—Determinant Of The World Destiny—
Run
The person who seemed to have quickly destroyed the wall forming something sharp with sand from his hand and aimed it at Nathan. Nathan froze, knowing the sand would hurt him, but his brain was too slow to process the event.
Just a few centimeters from Nathan, Andreas used his rune, throwing a ball of wind from his fingertip that dispersed the solid sand. "Oi! Nathan!" Andreas called, and Nathan blinked several times, snapping back to reality.
The man's face showed a hint of annoyance. He drew a sword from the sheath on his back and lunged at Nathan quickly. Fortunately, Nathan reacted promptly, drawing his own sword and parrying the man's attack.
They locked eyes. The man's eyes were reddish-brown, and his raised hood revealed his dark brown hair. Nathan's sword hilt was above his head, the blade pointing down, in contrast to the man's.
The man retreated slightly and pulled his sword back that was attacking Nathan earlier. He then conjured sand from both sides of his shoulders, locking onto Nathan, and simultaneously rushed forward with his sword. Nathan was now under attack from three directions.
Despite this, he didn't panic. Nathan ran forward, conjured a spike of ice from his fingertip, aimed, and shot it at the man. The man tilted his head, narrowly dodging Nathan's ice attack, which could have killed him.
When the man was off balance, Nathan quickly adopted a stance, bending his knees slightly and swinging his sword toward the man's neck while launching another ice attack with his left hand, forming a cross with his right hand that was holding the sword.
The sand, initially aimed at Nathan, now shifted its priority to protect its master. The sand surrounded the man, stopping Nathan's sword and shattering his ice attack against the hard sand.
Nathan stepped back four steps, creating a distance that was neither too far nor too close. The sand covering the man fell to the ground, revealing him.
"Allow me to introduce myself. Vincent, often called the Sandstorm Sovereign. What's your name?" the man behind the black mask said.
"My name? Nathan."
"Nathan, a good name. I hope after this fight, many will pray beside your grave," he said with an arrogant tone. Yet, his words could very well come true.
A bullet swiftly flew toward Vincent's temple. Without turning his head even a degree, he conjured sand to stop the high-velocity projectile. As the bullet hit the sand wall, the sand fell, Vincent's eyes immediately fixated on where the bullet had originated.
Cleavon smiled bitterly, holding the pistol. "Sorry, but this is four against one." Vincent looked around. In front of him was Nathan; to his left was Cleavon; to his right, Noah; and behind him, Andreas. All four prepared their Nebula Weapons and stood ready.
Vincent laughed arrogantly. "Alright then, this will—" Without waiting for Vincent to finish his sentence, Nathan was already in front of him, his sword piercing the eyehole of his mask. It was just shy of hitting his eye. Vincent's sand now held Nathan's hand, immobilizing him. Vincent retreated slightly, maintaining distance.
Andreas and Noah attacked simultaneously while Vincent's attention was diverted to Nathan. Vincent now conjured two piles of sand, one to hold Nathan and the other to stop Noah and Andreas.
Andreas conjured a gust of wind from his hands using his rune and threw it. The sand wall dispersed and opened. "Tch." Annoyed, he blindly attacked Andreas with his sand. Andreas dodged and broke apart the solid sand with his wind rune.
The sand that had held Nathan's hand was now free, attacking Andreas. Nathan immediately moved forward, as did Noah. As the three entered their attack range, they positioned themselves.
Nathan's right hand, holding the sword, was at his left side near his shoulder, ready to cleave something.
Noah made a short, quick leap to Vincent's left side. He held his sword with both hands at cheek height on his left side, ready to stab anything.
Andreas was still somewhat far from Vincent, but it didn't matter much. He used his wind power on his feets to propel himself forward. He extended his hand, holding his sword, to stab Vincent.
Cleavon drew his second Nebula Weapon, a shotgun. Andreas also gave wind to Cleavon's feets so he could get closer. Cleavon stopped to Vincent's right, his feet braced against the ground so he wouldn't slide further, in a prone position. He aimed his shotgun upwards, directly at Vincent's head.
All four were ready to attack from different directions simultaneously.
"Vincent! Take cover!" a voice shouted, warning Vincent. Without hesitation, all of Vincent's sand came to him, forming a sphere around him, protecting him from danger. Suddenly, a circular symbol with six arrows pointing outwards from its center surrounded Vincent's sand.
Without warning, the symbol exploded like a small bomb, throwing all four of them backward. The sand protecting Vincent slowly crumbled, revealing him. Vincent saw Nathan and Cleavon leaning against a building, while Noah and Andreas lay in the street, unable to move.
As Vincent moved his hand toward Nathan to command his sand to kill him, a rope tightly bound Vincent's hand, diverting his focus to its origin—it was Velyna.
Velyna pulled Vincent's hand strongly so he couldn't move it. "What do you think you're doing? Are you an associate of these fools?" Vincent asked in an extremely annoyed tone. Velyna replied neutrally, "What if I am?"
"Then I'll kill you too." Suddenly, a smoke bomb was thrown everywhere, covering the wide field in smoke. "What the hell is this!" Velyna and the others carried their injured comrades. Nathan was now being carried by Velyna, who ran from Vincent and his accomplice.
"What about... the president?" Nathan asked weakly.
"Hey, idiot! You're almost dead, and you're thinking about that now?" Velyna retorted angrily. Claire, who was carrying Noah, asked while running, "Where should we go?"
"We're going to the base, but we have to split up."
"Alright, don't get hurt." Velyna nodded at Claire's words. Now the two went their separate ways, Claire going right with Noah, while Velyna went left with Nathan.
On the roof of the building beside Velyna were two people wearing the same uniform as Vincent; they appeared to be Wanderers from Equinox. The two men fired bullets at Velyna and Nathan. Velyna ran into a narrow alley where they couldn't be shot.
As they managed to get out of the alley and escape the two men, sand suddenly appeared in front of them. It was none other than Vincent, now standing on the roof of the building in front of Velyna. Velyna stared at him with an annoyed expression, biting her tongue. Vincent laughed happily before saying, "Where will you run now?"