As clinking shards fell in a horrid clatter to the floor, the sounds of despaired shrieks of pain were drowned by the falling glass. The air's coolness suddenly became friendlier, a more soothing type of cold. Dylan stared at the falling glass clattering to the floor. Just what is this girl? he thought in fear.
"Shit!" Kyou shrieked. She lost her balance in the air and began to edge unstably, her glass paned wings fluttering weakly. Kyou fell to the floor with a crash, her body preserved. Her wings held limply at her sides. "Once this arm grows back, I'll tear you apart, got that?!" she threatened in her banshee voice.
"That might happen," Derek acknowledged, his voice calm. His stare was unforgiving. "But, even so," he pointed out. "It's taking your arm a long time to grow back, isn't it?"
Damn, Kyou thought, gritting her teeth angrily. He's figured it out. But not all of it. I still might have a shot at killing this brat. "Guys," Derek called to his teammates, keeping his cool, black eyes on the foe. "It looks like we're going to have to kill her," he pointed out, his voice calm and cool headed.
"Kill her?" Dylan cried out in shock. What's he thinking? Dylan thought, his eyes beginning to shudder violently as he stared as his teammate, asking himself if the Derek he saw before him was the real one. "Are you crazy?" Dylan cried out, disagreeing with the Shadow Minor. His voice seemed to boom off the trunks of bent trees.
"You don't understand!" Derek demanded in a rising voice. "We have to! Before she kills us!" Derek pointed out, his voice angry. You could tell he didn't really want to do such a thing either, but it was the only way to keep alive.
Damn it, Dylan thought, gritting his teeth while narrowing his eyes. I can't believe it's the only way? "Have we really become the kind of people who have to kill before we get killed? Is that who we are now?" Dylan muttered to himself.
"That's life here, get used to it!" Kyou screeched horridly. Her scream seemed to be demonic, not of this world. An angry grin spread across her face like the blues of the afternoon sky.
"You shouldn't be talking," Derek suggested. "You're the one about to die anyway," he pointed out, his voice showing not the least bit of nervousness. His eyes showed nothing but seriousness. His arms crossed in front of him, he didn't even seem to breathe. It was like watching a statue full of meaning.
Kyou scoffed. "Aren't we acting so full of ourselves?" she muttered loudly, loud enough so that the sky could hear. "I'll give you credit, though, you were able to free your stupid friends from my technique. It's a wonder how you ever found out."
"It wasn't hard," Derek noted seriously. "Your body is made up of glass, so you can rebuild yourself. But, if you had rebuilt somewhere else secretly instead of right in front of me, I would've never figured it out."
"What're you talking about, boy?" Kyou snapped irrespectively. "What does where I rebuild myself have to do anything with what I'm saying?" Her voice seemed to calm for some reason. She seemed to begin to show split personalities.
"You rebuild the most urgent parts first, obviously, and the part of your body that controls your techniques are urgent, are they not?" Derek said with a sigh. "The first thing you begin to rebuild is your main body, because it connects to the rest of your body, but also, I noticed that you rebuild your eyes as quick as possible as well. At first, I thought it was for the purpose of observing, but seeing how abnormal they are from the rest of your human-looking body, I figured they had to be it."
"I see," Kyou muttered. "You're not too dumb for a kid," she complimented, her tone not in that way at all. Slight noises of glass shards against glass were heard as they piled to her missing arm, not even half fixed. They glistened in the growing sunlight at the horizon of the forest, slowly rising as if taking its time, resistant to come out, playing peek-a-boo on the world. I need more time to rebuild myself, Kyou realized. With three of these kids in the way, my arm's going to take a harder time than it all ready has to bring itself back. However, I think I can buy myself some time, Kyou thought, her available arm moving ominously. Her only fingers at the moment cracked unusually as the sound of glass was heard inside them. Almost ready… Kyou thought with a weak grin.
