“Chaos Cannon! Chaos Cannon!”

Two purple projectiles rocketed out of Phoenix’s outstretched hand, flying through the air at the speed of sound to impact and shatter the stone construct that the Bleeder Geotechnic was hiding behind. As the shattered rocks began falling around them, the Geotechnic seized control and then launched the debris through the air toward Phoenix like a rocky shotgun. The pellets ricocheted off of the translucent purple armor encasing Phoenix’s body, but the force from the blow staggered her nonetheless, allowing the Geotechnic to craft two massive spears out of stone and charge toward her.

However, their charge was soon slowed by the appearance of strong winds, giving Phoenix enough time to recover and shout “Chaos Impact” to launch the Geotechnic back. As they tumbled along the ground, Kestrel swooped down to gather the Bleeder in a cushion of air and then slam them into a nearby wall, followed swiftly by Phoenix calling out “Chaos Impact!” once more. Before the wall of force could impact the Geotechnic, however, they had manipulated the stone wall to launch themselves away from it — only to be suddenly grabbed by Spike, who slammed the Bleeder against the wall again just hard enough to knock them out.

“Thanks!” Phoenix shouted in acknowledgment, but had little time to say more as a sudden blow to her chest rocketed her down the street. While her Chaos Armor protected her, she nonetheless was sent tumbling painfully, barely able to recover as she spotted the Bleeder Velocitechnic appear above her… and Pierce show up a mere split-second later, his foot slamming into the Bleeder’s back to launch them away from Phoenix. Without even speaking a word to each other, Pierce reached down to grab Phoenix’s hand and yanked her to her feet, at which point he sped off again in pursuit of the Bleeder Velocitechnic while Phoenix turned back toward the rest of the street.

Despite the simplicity of Relia’s plan to gather the Bleeders in one spot, the Keys, Mark, and Relia had had little luck in actually carrying out the plan. The fight remained largely contained to the same street in which it had started — a street that was now scarred, cracked, and aflame from the attacks of Chaotics — but Phoenix had stopped hearing shouts from confused citizens for quite some time now. I’ll just hope that means that everyone managed to evacuate…she thought bitterly. It’s good that the fight hasn’t moved much, but I don’t know how much more of this we can handle—!

Her thoughts were interrupted by a wave of flames rolling her way. Quickly refocusing on the battle, Phoenix turned on her heel and dashed the other way, just as Sky rocketed over her head and seized control of the moving flames for just the second she needed to wink them out of existence. The two Bleeder Pyrotechnics that were now exposed in the lack of their flames soon turned their attentions toward Sky, lashing out with gouts and whips of flames that Sky just barely managed to evade through a series of panicked yet well-timed blasts of fire under her hands and feet. Sky’s defensive stance created an opening that Spike immediately seized upon, taking advantage of the Bleeder Pyrotechnics’ diverted focus to charge straight at them. They soon noticed his approach, and one of them began to shift their attention to face him, at which point he fabricated a large shield to protect him from any incoming flames.

Instead of flames, however, Spike found himself blasted backward by a thundering lightning strike. Sky immediately flew down to him, both to check on him and take cover behind his shield as the Bleeder Electrotechnic ran up to their Pyrotechnic comrades while firing another lightning strike at Spike and Sky. The strike blasted the shield out of Sky’s hands and slammed her against the building to her side, where she let out a pained yelp before collapsing in a pile on the ground. Before the Electrotechnic could follow up with another strike, Spike had lunged in front of Sky’s body with another fabricated shield to protect them — though he was forced to repeatedly fabricate shield after shield as the Bleeder Electrotechnic simply blasted them to pieces, and the two Pyrotechnics locked Spike down with their searing flames.

That is, until Mark slammed into the ground just behind the Electrotechnic, bringing his halberd around in a giant swing in an attempt to floor the three Bleeders. All three barely managed to dodge out of the way of his blade, with the Electrotechnic releasing a burst of shocking electricity that flung Mark’s weapon out of his grasp. Undeterred, he simply lunged forward, his hands outstretched in an attempt to grab two of the Bleeders. The Pyrotechnics managed to distance themselves with blasts of fire, and the Electrotechnic narrowly dodged around Mark’s hand — only to fall into Spike’s waiting grasp, who had eagerly rejoined the battle after covering Sky’s unconscious form with a handful of shields.

