Shifting Patterns

The pent up energy couldn’t last long in such an unstable state. Light shot out from their hands brighter than before until it blinded both of them. An explosion followed the loss of sight sending the two tumbling away from the epicenter.

Vangelis flew and skidded backwards over his Field with him narrowly missing direct impacts with the trees in his forest. They only changed how he tumbled and jumped around like a flat rock skipping the surface of the water. Once he came to a dragged out stop, his body was covered in bruises, torn clothes and scrapes from his flight. It left everything in his body sore.

Still not up, he glanced at his hand. It still felt the cold presence of Yuki’s hand. His face twisted a little, sorting through the facts. His hand looked deep red from the blast and a little mangled from the contest. In the last moments, he had redirected and dampened the focus so it didn’t cause as much damage to his hand, but it happened so fast. ‘I never would have expected him to do that…he’s more resourceful than I would have thought. He’s learning quickly.’

His body still could move and that was enough for him. Vangelis stood up and began knocking the dirt off his uniform. He glanced in the distance where Yuki fell, noting the kid standing back up. “You’ve ruined my uniform. I’m going to have to get a new one, kid.” Walking forward back into battle, the Atlantean continued to pat down his uniform getting the last bits off him. The rest remained stuck, stained into the fabric.

Yuki emerged from all of the dust and dirt coughed up by the explosion. Unlike Vangelis, his shield gave him the protection from the out of control flying he did. It still left him a little sore and roughed up. His body protested to him about the abuse, but he ignored it. Yuki only grinned, feeling like finally managed to surprise Vangelis in the fight. “If I had known you cared so much about your appearance I would have been a bit more gentler.”

Laughing, the Field around Vangelis changed again. “Good, keep that going! Show me everything, kid!” Mushrooms sprouted up of various sizes to replace the forest.

‘Show me everything, kid!’

Chapter 191 – Shifting Patterns

Materializing in his hand, Vangelis grabbed a hold of a grenade. It had a very modern appearance to it, a smooth almost spherical shape. The pin didn’t seem to be present, same for the lever meant for holding the timer from starting. He held on to the grenade longer than one should, had it been normal. It was clear it had no intention of exploding until he wanted it.

Vangelis smirked suddenly, a signal for his empty hand to sweep over the area in front. In front, behind, flanking and even in the air, a massive armory of modern age weaponry appeared around Vangelis. The grenade almost seemed inferior, like it was merely a joke stacked up against all of the heavy weapons. “No time to be gentler, kid!”

“I see,” grimaced Yuki, already forming up his aspis for protection. He worked to expand the size to give him more coverage.

‘Is that all you’ve got, kid?’

Gunfire released a storm of smoke layering a hazy film over Vangelis. The loud cracks from the weapons made it feel as though the ground was shaking. Yuki felt the impacts against his shield, but worried about the battery of attacks. ‘He’s already tricked me before with his guns. I have to be on the watch on his movements, but through all of this I can’t…’

Yuki gritted his teeth as his arm started to go numb from the constant barrage. He sacrificed all of his rear energy to build himself more defense in the front. ‘I’m certain these bullets he’s using are different. They aren’t like before where they were too weak to do anything. They were just a ploy by him to keep me going at his pace.’ Pieces of Vangelis' methods continued to stitch together for Yuki.

‘What’s this? Trying something different, kid?’

While under fire, a long metal blade stretched out, partially masked by the cover fire. It managed to sneak into Yuki’s space. His white ethereal hand reached out grabbing the blade before it did any damage. “I thought you might try something like that again.” He crushed the blade under the pressure of his hand, twisting the metal. A low mechanical whirring came out from his hand.

No response came from Vangelis, not even a flinch for the foiled attempt. However, Yuki was already deep in thought over the latest attack. ‘This is the second time. I thought he could only use one type of power at a time. But he’s using two different types. Is he…’ Yuki narrowed his eyes trying to read deeper into Vangelis' impregnable wall of smirking poker faces.

‘Pretty smart, kid.’

