Chapter 2: Chapter 2 : Broken Feathers
Duri fell into the horde of enemies, and they all closed in on him.
Falling above the horde, Jae yelled, "Duri!!!"
Inside of the cluster of enemies, Duri was getting beaten badly, and the enemies even bit at him, trying to rip his body apart, but they couldn't.
Duri's eyes were fully white, and he was taking the pain hard; he couldn't really see anything because it was so dark, since the horde was blocking the light; Duri's body and face was covered in blood
Duri yelled, "Owwww!"
Duri took a deep breath, and said, "Kusen..Kaikun.."
He stretched his fists out, wind began to gather around it, and he spun one time real fast.
All the enemies around him blasted away, smashing through trees and hitting the ground.
Duri fell down to the ground feet first, dripping in blood.
Jae was running along the branches as enemies were crashing him. Two enemies jumped in front of him and threw two punches at Jae in the chest, making him fall off the tree.
He started falling down, and the enemies jumped after him, saying, "Whyyyyyy fight backkkk?"
Jae grinned, "What? You think I'm just gonna let you ugly bastards beat me up?!"
One enemy tried to kick Jae, but Jae spun around it, spun his body around, and hit the enemy in the back of the head with his elbow. Then, Jae went to face him again, pulled his fist back, and said, "Take this!"
Jae punched the grey figure in the face, and a large spark of shadow flames arose in the air, blasting the enemy through two trees.
Jae landed on the ground, and looked over at Duri, seeing that he was bruised and battered.
Jae yelled to him, "Why did you jump, you idiot?!"
Duri responded with a slight grin, "Weeee...don't run from fights."
"Look at you! You're banged up, like badly!"
"Guess we better win then, haha."
"....Haha. You're crazy, bro!"
Jae ran over to Duri, and stood back to back with him in a fighting stance. Over a dozen grey figures/Zabel's forces started to surround them, ready to fight.
Jae asked Duri, "When did you master Kusen Kaikun?"
"Last night after I almost broke my arm trying to perfect the move."
"Pfft. Rookie stunts."
Over to where the guardians and Zabel were, Band was on top of the giant hand along with Zabel, trying to throw really past punches and kicks with his shadow like arms and fists.
Zabel was dodging them, laughing, "Feeling..tired, Band?"
Zabel slapped Band in the chest with his hand, and Zabel's hand glowed red and white, and it exploded on Band's chest, sending him back and almost falling off the hand.
Band looked forward, closed his shadowy fists together, and said, "...Shadow...zone.."
A black mist-like force field surrounded Zabel, and Zabel said, "Hm? Going to use up all your strong moves? I can see that you're losing fatigue...it must suck not knowing your true power level. I know mine. And once I take the boy with the birthmark for the ritual, my power level will be in the millions."
"Shut...up!"
Suddenly, inside of that mist that was surrounding Zabel, triple kicks came in, kicking Zabel from all directions at a very fast speed.
Zabel was dodging all of them, but he struggled a bit, all of the eyes on his red aura face were constantly moving, he thought, 'So this is what Shadow Zone is? Not bad, not bad at all. It's simultaneous kicks are unpredictable at that, but all of my eyes can see a lot of viewpoints which makes this easier. If I hadn't used the rings to weaken the Shadow realm, we would've lost the second we stepped in here.'
Zabel jumped to the right, still dodging the kicks, and yelled, "Okay, okay! My turn!"
Zabel slid forward, and punched the air hard, and a vast wind knocked out the force field mist, and the force knocked Band into the sky.
Appearing behind Band, Zabel was right there, and he laughed, "I've heard about this place. I'm from the Arcane realm. You raise and train children to be killers and to take down other realms for the sake of taking the realms energy, all to fuel this piece of shit realm with other realm powers, thus...making you all stronger."
Band turned around with a shadow kick, but Zabel wasn't there.
Zabel said, "Up here."
Band looked up, and Zabel grabbed Band's head, lifted him up, and started punching him in the stomach faster than a train.
Band felt himself getting weaker because of the rings, he felt he would pass out any moment.
Band used his shadow wings to fly downward, dragging Zabel with him.
Band kicked Zabel off of him, and he pointed his wings at him.
Shadow feathers engulfed in black flames shot out at Zabel, and Zabel was soaring around the air to dodge them.
The feathers were following him, and Zabel laughed, "...I um...advise you to call your buddies, you're embarrassing yourself."
Zabel clapped his fists together, and the wind from it knocked the black flame feathers away and into ash.
Band was falling down, squinting his eyes in tiredness, thinking, 'Damn you...Kaiju...father...I've failed you...I can't do what you asked. Duri...be safe.'
Coming up behind Band was Set and Rook, catching him before he fell.
