As the announcer yelled, "Battle start," the skies blasted with fireworks from the four rooftops around us.
To the east was red, high in the grey sky it transformed into a long dragon slowly disappearing into obscurity.
The north was a white rabbit, with his eyes red, showing anger, weak at everything and unable to reach anything.
The west one was a dark wolf with peaceful blue eyes, symbolizing the ending, which crows themselves pierced through.
To the south, behind me—
glancing at it over my shoulder, I saw a green snake, symbolizing treachery and deception at the start of everything.
I smirked and giggled a bit. How fitting.
Dokuremi got closer, immediately I jumped back, my foot slowly sliding against the wet grass.
"Relax, you're dying today anyway." He glanced around with his hands in his pockets. "They sure did go above and beyond though, huh? When did they prepare fireworks?"
I was silent, staring at him, waiting for anything to happen.
"We can't let them down then, can we?" His usually pisky voice dropped to a shallower, deeper one.
I glared at my left wrist; a small blue tab hovered over it.
Mp: 200
Hp: 100
Those two were the most important stats; I ignored anything beyond them.
Time until a specialized bounty collector is sent: 130–130–130
Good, it's still glitched.
I glanced shorter, the last stat before you need to scroll down.
Unique ability: Weapon creator.
He glanced at me, his smirk dropping to a mocking smile. "It would've sucked if it was over so soon, right?"
He again stepped closer. "One ability, one shot — one kill. Where's the fun in that? So quickly, the audience wouldn't even get to enjoy my glorious skill in hand-to-hand fighting…"
He got his arms out of his pocket. "Hey, are you ignoring me? A, F rank, ignoring me?" He raised them a bit, appearing like a martial arts stance, left arm straight out, widened, palm open, while the right arm was more defensive with the palm curled in a fist waiting by the waist.
"That sucks. It appears I need to teach you a lesson, Sato." I continued staring at the name of my useless ability.
"So, I've decided, Sato — I won't use my ability for the time being. I'll beat you shitless without it." He swung over his palm, now right arm forward and left back, his palm opened upwards and called out to me, "Come, Sato."
I raised an eyebrow. He won't use it? Am I that weak? He doesn't even see me as a threat!? It's your rank — YOUR LIFE HERE ON THE FUCKING LINE —
Turning my head toward him. I glared at him with sharpened eyes. "Enough talk," I yelled out sharply and continued, "Come at me already, Dokuremi."
In a stupid fit of rage I rushed forward toward him, as did he towards me. My left palm curled into a fist, ready to swing at him, blocked by his left palm, he went for a right uppercut — direct hit, sound around me stopped for a second, then everything came back in a rush, a single sequence of loud cheering. I almost floated a bit from the force alone.
Not so fast, DOKUREMI!
His ear twitched, in an instant he ducked back just as my right palm swung from the back with a blade in its hold, millimetres away from his nose.
"TOO SLOW—" He taunted then immediately swung his left leg towards my abdomen, I myself raised my left leg blocking it.
The field which was quiet a second ago filled with both yelling. "DIRTY! DIRTY MOVE F-RANK!" And "INCREDIBLE, FOR AN F RANK!!" Casual cheering from the neutrals and "SHUT UP YOU DIRTY C RANKS, SATO DID NOTHING WRONG!" F ranks from south yelled back to the C's.
Tch, ducked, huh — no surprise attacks anymore. Great.
He tapped the grass with his foot, slowly jumping back.
The four sides now had banners flown down their sides.
The west B and east D were cheering casually, without picking sides.
I grinned. "Surely, you don't expect me to go by your hand-on-hands rules, Mr. C class~"
"Ahaha—" He cleaned his face from sweat. "Of course not, a useless skill such as yours wouldn't make a difference. Sato, weapon maker~"
I clacked my tongue in annoyance; in my left palm another blade appeared, as black and bland as the right one is.
"Then come, DOKUREMI—"
We both ran at each other head-on; this time he was on the offensive. His palm flew forward with immense speed, going for my abdomen. Both of my hands, with instinct to protect, ducked down at it.
My eyes followed his palms — a terrible move. At the upper side of my eye, barely glancing at it, he grinned.
FU—
His palm immediately went up as my arms were moving halfway down hoping for a clean cut, instead everything darkened around me, my eyes closed at the nearest sound of impact. Another uppercut, this time with his palm opened and fingers curled inwards, creating small bone blades.
Unlike the last time where I only floated slightly, this time I was thrown at least five centimeters above the ground.
My head went black with thoughts for a second. I could only hear distant cheering.
In a second my eyes opened again, just barely I noticed him going for a finishing attack. Both of his arms were together, palms opened while his body moved sideways.
I need to do something, I need to do something. THINK SATO THINK—
"IT'S OVER SATO, QUICKER THAN I THOUGHT…"
THAT'S RIGHT, RELEASE!
Both of my blades disappeared. He swung it back, then prepared to launch it into my abdomen. "RAGNAK—" Impact, but it was a distinct sound.
CRACK
"KAI- AUURGGHH!?"
CLIING
Almost metallic, it was a shield cracked a bit at the place of the impact, shards dropped around us.
I was thrown away, albeit he also stepped back, looking down at his fists. "WHAT THE-"
Rolling on my back I threw away the bland metallic shield. RELEASE — it disintegrated into the air.
I tried curling into a ball, but it hurt like hell. I could feel the internal organs of my abdomen collapsing EVEN THROUGH A SHIELD!? As I rolled back I started coughing; slowly it was just spit. As I stopped on my side and moved my palm against my lips, I noticed it was a slight amount of blood.
FUCKING HELL — SINCE WHEN ARE C CLASSES SO STRONG? I swung my hand at him, throwing him a dirty look. "ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE A C CLASS — THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN AN F-RANK MADE SHIELD, BUT IT'S METAL-!"
He glared at me as his palms reddened. "SATOOOO — ALRIGHT, TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME. SHROUDED VEIL —!!" Slowly, from down his legs to his head, he started disappearing. Finally his ability activated.