Smoke clouded the area around Yuki masking him out pletely, leaving his fate unknown. Vangelis kept an eye on smoke, while tinuing to put together schemes in his mind. He knew he would need a tless array of pns to deal with Yuki.

  Ohe wind started to pull away from the mask, Yuki’s darkened figure surfaced. “Yoing to have to do better than that if you expect to actually hurt me,” ented Yuki. The st trails of the smoke faded away into the air. Yuki stood pletely unmoved and unfazed by the bst. He didn’t even wear his usual gi. The tunic he used for a disguise remained on him.

  Vangelis’ eyes narrowed while his lips curled. Excitement made his arms shake. Thoughts of fighting Yuki ran through his mind. ‘He pletely ed it with only the power of his Field. Impressive kid…’

  Chapter 178 – Guardian’s Struggle

  Walking out to a safe distance away from Yuki meant a long wait. However, Saki was unwilling to accept the wait. She tio pund cw at the water orb in a desperate attempt to free herself. Unfortunately, nothing succeeded for her. The water sealed up too fast for her to make any escape and too small for her to fit. Anything rger than her hand or foot couldn’t even breach the water. It erfectly desigo cage her.

  Just when it might have seemed like Saki would stop, Kallias came to a halt. The sphere taining Saki moved around in front of him. Small drops fell from the bottom creating ripples ihin water c the ground. Water stretched in all dires from him for meters.

  Kallias approached Saki carefully, keeping out of her reabsp; The young man stared at her for a short time in silenbsp; ges in his face made it look like he was thinking or sidering something. “I’m Kallias, as you likely overheard.” The movements in his body remained limited. It presented everything in a rather formal manner.

  A punch from Saki only made him raise his eyebrow a little. It came as something he expected from his previous iion with her, but he hoped for something more from her. “You should stop struggling like that. You’ll only waste your energy before we evearted.” His hand rubbed at his short, but not quite shaved, dark brown hair. It seemed an act of annoyance.

  Reshaping the water holding Saki, it forced her head through and stricted around her body. It left her with little room to maneuver. However, Saki’s expression on her faever ged. She only marginally tained her anger with the situation. “The only energy I’ll waste is knog you out!”

  “Afraid that’s a little difficult to do stu there.”

  “You wao fight me. But you have me tied up. Let me go and I’ll show you a fight!”

  Kallias lowered his hand from his head and crossed his arms. “Yes, you’re correbsp; However, I introduced myself and you have yet to do the same. We ’t start without knowing who we are fighting.”

  Clig her tongue a little at the response, Saki tried to worm out of the water. However, the water seemed to have increased in strength. She couldn’t even move her arm a timeter to muster a punbsp; “I’ve no iion of telling you my name. Unlike Yuki, I don’t treat fights as something of mutual agreement or respebsp; Just let me go!”

  A froeared on his fabsp; The bright green in his eyes lit up to pierce Saki and froreak of stubbornness. “We seem at an impasse then. I won’t release you until you tell me your name, which will be very b.” His eyes glowed a little as he tio speak. “I do hope this isn’t b. If this tinues any longer, I’ll just drown you. It’ll at least be more iing than a stalemate.”

  Saki caught and shoved her gasp down into her stomach, as painful as it was to do. She didn’t want to give him the pleasure of her rea. ‘You ’t be serious! He’ll kill me over my refusal?!’ The deep unfling look in Kallias’ eyes already told her how serious he was when he spoke. It unnerved her in a peing and siing way. She never felt such a presence from someone. ‘He truly doesn’t care about me. Only something to relieve his boredom! What sort of person is he!?’

  The sight of Kallias made Saki realize something. She always dealt with bullies or deli punks after Yuki. It was always someoer Yuki with only the childish desire to trol or revenge. They were empty, devoid of any meaningful purpose. Many of them were just looking for a fight, mostly just wao beat something into the ground. Yet she saw a differey with Kallias.

  Kallias held many of the same qualities of the punks she beat endlessly into the ground. The same ohat just wao stand over Yuki and see him in the dirt. Yet, his eyes had an unknown quality in them. ‘I’m just a toy to him. Something that he break if it doesn’t please him. He doesn’t want to just crush me. He wants me to eain him. He wants me to challenge him and if I don’t ply… This isn’t like the worthless students in school. He’s something pletely different!’

  Everythihrough Saki’s mind with pain. Cws ripped through leaving her raw. She never knew such a person could exist. She never even sidered it. Saki liked to sider herself more ected with the reality of the world than the rest of her friends, but Kallias pletely turned everything on its head for her. She only had a word for him. ‘Insane. He’s insane!’

  Saki didn’t know what to do in her situation. She believed he would actually do what he said. The reality of her situation smmed on her so heavily that it paralyzed her body. None of the water around her eveered her notice.

  Tired of the silence, a strip of water rose from the Field. It appeared shaped like a ribbon, if it hadn’t been liquid. F a loop, it rose over Saki’s head. It came with an ominous presence, backed by the stare from Kallias. Several timeters remained between it and Saki, but it stopped level with her mouth and nose. The iurned immediately clear.

  “Your name, before I must forcibly make this more iing.” His hand rose toward Saki as though trolling the water’s radius. There was no need for the motion, but it added to the effect as though he personally wale her.

  Stubbornness groueeth. Fear froze her throat. ‘I ’t satisfy him. He only wants something to enjoy.’ Her eyes saw the water threatening her. He no longer wanted her alive. Something had to ge. ‘If I don’t though, he’ll kill me and there’s nothing I do to stop him!’

