Chapter 8.

Shockwaves boomed and shook the ground and skies as the two battlers raged on. One was trying to ensure that no more survivors were to remain, while the other has an intention that is yet to be known.

Lincoln's eyes scanned back and forth throughout the battlefield. He had been having trouble with keeping up with those two since he had yet to master his senses. Which is something he doesn't know as of the moment.

"Oh man, what are we going to do now?" He asked, hand placed on his head.

"Is there even anything that we can do now?" One of the officers dropped on the ground, while bearing witness to a multitude of destruction in the trail of the two warriors.

"Maybe nothing, but we should stand guard here." Another advised.

"Sounds good," Zed agreed and held his weapon over his shoulder, "Lest that thing try something out."

For Zed, it was really hard not being on the frontline like he usually does. But with all these damages done on him, he thought he might stay away from engaging the leaders for a while before he could make it easy for the guys on the battle.

Most of the officers are devising a plan or were going back to the camp to see to the injured ones and keep a look out if backup's ready yet. Some were, looking stressed out, in a short moment, it seemed that their service was rendered completely useless. Maybe for them that's true, but with what they've done today, the two tag-along were grateful they stood by them.

Lincoln only wondered to himself about what could be done to at least provide help to the newcomer. At least he thought he was one. He is however, worried that the battles from here on now are going to be worse. Just this one alone, was already taxing for him.

"Hey, don't worry about it, kid." Zed walked up beside Lincoln, trying to ease up his mind. He too, had his own worries but for him, he prefers not to show it.

"Yeah. Let's just stand by." Lincoln sighed.

Their attention was then caught again when the fighting stopped, they all turned to see the two fighters staring down at each other.

Standing motionless, the warriors, red and green, stared down. It was only one move that sent them into this position. They had been broken off from the momentum that kept them going in battle.

The spectators watched on as silent befell the area. No one was making any movements, they all wanted to see how this would all play out from this moment onward.

This remained for a bit longer than any normal person could withstand, and it was taking a toll on the officers' mind. Yet no matter how badly they wanted to, they just couldn't bring themselves to move.

Lincoln's curiosity was slowly turning into a sense of dread, as if something bad was going to turn out from all of this.

Zed kept eyeing the two, hoping greatly for one of them to make a move. He knew it was risky, but he thought at least the green warrior should go for it first.

Breaking the silence was the red fiend, it raised a hand and from it, a dark cloud of energy began emanating from it. It covered a large area around it and the fighter before it. The mist-like energy began forming a humanoid shape, which then fully materializes as the creatures that gave them some trouble some time ago. They had been created in large amounts, slightly higher than the number they first appeared in.

"What?" Lincoln said, backing off slightly, shocked at this turn of events.

"Alright, that's the thing that's leading this attack." Zed thought to himself, slightly relieved having known the bastard that led the first attack.

"No, no… This can't be…" One of the officers was terrified.

"There's still more?"

The green warrior went to intercept before they could be given an order to attack, but that proved to be a challenge when he was facing obstruction in the form of the red-armored creature.

He had been prevented from disposing the footmen and that resulted in him getting several free strikes on his body. He tried to fight back, but having been dazed by the surprise attack, he was held in a headlock that he was struggling to break free from.

Pointing its' hand towards the small group in the distance, the creatures obeyed their creators and ran off with a cacophony of screeches.

"Oh shoot, here we go!" Zed shouted, holding his baton using the secondary handle while he rested his forearm on the long end.

"Alright now! Get ready to open fire!" An officer commanded.

"Just do it like before, and you'll be alright." Lincoln said to himself, hopping up and down to warm himself up for the next battle.

The officers fired when a few of their opponents leaped towards them. The bullets managed to tag some, but it only left small marks on the creatures' body.

Lincoln rushed forward to help out with the fight, he ran through some of them and into the larger crowd and from there, he ducked under a punch which got to one of their allies and pushed it away from him. He held up his hand to block an incoming swing from the side. Another one came and this time, he jumped away from it, leaving several of those creatures exposed to the strike. He was grabbed by the arm and tried to break free from it by attempting to throw a punch but his fist was grabbed and so too were his legs. He was in quite a pinch now, and one of them jumped up and tried to land on the boy.

Luckily, he was saved just in time when a nightstick was thrown at the high flier. Zed had just joined in with the brawl and was taking on several of them at once. This turned out to be much harder than he intended it to be, he had to constantly keep tracks on the creatures to prevent them from taking him by surprise, which he had fallen victim to quite a few times by now.

