lit up. He clapped his palms together. Boss 25 appeared in the sky and fired at him with all his energy.
Kiro looked up and pulled his hands apart. A clock emerged from between them and flew straight at the attack.
Sone launched himself in ball form and struck right in the middle of the two blasts.
A rift in space opened and sucked them in. The dimension was a concrete platform lined with electric pillars.
Sone crashed to the ground, steaming.
"Shit! It burns!" Sone cried, slowly pulling himself together.
Bosses 25 and 24 landed together and got up fast.
Kiro and Eduin hit the ground and immediately charged the enemies. Kiro grabbed Boss 25 by the throat and hit him. Boss 24 pulled out a smoke bomb and set it off, and a few slashes lit up the smoke.
The Boss took a ninja kick from Eduin and stumbled back, but he quickly hit Eduin with a punch to the jaw. Eduin slammed into a pillar.
Sone charged the Boss and detonated an attack point-blank. A huge cloud of dust rose, but Sone burst out of it and struck the Boss's torso.
Boss 25 came back and hammered Sone's back with Serious Strikes, making him spit.
Kiro quickly moved in at his side and landed a punch, but this time he planted his feet. Boss 25 slowly turned his head, and their eyes met. Boss 24 stepped back a few paces and smiled. He had them right where he wanted them.
A kind of metallic parasite crawled out of his neck. Worh, who hadn't joined the fight yet, rubbed his eyes with his hands. He noticed the little device, but it was too late. The parasite was faster than he was and bit into the spot behind his ear. Worh's mind went dark, and a powerful electric surge ran through him. He no longer felt control over his body or his consciousness. The parasite took over, and Worh's eyes turned gray with red pupils as he clenched his fists tight.
*He's going to use him against them. Very clever,* Boss 25 thought.
The parasite sensed the potential in the body it controlled and, without wasting any time, charged the protagonists. Worh punched Sone in the abdomen and sent him flying into a pillar.
Kiro immediately grabbed Worh's arm.
"Snap out of it," he said.
Worh hit him on the spot. Kiro went flying but stopped himself short, his torso beginning to burn.
Eduin appeared behind Worh and landed a thousand slashes in three seconds. The cuts left deep red marks, but a heavy blow slammed into Eduin's face.
Eduin was sent flying, smashing through a pillar on the way and landing on the ground. Worh's fist was ablaze. He lunged and drove a heavy punch into Eduin's torso. Eduin instantly lost his berserker mode and spat up a mouthful of blood, scrambling away.
He clutched his chest, feeling his breathing turn ragged. Worh stared at him. Sone appeared behind Worh in ball form and hit him, doing serious damage, but Worh spun around violently and landed a Serious Strike on Sone's face.
Sone staggered back several meters, touching his nose and feeling it bleed.
Boss 25 slowly walked toward them, smiling.
"It seems the parasite has everything under control. Who would have imagined he could do something like this without any transformations? Hmm, he seems to have great potential, but it's being held back. It would be interesting to see his full power without that limit, though he makes up for it with durability," the Boss said.
Sone listened closely, his expression turning grim.
"Game over," Sone said.
Kiro stepped up, clenching his fists. Sone began to overload his body, passing 100% and climbing to 110%.
Sone launched himself at six times the speed of light. Boss 24 watched, but a huge attack instantly struck him full on. He went flying but stopped himself in midair. Sone quickly used his flight ability and began to spin, transforming into ball form, only spikier. He used all his speed, surpassing eight times the speed of light, and tore straight through Boss 24.
When he landed, blood rained down on him, and he shook his head to clear off the liquid.
Sone saw pieces of the Boss's metal body. Without hesitation, he pressed his hands together and fired a beam of energy at them, and they vanished from the place without leaving a trace of their existence.
Sone felt a sudden cramp before he dropped to the ground, his super form fading.
Boss 25 seized the moment. He grabbed Sone by the throat and drove a dry punch into his abdomen, knocking the wind out of him.
The pillars began to glow brighter, a sign that the place was about to collapse. And so it did. The platform began to crack. Worh turned around but was met by a slash from Eduin, though he quickly kicked him away.
Eduin shot backward and hit a pillar, and without wasting a moment, he started climbing it.
Worh watched him for a moment. Kiro appeared behind him and hit him in the back with a Strike Plus, multiple lightning bolts shoving him forward. Worh was blasted away, but he stopped himself violently and came rushing back at an inhuman speed, more than three times the speed of light. Kiro blinked, and a Max Strike from Worh slammed into him.
Kiro lost his transformation violently, and the sound of an explosion filled the place. He lay on the ground, small drops of blood trickling from his forehead.
Worh took a step toward him but stopped, seeing Sone held by the throat in Boss 25's grip, and suddenly he charged.
Boss 25 let go of Sone's throat and sidestepped, but Worh punched the Boss.
The man staggered slightly, a look of surprise crossing his face. Kiro smiled, and a gust of air began to push the Boss, and Worh seized the moment. The parasite, unable to keep control, didn't know why.
"ULTRA STRIKE PLUS!" Worh shouted, using more than the energy that attack required.
The space exploded into a thousand pieces with a sound like shattering glass.
Everything went dark... Boss 25 was erased instantly, helpless to do anything.
Worh slowly opened his eyes, not recognizing where he was. The parasite lay dead near his foot. The space was a corridor with windows that looked out onto the universe. Worh felt something in his chest but ignored it. As he walked, he came across a white feather. He picked it up, but it vanished in his palm. It was as if his potential had been unlocked in that moment, and he suddenly passed out. When he woke up, he realized he was on one of the gurneys in the laboratory.
Beside him were Kiro, Sone, and Eduin, wolfing down food to recover the energy they had lost.
"You're awake?" Sone asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Worh nodded. Kiro looked at him with a trace of newfound respect for the strength he had shown, then went back to eating.
The day ended in a storm, shops closing and people heading home. It had taken them 26 minutes to get back, since time had passed differently in that dimension.
The flowers were blooming...