Screaming Blades

Yuki hesitated just floating in the air. He didn’t expect to see such a scale. It felt almost like staring into a sea of metal. He couldn’t imagine the control needed to maintain every single one. If scenery could humble someone, the display from the strongest MP in the country succeeded. Just witnessing it made him feel defeated already.

Nothing about what he saw felt like a bluff or faked as he would have thought from someone else. It was a truly accurate scale of his power. ‘How do I even fight something like that? I mocked him for being cliché, but this isn’t even just a bump in strength. This is a complete eclipse of his previous power.’ A tough to swallow gulp went down his throat.

‘How did I think I could even beat someone like this? He’s got decades of experience and practice. I’ve got two months.’ Yuki tried to keep his hands from shaking. It wasn’t even a fear of death from him. In fact, he wasn’t even sure if Demosthenes wanted him dead from the look in his eyes. The mere presence completely overwhelmed his senses. ‘What have I gotten myself into?’

Chapter 270 – Screaming Blades

Eudokia couldn't really see Yuki clearly from her distance. She had to keep out of their fight. But it didn’t require superhuman sight to see how much it affected Yuki. “Yuki! Yuki!” She needed to call him a second time just to get his attention.

“Ayumi?” He looked down the distance at her. In all of the fighting, he sort of forgot about her. It was the first time during the fight, after she snapped him out of his rage, that he acknowledged her. But he got the sense she could tell how unsettled he was about Demosthenes’ new reveal. It made him more self-conscious about getting his body under his control.

The whole thing was meant to be her final test for him. If he could defeat Demosthenes, there would be nothing else left. She knew it was a possibility that he would pull it out, but Yuki needed to handle it on his own. ‘I thought he’d see it as a challenge. He seemed to have the spirit to want to test himself out and see what he could achieve. I didn’t imagine it would have the opposite effect.’ A miscalculation threatened her plan. “Are you an idiot, Yuki? Did you forget everything that I taught you?”

“Idiot? Hey, aren’t you supposed to say something a little more inspiring at this point?”

“Is that how you see me?”

“Well…no, I can’t really picture you doing something like that. You’re more likely to just attack me and threaten me.”

“You think that I’d attack you?!” she shouted up, getting annoyed with him.

“Hey! You asked! You’re not the soft gentle touch sort of person.”

“If you know that then get your ass back in the fight!”

‘You’re really not helping…’ He stared down at her with a look of disbelief and annoyance. He knew that she couldn’t see his reaction and he didn’t see hers, but it really felt like she snapped back at him for talking back to her. ‘Fine…’

Yuki didn’t feel any better about his odds against the newly powered up Demosthenes. But the shaking in his arms disappeared. He just needed to focus on the issue at hand. ‘It’s not so bad, just ten thousand weapons all coming at me at once,’ he thought mockingly.

The battle wasn’t over. Yuki had little choice, but to continue. It wasn’t as if Demosthenes planned to stop just because he was no longer confident. “Well let’s get this going again!”

He summoned up his mist around him needing more defense. Yuki tightened up his hands and confirmed his flight support. The slow increase in tension he added before the fight resumed made him even more nervous. He could see Demosthenes rise off the ground slowly, almost in a deliberate manner just to unnerve him further.

Once high enough in the air, Yuki waited for any sign by the old man to act. However, it seemed that he waited for him to make the first move. It might have been an act by Demosthenes to let him pick when he was ready to continue. Yuki didn’t think too hard on it.

Waiting further just made it even worse. Yuki clenched his fists and yelled in blind uncertainty. He charged towards his target ready to take on whatever happened. Immediately, he was confronted by an army of weapons. Yuki considered himself knowledgeable enough on weapons to know many of the types and names, but he had no clue on half of the ones he saw flying at him. Which didn’t even speak for the rest floating around him. The only thing he knew, they were sharp.

He dodged, pushed and dragged himself out of the range of many, but some still managed to touch him. His body wasn’t built like Saki’s new body; he couldn’t easily dodge so many weapons. It still only came off as little cuts or shallow wounds, but they kept adding up for him. ‘Damn, I need to be faster…’ Yuki tensed up a little pushing his reflexes even further.

