"Out of my way!"
"Ouch! Jeez, that hurt." Nalia winced, her shoulder aching from the push. "Huh?" She squinted her eyes and could see that Sky's hands were coated in blue fur and he looked demented and unhinged, like a rabid animal.
The Ravewasp on the other hand used it's eye beams, destroying the base of the large stalactite that Florian had hooked onto and succeeded, leaving him plumetting. "Damn...!"
Luckily, Ace was right there to catch him, flying on his Hover Disc.
"Whoa!" They felt a gust of wind go right past them. Sky jumped in the air, throwing aside his translucent saffron cape as if it were a nuisance, and arrived where the Beast had reassembled, his palms radiating a black aura.
"Take this!" Sky struck the air, releasing black claw marks at his opponent. As a Taikon Host, Sky possessed the abilities of the Blue Lion and one of them was the Claw Blast.
The Ravewasp released the hoop, easily pulverizing his attacks with it and still targeting him. In response, he spinned out two weapons into his palms. They looked like sharp-pointed hammers, resembling pick-axes but with wider heads. He spun his body and in the process, the hammers generated violent gales and airstreams, like a hurricane. It shook the hoop's trajectory, causing it to go offtrack.
By now, the other soldiers knew to get out of the way.
"What's wrong with him?" Annie asked, viewing Sky's fight with his natural enemy.
"It's the Ravewasp. It released a special pheromone it uses to lure in the Blue Lion. It makes the lion incredbily violent," Nalia explained. "Kinda like supercharging his instincts and impulses."
"Wow! And I thought I was gonna be the one to drive him mad one day. Can't believe all it took was some gas."
Sky bent his knees and leaped into the air, taking a deep breath. "..." He exhaled a breath of magnificent, blue fire.
The Predator disfigured and reappeared farther away. It looked at it's body and realized it had been charred by the Prince. Meanwhile, he was nowhere to be seen.
"Not looking so hot now, are ya?" The Beast had been sucker punched in the face. It turned, shooting it's eye beams but no one was there to fall victim to the attack.
"He disappeared?"
"It's his camouflage, stupid. You're his teammate. You should know that," She corrected one of the members of Squad Salvia.
A claw blast manifested and hit the Ravewasp straight in the face. Realizing that Sky was invisible, the Beast split itself into three beings and began emitting eye beams in every direction. Eye beams reflected and bounced against surfaces but Sky remained invisible.
"He's getting to their centre. I guess he still has some of his senses left," Florian remarked, being able to track Sky's movements with his above average detection.
It reached the point where all three Beasts projected larger than normal eye beams simultaneously and that was the opportunity he had been waiting for.
He emerged, coming into sight and the instant he did, he rotated his body, activating the hammers and sucking the lasers into the vacuum his hurricane created. The Ravewasps attempted their loop attacks but they were caught up in the tornado he had built up.
"How is he able to combat against the Ravewasp? It's an entire level above him," A Researcher, one who was newer to the Heart compared to the others asked, adjusting his glasses as he observed the brawl.
Sky had gathered so many eye beams and hoops, it looked like the tornado was made of them. Meanwhile, the Ravewasp had fused back to one form, out of breath. The Noble smirked.
"Oh, that's an easy one," Ace answered. "Sky's had much better training from day one since he's a high ranking Noble. He's the second son of the Torrich's and he inherited their Power too."
"He's been trained in building up strategies on the fly. It's not all impulse he's riding on right now. He's thought of how to outsmart the Beast." He concluded his explanation, smiling and the other replied with an 'I see'.
"How do you like a taste of your own medicine!" Sky directed all the stored up attacks at his opponent, at a speed faster than the Beast could scatter itself. A large explosion occured as a result and a mix of smoke and dust filled up the area. The Torrich Prince awaited to see the fate of his opponent as his breathing grew heavier. It took an awful lot out of him to do what he had done. By now, the pheromone had completely worn off so he was back to his normal state.
"SKY, WATCH OUT!" Florian warned as his superior vision had caught something. Sky jumped away as the Beast had become a swarm of bees yet again but he was never the target.
Instead, the swarm buzzed towards the others and in one forceful motion, it destroyed the forcefield. Like before, the Energy User alerted everyone but one of them, who had been occupied couldn't react in time.
"AGHHHGHGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
All the unfortunate boy could do was shrill and howl in raw agony and torment as the swarm devoured the Force Soldier, feasting greedily on his body. Different limbs were munched on at the same time due to the sheer amount of them.
"No...!" Sky and Ace acted by throwing Claw Blasts and Energy Spheres but their attacks couldn't even connect with the bees shrinking further. The screams of the pain and cries for help horrendously died down as his teammates watched him being consumed until he was no more. "Damnit...!"
"How the hell did it shrink even more? What is that now, power number six?" Although Annie's words could have been taken as insensitive and inappropriate, her face gave away that she was truly mortified by what had happened.
"I-I-I don't know. It shouldn't be able to-" Nalia gasped in shock as the swarm moved higher and began to radiate a bright, blue hue. "Oh, no. It's levelling up!"
"What?!" Their eyes widened.
Ally who had been on the floor unconscious had suddenly awoken. "The effects have worn off!" Instantly, she got on her feet and mere moments later, so had Kent. They both looked at the increasing aura of blue energy above. They looked to the others and to their horror had spotted a skeleton on the ground.
Kent gave her a meaningful look and she replied with a nod. With their weapons in hand, they took to the sky. Ally slammed her hammer down while Kent thrusted his spear but bolts of energy collided against them and their attacks.
"Annie, I'm about to try something completely crazy that'll either kill us or save us. What do you say?"
Annie looked him straight in the eyes, and smirked. "Is that even a question? Let's do it."
Ace touched Florian's as well as two other Energy Users among the Researchers, temporarily borrowing a portion of their energy and adding it to his own. From head to toe, his body had attained the golden glow of it before he touched the Mage, surrounding her with it too.
Concurrently, they took to the air and the aura around them absorbed the bolt of lighting and they went past the blue halo.
"Swirl-filled HEAVENLY BLAZE!" Annie let out.