‘Kai.’ Luhan said through gritted teeth, knowing the fact that Heejin must be watching. But that wasn’t his main concern. Not yet.

The other guy showed no signs of recognition to Luhan. His eyes blank almost in a daze, without expression. But the cold blade pressed against Luhan’s throat showed full intent of murder. Kai was ready to kill him if Luhan hadn’t anticipated his move; he could already been dead.

Kai’s teleportation was fast. He didn’t even need Bionic back on EXOPLANET. Thank god Luhan was fast enough, he knew his comrades better than anybody else. All those days, months and years of training together wasn’t just a bluff. No matter how fast Kai was, he had a habit of taking a small step forward each time he attempted a teleport. Luhan knew his brothers better than anyone could've imagined. 

The man before him was Kai and at the same time not him. Luhan could feel the muscles flexing under those sleeves but this man, wasn’t Kai. This man was programmed to kill. Luhan felt the tip digging into his throat but his own hands didn’t move to stop. He couldn’t bring himself to kill Kai afterall and a bitter laugh escaped his throat.

Meanwhile in the corner of his eyes the rest were already engaged in battle. The ground shook suddenly as if an earthquake had hit the area. Luhan was sure that must be D.O’s ‘Earthquake’. At the same time, Kai lost his balance and in that split second, Luhan saw an opening and aimed his blades at his limbs. One barely scraped his knees, not enough to immobilize him but enough for Luhan’s row of men to keep Kai busy. Luhan was thankful to D.O in a distance, who had created a small crater in the middle of the field.

Kai’s teleportation wasn’t exactly perfect; he couldn’t teleport in mid-air or without both feet on the ground and his movement weren’t exactly smooth, not when he seemed to be controlled by something or someone.

Were they injected with something? Luhan looked around and realized that all of them have the same soulless eyes and unnatural movements.

He was about to call Kai’s name but right then he felt a fast movement right behind him and a hand stuck out right above his shoulders like a claw. He'd heard the loud buzzing sound right beside his ear, and a blue ray of light hit the rocks before him with an explosion. He’d grabbed the wrist and flipped the person forward. The figure landed skillfully on his legs after a 180 degrees forward flip. Of course, it was Chen.

‘Chen! What do you think you’re doing?!’ Luhan shouted above the noise but of course it was futile. Chen leaped muderously forward again, the buzzing ball of electricity aiming for Luhan's face. But the latter ducked and drove a punch to his guts. Chen’s body fell back and slid across the ground from impact. Luhan had used almost full force at point-blank range. It should have caused some internal injuries, but Chen stood up again expressionless, nothing to indicate pain he could've sustained.

‘Chen! I’m Luhan. Chen! Did you really forget me?! Those days-‘ Luhan tried again, hoping his voice could finally reach him. 

Chen charged yet again, this time with lightning looking streaks of light extending from his palms. Luhan recognized that move. It was his finishing move – Ignis. Those 500volts could easily kill a human being let alone GMIs with special training. The battle ground wasn’t exactly to Luhan’s advantage. There were close to zero things for telekinesis and he was wondering if Park Dong Hoon could send him some help. Of course, his thoughts didn’t go unanswered.

A vent opened in one of the rocks and Luhan pulled 5 metal orbs out, each about half the size of an average basketball and the vent closed as soon as it opened, leaving no signs of an opening. So much for technology.

Those orbs aren’t ordinary metal looking balls. Luhan had trained with these for the past weeks. They were all made of specially enhanced alloy metal, unbreakable and capable of withstanding high heat. Heejin had named them Balls of Steel. 

Luhan remembered the times she had with her unique naming sense. 

Heejin... 

He almost got distracted by those thoughts while Chen attempted to unleashed Ignis at only arm’s length. Luhan took a huge leap back right away. Fortunately the attack struck Luhan’s Orbs instead, which then hovered around Chen. He then pushed the Orbs, which made a hoop of buzzing electricity currents they've absorbed from Chen's attack, and began closing in on him.

'A taste of your own medicine.' This time without hesitation, Luhan simply waved his hands and the Orbs counter-released the remaining of Chen’s very own electricity. Luhan turned away when Chen's body twitched upon impact. Being immune to ones’ own powers didn’t meant ability to go unscathed. The voltage wasn’t fatal but enough to injure and paralyze.

He was already beside Chen when the latter fell to his knees. He’d hit the back of Chen’s neck with the blade of his hand incase he tried to attack again. That was when he noticed the unusual, now fading, red glow on a small of his neck.

He was a 100% sure now that they were injected with some mind-controlling chip whatever. And somehow he managed to get a hit on the exact spot with some great luck, knocking Chen unconscious in the process.

One down.

And that surprise find was a really great piece of information.  

Merely dodging a stray Ice-Blade attack, Glacie, from xiumin which Yongguk successfully dodged too, Luhan switched on the earpiece-like transmitter attached in his right ear and immediately he was hearing shouts of warnings and orders from everywhere in the battle ground.

He winced. That was why he didn’t like turning it on. Too noisy. Hard to concentrate. Kai was now engaged in combat with Tiffany. Luhan was surprised how fast that girl was. Her long legs even managed to land a few hard kicks on his sides but of course Kai fell but got up and teleported behind her, landing a side kick to her arms. But the look on her face suggested she didn't need any help. 

