Haruo took a brief sed to think about Yuki and the sacrifice that he had made for him. The cloud surrounding Yuki persisted. “I’m sorry I was so stubborn. It took your death to open my eyes…” He looked forward to the gang members that were still left. A step from Haruo pressed him closer and making the tigers encirg him let out low roars eager for a.

  “I’m not dead yet…” a weak voice from the cloud spoke. The dust around Yuki finally dispersed enough to reveal a burned and badly bleeding, yet still alive Yuki. Calling him worse for wear would have been uating how bad he looked. He let out a shallow cough that he tried to disguise as more casual like it meant nothing to him. “Though the way I’m feeling I think I wish I could be…”

  ‘Still being so casual after everything that’s happened…’ There was no ge iuation though and Haruo khat. “Just stay where you are a me deal with this.”

  Yuki became a little annoyed by Haruo's bluntness. “So you’re just going to be a hypocrite… after what you just said… and try to do everything by yourself still?!”

  “Hardly…if you could move I’d accept your help, but you’re in no dition to fight them. So just leave it to me.” Haruo marched out to meet Katsu and his gang, determio keep Yuki safe from anything that they might be pnning on doing.

  A stream of wind blew out from Yuki’s arm putting up a gale betweewo sides, primarily aimed at getting Haruo’s attention. “My mind is the soury power. I’m not as helpless as you believe.” Yuki gave him a serious stare when he finally looked back at him. Another fident grin appeared on Yuki’s face like he was ready to take on anything. In the sed his expression darkened and ged as a small fountain of blood sprayed out of his wounded shoulder.

  No longer vinced by Yuki’s act, Haruo turo pin disbelief as he faced back at his problem. “You’re not going to be of ao me.”

  “I’m not useless!” Yuki retorted despite aream of blood spurting out from a wound. “Ack!” He fumbled around trying to patch it up with his energy field.

  “They’re ing… Just protect yourself…” Haruo unched his tigers into a seeing the gang starting to e back together from their disjointed formation.

  Chapter 85 – A Tiger’s Pride

  There was a moment of hesitation from the teens seeing the massive tigers charging towards them. The animals were nearly as tall as Haruo when on all fours. When the animals approached hey released a botling roar sending chills down their spines. If their legs had been w they would have all fled, but just stood sweating in fear.

  Two of the punks were taken down by a tiger ea a swift motion. It had left the others too stuo reabsp; The tigers quickly mauled the boys a away. They were left within a thread of death and bleeding out into the earth. The numerous cw marks left in them set the mood for the gang members still standing.

  The normal non-special powers members fled the se immediately, reizing their mortality. They were chased down by a siiger while the others turowards the remaining three.

  Katsu stumbled to get back to his feet, still suffering deeply from the effects of what Yuki had doo him. He twitched his eye seeing the broken gang. Looking over at Haruo, he was able to detect a hint of fiden what he was doing. “Dammit…” He panted heavily trying to keep his body under trol.

  One of the tigers charged him, having finally begun targeting the st of them. He fought to bend the winds to his will and unch a green crest at the beast. A ck of trol and size pared to the animal left his aim to only take off its legs dropping it to the ground sharply. “Don’t think you’re my better, kid!”

  Takaoka summoned up his fire again, presuming that it would be effective. The tiger barreling after him was his first target. The wounds that he took made it difficult for him to move or even stand pletely. All he could rely on was his powers to keep him out of danger. However, the fireball only mao partially engulf the creature as it tis charge for him. He was barely able to fall over to avoid getting burned by his own fme. “What’s it made of?!”

  Akihiro was as much of a target as before and the healthiest of anyone remaining. He had two tigers hunting him ing together at him. “Ya won’t beat mah!” He began running away from the animals and summoning up as many bdes as he could manage. His own fear had poured power into his ability creating far more swords than he had ever done before.

  A literal jungle of assorted bdes stuck out from the ground skewering the two tigers in their pbsp; He stopped to see his success and grinned. Akihiro began to ugh at his victory until he realized that the two animals were still alive and ripping themselves free from their prison. “What’s with these things?!”

  The tiger that Katsu had cut dows legs bad stepped back up. Aiger joined being a pair of hunters with eyes for Katsu. “You think two will make a difference?!” Katsu formed more wind bdes to throw at the tigers. They dodged most of the attacks while closing the distanbsp; A few wind strikes sliced into them, but it restored any injury quickly.

  Burning slightly from Takaoka’s fme, the tiger turned about to e to face him once more. All the fire did was create a more menag appearance for the animal. Takaoka swallowed painfully knowing how little ce he stood against the threat. The fall that he had taken had left him in even worse shape with his leg not willing to respond for him.

