Unexpected Outcome

“Man, I have no idea where I am…” Kaito thought, lost within the same prison area everyone seemed stuck in.

Kaito crept through the halls, not knowing whether he was in ally or enemy territory. He tried his best to sneak around, but it was unsuccessful.

“Ah, there you are,” a voice announced from behind Kaito.

Kaito swiftly turned around to see who had found him. It was not an ally. Henry, the man who had been talking to Kaede, had found him.

“I suppose I should’ve expected you to sneak away from what Kaede informed us about your abilities,” Henry deduced.

Henry continued to make a straightforward step towards Kaito, and Kaito flinched. Kaito’s guard was high since Henry already had his sword out. He didn’t want to take any chances.

Reacting to Kaito’s flinch, Henry says, “Oh? You want to fight me? I only wanted to strike you a deal before you meet your soon-coming end.”

“Heh, in the words of my ally, I like to act before I think,” Kaito responded.

The two stared at each other momentarily before Henry broke the tension.

“Very well, then,” Henry said.

Kaito, acting first, ran towards Henry. Henry patiently waited for Kaito to get close before he slashed at Kaito horizontally.

Kaito ducked under it. Henry was wide open, so Kaito began to spring up for his attack.

“OW!!” Kaito yelled unexpectedly, jumping back to gain distance.

When Kaito went for his attack, his arm hit something. It was extremely sharp, as if he had tried to touch the blade of a butcher knife. His arm was cut, but Kaito didn’t know what from.

While Kaito stood confused, Henry swung his sword again towards Kaito, but as he was nowhere near Kaito, Kaito was not alarmed.

Suddenly, Kaito was hit by a significantly sharp attack. The attack from the unsuspecting Kaito sent him flying backwards down the hall they were fighting in.

Kaito was feeling a bag of mixed emotions: confusion, pain, and weariness. He wasn’t ready for what had just happened.

“How much have I been dodging in my previous battles?” Kaito thought as he lay on the ground. “Am I really this frail?”

Henry started walking towards Kaito, prompting him to get up as fast as possible. Henry was approaching slowly. Kaito used this chance to try to figure out what had just happened.

Kaito started analyzing, “There’s no way he hit me with the same Air Slash skill Rina uses; that skill is visible, unlike his. Was it his weapon? A special weapon that... that creates... invisible slashes!”

It was a satisfactory conclusion, which Kaito seemed to have made just in time as Henry, once again, slashed at Kaito from a distance. Acknowledging the possibility of an invisible attack, Kaito dodged to the side.

Henry halted his approach.

“Impressive, you seem capable of thinking after all,” Henry congratulated Kaito rudely.

Kaito was likely correct.

With his newfound confidence, Kaito initiated his next plan of action. Utilizing his clone skill, he had his clone approach Henry from in front, with him following behind. Henry slashed at the clone, destroying it, but Kaito swiftly created another one. As the new clone approached Henry, it was destroyed, presumably by an invisible slash nearby Henry.

The slashes could remain stationary, as if he were slashing through space-time.

With Kaito’s newfound knowledge, he jumped over the location of the invisible slash, but he was wide open. Henry thrust his blade directly into Kaito, but Kaito disappeared. It was a clone!

Kaito suddenly appeared behind Henry, unveiling that he was secretly using his Phase skill.

“Got you!” Kaito shouted as he thrust his dagger towards Henry’s back.

Henry disappeared.

Just like Kaito, he appeared behind him and slashed his back, sending Kaito flying once again. Henry confidently stabbed his sword in the ground and rested his hands on it, knowing this battle was won.

“So about that deal,” Henry mentioned. “If you relinquish the relic to me, I’ll help—”

“Not interested,” Kaito muttered, slowly getting up like a zombie.

Kaito was out of breath from all the damage he’d taken, but wasn’t about to give up. Kaito ran towards Henry, who had an unamused face.

Suddenly, everything stopped.

Everything unmoving, from the two fighting to the water droplets from the damp prison. The world was encapsulated in a teal aura, like everything had just entered another realm.

Henry started moving and walked towards the aggressively stanced Kaito. This was Henry’s power of time manipulation. When Henry finally reached Kaito, he shared his thoughts.

“Should I just kill him?” Henry debated. “No, there’s no need to act so rashly. I’ll just lock him back up until Kouki arrives. I suppose knocking him out will do for now.”

Henry readied his sword in the air and dropped the blunt part towards Kaito. Out of nowhere, Henry was attacked by a quick slash, knocking him back and deactivating his power before his attack reached Kaito.

It was Rina! Attacking with her Quick Slash skill, she saved Kaito. Henry’s time stop ability apparently had a criterion that kept Rina from being frozen.

“You alright, Kaito?” Rina asked Kaito, who had almost crashed into Rina as he was mid-run.

“Rina? Where’d you come from!?” Kaito asked back, shocked, as from Kaito’s perspective, she teleported in front of him.

“We can catch up later,” Rina suggested, drawing attention to Henry, who was visibly annoyed.

Henry muttered aloud as he stood up from down on one knee, “What is Kaede doing?”

Henry then slashed towards the two, prompting Kaito to push Rina to the side.

“Look out!” Kaito yelled as he pushed Rina.

“Kaito!?” Rina replied, confused at his action.

Kaito quickly explained to Rina all that he’d learned from his fight, so that she wouldn’t make the same mistake he did.

“Understood. I’ll handle things from here,” Rina ordered, realizing Kaito was very beat up.

Rina and Henry began their brawl as Kaito was set to watch from the sidelines. This pained Kaito. He wanted to help but knew joining their fight would only slow Rina down. There had to be something he could do, some skill he could use without alarming Henry.

There was one skill Kaito could think of—a skill he could use from afar to give Rina the opening they needed to escape at least. But there’s no way he could use it… Kaito still tried anyway.

Standing there injured, he stared at Henry intensely. His stare became so prevalent that Henry started to notice vaguely. Suddenly, the skill was activated.

Aggravate.

The same skill Khrom used to draw the flower monster’s attention to himself. Like the flower monster to Khrom, Henry’s attention was unwillingly drawn to the injured Kaito. Henry slashed towards Kaito from a range, but Kaito knew to dodge it.

“H-How is he using that skill!?” Henry thought. “He shouldn’t be able to use that skill unless he’s... a reincarnated!?”

Henry’s thought process was interrupted by Rina capitalizing on the opening. She used her Pierce skill to break through Henry’s armor and strike him directly, briefly causing him to be incapacitated like Kaede.

Rina was confused about why Henry gave her such an opening, but she took it. He wouldn’t be down forever, so Rina acted fast.

“Kaito, use your Pickpocket skill on him! He should have another one of the relics,” Rina announced.

Kaito, following Rina’s order, used the skill and managed to grab what was likely the relic.

“Come on, before he gets back up, let’s find the others and leave this place.” Rina prompted the two to leave with their unexpected outcome.

Storing the second relic in his inventory, Kaito followed Rina as they ran off to find the others.