Before Spike could do anything else, however, the Electrotechnic channeled a fierce level of voltage through their body to give him a painful shock and force him away, at which point the Bleeder attempted to dash away from Mark and Spike. A mere two steps into their dash, however, Austin swooped down from above and tagged the Bleeder in the back, at which point he alighted on the ground and attempted to freeze the Electrotechnic’s movements with his Imperator powers. Indeed, the Electrotechnic froze in place, allowing Spike to lunge for them — but Austin was unable to prevent them from generating another blast of powerful electricity, halting Spike in his tracks and blasting Austin across the street. While Spike continued attempting to press the attack against the Electrotechinc, and Mark pursued one of the Pyrotechnics, the other managed to escape the both of them to go after Austin, their flames closing in on him from every direction.

However, in moving to attack Austin, the Pyrotechnic had closed to within his Simulation radius — thereby granting him a Pyrotechnic-level of resistance to heat and flames. As he simply ignored the fire around him, Austin lunged toward the Pyrotechnic, summoning his claymore into his hands to swing it toward his opponent. The Bleeder quickly moved to evade, but Austin’s blade closed on them too quickly — so quickly, in fact, that Austin fumbled his balance and stumbled to the side. What the—? Oh, fuck, I swung too hard! He momentarily glanced at his massive biceps as he put a couple meters between himself and the Pyrotechnic. I haven’t had a chance to get used to this strength yet, damn—!

Mid-thought, a fierce blow to his side launched Austin through the air down the street, where he came tumbling painfully to the ground. He was quickly able to jump back to his feet, however, at which point he noticed Pierce standing near him with an impatient look on his face — followed immediately by the Bleeder Velocitechnic dashing toward them. Austin quickly realized that the Bleeder must have been the one to kick him down the street, and made to dive out of the way of the Velocitechnic as Pierce lunged forward to intercept them, bringing his foot around to kick the Bleeder’s side and blast them into the buildings across the street. Not to be shown up, Austin quickly ran after the Bleeder to try and knock them out, but the Velocitechnic had already recovered and leaped back to their feet.

While Austin was close enough to simulate the Bleeder’s increased speed and reflexes, his overall unfamiliarity with the sensation of superspeed still allowed the Velocitechnic to attack faster than he could react and launch him down the street again, back to the rest of the battle. This time, Austin felt a cushion of air break his fall and deposit him back on his feet, all while Spike moved to shield him from rolling flames — but before Austin could truly regain his bearings, a streak of lightning from his left struck his side and blasted him into a nearby building. As he was just barely close enough to Spike to simulate his increased durability at the moment of the lightning strike, Austin narrowly escaped a quick death by electrocution — but slamming into the wall was enough to take him out, leaving him to drop to the ground much like Sky a minute prior.

“…Raaaagh!! Damn it! YOU!!” Spike roared, his focus honing in on the Bleeder Electrotechnic as he charged straight at them. The Bleeder struck him twice with lightning — and the Bleeder Pyrotechnics attempted to stall his charge with flames — but he ignored both the voltage and the heat as he ran forward with a narrow-minded focus. Mark quickly stepped in to distract the Pyrotechnics, leaving the Electrotechnic alone to deal with Spike… to which the Bleeder responded by attempting to put distance between themselves and the charging Forcetechnic, all while continuing to blast him with lightning strike after lightning strike. Before they could move far, however, Phoenix intercepted them, carried by Kestrel’s winds as she shouted out “Chaos Impact” to stun the Electrotechnic and halt their retreat. Kestrel then suspended the Bleeder in the air with fierce winds, also taking the opportunity to trap the two Pyrotechnics while Spike closed to within a meter of the Electrotechnic, his right arm drawn back in preparation to deliver a devastating punch.

But before his fist could connect, the Bleeder Aerotechnic swooped in to blast Kestrel away with a gust of wind and then take over the air cushions that trapped the other three Bleeders. Mark immediately leaped into the air, the superstrength in his legs allowing him to quickly close the aerial distance between himself and the Aerotechnic, only for the Bleeder Velocitechnic to intercept him mid-air and spike him back to the ground. Pierce appeared an instant later to spike the Velocitechnic in much the same manner, forcing the Bleeder into a haphazard roll across the ground that Spike attempted to stop, but was prevented from doing so by the Bleeder Aerotechnic sweeping the Velocitechnic back to his feet and allowing him to dash off.

