As one would expect from Seiji, the battle crazed, a wide eager smile of excitement grew across his fabsp; “I like the sound of that!” He pounded his fists together w himself up. The fight turned out to be a lot more than hoped for and it only got better, in his mind. This fight more than made up for how annoying his st fight was.

  She never showed her true form to anyone since she never had a need for it. Training never required it and service made it even more pointless. She hardly had any practice using it. The strain that she put on her body while in it worried her. Nerine didn’t know how long she could keep up with it. She khat she o pete with Seiji.

  However, even amongst the worry her body felt calm and at ease. The bruises and wounds that she took gave her no sign of pain. She felt ready for it, even wanting it. ‘It’s a strange feeling doing this… I don’t get the same feeling from the start of the fight…’

  The light faded away revealing Nerine’s final form. A new outfit repced her Atntean uniform, which received extensive damage. Her new clothes left her barefoot in close fitting dark purple pants with a matg shirt. Over top, a tanned brow kept the shirt from a loose hold on her figure. A white waistcloth closed the seam between pants and shirt, while also matg the ed strips of cloth that tied down at the ends of her limbs.

  Her empty Field no longer held any ons. She looked more exposed then before, but a new light gathered at her legs and arms. Metal enclosed her limbs pletely until only her vest and waistcloth remained. The metal ran pletely smooth with a simple design that didn’t try to appear fshy. Engravings lihe metal along the wrist and ankles. A strong sturdy presence came from them in their simplicity. They were meant for nothing but bat with no elegance.

  Nerine held up her hands sliding into an offeanbsp; “I’m ready.”

  “Let’s see what the hell it do!” Seiji charged forward with his fists raised to begin the first damn attack.

  Chapter 151 – Fists’ Answer

  Seiji’s fists met with a damn n of fme in front of him. His fist only made it part way in before he stopped. It left his skin slightly burned, but it gave the distra that Nerine needed. She appeared around at his fnk just after he pulled babsp; Her fist stretched out, leveling a crushing blow. Seiji’s cheek took the hit and spun him through the air.

  Jetting with the thrust of her ons, Nerine charged forward after Seiji to keep up the assault. However, Seiji righted his body and smmed into the earth throwing back debris from his feet. He sprinted off, not allowing even the rocks time to settle. His arm raised up taking the blow from Nerine’s punbsp; The impact sliced a shockwave that tore up the earth between them and threw up the ks into the air.

  Nerine’s fist rattled against Seiji’s forearm for a few moments. She then brought iher fist to punch through his open side. Not taking the defensive block, Seiji dodged a little and grabbed her arm. It took her by surprise, but she quickly responded with a kick at him. He didn’t wait for her leg as he threw her away.

  He jumped off from the ground crashing through the careless cast aside debris towards his target. Seiji extended his arm going for a quick punch through her defenseless body. His punch didn’t fully make it in before she spun around in the air kig Seiji in the head. Whether stubborn or through momentum, Seiji’s body didn’t budge from the hit. Nerine followed it up with another, spinning around t her foot down from above. The crash blew out wind that sent the debris flying into projectiles that cratered the ground hundreds of meters away.

  Seiji took the kid sped down to the ground from the forbsp; When the earth came up to him, he nded in a k position. He still mao crater the area, throwing up ks of rock again. His head tilted up to see Nerine shooting herself down with her leg extended. Seiji braced him for the impact, but caught water as Nerine spun downward. Immediately behind the water, fmes burst out casting steam through the area.

  The steam created a fog-like mist that made it too thick for Seiji to see through. Neriook advantage of the poor visibility and unleashed a powerful array of blows. Each impact blew out parts of the mist until nothing remaio hide Seiji.

  She jumped baeasure him up after her assault. ‘He’s still holding strong, but it looks like I’m hurting him.’

  While Seiji held no serious injuries, his body dripped with blood. His face had blood dripping from both sides of his lips and a long stream down the side of his fabsp; Bruises lihe muscles of his chest and arms where he took hits. Only his endurance kept him from colpsing from the attacks. Seiji felt a little heavy oh, but still grinned. “Hell yeah! I’m feeling those punches nicely!”

