Aren and Daniel raced through the final stretch of the sewer corridor. The tunnel gradually sloped upward until they saw a rusted ladder ahead.
Daniel reached it first.
"Up," he muttered.
Aren followed without slowing. The tal rungs rattled as they climbed quickly. Daniel pushed open the heavy maintenance hatch at the top as the cold wind rushed in.
They erged into the Market District’s warehouse quarter, where long rows of shipping buildings were present but not many people were around.
Aren crouched imdiately beside the hatch. The concrete around it was damp.
"Footprints," he said.
Daniel leaned over his shoulder. Dark wet marks led away from the hatch, trailing into the main street.
Without another word, the two of them began running again, following the trail between the towering warehouse walls and tal containers. The prints led them through a narrow service alley before finally spilling out onto a wider road.
That was when the trail stopped. The last footprint faded into the dry asphalt where a vehicle must’ve been waiting.
"What now?" Daniel turned to ask. "We don’t have a car and we certainly can’t wait for a taxi!"
Aren was already raising a hand to his earpiece.
"Emily, any way we can get quick transportation?"
"I know," she replied imdiately, her voice calm despite the faint static on the line. "Give a second."
Daniel crossed his arms while scanning the empty road.
"Well," he muttered, "unless one of us suddenly learned how to fly—"
A soft buzzing sound interrupted him. Aren looked up to see a few tiny shapes drifting out from the alley behind them, glowing faintly as they fluttered toward the two.
Upon closer inspection, Aren realized what they were...dragonflies.
"What the..."
Emily’s voice ca through the earpiece again, sounding slightly amused.
"Worried about transport?" she asked. "I got you."
That was when it clicked inside his head.
These Double-Winged Dragonflies...are they Emily’s Manifestations?
His eyebrows lifted slightly.
Manifestation, similar to Morphing, was sothing Mystics couldn’t control for long. But this Senior...
She was controlling two of them while making sure they lasted the entire chase. That either ant her ether efficiency was extrely high...or her ether pool rivals that of Aren’s with the Fertile Core in his chest.
Daniel leaned closer to one.
"...Okay, cool," he admitted. "But how exactly is this helping?"
For a brief mont, nothing happened.
Then the dragonflies began to glow brighter. Their bodies expanded rapidly, their wings stretching wider as their forms grew larger and larger.
Within seconds, each dragonfly had grown large enough for a person to ride.
"How co you never told you can do this?!" Daniel exclaid.
"You never asked!" Emily’s voice peaked from the other side of the line.
The newly enlarged dragonfly dipped slightly toward the ground as if inviting Aren aboard.
"...You can do proximity Arts too?"
"Just the one," she replied. "Hop on."
Aren inhaled a nervous breath before gingerly climbing on. The sensation was...weird to say the least, but he decided not to focus on it too much.
"Alright Emily-senior," he said softly. "Lead the way."
***
Wind rushed past Aren’s ears as they sped down the path of the highway. Beside him, Daniel leaned forward slightly, gripping the dragonfly’s body for dear life.
Aren glanced down toward the road below, where several cars sped along their lanes, completely unaware of the two Mystics flying above their head.
"Quick question," he asked after a while. "Are civilians going to notice the two guys riding giant dragonflies over the highway?"
Emily answered from the line right away. "To them? You’d just look like a really fast cloud."
Daniel turned as he almost retched, but managed to keep it in. "Hey, when can we find them, I’m starting to—"
Then Aren’s eyes sharpened.
"Wait."
Far ahead on the highway, two vehicles were tearing through traffic.
A black cargo truck sped down the road, forcing its way through the lanes. In front of it, a smaller black sedan cleared the path, swerving aggressively between cars and forcing drivers to slam their brakes.
"Well," Daniel muttered. "That’s definitely them."
The dragonflies accelerated, wings flapping so fast, Aren could barely see them move. They closed the distance quickly, already close enough to see the vehicles clearly now.
"They’re pushing it," Daniel said.
"They know we’re chasing," Aren replied.
Ahead of them, the highway began to thicken with vehicles. Red brake lights stretched across the road like a glowing wall as traffic started slowing down.
The sedan imdiately swerved into the nearest exit and shot down the ramp. The cargo truck followed right behind it.
Aren’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the road below before looking up once more.
"Emily, the lane they just turned," he asked quickly. "Any civilian cars?"
"Not a single one."
"Good."
The dragonflies swerved as they followed the vehicles down the ramp. The mont the sedan hit the empty road, it accelerated even harder that even the cargo truck seed to hardly be able to catch up.
"Daniel."
"Yeah?"
"Stop the car."
Daniel grinned.
"Thought you’d never ask."
The senior stood slightly on his dragonfly’s back and summoned the lance once more. Golden ether flared along its edges as he hurled the massive thing in front of their path.
It shot through the air like a falling teor, slamming into the road directly in front of the speeding sedan.
The mont it landed, tal plates imdiately folded outward, locking together in an instant to form a towering barricade across the road.
Red lights ca on imdiately as the sedan tried to break, but slamd hard into the wall and beca a massive wreck. The cargo truck managed to slow right behind, skidding to a stop as the entire thing turned sideways.
The dragonflies got them close to the ground before they both hopped off at once. Daniel eyed the cargo truck before he looked back at Aren.
"Let’s move quickly," he muttered. "They might’ve already done sothing to her."
Aren nodded.
"Agreed. Let’s go."
User Comments
0 comments from readers