Tales of a Lost Sword 53

Episode 53 Electricity
Ryuu gives forth a roar of aggression as he stampedes forward with his fire sword directed at Arai. The latter raises his own hand, creating a staff of lightning out of thin air. The charged particles in his staff crackle threateningly in greeting as it collides head-on with Ryuu’s attack.

A ferocious blast sounds as the two attacks meet. Finally, the dust from the explosion settles, and both Ryuu and Arai are revealed facing each other, breathing heavily.

Silently, Arai again creates a new Thunder Spear in right hand. He holds it aloft, allowing it to crackle as it makes contact with the cool daytime air.

Ryuu bites his lip, digs in his heels, and raises his regular sword in response. The same steely determination sparkles in his eyes as before. “Come at me, then!” he taunts with a smirk.

Arai is the first to charge this time; Ryuu swings his sword just as he arrives, sending a frosty blast of ice into the air and creating an ice barrier in imitation of Arai. Ryuu glares at Arai from behind the solid window of ice. “How ‘bout some of your own medicine, huh?!”

“Tch!” Arai smirks in reply. He slams his Spear against the wall of ice, sending several veins of cracks spreading all across its surface. The block of ice shatters in another instant, but Ryuu is prepared. He swings his sword again, charged this time with a combination attack of fire and lightning.

Agilely, Arai blocks the attack with a blast of lightning. The shock sends Ryuu jerking back several feet, as he leaps to avoid the counter. Arai pounces again, aggressively pursuing Ryuu with his Thunder Spear.

In retaliation, Ryuu raises his sword to guard against the attack, but it never comes. Kunai suddenly reenters the fray from behind, swinging his thin black sword at Arai.

In one single movement, Arai changes direction and swings his Thunder Spear into Kunai’s face, blocking the attack from his sword. The Thunder Spear dissipates for a second as Arai releases Kunai; he then quickly charges up another blast of lightning, firing it like a bullet straight at Kunai.

Unable to react in time, Kunai watches as the attack sails towards him. Out of nowhere, Ryuu dashes in the way and intercepts the attack, deflecting it with his sword. The energy from the lightning blast lands in the river nearby with a splash.

“You all right, Kunai?” Ryuu asks over his shoulder.

Kunai nods. “Yeah… Ryuu. Sorry about this, but I’m gonna have to ask you to create an opening for me.”

“You’ve got a plan, Kunai?”

Nodding again, Kunai replies, “Yeah.”

Ryuu bursts into a smirk. “All right. Let’s do this then!”

Bursting into a sprint, Ryuu chases after Arai. The Fatalist merely stands in place, watching Ryuu approach with a sly grin on his face.

Ryuu swings his sword as he charges. Arai sidesteps the attack, allowing Ryuu to stumble past him and nearly fall into the water. Suddenly, Arai wields a fresh Thunder Spear, directing the staff of lightning straight at Ryuu.

However, Ryuu is prepared. He casts a quick spell, drawing a light blue circle enclosing a hexagram. “Guardian Seal!” he cries. The seal stands firm against the might of Arai’s lightning attack, swallowing the energy from the Thunder Spear whole.

Arai smiles in response. “Resorting to the petty skills they taught us in the Joukai Academy?”

“Yeah,” replies Ryuu, grinning as well. “Here I come!” Without warning, Ryuu allows the hexagram to shatter; in the brief opening, Ryuu lunges forward with his sword in a stabbing motion. He gathers a whirlwind of fire around the blade of his sword as he moves forward with all his momentum.

Without hesitating, Arai deflects Ryuu’s attack with a storm of lightning blasts. Several streaks of lightning form ribbons around Ryuu, enclosing him and his entire sword with their fierce energy. Ryuu grits his teeth, but continues pushing forward attempting to reach Arai.

“Your mistake, Ryuu,” Arai taunts breathlessly. The ribbons of lightning suddenly solidify completely, as they consolidate into frozen crystals. The frozen ribbons of lighting are so cold that they immediately begin leaking a fine mist into the air.

The ribbons of lightning-turned-ice now completely wrapped around him and his sword, Ryuu finds himself unable to move. He wriggles slightly in the grasp of the claw of ice and lightning, but the ice does not budge.

“I don’t think so,” Ryuu snaps back. With a thunderous roar, he channels a massive wave of fire into his sword. The rivers of ice around him abruptly begin melting, until with amazing strength, Ryuu bursts free from its clutches and shatters the ice around him completely.

However, as the ice shatters and breaks, the threads of lightning within them reactivate, surrounding Ryuu with ferocious speed and shocking him.

“Agghhhhh!” Ryuu pants, falling to his knees at last as the lightning disappears into the air. Beads of sweat run down his face. He breathes heavily, lowering his head in front of Arai.

A shadow blocks out the sun in front of Ryuu. He looks up, finding Arai gazing down at him. “Having fun, Ryuu?” he asks.

“Bastard…!” Ryuu growls, wiping some grime off his face with his sleeve and jumping back to his feet surprisingly fast. Within moments, Ryuu swings his sword diagonally, sending a tidal wave of fire at Arai.

The blast of fire crashes into Arai, engulfing him entirely for several moments in a fiery cyclone. As the cyclone passes, however, Arai exits it, entirely unscathed. A cocoon of ice falls to the ground around him, shattered to pieces but having done the job. Still, that persistent smile remains on Arai’s face.

“Bastard,” Ryuu growls again, sneering himself, “I’m gonna wipe that smile off your face.”

“You say many things, Ryuu,” Arai replies, reaching into his pocket again and drawing out another muffin. He takes a bite of it and swallows, before continuing on. “Yet I am still without a scratch.”

In half a second, Ryuu is by Arai’s side. He swings his sword down with all his strength. Arai teleports away in a whirl of blue light; in all the commotion his muffin falls to the ground, a trail of blood following it.

Now standing several feet away from Ryuu, Arai pants slightly, a cut across his left arm dripping wet with blood. Ryuu stabs the ground with his sword, leaning against it. “You were saying?” he jeers.

Arai remains silent for several seconds. Ryuu gazes at him steadily. “All right,” Arai finally breathes, “then I shall show you true misery!”

Multiple blasts of electricity radiate from Arai as he charges up a new attack. Ryuu braces himself, placing his sword in between the two of them.

Without hesitating, the two of them charge at each other suddenly. On one side, Arai holds his staff aloft, brimming with electricity. On the other, Ryuu bounds forward, his fiery sword aglow with wrath.

“ARAI!” Ryuu howls.

“RYUU!” returns Arai.

The two attacks collide with thunderous force; the wooden planks below them collapse under the explosive force. Both Ryuu and Arai jump backwards as the hole widens between them. The two each take another step back, gazing at each other warily, their attacks having neutralized each other.

Out of nowhere, a third voice rises above the fray. “Charging attack complete!” Kunai appears like a meteor from out of the corner of Arai’s eye. He swings his sword, unleashing a canon blast of charged mana.

Arai turns disparagingly to Kunai. “I thought I told you that attack—” His eyes widen as the wave of white-hot mana washes over him.

As the wave of energy crashes into Arai, Kunai lowers his sword, his eyes ablaze. “That wasn’t a combustion attack. I simply charged my sword with the mana in the air and unleashed it as an attack. Not even you can withstand an attack like that, Arai.”
—END FIFTY-THREE—