My heart is bursting through my chest as I take my stance. How long had it been since I was about to push my body to its max? The last time I did something like this was in the White Room.
I began to examine Kiyotaka's body from head to toe. He was bruised all over, but nothing was lethal enough to hinder his movement.
I began to relax my body.
I took one step towards him, and he took his stance.
Second step.
He began to bend his knees, distributing his weight evenly to the balls of his feet, and found his rhythm. It's a stance that protects him from me getting under his guard. Usually, he would have an attacking stance, but... this isn't really his body.
Third step.
Now we are just five steps apart.
I began to raise my hand, positioning it in front of his eyes to limit his vision.
...
I began to take another step, but then I put pressure into my feet and exploded towards him with everything I had, covering a big space. My left hand came forward and threw a jab at his nose.
He tilted his head just a little, letting it pass, and trapped my wrist using his hand, then used his other hand to throw an elbow towards my ribs.
I aborted the momentum of the jab and dove below the rising elbow, and before he could adjust, I put my leg inward, trapping his own leg, and began to make him fall on his back.
Kiyotaka, instead of resisting, used the momentum against me by planting his palm on the ground, twisting his hips, and throwing an inverted kick right towards my jaw. I leaned my head back, dodging it by a hair's breadth. I began to grab his leg to put him in a submission.
I stopped midway and bent my knee, absorbing a strike from his other leg, and by the time I absorbed it, he changed his posture and used the same leg, trying to kick me in my stomach. I protected it using my hands, but the sheer strength was enough to drift me back.
I used the momentum to jump back.
Now I was in the air and he was on the ground. Whoever reached their feet first would deal a lethal blow.
I looked dead into his eyes while coming down, and he did the same going up. My left hand came upward, making a pistol gesture towards him...
A vine came out from the finger of my left hand as I reached the ground. The vine rode through the air at a really high speed, making its way to Kiyotaka, but Kiyotaka spun and threw a black substance that was incredibly sharp at high speed.
My vine and the thing he threw... a Vowalker's nail, collided, stopping each other's momentum.
I didn't stop. A Vowalker's nail came to my hand from my sleeve, and I whipped my hand and threw it towards Kiyotaka's head, while at the same time aiming my left hand a few steps behind him.
Kiyotaka, from whatever position he could muster, spun to his back, but my vine got there first, hitting through the side of his stomach. It should have been lethal, but I doubt it would do anything to him for now.
Another Vowalker's nail came into my hand and I rushed towards him. These nails are as big as a combat knife, while their grip can't be compared.
While running towards him, I suddenly stopped and jumped back, and where I was standing, another nail flew through. That time was enough for Kiyotaka to get back to his feet and take another stance.
...
He was practically half dead with a lethal hit to his stomach and clearly tired. He was barely able to open his eyes right now.
...
Let's end this.
I rushed again with everything I had and jumped up, my hand with the nail coming towards his head. Kiyotaka's own nail came towards my nail, blocking each other, but right then, I let my nail drop, catching it using my other hand to slash where the vine hit.
Kiyotaka didn't panic and just leaned his torso back. My nail still cut through his skin, but it was just a scratch, while at the same time he attacked towards my neck with a nail. It was too late for me to step back, and I didn't mean to, either. My left hand made a finger gesture directly to his head.
I am an illusion, but you are not. Do you really wanna trade?
A vine snapped out from my fingers, which he barely dodged, causing another hit to his head that started to bleed. He also had to abort going for my neck.
You are exactly where I wanted. My elbow, at high speed, went up, hitting him directly at his chin as his eyes went up and so did his head, and he began to fall down.
...
I urgently pulled my head back. Using the momentum of being hit, he threw his hand towards my eyes, but I dodged by pulling my head back. Still, the nail... hit my cheek and the eyebrow on my right side.
Kiyotaka, at the same time, fell back to the ground but rolled to my right.
I desperately tried to see where he went, but blood poured into my eye from the eyebrow, making my right side blind.
He had fallen down, so his reach couldn't be high.
I blindly shot towards my lower right, and I heard it going through human skin, but at the same time, something sharp went multiple times through my leg, and a hard pull flipped me off the ground.
While falling down, I aimed my finger gun towards my back upward in case he was jumping down on me, but I fell to the ground and nothing followed.
Desperately, I rolled and wiped away my blood, seeing Kiyotaka running far away, his body bleeding from everywhere. He was practically limping while running away.
I gestured to the Vowalkers to run after him and began running after him myself.
He was half dead, he was limping with every step, but he ran struggling.
I had chosen this village as our fight destination because just behind it was a large river stopping him from running away, just a few meters away.
I was so close. After forcing him to make big movements... I let my guard down at the very last second, thinking he wouldn't be able to recover from it.
...
We finally reached the river and I saw his limping figure bend his knees and jump upward, going into it, leaving behind a little bit of blood dancing on top of the water.
The Vowalkers rushed towards the river but then stopped.
I couldn't help but just laugh at this.
Two hands came from the river, catching the Vowalker's leg, and a head came out that took the Vowalker down with him.
Our eyes met for that brief second. He was staring at me with those eyes of his.
So this was your plan all along.
I took a bit of dirt from the ground and began to press it on my eyebrow.
I walked towards the Vowalkers, and they began to shake, then... I began to kill them one by one.
"Dry Water, I told you that I will throw him down myself without killing him. Why did you interfere in our fight?"
I didn't lose my guard by mistake. Dry Water... you interfered. This is betrayal.
I sighed and continued killing the Vowalkers.
The Kiyotaka I meet next time will come is gonna be different than this one.
*****
Rewritten.
Holy fuck, This chapter was 13k words long but after rewritten I finished it in 1.3k.
But it is better this way.