The alley glowed with eerie light, the ground and debris on it gaining a slithering luminescence as they glowed. About to explode.
Bright flash of light after bright flash, thundering strikes of lightning continuously landed on the beast's envelope. It rippled and contracted, pulling back together with what was inside.
BOOM!
An explosion of gold ruptured from within the envelope, tearing the beast apart and it roared in pain.
Brand Skill: Golden Body
Buddhist Hand grabbed Elias and they vanished from the alley, taking Sasha on the way, but his body buckled, fell and rolled. Thankfully they were far away from the place.
Their bodies lay flat, trembling, eyes rolled back and wide, mouths moving to speak. They fought to breathe, they fought to stay awake.
Buddhist Hand was the worst as his body's raw strength was shattering the ground, pulses of force pushing everything away from him. It was unknown what he was feeling.
Elias was less dramatic, but he was having a hard time breathing before he became silent and stopped breathing entirely.
Crackling electricity weaved on Sasha's eyelashes, tracing her veins as she managed to stand, breaking away from whatever hold they were under.
She stood confused, furious about her failure but more than that, terrified. Her mind couldn't leave the fact she was enticed by that flute and got controlled.
Brand Skill: Internal Thunder Storm ignited the numerous cracks she had on her bones, and gashes of wounds that tore her face in multiple locations due to the ground-shattering shards.
Elias was still curled up, eyes closed, still not breathing.
"Elias?" She touched him. The electricity on her hand traced around his skin but he didn't react. She began to panic and moved to Buddhist Hand. Her touch jolted him awake, eyes returning to normal as he breathed heavily.
Aware and awake but his joints weren't obeying him.
"Wake up. Something's wrong with Elias!" she said, but with another look, she realized he too wasn't normal. Veins of yellow traced around his body, glowing underneath his uniform, but he wasn't moving.
She knew that it was Golden Body trying to Awaken. Whatever was happening was suppressing his powerful skill.
Her face went pale. She glanced at Elias, not breathing, body still like a statue. He wasn't fighting back like Buddhist Hand.
She grabbed him and pulled his head, but it didn't budge from the coil. More electricity slithered into him, but he remained unresponsive, as if made of wood.
"No. No. Elias. Wake up!" She put her hand on his temple and tried a skill she hadn't mastered. A jolt went through him.
Elias's body snapped and stretched before he coiled again, still like a statue. She tried again. His body jolted and coiled again. This time, his heart began beating, his hand relaxed, and he breathed in slowly.
"Elias... Wake up." Slap. Slap and another jolt of electric currents on his stump, which straightened his body.
Hoop!
He took a deep breath, eyes still rolled back, chest convex for several seconds before he came back to normal—breathing, eyes now closed.
He snapped awake and sat up, his blue face due to lack of breathing returned to normal.
"Haha..." she slumped back, laughing and panting. This short moment was more taxing on her than facing the damn Calamity Beast. Losing a friend on her first exploration was not something she wanted to do.
Not someone like him, someone with greater potential than her. Someone who humanity should rely on in the future.
But it was strange—minutes without breathing should have made him crave air, but he just sat and breathed normally. Eyes looking down, his stump poking his left hand.
She bent to look at his face. He was blinking and expressionless. "Elias!" she called, and he looked at her.
"Sasha," he called back. "Your face is bleeding!"
"I'm fine. But are you alright?" she asked. Her hand reached for his face and touched it. His red skin was coarse with grime and... he lunged to bite. She recoiled, horrified.
"Haha. I didn't know you had a red skin fetish!" Elias joked, and she kicked him with her leg. "You...you. Hmmm!" Angrier, she looked away before she settled on Buddhist Hand, still trying to move. He was absolutely awake.
"I found myself suspended in nowhere!" Elias began to say, his tone attracting both Sasha and Buddhist Hand. "My neck was hooked by something invisible. I...just stayed still, but I don't know why. I was not afraid, but it was as if that was my nature, to just stay still in the white emptiness."
Sasha gulped. What he was saying was stirring something in her, something she didn't know. It was like her reaction to the flute, the bending to touch the ground.
"Stop talking. Ahhh!" The Buddhist Hand shouted. He began to bang his head on the ground, shattering it, twisting his unmoving joints, leading to him turning onto his stomach.
With a roar of rage, he supported his body with his elbows and tried to stand, but his knees refused to obey, as if they were shackled.
"Damn it. Move. Please move."
The boy began to cry, shouting. His struggles were painful to watch.
"His mind broke away but his body is still in that..."
"Stop talking. Damn you. Elias, shut up!" His roar released a minor shockwave around him.
Like steel being bent, his knee twisted and bent through sheer willpower and barbarity. With one knee folded, he launched himself into the sky and roared.
Bubble!
Sasha was holding Elias as the barrier came to be before the shockwave reached them. It broke and they were sent away as another barrier formed.
He fell like a miniature mountain, creating a crater around him. Drained of energy, face still pale, the horrifying experience scarred deeply inside him.
"My brother said Buddha's Talent Category Type is Power. And it is the greatest that ever graced the world," Sasha said in awe.
Unlike Elias, whom she had to help, Buddhist Hand broke away himself while remembering everything.
"Incorruptible mind, heart of boundless, unfathomable willpower, and then endless growth body might. That is their core," she added amazed.
She made the statements about what she knew about them. "They are the greatest in the Five Leaf Clover!"
"Their reputation precedes them," Elias said with a sigh as he sat down again. He was too in awe but too tired to care.
Buddhist Hand was on his knees, eyes still open, probably battling the bleak sensation he had escaped.
"Are you ready for the third round?" Sasha forced a smile.
Elias and Buddhist Hand snapped their gaze at her, and she flinched.