"Hurry!" Dylan provoked Kyou as she rushed closer to them. She filled the air thick with her murderous, death-thirsty energy. Dylan smiled mockingly as he stopped running and decided to wait, readying himself to fight again.

"Get over here, brat!" Kyou howled at him beastly, her glassy fangs showing beneath her lips, locked in a tight grit of hunger. She shuffled quickly towards the prepared Minor, the wind fluttering her hair in a hurricane as she came by. She readied her punch and swung it at Dylan, the Minor disappearing into tiny little specks of light as she made impact. "What?!" Kyou made her hundredth complaint. "Optical Illusions?" she realized. "Don't play with me like I'm a kid, asshole!" she demanded loudly.

"What's with all the insults?" Dylan reappeared a few feet away from Kyou in the same stance as before. "You don't see me making all of those mean comments at you," Dylan spoke sadly, his eyes in a kind of sadness. Kyou growled, thinking that he was continuing to play with her. Her eyes widened demonically.

"Shut up!" Kyou screeched as she swung another fist at Dylan, who disappeared into specks of light yet again. She hissed as another Dylan reappeared to her right a few feet away, standing in that readied pose. She attacked him, too, and it was another illusion. The hallucinations kept coming like a repetitive wheel that wouldn't stop. She swung at each one of them, hoping to land a hit at the real one for once. She drooled angrily as her teeth her grit to such a level that seemed impossible to achieve. "Why you…!" Kyou shrieked as she missed yet again, the clones keeping to come after one another. Kyou stopped to take deep breaths, taking a second to let her anger rise up and take over her body like a possession. She screamed a horrid battle cry as she swung again at the illusions, one appearing right after another.

After more slashing and screeching, one appeared right in front of her, only a few feet away, just waiting with those beckoning, too kind eyes. Kyou smiled. It seemed that the urgency has tuned down a bit, she realized. This must be the last illusion. With a rush, the opponent shuffled through the dirt ground and swung her fingers into its body, her sharp fingers another way of using long, thick glass shards. Kyou peered over her shoulder as she waited for it to disappear. "Now…" Kyou began. "Where's the next one?" she spoke softly as a wide, evil grin spread across her face. Suddenly, drops of blood came down to her cheeks, surprising her. "What?" she spoke loudly as she looked up.

She found Dylan's face, staring back at her with a clever grin and eyes, a stream of red coming down the corner of his lips. Kyou stared in disbelief. "You…you're not a…?" she was so surprised she couldn't finish her sentence.

Dylan scoffed. "Yeah," he said as he tightly gripped his thin fingers around Kyou's arm, which was still struck through his left side. Blood pooled beneath Dylan's clothes from the holes the glass shards made. "Got you now," Dylan said weakly as his fingers tightened around her arm. He coughed from the pain that he tried to ignore, wincing as he held it back.

"Fool!" Kyou screeched, her eyes still shaking. "What're you trying to do? Stabbing yourself like that?" She couldn't seem to move. His grip was surprisingly strong, even if he was lanky and thin.

"Physical pain is nothing," Dylan said weakly, his eyes shuddering, glassy. He breathed heavily in between words. He winced as the pain went to his head. Then he resumed his breathing. "Us Minors have to learn how to do things like this if we're ever going to win against anything," Dylan told her, swallowing hard. His breathing filled her ears.

"Minors?" she asked, confused. "Who the hell are you kids?" she demanded, her voice angry more than ever.

"Something like that isn't important," Dylan said, trying to keep his breath steady. He looked up to her and they locked stares. "You're not getting away this time," Dylan said as he winced in pain again. Suddenly, roots from the ground began to emerge, popping tiny holes as they rose. They wrapped around Kyou's legs like beckoning fingers, deviant, loving hands that wouldn't let go.

"Wha…What is this?!" Kyou demanded her eyes wide with horror. The brown, deadly roots continued to crawl from their hole, the half dead roots hungry, for they have not had a drop of water in such a long time, even if the soil was damp. It never seemed to reach them. The roots began to overtake her body, wrapping around her chest and arms, draining her energy bit by bit. "Are you….my energy?" Kyou stammered, finding it hard to talk from her fear and shock.

