Just as the strangely alien purple liquid slips through the hole in the flask and enters Ekitai’s open mouth similar to the golden brown liquor in the bottle Gally drinks from, Ekitai’s peaceful expression abruptly shifts to horror, his yellow eyes expanding as he pulls the flask off his mouth while spinning, placing the flask on the table just as he slips off his seat to spin to then face the exit door of the bar deck room, as past the several floating circular tables and accompanying chairs stands the man in the white mask and black hood, having just entered.

In the next instant, Gally’s eyes widen as he swiftly places his bottle down on the bar table too and slips off his seat, facing the door before the horror fully consumes him, his jaw dropping as he stumbles backwards, needing to grab onto the bar table’s rim to catch himself after knocking into the stool behind him.

In front of him Ekitai firmly stands his ground, and while he doesn’t have as outwardly terrified of a face, there’s a palpable dread cast through his eyes and tense expression.

On the other end of the room, the man takes one step forward, the blue pencil insignia on his chest lightly pulsing same as all the streaks that extend from it and spread over his body: along his arms in between the golden pauldrons and black gauntlets and down his abdomen and thigh beside the white padding. The frosty crystals also shimmer, the two on his shoulder blades carved similar to his emblem as well as the crystals reinforcing his knuckles, shins, and feet. The white mask beneath the hood conceals the face as the suit covers any glimpse of skin like the parallelogram lenses in place for the eyes, for the only semblance of humanity is the figure of a humanoid and a voice speaking in the English language even if the accent is distorted synthetically which itself deviates from human sound as it observes: “There you are,” as it glares straight for the leader of the pirates who stumbles back again.

The head then subtly turns towards the senile man in front before tilting slightly and noting in a tone that shifts to one of heightened curiosity: “You got here first Ekitai? Interesting, I can probably take it from here but you’re welcome to help,” before he then follows with a sequence of steps forward, his objective clearly stated as unchanged. While walking, he calmly raises his right hand as azure flames then ignite off his palm, first a random burst but one that refines and sculpts itself into a long dark steel hilt with a crossguard that is then gripped by all five fingers just as the hilt ignites a long energy blade, black as a signifier of Anti-Exmatter which has a flat end, as the weapon itself resembles a 16th century Executioner’s sword.

The simulated weight of the blade causes it to naturally be pulled down, though the man diverted its fall to instead be held out beside him, the blade angled down such that its tip grazes the wooden floor. His grip takes power, and he carries the sword on his march forward.

Panic covering Gally’s every motion, he glances at the opponent who finally found him, and then switches his glance to Ekitai who glances back at him, to which Gally stumbles backwards more as if in avoidance to both, being reminded that they’re his enemies who are hunting him down on the mission to destroy his pirate empire. That look of fear is caught by Ekitai, and upon realizing he too is a subject to be scared of, his jaw descends, becoming all the more horrified at the mess of this situation.

Unsure of how to act, Ekitai gulps before then facing back at the man with the sword. He takes a subtle step back himself before then reasoning in an oddly calm, persuasive voice: “Wait Meditat, we should probably not rush straight to action right?”

That plea halts the man’s march, who tilts his head in perplexion with his hilt still in hand as he asks in a perplexed tone, “Huh, what are you talking about?”

Suddenly Gally stops his retreat, also bewildered by the strange defense Ekitai gave, one in his favor despite the clarity that they were on opposite sides. He just stares at Ekitai speechless who gulps again before slowly raising his left hand forward as if to try easing a rabid dog as he explains though with a voice that noticeably wavers, “I mean like we should first analyze the situation and whatnot, Gally here didn’t order for the capture or even know about it after it happened, so like we don’t know what’s going on yet.”

Frozen in place behind the tables separating him from the two including his target, the man tilts his head the other way before reasoning, “He was still harboring them while aware of their captive state. It doesn’t matter the names of who participated in the raid, these pirates captured her, captured them, and have been holding them here. I’m not entirely certain what you’re getting at, I don’t understand the significance of this minor detail.”

That march only continues a few steps before stopping from Ekitai’s further persuasion as he slides his shoe back to stabilize his footing while contesting, “Wait, before we jump to any actions, we should just…you know…like how about we first talk to him so we understand everything you know? Just make sure we’re not missing details and whatnot.”

Befuddled by the odd argument, the man shakes his head before straightening it and investigating, “No…I don’t know. We’re not safe with him conscious, he’s a dangerous Exhuman, I’m unsure if I can even properly detain his power while he remains awake, if I were you I wouldn’t have your back on him. I do not doubt a thorough investigation will come with interrogations after we bring him in, if you’re this curious I will get a report of the findings, but once he’s dealt with, until then he’s a threat.” While the man is speaking, Ekitai averts his gaze quickly to the table beside him, specifically where his handgun is resting flat, but he faces forward right after.

