The tunnel became a battleground, filled with the clashing of abilities, elemental attacks, and the relentless determination of Mako, Nathan, and Leon who had found themselves locked in fierce combat against the reinforcements, and it quickly became apparent that these were not your run-of-the-mill gang members. They were well-coordinated, using their abilities strategically to counter their attacks.

Up until this point, all of them with the exclusion of Nathan had experienced very few real high-level fights much less participate in one and the difference was really night and day when comparing these actual fighters who coordinated their attacks and compared them to the weak and immature gang members and cadets they have fought up to this point.

It really humbled them a bit as this was a harsh reminder to them that even though they were classified by the military as special-class material, they were still far away from being decent fighters and there were still many people who surpassed them with skill, power, and technique.

Mako’s body blazed with red fire and crackled with electricity as he faced off against the trio of fire and wind ability users. Earth barriers rose around him as he entered a defensive stance after yet another failed attempt to deal a decisive strike on one of the three recruitments.

The level 5 ability user remained behind his two other comrades as he continued to spam flame bullets at Mako whenever he would drop down his barrier and try to go on the offensive.

Meanwhile, the two other goons used their wind and fire abilities in unison to greatly increase the damage caused by the flames of the fire user, an effect that Mako was greatly aware of.

The fire and wind ability users continued to spam their abilities to quickly crumble away Mako’s barrier leaving him vulnerable for a few seconds which the goon in the back would take the opportunity to take a shot at Mako before he raised more barriers.

Mako tried using his other abilities such as his lightning ability but he couldn’t use any skills that required him to charge up as he had to constantly be on the move. He had tried to use Electrical Discharge by himself, hoping to turn the tables, but only the goons assaulting him got paralyzed as the one shooting from behind was a bit out of range.

The paralysis of the goons didn’t even last very long as they were able to quickly recover before Mako could think of a plan.

He thought that since the goons were so overusing their abilities, he could wait them out in a battle of endurance as they were bound to get out of energy soon, but looking at his own energy bar, Mako wasn’t so sure of his chances of over lasting them as he didn’t have a full bar of energy to begin with due to him having a prior battle with Angela and escaping from an assassination attempt.

Mako was stuck between a rock and a hard place quite literally and he had to think of a solution to turn this thing around or else everything would be lost.

**************

Leon’s speed ability, his greatest asset, was rendered ineffective by the teamwork of two Earth-ability users. They synchronized their powers expertly, creating continuous obstacles that disrupted Leon’s attempts to gain momentum.

His usual hit-and-run tactics were negated as he was forced to dodge and weave around the earth barriers they conjured. The two Earth users had established a firm defensive front, and Leon couldn’t find an opening to strike.

Leon’s fighting style relied heavily on his speed, and with his ability hampered, he felt trapped in a never-ending struggle. He realized he needed to find a way to break through the earth-based defenses and regain his advantage.

He tried using his own earth and fire abilities to counter them, but since his earth ability was heavily under-leveled when facing two strong earth ability users, his command over the earth was denied by the goons.

He did have some success in using his fire ability as he was able to make the goons go on the defensive for a bit, but it wasn’t enough for him to create an opening and was soon countered by them creating earthen barriers to defend themselves against his barrage of fireballs.

*****************

Nathan, facing off against the water, lightning, and fire ability users, also had his hands full. His fists crackled with tiny explosions, a potent offensive ability that was nullified by the weakest of the five core elemental abilities, the water ability.

The water user continued to create water bubbles that encapsulated Nathan’s explosive blasts, rendering them harmless.

The way that the explosion ability worked was that Nathan himself was capable of excreting an extremely volatile and explosive fluid in the form of a liquid and gas from his pores.

He could excrete this fluid at will from all over his body and could also control the quantity and concentration of the fluid which he could then use to attack his opponents by combusting the volatile liquid at will once it had left his body.

Meanwhile, the lightning and fire ability users coordinated their attacks, aiming to overwhelm Nathan.

