A shockwave split the air as something slammed into the giant's hand, raising a dust cloud, the giant roared in agony, pulling back its hand, dissipating at the wrist.
The dust cleared revealing a polearm stuck upright into the ground, on the flaming remains of the giant's hand, sticking it into the ground.
A man stood upright on the pole, his white jacket fluttering with the wind, revealing a blue striped shirt beneath, tucked into white pants.
A long hat with a glinting silver star in the middle adorned his head.
Serif gave the man an icy cold stare, "After all this time, you choose to come out now."
The man glared at him, gazes locked for a second, then he looked away, at the giant, flames reforming its hand, "We follow the rules, nothing else," the man said, tipping the edge of his hat and slowly lifting his hand up.
The rules huh, Serif mused, looking up at the giant, as long as you were in one of the trading towns, small fights amd disturbances were dealt with by local guards as long as the general public is not harmed, else they'll be involved, the Enforcers and this man, Thorne was their leader.
At that moment the giant's hand completely reformed, it flexed the hand, clenching its fist, a grin appeared on its massive face as it locked eyes with Serif, but at that instant Thorne clenched his hand, forming a fist.
Instantly multiple enforcers in surrounded the giant, all holding hoses.
Before the giant could move, water jets attacked it from all around, a loud hissing sound produced as thick steam rolled up into the air.
The giant started thrashing around, trying to attack the men, but with incredible agility, they avoided its attacks, resuming the attack as soon as they landed, overwhelming it, its fire slowly but surely shrinking.
A roar from the left drew Serif's attention, the ice man, his body now half transparent, locked in combat with another of Thorne's me, hands were ablaze, rapid burst of fire from his feet giving him enough speed to keep up with the monster, narrowly avoiding it's attacks, while occasionally getting in hits of its own.
The ice man roaring in frustration, his voice lacking any hint of humanity.
It dashed towards the man, recklessly, seemingly already cornering him, but at that moment, a burst of fire slammed into its side, not enough to damage it, but drawing its attention enough for the man to get out of the way.
His boots tore through the air, slamming into the back of the neck of the distracted ice man, drawing aggro back to him.
It's losing its rationality, a side effect of the drug, Serif noted, else it will ignore the pesky distraction, focusing on the threat.
"They're using some sort of enhancers," he said, turning around.
Thorne glanced over his shoulder and nodded a smile on his aged face.
Serif calmly walked towards the WGDS building, he paused as he felt searing heat, looking over his shoulder.
The flame giant was adapting, its heat growing, flames turning blue, the water turning to steam even before reaching him.
Some of the men near it suddenly burst into flames.
But Thorne wouldn't have it, he leaned back, muscles taught and tight, his uniform bulging, polearm groaning under his grip, and boom, the polearm went screaming into the air, a resounding shockwave spreading as it tore through the chest of the giant.
Serif nodded, they can deal with this, and continued into the WGDS building, the sounds from outside instantly disappearing as he closed the door.
His gaze stopped on Axel lying on a chair, body bare, his wounds sealing at a visible rate, his ragged breath slowly calming down, Hermes wrapping his hands in bandages.
"It's ready," Hermes said without looking back, finishing up the wrappings.
Serif looked towards the warehouse, a ship, shaped like a hawk with its entrance open was waiting, Hermes' daughter getting in.
"She'll be the pilot, I can't leave, not with those things rampaging in E town," Hermes said, standing up, "not as the mayor." He added under his breath.
Serif looked outside the transparent glass separating them from the chaos, the flame giant was still rampaging, overwhelming the Enforcers completely.
Its form was now a raging blue inferno, Thorne struggling, unlike what he predicted, trying to get out of the path of the flames, while trying to draw aggro from his injured men, his sleeves burnt.
As for the ice man, it was overpowering the other man, now completely transparent, crystals protruding from its shoulders.
While the other man's body was marred with frost crawling all around his body, hands hanging limp at the side, encased in ice, his support all frozen solid, he was barely hanging on.
"She's a good pilot, better than me even," Hermes muttered as he flapped his coat and headed for the door, "just make sure you take care of her and bring her back safe, old friend." He stopped and looked at the disaster outside, taking a deep breath.
"You don't have to defeat them," Serif said, lifting Axel onto his shoulder, his chains wrapping around the katana.
"They're consuming their life force, forcefully increasing their compatibility by using enhancers, they wouldn't last long." He said with a blank face and started walking towards the ship, the sheathed katana dragging behind him.
Hermes looked at him and smirked, you never change, he looked at the katana and smiled, "As much as I'll like to just wait, nobody thrashes E city and doesn't pay," He said with a heavy tone, eyes darkened as he stepped out of the door, it's been a while, he slowly exhaled.
Instantly, the air stilled all around E town, darkness with metallic sheen started seeping out of the ground everywhere, crawling towards Hermes.
Now then, He cracked his neck and stretched, his cloak turning darker, its length increasing as the dark substances flowed to it.
