Chapter 19: Hanging by a Thread 2
Both sides were continuously looking for each other's openings, only to cover their own. Suddenly, Itsuki jumped back and pulled out a small dagger. It had some rather strange swirling patterns on it.
Haruki immediately became alert upon seeing it.
— Is that a dagger? What is its effect? Better be careful because this could be his secret weapon.
Haruki jumped quite a distance away and focused intensely on every one of Itsuki's movements.
Surprisingly, Itsuki opened his mouth and stuffed the dagger inside. Haruki watched with a stunned expression. He pushed the dagger deep into his mouth and swallowed it. He opened his eyes, looked at Haruki, and wore a smug smile.
"You... Must... Die!!!!"
"Valley of Swords!!!!!!!!"
Suddenly, long swords erupted from the ground, all pointing toward Haruki. Surprised by what he had just seen, Haruki remained alert and jumped into the air to avoid the swords trying to impale his feet.
Itsuki's face had returned to being ice-cold, his gaze extremely sharp.
The swords from the ground immediately aimed for Haruki while he was mid-air. They launched at Haruki; despite being attacked by hundreds of swords at once, Haruki remained calm and handled it.
Haruki's mouth began to glow; a large energy source was concentrating there. Both of his hands also held energy. Haruki's body glowed; the front of his body released energy, pushing his body back down toward the ground.
He successfully evaded Itsuki's wave of attacks. As Haruki's body fell, his back released energy to cushion him as he landed. Haruki sprang up, putting both hands forward. His mouth and hands fired three energy spheres straight at Itsuki's position.
However, since the attack was from too far away, even if it went faster, it would be dodged. Itsuki's prowess was nearly equal to Haruki's. The attack reached Itsuki's location, but he avoided it with ease.
Itsuki's swords continued to fly toward Haruki, but he ran while dodging them. they missed repeatedly and stabbed into the ground, then sank beneath it as if the ground were water.
Haruki charged straight at where Itsuki was standing, unleashing two Spatial Slashes. They traveled, disappeared, and reappeared in front of Itsuki. But he was always alert to Haruki's Spatial Slashes. Two swords from the ground shot up and successfully blocked Haruki's two attacks.
But Haruki did not back down. Even as swords from the ground kept rising to attack him, Haruki's small-scale spatial control prevented the swords underneath from piercing up. Now, the only problem was the swords flying and attacking from around him.
— I didn't expect this spatial control ability—which people once praised but were later disappointed in because I couldn't master it—to automatically become this effective now. Though it's only a small area, it's good enough. Am I controlling it unconsciously?
Haruki rushed forward, knocking away all the incoming swords. Itsuki sensed something was wrong and backed away, but Haruki had already closed the distance and was prepared to unleash a slash. Haruki's sword was about to reach Itsuki when he suddenly smiled.
From his body, blades suddenly thrust out in all directions. Haruki was caught off guard as multiple swords pierced his body; his eyes went wide, and his expression was one of disbelief. Haruki gritted his teeth and endured, trying to swing his sword, while Itsuki wanted to avoid it, but Haruki's body was stuck by the swords that had pierced him.
A slash sent Itsuki flying away, his body heavily injured with a large wound on his side. Haruki followed up; a kick to Itsuki's stomach forced the dagger out of his mouth, covered in blood.
He had endured the pain to use that weapon. Haruki immediately wrapped his body in energy to heal himself; the wounds were not too severe, allowing Haruki to recover relatively quickly.
Itsuki was also scrambling to get up. He was also healing himself, looking at Haruki with angry eyes. He gritted his teeth against the pain of the wound.
— Damn it, he put too much energy into that strike; I even had to push his energy out. I'm consuming too much energy.
Both sides stared at each other intently and alertly. Itsuki picked up his sword and entered a defensive stance.
— With this wound, I will definitely recover after that guy.
Haruki had finished recovering; he rushed in, wanting to end the battle as quickly as possible. A downward slash forced Itsuki to struggle to block; Haruki immediately ducked and performed a leg sweep, but he jumped. However, Haruki was the one who struck first and held the advantage.