Set said, "Band!"
Band replied, "Set...Rook.."
Rook says, "It's too early to sleep, Band. We gotta kill this bastard."
Zabel heard them, and asked, "Oi..Oi...quick question. Like, how do you know if it's day or night in this dark place?"
Set, Band, and Rook dashed upward to Zabel giving a good battle yell, and Zabel smirked, "It's so embarrassing getting ignored. Pain."
Zabel stretched his left hand out, and a white glowing sword formed in it.
He said, "My power level will grow and grow after I take the boy; I'll have enough power that rivals the Titans in the Garden realm! Controlling them would be so awesome, right?!"
Set answered, "You won't get away with this! We'll stop you!"
"Hoh? Come try it then. The best thing about power levels...is that I can choose how weak or strong I want to be, only if it's in my level range. In this case...haha...I won't even have to go all out."
Zabel used his sword to swing at the air, and white lines formed like crescents shooting out from the sword aiming to hit the guardians.
The slashes were fast, it took everything in the guardians to dodge them in the air.
Rook was darting to the left, and the shadow serpents on his back started to stretch over to Zabel. Zabel cut all of their heads off quickly, but the heads grew back instantly, and they grabbed Zabel's legs as quickly as possible.
Rook yelled to Set and Band, "Now! Now!"
They rushed to Zabel, and Zabel grinned, "Power Level: 10,000."
The serpents exploded all around him, and Zabel's entire body was covered in a red smokey aura.
Set punched Zabel as hard as she could, but Zabel didn't budge. Zabel stabbed Set through the chest with his sword, spun around like a helicopter blade, and threw her body at Band and Rook.
They yelled, "Set!!!"
Zabel smiled, "Tell me this...you guys don't even know the boy's true power? Do you? All you know is that he has the birthmark of a clan that his father led. But there's more to it than meets the eye. The power inside him is rare, he is a true hybrid, not a mere creation that you all created. Why didn't you ever tell him the truth?"
Band replied, "You wouldn't know a damn thing about keeping someone safe. And that's exactly what I-we did."
"BUT YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HIS TRUE POWER! ALL YOU KNOW IS THAT HE HAS A BIRTHMARK! And that alone gave you the confidence that he is some kind of cliche 'chosen one'. For me, yes. But for you, no."
Zabel pointed his sword at the guardians, and said, "Power Level : 10,001."
Band, Set, and Rook all felt a great gravity change, and the force shot them down to the ground hard. Once they hit the ground, they couldn't get back up, the weight of something invisible was weighing them down, they struggled to even lift themselves up a few inches.
Band said, "Keep pushing!"
Rook added, "Got it...got it!!!"
"Set! Keep...Set?! Set?!"
Set was on the ground, dead with her eyes wide open. Rook and Band were staring at her, and they were shook, too shocked to say anything.
Rook yelled, "Set!!"
Band screamed, "Set!"
"The rings...they took full control. Usually, she'd...she'd survive a blow like that easily.."
Band looked at Zabel, and Zabel was laughing.
"Looks like I'm winning this fight! Haha! And what kind of name is set? Such a weird name, ya know?"
Rook and Band turned into shadows, their bodies were flaming with black fire, and their eyes were fully white now.
Zabel replied, "Hoh? Seeing your friend die switched something on inside of you-."
Band and Rook were in Zabel's face in the air, and they both punched Zabel in the face. Zabel blasted back 50 feet, and he said, "That speed-!"
Band and Rook smashed their fists down on Zabel's head, and sent him darting downwards at about 40 feet.
Zabel thought, 'Their speed is coordinated! Faster than they were before, disobeying the powers of the rings-!'
Zabel turned around, and used his sword to throw more white crescent slashes at them.
Band used his shadow wings to block the slashes, and it was a success.
Zabel was throwing slashes at Rook, but the serpents on Rook's back were eating the slashes easily.
Band stretched his fist out in a punching fashion, and shadow lions with shadow wings appeared slowly, and they went to attack and devour Zabel.
Zabel screamed, "Power Level : 100,000!"
Over to where Duri and Jae were, they were still fighting off the waves of grey figure enemies.
Duri blazed through the air, and he clotheslined two enemies with his bloody fists, using his fists to slam enemies into the ground causing a loud thud.
Five enemies tried to jump on Duri, but Duri did a breakdance-like move by spinning on the ground with one hand, and used his legs to kick all the enemies away from him.
Duri smiled, "You guys are soooo weak!"
From a distance, Jae yelled to Duri, "Watch out! Under you!"
"Hm?"
Duri looked down, feeling the vibrations of the ground. He jumped up, and a super muscular grey figure jumped from underground, grabbing Duri's leg.