  There wasn't going to be another ce to dodge. He narrowed his eyes and pulled down his eyebrows in arying to steel himself. “Ya want mah!? I won’t go down easy!” The fireball that he created grew rger and rger as though it was feeding off his own life force to bee stronger. It became so powerful that he could feel it burning him a little radiating its bright red light.

  The beast snorted and accepted his challenge. It charged for him, blowing out the remaining embers from its nebsp; Takaoka screamed as he released the fireball, pitting his will against the spirit. The sphere of fme collided with the tiger only a few meters away. It disappeared i as the ball erupted into a massive inferno.

  Takaoka stared on watg to see what happened being more enced. However, the tiger suddenly burst from the fmes pletely doused in fire charging for him. He tried to turn away for any sort of cover, but the tiger on him. The animal smmed into Takaoka bsting him with the fmes that buried the tiger. The fires caught Takaoka screaming from the burning skin as the tiger fell over slowly being ed by the fmes.

  A flicker of fear seeped deeper into Akihiro seeing Takaoka taken down by the tiger. He slipped up his tration on his two foes allowing them to break through his array of ons. Oiger broke out ahead of the other taking a shallow bite at Akihiro’s hand as he tried to pull away. There was only a little blood dripping from a small set of tears and punctures left on his hand.

  Akihiro wiped the blood away from his hand and tightened his fists. The toll of his pan to crush his body. His breathing became ragged and heavy as it became more difficult to hold his shoulders up straight. The tigers growled lowly at him sensing the weakness. Akihirhtened himself up quickly showing his defianbsp; “Ya won’t beat mah!” More bdes shot up from the ground making the tigers leap into a. When it did not work he charged forward for the two beasts.

  “I’ll show ya I’ve got mo’ tricks!” There was a brief fsh from Akihiro’s arms as he passed betweewo animals and ended his run a meter away from them. He tilted his head over his shoulder to see the two tigers. A momehey split in two shattering into dust. “Told ya!” The fifth step he took a massive shadow hung over him pinning him to the dirt an instant ter. The tiger that chased after the runaways had returned and roared into his face with its heavy paw pnted on his chest.

  The tiger didn’t hesitate in biting down on his shoulders, spttering blood through the earth. Akihiro ground his teeth together screaming in pain trying to move his arms. He inned down, but was able to free up his right arm in time to thrust a bde from his palm into the heart of the tiger. It slowly fell to pieces on top of him leaving him heavily fatigued and uo move. Akihiro passed out within the sed.

  Further away, aiger spirit shattered nearby Katsu. Only oiger remained. He had been barely holding himself together and keeping the animal at bay with his wind. All he felt was the urge to win and end it all. He had no care for anything else. “Just because you’re bigger doesn’t mean you’re aer!”

  He sent out numerous mini-crests. The tiger dodged most of them, seeming to have begun to learn from the battle. Those few that did mao break through only left small slices in its outer yers of white fur. It mao close in enough on Katsu that he tried to fire a wide spread arbsp; It cleaved a paw before digging partly into his shoulder and arm. Blood trailed through the air as it leapt etting clear as Katsu unleashed a fierce round of wind attacks.

  “Bastard! I won’t be beaten!” He clutched his wounded shoulder feeling the blood ing around his fingers and down his forearm. He was the boss and they were still beating him. The kid that had been his toy was beating him. It was wrong. “You’re mine! I will see your beautiful AGONY!”

  Yuki and Haruo's eyes suddenly widened in shock as they felt what seemed like a semi-truck colliding with them. It bsted away Yuki’s energy armor sending him tumbling backwards. Haruo could only dig his feet in as he was dragged through the earth forcibly. “What’s this ford pressure?”

  While he struggled to keep his bance he focused towards Katsu seeing his tiger being flung apart into dust at a swirling mass of wind that surrounded Katsu. In each passing moment it seemed to only get stronger and wilder growing into the sky. A tornado formed around Katsu responding to his rage. It shed out with tendrils of wind that licked and kicked at the earth. One of the green tendrils grazed passed Haruo a him flying through the dirt, dropping him only a few meters away from Yuki.

  The gale force winds didn’t cease with Yuki struggling to pull himself up. “His wind’s to! He’s been pushed to the limit. His power’s responding to his desperation! His power’s increasing with such force that it’s creating a tornado! I ’t even dampen the forymore!”

  Another surge of wind pushed him back further still holding on to what was left of his armor. “Damn! How’s he getting even stronger?! This isn’t supposed to be the way it works! Vilins don’t get rength in the middle of a fight! How are we supposed to beat him now?!” Yuki paused for a moment as he realized what he was doing. ‘Why am I doing the sideline exposition?! I’m supposed to be the main character aren’t I? Dammit!’

