*Starting Scene*

Hearing Dante's nonchalant remark, Bash gives the young man a cold stare with his tight hold on Rebecca maintaining itself. "You're nothing but a brat who talks big, aren't you? I swear, there's too many like that." The white-haired adult steers his gaze toward the other Nemesis members. "I'm getting out of here with Rebecca." Bash evilly peers down on Rebecca with a devilish smirk. "It's about time I privately teach her how to be a PROPER woman."

Despair swiftly overcomes Rebecca's expression as she's looking up at Bash, her legs shaking uncontrollably, and weakly asks, "You don't mean...?!"

A maniacal demeanor spreads across Bash while drawing his face a bit closer to Rebecca's. "What did you expect?! I don't take betrayal well, so as punishment, we'll speed things up in our RELATIONSHIP." The coat-wearing man snickers.

Ren attempts to advance forth as he's enraged by Bash's despicable words, however, isn't allowed due to Dante interfering via his right hand abruptly extended towards the auburn-haired boy. Afterwards, the blue-eyed teen focuses on Dante, who's now standing sideways to keep his hand in front of Ren, and questions in an upset tone, "What are you doing?!"

Dante responds in a low volume with his left hand continuing to be in his pants' pocket while demonstrating confidence. "Don't rush things. I'm gonna' help you get your girl, but I need you to do me a favor first."

Mild confusion generates from Ren and is temporally rendered speechless with his head barely tilted to the right.

Simultaneously, while Dante makes his request to Ren, Bash switches his concentration back toward the seven men without any change to his behavior. "You guys deal with the maggots, but take your sweet time." He lets out a minuscule laugh as malicious intent can be noted.

The Nemesis affiliates sharply nod at Bash as determination and arrogance are shown on each man.

Receiving confirmation from his henchmen, Bash resets his sight upon Dante for a moment until faintly sneering with a smug look arising. Once he does that, the Caucasian human forces Rebecca to turn without much effort while commencing to leave Esdere through a large grassy field that isn't too far away from the end of the road they're all currently located.

During that, Rebecca valiantly tries to break free from Bash's grasp but to no avail while crying out with her eyes shut as tears seep through, "No! Ren! Help me, Ren! You said you'll protect me! Ren!"

Ren's quite distraught by hearing Rebecca's yelling and hastily looks toward her direction. "Rebecca!"

Dante's being blots Ren's vision with his right hand no longer lifted as the hoodie-wearing individual calmly utters after fully facing the teen, "Ren, I need you to focus! Do what I just asked of you and I promise you'll go right after her with no problem whatsoever!"

Ren briefly hesitates while witnessing Bash now carrying Rebecca over his right shoulder since she was fighting back too much and quickly reverts his attention to Dante. "Fine!" The cropped-haired male lowers his head a bit before closing his eyes, takes a deep breath and begins producing the red essence of magic, however, more than ever as the whole area everyone's residing is gradually surrounded by it.

Ilya's completely dumbfounded by what she's sensing around her prior to locking her eyes onto Ren while remaining where she's been standing for the past several minutes. "Am I the only one seeing this?!"

Trace, also watching Ren, shakes his head as he's still stationed on Ilya's right and is fairly amazed. "Nah, I see it too! That level of magic's crazy! He's close to a Class S Spellcaster!"

Yuki promptly comments with her gaze toward her two comrades who just spoke while giving off some urgency. "I'm usually not good at sensing magic and even I can feel it!" The pink-haired dame diverts her concentration to the red essence as bewilderment takes over. "There's so much!"

Sano, unable to even take notice of what the other three are seeing, leisurely examines Ren with Ruyi Jingu Bang horizontally held in both hands that are presently position at his lap and thinks, "Even though I'm not a Spellcaster, I could tell from the start that kid's special." The golden-eyed teenager shift his focus to Dante with a light grin surfacing while thinking, "Same for you, right, Dante?"

With suspicion dwelling inside, Ryan intently observes Dante and Ren while saying to his fellow Nemesis personnel as he stands at the far right of the group, "I'm not sure what's going on, but let's act before permitting them any more time. Despite what Bash wants us to do, it'd be in our best interest to end them fast."

The six Nemesis members reply in unison while staring at Ryan, "Got it!" They then point their weapons toward Dante and the rest with deadly enthusiasm brimming as all six are about to resume the hail of gunfire.

Meanwhile, Dante keeps facing Ren as a fervent attitude takes form. "You ready, Ren?!"

Ren snap his eyes open with his head lifted enough to place his attention upon Dante once more while passionately declaring. "Yeah! Reality Bend!"

Following that outburst, the red essence envelops Ilya, Yuki, Trace and Sano while the three Spellcasters among them are temporarily in horror prior to the quartet suddenly disappearing. At the same time, Mark, Billy, Ed and Ryan are entrapped by Ren's magic as well until their own vanishing occurs without warning.

