Spoiler (Click to Show)
It wasn’t on purpose, it was in the heat of battle. I could’ve been dead if I held back. I know Zack’s power is too much to be foolish enough to hold back. Still, it burdens me that I have caused pain to someone I call a friend.
The doctor had a smile on his face while he looked at me.
“Oh yes, he’s fine. To summarize all his injuries… A disturbed skull, a couple of bruises, and first-degree burns on his back. None of his injuries are lethal, thank goodness. He should be back to normal in about two weeks”
I let out a sigh of relief as I stood up to shake the doctor’s hand. Thank god, I haven’t dealt any serious injuries to him. I was prepared to kill myself if anything legitimate happened to him.
“Thank you Dr. Navarez. I was worried that we might lose a teammate” I said as I shook his hand.
“Quite. By the way Aiba, you need to take care of yourself as well. I know you had a longer time to recover, but you still had some near-fatal injuries the last time you ‘visited’ here. I know that you want to get back into action as soon as you can, but you can’t be pushing yourself this much straight out of recovery”
The smile he had on his face was gone, looking me straight in the eye with seriousness.
“Yeah… I should’ve known better”
Dr. Navarez sighed, and put his hand on my shoulder.
“You know that I care for your team. We’ve known each other for some time, and I can’t repay you enough for saving my daughter. All I can give you is my knowledge and the facility’s power. But there are limits to what current technology and medicine can do. So please be more careful”
“...I’ll try”
I was walking down the usual streets that are en route to the hideout, thinking about what to do next. Like the doctor said, I didn’t want to push myself too hard, but there isn’t a whole lot to do. My company knows that I’m on hiatus, and there is someone else taking my place temporarily as Manager. He really deserves that spot more than I do, and I don’t want to take the opportunity that he has right now prematurely. But now there’s really nothing to do for me… Maybe I should get rid of the tree that Vamprina brought. Seriously, I think that tree’s big enough to chip the windows on the second floor if it’s windy enough outside. And that thing is planted far away from the base.
Suddenly, I got a call on my phone. I pulled it out of my pocket, revealing the caller to be Charlie.
“...Fight or technology?” I answered, with the calls I usually get from him involving either someone wanting to challenge me or something like the microwave not working again. For a smart guy, he cannot handle his technology.
“Neither actually. Surprised?” Charlie replied jokingly.
“...I am. What’s up?”
“So I might have something that’ll help you get back to full health. You close to the base right now?”
“Yeah, I’m on my way back”
“Alrighty, hurry on back. I think you’ll like this a lot”
After the call, my thoughts were set on one thing; getting back into good condition. Even though I was able to beat Zackeroar earlier, it was because of my magic abilities. If Zackeroar was an Earth element, I would’ve been screwed in that situation. As much as being careful, I need to work on getting back in the game.
I returned home after about 15 minutes, and confronted Charlie about what he was saying earlier.
“So, what is this thing that you wanted to show me?”
“Oh yeah…” Charlie said as he pulled something out of a box that was on the kitchen table.
“Tada!”
The object in his hand looked like some sort of scroll, with the wrinkles and small tears in it proving that it was fairly aged.
“Dude… What is this?” I asked him as I couldn’t resist on making a weird face at him.
“Well, I know that you haven’t worked on boosting your magical abilities in a while, so I thought this would help you with it!” Charlie replied, with both of his hands on his hips and looking proud of himself.
I open the scroll, revealing the inscriptions in it composed of the language of the Rathunians, a small tribe in an eastern island who were known to be one of the five ‘innovators’ that originated magic.
“Where do you get this kind of thing?” I said as I started to translate what the scroll enlisted. I was fairly educated in the language, thanks to the master of my dojo using scrolls that also used the Rathunian language, though the ones I went through were easy enough to be understood by their children. The one in front of me has a couple of syllables that I wasn’t familiar with though. This might be a challenge… At least we have the magical powers of the internet. Hallelujah.
“zBay can do wonders my friend. And it wasn’t that expensive either. Apparently the price of these scrolls have gone down significantly in value ever since the RHG system became popular, because everyone has their variety of magic nowadays. Kids today grow up so fast…”
“You’re not that old either”
“...Are you trying to hit on me?”
I raised the finger on him, with an unamused look on my face. As Charlie laughed and left the kitchen, I sat down to the table to look through the scroll thoroughly. It seems that the scroll is focused on wind magic, since the syllable for “wind” pops up quite frequently. It’s a pretty lengthy scroll, so this might take a while to go through the whole thing...
