Chains Of Pride

Before the three were about to crumble under the suppression of the team before them. An ever more powerful pressure pressed forth from behind them.

"Cut the crap Jihan before I force you to the ground." Vizio's cold voice sounded out, while her pressure allowed the three boys to breathe and move freely. They quickly backed from these people.

"Siren Vizio, they sent you? Isn't this a bit too low levelled for someone of your…rank?" Jihan, the leader of the group asked.

"Organization Code BL02, I'm Siren Vizio and these are my teammates. What is the situation?" Vizio didn't answer his question, and only gave him the authorization code wanting to get down to business.

The expression of the man who appeared to be the leader didn't change as if he was used to her character, "It's contained right now, however, we can't hold it for much longer. Come on, we'll take you there."

The captain of this team didn't waste time, after getting the verification code from Vizio. He immediately had them brought to a scene of destruction that seemed to be spreading even now.

In the vehicle they were travelling in, Kia, Lanzo and Gero were brought through several road-blocks and restrictions. The further they went, the more intense the scene of ruin became.

Boom!!

`

Suddenly a huge explosion sounded out from a distance. It shook the land and even upset the vehicle they were riding in, nearly toppling it over.

"Damn it! That damned thing is relentless! We can't get any closer than here, we'll have to leave it to you." The leader said in a somewhat rushed state, trying to quickly push this responsibility on the five people the organization had supposedly sent.

"That's fine, stop here and we'll get off. Just leave it to us and get out of here." Shepherd Hide said without even a change in his expression.

The leader when he heard the condescending tone in Takeshi's voice, he was about to erupt in anger. However, when he found that he couldn't find the bottom line for the stern man's strength, he reluctantly swallowed his words.

After a while, the vehicle stopped at a relatively safe location and allowed Takeshi, Vizio, Kia, Lanzo and Gero to disembark. The combat vehicle sped off not wasting any time as it raced to return to safety.

"C'mon, follow me, luckily this building is somewhat intact," Takeshi said nothing more as he started to levitate followed by Vizio, much to the surprise of Kia's group. Sure, they expected SciFi meets anime from this, but seeing it for themselves really allowed their jaws to dig out some ditches.

Suddenly, they started to levitate themselves, under the power of Vizio and Takeshi of course. They were not at a level where they could do this themselves, or could they? Not much was sure nor set in stone for these three.

They finally landed on the top of the building. It was a skyscr.a.p.er and made for a good vantage point.

"Why are we all the way up here?" Asked Gero who was currently surveying the scene of destruction that lay abundant around them.

"Because he likes high places…" This comment came from Vizio who was still calling him out on it.

Takeshi ignored her as he pointed in a particular direction as he instructed, "Look over there."

When Kia's group saw this, their eyes widened till they nearly jumped out of their sockets.

"What…"

"The hell…"

Is that!!"

All three boys shared the effort to finish this question.

Some distance away, there was a monstrous beast of a creature destroying everything in sight. It was big, strong and hella ugly.

"That is called a Blite, and you three are going to fight it...right now" The shepherd said matter of factly.

"Eh…"

"That's not a thing." Said Kia while shaking his head in denial.

"What's not a thing?" Asked Takeshi.

"I'm not going down there to fight steroids meets don't-make-no-sense," replied the crimson-haired young man.

"Oh yes you are." The shepherd countered.

"Oh no we ain't." Even the battle hearty Lanzo supported Kia's rejection.

"You three, down there, fighting that thing, end of discussion." Takeshi reinforced sternly.

"Your a.s.s can go down there and fight it, I don't even know what thing is. We just flew for god's sake, I think I left my jaw on the ground when we left. Now you want me to go and fight the Hulk's roided cousin, uhuh, not gonna happen." Gero even more resolutely denied the Shepherd.

Takeshi felt like he was about to vomit blood, "Listen to me you three pieces of-"

"Takeshi, just explain to them what the Blites are, they at least deserve to know this. You can't expect them to hit the ground running with this one," Vizio chose to interject at the crucial point, not allowing it to escalate any further.

"…Fine." The hard-headed Shepherd hesitated for a moment before he finally agreed.

He revealed a grave expression as he organised his thoughts to explain all he knew about the pestilence below.

"They're called Blites, this is the name that our Blood Origin taught us. Because of this, we know that they're inexplicably connected to Taliums, but we don't know how. They are one of the only things on the face of the planet that can use their own power to not only injure, but can also kill a Talium." There was an overwhelming sea of anger suffused into his words.

"Where did they come from?" This question came from Lanzo.