A little chuckle came from him, never disappointed. ‘I’ve played at this pace long enough. Let’s see his reaction to this.’ Everything surrounding Vangelis disappeared. The mushrooms vanished from sight, replaced by red felt.

The moment Yuki saw the felt, his eyes widened a little. ‘This is it! He used magic when he had that Field!’ Yuki swept away the aspis back to the normal size. In his white off hand, he gripped on his swords. Another few daggers surfaced above him. Yuki charged in ready to counter the man’s magic.

‘It was a good fight, kid.’

It wasn’t magic.

Shock filled Yuki’s face. ‘Tricked again…’ He fell backwards into the grass. Blood dripped from a new wound in his shoulder. A colorless cone embedded itself in Yuki’s body, punched through his shield. The pain hurt less than the embarrassment of falling for another trap. ‘Dammit!’

Yuki reached up with his good arm and ripped the cone out of his shoulder. Blood trickled in a stream through the air as he removed it. Biting down, Yuki sealed it up quickly with his power. ‘I fell for it, damn bastard had more tricks!’ Just seeing the smirking expression on Vangelis’ face made Yuki annoyed. ‘I thought I understood how he worked.’

‘She’s dead huh, kid? Good work!’

It was more information. It was the only way Yuki could think of it positively. He rotated his arm a little to test out his body. The range of movement was reduced significantly. ‘Things are only getting worse. I can feel my body wanting to stop.’ Yuki cursed his weak body. ‘If I was younger I would have been able to keep going even after all of this. I’ve been out for a year, I haven’t recovered everything I lost since then…’

Additional thoughts had to wait for Yuki. Since he stood, the next attack came at him. Everything was still sluggish from the last attack and he prepared nothing. ‘Damn it all to hell!’ A blast from his feet knocked him out of the attack, as something more akin to a wave than geometric shapes passed him. The increased count in Vangelis’ attack made them even more deadly and difficult to counter. ‘He’s back to the shapes.’

‘You know, you’ve got the talent to be part of the Omega Division, kid. Interested?’

Yuki became troubled by what he learned. He kept dodging, trying to stay ahead of Vangelis, but felt himself slowing down more and more. Too many close scraps came to him. He couldn’t keep patching himself with his barrier. Something had to change. ‘I can’t believe I missed it before. None of the Fields matched up before, but I was so angry about what he did to Saki I didn’t even notice. Damn, I can’t use his Field to predict his actions.’ Yuki really started to hate the fight. He still didn’t understand him, even with everything he learned. ‘There is no consistency in his usage, no order. It’s all random…’

Random. Always random.

He knew he needed to figure out something. The fight turned back against him. ‘All I have is the knowledge of how his powers he’s shown work. My power isn’t well suited to countering him and he’s powerful enough I can’t overwhelm him…’

‘What? Why? Don’t you realize that with your skills you’ll easily rise in ranks in no time, kid?’

A sphere flew directly at Yuki’s face amongst all the ones he dodged or cut away. It suddenly came to a stop just barely away from him. White fingers revealed around the edges. “Guess, I’ll just have to be a little more direct,” Yuki decided, his hand crushed the sphere easily. “Time to damn the body!” Yuki grinned a little, as two swords appeared clutched in his hands.

Vangelis found the change in Yuki interesting. Yuki charged at him, cutting up the pieces launched at him. Even in the heavy storm of objects, he kept ahead. ‘He’s managing to keep from getting hit with so many and even remain accurate…’ The sight intrigued him further. He kept the barrage up to give him something to analyze. Whenever Yuki got a little close, he pushed back or stepped away to keep their distance.

‘Huh? There isn’t anyone like that out here. It’s pretty calm, kid.’

The success Yuki had against his attacks had Vangelis a little concerned. Nothing stood out to him on what suddenly was so special. He hadn’t been as strong before with his counters. ‘He’s got something different going on. This is fun, kid. Making me think, you really are…’

His heart pounded in his chest like a jackhammer on his ribs. All he could do was ignore it. If he didn’t keep up the pace, everything would be a waste. ‘It seems to be working. I can actually do it, I wasn’t sure if I could use it in such a fashion. If I can do this…’ Yuki sliced through several shapes with the blades not just cutting, but dissolving them.