  Neriill felt a little fused by his overly eager sense of battle. Her head tilted a little. “You’re taking this with an unusual amount of excitement for a fight. Don’t you have any anger?”

  “Why should I feel angry when I’ve got such a fun fight? There’s nothier than exging blows with a worthy oppo and seeing how far you push your limits!”

  “I’m not sure I uand those feelings. Especially for someohat’s supposed to be a rebel.”

  “Don’t sweat the small stuff. Let’s just enjoy the fight and see who’s standing at the end!” Seiji gri her wanting to resume the fight.

  The iious nature of Seiji's enthusiasm caught on to Nerine more than she realized. She caught herself smiling again. “I’ll admit I’m curious as well.”

  “Well let’s not let talking slow us down!”

  “Agreed.”

  They charged for each other. Nerihrew out her fist direg ns of earth at him from her hands. Seiji rammed his fists through them and shattered the hardeh to pieces. When he reached the end, Nerine was already goo a different side. He picked up a couple of the pieces, throwing them at her when found her new position. They passed through her eventually disappearing.

  Nerine ran directly for him, throwing her leg down into the ground a meter away from him. The impact bsted ks of earth away directed at Seiji. Through the debris, she sent fmes to engulf everything. Molten pieded on Seiji, as he blocked. It bur his skin until he cast it aside. During the distra, Nerine came in behind and unleashed a spin kick against him that he barely got an arm up to block.

  It still sent him flying away off his feet, while a destructive shockwave ate through the terrain. Nerine bouhrough the air and shot towards Seiji. She appeared over top of him to punch him into the ground. However, he grabbed her wrist, redug most of the force to only a minor air wave that blew a small hole into the earth. She tried with her other fist only to meet the same results.

  They found a stalemate in a strength check, but Seiji held the greater strength. She already uood that from before and rediscovered that fact as the metal pio her. It kept ref through the will of her mind, but she couldn’t keep up with him in a direct brute force exge. Nerine poured water over her armor and charged it with electricity. It forced Seiji to release her and still carry a charge that jumped around his muscles for seds afterward. She spun around delivering a kito his ribs that his arm failed to blobsp; It sent him off in a new dire.

  Air kicks turned around Nerine and directed her to Seiji. As she neared him, he smmed his fists in the ground bringing him to a sudden stop. It sent her flying past him, over shootiarget. While she recovered from her mistake, Seiji went on the offensive. He charged through the remaining debris ks pung through a rge pieto Nerine. Already off banerine flew off her feet. Her body careened into the air with him closing the gap.

  Seiji delivered several blows to Nerine, each punch vibrating through the area. The st sent her flying back down to the ground. He had to wait for his body to stop moving upward, before he could desd. The recovery time for Seiji gave Nerine all she o escape Seiji’s drop. His fist rammed into the earth up to his elbow with the force he pushed through. He gnced over to the dire that Nerine dodged and ripped his arm free, casting debris in her dire.

  Nerine spun her leg around lighting up a quiferno before washing it all with wind to reverse the dire. Fming ks of earth sped towards Seiji. It forced him to swat them down and break through to reaerine, but she already moved to a new location.

  She appeared speeding in from an air kick catg Seiji off-guard in the cheek. The hit sprayed blood with a shockwave ripping through the earth. Seiji tumbled over but i sed grabbed Nerine by her vest and brought her with him. He smmed her into the ground as he spun away. His body fought to twist around and gain footing on the ground nding a couple of meters away from her. The pn to follow up had to be put on hold as Neriaggered up and forced herself to speed towards him with another air punch.

  Seiji jumped out of the way, as Nerine’s fist hit the ground. All of the earth exploded outward, digging a quick shallow crater. She slowly pulled herself up panting heavily, but closed her mouth and charged anyway. Neri into the air, boung through the air with kicks and puo hit at Seiji from all sides. He barely kept up with the barrage and as he staggered babsp; Blood sprayed with each pund earth rent around them.

  Even Seiji found his breathing difficult and his body sore. He felt certain that she might have broken one of his damn ribs with all of the blows that he took. However, he didn’t care. All he did was grin and keep up his defense. When she paused for a split sed to recover, Seiji charged in with his fist nding a solid hit oorso. It rang out and knocked Nerine back a little. Some fresh blood dripped from her lips, but she ig going ba.

