"I've got eyes on him!" Ilia yelled over her shoulder as she and Sun thundered through the trees. A good ten feet ahead of her was the fuzzy black, red, and white blur that was Adam Taurus as he tried to avoid their efforts.
Sun didn't bother to reply as he leaped over a fallen tree and finally passed Ilia. He kept his eyes laser focused on Adam's back as he unlinked his staff and fired off a shot at a nearby tree. Splinters of bark flew in all directions as Adam cursed and ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding the errant round.
"Sun! I've got an idea!"
For only a moment, Sun allowed himself a glance backward at Ilia. In her hand was Fennec's sai, the engraved trails spiraling up the central point glowing with faint white energy. Sun reassembled his staff and transferred it to one hand as he held out the other.
"Give it up! How do you use that thing?"
Ilia replied by gently tossing him the weapon, and Sun managed the catch with ease.
"Channel aura into the hilt! You're faster, so block his path! I'll try to approach from the side!"
Without waiting for confirmation, Ilia split off and disappeared into the trees as she shifted her skin to a dense green. Sun quickly lost sight of her amongst the foliage, and returned his focus to Adam. The older man had gained some ground in the exchange, and showed no signs of slowing. Sun let out a low growl as he raised the sai and concentrated, before unleashing a twisting vortex of wind aimed for the base of a tree not far from Adam. The wood immediately flexed and cracked, before the entire thing began to lean dangerously. Adam stepped to the side to look up at the branches as the massive oak began to fall, and narrowly avoided the mass of the tree as it came down.
"Get back here, you coward!" Sun yelled as he aimed for another tree. He repeated the process with the sai and then channeled another harsh blast of wind for a third tree. The giants of the forest began to fall all around Adam as he drew his sword and focused on cutting through the falling trunks in mid run. Suddenly, he skidded to a halt beyond the last falling tree, and whirled to face Sun with a devilish smile.
"This is our third encounter, you know. That's two more than I would normally allow an enemy," Adam warned as he dropped into a ready stance, the blade of Wilt pointed for Sun's chest. He, too, stopped and spun his staff to rest behind his back as he began to circle. Adam followed suit, and offered Sun a condescending chuckle. "You want this little patch of forest to be our final battleground? So be it."
A distinct feeling of unease washed over Sun as he prepared to attack, and he paused to stall for time. "You could avoid all of this, if you'd come quietly. No one else has to die, Adam. You're making that choice."
"Killing comes easily, with enough practice. You'll see," Adam replied. All traces of frustration and nervousness seemed to have left him, and the realization only served to shake Sun's resolve even more. "I know what you're doing. Ilia's in the tree line, but you're not sure just where. Unfortunate that she's not alone."
Several leaves from the canopy of rustled trees began to gently fall toward the earth in the silence. Sun cast a quick look to the direction that Ilia had run, and by the time he looked back to Adam, the bull faunus was already in his face with a lunging strike.
Sun barely got his staff up in time to deflect the blow, and redirected the point of Adam's sword off to his side. The second slash connected with his side, and Sun let out a cry of surprise as he felt his aura drain rapidly. With a rush of adrenaline, he jabbed his staff into Adam's stomach and engaged the armored pauldron to snake steel plates down and around his left arm. Adam took another swing and sparks flew as the blade of Wilt scraped along the glittering metal, before the two men backed off and began to circle once again.
Adam let his eye trail from Sun's feet up to his face. "Touching, really. Kali even gave you his belt, it seems. Tell me, how many times did you have to wrap it around yourself, just to keep it from falling down?"
"I'm not going to let you get to me," Sun spat as he tucked Fennec's sai into the belt and cracked his staff back into twin nunchaku.
"Are you sure about that? I've managed it every time we've met so far," Adam reminded. "Though, maybe this time, you're right. Ghira wasn't really… important enough for me to remember much specific detail, so I might have a hard time g-"
Sun felt something irrational and feral take over as he launched into a twirling assault. Adam was ready, and deflected each blow from the whirling weapons as Sun let out an impassioned yell. Slowly, the blade of Wilt began to glow with a slick, pink resonance with each impact against it, and only after noticing did Sun back off, his chest heaving.
"There it is," Adam mused as he sheathed Wilt. "You're digging yourself a fine little hole. Those feelings are familiar, kid. I've learned to master and use that rage. You're just now discovering how you really feel about your situa-"
"Shut up!" Sun interrupted. "Shut the fuck up!"
Sun punctuated the curse with a pair of timed blasts from his weaponry. His rage only grew as Adam deftly drew his sword and turned his body to use Wilt to block one shot, as Blush caught and deflected the other.
"That trick has worn out its usefulness. I don't make the same mistake twice… yet here you are, allowing your allies to separate from you, yet again. I expect those tears to only grow hotter as you realize just how badly you're outmatched."