‘No, I haven’t heard about someone like that, kid. Why do you ask?’

Shapes disappeared along with the felt. The Field became a pane of glass, brightly reflecting the sun back at them. Yuki paused for a moment, already knowing his fondness for making a strong counter during a switch. ‘What is it this time? I have to maintain this pace.’ Realizing he needed to keep moving, Yuki started towards Vangelis even before he knew what the next power was going to be.

Arching his eyebrow at Yuki, Vangelis looked amused by the bold action. “You’re brave, kid.” Magic circles quickly formed in front of his hand. Sparks of lightning bounced from his fingertips and turned red with flames before launching at Yuki. However, they never made it to him, veering off course only a short distance away from Vangelis.

‘Got transferred again, kid?’

Surprise found its way to Vangelis once more. He saw Yuki coming in close with his swords. A barrier circle drew out on the ground. It erected a safe zone for him to recover. Yet, the sword shattered it with only a single blow. Yuki forced Vangelis to dance around to keep out of range of the attacks. ‘The magic isn’t functioning properly. Something’s different…’ He tried to use his magic again, but found it failed. ‘What?’

Blood trickled into the air. A clean slice managed to reach Vangelis. The diagonal wound ran from his chest to his waist. It completely ruined the upper part of Vangelis’ uniform. The front and back of the uniform fell down around the waist only held in by the simple binding at the waist. Vangelis’ toned body revealed a lean figure, but well developed from personal training. His blood dripped down around the forms of his muscles.

‘You’re not going to find anyone like that, kid.’

Vangelis quickly jumped and skipped away from Yuki’s reach. The sting of pain nudged his smirk back to a flat line. He ran his hand over the wound to check on it. Looking at the blood on his hand, Vangelis gave a toothy grin to Yuki. “You’re really are becoming very interesting, kid! I think you might actually be it.” Vangelis suddenly started to laugh, one that sounded more maniacal than any of his previous laughs.

The atmosphere took on a noticeable change with Vangelis’ sudden round of laughter. Yuki felt it clearly and elected to hold back. “It? What are you talking about?” He wasn’t sure if wanted the answer, as he watched Vangelis keep on laughing out of control. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this…’

‘Someone like that doesn’t exist, kid. If you want to find someone like that, look at Omega, not the remote regions.’

“You were wrong!” Vangelis shouted to the skies. “There is someone! And I’ve found them!” The laughing came to an abrupt stop. Vangelis turned his face back down to Yuki. His eyes had gone wide with his pupils shrinking. It appeared like stress lines started to form around his eyes as wide as they went. The playful look Vangelis wielded for the entire fight disappeared. A more savage, almost hungry express replaced it.

Vangelis no longer looked to test or play around with Yuki. There was only wish in his eyes and Yuki recognized it. It made his body turn cold in an instant. ‘This isn’t the same guy as before!’

The hungry smile on Vangelis grew until it looked to split his jaw from his head. “You better survive this, kid! Don’t disappoint my expectations now!” He lifted up a finger, his index finger. The smile looked to exceed the limits of his face. A second finger rose up.

Suddenly, rocks ripped up through the ground everywhere. Grass was torn asunder as Yuki’s Field was overtaken. His eyes were down looking at how close to his feet the Field came when he realized he should have been watching Vangelis. The man was nearly upon him. Yuki could only get his aspis up in time while he blocked with both arms.

Heavy amounts of blood sprayed up into the air. Yuki’s aspis was cleanly cut through along with his forearm. The wound stretched up, taking a chunk out of his upper arm and leaving a deep wound in his formerly healthy shoulder and chest. Yuki felt his legs’ strength going out. His body wouldn’t hold him up anymore. Shock was the only thing on his face, as his own blood painted his cheeks.

Yuki fell.