Blyke was ordered by Arlo to come and fight the more troublesome of the two brother-seeming duo. With his ability to escalate his power depending on threat, Blyke was given one task. To keep him from using his ability. The control required to shoot someone, harm them enough for it to pile up, but not enough for it to seem as a threat felt like a joke.
Separating them was not difficult. That was the first task given to them by Arlo. They did that themselves. Despite living in the same dorm and playing menial games with one another they didn't seem to want to have anything to do with one another. Azazel left and went to the roof, and Vritra to help out the low-tiers. He came past the same path from when Blyke sta– shadowed him.
"At this point it feels like things have gotten out of hand," Blyke admitted things had blown out of proportion, but siding with Vritra was difficult when he was a Royal. Besides, a lot of the people he talked to on the daily were beaten up by him. The school was in such chaos that Doc's infirmary looked more like an oversized file cabinet than a place for rest. "But you did this to yourself… if you could just give up and apologize to the Royals… maybe tell the low-tiers to stop rioting it'd make things way easier on everyone."
Vritra looked down at Blyke, a frown overtaking his features. "And what, have them go back to the days when they would get beaten up and abused for just being born weaker? Matter of fact, why should I apologize to you Royals for doing your jobs?" His eyes were already glowing, and his figure was bulked up slightly. "Last I checked, it was your shitshow of a king who kept sending people after us. He made things go out of hand."
Blyke couldn't argue with that… but now the only real way of stopping things was to defeat those two. Isen was going to take on Azazel, and Blyke was tasked with taking on Vritra. There were two ways to defeat him, and Arlo completely forbade one. The first was the plan he was going for, death from 1000 papercuts. The second was to end the fight immediately before Vritra got any stronger.
A part inside Blyke wanted to not fight Vritra, and stop the fighting some other way. However, the person in front of him was partly responsible for what happened to Remi. The glares thrown her way, and all of the comments and insults thrown her way because of it began when she was 'defeated' by Azazel… which was a lie. Azazel collapsed before her, and because those two spread propaganda they were calling her the fallen Queen, and Vritra and Azazel, the Royal killers.
"Let's just get to it." said Blyke, his fingers pointed toward Vritra as several crimson spheres formed from both of them. "I gave you an out." He shot both of them forward, fully intending to harm Vritra. They weren't fully charged or concentrated, which meant they would bruise but not do anything beyond annoy him.
Rolling to the side with surprising agility, Vritra looked up with a snarl. "You gave me shit on a platter and expected a thanks. You are just like Arlo." The Giant swiped his hand to the side, causing a gust of wind to slam into Blyke's side.
"What the fuck?" Blyke shot lasers from his hands and stabilized himself mid-air before landing back on his feet. The lasers he'd shot were redirected because of the sudden wind. This was the ability he had used against Azazel in their basketball match the other day. He didn't know he had this much control and power over it. Ultimately it didn't seem to do much damage. Blyke sent more lasers his way, always charging one behind the other, and sending them at low outputs so they wouldn't harm him too much.
The second volley of Lasers found their mark, scorching Vritra's blazer and bruising the skin under it, causing it to turn a dark blue. The draconic evolution had begun. According to Arlo, the ability was evolution-based because he seemed to receive some form of fragment of the abilities that deal damage to him, adapting to the circumstance. Ventus' wind, Howard's heat palm, Kalum's explosive phantom hand. It was possible he would demonstrate a laser-esk ability soon.
Blyke sent out more attacks Vritra's way. He was an Elite-tier with a lot of aura in his reserves, that didn't mean he could be careless however, which is why he made sure all of his attacks would hit by attacking places like the chest and stomach. His plan was to accumulate the damage there so he would feel it if he did evolve past the power of these attacks.
Vritra grimaced and winced after every attack that landed, that was interesting. Blyke thought he had some kind of resistance to heat because of his pyrokinetic evolution… Was there an evolutionary requirement? He shook his head and focused on keeping the stream of attacks consistent and focused in one area. He kept his distance, and increased it to gauge Vritra's range with his aerokinesis.