The fact that four of their comrades are now gone, unbeknownst to them the reason why, startles the remaining three Nemesis affiliates, which resulted in them unconsciously lowering their guns, and hurriedly search the region with astonishment radiating while staying put. This continues until the one in the middle of his two associates, who has super short, spiky hair, a body type much like Dante's, has light green eyes and owns a pair of Sawed Off Shotguns with double barrels, navigates his gaze to the blonde's back as seriousness expels from him. "You!" He points at Dante via his right shotgun. "You had something to do with this, didn't you?!"

Knowing that the green-eyed enemy's talking to him, Dante lackadaisically swerves himself to confront the three Nemesis members and lightly chuckles. "Be more specific, Laurence. That question's kinda' broad."

Laurence pulls his head back, his weapon retaining its elevated state, while a little surprised. "How'd you know my name?!"

Ren unexpectedly falls to his knees out of exhaustion with his head down and eyes closed. "I'm sorry. I couldn't change it enough to send all of them into a different course."

Dante gently laughs as his gaze stays forward. "It's okay. I figured as much, considering everything you went through. Your magical power literally replaces occurrences in time, making things turn out a different way. With that, you repelled any attacks coming at you by integrating a reality that has them going a different direction and forcing this reality to accept it as what happened. That's why I find it wicked in an awesome way."

Ren peers up at Dante with a hint of sadness resonating. "I just wish I wasn't so weak."

Dante scoffs in disagreement and swiftly turns to Ren again. "Not at all. You're very strong in fact. The reason you can't really harness your magic without Magic Booster is 'cause of how strong you are, hence why that charm's not doing its original purpose. After all, it can't increase 25% of magic that's already way too powerful. Magical Items have their limits too, so it adjusted to what you needed." The hoodie-wearing person kindly plants his right hand atop Ren's head while bending down a tad. "Be certain to remember this. When someone has a lot of power, it's normal they'd block themselves from unleashing it completely for the sake of others. Even if they didn't intend on it."

Ren can't help being confused. "I don't get what you're saying."

Dante smiles with sincerity emitted. "Don't overthink it, Ren." The green-eyed Caucasian straightens his posture while removing his right hand from Ren. "Just take a small break here and then go save Rebecca. I'll make a clear path for you in roughly three minutes, although I won't have them beat yet."

Ren momentarily watches Dante prior to firmly nodding and becomes silent.

Right after that, before Dante chose to veer himself to confront the three Nemesis personnel, a gunshot resounds and rapidly flies at the blonde's head. Unfortunately for the assailant, who's an agitated Laurence, the hoodie-endowed gentleman simply sways his head to the left while partially turning his body and evades the lead projectile. A couple of seconds later, Dante swings himself to face Laurence while a carefree attitude establishes itself. "Oh, come on! That was uncalled for!" He cheerfully chuckles with a wry smile.

Laurence's eyes narrow out of frustration with his right Sawed Off Shotgun extended forth, having recently aided its owner in attempting to kill Dante, and retorts in a stern voice, "Like Boss, I'm not a big fan of being ignored. Now, who the hell are you?"

Dante finally pulls his left hand out of his pocket after keeping it there for a couple of minutes and entwines backward both hands', currently bare, fingers as he tugs at each other to stretch them with his focus maintained on Nemesis. "Not telling you. It'll only be a waste of time since you guys are gonna' die and I don't plan on spending no more than ten minutes on you lot. So, let's do this."

Laurence grits his teeth as he releases a low growl. "You should get your eyes checked, brat! I'm the one with a gun and you're unarmed! How could you imagine killing me?!"

Standing to Laurence's right, a cocky Nemesis affiliate rests his left hand on the adult's right shoulder while containing a larger build, grey eyes, sleek, short hair tied into a knot, a rugged beard that contracts with his hair's composition and wields a single Sniper Rifle in his right hand that was previously kept hoisted to his back as he quips at Laurence, "Don't go blowing a fuse, Lau. He's merely trying to rile you up to fire at him like the maniac that you are. It won't help anyhow." The grey-eyed man switches his attention to Dante. "You may not know this, brat, but guns weren't made by humans. A dirty Spellcaster's responsible for them existing. I don't know who, but whoever it was-"

Dante interrupts the Nemesis member while extremely laid-back. "Made it never run out of ammo. I know, Frankie. That's why they're named Self-Loader Guns. I found that out when I was in Luckson, complements of a sneaky clerk."

Frankie raises his right eyebrow as he's greatly baffled with the rifle's tip slightly dug into the ground due to the beige-haired human thrusting his right arm downward a tad. "Luckson?! That means you met the guy Rebecca sold her gun to!" Realization then takes hold of Frankie while blinking a few time because of experiencing some confusion and points at Dante via his left hand that he recently took off Laurence's shoulder. "Wait! Why do you know my name?!"