As Pierce ran off after the Velocitechnic again and Spike whipped around to glare at the Electrotechnic, Mark quickly turned his attention back to the Aerotechnic — just in time to see Relia rocket through the air and slam into the Bleeder, launching them down the street and into one of the adjacent buildings. Having defeated and killed the Bleeder Transtechnic entirely on her own, Relia was now free to take part in the greater fight, which she did with high speed as she took advantage of her Overdrive to wordlessly invoke Chaos Slam, sending her careening through the air straight toward the Bleeder Aerotechnic once more. The Aerotechnic barely managed to create a cushion of air before Relia slammed into them, with Relia shielded from the forces of the impact by pure virtue of being the one to invoke it, and Aerotechnic shielded by their haphazard wind cushion.

Immediately, the Bleeder took to the air, almost disappearing into the nighttime skies — but Relia instantly appeared in the air above them, having wordlessly invoked Chaos Teleport before reaching her hand down and toward the Aerotechnic. “Chaos Impact,” she muttered, creating a wall of nigh-invisible force that impacted the Bleeder and flung them groundward. Just before they hit the ground, the Bleeder managed to slow their descent with more aerial manipulation, and then surrounded themselves in another air cushion just in time to shield against Relia using Chaos Slam again. On the rebound from her deflected attack, Relia merely pursed her lips before quickly stretching her right hand to her right, and then skyward, and then to her left, each time calling out, “Chaos Arrow.” Each time she uttered the words, an arrow constructed of purple energy shot out of her fingertips before curving through the air toward the Aerotechnic, resulting in three arrows converging on the Bleeder’s location from three different directions: the left, right, and up.

With only one way to dodge, the Aerotechnic lunged backwards — but with their attention divided between Relia’s arrows and Relia herself, the Bleeder was left open, and Relia immediately seized on that opening. One wordless invocation of Chaos Slam later, and Relia had slammed into the Bleeder to launch them down the street toward the main battle, with her Chaos Arrows still in pursuit. The Aerotechnic attempted to recover, but soon found themselves about to fall into the middle of the shocking dispute between Spike and the Electrotechnic. In attempting to dodge around the flying lightning, the Aerotechnic was unable to evade Relia’s Arrows, each of them finding their mark on the Bleeder’s body and piercing through their left arm, lower torso, and right leg. With a yelp of pain, the Bleeder collapsed to one knee… only for Relia to suddenly appear next to them with her right palm held down and at their head. “Chaos Impact,” she muttered, mercilessly slamming the Bleeder to the ground with enough force to kill them in an instant.

Now that the Bleeder Aerotechnic was out of commission, Relia teleported out of the way of the ongoing fighting and to the roof of a nearby building. “Hey, you!” she shouted, her attention on Kestrel, “Aerotechnic! Your Bleeder counterpart is down. Grab the rest!”

Kestrel passed Relia a wordless glance, and then looked downward, at the unmoving body of the Bleeder Aerotechnic. A second later, she shot up into the air before manipulating the winds around the still-standing Electrotechnic and the two Pyrotechnics, holding all three aloft and rendering them unable to move.

“Chaos Armor,” Phoenix declared to renew the purple material covering her body, and then shouted, “Pierce, wherever the hell you are, it’s time to—!”

Before she could finish her thought, the Bleeder Velocitechnic appeared in the air over the other three Bleeders, as if launched there by some massive blow. Kestrel quickly caught them with a cushion of air, grouping the four close together and just a few meters off of the ground. The Electrotechnic and both Pyrotechnics quickly attempted to down Kestrel, firing lightning strikes and fireballs alike at her, but Spike managed to intercept all of them with thrown shields — giving Relia enough time to teleport just above one of the Pyrotechnics and use their floating form as a platform to stand on. Before the Pyrotechnic could react, she muttered, “Chaos Negation.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the winds holding the Bleeders aloft ceased, as did the fireballs and lightning strikes. Immediately, the four fell to the ground below, with Relia using the Pyrotechnic she was standing on to break her fall. She immediately jumped away to make some distance, but remained close enough to the Bleeders to keep all of them within the range of negated Chaos Energy that she had just created. And then, as the four began to recover, Mark bounded onto the scene and dealt knockout blows to all four, laying them out flat and unconscious — and finally bringing an end to the chaotic battle that had consumed the street.

