Everything happened in the blink of an eye; the ride to the warehouse was a silent one. They weren't sure if it was the ankle bracelet situation or the atmosphere generated by Mantle in general that resulted in them not being as lively as they were before.
But that silence was broken within a blink, as two black objects manifested out of thin air, the sound of ticking echoing through the air. Simon wasn't the first to react, even though he saw them first. Winter Schnee, who was sitting beside him, was the one who moved first. She moved fast, faster than Simon could even react, unlocking his seat belt, and without hesitation, she kicked him.
The pain was sudden. Her heels dug into him, cracking a few ribs before he was sent flying out of the car with the door. Luckily, the door eased his fall as the pink sports car he was just sent flying from turned into a ball of flames. Dust weaponry was anything but a laughing matter; the explosions were truly worthy of movie special effects.
Luckily, the highway was still empty, and all the cars stopped in their tracks once they felt the earth tremor and saw smoke rise from the explosion. 'They should probably be fine.' The first thing he did was check the ankle bracelet; luckily, there was no sign of the yellow lightning dust in it being used. 'Thank the gods. Elm, you are the fucking hero.'
He tried to get up but fell back to the ground with a sickening crunching sound coming from his ribs. It was obvious that Winter didn't hold back when kicking him; sure, thanks to that, he was saved, but goddamn, it hurt. As he rolled on the ground in pain, he saw something unexpected.
From the ground, something jumped out. A figure shrouded in black with a white mask did a few acrobatic spins in the air before landing on his knees. 'Damn, that must have hurt—wait, did he jump out from the ground?' Seeing that several grenades were hanging from his vest and the ice axe he was holding, Simon couldn't help but let out a sigh. It seemed like he had just met the culprit behind all of this. 'Something is telling me he isn't here for Schnee or just a passing villain.'
Simon and Zycon met eye to eye. Without hesitation, Zycon pulled out his pistol, aiming at Simon in an attempt to finish everything before things got too complicated. Simon, gritting his teeth, quickly rolled to the side, dodging the first few bullets fired by Zycon before being hit by one in his left forearm. Pain quickly stopped him on the ground, but just before Zycon landed a finishing blow, charred black metal was sent flying towards him.
Zycon quickly shifted his position, bending a little bit to the side, and he uppercut the slab with his ice axe, sending it spinning into the air and just missing his body by a hair's breadth. He re-aimed his pistol, shooting toward the white blur that was heading his way. But the blur quickly dodged them, jumping into the air and creating various platforms before bouncing between them in a zig-zag pattern, making it harder to hit.
He quickly jumped into the air. Just as he did so, several ice shards hit where he had been standing a moment ago. The white blur descended from the sky beside Simon, revealing Winter Schnee, whose clothes were a mess after surviving the initial explosion.
Zycon's figure started fading; he quickly opened fire, sending a few bullets before completely disappearing. Semi-transparent bullets rippled through the air. Winter quickly summoned a shield glyph, using it to block the bullets, but to her surprise, the bullets passed through it and hit her. Aura blocked most of the damage, but still, the shock from the bullets made the spots they hit ache.
"He can go intangible and invisible! Robyn, prepare the ground!" Winter picked Simon up by the back of his shirt, and a white time dilation glyph appeared below them. Tossing him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, she ran towards the blown-up car. From the flames, two figures stood out. Elm held her trusted weapon, Timber, in its hammer form, and Robyn held her arm-mounted crossbow that was shaped like a bird.
Robyn fired multiple arrows at the ground behind Winter. Dozens of arrows landed horizontally, forming a line blinking with yellow light before forming a barricade of electricity.
"Think it will hold him?" Winter quickly placed Simon on the ground, far enough from the burning car but close enough to them. Robyn stabbed an ice dust arrow into the car the next second; it exploded, turning the fire off. "Guy seems like he can make anything intangible."
