Hiro went at the Umbral again.
No ranged bursts this ti.
He closed the distance and drove straight into close combat, spiritual energy compressed tightly through his arms instead of released outward.
The force stayed concentrated at the point of impact, turning each strike into raw physical pressure reinforced by spiritual output.
His fist crashed into the Umbral’s chest.
The thing staggered back two full steps.
The floor cracked under its heel.
Hiro followed imdiately before it could recover balance.
Second strike.
Sa spot.
A deeper impact this ti. The dark energy around the Umbral’s torso compressed sharply inward around the hit before swelling back outward again, the body forcing itself back into shape.
Behind Hiro he heard seal lines rising across the room.
Natsu.
This barrier structure sounded different.
Denser.
More layered.
Gold lines spread over the walls in overlapping formations instead of a single enclosure.
Hiro caught glimpses of them between movents.
Six anchor points instead of four, each barrier offset slightly from the next so the next layer was already stabilizing before the previous one failed.
"Get it against the wall," Natsu said.
Hiro drove forward harder.
Third strike.
Fourth.
The Umbral started defending properly now.
One arm raised across its centre line.
The impacts landed against the guard with enough force to shake the corridor walls, but the thing held its footing this ti, heels grinding into the tile floor as it absorbed the pressure.
Hiro shifted angle suddenly on the fifth attack and drove his fist underneath the guard directly into its ribs.
The Umbral slamd sideways into the corridor wall hard enough to crater plaster.
The first barrier layer rose around it instantly.
Gold seal lines locked shut.
The Umbral hit the barrier from inside imdiately.
The entire structure shook violently.
The anchor points held.
The second layer rose around the first.
Then the third.
Three overlapping containnt walls sealed the Umbral inside a compressed section of the corridor.
"Binding seals," Hiro said.
Natsu was already moving.
Her hands cut sharp controlled patterns through the air while seal lines spread beneath her feet. Four precise strokes drove into the floor around the barrier periter one after another.
Anchor binding seals.
Designed to force spiritual roots through the barrier itself and into the trapped target from multiple angles simultaneously.
Immobilization from inside the structure instead of outside it.
The first seal sank into place.
Then the second.
Inside the barriers the Umbral stopped attacking.
Stillness.
Its shape settled slowly inside the layered gold light.
Then it turned toward Natsu.
Hiro felt sothing tighten in his chest imdiately.
The Umbral moved.
Both fists drove outward simultaneously.
Straight into two anchor points on the first barrier.
Not random impact.
Precise.
The exact structural weak points.
Both anchor points cracked at once.
The first barrier tilted sharply sideways under the imbalance.
Before Natsu could reinforce it the Umbral hit the weakened section again.
The first layer shattered.
Gold fragnts exploded outward across the corridor.
The Umbral stepped directly into the second barrier and attacked the anchor points again imdiately.
Sa timing.
Sa place.
It had understood the barrier structure almost instantly.
"It’s targeting the anchor points."
Natsu’s voice tightened for the first ti since the fight began.
She was already redirecting energy into the weakened sections of the second barrier, reinforcing the failing points before the cracks spread further.
"It understands the seals."
Hiro’s expression darkened.
"How old is this thing."
The second barrier cracked.
Two anchor points splintered visibly.
Then movent exploded from the side corridor.
The larger possessed man lunged toward Natsu.
Fast.
Dark energy condensed tightly around both fists as it drove in from her left side.
Natsu caught the movent at the edge of her vision.
One hand stayed locked on the failing barrier structure around the Umbral.
The other snapped outward.
A thin ergency barrier appeared across the possessed man’s path.
Fast construction.
Minimal reinforcent.
The possessed man hit it hard enough to bend the seal wall inward.
Second impact.
The barrier shattered.
At the sa mont the Umbral struck the weakened anchor points inside the second layer.
Natsu’s attention split for less than a second.
Enough.
Two anchor points snapped completely.
The second barrier collapsed.
The Umbral stepped directly into the third layer and attacked again imdiately.
Straight for the anchors.
Hiro launched himself forward.
His shoulder crashed into the Umbral first.
Then a strike to the chest.
Then the jaw.
Three impacts in rapid succession forced the Umbral’s arms upward to defend instead of attacking the anchor points again.