Laurence follows suit, however with his right hand, after putting his left hand down in an angry jerking motion. "Yeah, mine too!"

Dante sighs with his eyes shut. "Quit with the questions. This is dragging out too long. Speaking of which, Accelerate." He then becomes a blur prior to instantly arriving between Laurence and Frankie while in a lowered stance with his eyes fiercely staring up at both of them. "It's been over two minutes, so let me keep one immediate promise first at least."

Fright has a minor grip on the two Nemesis affiliates as they attempt to react to Dante's sudden approach via distancing themselves from the green-eyed opponent while Laurence aims his left Sawed Off Shotgun at Dante's right temple in haste.

Before Laurence pulled the weapon's trigger, Dante swiftly lifts his right arm and parries the gun upward with a shot echoing. After accomplishing that, the blonde does a counterclockwise spin and launches a left thrust kick upon Laurence's rib cage belonging to the same side as that causes the shorter, beige-haired person to stagger toward his right with loss of balance evident.

At the same time, Frankie uses his left foot to kick the nose of his Sniper Rifle, caught the barrel within his right hand so he can point it at Dante while still receding back and is almost prepared to shoot. Sadly for him, the larger Nemesis associate's weapon is met by a right knee barely striking the tip after Dante arched his left leg in a pendulum-like swing to build moment when leaping into the air via a strong push off the street's surface thanks to his right foot. As a result, Dante's body horizontally twists in mid-air while another shot's heard firing, however from Frankie's gun this time, and quickly plants both hands on the ground to perform a handstand, in addition to halting his rotation, with Dante facing toward Ren's location.

Having prevented Laurence from falling over with his right hand mounted on the green-eyed male's back, the final member of Nemesis looks at the upside-down Dante through emotionless eyes, who's mildly bigger in stature than Laurence, has jaded, medium-sized hair, is decently muscular while having dark blue eyes and holds a Pump Action Shotgun within his left hand as he carries a spare on his back.

In the rifle-wielder's case, Frankie doesn't allow much lag time after his weapon released the shot and rapidly positions the barrel to focus on Dante's torso with a rough grunt. "Dirty maggot!"

Dante quickly bends his arms prior to hurling himself forward as he does a front handspring, which made Frankie cease his attack's attempt while urgently steering his concentration toward the hoodie-wearing gentleman. After that, the blonde lands on his feet, turns his head westward to gaze at Frankie and emits a faintly amused demeanor. "Dirty maggot? All you're doing is copying your boss' insults, really. Can't you come up with your own?"

Frankie grinds his teeth out of fury for a second until redirecting his Sniper Rifle toward Dante. "Fuck you!"

Concurrently, Laurence removes himself from the seventh male Nemesis personnel as he's obviously consumed by hate and anger. "That hurt, you brat!" The green-eyed adversary lunges forth with both Sawed Off Shotguns aim at Dante while letting out a war-cry and sends out a few rounds.

All the last member of Nemesis does is calmly watch his comrade, having put down his right hand, and appears not to much in a hurry to get involved for an unknown reason.

Dante, being quite close to Frankie's weapon, easily weaves forward and back to force the bullets sent by Laurence to miss him. Afterwards, the young man leaps into the air once again while doing a counterclockwise, vertical spin and dodges the bullet Frankie recently shot following his shorter companion as it traveled right below the Caucasian's Accelerators. Once that transpires, Dante used his rotation's momentum to hover him atop the barrel of Frankie's rifle and now stands on it with both feet.

Frankie's dumbfounded by the turn of events as he doesn't understand how Dante's so light to be on his rifle without the adult experiencing any difficulty.

Laurence stops in his tracks while stationed behind Dante and peers at the blonde with disbelief as both of his weapons are poised in front of his shoulders.

Dante chuckles, cool as anyone can be, and leisurely remarks, "Honestly, you guys would be screwed if I used my gloves. You're just lucky that I'm a fair person, and if my opponent's ordinary, I go at them fisticuffs style, saved Accelerator since you lot have guns." He smirks with humor taking shape. "Funny thing, your whole group let me and Ren talk so much without getting involved, giving us the chance to agree on a strategy, it seems highly unrealistic. I'd expect even dumb people would've attack back then, instead of being flustered by a random dude showing up that you lot merely stood there like statues."

The final Nemesis individual keys on the first and second sentences of Dante's taunt with interest showing as he mentally inquires, "Gloves? Accelerator?"

Opposite to that member, Frankie's fury promptly returns while swinging his firearm upward via both hands. "Shut up!"