The Shepherd didn't hesitate to answer, "W-We don't know, the ancient text left by the progenitors only gave vague information about what they are, nothing too substantial. Though we've been fighting them the longest, they are the most mysterious beings we have ever come across."

"Why doesn't the Blood Origin tell us where they came from, shouldn't it explain everything related to Taliums?" Gero chose to ask the questions while he had the chance.

"Our Blood Origin normally would, but any knowledge about the Blites is shrouded in fog. It is almost like our Blood Origin is reluctant or aversed as to their origin, so we could never find out." He was answering their questions with a surprising amount of patience.

"Who are the progenitors?" This last question came from Kia. Though it had nothing to do with the current situation. It oddly left somewhat of an impact on him, prompting him to ask.

"The progenitors are…were, the strongest of us. It's already been a little less than a thousand years, but they laid the groundwork for Taliums and allowed us to thrive. They are no longer with us, we don't know if they've left us or what."

"Wait, a little less than a thousand years, shouldn't they be dead?" Kia asked with a bit of incredulity.

Takeshi flashed a rare smile when he heard this, "How old do you think I am?"

This question stunned Kia a bit, but quickly collected himself and answered honestly, "You uh, alright you look like a really healthy 30 something-year-old, maybe like 37 or 38-"

"Try 247 years old…" And just like that, that bomb just dropped. The 247 years old bomb.

Without exception, the three youths were shocked. Their jaws dropped and pierced through all 80 stories of the skyscr.a.p.er to hit the ground.

"Y-You're 200 what years old?!" Exclaimed all three boys in astonishment.

"247 years, the woman over there who looks like she's in her late 20's is 179 years old. C'mon this can't be that surprising, I mean we just flew." Said Takeshi trying to downplay the situation.

"Why did you tell em my age?! Don't you know how we feel about that?" pouted Vizio is obvious dissatisfaction.

"I'm sorry but can you not attribute flying to immortality!" The three boys were trying to wrap their heads around the situation.

"It's not immortality…well, we're not sure that such a thing even exists. Our life span increases exponentially with each realm we ascend into. Telling you any more would do more harm than good at this stage, anyways, get ready." Takeshi, closing the book on this question asking session.

"Get read for wha-"

Before Lanzo could finish asking his question, his collar, along with Gero's arms were dragged unceremoniously off the top of the skyscr.a.p.er. Takeshi began flying to the location of the Blite that was still rampaging below, its strength seemingly limitless.

When Kia saw that the crazy Shepherd had dragged both Lanzo and Gero away towards that monster, he started counting his lucky stars before he began running away. However, it wasn't long before he saw Vizio looking him at with an undisguised look of pity ridicule as she tried her best to keep her laughter in.

Kia was confused as to why she was like this until he finally looked down and saw that no matter how fast he ran, he wasn't moving forward. He was levitating, indeed that old Shepherd didn't forget him. He was hurled backwards and flew to where the Shepherd was currently flying to.

"Aaaahhh!!!!" All three boys were screaming their hearts out. Not because they were flying at the whim of another man, but because where the end of this flight would bring them.

"Stop screaming, just don't die and it'll work out somehow." The Shepherd said, a bit annoyed at their struggles. He was beginning to feel the power they were exuding once more, luckily his current realm was something well beyond their current comprehension.

When he felt their power, even the excitement in his old heart began to flare up somewhat.

Roar!!!

The blood-freezing roar of the beast came over as it sensed the energy within Takeshi and came running over.

"Vizio, now!" As soon as Takeshi shouted her name, Vizio rushed out from behind and before Kia's group was able to see what happened. The Blite had three of its arms chopped off, that was right the damned thing had three arms.

"Rraaaarrrgghh!!!!!"

Its cries of pain were fear-inducing to say the least. Black blood fountained out of the stumps where the three arms were. Its body radiated a dim metallic hue, looking quite formidable like nothing could pierce it. Yet, that woman was able to knock off 60-70 per cent of its combat prowess.

It was quite the beast, this was a rank 2 Blite, able to fight against those ascended past Genesis and regular Invata. It was even considered to be a headache for some Core Invata

When Takeshi saw that it was successfully wounded, he threw over the three boys who were still in somewhat of a daze.

They landed on the ravaged street roughly but suffered no injuries. They looked at the beast who was only about 200 metres in front. The Blite was stomping and bellowing in rage and pain.

It looked towards them and found something to vent its anger on, it would stomp them to death once it caught hold of them! It then began to charge towards them, at that moment they heard something that caused them to vomit blood in frustration.

That damn stone-faced Shepherd had actually managed to say this.

"Great, now fight it, oh, and don't die…"