Turning The Tables

“GREAT TYPHOON!!!

A typhoon encapsulated the open plains battlefield, deactivating Henry’s time freeze and scooping up Kaito, Gurkin, Fiona, and Henry.

“What the—” Henry thought, surprised. He looked up through the typhoon and saw him.

Xavian stood in mid-air watching his spell rain havoc upon the battlefield.

“HAHAHA!!!” Xavian laughed. “If you needed help, you could’ve just asked, Kaito!”

“Xavian!?” Kaito shouted. “Where were you!?”

Xavian didn’t hear Kaito and continued to laugh despite his allies being flung around a typhoon.

Instead, Gurkin took the initiative and called for Kaito to grab his hand. After a bit of struggling, their hands clasped. Gurkin used a skill to make himself heavier, allowing him to walk out of the typhoon holding onto Kaito.

“He really has no control, does he?” Gurkin asked.

“Tell me about it…” Kaito responded.

“PAPA!!” Fiona screamed as she dropped down from the sky.

Kaito caught the starstruck Fiona and put her on her feet.

“Sorry for putting you through this in your first battle, Fiona,” Kaito apologized. “Rest up for now, we’ll need your assistance later.”

As Fiona gained distance to rest, Kaito and Gurkin faced Henry confidently, who had recovered from the now dispersed typhoon. The group could apply more pressure with Xavian acting as a better ranged offense.

Henry looked up at Xavian in the sky, then stared disgustingly at Gurkin and Kaito.

“You act so confident, like this situation gives you an advantage,” Henry stated.

“Hah, your bluffs won’t work,” Kaito proclaimed. “Xavian is well out of the range of your time stop. He’ll stop you if you try anything.”

“Ah, I guess that makes more sense,” Henry responded calmly. “You think my time stop has a range.”

Kaito and Gurkin looked surprised upon hearing this, but before they could act upon what Henry said, he froze time again. In the frozen space, Henry looked up at Xavian; he was unmoving.

“A futile struggle,” Henry announced before he again dashed to Kaito for the kill.

“VOLCANIC ERUPTION!!!”

A pillar of lava erupted in front of Henry. He reacted in time and jumped back, but not before parts of his face and armor were burned. The time stop was deactivated again, and Henry looked back up to Xavian, who had launched that spell.

“How!?” Henry thought.

Kaito and Gurkin had no idea what had happened. All they saw was Henry teleporting forward, and he now looked up at Xavian, annoyed.

Henry hard-focused on Xavian. He jumped up and used multiple Air Step skills to reach Xavian, who stood in the air.

“Gurkin, we need to stop him!” Kaito analyzed. “It seems like Henry can’t freeze Xavian for some reason.”

Gurkin heeded Kaito’s words. He crouched down and made a platform with his hands.

“Alleyoop, Kaito,” Gurkin responded.

Kaito acted immediately and stepped on Gurkin’s platformed hands. Activating Impact, Gurkin rocketed Kaito into the air towards Henry. Kaito quickly closed the gap to Henry, but not before he made his advance on Xavian.

Xavian, getting serious about Henry’s confrontation, put on his goggles.

At first, Henry remained stationary in front of Xavian and stared at him. A spark deflected off of Xavian, causing him to flinch, but he remained balanced. Then Henry made invisible slashes at Xavian, but Xavian somehow dodged them perfectly without knowing Henry’s powers.

After the sequence, Kaito came flying in and clashed with Henry, creating distance between Xavian and Henry.

“Nice support, Kaito!” Xavian shouted. “LANDSLIDE!!!”

A bunch of rocks appeared from thin air, barraging Henry to the ground. Kaito also fell back to the ground, panicking, but Gurkin jumped up and caught him to break his fall.

“I know how it works,” Kaito stated, calming down from his plummet.

Gurkin was confused about what Kaito was talking about, but Kaito explained.

“I think he tags the targets he wants to freeze by looking at them,” Kaito deduced. “Something deflected off of Xavian when Henry looked at him; that must’ve been him trying to tag Xavian. And then there’s when he targeted me in Phase,” Kaito added. “He must need to tag his targets after every time freeze; that’s why he targeted me directly after he used a time freeze to take down Fiona.”

“So it’s like a debuff he can apply with his eyes?” Gurkin concluded.

“That would explain why it didn’t work on me! HAHAHA!” Xavian appeared behind the two to join the conversation. “My gear prevents debuffs! These goggles are also why I could see those invisible attacks!”

“Wait, so those weren’t just bad fashion choices?” Kaito realized.

“Pe…s,” Henry mumbled, grabbing the three’s attention. “You’re all pests!” Henry clarified.

