The metronomic thumping shook the ironclad warship as they came in succession. One after the other proved greater in size than the last. The dark blue ripple ran to the port from the boat, like it was guiding him there, telling him to flee. He watched the ill-lit ripples run from the boat like prey escaping its predator. The feeling of being hunted loomed over him. He was a mouse hiding from a falcon, an old, exhausted mouse. The thumps hovered above his head before finally stopping. He could tell his hunter was searching for him. It was only a matter of time before he looked over the side of the boat. Geoffren had created a vacuum on his hand to stick to the side of the ship, a terrible idea. Geoffren’s waterless body shook and struggled to hold concentration. The vacuum on his hand slightly tilted back and forth from his brittle body. He had no strength to hold himself up so he just hung there like wet clothing. He stared back at the destroyed town in thought.

        “What if they're doing better than me?” He wondered. He stopped staring and looked back up to check to see where Hastard was at. Hastard was staring back at him smiling and quickly reached down for Geoffren. Geoffren immediately let go and fell into the warm water. His trembling body had no strength to swim, he’d rather drown than deal with Hastard. The slow sinking was immediately reversed as an explosion of water shot him into the air. He landed back onto the ship’s deck while the water rained around him.

         “Found ya!” Hastard said, grabbing Geoffren by the neck and lifting him. Geoffren lightly punched and slapped Hastard's face, it felt like steel. Hastard let him punch it before hitting back, sending him flying. He slid across the wet deck and laid idle till Hastard reached him. He curled up in a fetal position as he hyperventilated.

         “Ha now look who the baby is!” Hastard said using his ability to fill Geoffren’s mouth with water. Geoffren choked on the water and coughed while Hastard punched him in the stomach again, squirting the water from his mouth. 

         “The second I saw you here, I knew I had to make you, me.” Hastard said. He grabbed Geoffren’s arm and broke it with his bare hands. Geoffren let out a strained and empty grunt until Hastard filled his mouth with more water and slammed him on his back.

         “Screaming means beatings! Remember that?” He said. Geoffren’s dead noises made Hastard chuckle. Geoffren’s wrinkly mouth moved but no sound came out. Hastard’s curiosity got the better of him, he had to know what he was going to say. He filled Geoffren’s body up with enough water to moisten his vocal cords and effectively speak.

         “*huff* Aren’t you bored of me yet?” Geoffren scratchily asked. 

         “Geoffren, I want you to be me.”

“allies” beating him up because he made boot camp harder for them. Everytime Hastard pulled his fist back, he could see his face. The face of the abused person that he used to be, was still there somewhere in him. Hastard now gave him that burden to carry, and the face. Hastard raised his bloody fist one last time. It shook harder than the ship, something was restraining him, some part of him. Geoffren got the point by now, he was terrible to Hastard. His years of abuse upon him finally became rectified at this moment. He knew he should apologize, maybe that could save his life. Finally being a better person and taking responsibility for something he did in his past. Geoffren thought about it, he was ready. He mouthed “I’m sorry.” to Hastard who immediately noticed and got closer. His ear was caging Geoffren’s mouth yet he still couldn’t hear anything.

       “I can’t hear you over these damn winds!! Speak up!” He screamed as he punched the deck. The winds dropped into the water at lightning speeds, giving them peace to speak. Hastard leaned in one last time to finally get years of closure. Geoffren’s bloody mouth started to utter the anticipated sentence.

       “I-I’m…” He began.

       “Yes?’’ Hastard said with wide eyes.

          “I’m no less clever than back then.” He said as the ship’s metal wailed again. Hastard, filled with rage, smashed down at Geoffren’s face but was thrown back by the ship's intense spinning. It spun faster than before as everything on the deck began to fly in the air. Hastard held onto the door of quarters and watched in fury. Geoffren held onto the railing and caught his hat as it spun into his hand.

          “I didn’t have enough energy to immediately create a waterspout powerful enough to destroy the ship on its own. Though once I got it started, the natural winds nurtured it. I barely had to use any energy for it.” He said. Hastard struggled to crawl towards Geoffren as the winds tried to sway him. 

          “I knew the waterspout wouldn’t be strong enough to effectively destroy the ship, so I sent the winds into the water. I felt like a maelstrom would do a better job.” Geoffren added. Hastard honed in and tried to fill the maelstrom with enough water to stop it. It began to subside until the ship peaked upright. The sudden vertical change distracted Hastard while they slowly tilted upwards. Geoffren held onto the railing while Hastard grabbed onto his foot. Once it had finally reached its highest both men fell down the deck and caught themselves on the bottom railing. The ship’s uncomfort echoed in the eye of the maelstrom as water splashed around them. Geoffren ignored the chaos to look at Hastard one last time. Hastard looked back aggressively.

           “If it costs it all! I don't care!” Hastard said as he began to overflow Geoffren’s heart with water. The great pain only pushed him to end the fight quicker as the maelstrom devoured the ship at breakneck speeds. Both of them were shot hundreds of meters under water. The maelstrom disappeared along with the ship and the two men, silence and clear skies followed. 

        “Ice, light, sound, metal…you could’ve been anything. But your eyes? That is unfortunate.” He preached. He spoke to Kelnick’s body that lay still and silent. He slowly circled around him on the rooftop as he talked. This was the first person to listen to his rambling in years.

         “Out of every aspect to manipulate it was your own eyes, an accelerator too! I understand it was a coin toss, 50/50. There are only two types of manipulators, those being projector and accelerator. Projectors create the aspect they manipulate from thin air with a thought. Accelerators can only increase or decrease what’s already there. Any sane person would choose projector, right?” He continued. He squatted down to whisper to Kelnick.

