Elemental Academy: Rushing Waves (Silver Year)

Chapter 31: Height-ened Senses

It's June, as I said. However, we can't relax yet.

Nor can we let our guard down.

The ULs are back, and they're making a push into the Academy this time. According to the way Zap and Angel had described it to me, it was similar to the attack of the Corruption in the prior year.

"Well," Atlanteon said. "I've never seen these things in my life. But I do know that these are a threat to the Academy, and so I'm attacking them. You should do the same." With that, he charged a UL. Once he had said that, I figured that I could only talk to the Silver Electrics and Angel about this. Or perhaps Professor Elemental. Come to think of it, I haven't seen him all year.

💧 Electric Zone 💧

When I entered the Electric Zone, I saw five Silver Electrics exit the Academy. "What—where are the others?" I asked.

"Zap and Magnet are still preparing some things. Neutron is setting something up," Static said. "But for now, we have to fight. I just hope those gunners aren't there still." He spawned his sword. "Let's go!" The five of them charged towards a large group of ULs. I entered and saw Zap and Magnet sitting side by side on Zap's bed. I walked over to them. "Hello. Is this a bad time?"

"It's just some partner therapy," Zap explained. "You do realize that she was captured for a while by these things?"

"Ah, that's right. How do you feel about that, still, Magnet?" I asked.

"Well, Zap is helping me feel better about it. 'We killed them, remember?' helps a lot. Gives me faith that we can take them down easily."

"That's nice. Well, I'll leave you two to that." I proceeded into the other room to see Neutron sitting at his table, a lamp shining down on it, even with the sun out. "Greetings, Neutron. How goes it?"

"Oh, Pacifia. Hello there! I'm just working on something. It may or may not help us take down some Lucilfers. I just have to tweak a few more things..." He became silent and went back to working. I left him so he could focus.

With that done, I visited another friend of mine.

💧 Dark Zone 💧

"Hi, Angel!"

"Hey there, Pacifia. Did you need something?"

"No, I just wanted to talk. How are you feeling about this?"

"Well, it doesn't seem to be so tipped on one side so far. It seems balanced enough. Though, if they target the JC—"

"The JC! Nice talk Angel, I've got to—"

"Pacifia, they haven't targeted that spot yet! In fact, many Sapphires are there guarding the place anyway!"

"They are? Oh, good...um, so anyway, I wanted to have a conversation, if you can give up a few minutes."

"Yeah, that's fine. Can you stay in here?"

"Yes I can!" I was feeling fine in the Dark Zone now. "Okay, so let's talk about your potential fear of heights!"

"Now I've become uncomfortable in here...why do you want to talk about that?"

"As your friend, I want to either help you overcome it or understand it better."

"Alright, makes enough sense...well, imagine you're in the Dark. In fact, come inside. I won't hurt you." I walked into the Zone. I was blinded by the lack of brightness inside the building.

"In front of you could be a seventy foot drop, and you would never notice, because you can't see it, right?"

"Right. I'm not moving."

"It's all fine. Feel free to grab onto me if you wish. Anyway, I guess it's programmed into me that I can't get a perfect sense of how far down something is, and so I'm always worried that I could get seriously hurt from long drops. Which I definitely can. Though it does sound like it should be the other way, as I'm sure it is for other Darks, it isn't for me." By now, I was on Angel's bed, leaning on her. And it worked; I was able to see now. "And so, I have a fear of heights built into me. Or something of the sort. I don't really have acrophobia, but I certainly don't like being high up, as I'm sure you've seen." Suddenly, she sat up straight. "Oh, their numbers are multiplying. We've got to go fight. And they're near us too!" Angel stood up and ran out of the Zone.

"You left me behind!" I called as I ran out of the Zone as well. As I caught up with her, she said, "If they hit you or make physical contact at all, get near me. Remember, I'm a UL nerd. I've got them mostly figured out."

"Can I stay near you?" I asked, slightly worried.

"Why not?" she replied. I followed her to a crowd of three ULs, ready to attack us. They pulled out guns of some sort. "The gunners," Angel muttered. "Okay, so with these, you want to run quickly to dodge them while also closing in on them, so that once you get close, you can attack them and take them down. Watch." She did as she said: she ran in circles around the ULs and took one down as soon as she got close. She threw her sword towards another one and kicked the third one in its...chest? And stabbed it as her sword returned.

"So they're weak in close combat?" I asked.

"Precisely! Now, let's go fight!"

I figured that ducking while running would be a good idea, which was absolutely not true. I had to drop and roll to avoid a shot. Angel had her thing going for her, because she had ULs disappearing left and right. "Angel, what were the four attacks you were talking about?"

"Why do you ask? These are gunners. They have more advanced attacks. You don't need to know. But what I will tell you is that the gunners' only attack is shooting a direct shot, a burst of shots, or a blast shot, which takes a while to charge but deals massive damage.

"How can you tell when they're about to use a blast shot?"

"Like that." Angel charged me and sidebumped me. She stepped back as a dark blast of energy zipped between us. "It's like a direct shot, but it fires farther and is more lethal." She helped me up from the floor (which she knocked me down to in the first place).

The UL prepared to fire another blast shot but was blasted into ash by a lightning bolt. "What happened here?"

I turned around. "Zap?"

"Hey there. Did you two have fun?"

"You could say that." Angel brushed off her shoulder. "What brings you here?"

"I heard an explosion. I expected a Fire to be here, but I guess not. Well, looks like I'm sticking with you two now."

"Are you sure there isn't any other place you could help out at?"

"Avoiding me, are we, Angel?"

"No! It's just that we're already fine on our own. Maybe some other place needs your assistance."

"You could just say you're avoiding me. But you're right. I'll go check." Zap sped off. Angel turned to me and pointed towards the Nature Zone. "There's some trouble over there. Let's go help the Natures."

"They're across the Academy! How can you tell?"

"I just can. Come on, let's go."