Chương 44: TACHI
The hidden base was right there, hovering amongst the other pieces of floating debris. A gaping hole replaced most of its roof leaving a clear view of whatever was inside.
Faux narrowed his eyes as he pierced through the air. His body should be able to secure his landing, but his only problem had more to do with the Will he currently lacked.
Without Will, he couldn't cast spells, couldn't activate his blade ability, and his soul art was also inaccessible.
All he had now was his strengthened physique and his martial prowess.
"Great."
Soon Faux was swallowed by the gaping hole in the base's ceiling, landing on his knees with a loud thud.
Light cascaded down from above spreading a warm ambient glow against the darkness.
When he rose to his feet he could see children standing at the edges of the room with an eerie calm.
There were others, these two standing out from the children behind them. One was a child, even more childlike than the children behind her, but there was a chill she exuded like her entire being was wrong.
She bled from both her nostrils, with some even threatening to spill from her eyes.
She sort of reminded Faux of the Calamity. Composed yet lost.
It was obvious she was in pain despite her strange attempts to hide it. Even stranger were her reasons for enduring all this in the first place.
The other person was a much older woman. She was gorgeous with blonde hair and blue eyes that gleamed even in the dark. Her hands were stained with blood, the red matching her cherry lipstick.
She had her eyes scrutinizing Faux's every step, with a subtle bit provocative smirk. Soon her lips parted as she said;
"Hmm color me surprised."
There was a strange softness to her tone, her voice luscious and all too enthralling.
"Nah, I'll colour you red."
Faux said as he shifted his weight to his left foot. Watching the blonde lady closely as she strode to her right.
"Mhm… I bet you can. De Leon. I have heard a lot about you. The government's new flagship knight."
Faux's frown only deepened at her words. He knew she was only trying to get on his nerves. But fuck she really knew how to.
"Better than some perverse hag who kidnaps children. Don't chastise me."
"I'm already bored so I won't. But don't chastise me either oh wait do you have to wait for permission before you do?"
She said her smirk growing wider as Faux's frown deepened.
After that, a long sickening silence descended on the hall. The air was thick with tension.
They were both considering the strength of their foes. Faux was clearly at a disadvantage. He had no idea how powerful she was, and it seemed like she still had some Will to burn.
His being a Paladin was the only advantage he held, or at least believed he held.
She could easily rank anywhere or nowhere at all…
He was bound to find out soon though.
The very next second they both shot forward meeting with a loud bang at the far right of the hall.
Faux went in for a slash with his short sword and to his surprise the lady had no qualms stopping it… with just her palm.
He had been extremely focused, only attacking when the most favourable opportunities presented themselves. Yet this woman was able to slip through, landing a blow right on his bladed arms and shoulder.
It felt like a metal pipe had struck his upper arm, repelling his slash before it could even become a threat.
Pa! Pa! Pa!
Only sounds were produced from their clash.
Faux was mostly on the attack, aiming for her vitals with his stainless steel blade. The woman however just kept on repelling blow after blow, using her palms to strategically strike the limbs responsible for the first phases of his attack.
They danced gracefully evading and relentlessly throwing attacks of their own. As they did Faux was able to learn a few things.
Information that made him pale.
She wasn't any more powerful than your average Retainer– Thankfully, any more than that and this fight would have already been over.
This lady was frightening. His weakened state considered a retainer shouldn't be able to last this long against him.
What mostly gave her the edge was her fighting style. It was something Faux had never encountered in person but knew too much about.
Just then he felt a soft tap on his sternum. When he gazed down he found the the lady's palm touching his chest.
It happened so fast.
Like a wave had run through the entirety of his muscles, it was quick to pass through but slow to fade out, it burned.
The blow sent his feet skidding across the metal flooring.
Fortunately, he wasn't pushed too far, stopping just a couple of feet after.
The woman herself seemed a bit stunned, she had also slid a couple feet back.
"Interesting."
She said.
"Who the hell are you?"
