Limits - Chapter 465
The Furians under the escort of Crow and Lizards, made it safely back to our side. Eterians became pretty much defenceless. “Crow, take them to the back. Let them rest”, I said, before looking at Fox again. “Go with them, they will feel more at ease with you around”. She nodded, but seemed unwilling to let go of my hand. “Go, we still need to take care of Eterians”, I added. With Furians liberated, I turned towards Eterians. Their faces said it all.
“I’m surprised you guys didn’t take this opportunity to take me out”, I said to the leader of the Human army. He snorted, “We gave you the word. Bramans are our enemy number one. We know when to leave our differences behind, and unite for our common enemy”. I smiled before shouting towards Eterians, “You’ve lost! Why don’t you give it up?! What is the point of you resisting now?!”.
The leader shouted back, “That’s what you think?! You believe this puny army of yours, will be able to take on Bramans?! How naive! Since we lost, we are dead anyway! Might as well take as many of you with as, as we can!”. I saw him motion to someone, and a lone man walked out of the crowd. “A Human?”, others asked shocked. I narrowed my eyes, unsure what he was about to do.
“I’ll let you have a taste of my latest creation!”, the man shouted, before taking out multiple bottles of some sort of liquid. ‘Poison?’, I asked myself. Before I could act in any way, the man opened each bottle, one after the other. A purple haze began escaping the bottles, which in turn formed a cloud. It wasn’t a normal cloud, it acted as if it was alive. The cloud didn’t move towards Eterians for some reason, it began floating towards us. “Move back guys. Quickly!”, I ordered. This might’ve looked like Cloud Haze Poison, but it wasn’t.
It was the same poison I encountered at Boltier. All the races behind me started retreating, while I tried to come up with something. “Do you have a way to neutralise this?”, Harlin asked. “If I know him, he does”, Crow said appearing next to me. “This is the same poison that was used on Voltars. I can try and freeze it. Coldness had an effect on the poison, as far as I remember”, I replied. With my arm extended, I started forming the ball of mist atop my hand.
“Crow, you have any way of dealing with such a vicious poison?”, I asked in the meantime. “Trying to absorb a part of it… seems rather dangerous. Try freezing it first”, he replied. With the ball formed and condensed, I slammed my leg on the ground and threw it as hard as I could.
“Swoosh!”, “Pak!”, “Crickle… Crackle”. The ball of mist hit the target, but didn’t freeze the cloud. “The cloud only slowed down”, I said. “Try once more?”, Harlin asked. I tried once more like he asked. “Swoosh!”, “Pak!”, “Crickle… Crackle”. ‘Although the poisonous cloud didn’t freeze, the speed at which it moves decreased’, I thought. “Give it one more shot. It’s rather slow right now”, Crow said. I agreed, and formed another ball. This time, the cloud became really slow. “Although this is not a solution, it will buy us some time”, I said, but then the guy at the other side laughed. “Hmph! You think it will be that easy?”, he took out another bottle, and threw it at the ground.
“This dude has more… Can you freeze it enough, so that Crow can…?”, I stopped Harlin midway. “This is not the same stuff, it’s something else”, I said. We watched as another cloud formed, but it wasn’t poison. ‘Medicine?’, I asked myself unsure. I was shocked at what I witnessed a few moments later. The poisonous cloud started devouring the other cloud. “Come on! Have you ran out of your ice balls?!”, the man taunted me.
“Are you telling me that freezing will not work?”, Harlin asked. “Perhaps, let’s see. I have a few more shots left in me”, I replied. I was sure he had more bottles of that other stuff, but it was worth a try. As soon as the ball of mist became condensed enough, I would throw it at the cloud. The guy on the other side got pissed, and dropped a few more bottles of that other stuff.
“I think he dumped everything he had. Can you keep it up?”, Crow asked. “Not for much longer. Perhaps two more times, and I’m done for. Guys, retreat. If I have to, I will use my Aura to fight it”. Harlin snorted, “Don’t joke around. Who would drag your half dead body back?”. I smiled, “Fair point”. Just as I was condensing another ball atop my hand, I heard something interesting. “Hurry up! We don’t have much time!”, one of the Eterians shouted at the Human.
