Then a groan, low and oddly familiar, sounded through the mist. Immediately after, a body streaked through the treeline with bone-rattling force. The attackers held their next steps to look.
Khalifa lifted her head, momentarily overcoming the stars brimming behind her vision.
Recognition struck immediately.
"Pluto–!"
He didn't respond. He was already moving.
The first attacker had barely took notice of Pluto's presence before Pluto closed the distance. The attacker raised his weapon, thrusting upwards in an attempt to impale Pluto's jaw. But Pluto had telegraphed the attack too easily.
He slipped to the side and drove the enemy's weapon upwards even faster, allowing it to graze just past his face. He narrowed his eyes, piercing his blade into his attacker's side before he could recover from the forced overshot. The man gasped agonisingly as Pluto ripped the blade from between the locks of his rib.
As he dropped to his knee, the others reacted, rushing towards him with caution and bluntness. But they quickly found themselves lacking.
Pluto moved through them gracefully, his blade flashing where his hands had supposedly not moved. His arcs were fluid, and his steps were never a single inch off.
One fell.
Then another.
Then the others got desperate.
Khalifa dragged her backwards, staring at him in awe. She was surprised at how far he had grown, not knowing that this cadence was temporary. She was also, and even more shocked, at the fact that he was helping them when they had previously tried to kill him.
Pluto was not invincible though. He still breathed raggedly. He still winced when an arrow cut past his shoulder and still grimaced when he caught a sword a bit too late into his side. Pain was slowly becoming a sensory organ and not a feeling anymore. It was just as present as his heartbeat, many more so.
But that didn't mean he was losing either. When the arrow grazed him, he winced but ignored it. When the sword caught his blood, he absorbed momentum and counter with deadlier offenses.
Just over a minute after his had rumbled in, only three attackers remained. They hurdled together quickly, not for formation but to hopefully be the luckier one and have a strike deflected by their comrade's head.
Pluto stopped fighting. He stood sternly for nothing but the fun of it. He could take them, but he found the bloodshed meaningless, especially when the rhino and its proxies were still coming. And especially when he had to take the beast down quickly, else, as he kept pushing himself, he would not only attract more beasts as the mark grew violent, he also risked losing the temporary boost and dealing with the consequences in the middle of battle, which certainly meant death.
"Leave," he said commandingly. The three hesitated for a bit as they noticed that the once quiet area was now singing with rustles. Signs that predators were near.
They retreated nonetheless, in panic and prioritization. Like they were never there, they faded into mist. Pluto stood focused until their heat signatures had blurred well enough.
Then he turned.
***
Khalifa was the first to speak.
"What's your incentive in doing this?" Her voice wasn't grateful or hostile, just confused.
Pluto looked at them both with cold eyes, almost burning away mist between them with his gaze.
"I need temporary help," his voice wasn't desperate, commanding if anything.
Ronan hated that. He stared back coldly, but was unable to match Pluto's intensity. "You sav... intervened for convenience? Couldn't you find help elsewhere?"
Pluto blinked disdainfully. Ronan had been unwilling to attest to the fact that they had been saved by him, but he wasn't going to point that out. He would play the game.
"I intervened because you're the people who are in sight," he said. "And because my need cannot wait for careful sourcing."
There was nothing to go by in his voice. No sense of urgency or threaded tension as he endured pain.
But his eyes were hasty, constantly glancing past them, measuring distance between them and what was coming.
Ronan noticed, and tension naturally built. "Why do you think we'd help you?" he asked evenly.
Pluto's gaze sharpened, angry at the impudent question. "Because you will," he answered calmly. "Or else you wouldn't be alive to regret not doing so."
Ronan's mouth twitched. He knew Pluto was right, but he had to sound reluctant. He opened his lips to speak, but Khalifa beat him to it.
"He's right," she said with a much clearer emotional pitch to her words. "We're already exhausted, and this is all that can buy use a little more time."
Ronan nodded. They were both in need, so why not help each other?
"Just to clarify, we aren't becoming friends or allies, just working together as a once off thing."
They nodded because they knew.