Dante's sent skyward due to Frankie's action and slowly does a backflip while giving off a bland look as he's soon upside down.

Taking advantage of Dante's seemingly vulnerable position, Laurence immediately points both shotguns at Dante with a demonic mug. "You're dead, brat!"

Dante smiles before suddenly shouting, "Three minutes are up!"

Briefly confused after hearing Dante's outburst, the Nemesis trio recall something with their eyes widening as they snap their heads eastward and see Ren running toward the grassy field Bash forcibly took Rebecca through. Distraught gathers upon Laurence and Frankie's face as the larger man of the two yells in worry, "No! We can't let him go after Boss! That'll seriously piss him off!"

Dante points his left index finger at Ren after stretching his arm forward and bluntly comments as he's still airborne, "See?! You let it happen again! For gun-toting, mass murderers, you idiots have no real awareness, huh?"

An enraged scowl forms on both Laurence and Frankie with gritted teeth while refusing to deviate their vision from Ren.

In spite of Dante's effort to rile up all three men, the seventh male of Nemesis swiftly directs himself toward Ren, aiming his Pump Action shotgun with his right hand gripping beneath the barrel, and states in a solemn voice, "I got 'im."

Then, without warning, Dante appears right in front of the last Nemesis affiliate with joyful determination resonating while both arms are expanded on opposing sides of his body. "That's what you think, Isiah!"

Alarm overtakes both Laurence and Frankie, having frantically glance back where Dante was a couple of seconds previously while verifying that he's no longer there. Once they do that, the two men revert their attention to their associate and Dante with some panic displayed.

Isiah, after temporarily being caught off guard by Dante's instant approach, sternly locks eyes with the hoodie-endowed young man and asks without changing his tone, "You just used that kid as a decoy, didn't you?"

Dante restrains himself from laughing while navigating his attention to the left so he can check Ren's progress out of the city for an instance, which the charm-wearing boy indeed manages to do at that very moment, as he nonchalantly ignores the fact that Isiah's shotgun is a mere three inches from his chest. "Maybe..." The presently barehanded gentleman brings his focus back to Isiah's eyes and lackadaisically puts his arms down. "But I'd prefer calling him a distraction. After all, decoys tend to lose their lives more often than people who are simply distracting others. The only reason they'd ever die is 'cause their allies don't back them up and that's not how I roll."

All three Nemesis personnel think simultaneously after minimal aggravation comes forth, "Aren't they the same thing?!"

Regaining a bit of his composure, Laurence intervenes with worry still weighing him down as his left hand's poised next to his mouth without releasing his grasp of the shotgun in that appendage. "I'll go after the Spellcaster, Isiah!"

Isiah shakes his head and responds with his focus remaining on Dante. "That won't do. This guy right here will take all three of us to beat. That's how unordinary he is, even though he's a human." His mind then wanders, a hint of concern now can be noted on his being, and thinks, "I got my gun right on him, and yet, I know I'll miss if I shoot. Not only that, there's something about how he behaves and the things he says... They make me feel as if he's the sort of person nobody should EVER fight alone, unless you're in his league."

Dante tilts his head to the right while delight adds into his expression. "I'm glad you understand that. You actually give me some hope that this fight could be fun."

Isiah's drowned by horror as he hesitates to utter in a feeble method, "You... You read my...!"

Dante menacingly grins with his head's composition repaired. "Now, hopefully I'm saying this for the last time against you guys, let's do this. There's only a little over six minutes left." He chuckles.

*Scene Change*

In a different section of Esdere, one that hasn't been shown yet as it's on the western side of the town, Yuki rushes over an elongated street prior to reaching a cul-de-sac. The area's comprised of multiple housing, making it a neighborhood without any clear exit other than where the blue-eyed girl originated. With that in mind, Yuki softly contemplates to herself, her right hand positioned atop her shoulder to keep her purse from falling while the left hand firmly holds the Ice Wand that's lowered to her waistline, amidst scanning the region and is a bit frustrated, "What's going on?! How did I get separated from the others so randomly?! I remember we were all together until Dante ran off saying it's time for action, but everything else is all fuzzy!" Yuki plants her left hand on the side of her head out of annoyance, continuing her grip on her wand, and puffs up her cheeks. "Hmph!"

Not long after that, a gunshot resounds, which startled Yuki, as the pink-haired dame hastily dropped her left hand and felt a bullet fly pass her left cheek from behind without making contact. Yuki then swings herself around to confront the culprit and is soon looking at Billy, who's Springfield Rifle look-alike is extended toward the princess with a snobbish demeanor brimming while his pseudo Winchester Rifle's rests on his right shoulder. Because of this, the corset-wearing teenager takes off her purse, carelessly rests it on the ground and points the Ice Wand at Billy via both hands, figuring him to be part of the cause for so many Spellcasters dying. "How dare you attack me unannounced?! Introduce yourself!"

