Moonlight Blue

With flames engulfing his hands, Raizer charged at Mike with explosive speed. He threw a punch at Mike who managed to block it with his axe imbued with mana. The explosive force of Raizer’s punch managed to push Mike back a few paces. A crack appeared on Mike’s axe.

To think his attack would be powerful enough to break through my mana and damage my axe.

Raizer pounced at Mike like a wild beast once more but Mike managed to dodge his onslaught and counter with an attack from his axe, cutting Raizer’s stomach. Raizer shrugged off the attack and managed to punch Mike in the face sending him hurtling towards the wall.

As Mike clawed his way out of the rubble with a burnt cheek and a bloody nose, he was surprised by another punch which had more fire power than the earlier one. He managed to block it with his axe but the force was too strong. The axe shattered like glass as the punch connected to his gut, pummelling him further into the wall. As Mike laid there on the rubble with only the handle of his axe remaining and burnt stomach with blood gushing out of his mouth, Raizer slowly approached him.

Raizer, who was panting heavily and had burns on his arms prepared to put the finishing attack on Mike.

“It seems you’ve burned out the last drop of your mana, friend.” Said Mike as he whisked himself up from the rubble, stabbing Raizer’s shoulder with the handle of the axe.

Raizer stumbled out of the wall as he collapsed to the ground. Mike smiled as he looked down on the injured Raizer who was struggling to pick himself up.

Hah, that was a close one. Good thing he ran out mana otherwise, I would be a gonna. He is a newly awakened gifted after all, so his body hasn’t adapted to his newfound power. Even his skin is burned from his flames.

Now, let’s kill his friends right in front of him. I want him to suffer… huh?

As Mike glossed around the place looking for Naomi and Jasper, he was surprised to see no one except for Cole and his people that were taken out by them before he arrived.

“What?! Where the hell did those two go?” murmured Mike to himself. A loud voice echoed throughout the entire place.

“NOW, IRENE.” It was Naomi’s voice. A rope shot out of the wall that Jasper had demolished, entangling Raizer’s body. A huge force pulled Raizer outside where all the other members were waiting.

Mike was confused and tried to chase them. That was when the entire base started to vibrate rigorously as the ground beneath Mike’s feet began to lift up. Blue light shone from the cracks on the ground.

“What the- “ he couldn’t even finish his sentence as the entire base exploded from the bombs Naomi had prepared, wiping out everyone and everything inside. Luckily, Naomi and the others managed to escape successfully.

As they laid on the ground because of the force of the explosion, a look of shock was painted on everyone’s faces except Naomi. They all turned and looked at Naomi with mouths gaping.

“What?!” asked Naomi nonchalantly as she stood up dusting herself off.

Irene let out a huge sigh. “I’m not even going to ask what you did?”

Irene, who has known Naomi for more than five years and worked under her knew that she was an odd person. Asking would just riddle her brain with more questions that will probably have absurd answers.

Naomi looked over at Jasper who had just drank a healing potion and was now standing. She then looked at Raizer who was exhausted, injured and shocked at the same time, thinking if Irene hadn’t pulled him out of there on time, he probably would have died alongside Mike.

“Let me help you up.” Said Naomi to Raizer as she reached out to pick him up. The moment her hand touched his, she instantly was burned. It was like touching a hot plate.

“Aww.” Screamed out Naomi.

“Sorry.” Said Raizer as he picked himself up and drank a potion. Irene offered Naomi a potion to heal her burnt hand but Naomi refused.

“I want this to be a reminder of when my two dim-witted brothers came to save me.”

They all stood there as they watched the East Alley base crumble to the ground.

“So, how will you explain this to the leaders?” asked Irene.

“I’m sure something will come up. Anyways, where did you guys disappear to if you came with Raizer and Jasper?”

“Oh, we divided to cover more ground but thanks to your fight with them, we were able to find your position.”

“Oh, I see.”

“We also came across their vault and looted everything they had.” Said Irene as she pointed at some of the members who carried sacks filled with treasure.

“Good job. It seems you haven’t forgotten your training.”

Back at the West Alley base.

Naomi and everyone managed to return safely back to their base. But the moment they entered the gates, they were immediately locked up for disobeying orders. Raizer was to undergo trial tomorrow morning.

Naomi was placed in a cell with Irene, Jasper and the rest of the members they were with. Raizer on the other hand was kept at a separate cell.

“Well, then. I’ll be getting some shuteye.” Said Naomi as she lunged her tired self into the bed. Everyone was shocked by Naomi’s attitude on the matter, especially Jasper.