But this wasn’t the time to watch how the others were doing. Luhan draped Chen over his shoulders and put him under a huge boulder. He almost glanced up, because somewhere within this boulder, lies the hidden tower where Heejin was. 

While ordering two free soldiers on watch, he was going to speak into the transmitter when he heard Dongwoo's voice transmission.

‘They kept coming back at us! Are they zombies or what!?’

Luhan pitched his Orbs over to deflect another stray attack from xiumin while half-shouting over the transmitter in the process.

‘Aim for a glowing spot on the right side, somewhere under the ear. That was where they were injected with whatever that was controlling them. I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure on the location but it is definitely worth a try!’

A few seconds later it was Hoya who replied. ‘We got two silver-hair down! Yes!’

Luhan smirked and turned his attention back to the unconscious Chen. There was another voice now.

‘Get the chip out.’ It was Park Dong Hoon who gave the order.

‘I can't simply remove it! I might really kill him in the process!’

Somewhere, a ball of fire flew over and exploded a few yards away from Luhan. He crouched at the sudden force and hauled the Orbs towards himself to deflect the shattered rock pieces but one still managed to scrap his cheek.

‘Is it deactivated?’ Park asked finally. 

Luhan turned Chen’s neck to the side to have a better look. ‘I don't know. But it isn’t pulsing now.’ 

‘Better be safe than sorry.’

Then there was a click sound indicating that the remaining message was for everyone else.

‘Drag them to the gates. We’ll remove the chips, hopefully they recover while you guys,’ he paused. ‘Win.’

Then the voice transmitting ended followed by Yongguk’s voice through the ear piece.

‘Luhan! Not all are attacking. I think Ji Hyun Jin are controlling them someh-.’ His voice ended abruptly and Luhan felt a strong gust of wind from Yongguk’s direction, sweeping up a wave of sand and rocks. It must’ve belonged to Sehun; Tempestas.

Luhan whipped his head towards the spot in the middle and Yongguk was right. Among the parties in combat, there was a calm spot right in the middle where no attacks got even near close. But there was where Suho, Lay and Tao were.

Suho doesn’t really have enough water in this area to fully utilize, he must be there purely as defense unless he magically dug up a stream. Tao must be the main who was attacking and absorbing major attacks. With his Time Control; Tempus, he will have no problem fending off direct elemental threats but practically useless towards direct physical attacks from GMIs, though Luhan wouldn’t doubt Tao’s combat skills at all. Tao was always naturally the best when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. But Lay, he must be placed there to plainly act as a cleric since his skills major in healing and reconstructing, furthermore combat skill wasn’t exactly his forte.  

He came to a conclusion. If only he can get to Lay.

Chen fell into the gap in the gate and it closed shut at once. Knowing that Chen will now be in safe hands, Luhan pulled himself up and began running towards Daehyun, who was fighting with his own counterpart. It wasn’t a problem to differentiate who was the Earth Daehyun, because the other Daehyun’s eyes weren't far from hollow.

But he wasn’t going for Daehyun. He ran past them, sliding under their high kicks and then back up, past Tiffany, who got the last blow right into Kai’s ribs. He heard Kai coughed but he didn't stop to see. 

‘Actually needing a hand here!’ It was Dongwoo again. Apparently he was fighting Baekhyun who was nicknamed the magician of EXO. Dongwoo's predicament was a real problem. He wasn’t just fighting Baekhyun; it was 5 and at times 8 or more Baekhyuns attacking at the same time. The trick was finding the real one. Light does wonders and thus, gave birth to this ultimate illusional based skill; Magus.

‘Got Kai.’ Tiffany’s cold, calm voice came through and Luhan sped up towards Dongwoo, barely flipping over Chanyeol’s incoming blazing flames, Aestus. That tall giant had already knocked down half of Tiffany’s troops and when Luhan turned, Tiffany has already engaged him. No time to rest huh. 

Driving his Orbs towards the Baekhyun images, they vanished like distorted projections and then reappeared again. Using this gap, Luhan leaped into the Baekhyun-Circle joining Dongwoo back-to-back.

‘God this is exhausting.’ Dongwoo said over his shoulders. Meanwhile Hoya successfully, finally, managed to get a bullet through Jongup’s thigh. The latter fell at once and Hoya aimed a hit at that pulsing red glow in his neck, knocking him unconscious.

While looking at the dizzy images of expressionless Baekhyun’s, Luhan had finally got a bit of time to think. ‘Isn’t everything going a little too smoothly?’

‘What did you say?’ Dongwoo shouted over the noise.

‘At this rate, we’ll definitely win.’ Luhan shouted this time and felt Dongwoo went stiff almost getting a one-two punch from Baekhyun if not for Luhan’s Orbs.

‘Concentrate!’

‘I know!’

But Luhan was right. They might have half of them down but things were going a little too smoothly. As if Ji Hyun Jin has already expected this outcome. The tiny shield he formed with Suho, Tao and Lay stayed rooted to the same spot while everyone else were engaged in combats around that calm circle. It was actually pretty unnerving to watch.

But Luhan was right. There was a static beep in the ear piece and Park’s voice came through again.

‘Incoming. Southwest, 7 people.’ He paused again. ‘GMIs.’

His voice rang in Luhan’s ears. But he continued. ‘Southeast, 7 people.’ He did that dramatic pause again but this time a hopeful note. ‘Backups!’ 

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