While keeping his distance from Yuki, Billy's attitude stays the same and questions in a taunting manner, "Now don't we sound stuck-up?! If I had to bet, ya' probably royalty, am I right?! Who else talks like that?!"

Yuki momentarily puffs up her cheeks for a second time as she's quite upset. "Shut up! Frozen Shard!" The small spike of ice quickly launches out of the tip's measly, blue glow and soars straight at Billy with good speed.

Billy scoffs and witnesses the icy projectile head toward him. "So that's how ya' want to play, eh?" He then pulls the trigger of his Springfield again, and within a split second, the gunshot fires while effortlessly piercing through the Frozen Shard, practically obliterating it. With that occurring, while maintaining a lot of velocity, the ammo flies at Yuki and narrowly grazes several hair strands secured in the blue-eyed female's left tail.

That causes Yuki to grimace with her eyes temporarily shut, unconsciously lowering her wand, and then reopens her eyes, a stunned expression commencing to radiate from her, while mumbling in fear, "He shattered it... But it wasn't that big, so how did he hit it with something like that?"

Billy cackles while very pleased by Yuki's current state and speaks in an enthusiastic way. "Out of a sense of sportsmanship, I'll tell ya' this, Spellcaster girl! Unlike a pal of mine, I'm very accurate with my shooting! I love small targets much more than big ones in fact!" The long, spiky-haired adult vaguely coughs before demonstrating a malicious smirk. "And I'm a very lucky guy to find a tiny chick like ya' for target practice!" Billy licks his lips a little, almost as if the entire concept he mentioned made him crave something to eat.

Yuki's quite irritated by Billy's behavior as she sturdy her resolve, resets the Ice Wand toward the adversary and passionately shoots back, "Well, you know what they say, big things come in small packages! Like this! Grand Frozen Shard!" A human-sized shard's created from Yuki's wand as it hurriedly advances toward Billy.

Bewilderment captures Billy for a second due to not predicting Yuki being capable of making a bigger shard until a chilling smile creeps in. "I said I love small targets, but that don't mean those are all I can handle!" The orange-eyed man dismounts his Winchester to be side by side with the Springfield before implementing a barrage of gunfire at the large icicle, hitting the projectile in the same spot over and over. Then, just when the Grand Frozen Shard was about to reach Billy, it erupts into countless pieces as the long, spiky-haired Nemesis member confidently states, "Though it takes more bullets, I can split apart any gigantic object in my way! "

Not really listening to Billy since the young beauty knows she can't get thrown for a loop every time the enemy does something shocking, Yuki powerfully stabs the Ice Wand into the ground under her feet while concentrating on it with her posture bent down and firmly declares, "Frozen Rink!" The earth from where the wand is embedded quickly commences to freeze as it becomes overrun by a blue ice, eventually transforming the cul-de-sac into the perfect arena made of frost without affecting Yuki's purse that remains lying on the street.

Billy immediately has trouble retaining his balance and slams both of his rifle's nozzle upon the icy terrain in the attempt to stay on his feet as his eyes analyze the vicinity with panic emanating. "What?! The ground froze?!"

Yuki, having not yet stood upright, commandeers her wand towards her boots after pulling it out from the frozen street, which left a small opening, while tapping them to perform her Frozen Skate Spell. Once she does that, the pink-haired Spellcaster straightens herself to briefly gaze at Billy and takes a deep breath as she thinks, "Alright, Yuki. Win this one." She abruptly remembers what transgressed in Wukong Village while lightly biting her bottom lip out of frustration and continues thinking. "I don't want to idly standby like that ever again."

*Scene Change*

Near the center of Esdere, an electrical explosion and numerous shots engulf as the average-sized, housing structures on both sides of the street where that occurred buckle with some damage afflicting them from one or the other. Not even a few seconds later, it's displayed that Trace's located up the street with his Shock Cloak having been initiated and coldly stares at Ed, who's about twenty meters away on the opposite end of the ongoing path as his black eyes are fixed on the purple-haired gentleman while both Blunderbuss in his possession are pointed forward.

As several seconds of silence pass, Trace carefully observes Ed as his arms are individually poised next to him, ready to strike at any moment, while thinking, "For someone of his stature, he's pretty quick on the uptake. Right when we caught each other's presence, he started firing. I could've used the Speed Spell instead, but I felt that I wasn't going to be fast enough."

Ed, without much emotion at all, keeps watching Trace for sudden movements that will demand a reaction as he gives off a spaced out demeanor.

Faintly concerned by his enemy's composition, Trace mentally contemplates without diverting his eyes from Ed while his right eyebrow's slightly raised, "Is he a moron? Why's he making that face?" The aqua-eyed person slowly blinks his visible eye as he sighs to calm himself.

