Chapter 180: Escalating

The calm woman came for Quil, spinning her weapons and attacking. He dodged the first one, and the force sliced through the tree above him. He spinned the rings to her, curving wide around her guard. She met them with hers. A shriek of metal followed, sparks jumping between the blades.

While she was fixed on the weapon, he came at her punching her straight in the face. She doubled over, and crashed into a tree. He moved the rings to pin her down, but she was suddenly behind him.

He slowed down his reaction and let her punch him. As a result, the attack rebounded fifty times on her. She flew back and crashed into a tree.

He turned then suddenly felt an attack. A wide scale kind. He ducked, and just immediately, all the trees in the area were halved. The strings took strands of his hair along with it.

"..."

He turned and saw Cia manipulating the thread and fighting the tough man. The man had expanded into double the size he once was.

Cia gritted her teeth. The tough man swung a fist the size of a boulder at her, and she barely rolled aside. The ground cratered where it landed, sending dust into the air.

"Bigger doesn’t mean stronger," she muttered, and pulled her threads taut. They wrapped around his ankle, thin as spider silk.

She yanked it, cutting into his leg. Although the attack was effective, it stopped at his bones.

He roared and slammed both fists down where she’d been standing. She was already gone, threads carrying her up into the air like she was being reeled in herself.

"Cute trick." He grinned, wiping dust off his face. "But strings snap."

"Not these ones."

She flicked her wrist. The threads sliced through the air and wrapped around his throat, his wrists, his knees — dozens of them, tightening all at once. He clawed at his neck, but his fingers were too thick to find the threads at all.

"You can’t do it." The man grinned.

She wrapped up the threads and began to tighten it. "I’ll just squeeze until you break."

Across the clearing, Coco slammed her palm into the ground. "Shadow Control: Collapse."

The darkness folded inward, crushing down around the man with the light. He threw his arm up and another flash tore through it, burning a hole clean through the shadow.

She barely had time to recast it before the girl sword swung a crazy attack at her. She dodged it, and stumbled into a part where sunlight was streaming down.

"Urgh!" She pulled her hood over her head.

The sunlight was making her weak, and she could barely see the opponents clearly. Another streak of light blinded her. She tumbled backwards, only to see the lady coming at her, sword aimed for her head.

She couldn’t dodge, but a spinning ring intercepted it, sending the lady tumbling back.

Coco gasped. "Quil?"

She glanced back.

He was fighting the calm lady, and somehow protecting her.

The calm lady had already noticed that he could rebound every attack that didn’t cut, so she stuck to physical attack, coming at him with blades at his face.

He dodged a particular one, when Coco’s voice cut through the air. His attention was divided and he glanced at her.

That split second, the woman aimed the ring at his throat, going for the final blow, but then a hand caught it.

Her calm expression shifted into shock. She looked up at the person who was giving her a look of pure irritation.

Quil took a few steps back and glanced at him.

Ragnar. His massive sword was swung over his shoulder.

His energy suddenly burst into motion. He snapped the ring. Before she could retreat, he grabbed her hand and bent it in the wrong direction.

"Aaarrrggghhh!"

With the same hand, he caught her by the neck and raised her off the ground.

"Leave this to me. Return to the fortress." He told Quil.

The girl with the sword left Coco and attacked him, swinging her sword with an inflated ego.

"Let go of her!"

He just swung his own sword, slicing her into two equal parts from the leg up.

Coco flinched. She immediately found Quil’s back and hid behind him.

Ragnar turned, still strangling life out of the lady, while she gagged and twisted.

"I don’t get it." He muttered looking at Cia who had successfully strangled the life out of the gigantic man. "Why send wimps who can’t even land a hit on us to kill us? This is an insult."

Cia pulled the thread into her hands and glanced at the light user who was paralyzed in fear.

"Maybe they are not the real deal?"

She looked at Quil.

"Why didn’t you fight?"

He shrugged. "I fought."

"You could take her out in a second if you want to."

Quil shrugged. "Don’t reveal all your cards I guess. I mean," he pointed into the distance. "They ain’t exactly four invaders here."

Coco flinched. She looked at where he was pointing to.

Ragnar laughed. "That’s a good one."

He squeezed and snapped the lady’s neck. She went limp in his hand and he tossed her towards a tree. Then he walked over to the light user.

"I think we should probably go?" Coco glanced at Quil.

"Yeah. You should go." Ragnar replied. He raised the sword and took off the light user’s head.

Blood sprayed across his face as he turned around.

"We’ll take care of things here."

He walked away into the direction Quil had pointed.

"Cia, you coming?"

The lady bowed slightly and ran after him.

A moment of silence followed, before Coco frowned. "You could have ended the fight from the start, why didn’t you?!"

He turned to her, then grabbed her hood and pulled it over her head. "We can not be seen as threats when we have no idea what is going on."

He grabbed her hand. "Let’s go."

They began to run back to the fortress, cutting through trees and getting further away from the marked ones that they left behind.

"Did you feel the earthquake before?" Coco asked.

"I did feel it." He replied.

They ran for five minutes more, until they came out in a clearing.

It was absolute chaos.

A full blown fight was ongoing. Guards and warriors of black empire against the invaders.

The leading family were there too.

A rain of debris blasted about ten of the intruders at the same time. It was Lady Hinger, using telekinesis.

Lord Joe eyes using a sword. His eyes were white, infused with vital energy. He gave clean cuts without wasting effort.

Lady Anny was going wide on sound ability, blasting through everything in her part.

Rowen was not in sight.

The most surprising one had Quil squinting his eyes. Lord Tell. Tearing through everything with brutal force. He was like a different person. Not a person, but like a wide animal.

Quil looked around.

"The terrace...it’s different. What’s..."

"Quil," Coco tapped him, and pointed up.

He looked up. For a moment he didn’t understand what he was seeing.

"Is the island...in the sky?"