Chains Of Pride

Kia inspected the scarlet glow that surrounded him with a curious expression. The pale youth was staring at Kia as if he was looking at a monster. When Kia noticed his gaze, he sighed and said to himself.

"Even in the world of freaks, I'm still an outsider. The same probably goes for the other guys too, speaking of which."

Kia looked around where he saw Gero who was still slumped down at the base of that tree. He then switched his gaze to Lanzo in the distance, there was a crack on God's Code c.h.e.s.t plate.

"Gonna have to repair that later, that's gonna be a headache. Attobots are such a pain to produce too."

Kia only said this in passing as he saw the damage on his Armis.

Kia stared at it for a moment longer before he opened his mouth and shouted, "Lanzo! Get up will ya, stop acting like you're out of it."

"Ah, geez! Give me a break already. I fought in Engage earlier, I'm beat!"

Gero began getting up, grumbling as he did so, feeling as if he'd been wronged. What's wrong with lying down on the ground in the world's most technologically advanced battle armour?

"You owe me that much after going around naming my Armis, I haven't forgotten about that you know?" Kia stated matter of factly.

Lanzo scratched the back of his head while there was a huge grin on his face, "hehehe, about that, so what had happened was...I be fighting people, and people be fighting back, and before I knew it, this thing was called God's Code…"

Kia apathetically stared at him when he said that, "Much like the idiot over there, nothing you say makes sense. Anyways, get to work."

The pale youth's complexion was not well, not only did he not manage to suppress them but he was also being ignored as they held their own conversation. Heck! The red-haired brat even took a jab at him, by calling him an idiot.

There is no greater humiliation than this. The pale youth's face reddened (the first bit of colour he's had since he got here) as his rage took him.

"That's it, that is it!! I will not be ignored by a couple of smart a.s.s digiums from an insignificant Cendo Academy!! Shadow Slash!!"

The minute he spoke the shadowy figure rushed forward intending to keep Lanzo busy while the youth dealt with Kia. Since he was an Invata Prime, he should have no trouble taking care of this Dreamer trash!

When he finished thinking of this, the shadowy figure had already arrived in front of Lanzo. The shadowy figure's arms morphed into a pair of blade-shaped appendages, there was no gleam or sheen on these blades as they hacked down.

Clang! Clink!!

As if they were made from metal, the shadow blades made clanging sounds when they clashed against the ironclad defences of God's Code. When there was a slight break in the onslaught of the slashes being levied by the Shadow, Lanzo's eyes revealed an opportunistic gleam before he promptly shouted.

"Burst Impact!!"

The same mechanism activated once again, as a rod with a flat head extended from the elbow of God's Code, it then furiously smashed down at the same time Lanzo's punch connected, his eyes widened in shock.

"What the-…shit!"

Lanzo found that his punch had somehow gone right through the entity before him. What's more, is that the force from the impact had also thrown him off form, sending him stumbling forward.

The shadow reacted to this and quickly aimed for the weak spots on the Armis. This was only relatively though, as Kia had painstakingly used attobots to create the armour, small bots that were much smaller and much more advanced than nanobots.

As a result, the so-called weak spots were only where the Armis seemed thinner, such as the joints. Lanzo reacted fast to this and began to deal with an increasingly troublesome opponent.

When the pale youth saw this, he relaxed slightly, he then looked towards the slightly trembling Kia. His lips curled up into a smirk when he noticed the slight trembles coming from the latter's body. The youth didn't realise that at the moment his eyes left the battle, Lanzo had shot something out in Kia's general direction.

He knew the power that Kia was displaying was only artificial, form without substance, his shadow only flickered because its sudden emergence caused the ethereal nature to react a bit violently. In the future, when he gets stronger, that weakness would naturally disappear.

"You know, for a malnourished meerkat you're pretty- whoops!" What caused Kia to clam up so suddenly was because the malnourished mee- uh the pale youth suddenly sprinted full force in Kia's direction, brandishing his own aura as he did so.

"How dare you act so presumptuous before me! Now yield!!" The pale youth had released a punch aiming for Kia's c.h.e.s.t. To his surprise, however, Kia had managed to dodge his incomparably fast punch!

"H-How did he move like that?! That wasn't speed, it seemed more like some technique." These thoughts ran through the pale youth's head when he saw how strangely Kia had moved.

