117 Deals (1/2)
Tai looked at Ed and Carlos. ”I'll be the main fighter. You two just support me whenever you can. Remember, our only goal is to delay. No need to take any risks.” The red flame dragon underneath his feet flew forward, the President's pressure not affecting it or Tai at all.
”Ah, if it isn't the foreigner from a few years ago.” The President grinned. ”Still haven't made any progress I'm guessing? Well, at least your body looks stronger from your time in the cage.”
”Humph.” Tai snorted. ”As if I was serious the last time we fought.” Seven streams of flame swirled out from his body, quickly forming into seven dragons of seven different colors.
”Oh?” The President nodded. ”It seems you really did progress since our last fight. If I recall correctly, you only used three paths back then.”
”Naturally, I was holding back on purpose.” Tai smiled. ”And as a result of that, the cage has had its first successful prison break in history. I'm sure this will be quite the embarrassment for America once the international community finds out.”
The President chuckled. ”As if I care about anything they have to say. If they were capable of surpassing America, then they would've done it a long time ago.” He pointed forward, causing thousands of black threads to snake outwards. ”Let's get this over with. If the paths are all you have, then you're no more a match for me than you were the last time we fought.”
”We'll see about that!” Tai pointed his fan forward. ”Go!” The seven flame dragons moved up and down through the skies as they travelled forward.
The Presidents threads rapidly swirled together, forming seven black spikes, each of which stabbed into a flame dragon. Multiple explosions rang out as the dragons blew apart, spreading various types of flames as they did so.
'Interesting.' Ed thought as he watched. The red flame dragon had only released ordinary fire upon blowing up, but the others were all different. The silver flame dragon released sparks of electricity within the fire, much like how Ed's own silver fire worked. Even though the blue flame dragon looked like extremely hot blue fire, it had exploded into thousands of ice shards. The yellow flame dragon had exploded into a yellowish lava-like substance that hardened into earth as it fell from the skies. The green flame dragon had released strong waves of green fire, likely due to the wind feeding the flames. The black flames were as expected, corroding everything they touched. Lastly was the white flame dragon, which was nearly invisible to the naked eye. Its light had directly annihilated hundreds of the President's threads upon blowing apart.
”Tai!” Carlos yelled while creating large amounts of green wind. ”Use the white flames and I'll feed it!”
”Right.” Tai agreed as he waved his fan, creating seven white flame dragons. As they flew forward, Carlos green wind fed into them, drastically increasing their size. They then flew closer together, fusing into a single large white flame dragon. It was nearly the size of a football field and radiated so much heat that even the espers on the ground could feel it.
”DIE!” Tai shouted as the dragon surged forward.
”Child's play.” The President smirked as his black threads weaved together into cloth and turned golden in color. His golden cloth quickly wrapped around the white flame dragon, completely blocking it off from the outside world. A brief moment later, it unwrapped, and the flames were nowhere to be seen.
”My mana?!” Tai yelled in shock. ”What the hell did you do to it?!”
”Simple.” The president shrugged. ”I've just sent it somewhere else.”
'Tsk.' Ed clicked his tongue as he watched. 'Hardly anything I can do to help without my mana-batteries. Tai's silver flames weren't effective, so mine won't be either. The purple flames are weaker than the silver flames... what can I do to help?' He looked around the battlefield, eyeing various conflicts going on. Espers on both sides were dying in hordes, and it was made worse due to the prisoners frequently retreating. He spotted the mana-shells and cannons on the walls. 'Maybe use those...? No, won't be strong enough.' He shook his head and kept looking. Suddenly, he spotted what he was looking for and smiled. 'Perfect!' He began flying away from the battle.
”Ed?!” Tai called as he watched him leave the battle. ”Damn! Carlos, it looks like it's just you and me now.”
”Right.” Carlos nodded as he shot red wind towards the enemy. Unfortunately, it couldn't make it past the President's threads or cloths.
Ed landed in front of the mech tank he had created in the past. The pilot was currently shooting fire towards hordes of espers that couldn't break through the hull. ”HEY!” He yelled towards it. ”I'll be taking back some of my belongings if you don't mind!” Purple flames lit up on his hands and he shoved them into one of the mech's arms.
”What are you doing?!” A feminine voice yelled in panic from the mech tank's speakers. She shook the mech's arm back-and-forth, trying to shake Ed off of it.
'There we go.' Ed grinned as he reached into the mech's arm. He pulled out five fire mana-batteries and shoved them into his pocket. 'Ah, I'll probably need some manullium too.' He melted a few manullium ingots from the arm to take as well. Then he let go of the mech and flew towards the other arm, repeating the process of collecting mana-batteries and manullium ingots. ”Thanks!” He waved as he flew away from the mech, having taken all ten of its fire mana-batteries.
”DAMN IT!” The pilot screamed. She now had to face the horde of espers while having close to zero attack capabilities, only being able to swing the mech's arms forward at best.
'Now for the cannon.' He flew towards the wall, which was now deserted of espers. Multiple steam cannons were set up along the wall, but none of them were particularly powerful. 'Man, I miss my rail gun.' He sighed while shaking his head. 'I'll just have to make do with what I have...'
He began collecting the cannons and mana-shells, moving them together atop a tower which was built into the wall. Then he melted the cannons into raw materials to create a much larger and longer cannon. He lined the insides of the cannon with a layer of manullium using the ingots he had taken from the mech. 'Almost done.' He smiled. 'Unfortunately, steam power isn't going to be strong enough. The flying bastard would definitely dodge it at that speed.'
Ed began taking apart the various mana-shells, extracting piles of mana-powders from each one. Soon, he had a pile of seven elemental mana-powder nearly as big as his head. He sealed the powder into a thick steel shell and loaded it into the cannon. He carefully aimed the cannon towards the President in the sky. 'Now for the final step.' He opened the back of the cannon, shoved the ten fire mana-batteries inside, and hurriedly slammed the back of the cannon shut.
Upon coming in contact with the manullium inside of the cannon, the mana-batteries began glowing red. Almost instantly, they released their full power. With only one exit available, all of the power concentrated towards a single direction, pushing the heavy steel shell as it went.