In the decimated parking lot, the few remaining soldiers finally dropped their weapons.
From the destruction wrought by the single tired, injured escapee to the two new enemies now going toe-to-toe against two S-class Scouts, it was painfully clear--they had no business in this fight anymore.
Concrete shredded like paper, buildings crumbled with each strike, deafening noises erupted in every direction.
Instinctively, they backed away and realized that anyone foolish enough to enter that vicious fray would instantly become collateral damage.
Amid the chaos, Dom gave a weak smile as Noah wrapped his left arm with bandages.
"Thanks," He murmured.
"I always come prepared," Noah replied with a smirk, tying the knot tightly enough to make Dom wince.
Noah placed the remaining bandages in his lab-coat pocket.
Then, Dom's eyes widened as he saw Noah pull a long metal canister from that same average-sized pocket.
"Are you sure you don't have an attribute?" Dom asked suspiciously, watching as Noah replaced the burnt-out canister in his cannon with the new one.
"I'm sure," Noah grumbled, sealing the cannon, which hummed with renewed energy.
Dom's gaze followed Noah as he pushed the empty canister back into his pocket--the tube was nearly twice the pocket's length, yet it disappeared inside as if the fabric had suddenly decided to hold more space than it should.
"You're playing with me," Dom grumbled, pointing at the pocket. "I was curious about this earlier… when you pulled out all those jammers from those pockets."
Noah smirked, finally realizing the source of Dom's distraction. "Oh, that. That's actually something I—"
A loud clash cut him off.
Dom's expression darkened as his attention snapped toward the sound.
"We can talk about it later," Noah said, arming his cannon as Dom frowned, observing the two fights unfolding simultaneously.
Dae and Lucy moved like hurricanes--powerful mages, capable of handling countless foes alone--but even their impressive power began to falter as they faced the two mages a class above them.
Dae was the first to struggle visibly.
"I'll admit it, you're faster than me," Luke chuckled, sending more shadow tendrils at Dae.
The latter sliced through them easily before dashing straight at his foe with a following thunderclap.
Luke swiped his arm, unleashing another wave of shadows--but Dae vanished, evading the dark embrace and reappearing behind Luke a split second later.
With a grunt, he thrust one of his swords forward, only for it to sink into the dark void of Luke's shadow that suddenly covered his back.
Dae's eyes widened as he tried--and failed to pull his blade out of the shadow's grasp.
"But speed isn't everything," Luke said with a smirk, raising his hand as mana twisted into a sharp, familiar dagger.
Dae's eyes glowed as electricity surged from his body, forcing Luke to retreat into his shadows and freed his weapon.
Blades ready, Dae quickly sliced through a tendril aimed at his back just as more sprouted out of the shadows of surrounding structures.
He crouched, taking a low stance as he prepared to counter-- just as a dagger zip across his lap, slicing his skin.
He winced then narrowly leapt out of the tendrils' reach.
Landing at a safe distance, he narrowed his eyes at a solitary tendril waving at him in the same direction the dagger came from.
Luke emerged from the shadow of a bent light pole some distance away, arms folded.
"Didn't see that coming, did you?" He said with a smirk, conjuring five more daggers in one hand and dropping them into his shadow.
Dae calmly watched as the blades sank seamlessly into Luke's darkness.
At the same moment, another solitary tendril appeared in the distance with a dagger in its grasp.
Dae readied a counter, only to be interrupted by a direct clash from Luke himself. He stomped his foot behind him, pushing against Luke's dagger and locking eyes.
Then Luke smiled and Dae flinched once he finally noticed the energy gun now raised in Luke's other hand.
With a grunt, he knocked Luke's dagger aside and weaved, narrowly evading the shot.
As the scorching projectile tore past his face, his eyes widened as he sensed the tendril fling the dagger at him, the blade cutting through the wind as it rapidly closed the gap between them.
He barely deflected it, metal ringing, then twisted again to bat aside four more blades coming from different angles.
By the time he turned back to Luke, his teeth clenched at the sight--nearly ten daggers held in each of Luke's hands.
