Give Up

*Cough cough*

Henry lay on the ground, coughing up blood. Kaito stood beside him while Xavian and Gurkin sat to the side, recuperating.

“You… have defeated me,” Henry barely announced. “Finish the job, Kaito.”

“It doesn’t have to end this way,” Kaito suggested. “As long as you all stop your evil ways, you don’t have to die.”

Henry let out a small laugh, but immediately started coughing from his injuries.

“You show mercy to your enemies,” Henry stated, coughing once more. “You’re naive, Kaito. Our faith lies with Kouki. If you let us live, we will pursue you again.”

“Why are you so faithful to him?” Kaito asked. “Why can’t you just leave him like Shen?”

Henry slowly turned his head to look at Kaito. “I’m sure you understand. What it’s like having an irreplaceable ally…”

Kaito immediately thought of Rina. He couldn’t combat Henry’s statement. Henry looked back into the sky upon realizing Kaito, like himself, had someone important to him.

“Always fight for your allies, Kaito,” Henry stated.

Henry raised his hand to the sky, and his Astral Greatsword flew into his hands. Before Kaito could yell for Henry to stop, he thrust his sword into his chest.

“I will… do this final deed… for you, but in the future… don’t falter,” Henry muttered. Henry’s eyes began to close, never to open again, so he said his last words, “Feel free to use my Astral Greatsword… Goodbye, Kaito.”

Kaito and Gurkin had a moment of silence for Henry as Xavian was completely passed out. Even if he was the enemy, they didn’t want anybody to die.

“Papa?” Fiona said in an undertone, appearing behind Kaito. “What happens now?”

Kaito couldn’t answer; Gurkin had to step in.

“You still have somewhere to be, Kaito,” Gurkin stated. “It’s about time you take off.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Far down the road to Nakamura, more of the Relic Raiders stood before another enemy.

“Yumi, you know you don’t have to do this,” Shen stated.

“On the contrary, you know I do,” Yumi responded as she blocked the path of advance. “I’ve let your group escape me too many times, so I at least need to uphold my fair share of work this time.”

Yumi stopped Shen, Celeste, Evona, and Lessia. The others managed to get ahead of her with Shen’s teleportation magic.

“Let’s have some fun, shall we?” Yumi announced as she proceeded to attack.

She waved her hand forward, causing flowered foliage to grow aggressively towards the group. Shen created a small barrier to block the attack, making the flower attack’s petals disperse around the group.

Shen covered his nose and mouth to stop himself from inhaling the aftereffects of Yumi’s attack, but the others did not. Although Celeste was unaffected by the ailments, Evona and Lessia promptly fell asleep.

“Celeste,” Shen ordered vaguely.

“Understood, Master Shen,” Celeste responded, knowing what Shen alluded to.

Celeste quickly used her healing magic to heal Evona and Lessia from their slumber.

Shen then counter-attacked, launching orbital projectiles at Yumi. She ran and dodged the projectiles, using hedges to block some of them.

Shen adapted and spawned portals to redirect the projectiles sporadically until they successfully hit Yumi.

“Yumi, you know I outmatch you,” Shen stated.

“Maybe, but I can still stall you with my healing,” Yumi responded as she fully healed herself. “Healing is much more up my alley after all.”

“I know,” Shen acknowledged. “Despite that, you still choose to fight without knowing any damaging spells.”

Shen then glanced towards Evona.

“It’s Evona’s turn!” Evona announced as she started running towards Yumi.

Yumi grew another hedge towards Evona, but she pivoted to the side successfully. Evona closed the distance, but a large flower grew from the side of the hedge and spewed pollen at Evona.

Inhaling the pollen, Evona dropped to the ground and fell asleep, but from afar, Celeste woke Evona up again with her healing magic.

Evona reagthered herself and continued the chase.

Yumi then sprouted a large flower that grew underneath her and encapsulated her whole body. Evona slashed at the flower, but her attack was deflected entirely.

“Now, Lessia,” Shen ordered again.

Lessia transformed into her older form and applied Level Boost to Evona. Feeling a surge of energy, Evona attacked the flower pod again, slashing it open.

Yumi looked at Evona, who had barged into her bunker, partially annoyed and shocked. Before Yumi could act, Evona attacked, activating her Gash skill.

Yumi screamed in pain, but toughed it out to grow some vines to try and bind Evona, but Shen spawned a portal underneath Evona to get her out of the situation.

With some distance created, Yumi tried to heal her wound, but it failed.

“An anti-healing skill!?” Yumi deduced.

Yumi looked up and witnessed worse. She was surrounded by more of Shen’s orbital projectiles. She moved slightly to the side, but the projectiles followed her.

Yumi then looked towards the group of Relic Raiders and Shen; they were all buffed from the effects of Level Boost, and to top it all off, Shen’s eyes glowed orange.

Yumi made a small laugh before activating Infinity herself, causing her eyes to glow green. She sprouted multiple vines towards all of the orbital projectiles all at once. Shen deactivated her vines with a Disable spell before his projectiles darted towards Yumi.

They all hit, but Yumi immediately healed off the damage.

Shen then used a Gravity, a spell that controls gravitational direction and speed, to plummet Yumi to the ground. Evona followed up and ran towards Yumi to unleash another Gash attack. Shen aided Evona’s approach, utilizing Gravity sideways to increase her speed.

Evona rocketed at Yumi, preparing an attack that could all but kill Yumi, until it happened…

“THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!!!” Yumi shouted in complaint, deactivating Infinity, “I give up!”

Shen immediately halted Evona mid-air, causing her strike to whiff as she spun mid-air from being held up in zero gravity.

Yumi pouted and threw a tantrum, “How am I supposed to do anything here!? You completely counter-picked me, Shen!”

Shen awkwardly scratched his head; he knew this side of Yumi. Celeste stood emotionless, as Lessia and Evona were very confused.

“Anti-healing and status removal!?” Yumi continued. “I already can’t win against you, Shen, and you're making yourself stronger with buffs!?

“Nope!”

“I’m not doing this!”

“I GIVE UP!”

“You’re not cut out for evildoing, Yumi…” Shen stated.