Chapter 42: Chapter 42 : Duri vs Ren-Ren
Duri and Ren-Ren were surrounding each other, walking circles around each other while they eyed each other down. Both of them were sweating, but it was from anxiety.
The crowd of Hosts and exam students were all quiet, paying close attention; the silence was loud, you could hear a pin drop from the medical rooms. In all seriousness, everyone wanted to see Duri lose.
[Saitama, Japan]
Marshy was standing up from her chair with her hands closed together, she was the only one standing up outside, everyone else, including Xenon, Voel, and Mifu, were sitting in their chairs looking at the large TV screen where it showed Duri and Ren-Ren.
Marshy said, "I wanna talk to him telepathically…but.."
Xenon replied, "It's better for him not to be distracted. The world is against him. People want to see him lose. And he knows that. That's already a distraction enough, having to fight with all that negativity watching your every move. Hell, that shit annoyed me when I was a damn brat."
"Tch. I…guess you're right for once."
Marshy thought, 'Win for me…Duri.'
…
Back at the arena, parts of Ren-Ren's skin were turning red, especially on his face and arms, and he took his shirt off. In his right arm, his Katana formed, and it gave off a red aura.
Ren-Ren said, "To be honest, I always wanted to face off against you, Duri. People used to praise you instead of me, and I hated that. I'm not jealous, no. Because now, everyone hates you. And now since the attention is off of you, it's time for me to shine."
Duri responded, "Are you fucking kidding me?"
"No. No I am not."
"...Right. Well, you can have them. At this point, I don't give a damn what they think of me. None of them has what it takes to get in a fight with me. Including you. And I mean that in the most disrespectful way possible."
"Nice. Nice. Now..let's get this over with."
Ren-Ren disappeared, then he reappeared beside Duri.
He swung his sword at Duri, but Duri caught Ren-Ren's wrist, and looked at him.
"You can't teleport away from me, since I'm holding onto you, can you? Nah. Didn't fucking think so. If you try to teleport away from me, you'll take me with you. That teleporting shit is going to get on my nerves."
"Tch!"
Duri made one of his shadow hands grow out of his shoulder, and it wrapped around Ren-Ren's body.
Ren-Ren couldn't move, and Duri was punching him across the face over and over, splattering blood on the left and right sides of Ren-Ren.
Duri kept going, and he kicked him across the cheek, jumped, raised his leg up, and slammed it on top of Ren-Ren's head.
Duri was about to attack again, but Ren-Ren made his sword grow larger, and it cut Duri across the cheek, making him crash to the ground, sliding.
Ren-Ren was free, cutting his way out of Duri's shadow arm with his sword.
Ren-Ren slung red slashes at Duri, they were moving at high speeds, and Duri was running away from them, dodging them, flipping over them, and sliding under them.
Ren-Ren was teleporting to different spots, slinging slashes straight at Duri.
Duri had to keep changing positions, since Ren-Ren was cutting him off every time.
'Shit. He's cutting me off. Is there a limit to his teleportation? How do I stop it? If I try and get close, he'll get away from me. He's fighting like a little pussy.'
Duri ran to the right, and more slashes were coming his way, Duri spun his arm around, and made a shadow in the form of a thick snake surrounding him. He made five giant shadow snakes surround his body, spinning rapidly, and the snake's shadow skin was deflecting the slashes that Ren-Ren threw.
Ren-Ren was still shifting to different positions in the air to get a hit in, but he couldn't.
He thought, 'I'll just go inside!'
Ren-Ren teleported beside Duri, but the shadow snakes reacted first, immediately attacking Ren-Ren.
He was caught off guard, shocked for the most part. He jumped, and spun around and around sideways to cut the shadow snake in half. Once he did that, Duri grabbed the back of his head, and smashed it to the floor, causing blood to burst out of Ren-Ren's mouth.
Duri kicked Ren-Ren in the stomach next, sending him sliding across the floor.