  The seds ticked off for Saki. Her mind spun the decision around as pointless as it might have been. It was only with the water less than a timeter away from her that she spoke up. “…Furukawa…Saki Furukawa…” The water around her head suddenly lost all form and fell ounic, already thhly soaked. Saki already felt defeated before it began.

  “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Kallias turned away from Saki and walked out a measured distanbsp; When he reached the point he wanted he stopped and faced her once more. Several meters stood between. “Now that we know each other, we begin.” He made a dismissive gesture signaling the water imprisoning Saki to fall away.

  Saki blinked a little surprised at how it all turned out. She hated giving into Kallias, but it freed her. ‘Time to end this!’ Saki immediately disappeared, blowing out water with each step until she appeared suddenly. Her body was face down ier sliding away from Kallias, already past him.

  Familiar with the situation, Saki smmed her hands down to both brio a stop and push herself up. It didn’t happen before she carved herself through the grass and coated herself in dirt and grass ks. “Dammit…”

  Kallias looked a little disappointed with Saki. “You’ve already dohat before. Did you really think I’d be na?ve enough to think you wouldn’t do it again? You’ve already made your outlook on fighting pretty clear. However, I want more from this than just something ed up in a few seds.” He motioned with his hands, calling her bato his Field. “I’ve been without anything to do since I’ve been dumped out here. I want something I enjoy.”

  Narrowing her eyes, Saki stared at Kallias and the water that covered all of the ground around him. It taunted her. ‘I could finish this quickly if it wasn’t for that water!’ Her eyes flipped over to che Yuki in the distanbsp; Her mind quickly focused on him. ‘I have to get ba! I ’t let him…’

  “I wouldn’t be getting distracted. Yht is with me, not him.”

  His words hit a surprising cord in Saki. The thought made her eyes widened suddenly in realization. ‘I don’t have to stay here! I’m not in his Field…’ Tilting her head back at Kallias, she gave him a small bit of a grin. “I never agreed to fight you. I just have to put ao this pointless battle.” Saki disappeared after she finished with Yuki as her target.

  It was barely even a sed before Saki fell on her babsp; She pulled her head up to look around at what happeo her. ‘What just happened?! I hit something…’ Ba her feet in moments, Saki approached the area where she flew back from. A ripple appeared in the air. It caused the entire view to bee distorted. “What is this?!”

  “I’m not a novice MP like you might be used to dealing with,” called Kallias.

  Saki turned her head to look back at him. However, when she looked he hadn’t moved a step. ‘How he be doing anything when his Field ends all the way over there?!’

  “Even at this distance, I see that you’re fused.” He took a step forward and the rippling moved along with him. The distortion in the air shifted in cert. “Figured it out?”

  She immediately uood, but didn’t know how it ossible. The questions spun her around to look at his Field needing to know if she was crazy. Nothing ged about it. The puddle ran only a few meters out, while grass filled the rest of the area out to the distortion. Saki rammed her fist into the invisible surfabsp; It bounced her hand back, leaving the knuckles red.

  Large ripples erupted from where she punched creating eveer distortions. The view outside was utterly unreadable. Saki turned around realizing too well that she was trapped inside. “Damn…” She started cautiously walking towards Kallias. “Your water doesn’t go all the way out there. How is that even possible?”

  Smirking a little, he had his final firmation. ‘It’s disturbing, but it’s the only answer.’ He kept his focus on Saki, noting that she slowly tio approach him. She no loried her previous tactibsp; “I never said my Field was as rge as the water. You shouldn’t be making assumptions, especially about something you don’t uand.”

  “I uand enough to know what you’re doing is strange.”

  “You clearly don’t uand enough, or you would already know what I’m doing. But I guess not being a MP expins a lot.” Kallias tio keep an eye on Saki as she ehe water once more. He sent out traps for her, but her feet avoided them. ‘Not falling for it again? Good, it’d be even more b if you did. The fact that you’re different already makes this very iing. I’m gd I came…’

  It only took a little effort for Saki to keep wat the water. She already knew his previous triough to keep a for her. Knowing it was ing made it very easy for her to evade (that and not blindly charging forward). “Being one of you or not, I’ve been around the power enough to see it work. You’re clearly doing something different.”

  Switg things up, the water ged shape and dire. It shed out for her, but Saki dodged it still. “Then they haven’t shown you everything we do with our power yet. It’s a pretty simple teique. I’m relut to call it an advaeique, so let’s call it an intermediate teique. Ah training do it.” Suddenly the water raced out from his feet like a backed up sewer drain. It bubbled up and poured out into a small wave.

  The wave washed over Saki’s feet up to her ankles and tio the edge of the visible Field. It then tinued on rather than stopping. Saki’s eyes widened a little to find that his Field didn’t end. His Field kept going out to the wall before it cut off. ‘It’s more than three times bigger than before!’ Her eyes focused ba Kallias.

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about us. You shouldn’t be uimating us, just because you’re different. Would you show your full strength from the very start? The same is with our Fields. We don’t always show the full size of our Field. Against someone like you, you ’t even tell where it begins and ends since you don’t have a Field to see the distortions.”

  Saki groueeth together. She hated admitting how little she truly uood about them. ‘He’s been pying me sihe beginning!’ Still several meters away from Kallias, she came to a stop. Her arms shook and her face hardened. Things had to ge for her. She raised her fist and smmed it into the shallow water.

  Water bsted up into the air as though a et struck the earth from the heavens. The tide wave from her punch sent water up high enough to remove her pletely from Kallias’ sight. Wheer rushed back down, Saki was missing. Kallias’ eyes widened a touch as he looked around fns of her. It saw nothing and suddenly looked up to see Saki ing down from the air with a fist aimed at him only a few timeters away.