Chains Of Pride

As the scar-covered man headed towards Kura, the oppression inherent to their kind slowly spread out from within him. Kura immediately felt it, it was much more overbearing, more refined than hers, the experience was evident in his aura and pressure, but for some reason, it seemed to be...lacking something.

"Aaargh!"

After releasing a mighty shout, the muscles on his arms bulged, and he unleashed a massive punch just before Kura. An enormous shockwave spread out heading towards her and by extension Rikona and Makoto some distance away.

Her expression finally changed when she saw that Rikona and Makoto were about to be implicated, from the attack.

"Damn it! Dimensional Shift!!" Hurriedly shouting, she wasted no time, spurring the floating sphere into action.

A small gesture from it once more heralded another response, soon the entire space around Kura, Rikona and Makoto seemed to have been fragmented as if they were in another space though they could still clearly be seen where they were.

Shortly after, the attacks heading towards them had somehow gone right through and at the same time, around where they were, creating an odd scene.

"Wh-What the hell was that! What just happened?!" When the earlier spectacle took place, Machyal shouted in surprise.

This development far exceeded his expectations, as far as he knew, Taliums were just beings that teetered on the limits of human abilities.

Though he saw Kura floating from before, he was aware of certain Taliums that could do the very same, though they were considered very high level, and not ones he could easily bring out, he was lucky to get permission for Yang Min. He was under the impression that Kura, unlike her sister, was just another high-level Talium but this, this was just Godlike!

Not to mention Director Shihai, who had effectively become a spectator during all this. Even the two Taliums who came with him were visibly shaken, a look of surprise plastered on their faces.

Kura noticed their surprised demeanours and realised, "Wait, they don't know about Constructs?! Hold on now I get it, that's what was lacking with his pressure and aura earlier! They may be one of us, probably even have been longer too, but they've only scratched the surface, just bruting their way through with the physical augmentation that being a Talium would bring."

Rikona saw through it as well, and she was of the mind that probably many of the skills they were privy to was most likely out of their reach as well. Rikonas's expression changed when she realised this as she stated, "They're children."

She looked to her younger sister ahead who was staring back at her with that same cold look, and they both nodded at this, aware of each other's thoughts. However, Rikona's gaze became more meaningful, not breaking eye contact and when Kura saw this, her expression softened, and she mouthed something and nodded to her big sister once more.

When Rikona saw this, she sighed in relief, thinking to herself, "It looks like I don't need to keep worrying about her."

After a while, Rikona looked to her saying, "Hmph, I won't lose you so you won't lose me, huh? Well, that goes for us both bunny. It's about time I get back in there, I can't make my construct as yet but I sure as hell can take on the other one."

The reason why Rikona was a bit reserved and apparently weakened after the first incident, was all because 'willing' a bullet out of her body along with the accelerated healing that came after, drained a lot of energy. It was the first time she even attempted something like this, so the inefficiency involved caused a lot of energy to be needlessly wasted.

However, her strength was finally coming back, and this meant that she finally stop being the one thing she hated to be...Useless. She regained the composure she held at the beginning of this episode and began walking forward once more standing by side by...air with her younger sister.

"Kura I know I don't have to tell you what their shortcomings are," Kura nodded when Rikona brought up the issue, she nonetheless continued.

"I got a lot of energy back, but I'm still not gonna go airborne though, seems like breaking another level has given you a surplus so I won't comment on your current situation."

"I know you're worried about my mindset, but don't worry, I'm getting a reign of myself. These 'Taliums' aren't good enough to have me lose myself." She said the word Talium with disdain as if reluctant to grant the ones in front of her that title.

"That's good, keep that fire, now let's show them how a Talium really fights!"

When Machyal saw that they were not paying any attention to him, his anger surged, "So it looks like both of you are dead set on doing this the hard way, fine by me!"

He looked to the Talium who attacked before, "Zutto Shu switch to the older sister! Yang Min take down the little sister! But be careful, take them alive if you can, it would be good if we can study them to learn how they did what they did before, our power will greatly increase if we can."

As he finished speaking, the feet of the female Talium beside him slowly began to leave the ground, and within a second, she instantly appeared before Kura. "Hhmm so his thing is strength, and your thing is speed, explains how you all just popped up out of nowhere guess you were the one that brought them both here" Kura sized up Yang Min who was doing the same.

" …"

Yang Min said nothing but only brandished a short dagger she retrieved from her bootstrap. She then seemingly disappeared from where she floated and appeared behind Kura with a dagger in hand heading straight for her neck.

Kura sighed when she saw this, "It's a shame seeing my kind not even realising their own potential."

The knife shattered when it made contact with her Kura's skin, not even a nick could be seen, it seems the assembly of the construct brings the body to new heights. "Space Compression!" The space around Kura instantly grew heavier as if one was moving in amber.

All this took place in seconds, and Yang Min seeing this widened her eyes in shock and decisively withdrew, "You may be fast but let's see how you deal with this, Space Compression!" Kura was resolute in her actions, wasting no time.

Yang Min floated some distance away, wordlessly staring at the space that surrounded Kura, how it fluctuated and seemed oddly distorted, warped even. "Well, are you just stay over there and keep staring at me? I mean I know I'm drop-dead s.e.xy and all but I uh, don't swing that way."

Her eyes narrowed when she heard this, and she disappeared once more, and Kura readied herself while the land trembled all because of what was happening some distance away. She glanced over to her sister's direction due to the tremors, while she readied herself.

"Can't those guys keep it down, c'mon little fly head right into my trap."

......…

"For God's sake, Makoto run far away!!!"

"Oh I'm sorry I'm having trouble outrunning explosions!! I'll try to take a class at the Y for explosion running next Tuesday!!!"

Rikona was taking on Zutto Shu who was rearranging the landscapes with his attacks. However, she couldn't really go all out due to Makoto who suddenly appeared beside her. When she was about to withstand the first attack from the scar covered gentleman in front, Makoto who thought she was still a bit weakened rushed by her side to render some aid.

However, when he saw how the combination of rocks, dirt, trees and whatnot were stopped at what seemed to be an invisible wall, he knew his worries were misplaced, at least for the moment.

"Run farther away damn it!! Do you think I would come out here if I couldn't take care of myself!"

"Well excuuuse me for worrying and for not having superpowers!! Even though I've tried to be a good person, now I'm running through some godforsaken forest while my two friends are fighting the flash and the hulk! You know what?! F**k you universe I blame you!!!"

When she saw that he was a safe distance away, she sighed in relief and prepared to undo the shackles. She looked ahead, saw Zutto Shu who was preparing to let loose another wave.

"Alright, big boy, show momma what you got."