Using the opportunity given, Lincoln forcefully smacked the face of one of them with a backhand to let go of his fist. With that free, he threw a punch to his side and landed a hit on the one holding his other arm. He grabbed the first one and threw it towards the crowd in front and did the same to the other by throwing it to his back, then it was clear enough for him to quickly push his legs together, smacking the heads of the last two. Jumping away from them, he placed a fist in front of the belt and charged it up again. The moment the duo got back up, he jumped forward and got in front of them and swiped his hand to the side, launching the two with explosive force towards the group swarming Zed, giving him room to breathe.

The two were now gaining the upper hand in the battle, and not one of them managed to get past even the officers. They were wrong.

A scream from back at the camp had everyone shift their focus there. However, this was much more worrying for the young fighter.

"Wait, those voice!" He was beginning to sweat, he quickly pushed away the crowd in front of him and tried to get to the other side as quickly as possible. The nerves those creatures had to take his sisters hostage.

From the now tattered camp, came two of those vile beasts. Lincoln had gotten close enough to see, and what he saw in their hands, were 4 of his sisters. The twins, Luna, and Leni.

"Let us go!" Luna growled, trying to break free of the creature's hold, with disappointing results. Their hits weren't even enough to cause an itch, if they could feel that.

They were then set on the ground, kneeling. The two creatures that were sent for this joined their pointer and middle fingers together and extended them into one long talon on both hands. Using their new weapons, the held it by the back of the sisters' neck.

Luna kept her eyes shut, fearful of what the outcome might be for them all, and the other 3 were on the verge of crying. This sight made Lincoln's blood boil, he screamed and shouted, trying to get past the wall of strange creatures so he could get to his sisters.

Before even a small part of their skin was to be scratched, the creatures went limp. They looked behind them was a tall figure, fist extended past where the creatures' heads were once situated at. Rushing to their aid was the green warrior, who had taken quite the risk in coming to save them. Far too great of a risk.

From behind, an elbow struck Lincoln at the back of his head. It wasn't enough to make his head explode like what happened to the goons but his vision was blurring. His mind hazy, limbs going weak. He collapsed onto the ground with muffled shouting from his allies.

Then, everything turned black.

Screams, shouts, and the booms of shockwaves. All these sounds that happens in the battlefield flooded Lincoln's ears. But his body was far too numb to feel anything at the moment. Though, this stinging sensation is really starting to feel annoying. Strange, it does feel familiar to him however. Probably because it's more like receiving light electrocution all around his body. Looks like the belt isn't done yet.

He forcefully pried open his eyes and tried to adjust his eyes to the blurry image before him. He let out a small groan as he attempted to move his limbs. His eyes slowly moved to another location. Fortunately, it finally began adjusting itself to give him a better focus on things.

Right in front of him by several feet, laid his teacher, Zed Abraham. He wasn't unconscious, but his injuries were far too serious to ignore. Right beside him, were the 6 officers, they weren't hurt as bad as Zed. However, they're not like that man, they are but humans. The staff-like weapon too was used to hold them in place, apparently the apparatus was actually far too heavy to lift even with the strength of several men.

Beside him were his 4 sisters, who as of yet, are oblivious to the fact that their only brother has been on the frontlines ever since chaos came to the shelter. They were huddled up together. That's all that went through Lincoln's mind. They were afraid, and he knew that. He never should have allowed this to happen.

Right after he thought of that, he felt a painful jolt of electricity coursing through his body. He wanted to scream in response, but didn't. Or rather, couldn't.

In his mind were thoughts very similar to the one from before he donned the belt. He was getting scolded at again.

"But I can't." He thought to himself when the belt demanded that he get up again.

Another round of electric shock managed to give him a bit more of a push from death, but still not enough to get him back on his feet.

"What exactly do you want from me? I tried all I could, but I can't win this."

The belt was not having any of this. He knew exactly what it needed from him, exactly what to do, and exactly what he should be fighting for.

"You're basically torturing me." Lincoln quietly said to himself, which seemed to get the belt to stop electrocuting him.

Instead of replying with another shock, it gave him its' answer, a series of harmonic tunes that played in his mind. That was its' way of calming down, and a way for it to get Lincoln back on his feet.

"I appreciate your efforts but…" His thoughts trailed off from there, he had just remembered something.

He averted his gaze again towards his sisters, they're not just afraid, they're terrified. Not only were they stuck in this, they also didn't know where their brother was. This led them to assume the worst.

Mustering every ounce of strength he had left, he weakly pushed himself off the ground. His action was responded to with loud screeching from the creatures that were surrounding them.

Those screeching, got the red-armored fiend's attention, it had been superior throughout its' fight against the only opponent it was facing against. This undoubtedly gave it an advantage over its' opponent and left its' current fight and walk towards the boy.

