“Folding?” Ayumi crammed a lot of training and knowledge into him during their sessions, but it was ohat he never heard spoken. He didn’t like the sound that it had ing from Vangelis. Staring down at his hand, the blood yered thinly across his palm, kept in pce by the particles surrounding him. ‘The strength of his attacreased signifitly after he did that ‘Folding’, enough to break my defense.’

  Tapping the swainst his shoulder, Vangelis looked a little rexed by the situation. “Seems like you’re fused.” Vangelis tilted his head to crack his neck a little. ‘I figured with someone of his natural strength would have been noticed attending the academy. Which meaher stayed hidden or was from the outside, but there shouldn’t be ahis powerful out there, at least not marked. Very iing kid, I doubt he’s self-taught with the trol he has…’ A shift in his eyes turo the distant battle with Eudokia.

  The pieces fell into pce for Vangelis quickly. ‘sidering her skill level and talents, it’d make sense she trained him. Though why withhold suformation? He’d be siderably more powerful, just what is her game?’

  Yuki hated admitting he didn’t know enough in front of Vangelis. The man was terribly arrogant and it only gave him more ammunition for his taunts. ‘Wish I had pressed Ayumi for more details, there are clearly things I’m unaware of. This man is likely making use of advaeiques…damn, this is going to be even more difficult than I figured…’ Yuki’s fists tightened up sidering the rest of the battle he had in stainst Vangelis.

  Chapter 189 – Shifting Attacks

  Vangelis’ knowing grinned seemed to get deeper on his fabsp; Any deeper and he would start looking like a mischievous cat. “I’ll leave you to figure it out.” The sword in his hand came back down, the bde tip poi Yuki. A raise from his eyebrow signaled a small bit of pity for Yuki. “Otle bit I’ll pass along to you though. You’ll like this.” His gri deeper. He drew out the pause to make it even more dramatibsp; “The average MP only do one Folding,” he added, showing his index fio Yuki. Even though his face didn’t ge, the words made his face seem like it turned darker with his i.

  Grinding his teeth, Yuki pushed his foot back a little to brace for the attabsp; Padding out his particle armor on his hands, he sidestepped to deflect the sword blow away from him. ‘I don’t know if he’s just toying with me or not, but if what he said is true then I’ll o end things before he decides to do another Folding.’ Yuki rushed in with his wrist holding the bde away, causing sparks with the csh. As Yuki came inte of Vangelis, a shield shifted out of a different dimension to block his fist.

  The initial impact of his fist cracked the shield. His hand tio punch through, even with the shield trying tee. Yuki’s eyes narrowed as he forced more of strength into his arm. ‘I’m this close and his ons aren’t disappeariruly has increased the strength of his Field…’ He quickly realized that he wasn’t going to succeed with the frontal attabsp; Yuki leapt back, already notig a spear shooting in from the side of the shield. The spearhead caught the edge of his gi, but did nothing other than tear fabribsp; ‘Too close…’

  Vangelis retracted his sword’s bde to the standard length. Returning back to the previous dimension, the shield vanished from sight along with the spear. “You’ve got good reflexes, kid!” He took another swing with the sword at Yuki. While still in the swing, an arroeared in front of his head. Several more materialized around in a circle before firing at Yuki as well.

  Moving to deal with the sword, Yuki could only swipe his free hand through the area to create a wall out of the particles to block the arrows. Using the denser gathering in his hand blog the bde, his hand closed around the bde to destroy it. Yuki followed through in a smooth motion to snatch up the brokeal and fling it back at Vangelis.

  The bde vanished before it got anywhere even close to Vangelis. He smirked a little, enjoying Yuki’s efforts. However, amongst the terattack Yuki disappeared from his sight. ‘A distra huh? He’s smart on his feet now that he’s cleared out the emotions.’ His arm arched through the air suddenly causing a thick wooden wall to grow out of the ground. The Field at his feet noeared to be a finely polished hard work floor that shone brightly his refle in its surface.

  A thud echoed around the wood. Splintering, it broke free a moment ter. Vangelis gnced around behind him knowing that it was Yuki. ‘This should be a fun moment. The destructive nature of his powers makes things iing.’

  Slightly surprised, Yuki’s eyes widened a touch to find wood blog him. The fact that it was wood came as more of a surprise to him than the fact that he was blocked. He actually expected to be stopped by Vangelis. Everything that he had done so far in the fight produo results. If a simple feied the man, Yuki would have been disappointed, relieved but certainly disappointed. He didn’t disappoint him.

  Wood stopped him. ‘Something new again…what’s with this guy? How does he have so many different abilities? Just how plex are his Laws?’ Suddenly, a block of the wood stretched out at Yuki grabbing at his arm. It quickly ed around his forearm and upper arm in only a sed. “What?!” The motion caught him off guard.

  Yuki ground his teeth together and thinned his features as he recovered himself. Peeling away from his legs, the energy around his arm brightened between the wood increasing iy and opacity. It tore through the wood turning it a soft shade of red. Once he ate away enough of the wood, Yuki escaped to a safe distance.

  Shaking his arm a little to get the feeling off, Yuki stared back at the wall. ‘Wood this time…he keeps ging, why isn’t he using oheme? Everyone I’ve fought always had a theme, but this guy doesn’t seem to have a theme at all!’

  A loud bang ripped through the area leaving torn wood in ks. Across the wood and grass, a dull ping rang out. “Thought I told you to stay awake, kid!” remarked Vangelis, leaning against the wall as though casually talking to a neighbor over a fence.

  Snapped out of the distra, Yuki narrowed his focus to the source of the attabsp; A thin smoking trail came out of the hole in the wood. Hidden behind the bck hole, a faint shine of a circur object surfaced. ‘I thought wood was his new power.’

  Vangelis leaned his head dowing on his hand, appearing bored. However, out of the wall came another series of loud shots ripping through the wood. The speed left Yuki with no ce to do anything. Crashing against his barrier, nothing happened. Vangelis grinned despite the ck of effectiveness.

  ‘Huh? His st attacks were more effective. They pierced my defense, but this is weaker…is it because they’re too small?’ Yuki started to march forward. eling the particles to gather in his hand, he hardehe shape into a sphere. ‘I need an offense…’ Yuki fired it off once finished before Vangelis got another round off.

  The ball destroyed the wall a going. Vangelis mao evade a direct hit, but something still took a hit. He lifted up his arm to examine a pistol with the entire barrel ly cut through up to the trigger. The arch cut through his gu his trigger finger exposed, nearly caught iabsp; “Hmm…” Lazily, he turned his eye back to Yuki as he approached. “That was rather close, kid.”

  Yuki didn’t like the look in his eyes, but still tinued forward. He started up his attabsp; ‘I got through, so even with him stronger I still have the superior power! Just o keep pressing—‘ A force from behind interrupted Yuki’s thoughts. It grabbed him by the leg and threw him to the ground. “What the—“ Before Yuki could even look around at what happened, it was dragged into the air. The stinging in his face barely had a ce to pass before pressure ed around his leg.

  “You might want to keep your eyes open too, kid,” Vangelis replied, still from his position leaning against the remains of the wood wall. He turhe broken gun ba Yuki, no longer using subterfuge to hide it. The barrel of the on materialized, quickly rec its form. “This might sting a little.” Vangelis smirked as he fired the gun. Four bullets came out of the gun so quickly they ran only timeters behind the , despite him only having fired once.

  Each bullet smmed into Yuki’s trapped chest. The wood ed around him ensured a direct hit. The bullets did nothing to scratch him, but the impacts left his chest stinging as promised. They felt like being hit with a sledgehammer. His bones groaned, making Yuki wonder if it cracked a rib or two. ‘…damn…’

  “You might want to dodge the one, kid! If you …” The gun suddenly morphed into a signifitly rger on, resembling that of a shotgun merged with an assault rifle. A barrel more like a sniper rifle extended from it, appearing even more deadly, if not bizarre.

  Gritting his teeth, Yuki stared down the barrel. ‘He’s got me trapped. If I trahe strength, the wood will crush my unprotected body, but if I do nothing…’ His mi over the sario repeatedly in the precious seds he had before Vangelis attacked him.

  Vangelis grinned watg the panicked look in Yuki’s eyes. He gave him a couple seds loo let the feeling drench him entirely before firing the strange on. Firing the gun caused a giant cloud of smoke to bst the area while the massive bullet spun through the front of the cloud trailing streams of white.

  The theatrics left him waiting on the smoke to clear for his clusion. ‘I wonder what sort of results I got…’ While the smoke started to fade, he retracted his on. The wood disappeared along with the Field. A t Field repced it, an unbroke of t tinuing on to the ends of his Field. With the wood gone, a thud against the t crawled out from the smoke.

