Shifting Desires

Everything went white on Yuki. The number of times he faced death almost made it feel like he was returning home. It still scared him, but it scared him even more such feelings of familiarity coming from it. ‘I’m having so much trouble with him. He’s not even the same as Demosthenes. That man didn’t need tricks when he got serious, I could tell the difference in our powers, but this man. I’m having trouble with him…’

It was doubt. Uncertainty surrounded him. He was back at not knowing anything. ‘I thought I understood, but it’s so very clear I still don’t understand anything…I don’t understand anything at all…’

Thoughts went back to the villagers. ‘I was impulsive. I didn’t consider them.’ A myriad of dark questions swarmed his mind. Yuki wondered about the path he chose. ‘Is this what they want? What they need? Am I doing the right thing?’ The thoughts only made things worse for him. He sank deeper. ‘Can I even do anything? I don’t understand anything…’

‘It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand anything!’ shouted Seiji, within Yuki’s mind. He held out a clenched fist as proof of his declaration.

Yuki’s face went flat staring at Seiji’s appearance. ‘What are you doing here? In my mind?’

Taken back a little, Seiji’s floating body moved away from Yuki. ‘What are you talking about?! This is the moment where I use our friendship to recharge your burning desire to fight and turn the tables on that bastard! I’m supposed to do this! You already did it for Saki!’

Not immediately responding to Seiji, Yuki straightened up to confront Seiji. ‘I’m fine that I don’t need a motivational speech.’

‘But you said these were normal! These are important moments to have!’

‘They’re also too cliché. They’re like a deus ex machina, and I’m the main character here! I don’t need such overused devices!’ Yuki turned away from Seiji, starting to walk away and back towards the fight. ‘l show you a main character that can stand back up on their own!’

Seiji looked a little dejected from the whole scene. ‘But this was supposed to be my chance to help you out.’

‘Besides, I wasn’t in despair. I hadn’t given up. The fight just made me realize something things I’ve been ignoring.’

‘Sounds like you’re being tsundere.’

‘You shouldn’t know that word, Seiji. And don’t use your trump card of being smarter than you appear, that is completely outside of your character type.’

‘I am a figment of your imagination.’

Yuki had nothing more to say to Seiji. He closed off that part of his mind. Returning to reality, the pain sobered Yuki up quickly. Color returned to his eyes, as did energy back to his body. “Damn, Seiji…ruining my moment. I’ll have to punch him the next time I see him.” Yuki pulled himself back up. He already quickly had the wound on his missing arm sealed up by the energy surrounding him. He stared out with more determination to figure out Vangelis’ powers. “Thanks to you I have more to spare. I can do something like this now.” Closing up his hand, the ambient energy in the air took form to become a simple sword.

Chapter 190 – Shifting Desires

Grinning like a jackal, Vangelis became even more excited about the fight. ‘I was curious to see how he would react to it. I had planned on just healing his arm after I saw his reaction, but this is even better than I hoped for. This is just simply too much fun.’ A few stray thoughts clouded his mind, but they quickly passed. ‘It’s been too long.’

Blood soaked into the tall grass that surrounded Yuki. It gave him a reminder of the situation he was in currently. ‘I’ve lost a fair bit of blood. I’m not too light headed right now, but my body doesn’t feel right. I’m going to have to be careful about anything else that happens.’ Alerted, another blast came at Yuki, reminding him he still had to fight. Making use of the sword, he swung the blade upward through the air at the blast. It divided into two, safely dispersing to his sides.

It made him feel a little more assured of his position. He countered the attack successfully. ‘I have to keep watching his powers. I’ve got to memorize each one so I know what to expect. He’s got the upper hand until I know what to expect from him. When that happens, I’ll be able to change the pace of this fight!’

Testing out Yuki’s new defense, Vangelis fired off several more blasts. ‘So he really has made use of the spare energy. That sword is strong enough now to alter my attacks. Just means I get to try something else.’ The ground turned into red felt stretching out. Drawing out magic circles in front of his hand, ice shards blasted out at Yuki.

Yuki’s eyes widened a touch, taking everything into his mind. The sword transformed into an aspis type of shield. Opacity in the swirling mass grew as more particles drew up from his arm to harden it. Ice shattered on the surface, doing nothing to Yuki. ‘Magic now. I remember this, and he’s using felt with it.’

