58: Rematch

•~•~•~•~•~•~•

On top of one of the ruined buildings was a man that seemed to be in a trance. A glowing eye was gleaming on his forehead. He was overlooking a fight between a man in a green suit and a long red-haired man.

It was Inhyuk fighting Duran Klein.

"The vial was... effective. It has boosted the criminal's strength... by a lot," he spoke, however, his voice was distorted it was as if different voices were mixed together.

"I have seen... enough." the man said before he fell lifeless on the concrete floor, the glowing eye nowhere to be seen.

An explosion then occurred and Duran Klein was left plastered on a wall with an irritated Inhyuk Goo patting down his singed suit.

"This was expensive..." he muttered.

- - - - -

Back on the fight between the teenagers and the Criminal...

Subin screamed as the flames licked her left arm, her uniform sleeves burning into her skin.

"Subin, no!" Jiwoo yelled in distress, rushing to catch his friend.

Declan sent a ball of fire toward the girl, but luckily Jiwoo already got her out of the way.

"What kind of b*llshit is this?!" Jisuk shouted in exasperation, wiping sweat off his face.

The light-cream-haired teen appeared beside him, in his hands was Subin.

"Hey, are you alright?" the white-haired teen asked. Subin looked at him as if he was crazy and said with a wince, "What the f*ck do you think, you idiot?"

"You-" he was about to retort, but instead he just ignored her, turning to Jiwoo. "Jiwoo, take her away from here. With your speed, that dipsh*t won't even notice that you're gone."

"Just shut up, moron. I ain't leaving you here." Subin voiced out, grimacing as she stood up.

"Subin's correct, Jisuk. We can't leave you here!" Jiwoo exclaimed before noticing a fireball headed in their direction.

He pushed them out of the way and the fireball wooshed past them, exploding once it hit the ground.

"Tch. You brainless idiots... What are we going to do now?!" Jisuk yelled out, but that was when they noticed the temperature dropping.

Even the rampant Declan Klein halted when the fire around the place was put out with ice slowly forming to replace them.

"The Hero always arrives late... Tch." a figure above them spoke, displeased with the situation he arrived in.

"What a lousy Spacial Isolation." the figure added before a sphere from his hand enlarged, enveloping the whole city block.

He descended and his identity became clear to them. "O-Oppa?" Subin voiced out, quickly hiding her injury.

"How did he..." Jiwoo trailed off.

Shinji looked at them, and instead of the confident look that they were used to seeing, it was replaced with a serious expression.

"Get out of here," he said to all of them, but he was mostly addressing his wincing sister. He sighed, "You're fooling nobody, Subin. Now, either get out of here or stay out of this fight."

"You can't just decide that-!" Jisuk tried to retort but stopped when he heard Declan shout. The adult's place skin started turning red, the fire on his hand burning even brighter.

Suddenly, when they were distracted, Shinji encased them in a box of ice.

"Get that burn treated, got it? If you guys come back, I'll freeze you. Alright, now bye-bye," he told them before chucking them towards the location of the Shinhwa Building.

...

"Ah... So, we meet again." the raven-haired teen told the fuming Criminal. Shinji wanted to smirk, to anger his opponent further but remembering the injury on his sister's arm, he couldn't hide his annoyance.

Shinji rushed toward Declan Klein, propelling an enormous ice shard while doing so. The adult raised his hands to parry the attack, but an invisible force slammed his hands down, ableing the icicle to hit his body.

He was pushed back until the invisible force disappeared, allowing him to melt the ice. But, right after he melted the ice, a slightly enlarged fist pummelled him to the ground.

As Declan was stuck on the ground, Shinji stood over him, not minding the hot air that the adult exuded.

The teen looked at his reddened knuckle, "Why the hell is your skin searing hot?" he asked, still angry from the fact that he injured his sister.

The red-haired criminal ignored his question and a scorching yellow fire erupted toward Shinji. The teen put up both of his hands all while summoning a wall of ice to defend himself.

As the fire melted the wall, the adult was already up and attacked with a pillar of fire.

A searing sound was heard when the pillar of fire connected with Shinji's forearm. The teen quickly got out of the way before more damage was done to him.

Wincing, he jumped backward, putting some distance between himself and his opponent.

...

Phew...

He needs to calm himself down. He won't be able to fight properly if anger clouds his judgment and reaction time.

'It still f*cking hurts though,' thought Shinji as he took a deep breath, his expression clearing and his focus sharpening.

For some reason, he couldn't activate his Action Predicting Ability, his trump card against everyone. If he continued fighting against him, still angry and without that trump card, he would've been in trouble. Even with all that, he still would have won, of course.

'It's me we're talking about after all.'

But, he was thankful for Eley's Ability. He got it a year ago from winning against him in a spar, and with it, the burn on his forearm wasn't that bad.

'It still hurts like a b*tch though...' he thought.

Shaking his thoughts away, he focused on Declan.

"Get ready for Round Two 'cause... you won't live past tonight." he voiced out, but he instantly cringed.

'God, that was edgy...'

*****

I'm back for yet another day! So...

Got any stones for me?