  Yuki surfaced from the smoke appearing surprisingly unharmed by the attabsp; Vangelis narrowed his eyes reading the se for an answer. When he uood, it made him ugh a little. “So you moved it only from the pces the wood didn’t cover to give yourself more prote.” He watched the transparency slowly expand back over his body.

  ‘That was close, I wasn’t sure if it ossible…’ Yuki trailed off his thoughts wheiced the situation. The wood was gone and a new Field resent. He uood well enough what it meant. ‘He’s got a different power now. What is it this time?’

  Yuki waited on the a from Vangelis. He started learning how he couldn’t react thoughtlessly against him. Every time he tried before it failed. He always failed to reach him. The man seemed to have a tri his bag for everything. Yuki had to wait to see what came . It was his only bsp; ‘He’s got to have a limit to how many different Laws he’s using. I just o wait until I’ve seen them all. I ’t just do full offense against him like I thought, I’m going to end up failing again.’

  Tension built up betweewo as Yuki waited in a deyed a. Vangelis seemed to pick up on Yuki’s hesitation ahe tension py out. Like with everything else, he enjoyed pying with Yuki in any ossible. Everything dragged out for his eai. He knew he would win. It was a question of how far he would have to go before the end. ‘He’s making things very fun, finally…I think it’s about time to throw off the bance he thinks he’s found…’ Vangelis gri the thoughts pying through his mind.

  The grinning devil only made Yuki’s body mid with tension. He could see the man had things pnned, but could only guess as to what they were. ‘I wish he’d stop drawing this out. I know he’s just pying with me and I ’t do anything about it. I o uand his power to beat him. All this switg he’s doing is making it clear that he doesn’t wao figure him out. It’s all part of his strategy, to keep me off band moving at his pace.’ Tightening his fists, Yuki felt a ge in the winds as an omen of things to e. ‘I’ll have to keep pying his game until I’ve got him figured out and hope I survive until then…’

  Resuming the fight, Vangelis casually flicked his fi Yuki with the tip of his finger discharging a wide green bst. It pletely engulfed Yuki with no time to reabsp; However, moments ter Yuki burst through the light trailing off dust from his gi. Vangelis immediately disappeared and reappeared nearby giving him enough time to notice before firing off anreen bst of energy.

  Yuki mao have enough to transfer his defenses forward to deal with the force of the attabsp; It merely blew over him, but it still pushed him babsp; The previous attack left his body sore and stinging, uo dampen almost any of it. ‘He’s back to the energy bsts and the disappearing thing again! It’s signifitly more powerful because of his Folding teique, but I’ve dealt with this before. I know how he moves and what to expebsp; I’ll show him how useless it is against me and force him to ge to something else, perhaps another I’ve seen and ter easier!’ Yuki got a little excited to know he started to feel fortable with the fight. He could finally fight Vangelis.

  Lifting two fingers at Yuki, a ball of green light grew at the tip of his fingers. ‘He’s doing something different this time. I figured wide bsts weren’t the only attack he had, but I hahis as well.’ Yuki dug in as he prepared for the attabsp; He kept his eyes focused to respond to the type of attack Vangelis po use .

  A narrow beam ht green light came at Yuki. It looked trated uhe previous shots at him. Yuki’s mind instinctively redirected all of his defeowards the left side of his body, while he tried to get himself out of the way. Yuki turned his head only a little iime he had to watch his left arm disappear from sight as the force of the bst turned him and made him stumble backwards. He could feel his arm heating up from the bst with things being even more uain.

  Vangelis gave a wicked smirk to Yuki as he pulled out a pistol from behind his babsp; He quickly took aim at Yuki.

  Wide eyed with shock, Yuki didn’t know how to reabsp; The bst slowly ended with his arm still intact, but when he heard the gunshot, his defenses weren’t ready. ‘Both?! He tricked me again!’ A rge amount of blood sprayed up into the air as Yuki fell backwards. Pain screamed through his body and reached his lips. He couldn’t hold it back.

  Suddenly, all of his bruises, bumps and minor injuries felt like crippling ailments. Yuki struggled with his wrecked body to look over at the injury. His eyes shrank to the size of pins when he saw his arm pletely missing. Blood tio pour out into the grass. Shock kept him from being able to scream anymore. ‘I still don’t uand…’ thought Yuki, as light faded from his eyes.