The ground beneath Michael shook as dust rose into the air and the beasts charged towards him. Two-headed snakes and cows with oversized horns formed a nightmarish spectacle, resembling a festival of chimeras. Yet Michael remained calm. His goal was not to kill every beast. "I know I can't kill all of them. Even if I do, I won't have Gina's protection anymore. Fighting them all will leave me weakened, and then I'll need to escape." He sprinted towards a gap in the encirclement, pouring energy into his right hand before unleashing a GUNSHOT PUNCH that pulverised the entire head of the beast in his path.
Another beast lunged from the side and sank its teeth into his hand, causing blood to pour profusely from the wound. Michael showed no sign of pain. Instead, he raised the temperature of his arm until the creature combusted. He continued fighting, striking beasts on his left and right, but he was reaching a terrible conclusion. "I can't see a way out. Unless..." Michael stopped fighting and dropped into a squat, transferring Emo throughout his entire body before launching himself into the ground. The surrounding beasts swarmed him, biting into his flesh and spitting acid onto his skin. His fingers trembled as his nerves were exposed, but he did not falter. "High heat speeds up atoms. Compressed heat needs to be released, utilising kinetic energy." His quadriceps burned and began to smoke, so he reinforced them with Emo, making it appear as though he were cooking his own legs. He lifted his gaze towards the sky, released every restraint on his body, and BOOM!
The ground erupted as Michael shot into the sky like a bullet, the sheer momentum sending nearby beasts flying. But he couldn't stop there. If he did, gravity would drag him straight back into the waiting horde. While still airborne, he repeated the process, releasing another massive blast of heat from his hands and propelling himself kilometres forward before crashing into a vast crater. His body began healing rapidly, and he paid little attention to his injuries. He had finally escaped. Yet when he looked around, he stared in awe. He appeared to be standing inside a crater nearly forty kilometres wide, as though a colossal explosion had once devastated the land. Michael crouched and inspected the ashes.
The destruction looked recent, but something at the centre was glowing. He hurried towards it and discovered what appeared to be a human silhouette made entirely of energy. It was in terrible condition, struggling to reconstruct its original form. Then a whisper emerged from its distorted shape. "I will kill you, Elizabeth. My brother didn't deserve such a fate." Michael stared in shock but quickly regained his composure. If this entity knew Elizabeth, it might know where she was. He crouched closer and realised that the silhouette was human, although some unknown ability appeared to be keeping it alive. Michael knew nothing about healing others, but he decided to touch it. The moment his hand made contact, he felt his energy being drained. He immediately pulled away, his hand burning from contact with whatever substance the figure was made of. Whatever this man was, his existence had created the crater beneath them.
"Please, I need more of your energy." The silhouette's voice grew clearer, and Michael noticed that its form had become larger after absorbing some of his Emo. Deciding to proceed with caution, he asked, "What do you know about Elizabeth?" The glowing figure's voice turned cold. "Nothing except that I want her dead. From our fight, I know she survived, but barely. I'm guessing she flew in the opposite direction. And who are you? Her friend?" "HAHA! Friend? That's a funny word. I want her dead too. I just wanted to have a little fun, but she crushed my fingers so badly that I can't heal them." Michael had deliberately broken his own fingers earlier and cut off the flow of energy to prevent them from healing. Now, he dangled them in front of the silhouette as proof. "Well, then, I guess we're on the same page. Feed me more energy, and when I recover, we can find her and kill her."
Michael knew this was the best lead he had found since arriving in the Wasteland. His best option was to keep up the act, so he continued pouring his energy into the figure. Slowly, the silhouette grew until it reached human size. Michael stopped, and the glowing shape began to separate into two human boys. "Thank you," they said. "Hello. We are Quatre and Troi. Unfortunately, we were part of a team called the Napoleon Deadlock, but Elizabeth killed our two brothers, so we're all that's left. It's nice to meet you. I hope we can become good acquaintances. We just need to rest and plan how to ambush her. Then we'll make our move." Michael nodded, carefully noting their ability. Whatever power they possessed, it had created a crater of this magnitude, and he couldn't afford to attack them recklessly. Instead, he sat with them and prepared some food while quietly gathering as much information as possible.
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While in the blistering cold, Vincent...