Sun's lip twitched as he finally noticed the shameful trails spilling down his cheeks. His hands shook as he tried to decide his next course of action, only for the whirl of voices in his mind to turn into nothing but noise. He launched another assault, and Adam was happy to oblige. The two met once again, and Sun rejoined his staff in the middle of the attack to clash against Wilt as Adam brought the blade down in an overhead counter.
Steel ground against steel as Sun was forced down to a knee, desperately holding his staff horizontally to prop up the descending blade. The razor edge glowed a hot pink as a dent began to form within Sun's staff, and color seemed to drain from his surroundings. Adam's eye glowed ominously as he sneered down at Sun and pushed harder into the staff.
"Is this really the best you can do, even with all that rage?"
In response, Sun moved a hand just beneath the pressure from Wilt and quickly reached around his back with the other. He drew Fennec's sai back around and pressed the tip into Adam's stomach before unleashing yet another massive gust that sent Adam careening backward into a nearby tree, blade and sheath in hand. A meaty thwack echoed in the forest as the back of Adam's head impacted the hard wood, and Sun charged forward with a spirited yell.
Adam looked up in a dazed state as Sun approached, only to receive a harsh strike across the face from his nunchaku. The bull's head whipped to the side as he spat blood and lifted his sword to try to deflect the oncoming assault. Sun merely struck at Adam's hand in response, and the man let go of Wilt with a pained cry as his pointer finger was bent backward. The assault didn't stop as Sun landed another strike across Adam's face and screamed.
"You took the one thing I've wanted since I was a kid!" Sun's entire body felt numb as he stomped a foot into Adam's stomach and pressed the rod of his weapon up against Adam's throat. Adam raised Blush with his good hand and slammed it hard into Sun's side, but earned only another growl as Sun pushed hard into his windpipe. "Stop struggling!"
Adam let out a few pitiful noises as he began to choke, and raised both hands to grip at Sun's weapon. He opened his mouth to try to speak, only for Sun to punch him square in the mouth with Ghira's armored sleeve.
"I don't want to hear it! You have no power over me, or Blake, or anyone!"
Seemingly out of nowhere, an explosion sounded off to Sun's left as a fiery plume rose up somewhere in the cluster of trees. Branches and leaves caught fire as the flashing mass dissipated, and a nearby maple began to fall dangerously close to the pair of struggling men. Adam took advantage of the moment's hesitation as Sun was caught by surprise and slammed his head forward into Sun's. Sun blinked and shook his head in a daze, only for Adam to summon the last of his strength and shove the younger faunus off of him.
Another gout of flame ripped through the trees in a horizontal pattern, igniting bark, bushes, and grass as it tore through the forest and stopped mere feet from Sun and Adam. Adam gripped Wilt and made a desperate stab for Sun as the reality of the situation became clear to him. Sun managed to catch the blade in Fennec's sai, only for Adam to twist his wrist and wrench the weapon out of Sun's grasp and into the trees, near another jet of fire.
"No power? I'll show you exactly what power I wield," Adam threatened. Once again, Sun began to see in monochrome as Adam sheathed the glowing blade of Wilt. In a flash, Sun dropped his staff and clasped his hands in a desperate move. Three golden doubles blinked into existence next to a falling, flaming tree and pushed to redirect it toward Adam as he moved to draw his blade. At the last second, he caught sight of the impending danger and drew forth Wilt, charged by his semblance.
The arcing cut brought forth a red and black beam of energy so fast and volatile that Sun barely saw it before the entire tree was carved in half, lengthwise. The two sides of the massive tree fell harmlessly to either side of Adam as the grass around him caught fire. Sun took the opportunity to gather up his staff and make a mad dash into the trees as another whirl of flame gave away the position of another attacker.
"Ilia!" he screamed as he ran. "Ilia, where are you!? Yell if you can hear me!"
Flames engulfed much of the forest around him as he ran, and strained to listen for any response from Ilia.
"Sun!" came the desperate, worried call. "I need help!"
Without hesitation, Sun adjusted his course to better follow the voice. To his horror, the request was backed up by a feminine scream of pain, and another stream of flame swirling through the trees. Sun arrived on the scene moments later to find Corsac Albain standing over Ilia as she scrambled along the ground to move away from him. The man lacked his red robe, and beads of sweat trailed down his shaved head as he stepped over her.
"Where is it? I know one of you has it!" he demanded, before plunging his sizzling sai into Ilia's calf. Again, she screamed, and Sun threw himself into Corsac's back a mere moment later. The two tumbled to the ground, and Sun earned a hard palm strike to the face for his efforts as they rolled into a grapple. Sun managed to remain on top as he rained blows down on Corsac, the familiar feeling of unbridled anger gripping his chest once again.
"Don't touch her! Get away from her!" Sun demanded as he landed a punch into Corsac's jaw. Corsac spit upward into Sun's face, before thrusting his sai for the boy's neck. Sun narrowly avoided the move by jerking his head to the side, and grabbed at the central point. His hand shook as he held the weapon in place and drove his other, armored fist into Corsac's gut. The older faunus sputtered, but continued to fight against Sun's grip.
