Contractual Recreation.
It's a technique which allows Reggie Star to recreate or summon any object for which he has a receipt or contract.
I knew that, or to be exact, Hazenoki knew that and I knew through him.
But damn it…
"By burning the receipt with my curse technique, I can manifest the said object into reality." He spoke, and I felt like an idiot for falling for this again. When I already knew the said technique, I shouldn't have allowed him to speak in the first place.
It didn't even take a second before I could feel it, a minor surge in his curse energy. The binding vow of revealing one's hand. Tch…
Unlike my irritation, Reggie himself frowned.
"I see…" He spoke while checking the minor improvement to his curse energy and scowled.
"Who was it who told you about my technique… I bet it was that good-for-nothing woman, wasn't it?"
Seems like he not only noticed how little the boost was, but already related it to me already knowing his technique.
'Man, this one is smart… no wonder he is an ancient sorcerer Kenjaku bothered to bring back to this era, it's gonna be troublesome.'
"Meh, whatever, I'll deal with that useless woman later." He scoffed.
"For now… let us curse each other to death, Akindo…. Contractual Recreation," he shouted and tore two papers from his paper dress, flinging them towards me.
I braced myself only for them to turn into balloons midair. Enough balloons that perhaps I could tie Panda to them and he might start flying.
Seeing nothing harmful, my mind went to the next possible outcome, some sort of hazardous gas inside them.
Then, when I saw past them, I realized what he did… he used them as a smoke screen.
I expected him to charge at me with that kind of declaration, instead he ended up backpedalling toward the shattered lobby doors, one hand diving into his paper-sleeved jacket.
Out came a single paper in his hand which turned into a lighter, and he hurled it straight at the balloons.
My mind realized what the bastard was up to a little too late.
#BOOM…
The moment the lighter's flame touched the balloons, they all exploded into kingdom come.
I shielded my eyes and face, backed off quickly, but even then the blast caught up to me, burning my sleeves and the skin underneath them.
'F*ck…'
"Tch tch tch… seems like you haven't done your homework, Akindo." He mocked.
I should have known, flying balloons usually have helium in them. That gas explodes when it comes under heat, however…
"There is no way helium would explode like that." I snarled.
"Hehehe… of course it wouldn't, but who told you I only put helium in them? Those were my special helium-hydrogen balloons, did you like them?"
"Smart… though what's the point if you're gonna run away anyway…" I saw this little move earn him quite a bit of spacing between us. I could practically see what was running inside his head.
"Strategic distance." He grinned, yanking a slip of paper free and setting it alight with a flicker of curse energy.
The paper didn't burn to ash. It became something — a javelin, wickedly long, solid steel, materializing mid-motion straight out of the flame and already airborne toward my head.
I knew it, he was maintaining a distance and avoiding close combat with me… shit…
I ducked under the javelin, felt it whistle past close enough to part my hair, and heard it embed itself six inches deep into the wall behind me.
"I see…," I said, understanding dawning as I closed another ten feet toward him. "It's not just receipts, you can even combine the receipts to create objects which might be possible to exist with the materials you have in those receipts…"
Earlier he took out two receipts, one must have contained these balloons and the other should have been the hydrogen…
If this is possible with this technique, then there could be some nasty surprises he could throw my way, and I have to figure out what's the limit of this mix-and-matching, and fast.
Clap. Clap… Clap.
"And here I thought most modern sorcerers are just brutes who don't understand the art which lies in jujutsu. I was clearly wrong, someone… give the man a prize." Reggie flicked another paper alight — this one bloomed into a fistful of steel darts, thrown in a wide fan that forced me sideways through what used to be a reception desk.
"Yes, I can do that, though nothing too complex. Another downside is inventory management. Say what you will about modern commerce, but it's given me quite the catalogue."
I felt it, a surge of curse energy from him. Is he intentionally giving away his technique's core mechanics to again leverage the binding vow?
I genuinely wondered for a second before metaphorically shaking my head.
'Nah, it's most likely because I caught onto that little trick of his earlier. If not, he might have kept it hidden, but since it was already partly revealed, he chose to take the boost instead of keeping that useless intel to himself.
He sure is crafty, I'll give him that.'
Before he pulled something else again, I decided to close the distance. But my suspicions were right on the mark, he didn't come at me, he instead backed off even further.
