Kapitel 36: Chapter 35 - Betting
Ernie laughed loudly, he approved of the way Himari talked like this.
"If you want to fight, why don't we make a bet to spice things up."
Ernie said with a sly grin.
Hina shook her head.
"I am not getting involved in this, leave me out of it."
Himari clicked her tongue.
"It won't be as fun without you."
Hina stepped away from Himari and gave her a strange look.
"Nope. You started this, you finish it."
Ernie tapped his finger on a cabinet that was next to him.
"So… what do you say? We doing this or not?"
Himari didn't like the way Ernie seemed so confident. It annoyed her, but she wasn't the same girl she was three years ago.
"What's the bet?"
"Loser does whatever the winner wants, no questions asked."
"Fine…"
Himari agreed.
Ernie motioned for her to follow him as he led her outside to the arena they had built. Hina closely followed as she held Nozomi's hand.
"What is this?"
Himari asked as she gazed at the arena.
"It's what it looks like, an arena. We built it a while ago, but it's transformed over time. Now it's an entire building with locker rooms and large stands big enough to fit the entire village."
"Locker room?"
Ernie realized his mistake as she wasn't here in the village to see it being built so of course she wouldn't know what it was.
"I'll show you later. For now, don't you think you should warm up first?"
Himari shook her head.
Hina heard footsteps behind her and saw people rushing to the stands.
"Oh man, I haven't seen Ernie fight in months. You think he's gotten rusty?"
"No way, a few months of rest for him wouldn't cause his skills to go away."
"Who is that challenger though? Never seen her around here before."
Hina picked up on the conversations people were having as they started to find seats. Many of them were eager to see Ernie fight as they haven't seen him battle anyone in a while.
Just from the comments Hina could already tell that her sister was in trouble.
Himari got a bit nervous as she spotted people coming in and taking seats.
"I didn't know there would be an audience…"
She said with a slight blush on her face.
Ernie looked around and he too saw the people.
"Just means we need to give them a good show."
Ernie told her with a smile.
Himari's chakra burst forth as a swirl of blue chakra rotated around her body.
Ernie wasn't too surprised as he did teach her about Ascendance before she went to train, but still the density of her chakra was a sight to see.
"Surprised right?"
"Nope. If you didn't accomplish this much in three years i'd be slightly disappointed."
Ernie spoke truthfully.
He really wanted to see how much the two of them improved, and seeing that Himari was using Ascendance effortlessly her mastery over it was high.
"You haven't seen anything yet."
The swirl around her body rised higher but stayed close to her body. It was the second form, Way of the Wind.
Ernie nodded.
His chakra burst forth as he only did the first form, Ascendance.
Himari did a light nod of her head and Ernie knew that she was about to move. Her foot pushed off the ground and as it did, she cracked the arena's floor. This small incident didn't go unnoticed by Ernie as he gulped.
She flew right at him as he hand darkened in color as it took on a charcoal appearance. Ernie jumped backwards dodging her attack. Himari's fist went straight through the arena's floor creating a small sized crater.
Seeing her attack miss, her body flicked and she appeared next to Ernie in an instant, this time Ernie flipped backwards.
"You can't always dodge."
Himari yelled.
"I'm just testing the waters."
Ernie commented.
As he said that, his body vanished and he was right below Himari. He struck out with him palm, but it was caught by her left hand.
Himari threw a punch towards him with her right hand, he wasn't able to dodge this time considering she held onto his hand.
Ernie used his forearm to deflect her attack, but he felt an intense pain course through his forearm.
He didn't underestimate her, but he did not believe that her strength could go any higher. She by far hit harder than most guys he faced off against.
As the two of them continued to exchange blows, the spectators were highly impressed with Himari. She showed a lot of skill as she was able to keep up with Ernie and take his hits head on.
The two of them were mostly fighting without using any ninjutsu.
"I wonder who will win."
"Hard to say, I didn't expect this young girl to be so talented."
The two of them started laughing.
"Who are we kidding, Ernie's bound to use some other techniques to counter her."
Ernie found and opening and kicked Himari causing her to slide back.
As he got a bit of distance, a sword made of ice appeared in his hand. He darted towards her and stated deflecting her blows with more ease. Each time Himari attacked, her speed began to slow bit by bit.
Hina who watched from the sides noticed this.
"With Himari's explosive strength coupled with her high speed, she spells big trouble for any opponent. Ernie somehow managed to slow her speed down, with each touch of his blade Himari's body is slowly losing its momentum…"
Hina said to herself as she was analyzing their duel.
Himari realized this as well and took a step back.
She took in a deep breath and blew all the air out through her nose, but as she did this steam arose from her body heating it up as well as negating the effect Ernie's blade did.
"This is interesting."
Ernie commented as he launched a swift attack in her direction.
The crescent arc of ice was broken with a swipe of Himari's hand.
Ernie knew how powerful his attack was, but for it to be broken with just Himari's arm meant that her base strength was higher than he first thought.
He had to admit, with her not using any other techniques she was a tough opponent. Cleary the things she learned from Bashira were being put to good use, but he felt that she still wasn't using all her strength.
Not that he was either, but he did want to see exactly how powerful she became.
From their short interaction so far she would be able to hold her own verus many opponents of similar strength.
Ernie's chakra skyrocketed as the swirling blue chakra around him rose to new highests. His eyes changed as they now had a flower pattern on them.
"Don't blink."
Ernie said.
Himari nodded and a split second later, she felt intense pain in her abdomen. Her vision started to blur but she looked and saw Ernie in front of her with the hilt of his sword touching her.
Himari coughed as a few drops of blood came from her mouth and passed out.
"Eh… wait Himari!"
Ernie shouted as he grabbed her body preventing her from falling.
"Think I went a tad bit too far…"
Honestly, he only added two more techniques to their fight. One, Way of the Wind and the second one being his Reitgan.
His mastery over all his skills increased, and he learned more about his Reitgan as well. There were many benefits to it, but the bonus it gave him to his strength, speed and stamina made him much stronger than Himari.
Ernie was a bit sad that he never got to use his other techniques, but he did catch her off guard. He figured that if she knew about his Reitgan she would have been better prepared and the fight may have lasted longer.
Ernie sighed as he looked at the arena. It was basically destroyed from their clash. Still, it didn't really matter as they were going to be leaving this place anyway.
It made him realize though, they needed to find something that was capable of withstanding their strength.
The spectators started clapping and cheering. Some of them never saw Ernie release so much chakra before and could witness his strength. To the older members who have been here longer they could see the difference in strength compared to before.
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
FishThatsBlue
FishThatsBlue For those wondering, Ernie has learned and created new techniques which will be showcased later. Hina and Himari have learned Sage Mode, but it wasn't shown here as Himari didn't think she needed it.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein