Chapter 37: Raging Star Mode

Chapter 37: Raging Star Mode

Raider tilts his head, staring at Zeth in confusion. “Raging Star Mode?”

Zeth grins. “Just watch!”

A dark red aura forms around Zeth’s whole body, which becomes tinted dark red in the process. The aura’s outer edges become intense, crackling like an army of spikes protracting and retracting. The aura is so intense that it tears at the ground he stands on. He glares at his enemies with the same level of intensity in his eyes.

“I’ll make this quick,” he growls, his voice deepening.

Grode charges his magic energy, shockwaves being released in all directions around him. “You’re only trying to look and sound tougher. But you’re still nothing compared to us.” He jumps at an arching angle as he screams, “Earthquake Slam!!”

Zeth stands firm as Grode attempts to slam his entire body with pulsating intensity down onto him.

“Get lost,” Zeth utters in his deep serious voice before thrusting his fist straight into Grode’s gut, dealing pain so severe, his eyes seemingly bulge out as he coughs up blood.

Zeth shouts, “Raging Star Blast!”

A star with a raging trail of energy blasts through Grode’s entire body and out through his back, sending him away, and his body lands on the ground, dead.

Raider stares in complete shock, unable to believe Zeth could do that to Grode.

“Grode! Grode!! Grode!!!!”

Raider turns his attention to Zeth, no longer smirking or smiling slyly. Now, he is filled with pure anger.

“I’ll kill you!! You bastard!!!”

Moth wings grow from his back, a beetle shell on the front side of his torso, ant antennas from his head, eyes changing into compound eyes, wasp stingers growing from all fingers, and his mouth growing spider fangs.

“This is my full power!” he declares.

“You just look like an ugly insect mutant to me,” Zeth replies.

Raider takes flight and flies in circles in the air above Zeth.

“Do you plan to fight, or are you going to fly like an annoying bug?” Zeth asks mockingly.

Raider dives at Zeth in a downward diagonal angle, readying his stinger fingers.

Zeth jumps away at the last moment, but Raider quickly changes his direction.

“He’s fast,” Zeth mutters.

“My senses are far sharper now! I can tell you are going to move before you even do it!” Raider yells.

With no time to dodge, Zeth uses his right arm to block, but Raider pierces it with five stinger fingers, injecting venom. However, Zeth raging aura tears his fingers, destroying the stingers.

Zeth retaliates with a powerful kick, knocking Raider back. But Raider quickly recovers and flies around again.

Zeth grits his teeth as he looks at his arm, swelling up due to the venom.

“Your raging aura may have destroyed my stingers, but the damage has been done!” Raider shouts.

“I don’t need both arms to beat you,” Zeth replies, not losing any confidence.

“Let’s see how you handle this then!!” Raider screams as he divebombs toward Zeth.

Zeth stands his ground, bending his knees and curling his fingers. “Bring it.”

As Raider closes in, he bares his spider fangs, however, Zeth grabs him by his fangs with both hands. Though, his right arm shakes, struggling to hold.

“I’ll inject spider venom this time!!” Raider declares.

Zeth stays in place, struggling to hold back Raider’s fangs, but his raging aura tears away at them.

“I don’t think these look good on you,” Zeth jokes in a serious tone as he begins pulling on Raider’s fangs.

Realizing he’s not getting any closer to biting Zeth, his eyes widen with shock. “No way!! One of your arms is barely holding on and yet I still can’t push through!?”

A moment later, Zeth rips off Raider’s spider fangs. “You don’t need these either!!” Zeth yells as he uses the fangs to pierce through Raider’s moth wings and into his back.

“Gaaaahhh!!!!” Raider screams as he falls to the ground, completely flightless.

Zeth slams his fist down into Raider’s back, causing him to scream in pain again, this time with enough power to end his transformation.

With Raider unable to fight anymore, Zeth ends his Raging Star Mode and then flips Raider on his back.

“Talk,” Zeth commands in a serious tone. “I want answers! Who is your leader?! What is that strange vehicle?! What do the Hawks want?!

Seeming to be barely conscious, Raider coughs before answering. “Fine, you win. Our leader is among the nine of us. His name is Tazer.”

Zeth rubs his chin, trying to process the name. “Tazer, you say?”

“Yes, he is the one who received the job offer from the Hawk Clan,” Raider replies. “The vehicle, as you saw, can be used as a cannon. It confines lots of energy and then shoots it out in a ball shape, exploding on contact. The vehicle also expands and can be used to carry any people or things we poach. As for the Hawk Clan, they are just our employer so we don’t know much beyond them wanting the total imprisonment and destruction of the Eagle Clan. They are paying us a lot of money for this job. 50 million Doles for the capture of 500 Eagle Clan members.”

Zeth clenches his teeth and hands, furrowing his brows. “You did all this for money!? You disgust me!”

“We are no saints!” Raider declares with a sudden burst of energy despite his condition. “We are not just gonna turn down that much money for something we are capable of doing! If you don’t like it, then go after the rest of us! But beware, the Hawk Clan’s strongest warrior, Gorge, is here too. If you encounter him, you will die.”

“We’ll see about that,” Zeth states.

“One last thing. There is a password that allows access to the controls of the vehicle that we call ‘Jail Bus’. The secret password can be pulled from the first letter of each of our names. Those letters spell out a word and that word is the password.”

“Just tell me what the password is.”

“I won’t tell you everything because I don’t fully trust you not to kill me so figure it out yourself.”

“…Fair enough.”

There is a brief pause in the conversation before Raider finally talks again.

“…What is your name?”

“What?” Zeth asks in confusion.

“We introduced ourselves to you, but you never introduced yourself to us… So what is your name?”

“…Zeth.”

Raider opens his eyes wider, his body trembling. “Zeth…?” He has a brief flashback where Tazer says to the whole groups, “We are to avoid harming someone named Zeth. Udana is threatening to kill us all if we do.” His flashback ends.

“Take me away…” Raider mutters in fear. “Take me to prison! A deep underground dungeon! I don’t care! Anywhere but here!”

Five Magic Guardsmen of the Eagle Clan arrive on the scene. They’re clad in blue button-up uniforms and wear large blue caps with white feathers circling the rim.

“You there, we’re searching the city, a male Magic Guardsmen says. “There are members of a poacher group at large. Do you have any information on that?”

“Yes, and here is one of them,” Zeth replies. “Take him away to prison. As far as I know, there are still seven left.”

“Nice work, citizen,” the guard says with an appreciative smile.

The Magic Guardsmen grab Raider and take him away while Zeth appears to be deep in thought. He thinks, “Grode and Raider… So, two letters of the password are G and R.”

He looks out to another part of the city, saying to himself, “I hope everyone else is doing okay.”

***

Meanwhile, at Zeth’s parents’ house.

A bookcase has been moved out of the way, and behind it is a dark passage. Miranda stares into the dark passage.

She thinks, “Should I enter and grab ‘that’?”

She takes one step forward but then stops. She thinks, “No… It’s still not the right time. I won’t bring it out until I see ‘him’ again. I’ll trust Zeth and his friends to defeat the invaders and protect the people of this city.”

The bookcase closes automatically and blocks the dark passage. She walks away, a frown strown across her face.

Zeth has defeated both of his poacher opponents! But what is this dark passage in Miranda’s home?

Chapter 37 END

To be Continued in Chapter 38: Kurt vs Easia – What Master Dom Taught Me