Like two race cars, they both went at great speed. That was how everyone present saw the clash between Urion and the Galactic Wolf Podbe.
Face to face, Urion used his new claw-shaped hands to inflict damage on the super-developed canine. However, the latter also protected himself from the guardian's slashes using his enormous claws on his front paws. Sparks flew every time these claws met; their strength was equal, as neither opponent's claws weakened nor broke.
Urion realized that he couldn't win hand-to-hand or claw-to-claw combat unless he used another tactic. He decided to perform two somersaults in the air to maintain distance from his opponent. His arms began to move like waves, preparing to launch his arms from afar. Now that his tentacles were his arms, he could stretch them like those elastic superheroes from comics or a video game fighter.
Podbe tried to block the attack as he did when the guardian was close, but every time Urion's hands approached, he showed a sinister smile, making his upper limbs redirect at the last second, causing the wolf to miss and his claws to strike the sides of his body.
With each hit, the wolf growled in pain as the claws dug into his body, blue blood flowing from the wounds. "That's it," Urion told himself. "I see, it's time to increase the speed." His arms began to move at a speed that seemed imperceptible to the wolf, hitting him all over his body, weakening the great animal.
"Yikes! " That's a big problem, Gat commented from his position. "If he keeps doing that maneuver, Podbe won't be able to hurt him, and worse, he'll have him at his mercy to finish him off," Dani and Gin indicated.
"And if he finishes him off, then he'll come for us," said Maria and Billy, worried.
"Calm down, guys, let's not lose hope yet," Eduard indicated, now feeling better as he stood beside them, giving them a hug with his only arm. The two just cried and hugged him while Elena continued to be worried about the fight and, more than the fight, about Aiden's fate after being eaten by his dog. She couldn't believe it, her gaze was lost.
"Relax," Marie indicated, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I know you're worried, you've been through a lot in such a short time: the death of your father and now the boy you like has just been swallowed. But you know, life goes on." "There might be a glimmer of light at the end of all this tragedy." "Life is always teaching us new things every moment."
Elena turned, looked Marie in the eyes, and gave her a tight hug with tears in her eyes. The woman just managed to console her, placing a hand on the teenager's head.
"Wow, who would have thought you'd be the sentimental type underneath all that serious exterior," Ezequiel said to Marie as he stood up from the ground. The atmosphere felt heavy, like a volcano, with an eruption of lava and everything coming out of it.
"What did you say?" Marie asked in a threatening voice, squeezing Elena so tightly she almost ran out of breath.
"No, I didn't say anything, it was a joke," Ezequiel responded, trembling.
The others started laughing, breaking the tension in the air. Then Gat indicated: "Look," and they all turned to continue watching the fight, where they could see Podbe almost lying on the ground from all the wounds inflicted by Urion.
The battle was once again turning in favor of the antagonist, who delighted in how things were going his way.
Inside Podbe, Aiden, now in the illuminated space and seeing Chad up close again, realized that the man he called Chad looked very much like someone he saw in his visions the first time he connected with Podbe.
"You look familiar." "You were in the scenes we saw during the connection with Podbe," Aiden said.
"Yes, that's right, that's why I knew I had seen him somewhere. Also, I remembered that voice; it's like talking to Podbe." "It's the voice I downloaded that time so we could understand each other," Reia added. "Are you also a part of the system?" she asked Chad.
"A part of a system?" "Does a dog have my voice?" These were questions he didn't know how to answer because there was confusion in his head. "Well, I don't have the answers to your many questions. I still have gaps in my mind, like a tornado is running through it. What I can do is help you communicate with him."
At that moment, the teenager turned his eyes back to the large monitor and exclaimed, "Oh no, poor Podbe!" seeing his friend injured. "No, not again, I don't want to lose you again," he added.
Suddenly, the entire room changed from being illuminated with radiant lights to a dangerous red color. On the big screen, an alarm also appeared with a warning message that said: "Danger, danger levels are reaching a critical state. Emergency protocol activation required."
"What is that?" Reia asked.
"I don't know, it's the first time I've seen it," Chad indicated.
"Maybe we need to contact Podbe to fix this," Aiden said.
"I don't think a dog knows how to fix this kind of thing," Chad said.
"But we can try," Aiden insisted. "You said you could contact him, please."
Chad looked at him and said, "Alright."