Right as the man raises his foot to take a step, Ekitai takes a short step forward with his hand still held out, and he speaks with more power to dispute desperately, “Wait you’re not listening to me, he’s not a threat, let’s slow down!”

“You be careful,” abruptly warns the man in a stern voice as he finishes that step forward before appending: “Not a threat? Ekitai, he’s the leader of this fortress, of the pirate faction who we’ve just been fighting, and surprisingly one of the stronger Exhumans I’ve faced. You’re the one acting carelessly, get away from him, you’re well within his reach.”

Oddly enough Gally doesn’t strike the man who is notably vulnerable to him, but instead watches with terrified eyes, not falling back or moving forward but instead staring at Ekitai who grits his teeth, finding the persuasion to be challenging especially given the steel resolve the man had displayed earlier which has not waned but potentially only strengthened.

He swallows and contends again while holding his ground, “I know who he is, he’s Gally, leader of the Sea Hats, yes,” as his right hand’s fingers move up and down indecisively.

“Then you know he’s the enemy,” firmly states the man before resuming his march forward, sword still in hand, his cape waving slightly with every step forth, stepping towards the two men by the bar table, the one ahead standing beside the bulky handgun on the table which he glimpses at rapidly.

Being approached without any easy deterrence after all his attempts at peaceful resolution has failed, Ekitai diverts his gaze back to where he glimpsed before, and without wasting another second to think, he abruptly reaches for the gun with his right hand and aims it forward, specifically and strangely at his own ally: the Spirit who immediately stops.

As Gally stumbles more in shock, Ekitai takes one small step back as he firmly declares yet clearly anxiously, “No he’s not…he’s not my enemy…you’re not thinking this through, stop and listen!”

Clearly stopped and listening, though not obediently, the Spirit tilts his head and interrogates in a growly aggressive tone: “What are you doing, pointing that at me? ‘He’s not your enemy,’ then who is he? Do you know him? I thought you mentioned not being familiar with this base, I didn’t take you as easily manipulatable but if you’ve just met you have little reason to trust him given all his faction did. Are you forgetting, it’s his faction that kidnapped Dana!”

Standing his ground similar to Gally, Ekitai glares with his handgun’s sights aligned with his own, and he shakes his head before finally revealing: “I do know him, he’s not an enemy, he’s my friend. I didn’t recognize his base but I recognize him, he’s not the enemy you think he is, you need to try understanding him before you do something rash!”

“You need to understand that you’re putting lives at risk by stalling here, I’m for understanding all sides but that is after the threat has been nullified. It is you being rash here, Ekitai!” bellows the Spirit who takes another step forward before then aggressively ordering with the raise of his sword, “Your records made no mention of this so we’ll talk later, but for now step aside and allow me to incapacitated this threat. I’m not killing him, but he’s a danger and needs to be dealt with. Move aside.”

But just after resuming the march, Ekitai pulls the hammer down on his gun and the wiring around the barrel begins to flare up as he asserts, “No.”

In front of Gally who’s entirely baffled, Ekitai maintains his glare as he takes one step forward now, maintaining his aim too as he orders back, “Don’t advance, or I’ll retaliate.”

Flabbergasted by the sudden rejection, the Spirit stops in place, his grip on his sword tightening so ever subtly as irritation builds in his voice in his reprimand: “As leader of the Bellators, I am ordering you to stand down. I won’t punish you if you truly do have a past with pirates, but you are impeding on my mission. I only brought you because I thought I knew she trusted you, but now I’m not sure how she did. And if this is your behavior, I’m not sure how a version of me trusted you either.”

Those words sparked a flame in Ekitai’s eyes, whose glare tightens as he grits his teeth, standing in front of Gally who cowers behind him. Ekitai keeps his aim on the Spirit who faces back at him, the two standing now not too far, not even ten feet apart. While the Spirit’s face cannot be discerned, his unwavering battle stance and clenched fists tell of boiling rage whereas it’s easier to register in Ekitai’s face. Separated by only a couple more tables that aren’t even perfectly in between them, as there is indeed an open path between the two, Ekitai’s raspy voice becomes visibly angered in a manner not observed before as he asserts, “I don’t trust you, and you’re not my leader. My leader was incinerated alive in the sun as a sacrifice to save us. Our leader didn’t run off during battle, he stayed back to make sure we were all with him. As I said, I’d find my own way, because she is my friend, and I trust her. I’ll do the hell I want, your word means nothing.”

Glaring back, the Spirit pauses for a few seconds after that rather heavy declaration, one even Gally is appalled from. Though the Spirit does come to a conclusion, one he simply states with a voice not raised but with a silent rage: “I don’t have time for this, I’ll finish the mission,” before he then resumes his march.

Thus Ekitai pulls the trigger, and fires his shot.

