NOVEMBER 12TH, 11:16 A.M.
"It's been entirely too quite for way too long… When will Yuta make a move?"
Underneath an overpass, Furōkawa hung upside down from beneath the bridge, his wings furled in. There was a faint mist seeping near the area, obscuring his location while also setting a proper defense while he waited that sorcerers would understandably avoid. He was a small distance away from the hotel that his captives were staying. Around 15 minutes passed of strict patience, until there was an unknown sound of insect chittering bustling down the street.
"What. The hell. WAS THAT?!"
Furōkawa absolutely hates insects. Any bug that exists is his mortal enemy, and would not waste a single drop of power to destroy them.
Shortly after the noise stopped, an extremely loud boom rang through the neighborhood.
'The deadlock!! Yuta made his move!!'
Furōkawa opened his wings and dropped from the ceiling, masterfully maneuvering from under the bridge and up into the sky. To his surprise, there was a suspiciously long line of recent destruction that stretched through block after block.
'There's two other sorcerers… Ishigori Ryu and Takako Uro… 77 points and 70 respectively. Pretty strong players.'
Furōkawa decided that hanging in the air would garner some attention, but assumed if they hadn't attacked yet, they were either occupied or intimidated.
Furōkawa was hoping for the latter.
It wasn't until a super large beam of energy blew through the streets of Sendai, did Furōkawa start worrying a little bit more.
"It's possible that all the non-sorcerers haven't been evacuated… that guy needs to get gone!"
Furōkawa flew into the fray without a second to waste, spotting the player with the highest cursed energy output in the Culling Games— Ryu Ishigori!
There!
Furōkawa spotted Ryu from high in the sky. The plan was rather simple, two options at play here.
Either fire a spear from his current position and possibly destroy him in one shot..
Or initiate a dive-bomb from the sky and personally attack Ryu.
The first option seemed more optimal for what's at stake, but the idea of diving onto someone ultra-fast sounded incredibly appealing for how fun it could be.
"I won't always have an opportunity to do something like this," Furōkawa laughed lightly as he dropped straight and propelled himself towards Ryu.
As he was falling like a black asteroid, Ryu finally realized that Furōkawa has stopped hiding and was possibly waiting for Yuta to break this deadlock to finally interfere.
"Finally done hiding, Fukitsu!!" Ryu yelled as he fired a volley of Granite Blast at the quickly incoming dive bomb.
Each and every laser beam made contact with the dark steel wings, but the energy would dissipate right on impact, sparking a sense of dissatisfaction from Ryu. Another fighter that can counter or negate his technique did not spell good news. Uro Takako was already able to force him into a deadlock.
Furōkawa let out a beastly laugh as he crashed right into the the building Ryu was standing on top of, completely leveling the area that surrounded him. A huge crater formed where the building used to be, surrounded by a faint green mist and dust. A couple buildings nearby were still crumbling from the damage.
"If only your aim wasn't dirt poor," Ryu quickly pounced on Furōkawa, and from midair, shot a massive Granite Blast point blank.
When the beam stopped, Furōkawa stood motionless with his steel wing blocking his body. The metal wing was smoldering hot, releasing some putrid gases that felt painful to breathe. Ryu noticed the poisonous gust and retreated a few paces back, preparing another cannon shot.
"Maybe I'll sit down and have a meal with you, Fukitsu. Show me what you got!"
Furōkawa furrowed his eyebrows as he lowered his wings just below his eyes, feeling an unhealthy amount of disdain for the enemy in front of him.
'This isn't a good matchup… the sheer output of his cursed energy is massively tankier than the speed of my decay. He can resist my corrosive attacks to an extent, while I can barely get close enough to fight without taking damage.'
Without wasting any further moments, Furōkawa bashed Ryu into the building with his black wing, sending him into the lobby of the Tokushuhai hospital. Furōkawa quickly dashed in to prevent losing valuable space against Ryu, which he knew was his sole weakness.
Ryu put up his arms to block the attack, but had no idea what direction the strike would come from. Furōkawa used his wings and bracelet of Mist to cover his movements.
"How dirty!" Ryu yelled ecstatically while Furōkawa went under his arms and made contact to his gut with a nasty left hook.
"Sturdy!!"
The shockwave from punching Ishigori shattered all windows in the lobby, sending him skidding backwards to the front doors.
"You sure can throw a punch," Ryu's pompadour charged another Granite Blast while he stood about 10 meters away from Furōkawa.
"But just throwing your body at me won't get me full at all."
"?"
The cadence of shattering glass in the sky surrounded the counseling center, both fighters aware that this will escalate at any moment!
