Dangerous Scar

Kuroki was heading towards where his friends were when he saw someone in his rearview mirror following him. It wasn't just one person, but a trio of three identical motorcyclists. They were driving at dangerously high speeds, so Kuroki had to floor the accelerator. Luckily, his car was also very powerful. And he would never run out of gas, as he could replace it with his power.

He took a closer look at his pursuers; they were women wearing tight black motorcycle overalls, with white helmets and black visors covering their faces. Their motorcycles were also identical.

Are they clones of a single person? If that's their power, they would need a weapon to cause me any harm.

"Iroko, I'm on my way, but I'll need your help again," he said on the phone.

"Is someone following you?" Iroko predicted.

"You guessed right. There are three motorcyclists. Do you think you can kill them?"

"M-Motorcyclists?! I don't have that kind of accuracy, man!"

"What if I drive towards you? Would that make things easier for you?"

"I don't know, man, they can still drive sideways, no? I can't hit targets moving that fast."

"Then it's time to practice your aim," Kuroki said as he hung up the phone.

Eh?! Iroko exclaimed internally. He slowly turned to look at Kasugo. "Kuroki needs help. Three bikers are following him, we need to take them down."

"Easier said than done," he replied.

"Right?! How are we going to pull that off?"

Kuroki turned the corner, entering Iroko's field of vision. He used the infinite zoom; they were very far away, but they moved in a straight line towards him, making it seem as if they were standing still. Iroko didn't waste a second and shot one of the motorcyclists, the bullet taking a while to hit.

As soon as her helmet visor broke and she fell off the motorcycle, the other two sped up, almost catching up with Kuroki. Iroko aimed at another and fired again, killing her. However, an electric current connected the two motorcycles, which overtook Kuroki's car in the middle of the road. The electricity disabled his car. The empty bike fell down, leaving only one.

Kuroki tried to fix the car with his powers, but the shock was persistent and repeatedly disabled it, until he gave up. Because of the tires, he wasn't shocked, but he was an easy target there, so he abandoned the car and started running towards his friends.

The remaining motorcyclist continued advancing, nearly hitting Iroko and Kasugo. Iroko aimed his sniper rifle at her, but she was already too close. Kasugo painted her, ready to strike her with his metal bat. It looked like she was going to run him over, but she quickly turned and escaped. Iroko turned to shoot at her, but she kept dodging in a zigzag pattern.

As Kuroki ran, he was distracted enough not to notice the horseman chasing him. He wielded a red lance with a blade at the tip and rode a swift, well-trained horse.

"Kuroki, watch out!" Kasugo shouted, as he was the only one who had noticed the enemy. He tried to spray Kuroki, but Kuroki jumped away as he turned around. The horseman struck him in the neck with the spear, decapitating him. The spear was hot, interfering with the restoration power, although he was fast enough to create a new head.

Kasugo jumped and levitated with his hoverboard towards the horseman, spraying him and his spear to decrease their durability. He then swung his enforced metal bat and broke through the spear, striking the man's head and shattering his skull.

Iroko was still trying to hit the motorcyclist, as he and couldn't lose focus on his target and trusted Kasugo to take care of Kuroki. Suddenly, the woman fell off the motorcycle due to an apparently unseen attack.

This kind of attack... Minako?

"Kuroki!" Kasugo shouted as he helped his friend stand. Iroko ran towards them.

"I'm okay..." Kuroki assured him, though he seemed distressed. "Just a little confused..."

There were some burn marks on Kuroki's neck. "You can't heal those, can you?" Iroko asked, worried.

"I'm alright... I managed to repair my head before my neck was completely cauterized."

"Don't you think stitching your head back would be better?" Iroko said, pointing to his friend's decapitated head lying nearby.

"Nah, it could make things worse if the wound burned even more, so let's just leave it like this."

Kasugo noticed someone running toward them. This time, it wasn't an enemy. "Minako!" he said, relieved. "You're finally here."

Most of her body was still a green grid, but part of it had already healed.

"Let's go, everyone," said Kuroki. "Let's find a place to rest for now. Iroko, can you drive? You're the one in better condition here."

"Drive?" Iroko asked, pointing at himself with a confused expression. "But isn't the car disabled?"

"The three motorcyclists are dead, their power has probably ended by now."

They looked at the car; it seemed to be fine, especially because it had no exterior damage.

They left the event area, with Kuroki guiding Iroko to a distant hotel. Of course, they searched for other players, but most were still at the event or had already died.

"Iroko, Kasugo, can you reserve a room for us?" Kuroki asked, pointing to his own green head. "Minako and I aren't in a condition to show up like this."

He handed them his credit card. Kasugo paused before getting out of the car, worried about his friend. "Please don't push yourself, boss. If you lose consciousness, you and Minako will die instantly."

"You don't have to tell me twice. My blood supply to the brain is damaged, but I'm not going to die so easily."

"Don't move, Iroko and I will help you with any movement. If something else breaks in your neck, you could lose the rest of your body."

"Yeah, yeah, I just need to lie down for a while, and the healing will probably be faster."

"Got it, boss." Kasugo nodded and got out of the car with Iroko. After reserving the room, they helped Kuroki out of the car and into their new bedroom. Minako was already able to move normally, as her brain had been fixed. Of course, everyone around them thought it was strange how parts of their bodies were glowing green, but no one seemed to suspect they were players.

They laid him down so he could rest and focus more on his power.

"Everyone, we're going to Episan Island tomorrow," Kuroki said.

"Eh?" Kasugo muttered. "You're kidding, right?"

"Now we know that he and Blazy are working together and that she went somewhere with him. They can only be there, in his safe space."

"Boss, you're in no condition to fight."

"That's why I'm only going to support you this time."

"Still, it's too dangerous. Do you have enough points to heal burn scars, at the very least?"

"Not yet. But I know a way to heal my body completely."

"Wait, you're not implying..." Iroko trailed off, realizing what his plan was.

"You got it right, Iroko. Blazy was able to disintegrate Minako's body, which made it easier to repair her entirely."

"Wait a second, are you plotting suicide?" Kasugo asked, perplexed. "We still don't know the full extent of Blazy's power. What if her fireballs actually cauterize your wounds instead of completely destroying your body?"

"Minako can help with that." Kuroki looked at her. She nodded, understanding his intentions. She sent him a message, explaining what she saw at the rooftop. Kasugo read it aloud.

"Still, we don't know if she can control the size of her fireballs willingly," Kasugo argued.

"That's probably not the case, Kasugo," Iroko commented. "Did you see the chaos she caused with that barrage of fireballs? There's no way she could control their size precisely. It wouldn't be fair according to the rules of the game."

"Are you Pivot, by any chance?" he asked ironically. "We don't get to decide what's fair."

"You got a point..."

"But she could hit a moving plane in the air from kilometers away," Kuroki added.

"So she can control the trajectory, but not the size?" Iroko asked.

"It was probably a homing skill that allowed her to do that. Hitting a taget that fast with just a few controls would be too hard for anyone."

"Then why did she miss us?" Kasugo asked.

"She probably thought you were dead," said Kuroki. "Or she can't target living beings."

"So, we just have to stay away from her so she can destroy our entire body instead of leaving scars? That sounds a bit dangerous to me."

"It's like killing three birds with one stone. I get to repair my body; we kill Episan, one of Blazy's power sources; and we finish off Blazy herself."

"I don't think it will be that easy," commented Iroko.