“Oh…crap…” Yuki uttered, immediately regretting his previous statement. His Field mao keep her fmes from toug him or Yumi, but with a Field pletely engulfed in fmes he wouldn’t be able to let Yumi out of his sight. Not to mention, he saw how much his Field shrank from her release. ‘She was holding back this much?! This is absurd! It’s not even a transformation power up! This is like cheating god-mode!’

  As Eudokia approached, she became a little more visible. The previous outfit she wore was gone. A far more practical appearance repced it. It was a simple body suit in gray. It had fmes c up parts where she still had wounds.

  She didn’t wait any longer diving in after Yuki. Everything about her increased from before. Her new metal cws tore through Yuki’s defense as though they didn’t eve. The outer yers disappeared just from her presence.

  Blood sprayed up from the wounds Yuki took. He could no longer just stand in one pbsp; His Field no longer had the strength to pete with Ayumi. ‘Even against the old man I felt like I had a ce, but this is pletely different…’ She moved faster than he could keep up and his defense did nothing to save him. Wounds appeared over his body quickly.

  The old injuries from his previous fight and new ones from Ayumi pouhemselves. Yuki couldn’t st for long against her. He couldn’t eve himself moving before she trapped him. It didn’t take long for his body to start giving out. Nothing could hold up against the assault.

  Yuki fell to one knee. His breathing ran shallow. Sweat covered his body. Everything seemed exhausted and he had barely even fought with her for more than thirty seds. Blood dropped to the stone floor. “This isn’t looking good for me.”

  “Yuki!” Yumi rushed over to his side to try and help him. Eudokia reached a pletely different level that in her dition she couldn’t help to pete against. She couldn’t support Yuki when he needed her the most.

  He didn’t o look at her face to know the worry that covered it. “Don’t worry, Yumi,” he assured with a smile. Resting a hand on hers, he tried to give her some fort. “It’s not over yet.”

  It seemed like he had a pn, but Yumi wondered what he could do even to e close to challenging Eudokia. “Yuki?” Their pap was too great.

  “I’m gd I saved this. I didn’t expect to use something I pnned as a backup against the old man.” Yuki smirked a little, gaining his fidenbsp; He dug through his gi to retrieve something small.

  Chapter 275 – The Last Guard

  Eudokia stared a little curious and cautious at what Yuki boasted to have that might ge the oute of the fight. “What are you pnning?”

  Quickly, not wasting time, Yuki tossed what he held into his mouth and swallowed. “Just a little insuran for my fight with him.” He grinned back at her. Suddenly he stood up and the breathing in his body ged. He no longer seemed to have trouble or shortness of breath. Even his wounds looked to no longer be as serious.

  She groueeth together knowing what he had done. “You’re accelerating your healing! Damn you, Yuki. When did you have time to do that during that fight?!”

  “It was at the same time I made those high density ons that pinned him. I figured there was a risk he might expect it or it would fail. I was already badly wounded from all of the fighting that the only way I’d be able to tihe fight was if I could recover from my injuries. But I never .” He stretched his arms a little, getting the feeling ba his body. “Part of the problem I had was already bei up from the st fight while you’re mostly in good dition. So let’s even things back out!”

  “Bastard!”

  “I’m not like the heroes in my favorite stories. I’m not going to fight half dead if I don’t have to. This is reality not fi. Besides, I’m not built like them to be able to overe overwhelming odds through a gau of fights. I’m just going to beat you!”

  The bit of levity from Yuki ended up calming Eudokia as well. She started to smirk again with fidenbsp; “You really think that’s going to make any sort of difference for you?”

  Shrugging, Yuki kept the lighter tone in his voice goie the grave situation. “I guess I won’t know until I try.”

  “Still got that glib attitude I see.”

  “It’s one of my likable personality quirks.”

  “We’ll see how long that coess sts.”

  He stared back up at Eudokia dropping all signs of his smile hthearted attitude. Determination carved bato his fabsp; “Long enough to beat you.” He looked ready for the fight. The doubt disappeared from his body.

  Eudokia charged bato the fight. They deyed long enough. “I’ll prove to you that a fresh body won’t ge the differen our power!”

  What she said was fairly true. It was something that Yuki knew well enough. He had his fair share of fights to know what the differen their power meant. The physical body only amouo so mubsp; Everything else weighed on their creativity and trol of their power. ‘What she’s g iivity, she is making up for sheer power. Don’t o be creative if it is effective. However, for myself…’

  The first csh proved that Eudokia still reigned in power. She cut through his defehe same as she always did. However, Yuki mao evade her this time. His mist dragged him out of the line of fire before he took any damage.

  He nded on the side of the chamber wall keeping attached through his mist. His fight with Demosthenes gave him new ideas on how to use his mist to ge the dimensions of his fight. ‘I ’t risk much more injuries from her. Even if my body is healed up, it was a oime deal. I didn’t make enough for a sed.’

  Yuki ran around the dome keeping ahead of Ayumi’s attacks. When he o do more, he pulled himself around. ‘I’m getting a lot more used to this sort of fighting. It’s still pretty weird. I’m going to have to make some alterations to my Law the ime I use this power.’ Even keeping pace with Ayumi didn’t mean he could actually do anything to her.