Pluto didn't waste anymore precious seconds. He moved around and removed the battle seeds, handing one each to the duo and took two for himself.
They absorbed them quickly, feeling their stance straighten out a bit. It wasn't much, but it was a quicker response time, even though by a second's fraction.
Pluto held the two seeds in his hands. The strain of his fighting ability was already setting in, and if he allowed it to sink, he would sink with it. Just before he pressed his hand around them, he decided to name his ability. Not much thought was put into it, but he just called it: Combat Class.
' Maybe I'll rename it later, who knows.'
He wrapped his fingers around them and felt a subtle burst of power. It was warmer, almost classifiable as hot. It fill the cracks he felt the Combat Class ability make, but widened them too.
He inhaled painfully. This had too end quickly, or it would end him.
Ronan flexed his fingers, feeling the tingling feeling flow through them.
"By the way... What are we fighting?" He asked, preoccupied with his fingers.
The words were the " action!" command on the forest. Because just as it left his throat, the forest exploded in motion.
Trees didn't creak, they splintered angrily. Mud shot up into a short wall.
The rhino barreled through the environment like it was stunt movie equipment –which was easy to break.
"THAT!" Pluto barked as he leapt out of the way.
The beast's horn ripped through air violently as it rammed from. Finding that Pluto and moved from its charge path, it angled mid-charge and headed for Ronan.
Leaving a blind spot. Combat Class ignited. Pluto didn't think about how he would exploit the opportunity, he just knew he would. He arced around the creature, stepping forward to the perfect center of its exposed flank. He was inwardly shocked at his exquisite timing.
Khalifa lifted both hands. Distortion crackled around her finger outline, then shot outwards with a speed almost equal to sound.
The rhino's charge thickened a bit. Pluto struck its side with his blade, drawing it across the hair thin seam that seemed to connect the plates of chitin together. The attack didn't do much but get a bellow in response. It still headed for Ronan.
But the distortion ability gave him grace. The charge that would have easily destroyed Ronan's hastily made staff struggled for a bit before snapping it in two, giving him a little time to tighten his insides for impact.
Pluto struck again, jarring his entire arm as he substituted precision for power. The damage was minimal and did do much to reduce the force of impact. Ronan streaked away, and that just left Pluto open for its attention.
The rhino's head swung at him, its side catching his stomach before he stepped back. The impact slammed him into the ground, donating the entirety of his back to mud to swallow.
Pain coursed through his being. He couldn't fight with force, he just needed to change trajectory.
He sprang up forcedly, feeling the mark blaze searingly. He caught the second attack before it gained enough velocity. He didn't stop it, his just pressed against it to redirect charge.
It stumbled and caught wood and vine, shattered them and almost tripping. Unfortunately, it still stood.
Pluto heart skipped a beat. No one noticed but his muscles. His output was unstable, but it was all that protected them for dying that instant.
The rhino turned and stared viciously. The other predators had returned and were no longer lunged wildly.
They were coordinated around the largest threat.
Pluto.
***
The corridor trembled, and Mira had expected it to fall, finally released her from her cage at nowhere's end.
She expected Pluto. She expected predators.
Instead she got a memory. A younger version of her stood there. Not entrant, child.
She didn't look at Mira, instead she stared at the florescent lights that gave the hospital hallway a sterile atmosphere.
Her grandmother mother was seated on her wheelchair placed by the rows of waiting seats, her hands clasped together.
Mira remembered the day. Remembered the doctor's slow walk. Delivering fatal news like a comment on the weather report.
Her grandmother had been silent. She had been still. She had been helpless.
The owl flaps behind her. It was quiet and was awfully knowing.
"This is what binds you," it said frankly.
***
The rhino charged again, unaffected by the barrage of attacks by the three of them.
The predators had joined the fray and made things way harder for them, Pluto especially. He played the role of arrowhead. Ronan and Khalifa were supports, albeit Khalifa was much less involved.
Minutes ticked down, and either they ended it now, or died in that same moment.
The forest held its breath, and watched eagerly as all the predators lunged at once.