He knew it was a chance to counterattack. Yuki remembered the different spells he used in the fight. ‘This is my chance to get a real hit in against him! I’ve got to make it count!’ Rising up the shield a little, Yuki focused more of his barrier into the surface of the aspis. It glowed a little brighter before releasing several orbs of compressed energy.

Already expecting something, Vangelis placed a barrier spell up to take the hits. However, one of the shots strayed from their course and crashed into the dirt. It coughed up a cloud around the entire area. ‘Interesting, he’s making a smokescreen for himself. What’s he got in store?’ Vangelis slid around his eyes to keep watch for the smoke to clear, while listening closely.

Expecting a flanking attack, Vangelis didn’t think that Yuki would come from the front. It took him a little off guard hearing the clashing of something hitting his barrier. All he saw through all of the smoke was light. It cleared out soon. Vangelis saw the edge of Yuki’s sword. However, he didn’t expect to see the entire barrier suddenly collapse on him. The shattered bubble rained down chunks of transparent magic slowly fading away.

His defense down, the next attack came as little surprise, but Vangelis still had trouble dodging it. He staggered back as the blade came in for him. Lowering his hand, a cube flew up forcing Yuki to pull back. Everything played out with only centimeters to spare.

The two leapt away from the other settling on a small distance apart. Yuki’s sword only managed to catch a touch of Vangelis’ clothes. The man still wore his military uniform, almost like declaring the fact that he didn’t need to change for the fight.

‘So close, but I actually managed to get a successful attack off!’ He found his constant struggling to keep up with the pace of Vangelis trying for him. It made him wonder if he would ever find an opening. ‘He’s not perfect. I just have to be smarter than him.’

Examining his uniform’s cut, Vangelis admitted to the moment of surprise. “Very interesting, kid. It’s been a while since someone actually made it that close.”

“You’re not going to get all angry and power up because I ruined your pristine clothes are you?” Yuki grinned a little at Vangelis.

“I see you’ve got your playfulness back, kid.” His mind played through the previous moments in the fight. He tried to search for an answer, but none of it made any sense to him. ‘The kid managed to do something that I didn’t actually foresee. This really is getting interesting.’ Vangelis grinned back at Yuki. “How much more will you show me?!” Opening his hands, a cube filled up his entire palm enclosed only loosely by his fingers.

Gripping his sword tightly, Yuki dug into the grass to charge for Vangelis. ‘Those shapes again, with a Greek architecture Field,’ he mentally noted, continuing to store all of the information in their fight.

Vangelis tossed the first cube at Yuki, following it up with a second that materialized. The other hand held onto the cube. It gave Yuki his signal to charge forward. Slashing through the cubes, Yuki continued through for Vangelis. However, the cubes didn’t vanish. They grew larger in size and started to spin, appearing like cones.

The changes didn’t go ignored by Yuki. He immediately changed the shape of his sword to transform into four small knives that fit nicely in his palm. Yuki threw out his hand in the direction of one of the flanking half cubes. The knives soared out towards the object, but one of the knives diverted its direction, suddenly heading straight for another section of the cube. All of the knives sought out their own target entering a momentary dance as they dodged and turned about. However, the knives eventually sunk into the surface of each half cube.

Yuki closed his hand and acted like he pulled on something invisible. The knives moved back to Yuki dragging the cubes along with them. Once they came closer to him, he started to spin the group around before launching them back at Vangelis. Taking away the cube, Vangelis still had to contend with the four knives flying through the air.

The other cube in Vangelis’ hand flew out along with several more geometric shapes. They collided with Yuki’s knives and danced around once more. He kept up the pace with the changes that Yuki made to the knives. ‘The kid’s come up with something new. He keeps going.’ Vangelis smirked a little. Then the shapes all suddenly disappeared.

A forest sprouted up around Vangelis. The knives, which started to change direction, became wrapped by a whip. It had four separate lashes, each tying down one of the knives. While he had the knives restrained, a spear appeared in his off-hand. The spear extended out at Yuki.

Dodging quickly, Yuki sidestepped the attack. He dispersed the knives and returned the sword back to his hand. A smooth motion from the sword removed the spearhead. It disappeared before hitting the ground. ‘He’s taking advantage of my injured side.’ Yuki jumped forward while dodging the reformed spear. A moment later, Vangelis brought down a sword, replacing the spear.

