Alex lay on the battlefield, bruised and bloodied, his breathing faint but steady. Not far from him, Shouya had returned to his normal form, his eyes closed in silent exhaustion. The forest was quiet—at least for a moment.
Kazuki stood a short distance away, eyes resting on Alex. A small, amused smile tugged at his lips.
"You white haired idiot. You never cease to surprise me," Kazuki muttered to himself, shaking his head slightly. He walked over and knelt beside Alex, lifting him onto his back. Then, without hesitation, he did the same for Shouya "Sorry for beating the breaks off you. That was the only way to save you.", he said to the unconscious shouya. Carrying the two worn-out boys, Kazuki slowly walked away from the forest "We really messed up this forest."
High above, perched silently on a tree branch, Shinki watched the scene unfold. His eyes narrowed, unreadable, but his attention was unwavering. He smirked "You've grown stronger, Kazuki."
Meanwhile, atop the arena's shattered rooftop—chaos was unfolding.
Kenji and Tomoa clashed violently, both of them were relentlessly firing lightning and destructive bombs at one another. Kenji hurled bolts of lightning and gouts of flame, while Tomoa fired destructive orbs at rapid-fire pace. Each impact rocked the area with thunderous explosions, ripping chunks from the stadium and leaving trails of smoke and fire all over the place. Lightning and destructive bombs were falling down unto the stadium like it was rain.
Their speeds were blinding, they were moving at lightning levels of speeds, but kenji had the upper hand. In a blur of motion, Kenji drew his dagger and charged, his body cloaked in flickers of crimson lightning. Tomoa intercepted Kenji's speed and ran towards him as well. Kenji was hurling his daggers at Tomoa at a dangerous speeds, Tomoa on the other hand was just using his magical circles to block and counter Kenji's strikes. They both were showcasing insane combat abilities.
Suddenly, Kenji summoned a squad of shadow dolls, his eyes gleaming with intensity and a deranged smile. The shadow dolls launched themselves at Tomoa.
The dolls surged toward Tomoa, launching yellow bolts of lightning as they closed in. Tomoa weaved through them, barely keeping up, countering each shot with precision and using his destructive orbs to counter.
"Tch... they're fast," Tomoa muttered while weaving, dodging and blasting them. Sweat was trailing down his brow.
"You're not winning this fight," Kenji said coldly with a mild evil smirk on his facs, he was observing Tomoa's struggle. "Not in a situation like this atleast."
Tomoa grit his teeth, realizing he was being overwhelmed. But Kenji wasn't done yet.
"Let's raise the stakes, shall we?" Kenji whispered with a smirk.
He raised his hand—and in a flash, the sky lit up with a massive surge of energy.
"Star Blaze."
A colossal bolt of lightning, brimming with fiery energy, streaked toward Tomoa. Reacting quickly, Tomoa drew a large magic circle and redirected the attack. The beam curved away, exploding in the distance with a shockwave that shattered the clouds.
Kenji whistled in amusement.
"Not bad. Not many people can block that one. But i guess not everyone is part of the *Many people*"
Tomoa, sneered with annoyance "If you think a weak attack like that can take me out, you're dumber than you look."
Kenji simply grinned. "Then take a look behind you."
Tomoa glanced back—and his eyes widened. The redirected Star Blaze had obliterated hundreds of city blocks.
"I could've ended this earlier," Kenji said with a small smirk "But hey—I wanted to see what you'd do."
Fury flashed across Tomoa's face. "You're insane. And today's where you die!"
A huge amount of destructive energy blasted out of his body, dozens of magical circles opened all around him, they started blasting a torrent of destructive orbs at Kenji. The battlefield lit up like a warzone, explosions of energy was all over the ruff, the ground and the arena was tearing apart. "There aren't any other people here, so there won't be any problem if I were to go all out. I could easily wipe out this city at max power, but too much power isn't needed in this situation. All I need to do... IS KILL THIS BASTARD!" Tomoa thought to himself in anger.
Kenji cloaked his blade in lightning and danced through the barrage of destructive energy bombs, cutting orbs mid-air, and blasting lightning everywhere. The two clashed again and again, each impact forming massive explosions all over the stadium.
From the smoke, Tomoa suddenly burst out, surrounded by a storm of destructive orbs, and fired a devastating blast.