Ren-Ren teleported behind Duri, Duri turned around and threw a roundhouse kick.
Ren-Ren dodged it, and cut Duri across the chest with his sword. Blood flung to the left, and Duri grunted.
Duri allowed his shadow aura to form around his fist, and he whacked Ren-Ren in the face.
Ren-Ren's eyes rolled back, and his body was flipping over to the force field wall, crashing against it.
He opened his eyes, and a few of Duri's shadow snakes were slithering side to side rapidly over to him.
Duri had his hands pointed at Ren-Ren, and he said, "Snake things…do something. I don't know!"
The shadow snake's eyes were changing color, going from red to black to white to orange in a spiraling form.
Ren-Ren looked into the snake's eyes, and his heart was pounding hard, and he heard a scream in his head.
Ren-Ren dropped to his knees, and his ears and eyes were bleeding, and blood dripped from his mouth. He was screaming, he couldn't even use his Katana abilities.
Duri was still holding his hands out to him, thinking, 'I don't know what I'm doing. I just gained this new shadow ability, and it feels…natural to me. I feel like I've done it before. I think it's because my headband had gotten loose before the fight, and I had to hurry and tie it back on. I feel like I'm killing Ren-Ren by doing this.'
The crowd was watching while making assumptions and comments:
"I think Duri is killing Ren-Ren.."
"Of course he is. He's a murderer."
Host Tetsuya said to the other Hosts, "That ability…it's forbidden power. The snakes Duri is using are destroying the inside of Ren-Ren's spirit."
Chaos responded, "Really? How do you know it's forbidden?"
"In ancient times, any ability having to do with the serpents was considered demonic. Serpent abilities were used by witches and those who used dark magic to complete deeds. Back then, if anyone was caught with any of these forbidden powers, then they would be hunted. People believed they were the evil in our world. And in most cases, they were."
"What about now?"
"The Titans warned us of those who use forbidden powers, and to immediately take action. But based on what I'm reading from Duri's emotions and stature, he doesn't know what he's really doing, but he kind of does. He's just learning he has a forbidden move. And I highly doubt he even knows that it is a forbidden move."
"And if he keeps using it?"
"...Hm? I don't care. As long as the brat doesn't use it wrongly. Even though the Titans said to immediately take action, I'm not gonna risk the fate of everyone's lives, minds, and emotions just to take down a 15 year old. We NEED Duri."
Ren-Ren was shaking as he was standing back up, and he stretched his arms and hands forward.
Ren-Ren said, "Go..katana!"
His katana was on the floor, and it began to move. It rushed over to Duri by itself, and it cut Duri across the other cheek. Duri fell down, but he stood his hands out to Ren-Ren as his shadow snakes were doing damage to Ren-Ren's body just by looking at him.
Duri thought, '...He can control it while it isn't in his hands?!'
Ren-Ren still pointed his hands out to Duri, and his katana enlarged itself by 10 feet, and the edge of it was zipping over to the shadow snakes.
The sword hit the snakes, but it didn't do anything on impact. The sword was trying to break through the snakes, with Ren-Ren using all of his strength to get the sword through.
Duri and Ren-Ren both had their hands stretched out as their abilities did their jobs.
Ren-Ren thinks, 'Those snakes of his..are pushing my sword back. If I can't get them to go straight through, I'll have to change direction…'
Ren-Ren pointed his arms downward, and the tip of his sword touched the floor.
He tried to make his sword come back to him, but one of the shadow snakes jumped in front of Ren-Ren, keeping his katana from making contact with him.
Ren-Ren thought again, 'What?! These snakes jumped in the way! Are they acting on their own, or is Duri controlling them?'
He looked Duri in the eyes, and he saw Duri was also bleeding from his head.
Duri said to himself, "This is taking a lot put of me, I don't know how fucking long I can keep this up. If I let loose these snakes, or put my arms down, then this ability will stop working. Once I put my arms down, I have to strike faster than the snakes will disappear."