"Let's see how long you'll last," Luke chuckled as he dropped the daggers.
Before they could even reach the floor, Dae burst forward, stopping directly in front of Luke with a brutal overhead slash.
In response, several tendrils erupted from Luke's shadow, snatching up the falling daggers and whipping them toward Dae's body.
Dae halted his swing mid-motion and shifted his stance.
"Orbit."
He spun instantly, his blades carving a circular arc that deflected every incoming dagger.
At the same time, Luke narrowly slipped back into his shadow, vanishing once more.
"Shadow magic and mana transfiguration," Dom muttered as he watched Luke reappear with yet another set of daggers in hand. "So he's a T-Mage too."
Noah nodded--but a loud blast from across the lot drew their attention.
A building exploded as Lucy's monstrous form burst out, smashing into a car and flipping it under her weight.
Grunting, she dug her claw into the crushed vehicle, lifting it casually as her eyes locked on her opponent.
Aera cracked her neck, the bleeding slashes across her body hissing with steam as they rapidly healed while Lucy growled, her bruised form visible as she hurled the vehicle at Aera like a toy.
"We're not winning… are we?" Noah asked, frowning at the sight.
Dom clicked his tongue as he watched Aera dodged the thrown car and drove a kick into Lucy who guarded but is sent flying from the blow.
Those two are S-class. We can't beat them. He thought, then glanced between Noah's canon and the few nearby soldiers who had clearly lost the will to fight.
If Noah and I can create a distraction… He grunted, forcing his exhausted body to move. …then we can—
"Dom!"
The cry snapped his attention back to the battlefield.
Dom's eyes widened as he saw Dae's body pinned against the wall by a thick web of shadows with his opponent nowhere to be seen.
Instantly--despite his body refusing to respond just a heartbeat earlier--Dom shoved Noah aside and reached down, catching a hand that burst up from his shadow.
Noah hit the ground with a confused grunt and turned just in time to see Dom on one knee, his right hand locked in a crushing grip around a wrist sprouting from his shadow.
"Wow," Luke said as his tall frame slowly emerged from the darkness like a nightmare, his frame towering over Dom's.
"I didn't think you had this much strength left in you," He added, feeling the near bone-crushing pressure around his wrist.
Luke then suddenly crafted a dagger in his other hand and drove it toward Dom's side--but Dom reacted instantly, shoving Luke backward hard enough to make him stagger.
In one swift motion, Dom forced himself upright.
The ground cracked beneath his feet as he summoned what little mana he had left into his fist and hurled it straight toward Luke's face.
That was when several shadowy tendrils erupted from their overlapping shadows, wrapping around Dom's body like iron chains that pinned him to the floor. His punch stopped mere inches from Luke's face.
Even halted, the sheer force of the momentum displaced the air violently, sending a powerful gust that forced Luke to stumble backward.
Recovering, Luke straightened, his expression matching the wild disarray of his hair. "You're a very dangerous man," He said calmly.
Then with a flex of his fingers, the tendrils tightened, yanking Dom down to his knees and anchoring him firmly to the shattered floor.
In the distance, Lucy snarled in frustration, unable to break free from Aera's relentless assault to aid once she noticed Dom's capture.
Nearby, Dae clenched his teeth and unleashed a full-body electrical surge that ripped through the shadowy web incapacitating him.
Only a few tendrils snapped under the attack before others coiled around his neck, cutting off his air and forcibly shutting down his spell as he gasped for air.
Dom's pupils dilated at the sight of his friend being strangled, his body straining against the shadowy chains that creaked under him.
Luke smirked, amused by Dom's furious glare--
--just as an energy blast slammed into his side.
Luke staggered, briefly stunned with his control over his shadows weakened enough to release the pressure around Dae's neck.
Turning sharply, Luke's eyes widened as he spotted Noah, his cannon steaming as it remained aimed squarely at him.
"Let them go," Noah said, his body trembled, his instincts telling him that he had no chance against this monster--but his eyes were firm, unwavering.
Luke's expression darkened at those determined eyes. "Noah," He muttered, stepping toward him.