"No idea, but I injected electric dust into the ground so that if he becomes tangible while connected to it in the immediate area, it should slow him down enough for us to react," Robyn said, taking her position while using the car wreck as cover.
Elm helped Simon to get up and lean behind the car wreckage. He gritted his teeth, fighting against his urge to groan in pain. 'Damn it, give me a break, would ya?' He looked at Elm. "Please tell me you called for backup."
"Sorry, man, my scroll got busted during the explosion." Elm gave him a regretful look, which Simon only gave an understanding nod to in reply. Sure, the sudden rush of pain and adrenaline made his mind a mess, but not messed enough to blame her for something like this in their current situation.
"Underground tunnels. Since Mantle is focused on mining raw dust, it's filled with underground tunnels to deliver it," he muttered, catching their attention. "Going intangible will limit his mobility since he would keep sinking deeper and deeper. But he is so readily sinking into the ground, probably using the tunnels to reposition himself."
"Then we need to get out of his path," Winter said, stabbing her blade into the ground. A giant glyph appeared under them; it started spinning, emitting a mist. "Hold on tight, I've never summoned it under people other than myself before."
Icy blue wings sprouted from the glyph with a screech. From the mist, a giant bird made of ice rose; it had a crystalline white skull mask and four glowing blue eyes, but they didn't have time to pay attention to the detail, so they quickly clung to it. Winter was the most secure, mounting it on its neck; Robyn was on the right shoulder, while Elm was on the back belly by one hand, holding Simon from the waist with the other. He hissed in pain, but they didn't have time to get distracted by that.
"Hold tight!" Winter screamed as the raven raised its wings, ready to flap. But just before it could do so, something sprouted out from the ground, flying at high speed. Robyn, who was closest, managed to see what it was and screamed in horror. "Grenade!"
The grenade exploded in a sphere of wind blades and wind, shredding the ice raven into pieces while sending them flying. Elm quickly pulled Robyn towards herself—who caught Winter by the leg—and pulled out Timber from her back. Aiming it down, she fired the rocket launcher into the ground; the recoil was strong enough to send them flying high up.
With the quick reaction of Winter, she created a road of glyphs at the peak of their height, allowing them to slide down to a nearby building rooftop. Their landing wasn't exactly soft, but at least Elm shielded Simon with her body, so his already battered body didn't become worse. With a pained groan, the trio of specialists and candidates got up, peeking over the edge to the ground to see what was happening.
Thanks to Timber, the ground had collapsed due to the rockets. There was a real possibility that it might cause a chain reaction, causing the tunnel below them to completely collapse. But thankfully, for now, it seemed stable.
"Once this is all over, we are screwed," Robyn muttered. The other two unwillingly nodded their heads. At least several months of disciplinary action would be warranted; they were sure of that. "How long has it been since the last time you reported to the general?"
Elm quickly looked at her wristwatch. "Roughly five minutes ago, but it probably doesn't matter; with this commotion, they would have already guessed something has gone wrong with us," Elm said, and just as she was about to continue speaking, they heard violent coughing. Looking back, they saw Simon coughing up blood. "Shit! Simon!"
Elm quickly rushed beside him, carefully picking him up. The last few actions had already pushed his body to its limit, and not only that, it seemed like it had made the bullet in his arm dig deeper. This was bad; at this rate, he would either die bleeding out or his body would fail him.
"Winter, take out your ice dust vial. Robyn, come beside me," Elm said after hesitating a little bit. Both of them did as she said, even though they were confused about what she was planning to do. She then looked at Robyn with a determined look and said, "Start awakening his aura. Winter, the moment his aura activates, pour the ice dust on it."
Both of their eyes widened in shock as they understood what Elm was planning to do. "Are you crazy? If you inject dust into him now, it will kill him! Even if it didn't, he would lose his hand."