On instinct the Spirit doesn’t conjure a tool but instead strafes to the side, propelled by a burst that lets him avoid the first yellow shot, startled clearly by the decision to take lethal action as a declaration for battle. He glances to the right to process that first shot, but in that time a second shot is fired which he strafes backwards to avoid, though this blue shot was fired slightly at a downward angle such that it doesn’t need to hit the target’s body but instead strike the floor close enough to the feet to then expel out a giant blob of blue slime that grabs both of his black boots and sticks them to the floor.

Instinctively the Spirit attempts to dash up as told by the blue flashes of exhaust energy off his suit, yet he doesn’t move upwards even an inch. He raises his left hand and fires a blue cable up to the ceiling, but he is unable to pull himself either, as he’s been truly sealed to the floor. He grunts before facing forward upon the recognition of losing time, to which he drops and picks up his sword in a reverse grip, but this is so when he arches his arm back, the blade can point forward. He then lets out a bellow before throwing the sword forward, his arm being accelerated with a boost that speeds the sword’s throw on its trajectory straight for Gally who is too terrified to even move, only evading the sword after being yanked to the side by Ekitai.

Stumbling aimlessly from the appalling nature of this new clash, Gally can only focus on Ekitai when he exclaims, “GET OUT OF HERE GALLY!” while swaying his left arm, to which Gally turns around and begins sprinting for the other door with the window screen further ahead on the other side of the entrance they had used.

While he runs away, Ekitai keeps his gaze and aim on his new opponent who he fires three red shots at, all of them soaring for the Spirit whose hands burst flames, his left one conjuring a circular shield which he uses to block the three red shots while his right hand manifests a small handgun designed like a Colt which he holds above the shield before then firing semi automatic rounds of blue bolts.

In avoidance of the energy rounds, Ekitai begins sprinting, not directly at the Spirit but instead starts circling around him to avoid the shots while retaliating with his own rapid fire of red shots, able to fire on a stationary target while he remains mobile. One of those shots is a gray one, which upon making contact with the shield bursts out a large thick smokescreen that clouds sight from outside, making the following red shots more difficult for the Spirit to properly block. He also tilts his weapon to make sure the gunshots aren’t all aimed for the shoulder, but some reach for the head and others the foot, forcing the Spirit to ditch the circular shield and instead emit a flame that begins forming a large curved white shell shaped like a cocoon which he continues to grow while spinning to gradually wrap himself inside, materializing the shaped construct while still building the full shape, operating defensively without mobility until Ekitai makes a full circle, forcing the Spirit to complete the cocoon to encase himself.

At first Ekitai stops after it seems that he’s at least forced the Spirit to refrain from combat, but that’s until azure flames penetrate out of the cocoon without leaving holes, which transform into three spherical drones that open rapid fire of more blue bolts at Ekitai who is forced to continue running in avoidance, first firing a blue bolt at the central one though that bolt splinters into three, each of them striking a drone and destroying all of them, though right as that happens another five flames emerge from the cocoon, two of them creating more spherical drones but another three landing on the floor where they develop into larger turrets sitting on hovering pads which fire significantly heavier energy bolts despite being at a slower rate. Ekitai again begins to run, unable to simply destroy the individual weapons since they would be theoretically generated endlessly with the creator still intact.

To combat this, Ekitai begins circling the cocoon again, but this time he begins firing vibrant green bolts at the white shell, with every bolt not only burning a hole through but also leaving the residue of a green acid that spreads, as only in a few seconds the cocoon starts to open up, revealing the man inside who instinctively tries to reinforce it, but with every new patch to the cocoon, another shot just ends up creating another one.

Inside the cocoon the Spirit grunts, as without proper analysis of this acidic bolt he’s unable to gauge its true strength, and so in the safe route he envelops himself from the floor with a blaze that starts to rise, replacing the cocoon in favor of a crystallic body. Several more green shots hit this new frosty crystal body, though they fail to puncture holes and even the acid that tries to spread immediately ceases with no visible damages caused. Instead slowly the Spirit fortifies himself to a point of practical invincibility, to which Ekitai makes the quick choice to take aim on one of the few openings made in the white cocoon above the replacement and fires a mustard yellow bolt which does manage to pass through the cocoon, though there isn’t a direct line of sight to the Spirit. This isn’t necessary however as upon striking the inner wall on the other side of the cocoon, the mustard yellow bolt erupts in a dense cloud, or rather a gas that quickly consumes isolated space. The Spirit glances around at first perplexed, but he raises his arm upon noticing that the azure fabric suit is quickly beginning to sizzle, the gas having a rather powerful physical effect on him as while his sealed mask prohibits anything from entering his body through natural orifices, this gas seems to have the intent on creating new ones.

Even then Ekitai doesn’t slow his bombardment, as while the crystal cocoon has now been complete, he doesn’t take a full second to switch tactics and begins firing a volley of orange bolts that explode upon impact, bombing not only the drones and turrets still firing at him, but also now constantly applying pressure from the outside to dissuade from opening up the cocoon as the gas inside applies its own pressure. While this tactic is rather harsh and oppressive, Ekitai knew full well that anything beneath his most effective tactics would result in immediate defeat, thus even with his wince of guilt, he carries on his firing.