With a loud roar, Vritra slammed a glowing hand to the floor. Causing it to explode outwards and kicking up a dust cloud. A slash of wind aimed at Blyke quickly followed after. The slash flew through the air with a loud whistle, and cut the floor under it.
The wind slash cut through the dust, revealing itself only at the last second.
Sorry Arlo, I don't think this is just adaptation… this seems more like mimicking…
Blyke used his Lasers to barely dodge out of the way. His side was cut as a result, but mostly he was alright. It hurt, but it was nothing he couldn't push through. This kind of fight was such a pain, even the Royals at Agwin weren't this annoying to deal with. He had to keep his output of power low so he wouldn't increase, but he got to keep his as high as he wanted.
Blyke shot a few more shots his way, keeping the damage up. He had to overwhelm him with a lot of mosquito bites if necessary. Charging the attacks fully was irrelevant, he shot weak lasers Vritra's way to keep him at a distance, but also more vulnerable, he seemed to prefer close quarters, and that was why Blyke had been chosen for this task in specific.
The air surrounding them began converging. The winds raged and gathered at Vritra's arms, surrounding them in whirlwinds much like Ventus' ability. He slammed both arms together to form a larger vortex that pulled Blyke toward him. The vortexes converged in chaos, but with one singular laser from his finger-tips, Blyke pierced through and hit Vritra's chest.
The Wellston uniform on Vritra's chest had begun falling and breaking apart from the continuous hits, and the skin under had begun scorching. Vritra's size increased slightly, and Blyke's laser potency did too.
"Why couldn't you guys challenge the royals normally to attempt changing the system yourselves? Why cause and start riots?" Blyke kept shooting Vritra in the same spot. Some shots kept him from being pulled, pushing him back, while others were to strike Vritra on the chest. Vritra's regeneration had begun, but it was slower than the damage received. In other words, the damage was piling up and forcing a weak spot on his chest that Blyke would exploit.
"We didn't start shit! We were minding our business until your highness, the lord of pricks and cacti, decided to waltz into our lives like a drunk uncle who we owe money to." Vritra's vortex began to collapse on itself, becoming simple gusts of wind that surrounded Blyke. Droplets of liquid touched his face, had it begun raining? It was cloudy. "You people start shit, then blame us for ending it. So what if I called your leader stupid, annoying, a maggot, a puppet, thin-skinned, a bitch, a whore, a willy, a mosquito in the summer at night? We don't agree with you, big fucking deal!"
"It's more than just agreeing. You could have just apologized instead of starting all of this! Why did you beat up Remi?!" Blyke shot more lasers his way.
"Who the fuck is you! I ain't do jack shit!" Vritra clapped his hands, A spark resulted in a chain-reaction of liquid droplets shining bright like stars before detonating. Blyke realized what had happened and attempted shooting himself out of the way, but it was too late. He felt the skin on his face heat up, and then he was blown backward.
Blyke rolled on the ground, thankfully Vritra's was still low enough level that the output of his explosion hadn't done too much damage to Blyke. That dash backward mitigated a minimum amount of damage as well.
"I don't give a shit if your queen got beat up, or if your cousin's wife's best friend got her legs broken. You guys never gave a shit about us. That day she came to me whining, telling me to apologise for something I had not done. I told her to take her complaints elsewhere, and even warned her to be careful with Azazel… since he can be temperamental. She ignored my warning and got beat up, dumb bitch move."
"Fuck you!" Blyke's excitedness caused him to release two lasers that was far stronger than he'd intended. He tried reasoning things out, but in the end his hatred for this pair was really hard to ignore. Blyke had visited Remi that day. Her shivering body, widened eyes and paralyzed legs left a deep impression in his mind. These two acted like they were above it, but they never tried improving shit.
Vritra grinned as his shoulders were fully pierced through by two lasers. His size began to shift immediately.
"Forget the one thousand paper-cuts! Fuck that!" He simply wasn't patient enough. Now that he had dipped his foot in this lake he had to plunge in. What had been done, had been done. He put both his hands together and concentrated on a laser. He poured all of his output on it. It wasn't the piercing kind, but if a mid-tier or low elite tier got hit with it, they would be concussed at best. He typically didn't use this kind of attack because it was far too risky, but fuck it – he would use everything at his disposal. All those tiny blasts were getting tiresome anyway.
