Kapitel 50: An Unknown Adversary
The minotaur cut upwards at Teo's samurai in a fast spontaneous motion.
Teo, caught off-guard by the abnormal speed of the attack, was nonetheless prepared, the ax clattering against his blade.
"It's adapting," Teo remarked from within the samurai's chest plate, "just like the krakens."
Teo retaliated by swinging his blade diligently. The minotaur dodged, but Teo mutated his swing into a thrust that pierced the minotaur's torso.
"Our difference in skill will be the deciding factor," Teo declared.
Now on the offensive, Teo slashed and thrust at the minotaur relentlessly, forcing it around the battlefield, never letting it regain its balance.
"Dark Prana: Zero Slash!"
Teo coated his blade in dark prana, attempting to deal the finishing blow.
With a downward swing, he released a slash of darkness that flew at the minotaur.
The minotaur narrowly avoided lethal damage, but the attack's wide range managed to slice a horn.
The minotaur's red eyes gleamed with rage as it bounded toward Teo and leaped into the air.
The minotaur raised its ax behind its head to gain momentum and performed an overhead slash.
Their blades met again as Teo deflected by holding Teiden above his head.
His legs buckled under the minotaur's weight, causing his samurai's feet to shatter the ground below, leaving crater-sized footprints.
They unraveled their blades and suspended their clash. Both fighters stepped back, each gripping their weapons tightly.
Teo took his time, carefully reassessing his strategy while the minotaur mindlessly pressed forward.
Their blades collided equally, causing both weapons to slip from their wielders' grasp and clatter to the ground behind the minotaur.
Rather than scrambling for its ax, the minotaur threw a wild punch.
The samurai dodged to the side and threw a crooked jab at the minotaur's ribs, knocking it back.
"Dark Prana: Corruption!"
The minotaur's ax turned jet black as it rattled into the air alongside Teiden.
The samurai lifted its arms, and the weapons punctured two vertical slits in the minotaur's chest as they soared into Teo's hands.
Teo crossed the blades and took a deep breath.
"Go to hell," he muttered.
"Dark Prana: Dual-Slash...
"Solstice!"
Teo's dark prana engulfed their surroundings.
An eerie silence ensued, ending with the gruesome noise of blades penetrating flesh.
The darkness soon cleared, revealing the minotaur's corpse in a thick puddle of blood.
The minotaur's ax lay between its cleanly decapitated head and neck.
Teiden, still drastically enlarged, was lanced through the minotaur's heart and planted blade first into the ground.
Teo sat calmly in the sky atop the hilt of his massive sword. His left leg dangled over the ground as he rested an arm on his raised right knee.
He glanced down at the deceased minotaur, his hair swaying back and forth in the wind.
Over at the wall encircling the Shi Mountains, thunder and lightning from the brewing storm continued to ravage the sky.
Still floating in the air, Raijah struck his arm down when his tattoo and aura's blue color suddenly faded along with the impending storm.
"Shit," Raijah whispered as his eyes reverted to red, "it didn't last as long as I expected."
The minotaur wasted no time gawking. It swung its ax at Raijah with all its might.
Raijah instinctively threw his arms up to block.
Despite his defense nullifying damage, Raijah went plunging to the ground.
He slammed into the earth, his body sluggish from exhaustion.
The minotaur took its time, cocking its ax back to gain impetus. It plunged its ax down at Raijah, pulverizing the surrounding area.
A moment of stillness followed.
An outburst of crimson prana transpired under the minotaur's ax.
The minotaur looked down, and to its surprise, it saw Raijah lifting its ax with his bare hand above his head.
Raijah's aura and tattoo regained their red gleam
"Just in time," Raijah said.
He squeezed the minotaur's ax, shattering its blade to pieces.
The minotaur bellowed with rage as it chucked the remains of its ax into the distance.
Raijah hovered into the air, stopping at eye-level with the minotaur.
The minotaur swung its arm at Raijah, trying to swat him out of the air.
Raijah dodged and retaliated with a series of melee attacks.
Each blow was quick, ramming the minotaur with more pain than the last.
"Doragonken: Blue Dragon's Kick!"
Raijah ended his barrage by slanting his leg back and swinging at speeds that gave his foot a blue glimmer.
