Wind Magic Versus Pure Talent

Even after the battle between Sieg and Dage ended, the other two waged on.

Benedict stood strong as Nyan toyed with him by simply beating the snot out of him with no magic behind her strikes.

 "You fiendish girl!" He shouted in frustration as he entered in a defensive stance. "Why must you encourage the deviants who orchestrated this catastrophe!?"

 Nyan who looked to be having a great time halted her barrage of simple strikes to answer the behemoth of a maid.

 "Because this is fun. If I can earn a point for my guild without even exhausting my Ether and have a good time while doing so. Why wouldn't I?" She replied as she tilted her head cutely.

 "True to her cat-like Homo-Bestia nature. Nyan is playing with her prey. And Benedict being the stubborn gentleman is refusing to strike back. Yet his endurance shines through her blows like beacon! Unless Nyan starts casting some magic, we're in for a long fight." Cion stated with a tone of exhaustion.

Fortunately, that wasn't the battle I was gonna be watching.

Instead, I watched as Okami and Ibu danced around each other's attacks.

I may have not been as intelligent as Kenki but I knew something was up. Okami had barely been using her bronze leaves. Her wind magic was constantly making a loud noise preventing us from hearing them. And there would be times where one of the would dodge an attack before it was even made.

It looked like they were performing rather then fighting and much like my red-haired friend. My curiosity was going haywire.

"I don't know what's going on between Okami and Ibu. But it doesn't look like a fight. Are they still gauging each other's moves? Or is there something else going on?" He expressed the thought on everyone's mind.

I turned to Kenki thinking for a moment to ask for her thoughts, but the look of pure focus on her face deterred me.

Whatever the two were talking about seemed to be over as they engaged one another with a fair amount more pep in their step.

Ibu quickly deployed a smoke bomb allowing him to disappear from Okami's sight and attempt to ambush her.

But that wasn't the sense she was relying on, instead she used her enhanced hearing to pinpoint Ibu as he circled around her.

A bronze leaf flew in Ibu's direction, but his heightened reflexes allowed him to dodge it even without using Ether or Mana.

"Back to square one then." Ibu said, and this time we could actually hear him.

"Heh, not quite." Okami replied as she conjured a towering twister with her high-speed bronze leaves.

But I'd seen her technique before, I knew there was more to it. 

Using her wolfen tail Okami was able to balance perfectly on the leaves swaying her tail to keep balance.

This technique allowed her to remain out of Ibu's range unless he used a kunai, which would never land in the powerful winds she conjured.

It looked as though the battle was in Okami's favor.

"Oh yeah! You've got this Okami!" I cheered from the stands while Kenki continued to make that focused face that honestly creeped me out.

"What are they hiding? Couldn't they just be like Sieg and use a spell to filter their words so we could still hear them, yet the rest of the audience would only hear grunts?" She mumbled under her breath.

"That's what happened?" I asked just realizing the seemingly important fact.

"No way. Robius, look." Kukiri said in bewilderment as she gestured her snout at the arena. 

The scene was in fact deserving of her bewilderment, and even earned a shocked expression from yours truly.

Somehow Ibu managed to balance on Okami's leaves, and he used her moment of shock to lunge at her.

But at the last moment Okami manipulated both the leaf she stood on to avoid Ibu's attack, along with the leaf Ibu balanced on which toppled him on the ground where he was immediately surrounded by bronze leaves. 

Ibu raised his arms accepting his defeat which sent the entire audience into a thunderous cheer.

"Maybe they really were gauging one another, once they started fighting for real the battle ended fairly quickly with Draconum Familia's Okami Lupin coming out on top. But Ibu still put up a hell of a fight, but more impressive then that is how educated he is on his body's limits. Truly a beautiful match." Hoji the Exorcist stated in a calm voice, completely opposite of Cion.

Okami appeared before us in the stands after being teleported by the judges after she won the duel.

"So, what did you think Shadey..." She said proudly, of course Shade still hadn't returned from whatever he was doing and so he couldn't answer. "How rude of him! He ran away."

"Indeed, he said that he didn't wanna watch you get hurt because his guilt would haunt him or something." Aceil lied hoping to stir the pot.

