"Yoku, do you copy?" Anjero's voice crackled through the earpiece as another wave of magma forced him deeper behind cover.
"Yeah, I got you, Anro. Do you know where they are?"
Anjero looked at Mashù, who was checking his spirit energy levels while keeping one eye on Tenki's position. "Mashù, do you know where they are?"
"Yeah, Kamira is on the south wing of this place, and Romaji is on the floor above the lab," Mashù replied, wincing as another blast of molten rock melted the console they were hiding behind.
"You get that, Yoku?"
"Yeah, got it. I'm on my way to Kamira now. VANTAGE POINT!"
The technique was one Yoku had been working on during their three days of training—a short-range teleportation that used sound waves to instantly relocate him to any position he could visualize. The sensation was like being fired from a cannon while simultaneously having his eardrums massaged by a jackhammer.
"Huh... OK, never doing that again," Yoku muttered as he materialized in the south wing corridor, his head spinning from the disorienting transition.
From somewhere below him came Kamira's voice, filled with the primal satisfaction of someone completely lost in the joy of combat: "You fools done yet? I can go all day!"
Yoku looked down to see a scene of absolute carnage. Ten guards lay scattered across the corridor in various states of unconsciousness, their weapons broken and their armor dented beyond repair. In the center of the destruction stood Kamira, still in her hulked-out rage form, scanning for any remaining threats.
"Hey, I think they're out for the count now," Yoku called down to her.
Kamira's head snapped upward, her rage-enhanced senses detecting movement. "Ahh... one more hiding up there!"
Before Yoku could identify himself, she had torn a chunk of reinforced wall free and hurled it at his position with enough force to punch through steel plating.
"Woah! Kamira, it's me, Yoku! Geez, you almost hit me!"
Recognition dawned in her crimson-glowing eyes, and the rage transformation began to reverse itself. Her massive frame shrunk back to its normal proportions, though she still radiated the residual energy of someone who had just been in serious combat.
"Oh, Yoku, I didn't know you were here."
"It's my mission. Why wouldn't I be here?" he replied, dropping down to her level with practiced ease.
"That's true. So what's going on?"
"I'll tell you on the way to get Romaji," Yoku said, already moving toward the stairwell. As they ran, he quickly brought her up to speed on everything that had happened—the infiltration, Devanga's defeat, and the current situation with Tenki.
"So that's what's going on," Kamira said, her expression growing darker with each detail. "We better get to Mashù and the others quickly then."
"No, Kamira, you're badly injured. On top of that, you weren't supposed to be here anyway."
She shot him a look that could have melted steel. "I'm fine. I've been through worse."
"OK, but first I need to get you to the med bay in the submarine. We'll get you patched up so you can fight properly."
They reached the floor above the laboratory to find Romaji locked in combat with the remaining two armored guards. His dual beast transformation—part gorilla for strength, part cheetah for speed—should have given him an overwhelming advantage, but the guards' power armor was proving more resilient than expected.
"Romaji! Are you OK?" Kamira called out.
"Yeah, I'm good," Romaji panted, though it was clear he was exhausted. "T-these armored punks are annoying. I t-took out three already."
"Romaji, here, I got ya," Yoku said, moving to support his teammate as one of the guards landed a glancing blow that sent him staggering.
Yoku caught him and held him up by the shoulder, feeling the tremor of exhaustion in his friend's muscles. "Y-Yoku, how glad I am to see you."
"Yeah, save it for later." Yoku assessed the tactical situation with the cold efficiency their training had instilled. "Romaji, do they have any openings in their armor?"
"*Cough, cough* Yeah... in the back of their heads," Romaji managed between labored breaths.
"Good."
The lead armored grunt noticed their conversation and laughed with mechanical amplification. "There's more of you now? Hahaha, doesn't matter. I'll kill you all and move up the ranks."
"RICOCHET BULLETS!"
Yoku fired two shots that seemed to go completely wide, striking the stairway walls at angles that appeared random.
"Ha! Your aim is garbage!" the second grunt taunted.
But the bullets weren't meant to hit directly. They ricocheted off the stairs with calculated precision, changing angle twice before striking both guards in the vulnerable spots at the base of their skulls. The armored figures dropped to the ground.
"Wow, you've gotten kinda strong, man, in just three days," Romaji said with genuine admiration.
Yoku blushed at the praise. "Ah, you think so?"
"And hey, you didn't faint from that move. Good going, man!" Kamira added.
"Alright, let's get you two to the submarine," Yoku said, activating his earpiece. "Anro, I found Kamira and Romaji. They're alive. We're headed toward the sub now."
"Alright, nice," Anjero's voice carried obvious relief. He turned to Mashù, who was preparing for another assault. "Mashù, they're safe. We gotta finish this soon."
