Resonance

XLI. Tag Team

"I didn't even see the attack!" announced Apollo, standing up as Kirin held her with her shoulder.

"Must've been from behind then," said Milo, already making up a plan.

"What are we going to do?" asked Diablo.

"Chances are that they're common bandits after our supplies," replied Kirin, "But don't let that let your guard down."

"There it comes!" yelled Milo, pointing at a figure with a mask dashing at Diablo, and cutting his leg, "Attack it!"

However, before they could attack the figure, it traveled back to where it came from, like it was dashing backwards. It was like if a person was rewinding the events that occurred! However, Diablo' wound was still intact.

"That was an Oculi member, wasn't it?" asked Kirin, now panicking from the seriousness of the situation, "Diablo, I'm gonna come to you and heal your wounds."

"Yeah," replied Milo, "I don't know what just happened, but I've already got a plan brewing in my head.

Cover your necks! I've noticed that the Oculi member is aiming for vulnerabilities! First, the leg to prevent mobility. He could be after our—"

Suddenly, the Oculi member dashed again, aiming for Diablo's neck, just as Milo had predicted. Yet even with Diablo covering his neck with his hand, his neck was cut by the knife that the Oculi member held! The Oculi member then returned back to where it came from in the same fashion.

Kirin rushes over to patch up the wound, confused on what just happened, "Diablo's hand is far from injured. It's like the knife went through the hand!"

"It's as if the target is already locked on," noted Apollo, walking over to Diablo and inspecting her leg, "I was sliced by the leg, but my pants aren't torn at all."

"Was he even trying to kill me?" asked Diablo curiously, "The neck wound isn't even that deep.."

"It was probably because you were holding your hand over your neck," said Apollo as she cupped a snowball in one hand, "Even though it seemed like the hand wasn't affected, it could've softened the blow of the knife."

"Aren't you guys noticing that the Oculi member keeps reverting back to where it came from?" asked Milo, "We got to be ready!"

Soon, the Oculi member attacked once again, aiming for Milo's exposed neck! However, as the Oculi member scratched Milo's neck with his knife, his own neck was scratched! He coughed blood in shock.

"I knew you would come after me!" yelled Milo, exposing his neck on purpose so that his Redirection Scroll could deal damage, "I'll take you down!"

However, before Milo could run after the Oculi member, his wounds healed as he reverted back to where he came from once again.

"Damn it!" complained Milo in frustration, "This reversion of his completely reverts all of his body, even his wounds!"

"He keeps coming from the side of the mountain," noted Kirin, "But it's too dangerous to check there, with a risk of being ambushed."

"We might have to check soon if we can't think of any other ways to defeat these guys.." mumbled Milo.

...

"Don't push yourself too hard," worried another Oculi member as she reverted the other Oculi member back, "These students were trained by Chroma and Sona. We can't be too cocky, Isaac. I'm concerned for you."

"Sorry, Franziska," replied the Isaac, the Oculi member, "But they're slowly figuring out our abilities. I can't let them know."

"I'll take care of it if we reach that situation," responded Franziska, "For now, aim for the heart. They're too focused on covering their necks to know that we can kill them using their hearts as well."

...

"There!" yelled Diablo as the Oculi member dashed forth, aiming for the heart.

"No, you don't!" yelled Apollo, swiping her hand to erase the space between them.

Isaac, out of instinct, fought back with his knife, trying to slicing Apollo's cheek. However, as Isaac went for the second attack, he noticed that he wasn't grasping a knife anymore. It was just snow!

"I've used Amalgamation to fuse your knife with my snowball!" yelled Apollo as she kicked Isaac away after stabbing him with another knife.

"I've got him!" announced Kirin as she held Isaac's arms, "You're not escaping any time soon!"

However, just as he did earlier, Isaac was reverted back to where he came from. No amount of force could stop him from reverting back and healing his wounds. The knife dropped as if it never hurt Isaac at all.

"And just when we had him!" said Diablo disappointingly.

"We do have him!" smiled Kirin as she pulled her string, which she had wrapped around Isaac when she grabbed his arms earlier, "Like we said, you're not escaping any time soon!"

"Damn it!" yelled Isaac, returning back to the group without a weapon.

"Isaac!" yelled Franziska, "Cut off the string quick so that I can revert you back once again!"

Isaac was about to use his teeth to chew the string off until the string was set ablaze! He shouted in pain.

Kirin held the string tightly and pulled on it, the flames on the string melting the snow below it, "Stop resisting!"

"It's time, Isaac!" yelled Franziska, reverting Isaac back to his original position, "The situation I mentioned before!"

—

"We have no choice but to pull on the string and follow him!" announced Kirin, pulling on the string.

"Alright!" replied Milo, "We'll follow you! So far, we know that there's two Oculi members, judging from the voices that we heard behind the mountainside. The main one has the ability to lock onto a target and hit it no matter what. The other has some sort of reversion ability to heal wounds and return another person back. It's like a tag team."

As the group ran to behind the mountainside, they saw multiple Oculi members staring them down. Upon closer inspection, Apollo realized that there were just two Oculi members multiplied! The string wasn't useful anymore since it was connected to all of them.

"You guys see that right?" whispered Apollo, "It's a hall of mirrors!"

Suddenly, Milo was sliced by the leg. Kirin dropped the string and went over to Milo to patch his wounds. Isaac's targeting and Franziska's reversion and mirrors made it difficult for them to fight head-on. However, they needed to do something or they'd slowly die.