“Alright!” Pierce remarked, having just appeared next to Phoenix as he watched the conclusion of the fight. “That’s some teamwork, huh?”

“I guess it worked out in the end,” Mark commented, looking down at the unconscious Bleeders at his feet before shifting his gaze to the side — where both Austin and Sky laid unconscious, as well. “…But things could have gone a lot worse.”

“I’ll fuckin’ say…” Spike muttered with a scowl as he knelt down next to his friends. With two fingers, he quickly checked their pulses before standing up and turning to face the rest of the group. “They ain’t dead, but…”

“This is why you should’ve listened to Ralak,” Relia cut in, an impatient expression upon her face. “You aren’t skilled or experienced enough to handle this kinda fight. You should’ve left it to me and Mark.”

“There’s that ungrateful attitude, again,” Phoenix replied with a roll of her eyes.

“Yeah, you can’t be fucking serious,” Pierce retorted. “We helped out here a ton! Don’t tell me the two of you wanted to fight, what, eight Chaotics? All on your own?!”

“I’ve handled worse,” Relia insisted.

“And honestly, so have I,” Mark added. He turned to face Spike, Phoenix, and Pierce, as well as Kestrel, who had just alighted next to them; while he didn’t wear impatience or frustration on his face in the same way that Relia did, it was still clear that Mark felt distressed about the situation. “Look… I realize that you all wanted to help, but the reality is, you all could very well have died here. A fight like this between Chaotics, with no one wearing any energy shielding, is incredibly dangerous. Did you even think about that before joining the fight?”

Pierce and Phoenix shared an uneasy glance, while Spike responded with a dissatisfied grunt. Kestrel eyed the other three with a blank look on her face, and then perked up and shifted her attention to the left as Liask landed on the ground with a roll. Obra followed soon after, creating a series of translucent barriers in the air like stairs to descend to the street.

“And what are you two doin’ here?” Relia questioned, her hands on her hips as she fixed Liask and Obra with a stare.

“If you were coming to join the fight, you’re a little late,” Pierce remarked, though his tone was somewhat deflated compared to earlier.

“No, that’s not it,” Liask replied, her head whipping back and forth to look down both directions of the street. She then focused on the pile of unconscious Bleeders before saying, “it’s just — well, I thought it’d be a long shot, but…”

“Cut to the chase,” Obra interjected, and then turned to face Relia directly. “We can’t find Minilas — one of our friends. She just disappeared.”

“One of your friends is missing?” Mark echoed in alarm. “You mean the girl I saw you with earlier, with the long black hair? She isn’t here…”

“Damn it, someone else ran off? Just what the hell is Davídrius teachin’ y’all…” Relia shook her head in disbelief.

“Minilas isn’t the kind to just run off, though,” Liask insisted. “I thought y’all might know somethin’, since you were fightin’ the Bleeders, and this all happened around the same time that these Bleeders attacked, but…”

“Alright, alright, I’ll do what I can,” Relia replied, and released a wary sigh. She then turned toward Mark. “Hey… Mark, right? Can you get these Bleeders together and tied up? I’ll go look for this missing friend of theirs.”

“Don’t worry, I can handle things here,” Mark commented.

“What about us? We can help—!” Pierce started, but Relia quickly cut him off.

“No, you’ve helped plenty enough,” she countered. “I’ll acknowledge that you did help here, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re in over your heads. Just go back to the school — Mark and I can handle the rest from here.” Then, without waiting for any kind of response, she simply disappeared into thin air.

“…Hmph.” Pierce snorted as he glared at where Relia had been standing a moment prior.

“It’s frustratin’… but she’s got a point,” Spike pointed out, reaching down to grab and hoist both Austin and Sky onto his shoulders before turning toward the rest of the group. “At the very least, we gotta make sure that Austin and Sky are alright.”

“Spike’s right. They might be concussed, or worse,” Mark pointed out. “You need to get medical attention for them ASAP.”

“And don’t think that we don’t wanna help, either,” Obra declared, his attention focused on Pierce. “It’s our friend who’s missin’! But we also know our limits.”

“Alright, alright, I get the fucking point, already,” Pierce shot back, already turning around to face in the direction of the WCU campus. “Let’s just get going. Damn… some fucking holiday this has turned out to be, huh?”