54 Chapter Fifty-Four: Teamwork (2/2)

”Situation report” Holly says, ”these two seemed to have gotten stronger as time goes by. Taking them out has been a challenge”.

”I think I have an idea on why that is, actually” Rose says. ”Well, Satomi and Mikoto came up with the idea mostly”.

”Yeah, they seem to share the same mind and consciousness” Mikoto says, ”which would make sense that they aren't able to fight very well if the same mind is controlling ten people. However, with each once that dies, there is less that the one mind has to focus on”.

”If that's true” Holly says, ”then the one we really need to focus on is the one with the most potential power”.

Siran and Zia chase down Markwood as Markwood steals Paul's power as well. ”Well, shit” Alex says. ”This is getting worse and worse by the minute”.

”This means Zia and Siran's in the most trouble” Holly says.

”I'd love to go help them” Alex says, ”but we're a little tied at the moment”.

”Was it a bad idea to separate them after all?” Rose asks.

”That's a hard question” Holly says. ”On one hand, their teamwork will be tough to handle. On the other, every time some of us succeed, we make it harder for everyone else”.

”What should we do?” Rose asks.

”We'll need to band together” Holly says, ”and get all of them together too. We can't focus on James Markwood because the rest will take us out. If we continue like this, we risk suffering more casualties. If we want to keep as many alive for taking down the last one, we'll need to stay close to each other to make sure the rest aren't taken down”.

Rose waits for Garreth to charge at them and blinds him. While he's caught off guard, they gather Robin and run towards Vivi, Ruby and Tanya. When they meet up with Vivi, Ruby and Tanya, Ying gets pushed back by Kyle Ross. Kyle charges at Ying, but Ying had her baton ready. As Kyle got close, Ying swings at him and a whip of pure electricity comes out of the tip. The electricity immobilized Kyle for a second, and Ying retreated with the rest of the group. There was now Alex, Rose, Vivi, Holly, Satomi, Mikoto, Ying, Tanya, Ruby and Robin against Garreth, Skylar, John, Kyle and Tory.

”So, what's the plan?” Ying asks.

”Take them all out together” Alex says, ”then go support Siran”.

”Roger” Ying says.

As The Mages slowly approach, the rainfall slowly grows heavier. Tory ran up to the crew first, and as she ran Ruby held her right hand out. Raindrops seemed to stop and freeze at her finger tips. As Tory got close, Ruby threw the frozen raindrops and they pierced Tory's stomach like needles. Tory ignored the pain and continued to try and attack Ruby. Ruby dodges her punch, and kicks Tory in the stomach. The ice needles went all the way inside Tory's stomach.

”You're up!” Ruby yells at Ying.

Before Tory hits the ground, Ying presses her hand on the wounds on Tory's stomach. With a quick burst of electricity from elemental magic, Ying created a massive shock on Tory's stomach. As Ying lifted her hand, the shock was intensified by the rain, as well as the melting ice inside her stomach. Kyle attacked Ruby, but Holly blocked his distortion attack with a digital shield. As the shield shattered, Ruby hit him with a concussive wind blast that was amplified with reactive endo. Kyle flew into Satomi's bat, which snapped his spine in half. Kyle tried to get back up, but he was quickly finished by Rose. Garreth charged after Robin, but Robin dodged under Garreth's attack. Robin rolled under Garreth and kicked him into a distortion field that Robin had set up as he dodged. The distortion repelled Garreth back into Robin, and Robin hit Garreth with a distortion punch. Before Robin had a chance to finish him off, Skylar charged after Robin. Vivi pulled Robin out of the way and hit Skylar with a weapon that Skylar did not see coming. Vivi used a wrench to hit Skylar, and smacked him right on the forehead. John tried to rush behind Skylar, but he was shot down by Alex. When he fell on his back, Tanya grabbed him by the feet and threw him at Mikoto. Mikoto uppercut him with armament magic and sent him flying back at Tanya. Tanya then hit him with a right hook punch straight across the left cheek of his face. His head spun, and his neck broke.

”C-c-c-combo breaker!” Mikoto says.

Alex then rushes at Tory, who was about to charge at Ruby again. Tory dodges a blast from Alex's gun, but is struck with electricity from Ying again. With her head starting to get hazy from the continuous shocking, Tory found it hard to stand on her feet. Alex goes for a punch but Tory barely manages to dodge. Tory smiles at Alex as she prepares to counter attack. Suddenly, a beam from a gun goes through Tory's right knee. Then another through her left thigh, and another through her back. Several shots pierce through her body as she falls. Behind her, Vivi stood with her jacket open and several guns pointing out from under her jacket. As the crew wasn't looking, Markwood had already stolen John's endo. Before they had time to react, Markwood had picked up Tory's body, stolen her endo too and then threw her body back on the ground. It was now down to just Kyle, Skylar and Garreth left. Siran and Zia kept attacking Markwood. Markwood seemed to keep dodging and running away, and it was clear that Markwood had a plan. Garreth, Skylar and Kyle get their distance again and prepare for a counter attack. The rain grew even heavier and it was getting harder to see. As the crew stares at the last few Mages left, Garreth shows a creepy smile and laughs.