What's taking her so long? Derek thought. He sighed, closing his eyes. He breathed in the cool, brisk air as dew began to surface, as well as the early morning light. A third of a circle shone at the horizon, pouring hints of light everywhere that filtered through the tree canopies and limbs. I haven't gotten any sleep, Derek thought, his arms crossed tightly in front of him. If I keep going like this, my mind will become clouded, and I won't be able to think straight. On top of that, I'm the only one who didn't eat in my team, so I'm at a weaker disadvantage, and at this point, she seems to want to kill me first. Great, Derek thought. I don't have much of my Half Spirit's energy left to use, nor do I have much of my own. I need to rest, Derek thought to himself as he brought his hand to the back of his tanned neck, feeling the hot, sweaty perspiration. Opening his eyes, he revealed his narrow stare as he watched for Kyou's next move.
"Now!" she cried out, her eyes widening in an evil stare, her glassy teeth showing beneath her barely human lips. Her hair seemed to defy gravity as she suddenly disappeared, her presence zooming away through the rising morning. Derek gasped sharply as he quickly positioned himself, his eyes widening in surprise. She's fast! Derek thought as he watched the blurring figure rush through the trees toward them. He swallowed hard. His teammates seemed to do the same.
Kyou rushed through the nearby trees next to the team, leaving glass shards as a trail of memories behind her, snaking through the limbs like an acrobatic expert. I can barely catch her with my eye, Derek realized from narrow eyes. His dark, spiky hair seemed to rustle from the lack of rest. The mossy tree body he stood on seemed more unstable.
Kyou continued to shuffle throughout the forest, surrounding the team in a confusing trail of glass. She made a full circle around them, clinking glass floating ominously in the air, as if they were in outer space. "Got you!" she cried out as she smiled once more evilly, taking a moment to stop before she rushed forward again.
As she bulleted through her own circle she made, the three Minors dodged desperately away from her rocketing attacks with her own body, glass shards surrounding her like threatening daggers. This speed and intensity of her attacks… Derek thought as he kept an eye on the glass human missile zooming everywhere randomly. How did it become so much different than before? Derek thought as a drop of sweat rolled down his tanned, hard thinking face. Damn it…!
The bulleting missile began to pick up speed violently, as if she no longer aimed for the Minors. It's like she's imprisoning us, Derek realized as he watched the bullet circle them, then finally stop outside of the millions of glass shards floating mysteriously. "What're you trying to pull?" Derek interrogated her for answers as she gave a slight smirk, glass shards still piling into her missing arm. Part of her bicep was rebuilt now. The sun's light shimmering through her body like it did to any ordinary glass.
The glass shards surrounding the team quickly answered Derek's question, hurling their own bodies toward him like their own tiny little missiles. She's trapped us all around! Derek realized as he brought his arms to his head and closed his eyes, preparing for the shards to dig deep into his body.
The sound of clinking glass filled the air as Derek waited longer than he expected, waiting for the immense pain to take over his body. When it soon became too long, he opened his eyes, slowly and barely at first, then fully as he pulled his arms back down in realization. "A cage?" he stammered as he looked around him to find him and his teammates locked in a glass type pyramid.
The growing sunlight flickered the stars away as it poured into the glass cage, hot against Derek's sweating face. His breathing began to pick up, and suddenly he began to feel an immense heat around him, pouring sweat down his face like rain drops on the stormiest day imaginable. "What's going on?" he muttered weakly as his breathing became completely unbearable, a type of breathing someone would have if they had just been through a million mile track. His heart began to beat faster and faster, like a prisoner wanting to get out of his cage. Hot sunlight filled the glass pyramid they were trapped in like a feverish demon.
"Plan succeeded," Kyou muttered as she smiled outside the glass panes, her voice muffled through her cage. She had her arms crossed in front of her, her eyes opened demonically and confidently, as if she knew from a prediction that she had won the fight.
"What's going on?" Derek demanded, sweat rolling down his face like a waterfall. The beady drops fell to the floor, no longer clinging to the tip of his nose or chin. The hot perspiration forced his eyes even narrower.
'The glass I made around you to trap you three in were made from the strongest minerals in the ground, combined with a special molding of mine," Kyou began to explain confidently. "The glass that imprisons you now is a type of glass that magnifies any type of weak light over a thousand times over. For example," Kyou went on. "If a flashlight were to transmit through the glass surrounding you now, it would have equal force of the sun at three hours after the break of dawn. So, imagine what kind of intense heat someone would feel if the sun were to be magnified by the same amount the flashlight was!" Kyou ended happily, soaring through the air as her bicep was completely rebuilt, the glass shards now working on her forearm.