The only issue was that the more Blyke charged that blast of energy, the larger and more draconic Vritra got. His jaw had elongated, flames began to sprout from his – now sharp – teeth. His skin had become riddled with scales, and his eyes had become sharper, more vibrant and slitted. His reptilian appearance grew to the point where he'd become at least two heads taller than Blyke.
"WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU, I'LL GO FUCK UP YOUR LOOK ALIKE WITH ARLO!!" Blyke brought both his palms forward and shot the laser at Vritra with everything he had. On contact with Vritra, there was a large explosion that kicked up a dust storm. Blyke caught his breath after using all of his energy in that one attack.
"You made a calculated risk," Glowing eyes peered through the dust, wind circled around it and then made a burst to fully clear the smokescreen. A dragon with an indented chest and blood dripping from between its teeth was revealed, "but holy shit you're bad at math." The blood began to evaporate, and the environment got warmer, and uncomfortable to be around.
Blyke's leg was grabbed, and with barely any effort, Vritra swung him around like a batton, or a stick. Circled in circles, Blyke felt vomit rise to the back of his throat. Then, he felt a burning sensation on his leg, a loud crack followed by a release in pressure. Vritra tossed and sent him flying to the school walls, where Blyke would make a man-sized hole.
"Down already? Well, that's never stopped me before" Vritra's footsteps made resounding stomping sounds. "Oh shit, Z!" The realization stopped him in his tracks. "Fuck."
With barely any aura to protect him, he fell unconscious after a few seconds.
**14**
"Here comes the other one."
Arlo watched as a large reptilian biped walked through the blown up bulkhead. Arlo knew immediately what the scene looked like. Pools of blood surrounding a limp and unconscious body. Anyone would deduce that there had been a murder there recently. Arlo had hoped Blyke bought him enough time to clean some of the blood up if he were to lose. Well, he couldn't blame him too much since Vritra's ability was far more difficult to handle.
Since the reptilian had rushed there, his regeneration hadn't fully healed the wounds dealt to him by Blyke. There was still bleeding on the shoulders and an indent on the chest, and blood coming between his sharp teeth. Broken ribs, punctured lungs and damaged rotator cuffs.
"YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!" Vritra leapt into the air. As if destiny was mocking Arlo, a ray of light struck the ground beneath Vritra and his shoulders' wounds began closing. He'd adapted to wounds in general? That was one unfair ability, if he took time out of his day to train it he would achieve High-tier status quite quickly.
Still, Arlo knew the one glaring weakness of his ability now, and he'd make it clear to Vritra as he rushed toward him. Vritra leaped into the air again, and his head slammed against a yellow barrier that had been placed in front of him. He had been reduced to a beast only capable of growls and roars, so communication was effectively useless. Still, he knew Vritra could still hear him.
"Brute force will fix nothing," Arlo's barrier began to shrink around Vritra who had become trapped like a bird in a cage. Flames erupted from his throat and blasted the barrier. Paper-cuts began slashing Vritra's scales as Arlo's reflection made Vritra hurt himself. Then, it would miraculously heal itself by the light that had just appeared. "Like I told you before, all that power you had in that court was useless. The power that matters is out here."
Vritra's blows stopped striking at the barrier, and began sending explosions of wind and flames at the floor. With a bone-rattling roat, He hammer struck the Roof's Floor, caving it in and breaking it. Causing him to fall down.
Arlo sighed, and began walking toward the hole that had been made. He would surely explode from below to strike him, but it didn't matter because Vritra's ability had more than just one weakness. The destruction of school property would only add to the reasons he was a danger to the school.
He jumped down and trapped Vritra immediately. He looked at the scurrying students that had been occupying the class during their early morning.
