NOVPUBWith a groan, the Burly man smashed through the frozen wall, escaping the brunt of the falling spears as he emerged into the open once again.
Rain trickled down his vest, sticking his clothes to his skin.
A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he raised his arms to his face and tore off the mask.
Slowly, his chest rose and fell, shoulders jerking slightly with it as his gaze darted to the side.
At the side, the crumbled building held. A part of it stood with frozen dignity while the other was a rubble of dirt and rocks.
His attention wasn't on the state of the building but on his opponents as they leisurely ran out in unison.
Raph led Rita into the opening, his gaze locking with the Burly man's as a palpable tension ensued between them.
With a smirk, he said.
"Let's go, Rita. Corner that man."
"Yes, sir!" She said with a smile as her paintbrush sparkled with a primal white hue.
With the wind, his body blurred past her in a heartbeat, her pupils blinking as he closed the distance between them and the Burly man within that moment.
He appeared like lightning, swinging his leg through the air as he aimed for a kick across the man's face. Aura ignited around him, flowing to his right leg like a fiery blue light.
With widened eyes, the man pulled his arms to his face, a vast pool of mana forming a dome in their midst.
Raph's leg collided with the man's dome and arm, cracking the shield from the impact as the air crackled from the intensity.
Lightning collided with rock and split it in two with a frightening force, sending tendrils of doom into the man's body.
A concentric pulse ignited, and the man was sent back into the vast plains behind the Hostels.
Blood splattered from his mouth as he rolled, gruesomely, on the grassy plains. Dirt and stone assaulted his mouth as he groaned in pain, stopping right after he jumped off the ground and landed on his two feet.
With a grunt, he looked up, his gaze widening in shock as Raph closed the distance once again.
His sword traced a thin crescent arc in the air as it descended with impending doom.
The man's face contorted, his pupils glowing crimson as he pulled his flail into the air.
With a sonic boom, weapons clashed, and his body pulsed with the wave of the collision.
He groaned as he was pushed back, his mind riddled with the intensity, mesmerised by the collision as he nearly tripped on himself.
'What?! What is this power?!'
He rushed in once again, leaving no room for second thoughts or recollection of events, his sword swinging from below, whispering a deathly hallow to the wind.
The man raised his shield, igniting his mana around him, enforcing himself with strength as the dome formed once again.
"I am the shield that guards the Rhakar! I shall not fall!"
Like a stone, a monument of great reverence, the man stood strong.
His shield raised in the air as the blade struck it with a metallic ring, an impulse blasting in the air in waves, igniting a hollow screech within his ears.
Blood trickled down, yet he stood.
With a furious groan, his flail collided with the blade, trembling force and quaking sounds erupting with each strike.
Mighty strikes that sent thrills into the air, vibrating the very air around them with the intensity of their strikes.
His body screamed, muscles tensing, tendons clashing, yet he fought! Striking again and again with the speed of his opponent.
Each subtle change in Raph's form was quickly followed by the Burly man's vibrant change. His brain made quick work of his movement as quickly as he could.
This wasn't a fight he ought to lose! Not against a Jun of the North. A foe their Rhakar sought after.
'I shall present his head as an offering to him! This is a fight with a distinctive ending! And that ending is my victory!'
Without pause, without hesitation, he commenced his entourage of strikes. Sending explosions of sound at every turn, every curve and every movement.
The Burly man could see it– a path to victory! One carved by his very hands.
Soon, he was beginning to overcome his opponent, overwhelming him with his mighty size.
Raph was beginning to slow down, unlike the Burly man. His strikes were growing weaker, more defensive, and a bit awkward.
It was a subtle change. One that would have been difficult to trace if they weren't a veteran of battle, and the Burly man was definitely that.
With a sparkle of light in his eyes, he leaned in and increased his intensity, preparing to completely overwhelm him in his fit of Barrages.
'I knew it! The Jun are not so strong! He can't even keep up with me in the end! Ha! And the Rhakar was worried? About some mere brat.'
A grin formed from the edge of his lips, a glint of scarlet within his eyes as his gaze locked onto Raph's.
His cold, distant, unperturbed eyes, white and peerless, as if one were blind.
That was the only way to describe it.
There was no telling if Raph was actually feeling the change in his form as they fought or the fact that the Burly man had in fact become faster than him.