Then Hermes started floating, no the cloak size became bigger, taking him up as its size increased.
An overwhelming presence and pressure radiating from him, "Enough" his voice resounded throughout the entire town.
The entire town stilled, everyone looking at him, even the disasters, a look of relief appearing on the Enforcers face, as they broke into a loud cheer.
A faint smirk appeared on Thorne's face.
Every citizen of E town all knew or at least they have heard stories of the guardian of E town, "if the black cloak appears, everything in its path would be swallowed up," the saying rang in there head.
Hermes smiled and spread his hands, ascending higher, let's clean this up then, what do you say old friend, the darkness thrummed as if in agreement and then he dived.
Darkness following him like a raging ocean.
The flame inferno as if realizing the danger turned to face the approaching darkness.
It flared and flew towards it as well.
A raging inferno, ascending, illuminating the entire E town, but failing to illuminate the approaching darkness.
The two clashed, a shockwave spreading from the point of impact, blowing debris everywhere.
Pushing back against each other, the darkness seemed to stop pushing back, instead it spread out, and fell over the fire, sticking to it
The darkness slowly crawled over the inferno as it flared, blue flames trying to burn off the darkness, failing miserably as it kept spreading.
The darkness continued growing, enveloping the flames, while the flames kept shrinking, but flaring harder, getting hotter.
Meanwhile, Thorne gulped, feeling his throat parched, water leaving his body, sweat instantly evaporating, as he dodged the attack from the ice man.
Hurry, he screamed in his mind, slamming the poleaxe into the ice man.
Back to Hermes;
The fire flared one last time, in defiance, like a dying star, the darkness completely snuffing it out the next second.
Leaving a huge dark orb trembling over E town.
For a second nothing happened, then it slowly started shrinking.
The orb kept shrinking and shrinking getting faster with each passing second till eventually Hermes appeared from the darkness, floating over the town.
He held the orb in his palm, looking at it as it thrummed, flames still struggling. He coughed, a little blood spurting out of his mouth.
But it was over now, he threw the orb into the pitch black darkness of his cloak and wiped the blood from his lips, his gaze locking onto the ice man.
Locked in combat with Thorne, no, it was more like he was trying to distract it, keep it from interfering with Hermes and the fire, but he was barely keeping up.
At this point each step of the ice man froze the entire area, each swing, a crescent ice wall emerging, and worst of all, it seemed the ice man was slowly learning.
Thorne was barely keeping up, holding out till Hermes came to bail him out.
He leapt to the side, avoiding a crescent ice wall.
His eyes widened as the ice extended from the wall this time, wrapping tightly around his legs, freezing him in place, the chill spreading to his bones.
Thorne groaned, jaw clenched, trying to pull his leg out, his eyes filled with dread, breath caught as the ice man lifted his hand towards him, simultaneously spikes emerging from the ice wall, about to turn him into a porcupine.
But the pain never came, rather everything turned dark, thick darkness was in front of him.
"You sure took your sweet time," He turned to look at Hermes descending, darkness thrumming from him.
Hermes rubbed the back of his head, "they're a bit stronger than expected."
Thorne's raised a brow, "a bit, you're still as ridiculous as ever."
Hermes grinned, "what can I say..." A frown appeared in his face.
A wisp of darkness seperated from the dark wall, breaking the ice around Thorne's leg.
"Get out of here," Hermes muttered with a grin expression.
Thorne looked back at the wall, his breath caught, eyes widened, frost was crawling over the wall, freezing the darkness.
He gulped and tried to jump away, but he couldn't, his legs didn't know how, so he limped away as fast as possible.
Meanwhile, a small frown appeared on Hermes face, his lips twitching as the dark wall was completely frozen, that was not supposed to be possible.
But well as long as it's E town, he took a deep breath, "you can't defeat me," he roared turning into a dark wave, raging towards the ice man who lifted his hands in response, ice flowing out, a gigantic ice wall forming in the path of the darkness.
Boom!!
The darkness collided with the wall, cracks forming, tremors spreading through the ground but the wall held, frost spreading to the darkness, slowly freezing it.
But the darkness thrummed with power, shattering the little frost and slammed against the wall again, pushing it, ice crackling, but the wall still held, the ice man groaning, ice rushing out of its outstretched hands.
The darkness moved back, ascending upward.
It levitated for a few seconds, spreading over the ice man like a dark rain cloud.
Ice spread out of its legs, forming an ice dome as the darkness fell.
But the darkness swallowed everything, the dome and all, and then silence, nothing happened.
For two hours Thorne stood outside the darkness, poleaxe in hand along with the other enforcers with anima drawn, observing, waiting for whatever emerged, enemy or friend.
But there was no change, the darkness just churning on itself, until eventually the darkness stirred, then it started spinning, swirling towards a point.
Hermes, the darkness flowing into his cloak, no ice man, nothing else, just him.
He looked at Thorne, flashed a smile, staggered, then his eyes closed, and he collapsed.