Noting that, a tiny gleam sparkles in Ed's left eye prior to suddenly resuming his assault via both guns.

Trace hastily responds with the reopening of his right eye and sprints toward the right with blinding speed, easily evading the lead ammunition.

Miraculously, Ed manages to stay on Trace's tail somehow while not halting his attack and rotates himself to the left as time progresses.

Trace's surprised by Ed's ability as he instantly ceases his maneuvering to dash toward the Afro-sporting adult while dodging every oncoming bullet with subtle movements that made the projectiles seem like they were merely going through him. It doesn't take the padded Caucasian to diminish the gap separating them and fervently says with his left hand poised behind himself, "Buster Shock!" Trace throws his hand at Ed's gut via the space permitted between the massive Nemesis affiliate's arms with a lot of electricity generated around the purple-haired Spellcaster's limb.

Ed nonchalantly repels Trace's strike with his right Blunderbuss, however, the contact alone caused the weapon to blow up, which left a huge impression on the cannon-carrying man as he wisely walks backwards in the effort to create distance after letting go of the destroyed Blunderbuss' remains.

Trace, picking up on fleeting desperation from Ed, chases the beige-haired human while his right hands surging grand sums of electricity this time with the rest of his being enveloped by the Shock Cloak Spell and asks in a ferocious manner, "Where's that arrogance I saw months ago?! Not so superior now, are you?!"

Uncertain of what Trace's referring to, Ed swiftly aims the now lone Blunderbuss via his left hand and retorts in his deep voice while a hint of contempt shows itself. "I don't know what the heck you're talking about. It's very bad for a Spellcaster to talk like that to a human. You should be dead." The black-eyed Nemesis personnel then shoots at Trace, hoping to blow his brains out.

Sadly for Ed, the bullet's blocked by the section of Trace's Shock Clock that travels along his face and deflects it down to the left before colliding into the ground. Afterwards, Trace promptly ensnares the left Blunderbuss' barrel and causes the weapon to immediately break apart while a feeble explosion transpires. This forces Trace back a tad while releasing his hold on the tattered bits that were left of the Blunderbuss, allowing Ed the chance to attack the aqua-eyed young man with a strong right punch and successfully connects on Trace's left cheek due to him not expecting such a fast strike. Following that, the Shock Spellcaster momentarily grimace as his head snaps to the side, becomes disoriented a little and staggers toward his right while thinking, "Shit! Despite not being to Dante's level, that still hurt...!" The Shock Cloak then dissipates before Trace tries to regain his barrings.

Although he desired for a continuation attack, Ed couldn't administer one because of his right hand profoundly stinging as a result of hitting Trace during the Shock Cloak's activity and soothes his pained appendage with the help of his left hand.

Being the opportunist this time, Trace swings his left arm forward, his visible eye locked on Ed, while continuing to be off balance and sternly commands with minuscule agony still present as sparks roam all over the limb, "Electro Shock!" An electrical stream expels from Trace's arm as it quickly hurls toward Ed, and once the beige-haired enemy's struck in the chest by the spell, his entire body's overrun with white electricity, intensely shocking the large human.

While he's electrocuted, Ed lets out a distraught cry as agony's apparent on his face until haphazardly spinning around like a top to shake off the torturing sensation.

Seeing another chance ahead, Trace manages to get a hold of himself with both arms radiating electricity while stationed close to his waist and swiftly rushes Ed. Once he bridges the minor gap dividing them, the vest-wearing male thrusts his arms toward Ed with determination. "Double Buster Shock!"

Just when Trace's attack was going to land on the rotating Nemesis member, Ed instantly halts as he's perfectly facing the padded young adult with his left hand clenched into a fist and is inches away from impacting Trace's right cheek. This soon happens, even though Ed was continually suffering the effects of the Electro Shock, while sending Trace flying toward the right from the massive man's point of view since there was so much might concentrated onto the strike.

After soaring above the elongated street for several seconds, Trace jabs his electrified left hand into the ground, unintentionally swinging his lower body like a propeller, however only half way, because of the momentum still carrying through, and plants both feet upon the terrain as three, deep, skid marks are made in the purple-haired individual's mission to cease his movement. Not long after that, Trace stops almost twenty-five meters from Ed with three of his limbs installed into the earth, which causes the vest-endowed gentleman to look like he's doing a single-handed push-up, and then snaps his attention back to Ed while tenacity overflows.