Eventually the crystal cocoon is set in a blue blaze, releasing the gas though subjecting the one encased to the full force of the explosions, or that’d be the one encased hadn’t bolted straight into the air, rising above the explosions no longer tied to the floor which shocks Ekitai, but upon a glance at the Spirit whose cape waves in the air, the method of escape is immediately clear as both of his legs below the thighs have his skin exposed. While at first Ekitai was horrified at the thought that the Spirit managed to burn through the slime that since now hasn’t ever truly been dissolved at least in a swift manner, the Spirit didn’t even need to remove the slime as it wasn’t his body truly being restrained but rather his suit, and simply removing the armaments affected freed him. In fact just the moment after being free, blue flames spread around his knees and feet which replaced his black boots, restoring his armor but now up in the air, free to exercise his greatest weapon: movement.

Furthermore, with the Spirit’s disadvantage removed, the balancing is additionally moved as he simply raises his open right hand up before closing it, followed by the abrupt reappearance of the silver disk on Ekitai’s chest attached to the black jumpsuit which he glances down to– stumbling back flabbergasted–, active given its blue dot though upon becoming visible it bursts into azure flames that slowly consume it. As the disk gradually dissolves, Ekitai’s entire body flickers blue at a growingly rapid rate until the entire disk is erased, which results in the absence of the blue sheet altogether.

Dread quickly devours Ekitai’s face as he’s quick to realize what had just happened, remembering the shielding he was provided at the start of the mission, one that had been padding any damages that could’ve severely injured his body. That shielding was provided by who is now his opponent, who has decided to rip back that protection as it now only served as an obstacle to himself. As Ekitai raises his head with a dropped jaw, he comes to terms that not only is the Spirit at his strongest, but now the senile unpowered human is in his most raw therefore vulnerable state. Just like the closing of the hand to trigger the erasure, the Spirit has suffocated any aid he had formerly provided to his teammate, making even a single strike dangerous. Functioning off this spiked anxiety, Ekitai hastily fires three orange shots in the air for the Spirit, but he strafes to the side as a blue cable fires from his hip to pull him away as he retaliates with a throwing motion that manifests three curved silver objects shaped like boomerangs.

Quickly Ekitai dives backwards to avoid the first boomerang which strikes the ground, resulting in an immediate burst of explosive blue energy as the other two autonomously tilt up, not being directed naturally but having their own honing systems. Ekitai throws himself over one of the tables which he kicks down to forcefully drop at an angle functioning like a shield which the second boomerang strikes, causing a mitigated explosion as the other one intentionally misses, flying past the table but curving around for another run to which Ekitai turns around and fires a single yellow shot straight through the center, splitting it in half and forcing it to explode prematurely.

He’s forced to turn the other way though to dive to the side just as the table he’s behind crumbles upon a strike of a large sledgehammer swung underhanded which is countered mid dive with an orange shot but the explosion doesn’t even reach the Spirit whose already swung out of the way before then dashing in a curve, knowing that the bar deck isn’t exactly a wide open room but still maximizing the space there is as he again makes throwing motions, this time throwing odd metal disks with curved handles in the center, resembling chakram, two of which are now thrown. This again forces Ekitai to roll and move, evading the first chakram though instead of sticking to the surface it simply bounces right off same as the second one, and instead of randomly bouncing each bounce causes the chakram to fly in the direction of Ekitai as the ricochettes are engineered. This forces Ekitai to jump over chairs and tables in an effort to avoid the chakram as the Spirit fires one cable on one of the centermost tables, using it as an anchor point to begin circling the bar as he equips two handguns styled like Uzis which he fires high rates of blue bolts out of, forcing Ekitai to now need to worry about both of the guns while also dealing with the chakrams. It was now the Spirit oppressing Ekitai without even needing to stick him on one spot, as frankly with the Spirit’s speed Ekitai is practically always stationary.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

In knowing that he couldn’t just keep diving away from the rapidfire forever, at least not in hopes of tiring his opponent out who was exerting far less effort to maintain his oppression, Ekitai dives under a table and rolls in avoidance of one of the chakram’s, but upon springing up from the other side he fires a yellowish green bolt angled high, though far higher than even where the Spirit is as it misses completely and strikes the ceiling.

That, like many of shots, isn’t a miss but in fact a patch of the metal wood ceiling suddenly contorts such that many spots melt together and push itself down into thin spikes like stalactites, all of them growing straight for the Spirit as the shot was timed perfectly in conjunction with the Spirit cycling, forcing him to break his focus as he dashes down before strafing backwards as the spikes reach so low they nearly hit the tables.

In that time of partial peace as now he’s only dealing with the chakrams, Ekitai throws himself over another table on a dash for the bar table which he then throws himself over, timed perfectly so both chakrams bounce off of the surface and up into the air, perfectly in front of the gunslinger who pops back up from behind the counter and fires two rapid green shots at speeds as if his weapon had automatic firing capabilities.

