Chapter 7:

Final Fight part 1

Ardent's Fall


Alva and Sasagi and I were ready to go. The plan was rather simple, Xinx was locked up in the mine checking up on the people that are working there. Yamija would cause a ruckus in the middle of the city with the help of the locals, which will get most of the bandits out of the mine and leave Xinx by himself with a couple of guys, at which point we come and finish up the job.

“I’ll see you after, good luck” - the words of encouragement from Yami felt really genuine.

He left the building soon after. Our base was placed pretty close to the actual mine, since Sasagi’s and Yami’s parents owned a souvenir company that sold stuff to visitors, which is where their uniforms came from. It wasn’t long before the commotion was loud enough to muffle our voices, though it didn’t last long which was cue for our part. All three of us sneaked out and walked into the mine without any issues.

The large railroad went down in a spiral towards a deep crater, it looked tens of meters deep, but not high enough to be fatal, though a fall from here would probably wind up with a couple of broken bones. Regardless we have made our move towards the centre of the mine, though we set up a trap here for later.

As we walked past the railroads we saw a couple of branched off paths:

“Hey, do you think we should maybe split up?” - Alva asked

It was rather illogical to split up, we thinned out their forces so we can ahve a numerical advatantage over xinx, but if i had to be honest, I couldn’t protest. The training that I did, the practice that I put into beating xinx, I wanted to test it for myself. There were two paths on this level and one that led even further down. I decided to gamble on the one that goes even deeper, while Sasagi and Alva took the paths on this floor.

All of us put our right hands in front and placed them on top of each other:

“See you soon, good luck!” - I said in a leadership manner

I went for the last path, there was nothing but darkness for a while, the sound of my footsteps echoed throughout the hallway, it wasn’t long before I took a glimpse of a light at the end, and to no one's surprise, a familiar Smile greeted me.

“Haha, Here for round two?”

His body was already starting to be already covered up with Crystals

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Sasa and Saya should be fine, I practiced enough to make a difference, I’ll finish up whatever is at the end of this path and go help one of the two. At least that was my original plan, before long the path that I took looked to be rather safe, but a voice called to me at the end.

“You’re one of the guys boss was talking about, though you’re not the main course”

“Main course huh” - I assumed he meant saya, since Xinx already fought her before

“Well, I’m not offended, you seem more fun to fight rather than some scrawny girl, name is Gerdo “

Gerdo was of a large build, and definitely looked like he had some fighting experience as his face was pretty bruised and I even think he had a couple of scars on it. He was wearing a coat similar to what Xinx was wearing before, with Fur around his wrists and around his neck.

“I’m not gonna lie to you kid, I haven’t fought in a while, i’m all ready to do this”

“Huh?” - I was confused I wasn’t sure what he was on about, but soon after i understood, the Ishiki started pouring out of him in insane amounts, after which he jumped to me:

“The fun starts now!”

I jumped back. His large frame was a bit slower than mine so it was quite easily dodgeable.

“You know my ability right?”

I had no clue what he meant by that but before I noticed, my head was in front of his forearm and he proceeded to smash me to the ground.

“Magscle, any organic objects I want can be attracted to my body”

Well that’s not good, not something I’m used to fighting ever.

“Hey, i’ve fought worse things” - I bluffed a little but I genuinely did consider fighting big bro harder than this.

“Haha, you say this yet your fingers are already broken from the impact who are you trying to bluff”

Broken from the impact? What was he on about, i didn’t feel any pain or anything, but when i looked at my fingers I saw it, it was the sword’s curse, i didn’t notice before of how dark the room was, but it was clearly it, the specs of rusted metal falling of from my fingers brought back too many painful memories. I knew it, I knew the festival wasn’t right, that I didn’t win, and it will all come back to me now.

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Sasanagi here!The path I took seemed to be less dangerous than the path Saya took, but oh well.

Running though the path was rather uneventful, similar story in other paths i’d guess.

I wasn’t disappointed as at the end of the tunnel, the room held one person, a girl with a familiar White coat used by the Kokusho Military Task Force. It wasn’t a rare sight but I was surprised to see one of them cooperating with someone like Xinx.

“Well, well another rat in the mines, I thought Xixn only expected two? AWhatever, I’ll just deal with you and keep the rewards for myself, you will the power of Yima!”

“Haha I’d like to see that happen” - I was rather confident, I didn’t reveal my ability to practically anyone - “ Let’s do this!”

“Principle, 1st!” - Yima Screamed and our fight began

Oh, in case you didn’t know, Kokusho MIlitary had 10 fighting techniques that each member had to learn, they were essentially copy and paste of someone’s work of flow, super optimized to be able to be used by most people, I think Saya likes using the old monk sayings, so if you think of it that way, it’s like looking at someone’s statue and replicating what they’ve done one for one. Regardless, back to our battle.

Yima fastly closed the distance between us, from what I could tell the 1st principle had to be an enhancing one. She closed the distance and proceeded to throw a few swings at me, but I easily dodged them. I tapped her shoulder as I jumped out.

“Principle, 6th!”

I thought I was safe but Yima closed the distance between us so fast I didn't have time to react, her swing knocked me off the ground which made me roll once or twice but after that I was able to get up normally. I thought I would be able to do fine with just basic techniques of flow, but honestly since activating the 6th principle, Yima has been handling me quite well, I think it’s time to pull out my Ace card.

Yima swung at me again, but the power of her punch was barely there

“What is this?” - as she said confused she backed off - “ What did you do to me? And wait what’s that on your shoulder? “

“Do you think you’re the only one with abilities?” - I said smugly - “ You will now lose everything”

My ability was to stick to places 3 types of cloth, the first type would make a faint sound, and if a person heard it, they would be constantly losing their hearing. The second type temporarily blinsd the person, but if they keep looking at it that spot will be permanently invisible to them, imagine looking at a bright light and blinking, but the spot would stay. The third and last cloth has to be sticked to a person, and will slowly but surely numb the feelings in the area

Though such power didn’t come with no consequences, for each type of cloth to work, I need to summon a monkey, and protect them, otherwise the ability deactivates.As you could guess, that’s what the type of the shoulder was for earlier.

“Whatever, you can’t keep this up forever!” - she really didn’t slow down at all, in fact her speed got even faster, I guess the pressure might’ve gotten to her and she started wasting her stamina. Before I knew it the damage she did to me was impacting my movements too.

“Not good…” - I thought, it was time to wrap it up.

I increased the output of my Ishiki to increase my reinforcement techniques and decided to duke it out, with losing control of one’s limbs Yima punches must’ve been weakened by now.

“Yima! It’s now or never!”

“I thought You’d never say that! Principle, 1st!!

With our hits both being sluggish, it was hard to tell whether I had the advantage, or whether she did. As we punched I applied more and more of my ability, hoping she’d fall on the ground soon, but it wasn’t before long that I noticed something, Yima’s punches weren’t aimed, they were felt, she had already lost her ability to see. I think my lack of retaliation gave away me knowing this information as she just smirked and continued to punch blindly, I decided to follow her.

And then it happened, the final punch, right side of her face as she landed on the ground. The sound was incredibly loud, though I’m sure she hadn't heard it. She must’ve been knocked out by now, but I was in no better shape. I sat near a wall and rested my head on the wall, slowly drifting to sleep.