Grey felt the pressure immediately, not against himself, but against the sphere of influence that was his Resonant Frame. When Paladin Frame was activated, his range expanded considerably though he hadn’t been consciously aware of it until right this moment.
Sir Ovaal felt like a burning sun. He didn’t know what it was about the Vanguard Class, but Grey felt like it was on another level entirely even compared to Terran who was the most powerful Vector Class powerhouse he had ever faced.
But Grey had already made himself more than clear.
There wasn’t a single soul that could stop him from taking action today.
Not one.
His spear didn’t slow.
In fact, it accelerated.
Its blade tip sparked with a wild flare when it met Terran’s last line of defense. Grey’s forearm bulged with veins even through his layers of fat, his forehead and jaw swimming with the pulsing blood.
Grey roared.
"STOP!" Sir Ovaal’s voice came from a lot closer this time. He had eaten up half the distance in the blink of an eye. In another blink, he would be there.
His speed was more than impressive, it practically felt like he was teleporting. But sometimes, a blink was all it took for everything to go to shit.
Grey knew that all too well. It only took a blink for him to go from sitting on the couch, scratching his balls, to having robot arms stripping him bare. It only took a blink for him to be stabbed in the gut the first time, ending his world as he knew it. It only took a blink for a life to end, to be overturned, to be ruined at the hands of a man with as much power as Terran and just as much lack of self-control or moral compass.
Terran had humiliated him, treated his life like a dart board for his rage, squeezed him down until his worth was minimized to the swing of a single sword.
But it was worse than that for Grey.
Terran didn’t just treat Grey’s life like that, he treated the lives of others like that as well, others that Grey might have been able to call friend if he just had the chance to get to know them more.
Was that too much to ask? Was it too much to ask to have just one person in this shitty city that he could talk to? That he could joke and laugh with? That he could sit by without having to worry about when the dagger would come flying?
Terran had no understanding of just how much Grey hated him. The loops had been erased too many times. But even what little he did know made Grey’s reaction perfectly legitimate to him.
And that was all the more reason he had to die.
Chi.
Something in Grey’s mind snapped and he felt Center of Balance more clearly than he ever had before. His body almost loosened, it was like he was floating in zero gravity, but rather than making his strike weaker, it was more like it made him hyper aware of every little bit and piece, every cell.
He was more consciously aware now of how poorly integrated he was with his new fat cells than ever before.
BANG.
Terran’s shield shattered and Grey’s spear descended past his armor through to his body.
His spear met resistance again.
BOOM.
A solid force slammed into Grey from the side and he was sent flying.
His body crashed against a gate in the distance, hard and heavy, and yet light enough that he didn’t snap any bones. Instead, all the air in his lungs felt like someone had reached a hand down his throat and forcefully ripped it all out.
He gasped and for a moment it felt like he had lost the ability to breathe at all. Like a fish out of water, he flailed at the skies trying to find another bit of air to breathe before his mind shattered something and a deluge of oxygen filled him to the brim.
Grey rolled over, hacking and wheezing. Spittle flew from his mouth as he palmed the earth, his nails scraping against the debris to the point they chipped and bled.
He had been that close. So fucking close.
Sir Ovaal landed right next to Terran’s body. The earth boomed and swayed. He was more than capable of slowing his descent further and lightly landing, but he hadn’t.
He gazed over at Grey to make sure that he was alright, then he looked at Terran. There was a small flash of relief in his eyes for a moment, but then came a disgust that vanished quickly.
"Are you alright, Sir Terran?"
Sir Ovaal reached down to help Terran up, only to have his hand slapped away.
"Get the fuck out of my way!" Terran roared, pulling himself up to his feet. A raging golden light erupted from him, forcing Sir Ovaal a step back.
Ovaal’s pupils constricted. He knew that an Active Sync for someone who had unlocked high tier Abilities from the Holy Knight Frame like Terran had would be far more powerful, but he didn’t expect it to be so powerful that even he would feel some threat.
’Not good.’ Ovaal’s heart skipped a beat.
He flashed and suddenly stood between Terran and Grey.
"This ends here." Ovaal said sternly. "The city has been destroyed enough. If I had not interfered, you would be dead right—."
A raging golden flame appeared above Terran’s head. It was shaped into a halo, its body flickering wildly as though to map onto his rage.
And that was exactly what it did. Ovaal knew this Ability all too well. It was Wrath Coronation, the Mind Combat Ability of the Holy Knights.
The problem was that while Ovaal himself had only awakened it to the Low Tier, Terran had awakened it to the Middle Tier, as he had most of the other six Abilities... making his potential far higher than Ovaal or Edmun.
Terran roared, rippling waves of white flaming gold spreading out from him.
His spatial ring flashed and one item after another hooked itself into place, so much so that by the time a golden helm covered his head, his cheeks were throbbing with reddened veins, a wild look in his crimson-turned eyes.
BOOM.
A pulse came from the armor and Ovaal was sent flying.