The assault of weapons made it impossible for him to get near Demosthenes. All he could do was dodge and even that barely actually kept up with things. He flung his body around so quickly he had to be careful of the G’s he started pulling. His Law wasn't prepared for such things, otherwise he would have considered removing it from his Field. ‘Explains why some of them can get away with pretty crazy movements, removing things like G force or drag makes a big difference in combat.’ It also made him realize how the old man could do the things he did, he likely made significant alterations to natural laws. Until this fight, it wasn’t even something he considered doing.

Despite the disadvantage, Yuki managed to keep up. The longer he worked with flying the better of a feeling he got for it. He didn’t need as many overt movements. It started to become a little more natural. However, it didn’t change his situation.

Demosthenes hadn’t even moved from his position. He didn’t need to with all of the weapons. ‘I know he’s skilled. He doesn’t need to stand back, though I guess it could limit the angles of attack.’ If it remained the same, Yuki would never get an attack in. His body would collapse before he did anymore.

‘I need a new plan… I need to get close to him…’ Yuki flew away from Demosthenes with the weapons all chasing after him, though he flew into more due to the high saturation. It was almost like a minefield, but rather than explosive, they had sharp edges.

While he drew away, he popped out of the maximum range of Demosthenes’ Field. ‘Now I can get a free moment… Don’t know how well this will work…’ Quickly, Demosthenes caught on to the range and made sure to adjust, but Yuki worked to keep the distance.

Focusing on the mist, he started to draw it into his hand. Streams of it came in from all sides, pouring into an increasingly brighter glowing mass. Yuki had to push his flying skills as Demosthenes caught up to him. Dodging while gathering wasn’t the most ideal, but he expected it. ‘Almost there…’ The super dense mass started to take on a nearly solid form becoming completely opaque.

Once he felt it built up enough, Yuki changed his course to bring himself straight for the old man. He still gathered more of the mist, significantly reducing his defense. Most of the excess went into his new attempt. Evading became even more important, something that he felt in the more frequent hits he took.

There was only so close he could get. All of the dodging he could manage wouldn’t make him actually reach in range of Demosthenes. The defense around him was impenetrable. Close would have to do. ‘Now or never…’ Pulling his hand back, he dropped his other hand over top for support before he fired it off with outstretched arms. “Go!”

Immediately, weapons moved in to block his attack, but the high-density mass of energy punched straight through. Some blades shattered or broke off, while others were left with holes carved out. It sped through everything with Demosthenes closely approaching. Nothing he presented could stop it.

However, the problem was that Demosthenes didn’t solely focus on the sphere of energy. He targeted Yuki as well. Yuki tried to keep his eye on the target as much as possible, but high-speed dodging made it difficult.

Yet despite it all, Demosthenes didn’t seem concerned by the speeding, unblockable object. He simply charged forward, continuing his distance attack. When it came in range, he swung his great sword upward splitting into even sections.

‘Damn,’ thought Yuki, glancing at the outcome while keeping up his movement. ‘That sword is the closest to him, the strength is likely the highest, though the rest are hardly lacking. I even focused everything on it.’ As the mist broke down and filled out the air, he stared at the aftermath. ‘I did lose my concentration while dodging…’

Yuki wasn’t completely convinced it was a loss. Gathering the mist back around him, he fortified his defenses while he considered his next plan. ‘I just need to maintain my focus, all of the dodging is what’s making it worse for me. He’s got nothing to think about but attack.’ Their distance slowly closed through dodging and attacking.

Set on his course, Yuki drew in the mist once more, but focused them to his hands and feet. He hardened the energy once more into a tightly packed shape. Rather than a sphere, he took to something a little more practical for combating his surroundings. Blades formed at his hands for him to take hold, while at his feet they hovered as though affixed. They became solid glowing weapons.

Weapon combat wasn’t his forte. He preferred unarmed combat, but against other weapons reach trumped preference. “Let’s do this!” Brandishing his weapons at his side, Yuki charged in a new direction back at Demosthenes.

The density gave him the superior cutting edge against the weapons. He dove through them like a knife through butter. Broken weapons rained down around him in his wake. Yuki cut his way through to Demosthenes. His weapons clashed with sparks slamming down on Demosthenes’ sword and parried off with the scythe.