That bought Natsu four seconds.
She used all four.
Both hands drove reinforcent seals into the third barrier structure at once. The failing anchor points stabilized. The binding seals spreading across the floor around the corridor nearly connected completely.
Movent flashed from Hiro’s right.
The second possessed man.
It lunged low.
Hiro turned and caught it with a direct strike to the shoulder powerful enough to spin the body sideways into the wall.
Dark energy burst from the impact.
The possessed man recovered imdiately.
The first one was still driving toward Natsu.
Hiro snapped one hand forward and released a concentrated burst directly into its chest.
The impact staggered the possessed man backward long enough for Natsu to throw up a fresh containnt barrier around it.
Gold seal lines locked shut around the body.
Hiro turned back toward the Umbral.
It had already cracked three anchor points on the third barrier by the ti he turned back toward it.
Thin fractures spread through the seal structure in uneven gold lines.
Natsu was one stroke away from finishing the binding seals.
One.
The first possessed man exploded through the containnt barrier around it before she could place it.
Gold light shattered outward across the corridor.
The possessed man drove straight at her.
Natsu spun imdiately and raised a personal shield between them.
The impact slamd into the barrier hard enough to bend the seal surface inward toward her body.
The shield held.
Barely.
But her hand left the third barrier anchor points for two seconds.
That was enough.
The Umbral moved instantly.
Both fists drove into the two weakest anchor points of the third layer at the exact sa ti.
The cracks spread through the entire structure in one violent pulse.
The barrier collapsed.
Gold seal fragnts burst outward and vanished across the corridor walls.
The unfinished binding seals on the floor dimd imdiately.
Unanchored.
Dead.
The Umbral stepped free.
Its head turned toward Natsu at once.
Not Hiro.
Natsu.
Hiro understood why imdiately.
She was the one constructing the seals.
The one capable of trapping it.
The greater threat.
The Umbral had recognized that from the start.
It moved toward her.
Hiro stepped between them.
The Umbral’s palm struck his chest.
Everything compressed into that single point of impact.
Dark energy folded inward through the Umbral’s arm and detonated directly against Hiro’s spiritual armour at contact range.
The force punched through him.
Hiro staggered backward three full steps before catching himself against the corridor doorfra.
Pain exploded through the right side of his chest.
Sharp.
Deep.
He had broken ribs before.
This felt the sa.
"Let’s pull back," Natsu said imdiately.
Hiro pushed himself upright off the fra.
They moved.
Fast.
Through the corridor.
The Umbral ca through the doorway behind them instantly, keeping pressure on them without giving even a second to recover distance.
The two possessed n spread outward as they followed.
Coordinated movent.
One to each side of the corridor.
Herding them.
Preventing separation.
The Umbral pressed directly from behind while the possessed n cut off angles from the sides, leaving no space for Natsu to stop and build proper barriers without interruption.
Natsu dropped burst trap seals behind them while running.
Fast strokes across the floor.
Four lines each.
The first possessed man stepped on one.
The seal detonated instantly.
Gold light burst upward from the floor and blasted the body backward into the corridor wall hard enough to crack plaster.
The second possessed man ran through the sa detonation and staggered sideways from the impact.
The Umbral walked through both seals.
Nothing happened.
The trap lines dissolved harmlessly against its body before activation.
Hiro felt his stomach tighten.
Three steps behind them now.
Close enough that he could feel the pressure of its dark energy directly against his back.
Natsu hit the stairwell door first.
She shoved through it hard.
Hiro followed imdiately behind her into the stairwell.
Cold air.
Concrete walls.
Dim ergency lighting casting pale strips down the stairs.
Hiro turned instinctively toward the lower floors—
—and froze.
The Umbral stood at the bottom of the stairwell.
Looking up at them.
Dark energy rolled upward through the stair shaft in slow cold waves thick enough to distort the air between floors.
Three floors above it and Hiro could still feel the pressure climbing against his spiritual energy.
It had not chased them through the corridor.
It had gone around.
Cut off the exit ahead of them.
Behind them the stairwell door opened again.
The two possessed n stepped through onto the landing.
Above.
The Umbral below started climbing the stairs slowly toward them.
At the sa ti both possessed n began descending from above.
Reviews
All reviews (0)