Leni and Luna gasped when they saw the one thing that's caused much suffering in the span of several hours heading towards them. Or, more specifically, their brother.

A backhand pushed Lincoln off his hands and got him back to his feet, he was now the main target of the monster.

Blows after blows, the red-armored creature continued to strike at the young warrior. Lincoln was lucky to even stay conscious after all that. He had received countless and relentless punishments from the demon that threatens the lives of everyone in the town.

As much as he wished for it, the green warrior could not be of any help right now. He could barely get himself to stand up, let alone fight back the groups of henchmen that came to stall him. Quite possibly too, kill him.

Before another punch could land on Lincoln's face, he surprised the dastardly creature by catching its' fist just before it hit him. That alone required a lot of focus for him to do.

"No…" He weakly said, tightly holding on to the fist.

The armored creature struck Lincoln repeatedly on the side of his head, in an effort to make him let go if its' hand. But the boy stood his ground. "This ends now…" He attempted to push back the leader of these strange creatures, "I'm not gonna let you do as you please anymore…"

Due to shock, the vile beast was pushed back. It quickly planted its' firmly feet onto the ground and the boy's strength no longer meant anything.

"I have a family to come back to…. And they'll be waiting for me!" He gathered enough of his voice to shout.

From afar, the green warrior heard that, being what he is allowed him to listen to voices even from a good amount of distance. He understood that, the boy's desires, he had it too. It helped him just enough to gather what's left of his energy and boost them to a level high enough for him to overcome the weakened creature's power. Using his speed, he quickly dispatched many of the creatures that were holding him down. He wanted to help more than ever now, he didn't want any terrible fate to befall the young warrior.

No longer tolerating the boy's persistence, the beast raised another fist, ready to put an end to this. Its' wish to do so never realized itself, from behind it, the green warrior had grabbed its' fist.

Lincoln was surprised at this, he looked at the man once more and saw a nod coming from him.

"Go ahead," He spoke up after being silent since his first appearance, it was rather raspy, presumably from all the damage he received. "Like you said, you have a family to go back to."

And the boy understood, he let go of the creature's arm and the green warrior turned it around so he could deliver a punch to its' guts. It backed away in pain and was given a kick to the head.

The green warrior wanted to make quick work of it. So he tackled the creature and brought them both back into the town, not before making a quick detour to pick up the staff that was holding down the officers. He pushed away the beast to give himself a breathing space, then, he slid his hands outwards to both ends of the staff. The weapon then was covered in a blue light, and when it disappeared, it took on a more refined look. It looked like a normal golden rod but with blue linings along the body. It did look shorter than before, fixed when it extended from both ends.

Delivering multiple deadly blows onto the creature, the green warrior now prepares himself for the finishing move. He set his legs apart and held the staff parallel to his shoulders. The moment it regained its' composure, he sped off towards it.

With one powerful swing, he lodged the staff on the monster's chestplate. Energy began building up violently inside its' body, green lights were being projected from its' limbs. This resulted in a large explosion that engulfed not only the two of them, but also several buildings in their proximity.

The spectators all gasped at the sight, except for Zed, who had just gotten back up and was just in time to witness the end of the battle.

" !" Lincoln happily exclaimed when he finally noticed his teacher standing beside him.

"Mr. Zed!" The girls too were quite happy about this. Not even wondering how the orange-suited fighter knew of the man's name.

"Wait, is he going to be alright?" Asked the boy, the teacher replied by pointing back at the epicenter.

In the middle of the explosion, a lone figure proudly stood. His suit and armor were damaged, yet his scarf miraculously survived the onslaught and the explosion.

Covering himself in a green light, the man reappeared in his true form. He was at least as tall as Zed, his hair too was just as messy, being only auburn in color and not a darker shade. He lifted his head to see the people staring at him. The officers too had joined up with them after recovering from their injuries. Thinking of greeting them, he did so, and walked forward.

"Who are you?" Luna asked first.

"The name's Oswald," The man answered, "Oswald Kresten."

"Nice to see you again." Zed smiled, surprising everyone present.

Chapter End.

Right, that was it, this is so far, the only chapter that I had to fully rewrite due to how disappointing the first version was. Sorry that it was unnecessarily long. And perhaps, a bit repetitive around the middle and the end.

Also update, I will be stopping after chapter 9. Putting it on hiatus right now would feel far too weird since there is no proper closure.

Again, sorry for changing the placements of paragraphs. I just thought it looked strange and it felt off-putting so I made a little bit of adjustment. The chapters following this one will continue doing it like this. Should I happen to forget doing so, I'd like to apologize in advance.