Near the edge of the forested sector, the terrain began to change.
The dense trees gradually gave way to open streets, low buildings, and scattered suburban structures.
Nathaniel was already moving toward another objective.
A resource cache sat near the boundary between the two sectors.
He reached it in seconds.
The orange glow around his body dimmed as he landed beside the container. He opened it, transferred the contents into his storage, and immediately took off again.
Then he heard it.
A massive impact somewhere ahead.
Nathaniel's head turned.
His eyes widened.
"Wait..."
Through the gaps between the trees, he caught flashes of royal blue.
Then another explosion.
BOOM!
A wall of trees erupted outward.
Nathaniel slowed just enough to look.
He immediately recognized the battlefield.
Kagami Ryuzen was tearing through the forest.
Her enlarged form crashed between the trees as royal-blue flames erupted from her body, each movement sending another concussive burst through the surrounding vegetation.
She wasn't chasing just one person.
She was chasing two.
One of them was already familiar.
Green hair flashed between the trees as Yuzuki Hanamori desperately tried to maintain distance, her tree-based abilities forcing roots and branches upward to obstruct Kagami's advance.
It wasn't enough.
Kagami smashed through the vegetation.
Another burst of royal-blue flame detonated from her strike.
The shockwave tore through the forest.
Yuzuki was caught in it.
Her body went limp.
She collapsed unconscious among the broken roots.
Nathaniel's eyes widened.
"Damn."
He had missed it.
Again.
James Shift was already running.
He glanced back toward Kagami before swearing under his breath.
"Damn it. I'm out of sunlight."
Nathaniel's eyebrows rose.
Interesting.
James disappeared toward the open suburban sector.
Nathaniel watched him go.
Then looked back at Kagami.
Then at Yuzuki.
He sighed.
"Seriously?"
He had spent the last several minutes looking for the two people responsible for eliminating an entire squad.
And he had arrived after the fight was already over.
Nathaniel's shoulders slumped slightly.
"I wanted to see that."
He accelerated again.
Unfortunately, he hadn't noticed Kagami moving in the same direction.
The enlarged dragon-descended fighter stepped forward.
Nathaniel came flying around the edge of the trees at nearly full speed.
Their trajectories intersected.
Nathaniel's eyes widened.
Kagami looked up.
"What?"
THOOM!
Nathaniel slammed directly into her enlarged form.
The collision sent a violent shockwave through the clearing.
Kagami staggered.
Nathaniel bounced off her and spun through the air before catching himself several meters away.
He blinked.
Kagami stared at him.
Neither spoke for a second.
Then Nathaniel looked down.
The resource cache Kagami had been carrying was no longer in her hands.
It was in his.
He had stolen it during the collision.
Nathaniel looked at the cache.
Then at Kagami.
A grin slowly spread across his face.
"...Well."
Kagami's eyes narrowed.
Nathaniel tucked the cache away.
"At least I got something out of missing the fight."
Kagami pushed harder.
Nathaniel's feet continued sliding backward.
Then his expression changed.
The grin disappeared.
His eyes sharpened.
"Got you."
Kagami's brow furrowed.
"What?"
Her body suddenly stopped.
Not because she chose to.
Because something had seized control of her movement.
Kagami's eyes widened.
Her arms jerked away from Nathaniel.
Her enlarged body lifted from the ground.
"What the hell?!"
Nathaniel raised one hand.
Authority spread outward.
Not as a visible wave, but as an invisible field of tactile telekinetic force wrapping around Kagami's entire twelve-foot frame.
For the first time, Kagami felt the full precision behind Nathaniel's ability.
He wasn't simply pushing her.
He was controlling where her body went.
Nathaniel looked up at her.
"You've got a lot of mass."
His hand tightened slightly.
"So let's use it."
SLAM!
Kagami was driven into the ground.
The earth cracked beneath her.
Before she could recover, Authority yanked her upward.
BOOM!
Nathaniel swung her sideways.
Kagami's massive body tore through a line of trees before he redirected her trajectory.
CRASH!
She hit the ground again.
Nathaniel didn't stop.
He pulled her back up.
BOOM!
Down.
left.
right.
Up.
CRASH!
Across the clearing.
Kagami's enlarged form was tossed around like a ragdoll, royal-blue flames scattering violently with every impact.
Nathaniel pivoted with each movement, using Authority to redirect her momentum instead of relying entirely on his own strength.
The ground became a trail of impact craters.
Trees snapped.
Concrete fractured.
Kagami tried to fight against the invisible grip.
Her muscles strained.
Her plasma flared.
She fired a burst directly toward Nathaniel.
He tilted his head.
The attack passed beside him.
"You're making this harder than it needs to be."
His fingers twitched.
Authority abruptly reversed Kagami's momentum.