Nearly simultaneously both chakrams are struck through the center by the different bolts which quickly melt them in bright acid, now allowing full focus on the Spirit who swerves around the spike, drawing his right arm back as a long flame secretes off his hand in a bending wire whose end forms a longer rod resembling a spear in shape, and as the Spirit releases a bellow he throws that arm forward which pulls both the wire and therefore the spear forward as if the flame connecting the two is a physical rope that then fizzles to allow the spear to fly on its own, manifested in a silver body which then boosts autonomously forward by a bright blue propulsive streak.

That spear is dodged by Ekitai who rolls to the side and continues running in the direction of the formerly used entrance just as the spear explodes, nearly blowing him forward as he stumbles but regains his footing. While running along the bar he aims his handgun over the table and begins firing bolts, but instead of these simply flying in a straight angle, they jitter excitedly along their path, making their trajectory unpredictable. This forces the Spirit to start dodging and weaving from the shots, but by exploiting the angle at which they’re shot he can avoid them all with a single downward dash just long enough to create a small white dart which he then makes an underhanded throw towards the bar with.

That white dart has the resemblance of a paper airplane and even seems to be made of a thin sheet, though it’s clearly metallic, however it’s able to generate lift as while it’s initially thrown lower than the table it rises well above, guided for Ekitai who ducks just in the nick of time for the airplane to miss his head and instead strike one of the bottles, exploding the glass and shoving the surrounding bottles away, causing them to knock into each other to cause a domino effect as the drinks start dropping from the shelves, causing liquor to spill all over the floor behind the bar.

Still running along the back of the bar, Ekitai again aims his handgun and fires another stream, this time of bolts that upon being fired gradually widen, expanding such that their trajectory is conal, meaning that despite every individual bolt being small when fired like any other, by the time it reaches the Spirit it has a width capable of punching a hole through a stomach. Dodging each of these shots, the Spirit counters by creating his own longbow with an energy cable as the string, and upon grabbing this cable and pulling it back he unleashes another flame from his right hand which extends to form an arrow just before he releases the string, letting it fly for the bar before pulling the string back as he creates another arrow.

Now Ekitai too has to dodge as a barrage of arrows fly for him, the tips themselves not lethally sharp though upon impact they release a sound wave capable of shattering the bottles bottles behind him including his own flask still with some purple liquid left which spills as the flask shatters, though Ekitai manages to grab the bottle Gally was drinking from which he then oddly aims his handgun through the opening of before firing a forest green bolt inside it. He then aims the opening at an angle directed for the Spirit as the bronze liquor inside begins to mix with the green liquid before then molding to a brown to which all the sudden through the opening bursts a strange solid substance with the color of the liquor but the texture of wood, first a single stem but it then begins to branch into smaller ones which grow forward before then branching again, like a tree growing rapidly out of a bottle made from the alcoholic beverage.

By the time they reach the Spirit, that one stem has produced countless branches which he begins trying to dash away from rapidly, making quick strafes in all directions though with the sheer number of branches there isn’t even enough space between them to slip between, thus instead the Spirit manifests his dual energy blade fan that spins about the disk handle, though this time the blades are significantly more intense as they cut the branches as the weapon is held forward to have the disk’s wide face directed to the tree, shaving the branches most effectively as they’re turned to near sawdust at such intensity that they spark hot, a property the Spirit notices with a subtle head nod, recognizing that the alcoholic properties of the original source translates to flammable material. In his free hand he produces a small stick thin enough that it can fit between his fingers, like a cigarette, which emits a bright yellow flame from the top that the Spirit simply needs to graze against one of the branches growing right beside him. That branch immediately catches fire, and that blaze grows against the tree, crawling down the branches that get thicker and thicker until reaching the main stem straight to the bottle being held by Ekitai whose eyes jump wide.

Promptly Ekitai drops the bottle as the flame travels inside the bottle itself, forcing Ekitai to return aim of his handgun now towards the Spirit, and upon aiming he watches the entire alcohol tree burst up in flames in seconds after its birth, that one property exploited against him.

Through those raging flames emerges the Spirit, unharmed, his cape dancing as with his hand held out, gripping the small stick between his pointer finger and thumb, he simply flicks the stick forth, spinning with a fire wheel straight for Ekitai who dodges the stick, though it then lands in the puddle of booze created behind him, that being the major target.

Instantly the bar right behind Ekitai bursts in orange and red flames, spreading rapidly right behind his back. Ekitai glances back to the raging blaze as it creeps up to him, swallowing the entire back side of the bar which forces Ekitai to throw himself up on the bar table and stand up, running along the table’s surface itself in the opposite direction given him nearing the edge as he aims up again and begins firing blue bolts at the Spirit once more, racing beside the fire.