"Sure, if he didn't have an aura. Besides, we are not injecting it, just pouring it on the wound. Aura alone would make the wound heal while the bullet is still inside. If we pour the ice dust, it would keep his arm in cryostasis, thanks to Aura's resistance." Winter frowned at Elm's explanation. To her, this plan was madness; it could result in Simon's death, which meant they would have done all this for nothing. If Simon died, then they wouldn't be able to accomplish their mission, and... she might never get a chance like this to dethrone her father.
When Elm attempted to take the vial from Winter, she retracted it. Taking a step back, her face grew cold while looking at Elm before turning to Robyn. "Hill, tell Elm this is madness. If we go through with her plan, we might kill Jenkins ourselves."
"I-I-I..." Robyn looked at Simon with his bloodied mouth, whose skin had turned paler with each second, then at Elm, who was looking at her with a pleading look. Hesitatingly, she looked at Winter's cold, icy eyes, shaking in disbelief.
"Don't tell me you are really humoring this madness." Winter looked in disbelief, shaken by the fact that even Robyn was considering this plan.
"We've got no time for this! Simon has no time for this. And whoever that guy is, he's probably climbing stairs while we are here arguing. Winter, it is either we gamble now or lose him for sure." Elm stood up, ready to reach forward to Winter, who looked down at the vial in her hand.
"What about the reinforcements?! They surely would have proper medics," Winter said defensively. She tried to pull the vial away to put it away, but Elm's hand was faster.
"They wouldn't have the equipment," Elm said, looking at Winter fleetingly. "Please, just trust me on this once." With a trembling hand, Winter let go of the vial, giving it up to Elm, who said in a whisper: "Thank you."
Then she turned to Robyn and became serious. "Robyn, start chanting. We need to time it carefully; at his current state, he might not be able to control his Aura."
Robyn nodded nervously. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." Robyn's hand glowed in a lilac color, the color of her aura. She felt her aura entering Simon's body, felt his soul; it was a strange sensation. It was her first time awakening an aura, so perhaps this was normal, but for some reason, inside Simon's body, she felt restricted.
It was as if it was only allowing her to enter because it was beneficial to Simon—as if it knew what she was trying to do. Still, with no time to be distracted, she did what must be done; she pulled the soul out from the body, just a piece of it, to show it the path.
[Ding! Host has gained a new ability: [Aura].]
[Ability: Aura
Description: Aura is the manifestation of one's soul, a unique form of manifestation of one's lifeblood into reality. As a manifestation of one's soul, it could enforce one's deepest desire to reality by making it take the form of a Semblance.]
Simon felt something warm flowing through his body; the pain had subsided, and he felt relief at last. A semi-translucent light covered him, shining with countless colors yet none at all, but Elm didn't have time to be mesmerized by its beauty. It was a crucial moment where Simon's aura was in a semi-active state of awakening, also the moment she needed to pour the ice dust. So she did; the moment light blue dust hit his bullet wound, faint steam rushed out, followed by an agonizing scream from Simon.
The area where the dust powder was poured started shining, keeping it from eroding his arm completely. So far, everything was going as planned, which might be why bad luck decided to visit them once again.
Winter ran in front of them, summoning several protective glyphs forming a shield formation. The next moment, they felt a strong gust of wind coming from behind the shield glyph formation—possibly another wind bomb. The roof under them started cracking, and the building shook as if it was going to collapse at any moment.
Cold sweat ran down Winter's face; she was clearly panicking. Continued use of her Semblance was starting to take a toll on her aura. "We'd better start moving before this whole place collapses under us."
Elm was about to nod—well, she was about to—but Robyn pushed her forward. Robyn then activated the shield mode of her crossbow, holding it in front of them. Only when she fell over Simon did she notice the black object speeding towards them. It was another grenade with red markings reflecting the dust it contained. With a beep, it bloomed into a violent flower of flame; enhanced by the remaining wind from the wind bomb, it blossomed to an even greater degree.
The last thing she felt was the land below them completely collapsing, and the sound of glass shattering, indicating Winter's glyphs had failed. "Crap!" she muttered under her breath before bracing herself for the impact.