"Damn it!" Zack complained, his eyes going wide with humor. "Lady, do you know how crazy being locked up drives me!? It gets me nuts!" Zack told her, shaking a fist in a childish way at her. She grinned, amused at his immature behavior.
Derek looked at the glass window panes, staring hard at the transmitted sunlight, the white, intensive light almost blinding. Forcing a hand to block out the sun, he noticed something, his eyes going as wide with realization as they could with the burning sun. On the glass window pane was tons of particles. The particles floated across the surface of the glass, but then disappeared, as if they hadn't been there in the first place. At first, Derek was wondering if he were hallucinating. Sand…? Derek realized what it was immediately. He was suddenly brought back to what Kyou had said before.
"This glass is denser than steel yet harder than diamond."
Is that so? Derek thought. In that case… Derek picked up a rock from the ground below him. It was hot just like he felt all over. The blazing heat was overtaking. Placing the cragged rock against the glass pane, he moved it slightly over the surface, revealing a tiny scratch on the glass. That's why… Derek figured out.
"Great, Derek!" Zack complained. "Look what you got us into! I'm burning!" Zack screamed. Jeez, Derek thought as he tried to gather his thoughts from Zack's eternal screaming. Kyou and Zack would make a great couple, Derek thought, the bright sunlight spilling all over his body.
PoVS
As tiny hints of light began to pour from the filtering branches of the mossy trees of the forest, panic seemed to rise and tense up as Daniel waited the flying, red disk to make contact. "Brother!" Kenneth cried out from his place behind the tree. Teresa seemed utterly shocked, her mouth wide open in horror.
"Miss!" Daniel dodged the disk at the last minute, the electric hum cutting into the trees below. Thought so, Daniel figured, backing up to another tree top. So her attacks are mid-range and easy to dodge. Exactly how I thought they would be. "You might be a good opponent at defense, but when it comes to getting a chance to attack an opponent, you don't do so well, do you?" Daniel figured loudly.
Kenneth sighed in relief. Teresa seemed to have lost her thoughts, spreading them everywhere, her emotions mixed, but more or less confused. "Says you," the foe replied. A tricky grin spread across her face, as if she had something planned. Her sudden change in emotion piqued Daniel's interest.
"What?" Daniel muttered to himself, his eyes puzzled beneath the glasses that held the reflecting sunlight in his hold. He peered down to find the humming come back. He could see the red disk perfectly, and it continued to spin like a wild Ferris wheel, a never ending circle of fearful fun. Within seconds came another disk from the first one, taking away its red glow, as if the first one had just cloned itself. "Impossible!" Daniel shouted out. I can't defend myself from this one…! It was too unexpected… Daniel realized, feeling himself stumble uneasily on his feet. All I can do is wait, Daniel thought as he closed his eyes, squinting beneath the heavy eyelids that had bare rest.
Suddenly, the sound of metal clashing and screeching was heard like a sharp, despaired cry. The disk was surprisingly knocked back into the air, falling limply to the other disk's hold, beginning to spin again with that ominous red glow. "W-What happened?" Daniel thought as he opened his eyes slightly. He choked on his breath as he opened his eyes wide again to find a glimmering shield of ice coming from the tree he was standing on. The ice was like an unstable sheet, a part of a glacier that had fallen off to protect Daniel. It had knocked back the disk that threatened him and stood there like a monument of hope, reflecting the sunlight dramatically. "Ice?" Daniel muttered to himself. I see, he soon realized.
Daniel peered to the bottom right as he found his brother giving him a corny thumbs up pose. He smiled his wide smile that always seemed to give Daniel more confidence in his time of need. Ha, Daniel laughed slightly, smiling a small grin. He's still the one protecting me, Daniel thought, shaking his head. I'll have to pay him back with compound interest later, Daniel promised him silently in his thoughts.
"Hey, hey!" the foe called out. "Don't take your eyes off of me!" she demanded as the disks were hung back to her right arm's wrist. "You just might die that way," she threatened with a barely friendly grin.
