Chapter Twenty-Seven

“All we have to do is stall,” I said, readying myself. Vice got into his battle stance and we waited for them to blitz us. Only Vital dashed forward as Tyfuse spammed lightning bolts at us from behind him. It was easy for both of us to dodge the lightning, but with the added threat of Vital’s hand-to-hand, we began to struggle. 

Vice deflected a roundhouse kick from Vital before counterattacking with a hook punch, but before he could land, he was forced to jump back to dodge a bolt. I jumped in and tried to axe kick Vital into the ground, but he tanked the hit. It did cause a shockwave and he sunk a bit into the dirt, but his arms absorbed everything. From this higher position I attempted to blast icy wind down at him, but I had to dodge a bolt midair, using the force that came from my palms shooting ice to maneuver out of the way. 

While Vital was grounded, Vice went for a sweep, but Vital kicked his leg away and with Vice’s torso wide open, shot a ki blast at his chest. The explosion was so loud, it seemed like it shot through Vice’s body and reverberated Earth’s core. Vice wasn’t even able to shout in response, but he was able to still move as he struggled to get to his feet. 

Vital chuckled. “Didn’t see that coming with your bullshit power?” 

“No. Of course, I did,” Vice said, dodging a lightning bolt and spinning in one fluid motion, sinking his fist into the ground, causing a tremor. 

I slipped around Vice and shot black ice at Vital’s feet while he was off balance. Time seemed to slow as I saw a bolt of lightning connect with the black ice mid-air and shatter it. I shot Tyfuse a look in response.

“No the fuck you don’t,” he said. “We know all about you, Amaia. You’re no match for us.”

“That’s a pretty cliché thing for a villain to say,” I said. “I wonder what it’s like having such a limited point of view.”

He squinted his eyes and grit his teeth. Either I just pissed him off further or I got him thinking. I never considered the possibility of any of them regretting what they did, but I had gone too far to turn back now and make them apologize. 

Vital rushed at both Vice and me again, making sure my palms didn’t connect with his skin at any point as he deflected and landed shots to pretty vital areas of our body. It’s like each punch was infused with his abnormal super strength and ki. I stumbled back from Vital’s barrage to see Tyfuse charged up with lightning surging from his body, but not attacking. This gave me the idea to keep close to Vital. Perhaps Tyfuse’s lightning was too strong for his partner to handle. 

Vice began using what was left of his short wraps that were burned in the fight with Ash to try and catch Vital off guard, but they just ended up being used against him. 

I had a plan that I had already executed and was almost complete, but I had to keep Vital’s sixth sense distracted. Unfortunately, Vital created space between himself and me, front kicking me away, leaving Tyfuse open for a killing blow on me, but he stopped and looked down at his feet to see my plan in its entirety. 

“Shit.” His voice was shaky. Now, I wasn’t aware if he had an out or not, but this was pretty convincing. 

While Vice and I distracted Vital’s sixth sense for danger by bombarding him with attacks and while Tyfuse was focused on nailing us with a bolt of lightning, I had created a path of black ice that had crept and wound around from behind us to behind Tyfuse. So when Vice had gotten hit by Vital’s ki blast, it was just to further distract from the creeping black ice. 

“Adam!” Vital called back to his friend and I used him being distracted as an opening to fling an icicle at his neck, but he turned around in time, caught it and dashed at me. Vice bumped me out of the way and took the icicle to the rib before Vital grabbed his left arm and pulled it back, while stepping on the middle of Vice's back. Vital glared at me and said through grit teeth, “Get rid of the ice now or he dies.”

I stared wide-eyed at Vice. He knew what was about to happen, yet chose to do it anyway. 

“Amaia, don’t you fucking dare let that ice shatter. You have an easy kill--FUCK!” Vital broke his arm in at least two different places. 

“With the next twist, it comes off. Release Tyfuse, now!” he shouted. The black ice had already entirely covered his leg. He was finished. However, I had to watch and listen as Vice’s left arm was torn out of its socket and gradually ripped from his body. Powering through the shouts, I caused the black ice beneath Tyfuse to form into spikes and shoot through vital areas of his body before I spun to Vital and flicked a barrage of icicles at him. He was about to go for a headshot with his ki blast but had to deflect the icicles. 

I crafted two ice swords and dashed at him, swinging wildly until he was a safe distance away from Vice who was quickly bleeding out. I crouched and froze the hole over, but he needed medical attention immediately. Plus, the black ice would not stop creeping, but I could slow it for now. I looked over to see Vital crouched over Tyfuse, and even though there were spikes in his brain, heart, neck, and lungs, he checked his pulse. The sky above grayed as lightning struck the black ice from his body and he rose.

“What the fuck?” I couldn’t mouthing as a healing Tyfuse stood next to his partner. How was I supposed to beat this? Beat them? The only real Archs I had run into had been either indestructible or immortal and these two before me were proving to be no different. It made sense for the physically strongest among them, Ardentia, or the literal human phoenix, Ash. But this? These two weren’t even the strongest of them. 

Now what? Vice was drifting in and out of consciousness and the two original threats still stood before me. But then they said something that still gave me some sort of hope. 

Vital looked at Tyfuse with a confused look on his face. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Neither did I, man,” Tyfuse said, checking his body over. 

I deduced they had never died before. Perhaps like Ash, they came back stronger. What I wanted to know was how they got so strong from the last time Vice fought them. Was it the archangels or was the rebirth the archangels’ doing? Even though they had powers before the serum, had they taken the serum as well? Maybe it was something beyond my understanding, but time was up. They were both approaching me now. 

I stepped as far away from Vice as I could and began to let ice escape from my palms. I was ill-prepared for this attack and was vastly underpowered when it came to the likes of beings that had an angelic advantage over me. If I could make it out of this, I would regroup, meet up with the Haven Gods, beings that might have more knowledge about what the Archs are capable of, perhaps find another serum. 

I crafted two more swords of black ice and rushed at the two Archs head-on. Vital had ki around his fists and Tyfuse had lightning. The last thing I remembered was them smiling wickedly at me as they ran towards me before I woke up in a laboratory.