The Greatest Fight [progression cultivation isekai]

X2.7.3 – The Secret is Out

The Sunflower looked at the enemies hovering above them, then to his friends, and then at the slums in the distance. An idea came to him.

"Protect the message," he said.

"What?" said the other two.

"We need to alert the others. Get ready," he said with a look of determination in his eyes as he closed them, took a deep breath and concentrated.

"Nirvana, we have found the location but we have been found. Warehouse 93," he thought, placed his fist in front of his forehead, grabbed the ball of energy, and his breath steadied.

All was quiet for a moment. Only the breeze could be heard, and the occasional sound of metal being moved from a nearby scrap yard. Roa knew full well what was about to happen.

"Go!" he shouted, launching the Blurr as hard as he could in the direction of their base.

The Shadows disappeared, but so did the Jumpers. One's hand was about to reach the blue bird of energy holding the telepathic message for the others, when the Sunflower appeared in front of him, tackling him midair. The next two enemies came out from behind the other, launching themselves at the escaping Blurr. Roa took both of them on with Rosso's help, but when the rest of the Shadows also appeared out of nowhere, it was Indigo who saved the moment. She clapped her hands, causing a flash to blind everyone, including her friends.

"Solar Clap!" she yelled.

Roa's eyes burned in pain, as he rubbed them. Then he felt himself getting punched over and over in the stomach. Unable to see, he attempted to block the blows, with little luck.

"You see too much with your eyes," Khailas' words from the tournament crossed his mind. "Feel the energy around you."

In front of him, in the darkness of his closed eyes, he began to sense the enemy's energy. He could begin to feel his movements, moving the air, his aura interacting with his every time he moved closer and farther. He blocked several more hit when suddenly an instinct told him to strike into the darkness. His foot met the Shadow's chest, sending him flying in the opposite direction.

"Regroup!" Roa shouted to the others as his eyes attempted to open through the pain.

"I can't!" shouted back Rosso. "There's too many!"

"I can't hold them," said Indigo from the back.

As soon as the boy from Earth could see around him, he realized that the situation was quickly growing more hopeless by the second. The Shadows overwhelmed him too, forcing him to spike his aura. He flew past the enemies, grabbing Indigo first by the wrist, then Rosso by the cloak.

"What are you doing? We'll never outrun them," shouted the desert boy as he was yanked midair.

"Shoot them!" shouted Roa, as the two began blasting behind them.

The Jumpers flew above the slums tailed by the enemy who was close behind them, disappearing and reappearing as it dodged the blasts from their Gunhands.

The Sunflower's tattoos appeared as his aura hit a threshold and they flew even faster.

"We're not losing them!" shouted Indigo, kicking one Shadow who was about to grab her foot in the face.

"Your energies—give them to me!" Roa shouted.

"I either shoot or transfer! I'm not an endless well," said Rosso.

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"Transfer, now!" shouted Roa who suddenly felt a boost of speed when both of their hands were placed on his shoulders and their auras began to flow through his body.

"Let me go," shouted Indigo as one of the enemies held on to her leg while the others fell farther and farther behind.

The Sunflower recognized the shoe factory where the others were hiding. He sped up even more, giving it everything he had, until numerous sparks of energy began to amass around them like thousands of fireflies following them, quickly disappearing as they touched the boy's skin. Rosso's eyes grew wide open at the sight, holding on for dear life as they blasted above the slums.

"Shields!" shouted the boy.

"What?" Rosso shouted back.

"Shields, now!" Roa shouted again. He turned back, placing his back towards the incoming shoe factory, fast approaching. He pushed Indigo out of the way, directed all his energy to the tip of his index and middle fingers, and let out a massive blast of energy.

The light hit the Shadow in the face, causing him to release his grip on Indigo, and be launched in the opposite direction, far away into the distance, until it hit the giant cupola of the dome of the gargantuan room of the Palace that the slums were tucked into. His body fell slowly, unconscious on the horizon towards the ground below.

The others screamed, as Roa turned back, only to find the aluminum walls of the shoe factory right in front of his nose. The heroes smashed through it like paper, tumbling and flipping several times from the momentum, until they eventually found themselves stopped, buried under a pile of shoes and equipment.

"Holy crap," said Rosso, upside down, "are we still alive?"

"Did we lose the bastard?" asked Indigo.

"I think so," said Roa, standing up as he tried to regain his balance.

"What the hell is going on?" shouted Nirvana, coming out of a metal trap door. She glanced around, noticed the hole in the roof and said, "I got your message. Did you lose them?"

"I hope so," the boy answered.

"You hope?" she said, her feet stomping on the ground as she made her way to the boy. She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him close, stared into his eyes with burning fire, and said, "you can't alert the enemy, I fricking told you." She grabbed him and shook him once, "and you especially are not supposed to bring them back to the goddamn base."

He stood there without saying a word as the smell of bubble gum from her breath entered his nostrils.

"I don't feel anyone coming," said Shiro, standing tall behind her as his rabbit ears moved around, searching for any suspicious noise.

They all stared at the hole in the roof, fearing the worst, but the worst never came. Nirvana released the boy with a scoff and said, "I can't trust you to do anything, anymore. You've become—"

"What?" said Roa, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Useless," she said after a long pause. "Like you're not—"

"What—my old self, anymore?" he blurted back.

She stood silent, as they stared at each other. She eventually unlocked her gaze and instructed some of the other Jumpers to keep an eye on the perimeter before stomping her way back below, into the trap door.

Roa took a deep sigh.

"She's never happy," he murmured.

That night, the group of thirty Jumpers gathered late in the evening. Smoke filled the air of the room, as a nervous quiet made everyone there tense.

"When are you going to take things seriously?" Nirvana said to Roa as she stood in front of him while the others listened in.

"I am doing all I can, Nirva," he said. "I'm trying to follow the instructions. You're the leader, you know better."

She paused with a confused look on her face.

"I'm—Roa, YOU asked me to bring you back. You're the one who insisted on continuing this revolution. You're the one who—the symbol of the struggle, the—the—" she looked at him in the eyes and her eyebrows furrowed, "you're the Sunflower, not I. God damn it, man, when are you going to stop being afraid and start acting like your true self?"

"I'm not afraid of the Shadows," he said.

"Afraid of being who you really are…" she answered back.

"I don't know who you want me to be, or who you think I am, but maybe the man you're expecting is gone. I am who I am now," he said, looking down.

"Well, let's hope that will be enough, then," she blurted out in a mean tone, causing Roa's chest to pound harder.

A Blurr entered the room, causing some to gasp. It disappeared in Nirvana's forehead, forcing her eyes wide open. A long bout of silence followed.

"Well?" Roa said. "Who is it?"

"I don't know," she answered with her eyes like an owl's still.

"What did it say?"

She took another long pause, then her eyes finally met Roa's and said, "knock, knock."

"What?"

"The message said 'knock, knock…come out and play," she said, worry plastered on her face.

Everyone went completely quiet, as stares of fear were exchanged. They listened for any movements, hearing subtle creaks in the metal roof above. Their eyes scanned the aluminum sheets.

"We're surrounded," said someone in the back. It was Khailas, the blind fighter.

"Who is it?" asked Roa.

"I don't know, but there's a lot of them," continued the blind man,

"How many?"

The blind fighter moved his head around, as if sensing the air.

"Hundreds."