Chap 91: co-op 2

Multiple rebar and spikes launch at Takichi, blocked by The World's phantom fist comes out to protect him. All but two managed to pierce his body, one in the chest and one in the left shoulder, drawing a painful cry from him.

Instantly, through his mind and advanced radar. Takune tried to sense her location, but a surge of psychic energy engulfed him; she was behind him.

Teleported with the air still crackling, half her face is gone. There wasn't even any bone to the left side where her skull was; the place which he punched had her skull and brain matter exposed to the air along with any gore in her head.

'Most of her power must be used to keep her own brain running.' He thought, seeing no drop of blood even move even when her brain was exposed.

"Too bad." He wasn't able to move as a concrete pillar hammered him to the ground multiple times like a nail.

"S̶͔̼̤̖̦̞̜̳̦̯͚̘͌̏̅͗̊̂̄̇̏͂̆̎͋ẗ̶͕͚̪͈͉̰̔̓̄́̾o̴͔̹̫̥͗̀̈́p̵̬̝̱̏̄͑̋̄̾̇͌͊̀̎͒̕̚." Takichi's mouth spews out blood as his curse speech ripples through the air.

Stunning the psychic woman in place and creating enough time for Takune to twist his body into a high kick at her face. His foot got held by her telekinesis force; Akira exerted her hand, and his body got flung away, smashed through the wall, creating a big hole.

'Shit.' His energy is draining faster, 'I'm almost out of time.' Takune thought as his body hit a building outside, not stopping any bit. His transformation was barely protecting him after using most energy for the final punch, and his mind was also getting tired. Using so much telekinesis has taken its toll; he can't afford to use it often in this form.

*frisk* Dragging his fist alongside a building, he pulled himself to a stop.

Takune turned his body, placing his foot as leverage on the building, and boosted away as fast as he could. Shattering hundred panels of glass. Straightening his body, he flies headfirst back to where Takichi is.

Back at Takichi's place, he was being choked out of his life. Their body was suspended mid-air, a deep invisible hand gripped his neck, and blood trickled out of his nose. Akira looked at him with one eye, and she looked furious as she choked the life out of him.

'The World!' His golden guardian came out, 'stop the flow of time.' Commanding in a hurry, everything turns black and white except for Takichi along his stand.

In a short space of time, less than a second, she took Takichi out of Akira's sight. They made it out of the building just as the time stop ended.

He looked back in worry, 'this may be the time to use it.' Pulling the rebars out of his body, he sent his command to the system, 'system, activate my gacha pulls.' An image of a slot machine shows up in his head, spinning. He urges for anything he can use.

[Using gacha pulls]

[Toy knife-undertale(F)]

[Shovel (F)]

[Block of TNT-Minecraft (E)]

[Mining helmet (E)]

[Iphone(F)]

'Damn it.' His sore throat wanted to yell out, his luck was truly terrible.

Akira's figure emerges out of the building; he has no doubt she could sense him. And Takune is still too far away to help.

He opened his inventory, out of it. A dozen puppets Takumi has made came out, all using a variety of weapons. Nothing special, though, only guns and blades.

'This will have to do.' With a shallow breath, he turns his eyes to where Akira is. This is why he doesn't rely on the gacha pulls, always so much possibility.

"Go and stop her." He gave them a command; all puppets turned their featureless faces at her and took immediate action.

With their weapon on each, his puppet approaches with speed and discipline. Those with range weapons would provide cover fire, and close range would try and buy as much time as possible.

*splat* one was crushed as it landed.

*crash* one got itself exploded with its own bazooka.

*Ratatatatatatat* one managed to unload its minigun at her.

These puppets were by no means special, but he had hoped the sheer amount from the hundreds he had made would be enough to stall for some time.

*Boom!*

Arms failing around, folding the roads, stopping bullets mid-air, and whipping blades from touching her. The woman releases her psychic might upon the soulless puppets, but they won't stop coming.

'Okay, try again.' Takichi left his inventory open as more puppets rushed out to swarm her like an army of ants. He doesn't even care as sounds of bullets and explosions happen in the background; eyes focus only on his system as another round of pulls is activated, and he watches the wheels spin again.

