First Blood

Keitaro sized up his opponent. Yu-jin was a cleancut, healthy looking young man, although obviously one without any combat experience. Of course, Keitaro wasn’t better in that regard. Musashi and Tomoe had taught him basic hand-to-hand combat, but that was all, not to mention, his stamina couldn’t keep up for long.

But those things were a bit less important here because this would be a battle of Abilities.

Yu-jin’s Ability was still unknown, so Keitaro had to proceed with caution, but his own Ability should be sufficient regardless. Keitaro hadn’t got much practice with Destruction, but all he needed was a clean hit and it would do the rest.

With decent speed and form, Keitaro launched his attack, throwing the first punch, but before it could land, Yu-jin moved with inhuman speed, ducking out of the way and sending his fist right into Keitaro’s stomach.

Keitaro cried out in pain and stumbled backwards. Recovering as fast as he could, he steadied himself, preparing for another attack, but before he could register it, Yu-jin moved with lightning speed, slamming a punch into Keitaro’s face, sending him flying.

Toko and Tomoe gasped as Keitaro got hurt. Meanwhile, Musashi watched with stern eyes, Kim with excitement, and Yang didn’t seem concerned in the least.

Keitaro wiped his bleeding mouth. Yu-jin’s Ability seemed to give him superhuman speed. Something difficult to contend with, but not impossible. All he needed was just a touch, after all.

Intentionally, Keitaro sluggishly got to his feet. If he lured his opponent into a harder attack, he’d have a better chance of using Destruction.

Taking the bait, Yu-jin lunged forward, ready to pummel him, but Keitaro ducked and dodged, reaching out to touch his side, but his fingers only grazed Yu-jin’s shirt as his speed exponentially increased, causing him to slam into the ground like a rock.

Coughing, Keitaro’s mind reeled. It was like gravity got ten times stronger.

Meanwhile, Yu-jin had noticed the spot on his shirt where Keitaro had touched, the spot that was slowly being corroded, flaking away into black dust. “What the hell!?”

With a scoff, Keitaro knelt off the ground and taunted, “How do you like that?”

Yu-jin widened the distance between them, looking at Keitaro with newfound fear.

Still kneeling, Keitaro went on, “My Ability is called Destruction. I can destroy whatever I touch. Now why don’t you tell me yours?”

Yu-jin didn’t respond, only narrowing his eyes and standing ready.

“No? That’s fine. I think I’ve figured it out. You made yourself move faster, but I’m positive you made me move faster too when I fell so hard. Pretty interesting Ability, albeit quite quaint. I mean, you must’ve been delusional to think you could take on the other Knights and Maidens with such a lame ability.”

“It’s called Momentum…” His voice was low, but filled with rage “And it’ll be more than enough to take you down!”

Yu-jin jumped, launching himself towards Keitaro, and as Keitaro put up his hand to touch him, Yu-jin activated Momentum, causing Keitaro to overshoot and lose his balance.

At least, that’s what Yu-jin thought.

Just as he was about to make contact with Keitaro, it had become clear that Keitaro had leaned into the momentum, spinning around, just barely managing to make contact with Yu-jin’s arm, activating destruction.

Yu-jin let out a bloodcurdling scream. He grabbed his arm and stared at it, watching in horror as it went black and slowly dissolved into nothingness.

“You’re lucky. I only grazed you.”

But Yu-jin wasn’t listening. His arm was burning as he felt and saw each and every cell die an excruciating death. “What the hell did you do to me!?”

“I told you. It’s called Destruction. And you should be counting your blessings. That’s only a fraction of the pain you’ve inflicted on my people.”

For a time, Yu-jin had regretted his course of action, but not anymore. As he was tortured and ravaged by this terrible power, as he lost his very body, he felt pure rage and hatred boil inside him. “Son of a bitch!”

With lightning speed, Yu-jin ran at Keitaro, but each time he used Momentum, Keitaro managed to use it to his advantage whether that be leaning into it himself or using Yu-jin’s speed against him.

Due to his recklessness, Yu-jin took more hits, now having Destruction activated on both his legs and torso. The pain was immense, almost too much to bear, and as he stumbled after a failed attack, Keitaro wound up a kick, sending him reeling.

Hacking and coughing, Yu-jin tried to get back up, but he just couldn’t.

“It’s over.” Slowly, Keitaro walked up to him. “You fought hard, but this is it. If it’s any consolation…I’ll treat Seoul as best as I can…”

Yu-jin saw his life flash before his eyes. Now that it was finally over, it seemed like he had done so little…and worst of all…he couldn’t protect Ha-eun…

Tomoe smiled, Musashi looked at his master for the very first time with pride, Yang was disappointed albeit not surprised, and Toko had walked up to Keitaro.

However, there was one guy they had forgotten about who was willing to do absolutely anything to win. “Yu-jin! Here!” Kim, not even able to stand, grabbed a knife from his pocket and chucked it with the last of his energy.

The blade clattered to the ground, shining brightly right in front of Yu-jin. He stared at it blankly for a couple seconds until it hit him.

As Musashi restrained Kim, Keitaro started to move, desperately trying to stop Yu-jin.

But Yu-jin moved faster than he ever had before, grabbing Toko and pressing the knife against her Core in the blink of an eye. “Nobody move or I’ll kill her right now!”

Toko screamed in terror as everyone else looked in shock, everyone except Keitaro who was enraged.

“You bastard!” Keitaro clenched his fists. “We had a deal!”

“That doesn’t matter…!” He pressed the knife harder against her Core. “Now just let me go! Got it!?”

While his fury couldn’t be quenched, a smirk came to Keitaro’s lips as he realized they still had one last trump card. Looking into his sister’s eyes, he said, “Toko. Do it.”

Toko steadied her breathing and nodded, bringing up her hand to the knife and activating Rewind. In a few seconds, the knife slipped right out of his hand.

“What!?” Yu-jin watched as the knife floated away and back onto the ground where Kim had thrown it, but with his leverage gone, Toko broke free, leaving him wide open.

“Burn in hell!” Keitaro lunged forward, grabbing onto Yu-jin’s Core with a vice grip, activating Destruction.

Yu-jin’s cries of pain were ear splitting as his life force was destroyed, but that only fueled Keitaro’s vengeance. He tightened his grip, putting everything he had into Destruction, and as Yu-jin’s Core turned to dust, his screams subsided and his body went limp.