Faux asked as he straightened through the pain. It hurt but he had endured far worse… cumulatively.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
He gritted his teeth at her reply. The annoying part was that he did want to know.
Right now what he was witnessing didn't just seem possible.
He might not be as informed as Sebas was, but there were certain things that always stuck, and one of those things was information on the Oni clan.
The government were incredibly weary of the Oni. So much so they had put a lot of their intelligence effort into unravelling as much about them as they possibly could. Even then too much remained a mystery.
Luckily what they knew was enough to give a faint idea of what the way of life of the Oni was.
The clan was ancient, far more ancient than most people would like to believe. Battling abominations were in graved in their very tradition hence fighting styles and so much more had been passed through the generations.
One of the most famous styles was what this lady was currently practising.
Using just their palms and the Calamitous Will the Oni controlled, members of the Taraki branch could perform a martial style known as Tachi.
Due to a single genealogical difference between the Taraki and the other branch families of the Oni, Tachi is a fighting style uniquely possessed by them.
That is, even if knowledge of the forms of the fighting style is passed onto a non-branch member or a human, they still wouldn't be able to perform the art.
What gene made the Tachi unique to the Taraki was still unknown to the government, but one major aspect needed to perform the style was the Calamitous Will.
Something the Oni clan could control but humans couldn't.
Yet, here this woman was.
Her hair flayed about as she whipped her hands intercepting Faux's attacks before he could even make them. Every now and again she would assault a limb with ridiculous force enough to make even a Paladin wince in pain.
Faux could already feel his muscles growing weaker from her deadly shots, the longer the fight went on the more advantage she would gain.
'This damned bitch!'
Faux cursed.
Who the hell is she even? And what those she stand to gain from all this?
It made no sense, she looked nothing like an Oni so why the hell was she able to perform the Tachi with such ease?
The Oni Willed Calamitous Will— to an extent, just like humans Willed Celestial Will.
It was the application of Calamitous Will that birthed and structured their techniques, spells, martial arts and so much more.
Without being a Taraki much less an Oni, performing Tachi so accurately shouldn't be possible.
"Who the hell are you?"
She looked nothing like the Oni, her skin was much too warm to even consider that she was. Faux could also hardly tell what exactly she kept reinforcing her blows with.
The fact he couldn't tell also hinted at something… frightening.
With how things were going, his victory was only getting bleaker. But that had never been his goal.
When they clashed again locked by the wrist Faux asked.
"Where is the calamity?"
She smirked like she had been anticipating the question. Soon answering with;
"Out there. Somewhere."
It was quick but her eyes drifted to the side at those words. Faux followed her gaze to the odd child in the corner.
'Dreamer?'
Faux recalled.
She was in a Crisis with the ability to control her sleeping. Did that mean that she still had the calamity under her influence?
That didn't seem the case.
But if the Calamity really was out there, then he was wasting his time in here.
He needed to find the Calamity's body, before they did, he didn't know what the conditions were for Dreamer to take over a sleeping body but if he grabbed hold of the Calamity before they did it wouldn't matter.
She had to be thinking the same thing. Right?
It was hard to tell. Even in the way she fought, her mind was completely unreadable. Faux wasn't exactly the best when it came to foresight but neither was he terrible at it.
Yet he could barely make out this woman's next move. Even as she had mostly been on the defensive she was still able to remain unpredictable.
Her bloodied palms were like pistons firing with deathly precision, rapidly delivering blows in various places. Faux felt a numbing sensation spread from his forearm to his shoulders, his ribs and even his thighs weren't spared either.
And this was with her on the defensive, relying mostly on counterattacks on the muscle group responsible for the attacks he planned on delivering.
At one point she let her fingers slip through Faux's guard to land a blow just below his chin.
Before she could shatter his windpipe though Faux felt his instincts kick into full gear.
It was close but he managed to pull away just in time.
'Damn it how many more death experience
can have in one day?!'
Before he could even fully regain himself Faux felt a shift in the air around him. When he turned to face the lady, he found both her hands clasped together as she drew in a large breath.
What followed after was white noise then an explosion.
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