  Katsu’s ughter could be heard through the freight train r of the wind. It was as though he found the perfect frequency to broadcast his voice to be heard clearly. “So much power! Yes! Nothing stop me now! I will see your suffering now!” Dirt exploded around the tornado as the wind shot out bsts of pressed wind from outer yers. The tendrils shed out t Haruo with being throwing and tossed about like a doll. “No one surpass my power!” Katsu began to ugh again, enjoying the sight that he had of Haruo.

  “SAKI DROP KICK!!” yelled a voice that nearly ripped the heavens in two.

  Yuki couldn’t help but sound embarrassed hearing that, almost uo believe it. ‘Saki drop kibsp; Seriously?! Have we lost all credibility already!?’

  An instahere was a streaking blur of color. If paused for a moment, there was someone unched in the middle of a two hundred meter long propelled drop kibsp; They rampaged through the earth leaving only a trench behind divided with such force to shatter the wind. The tornado exploded into a faint breeze as Katsu was seen flying away with the bone crushing echo of the impabsp;

  Even as the dirt settled down like rain, Saki appeared before Yuki holding an annoyed and disappointed expression. She hauled him up by his robes so that they were face to fabsp; “What do you think you’re doing fighting?! And why didn’t you tell Ayumi and me about it!? Don’t you remember our promise!?”

  Yuki lost all of the strength that was in his body. His power quickly faded, rest the neighborhood. They were fortunate enough to be in the middle of a nearby street a couple blocks from the school. “I-I’m injured right now, Saki…”

  She shook him a little, throwing a bit of blood about, frustrated that he wasn’t taking it seriously. “I know you’re injured! You could have been fine if you had told us! I thought you agreed not to do things alone!”

  “Slight miscalcution…they were just some normal street punks I thought… If I had known they’d have super powers I would have brought you… But oh…I’m feeling really lightheaded all of a sudden…” Yuki started to go a little limp in Saki’s hold.

  “Yuki don’t you run away from me while I’m yelling at you!” Saki was forced to set him back down in the grass as she realized that he was in more dahan she first thought. She turned about and grabbed Ayumi by the back of her dress and held her out in front of Yuki. “Heal him!”

  Ayumi filed about a little taken aback by suddenly being pulled like some tool from a bag. “I’m not a mae! I don’t treat me like one!”

  “e on!” she snapped like she was getting upset with a broken instrument. She absentmindedly jerked Ayumi forward and back trying to figure out how she worked.

  “Hey!” Ayumi whimpered, being flustered and embarrassed with how she was being treated. “ Stop that! Let me down!” She was dropped on the ground carelessly and nearly on her fabsp; Ayumi rubbed her back side. She focused on Yuki before her and summoned up her field to start the healing.

  After a minute of healing Yuki opened his eyes and leaned up to look at the two girls. “Ugh…thanks…Ayumi…”

  “…Yuki…” Saki soon interjected into the moment and picked up Ayumi once more. Her arms began to fil once more as Saki started walking with her. “H-Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!”

  “You’ve got another person to heal.”

  “I walk on my own! I told you before I’m not a mae to be pointed!”

  Yuki couldn’t help but smile a little in embarrassment seeing the two. He forced himself to turn his focus back to what he had to do. A new Field came out with a soothing and healing touch to everyohat . He khat Ayumi could deal with Haruo, but there were is as well as gang members injured. ‘The very least I do is give you back your health after everything that I’ve done…’

  Once everything was settled Yuki joined Haruo standing ba his ow. They gathered with Saki and Ayumi staring quietly around the circle. Yuki waited for Haruo, but nothing came. He started to return to his usual self. “Want to share some lunch back at school?”

  Haruo turned away from Yuki and started walking away. He came to a sudden stop after a few steps. His head tilted back to Yuki. “Perhaps tomorrow…thank you…” The brief words were all that he had for Yuki and theed dowreet.

  Saki stepped out in front of Yuki staring down at the disappearing Haruo. Her faarrowed and turo a bit of a pout. “That was a little rude…”

  “It’s alright!” smiled Yuki, “He’s got a lot to think about.”

  “Huh? Did something happen?”

  “Nothing much!” Yuki started walking back towards the school f Ayumi and Saki to catch up on their own. When they reached the school blod the students began to gather around with questions Yuki remained babsp; He grabbed Ayumi’s wrist to stop her from tinuing on. His expression was serious and pensive like a heavy weight ced upon him. “I’ll have your answer by the end of the week…”