Again avoiding the gunfire, the Spirit strafes in evasion, though he manifests another circular shield on his wrist to block one of the bolts that catches him off guard, which leaves behind a strange blue splat on the center of the shield though it doesn’t show an immediate effect like burning through the metal.

Thus the Spirit continues using the shield to ward off the bolts while evading those too far from reach.

After glancing at the splat on the shield, Ekitai swipes on his screen before then aiming down and beginning to rapidly fire purple shots, though none of these are remotely targeted at the Spirit. Instead, every shot hits one of the tables or chairs around the bar, with every shot leaving behind a purple splatter similar to the blue one. After splattering though, the purple liquid oddly flares bright.

At the same time, the blue splats on the shield begin illuminating, which the Spirit notices though remains puzzled until glancing down to find that all the tables and chairs with the splatter begin to rise up in the air, specifically towards him. They speed up to a hurdle, nearly slamming into the Spirit if not for a quick evasive burst to the side.

Though even more tables and chairs are pulled to him as if they’re metal and he’s a magnet, and as more furniture is shot with that same purple splattering bolt, more are pulled into the air, more that the Spirit has to avoid. Flames emit off his body and attach to the rim of his shield, forming an extra thin edge that has blades poking out, making the shield better resemble a saw blade. Appropriately then, that extra rim begins to spin at high rates, and given that the furniture is too heavy to simply block, the Spirit instead begins countering them with his own jabs, throwing punches and using the rotating saw to cut through the furniture, leaving clouds of saw dust.

Watching the giant conglomerate of furniture cluster over the Spirit, Ekitai stops running and instead nervously glances over to the door at the other end of the hall which Gally ran through, which is now closed, presumably for protection. He then faces back at the cluster, watching it bob around the air, following the Spirit.

Inside the cluster, rapidly punching and cutting up the tables and chairs, the Spirit alas realizes the cause of this cluster with an irritated grunt, glaring at the blue splat on his shield before then simply relinquishing his main source of protection, letting it fall off his wrist.

With that shield falling, the cluster of furniture strangely falls too, or rather it continues attracting towards it. Quickly the furniture leaves the Spirit alone who remains in the air, watching the mass suddenly compact now that there’s nothing stopping the attraction, forming a messy ball that plummets straight into the ground.

Next the Spirit faces Ekitai who just fires a few dark shots, nearly black, which opposite to the expanding shots instead seem to shrink, or rather collapse into themselves until they all the sudden puff out into large black balls each with two orange particle disks resembling small black holes, though as they suck surrounding air in they gradually grow on their approach for the Spirit who dashes away yet again, though this time his body is pulled in towards the projectiles, unable to simply evade them as they draw him into their singularity. His movement now forced on a simple path such that he’s practically being locked in place perfect for a followup shot, the Spirit strikes first by creating another longbow held horizontally with an arrow against the blue string, though this arrow’s flat head is not only sharp but also short, and strangely the rim is hollow. Just as it’s released, the hollow rim flares bright blue, but furthermore it suddenly unleashes an overwhelming energy beam off the entire rim in the shape of the arrow head itself, creating a huge triangular laser that reaches both far walls.

That arrow penetrates through the table itself, leading the long laser beam which slices through the entire bar table at an angle such that the upper half just slides off, forcing Ekitai to throw himself off and roll.

At the same time right after having shot the arrow, the Spirit relinquishes his tool and instead releases flames towards the black hole as his cape begins wrapping around one, though each of the flames expand out to create small clear bags around the black holes, each with a knob that begins releasing air as the bags start to shrink, functioning like a vacuum seal. Noticeably the black holes stop growing, and furthermore they begin to shrink as the vacuums cut them off, snuffing the black holes out quickly. The bags begin to plummet as sign of the black hole’s death, again freeing the Spirit who tracks a shot fired straight below him, specifically into the giant clump of furniture he happened to dash over, and through the crevices in the cluster flashes a bright orange light signifying the Spirit to strafe away just as a giant volcanic eruption breaches from the top of the ball, nearly catching the Spirit who doesn’t glance back but instead dashes in a line straight for the gunslinger as his right fist knuckles brighten, needing to strafe to the side to avoid a flurry of purple spikes, then another dash to evade a barrage of icicles but finally getting close enough to Ekitai to throw his punch.