The guy shouted back at him, but I was already analysing the words of that Eterian. ‘There are two possibilities. They took an antidote of some sort, and the cloud of poison will not attack them for a period of time. Or the cloud will vanish soon’, I thought. “We have to stall this, it seems they are running out of time for some reason”, I said and threw the condensed ball at the cloud.
I managed to squeeze out one more ball of mist, and threw it at the cloud as well. The guy on the other side was furious. “Whatever!”, he shouted before dumping even more bottles of that other liquid. “Turns out he still had some in stock”, I said. The cloud quickly recovered, but still devoured the other cloud. “Any other ideas, gentlemen?”, I asked. “We run?”, Harlin replied. “Maybe we can attract it to one of the Volcanoes?”, Crow asked.
I slapped myself, because I forgot about something. “I still have my glove! I totally forgot about it”. I was used to the fact that the Formation on my glove was broken. “The fire should affect this poison too. Although we need extreme fire… Back up guys, closer to the volcanoes. I need Fire Element for this to work”, I said and ran towards one of the volcanoes. The guy saw us retreating, and shouted, “See! He is out of ammo! Now they are dead!”.
The others were fortunately much further away, so they would be affected last. “Alright, this should be enough”, I said and extended my left hand. A flame burst into life, encompassing my hand. I tried to increase the intensity, and the flame grew to a much, much bigger size. “Don’t come close to me with that”, Crow said. “I just need to condense it. It might take a second”, I said and focused.
The guy responsible for all that poison, noticed what we were doing. “Hey! What is he doing exactly?!”, he asked the Eterians. “You didn’t tell me he could do that as well!”, he shouted at them again. I increased the output, while compressing the flame into the ball. “Catch this!”, I shouted while throwing the ball of fire at the cloud. “Swoosh!”, “BOOOM!”, a loud explosion reverberated through the air. The ball of fire created a large hole inside the cloud, but didn’t destroy it. “Not enough? I will serve you one more!”, I shouted and began condensing another ball. The cloud had to reform, but still made its way towards us.
“It’s getting closer… Nex…”, Harlin said through his teeth. When the ball was ready, I immediately threw it. “Swoosh!”, “BOOOM!”, another large hole appeared inside the cloud. “Retreat, fast!”, I exclaimed, while trying to condense another ball. “Do something!”, the leader of Eterians screamed. The Human shook his head, and began running towards the direction of the barrier. “Crow!”, I shouted. “I’m on it”, he replied. Crows mission was to take out that guy, while the cloud chased after me.
With another ball ready, “Swoosh!”, “BOOOM!”. The poisonous cloud became much smaller, but it’s speed increased. ‘No other choice’, I thought and grabbed Golden Iris. “Run Harlin, run as far as you can. I will try to use my Aura and destroy this completely”, I said before drinking it. He refused, so I told him I wasn’t asking. With my Domineering Aura, I grabbed him and flung him away. ‘It’s all or nothing’, I thought as my energy quickly restored.
“That is as far as you go!”, I shouted and released my Domineering Aura to the max. I was trying to envelop the cloud, condense it and burn it down in one go. The cloud fought viciously against my Aura, but with my energy restored, there was no way for it to escape anymore. At the same time, I was condensing a ball of fire atop my hand, “Disappear for me!”, I shouted and threw the ball. “Swoosh!”, “BOOOM!”. The cloud trapped within my Aura, burned to the last possible wisp. ‘Fortunately he didn’t have any more of that poison. I would be in deep shit otherwise’, I thought to myself. Most of my energy was spent again, but not completely. I was still able to move and function properly.
I saw Crow carrying that one guy with him, while Eterians just stood there. “What? Not even going to try and run away?”, I asked with a smirk. But then I saw Crow stopping all of a sudden. The Eterians were also seemingly rooted in place. ‘What the?’, I thought. Harlin shouted from behind, “L…Look up!”. I was confused to be sure, but then looked up and scoured the sky.