Coalition member # 74: “Es – Escape? W – Wh – Why should we escape from this place?”

Coalition member # 75: “Dummy! Obviously it’s due to those quakes earlier! Both Captain Taluya and vice – captain Brad Davidson – they told us everything that they sensed. With Captain’s seeing and Brad’s sensitivity, we really didn’t have any problems discovering what’s been happening to the other teams. Something extremely scary most likely occurred within the forest…”

Coalition member # 76: “Did they trigger a trap, or were they hunted down…? Remember what they said? Captain Taluya said that she saw Team 4 betray and attack each other until only the captain wa left – and the losers each disappeared somehow. Then the captain suddenly vanished as well. Second to go was a group of 50 well trained individuals she claims were at the entrance of the forest. They suddenly disappeared from their stationed spots, and reappeared in the air. At first they all tried their best to remain afloat by bringing out different flying - style abilities – but as hard as those 50 tried, they were still immediately sent plummeting to the ground below! Again, after crashing and not moving, they began to disappear. Although Captain said a few still got up fairly quickly, they too vanished without a trace.”

Vice - Captain Brad Davidson: “I remember sensing intensely flowing power fluctuations throughout the location of sky those fifty were reportedly hovering in. If it’s true, then they really tried to stay afloat, but something strange eradicated the fluctuation on flowing energy and made the sky feel … eerily quiet.”

Coalition member # 77: “Don’t forget, there was also the first earthquake. When Captain reactivated her powers to investigate, she found out that the Team with power nullification abilities were all deserting! Or some of them were anyway… but they didn’t get far, because soon after they started to run, a gigantic hole replaced the ground they stood on.”

Coalition member # 78: “Wait… if Tea-Teams 4 and 5 had bad things happen to them… and even that team of 50… whoever they were, suffered before they could enter the forest too deeply, the-th-then what about Team 6?”

Coalition member # 79: “Team 6? They were squashed. They specialize in givin’ buffs to other people, but when push comes to shove, they couldn’t do anythin’ as a mountain fell on top of them. At least, that’s what Cap Taluya was sayin’ somethin’ like, when she was last usin’ her power.”

Coalition member # 80: “She didn’t SAY anything rude such as that! All she noted was how strange it was that their magic destroyed each other and how strange it looked for them to suddenly fall from the sky! Vice – Captain Brad said that the energy fluctuations around them all disappeared instantly, just as those strange 50 or so members did, right before both parties began falling from the sky!”

Coalition member # 81: “Mo-Mountain? Are you sure it was a mountain and not an earth kinetic skill? Because there aren’t any other mountains here except those two small ones at the back of the school; and I’m pretty sure there would be an uproar as people here watch one of their only mountains disappear and crash at this forest. Besides, those two mountains aren’t that much smaller than this ENTIRE forest. If it was really a mountain, we’d all be dead, wouldn’t we?”

Coalition member # 82: “Even if it wasn’t a mountain, it was a mountain-like thing so who cares!”

Coalition member # 74: “Hahaha! Look – look! Team 4 tried making fun of us at the start and what happened to them? They did themselves in so quickly! If it wasn’t for Captain watching over the forest with her extremely overpowered ‘Captain’s Gaze’ technique, we might have ended up in a similar situation as any one of them! Thank goodness we have Captain’s power.”

Coalition member # 83: “Heheh, You… you people all talk as if we’re safe. Who cares if we KNOW what happened to the other 4 teams of people?? Doesn’t that mean we’re all next?!”

Captain Taluya: “That group of 50… they were probably sent by the Spectral Daggers. I don’t know why they were here, or what their mission is. Regardless, they were defeated so soundly… We can’t take this situation as lightly as before. Mainly because, with all outside communication gone, we are the last group remaining that can report to the bosses of our Mercenary Coalition. Escape! But fan out first! This is definitely not a trap, but targeted assaults! Somebody knew we were coming! Furthermore, I think this person is capable of targeting us from afar, but he isn’t showing himself in person. I don’t believe he’ll be able to get all of us if we take as much distance from each other as possible! Because so far, all of the groups were taken down one by one, while they were clumped together. This person is clearly powerful enough to take them out yet there was no evidence of taking out multiple targets at different distances or else, why not just target all of the groups at one time? Why resort to guerrilla tactics?”

