Universal Power System

Angela's entire body became a fluid of dark mist that resembled both a liquid and gas at the same time with menacing purple eyes.

Her body resembled a lot like one of the nightmarish entities that Mako had faced in the forest just without the claws and the monster face.

Suddenly, Angela's purple eyes began to shine with a brighter light as her whole body expanded outwards in a bubble of dark and purple mist.

The mist quickly expanded in all directions, instantly covering Mako and the others and reaching several blocks in each direction, covering almost the entirety of the residential area inside the north wing of the village.

Being inside the dark and shadowy mist was an unreal experience as their field of view was severely restricted making them unable to view 2 feet in front of them. This was a status effect called "Blinded" which was inflicted on all living things that were within the dark mist.

However, since Mako and his team were allies, they didn't receive the full effects of what this skill was capable of doing, but the same couldn't be said for a group of people that were just within the boundary of the dark mist bubble.

Suddenly, Mako, Nathan, and Leon's visions lit up with red glowing silhouettes of several figures that were moving around in confusion far away in the distance. They had been blinded just like Mako and the others, but for them the case was different.

Moments later, the dark mist retracted back and condensed into the misty boy of Angela. The mist quickly cleared up from around her and she collapsed on the floor exhausted from the use of her skill.

Mako and the others had regained their field of vision but the people who were marked earlier and were being shown as glowing red figures in the distance were still showing.

"GO! That is the entrance to their base! I was able to blind and restrict the entrance only. Those people you see in the red figures are affected by my skill and are practically useless for the next three minutes. I wasn't able to reach deeper into their hideout, but it still should be enough for you to draw the rest of them out." Angela quickly explained while taking heavy breaths.

Mako, Leon, and Nathan quickly sprung into action as they bolted over to the glowing figures, determined to not waste a single second of the time that Angela had bought them.

Angela leaned herself against a wall as she continued to recover her strength hoping that she could recover in time before Victor himself showed up.

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

Mako and Leon were the first to arrive on the site which was a complex of several homes all surrounded by a single wall that only had one entrance with Nathan lagging a bit behind now that he didn't have an ability that could provide him with agility like before.

"I can't believe this! I definitely cleared this place before," Leon commented as his eyes focused on the glowing figures of five men moving around in confusion, and it was then that he realized.

The hideout wasn't inside one of the buildings on the surface, but rather it was underground.

Filled with rage at having missed such a crucial detail when checking through this area the first and the thought of his friends getting more tortured because of his mistake, Leon took the lead and dashed into the complex and straight down the secret hatch that was inside the security office.

Down underneath the hatch was a network of tunnels that looked to have been formed recently with a few lanterns and fire torches illuminating the area.

Right in front of Leon were the five guards that were meant to patrol the entrance, but right now they couldn't even figure out which direction they were facing as a small piece of purple shadow had attached itself to each of their eyes, making them completely blind and vulnerable for a limited time.

Leon, still seething with anger at his oversight, took the lead once again. With his Speed ability activated, he moved like a blur, darting between the disoriented guards. Using his Hardening ability, he struck each guard with precise, powerful blows, rendering them unconscious. His combination of speed and strength made quick work of the helpless guards.

As the guards fell to the ground, defeated, Mako and Nathan arrived at the scene. Mako's red fire-covered gauntlets and Nathan's fists crackling with explosions were at the ready, but they found no need to unleash their full powers on the knocked-out guards.

Before they could move on, the sound of approaching footsteps echoed through the tunnel. More reinforcements were on their way looking to find the cause of all the commotion.

As several more men reached the scene, they were met with the sight of their fallen comrades and the three intruders who had taken them down. The situation was chaotic, and it took them a moment to assess the situation.

However, the intruders were quick to act giving the reinforcements no time to make sense of what had just happened and what situation they had found themselves in.

Three of the men rushed to meet the attacks of the intruders while the others stood by to support one of them in the very back shouting an order in another language to a certain goon who quickly sprinted away from the battle to execute the order.

"Предупредить босса!(Translation: Warn the boss!)" The man had shouted.

One of the goons unleashed a burst of fire, creating a wall of flames that traveled forward scorching the ground as it did so. Mako met the attack head-on as his superior red-fire-engulfed gauntlets cut through the wall of fire with ease.

Mako brought a pen from his pocket which he quickly extended into his Storm Caller Staff in which he quickly began to supply Lightning aura.

Electrical Discharge was proven yet again to be a fantastic skill in this scenario as it would allow Mako and the others to deal some serious damage while all the reinforcements would be helpless as they become paralyzed by Mako's attack.

The crystal atop the Storm Caller staff crackled with electricity, indicating that it was ready for use; however, before Mako could slam the staff into the ground it would erupt a pulse of electricity, and a sudden quick attack knocked the staff straight out of Mako's hands alongside the gauntlet that he had on.

Mako looked back and saw his staff and gauntlet knocked several meters away with the gauntlet having a smoking hole torn through it that was still molten around the edges.

Mako looked the other way to see what had caused this sudden damage only to find one of the goons sitting in the exact same position he would be in when he cast a flame bullet.

The flame bullet from the goon had impacted on the gauntlet tearing right through it as it was indeed a low-tier armor after all.

Luckily, the force of the bullet had jerked Mako's entire arm backward such that the bullet stripped the gauntlet off his hand before it could finish tearing through.

Mako couldn't believe his luck as the flame bullet attack was fast enough that his perception wasn't even able to pick it up in time. If his hand arm handed jerked back in the way that it did, Mako would have now had a hole through his hand.

The goons didn't let Mako recover in the slightest as one more goon joined the assault against him totaling three. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Two of them were decent fire ability users. One of them was the one who had initiated the attack by casting the flame wall while the other was the one who had snipped away Mako's staff he had the aura level 5 fire ability user meanwhile the last guy had the wind ability and judging by his aura he looked quite strong as well.

Mako was given a brutal reminder that these weren't like the low-level thugs and gang members he had faced back in Emerald City. These were decently strong individuals chosen to be on a mission.

He activated his defensive stance and prepared himself for a battle that he knew he couldn't easily win.

On the other side of the tunnel, Leon was continuously getting assaulted by two Earth-ability users who worked in great sync with one another as they created obstacle after obstacle to restrict Leon from gaining momentum as he couldn't run in a straight path for long enough.

His fighting style was still heavily reliant on his speed ability and with him not having great control over turning at high speeds, his main source of offense was cut off by the enemy.

Now they had entered a stalemate as the two earth users continued to deny offense to Leon but couldn't really damage Leon either thanks to Leon's hardening.

In the middle of the tunnel, Nathan faced the remaining three goons which consisted of a Water user, a lightning user, and a fire user with all three of them being level 4 ability users.

Nathan's fists crackled with tiny explosions as he prepared himself for his first official fight in a mission.

He lunged forward and quickly extended and retracted his arms in the air, shooting out explosive blasts at the enemy with every iteration.

However, all of the explosions were caught and nullified by a water bubble that encapsulated all of them before they could deal any damage.

The other two goons spent no time because just as the water ability user blocked and nullified Nathan's attack, the two of them launched their respective elemental attacks toward Nathan, hoping to end him with a single strike.

Luckily, all those attacks were very slow for Nathan who could sense them coming from a mile away and was easily able to dodge both attacks.

Similar to Leon, Nathan's fight soon entered a stalemate as the water ability user made sure that he continuously blocked Nathan's one and only offensive ability while his comrades land a blow on him, but thanks to Nathan's Advanced Perception, the only thing getting damage was the ground and walls of the tunnel around them.