[Healling potion-minecraft (E)]: restore health instantly.

[Broken mirror (F)]: a useless mirror that can't be used.

[Rune shard-binding of Isaac (E)]: when activated, gives a random effect.

[Bomb-bomb it (F)]: a simple medieval bomb that might kill its user when detonated.

[L-drago destructor F:S-Bayblade:metal fury (C)]: bayblade belong to the four season bladers, Ruyga.

'Are you kidding me ?' In the assortment of items, none of them are of use for his current predicament.

He drinks the red potion in hand, healing the holes left on him. Order one puppet to hold the bomb and do a suicide charge with it.

"And what the fuck am i to do with a fucking bayblade ?"

"On your left!" Takune landed with a heavy crack around his feet, eyes conveying back to Takichi what he was seeing. He grabbed at Takune's hand, and they quickly jumped away from where they stood.

Everything in a three hundred and sixty-degree angle of Akira is flattened, with two of them left out just in time. All the puppets were crushed, leaving nothing but dust behind.

"System, try again," Takune said, both bodies land far from the hit, but the place is left with one big pit. There goes half of his soldiers; he feels the cost of all his hard work blow away so fast.

[Neuromod-prey (D)]: short for neural modifier, a tool that allow user to upgrade abilities.

[Particle barrier-overwatch(D)]: emit a personal barrier for user to shields against incoming attacks.

[Kasaka's Venom Fang]: a small black dagger with two abilities. Paralyzing a target from moving at a certain rate; and Bleed, which causes a target to lose a portion of their health for every second this effect is active.

[Heart container-legend of Zelda (C)]: increase user health by a small margin.

[Conduit gene-infamous (B)]: give user access to prime conduit gene, similar to Cole MacGrath/delsin rowe

"your luck is shit, bro. Next time, i'll be the one to pull the level." He smiles, out of all the items.

The conduit gene is his best option so far for him to use. Starting with the neuromod, a gray box object with a grip and injector to it. Takune raises it to his eyes and jabs it in. Not stopping, he also received the Conduit gene at the same moment.

[Telekinesis (B)]=>[Telekinesis (A)]=>[Telekinesis (AAA)]

The moment he pulled out the needle, it power of his Telekinesis was increased by tenfold. He can feel his body getting energized from taking in the conduit gene, each cell in his mind being supercharged. Evolving, spreading to the rest of his body like a tree taking roots.

Looking from Takichi's point of view, there isn't any visible change from the outside, except for a little bit of nosebleed.

"What the?" he wipes his own nose, seeing the same red liquid on the back of his hand.

But it happened to him as well, the Telekinesis power in his mind is not just getting stronger. It's making his mind stronger with it, so strong that the link between bodies is being affected. Even Takumi, who sat in his own house, got it as well.

Popping the heart container next, he healed himself and his rider armor got mended, returning Takune rider form to its optimal state.

"Not my fault, we just have shitty luck," Takichi argued, putting the particle barrier on himself. A faint glow of a high-tech shield surrounds him whole.

Just as they were talking, the ground shook. Takichi stood in the way to stop a wave of force meant to shred them like a cheese grinder. It crashes onto his shield, blowing blue sparks all over.

"Everyone, stop." All of the puppets froze following Takune's call. All of them return to his inventory.

There in the middle of the hole, Akira is giving them a death glare. Her one eye stares at them; she looks like a corpse walking, with half of a cranium open for the environment. Ragged breath, suffering damage that shouldn't be possible. He can tell she is having trouble just standing right now. Her hands are shaking and bloody from scratches and slashes made by the hundred bullets and sword slashes.

He can't read her, or more like Takune can't tell whether this is from her head being half gone or it is from Akira using most of her energy to keep what's left of her brain going.

'It doesn't matter.' Things won't go anywhere if he stays like this. Takune gets his body into a position ready to charge, and Takichi takes a portable speaker out.

*Ehem* she didn't let a word leave his mouth; her body teleported directly between them.

"Ş̵͔̫̔̈́̎ẗ̴̨̘͍̪͎̦̂͠o̴̜͂̒̕͠p̴̗̄̌̈̾͠-." Takichi's words are cut midway, and the blue bubble cracks as his body gets swallowed by the earth that Akira manipulates using one hand.

