Chapter 16 The Duo’s Counterattack

A towering skeletal remains standing tall, its joint and muscle replaced entirely through strands of scorching flames pupperting its every move. Its pearly gray Alternium bones cinder into pitch black illuminated by the bright orange hues of the flames, that burns endlessly on nothing. Glaring into the two prey, its right eyes, an orb of flames that swirls into itself, creating an illusion of a slit pupil.

The blast of heathen winds turns the green paster beneath into dark ashes, the once gray flames and sky that surrounds the park, ignites into shades of wildfire like the Phantom itself. Sweats drip endlessly, both Linker gasping over and over trying to fill the lungs with any particle of untainted air.

The scorched beast, Shiro and Haru caged in a ring of flames. Cracklings of embers from the burnt forest sounded as they all stood solemnly, awaiting the next moves.

“SHIRO HARU!! What the hell is going on in there!?” Aiko's digitized face pops up, hair ruffled and lab coat messy.

“The Phantom… It transformed…” Shiro muttered, her eyes still fixed upon the flaring landscape.

“Girls! The area surrounding the outbreak rift is experiencing unparalleled temperature rises” Nodoka chimes in, “This will be catastrophic if the Phantom is still there for any longer!!”

“W-what about Riku and Lin-senpai?!” Haru shouted, head searching around trying to pick up anything else besides the sea of flames.

“Riku and Lin are blocked from entering close to the Phantom at all!” Nodoka frantically types away at the computer. “The wall of Alternium infused flames surrounding you two are too strong to break through!”

Aiko biting her nails, sweating dripping just like the girls stuck amidst hell in the physical world. Her eyes darted around the vast screen attempting to decipher any thoughts or solutions, it is but a mess of numbers and data that don’t lead to anything that she could say to those on the frontline.

Like always, she can only stand there, staring at each of the girl’s perspectives on full display, always powerless to even lend a hand in their fights against this threat.

Thunder claps over and over, sparks of yellow clash with the oranges world as Lin’s sword slashes through the army of minor Phantoms approaching her. Riku huffs for breathes while carrying the civilian on her back one by one, hurrying to avoid them to growing heat inside the hellish dome.

Leading all the way back to Shiro and Haru, both standing against a threat unlike others with no way to run.

“With my own hands, did I send more of these girls… to their…”

“Aiko… Aiko… AIKO!!”

Aiko’s mind snaps back to this world, her body shaking back and forth.

“Aiko I need to come look at this right now!” Nodoka shouted, hands yanking her friend right down to the monitor on the table.

“Look!”

A digital model Phantom on display, its full skeletal structure with flares of bright shades of orange display across.

“W-What do you mean Nodoka? The entire body is covered in high levels of energy t-that, not even… wait…”

However, along its middle ribcage, the orange hue detected by the system fades into bright red, pulsing into a circle. Energy reading from the pop-ups on that particular spot indicate numbers continuously escalating higher and higher.

“T-That can’t be i-it’s almost as high as…”

“An Upgrade module!!” Nodoka snaps back to Aiko, before facing back onto the monitor, her finger frantically tapping away at the keyboard.

“T-there are few Modules that existed in the Atomos database that have not resurfaced as Linker or discovered yet, including some of the Upgrade Module prototype!” Nodoka steadies her glass, multiple windows detailing Atomos files pop up on the large monitor above their setups.

“Of course… Unlike a Linker, if a Module is empowering Phantom like that, it’s likely that without a secured system of Nexus, it becomes a liability…”

“Shiro! Haru! Nodoka is sending you both the possible weaknesses on the Phantom, it's right in the middle of the ribcage!” Aiko shouted, face plastered in full across the window of her webcam.

The models that Nodoka analyzes, materializes in both the girl’s own vision. A giant red sphere surrounds the aforementioned spots, accompanied by digital windows that indicate the constant increasing energy numbers.

“Energy spike? Is that where all of the Phantom power is from?!” Haru squinting her eyes on the ribcage of the body, making out an ember emanating brightest along its boney appendages.

“Certainly seems like it! So, hit them hard on that spot with the and it should neutralize the Phantom!”

That was exactly what needed to be heard.

Amidst the multitudes of digitized windows, readings and warnings displayed in both Linker very eyes, Haru and Shiro’s eyes met.

“You… want to save lives right~?”

“And you want to get revenge on that big ugly thing”

“Heh~ Well…”

Now their gaze turns back, upon the Phantom’s fiery eyes.

“Just as we practiced alright~, Haru?”

“Yea… Just like we practiced” a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. With weapons tight in the grips and a quick wipe of ash from their face, they are off.

In response, the very grounds erupted with geysers of pure heat, energy and charred dirt pouring into the sky high like pillars.

Weaving left and right, with each burst accompanied by the ear piercings screeches and ground breaking apart through the constant stomping of its boney hinds.

Small dripping of magma oozes down like rain so fast, too fast.

“UGH!!”

Haru bites her lips, the heat sizzles on her face, her arm and body even through her own Phantasm suit. Yet not a single second wasted looking straight without a blink upon burning theropods relentless attempts to stop their fast approach.

“YOU’RE MINE!” Haru burst the grounds, leaping towards the Phantasm and piercing her knife directly into the flaming rear of its skulls. The head shook back and forth, left to right frantically attempting to throw away Haru whose gripping with all her arm muscles can tenses up.