"That does sound like him. The little tsundere." Okami said taking the bait hook, line, and sinker making Aceil struggle to keep from laughing.

Meanwhile Kenki wrapped her arm around Okami's neck all friendly like as she bombarded her with questions.

"So, what were you talking about? Anything good? Ibu was never a talker when I in Azure Ursine, so I know it was something important." She asked with a creepily pleasant expression.

"Kenki, lay off I'm sure it was nothing, besides she'd tell us if it was important." Nosora said cooly as Lilac tied his hair into a man bun unbeknownst to him.

"Yeah, that's not gonna cut it for Kenki, she's way too nosy for that." I said without mercy.

"Says the guy who's walked into me bathing twice now!" Kenki hissed like angry feline.

"Wait, what? So, you've like, seen her naked?" Nosora said suddenly intrigued before Lilac pulled at his hair making her presence known. "Ow, I was just curious. Wait, what were you doing with my hair to begin with?"

"Why's it matter to you, aren't you 'just curious' about Kenki's naked body?" Lilac said fishing for a compliment so hard that even I could tell.

"Of course, not Lily, you know that isn't true. I want to see you naked too." Nosora said proving his skill (Or lack thereof) in romance.

"Wow." We all replied to Nosora's awful choice of words.

"Damn boy, I despise romance and all, but even I wouldn't say something that stupid." Aceil said.

"What's so special about seeing somebody naked again?" I asked in genuine curiosity. 

"We're gonna have a talk over some dinner." Lilac said as she dragged Nosora away by his cloak and pretended not to hear his pleads for mercy. "And you're gonna pay."

"For the food, right? Right?"

With that dealt with, Kenki immediately went back to pestering Okami, her nosiness showing itself in bulk as she clung unto her similarly to how Okami clung unto Shade.

"Uh, you may wanna stop before Jex gets back and says something perverted." Aceil warned with flushed cheeks referring to the scene reminiscent of an ecchi girls love novel that was before him.

"Huh?" Okami and Kenki replied blissfully oblivious.

"Oh, to be young again." Kukiri commented.

*********

Once again Jex caught himself in the middle of a sneezing fit.

"Heh, that little minx just can't keep me outta her mouth. Doesn't she know, a man's got to work." Jex daydreamed on his way back to the arena.

"At least I know that his perversions aren't an act." Shade said, though he secretly wished it was.

Jex suddenly stopped moving as he noticed how devoid of people his surroundings were.

It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that the ceremony simply drew the attention of everyone in Drasil.

Yet Jex knew that couldn't be the case, after all Drasil was the capital of The Orochi Isles.

He just walked right into a trap designed by the very people he was hunting.

"Heh, bet you all think you're so clever. I don't know how you cleared everyone out, but I hope you understand that you just sealed your fate. You're toast." Jex said with an impressed chuckle.

Shade who observed from a safe distance began to believe that Jex finally lost it. That was until a man cloaked in black wearing a ceramic mask with a crescent smile attempted to give him a death from above via a certain trademarked tri-blade dagger.

Yet Jex repelled him with a flick of his wrist sending a wave of fire at the assassin.

"Oldest trick in the book, newb." He remarked as the assassin burnt to death too quickly to even scream.

Jex expression of victory was short-lived however as no less then thirty other assassins emerged from the shadows.

A massive A.O.E could've taken them out, but it would also make his location known to everyone in Drasil.

"I guess you're all still a bunch of cowards." Jex stated as he unbuttered the cuffs on his flame patterned tux.

Jex was a skilled fighter who could've easily dealt with the assassins one at a time, but much like back at the guild he was being swarm and quickly overwhelmed. 

One managed to break his guard and flank him with their dagger.

Yet just before it met his flesh, a shadowy hand emerged from the ground and pulled the assassins hand down with enough force to break it.

"You're gonna owe me a hell of an explanation once we're done, you know that right." Shade said as he aligned his back with Jex's and they faced down the assassins.

********

Meanwhile in Torik.

"Wish I could stop for some crab right now." Toan groaned as he used the rooftops of the skyscrapers as platforms to leap from. "But I can't afford to miss anything important."

A single tear fell from his face as he progressed to Drasil intently.