Desperately Ekitai rolls away from the punch as a gust of wind blasts off the knuckles from the released energy, and as the Spirit pivots towards his opponent, that opponent begins firing random faint yellow bolts at the floor, with every bolt releasing a circular puddle of a strange liquid constantly rippling, one of which the Spirit accidentally step on which sinks his entire knee making him nearly trip over which lets Ekitai get a shot on him, a bright yellow one that does manage to land on the hand, causing the Spirit to suddenly freeze in shock. He then turns his head to his hand and watches in horror as all the sudden creeping up his arm, bubbles start to form in his skin, inflating the suit itself. Not only do the currently existing bubbles rapidly grow, but more appear all around the rest of the body, not only in the other arm but even the legs and torso, each of them quickly enlarging in a rather disgusting sight. His entire body becomes quickly infested with hyperactive tumors, a horrible power of lethality that hadn’t even been used after the first bar fight, as it terrorized the original leader to such an extent that it was avoided, and yet in this moment it’s again employed. Roaring in agony behind his teeth, the Spirit clenches his fist as his entire body suddenly ignites in a blue flame which speedily erases the cancerous cells within his own body, able to detect them on an individual level through precise control, and he replaces each of them thereby extinguishing the cancer all within a fraction of a second. Similar to the regrowth of limbs but at a far more specific level, the Spirit cleanses his body before then dashing upwards, pulling his leg out of the surprisingly deep puddle that offset his balance before evading another shot straight for his head.

Grunting as he’s now clearly irritated after having been struck with a lethal shot, one that could’ve ended his whole life had he not had such acute control over his creation ability and body, he releases a giant azure burst off said body in all directions, one that clumps in scatters that each manifests a tall monolith which grounds itself. Rapidly these monoliths grow everywhere such that Ekitai has to keep avoiding all the clustering flames so as to not have one grow in him, but even once they’re all created there is a new prevalent issue in that they limit his sights like giant pillars.

Further concerning is that the Spirit cannot be seen, or at least his full body cannot be processed as instead there is a blur that dashes between the monoliths, flashing cables signifying that the opponent is gaining speed. Ekitai’s first instinct is to begin shooting the monoliths with acidic bolts, some of them beginning to collapse, though he then notices that all around him the wooden walls of the bar are covered in flames that then create a huge array of small railgun turrets protruding off the walls on ball joints, each one about the size of a person, and they all autonomously aim at Ekitai before firing a bombardment from all directions. All the sudden the monoliths are needed to remain safe as Ekitai begins scattering helplessly, firing blue bolts around him to deploy walls that rise from the ground, absorbing the shots though more walls only further restricts aim.

All the sudden a wave of flames spreads over the ceiling, raising Ekitai’s focus up as to his horror he watches fires bundle up to build huge arms with hands large enough to squeeze a person's body, all of which materialize with a white skin-like material and move, reaching down from above, grabbing for the gunslinger who desperately fires acidic bolts at them while also trying to hide from the turrets around the walls, as in this moment there is a true anger felt in the Spirit’s actions, purposefully tormenting his opponent in a way he didn’t even do to the pirate leader, the apex of emotions funneling into this monstrous display.

It’s then all at once that the giant arms and all the turrets abruptly burst into flames, completely covering this entire room in a blaze of blue before the monoliths erupt into pillars of fire, and in that moment as Ekitai turns his head, he locks contact with the blur that soars right at him.

As the whole bar rages in blue fire, the Spirit tackles Ekitai at great speeds, his cape dancing same as the overcoat, the parallelogram lenses leaving behind a residual trail of their own, his hand on the wrist. All the force of the tackle forces Ekitai into a stumble resulting in his backwards fall with the Spirit on top.

Immediately Ekitai desperately seeks to fire a point blank shot, though he struggles to properly aim as the Spirit pulls the gun itself, trying to yank it away. Ekitai grimaces and groans as he uses his second hand to grab the Spirit’s hand, trying to pull it off the gun, but the Spirit just uses his own second hand to grab Ekitai’s hand. The two tug for the gun, the epic battle of creation twisting into nothing more than a contest of tenacity, as the gunslinger can’t use his unique projectiles and the warrior oddly hyper fixates on using pure human strength, not growing any flames as the ones around them fizzle out. They both groan and growl, struggling against each other’s grasps, trying to peel each other’s grip with their own. But slowly the Spirit begins to pull the gun higher up, further away from Ekitai who continues to try putting all his strength, but while there can perhaps be a question of who can more creatively employ their arsenal, a question of simple bodily strength is one that can be answered at a quick glance.

So in the grappling match, despite how much he tugs and pulls, the Spirit gradually gains more control of the weapon, peeling Ekitai’s fingers off the handle with pure human strength, until finally he manages to rip the gun off of Ekitai’s hands with a loud grunt. Ekitai immediately tries to reach for the gun, only for the Spirit to toss it far backwards, to which Ekitai grunts aghast at the loss of his weapon, his only method of combating the Spirit’s immense power. The only weapons left are the ones he then quickly tries reaching for inside his coat’s inner pocket, but the Spirit swiftly grabs his wrist before they can dig inside, and slowly but surely he forces the arm out dragging it until he can then press the arm against the floor, pinning him down as he then plants his knee down on the overcoat itself, restricting the ability to reach inside.

