A Tall Tree in the Forest

Far from the clear sight of Yumi’s battle, a strange ass forest of oddly cut trunks stood erect from the surface. Spread out across the ground was a vast junkyard that no one would wish the hell to stand in. The air held an awkward, thick and stale odor that didn’t manage to have a single identifiable smell, but simply a horrid as hell reek.

All of the countless wood columns rose out of easy reach. Therefore, Seiji stood on the ground. The bump on his face from the crash he made early still annoyed the shit out of him. The scrawny creep never left his annoying perch. Seiji wove around the logs keeping his eyes up at his target, anger raging through his eyes and voice. “Get the hell down here and fight like—” Yet another low angled trunk blasted out from the ground at him slamming into his shoulder. It would have pinned him to the adjacent wood pillar had he not staggered back.

Frustration forced his fist to ram the damn wood still growing out. “Damn you!” Seiji pounded against the wood a second time out of annoyance. “You can’t stop me!” He jumped up on the shitty wood trunk and started sprinting up it as though a ramp to the next flight. More columns quickly rose up around him looking at him for targets. Seiji bound out to the closest one latching tightly onto the flat top. His legs wrapped around the width for support.

Once it came to a stop Seiji scrambled up to the top less than skillfully, nearly falling twice. He managed to fit both of his feet on the small ass surface and stood tall. “No more damn games!” declared Seiji with an eager look returning to his face, “It’s time for a straight fight!”

Chapter 116 – A Tall Tree in the Forest

Across the leafless canopy, Miltiades crouched on a conveniently level trunk with perfect unwavering balance. All the strong wind could do to him was play with his shortly trimmed red-orange hair. The wind seemed to have no other influence on him. The white lightweight jacket, pushed up to the elbows covering his simple blue shirt, seemed to exist outside of the space not budging as if great weights pulled on it. Yet it was far lighter than contemporary materials.

Miltiades judged the teen in front of him and kept the warnings in mind. ‘I’ve got to keep him from closing with me. Well this is why I was chosen…’ He removed the column that Seiji stood on, dropping him down, though a little impressed by his stubbornness.

Seiji sweated a little, clinging to the neighboring pillar. “What the hell did you do with my tree?! This is supposed to be a fair fight, not one with cheap tricks!” He had no more time to complain though as that damn tree disappeared on him too. Since he hadn’t been paying attention while talking, he had no chance to move. Dropping a couple of meters, he landed on the angled log he had previously used as a ramp.

Just acting, Seiji ran along it, leaping out for the next column. Closer he was, but he had no further hope. The pole already disappeared. Seiji knew enough to keep going and already put himself in motion before it happened. He jumped and flailed around the middle of the shitty trees trying to close their distance. However, every time it seemed that he made progress he had to turn.

“I’m closing the hell in on you!” Seiji shouted with a hopeful tone seeing his current progress. However, as he was about to make the next hand hold the entire area of pillars disappeared. He had nothing to grab, not even a moment to reflect. Seiji crashed the five meters to the ground kicking up an aged cloud of debris and dirt from his impact.

The twenty-five year old Atlantean leaned over watching to know the outcome of his foe. ‘How injured is he from that fall? As someone with a normal human body, unless he had some defensive element to the Law it’d hurt him a lot.’ Miltiades hung over the pillar intently waiting for the smoke to clear. He preferred not to control too many elements as his heavy field manipulation already took such concentration to maintain. It meant waiting out the boring moments of anticipation without knowing an answer. ‘Is he gravely injured? I’d expect him to make a counterattack…’

A pity-giving wind blew through the ground casting out the cloud. Beneath the cover, Seiji stood a little worse for wear, but otherwise unfazed by the fall. Oddly enough, the ground actually looked more damaged than he did. The only thing that looked different on Seiji was that he was angrier than before (which is relative at this point already). “Enough with the stupid ass tricks!” Seiji thrust his fist into the air towards the young man above him. “Fight me like a real man!”

Japanese went beyond Miltiades, as he wasn’t using a translation Addendum in his Field, but the intent came across clearly to him. The remark left less of an impact on him. Rather, it was the fact that Seiji came out nearly completely unharmed by the fall that had him concerned. ‘The Captain said to be careful of this one, but he never said anything about the powers he possessed. Though the reports sounded like he never released his Field… Is this what his Field is truly capable of?’