"Leave the room," Arlo ordered them as he looked at the shadowed figure regenerating. From the inside of his barrier he wouldn't be able to catch him off guard with any aerokinesis. Arlo saw some rays of sunlight shine from above and looked up. That was how Azazel had been able to utilize his blood manipulation ability from inside the barrier. He made holes and made the blood travel from underneath, which is why it shifted about oddly. What a curious bunch. "Is your tantrum over?" Arlo shrunk the size of the barrier, until it became uncomfortable to be inside. From then on, Vritra would only be wasting his aura by keeping his transformation activated, and in a battle of attrition, Arlo would always come out on top.
Vritra's ability continued making changes to his body, whereas before, he looked like a Bipedal Lizard, The teen now had Spikes beginning to Protrude from his shoulders, and across his spine. The strikes at the barrier were getting stronger and stronger, with the Dragon's fists now encased in a whirlwind of Fire. Every wound he received was healed by the Light. His Roars were shaking the room around them as he glared bloody murder at Arlo.
Each punch had slightly less power than one of Azazel's blood shooting ability, making cracks on his shield with consistent attacks. Still, there was not a lot to worry about, if he kept going after Blyke's battle he would exhaust himself quickly, Arlo poured his focus into maintaining the barrier and forwent its reflection entirely in order to contain, rather than damage.
"I WILL KILL YOU! IF ITS THE LAST FUCKING THING I DO!" The dragon switched to slashing at the barrier with his claws encased in that same fiery whirlwind, pouring everything he had into it. It was starting to get worrying that Vritra's ability kept transforming him even though no damage was being done to him.
Arlo furrowed his brow, and he could feel his eyebrows come together as he released an exasperated sigh, "Emotional damage too? Is this a joke?" He decreased the size of the barrier to reduce the damage further, keeping all his focus on keeping the barrier as strong as possible.
A fist slammed onto the floor once more, breaking it. Yet as Vritra was falling below He swung his hand down.
Arlo sighed, following him down again. He looked down at the hole and hopped down. "With
cripple parents living on the outskirts of town, I wonder how you are paying for all this property damage you are causing." Arlo touched the ground of the next floor, and looked at the students there, "Leave!" he ordered again. Keeping his attention on the enormous lizard. If Arlo had to guess, he would say that Vritra had reached the 5 level mark in terms of raw power.
Vritra had his hands clasped together, the space in between them glowing a bright white. The focus on both hands alongside the bright light made Arlo immediately think of Azazel's concentrated piercing shot. If that was the case, then this was a hail mary attack. The bright light flashed twice, and Arlo immediately sprung into action, casting a shield in front of himself rather than around Vritra. The shield was made small so he could focus most of his aura into it at once. A panel that floated in front of him.
Vritra's attack struck the shield and made it ripple. Had it been a regular barrier, it would have cracked and potentially damaged Arlo, but he wouldn't commit the same error again. Azazel's ability used the same mechanics but was at a much lower level, so simply reducing the size of the barrier would have been enough to reduce the effect to zero… Vritra was so powerful that Arlo had to minimize the size of the barrier – making it just a panel – remove the reflection effect, and focus all of his aura in defense. Of course, Arlo maintained complete and utter confidence in his ability to win this fight.
Because Vritra wasn't looking particularly strong. He had blown past his reserves with his healing, and transformation. Close to five minutes had passed since their fight had begun, and now he was certainly running out of gas to keep burning and exploding. Blyke had proved invaluable in this victory.
Vritra's body began shrinking, his transformation slowly ran out and he was left completely vulnerable in front of Arlo. He didn't have the energy to curse at him, and instead used it to get up on his feet and raise his fists. Arlo obliged him out of amusement, and walked in front of Vritra.
With a right hook, Vritra struck Arlo's jaw but collapsed immediately after. He had only bruised his fists. After all, Arlo's passive ability – a trait gained after one became level 5 and above, a high tier – was to be invulnerable to most regular attacks.
"What a waste of time. Now stay there, quietly." Arlo put both hands in his pockets and began walking away. He opened the door of the classroom and saw all of the mid-tiers and low tiers wide-eyed. "This is what happens when you over-reach your capabilities. Burn this image into your minds. These people are not heroes, they should not be hailed as such, they are disruptors, hooligans, delinquents… nothing more, nothing less."