Death's Entertainment

Seiji looked down immediately at the ice holding him. He pulled at his legs with his hands trying to rip his damn self free. However, it was all too damn late. Nothing could be done. The shitty ice held solid. He ground his teeth to grit through the pain he expected to come. Seiji looked up.

The spinning sword turned into a blur. It spun too fast for him. He knew it was going to slice him. The sharpness of the blade wasn’t something he doubted. It was unavoidable. ‘Dammit! Don’t let it end like this! Not like this!’ Seiji lifted his arms up in a futile attempt to protect himself. They crossed over in front of his head just as the first strike came down on the sword.

Sparks flew up the moment of the strike. A shockwave blasted out throwing wind out in all directions. The movement was so fast the blade already crashed into the earth as part of the spin. The ground exploded leaping up. A heavy cloud filled everything. Only the quickly spinning sword could be seen through the clouds trailing smoke. Thin streaks of blood sailed through the air off the sword, clearly finding a target.

In the last few spins of the sword, loud cracking ripped through the Field. The ice lost its hold. The sword threw Seiji out of the cloud with tiny shards of ice and droplets of blood trailing off him. He crashed into the ground still appearing to be in one piece.

Cosmas drew his massive sword across the clouds of smoke like a fan, pushing all out of the way. He went over to retrieve this cast sword. “Seems you’ve managed to survive. Very good, it was the least interesting thing I have to kill you with.”

Seiji dragged himself to his damn feet. His entire ass body still felt like it was shaking from the repeated strikes of the sword. It rattled his bones. He wasn’t sure how he survived it. He should have died. “Do you ever get the hella tired of talking?”

“Do you get tired of stumbling through your battles?”

A response was inside Seiji, but didn’t want to give Cosmas any more fuel. The man was annoying as hell without more to talk about. Seiji was fine with having a little luck. No battle was all about just skill. Random chance played just as important of an element. He believed that more than anything. The best could get unlucky and lose.

‘I’m damn well sure I would have died several times over without the luck I have.’ Seiji looked at his arms. He had trouble with the widespread ringing in his body to what was actually injured. His bandage arm came away completely unscathed. However, his left arm had a severe gash left from the sword. A quick patch up from borrowing another few talismans fixed him up.

A quick fix was all he could afford. It kept him fighting.

Cosmas was already ready to begin.

Chapter 235 – Death’s Entertainment

Cleared once more, the battle could begin with renewed vigor. Cosmas’ swords returned to their normal size. It was hard to judge if it would be more powerful or not. Anything could come from the swords. Seiji started to adjust to such facts with the abilities he showed off.

Cosmas stabbed his left sword into the ground. A flash of red light erupted from it. The light pulsed into the earth. Cracks bolted out over the ruined Field. Each of the cracks glowed brightly. The streams all focused on Seiji. Before reaching him, the light blew up through massive ass pillars of flames into the air. Chain explosions followed along the cracks quickly reaching out to him.

The heat coming off the damn flames reached him long before the fire. Seiji tried to dodge what he could, but the walls of flames made almost any sort of escape impossible. He danced around between the cracks. His skin blistered quickly from the exposure. Any action only took him deeper until the whole ground around him erupted into a massive spire of fire. Everything swallowed up. Large chunks of earth went soaring from the force.

Watching the spectacle, Cosmas grinned. Seiji disappeared from sight. He pulled the sword free, releasing the flames. As though snuffed out in an instant, the fire disappeared. Clung for protection on the debris caught up in the blast, Seiji survived again. Throwing his right sword into the air, a dark shine washed over it.

Suddenly, the rocks in the area slammed into the ground. The impact blasted craters and pulverized them to dust. Seiji struggled to stand. It felt like the damn Earth sat on his back. ‘So heavy…I can barely move!’ Grinding his teeth together, Seiji slammed his foot into the earth, cracking it from the weight. ‘I won’t be stopped! I won’t let you keep going!’ Using the weight on him to his advantage, Seiji raised his fist into the air and slammed down into the earth with the full aided force.

Cracks shot out from the impact towards Cosmas as Seiji sank further down in his damn crater. The force ripped up the outer layer of the earth, tossing it in all directions. Cosmas spawned his swords for a defense. Thin lines formed along the rocks thrown at him. It allowed them to pass by him unharmed.

