Chapter 19

“Fine then, I’ll give you all what you want.”

Kyosuke stepped back and gripped tightly onto his bow as Kiramaru emerged from the wreckage encompassed in an abundance of small black flickers of flames that danced around his body in a wild fashion.

“Why is it that you don’t listen…why can’t you all- just die already!” Kyosuke jumped back and released a spiralling wind arrow.

It didn’t move the same as a regular arrow and appeared to be pulling in the wind around it to create a tight vortex which cut up the destroyed planks and side of the building as it swiftly headed to Kira.

Kira raised his blade in both hands up to the direction of the arrow and cut directly into the centre of the arrows head.

The spiral of wind cut against his blade and created a loud unnerving noise of metal grinding, until a few moments later the arrow burst open and vanished as fast as it had materialised.

‘That was a crazy strong move; he seems really unhinged so I should expect that lightning one to come soon too. I wasn’t imagining this from him though, where did that malicious aura come from?’

Just in that thought an arrow of wind shot towards him and brushed past Kira's shoulder in his frantic attempt to dodge. His entire shoulder was torn up from the winds vortex-like spiral, and disappeared into a burst of air on impact to the ground.

“Hey-hey-hey! Did you really think I would let you get away with losing focus in the middle of your execution? You might die a lot faster than I thought you would.” Kyosuke's eyes were basically throbbing as he had his entire attention fixed onto Kira.

He pulled back his bow string and materialised an arrow of fire, ready to fire up in close range. Kira stepped forward swiftly to close the gap but the arrow fired first straight towards his neck.

“Impossible…” Kyosuke muttered.

Kira had caught the arrow and was no further than a breath from his body, hunched over to Kyosuke’s ear. “Did you really think weak ass moves like that could save you? Are all the members of the order this wea-”

Kyosuke screamed out in anger and was surrounded with a heavy purple aura. Kiramaru was basically pushed back from the immense pressure and needed to regain his footing.

He pressed his body forward towards the pressure and kept his balance, while gradually moving forward.

At this point the flames around Kira had subsided and didn’t surface in raging fits like they use to.

“So you were the one making that gross aura!” Kira barked.

‘All of my senses are burning, that purple stuff is really gross. It feels like the smell is stuck in my brain, I can’t let this become a drawn out fight!’

Kira held out his blade ahead of him and focused the mana to the tip of the blade. His flames surrounded the sword and covered the blade with complete control.

“Let’s do this Kyosuke!”

“SHUT UP!! Just die already!!”

Kyosuke charged at him like a wild animal and let arrows fly with each step he took, pulling back and releasing his bow string in repetitive motion. He had completely lost all his rationality and was fuelled on hate alone.

Kira couldn't help but be reminded about the night of his rebirth; Koga who had behaved similarly to what Kyosuke was acting like.

Thunder, water, wind and every other type of arrow attack he could use was flung and launched. Kira didn’t struggle to defend as he blew past each attack with ease.

‘This is the result of all that training, I wonder if this is the style you tried to teach me Moto.’

An arrow from 8 directions was closing in on him as Kiramaru pressed forward and sliced each attack while running. The flames were effective in making the blade stronger and faster thanks to the mana but there was another element to his success.

‘I’m sure of it but my body is moving a lot better than it did before. Now that I think about it I haven't done a lot of fighting with my flames and sword together but when I did it all sort of rushed into place. I’ve never done this before right…then why does it feel so natural to me?’

*7 months ago*

“Mister Moto why do I have to practice these sword swings if I don’t even have a sword to swing with? Let me use one of yours, you have like a hundred don’t you?”

Moto was sitting on top of the tree above him, messing around with string to create figures in his hands.

“Don’t complain Kira, you need to master this stage before you can even think about touching the real deal. Trust your body, not the sword.”

Kira stared at him with a captivated expression right before a wooden sword slapped him over the back of the head.

“Ow- What was that for you freak!” Kira wailed out.

“Do you really think you would have survived that attack if you had a sword in your hands? If so then do another thousand swings.”

Kira rubbed his head as he stared to the ground with an annoyed expression. “As if this would help…”

*The Present*

Kiramaru jumped back from an arrow and dodged the impact it created against the ground. A large crater was left in the spot he had backed away from and emitted a slight veil of steam from the attack.

“Stop moving! Stay still! Demon!” Kyosuke steadily began to slur his words and spiralled into a bundle of grunts and groans.

‘I know he lost his composure but has he really lost all sense of himself too? He isn't even sounding like a person at this point; I need to stop him from fully turning before it’s too late.’

Kira raced forward and slashed away every attack in his field of direction until he closed the gap between them.

Kyosuke tried to jump to the side and create distance but Kira blocked him at every turn, getting closer each time.

‘He isn't that strong, I only need to land one hit and this will be over. He is making it difficult with all that extravagant moves.’

Kira had reached the striking distance and raised his blade for a downward slash but Kyosuke's bow radiated a strong purple aura and materialised an organic mass.

The mass looked like a tough layer of purple skin that covered over the bow and spread over to his hand, attempting to spread up his arm.

“I won’t lose! I-I…won’t… You’re dead now!!” He screamed as he reached for his bow string.

As soon as he pulled the string back, a dazzling white arrow formed and shot out towards Kira from only a few meters away.

“Shit!” Kira muttered as he stumbled back.

The arrow split into hundreds of arrows of the same size, piercing through the air at insane speeds.

Kira's expression went cold as he gawked at the wall of white arrows flying towards him. ‘It’s happened again, I couldn't do it because I was weak…Just like when I had the parasite in front of me. Just like when Ko took her…’

“-No.” Kira said with a harsh tone.