Vega could finally feel things turning in the Earthlings’ favor in the pit.
A member of the five Keiry D and one of the healers were a part of had combined her strength with that of Annabel who had also come out of the pit to take out the enemy deviant creating clones along with the vibration, meteor deviant and the healer and sensor of the Martians.
Both girls were incapacitated due to this, but luckily Keiry’s sensory ability had led the other members of her five to them before Zalan could finish them off with the help of the Martians who used coral-colored crystals and teal energy. As two members of that group held off the opposing trio, the healer patched up her wounded classmates, those girls receiving back-up from the quartet Vale, the Earthlings’ other sensor, was a part of, who had just defeated two more Martians.
Zalan and co. were done for with the number of opponents they were now facing, the only other thing left to deal with being the four villains gathered under Jart’s command that stood in front of the drunkard. His group’s healer had successfully fixed up Exo, so he could join the fray again, standing alongside Yonira and the hair-changing beauty of Earthling Class #1 behind Vega as they prepared to wrap this up.
(Vega) ‘-Your buddy up there’s not doing too good, Zalan. You sure you don’t want to go check up on him?’
(Jart) ‘-Quit your yapping and come already, you cheap knock-off. Zalan may not have managed to take out King, but I’m going to dispatch you to make up for that.’
There were a number of reasons behind the strong enmity between Vega and King and Jart and Zalan that had been going on for a while now. Jart and Zalan looked like Vega and King with some of the traits of their appearance being reversed between the two, the first duo being the Martians’ surface-to-air tandem, the second – the Earthlings’ food-and-drink tandem, both duets taking up the same positions within their classes’ respective strength hierarchies.
The members of these duos had not had the chance to face the other in proper battle up to this point, but a golden opportunity had now provided itself to settle their dispute. Keiry D was aware of that and had thought of a strategy, relayed to Exo through the underground connection he had made out of beryllium , one of the metals he could use, between the two and passed on to Vega and the rest. According to that strategy Jart’s focus on the drunkard was the key to victory for the five led by Mr. Warren.
To start things up, Vega ran forward, channeling his pale green energy through the ground.
(Vega) ‘-You’re the one who’s gonna be dispatched, typhoon boy! And I’m going to be drinking in celebration of my triumph against you tonight!!’
The Martian with a darkness deva spread that darkness over the drunkard’s energy to cancel it out, at the same time Jart sending a minityphoon at his main target. That attack never reached as Yonira’s wall of rocks that were clustered together blocked it, the leader of the enemy five turning his wrathful gaze to the third strongest girl in Earthling Class #1.
(Jart) ‘-Stay out of this execution, bitch!!’
The short distraction of Vega’s opponent had given him the opportunity to cross the distance between the two with a fast teleportation and crush an energy-clad uppercut in Jart’s jaw, Vega delivering this blow with a mocking grin.
(Vega) ‘-The execution’s not going so well so far, is it?’
As expected, that comeback along with the hit he had taken further enraged the typhoon warrior, now sending many minityphoon drills towards Yonira and Vega at the same time with a loud roar.
(Jart) ‘-I’LL JUST GET RID OF BOTH OF YOU, THEN!!! AND ANYONE ELSE WHO INTERVENES!!!’
From that point onward started a series of teleportations around the typhoons by Vega and blocking of the typhoons with rock walls by Yonira, while doing that, the pale green energetic looking around to see how the others were doing.
The Earthling group’s healer revealed her elongated and strengthened tongue to face the spiny-tailed iguana, the hair-changing member of the hot-headed five absorbing the enemy darkness deviant’s attacks with the huge volume of her hair. Both of those were more than capable of dealing with such opponents, so the only one who had his hands more than full was Exo. He was simultaneously protecting the healer from the wide lava stream sent to her by one of the Martians with a counter stream of liquid metal and pouring that same metal over the scaly tentacles of another opponent coming at him from the side. With the techno-genius’ style being focused solely on defense, he wouldn’t last much longer like that, so one could only hope Keiry’s plan would work sooner.
That did happen when Jart got so mad at the two who were dodging and blocking his attacks while making fun of him that he sent typhoons of different sizes in all directions, not discriminating between his friends and foes in terms of who was targeted.
Both the tentacle and the lava Martians were cut and sent away by two of those typhoons, Exo only being grazed on the side of the waist by another, which still made him panic. The healer with a whip-like tongue had taken the battle with her opponent beyond the reach of that attack, so she was safe, but the same could not be said about the hair-changing Earthling. She took a heavy hit from one of those typhoons, her enemy being missed by it but having used up too much of his darkness to be able to finish her off, the creator of all those typhoons coming into focus now.
While Jart had been consumed by a fit of rage, Yonira and Vega had channeled a combination of their devas through the ground under his feet, unleashing their attack when he was the most distracted. Many giant rock spikes enveloped in pale green energy came out in X-formations all around him, the miscreant quickly changing the direction of his typhoons to destroy that attack. He succeeded in destroying the energy around the spikes, but not the spikes themselves, being cut and pierced in a few of places across the limbs and the torso.
