While his body fought to evolve, he was left wishing for it to happen faster as his body shivered. It was a cold that couldn't be escaped; from within, he felt the fragments of ice.
"//Your vitals are dropping—just wait a bit more…! HQ has coordinates on the Fulminare—they're sending air support!//" Haoyu's voice came through the communicator.
"//Seven, please…hold on!//" May urged through the earpiece as well
As he reached to touch it to respond, he found the ice-cold figure arriving in front of him within a single blink. It made him pause, bringing his hands up to defend himself—crack.
A swift flick of the Fulminare's fist came to the right side of his head, smacking right into his ear. The earpiece shattered, falling out into broken pieces.
"Enough of that. This is our dance," Alta calmly claimed.
Seven winced as his ear rang and ached, immediately retaliating as he threw his fist right for the enemy's chin.
All he managed to hit was the air, instead finding his hand being gently cupped in the palm of the Fulminare.
"You possess strength not unlike our own, however—it is without proper technique," Alta reprimanded.
An attempt to draw his fist away was quickly intercepted as the golden-skinned warrior tugged him forward. He was pulled right into the invader's knee, driven into his gut with such force he believed his guts might spill from his mouth.
Down to a knee, the strength to stand was taken from him. If it wasn't the force alone, the bitter cold weighed on his body like a suit of lead armor.
The otherworldly figure stood over him, huffing as he slid his fingers through his hair with an impatient demeanor, "The peak of humanity is still no more than the baseline of the Fulminare."
Within the young man's body, the frost dug deep, encasing the tissue, slowing the cells, grinding the process of life to a halt–
[Genetic Evolution Obtained: Crimson Shift]
[EXP: +200] [303/1000]
Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.
Rapidly, the pace of his heartbeat accelerated, pumping the blood through his body at a heightened rate. It ran hot through his veins; as it circulated, the frost that reached inside him burned away.
"Humans are quite weak to the cold, I've found–mm?" Alta said before stopping his hand.
A light layer of steam exuded, escaping the young man's pores as the internal temperature skyrocketed. From the inhuman heat gathered within, Seven clenched his fist, feeling his strength returning as if freed from the ice age itself.
He launched from his knelt position, letting his fist lead the way into a merciless uppercut aimed for his enemy's chin. The essence of Mjolnir backed the power in his knuckles, exploding forth.
THWOOOM.
The surrounding mist was repelled as the fist narrowly missed the Fulminare, striking only the wind. As if moved by pure instinct, the golden-skinned figure jumped back, putting a good distance between the two as the platform of ice expanded outwards.
"Ffffuuuu…" Seven slowly exhaled, catching his breath.
Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.
"Oh," Alta remarked with a look of quiet shock, blinking carefully before tilting his head back down. "You almost took my head right off. Right then, I'll have to take you more serious–"
The gap was closed; Seven sprung across the platform, delivering his fist against the Fulminare's chest. A simple punch, backed behind inhuman speed and strength, was greater than a military's artillery.
"Ghh!—" Alta spat out.
A new wall of ice rose at the end of the glacier, preventing the Fulminare from sliding into the sea.
["Crimson Shift: through increasing his heart rate to an inhuman degree, he's able to vastly accelerate his blood flow. This has the effect of heating his blood and subsequently his body, while the rapid flow also grants his limbs heightened speed."]
Despite the direct hit, the Fulminare warrior only displayed a hole torn through his uniform with a bruise left on his golden chest.
"…Fascinating. You truly operate unlike the rest of your kin," Alta remarked, brushing his chest off.
Seven stood there, ready again as his heart thumped in his chest. As the moments passed, he felt a tightness inside his body, bringing him to wince ever so tightly.
'Can't keep this up for long,' he thought.
As he readied himself for another clash with the Fulminare, he noticed a shift in the air. A hiss traveled through the skies; vibrations tickled the inside of his ear.
It seemed that his enemy was alerted too, though only he understood what it was.
As the vibrations intensified, instead of pushing forward, he leapt back, striking the air with an explosive impact to propel himself in the opposite direction.
Just as the golden figure attempted to pursue him, swift missiles arrived from across the state—
"Ah?—" Alta looked over.
BOOOOOM.
An array of explosions consumed the glacier, expanding into a cloud of fiery destruction. The shock wave further pushed the young man back, using the momentum as he looked back.
To his fortune, he guessed right; the shoreline was in sight.
By some miracle, his boots reached the sand of the neighboring beach, still feeling the winds of the explosive aftermath in the distance. It was hard to make out anything through the cloud of smoke sitting above the sea, though he wasn't ignorant enough to believe missiles would be effective.
The haze was dispersed by a manifestation of ice; a spontaneous glacier sprouted, jutting out in all positions. From the mound of frost, all the water between it and the shore was frozen, bringing forth a chilling mist. Waves were solidified amidst their rampage, leaving curved walls of frost looming.
'How much can he output?—' He questioned.
It took only moments for the cold winter to bring forth winter through the shore. The wind howled as flakes of ice streamed through the air, leaving his body working in overtime to stay warm.
A natural disaster; no more in that moment did he understand why Fulminare were regarded as such.
'He's coming,' he thought.