BOOOOM!
She slammed into the ground hard enough to send a circular shockwave through the surrounding streets.
Nathaniel stood at the center of it, orange energy crackling across his arms.
Kagami lay in the crater.
Her royal-blue flames flickered.
For a moment, she didn't move.
Nathaniel stared down at her.
Then he looked at his own hand.
His expression became almost impressed.
Kagami's fingers twitched.
Nathaniel's grin returned.
"Oh."
He raised his hand again.
"You're still up."
Kagami slowly lifted her head.
Her eyes burned with irritation.
Nathaniel's grin widened.
"Good."
"Remember our first fight."
Nathaniel smirked.
Kagami's eyes narrowed.
Then she saw what he was doing.
Nathaniel raised his palm.
Uratsu began gathering around it.
At first, it was only a small concentration of energy.
Then more.
And more.
The air around his hand began to distort.
Kagami slowly pushed herself upright.
"What are you doing?"
Nathaniel didn't answer.
His Authority spread through the mass of Uratsu.
Instead of simply containing it, he began accelerating the movement of the energy itself, agitating it faster and faster within the confined space.
The Uratsu started to churn.
Orange light condensed around his palm.
The glow deepened.
Brighter.
Hotter.
Denser.
Nathaniel's expression became focused.
He wasn't using Hellcharge.
He couldn't.
Energen had locked it away.
But Authority gave him another way to reproduce part of the same principle.
He compressed the Uratsu further.
Then agitated it again.
The energy violently collapsed inward.
WHUM.
A small sphere appeared above his palm.
It looked deceptively simple.
A dense orange-black core surrounded by a thin corona of unstable light.
Kagami stared.
Her instincts screamed at her to move.
Nathaniel looked at the sphere.
"Pseudo Hellcore."
Kagami's eyes widened.
"You named that?"
"Just now."
He grinned.
The sphere pulsed.
The surrounding air compressed toward it.
Kagami's royal-blue flames surged as she launched herself forward.
Nathaniel raised his hand.
Authority caught her.
Her twelve-foot frame jerked to a halt.
She struggled against the invisible force.
Nathaniel's arm trembled.
Keeping her restrained while maintaining the pseudo Hellcore was considerably harder than simply throwing her around.
His eyes narrowed.
"Hold still."
Kagami roared and forced herself forward.
Nathaniel's Authority field strained.
The sphere in his palm began vibrating violently.
He had pushed the Uratsu past the point where it naturally wanted to remain stable.
One mistake and the energy would disperse.
Or worse.
Nathaniel gritted his teeth.
"Come on..."
The orange-black sphere compressed again.
WHUM.
Its outer corona vanished.
Everything collapsed into a tiny, incredibly dense point.
Nathaniel's eyes widened slightly.
"Got it."
He released Kagami.
She surged forward.
Nathaniel stepped into her attack.
Their eyes met.
Kagami's spinning flaming super hot tail came down.
Nathaniel drove his palm forward.
The pseudo Hellcore struck her squarely in the side
For one instant, nothing happened.
Then the compressed Uratsu detonated.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
A spherical shockwave erupted across the battlefield.
Trees bent away from the impact.
Windows shattered throughout the nearby decoy suburban houses and buildings ripping up asphalt and wiring
Dust and debris were thrown outward in a massive 500m ring .
Kagami's enlarged body was launched backward, royal-blue flames scattering from her body as the force carried her through the air.
Nathaniel remained standing.
His arm was smoking.
The orange glow around his body flickered.
He watched Kagami disappear through the cloud of dust.
A second later, her enlarged form crashed into the ground.
The transformation began to collapse.
Her body shrank back toward its normal size as the remaining royal-blue flames flickered weakly around her.
Kagami tried to push herself up.
Her arm buckled.
She stared toward Nathaniel through half-lidded eyes.
"...cheater."
Nathaniel blinked.
Then laughed.
"You literally turned into a twelve-foot dragon woman."
Kagami's eyes rolled upward.
She went limp.
Nathaniel's smile faded as he approached.
He crouched beside her and checked her breathing.
Steady.
She was unconscious, but alive.
Nathaniel exhaled.
"Okay."
He looked at his smoking palm.
"Definitely need to work on that."
His interface chimed.
OPPONENT INCAPACITATED
KAGAMI RYUZEN
RESOURCE CACHE TRANSFERRED
Nathaniel glanced at the stolen cache still secured at his side.
Then back at Kagami.
"...I think I owe you one of these."
He stood.
The orange glow returned around his body.
Farther into the suburban sector, the tournament continued to erupt with distant explosions.
Nathaniel looked toward them.
His grin returned.
"Now..."
He crouched.
"...where did James go?"
Orange light exploded beneath his feet.
Nathaniel vanished into the distance.