(Yonira) ‘-And that’s how dumb bastards like yourself get taken out, Jart! You really should look out more for …’
Vega turned to his classmate to look at her while she made her victorious speech in face of Jart’s demise, when he saw the wave of lava nearing both of them. Yonira also noticed the wave soon enough, taking action to block it before the warrior-alcoholic could. She had started propping up a number of rock walls when scaly tentacles came at her and the drunkard from the side, wrapping themselves tight around both.
(Vega) ‘-I guess Jart’s rampage could only delay the others for so long! Don’t worry, though, Yoni! I got this!!’
Having the tentacles wrapped around him was actually ideal for Vega, because running his deva through different surfaces was his specialty. He could also send his deva a long distance with great speed when channeled through something, thus delivering a present to the deviant the tentacles were attached to within a second. That present took the form of a pale green energy pulse, released inside her body.
With the tentacles’ grip around Jart’s opponents loosening, Earthling Class #1’s third strongest girl could turn her attention to finishing up the walls to stop the wave of burning hot lava. That wave crumbled under the weight of a huge amount of dense crimson energy just before reaching its targets, leaving both hot heads surprised.
There wasn’t a single member of Vega’s class who could use energy of that type. So either one of the Earthlings had suddenly discovered a new ability or the enemy had intervened to save them.
The mystery was revealed very soon when something was thrown into the pit. Something big. The pale green energetic stepped closer to it as it crashed nearby, stopping only a few steps away from the object. It was the severely beat-up and unconscious King, turning back to his normal form moments after he was sent to his classmates.
A new crushing mass of crimson energy was smashed in the pit right after that, Vega managing to teleport back to the surface with his classmate before that attack hit, successfully being reunited with the rest of the class who were present on the big central field.
Due to a large area being shook by the energy mass, Mr. Warren needed a few moments to come to terms with his surroundings. First he had to assess the state of his class. Only two members of the group that had faced Zalan’s trio were still unscathed, Keiry D being the one with the lightest wounds but having still sustained damage, Annabel already being back on her feet and working on patching up the ones in a worse state. She was aided in that by the other two healers of the hot heads, the one with a whip-like tongue having rejoined her comrades, which meant she had probably dealt with opponent. Exo, who was also among those with lesser wounds, joined the two unscathed girls from the surface group who had now come to Vega’s side and were looking at King.
The speedy warrior’s condition was without a doubt the worst out of all the members of Earthling Class #1, so he was carried straight to the healing trio to take care of him. The drunkard who had carried him to the medics didn’t say a word upon leaving him, Annabel and the others also not being able to muster a response when they saw the state of the muscle-bound glutton.
Having taken care of the other member of the food-and-drink duo, Vega turned to look at the enemy forces with one main goal – to find who among them was responsible for the beating the giant had taken.
The Martians had a giant in their ranks as well now. Even bigger than King, red-skinned and monstrous-looking. Vega guessed it was some kind of monstermorph deva that had led to the appearance of this beast. Since the creature was a new player on this field and everyone knew what Hock and Gorudora’s abilities were, the logical conclusion was the enemy giant was Nepalo.
At least the other two members of the Ares Trio hadn’t come, so that was still a good thing.
Taking a look at how Martian Class #3 was doing, Zalan’s trio were all taken out, left next to the beaten meteor, vibration, cloning deviant and the healer and sensor. The tentacle villainess the pale green energetic had hit with a pulse of his deva was knocked out, the spiny-tailed iguana guy also being crushed. Although wounded, Jart was driven mad by anger enough to still be willing to fight, his darkness-using classmate being tired, but still determined, the member of the five led by the typhoon warrior who used lava being in the best condition of all of them.
Four battle-able combatants for the enemy and five for Vega’s forces with quite a few that could provide additional support. There was still a chance to win, but that all depended on how strong Nepalo actually was.
However strong and driven, though, beating up King that bad just to make a display of his power was completely unnecessary. And called for revenge. Revenge the de-facto leader of the Earthlings at the moment was going to exact.
Simply delaying him until Tokura reached the big central field as per Hikaru’s plan was no longer what Vega had on his mind. The bastard needed to suffer the same amount of pain as the one he had brought upon Earthling Class #1’s ‘big’ battering ram.
(Vega) ‘-Exo, you better put on your game face, cuz I’m gonna need you for this one.’
(Exo) ‘-Don’t worry. I may be a coward, but seeing how powerful he is, I’m not about to let him hurt our class.’
(Vega) ‘-Good. Seal him in a prison with Yoni’s help after I shake him, then. After that we’ll go on the offensive. (he moved his gaze from the techno-genius to the class’s chief medic) Bel, get the rest of the crew up and running as fast as possible, will you?’
(Annabel) ‘-You sure you’re not drunk, Vega? (Annabel was smiling now) I’ve never seen you take the lead like this.’
The drunkard returned the smile before focusing on his enemy.
(Vega) ‘-Someone’s gotta avenge King, right? And with the other sober bastards away, it’s up to me to take charge whether I like it or not!!’
