The smoke curled thick around them, swallowing the car into a temporary haze.
Two figures slipped out of the veil together, moving like mirrored halves of a single thought. Riven’s arm shimmered as her gauntlet’s metallic plates adjusted into battle form, while Rae cracked her knuckles, battle-ready.
The masked man stood tall at the edge of the crater. His aura burned hot and heavy, while black robes fluttered in the breeze of the explosion he’d unleashed from his feet. Even standing still, he radiated violence, a predator who had honed in on his prey.
Rae tilted her head while grinning widely as her eyes lit with hungry excitement.
"Well, aren’t you something, big guy. You’re brave enough to leap onto our ride, or are you just feeling plain suicidal?"
Her tone was mocking, but her stance was sharp. Her energy swelled around her in wild pulses, unpredictable and dangerous.
"Rae." Riven’s voice cut through, cold and clear. "Stop chatting. We’ll get our questions answered after we’ve neutralized the threat."
Rae barked a laugh in response, raising her arms as her aura exploded, crackling, distorting the smoke around her.
"You can be so serious when you leave your lab, sis. I’m really proud of you!"
Her grin widened, but the reckless, joking gleam in her eyes didn’t mask the truth: her aura rose in harmony with Riven’s, her body tensing like a bowstring, both twins prepared to strike as one.
They were both taking their enemy seriously, Rae just liked to boast, giving a bit of extra flair to the epic battle she was about to conduct. It made the woman feel even more hyped up to utterly brutalize her enemy.
The masked man’s eyes narrowed behind the mask, as if amused, then, not matching Rae’s favor of theatrics, raised his hands. The air began warping around him as mana condensed in his palms. The pressure rose like a ticking bomb. The ground trembled.
"Not on my watch!" Rae declared and, instead of running away to save her life, dove in.
She darted forward in a blur, with unstable sparks trailing her steps. Rae drove her fist straight into his glowing palm.
*CRACK–BOOM!*
The overloaded mana ruptured, exploding prematurely. The shockwave tore the air apart, with flames and shrapnel ripping outward in a chaotic blast. Rae’s pained grunt was lost in the roar as the explosion engulfed her, hurling her backward like a rag doll.
She slammed into the pavement with a bone-jarring skid, rolling across fractured stone until she came to a smoking halt. Blood sprayed from her lips, spattering the ground. Her arm smoked, jacket shredded to ribbons, and where her tanned skin was exposed, nasty scrapes could be observed.
"Tch! Too slow!" She coughed, dragging herself upright with manic defiance, ignoring her wounds.
Then she pounded a fist against her chest and demanded, "Pump faster, heart! Your vessel needs it!"
Her aura convulsed, then surged higher, crackling with savage energy. Instead of faltering, Rae staggered forward again, blood still on her teeth, laughing as she rushed the masked man a second time.
Her palms flared.
[Deconstructive Burst]!
A beam of raw entropy ripped from her hands, gnawing at the man’s plated gauntlet, which contained the explosion just now. Metal peeled away in sizzling strips, his armor fracturing.
He didn’t flinch.
*BOOM! BOOM!*
Explosive punches hammered into her torso, sending her reeling.
Riven’s voice rang sharp. "Rae! I know you’re unnaturally sturdy, but stop facing his strikes head-on! Use your damned head! And instead of demanding more from your organs, use your spells!" Her own gauntlet flared. [Kinetic Aegis]! A curved barrier snapped into place between them, catching the next blast head-on. The shield vibrated, then it shattered in a spray of glowing shards.
But that single heartbeat was enough. "Yes, mom!" Rae shouted and spun under the fading shards before slamming both palms into the ground. "[Energy Flux]!" The street buckled as lines of unstable energy drained right into her arms. Sparks raced along her veins as her body tremendously increased its speed.
She lunged again with fists glowing. The man answered with a wide blast from his palms, a rolling wall of flame.
Riven planted her foot and slammed her hand down. [Automated Sentry]! A floating turret blinked alive, spitting a focused beam into the explosion, carving a hole just big enough.
Rae shot through it like a bullet, her knuckles slamming into the man’s gut. A shockwave ripped outward as his aura buckled.
But he didn’t stumble. His other hand clamped down on Rae’s shoulder like a vice.
*KABOOM!*
The explosion tore through her upper body with enough strength that the shockwave blasted the tanned girl across the street. She hit the ground hard, gouging a groove into the concrete with her rolling form.
When she finally stopped, Rae was still laughing. She was mad, ragged, and dripping blood all at the same time. Her right shoulder, though... it was gone. Her class gave the woman unnatural sturdiness as long as she was in proximity to her sister, as they were classes that depended on each other to function at full power. But even that wasn’t enough this time.
Charred meat and dangled strips of skin barely clung to what had once been an arm. The bone of her collar jutted starkly into daylight, raw and white under the sun. Her entire limb hung uselessly, twitching from nerve shock.
But even with that, Rae managed to stagger upright. Blood streamed freely from her mouth, but her grin only split wider, eyes gleaming with lunatic delight.
"Mom!" she barked through a broken grin. "Healing!"
Riven’s expression hardened to steel. With a flick of her wrist, a hovering construct zipped from her gauntlet; a med-drone, a spherical machine stitched from bronze and runes. Its core pulsed blue as metallic arms unfolded, spraying a mist of nanite-thread and knitting radiant energy over Rae’s mangled shoulder. The scent of burning ozone filled the air as tissue was cauterized, bone reinforced, and new layers of flesh began to stitch over the ruin.
The masked man spoke up for the first time. He was using an item that distorted his voice, and even his accent wasn’t clear. "The Artificer Twins... Riven Forjex, The Master Artificer, and Rae Forjex, The Volatile Scavenger. How annoying."
Riven’s eyes, cold and calculating, never left him as she, too, analyzed.
"... An S-tier. At least. And far above our current levels." Her gauntlet adjusted, mechanical plates locking into a denser frame. "This is bad."
Her gaze sharpened, realization dawning.
"I’m aware of all S-tiers and their abilities inside the USA. Which means..." Her jaw clenched. "He’s an invader, here to steal Kaiden and the others."
Rae continued grinning from inside the drone’s field, even as her bones and scorched flesh sat exposed to daylight. "Steal our boss? Heh! Not on my watch!"
"Naturally."
Riven spread her arms, summoning her arsenal. Translucent [Kinetic Aegis] walls snapped into place with concussive thuds, while bronze-limbed constructs climbed up from the asphalt, glowing cores humming with power. Her battlefield was taking shape as she summoned more of her creations.
Side by side, Rae’s wild, destructive aura pulsed hotter while Riven’s calculated defenses braced the ground itself. Two halves of chaos and order, creation and ruin, stood poised against a monster who outclassed them.
The masked man adjusted his stance, then lunged.
...
Meanwhile, Kaiden and the others finally pushed their car doors open, stepping out into the chaos that awaited.