Lalima's form glowed a bright blue outline.
Viper gasped at the defined lines.
Was she focusing her Flames on her skin?!
Viper themself had too abundant and too dense Flames, which made the already difficult task of compressing and controlling Flames completely impossible, every attempt without any medium had always resulted into an outburst.
But for her to- wait. No.
She was channelling her Flames through her clothes.
Viper had never heard of a fabric for channelling, much less able to bear such purity without breaking immediately. It was obvious who would be responsible for that.
The Mist pouted. They could use something like that too.
She redirected the next punch, sticking close to him to presumably not let him gain momentum as she waved off his limbs, cancelling the force. But the hits that connected, few and far they were, had her visibly gritting her teeth. She had a handgun, trying to put a bullet in his head from such close quarters, each one coated with enough Rain to maybe penetrate the Storm, though it had yet to glance him as he dodged every one.
It was obvious that he was stronger, faster, and more skilled but somehow...
Viper felt compelled to physically applaud Lal.
Storm Flames burned through the ground even as the two kicked through it. Lalima backflipped away and then propelled herself again, jumping over -on- his arm to reach at his head.
A whirlwind of Storm Flames and she had to brace herself back on the ground, foregoing her plan to tranquilize his brain.
Renato, for his part, used the cover the red Flames provided, leaping over it and past Laalima to meet Conrad.
Imagine being so gutsy you'd willingly put yourself close to such volatile air without even a hint of defence.
"You're the one that's been shooting at us from afar. Let's see how you are from a closer vantage." He grinned, almost ferally.
Conrad tensed, using his gun to shoot and then parry Renato's gun when that didn't fare well, the built of his gun just not viable in close quarters. Though he'd been the one to charge, Renato was on defence quickly, dancing around Rain.
Viper noted, that his dodges were just far enough that Conrad was made to use his Flames in the hopes the extra reach could hit the mark. And his shots were all straight to the face, not even taking the chance for a bid from the side. There were absolutely no contact made to Conrad's brightly glowing form. Evidently, that way laid an instant knock out.
Luce ran from her refuge, using the car behind her as a shield, the lightshow providing appropriate amount of cover. Huh. So that was what Renato was going for.
Then a bolt of Lightning rushed from behind Conrad.
Renato's eyes widened, moving towards Luce only to be blocked by a grinning Conrad. If looks could kill, Conrad would've been a hundred feet underground.
Well, that's a scary face, Viper huffed to themself, the pressure from the close calls making even them, removed from the fight, unconsciously tense. They'd taken a seat on their suitcase though, munching on illusion popcorn. Perfectly replicating the taste and sensation but with no real nutritional value -if popcorn even had nutritional value, so it was safe to share it with Fossette.
They couldn't resist.
Sensing the approaching danger, Luce turned and brought her hands up, bright brightbrightbright Sky Flames rising up in a wall in front of her.
That proved unnecessary when the Lightning made contact with a wrecked purple car instead, wrecking it even more.
There was a pause in the battle as Skull de Mort tossed the pile of simmering metal aside.
Purple Flames licked at his wounds, around his neck and head like horns mending everything back to, if not flawless, intact flesh as he wiped the blood from the corner of his lips.
Renato cocked an eyebrow and Conrad cursed under his breath. Lalima pursed her lips. Fon barely afforded the stuntman a glance.
"Look at that, Lightning and a Cloud, just missing the Mist and we've almost got the complete set here." Renato said aloud in amusement, eyeing Conrad, "So which one of you is the spare Rain?"
What a funny thing to say. Though most likely only Viper got the joke and they had no intention to share.
"Doctor, keep behind! We can't afford to lose you!" Lalima screamed back.
Skull scowled, "Hey! You lot!"
That called everyone's attention.
"You just fucking wrecked my car!" He practically snarled, eyes sparking purple.
It just got more exciting.
Their suitcase rose up with them on it, Fossette barking at their height in alarm as they soothed him.
"Amazing, right? You give colour commentary and I'll provide play-by-play, what about it Fossette?" Viper muttered, high up and far enough that no stray attack could glance them without them seeing first, but close enough to observe and hear.
In respect of their wish not to get tangled up with this very group, they really should leave.
But how often did you get a chance to witness an amazing battle?
They couldn't see Viper anyways, and they had no desire to meddle and possibly call attention to themselves.
Conrad was preoccupied with Renato, Laalima had Fon to think about, Luce had stopped with Verde's presence, and Skull had just uprooted a pole.
Viper saw when Fon lost patience, too many players in the field.
Gritting his teeth, he glared at Lalima.
Vexed and wrathful, resentful, painful.
Viper found themself momentarily transfixed at the vivid emotions playing over his face.
Expression crumbling in grief more than anguish -loss more than anger-, he fell -dropped- to his knees, bringing down his fist with an animalistic cry.
A Storm covered fist.
The Storm that didn't dissolve into nothingness.
The force blew Lalima off her feet.
Burning, writhing tongues of red Flames billowed out.
Viper could only have done anything because they had seen it coming. They dropped Fossette on their lap, arms coming up in front of them.
XxXxXx
From what they had caught just before they lost visibility, Lalima and Conrad had retreated to Delta, twin pillars of Rain.
Renato had just barely leapt back to his own side too before Luce had tackled him, an orb of orange encapsulating them. Skull had been left to his own devices.
Viper fenced the whole area around the group and a separate sphere around them.
Fon burned through it like paper.
Shit!
In a panic, Viper replaced it and they continued to feed it with their Flames in the effort to keep his disintegration at bay.
Was he trying to kill himself?!
Maybe.
But he was definitely trying to kill everyone else.
There were still people in the buildings, walking the streets. Joey's apartment complex was two streets away.
Without a moment for hesitation, Viper dunked themselves in the river and retrieved the memory of where everyone was. They put up individual spheres around each person, expelling them through walls and outside their secondary barrier, farther and farther as Fon's Flames chased after everything.
For a long, long moment, their world was just red behind indigo, pulled in the small space they were safe with Fossette, and then stretched out into the hundreds, and then the thousands, and then millions they picked up along the way outside of their fence.
Half-way, Viper had to give up saving the rest, prioritizing the people they could recognize -mostly their contacts across the states. Fon was burning faster than their mind was calculating. They weren't willing to risk compromising themselves for strangers. They could try to save them, but Viper wasn't so selfless as to even have thought of using their life for anyone else, they had no idea when the point came that they'd be pushing themselves.
Ironically, more people closer to the explosion had survived.
As they systematically plucked out memoirs, they knew that everything and everyone had disappeared the moment they touch the edges of his Flames. At least, by how quick everything was happening, it should be painless. The ground beneath was no exception and just as he was destroying the clouds above, he had also hollowed it out, the seawater disappearing into nothingness.
Cold sweat slid down the back of their neck, eyes half mast and brows furrowed.
They had never done something like this before.
They had felt mental stress, had stumbled in controlling it, had moments were they cursed its eagerness to bend under command of their hearts, but never in the vastness of their Flames had they ever properly exerted.
Personally, emotionally, mentally, they had experienced being stretched thin in various occasions, but they had always felt safe in the expanse of their Flames.
Nevermind running out, when had their reservoirs ever even had a significant dent to it?
Mysteriously, they could now feel a strain.
They had never met someone like this before.
Holy shit. How far could he push his Flames?
How far was he going to push his Flames?
One. And then it became two in mere seconds. Three. Ten. A dozen. Hundred. Hundreds. Thousands of kilometres.
He wasn't stopping.
He wasn't stopping.
One mistake and they and everyone they held under protection were going to disintegrate.
Was he planning to burn the whole world?