He pressed a button, and from the ceiling where he was sitting, a virtual reality-like helmet and closed gloves that looked like handcuffs came down.
"You need to put that on," Chad pointed out.
Aiden, who was a bit scared because of what happened in the inverted pyramid, didn't want to go there. Chad looked at him and said:
"What's wrong?" "Didn't you tell me you wanted to communicate with your dog?"
"Wait," said Reia, "the thing is, he's afraid of that kind of helmet and being tied to chairs and those things. There's no time to explain everything, but I'll just say that he was hurt a lot in an experiment."
"I can't understand how someone can hurt a child so much," Chad responded, looking at the boy with a desire to console him.
"Then I'll go," Reia indicated. She sat down and put on the helmet and gloves. "Okay, how do I communicate with him?" she said, "Although I can't see anything."
"I don't think you can. The light needs to activate and change from red to blue in the part where your eyes go."
"And how do you know that?" she asked him.
"It's because I read the manual that's in one of the desk drawers, and it said it needs to turn blue to make contact. I tried it too, but without success, just like you."
"Maybe it's because we're not real to his system," Reia wondered to herself. "The only one who might be able to do it is him," pointing to Aiden, but just seeing all that scared him. "What can we do?" she said, taking off the helmet and gloves.
Chad looked at Aiden, who had a frightened look as if he had seen a horror movie, and said:
"Hey, did you see that nothing happened to her? Why don't you try it? I promise nothing will happen. Besides, you're a brave kid... I mean, teenager, aren't you? And you want to save your dog."
Aiden swallowed and wanted to muster up the courage, but his body wouldn't let him. Chad spoke to him again:
"Look, I'll protect you if something goes wrong."
"And so will I," Reia said, interrupting.
She approached the boy and looked at him, saying:
"I'm not going to force you to do anything," Aiden said. Do it by your own choice and if you feel comfortable. We're in a predicament, boy. Take your time, but "I don't know how much longer the wolf can hold on in that state."
In Aiden's mind, there were many contradictions. One voice said, "Do you think you can do it?" as another figure, identical to him, appeared. Other voices said, "Why should you do it?" We're already dead or inside a wolf's belly. Besides, wasn't all the suffering they put you through enough? " Do you want more? But then, another nervous voice, which seemed to be the voice of reason, said, "Come on, you can do it." "There's always a new moment and hope around the corner." It was something one of the orphanage sisters used to tell him. Well, not exactly like that. The phrase was: "Everyone has the opportunity for a new beginning." "No matter where you're headed, if you go forward with love and happiness, you will always find a new dawn." "That makes no sense," the other voices said threateningly. "There's no tomorrow for you, you'll always be a worthless orphan," said other individuals resembling him, surrounding him.
"No, enough!" Aiden, illuminated by a blue light, appeared in front of all the others, which were red. "Aiden, what are you afraid of?" he said to himself. "Not finding a family? Not being loved? Losing your friends? This is just a hurdle; you can overcome it. Come on, you've always been an adventurer ready to help. Besides, it's just a helmet, it won't hurt you. Go for your friend."
Back in reality, pulling out of the trance he had been in for a few moments, Aiden said to himself, "I must do it, move my body, you can do it. Speak, let me hear my voice again. It's for a good reason: I need to save Podbe."
With that, the boy turned to look at both Reia and Chad in the eyes and, gathering courage, said:
"Alright, I'll do it."
He walked towards the chair. Behind him, both were happy with the boy's decision, smiling. The two who accompanied him kept encouraging him, saying "you can do it," though Chad was more like, "if he wants to back out, I'll take him anyway."
Aiden sat down and Reia placed the helmet and gloves on him, saying:
"Good luck."
The helmet's light changed from red to blue in an instant.
"If my assumption was correct," Reia said to herself, watching Aiden vibrate a little. The helmet and gloves adhered to the seat. A loud scream of pain was heard from Aiden.
"What's happening?" she asked, frightened and regretful about having led him to the machine.
"Relax, it's just a moment of pain, like it says in the book," Chad indicated.
"Which book and why didn't you tell us that?" Reia snapped.
"It's that, if I told you it was going to hurt, you wouldn't have let him put on that equipment."
But before the two could start arguing, the boy's scream subsided and turned into a sigh, and with a sweet voice, he said:
—Podbe, is that you? —smiling.