He was showed no hesitation with all that defied all logic, Hayato simply walked straight into the dark maw of the cave.
Is he completely mad? I thought, my own S+ Rank instincts screaming that this was a foolish, suicidal move. But I had to know. I couldn't turn back now.
I waited a few moments for him to get ahead, then slipped into the cave entrance after him, my own footsteps silent on the stone floor. The air inside was cold and thick with the sharp smell of ozone and wet fur.
The cave tunnel was dark, but my eyes adjusted quickly. I saw him up ahead, just walking, his pace as steady and unhurried as it was on the city street. I kept to the shadows, moving silently along the wall. The tunnel opened into a larger cavern, and I quickly scaled a rock ledge, pressing myself flat to peer over the edge.
From my perch, I watched as Hayato walked into the center of the cavern and stopped. In the middle of the large, open space, curled up asleep, was the Storm Wolf. It was a monstrous creature, its grey fur crackling with faint, dormant arcs of electricity. Hayato simply stood there, watching it, his small dagger still sheathed at his belt.
I watched from the safety of the high ledge as Hayato faced the sleeping beast. The duplicate he created picked up a loose stone and tossed it against the far wall of the cavern.
The Storm Wolf's eyes snapped open, blazing with blue lightning. Its low snarl escalated into a deep, rumbling GRRRROWL as it rose to its full, massive height.
It lunged. As the wolf's jaws, wreathed in lightning, snapped shut on the first duplicate, a second one appeared on the beast's flank.
CRUNCH!
The first duplicate popped like a soap bubble, but in that same instant, the second duplicate dashed in.
SHUNK! Its dagger sank deep into the beast's hind leg.
The wolf roared in pain and spun, breathing out a short burst of lightning that dissolved the second duplicate instantly. But another had already formed on its other side. A duplicate would appear, draw a savage attack and be destroyed, but in that opening, another would rush in for a quick stab before retreating.
Hayato's duplicates were fast and relentless, but the Storm Wolf was a beast of pure power. It was bleeding from a dozen minor wounds, its movements growing more sluggish, but its rage was building to a terrifying crescendo.
Finally, it stopped trying to swat the individual duplicates. It threw its head back and let out a howl that was pure, concentrated power.
KRA-KOOOOM!
The air in the cavern exploded. A blinding, indiscriminate storm of lightning erupted from the wolf's body, filling the entire space with a deafening thunderclap and a web of blue-white energy. Every single one of Hayato's duplicates, no matter where they were, was instantly vaporized in the blast.
The cavern fell silent, the wolf panting heavily, its ultimate attack having drained much of its energy.
I heard a sharp gasp from the shadows behind me. I turned my head slightly and saw him. The real Hayato. He was kneeling near the tunnel entrance, one hand pressed hard against his temple, a thin trickle of blood running from his nose. The sudden destruction of all his active duplicates must have caused a violent backlash, inflicting real damage on the caster.
He's hurt, so there is a cost to his power.
Down below, the Storm Wolf was beginning to recover, its lightning-wreathed eyes searching the now-empty cavern.
Hayato was injured, and his army was gone. The fight had reached its critical point. I watched him, waiting to see what he would do now.
He wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand, his expression grim. The physical backlash had clearly taken a toll, but he wasn't finished.
He focused, and a single new duplicate flickered into existence in the cavern below. It charged.
But it wasn't enough. The Storm Wolf had adapted. It was wounded and exhausted, but it was still an A+ Rank beast. It no longer fell for the simple feints. As the duplicate lunged, the wolf met it with a savage swipe of its claws, batting the illusion away like a fly before it could even get close. The duplicate dissolved before it even hit the wall.
Hayato created another. The wolf incinerated it with a precise, targeted crackle of lightning. He created a third, which tried to flank from the side, but the wolf seemed to anticipate it, spinning and catching it with its snapping jaws.
His strategy is failing, I thought, my hands clenching into fists. The wolf is too strong. It understands the duplicates are fragile and is no longer wasting energy. He's just feeding it disposable targets, and the strain of creating each one is visible on his face.
The wolf, now firmly in control of the battle, let out a low, triumphant growl, daring the next challenger to appear.
I watched from my perch as Hayato knelt in the shadows, panting from the exertion. The wolf's triumph was absolute.
My gaze was fixed on him, on the dark trickle of blood still visible on his upper lip. He was bleeding. The thought was a sudden, jarring note in the symphony of my analysis. The backlash from the wolf's lightning storm had hurt him.
But that doesn't make any sense.
My mind flashed back to the festival last night. The feel of my katana, a blade that had tasted the blood of dragons, scraping uselessly against his skin. It had barely managed to leave a mark, a tiny line not even deep enough to bleed.
His physical body is nearly invulnerable to a direct of my attack, I thought, the pieces clicking together into a strange, new picture. Yet he's bleeding now from the backlash of his duplicates being destroyed?
The contradiction was staggering.
It means his weakness isn't physical at all, I realized, a chill running down my spine. Attacking his body is useless. But his duplicates... the destruction of his power... that is how you hurt the man himself.
I saw the Storm Wolf finally pinpoint the source of its torment. Its lightning-wreathed eyes locked onto the shadows of the tunnel where the real Hayato was kneeling, vulnerable and injured. It gathered its powerful hind legs, preparing for a final, killing lunge.
He can't take another backlash like that. The observation is over.
I pushed myself off the ledge.
The cavern became a blur of stone and shadow. In the instant it took me to fall, and my hand closed around the hilt of my katana, pulling it free from the pages. I landed silently on the cavern floor between Hayato and the lunging beast.
The wolf was a blur of speed, its fangs aimed for Hayato's throat. The world seemed to slow. I drew the ancient, twisted blade in a single, clean, horizontal arc.
There was no clang, no sound of impact.
The Storm Wolf flew past me, and as it landed, its body simply... fell apart. The top half slid cleanly from the bottom half, both pieces hitting the ground with a wet thud, a perfectly cauterized line where my blade had passed through.
The cavern fell completely silent, the only sound the faint dripping of water from the ceiling.
I stood over the two halves of the slain beast for a moment, the silence of the cavern settling around us. Straightened my posture, summoned my tome, and sheathed the ancient katana back into its pages before letting it dissolve into nothing.
My attention returned to the man in the shadows. I turned to look at him.
"I understand now, the nature of your power, and its weakness." I gave him a slight, respectful nod. "Thank you for the lesson."
He was slumped against the cave wall, his body trembling slightly from the exertion, his face pale. He looked up at me, his expression a mask of confusion and exhaustion. After a moment, he managed to speak, his voice a hoarse whisper.
"Thanks, but... why are you even here?" he said, before his confusion took over.
Lenna stood before the hayato, who was slumped and exhausted in the tunnel entrance.
"I was here to observe, your power is incredible, but it has a fundamental flaw. The duplicates are extensions of you. When they are destroyed, the backlash strikes you directly. It's as if your very life force is spread across them. That's why you were hurt."
"Ah of course this just for telling you not that im trying threat you or something," she added
As she finished her deduction, her sharp senses suddenly screamed. A presence. Another person, right in the center of the cavern, behind the wolf's massive corpse.
Her head snapped around, her eyes wide with shock. Crouched on the other side of the bisected wolf was another Hayato. This one was not hurt or exhausted. He was calm, methodically using his small dagger to cut a large, crackling horn from the wolf's skull.
He finished his work, stood up, and looked directly at her. He gestured with the bloody horn towards the "Hayato" in the tunnel.
"That's not me you're talking to," he said, his voice flat.
As he spoke, the exhausted figure of Hayato in the tunnel flickered and dissolved into nothing.
The real Hayato gave her a slight, knowing smile. "And also, thanks for killing this for me. I knew you could."
To Be Continued.