CRACK
Erza's hand moved, swiping the sword at Kazu, who jumped back.
She then glanced at her shoulder.
'If I had been a moment late, then my shoulder could have been injured.' She looked at the broken pieces of armour falling from her shoulder.
"It seems you are serious. Then, I must also become serious." Erza said, countless swords materialising around her.
She was lucky enough to find weapons in the cellar of that dungeon.
Whoosh
The swords moved, circling Kazu, their tips pointed at him, who didn't move. They didn't rush at him, just circled.
'I will use them as a distraction. Just their presence alone will make him split his attention to there.' She thought before rushing at Kazu with a sword.
Reaching in front of him, she did a front slash at him.
THUD
Kazu deflected the blow with his barrier-covered hands.
"It's pointless. You are weaker than me Erza." Before she could recover, Kazu kicked at her wrist.
Clang
The sword dropped to the ground along with Erza, who stumbled backwards.
"You are an amateur when it comes to fighting." Kazu took a big step forward before punching—at her exposed shoulder.
"Ugh." Erza took the heavy blow, falling backwards. The bones in her right side drummed, causing her to feel imbalanced.
'I can't lose.' Fear of losing kicked in her mind.
Losing would mean that she would have to live her life knowing that she could have made some changes.
Kazu didn't give her a chance to rest. He kicked at her stomach while she was falling.
Thud.
Another blow connected. Erza's eyes rolled back as she almost lost consciousness.
"It... doesn't matter whether I am an amateur. I am going to win." She said weakly while holding Kazu's ankle as a support to not fall.
Whoosh.
Next instant, 5 of the swords rushed at Kazu, all aimed at non-vitals.
Clang.
An invisible barrier stopped all of them from reaching him.
However, Erza was already anticipating this.
She used the ankle as a support to push herself towards Kazu, her other hand already cocked back, ready to punch.
Erza's ethernano went towards her fist as she punched.
Crack.
The barrier shattered like glass, her fist connecting with Kazu's gut.
'What?'
Kazu coughed blood as he was thrown back like a rag doll.
Boom
He collided with a tree, breaking the latter.
"Haa..." Kazu breathed in air as he got up.
'How did she break my barrier?' Though Kazu hadn't specially focused on that barrier to make it the best, it was still above average in defence among the barriers he usually creates.
He wasn't expecting Erza to break it with just a punch.
"This is just stupid...This isn't like your past. Let's stop this foolish battle and return." Kazu said, looking at Erza, who was also roughly breathing.
They weren't at their peak conditions due to the travel and the fight they had had that day. The time in the cellar was also not enough to recover completely.
"WHAT DO you know about my past?" Erza snapped.
Kazu stiffened. "I might not know it fully, but I can still hypothesise by looking at the present you."
'Though I might not know every character's lore in detail, I have a good enough idea. Let's try to convince her. It will be bad if somebody ambushes us during or after the fight.'
"Let's look at it objectively. There is only that girl he asked to save. The same girl who is probably fighting Gray and Cana now."
"And the town people. Don't forget them... I can see what you are trying to do, but you are pretty terrible at it. As I said before, I have failed to save a lot of people. I can't afford to lose anymore!... At least for myself." Erza snapped.
Ethernano violently burst out of Erza's body as she kicked the ground and appeared in front of Kazu, who quickly ducked, dodging the sword.
'How is she getting faster? This is ridiculous.' Kazu didn't understand how Erza was overpowering her, so he started analysing her.
The world turned colourless as he swiped Erza's legs.
'Though she is inexperienced in fighting, her sword is like a pro's. It must be the Sword Magic she was talking about.'
"Why don't you tell me why you want me not to die? I can understand if it was Gray or Cana, but we barely know each other."
The colourless world shifted, some colours flickering.
"I..." Kazu horse kicked, catching Erza off guard.
"I am a pretty unlucky person. A lot of unlucky things happen to me. It would have been fine if it were just me, but it becomes a problem when other people get involved in it." He jumped up before rushing at Erza.
"I have lost something precious to me once. And I don't want to lose it again. You have somehow become one of those things, So... I must stop you."