Yuki parried the sword, adjusting to his balance. His missing arm threw off his weight a little. He found himself compensating for the difference. ‘This feels weird still. I keep thinking that it is still there.’ Yuki’s hand tightened around his sword, sharpening the blade to cut through the sword. Riding in the rest of the distance, Yuki closed with Vangelis coming up against a scutum shield. His sword slammed into the tall shield’s metal surface sparking light particles of energy.

Arrows appeared in the air above the clashing forces. Yuki’s eyes darted around checking his surroundings. Pulling from his back, transparent daggers flew up to hover over his head. While Yuki pressed against the shield, the daggers attacked the arrows, keeping them at bay.

‘He’s getting more complex with his tactics,’ noted Vangelis. The shield transferred out just as two spears jutted out for Yuki. A blast of dirt coughed up a small cloud at his feet, shooting Yuki into the air. Vangelis glanced up a little curious. He grinned, enjoying the show.

Yuki changed his sword into a chain. The chain stretched up to one of the daggers, wrapping around it. It anchored Yuki for the moment as he swung around and released the dagger. He redirected all of the daggers back down, while also changing back to an aspis. ‘I’ll break an opening up!’ The aspis clashed into the shield Vangelis pulled out from another dimension. His daggers came up against other shields that suddenly materialized on flanking sides of Vangelis.

Leaving behind the shield, Yuki jumped off his still formed aspir and climbed over the scutum. Another blast came off his feet to propel him over Vangelis. His hand reached out for one of the daggers growing it into a sword. Yuki rotated around slashing down from his upside-down position at Vangelis’ exposed back. A sword blocked him before he got too deep, but he saw a faint trace of blood.

Vangelis finished turning around as Yuki landed back on the ground. The sting on his back turned his usual smirk into a flat line. “You’ve managed to cut me, kid. I’m impressed.” All of the shields disappeared, but were replaced by more than a dozen swords floating in front of him.

Yuki’s features narrowed, the situation suddenly becoming graver. “I thought you weren’t the type to get angry over a wound.” He wiped away sweat from his forehead, the physical exertion starting to get to him.

“I’m not, however I am the type to up the ante when I’ve found someone worth my attention.” Another dozen swords materialized followed by another dozen. The air started to become cluttered with them. “I’ve been soft on you so far, kid!”

“I’m crush,” Yuki droned. He already saw the significance of what Vangelis showed. It had been a while since he saw someone control so many independent objects and it didn’t even look like the man broke a sweat.

“It’s time to dance!” Vangelis motioned with his hand to signal the charge. All of the swords went flying at Yuki, each with different speed and trajectories. It was clear even the effort he showed was merely child’s play still.

Yuki jumped back to give himself a little more distance. He summoned up his dagger to try to divert a few of the swords, while he began to dodge the first bout. Unfortunately, the weight of the swords prevented his minor daggers from altering their vector. He leapt into air once more, but directed a heavy blast against the grass at his feet. It blew up chunks of earth at the swords, while he tumbled away.

Quickly latching out to a floating dagger, Yuki managed to alter his course and cushion his drop before confronted by another barrage of weaponry. ‘Damn, there’s so many of them. And I haven’t gotten used to the balance either…I’m going to have to change that. I’m running out of time!’ Suddenly, Vangelis appeared at Yuki’s side, the swords disappeared, but only replaced with a wide blast from his hand.

Yuki blocked with his arm, using the aspis to absorb the damage. However, Yuki saw another several rounds of blasts sent off from Vangelis’ fingers. ‘Can’t do anything with so many…’ Yuki blasted off to throw himself out of the blast range, when the explosions went off from all of the attacks. He tumbled over the ground as earth chunks rained down around him.

Vangelis appeared in front of him with a hand pointed down at him. The glow already started to signal a point blank attack. “How will you get out of this one, kid?” The grin on Vangelis’ face grew wide again. “Impress me, again!”

Gritting his teeth together, Yuki screamed out in pain. He glared up at Vangelis, lifting himself up. The light from the blast grew even brighter so close to Yuki. “As you wish!” yelled Yuki. His other, previously missing, arm came up slamming up against Vangelis’ hand. All of the light and energy streamed out from between their fingers as the two clashed.