The figure said, "For Arcane...and for Zabel!"
It threw Duri, but as soon as it did, Duri ripped the figure's arm off in mid air, turned around, and kicked the enemy across the cheek, breaking his neck all the way around, knocking him to the ground.
Duri landed feet first, and said to Jae with a smile and thumbs up, "All good! Hehe!"
Jae was getting chased gt some enemies, and some were running towards him.
Jae closed his eyes, swayed his arms around, and did a roundhouse kick to the air. Coming from his kick, was a dragon in a black shadow form, stretching about 20 feet long.
Jae yelled, "Go!"
The shadow dragon roared, and it started destroying all the grey figures in its way. They tried to fight it, but the dragon was grabbing them and eating them alive.
Jae double kicked two enemies who were running towards him from the sides, and then he slammed his fist into the ground, breaking it, and allowing the force to knock enemies back a few feet.
Jae dropped down on one knee, holding his chest. He coughed up blood, and his eyes shook.
'I'm getting...weaker? But how?!'
Jae looked over at Duri, seeing that he was still hyperactive and grinning.
Jae thought again, 'How is he not...fatiguing? His energy is unmatched. I feel like...my energy is being ripped right out of my body…'
Duri was blocking and evading enemy punches and kicks, jumping around trying not to get hit.
The enemy was striking fast, Duri evaded as much as he could, until he was hit in the face and stomach, and he smashed through two trees, rolling and skidding on the ground right after.
Not even a second later, Duri got up to his feet, and split blood out of his mouth to the side, saying, "Haha! This is fun!"
Duri took one step forward, and he took off in light speed, the force from his takeoff run knocked some trees from its roots, leaving a destructive wind behind his foot power, cracking the ground in the process.
Duri jumped from tree to tree, and he collided with one of Zabel's soldiers.
They threw a punch at him, Duri leaned to the left to dodge it, he grabbed the hip of the enemy, and crushed a part of his ribs, making the enemy scream in pain.
Duri smiled, "Oooo! That must've hurt!"
Duri headbutted the enemy, and made him crash to the ground.
Duri landed on the ground too, until a shadow sword dashed past him; Duri barely dodged it.
"Whoa!" Duri exclaimed.
From the darkness, more shadow swords that were 10 feet long were blasting towards him from all directions.
Duri was running forward fast, evading the swords that were trying to kill him. He would roll on the ground, and lean to the right and flip so the swords can hit and cut down the trees around him instead.
'What is that?!' Duri thought as he still tried to avoid the swords.
Duri jumped over a knocked over tree, turned downward, put both hands on the ground, and pushed himself up high into the air.
Duri chanted, "Kattanum...Takundo…"
Duri's eyes went full white, he spun his foot around, and he kicked three incoming swords all away at once.
Duri landed on both feet on the ground, breathing heavily, there were no more swords coming his way at that moment.
Duri looked around him, and he heard a slight clapping.
Coming from the darkness was Kaiju.
He was grinning and clapping, saying, "I didn't think you'd be able to stop that."
Duri smiled, and waved, "Hiii, Kaiju!! Are you having fun too?"
"Heh?"
"Is the fighting bad out there?"
"...Yes it is, Duri."
"Oh, okay, see ya! And good luck!"
"Wait a minute."
"Hm?"
"Did you not know who threw those swords at you?"
"Hmmmm, no. Did you get the guy who did it?"
"It was me!"
"So...you were trying to get me?"
"Yes! All for the plans of Zabel and the Arcane realm! Zabel promised me he could bring my family back if I delivered your dead body to him."
"Zabel sounds like a very bad guy. Are you friends with the bad guy?"
"Yes, I am-."
Duri was already in Kaiju's face, and he punched him right in it.
Kaiju darted backwards at at least 50 feet, and he was hitting trees, boulders, and eventually the ground.
But Duri wouldn't let him rest, as Kaiju was flying backward, Duri would appear quickly and punch him from all directions.
Blood spouted everywhere, and Duri continued to punch away.
Duri tried to punch Kaiju again, but Kaiju grabbed Duri's arm, broke it, pulled him closer, turned around, and smashed Duri's face into the dirt, dragging it across the ground as they went backwards.
Kaiju said, "Sorry, Duri. But this is for my family.."
Kaiju raised his hand, and a black shadow sword formed. He was about to stab Duri through the back, but Jae's shadow dragon appeared, and ate Kaiju and Duri.
Kaiju and Duri were falling down the throat of the dragon, it was bright red inside with a few dark spots, and there were teeth everywhere.
Duri was sliding down the walls of the dragon, and on the other side, Kaiju was doing the same.
They both looked at each other, and Kaiju darted to him.
Duri blasted off at him too with his fists closed and ready to fight.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone