Raquel unleashed a barrage of crystal shards at Sakura, who skillfully dodged and countered with fluid movements. Growing frustrated, Sakura activated her next technique—her hair extended and blasted out needle-like projectiles in rapid-fire succession. Their clash tore through the surrounding forest, leveling trees as they moved at blinding speed.
Sakura increased the pace, her hair-needles becoming deadlier. In response, Raquel crystallized her hands into razor-sharp blades and began countering each projectile with rapid punches. Amid the chaos, she noticed the needles accelerating.
"She's getting faster... I need to sharpen my awareness before I get caught off-guard. If this battle wasn't just a mere battle of domain, she would wantto kill me" Raquel muttered to herself.
Suddenly, Sakura launched herself from above, a spear of hair in hand, aiming straight for Raquel's heart. Raquel swiftly evaded, and the spear crashed into the ground, sending a wave of dust into the air. As it cleared, Sakura smirked.
"How long are you going to just evade? If you're tired then say so and grant me the win here!" she taunted. She then drew a strand of hair that instantly morphed into a dagger. Raquel saw this and her eyed dimmed "She's really trying to hurt me huh? Guess I'll hurt her too!" She muttered to herself
Meanwhile, Alex and his team were surrounded by dozens of hostile puppets. Alex charged his energy fist and bashed through them at a blinding speed, while Kinto hurled explosives to thin their numbers. Baraka swung his rock hammer with devastating force, shattering any puppet that got close.
"These things just keep coming," Alex growled.
"Someone's hiding and sending them after us," Kinto replied, scanning the area warily. He muttered to himself "I hate how things escalated quickly. It wasn't even up to a full minute before lasers came flying at us. Before we knew it, sōn and deo took off. If they were here, we'd be able to tear the numbers of these puppets faster. Not just that, but the fire power from son, deo and my explosives would have given us enough time to dim the numbers of these puppets and for us to get the guy who's sending these puppets afters us! What a fucking pain!"
Hidden in the bushes nearby was Yuta, an assassin from the City of Raijin. A wicked grin crossed his face as he observed the chaos.
"Let's see how long these city fodders can last." Yuta was the same age as alex and the rest of the squad.
High above and far, Kazuki stood on a tree branch, observing everything through his new ability: Perfect Vision. He sighed.
"If I don't join in soon, there's no way they'll survive this. The enemy's strategy is too weaken us as fast as possible. But we seem to have enough stamina to keep up, but not to win"
He gathered all his energy into his right hand. Purple flames ignited and began overflowing wildly as he prepared to move. Then—he shot forward, breaking the sound barrier like a rocket.
Back on the battlefield, the trio continued their desperate defense. Alex used his Flash Fist technique to strike down puppet after puppet with beams of energy the shape of fists,but the tide wasn't turning.
"It's like they're endless!" Alex yelled.
On a rampage, Baraka slammed his hammer into the ground. The impact cracked the earth, and from the fissure, a massive rocky arm burst out, obliterating dozens of puppets. Baraka collapsed shortly after.
Kinto rushed to his side. "You okay?!"
"I used too much energy. I'm not sure i can fight for long" Baraka groaned.
Alex up as he saw more puppets landing from the sky and unto the ground. "They're still coming—and there's even more of them now!"
Kinto gritted his teeth, unsure what to do next "God fucking damn it! There are only two ideas i have in mind, but they're too risky. What to do?! What to fucking do?!". But suddenly, a blazing figure streaked into the battlefield. It was Kazuki, his hand engulfed in purple fire. He incinerated every puppet in sight within seconds.
Alex and Kinto were stunned.
"Kazuki?!" Alex shouted. "How did you get here so fast?! Matter of fact, how did you move that fast?!"
Kazuki didn't respond right away, but Alex noticed something—Kazuki's spiritual mark now had two dots instead of one. One above, and one on the right side of the edge of the triangle.
From the bushes about 900 meters away, Yuta frowned. "How the hell did someone destroy all my puppets that easily?!"
He turned to flee.
Kazuki turned to his friends. "Stay here."
He activated his flame technique again and burst forward, matching the speed of a rocket. Within moments, he caught up to Yuta and stabbed him through the chest with his purple flames. Yuta Screamed in pain and agony "What the hell?!" He muttered to himself with blood slowly bursting from his mouth.
"I only stabbed you brutally—you won't die. Although that was a dangerous game you were playing with my friends. Trying to ware them out so you could land life threatening blows on em when they're tired?. That's not very nice," Kazuki said coldly.
But Yuta chuckled darkly. "You kagahara assassins really are fools huh. Can't tell the difference between a real person and a clone?!"
Kazuki's eyes widened as the body melted into a lifeless puppet. It wasn't the real Yuta.
Back with Raquel and Sakura, the fight had escalated to a deadly close-range weapon duel. Sakura wielded a sharp hair-forged sword, while Raquel blocked and countered with her crystalline arms. But Raquel was slowing down.
Sakura smirked and slammed her fist into Raquel, sending her crashing through six trees. As Raquel tried to rise, Sakura began mocking her.
"Why're you getting slower? Is this your limit?" she sneered.
"What did you do to me?" Raquel demanded.
Sakura's eyes gleamed. "Didn't I mention? My hair needles are laced with poison. You've only got a few minutes before your body shuts down."
Raquel muttered to herself with a face showing difficulty "I knew it. She's really trying to kill. She just wants to wrap it up in a stylish manner so that it wouldn't be to obvious."
Sakura charged, dagger in hand, ready to finish Raquel. But Raquel's third eye—her Crystal God's Eye—opened, glowing brightly. With a roar, she unleashed a devastating blast that launched Sakura into the air and through several trees.
Recovering quickly, Sakura screamed, "How many tricks do you have left?!"
Raquel stood, calm. "I have better things to do than entertain you forever. Come at me with everything."
Furious, Sakura leapt into the air and unleashed a rapid-fire storm of poisoned needles. Raquel's hand morphed into a crystalline sword and she sliced through each one with blinding precision.
Sakura landed, rushing in for close combat. She tried to cut Raquel down with a newly formed hair sword—but Raquel shattered it and began punching her relentlessly with incredible force.
Then, Raquel activated a technique: Pause—Sakura was paralyzed in place for a few seconds.
"This ends now," Raquel said.
With a single finger pressed against Sakura's chest, she released a powerful surge of energy, encasing Sakura in crystal instantly. "Struggling with my crystals would just tire you out. You'll be there for about an hour. That's what you get for trying to break the rules and kill me." Raquel said with slight annoyance.
Breathing heavily, Raquel looked at her frozen opponent. "I might've gone overboard…"
She turned her gaze to the horizon.
"I hope that hot head sōn isn't behaving reckless. And i wonder how Alex is doing. "
END OF EPISODE