Vice – Captain Brad Davidson: “Well, wait a moment, Captain. Even if what you said is a valid possibility, isn’t your assumption also a bit of a stretch? Thinking back some, if this is the work of one fellow or a small group of people, then it’s natural to attack using hit - and - run or guerrilla warfare - style tactics. We simply outnumber them. No matter how powerful they are, if they have to fight against all of us, then taking us out one by one is the sounder approach. At least, that’s what I think about the matter.”

Captain Taluya: “Even so… that doesn’t really discredit what I said. While it’s true that we can’t discount their choice in favor of targeting groups because it’s the logical approach, which doesn’t really TELL us that they have limits, your point about us ‘outnumbering’ them clearly supports my insinuation: that this person or group of people targeted us team – by - team, because we outnumbered him or her and made them resort to avoiding our superior numbers. Even if I’m jumping the gun again, I still think our only choice here is to spread out and test their abilities while escaping. They can’t possibly stop ALL of us from leaving! Imagine trying to stop two thousand people from escaping at two thousand different exit points! For some reason, they can handle many enemy targets in one position – then, why not spread out and test our luck?”

Coalition member # 84: “Umm, guys? Should ... Should we really be wasting time talking here?”

…

Captain Taluya: “Spread out! Even if it’s only one member delivering the message, we must escape from this place!”

*FWOOSH!*

*FWOO-FWOOSH!*

Two thousand mercenaries decided to follow orders silently, and without another word. A woman with a cold countenance raised her hands high – and as she did so, a chilling, frosty mist rolled out through the surrounding forest – being tactically spreading far and wide as it was carried along by the autumn winds. The forest’s temperature dropped in a matter of minutes.

By taking advantage of the change in temperature, a man activated his own ability – ‘Cold Communication’. One held the uncanny ability to spread a chilling fog that slowly saps the heat away from her target’s body. The other was a man that held the ability to effectively utilize cold winds to relay messages and communicate. Finally, a third mercenary from Team seven let her eyes take up a cyan blue tinge. The air around her solidified into ice, and swiftly took the structural shape of sharp winged bats. Each wing harbored what appeared to be icicles at varying tips, along with small icicles for claws. They didn’t have mouths, but they had large eye sockets with a cyan energy acting as a replacement by replicating individual pupils. One screeched, following another, and very soon another. This woman used up nearly all her energy to create over a thousand bat golems from the cold air and fog surrounding. Her ability allowed her to turn water vapor into solid form, but there had to be a vast quantity of it or the power wouldn’t activate.

These three never met before this mission, nor did they know about each other’s powers. However there was one thing they had going for them – all of Team 7 had unique abilities that required special conditions to activate. That meant, for these two thousand individuals of the coalition who were normally looked down on, one of the most important traits they each acquired was to take advantage of sudden changes in the area. If they couldn’t set up a profitable ‘condition’ to make use of their powers, then they were bound to fail wherever they went, no matter how many missions they were taken on.

As for Mr. Abrams… He had already begun picking them off, one by one.

The first to notice was a bespectacled man with the ability called ‘counting’. It allowed him to ‘count’ the number of people, places or things he ‘touched’ before. Normally not that useful except inside an ordinary environment, but considering their mercenary company just joined together with 5 other companies in order to form a six man coalition, the Ghastly Seal – Breakers felt it may come in handy to bring him along.

Well, he DID come in handy at this time, because his ability to count those he touches also tells him when someone he touched has left his range...and 146 team 7 mercenaries have already vanished!

Even though Mr. Abrams isn’t actually taking them far, only into the sleep room of Dormitory two, he DID set up anti – detection measures that greatly surpass anything the ragtag bunch of mercenaries before him could muster up. Naturally, this ‘counting’ man’s power lost contact the moment those teammates disappeared.

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