Ferris drew his blade in a flash and delivered a swift swing, he aimed to take both their heads in a single stroke.
Slash.
But before the blade could reach them, Zipperman slashed the air with his hands anda zipper tore open in midair, snapping shut just in time to catch the sword.
Clang!
Ferris tried to press it down, but his blade grinded against the zippers teeth. These damned zippers! No matter how hard he forced, the steel refused to part ways.
Then Zipperman's hands moved again, another cutting motion—this time aimed straight at Ferris himself.
Ferris's eyes widened. He pulled back at once, retreating toward Judas and narrowly avoided Zipperman's touch.
He did not want to think about what would happen if Zipperman made contact with him.
Would a zipper open up my stomach and spill out my organs? Ferris shivered a little as he laughed a bit.
"Ferris!" Judas tensed up and stared at the door, but when he saw who came out, he instantly froze.
Only Zipperman came outside to the observation deck. "That'll be all, thank you, Lumine." He then waved goodbye to Lumine before the door closed in front of him.
"Greetings, Ferris." Zipperman looked at Ferris before turning towards Judas.
Ferris could tell that Zipperman had ulterior motives for Judas compared to himself. Very dangerous motives.
"And greetings to Judas, long time no see." Zipperman's snake-like eyes became even more snake-like.
He knows Judas? Ferris became concerned and thought that Judas was a villain all along..
No...
Ferris noticed that when Zipperman popped out, Judas instinctively drew closer to Ferris and hid behind him in fear.
Ferris could sense Judas's uneven breath and cold sweat.
He's not in a hurry it seems... Does he want to talk? Ferris steadied his blade, he was unsure whether to attack now or wait.
Hastily choosing an option will lead to instant death.
Because Ferris was sure that Zipperman had the edge in speed. As for attack power, Ferris imagined that the zipper blessing the villain had could potentially have the ability to ignore defense.
Zipperman raised his hands. "Easy now, I'm supposed to be a proctor. I can't interfere with the exam, now can I?"
He pointed at Judas. "I just want to retrieve a lost lamb. Do that and I'll disappear."
Ferris laughed inside. Give me a break...
"I won't." He pointed the tip of his sword towards Zipperman.
Zipperman's hair stood up. "Don't tempt me. I can just take Judas by force if necessary. So be smart and—
While Zipperman was distracted, Ferris poured essence into his legs and closed the distance in an instant.
His blade connected cleanly with Zipperman's head but.
Zzzzzzz.
Instead of blood, a line of teeth appeared where his sword should have split flesh. The direction of the slash unraveled into a zipper, parting slowly and grotesquely to reveal the shifting innards of the villain's skull.
Ferris quickly retreated again to increase the distance between him and Zipperman.
Very cautious.
That was now the style for this fight.
Just keep poking the unknown and play it safe while learning more about Zipperman's blessing characteristics.
He can summon zippers without needing to touch something, but he also tried to touch a few times.
Could summoning zippers to travel in be different from zippers used to damage someone?
Or is it simply that different kinds of zippers had different effects?
They all look the same to me though...
Zipperman carefully closed the zipper and reattached the top of his skull.
"Don't overthink about my blessing. A fighter needs to...
Zipperman did a slow but delicate slashing motion with his arms, causing a thin zipper to appear midair in front of him.
Go with the flow... Don't you think?" Zipperman grabbed the zipper by the pull tab and used it as a handle, while the chains became the blade.
A sword?
In a contest of pure swordsmanship skill, Ferris would probably be at the top of this world.
But still, he stayed wary of Zipperman's fighting style. Those snake-like eyes unsettled him, as it darted with a patience that made it impossible to tell what trick would come next.
"Judas, be careful if he summons a zipper under you!" Ferris charged towards Zipperman's position.
Ferris hoped that keeping Zipperman occupied would at least stop a zipper from forming beneath Judas.
This battle ends until either one of us dies.
As for who Judas really was, and what tied him to Zipperman—Ferris forced those thoughts down and buried them deep. All that mattered now was the enemy standing before him.
In the beginning clashes, and the clashes long after that, Zipperman was clearly struggling against Ferris's superior bladework.
From time to time, Ferris took glances at Judas.
He saw that Judas kept running around in different directions, sometimes even circling like a headless chicken.
Despite how stupid it looked, Judas knew that moving around randomly would give Zipperman a hard time to accurately create a zipper fall pit that would cause Judas to fall through.
Ferris changed his attention back to Zipperman.
His swordsmanship is average at best, but swordsmanship isn't this guy's style.
He began pressuring Zipperman by turning up the pace. I'm learning nothing from this engagement.
So use your blessing!
Slash!
Zzzzzzzzz!
Once his blade made contact with the zipper blade.
The zipper blade began to open itself up into two chains and entangled Ferris's sword more tightly then ever. Then, Zipperman released his grip on his sword.
The zipper sword froze in midair, as if it wasn't affected by gravity.
Once Ferris found his blade to be stuck under the zipper sword's chains, he noticed that Zipperman's arms were about to make contact with his chest.
But instead of dodging and retreating like before, Ferris was now much more comfortable being close to Zipperman.
And so, the villain found his wrist to be suddenly knocked away by a tremendous force before having his face caved in by a brutal punch.
Even before he was about to stagger backwards, Zipperman found his family jewels to be crushed by an upwards leg kick.
That one did real damage.
Zipperman stumbled away, clutching both his nose and his crotch.
. . .
But the villain recovered quickly. "Please... this isn't a bar fight. Have some class." He sneered with an unpleasant twist of his face.
He looks a little bit like Alaric now. Ferris found the likeliness amusing. "I'm known for being classy back then, just so you know"
Zipperman ticked and before Ferris could react, he vanished from sight, slipping through a zipper portal on the floor.
He went underground?
No, maybe a pocket dimension similar to Lumine's doorway blessing.
Zipperman released his blessing, which caused the zipper sword that entangled Ferris's blade to disappear.
Ferris grabbed his sword back and placed himself back to a defensive stance.
He'll finally switch tactics. He prepared himself as he hopped around like a boxer to prevent himself from falling under a surprise zipper pit.
Where will he appear next? Ferris grew anxious, especially towards Judas's safety.
So he moved to Judas's side, and together they dashed off, running in wild and unpredictable directions.
"I won't question what your relationship with Zipperman is, but I need to know". Ferris looked at Judas. "How do I beat him?"
Judas had a pensive look on his face before answering, "I barely managed to escape from him when I was a kid, I don't know."
Escape from him? Ferris was curious about the story, but this was the wrong time.
Did he retreat? Or is he still here. Ferris considered the possibilities.
Zzzzzzz.
Ferris tensed his eyes and scanned around but he found nothing, no zippers. Where is it!?
"Ferris!" Judas screamed, "your sword, he's in your sword!"
A knight must always look after their sword, and unfortunately, that caused Ferris to instinctively raise his sword closer so that he could see what Judas was talking about.
Indeed, there was a zipper that formed on the flat edge of his sword.
Just large enough for Zipperman's arms to push through and grab Ferris by the neck!