"Yeah," Dylan replied. "Soon, all your physical energy will be drained from your body and into mine," Dylan told her, watching the fearful expression tighten around her face. Dylan clutched her glassy hand tighter and prepared himself. Like a band-aid, he struck the shard fingers out of him, crying out in pain as the blood spilled into the air. As he drew his cries back in, he began to breathe heavily, calming himself. His arms limply fell back to his side and ran over his wound, checking how vital it was. Feeling his own blood used to make him sick, but somehow, now, having the title of Minor made him more fearless. Dylan grinned as he watched Kyou's strained reaction, looking at her fingers that were dipped with red. Her body seemed to glow as the energy was sucked out of her, the roots transmitting the energy into the weakened state of Dylan.

Kyou muttered weakly as she fell to the floor, the roots finally drawing back in. She stopped herself from falling, putting a foot behind her. Her body seemed to be topsy-turvy, swinging this way and that, her mind too clouded and confused. She had lost her senses, and now danced like a drunken chicken. Her footsteps were unsteady as her hair hung down her face; her head hung low toward the floor. Her arms were limp at her side, barely moving, just slightly swinging as she jumbled around. She struggled as she looked up to find the other two boys on a tree branch high above Dylan. "Nice," Zack told his teammate who smiled back, breathing hard.

"Okay, Zack," Derek said, preparing the last bits of the plan as Zack stood behind him while Derek was on his knees. Derek had his hands tightly clasped as if he were praying. His cold stare seemed to scan through the area for safety. "Are you ready?" Derek asked Zack, his eyes peering left to right repeatedly.

"Yeah, yeah," Zack brushed him off, trying to look brave and idiotic as he posed heroically. He clapped his hands together, the white energy beginning to pour out from him. "Suro-Kamaitachi! –Throw-Cutting Wind-" Zack declared as the surrounding shrubs and trees rustled powerfully, shaking in a coldness that pierced the dewy morning.

"What?" Kyou scowled as she found it hard to breathe. Suddenly, a blurring, swirling wind came by, drilling towards Kyou with a threatening screech. She cried out in surprise as the wind overtook her, the swirling patterns barely slicing her body in its glass position. "An attack of this level won't hurt me," she grinned weakly, mocking their efforts.

"That might be true," Derek told her, his eyes not showing any emotion. Kyou seemed shocked. "But most likely an attack of this level will," he continued. He seemed to react to his own words, folding his hands the same way Zack did when he called on the wind. Derek closed his eyes, preparing for his own kind of attack as the swirling wind made a sort of blurry cage around Kyou, who waited for the big blow. She was pretty sure the big blow would just be a puff of smoke. "Maina-Kage! –Minor Shadow!-" Derek declared, his eyes still closed in a meditative state. "Danpen no Shikyo! –Shreds of Death!-" Reacting to his declarative words, the slicing winds grew traces of black, wisps of it twirling inside the cutting breeze.

"What? Impossible!" Kyou cried out as the hurling black breeze gave an intense blow, slicing her everywhere thought possible, breaking glass shards by the nanosecond. The cold breeze was deadly, and brushed her hair as it sliced it into tiny hairs at the same time. She glared evilly and weakly, protecting her eyes from the wind. The black wisps continued to cut her violently, the sounds of slicing echoing off the trees for miles. The wind's velocity grew immense, and blood leaked out as the blackness sliced her cheeks that grew back to their human state, letting glass fall out. "I'm bleeding?" Kyou murmured to herself. "Impossible…!" The sound of slicing glass filled the early morning as her body was taken apart bit by bit, and as the three teammates watched.

So that's what it was, Derek thought as he watched with a careful glare. He put an arm on his knee as he waited carefully. When she rebuilt herself, she started with two piles, which represented her stomach and her heart and ribcage. As I thought, each glass shard always accommodates to the same part of her body over and over again. So, if I were to break her body into tiny little pieces, she would have to find out which shards go with which in order to rebuild herself. Also, the more broken up she gets, the harder it is for her to rebuild. That's why her rebuild time varies depending on the type of attack I use. "It's over," Derek told her. Her blurred grin still showed some demonic hunger, her eyes revealing her deviant thirst for death. "This wind's going to slice you up into so many pieces that in the end, you'll look like grains of sand instead of glass pieces on the floor."