Daniel scoffed silently. I promised Shintenmaru I wouldn't use these again, but in this case… Daniel thought as he pulled a hand into his pocket, shuffling the things around, feeling for the thing he needed. Got it! Daniel thought as he pulled out a card. On it displayed the Japanese word for "bang," and it began to glow with an ominous white glow from Daniel's touch. The glow filled his face and the ice wall's interior as it cracked and fell into tiny little pieces, having all ready served its purpose.
With a fling, Daniel threw the card like a dart through the air. It raced past the trees and wind as it zoomed with that white, suspicious glow. "What?" the foe cried out in shock as the card came into contact with the ground in front of her, sticking out of the ground like an arrow on a tree. The bleak glow of it began to intensify until finally, it gave a huge explosion, a loud rumbling noise soaring through the air as red fumes and dust piled against the clouds.
Moments later, as the dust continued to clear, Daniel found his arm on his brother's shoulder, whispering into his ear. "Got it?" he mumbled quietly, making sure the opponent didn't figure out where he had gone.
"Yeah, yeah," Kenneth mumbled, staring hard into the rising cloud of smoke that seemed to be everlasting, never gone like an infinite life span. His icy eyes revealed nothing but a comfortable feeling – something indescribable. With the final word, Daniel ran off into the forest again, away from his two teammates, wishing them good luck and hoping they wouldn't get caught. "Let's go," Kenneth mumbled, smiling in excitement.
Putting out his arm into the wide open space, he began to fire ice shards randomly from his hands, aiming directly for their foe. The sound of screeching frost was piercing in the early morning. "You're going to have to do better than that!" the foe mocked their attempts, defending herself with the spinning shield again.
From Daniel's point of view as he rushed through the forest, the trees in his way as they rushed by, he watched the glowing red disk spin, defending their foe from his brother's ice shards. Clockwise rotation from the front, Daniel noticed. As he rushed past, he soon found himself nearing behind her, watching the disk. Clockwise rotation from the back as well. I thought so. So she uses the two disks to cause friction while she installs her own energy into the two disks, creating that red glow and a good defense. "You're not getting away!" the foe cried out as the ice shards finished firing and she flung the disk from her wrist again in Daniel's direction.
No way! Daniel cried out in his mind as he jumped to his right, away from the foe as the disk sliced through the trees, barely missing him at his nose. A tiny sweat drop rolled down the side of his face. He picked up his glasses, their hold getting unstable. As the disk continued to fly through the air again, he fell back into the forest, sending strings made of his own soul energy to attach himself to a tree's limb. Reeling himself upward, the disks lost track of him and began to reel themselves back to their owner. How does she know where the attacks are coming from…? Derek wondered carefully as he stared hard through the trees, his eyes filtering through them. Hanging lowly like a spider from the branch, he stirred up a careful plan to test her abilities out, staying still, all the while ignoring the outside world after him.
Okay, let's go, Daniel thought, finishing up the last bits of his plan. This might not succeed so well, but here goes. Opening his mouth wide like a hunger that was never forgotten, Daniel let out a stream of thin needles made of soul energy. They ran through the air silently, glowing not even in the growing sunlight that pierced through the trees. The needles aimed for the foe, and she blocked accordingly with the same old, red, spinning shield. "How many times do I have to tell you?" she yelled out. "All your efforts are useless!"
No way! Daniel thought with widened, fearful eyes. Those needles were thinner than wire! Even if she did have eyes on the back of her head, she still couldn't have seen them! There must be something else going on! There must be something working for her… but what? Daniel sighed and shook his head, clearing his senses. Okay, calm down, Daniel, calm down. First, let's find her range of what distance she can sense them at. Then we'll figure out the rest.
Detaching his hands from the soul energy strings, Daniel sent arsenals of needles around the wide space inside the forest, spreading them out in different direction at different distances away from the foe to experiment on her. Okay, almost all set up, Daniel thought as he fingered the invisible strings controlling the arsenal of needles carefully applying them to a perfect match up to his plan. Okay, ready from all four directions… Daniel calculated, swarming his eyes left to right over and over again to make sure everything was perfect. One... he thought carefully, a sweat drop rolling up his forehead for once and into his hair. Two… he counted up as he narrowed his eyes, his green eyes glimmering in the slight sunlight. Three! And at that, he released the strings holding the arsenals of needles, and the sound of firing metal began to fill the dewy morning.