“...*Yawn* Man this thing is harder than I expected”
It’s been around two hours since I started going through the scroll. I moved to one of the training rooms underground so I could try some of the stuff that was listed. The technique listed in the scroll, the Breeze of Ethenia(Translation courtesy of the online translator), is a technique that basically blows a huge amount of wind in the opponent’s way to either catch them off balance, or slowing projectiles down. There apparently is a record that it could completely stop bullets if done right. This will really come in handy if I can master it.
I started working on using the move about 40 minutes ago. The concept itself isn’t too hard, but putting enough force into the wind I use so I can actually push high-speed objects back was a bigger task than I expected. The blow is almost instant, and it is possible to keep it blowing for a while, up to about a minute, which is fairly hard to maintain. I’ve been using the drones down here to shoot various objects with increasingly heavier weight and speed, and the greatest thing I’ve been able to stop so far are metal BB pellets going 250 mph for 24 seconds.. Still, with bullets, my biggest feat so far is slowing down a 9mm bullet fired from a pistol enough to make it unable to penetrate the human body. It isn’t nearly enough though. If any of the fighters from the organizations that may be after us use any automatic weapons, which in most cases they do, this ability won’t be useful in it’s current state.
My phone rang again as I wiped the sweat from my face. After putting the towel I brought with me down, I answered the call, this time the caller being Zoe. Weird, getting calls from Zoe are so rare that I sometimes even forget that she even owns a phone.
“Hey Aiba… I think there’s someone who wants to challenge you”
“What? Why? And How? I thought RHG had me on hiatus”
“Not anymore. Ever since you went to the hospital with Zack, you’ve been made an active participant again. And this guy… He’s not normal”
“I’ve fought a gryphon, a duo of teenage zombies, and you. Opponents being ‘normal’ is the last thing I expect”
“I’m being serious! His way of fighting is… Maybe it’s easier to see for yourself. You’re scheduled to meet at the plains in half an hour”
“Got it. I have to say, I think this is the first time the organization made any kind of match for me. Everything else just… happened”
“I know the feeling… Anyway, good luck”
Great, a fight at the worst timing ever. And if Zoe is saying that this person isn’t normal, then this guy could actually be a threat… And plus, it might’ve been my fault for not fighting anyone for a while.
Sorry doc, but I have to do this.
The sun glared down on me as I waited for my opponent to appear in the plains. It’s not like he was late or anything, I came early so I could feel the weather before going into battle. Unlike any of the encounters I’ve had before, I actually had time to prepare myself. It’s a weird feeling to be honest…
A shadow approached.
“...Was I late for the meeting? I could’ve sworn that it was supposed to be at 2pm today” The shadow spoke.
“No, you’re on time. I just wanted to come out early. It’s a really nice weather out today, y’know?”
“Indeed. It’s warm for an autumn day”
I looked up and saw the man, dressed up in a dandy suit and his hair tidied up. He seemed like any other businessman that you would see on the streets, except for the collar around his neck. The rust infested collar seemed off to me, like it seemed that he was a pet to someone…. Please don’t tell me he’s into that.
“I’m assuming you’re Aiba Kannagi?” The man asked, while taking out a comb from the breast pocket, and slicking his hair back.
“Lien, right? I guess this is where we fight” I said, letting out a sigh.
After being satisfied with the style of his hair and putting his comb away, Lien questioned me, with a mildly concerned look on his face.
“...You don’t seem like you’re up for this”
“I’m not. But I have to. It’s the only way that we can stay in the city safely”
“We? What do you mean ‘we’?”
“My group. We’re not exactly… clean when it comes to criminal history. So this is what we have to do. I’m assuming you’re the same way”
“What makes you say that?”
I pointed at the awfully colored collar of his.
“That thing”
Lien looked down, and continued to talk.
“Not exactly the same with you, but I can sympathize. We’re all bound to this place in some way, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, that sounds about right”
We quietly laughed together. This guy seems alright, even though I’ll have to put him down. Not “put him down” put him down, like knock him out… You know what I mean.
“So… Shall we?” Lien said, showing a grin while taking a stance.
“Indeed” I replied, pulling out my knife and gun.
We stared at each other, letting the wind blow hard enough to push the branches on the trees nearby. But despite that, everything seemed quiet. Very, peacefully quiet.
“Guess I’ll go first” I said quietly.
I shot at Lien’s feet, and Lien immediately backed away. I continued shooting at where he was trying to go, and sure enough, he wasn’t able to comprehend with it for long, eventually getting hit in the foot. It seemed that the bullet only chipped his foot though, and he was mostly unfazed from it.
