Chapter 45

Marie and Ichiro relocated themselves onto a different rooftop to get a better vantage point to see Ryuki and Theseus’ fight. They were in a panic after hearing the explosion along with communications cutting out to Ryuki. There was a large cloud of smoke in the area where Ryuki was, and Marie was desperately scanning the area through her sniper scope looking for any sign of Ryuki. Tsuki, meanwhile, was still tearing through Apostles as she made her way over to Ryuki. Each one panicked and Ichiro felt like he could do nothing but watch. Suddenly, a loud, thunderous sound rang out, as if something large like a wrecking ball had fallen and smashed into the ground. In the same moment, a silhouette was sent flying out of the cloud of smoke. The silhouette smashed into a building, caving in the section it hit and embedding into the wall. Marie zoomed her scope in on the silhouette and let out a sigh of relief as it was not Ryuki there, but the Bishop.

***

I rolled my shoulder back as I felt the recoil of that last hit travel through my body. I had created a barrier at the last second to intercept Theseus’ attack, which caused an immensely large cloud of dust and smoke around us. I enhanced my vision to see his mana through the dust, and he must have done the same as he was charging directly at me. We traded blows for a few moments before our fists collided into each other, causing a thunderous echo to ring out. In that exact moment, I pressed my palm to his chest again and used another powerful fire spell to launch him through the air. I pressed my finger to my ear but didn’t feel the earpiece. It must have dislodged from the massive shockwave of blocking Theseus’ attack. As the cloud of dust finally settled, I saw Theseus pulling himself free from the wall. I took a quick look back and saw that Tsuki had moved closer toward us, but she was still fighting off a horde of Apostles and magi, though she didn’t look like she was having much trouble. I turned back to the Bishop and he jumped from the wall and landed in front of me, cratering the ground on impact.

“I admit it, you are stronger than I anticipated. I thought the Secular was overestimating you.” Theseus said as he stretched his arms.

“You don’t look disappointed by that.” I said as I tried to think of different strategies to take him out.

“I’m not. Combat with the strong will in turn make you stronger.”

Theseus dropped into a fighting stance, placing an open palm toward me as his body started to swirl with green mist. I also dropped into a fighting stance, but it was an amateurish one that would only increase my balance. In a split second, Theseus ran at me at an impossible speed, throwing a punch right at my face. I barely managed to dodge it, the force of the punch rippling the air. He quickly followed it up with a swift swing of his other arm that I managed to just barely block. He spun around into a fast roundhouse kick aimed right at my side. I dropped an elbow down and blocked it, but the force of the kick reverberated through my body. Before I could respond with a counter, his open palm was thrusting toward my face, and a blast of rubble exploded out his hand, pelting me with a torrent of imbued magical stones. The force knocked me back on my butt and I slid across the ground.

I shook my head as I jumped back to my feet. Theseus was very strong; I don’t think I could beat him in any form of direct combat. I held my hand out and conjured several spears made of fire and launched them at him. He swiftly dodged each one; the flame spears impaling the ground and staying there like pillars of flame. I threw more spears at him, and he dodged each of them as he continued to charge me. He was then close enough to throw a punch at me, and at that instant, I closed my fists and moved my arms back, as if I was pulling something. I blocked the heavy punch and its follow up, and as he went to throw another, he soon realized what I was planning. He tried to dodge to the side, but I grabbed him and held him firm as the cluster of flaming spears collided with him. He yelled in agony as the flames burned his back, completely melting away his mana shield and scorching his skin underneath. Despite that, he easily kicked away from me, putting distance between us.

Unlike last time, I didn’t give a moment of respite and instantly went on the offensive, shrouding myself in flames and enhancing my arms, using his manifestation and throwing punches at him. He easily blocked each punch, but the impact of the flames on his unshielded skin was burning his flesh even through his own magical reinforcement. It was a fight of attrition, and even though Theseus was a strong combatant, his mana shield couldn’t hold up to my flames for long. I suspected it was due to the force of his own punches that he weakened his shield as he fought, but I was no expert on the matter. All I knew was there was a pattern of him hitting with a flurry of blows and then backing off, especially whenever I had my flame shroud. I didn’t relent as I continued to throw punch after punch at him, and he continued to block each of them, but his skin and body started to bruise and burn from the attacks. On one of my attacks, Theseus side stepped and grabbed my arm, throwing me over him and slamming me into the ground. I steeled myself as I impacted the ground, throwing an arm out to grab his leg and conjured electricity through it, shocking him and causing him to collapse. I scrambled to my feet and jumped on top of him and started to pound his face in. He managed to block some of the punches, but others I was able to hold his arms down as I wailed on him. His face started to bruise and bleed, his stamina finally hitting a limit. He pressed his hand to the ground, again trying to push me off with earth magic, but I conjured my enhanced gun manifestation and pointed it directly between his eyes.

“Yield, and you can live.” I said to him, staring into his eyes.

Theseus just smirked, as if daring me. He flexed his hand and earth pillars shot out of the ground. I leapt backward and shot the pillars, exploding them and charged after Theseus as he tried to retreat to gather his defenses. I shot at him, trying to maim his legs, but he swiftly dodged them like he had before. I clicked my tongue and instead opted to go back into fist fighting.I caught up to him and readied my fists. As I threw a punch, Theseus met it with an equally strong punch, our fists colliding. A shockwave exploded out of our fists. I threw up a kick, and he raised his leg to block it. I then threw a low punch, aiming at his gut, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me, raising a knee to smash it into my face. His knee collided with my face and broke through my mana shield, breaking my nose and causing blood to pour out. Blood pooled on the ground as it poured out. But it wasn’t from me.

“Good feint. Taking that blow to get a hit where you wanted.” Theseus said, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

My hand gripped an ethereal orange katana that was impaled in his side. Theseus collapsed to his knees as blood poured out from around the magical blade embedded in him. I pulled it out of him with a wet squelch as more blood spilled out. Normally I would be worried that this deep of a wound would kill him, but with how much damage his body withstood, I was more than certain that he could survive this. Throughout the fight I was trying to find a way to incapacitate him without killing him, but I realized near the end that this Bishop was more than just a mage with powerful magical talent. He was physically strong and could withstand more than most. So, I used his natural talent at countering hand to hand combat against him. The moment he pulled my arm away to his side in order to retaliate, I conjured a manifestation that I recently copied; Tsuki’s katana.

“It was a good fight. But you’re ours now.”

Just as I reached my hand out to knock him out with a spell, a scream echoed in the street.

“Wait! Don’t hurt him!”