Henry bent down in a crouch start, holding his sword as if he were going to unsheath it. Xavian sensed the danger and flew away to gain distance, but the other two mistakenly watched.

“I don’t need time-space shenanigans to defeat you,” Henry whispered.

Henry dashed to Kaito and Gurkin so fast it was as if he had used time-space skills. He used a combination skill called Fatal Rupture. It utilized Quick Slash, Cutting Edge, and Pierce, allowing him to dash to their targets and slash them repeatedly with piercing slashes.

Kaito and Gurkin were devastated; They dropped to the ground, completely slashed up and dripping blood.

Henry turned his attention to Xavian, putting him on guard. Henry began his chase, dashing towards Xavian with a flurry of movement skills. Xavian flew about, gaining distance and firing off spells as Henry pursued him.

Kaito, on the floor, regained consciousness. He looked towards Gurkin, who was still knocked out. He was so injured that he looked dead.

Kaito then looked up to see Xavian and Henry’s dogfight. Xavian flung meteors at Henry, but he dodged them. Henry slashed his invisible projectiles at Xavian, but he barely dodged them.

Kaito couldn’t feel his body but knew he had to help the struggling Xavian. He didn’t have unlimited energy, unlike Henry. He slowly got up as blood dripped from his cut-up body, but he didn’t falter.

In a deep breath, he glared up at Henry, and then it happened.

His eyes glowed blue once again.

It was as if Shen’s voice was ringing in his ears, “You will only activate Infinity when your life is at risk.”

His words felt true, but at the same time, Kaito felt natural upon activating Infinity. It was like he wasn’t even injured, or as if he always knew how to activate Infinity.

Without saying a word, Kaito took action.

Activating Aggravate, Henry’s attention immediately turned to Kaito. Henry zoomed to Kaito, utilizing his movement skills.

The two clashed, creating a shockwave that blew away Gurkin’s body. Henry’s Astral Greatsword to Kaito’s Arbor Dagger.

Henry looked at Kaito’s eyes. “So you have some fight left in you.”

The two pushed each other back. Their fight commenced.

Kaito used his Arbor Dagger to spiral roots towards Henry, but Henry ran towards Kaito and used Cutting Edge to destroy them.

Henry swung at Kaito in retaliation, but Kaito used Feint to pivot behind Henry. Kaito swung his normal dagger at Henry’s side, using Pierce to go through Henry’s armor, but Kaito’s dagger clashed with a stationary invisible slash, leaving him open.

Henry spun around and used Blade Wheel, a skill that causes him to spin rapidly as his greatsword was left to strike Kaito repeatedly. The attack hit Kaito, but it was only a clone.

From a distance, Kaito fired a single arrow, but used Spitshot to multiply it to what felt like 100. Henry set up a stationary slash in space to defend against the frontal assault. A bunch of arrows were deflected, and many others went past Henry.

Kaito then used Pinpoint to redirect the stray arrows back to Henry. Henry turned around and repeated the same action, deflecting the rest of the arrows.

Henry turned around to face Kaito, but he wasn’t there. Instead, more roots sprouted from the ground, binding Henry down. Kaito followed up, appearing behind Henry, and used Pierce to finish Henry.

Time froze.

Not hesitating for a second. Henry used Cutting Edge to free himself from the root bindings and turned around to finish Kaito.

“VOLCANIC eruption…” Xavian let out the last spell he could muster to help Kaito, causing him to drop from his aerial position.

Henry predicted this and dodged it.

Pivoting around the spouting lava, Henry swung for the kill once more.

CLASH!!!

Gurkin appeared, hardened by Bulwark. He caught Henry’s greatsword, staring Henry right in the face. Gurkin then aimed to harden himself even more, activating an Iron Masking skill, which momentarily turns the user’s body into an iron statue.

“DO IT, XAVIAN!” Gurkin shouted before he was fully immobilized.

Henry looked towards the once-incapacitated Xavian, who now stood. He activated a spell, forgoing the fact that he was exerting himself, as blood began to spill out from his face.

“WILD… FIRE!!!” Xavian shouted climactically.

Small fires suddenly appeared on Henry and Gurkin, but quickly grew into a great blaze. Henry realized the danger and tried to free his sword from the unaffected Gurkin, but it didn’t budge. Henry’s mistake was not forgoing his sword, as the flames immediately burst and enveloped him.

Henry screamed in pain as he finally let his sword go and stumbled backwards. In return, his time stop was undone, freeing Kaito.

Kaito didn’t flinch at the unfamiliar scene before him and instead pressed forward. Holding both his daggers pointed forward at Henry, he dashed to him and activated Pierce, stabbing them both into Henry’s stomach.

Finishing Henry off, Kaito swung both daggers outwards, leaving Henry to fall to the ground… defeated.