“THIS HEAT… IT'S NOTHING!” from her left hand, drawing out her pistol before unloading rounds after rounds into it hallowed eye socket, causing a louder roar accompanied by even more force trying to fling her away. “STOP MOVING ALREADY YOU BONE HEADED LIZARD!!”

In response, the theropods dented the ground again with its stomps, the grounds just right below where Haru is clinging for her dear life began to bulge in glowing orange sludge.

“WAIT WAIT!” riding the momentum of its constant head wobbling, Haru let go of her dagger before her body flings away with the bursting magma just barely grazing her feet as it shoots up from the ground.

In that split second of Haru views, as the magma geyser flowed down to the ground, she was met with not only just a full view of its black skeletal front but also a giant fireball forming and directly aiming for her and her only.

“H-HUH?!” Before Haru could even raise her other arm to aim the pistol, the fireball had already left its mouth closing on Haru by the blink of a moment. All of sudden, an ear piercing sounded throughout the entire dome, then the fireball burst into an explosion big enough to hit right on the Phantom face while once again bare grazing Haru’s body.

The force propelled Haru even further out, causing her to bounce on the ash ground several times like a pebble on a lake. Before she could even raise her head up several more shots burst out followed by a painful screech from the Phantom. It's boney exterior shutters and repairs over and over, from its jaw to its spines till its rib cages.

“Seems to forget about me huh? Hot head~” Shiro eyes glances into her sniper scope once more, it locks on the Phantom’s rib cage where a module seems to melt into its skeletal body.

“All it takes is…” at that moment her fingers slowly coiled on the trigger.

“SHIRO WATCH OUT BELOW YOU!”

A quick glance to the grounds reveals the same blazing hot sludge pooling upwards, with mere seconds before spewing into the deadly fountains, Shiro clutches her gun before dashing away.

“Phew… Almost got me there you freak….” she took her stances again, with her eyes aiming down the scope.

“IT'S NOT DONE YET! SHIRO!!!” Tho, it isn’t the view of the burning creature that appears in the scope.

It’s the very same mass of fire accelerating closer and closer to Shiro by the seconds, her view is nothing but a blazing sun that is mere centimeters from her.

Then, a loud burst erupts in front of Haru, the colliding white and orange energy flares to cover her entire view, the smoke from the explosion blooms to cover everything.

“Wait…. NO! SHIRO!!” Haru bounces up and rushes forward towards Shiro’s location.

In that moment of her vision obscured, a massive force came crashing down her entire body. Her bones felt like it had broken all over, the skins scorched with immense heat as now she realized being pinned down between the Phantasm burning skeletal feet.

“AH! L-Let go with me!” Haru can only squirm under the crushing, her arms barely able to draw upward attempting to stab its boney hind. “UGH!” With each passing moment her lungs struggle to take in any clear air, her eyes are filled with nothing but burning flames slowly losing its clarity.

Haru’s vision begins to cloud up with nothing but warning signals and screens across her interface, the sounds of Aiko and Nodoka shouting for Haru becomes more faint as the second goes by.

The monster towering above the girl, with its gaping mouth open and flaming energy around its body, begins to pool into another fireball pointing it directly atop its prey. With the last breath in her other arm with the pistol, it swung with any amount that her conscience still allows. It flew just right past the skeletal jaw, missing completely.

“I-I may have a muscular head…” Haru muttered under her gasping. “B-but you fiery freak seems to possess absolutely nothing in that skull…”

She smirked, with the tips of her eyesight finally catching the glimpse of a figure that grabbed her thrown pistol.

“To trust your life to someone like me…” Shiro removes the Haru’s Module, inserting it into the magazine of her own firearms. “Haru… you truly are one of a kind”

“HOWLING, EXECUTE PHASE”

Now, the Hawk Linker stood over both of them, eyes flaring into a cyan wisps, immense force bursting outwards blowing over all the ashes and shaking the Phantasm's own balances. With a single arm she raises the sniper rifle, its central competent absorbing bright particles from the air, shines bright over the hellish fiery landscape.

The trigger snaps, the gun recoils upward from a burst of forces accompanied by a ring air pressure of a banging sonic boom. A singular bright cyan bullet moves from left to right and so forth in an erratic manner towards her target.

The Phantasm snaps towards Shiro, unleashing the flaming sphere from its jaw, however it dissipates into thin air as the bullet bursts through like a mere soap bubble. The velocity sends the bullet through its skull, before returning to its rib cage then to its hinds, zipping passes and returning through each skeletal part relentlessly.

One final curve leads right into Shiro who already ran up right under its hallowed belly, just right where its burning Module is attached. It flew into her grasp, clutching it into an fist bursting with ignited Alternium energy as she ready for one final attack.

“It’s game-over”

“GO FOR IT SHIRO!!”

With all that's left in her body, Shiro fist contacted directly on its Module, breaking through radiating Alternium force and finally shattering its power source off completely. A flash of blinding light engulfed both linker’s sight as they braced for the explosion from their final attack.

The Phantasm cries out in a roar for one last time before emptiness settles in. The crackling of flames turns into stillness of wind, the pale colors of the veil dissipate into the bright blue sky with the afternoon sun illuminating the now ashen landscape.

“W-We… We won…” Aiko mutters as she stares into the level of Alternium concentration dropping to zero.