In that moment, Dae dragged in a sharp breath and reactivated his spell, ripping the remaining tendrils apart in a crackle of electricity.
Free once more, he snatched up his discarded swords and thundered toward Luke in a blinding burst of speed.
Luke halted with a casual swing of his arm.
Shadow tendrils erupted from the ground around Dae, each gripping a dagger.
Dae's eyes widened as he carved through them while pressing forward--until his body suddenly froze mid-dash.
He groaned, panic flashing through his mind as he realized he couldn't move--no matter how hard he tried.
Dom frowned at Dae's frozen state, then spotted the likely cause.
One of the daggers, now glowing with a familiar ashy mana, was embedded in Dae's shadow on the ground behind him.
"That took a while to create but I'm done with you," Luke said coldly to Dae before turning just in time to block another energy blast with a thick shadow tendril.
Peering through the opening formed by the attack on the tendril, Luke narrowed his eyes at Noah.
He raised a hand, and more shadows surged forward, eerie tendrils seeking to consume him as well.
But Noah grit his teeth, yanked something from his pocket, and hurled it at the ground.
The object detonated instantly, releasing a dense cloud of smoke that swallowed the area and caused the tendrils to lash harmlessly through empty air.
Luke stepped calmly into the smoke, scanning the obscured space. "You can't hide forever," He said, swinging his arm--
--only to find the barrel of a familiar cannon aimed directly at his face.
He twisted aside, narrowly avoiding the point-blank blast, and thrust his shadow-coated palm forward--only for it to slam into a solid barrier.
His eyes widened as the smoke thinned just enough to reveal Noah's determined stare behind an energy shield held, projected by a device in his free hand.
Noah raised his prosthetic limb again, his canon revving as it fired another blast which Luke evaded with a side-step.
He then dashed to Noah's exposed side and reached for him--only for Noah to suddenly shoot upward, revealing a sleek hover-board beneath his feet, its red outlines glowing brightly.
In seconds, Noah surged above the smoke, quickly reloading his spent canon as he watched for movement below.
Dom smirked at the sight of Noah floating in the air. "Dope," He chuckled--just before a tendril snapped over his mouth, silencing him.
Slowly, as the smoke mostly dispersed, Luke looked up at Noah now aiming down at him.
With a grunt, he fired three rapid blasts. The red mana projectiles whistling through the air with surprising speed but Luke's tendrils surged upwards, blocking the resulting explosions easily.
Clicking his tongue, Noah reached into his coat again, preparing for another attack--completely unaware of Dom's frantic, muffled warning.
A dagger suddenly slammed into the underside of his board.
"Crap," Noah muttered as he spotted a suspicious shadow tendril on the floor below.
Another appeared at its side and threw a second dagger that also made contact.
The hover-board sparked violently, trembling as it struggled to remain afloat before finally breaking down.
As Noah plummeted towards the ground, he leapt off the broken board just before it crashed.
He instinctively used his shield to cushion the fall, rolling to his feet with another smoke bomb already in hand--
--but a tendril snapped around his wrist, locking his arm in place.
He aimed his cannon again, only for another tendril to seize his prosthetic arm, wrenching it upward just as he fired.
The blast flew straight into the air, harmlessly dispersing against the distant Under-city ceiling with a few pieces of debris dropping back down.
More tendrils surged in, dragging both his arms back and pinning them above his head as others bound his legs and torso.
Noah groaned, struggling helplessly--
--then flinched as Luke emerged silently from the ground behind him.
"You know," Luke said quietly as he formed a dagger in his hand, "I didn't want to believe them."
Noah's breathing quickened as Luke crouched beside him.
"Why'd you do it?" Luke asked.
Noah frowned, but said nothing.
Luke studied him in silence for a long moment before exhaling. "I think I know why. This," He said, gesturing toward the restrained Dom and Dae, "… none of it is ideal. It's inhumane, actually."
He then rested his forearms on his bent knees and looked back at Noah. "But what we're doing here is worth it… it's for the sake of our country."
"You mean our military power," Noah snapped, eyes filled with frustration while Luke's eyes darkened.