She gritted her teeth in reluctance. She tried to speak but her voice was carried away by the rotating, intense winds. All she could do was give the death glare. As her head began to break apart into tiny grains of glass, she gave one last look at them before the wind calmed. Now, the wind disappeared into light wisps of breezes that rustled through the air comfortably, leaving the pile of glass beside. It was in a messy pile, all over the dirt ground like someone had just spilled it from a container that broke. "But," Derek began again, as if she could still hear him. "I know how deadly this place is, so I'll do you a favor," Derek told her. Wisps of shadow spoke his final words as they surrounded the glass on the floor, seeing a net of darkness over it, and taking it downward, into the dimension known as the Darkness. "That way, you won't be coming back," Derek said.

As the bulge of blackness disappeared into the earth, Dylan fell backward, the blood stain on his Japanese style robes beginning to soak everywhere. He found it hard to breathe, since the wound was so close to his heart. With a short cry, Derek jumped off the tree branch and zoomed to Dylan's assistance. He helped him lie down as he took the empty sack of food and began searching for bandages or something like that. Dylan remained silent, staring up into the sky as the pain disappeared. "Got it," Derek said, pulling out a wrap of useful bandages. He finished caring for Dylan's wound and helped him back up on his feet. It was hard at first, but they got the hang of it.

PoVS

"We should head for the ground. I think we'll have more of an advantage there," Mark suggested as his teammates and him rushed through the tree branches faster and faster.

"Okay," Eric said enthusiastically, falling back down to the floor below. He landed with a struggle, followed by Walter. A few feet away, Mark made a landing as well. Moments later, they found themselves racing through the forest again, feeling the slight breezes touch their hot cheeks gently. Mark seemed more of a leader now as Eric and Walter watched his back. This place was more Mark's territory anyway. A place full of dirt and ground.

"Hey," Eric called to Walter who ran as fast as him only a few feet away. Walter gave him an acknowledged, icy look. It showed no thoughts whatsoever, as always. "You still haven't told me what you're struggling with," Eric said seriously.

Walter scoffed. "I still don't see why it concerns you at the least," Walter said, not even a tiny smile growing on his lips. Suddenly, his eyes widened in shock as he stopped in his tracks. Eric followed, wondering what was wrong. "Wait!" Walter called out to Mark, the tension in his voice showing. Something was going on that was serious. And Eric couldn't figure out what. His voice echoed through the dewy, calming air, alerting Mark quickly. The Earth Minor stopped in his tracks, hauling himself in shock.

"What? What is it?" he shouted, turning backward. Walter took his fingers and swung them in the air, an icy needle darted against the body of a tree. The cold, pointed spike made a loud thunk against the trunk of the tree. It glimmered in a shimmering panic as the sun's rising rays hit it.

Inside darkness, a voice cried out. Eyes widened in shock. "What? How did he know?!" it demanded in a whisper.

"You were careless," a voice answered back in the darkness, another pair of calm, cool-set eyes.

"Come out," Walter said, facing the tree ahead. Mark gave a confused look, as if readying himself to call his own teammate psychotic. "Your disguise is no good," Walter went on. "Your tree's shorter than the rest, and on top of that, it has rounded, curvy leaves, while all the other trees have spiked-edged ones," the Minor explained. Eric couldn't believe it. He noticed such a difference so quickly.

Mark swallowed hard. The tree began to deform, quivering in its image, as if melting into slime. "My, my," a creepy, echoing voice called out from the melting tree. The ice needle fell to the floor limply, its use finished. The contents of the tree faded away as it melted into thin air, revealing something that shocked everyone in its appearance. It rushed behind them, slithering through the air. No way… Walter thought. Could it be the same thing as before?

Walter remembered the time when he watched those two snake-like things rush through the air, one actually copying Mark's image, only to slither away later, retreating. Now, the two headed slithering being made their place just a few feet behind Eric and Walter, watching them with demonic eyes. "Damn it!" Mark cried out. "An enemy all ready?"

The twin-headed being had no clothes, nor did it have a waist down. It donned a snake like body with a chest of a man, and two heads as well. Their skin was discolored into a grayish-brown, able to camouflage with dust. "Looks like we've got no choice," the left head muttered. Its voice was creepy and demonic, a deviant's whisper. "Gaia."

"Yeah," the right head answered back, its voice different yet just as creepy. "Sanshouuo, -Salamander- Let's make this quick."

Sanshouuo grinned. "I can't make any promises," he said, smiling evilly. What are these guys? Walter thought, getting ready to draw another shobo. "What's the matter?" Sanshouuo called out to Walter. Walter caught his breath in his throat. "Getting a hard time to draw your weapon?" it called out, reading Walter's movements.