(Nepalo) ‘-Jart, you and the others stay back. Don’t interfere. (he bent in such a way that made his muscles stand out even more, brown smoke coming out of his mouth as his eyes shined in bright yellow) I will crush all of them by myself. My appetite wasn’t sated at all by breaking King, so I will need a lot more to fuel myself.’
(Jart) ‘-Understood. What should we do with the ones who are no longer able to fight among them?’
(Nepalo) ‘-Just hold a perimeter around this field to make sure they don’t escape. I’m waiting for Ulura to give me the green light on killing them. (Jart stepped back, giving a sign to his classmates that could move to do the same, Nepalo lunging forward with an explosion of crimson energy that blasted tens of trees away and an even more destructive grin that was the incarnation of a lust for violence) Until she does that, however, I’m going to put whatever remains of their miserable lives to some use!!!’
He didn’t move too fast for Vega’s eyes to follow. That was actually a relief, because if he had some king of ability to increase his speed or decrease the speed of his opponents the bunch of Earthlings left, who were all rather slow, wouldn’t stand a chance against him. Without having to worry about the speed factor, all they needed to do was match his power.
Pale green energy was spread across the ground ahead, bursting under Nepalo’s feet just before he reached his targets, Exo pouring liquid metal that quickly hardened over him, Yonira reinforcing the prison created by her classmate with a layer of giant rocks.
That duo’s creation was destroyed mere seconds after being completed, the Crimson God of War disintegrating all of Vega’s pale green energy coming from the earth then. Exo and Yonira wasted no time, using what was left of that energy to clad their newly constructed hard metal and rock blades in it.
At the same time Vega combined his elemental deva with that of his classmates who had abilities of the same type to launch a barrage of projectiles at the strongest Martian, in the energetic’s mind stopping both attacks being impossible.
Nepalo managed to do it in defiance of logic by unleashing a pulse of his energy that covered a wide area, aiming to not just neutralize the aerial and ground assault against him, but to wound his opponents with the pulse.
Yonira and Exo covered themselves in armor made of their respective devas to defend against the counterattack, the rest simply doing their best to dodge it. The pulse was so strong however, that neither dodging, nor armor could save its targets from being hurt by it.
The armored duo had managed to keep the personal damage to a minimum, the drunkard also having got off easy, but the two Earthlings who had aided in the elemental barrage had their stomachs cut by the pulse, both being smashed hard against the ground.
Having left the healers and their patients defenseless in the wake of everyone’s shock from his attack, the red-skinned monster went after the easier targets first. That advance was stopped by the group of rock-metal walls formed by Yonira and Exo, who simultaneously sent a rockslide with big metal spikes coming out of each rock at the Martian.
He directed his palms in opposite directions, shooting beams of crimson energy that became wider the further they reached, destroying both the two-element walls and the rockslide with metal spikes. Nepalo’s manic laughter after doing this was short-lived because more attacks came at him from opposite directions amid the smoke that had risen from his own two-directional attack.
From the one side of the smoke came the tongue of one of the three healers of Earthling Class #1 and from the other – a whip of pale green energy that had small spikes on it and resembled a devil’s tail. Both wrapped around the villain’s neck, Vega and his classmate tightening their grip as much as possible to strangle their foe, gritting their teeth from the effort required to restrain and actually hurt him.
(Vega) ‘-Choking devil’s whip!!!’
(Random Earthling) ‘-Hangman’s tongue noose!!!’
Nepalo grabbed both the tongue and the whip, pulling them toward himself and with that – getting Mr. Warren and the whip-tongued healer within his range.
(Nepalo) ‘-Straight physical attacks could never work on me!!’
The drunkard grinned as he teleported one of his classmates that excelled at close combat right behind the strongest Martian, the girl placing both her palms on the enemy’s skin.
(Vega) ‘-Not even as a diversion?’
Purple energy with black stripes started flowing out of that Earthling’s palms, Nepalo twisting his head to look at her, goggling his eyes in a mindless outrage.
(Nepalo) ‘-Trying to suck out my life force? MINE?!?!!’
He swung to hit the adversary who was draining his power, Vega teleporting her aside before the red-skinned monster could succeed, being pulled along with the long-tongued healer to the monstrous battering ram. As he held each attacker by the throat, his deva was channeled through the bodies of both. Yet the smiles would still not leave their faces.
(The whip-tongued healer) ‘-We’re not done, Nepalo!’
What she meant by that was the multielemental tide Annabel, Yonira, Exo and the rest of the class who had been patched-up at least partially were preparing, sending its earth-shattering might at the Crimson God of War.
(Annabel) ‘-This is Earthling Class #1’s true power!!!’
(Annabel, Yonira, Exo, Keiry D, Vale and the rest of the Earthlings) ‘-EARTH’S MULTIELEMENTAL FLOOD OF FURY!!!!!’
(Vega) ‘-HAAAA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!’
He created many more energy whips to wrap around Nepalo so he couldn’t move or teleport away, holding a tight grip over him along with his classmate as the tide reached them.
In Vega’s mind this had been quite a good fight. All he needed to do now to ensure his class’s victory over Sunbird’s strongest student was to sacrifice himself along with one of the healers. A small price to pay for avenging King and earning a place among the legends of their high-school’s history.
