Chapter 26

I felt his sword impact my side, blood forcefully expelling out of my mouth as it sent me tumbling across the ground, tumbling as I bounced off the ground several times, before slamming into a thick electrical pole. The wooden pole cracked and fell over, crashing into the street. I looked down to where Kyosuke had hit me and was glad to see my mana shield held out, the sword not penetrating it. I coughed a few more times, spitting out blood before staggering back to my feet.

“Impressive, dragon! Your shield held out. But for how long can you keep that up?” Kyosuke shouted as he charged me again.

I held my hand out and conjured several orbs, roughly the size of melons, of water in the air. They floated in the air in front of me, and I watched Kyosuke cackle, calling it a feeble attempt at retaliation. I then raised my other hand, electricity crackling in my fingertips and a thick arc of lightning shooting out of my palm, connecting to the orbs of water, creating a field of electricity. The lightning continually arched to and from the orbs of water, and Kyosuke was caught inside of it. The lightning zapped him repeatedly and latched to his mana shield. He grunted and groaned as he was held there in a cage of thunder. His sword vanished into the air as he started to howl in pain from the increasing intensity. I went to shoot another arc of lightning into the cage, but from the corner of my eye saw a bright flash of light heading toward me.

“Ryuki, don’t forget you’re playing with me, too!” Yukino shouted as she launched more light magic at me.

I dove to the side, just barely dodging the missiles targeting me and fired my manifestation at Yukino. She just giggled as she motioned her hand to the side, instantly nullifying every bullet in midair. I clicked my tongue and dispersed my manifestation, instead opting to go on the defensive. I motioned my hand up and with it the earth tore away, and thick walls of stone protruded out of the ground. I did this several times, creating a layered barrier in front of me. I could hear Yukino laughing as she started easily destroying the walls one by one with her halo of magical crests each firing out a barrage of light orbs.

“Pathetic, Ryuki! Die with dignity, not with a weak display of earth magic!” Yukino cackled.

One after the other, Yukino destroyed the walls. She finally reached the last one that I had made, let out a maniacal cackle as she fired another barrage at the last wall, obliterating it. Out of the cloud of dirt I fired the spell I had been prepping out from my hands. A torrent of lava sprayed out from my hands in a compact stream and headed directly at Yukino. She held out her hand and the same barrier that blocked Tsuki’s attacks earlier stopped the lava. The magma pooled over it like an invisible umbrella. I kept my attack up, lava splashing all over and melting the ground around us and covering the invisible barrier that Yukino was manifesting.

“Is this really all you had? Lava? Yea, it’s impressive that you can conjure it like this, but why don’t you give it a rest and just die!” Yukino quipped.

I said nothing as I raised my other hand, which I was also conjuring a spell in, and grunted in pain. My arm up to my elbow was covered in frost and ice as I was conjuring a freezing spell, taking in all the moisture in the air and reducing the temperature to well below freezing, and getting it as cold as I could.

“Quick science question for you, Miss Kurosawa, do you know what happens when lava gets rapidly cooled by extremely low temperatures?” I shouted out as I groaned against the pain from the ice magic. “You get this cool black glass known as obsidian. It also creates rock that traps the steam inside it. If enough gets trapped, you get...” I shot my hand forward, launching the freezing air out of my hand, enveloping the torrent of lava and the umbrella-like barrier Yukino was using to block it. “Steam explosions!” As the freezing air connected with the lava stream, a sizzling echoed at and the lava froze, hardening into obsidian and rock.

Yukino tilted her head in confusion as nothing happened. But then, a hissing echoed out, and the thick obsidian umbrella wrapping around her barrier exploded with a loud bang, expanding with extremely hot steam. The pressure knocked her back, sending her tumbling across the ground. The explosion also caused me to be sent backward, tumbling as well. Even with bracing myself for what was about to happen, I still got thrown off my feet. I didn’t go as far as Yukino, but I still rolled several times before landing on my back. I groaned and sat up, then caught sight of Kyosuke, somehow escaping from the prison I made, running after me. His mana shield was still crackling with the continual current of lightning as he conjured his manifestation once more. He jumped into the air with a guttural roar as he brought down his massive sword. I panicked, searching everywhere in my mind for an escape, some way to retaliate, but I couldn’t think of anything. I instead just reinforced my shield as best I could, preparing to tank the blow. I crossed my arms above my head and readied myself for the impact.

A loud and thunderous thud rang out, and I felt a shockwave hit my body. But it wasn’t from the impact of Kyosuke’s sword. I moved my arms and looked in front of me to see Kyosuke soaring through the air. I turned around and saw Tsuki standing there, a large, halo-like crest behind her. She waved at me before making a rude gesture with her hand.

“How dare you throw me off your bike like that and then try to fight these guys on your own! Are you trying to die?!” She screamed at me, her face a mix of concern and anger.