She had her other hand and tried to do the same to Takune. Only, She wasn't able to do anything; she pushed with enough force to topple an entire city at him. Yet Takune shows no sign of being affected, his feet run through the blanket of ashen ground that is being crumbled around him. Akira's eyes looked at him, puzzled and confused.

'What is this armored....thing?' She floated herself up and took to the sky, way above the cloud. Straining her mind as everything around is just the cloud, she look down to find a pair of red bug eyes staring back at her.

Next, a knuckle fist meets her chest. Blocked by a long line of metal fragments inserted just as the fists collided making shockwaves that blew them apart.

*whoosh* he flew up in a green line in a zic-zac formation, punching through the cloud.

Akira didn't back down, flying at each other. They trade blows in the night sky; Akira sends out hundreds upon hundreds of explosions while Takune throws telekinesis punches.

They lunged at each other with attacks powerful enough to part the clouds, the noise came from their clash of psychic energy echoing in a thunderous boom.

*Boom!*

*Boom!!*

'What is happening ?' She stares at him, her one eye red from both anger and internal bleeding.

She is so, tired. So, weak. She looks and wonders why this is the case. In her entire life, Akira has never once gotten tired from using psychic energy since the day of her birth.

"Who are you ?" Akira asked out loud, this wasn't just a question came from curiosity but also to stall him. 'If i can draw this out long enough, my body could heal.' She thought, her brain even when damaged could be healed with enough time.

"Before you gave me a chance to say my final words, I believe you also deserve it." Akira can feel those red eyes staring right through her; she focuses on him.

"I won't d-die, that'll be y-you, gah!" Her voice cracked with anger. Then a sudden blood splatter burst out.

*urh* *spurt*

"I apologize, but you'll die." He pauses, a hand moving. Akira did not sense anything, but in that state, her senses were lightly going to be wrong.

She raises her protection layers with all her power. But it still penetrated her wall.

Akira's head twitched, just a bit. But blood came out from her open head wound. Not only that but from her back is a black dagger. Its sharp blade pierced her flesh.

When her eyes focused back, the man was gone, and a heavy force dragged her down.

Struggling against it, her own mind barely slowing down the fall, she saw the ground coming now. Panic rose within Akira's mind as she tried to recover. Her speed was slower but wasn't enough to break the fall.

All of this was happening as Akira looked around, searching for where he might be.

*BOOM!*

The earth shook, her walls did not last but it has done a good job. Not a single scratch was visible on her body. Then, a loud scream echoed out from the sky.

"Rider Kick!" It was Takune, delivering a telegraphic kick.

She smirked, 'it's too slow, i can stop it.'

'Can you ?' His voice rang in her head.

'No!' snarling, she screamed. The range for him to communicate in a mind link should not be possible.

Yet, as the green wind of his kick got closer, quickly and smoothly, with a speed far beyond her speculation. It whirls on and on, making a drill around his kicking ankle.

The crater that she was in got wider with a rising pressure, she should be able to break free sooner than he can land his kick. But that damn force was keeping her sprawled body on the ground.

Interrupting her is the shadow of Takichi casting his gaze down. Holding a speaker in one hand.

"S̵͓͛ț̶̺̹̞̰̹̼͙̬̭͕̠̣̠̿̓͝͝a̵̯̪̭̬̘̱̿̿̒̏̾̈̀͝y̷̧͖̱̲̲̖͉̆͐̏͜ ̷̨̢̛͈̻̦̅̀̄̈̅̔̓̋̋̃̆̉̚ͅs̸̮̍̒͛̋͐̕͝͝t̴̬̹̼͙̼̳̲̼̩͚̼̰͖̉̋̇͊̐͗͋̈́̉̋͆̂̉̕͠i̴̖̻̝̼̮̹̖̯̻̜͇̒̽l̵͖̲̬̿̈́l̷̡̡̛̙̯͈̫̦̄̽͌̃̅͐̓͝" simple words of curse speech that did not let her move.

What followed was him blipped out of there like time was cut for her, and came an explosion that rocked the unpopulated street.

[Ding]

[Quest completed]