  Their exhaustion tore away their i in defense or anything fanbsp; Seiji didn’t feel the full strength of his punches anymore. Nerine couldn’t feel her arms s. Her body felt like it turo paste from everything she took. The prote afforded to her was the special properties of her clothes, which was the only thing that saved her from Seiji killing her ht.

  Even though their fight pletely ged the ndscape of the area, the iy that they id into each other with their fists didn’t diminish. Their knees buckled a little with each blow nded, but their body refused to give in. Each punch cracked the ground around them. Quakes echoed away from their feet like the sound of a thousand stampeding animals.

  They could not stop.

  Both held wide grins on their faces.

  After an impossible dispy of stamina, the winner finally surfaced. Nerine’s st punch stopped against Seiji’s chest, no longer moving. Weakness in her arm spread into her body until her legs no longer had the strength. She fell down into the dirt, her armor fading and uniform appearing on her body. The dirt Field around her remained, a sign her sciousness hung on thinly. Her breathing rahroat course until she didn’t think she could take it any longer.

  Seiji smiled tent. “…I…won…” His legs fell out from underh him. He colpsed on his back with his chest heaving. “I haven’t had an enjoyable fight like that since my times with Yuki. Thank you!”

  Nerine rolled over on her back, matg Seiji’s position. The two warriors end up nearly at each other's sides. She felt at ease with the fight, even though she lost. “It’s strange… I don’t feel bothered losing…” Her eyes gnced over at him. “I’m actually pleased… I don’t know why…”

  “That’s because you had fun!”

  “Fun?” She pulled her gaze back up to the night sky. “Is that it?”

  Seiji lifted himself up enough to sit. “Hell yeah!” He tightened his hand into a fist to emphasize the accuracy of his answer. “You know what having fun is, right?”

  “Have you read the background on Atntis?”

  “…ht…”

  She joined Seiji to sit. The soreness and broken body did not matter to her. “…hmm…” He looked at her with the same eyes as before, even after everything. She was no more than a fight and that thought actually made her happy.

  “You’re not going to give any more expnation to that are you?”

  “The implications are enough for the audience, if they haven’t figured it all out yet they’ll know iy chapters.”

  He still didn’t feel better, but his strength started to return. Seiji stood up and offered a hand out to Nerine. The toll of the fight he knew had to be even worse for her. ‘She actually pushed me to my limits…’

  Neriood up still holding his hand. He grinned back at her. She found it just as iious as before, even with all of the grime and blood that coated his fabsp; “You’re the first person to see only me without any of the titles or masks…” It seemed a little odd to her that it would be a stranger, a rebel that did. He was supposed to be the enemy. She gnced over at the camp. “You’ve defeated me. So I’ll let you pass and look for your rade.”

  “Thanks! I’d like to fight with you again sometime!”

  Neriilted her head a little smiling back at him. “Yeah, I think I’d like that!”

  The sky suddenly seemed to go pitch bck with all of the stars bloated out. Time slowed down for Seiji. A strange wind of bloodlust carried through the air. It immediately made his eyes narrow and shift around. He caught sight of a fsh of white light moving in a fast arc towards Nerine. She was too fatigued to read Seiji still felt his body’s sluggish movements drag him down. He didn’t know if he could make it in time. “Look out!” Seiji leapt out in front, his face painted with panic.

  “Traitorous as will not be fiven!” slithered a deep voice from the void of shadows. A low grunt came from them in respoo a wet spray.

  Seiji groaned in pain. A deep ssh ran diagonally across his arm, blood sprayed across the interloper’s fabsp; He pushed back with his good arm at the attacker. “Why are you attag your ally?!”

  A wicked smirk lihe individual’s fabsp; “Allies don’t act friendly and aid the enemy!” Behind the two of them, Neri out a deep bloody scream.

  fused, Seiji turo find that both of Nerine’s arms id on the ground and blood sprayed everywhere. Seiji’s face wrinkled and turned dark. Damn shadow masked out his eyes. He tilted head back around at his enemy. His ched fists tensed up the muscles in his arm. The rage inside boiled up in his body providing him with new fuel. He took a step forward. The spot that his foot nded cracked a in. “I’m going to kill you! You bastard!”