Duri dropped his hands, and the snakes went away.
Duri was dashing over to Ren-Ren, and Ren-Ren grabbed hold of his sword handle, rushing to Duri.
"Nice tricks, Duri! But I got some up my sleeve too!"
Duri replied, "Your voice is annoying the hell out of me, dumbass.."
[FLASHBACK]
[9 YEARS AGO]
Kid Ren-Ren was standing outside in the road, as a Host and a villain were fighting brutally against each other back and forth.
Ren-Ren said to the villain, "Come on, Katana Guy! You got this! You can beat him!"
The villain, Katana Guy, replied, "I-I don't know if I do, Ren-Ren! If I don't, I thank you for showing me hospitality. Allowing me to hide out in your shed when I banished and from my own realm!"
The Host told Ren-Ren, "Kid, get out of here! Go!"
Katana guy was blasted backwards and he crashed against Ren-Ren, and they both went through a building together.
They scuffled through the floor, hitting up against a wall.
Ren-Ren and the bad guy were sitting there together, and the man said, "I won't win against him. He's too strong."
Ren-Ren answered, "You're not dying…are you?"
"Heh. It's okay brat. We all gotta go someday."
The Host blasted into the building, saying to the bad guy, "It's over. You've killed too many innocents. All so you can gain enough respect and merit from being evil to get back into your own realm. You are…a true villain."
The bad guy sat up, answering, "I..I am what you earthlings call a true villain. Where I come from, it's what we were born to do. Gain enough evil points so we can have high positions beside the king in our realm, which is a great honor. Because one day, we'll become villain king candidates. I was banished because I didn't have enough merit, but now I do. You heroes think you're so mighty, you think you're gods, playing it safe and protecting everyone like that shit will last forever. It doesn't."
He turned to Ren-Ren and continued, "You taught me a lot of things about you humans, kid. Thanks for being my first friend, and giving me a place to stay while I was trying to recover from the fall from my realm. As a villain, we live by a code, selling our souls so we can be where we wanna be, which is in the paradise that looks right in our eyes. We have dreams too, dreams and passions…"
"...Katana Guy.."
"Now then…"
He turned back to the Host with a grin, "Where were we?!"
The Host and the bad guy crashed, and Ren-Ren watched the bad guy get killed.
[FLASHBACK END]
[PRESENT DAY]
[EXAM ARENA]
Ren-Ren slashed his sword at Duri's head, Duri leaned back, and threw a spinning kick; Ren-Ren then teleported behind Duri, and raised his sword up.
Red energy was gathering around his sword, and he slammed it downward.
Duri rolled out of the way, with his feet sliding on the floor.
Duri punched the air, and a shadow dragon formed, racing to his opponent.
Ren-Ren spun the sword behind his back, and dashed straight through the shadow dragon like a bullet, cutting it in half.
When Ren-Ren came out on the other side, Duri was above him, and he slammed his fist down on Ren-Ren's head, causing a loud thud and boom of wind to shake the entire arena and shake the force field.
Ren-Ren gagged up blood, and he hit Duri in the face with the handle of his sword. Duri staggered back in pain as his nose was leaking, he looked under him, and saw the sword sitting there.
Duri gasped, and the sword flew up on its own and cut Duri up the chin.
In the middle of that, Ren-Ren came up and kicked Duri in the chest, making him hit the force field wall.
Duri shook his head, thinking, 'That sword is annoying as fuck. I gotta get rid of it somehow. But he can control it with his hands, and he doesn't even have to touch it..'
Ren-Ren was pursuing Duri, and Duri came at him too.
Ren-Ren threw some strong punches and kicks, Duri blocked them all and dodged them with style; Duri had a black smoky aura around his fists and legs, while Ren-Ren had a red smoky aura around his arms, body, legs, and shoulders.
Each time they would throw a punch or kick, there was a small sonic boom.
