Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit-Chapter 163: The Hero vs The Irregulars(Part 2)

"D-Damn it...damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!!! How the hell am I supposed to get out of th-...!?" Alphonse thought to himself frantically as his gaze darted across at each of The Irregulars, before his body froze as Aster swiftly shot forward and caught him and Akila in the grasp of his Telekinetic Zone.

"Alright, there we go. Now to turn you in and-...," Began Aster, before trailing off in surprise as he lost his grip over Akila, who turned himself intangible to break free of Aster’s telekinetic grasp.

Akila swiftly reached out and grabbed Alphonse’s arm, pulling him along towards the wall of a building to their left, phasing the both of them through it.

"Any idea which way we should go?!" Exclaimed Akila, as they found themselves in an empty room.

"Doesn’t matter, we need to keep running until we lose them!"

They then raced through the building, phasing out the other side and into an alley, before entering the building next to it, a cry of alarm ringing out as they phased into a room.

"Wh-What the hell-...?! Who are you?! What are you doing in my home?!" Screamed a woman in alarm, stumbling back in fear.

"H-Hey, take it easy. We aren’t going to hurt you, we’re just-...," Began Akila, in an effort to calm the woman down.

"There’s no time, we need to keep going!" Alphonse interrupted him urgently.

Akila hesitated for a moment, before nodding and racing forward, the woman letting out a scream before staring in bewilderment as the pair ran past her and phased through the wall behind her.

They passed through the building, continuing to run. They went through several more buildings, rushing to avoid The Irregulars and hoping they wouldn’t catch up.

They ended up in a few more occupied apartments, eliciting fearful and startled responses from the residents, before eventually finding themselves in an empty room, a fair distance away from where The Irregulars had ambushed them.

"O-Okay, this should be far enough. They don’t have any Detection Mages, and even if they do, we should have covered enough ground that they won’t be able to locate us in here. There are dozens of people in these buildings, after all, it’s the perfect place to blend in and lay low," Surmised Alphonse, unaware of just how strong Raven’s senses were, not to mention his ability to detect Mana.

"Yeah, but...then how did they find us immediately after we got out of the sewers?"

"Huh? Uh, let me think...oh, maybe they predicted where we’d emerge by taking the shortest route to the village border from the area where we retreated?" Suggested Alphonse uncertainly.

"I guess that’s possible, but I don’t know..."

"Anyway, we just need to lay low for a couple of hours or so, we’ll make our escape after the barrier fades. A Spell of such a large scale cannot be maintained for very long, so it’s only a matter of time," Remarked Alphonse, feeling a sense of hope.

His hope was misplaced, however, as he was unaware of the fact that the Barrier Spell used was a lot more advanced than he was assuming. In preparation to capture Alphonse, the Knights had requested the help of the Elves.

The Elves sent a couple of their best Spell formulators, who worked with Tacitus to create the Barrier Spell. They used Tilda’s scythe’s ability to phase as a reference to add an effect to the barrier that blocks phasing.

Of course, they had no way of knowing for sure that it would work against Akila’s Phase Shift Magic, but as it turned out, it was plenty effective.

"I see, okay then-...no, wait. There was already a barrier around the village, wasn’t there? One that prevented us from teleporting in?" Pointed out Akila warily.

"U-Uh...oh, I know, they probably re-activated it each time it faded. Yes, that must be it. I forgot about that barrier, I suppose I lost my composure...that one will fade before the second one does. We will have a small window, perhaps just a couple of seconds, to escape," Remarked Alphonse, as he took out a Teleport Spell.

"Don’t Spell Cards have limited usages, though? Or does that not count if the Spell fails to activate?"

"Well, I...I’m not sure. I have five Teleport Spells left, I have no choice but to keep activating them over and over. Since the teleport-blocking barrier is invisible, we have no way of knowing when it will fade, so I-...," Began Alphonse as he took out his Teleport Spells from his Storage Ring, before trailing off and stiffening as the window behind them suddenly creaked open.

Akila spun around and drew out his blades with a grimace as Raven entered the room, Alphonse’s eyes widening in alarm.

"You guys sure covered a lot of ground, didn’t you?"

"H-How...?!" Blurted out Alphonse, stumbling back in shock.

"Hm? Oh, I guess you don’t know that I can sense Mana, plus I’ve got a strong sense of smell. There’s no escaping me on foot," Responded Raven, cracking his neck.

"What should I do? He’ll just chase us if we run away, and dropping back into the sewers is risky. Al said this guy uses plasma-based attacks, so if manages to follow us down there, he could end up igniting the methane gas down there and trigger a massive explosion. I have no choice but to fight," Akila thought to himself grimly, before he lunged towards Raven, driving one of his blades forward.

But Raven was quick to evade, side-stepping across before raising his left hand towards Akila, charging up a swirling fireball. frёewebnoѵēl.com

Akila began to turn his head and upper body intangible, before he let out a startled cry as Raven swiftly whipped his tail across, striking the side of Akila’s left leg, a stinging pain erupting across that spot before he collapsed onto one knee, quickly turning his entire body intangible as Raven fired out the charged up fireball at him.

Akila winced sharply as the flames inflicted painful burns across the soles of his feet, before he sprang back as Raven unleashed another fireball, narrowly evading it, grimacing as his burnt feet stung with pain.

Akila began to charge forward again, before quickly ducking in alarm as Raven suddenly extended out his right arm and swung it across, whipping his claws towards Akila’s head, severing a few strands of hair, before Akila leapt forward and drove his blades towards Raven’s stomach.

Raven quickly turned his body across, the edge of one of the blade phasing through the scales over his stomach before he grimaced slightly as Akila materialized the blade, inflicting a shallow cut across Raven’s stomach.

As Raven sent his tail shooting out, Akila locked his gaze onto it, before gasping sharply as Raven swiftly unleashed a sonic screech towards him, dazing him before he gritted his teeth, biting his lower lip to reorient himself before backing away and getting some distance.

He stumbled slightly as his head spun, before reaching into his pocket and activating a Healing Spell, the pain fading as he healed his injuries, letting out a sigh of relief before grimacing as Raven healed the cut across his stomach, which closed up rapidly.

"H-He’s...he’s so strong..."

"You’re pretty skilled, I can sense how immense your Mana Pool is, not to mention your Aura, and your Magic is tricky to deal with...but you’re far out of your depth here, man. You’re way too inexperienced, that much is evident with how easily you fall for feints," Raven informed Akila, before he fired out his beams towards him.

Akila began to turn his chest intangible, before stopping as he realized that Alphonse was behind him, quickly crossing his blades in front of himself defensively, before letting out a sharp gasp as he failed to fully block one of the beams, a streak of the purple energy striking the middle of his chest, burning through the fabric and inflicting a small but deep burn across that spot, charring Akila’s skin.

"D-Damn it..."

"Looks like the Commander’s assessment was correct, you really are a good person. And the piece of shit behind you is the last person you should be risking your life for. My beams would’ve blasted straight through you if I hadn’t held back."

"Y-You...you don’t know what you’re talking about! I feel sorry for you...you have no idea that everything you believe is a lie," Shot back Akila, Alphonse tensing up nervously in reaction to that, which Raven immediately caught onto.

"Huh? Oh, I see what’s going on here. What, did he tell you that I’m brainwashed or something? I guess we should’ve figured as much...well, FYI, you’re being tricked," Raven informed him, before Alphonse grimaced as the other Irregulars showed up, entering through the window and joining Raven.

"Shit...shit, shit, shit! He doesn’t stand a chance against all of them, he was losing against just one! What the fuck do I do now?!" Alphonse thought to himself, as he frantically wracked his brain...