A quick rapid exchange between the two left Yuki with several more wounds. It showed him how much of a difference in skill with weapons Demosthenes was. It wasn’t even a matter of stronger powers or concentration. He lost to pure skill.

Clenching his hands around the weapons, Yuki grit his teeth to push through the situation. “It’s not over yet!” He spun around bringing his feet up to attack Demosthenes as well. All four blades entered the fray trying to get him from multiple sides. It actually seemed to have an effect. Yuki could get in some nearly unblocked strikes. Until it finally happened, he slipped through the defense and made a shallow cut on his left shoulder.

The reward for the first real wound was a sudden and swift point blank attack by the great sword, which opened up to reveal a concealed energy cannon. “Dammit!” yelled Yuki as he fell back to the ground.

Prone and sore, only his barrier padded the blow, Yuki stared up at Demosthenes. ‘I got a hit on him, but this is still going to exhaust me before him. Even with all of the mental power, my body isn’t going to hold out. I’m still a little out of shape from the year I stopped fighting, not even counting all of the wounds I have. I need something to end this…something he wouldn’t see coming…’

Yuki didn’t get much time to think when Demosthenes returned to the offensive with more concealed effects in the weapons revealing themselves. From hidden projectiles to energy attacks to elemental based attacks, the wide range of methods did little to surprise Yuki anymore. He had enough weapons for an army and each was distinctively different.

Keeping on the move, Yuki racked his brain for ideas. Anything to turn the fight around would be enough. ‘What would he not expect from me?’ Dodging became even more challenging as he didn’t have only close range weapons to deal with. The fight truly needed to end soon if Yuki was to win. ‘I’m still new to these powers, so anything advanced he’d probably expect from others, but not me. But what? I only have a few examples…’

Then his mind went to his last fight, Vangelis popped in his mind. The man who still puzzled him with his abilities. ‘I don’t know how he did it, but he was always switching around doing things to throw me off and knew what I expected and subverted that at every corner.’ The more he thought about Vangelis’ attack from the context of their powers, he started to poke through what it could be. ‘The most likely situation is that he had all of that in his head and he just separated it into a completely different set. The complexity of such a power…I can’t imagine how he managed to keep that all in his head. But my power isn’t designed that way…and dropping it…’

His options shrank quickly. He could tell how much his body started to drag on him. The wounds were catching up to him. Yuki punched through everything he could, flying low to the ground with as much support as he could muster. He moved quickly, even faster than before to get himself out of the range. Drawing Demosthenes' attack away from where their fight started. The fight moved towards the city.

Yuki glanced up at Demosthenes checking the distance. ‘Almost there…just a little further…’ He kept measuring out the distance. The desired position finally hit and he turned sharply around, throwing everything he had into the speed. He sped back towards the palace causing it to disappear from his powers, even during the fight the courtyard size was large enough that it was only marginally affected at the start. However, he dove straight into the palace, now an open grass Field. People scattered everywhere until suddenly the palace popped back.

Demosthenes moved in towards the palace watching for any signs. ‘He turned off his power? He must be trying to come up with a new power to counter me. Dangerous move…’ He flew to the palace quickly removing it once more with his grass Field to discover Yuki. ‘He’s got his power back on. What has he decided on?’

‘Damn…I didn’t have as much time as I hoped.’ The mist all returned around him. He wielded it loosely as more floating weapons to combat the dangers. Once he had an opening, he jumped back into the air to fly closer. Left behind him, a chunk of the earth where his feet once stood was no longer present.

Moving closer to Demosthenes, Yuki jumped into his mist to grab back his weapons. He closed the distance with Demosthenes. Clashing with him, Yuki managed to parry the massive sword and even slid down to dodge the shifting to an assault cannon. Flipping backwards, he slashed at the sword to knock it out of his path. The scythe came in as a quick parry and deflection, but Yuki’s blade actually sliced through it easily.

He stabbed through embedding the blade into Demosthenes’ shoulder. The surprise allowed him to drop the second blade into his other shoulder. When Yuki released his hand, Demosthenes suddenly dropped out of the sky. He clearly tried to recover, but could do nothing but soften his blow into the earth.

The collapse of his body coughed up blood, dirt and smoke around him. All of the weapons turned down before fading away from sight.

Yuki could finally sigh with relief. “It’s over…”