In the meantime, Ed took it upon himself to remove the cannon that kept being strapped to his back throughout the battle via both hands due to its enormous size as it harshly drops on the ground, leaving a loud cracking sound to reverberate. Having done that, the Afro-wearing man taps the bottom of his back with his left hand's knuckles to loosen it up while also cracking, however, nowhere close to the same volume and leisurely speaks after confronting Trace. "Whoever you are, I'm now in a heck of a lot of trouble thanks to you. Boss gave those guns to me and he'll be very mad when he finds out they got destroyed." He steers his left hand from his back, positions it next to his hip belonging to the equivalent side and places his right hand atop the upright cannon's nozzle due to it currently being in that location. "I guess you're life will be compensation at least."

*Scene Change*

Hiding behind an alley's left wall that's in the vicinity of Esdere's eastern district, Mark has his Hunting Rifle position forward as it steadily follows Ilya, who's apparently unbeknownst of the precarious situation the accessory-wearing girl's in while making her way along the street she's on with her eyes zigzagging around to search for the other four. During this, Mark's left eye is aligned with his weapon, the other eye presently shut to help his accuracy, and temporarily glances at The Detector Ring encircling his left index finger as it's lightly against the Hunting Rifle's trigger, sees that the usually white zero is now black and mutters to himself, "Look here! I found a female vermin!" The cropped-haired Nemesis affiliate smiles demonically while gently tapping the weapon's trigger in debate of shooting as he keeps talking in a low volume. "Human or Spellcaster, an appetizing morsel like that definitely needs to be eaten up! I'm sure Billy would second that if he was here!"

After that, Ilya stops in her tracks, not too far from Mark's shooting range, and sighs out of annoyance with her person slumping a little as the hazel-eyed beauty's staff is still held within her right hand that's currently under her hip's height while the duo golden rings continuously hover around the weapon's gem. "No sign of anyone...! How is it that this always happens someway?! Is God playing a cruel joke on me?!" She suddenly recalls Dante's attitude toward her earlier and becomes depressed with her grip tightening on the staff while mumbling, "I can't shake off that feeling I've been getting lately... Like I'm close to losing something important with each passing minute...I wonder if it'll go away once we finish the mission..." Ilya lifts her gaze upward as her eyes vaguely glisten. "I do hope it does and I can enjoy more of that silly Dante." The staff-wielding dame halfheartedly smirks.

Right when Ilya does that, Mark zooms onto the teen's left shoulder and laughs menacingly before barely uttering, "You're wide open. Now, let me hear you scream." The brown-eyed human softly laughs as his rifle releases a deafening bang while slightly recoiling backwards.

With the bullet travelling faster than the normal eye could, Ilya's instincts kick in due to finding the gunfire sound being familiar to her and hurriedly states without switching her concentration, "Immobilize!"

The accelerating projectile instantly halts in the air, mere inches away from Ilya's shoulder, as Mark's dumbfounded by what he's witnessing with both eyes completely open.

Ilya calmly directs her attention to the floating bullet and then demonstrates an inquisitive personality until facing towards the tiny object with a hint of irritation taking shape. "This is the first time I see it, but not the first time I heard it." The white-haired chick promptly swats the bullet to the right after drawing her golden staff toward her left and lackadaisically swung it in an arching motion. Following that, Ilya sets the bullet free from her spell, causing the projectile to regain its velocity while crashing into a wall next to the Spellcaster, and veers her sight upon Mark due to her figuring out his location. "I guess chasing after Dante into the Lady Luck Casino had its pros in the end. If it wasn't for that, my reaction to your gunshot wouldn't have been so great."

Instead of responding to Ilya's statement, Mark launches another shot after shutting his right eye once more as the lead object rapidly hurls toward the accessory-endowed teenager's forehead.

Ilya isn't fazed by the second advancing bullet and firmly says with the staff returned to her side, "Immobilize!"

Again, the Mark's means of attack is foiled as the projectile levitates an inch away from Ilya's nose, which causes the bony Nemesis member to scoff with his left eye maintaining its gaze on the Spellcaster and thinks, "That all she can do? Then I got this fight in the bag already." He sends out three more rounds, however, there's quite a bit of time in between each since it takes about a second or two to pop out the used shell.

Ilya's eyes narrow with seriousness brimming and decides to dodge the bullets over simply restraining them via dashing to her left. At the same time, the light-skinned female releases the Immobilization Spell's grasp on the second shot as all four bullets quickly traverse the air and smash into a building's left side window that was behind Ilya. She then slams the bottom of her staff onto the ground, having recently halted her progression, while coldly staring at Mark with her entire body gaining a golden outline. "Burst Stream!"

Sensing that something bad is on its way from beneath his feet, Mark hops backwards with his right eye reopened and luckily manages to evade the gold pillar of light that abruptly ascended from the earth, rocketing into the sky, while quite awestruck as he thinks, "Okay, I take it back..." The beige-haired male hastily puts his left eye to be aligned with his rifle again without considering closing the other one and ecstatically proclaims, "But that's just for now!" Mark shoots through the energy-based pillar, risking the possibility of it being obliterated in the process and promptly hears a cry of dismay.

