Dante
Come out, Kyd. I know you're in there. Don't make this harder than it needs to be."
Dante spoke while gripping his handgun, his sword resting at his hip. He stepped into a metals company warehouse, tracing Kyd's hiding spot.
"Look, man. The Organization just wants to talk to you about your power, nothing more... They won't hurt you, I promise."
Kyd emerged from the shadows, a faint scoff escaping his lips. "You think I'm running from you?... You're an idiot for following me here."
Dante leveled his gun at Kyd, setting his stance as his focus tightened. "Believe me, we don't want to be your enemy... Just come with me and see for yourself."
Kyd snorted, raising a hand to cut Dante off entirely. Gale-force winds began to swirl around him with a sharp, piercing whistle. Tension crept onto Dante's face, yet he pressed forward into the growing storm.
Sheets of metal peeled away from the racks, orbiting Kyd to form a swirling shield. In the blink of an eye, Kyd hurled a metal plate straight at Dante.
Dante drew his sword in a fluid blur, slicing the plate in two. Closing his eyes, he tuned out everything except the sounds around him. He felt the heat of Kyd's body shifting, heard the rapid thrum of his heartbeat, and held his ground—blade in one hand, gun in the other.
Then, in a fraction of a second, Dante vanished from sight.
Kyd blinked. Dante was gone—not in front of him, not behind him. How could a mere human without powers pull off a trick like that?
"Your wind is just air," Dante's voice echoed through the room. "And air can be pierced."
Confusion flared in Kyd's mind. Unable to pinpoint the voice, he expanded his wind barrier.
BANG.
A gunshot rang from behind. Spotting Dante's position, Kyd unleashed a violent blast of wind backward in self-defense.
Driven by the rushing wind, the bullet bounced backward straight toward Dante. It was completely unexpected, yet with a flash of movement, he sliced the bullet in two.
Kyd began to float into the air. The warehouse walls trembled violently, unable to withstand the sheer force of the wind he released. Dante felt his footing slip. Then, he noticed Kyd's eyes slowly turning pure white.
"Stop it, Kyd! This is madness!" Dante shouted.
Ignoring him completely, Kyd rose until his head touched the warehouse ceiling. He pumped even more air into the space, crushing Dante under immense pressure. Dante felt his body being slowly ground down, his bones shivering beneath the weight.
Dante raised his gun and fired five consecutive shots.
Kyd deflected the first, then the second. The third pierced right through his protective layer of air, though it missed his body. The fourth buried itself into his shoulder, while the fifth grazed his head—a hair's breadth from fatal.
Kyd plummeted from the air, clutching his bleeding shoulder as blood gushed without pause.
Dante struggled to his feet, trying to push forward, but his exhausted body was barely recovering. He couldn't take another step.
Kyd limped out of the warehouse, holding his shoulder, and broke into a desperate sprint without looking back. Dante forced himself to give chase, every step tearing through his body as breathing grew harder by the second.
Kyd glanced back, catching sight of the stubborn human still trailing him.
"Damn you... do you really want to die that badly?!"
Dante offered no reply. He just kept running, bathed in pain, dragging out ragged breaths.
Kyd stopped abruptly and spun around. With a flick of his right hand, he released a compressed blast of wind like a bullet.
The hit slammed straight into Dante's chest, dropping him to the ground, paralyzed.
Kyd stood over him, spitting venom. "Damn you, human... Don't you dare get back up."
With that, he vanished into the dark, leaving Dante sprawled on the ground, struggling in vain to draw air. A strange sensation seized him; all he could do was fight for a single breath.
Just then, the chop of helicopter blades echoed nearby. A woman's frantic voice exploded through his earpiece:
"Are you alive?! Answer me!... Hurry! Move! He's dying!"
A squad of men clad in crimson swept in, lifting him instantly. Dante could see them clearly, but the words wouldn't come. All he could do was keep fighting to breathe.
He saw the raw panic on their faces—especially the woman he recognized, her voice still echoing in his earpiece as she ran beside his stretcher, eyes wide with fear.
"Hold on, Dante! Hold on!"
Dante couldn't hear her. He was waging a silent battle with every passing second; that wind bullet had cracked at least one rib.
They loaded him onto the chopper, taking off instantly. As the woman screamed for him to stay with her, Dante's vision slowly sank into pitch-black darkness.