“You stay right there!” Seiji burst up jumping with his legs before springing off two adjoining trunks. The motion gave him the direction he needed to sprint up the sheer surface of the damn wood straight towards his target. “Don’t you move!”

The act took the soldier a little by surprise. While he wasn’t expecting it all he had to do was slide down a little out of the way, hanging by one hand, as Seiji blew past him into the air. ‘What is he? Is that even possible?’ His questions had to wait as Seiji finally lost his upward thrust and came down.

Somehow, he managed not to waste the effort and turned a blunder into his advantage. Seiji had his fist aim down to where Miltiades hung. The fire in Seiji’s eyes looked fierce enough to burn the entire faux ass forest on glare alone. Yet he would have to wait. In the last moments, the man leapt effortlessly away to the next trunk that perfectly accepted him. Seiji’s fist rammed into the flat of the column, splintering it a little and leaving an embedded dent. “Damn you! Scrawny little bastard!”

A slight widening of Miltiades’ eyes leaked his surprise. ‘Such strength… I understand why the Captain said to keep away! A punch like that would be enough to kill me!’ Miltiades leapt back another couple of pillars to keep the original distance. He knew that he couldn’t let that ever happen again.

The battle took a new turn with the discovery. Seiji resumed his futile chase for Miltiades while never making enough of a difference in their distance. All it managed to do was make him even angrier than before. He kept trying the same thing of leaping around in the hopes of reaching the Atlantean. Each time the columns disappeared on him. It forced him to go around or to make quick leaps away.

In the last bout of damn jumping, several wood pillars disappeared all around Seiji. ‘This is the closest I’ve managed to get to him in a while! I’m not letting a simple jump get in my way!’ He put all of his strength in his legs to send him over the gap with his fists out ready to pummel.

Hardly surprised anymore, Miltiades lowered the trunk he rested on, allowing Seiji to fly over him and miss his target. ‘He’s getting more persistent and adapting to the situation… I have to slow him down…’ Miltiades rotated around slowly looking for the frustrated teen, but didn’t find him where he planned. He caught his screaming voice almost above him coming back from the opposite, rebounded off another trunk.

“What?!” Miltiades exclaimed as his first words spoken since the fight started.

Seiji smirked, pleased to see the shocked expression on the man’s bitch face. “I’ve got you this time!” His fist was mere centimeters from reaching his target, the shitty face. He was going to make it this time. He knew it. If his swing connected, all of his rage would flow away. Then the moment passed. Seiji carried on completely missing. “Huh?” He came to rest on the trunk staring back. His moment of surprise came when he saw Miltiades. “What are you?! A damn monkey?”

Miltiades crossed his arms looking up at Seiji with a narrowed face. ‘I can’t believe he forced me to use it. I guess I’ll have to be serious about winning this fight…’

“Stop staring at me, ya monkey!”

‘Hmm…I haven’t ever been forced to use this by anyone outside of training… I guess I should have known fighting another MP user…’

“Are you just gonna keep standing like that? You’re creeping me the hell out!”

The wood column appeared to be holding Miltiades in an impossible position. While the rough and jagged edge of the truck could have been used for hand holds he did no such thing. His feet gave him all of the support he needed stuck to the side of the wood.

Dark leather gloves covered his hands up to the wrist. White strips attached at the end gloves wrapped firmly around his arm up to the elbow. On his feet, his sandal-like shoes attached to the wood. Banded around his feet and to his ankle the straps transitioned smoothly into the same white cloth as his arms fastening up to his knees.

His position on the column made it look like he stood almost perpendicular with the column denying gravity with almost a taunting arrogance. He looked affixed with only a little lean to his body as though only slightly off balance. Even worse for Seiji, his head tilted up at an awkward angle staring like being upside down and not even looking challenged.

“I’ve had enough of that damn stare!” Seiji crouched down on his perch building up his strength to put him back into the fight. When he noticed the damn wood disappearing on him he made his leap straight for the man still hanging without a worry. His fist crunched into the shitty bark tossing shards of wood into the air, his target missed again.

Dodging to the next column, Miltiades landed with ease standing on the side of the pillar for only a moment before jumping over to the next. He saw Seiji closing to catch up. From higher up, Seiji leapt from top to top trying to keep up while the slippery ass Miltiades jumped a meter down from him as though he might have been skipping along the ground.

