Noel: “…”

{This cooky old man is nuts!}

Ordinary bullets were never a problem. Neither were blades, saws, chakrams or any ‘metal’ device. Only the weapons made by his family have ever worked on him.

...but the gravity – imbued ones…

I don’t know what that ‘other force hidden within the guy’s attacks was, but it couldn’t have been gravity alone. Gravity isn’t really designed to make people ‘faster’, just heavier or lighter. This must be the work of that ‘Spacial’ thing he said earlier on in the battle.}

The ‘moon’ slowly descended, and Noel’s final struggle had begun.

*BOOM!*

A scary amount of force was applied to his right foot as he tried feinting towards his right, before moving to his left unfortunately for him, however: twin chakrams flew in front in a rushful bout to halt his progress.

As fast as his body would react, he swerved around them with ease, but 20 were flying in erratic patterns and a few happened to be heading for the location he intended to gravitate toward.

Forced to stop, Noel decided instead, to make his body move to the other side of those saws!

...Only to find a couple of bullets heading there as well. The boy briefly entertained the thought of jumping over the weapons with his body’s strength, but quickly dispersed such thoughts as swift as they formed!

Without any other choice but to get hurt or retreat back towards the center, he finally gave up thinking of escape.

Fuck it! They’re just bullets!

He didn’t waste anymore time. His hands moved like an illusion, one palm for each bullet.

Catching them all like a magic trick. Mr. Abrams would be so proud right about now – especially how he makes them vanish the second they’re caught in between his index finger and thumb!

After catching them all, not even a full second had passed yet. This meant he had enough time to burst through the area where those bullets were guarding!

...Or so he thought until he saw a number of blades unified behind the bullets. his ‘magic trick’ still took too long in the end.

But what can he do?

He charged at the blades ahead and instead of disintegrating them with his fingers, opted instead to punch them with full force!

*THOOM!*

The space shook from the pressure...but the blades didn’t budge an inch.

...Why?!

Any NORMAL sword should’ve been crushed into powder!

...Could the blades be special?

Could Origin Energy be THAT powerful??

...Could he be fucked right now?

.

.

.NO!

A flurry of rapid punches struck the twin blades, which finally relented and flew backwards...and that wasn't ALL they did. Those blows scattered the bullets heading his way, even managing to crush the nearby chakrams from the pressure released alone! But after the two swords flew back...they charged again! The two deadly blades acted as if they were only redirecting their aim!

.

.

And they were incredibly fast too!

Unlike the bullets which were easy to catch by applying a speed faster than theirs, as well as a force overpoweringly stronger than their rotation: these two blades managed to catch up to Noel with absolute ease! They almost seemed clumsy in a way, considering they kept charging on after he cocked his head over in order to dodge.

{...Seems he can’t control it. In that case…}

Noel danced again, but this time it was only brief. That’s because he managed to pick up on One’s inexperience using such extraordinarily fast blades. There was no way the man would be proficient at his first few go’s. Noel used that to his own advantage and dodged expertly, fooling the two blades into continuously striking each other! After a few momentary clashes, Noel punched one of them the moment it shook – snapping it in half. The recoil from the twin blades clashing together drove the resulting shock into their physical forms. All it took was one slight final push to break them, and he did so with ease.

Noel: I did it! I--”

but the broken blades didn’t move just yet. Instead of making way for him, they continued to impede his movement. That 6% Origin energy was no joke!

And even worse: the bomb had already arrived.

*BOOM!*

Soil flew everywhere and trees perished in the double digits. The world felt like it had been triggered to shake, although it didn’t.

Beneath such pressure, all he managed to accomplish was lift his hand as a force thousands of times heavier than what this forest could handle began bearing down on him. All he could do was lift his hands up to press against it.

Yes, that’s all he could do…

Yet that was all he ‘needed’ to do: since, just like during the quintuplets’ mission, Noel’s mere ‘touch’ hastily evaporated the blast like a bubble.

Well, a bubble that shook the entire forest.

After the soil subsided, Noel was starting to feel a bit proud of himself. Then the myriad of blades, bullets and chakrams flew towards him all at once.

Although they were all glowing with an invisible hue, he felt no fear even the least.

That’s because they’re all just as slow as the ones from earlier when dealing with the saws.

Or, well...almost all.

*SWOOSH!!*

2 weapons, a sword and a chakram pair dove out of the crowd, as if to silence Noel’s judgmental thoughts about them being slow.

...We are not slow!

So to speak.

THIS time, Noel couldn’t avoid getting struck. He was in the midst of dodging more than hundreds of bullets, close to 30 metallic weapons like blades, saws and chakrams and CONSTANTLY looking up in case another ‘moon’ crashes down on him.