He bashed his foot into the minotaur's already disfigured face.
The minotaur staggered back, nearly falling to the ground.
Raijah lifted it into the air before it could fall. He soared beyond the Shi Mountains' wall, minotaur in tow.
He floated high above the bordering ocean.
With one arm, Raijah held the minotaur by its nose ring, glaring at the minotaur's contorted face.
"You caused me a lot of trouble," Raijah scowled as he released the minotaur.
The minotaur wailed as it fell, flailing its arms and legs like a child.
Raijah somersaulted in the air and dove down after the minotaur.
"Divine Lightning: Blitz Bolt!"
Raijah's body assimilated into a large bolt of red lightning.
He crashed down onto the minotaur, slamming it into the ocean floor and causing enormous waves.
His lightning radiated and surged across the water, essentially cooking the minotaur in an ocean-sized pot.
Raijah landed on the cliff ledge outside the wall, his entire body soaked from his dip in the sea.
He shook the water from his hair and peeked down as electricity sparked throughout the ocean.
"Maybe I went too far," Raijah mumbled.
Minutes before the girls' defeat, sticks snapped, and leaves crunched as Hashira sprinted through the forest at full speed.
"Valerie, Cora," he whispered, "hold on a bit longer."
He neared Val and Cora when he heard a branch crack behind him.
Hashira pivoted on his heels and performed a roundhouse kick, knocking the individual behind him to the floor.
He knelt to examine the body, the person's dark hair and eyes jogging his memory.
"Ikura," Hashira said, "what are you doing here?
"Why were you trailing me?"
Ikura had shut his eyes tightly. As his body groaned, life faded from his voice.
"Hashira," he pleaded, "run, I beg you."
"From what?" Hashira asked.
"He waltzed right onto the plateau. We tried to stop him, but he's an expert saint and doragonken practitioner."
"Who?"
"I don't know his name. But whatever you do, avoid those dreadful black eyes. Do not lock gazes with him or anyone else under the effects of his prana."
"How many people are affected by his prana?"
"Virtually the entire Shi family," Ikura said through his last breath.
Despite keeping his eyes to the floor as Ikura advised, the mass of legs surrounding him clarified his situation.
"At my old age," Hashira muttered, "I'm to fight my entire family."
He sighed, "Life never loses its element of surprise."
Aside from his doragonken mastery, Hashira's primary source of strength stems from his prana's adaptability.
His signature prana allows him to create combustible oils. Which paired with his ririsu, produces a versatile fighting style.
Hashira's ririsu, along with all other saints, falls under the following categories: complementary, inverse, and independent.
Despite being the most common and straightforward, complementary ririsu is the ideal ririsu type. This type of ririsu complements a saint's signature prana by directly enhancing its functionality and effectiveness.
Inverse ririsu is the most challenging of the three. This ririsu type is the fundamental opposite of its signature prana counterpart and requires the most training to achieve mastery.
Independent ririsu is the rarest yet the most unreliable type. This form of ririsu is unrelated to its host's signature prana. It is arbitrary in nature as its capabilities are entirely random. Some speculate that this type is exclusive to saints with desires and personalities potent enough to manifest within their ririsu.
Typically, saints and elites that have achieved ririsu possess one or two types.
Hashira's ririsu falls under the complementary category. His ririsu ability (The Regulator) allows him to manipulate the temperature of the combustible oils his signature prana creates.
By heating his oils, he can ignite them and utilize fire, and by cooling them, he can use a sticky, tar-like substance.
The Shi family rushed in on Hashira.
Despite keeping his eyes down, Hashira carefully neutralized his family members with doragonken, suppressing his strength to prevent killing them.
He dodged and avoided every punch and kick they threw while stealthily performing his own techniques.
Within minutes he stood alone at the center of a mass of unconscious bodies.
He was doused in sweat and panted fiercely, "My stamina has steadily depleted with age."
He dropped down to the nearest body, attempting to shake them awake.
"Who did this to you?" Hashira asked.
The woman groaned, her eyes still shut.
"What is their name?" Hashira shouted.
Leaves rustled nearby.
"The name's Kurome," a voice came from behind him.
"A pleasure to meet you, Hashira, 'The Dragon Pillar.'"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein