Fast watched as the pillars of energy from his fingertips pushed the beast back, a wild grin spreading across his face. "It's working..." he whispered, breathless. "I did it! My ability really works!" But this intoxication of victory lasted only seconds. The erratic blue energy overflowing from his body began to fade slowly. The light at his fingertips dimmed, and finally went out completely.
Fast looked at his hands in horror. "No... Not now! Don't stop!"
Sard rushed to Fast's side through the dust cloud. "Why did you stop?" he shouted, his voice more tense than ever. "Keep going! You were so close to finishing it!"
"I can't," Fast said, his voice cracking in desperation. "It's gone... The power is gone, I can't feel it anymore."
Before Sard could ask "How?", a rumbling sound rose from the Troll's wounded throat. The monster wasn't dead. The Troll, opening and closing its mouth rapidly, began to fire successive orbs of purple energy. Sard grabbed Fast by the arm and pulled him aside. Together, they began to run around the monster in a 360-degree arc. They were talking breathlessly as energy orbs blew up the concrete ground around them.
"Listen to me!" Sard shouted as bullets shattered the concrete around them. "I need time. If I can focus enough, I can gather a power to take the beast down in one shot. But I need to aim for its head and the monster is moving too much!"
"Okay," Fast said, his eyes still on Lena lying on the ground. "You get ready, I—"
At that moment, everything reached a critical point. As the beast followed them 360 degrees with the massive purple energy gathering in its mouth, the duo passed right through the line where Lena lay. The monster's eyes caught the defenseless girl at that exact moment of transition. The Troll suddenly stopped chasing the two shadows and locked its target onto Lena. The mass of purple light in the beast's throat had reached a point of no return.
"It's aiming at her..." Fast's voice caught in his throat. He turned to Sard, absolute determination in his eyes. "Sard, focus on it! Just aim for the head... I'll get Lena out of there!"
Fast began to run toward Lena, but with every step he felt time slowing down cruelly. "I won't make it," he thought. "Too far... The distance is too long!" As despair descended like a nightmare, old memories flashed in his mind.
First, he remembered that day they were caught in the rain coming home from school; how Lena used her power to open a barrier of light over them so they wouldn't get wet. Then the image shifted; he saw Lena coming to celebrate with two cans of Zero in her hands when she first rose to D-Rank. And finally, the echo of Lena lightly tapping Fast on the shoulder reached his ears:
"No one has this will of yours. The potential inside you is just waiting for the right trigger."
Fast's eyes snapped wide open. The motivation paper on his room's wall flashed in his mind: "FASTER."
"Faster..." Fast whispered to himself. "Faster!"
The world fell completely silent. As he ran, Fast suddenly positioned his body parallel to the ground and leaned forward. His eyes closed. A sharp, hot steam leaked from his nose. The concrete ground he stepped on shattered into pieces within seconds, and sharp blue electrical arcs began to crackle around him.
At the exact microsecond the monster fired the purple light, Fast's body vanished for an instant. Behind him, only a trail of lightning remained. The world lagged; dust, smoke, and the crackle of electricity blurred together. A heartbeat later, the explosion obliterated the spot where Lena had been standing just seconds ago.
Sard was already prepared for the finishing blow. He focused a pillar of energy, as thin and pure as a laser, directly at the beast's brain. "You filthy creature... Die!" The sharp light from Sard's finger tore through the air, piercing the Troll's skull like a diamond. The beast collapsed to its knees without a sound and fell over like a lifeless mass.
Sard ran toward the dust cloud in worry. "Fast! Lena!"
As the dust cloud slowly cleared, Fast's silhouette appeared. He had already moved Lena to a safe spot, placing the girl in his arms slowly and gently on the ground. After leaving Lena, Fast took two steps toward Sard, staggering. He looked up at the sky, a tired but peaceful smile on his face.
"I did it..." he whispered.
Fast's knees gave out, and he collapsed like a heavy sack as his consciousness faded. The last thing he heard before darkness covered everything was the sound of Sard's footsteps running toward him.