“I’ve heard that you don’t like fighting upfront. Why don’t you come fight with your fists?” Lien said, mostly like a taunt.
“I’d rather not get hurt right now. I’m a productive fighter, y’know?” I replied, half jokingly.
“Have it your way”
With that quote, he was gone. The next thing I knew, I was in the air, feeling a moderate amount of pain from my chest. Lien instantly jumped above me, and slammed me back down to the ground, making me hit my back hard onto the earth, unintentionally letting out a large grunt.
(So, he can run fast. That’s gonna be tricky…)
I thought to myself as I got up.
What he probably doesn’t know is that I can sense what’s coming to hurt me, no matter how fast it is. It’s kinda hard to react in time when the person is about ten times faster than you are though. I might need to change that.
Right when I sensed the next threat, I emitted a wind barrier around me, with a tornado that centers me pushing out anything close to me, including Lien.
The suited fighter fell to the ground, taken by surprise.
“...Well that ain’t fair”
He tries to outspeed me again, but this time I teleported right before he could hit me, and slashed him in the back, leaving a nasty cut that went beyond the fabric he had on.
Surprisingly though, Lien looked calm, as if he expected this to happen. In fact, he had a smile on his face.
“Not bad. I guess your record doesn’t lie”
“Well, thank you kindly”
We dashed at each other once more, this time with me putting my gun away and him not using his speed. I went for a running knee, but he easily dodged it, going for a grab from my back. I turned around as much as I could in mid air and slashed at his face, which he barely managed to evade, having to move his arms back as he dodged. After temporarily retracting, Lien went for a one-two punch, both solid looking punches, but not fast enough to be unavoidable. After blocking the first punch, I grabbed the other arm that was intended to hit my neck, and threw him over my head.
Lien fell with a nasty thud onto his back.
“How in the hell…” Lien gasped out as he regained his breath.
“You’re not heavy. You’re probably lighter than I am to be honest with you”
After letting out a frustrated grunt, Lien got up and rushed at me again. But with all the punches and kicks in the world, he wasn’t able to hit me, and I slipped with some strikes of my own here and there. I was at the point that I was able to analyze what his techniques were, or rather, lack there of.
“...You can use your powers if you want to, y’know” I said as I backed away from the unorganized flurry of strikes. Lien was panting, with his head down and his hands on his knees, with a combined look of astonishment and anger on his face.
“You... asked for it!” Lien said as he raised his head.
He once again swung at me after taking a breather, with the same result as before. After he missed wildly with a punch, I went for a stab to his legs, but this time instead of the blade sinking into his skin, the leg was moved back far enough to make me lose my balance, and his retracted leg was lifted to connect to my stomach as I fell down. I immediately got up, and swung at him with my knife profusely, only to be dodged like they were in slow motion. An array of punches soon swarmed me, knocking me to the ground as punches connected to every inch of my torso.
It was strange that he could suddenly dodge my attacks, and can hit me with such succession, to the point that I couldn't sense it coming. I was assuming that it was one of his powers. But since he didn’t increase in speed, I assumed that he couldn’t use any of them at the same time.
After I got up, I immediately started to slash at him, and he retaliated. With that power-up, Lien was connecting a lot more punches than he did a couple of minutes ago, knowing where I was going to block. I went a bit more aggressive as well, with slashes ripping his suit apart and leaving scars. Eventually, we both backed up, both covered in equal amounts of cuts and bruises. I gotta say, he's good. Whatever the hell he's using, he's using it well. This could be quite the doozy.
“Well… I didn’t expect this to be so evenly matched. I underestimated you” Lien said, as he took out his comb once more to organize his now messed up hair, going in multiple directions.
“I kinda regret not reading your bio… It usually makes the fight a bit more interesting, but in this case, it’s just aggravating”
“Well, I guess that means I’m doing a good job… I’ll take it as a compliment”
After putting his comb away, Lien once again ran towards me. I quickly drew out my gun and fired at him, but his ability seemed to be capable of enabling him to perceive the bullets, which went past him like they were toy pellets.
Lien went with a kick to the midsection, which managed to get through my arms that used to block, landing staright to my chest. The suited man proceeded to throw a straight punch to my torso, which I responded by slashing at his knuckles, leaving a painful line across it.
After momentarily receding his hand, Lien kicked at my arm holding my gun, but I teleported behind him, low kicking the back of his knee to make him lose balance. After kneeing down, a roundhouse kick to the head landed direct