Silence Doesn't Stand

It had finally happened. The lengthy journey of days had the end goal in sight. It seemed almost in reach. 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 needed to be done.

Of course, nothing could be easy.

If it was easy, Yuki’s friends wouldn’t have to fight their entire way through Atlantis just to stop those wanting him dead. However, the ease or challenge of reaching 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 another twenty 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 completely obviously to the danger. “The travel is boring unless you make a game out of it.”

She could only sigh, dropping her head into her hand. “So much for maturing…”

“Huh?”

“Never mind…” Ayumi didn’t know why she should have expected anything different from him. But the comedy act had to come to an end. Their pursuer didn’t enjoy the lighter tone. He launched 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 matching 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 counterattacked, 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 changed completely. It wasn’t even just him becoming 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 forcing them to stand on the ground. A ripple came out from his feet wiping out everything that surrounded them. Rocks, trees, even the hills. He forcibly made everything a flat plain 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 manner that 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 much. They were all ones they 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 need to 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 act. She could easily read his plans. Ayumi stepped out in front of him. “This is more than we can handle, Yuki. We need to focus on escape.”

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

“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, covering 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 distance the terrain he cut into began to restore itself, as his Field shrank. It sped in towards Yuki quickly covering meters. The distance slowed down after covering more than twenty 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 completed Fold, but he’s getting very close…’ She stared ahead at Yuki’s back. ‘If he manages to complete 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 completely different level than the grunt Omega agents.

In mere seconds, 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, placing a hand on her shoulder briefly. The disc they rode on appeared again, though the design changed 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 hiding determined to 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 understand 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 someone strong and you just flaunting your strength is only going to entice them further.” Ayumi searched through the area again. She had a bad feeling about the situation. In the distance, the Capital had finally poked over the horizon. “We’re closer to the Capital, meaning all of those stationed in the Capital are finally reaching 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 entire time (maybe forgotten?). “Haruo remains behind to hold them off. His animals can let him take on several at once.” She immediately glanced over at Yuki to see his reaction. The last time with Saki was a struggle.

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

The silent one had little reaction to the surprising acceptance. He started walking towards Ayumi. Haruo stared at her in silence. The lack of any sort of emotion made it difficult to read if he was upset 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 back onto their transport, Yuki already waiting. They looked back at Haruo. His broad back seemed willing to be the wall to hold everything back. Even the tide of soldiers fast approaching 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 nodded to her. “Then we’ll just need to make it difficult for them.” The disc started rising into the air. Below them, flashes of lights and explosions went 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 can you keep them off us, while I fly?”

Given the situation, 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 plan, 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 from trying 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 play 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 swap in for them. Their agility and flight made the water almost pointless. ‘I still don’t even know how it functions. I only know how to make it work, not why it works. It’s very unsettling not understanding 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 chunks, crushing it in his hands. Light suddenly grew from the thin slits between his fingers. A moment later, he tossed everything in his hands out in front of them. A pack of huskies materialized along with several flocks of sparrows. The count 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 can do this as well, but it seems it’s not as powerful. I wonder why.’ Questions continued 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 more going through with it. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much of another plan.

“What?!”

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

“What?!”

“I hate you so much right now!”

“Can you talk louder? I can’t hear you!”

“Nevermind!” She heard him shout again, but ignored it. 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 interested in stopping them. Yuki had to dodge again, it sent her swinging around. Her hand gripped onto the rope harder.

Yuki’s plan, Ayumi suspended herself underneath 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 disc for more security. Ayumi’s purpose, she had to use her powers to deflect any incoming attacks to give them a better chance of escape.

The dodging Yuki still had to do made the ride for Ayumi rough. Her Field dampened the effects, but she had to be careful with Yuki above her. Most of her power was only pointed down, due to Yuki’s Field overcoming much of her above. “Next time, I’m coming up with the plan 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 deflecting smaller projectiles coming 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 coming for them. Ayumi hoped it would end soon.

Calmer skies allowed Yuki a moment free to level out the disc. Unlike on the ground, he had a better view of the Capital in the distance, their 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 distance. He saw a massive spire along with a couple other large structures. Everything else blended in together, but it still looked beautiful. The white of the Capital shined brightly against the sun, catching 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 distance. 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 since this all began. You’ve got Yuki by yourself and the rest of us isolated.’