Nathan’s Advanced Perception Ability allowed him to anticipate their moves, and he managed to dodge their attacks with relative ease. However, he couldn’t find an opportunity to land a significant blow. He was stuck in a defensive position, blocking and evading their elemental assaults.

As the battle raged on, it became evident that he was struggling. 𝘦.𝘰𝘳𝑔

The reinforcements had strength in numbers and were using their abilities to counter every move. Mako, Nathan, and Leon knew they needed to change their tactics to gain the upper hand.

Mako knew that being the leader he had to prove himself by being the one to find a solution out of this mess that they had gotten themselves trapped in.

It was quite true that they weren’t strong enough to deal with their opponents on their own and that they would have to work together in order to finally deal with them.

Looking over at Nathan and Leon it was clear that they also had their hands full and weren’t really in a position to help him out, but then Mako suddenly had a great idea.

He did have a skill that could be used without charging up, and although it wasn’t as strong as when it had time to charge up, it could be perfect to create that one opening that was needed for them to potentially claim victory.

With one of his arms reinforcing the earth barrier that the two goons were actively attacking to try and take down, Mako observed Nathan’s battle with greater interest as he waited for the perfect opportunity which soon came about.

Nathan once again tried to unleash a strong blast attack at his opponents, but the water user had once again appeared to intercept the attack and render it useless.

Energy beam has been activated

Using his free hand, Mako fired a short pulse of a green beam, not toward his two opponents, but rather toward the water ability user who was just about to conjure another water bubble.

The green blast was so unsuspecting that nobody could have predicted it, not even Nathan.

The beam blasted the water ability user’s back sending him flying into the ground leaving Nathan’s explosive blasts undefended.

*Boom!* *Boom!* Boom!*

A series of blasts erupted in front of Nathan’s two opponents, dealing heavy damage to their bodies; however, not that Nathan had regained his offensive capabilities, and he quickly capitalized on Mako’s distraction and unleashed several more barrages of explosive blasts toward his opponents, completely decimating the area and leaving the three ability users on the brink of death with burn and char marks all over their body.

Now that Nathan was finally free from his battle, he wasted no time as he started chucking explosions toward Leon’s direction who was stuck in the labyrinth of Earth walls and obstacles.

The explosion crumbled away all of the earthen structure quicker than the two earth ability users could regenerate.

Leon, having finally broken through the earth barriers, gained momentum. His super-speed allowed him to cover the distance between him and his foes in an instant. With a burst of flames surrounding his fists, he struck both earth ability users with devastating blows.

The reinforcements, now disoriented and thrown off balance, struggled to regroup.

Mako had successfully shifted the tide of battle in their favor through teamwork and clever tactics.

Now with two out of three battles won, the tables quickly turned as Nathan and Leon engaged in combat with the two ability users who were assaulting Mako.

The fire ability user in the back was confused as to which person to target as now he couldn’t just focus on one. Knowing the other fire user was stronger than the wind user, he knew he could last a bit longer so he decided to aim at Leon first who was battling the wind ability user.

However, this time he wasn’t the only one charging up an attack as from behind the earth barrier that Mako was hiding behind, Mako’s Energy ability continued to emanate waves of power as it condensed more and more.

Just as Leon and Nathan were about to finish beating up the ability users and the fire ability user in the back was about to shoot his condensed flame bullet, a massive condensed ray of green energy blasted through the earthen barrier, crumbling it away in seconds and directly blasting the fire ability user back toward the wall of the tunnel with such extreme force that his body got indented into the wall itself with the front of his body getting charred up nicely by the strong energy beam.

In a matter of minutes, what had initially been a chaotic and seemingly unwinnable battle had turned in favor of Mako and the team. The reinforcements, initially confident in their numbers, had been defeated through teamwork and the clever use of abilities.

The tunnel fell into an eerie silence as the team caught their breath, victorious in their hard-fought battle. Mako, Nathan, and Leon exchanged nods of appreciation for one another’s contributions, realizing that their greatest strength was their unity.

They knew that the challenge that lay ahead would be even tougher but they were prepared to do anything to save their friends from the torture that they had been enduring.