Devotio

Chapter 7

Ryoga shouted as his brother was engulfed. The others all turned to see the same thing they'd seen a few days ago on the training field, only this time the attack wouldn't be halted by their yelling.

"Honestly, did you really believe it to be that easily?" Ota's voiced echoed through the air but he was nowhere to be seen.

Tezuka gritted his teeth. "Inui!"

"I don't understand." Inui was baffled. "There is no way he could have survive that shot."

Ryoga watched as his brother struggled. It wasn't like the first time he was trapped; then he was calm, as if daring Arai to keep him in there. This time he was panicked, hell from what he was told when the two of them were first contacted, he was horrified. If he didn't figure a way out, he would become one of those people in the cages.

"You can't free him." Ota appeared next to Ryoga. "Not while he's in my grasp." Before he could react, Ryoga was flung back into the regulars by a jet of water.

"How are you standing?" Oishi shouted as he peered to the injury he had received only to see it wasn't there. "How did-"

"'Emotions are said to be the embodiment of the soul and that feeds into the general controlling of the M-Gene.' That's the most basic thing everyone should know. Through Chargarde's research we've been able to prove it. Control your emotions and you control your gene; make it bend to your will." No one expected what happened next. Ota suddenly became transparent, the very water he was able to control.

"That's not possible." Fuji said.

"Quite the contrary, this is very much possible. See, everyone with the gene has an emotional mindset that allows them to attack at full power. Mine is anger and you all just really seem to piss me off." Jets of water bolted up from the ground. "I don't even need to cast spells in this state which I'm sure is another surprise to you."

No one said a word. Apparently Chargarde had no idea Echizen was able to cast spells with just a glance. Ryoga glanced back to his brother and nodded.

Ota saw. "Surprised he's still conscious? See it would be a problem if anything happened to him so I'm putting oxygen in the water. And shorty, I know you have electric powers." The water spouts crossed over the regulars. "You try to shock me and they also get it. Then again- they'll get it anyways."

The spouts formed into basketball sized spheres and started circling. Momo was exhausted from the previous attack so he wasn't able to put another bubble around them and Kikumaru, Oishi, and Kaidou didn't exactly have the right gene to produce a shield.

"This has been fun and all but we really need to get going." With a swish of his finger, Ota let the orbs fly at them. Echizen felt helpless. If it were any other occasion, he would've let his magic run wild but he wouldn't risk the others getting hurt. He watched as the water pelted them until Ota called a halt, only after a dull mist had formed. He scoffed at what he saw; Ryoga stood with his arms extended, lightly panting with piles of snow surrounding them.

"Did you forget water freezes?" Ryoga taunted.

"Oh no. What ever will I do?" Ota's voice was melancholy. He created more, smaller spheres and had them rain down on the group for a longer period of time. Once again when he stopped, no one was injured and Ryoga was standing there with his arms extended. "I'm getting irritated."

"Oh no. What ever will you do?"

"Ryoga-san, a spell of that magnitude requires an immense amount of power." Inui whispered.

"I'm alright Inui-san." He held his hand over the snow that was piled in front of him. "Lancea." The snow on the ground formed into a lance.