It, sadly, provided One the chance he needed. With a snap of his fingers, a minuscule strand of magnetic energy floated to the boy’s back. If there was ANY moment to insert his magnetic energy inside of the boy in order to control him – then it was now!

But as the energy came closer…

a soft white light filled everybody’s vision.

A moment of confusion followed after, before Noel felt a weird sensation violently ripple throughout his body.

...he couldn’t move!

It was an instance only, yet in that instant...hundreds of bullets, swords, chakrams and saws came into contact with him.

Happening concurrently...

.

.

.

*BOOM!*

Again, the world felt like it was shaking – or at least the forest did.

One ignored the matter, quickly watching with glee to see the handiwork of his masterful plan!

…

He was crestfallen. Severely crestfallen at what he, instead, witnessed.

Out of the myriad of weapons he unleashed: only two cut into Noel’s body. A Chakram dug deep into his right shoulder, while a sword embedded into his left leg. The rest: bullets and all, looked as flat as accordions right after running into something extremely sturdy, or logic – defyingly unbreachable.

Blood flowed from his injuries, trickling off the metal and drenching both his shoes, plus the soil surrounding. The invasive sword dug deeper into his leg while the yo-yo like chakram hummed back and forth, imitating One’s broken saws from earlier.

…

…

It was painful, but Noel neither flinched nor cried. His eyes didn’t shift or change in any way, shape or form. Neither did his hands, wrists or limbs tremble from the shock, pain and possible outcomes leading to his demise…

Yes. Despite how painful things were – Noel would never show it on his face. This was a rule of his, and one that ‘every’ Malierano was forced to learn at some point of their childhood.

Noel, even more so than his siblings.

Still. Even if he doesn’t express it physically, or react to the pain itself: ‘special’ memories will occasionally trigger him.

Like right now.

His body tightened for a moment, just before softening. This feeling: it reminded him of something...and someone whom he never wanted to remember.

…

Blood littered the boy’s body, the floor beneath where he was standing and One’s bent, accordion-like metal weapons that collapsed all around him. During the attack, One gave up controlling all of the useless tools in favor of those two uniquely upgraded murder tools.

Noel appeared to be at a disadvantage – And a severe one at that! He not only couldn’t move an inch, couldn’t scream for help and couldn’t launch an attack…

But he had a large sword that was digging inside of his left leg. A circular blade slicing deep into his shoulder, was constantly losing blood every wasted moment, and..!

his opponent was an expert long distance combatant as well.

{What the hell is WRONG with this guy?! Why is he so...prepared? Close combat is tough, long distance is tough, he can match me in power and has a gazillion contingencies!!! Just how do I win?}

It appeared that Noel was in a severe disadvantage.

Yes, it did appear that way...but NO.

It looks severely distressing for him, however it was only a MINOR disadvantage!

And why is that, you may be asking?

Because One has built up too much damage as well.

He resorted to a life threatening pill in order to save his life against a kid who nearly had him beat at the touch of a finger, had his kneecap crushed to bits, forcefully expended BOTH of his powers in a high-speed clash for a semi-long period of time, wasted all three artificial magnetic beasts gifted to him, used up a parade of costly – yet dangerous machinery, 26 out of 32 surgically implanted teleport patches - nearly his ENTIRE arsenal of them too – are forever expired…

.

.

…and, even though the last three aren’t physical losses...what IS considered a physical loss for the veteran combatant: One, is the actual strain his body suffered from applying the friction technique to himself, THEN stacking it with gravity strengthening and those life - threatening pills of his.

And this was only the FIRST child he encountered!

What would he do about the rest...

Moreover...an unsightly scene immediately ripped One’s attention away from his inner thoughts.

The powered up weapons currently twisting inside of, and hacking away at Noel, started to physically evaporate the instant they made contact with his blood. The halves touching his blood melted entirely, while the ends which fell into the bloody puddle began to sizzle.

In fact – every weapon broken and drenched in the boy’s blood was already sizzling with One none the wiser.

One: “...What the f-”

But RIGHT before he shifted his own focus on the next surprise Noel had in store for him…

He remembered something critical. It was something One overlooked because he’d been far too engrossed in conquering his young adversary during their scale-tipping hunt.

.

.

.

His team!! How are his teammates?!?!?!? What was that loud explosion?!?! Can it be connected to them?!

.

.

.

He exhaled a loud and audible gasp upon realization of a certain white light from before – one which reminded him of a very special team member, presently on the “Numbers”.

1: “SIX!”

---