Erza's sword momentarily paused. Kazu didn't miss this opportunity. He knew it was a cheap opening to take — but the words still burned their way out of his chest, unplanned, unpolished, and too true.
Cyan coloured Ethernano circled Kazu's fist.
'I will end it with this strike.'
Erza quickly regained her wit, jumping back while sending multiple flying swords at him.
Uncharacteristically, Kazu showed extreme flexibility, like water, twisting his body, passing in between all those swords, slowing some of them with his barrier just enough for him to pass.
"Lock." Erza found her body to be restricted suddenly. Her sword, which was moving downward to stop Kazu's attack, also paused.
Crack
Next instant, a sword materialised where the barrier was, effectively shattering it.
Erza again moved her sword downwards.
'Too late. I killed all that earlier momentum with my barrier. The sword is going to break along with me getting that final hit.' Kazu coldly thought in the colourless world.
Whoosh.
Suddenly, the tip of Erza's sword accelerated.
'Huh?' Kazu didn't have time to react as suddenly a massive force hit his fist.
CRACK
The barrier covering his fist broke in an instant. However, shockingly enough, the sword stopped completely just as it touched his skin.
Kazu's body moved backwards, various barriers instinctively made in front of him.
Crack Crack Crack
Suddenly, Erza moved forward with her hilt aimed at him, breaking the barriers at terrifying speed.
'The Fuck—' "Ugh..." Kazu coughed up blood just as the hilt made contact with his gut.
He dropped to the ground, on his back.
"I wasn't expecting this."
Erza stood in front of him, her expression hidden by her scarlet hair.
'She somehow was able to control the acceleration of her sword and increase it to terrifying levels. Is this the secret behind her strength? I thought it was due to her being the progeny of a dragon.' Kazu was quite confused. He didn't anticipate that Erza would get stronger during mid-battle.
"Say Kazu... are you afraid of death?"
"No." The answer came almost instinctively.
Erza looked at him, "I see... So you are afraid that others are going to die along with you due to your bad luck, right?"
"...Yes."
Erza looked in the distance. "Did you know that there's a 40 per cent chance of a mission parameter changing? I heard it from the master during my preparations."
"I have heard about this before somewhere."
"You were distracted like the other two when the master was briefing on the mission, but the master had said that death is always a possibility. That's also the reason teams need to be made if you are not going alone."
"Makes sense. Why are you telling this now?" Kazu furrowed his eyebrow.
"What I want to say is that I was aware of the possibility of death when I took this mission. Now, this might not be as direct as what I want to say, so I will just reiterate my statement."
Erza's eyes met his.
"If it means that I might die if I go on a mission with you, then I don't mind dying with you."
"Huh?" Kazu's mind went blank.
'Not dying instead of me... but dying with me.' His mind recalled that statement again and again, as if dissecting it.
His emotions started going haywire—the world started flickering with colour violently, tainting the colourless view.
His heartbeat started rising crazily.
'Dying with me'
'Dying with me'
'Dying with me'
The words felt foreign to Kazu.
'No one says that. No one should say that.' He became hyperactive of his rough breath and his heart, which was hammering against his chest.
He didn't fear dying alone rather than others. He'd made peace with that long ago. But dragging someone else—
The thought curdled. He'd never even looked at that door, let alone opened it. Because opening it meant asking for their life.
And that was something he'd never had the right to do.
The world regained its colours.
"Why?" Kazu finally said. His expression was half in disbelief, half angry. "Don't you have your dreams!? Being with me might lead to never being able to fulfil those dreams." He sat up straight.
Erza smiled. "Master said that we are all a big family, right? Well,
I don't mind dying with a family member."
Kazu felt his throat go dry. He wanted to say a lot of things, but his mouth didn't open.
He looked at Erza's smile, which for some reason looked like a sun in the night.
He averted his gaze, looking at the ground.
"Fool."
He took a deep breath.
"You are just an idiot."
A smile crept on Kazu's face.
For some reason, he felt a warm feeling in his heart.
***
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