Kenji met it head-on, raising his sword.
The beams clashed with the blade and he continued to cut through them, dodging and weaving as well.
Then—
Boom.
Kenji's fist slammed into Tomoa, sending him crashing into the ground and splitting the stadium in two. Dust and debris flew in all directions. "What... the...hel..l?" Tomoa was struggling to even talk while layed out on the floor.
Kenji jumped down the ruff and walked forward, slow and deliberate.
"You're too full of yourself," he said, standing over the injured Tomoa with a smirk. "Don't push past your limits too much. Or you'll get hurt."
Tomoa coughed, barely lifting his head, he had burn scars and injuries on his fingers, face, and his clothes was torn up and burned. "Why… are you doing this…?"
Kenji's eyes darkened, his face slowly had a smile while he tilted his head "If I told you, I'd have to kill you. That doesn't sound good now, does it?"
He raised his hand, lightning and flames gathering once more.
"It's been fun, Tomoa. But you see, i...No. We... like to have our fun with no-one getting in the way."
Just as Kenji was about to strike Tomoa with both flames and lightning.
Boom!
A missile whistled through the air and exploded near him, forcing him to leap back. Smoke covered the field again. "Well, well. What do we have here?" He asked himself with a amazed smirk.
Out from the dust emerged Levi, his mechanical arms shifting into missile launchers.
"So, you're the so-called Levi," Kenji said, grinning. "The famous weapons master? Cool, didn't think I'd meet so many powerful foes today."
Levi replied with a serious face and tone "You talk too much."
Without warning, Levi fired a barrage of missiles at Kenji. The lightning wielder opened a portal, pulling out a massive sword crackling with blue lightning, and dashed through the storm of explosions, slicing the missiles apart.
Levi transformed his arms into machine guns, unleashing a rain of rapid-fire energy bullets. Kenji dodged, slicing through the beams while laughing "Wow! This is actually fun!Not bad! The rumors were true after all."
Levi's entire body began to glow as he called out Full on hypersonic mode, his body started to release white energy. He started too run around kenji at an insane speed, Levi was three times faster and stronger with this power of his.
Kenji narrowed his eyes. "Full on hypersonic mode.. huh. Sounds cool. Well if you're going to pull something that crazy… you better not miss." He said with a playful smirk. Levi stared to shoot out beams of energy,missiles, bullets, energy bullets and even small bombs.
Kenji just smirked "Nice" and started to dodge and countered with lightning arrows, deflecting Levi's shots in bursts of light. The air cracked with energy as the two clashed.
Levi, now serious, formed a massive blaster on his arm.
"Let's see if you can handle this one!"
Kenji, excited, braced himself. "Bring it on! I'll cut you up for sure!"
The blast surged toward Kenji.
But just before it hit—
A purple beam streaked through and then overtook the attack that was about to hit kenji.
Tomoa and Levi froze.
A figure sat calmly on the ruff top of the destroyed arena.
Sorata.
"What are you doing kenji? Playtime's over," he said, casually hopping down, hands in his pockets.
Kenji looked back, chuckling. "You've been sitting there the whole time? You could've helped, you know."
Sorata waved him off. "I don't have time to join every little fight, the shits tiring.". Kenji replied as he faced front "I get you."
Tomoa, struggling to rise, summoned a magic circle, he had a look of difficulty on his face.
"Sorata… You!!!"
Sorata turned with a smirk. "Wow, you look pathetic."
Kenji opened a portal beside him. Sorata stepped toward it, calm as ever.
But before they could leave, Levi fired a massive beam of energy, roaring, "You're not going anywhere! Gey back here!!"
Just before impact, Sorata smiled darkly. He absorbed the beam by stretching his arm "You guys sure are tough.", he commended levi and tomoa with a dark smirk before he unleashed a storm of purple destructive energy, obliterating the entire stadium and several buildings and city blocks outside the stadium. He did all this with one final blinding explosion. This attack from sorata chard the skin of his right hand. He had a smirk on his face as he and kenji sunk into the portal "See ya later. Soliders."
As the portal began to close, Sorata's voice echoed through the air.
"This… is only the beginning. You better get ready, or you guys might actually die."
Portal closed.
—End of chapter.