Seiji managed to use his strength to leap ahead of Miltiades, predicting his position. He took the chance to jump down at the incoming man. The timing unfortunately was slightly off as the soldier made his landing in time and back flipped down the trunk to get out of the way. However, Seiji still fell towards him with fists ready. “I’ve got you this time!” shouted Seiji eagerly.

As Miltiades came to a landing, he let one of his feet off the trunk and suddenly started to slide down before rotating into a run. He focused at the ground knowing the impending mass of Seiji. ‘I have to make this count!’ Miltiades bought his time out waiting for the last second to act.

The distance of Seiji closed rapidly as running couldn’t out pace his falling velocity. He almost had the damn Atlantean in reach. Another second and he finally would finish everything. However, in the last moments Miltiades spun around the circumference of the trunk just as a new larger chunk of wood blasted up scraping the bark as it came for Seiji.

He had no time to react. Only the wide-eyed shock managed to be seen the instant before a crushing thud echoed through the area. The column of wood flew past Miltiades, sending Seiji into the air after the trunk halted, with a piston-like action. Seiji sailed unmoving through the open sky like a doll ripped free from the tight grip of a child. He disappeared down to the bottom in another puff of smoke in uncertain silence.

In a light jog back to a lowering pedestal, Miltiades took a moment to recover and learn the fate of his opponent. He felt more certain of the last attack. ‘Unless his defense is automatic then I should have been able to break through… It felt like I connected…’ His waiting game continued with well-measured patience.

A shadow emerged from the concealing clouds slowly freeing themselves from its grip. “Dammit! I’ll get you eventually!” Seiji flung his arm up towards Miltiades with his index finger extended. His breathing became a little haggard, but still strong as ever. There were a few ripped and frayed threads in the tunic he wore, but he otherwise had an unharmed appearance. His spirit didn’t seem diminished, only fueled by his continuous frustration of failing to reach his target. “Don’t think this shit is over!” Seiji charged back up for his target.

Miltiades felt a little awe struck by the resilience of the teen. ‘How is he continuing to come out without any injuries? Is his power that great? But he acts so blind in his fight…’ He carried on leaping casually through his forest staying ahead of Seiji while sending obstacles and trunks at Seiji. Nothing seemed to slow him down. The determination only seemed to get stronger. He knew that he needed to do something more definitive to turn the battle. There seemed to be no fatigue showing Seiji, a worrisome factor for Miltiades.

He lured Seiji down dancing vertically along the wood, never losing his perfect footwork. Many of the outer logs disappeared from movement for the building attack. ‘I’ve almost freed up enough for the attack… Just need to get him a little lower…’

Miltiades came within a meter or so of the ground dodging around the trunks gripping on to the next while Seiji bounced off striking out with his fists when he thought he came close. Each motion moved in deliberate actions to guide around as the forest shrank and lowered. The focus that Seiji bore on the Atlantean worked into his plan. A last slide around the trunk as though attached to the bark put him in his position. ‘Now!’

Seiji came in feeling confident of a strike finally. The red-orange haired man had slipped up, rotating too far back into his striking range. “I’ve got you now!” He launched out his fist with all of his strength planning to put an end to the fight once and for all. However, the head he aimed for disappeared. His fist rammed into the wood blasting bark everywhere while cracking the trunk. Before he could look around for his opponent, several logs rose up at an angle for him.

All around him, thick columns raced towards him already in motion before he finished his punch. He couldn’t even fall in time before they all slammed into him. Even after the first barrage finished, another round at the same angle ripped from the earth, crushing and pounding into the already crowded center burying Seiji.

Miltiades landed on the ground casting his gaze up. ‘Can’t leave this to chance…’ The final wave came from the ground straight up as a thick gathering of pillars piercing through the constructed canopy. Shattered wood shards flew everywhere and mixed among the splinters blood coughed up.

Still caught in the debris cloud, blood slowly trickled down the massive tree construct. Seconds squeezed out cautiously in waiting. Yet it hung around unwilling to be split. Thinning out a little spared no preview to the fate of Seiji until a motionless bloodied arm surfaced resting on the wide platform created from the dozen trunks pressed together.