  Every time he tried any sort of ter attack, it disappeared before even reag her. He even focused heavily on his power to give it further strength. All of his tactics he used for Demosthenes proved to be meaningless. ‘Man, I didn’t know Ayumi was this skilled or powerful… She’s been making herself weak this eime… Why would she?’

  Eudokia jumped quickly around the air trying to get to Yuki. ‘Dammit, I ’t reach him! I’m more powerful than him, but I still ’t finish this!’ It frustrated her more with each miss. The healed body made a signifit differen the fight. She had to amehinking that it would ge nothing.

  As the fight dragged on for minutes, a grin started developing on Yuki’s fabsp; He got a better feel of what he o do. Every a became less extreme and more refined. Even without toug Ayumi, he felt more fident about his odds in the fight.

  “Enjoying yourself? In the middle of a fight for your life and the life of Atntis?!” She pushed her body harder to increase her speed.

  Her cws mao sink in farther enough to catch a piece of his gi. The damage was only superficial and repaired immediately. ‘She’s getting even faster. She’s pushing herself to her limits…’ Despite the danger of Ayumi’s attack being more accurate again, Yuki couldn’t help himself. His grin grew wide.

  Yuki could see the annoyan Ayumi’s fabsp; Part of it was because of not being able to touch him, he khat. However, he also khat it was because he seemed like it was making light of the fight. “I’m not smiling because of that, Ayumi. While I don’t believe I five you for everything you’ve dohanks to Yumi I at least keep those emotions in trol. Which means all that I have left is a fight, oh the best that Atntis has to offer. I ’t help, but get a little excited about fighting someone so skilled. It’s an older part of me that I haven’t really indulged in a very long time.”

  Harnessing his mist, he harde into a single bde. His defense was meaningless against Ayumi anyway. Only an offense would do anything. He jumped into the fight with full iion finally.

  The fight pushed around the chamber with Yuki actually giving chase to Eudokia. He mao block her cws without losing in a straight up power struggle. The tration of his mist proved to be enough to make up for ck of Folding. However, it did leave them in a stalemate and it required signifit focus for him to maintain such density.

  “This entire jouro Atntis has been nothing but trouble for all of us and the people here. We’ve caused them hardship and received the same iurn. If you look at solely the mistakes we’ve made and the pain, it’s pretty depressing. But even still, if I look at it a little more optimistically we’ve all gained something from it as well.”

  “Gained something? The lives of millions are at stake and you’re trying to make this into a life lesson?!”

  “I’m n to ignore or dismiss that importance.”

  “Your decision to not be King is ign them!”

  “Perhaps if you just asked rather than trying to force me into this I might have sidered it.”

  Eudokia growled in annoyah Yuki. She punched him without her cws sending him flying across the chamber. “Ask?! ASK?! You ’t be serious! You’ve never lived here, you don’t know any of these people. You have no loyalty to them at all! You have a life and peaceful days. Do you really think if someone asks you to sacrifice all of that and their health for plete strahat they would agree! No one is that na?ve!”

  Landing softly on the opposite side of the chamber, Yuki tilted his head up to her. “So you just assume that I would say no?”

  “You know nothing of our lifestyle or home! You didn’t even know you had powers or such thied before you met me! Would you have believed anything I told you?!”

  “Even if that’s true, you had enough proof on you to vince me that you were telling the truth.”

  “This is the only way!”

  “Actually, I doubt that greatly.” During their argument, Yuki came to a different realization that Ayumi never brought up either. Ohat weakened her whole argument even further. He could tell from the sudden ge in her face that she knew what he was talking about.

  Yumi looked over at Yuki a little fused. She was a little out of breath, forced to keep up with all of his movements so that she didn’t burn in Eudokia’s fme Field. It didn’t mean she didn’t sweat from the extreme heat or even the physical exertion required. “What are you talking about Yuki?”

  “Well, think about it. She already told us this before. She was trying to stop the cil from putting a puppet King ohrone. At least that was the reasoold us. Which means that I’m not actually required. As long as there is someoh enough power, they be King even without an heir. So there is no actual real dao Atntis or the millions of lives, like she’s been so fixated on.”

  It was a fact that Yumi had actually fotten about. Everything about what Eudokia cimed seemed to have been a lie. So she just disted everything. But it was the only part that actually seemed true. And the annoyed look on Eudokia’s face proved that.

  “So what you’re doing here is personal. It’s self serving for your own desires. There is no threat.”

  It actually seemed that fmes appeared in Eudokia’s eyes. Her fury increased again only barely trolled by her reason. “Personal?! Self serving?! What the hell do you even know!? You know nothing about what is happening here! You know nothing!”

  “Maybe if you actually expi I’d uand.”

  “YUKI!” Eudokia exploded off the chamber wall, shooting straight for Yuki.

  Narrowing his eyes, a strange glow surrounded Yuki before he disappeared suddenly. He met in the middle of the room clutg Ayumi’s head in his hand. In the instant, he dropped to the ground smming her whole body into the stone floor. Blood coughed up from her mouth.

  Yuki stood up staring down at Ayumi with a different look in his eyes. “Let’s finish this already, Ayumi.”