         “Why would you choose an accelerator to win in a fight against a projector? You’ve got to be stupid.” He said. He stood back up and watched as Kelnick’s chest rapidly went up and down. He formed a spiked rock out of his palm and pointed it at Kelnick’s throat. 

         “One can’t choose the circumstances they’re born into, but you can make your own decisions. You chose to fight me. The more I try to understand it, you definitely have got to be stupid.” He said. The rooftop didn’t have much time left, he had to make it quick and leave. The cage of flames and smoke invigorated him. He felt so powerful compared to Kelnick and the others. Terrier loved the feeling of being above others, it was his guilty pleasure. His hand finally steadied as he aimed to kill. He shot the spike and blood went everywhere. He looked at Kelnick’s throat, it was still intact. The spike had landed only a few inches away from it. If he missed then where did the blood come from? Terreir’s arm felt lighter for some odd reason. He quickly looked down at it to see his elbow was gone. The pain finally hit him as he shrieked like a dying animal. He looked around to see who shot him.  His eyes scanned the area until he saw her.

         “You really can’t miss with this thing.” Latrey said from a half melted balcony opposite of them. She jumped from it to another almost eradicated building before Terreir could retaliate. 

         “What in–” Terrier gasped.

         “I realized you were tracking us through our movements, once you left us to take care of Kelnick, we went onto the rooftops so you couldn’t feel our reverberations anymore. Wasn’t my original plan though.” She said. Terrier quickly shot a molten rock at her that she ducked out of the way. He grunted as he cauterized his wound with another. He looked back to see Evanglow and Raygal jumping through the flames in front of him. They finally stood face to face with Terreir. He stood in between them and Kelnick with one arm. Terreir equipped his armor in time for Raygal’s whip crack.

        “Where the hell did he get that from?” Terrier thought. Raygal kicked Terreir back and began his assault. He decorated Terreir’s body with well placed attacks from his whip but did no 

        “His head! He’s bent over!” Raygal screamed. The space in the flickering flames wasn’t enough for Latrey to see, she panicked. She let out one last prayer and pulled the trigger. The flames dispersed for a second as the bullet passed through them, in the split second she could see, she knew she missed. The bullet hit Terreir’s armored shoulder, giving him time to protect his head again. 

        “ I need to lash across his body! Give her more openings!” Raygal thought. As Terreir stood up Raygal lashed the whip across his upper body. The strike scraped the rocks off with multiple miniature explosions. Terreir looked down to see he had 4 spots open for Latrey to shoot, he would need more time regenerating all of the openings.

        “Chest!” Raygal screamed. Terreir turned around just as the bullet passed through the flames, scraping Raygal’s arm and landing in his back armor. Raygal writhed in pain as his blood dripped. He shook off the pain and prepared for another lash.

        “In 15 seconds she’ll have her shot back. In those seconds I’ll–” Terreir thought before noticing Evanglow healing Kelnick. He charged towards him in fury before having his back lashed one last time. He once again had to decided.

        “She can’t have already reloaded! She shouldn’t have time to shoot me! But I can’t let him get back in the fight, fuck!” He thought as time slowed around him. He turned around to make sure she couldn’t hit his back and rushed towards Raygal. 

        “One more and it’s done, the whip will burn up. I’m lucky it made it this far without combusting. I have to swing this next one perfectly. In the second it lands it’ll combust in my hands and be unusable. I have to time it right.” Raygal thought. He cocked his arm back one last time to lash Terreir’s face, this was it. He swung downwards, but Terreir saw it coming and ducked it. Only a fraction of his arm was exposed and he punched Raygal in the chest. As he fell the whip melted in his hands, burning them. Terreir turned around and slowly walked towards Evanglow and Kelnick.

        “Back here, bitch.” Raygal said, standing with a piece of broken wood from the balcony.

        “You desperate accelerators.” Terreir said as he bolted towards him. Raygal timed it right his second go and whacked Terreir with the wooden debris. It caused an explosion the size of his head that opened up a hole big enough for Latrey to take her shot. Terreir punched Raygal in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him 

        “Face…” He got out before falling.  The same small hole in the flames appeared as another shot entered the battleground, she hit the rocks reforming on his face, she missed. Terreir smirked as the rocks almost finished closing around his face for the last time.

        “Kelnick’s rifle is a special one, it’s specifically designed to keep up with him. It’s so special that the Auspex himself had to design it. The beauty behind this rifle is something nothing will be able capture for years to come. This rifle is special because…it can shoot twice 

        “He’s saved my life more times than I can count, he’s powerful! He’s higher than any of us! He is reliable! My faith is well put in him! I’ve seen him work!” He retorted.

         “He’s human, Raygal. He can die.” Kelnick said.

         “He’s not some worthless egg to you too?” Raygal responded. Kelnick broke eye contact and stayed silent.

         “Maybe waiting a few more moments won’t hurt.” Evanglow said.

         “A few moments will turn into a few hours with this one. We are leaving now.” Latrey said as she turned around and began walking. Raygal persisted and stood still.

         “Men are such children.” She said.

         “I’m a child? For caring about my commanding officer?”

         “Understand, We can’t wait or go searching for him. We have to report back to Zultor.”

         “We can’t, but I will. I’ll see you all back at camp. Tell Zultor, mission complete!” Raygal yelled.

         “Raygal…”

         “You’re jawing about some decision that’s already been made. I don’t care. Leave.

         “We won’t leave you. At least I won’t…” Evanglow said as he looked at Kelnick.

         “I’ll do it then. Safe travels.” Raygal said as he walked away from the group back into the town. The three watched him walk back into the flamy terrain with no hesitation. Kelnick took a deep breath and proceeded.

         “Would he do the same for you?” He asked. Raygal stopped and didn’t turn around. He clenched his fist as he pondered. 

         “You don’t know.” Latrey said.