It simply revealed nothing, like a blank canvas waiting to be painted.
'Then I shall paint you red! The colour of the blood that you shall spill!'
With a sudden wave of power, he swung his shield and flail into the air, mana rushing to his veins as they popped out of his skin.
A glow of emerald ignited at the brunt of his weapons, a struggling groan exuding from his lips as he held it in the air.
'Master Skill–
His pupils suddenly constricted as his head whipped to the side.
At that moment, his world had come to a standstill, a motion too slow for him to act. Yet, something, someone, was moving within that time frame.
Like a flowing dragon, Raph curled his feet to the sides, spinning with relative ease, manoeuvring to a side too far to reach, and too sudden to process.
His sword held high in the air, a blast of aura shooting out of it– Aura Blade. His lips curled into a smirk.
The man's thoughts reeled in.
'Hah? I was played.'
Time released, and Raph swung his blade through the air in a thin, nearly invisible line across his back, blood splashing along the diagonal cut like a fountain.
The man's arms were still stuck in the air, a heave releasing from his lips as the pain slowly encroached on his brain.
He groaned, gritting his teeth bitterly as he forced himself into motion. Swinging his weapons across the air towards him, a sudden blast of air flickered in his peripheral vision.
His pupils darted to the side as a white foamy giant fist descended from the air like a war hammer.
In confusion, his attention pulled fully to the fist as he raised his weapon to the air, a sudden thrust of energy and eruption of sound occurring as it crashed against his dome.
With a staggering force, his body trembled, and a crater formed below his feet, rocks and stones piercing against his skin as he descended with a sudden force.
A groan of pain escaped his lips as he looked up, pulling his flail back while pushing his shield forward.
'What sort of contraption is this?'
Above him was a white creature made of foam and snow. It stood tall at a mighty peak, larger than the centurions drawn before.
It had fingers and claws, yet its face was that of a snowman, plain white with the traces of its facial features drawn across it with a scarlet hue.
The crimson paint dripped down from its lips, forming jagged teeth and criss-cross detentions while its eyes were shimmering rubies.
On the top shoulder was Rita Vinci, her attention fixed on the man as a fearsome cackle shook the air.
Dark and low, like the guttural sound of an ancient beast, taking the form of a clown. It escaped the closer mouth of the Snowman, and with it came a sudden force that pushed the man further into the crater.
With a grunt, he cried out in pain, his flail igniting with an emerald hue as the spiked mace suddenly doubled in size with the outburst of mana.
It tripled, then quadrupled, and repeated the same procedure six more times until the spiked mace was half the size of the huge creature. 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓅𝓊𝓫.𝒸ℴ𝓶
He groaned as he swung it across the air like a fishing pole, mana burning through his veins. A tense sigh hissed between his teeth.
'Master Skill–'
His body jerked. Muscles locked. Eyes flared wide as his head snapped sideways— just in time to lock gazes with the white haired boy.
'....you have got to be kidding me.'
In a blur, a thin crimson slash split the air, Raph surging past them, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. The man stood frozen, his brain lagging behind his body's betrayal.
His gaze dragged towards the scarlet spray, tracing it back to the source— and his face twisted. Rage and Pain detonated in his veins all at once.
His pupils slid sideways, tracking his own severed arm as it spiralled through the air, blood arcing like a macabre fountain from the stump.
His breath ceased at that moment– a scream threatening to escape, but even pain wasn't given the benefit of a leeway.
The Snowman grabbed him off the ground and into the air, its fingers gripping the entirety of his figure other than his head.
He yelped in pain, gritting tightly as he was swung into the air and flung across the expanse of the field with a sonic boom.
A propulsion of the air occurred as the force sent him crashing into the ground. He rolled against the hard dirt and grass like a log of wood, unable to control his fall.
One arm stretched out, gripping tightly against the grass and dirt while blood flickered with the weight of his movement, splattering like spray paint on the grassy plains.
He groaned and heaved, his chest rising and falling. Breathing ragged and unstable, a complexity of emotions swirling within while he skidded uncontrollably. Suddenly, he was forced to a sudden halt by a spike of cold ice.
–SLASH!
It emerged from the ground and stabbed into his shoulder like a stake, holding him in place as a hundred others emerged and stabbed through him within seconds.
Frozen by the pain and cold that encroached his skin from the spikes of ice, his consciousness ceased.