"Yeah, I know. Shut up," Mashù replied, though his tone carried gratitude rather than hostility.
Tenki's laughter echoed through the laboratory as he overheard their conversation. "You two seem to be close friends. Good—I'll enjoy taking both your powers simultaneously."
Rage flared in Anjero's chest as he thought of his unconscious brother somewhere in this chamber of horrors. "Where's my brother?"
"Oh, you mean the fire user?" Tenki gestured casually toward a large cylindrical machine that hummed with ominous energy. "He's currently in this machine with another one of my subjects."
"You are disgusting!"
Tenki shrugged with indifference. "So I've been told. I wouldn't mind switching places."
"What do you mean?"
"Your spirit for his safety," Tenki said, his eyes lighting up with predatory interest. "I already have magma, so I don't really need fire. But water... water is so interesting. I want it. Give it to me."
Anjero felt Aalto surge within him, the ancient spirit's power responding to both his rage and his protective instincts. "You know what? I'll just take option three."
"And what's that?"
"We'll just kick your ass!"
Tenki's response was immediate and violent—his stolen spirits flaring to life around him in a display of power that made the laboratory's reinforced walls groan under the pressure.
"Jeremi! Formation B! Mashù, follow my lead!" Anjero shouted, falling back on their tactical training.
"Got it. PHANTOM PHASE!" Jeremi replied, his form immediately shifting into the translucent state that would allow him to move undetected.
"Give them to me!" Tenki screamed, launching a barrage of magma projectiles that turned the air itself into a furnace.
"Fat chance, Tenki! GEYSER BEAM!" Anjero's counterattack met the magma head-on, the collision of fire and water creating clouds of superheated steam that filled the laboratory.
"Anjero, what are we doing?" Mashù called out through the chaos.
"Getting close. Use your luck on both of us," Anjero replied, trusting his teammate to understand the tactical necessity.
"Alright, cool! DOUBLE JACKPOT!"
The golden energy of Mashù's luck spirit enveloped both of them, creating a probability field that would guide their movements through the chaos. Tenki noticed the change immediately.
"What are you two planning? And where did the other one go?" His eyes began to glow with an unnatural red light. "INFRARED EYES!"
*How many spirits does this guy have?* Anjero thought with growing horror as Tenki's stolen abilities continued to manifest.
"Found you!" Tenki had located Jeremi's heat signature despite his shadow camouflage. A ball of concentrated magma flew toward the hidden guardian with lethal precision.
"Ahh! It burns!" Jeremi's scream cut through the laboratory as the attack connected, setting his clothes ablaze.
"Jeremi! VAPOR BULLETS!" Anjero's water-based projectiles struck his teammate, extinguishing the flames before they could cause serious injury.
"You alright, man?"
"Yeah, I'm OK. Just worry about the mission," Jeremi replied through gritted teeth, his professional focus never wavering despite his injuries.
"Alright, Mashù, I'm going to get you close. Can you hit him?" Anjero asked, beginning to form water constructs around his teammate's hands.
"Yeah, I can."
"Alright, here." The water shaped itself into dense spheres around Mashù's fists, compressed to near-solid density but retaining fluid properties.
"What are these?"
"Let's just call them power-ups," Anjero said with a grin that didn't match the desperation in his eyes.
"OK, so I keep punching him, righ—"
The sound of shattering glass interrupted their strategy session. The machine containing Shinkei and Nanshi had exploded, its reinforced chamber unable to withstand the spirit energy building inside it.
"I overloaded the system, Anjero. Finish the mission," Jeremi said before collapsing from exhaustion and his injuries.
"Why you little—" Tenki began, but Mashù was already moving.
"You're not hurting anyone else!" With his luck-enhanced reflexes and Anjero's water constructs enhancing his strikes, Mashù had crossed the laboratory faster than human perception could follow.
"When did you get over here?" Tenki demanded, genuinely surprised for the first time in the battle.
"You're done, Tenki!" Mashù unleashed a flurry of punches. Each strike hit with the force of a hydraulic press, driving Tenki backward for the first time in their confrontation.
But the spirit thief's stolen powers were too numerous, too diverse. He absorbed the punishment that should have ended the fight, then grabbed Mashù's wrists with inhuman strength.
"You're doing nothing but pissing me off!"
With casual brutality, Tenki hurled Mashù high into the air, then pointed one finger at the airborne guardian. Energy—not magma, not any spirit power Anjero recognized—began to gather at the tip of his index finger.
"Mashù!"
The explosion that followed shook the entire underwater facility, and in that moment of blinding light and devastating force, Anjero realized that everything they had planned, everything they had trained for, might not be enough to stop the monster that Bradoon Tenki had become.
The real question wasn't whether they could capture him anymore.
The question was whether any of them would survive long enough to warn the commander about what was coming.