Not long after that, the Burst Stream dies down, revealing Ilya's location being a couple of meters behind the spell as she's technically in the alley now because of her thinking that shortening the distance would benefit her more in fighting Mark as she holds her right hand up to her chest with the left due to it getting shot, forcing pain to consume the young lady. In addition, a small quantity of blood can be noted while Ilya had unconsciously dropped her staff as it lies in front of her feet.

Taking into account that his recent attack connected, Mark slowly creeps up to Ilya with a smug demeanor showing after lowering the Hunting Rifle a bit to get a better look and tauntingly speaks as only seven meters separate them from one another. "Oh, did I hit you?! That's what happens when I get riled up! It's basically impossible for me to ever miss!" The cropped-haired man chuckles in a deviant manner without halting his advancement. "And that's not all, my delicious vermin!"

Ilya's left eye twitches a few times prior to peering at Mark after briefly checking her right hand's condition, discovering that it merely got grazed by the shot as her golden staff actually deflected the projectile from making contact with any other body part, and fiercely retorts. "Hold it...! Don't tell me you're..."

Mark ceased his walking with less than two meters left to go as curiosity joins his ecstatic attitude. "What?! You think I'm a cannibal 'cause of what I said?!"

Ilya scowls at Mark as she hesitantly shakes her head. "That's not what I was thinking at all... I was thinking that you're a pervert because of what you said."

Mark proudly grins with enthusiasm replacing his curiosity. "And you'd be totally right!"

Ilya angrily stomps her right foot upon the ground, removes her left hand from her right hand as they're both curled into fists without being lowered and cocks her head back to look at the sky while fervently shouting, "Come on! He's not even part of Enshin's Disciples! Why do you keep doing this to me?!" The hazel-eyed girl stomps her foot again with a frustrated groan escaping her lips and puts her head down.

*Scene Change*

Leaping from building to building, Sano journeys across the southern region of Esdere as both hands retain a strong grip on Ruyi Jingu Bang, despite being strapped to his lower back, while heading in the direction of where he saw the electrical explosion since he was close enough to take notice.

Soon after jumping atop the fifth building in Sano's path, Ryan unexpectedly appears before the golden-eyed young man while standing sideways with the Carbine Rifle in his right hand stretched toward Sano due to it being closer than his left as the two individuals momentarily lock eyes. The gun's then fired without a shred of remorse emitted from Ryan's expression.

In reaction, Sano effortlessly undoes Ruyi Jingu Bang's strap via both hands, and with a swift spinning of the staff by use of his right hand, blocks the lead object after positioning it forward. Having done that, the black-haired boy stops Ruyi Jingu Bang's rotation, squats down without any loss of his momentum and ascends high into the air to go over Ryan's head.

Ryan snaps his head toward the airborne Sano, his cowboy hat managing not to fall off in the process, as intensity resonates inside his purple eyes and then points both short-barrel rifles in his possession upward with countless bullets quickly soaring.

Sano doesn't falter to the onslaught while putting his left hand near his right as they're at the center of Ruyi Jingu Bang and spins it again with his body fully facing Ryan. This results in every projectile getting diverted before Sano does a front-flip to navigate himself away from the long-haired opponent and gently lands on the roof with their back to each other. Not even a second later, Sano repairs his posture since he was mildly slouching forward, Ruyi Jingu Bang solely held in his right hand again, and leisurely comments with his attention remaining ahead, "You're pretty straightforward. Your policy must be to shoot first, ask questions never, huh?"

Ryan puts his hands down and coolly gazes at The Detector Ring wrapped around his own left index finger, which is faintly raised to his waistline at this instance, while thinking, "That's odd... The zero's grey... What could that mean?" He shifts his vision toward Sano via turning his head to the left and observes the jacket-wearing teen's back out of the corner of his eyes.

Sano refuses to confront Ryan, although he suspects the purple-eyed gentleman's focus is now on him, and takes in a deep breath until exhaling it out. "By the way, the name's Sano Goken. When fighting one on one, I believe we should know each other's name. Well, that's how I was taught at least." The tanned individual sheepishly scoffs as he mutters to himself, "Yet, I totally forgot about that when fighting Nash. Oh, well... For that time, it wasn't important and it's not like we never found out, so I'm good."

Ryan nods in agreement to what Sano said to him without taking his eyes off the golden-eyed person. "That's admirable of you, wishing to know the name of who'll kill you. My name's Ryan Cursor."

Sano excitedly smiles, planting one end of Ruyi Jingu Bang on the roof's surface, and keeps his grasp on the orange staff while slanting his head to the left before rebutting. "Or vice-versa."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...