The shitty gravity disappeared for Seiji. His body felt so light that his movement was faster than he expected. The ground blasted out behind him from his sprint. It was the best opening he had the entire fight. However, a wide sword managed to block him in time. But the force of his fist knocked back Cosmos, delivering thin cuts to his face. Seiji struggled with the sword. He roared loudly, building his strength.

Cosmas felt a little bit surprised to have been so close to Seiji. He looked up from the ground to see his sword began to develop cracks in it. It wasn’t going to last for another half minute to such strength. Staring at the sword for a moment, sparks came off it. Arcs of lightning jumped around channeling into Seiji’s arm.

Shock from some crappy lightning threw him back several meters. It tossed Seiji to the ground, his body still discharging the electricity. “Damn, so close,” he muttered.

Laughing with excitement, Cosmas rose to his feet. He wiped away the blood that dripped down his face from his small cuts. “Excellent! Keep this up! Your struggling makes this the best!” Even being almost on the losing side, Cosmas continued to be unaffected by the ebb and flow of the battle. He clapped his hands wanting even more.

Digging himself out of the cracked ruins of the shitty Field, Seiji found his way to his feet. “Annoying bastard…” Some of the lightning loosely arced between his fingers, but it mostly disappeared. ‘He’s got too many different things those swords do now. I don’t know what to expect from him next. And I was so close to putting an end to it as well.’

“Show me what else you can do!” Six swords appeared hovering around the bastard. Each had a distinctive glow about them.

Narrowing his face for the next round, Seiji didn’t like the feeling he got from the way the swords looked. Regardless of his feelings on the matter, he didn’t have a choice. He had to deal with it. “I can take whatever the hell you’ve got!”

Grinning like a devil again, Cosmas motioned with his hand as a trigger. “Keep me entertained!” The first sword lit up brightly before shooting out a stream of fire. Seiji dodged the attempt, but a beam of lightning fired at him next with greater speed. Immediately after, rocks materialized and flung towards him growing to the huge ass size of boulders.

The rapid assault was something that Seiji expected, but he didn’t foresee the hail of elements thrown at him. The lightning clipped him in the shoulder spinning back to ram his foot into the earth for support. He caught a boulder with both hands, but a second and a third slammed into it grinding Seiji back. “Damn! I won’t lose to stupid magic!” Seiji’s feet dragged through the earth keeping him supported. When it seemed like he stopped moving he tried to throw the boulder back, but it suddenly was sliced up.

A barrage of wind arcs burst through the shattering stone. They were too close for him to do anything. No defense left him open. Blood sprayed up from the open wounds, staggering him back. Seiji stood his ground, refusing to fall. “Not enough!” Water tore up through the damn earth to surround him completely. He threw out his arm attempting to slice through it, but more poured in. Then it all turned to ice.

Frozen, Seiji fought with his body to move. The biting cold dug its claws into him. ‘I’m not giving up! Move, damnit!’ His arm glowed softly through the ice. The talismans across his body started to shine, pulsing with his arm. Warmth returned into his arms. Seiji felt them moving.

Cracks formed along the ice. Their count increased quickly until the entire thing no longer had any transparency. Small pieces chipped away along the cracks. Soon larger pieces fell. Seiji’s right arm broke free first. It smashed through other parts of the ice. Enough of the structure lost its strength for Seiji to push his way out.

“Damn fire and ice won’t be enough to hold me back!” Seiji threw one of the larger chunks of debris at Cosmas. One of the defensive swords cut it away.

New attacks came at him. He saw the boulders in greater numbers flying at him. His fists matched each one crushing them with a single punch making his way towards Cosmas. Lightning shot at him, but his right fist deflected it. Water and ice followed up with more boulders. Seiji kicked his leg through the earth redirecting the torrents. He threw back one of the boulders to block the flames.

Seiji kept marching. Wind blades caught a piece of him, unable to dodge them. He tightened up his fist. Talismans peeled off his arm and sealed up the wounds. More attacks flew at him, but he grew comfortable with the pace. Even coming at him all at once, he dealt with them.

He stood before Cosmas. One of the floating blades fired a lightning strike, but his right hand caught it. Crushing it under his palm, weak sparks arced around his fingers. “Now who’s the hell’s boring ass?” Seiji threw his fist down at Cosmas, but it went straight through it.