“Um, big sis. Shouldn’t we be coming up with a strategy of rescuing Raizer? You do know that they might have him killed tomorrow.” Said Jasper with a worried expression.

“I know but we’ve done nothing but fight tonight. We need to replenish our energy first before we make any major decisions. Goodnight then.”

Irene sat down against the wall following Naomi’s action and rested her head on her knees. Just like that, everyone in the cell followed Naomi and Irene’s lead and took their respective sleeping positions. Jasper was the only one left with a baffled look.

“You can’t be serious, right sis? We need- “

“Jasper. Sleep. We’ll talk about this in the morning.” Said Naomi as she glared at him. Jasper, who well knew his sister’s personality, kept his mouth shut and took his own corner for the night.

Early in the morning, Raizer was taken out of his cell to face his trial. Naomi woke up just about the same time the guards came in and took Raizer.

Raizer was brought to a room where all the leaders were already seated. Pops was still in bed and had already given his judgement to the other leaders. It was now on them to finalize the judgement on Raizer’s fate.

In the room, there were four people, the leaders of the West Alley Gang. Marcus was also amongst them.

“Raizer. You are brought here to be sentenced. How do you plead?” spoke one of the leaders.

“Let’s cut the pleasantries.” Said another leader. “We already know what his sentence will be, don’t we? Pops already gave us his vote and I’m sure all of us here will vote for Raizer’s sentence be death.”

All the leaders didn’t try to defend Raizer and nodded.

I guess big sis was right. They’ve already decided on my fate.

“Tell me, Raizer.” Said Marcus. “You already knew this was going to be your sentence, didn’t you? Why did you disobey Pops’ orders?”

Raizer kept quite as his head faced the floor. After some silence, he started laughing. Raizer’s creepy laugh confused the leaders who didn’t see anything funny about the situation.

“You guys are something else.” Said Raizer as he raised his head. “We defeated the East Alley Gang’s main base… and what do we get in return? We get locked up just for disobeying orders.”

“Orders are absolute in this family. If you fail to execute an order then you’re not meant to be with us.” Said one of the leaders.

***

On the cells where Naomi and the others were kept in. A man sneaked in and called out to Naomi who opened her eyes almost immediately. The others also started to wake up. The man took out the keys from his pocket and opened the cell gate.

“You owe me big time for this, you know that, right?” said the man to Naomi.

The man’s name was Felix and he wasn’t part of any unit. Since he wasn’t much of a fighter, the gang especially the leaders, didn’t pay much attention to him. But unbeknownst to them, Felix held a lot of information about the secrets of the gang as he did nothing but study all day and some of the things, he had studied were records of the gang that had been neglected.

“I know.” Said Naomi as she exited the cell with her members.

“Here is the shovel you wanted too. What are you going to do with it, anyways?

“The less you know, the better.”

Jasper was baffled as to what was going on. Naomi then handed over the shovel to Irene. “You know what to do, right?”

Irene nodded her head and left with some of the members.

“The rest, follow me.” Said Naomi to the others.

Back at Raizer’s trial.

“You are all cowards.” Said Raizer as he spits on the ground.

“What did you say, boy? How dare you say that to the people who took you in when you had no place to go. Don’t forget your place.” Shouted one of the leaders.

“Am I wrong? You were willing to sacrifice Naomi just because you were too fucking scared of the East Alley Gang. And you have the nerve to call this a family. A family? Family members look after one another. They would die for each other instead of cowering like an injured animal.” Shouted Raizer at them.

“Enough!” shouted Marcus. “Your speech was quite moving but too bad it won’t change our decision.”

“Don’t worry. Naomi and all those who chose to go after her will be joining you real soon.” Said one of the leaders as he chuckled.

The temperature in the room rose for some reason. People started to sweat.

“You see, that’s the thing. I can’t allow that.” Said Raizer as his eyes glowed fiery red.

He then yelled out releasing an intense heatwave that blasted the entire room, engulfing everything, including the leaders. The base shook thanks to the blast which alerted the other members of the gang to the location.

When they arrived at the location, only charred corpses could be seen of the former leaders and at the centre of the room, stood Raizer gasping for air.

“Capture him.” Shouted the vice-captain, Eren who was under Marcus.

Raizer was put in chains once again and dragged out of the scorched room. The people who had Raizer in handcuffs were greeted by Naomi and her people standing in their way. Eyes locked and weapons were drawn. Tension filled the air as Naomi and Eren waited for the other party to move first.