Alex's eyes darted around the immediate surroundings of the base, feeling impressed by their ingenuity.
Normally, weapons like that would be useless against them due to their speed limitations.
'Creating space tunnels at intervals eliminates those limitations.' Alex mused with a small smile. 'And the user appears to be a space ability user. Unfortunately, it's all pointless…'
The tunnels were well hidden and anyone not familiar with spatial fluctuations would miss it entirely. That simple addition made the cannons much more dangerous.
[Halt!]
A sudden transmission through the void reached Alex and his party.
[This is a private space. You're trespassing.]
"This is preposterous." Jaseph was shocked by the audacity of the people on the base. "Are they blind or do we just look like clowns to them?"
"Beats me," Basso chuckled at the amusing display. "Let's see how this plays out."
The two refocused on Alex who floated ahead of them, standing tall with a relaxed and calm demeanour.
He watched as the cannons began to light up with their killer beams, their charge steadily building.
Seeing as the trespassers made no moves of retreating, they fired the cannons without hesitation.
Bzzt…!
Multiple cannons fired at once, all streaming at light speed towards Alex and his party.
Suddenly, the beams disappeared as if they never existed and reappeared a few hundred meters away and around them. They were surrounded!
"!"
'How?!'
Basso, Jaseph and Julia felt their hearts leap out of their chest in shock. The beams came at them fast and terrifying.
The leaders still had enough time to react as they were still Class-E hunters, but Julia was not the same.
However, before the two could even do a thing, the train-sized beams became something else… they transformed into motes of iridescent harmless lights!
"What…?"
Alex had made his move! The moment the beams reached them, he simply waved his hand and the killer beams transformed, changing the fundamental rules that put the charge together; a simple and at the same time complex solution to the beams!
"D-did he just…?" Jaseph turned to his friend in shock and seeing the same look on his face, he knew he wasn't dreaming. 'Just what the hell was that?!'
The two completely forgot about the ingenious way the beams reached them so quickly. How could they not? They saw something far more impressive, and it blew their minds.
On the other hand, Julia recovered in time to see the wonderful display of colourful lights. She was in awe of what she saw and turned her gaze to Alex.
At that moment, Alex looked over his shoulders and flashed her a charming smile.
'That was for you…' Alex said through their connection, bringing a smile to her face.
Back on the base, the defence squad looked on with wide eyes and agape mouths. They knew what they were doing was pointless, but orders were orders, even if their targets were the leaders.
But not in their wildest dreams could they have imagined the cannon fires changing into harmless lights.
"Sir, I doubt we can slow them down." One of the men said in a daze. "What do we do?"
The captain remained silent, still reeling from the earlier shock. He heard what his men said, but had no response to give.
Suddenly, they heard a voice in their heads and it sent shivers down their spine.
"Don't waste your energy trying to stop me." Alex's voice echoed dangerously. "If you wish to return home, step aside."
Gulp.
The defence squad were rendered speechless, unable to move or utter a word. Alez was still at the same spot in the void and they could see that on their screens, yet somehow, they heard his voice in their heads!
"Stop the firing sequence." The captain said a moment after recovering from his shocked state. "We're only wasting our time."
The men obeyed without hesitation, depowering the cannons and withdrawing the nuzzles back into their place.
"Smart choice," Alex muttered as he floated forward, bringing Julia and the leaders with him.
In his view, Zara and her goons were completing the procedure and Alex noticed a few peculiarities with the process.
'It's not something that can be forced. Still, the boost they've gotten from the procedure is quite impressive.'
Back in the procedure chamber, the researcher observed with bated breath as the tubes withdrew and the pods opened.
"It's a success.." The researcher smiled. "Ignoring some of the mutations, of course."
The atmosphere within the chamber took on a gloomy vibe as Zara and her hunters climbed out of their pods.
The research team members gulped as they backed away from the hunters. The collective aura they gave off was suffocating, and coupled with the trace amounts of void energy they gave off, they looked terrifying.
Zara in particular had her skin tone change to a slight grey colour-- an effect induced by the void energy flowing through her system.
And despite this change, she could not help but flash a victorious grin. 'This is incredible… I feel like I can do anything!'
Compared to her current self to her level before, she could swat that version of herself away and take on her co-leaders with a single hand!
'So this is the kind of power that boy was carrying around.' she clenched and unclenched her fist. 'No wonder he was so cocky.'
She turned around to her hunters, ignoring the changes they had undergone. One had his hand phase in and out of reality while another had their eyes turn completely black with no pupils.
Another one had their hair and eyes blazing in bluish-purple flames that dripped from their eyes like tears. When they fell on the floor, they burned through the floors like lava.
Whatever changes they underwent, the fact remained; each one of them had an exponential increase in strength.
"This is it." Zara proclaimed. "Right outside this base is the boy who seeks to destroy everything we've built to this point.
"And through our newfound strength came from him, let's teach him the true ways of combat. Do not hold back." She stated. "Take all the advantages you find and hammer them until he breaks!
"Today we show them who the true rulers of this universe are!"
Zara had a simple dream, and despite its difficulties, she worked hard to reach this point.
On this day, she was going to test how strong her resolve was in the face of overwhelming resistance.