"You have it, don't you? My brother's weapon!" Corsac snarled.
"Yeah, I do! I'll make sure I bury it with yours, after I break your neck!" Sun yelled. A thin trail of smoke began to rise from the red gauntlet on his right hand, followed by a shooting pain. He quickly let go of the sai and stood to backpedal away, only to find that his electrical burn from Ilia featured a fresh red line of burnt flesh across it. He shook out his hand as he cried out in pain, and Corsac rolled backward to stand.
"You'll find it more difficult than you'd imagine," Corsac warned. He pressed the insignia at the base of the sai's prongs, and the bottom of the hilt began to glow a deep purple. Fennec's sai rocketed up through the leaf litter and sped through the trees from a place unseen, before it snapped to the base of Corsac's weapon to form a double-sided fork.
Sun gripped his burnt hand to his chest as he looked over to Ilia. Throughout the confrontation, she had begun to crawl her way toward her fallen weapon, and the whip was within arm's length. Corsac followed Sun's gaze as she reached for the electrical whip, and he whirled to face the injured girl.
"…I think not."
Sun sprinted for Corsac, but was too slow as he whirled his combined weapon. Spiraling jets of fire and wind rushed forward and engulfed a nearby tree, before he used another gust to pull the fragile plant down upon Ilia. She reached her weapon and rolled to point it at Corsac, only for the burning wood to crash down upon her chest and shoulder, pinning her to the forest floor as the electrical whip flew from her hand once again. Ilia's form disappeared as flaming leaves, dirt, and debris shot upward from the impact of the tree, and Sun stopped in mid-stride at the sight.
Corsac turned slowly and quietly back toward Sun, to look him over. The boy was bleeding slowly from his hairline, his shirt was torn in several places, a nasty, dark red stain had bled through the fabric on his side, his nose was clearly broken, his arms and cheeks were caked with dirt, and only fresh tears had cut through the filth caked onto his face. Sun trembled as he looked at the fallen tree in disbelief, before speaking in a small, hollow voice.
"I… am going to kill you," he said simply as he brought his eyes up to meet Corsac's. The fire continued to spread through the branches and along the ground, surrounding the two in what was quickly becoming a ring of fire.
"I'm going to kill you, and I'm going to enjoy it," Sun repeated with more aggression in his voice. "I don't care who knows. I don't care who sees what's left of you when I'm done," he continued as his volume continued to rise.
Frenzied yelling from elsewhere in the forest joined the chorus of burning wood and rustling trees. Sun kept his focus on Corsac, while Corsac himself began to look almost worried. As Sun took a single step forward, Corsac brought down another flaming tree between them, and turned to run deeper into the forest. Sun moved to try to pursue, only to be blocked by the new obstacle. He cursed, before leaping the log and watching Corsac disappear into the smoke and foliage.
"Ilia!" Sun cried as he adjusted his course to the other fallen tree. "Ilia, talk to me!"
Sun collapsed his weapon and stored it in a belt loop as he bent and tried to heft the massive tree. Getting nowhere, he engaged his semblance once again and made a final push with his three copies to shift the obstruction and toss it off to the side, away from Ilia. Beneath it, the girl was still and silent. Her eyes were closed, and her left arm was bent at an unnatural angle. A long trail of blood started at her neck and went all the way down the other arm, and much of her exposed flesh was covered in burns, cuts, and bruises.
"No, don't do this to me," Sun whispered as panic began to set in. "Ilia, come on, please…"
Sun shuffled out of his ruined gauntlet and let it fall to the ground, before putting the back of his hand a few inches away from Ilia's nose. The tiniest rush of relief pulsed through him as he felt steady, shallow breaths against his dirty flesh, and he reached for the zipper just beneath her neck. He pulled open the top part of her bodysuit and rested his ear against her chest, only to find what appeared to be a normal heartbeat.
Somehow, the consistent pulsing sent Sun over the edge, and he closed his eyes tightly as he gently gripped her hand. He wanted to just cuddle up on the forest floor next to her and wail, but resisted the temptation. Instead, he grabbed his scroll from his pocket, and called Blake. Two rings later, he received an answer.
"Sun? Sun! Everything's secure inside of Haven! We're alright in here, how a-"
"I-Ilia's hurt," Sun stammered. He sniffled, and wiped his nose on the collar of his shirt. "Ilia's hurt really bad, and I'm… we need to get her to a hospital. Meet me at the edge of the forest, by the school. I… Blake, I can't do this anymore. I'm starting to lose it…"
"Sun, I'm coming, right now! Hang in there! We can make it through this to-"
Sun closed his eyes once again as he ended the call, and returned his scroll to his pocket. He scooped Ilia's limp form into a bridal carry and began to jog through the woods, his mind racing as the sounds of the crackling fire echoed around him.
Author's Note:
So ends Volume 5. The transition into 6 that was glossed over in canon will definitely be covered, though the biggest deviations from canon are about to start right here, and not stop anytime soon.
Next update on Tuesday.
-RD