▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 35║▌║▌║█│▌

We turned the corner of the alleyway, and Mr. Grey was standing there waiting for us. He had his back leaned up against the wall, and his lightning jumped from him to the ground. All of our eyes grew wide from the shock of seeing him. How did he get here so fast? “Did you guys think you could get away that easily?” Mr. Grey said in his monotone voice.

“Maybe?” I retorted in an exasperated tone.

As Mr. Grey straightened up from leaning against the side of the building, I looked toward Itsuki and told her, “We need an air barrier now!”

She nodded and put her hands up, signifying she made a barrier. Mr. Grey waved his hand, and with a single lightning bolt he walked through the barrier like it wasn’t even there. He continued to walk forward at a steady pace, and I turned to Itsuki. She looked in dismay and shocked. Her head was down, and she looked completely defeated. I quickly ducked down to her level and hurriedly tried to comfort her saying, “It’s okay. It’s okay Itsuki. This is just training. If you can’t go further, or you can’t put up a barrier strong enough, that’s fine. I can only ask of you, what I ask of myself every day. Just to do your best and get better every day. We’ll figure this out, but if you still got something left, we need it right now. We won’t all be able to get out of here if we don’t have something stopping him for a couple of seconds. Do you think you can put up one last barrier?”

She shook her head denying that she could, and the situation fully sunk into my head. I wanted to survive until the end, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to get the chance. I mustered up my courage, and I turned to face Via and Jack. I told them in a grave voice, “You guys get out of here. I can hold him off for thirty seconds if I’m lucky. I’ll be burden anyway since I can’t use any powers. Try to keep to open areas with lots of obstacles since we know he can find you easily in alleyways. Go now!”

Via looked at me like I was crazy, and Itsuki managed to murmur out a quiet, “what?” as she looked up at me. I turned around to face Mr. Grey as he steadily made his way over to us. Before I could bolt to him though, Itsuki dashed in front of me heading straight to Mr. Grey before I could react. I stood there in shock as she put up a barrier to climb on top of and was going all around him. Next thing I knew, Jack grabbed my shoulder, pulling me into the realm of darkness. Before I got pulled into complete darkness, I saw Mr. Grey destroy one of the air platforms Itsuki was on, and he grabbed by her foot and hung her in the air. We reappeared in front of the entrance that we took to get into the alleyways. Via eventually made it beside us. I sat in silence for a couple of seconds, reminiscing on my almost complete failure on my goal going into this pop quiz. Now the only person that I wanted to help pass that is left, is Via. I feel utterly helpless in this situation. Mr. Grey just overpowers us every step of the way, and there isn’t anything we can do about it. How are we expected to last ten minutes? Via started shaking me to get me back into reality, and I got out of my thoughts to the sound of her saying, “Khan! Khan! Where do we go?! Hello?”

I shook my head, getting back to my senses. I told them, “Right, we are still in this. Same plan as the plan I told you before Itsuki made the sacrifice. Try to stay in an open area with as many obstacles as possible. We should probably head back to the park. That is probably the optimal position.”

We turned to head back toward the park when a loud boom was heard from back in the alleyway. I couldn’t help but look back, and I saw a streak of blue lightning shoot up into the sky. The streak landed in front of us with a loud KABOOM! A dust cloud rose up as the ground below our feet became unstable. Before I knew it, we were falling down into a hole. I tried to reach for the stable ground before it was too late, but it was no use. I was already too far down. Via used her superspeed to climb the falling rubble up, and Jack used the shadows to move back into the alleyway before he could fall. I was the only one out of the group to have fallen into the hole. I was stunned by the fall, but luckily no rubble fell on me. Through the dust that was stirred up by the explosion I could hear someone cough through the smoke. It was Mr. Grey! I could hear him complain in his signature voice saying, “Goddammit. I didn’t know there was a subway system here. I got too carried away and used too much power. I honestly shouldn’t be going this hard on them, but I can’t help it. I get carried away too easily. You understand don’t you Khan?”

He knows I’m here?! I have to stand up and try to fight back the best I can. I have to give Via and Jack enough time for at least one of them to last. I Picked myself up off my ass using the rubble around me, but when I put pressure on my right leg, I felt a sharp pain shoot through it. I winced and immediately went down to favor the leg. This isn’t looking good. Mr. Grey looked at me and told me, “So how ‘bout it kid? You going to just give up, or you going to make this be annoying for me?”

I gripped my twin pistols tighter. I’m ready to fight and prove myself right now. I will show everyone that a sagaru can do just as much and more as everyone else.

▌│█║▌║▌║To be Continued║▌║▌║█│▌