"Who are you?" Walter cried out, disregarding their comments. He gritted his teeth in anger, getting ready to fight.

"My, my, things have been changing a lot around here hasn't it, Gaia?" Sanshouuo asked his partner. He disregarded what Walter said as well. "People don't even know our names anymore," he said creepily. Gaia muttered in agreement. Sanshouuo continued to smile.

"This is going to be fun," Gaia smiled, laughing creepily, his voice rasping. Their white hair hung at their ears like Hyoumaru's did. They both had large, beckoning dark brown eyes that seemed to be the only thing human about them.

"So," Sanshouuo continued their conversation, tensing up the Minors, making them wonder about just what the hell they were doing. They're underestimating us, Walter realized. He swallowed hard. "Shall I let you go first this time?" he asked his partner, grinning in deviance.

"No," Gaia said weakly. "I'll let you go first this time, Sanshouuo," the deeper, raspier voice choked out. He seemed to have a hard time to talk.

"Oh?" Sanshouuo asked. "Really?" he said, making the word longer than it should be. "You were always the hastier one, Gaia."

Gaia's head hung low. "Is that so?" Gaia asked. "In that case…" Gaia began to move uneasily, their body slowly widening. The three Minors caught their breaths as they watched in awe mixed with horror. Slowly, Gaia began to move away from his partner, revealing his own shoulder, and more of his arm until they were only connected by their finger. A line of symmetry seemed to cut them in half as they posed the same way. The trace of the glowing light connected at their fingers now and their tail. With that final word, Gaia zoomed off into the foresting trees, disappearing for now. Walter looked behind him and met Mark's gaze. They both nodded at each other. Quickly, they switched places, Walter watching behind him as Eric and Mark stared hard at their new opponent, who showed his excitement from his creepy, devilish smile.

"Just as my partner said," Sanshouuo began. "This really is going to be fun," he laughed evilly. His laugh rustled the trees coldly. Traces of heat began to show and leaves and plants began to hiss. Mark gulped down a nervous, careful knot in his throat.

It's happening again, Walter thought as he peered behind him, watching a flower at Sanshouuo's tail begin to burn into cinder as its leaves dispersed into glowing ash, its petals turning a deadly gray. Suddenly, a rustling came from a bush at Walter's side. Over there! Walter noticed, turning his head as his eyes widened in alert. Mizu Kuruma! –Water Wheel! - On cue to Walter's silent declaration, an aquatic, blue wheel began to spin in the air, the water seeming to come out of nowhere. It blew specks of dampness into the air as the ring of wetness rushed downward on the bush. Under the lush green bush, Gaia choked on his breath. The water wheel spun and spun wildly and began to rush for the bush, leaving wisps of water behind as it crashed downward.

Suddenly, something flickered between the water and the bush, and sending out a tiny flash of light, there was a huge, crashing explosion. The explosion blew high breezes everywhere, fluttering Walter's hair and taking the attention of Eric and Mark. Wisps of leftover wetness dissolved in the air as the sudden explosion died out. "Damn it!" Gaia cried out. "How did he know?" he said, his presence disappearing. He vanished! Walter realized.

"You were too hasty," Sanshouuo muttered, smiling evilly as he laughed at his partner. Damn it! Walter thought, his back still turned to Sanshouuo, watching the bush and the rising dust. What was that explosion just now? It was so small, yet so intense that it evaporated my twister. Where did it come from? "You shouldn't take your eyes off of me!" Sanshouuo demanded, calling the battle. He rushed as he disappeared into a blur through the air, slithering like the fastest snake ever.

He's fast! Eric thought as he watched him slither away in fear, only able to take a glance at him as he completely bypassed him, smiling at him evilly, making a deadly promise that was concealed in secretion to his own thoughts. Sanshouuo passed by Mark as well, who watched him with the same fear as Eric. Sanshouuo grinned devilishly as he struck an arm at Walter, sending a punch with his clawed hand, surprising him with his presence as he was just inches away. "This is the end!" Sanshouuo declared as the claw came within inches of Walter's still turning head. Then, only a second later, there was a horrid crack sent through the air, a nauseating sound of impact. A despairing splash was sent through the air eerily. Then shocked cries.