"Okay, I was holding off on explaining my technique for a surprise, but you've forced my hand! I can release my cursed energy that's naturally corrosive and eats away at others cursed energy."
A moment later, a thick, green, pungent gas became visible inside of the lobby of the building, almost completely filling the room with it. Ryu's Granite Blast started to become disrupted and difficult to control, as if he was experience technique burn-out after a domain.
(Obviously we know Ryu doesn't suffer from technique burnout, but the side effect of Caustic Sea makes it seem like he is.)
Ryu began violently coughing and wheezing before covering his mouth with his elbow. Without any method to clear this toxic gas, Ryu had no definitive way to defend himself other than fighting back and enduring the gas.
This dilemma forced him on two different paths.
He could either release his domain to override the area with his own space…
Or he could fight back while taking on the full brunt of the gas and escape that way…
'It's still too early..! I need to save my dessert for Okkotsu!'
Ryu Ishigori, a man hardened by battle with an insatiable appetite chose the latter decision.
He gritted his teeth, smiled largely, and dashed towards Furōkawa, springing back his leg for a massive frontal kick to his chest.
"You're still moving like this?" Furōkawa's shock was plastered all across his face, as he dodged the kick to the side and smacked Ryu with a quick hit of Onamazu.
'A cursed tool,where was it hidden?' Ryu continued his press with heavy punches and kicks, inching closer and closer to the entrance of the building.
'He has all sorts of little tricks and gimmicks, doesn't he!'
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
They traded blows one after another, the force shaking the ground, dispersing the mist with every shockwave from their swings.
Around Ryu's ankles, some of the gas condensed into shackles that bound him into the tile beneath their feet.
Furōkawa used the broad edge of Onamazu to hit Ryu in the face, before spinning the oar and striking him in the gut with the bottom tip. Ryu responded with barely catching the last attack, pulling Furōkawa and clothes-lining him right down, stomping on his chest to plant him down.
"Granite Blast!"
Multiple chains materialized and latched around the pompadour that stared directly into Furōkawa's eyes, causing the Granite Blast to explode and burst out everywhere, instead of just Furōkawa.
The blast launched both of the players outside the building. Using this opportunity to heal his burns fron the explosion, Furōkawa touched his chest and his hand glowed a pure white light, along with his earring.
"He sure earned his reputation," Furōkawa quickly shot up, unfurled his wings, and dashed off backwards, following the shattered sky while watching for any Granite Blast that might come his way.
'I need to bring this fight to Yuta… we'll have an easier time finishing this by teaming on him.'
"Where do you think you're going! There's still food at the table!"
"Granite Blast!!"
Furōkawa grimaced as he watched the beams sped closer to him.
But this was expected.
His body twisted as he maneuvered through the city infrastructure, avoiding the volley of beams that tracked Furōkawa.
"Heat-seeking missiles? Are you shitting me?!" Furōkawa exclaimed as he smacked a couple of the beams mid-air with Onamazu, leading the rest to crash into the surrounding environment.
A streak of fractured sky started crashing right towards Furōkawa, to his absolute delight. Hopefully this meant Yuta understood the assignment.
Or it could mean he's getting his ass beat.
Furōkawa smiled anxiously at the pessimistic thought, quickly dispelling it and flying faster toward Yuta and Uro.
A few hundred meters away, Uro violently choked out Yuta, flying high through the sky with his…noodle arms?
"Damn it, I got carried away and didn't realize he was bringing Ryu into our fight!"
The pink haired woman flew into the ground while her hands strangled Yuta, leaving a path of expensive propety damage.
Now, these two separate fights started to finally converge.
Yuta quickly recovered, spring jumping backwards out of the pit Uro left him in, to where Furōkawa landed.
"So, 22 points?" Yuta said while he focused and healed his injuries.
"Yeah, I was attacked the moment I entered the barrier and been getting into fights since," Furōkawa sighed deeply. "There was a sorcerer that was controlling non-sorcerers, and I unknowingly killed them under the impression that they were just weaklings."
Yuta looked at Furōkawa with an empathetic and concerned look, worried that the Culling Games might be changing him, or revealing a side of his cousin he never knew about.
"But we have…more important matters to attend to. And we're finally far enough from the stadium Dhruv occupied," Furōkawa said, pointing his gaze at Uro and Ryu like daggers.
He spun Onamazu and pointed his sharp steel wings towards Ryu.
But immediately after, a menacing smiled warped Furōkawa's face, planting a seed of anxiety and confusion into Ryu and Uro.
"You really thought we brought you together to trade fighters? We're gonna jump you!"