When he saw how Kia had moved to his side, he released a kick this time around intending to test him.

Bam!!

When he saw how easily the kick connected, his grin increased, "Seems like it was just a fluke. Now to incapacitate him then subdue the other one and I'll be able to get out of here."

When he had planned to rush in Kia's direction to take him out, he saw where Kia had picked up a strange device from near the area he had kicked him towards.

Kia looked quite miserable, that kick had caused his internal organs to churn, blood had leaked from his mouth. His eyes had released a sense of extreme panic when he viewed the pale-face youth before him.

The pale faced youth looked in Kia's hands before asking himself, "What the hell is that?" However, he soon shook his head and dashed towards him once again. After all, he is a Talium, the number of things that can harm him are few and far in between.

Just as he came upon the seemingly defenceless Kia, the panicked expression that was prevalent before had disappeared and was now replaced with a wicked gleam, "Just a malnourished meerkat indeed." As Kia said this, the device in Kia's hand trembled before it released a dazzling light.

Krrssshhh "Divinus Strike!!"

Unexpectedly, the device in Kia's hand was the Divinus Blade that Lanzo had used before. He had seen when Lanzo fired it off towards Kia, it was a means for Kia to retaliate should he need it, and boy did he need it.

Kia only had one chance with this as the device was no longer attached to the Armis, it's power was severely limited, and could only last for a few seconds at most. The problem here is that the pale youth was much faster than Kia, even though he was surprised, he was still able to react.

Bang!!

Out of nowhere, before he could react, a bludgeoning blow outside his blindspot connected to the side of his head. "Ugh! What in the-"

Gero did not take kindly to be sent flying like that, so as soon as he got the chance he grabbed an iron rod from the hangar they had bought with them and crept up behind while he was busy with Kia.

The minute Gero landed the blow, he glanced in Kia's direction, his gaze screaming, "Cut him down!!"

Though the blow to the head didn't cause any injuries, that moment of inaction gave Kia the chance to do what he needed to.

Kia suddenly executed a spectacular kenjutsu with the Divinus Blade carving out a huge hole where his heart would be, shredding the organ in its entirety.

"Urkh!" The pale youth's mouth opened only slightly, just how did I die? This question flickered in his mind until he was incapable of asking it anymore.

The execution of the kenjutsu surprised not just Gero, but even Shepherd Hide and Vizio, the former rose an eyebrow to its realisation.

On top of a tall tree…

"This is…surprising." Said the austere Shepherd.

"W-Was that a sword martial technique?! How could he have learnt it, where did he learn it?!" Vizio was visibly shaken.

After some time had passed throughout history, many things were no longer common and accessible as they could have once been. Technological advancements had rendered them null and void, and in some cases, extinct.

Kenjutso or sword martial techniques were one of those, and yet, a boy no older than 17 just executed that which was thought lost.

"The only preserved kenjutsu to exist in this world, unique to the Hokori Clan, True Dragon Sword Hunt. So he is from that Hokori household? He hid himself deep." Shepherd had figured something from Kia's earlier performance.

"True Dragon Sword what?" Vizio asked a bit confused at what happened.

"Don't worry about it, anyway follow me." Shepherd didn't say anything else and leapt forward, heading to where the boys were.

...

The shadow had finally dispersed when the pale youth died, freeing Lanzo from his battle with it. He headed to where Gero and Lanzo congregated, looking at the lifeless body of the youth. Kia's aura and pressure had also dispersed as well.

As they stood there, they oddly felt no grief, no change in demeanour, they felt…normal. Was this normal? They had questions, but they dreaded who they were gonna have to get it from.

"A couple of kids staring at a dead body, where have I seen this before?" An apathetic voice sounded out from behind the three, it belonged to the one person they didn't want to meet, Shepherd Hide.

"Seeing as you arrived when everything finished up, did we mess up your last-minute save plan." Gero looked at the Shepherd with a frosty glare.

Takeshi only looked at him once before ignoring him, he instead walked over to the body.

"Viz take care of the body, you three come with me." Shepherd Hide only said this before he started walking away.

Vizio immediately got to work, taking the body and disappearing before the boys even had a chance to see her properly. They evinced shock at the godly speed of whatever it was that took the body away.

Still, they didn't complain much, not this time. They silently followed the Shepherd, they needed answers, and as much as they hated to admit it. The man before the three had them.