From wide eyed to determinedly glaring, Ekitai next grabs the Spirit’s arm restraining his own, trying to push it off him as he grits his teeth and groans loudly, exerting himself but the Spirit holds his ground, his arm noticeably shaking but not moving. Slowly next, the Spirit raises his other arm up, but this time he clenches his fists, the crystal knuckles flaring up, being fueled with power more than capable of likely dealing a concussion in one blow. Now noticing this, Ekitai instead uses his free hand to push against the Spirit’s torso, trying to push him away despite that being an even greater challenge, and once again despite the Spirit clearly struggling against the grappling, he’s able to slowly position his fist to prepare for a single punch, hovering over the old man’s sunken face.

Through the mask the Spirit grunts and growls the same as Ekitai, neither of them acting like the powerful Exhuman hero nor the resilient smartwitted adventurer, but instead like drunken men at a bar mindlessly tussling. The Spirit tries to assert his dominance as the man grapples with his face, grabbing the white mask and trying to push it away, groaning harder as the Spirit tries to push himself forward to maintain his tackle.

That’s all the sudden when a familiar third man’s yelp can be heard, coming straight from the closed door that both of the Bellators raise their heads towards; Ekitai’s face immediately shifts from enraged to horrified, and his voice is the first to utter: “Gally?”

Without another thought, Meditat lets go of his grip on Ekitai’s arm and rises from the ground, stumbling around his body before then running towards the closed door, huffing desperately as Ekitai quickly rummages to his feet, stumbling but able to run for the closed door. On his way he swiftly bends and picks his gun off the ground, panting as he follows Meditat to the other side of the ruined bar, all the furniture destroyed or clustered together, the bar table halved and the shelves behind empty or broken.

Reaching the shut door, Meditat raises his hands which begin secreting flames, but before he can even conjure anything a green bolt flies right past him, striking the center of the door before then spreading an acid that quickly opens a large breach, and after Meditat glances back to find Ekitai right behind him with the smoking gun, he nods before facing forward and crawling through the open gap in the door with Ekita following next, both of them entering the final room, or rather the first.

This room is larger than the bar, with three floors, the upper one being more of a bridge around the rim. Along both floors there are tables with consoles, all of them with various buttons and holographic screens, a mixture of analog controls and advanced displays with hovering chairs to accompany though they’re all empty. The room has a huge window screen along the wall, not only on the far end but even the adjacent walls, allowing a view of the huge cosmos ahead, glimmering stars and nebulas further back against the black canvas with a distant green orb by the center. The floor isn’t entirely clear as there are a few round tables with their own curved holograms, though there are only a couple in an otherwise open room. The only indication of the lower room are curved ramps along the corners of against the wall harboring the door, the contents of the lower floor itself unable to be seen from the doorway itself.

What can be seen, directly ahead in fact, is Gally facing back at the door about ten feet ahead, standing upright, though his yellow hat is no longer on his head as it instead freely drifts in front of his face, swaying from side to side on a gradual descent for the floor. As it passes Gally’s head, what’s next revealed is his exposed brain, a perfectly horizontal slice right above the eyebrows, leaking gray matter and crimson blood down the head as the cap of the head can be seen by his feet with much of his black hair still attached amongst a red puddle with bits of brain. Beneath that cut is the horrified expression, the jaw dropped and eyes wide, that expression now permanent.

Upon the yellow hat dropping to the floor in front of his feet, the man falls on his knees limp before then collapsing on the floor entirely, his head right beside the hat that landed upright. From the plummet of the body reveals another figure standing just a few feet further, one facing in the direction away from the door.

This figure stands some six feet tall with a masculine shape though skin covered in gray robes resembling a ninja uniform with seemingly traditional fabrics wrapped around, a belt both from the left shoulder down to the right hip same as the one around the waist. On both upper arms are bands with small black disks subtly peeking from below. In fact, there are few devices peeking out, with small spikes tucked in the torso belt and on the thighs there are bands with kunai handles peeking above. On the belt are two sheathes however the sheathes themselves are short, maybe just long enough for a small knife blade yet the exposed hilts are better recognized for a fully lengthened katanas, and hovering over one of those hilts is one of the two hands wearing white gauntlets that have black nail spikes and a strange forearm design with paneling plates similar to a medieval gauntlet almost. There are also tall boots with a similar white metal though with jagged edges more prickly, the tips of which are black like the nails.

The man’s suit is rather slim in that there isn’t bulky armor, as even the gauntlets and boots are slim fitting, similar to the shoulder guards that have the same panel plates like the forearms though black. Wrapped around the neck is a long black scarf that hangs about three feet in excess with a sharp tip, also cloaking the base of the black hood.

The figure slowly turns around to face the broken door, revealing that the belt around his waist has a hanging knot, on his right breast is planted a short curved knife with a jagged inner edge, but perhaps most striking is that underneath the black hood is a gray ninja-like mask with jagged lines above and below, though the exposed center has an additional white mask with slender yellow goggles that illuminate.

Clad in grays other than the eyes, it just stares over the murdered captain, the king of the pirates who had fought so well before, yet was struck down so swiftly out of sight. Its first target has been assassinated, and already it has set its eyes on its next two prey.