Haruki pushed both hands off the ground, then kicked one leg upward; the kick landed straight on Itsuki's chin. As he was about to fall backward, Haruki delivered a kick straight into his side, where the wound hadn't fully healed. He was in agony, gritting his teeth against the pain as he flew back.
Just as he fell to the ground, he pulled out a large purple stone from his person, enveloped in a purple light. He immediately popped it into his mouth and swallowed it.
Haruki realized it too; it was an energy stone. He frowned in thought.
"This is not good. I didn't bring any energy stones. With a stone that large, swallowing it will fully restore his lost energy. If so, my fight with him from the beginning until now has been almost for nothing."
Itsuki, with a body full of energy and healed wounds, rushed to attack Haruki. The two swords clashed once more, causing the surrounding grass and flowers to bend as if blown by the wind.
— This guy really has a massive energy source. He's been fighting me this whole time without showing any signs of running out. Earlier, his panting was probably because he used a large amount of energy in a short time. If so, I need to pressure him like before to find more openings.
The battle remained very tense when Itsuki felt his next move should be a thrust.
"Now is the time! I've caught you!"
Itsuki's sword tip was heading toward Haruki's chest, but suddenly it disappeared, as if stabbing into another dimension. Stunned by what happened before his eyes, Itsuki froze.
Following the sword's momentum, Itsuki lost his balance and fell toward Haruki. Haruki, planning to stab his heart, saw him tilt his body and evade the fatal blow. But the sword still pierced his chest, going all the way through; red blood dripped from the sword's tip. A large mouthful of blood sprayed from his mouth.
He didn't die that easily. Despite being stabbed, he still exerted his strength, raising his left hand and condensing a large energy attack. Haruki's sword was still stuck in Itsuki's chest. Haruki wanted to let go of the sword and dodge, but it was too slow.
The blow sent Haruki flying, rolling on the ground several times. His body showed clear signs of exhaustion.
Itsuki pulled out the sword Haruki had stabbed into him and threw it aside. He knelt down and concentrated energy to heal.
— Since I just ate that large energy stone, my body is almost completely full of energy. I can still handle a wound like this. He must be tired from fighting all this time. I can finish him after I recover.
Haruki lay motionless on the ground for a moment, then struggled to stand up with difficulty. He panted incessantly, gritting his teeth as he looked at Itsuki healing in the distance.
— I need to stand still and not move to regulate my energy. He just unleashed a disruptive attack to make me lose a little time so he could take the chance to recover.
After some time of both sides just staring and recovering energy, Itsuki and Haruki had finished their self-healing.
Haruki ran forward, reached down, and picked up his sword that Itsuki had thrown earlier.
Haruki and Itsuki lunged at each other once again. Two slashes carrying large energy sources collided once more. The ground was cracking; the great pressure created a wind that blew in both directions.
"Why did you let your brother run off to fight the boy Kazuka?"
Itsuki's face was expressionless.
"Naturally, I guessed you were brothers or close. So I let my younger brother chase him for his own amusement. My brother especially loves killing kids like that."
Haruki gritted his teeth and frowned with a look of disgust.
"You're sick."
Itsuki's sword strike circled Haruki's left side but was blocked. He used his left hand, wanting to punch Haruki's side, but it was dodged.
Itsuki attacked relentlessly, baring his teeth. His white, sharp teeth lunged toward Haruki's neck; Haruki leaned back slightly and unleashed a very high knee strike straight into Itsuki's chin.
He stepped back a few paces, seemingly a bit dazed, shaking his head to clear it. He charged back in to attack Haruki once more.
Kuroha was in the forest. A green light illuminated a part of the woods. Green vines surrounded Kuroha's body. They wove together to create a bow wrapped in vines.
She was deeply focused; the image of the bow was forming in Kuroha's mind. As the images appeared, the vines outside wove themselves accordingly.
After a while, Kuroha opened her eyes and gripped the bow being suspended in the air by the vines. Her face looked serious as she stared ahead.
"Is the battle still going on?"
A vine reached out, nodding as if it understood. The woven vines opened a path for Kuroha to run out; it could be seen she had been sitting inside a sphere woven by the vines.
Kuroha ran straight toward the battle. She looked worriedly toward the direction of the energy.
"Please wait for me, everyone."