“I’m impressed!” answered Cosmas from the void.

Annoyed, Seiji tilted his head over his shoulders in search of the real Cosmas. ‘Messing around with his stupid copies, but that one wasn’t the same. It wasn’t real.’ Several more copies of Cosmas appeared around the Field. He doubted any of them to be real. Unfortunately, they could still make attacks.

Another blast of fire came at him. It was effortlessly blocked, but swords suddenly flew out of the flames. Seiji had to drop down just to avoid being hit. However, he couldn’t rest as attacks came in from above. He jumped into the air. While in the air, something pulled on him. Any control he had became an illusion. It flipped and spun him around. “What the hell?” In one of the rotations he made, he saw a strange ass portal that got closer to him. It was pulling him.

Seiji grasped at anything, but nothing could stop him from the pull. It dragged him closer and closer. His bandaged arm was the first to be sucked in. It disappeared up to his shoulder. There seemed to be something physical for him to hold on to around the portal. He clung to the perimeter trying to get his arm free. However, the portal started to shrink around the arm. Seiji dug his hand into the portal trying to keep it open, but nothing could hold it back. It closed around his arm tightening further.

He groaned, feeling the pressure on his arm. It felt like a damn dump ass truck parked on his arm and kept backing up and going forward over it. He was stuck.

The portal suddenly exploded, failing to crush his arm. Gone, he was left floating for a moment.

Gravity kicked in with a vengeance, thanks to Cosmas’ efforts. Seiji fell back to the earth like a meteorite. His body exploded and rocks up into the air. “Damn…” Out of the clouds, Seiji walked a little worse in appearance. He didn’t get a moment of pause as swords jumped up from the ground at him. Several managed to pierce him before he got free.

Landing from the last attack, talismans patched him up quickly. Seiji opened his right hand to find a shard of one of the swords. ‘This hand. There’s something strange about it, more than just those talismans.’ He recalled everything from the fight. Repeatedly, he thought of the different times he used the arm. ‘Despite getting cut up, this arm still looks perfectly fine. It can stop his attacks, but why? What’s special about this? Can I use it against him?’ A soft pulsing came from his arm. ‘It wants something.’

Seiji didn’t have much of a chance to think things out any further. Attacks came at him. He tested out his right arm to block everything tossed at him. It seemed to work. However, he couldn’t have it handle everything. Flanking strikes and surprises came from all corners. Seiji barely felt in control. But he survived and the talisman covered arm remained unharmed.

A little curious, Seiji lifted his arm up. He wanted to know what strange power was at work inside it.

Retrieving a sword from the void, Cosmas pointed it at him. It was a dark ass blade with a red glow and yellow lines intricately detailed across the blade. The motion of it moving through the air left it appear as though cut, segmented into two slightly misaligned images. A heavy foreboding came from its appearance. “So you can block my attacks. Want to try your arm against this?”

Bothered by the man’s boost in confidence, Seiji dug in for another round of attacks. “You’re going to use it regardless.”

“That’s right!” Cosmas swung the sword through the air. Nothing seemed to happen, but suddenly much of the world looked to have split.

Seiji’s right arm jumped from an invisible force crashing against it. He tried to hold his position, but it was too strong. His body flew backwards, the pressure still on him. Shaking in his arm grew worse as he braced himself with his other hand. However, the moment he did it sliced off all of his fingers from his left hand. The pain caused him to yelp. He lost any sort of position he had thrown off with the force sliding past him. It sliced up his left arm in several places, passing through in a straight line removing everything from his upper arm.

“Dammit all to hell!” Thrown to the ground, blood poured out of his wound. Behind him, the world’s split grew wider until it faded away at the edge of his Field. Seiji ground his teeth through the pain as the talisman moved to cover up the stump before blood loss left him unconscious.

Cosmas appeared before Seiji holding the sword at his face. “The dimensional sword can’t break that right arm of yours, but it doesn’t protect the rest of your body.” He grinned at him. “You’ve been very fun to play with, but things end now.” The sword moved to pierce his skull.

Something flew in knocking Cosmas back, sending him flying uncontrollably for meters. Another presence arrived on the battlefield. “It’s not over while I still draw breath! I won’t allow you to kill him!” declared Nerine, in her return to battle.