By the time I cleared the desk, he was already through the shattered doors, sprinting backward across the street with an ease that suggested he'd done this exact thing more times than the days I have spent as a sorcerer.
"You're fast for a guy in a paper skirt." He shouted, already ahead of me.
"It's a suit."
"Huh… whatever lets you sleep at night..."
"It is couture." Another slip ignited, and this time an honest-to-god umbrella snapped open in his hand — except the moment a gust caught it, he leapt clean off a second-story balcony and used the thing like a parachute, drifting down into the street below with infuriating grace.
[Self Trade - Durability for Weight]
I felt the properties of my body shifting, felt lighter, felt like I was built out of titanium for a second, and then I brought both hands behind me, curse energy erupted out of them and the blast sent me flying right out of the window…
"Don't think you can run away, you… come here and face me like a man…"
"Stubborn kids these days." Reggie called back, though his eyes never left me. I could feel him calculating and analyzing, I was doing the same.
With a thud… I landed on the ground, not nearly as gracefully as his landing, but it would do. He was already running away, I was behind him.
He led me through an intersection, vaulted the hood of an abandoned car, and — mid-vault — flicked another receipt alight. The car itself lurched, the engine roaring to life from nothing, and suddenly a full pickup truck was reversing directly into my path at speed.
'Oh f*ck…'
I didn't dodge. Didn't have room to, honestly.
So, I poured every bit of my increased output into it and then I punched it instead.
Curse energy detonated against the grille, and the truck's front was blasted off and the midsection was folded like tin foil before that too blasted away. My fist felt like it was on fire… even the increased durability wasn't enough to handle the recoil of a full-output explosive feat. And this wasn't even a real explosion, just the curse energy trait acting up.
As for the truck, the whole thing lifted off its wheels and slammed sideways into a storefront, glass and metal raining down in a shower behind it.
"…Huh." Reggie, from somewhere up ahead, sounded genuinely impressed despite himself.
"Do you have to wreck half the city just to catch me? I quite liked that store, you know…"
"You could just stand still and let me hit you. Save us both the trouble." I retorted with irritation.
"Where's the fun in that?" He grinned, once again running away.
'Why isn't he using his curse technique…' Reggie's eyes flickered back just for a second.
He cut left down an alley, and I followed, boots skidding on loose gravel, only for him to snap another receipt and vault a stack of manifested wooden crates like they were stairs, climbing a fire escape three floors up before I could close the gap.
I went up the wall instead — no elegance to it, just curse-reinforced legs and pure stubbornness, planting one boot against the brick and launching myself after him.
This is something I have learned during my fights, curse energy can be used to walk on water and even climb verticle surfaces. It needs insane control, but it's possible.
He was already gone by the time I cleared the ledge, sprinting flat across the rooftop toward the next building, a gap of easily fifteen feet between them.
He didn't even slow down.
Another receipt, another flash, and a full-size trampoline unfolded itself directly in his path. He hit it at a dead sprint and launched clean across the gap, landing in a controlled roll on the far side like he'd rehearsed the exact geometry a hundred times.
He followed, but just as I was about to land on the trampoline, it vanished into thin air, only a receipt left behind.
"Tsh, Tsh, Tsh… no cheating." He called out from above.
"Show-off," I grumbled.
[Self Trade - Muscular Strength on Legs for Weight]
I felt the shift once again and then I jumped the gap the hard way, curse energy screaming through my legs. An explosive eruption followed the moment I jumped, closing the gap in a single leap.
And then landed hard enough to crack the rooftop concrete beneath me.
"You know," Reggie said, not even out of breath, "it's glaringly obvious that you, my friend, need a long-range solution in your arsenal."
"I'm working on it." As soon as I get someone with a good long-range technique…
"Please do. Watching you just run at everything is honestly exhausting."
He flicked another slip alight — this one produced a fire extinguisher, which he simply hurled at my face with more force than the item's weight should've allowed. I swatted it aside, and it detonated in a cloud of white foam that blinded me for exactly the half-second he needed to put another building between us.
"This is getting annoying…" I felt like forming the hand sign and saying the magic words.
xXx
A/N : This fight was tricky to write, Reggie was such a technical fighter that anything could happen with him depending on what he has in his arsenal...
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