Inverse System

Sho continued dodging Jona's attacks, making several craters throughout the landscape in and around the church. Despite claiming that he was running out of energy, Jona was still having just as much difficulty landing an attack on the Econican prince.

"Tch, stop dodging!" Jona yelled as he slammed his drill into the ground yet again.

Sho began breathing heavily, in a show of terrible acting, clearly faking his fatigued state.

"Hah, you're breathing pretty hard there! Let's see you dodge this!" Jona lunged forward at him one more time, Sho standing at the center of the church, which had most of its walls broken, being held up by only its corner foundation.

As Jona propelled towards him, Sho gave off a calculated smirk, scoffing at the idiocy of his opponent. Sho jumped up from where he was standing, propelling upwards with a stream of fire, which Jona was hit by as he came under him. This caused Jona's drill to once again dig through the floor in the center of the church, while the fire not hurting him much as he formed a Spring negating drill on his head again.

Jona furiously pulled his arm out of the ground and stared at the floating prince above him, who while holding his left shoulder, removed his hand off of it for a brief moment to wave at Jona, who grew a confused expression.

"Huh?!" Jona outcried as the ground began rumbling under him, the very foundations of the floor of the area becoming unstable.

Suddenly, the entire terrain collapsed from under Jona, shattering like a piece of broken glass, crumbling down into the spiral maze that was underneath. Clouds of dust and rubble covered the hole in the ground, a messy flurry of broken stones and dirt filling the insides of the maze.

Sho continued hovering above the hole for a while longer, floating there in silence, waiting for something to happen.

"Get up! I know that's not all you've got!" Sho yelled into the hole, suddenly feeling another tremor arise from the earth, even he, who was floating, could feel the pressure of the power emanating.

A loud, hysterical laugh could be heard from inside the rubble, the clouds of dust finally clearing as Sho saw Jona standing on a pile of debris in the hole.

"You're gonna regret saying that," Jona remarked with a wide smile on his face, the laughter clearly having emanated from him.

Jona's skin suddenly turned a shade of light pink, the pressure he was exuding being multiplied exponentially.

"This is my full power! Have fun fighting me now!" He yelled as he suddenly jumped up to Sho's position, arriving at his spot in the air at untraceable speeds.

Sho could barely react, dodging to the left at the very last second, a distressed look on his face.

"Oh no you don't!" Jona remarked as he suddenly flung his leg backward, hitting Sho on his right arm this time with an incredibly powerful kick, fracturing the bone in his right arm.

Sho let out a pained grunt just like before, Jona smirking as he turning his foot into a drill, causing it to grind against Sho's arm in friction, Sho, unable to defend against it using his Spring, which was being nullified.

Before his arm fell off, Sho was able to use the fire on his feet to propel himself away, landing on the rubble under him, both of his arms now unusable.

"Heh, impressive. You managed to survive an attack while I'm in this form," Jona complimented, used to finishing his opponents off fast after he transformed.

Sho was now genuinely breathing heavily, the fatigue and pain weighing down on his body immensely, his mind beginning to haze due to the blood loss.

"Looks like you're gettin' tipsy there. You wanna take a nap?" Jona laughed, readying his drill one more time. "I'll give you a nap! A nice and long one!" Jona ran across the mountains of debris, heading straight towards the dazed prince.

However, when all hope seemed lost, when defeat was almost certain, Sho scoffed a laugh, lifting his leg up and slamming it down on the ground under him in an explosion of inferno, once again causing the foundations of the maze under them to shake, almost like an earthquake.

"The hell?!" Jona stopped in the middle of his dash, beginning to lose his balance as the floor began falling under him, seeing the view of a glowing cavern right under them.

A little bit earlier, inside the cave…

There was a sudden rumbling above them that they heard, causing the cavern to shake slightly. This was when Sho and Jona toppled the first layer of floor above.

"What in the world is that moron Jona doing?!" Shuna yelled as it interrupted the staredown between her and the 2 who just landed in front of them.

"Just ignore it Shuna. We need to take care of these guys first," Emma walked to the yellow-haired woman's side and readied her slingshot, Shuna taking a deep breath to calm down.

"You're right, I'm sorry," Shuna apologized, then sternly stared at Rein. "You did well to block that attack. I'm impressed. I was not expecting you to be so powerful. You certainly don't seem it," Shuna complimented, to which Rein laughed.

"Oh come on, you're making me blush," he answered playfully, Chloe giving him a smack on the head.

"I don't think that was meant to be a compliment, idiot," she angrily scolded, Rein rubbing the back of his head with his sword.

"Haha, anyways, we're gonna need the prince you're holding back there," Rein stood up straight after bending down from Chloe's blow. "Dunno what kind of game you're playing by holding him hostage, but you know that this crime could be punishable by death, right? If the king finds out about your involvement, he'll have your heads," Rein explained.

After Rein said that, the 2 women looked at each other in confusion, tilting their heads at each other, then looked back at Rein.

"Does it look like we care?"