Duri slapped Ren-Ren in the chest, punched him in the stomach, jumped over him and grabbed his head in mid air, then slammed Ren-Ren face on his knee.
Duri and Ren-Ren were grinning together, Ren-Ren kicked Duri in the knee, twisted around him, and kicked him on the side of the face.
Duri and Ren-Ren backed away from each other, breathing quickly with blood already drenching from them.
Duri said, "You're making me love fighting even more. The way you're already about to die…makes my heart pound in excitement."
Ren-Ren smirked in a malicious way, "Yes..hehe..hehe..the feeling is mutual. You are my rival…I will be the greatest villain…everyone will fear me…including you!"
"As if I'll be scared of some lunatic."
"That's not a nice word, Duri.."
They clashed again, throwing more punches and kicks to each other's bodies.
Duri thinks, 'His sword is laying on the floor over there, and yet…he's fighting with Tai Chi combinations. What's he planning?'
Duri headbutted Ren-Ren in the face, rammed his knee into his stomach, grabbed his arm, put his hand on his stomach, allowed some shadow energy to surround his arm and hand, and a blast shot out like a cannon going off.
Ren-Ren blasted away, and he fell in the middle of the arena.
Ren-Ren sat up, wiping blood from his mouth. He stretched his right hand to the right of him, and his sword came back to him.
Duri thought, 'Shit!'
Ren-Ren stood up, and he began to spin around slowly with his sword in his hand, then he started spinning really fast over and over again.
Duri asked, "Oi..what the hell are you planning now?!"
'Getting close to Ren-Ren now is impossible. The constant rotation of his katana would fuck me up. If I send any shadow creations in there, it would just get ripped to shreds. If I try that snake ability again, it would hurt me badly just from using it, but it could kill Ren-Ren if I held it long enough.'
As Ren-Ren kept going, a red and white tornado was forming around him, growing to be at least 34 feet tall.
The wind was blowing hard as hell, and Duri was saying, "What the hell?!"
The crowd of Hosts and exam students said:
"What's Ren-Ren doing?"
"I can feel the wind of that tornado from here!"
"Will it tear the shield down?!"
"What the hell Ren-Ren is doing, Duri's a goner for sure!"
Seven said, "..."
In the medical room, where Tek, Kazuma, Nine, and Jiyu were, they were chatting it up.
Kazuma said, "Wow! Ren-Ren is doing the tornado thing!"
Tek asked him, "What tornado thing?"
"Oh, that's one of Ren-Ren's craziest moves. He worked hard to perfect it for years, and this is the first time I've seen it grow this big!"
Nine said, "Ren-Ren actually trained to perfect that? THIS Ren-Ren? The one we're looking at right now!"
Kazuma nodded with a smile, "Mhm!"
Jiyu says, "Um..w-what can Duri d-do against it..?"
Nine exclaimed to Jiyu, "Huh?! You weren't talking all nervous in our fight! What happened to you?!"
"What are you t-talking about?"
"You little devil.."
Kazuma said to Jiyu, "At this point, with Ren-Ren in that tornado, it's gonna be difficult to beat him. The tornado itself is made up of Ren-Ren's own katana, the pieces of his katana dispersed into small pieces and formed into tornadoes…"
Back in the arena, Duri was thinking fast, and coming from Ren-Ren's tornado, was red crescent shaped slashes. They were shooting all over the place, and Duri was running around fast, dodging them and jumping over them.
'The slashes are ten times faster than the last ones. I'm just barely dodging them. The wind is hot as hell too, it feels like I'm putting my entire body into a furnace. I gotta dissolve it. But how?'
Duri kept running around, doing all sorts of evading moves to get away from the slashes.
Seven, from the stands, thought, 'Duri won't be able to keep those pieces of shit slashes for much longer. He'll need an ultimatum. If he is as smart as I cut him out to be, then he'd better think of something fast. It's-It's not like I care about him or anything. Duri is just fucking reckless sometimes.'
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