Chapter 16 Hypersonic Javelin of Destruction

Before Arata’s team could even take a step to execute their desperate plan, one of the Shadows moved. It was a sleek, feminine form with a malevolent pink aura. It leaped forward with a shriek that tore at their minds.

"I will silence these pests before more show up! Die, human!"

It targeted Shota, its clawed hand swiping through the air unleashing a beam of condensed darkness straight at his chest.

The pale blue barrier snapped into existence around Shota just as the attack landed.

BOOM!

The impact was a deafening clap of thunder, and a shower of brilliant white sparks erupted where the shadowy claw met the impossible shield, illuminating the ruined street in a strobing light.

The feminine Shadow recoiled, its form flickering with shock.

"What?! How can this be?! I hit to kill, no holding back! How is this barrier still stand!"

It was the opening team needed.

"NOW! GO! RUN!" 

Arata, Mirai, and Enji didn't hesitate. They burst into motion, sprinting in three different directions—Arata down the main street, Mirai into a collapsed storefront, and Enji vaulting over a pile of rubble.

  "Go after them! Don't let them escape! I will finish this stubborn boy!"

The three other Ancient Shadows split up, each flowing like living night after a different target, leaving the pink Shadow alone to face the immovable object that was Shota. 

The feminine Shadow shrieked in frustration, unleashing a continuous beam of corrosive darkness against Shota's barrier. The air sizzled, and the ground around Shota's feet turned to dust, but the blue bubble held, an untouchable sphere.

"What ARE you?! How can this flimsy barrier take my hits!?"

Inside, Shota stood perfectly still, his eyes vacant. He wasn't fighting back. He was just... standing. Conserving every ounce of energy, doing exactly what his instructor said: being a target. 

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Mirai darted into the remains of a convenience store, the Red Shadow flowing after her. Suddenly, a rock drill erupted from the cracked tile floor, aiming for the creature's core.

The Shadow didn't even hesitate. It swung a clawed hand, and the drill shattered into harmless gravel.

Mirai stepped out from behind a collapsed shelf, a giggle escaping her lips. She wasn't afraid. Her eyes were wide, shining with a terrifying excitement. She tried to hide her wide, ecstatic smile behind her fingers, but it was useless. The sheer, unadulterated joy of the hunt was plastered across her face.

She backpedaled, luring the creature deeper into the dark, cavernous space at the back of the store—the storage area.

"Hey, hey, shadow-saaan~! Do you want to play? I know a fun game."

She paused at the entrance to the storage room, beckoning with one finger, her smile a crescent of razor blades.

"Follow me, I'll show you. Oh, shadow-saaaan~!"

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Enji sprinted down the ruined street. A building to his right suddenly exploded outward, not from a spell, but from sheer physical force. The largest of the Shadows, a hulking brute with a greedy, green-tinged aura, landed directly in his path, shaking the ground.

"Human child. Do not make me chase you. Unlike the others, I do not like to waste time. Now, be a good human and die."

Enji didn't break stride. A savage, exhilarated laugh ripped from his throat. 

"HAHA! You're the one who's going to die, TRASH!"

Blue flame erupted from his boots, the continuous explosion rocketing him forward like a missile. He launched himself at the colossal shadow.

"TAKE THIS! SUPER BLUE FLAME EXPLOSION KICK!"

He spun mid-flight, a human drill wreathed in blue fire and smashed his boot directly into the side of the Shadow's head, followed by explosion.

The Shadow's head merely tilted from the blow, its burning eyes narrowing. It had felt... something. An irritation.

"I'M NOT DONE YET, TRASH!" 

Using the momentum to execute a spinning backflip in the air, his other leg whipping around to connect with the Shadow's chin in a second, equally violent explosion.

Before he could even land, he thrust both hands forward. 

"THERE'S MORE! EAT THIS! SUPER BLUE FLAME GRENADE!"

A giant sphere of Blue Flame materialized and detonated point-blank in the Shadow's face. The force of his own blast hurled Enji backward through the air. He landed in a skidding crouch a dozen meters away.

"HOW DID YOU LIKE THAT, TRASH!?"

The Green Shadow stood burning in dissipating blue fire, its form completely intact.

"Human child. I told you I'm not like my fellow Ancient Shadows. I do not like to toy with my enemy. Make this easy for both of us."

He extended his hand forward. 

"Come willingly into my open hand, I will crush you in a blink of an eye. It will be quick death. No need to waste time. We both know how this ends."

Enji shouted, "Yeah, with you on the ground, trash!"

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Instructor Arata turned a sharp corner into an open intersection. As the Blue Shadow flowed around the corner after him, it was met not with a fleeing back, but with—

 "Gale Slicer!"

A single, near-invisible blade of compressed wind, sharper than any razor, shot forward. It passed clean through the Shadow without a sound and continued, shearing the abandoned office building behind it in two with a roar of collapsing concrete.

The Shadow looked down as its left arm, cleanly severed, dissolved into dark mist upon hitting the ground. The dark energy swirling to reform the limb in seconds.

"Foolish human. Do you not know we are beings of dark energy? Your cutting winds are useless. You must destroy the core."

 "Well, thank you for the lesson, shadow. But I wasn't trying to kill you with that one."

Above it, dozens of smaller, hyper-concentrated blades of wind—the real attack he had been silently preparing—rained down from the sky in a silent, devastating hailstorm. They shredded through the Shadow's form.

"I was just distracting you. And you fell for it."

Arata stood in the open, his hair whipped around his face.

"This far should be enough. Now let’s hope the others can hold out long enough. Just one more push… hold on, kids."

 Every gust struck the shadow from a different angle, carving lines of blue energy across its shifting form. The creature shrieked, body flickering in and out of shape, its substance torn apart.

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The Red Shadow was growing increasingly furious. Every step it took in the room was met with a trap. A steel drill jabbed from the shadows, scraping its leg. Another shot from the ceiling, forcing it to swat the projectile aside with a snarl of annoyance. 

With a roar of pure frustration, it unleashed a wave of dark energy, blowing the entire wall and the storage doors out into the street. The act revealed a carpet of pre-formed steel drills shooting towards it from every angle—the floor, the walls, the ceiling.

By the time it had shattered the last one into shrapnel, Mirai was already at the far exit, that same, unshakably ecstatic smile still plastered on her face, her attempt to hide it behind her fingers a complete failure.

"Hey, hey, shadow-saaan~! Come play outside~! I've got something else to show you! It will be so much fun, shadow-saaaan~!"

"You damn brat! Stop running like some rat! We have no time to mess with you! Come back here so I can kill you!"

But Mirai was already gone, only her haunting, gleeful giggle lingering in the air.

Enraged, the Shadow burst through the remains of the building, demolishing half of it in its exit. It scanned the street and found her. She wasn't running. She was standing at the far end, waiting.

Her Battle Dress was active, a sleek, magical armor hugging her form. But its attention was drawn to her right arm, where a massive, brutal steel drill had formed, raised high above her head like a lance. She slammed the drill onto the asphalt. It revved to life, spinning faster and faster, creating a vortex that sucked in the very air. The friction became immense, sparks flying, then igniting the compressed oxygen until the entire drill was covered in a screaming, blazing sheath of pure, white-hot plasma.

"Shadow–saaaan~! Shadow–saaaan~! Try to catch this! Devastator's Kiss!" 

The Shadow had a half-second to process the transformation before Mirai launched.

 She shot forward. From a standing start to a blinding flash, she became a hypersonic javelin of destruction. The street behind her melted into a trench of bubbling lava from the sheer thermal bleed-off.

In the blink of an eye, she was upon it, the plasma-drill aimed directly at the shadow.