Kozuna
"Alright!" Mifune clapped his hands together. "Let's wrap all this up already! Not like I'm gettin' paid for this shit."
Seriously?
A flood of icy spike-waves rush-raced up from the dirt, barreling straight toward Nazun and Orion. It didn't get far, though. Light burst from the Soul Colossus' frame, melting everything Mifune had thrown at it in a flash. And that light didn't return to the Colossus. At least not immediately.
We both noticed, but couldn't put any sort of strategy into action. Mifune and I were forced to duck in opposite directions. He zigzag-surfed on a trail of ice, while I bolted around with superspeed. Black-and-silver tornadoes whirled across the sandblasting battlefield, and I was getting deja vu.
But out of nowhere, the sand began radiating a blinding white-gold. I felt senten pulsing through the ground, and I caught on immediately. Glancing over my shoulder, I'd realized that Mifune had already taken flight. I couldn't manage the same, but I sprang as high as I could. And within seconds, Orion's light erupted from below, cascading across the desert in earth-shattering waves.
I crossed my arms before my eyes as my hair whipped around like crazy in the frenzied winds. Sand and dirt kicked up everywhere. I could feel the intense heat of his light embedded within the airborne soil. It threatened to scorch my skin even from a distance.
And all the while, Mifune zipped around in the skies, putting his hands together to rapid-fire icy projectiles at the Colossus. But unlike him, I couldn't stop myself from plummeting through the thicket of debris.
I'm headed straight for that fissure!
Electricity sparked from my seal rapidly. And when I saw what I was plunging toward, the idea just hit me.
I jerked my palm back and let that lightning boom like hell. The flashing force rocketed me elsewhere, and I hit the ground, grunting with a pained sliding roll that was far from pleasant. But it was still better than falling face-first into the senten-smoking chasm.
By then, Nazun and Orion had picked their targets, despite being within the same avatar. Nazun controlled the sword-wielding arm, and Orion commanded the empty-handed one. The former continued trying to cleave me from head to toe, while the latter released light rays into the sky, failing to strike down Mifune as he shot from one place to another. And as we both ducked and dodged, I realized something significant.
When they're controlling the Colossus together, it looks like they need to stay stationary!
I knew what I needed to do, and my determined gaze locked onto Nazun and Orion, and then Mifune.
Gonna need his support! I know how to end this quickly!
I darted around, cracking off numerous thunderbolts at the Soul Colossus.
"Mifune!"
He barely glanced my way. Mifune manifested a pair of icy swords and soared past the whirlwinds and the colossal colossus blade. He went straight for the head. But I watched Mifune's brow raise practically in slow motion. The instant he'd gotten close, the Soul Colossus' circular, bright gold eyes widened, lit with Orion's light, and exploded!
Ice encased Mifune's skin in a heartbeat. He guarded his face, too, but he couldn't escape the blast. Not that time. It only took a few more seconds for me to notice his smoking silhouette plummeting in the distance. And he had no such resistance to falls as I did.
My body tucked low, and I took the fuck off. I sped across the sand and released more lightning to propel myself faster. Mifune hadn't even gotten close to the dirt by the time I'd leaped and snatched him outta the sky.
Not that our landing was entirely smooth, though. I dropped him the moment we hit the dirt- dude was dripping wet, cold, smoking, and fucking burning-hot all at the same time. Some of those in the same spots.
But Mifune wasn't dead. He coughed like hell to get the sand outta his mouth and iced his skin down while I got back to my feet. The Colossus hadn't seemed to have located our new position yet. We'd gained a bit of distance from the jump.
My head twisted over instantly. "Mifune, I've got an idea. You still good to keep running?"
"You think that shit would be enough to stop me?" Mifune coughed some more before getting up and dusting himself off. "What's this idea of yours?"
"I know how to break the Colossus, and now that I'm stronger, I'm confident I can do it without Nazun's blade."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just provide support like before! Help me get me in close; I'll handle the rest!"
Mifune nodded. "Fine! Just don't get caught by surprise! You probably can't tank that shit like me!"
I assumed a runner's stance just as the Colossus recentered its glowing, trailing gaze on us. I had quite a bit of distance to close.
"No worries. I've got this."
And I'll make this shit quick.
***
Mifune and I looked to one another without turning our heads. That was our last bit of communication before the Soul Colossus tore its sword-arm around for a whirlwind-summoning strike.
A tornado soul-screamed into existence, frenzying the environment around us as it zigzagged closer. Mifune and I bolted in opposite directions. But from his first springing step came an eruption of ice. A sky-piercing barrier that shattered into glittering, glimmering shards once struck by the whirlwind.
Splinters and ice chips scatter-rained all across the battlefield, planting themselves in the sand like a field of icy roses. A perfect cover of falling debris as lightning flickered around my left. I kept my glare trainedon the target as I shot from one spot to another.
Electricity soon trailed behind my pounding footsteps. Each thump brought me closer to victory, and Mifune continued amassing icy spike-waves to distract our foes.
It worked like a charm.
I "stopped" on a dime, sliding through the sand as my seal-marked arm whipped around and released an arcing thunderbolt. I pulled every last drop of Bolt's senten I could muster and watched it boom straight toward the base of the Soul Colossus. Nazun and Orion turned all too late to catch a glimpse of me. All they got was a cloud of blinding smoke instead. My electricity hadn't blown the Colossus open.
But it didn't need to. It wasn't even part of the plan!
Before my lightning had even struck, I'd already pushed myself low to the dirt, pouring senten directly into the soles and balls of my feet. And once the smoke began to dissipate just a little, I let loose.
A crack of thunder went off in my wake when I rocket-launched across the world, foot-first. The wind cut through my hair, sending it fluttering every which way. And my gaze glowed a bright, unforgettable blue. For once, I was the one to appear through the displaced smoke, and Nazun's shocked face was as priceless as ever.
It was always satisfying to witness.
I led straight with a soul-wind-shattering kick that blew the anchor point to sand-drenching liquid and crashed into Nazun's unprotected chest. I met eyes with him in that exact moment. The exact moment when I heard the bones in his chest break.
The immense force seemed to lag for a split second. Nazun dropped his sword on impact, and his Soul Colossus blew down to nothingness just before he was launched far off his feet. His limbs flung forward, while his torso dragged everything in the other direction.
I landed with style and watched the display with half a smile. Nazun slammed and rolled through the sand for several bruising moments before he lost impetus. Blood poured from the new cavity in his bone-splintered chest. He groaned and coughed up an agonizing storm, struggling to move properly. Looked like he couldn't even curl his fingers without wincing in failure.
"That's it for you," I muttered, my gaze trailing away.
The Soul Colossus might be able to level cities, but Nazun's human body isn't anything special at all.
He was defeated in one well-placed blow, and his Soul Colossus was no more. But that was when I'd realized something. Something I'd overlooked until I couldn't anymore.
Once the smoke cloud had erupted, Orion vanished. When I landed my kick, he wasn't beside Nazun! Hell- the light clinging to the Colossus was gone by the time I broke through! My senses returned to reality instantly.I felt a pressure-filled presence close behind me, and the accompanying voice sent chills down my spine.
"Did you account for me as well?"
My eyes opened wide. I swiveled backward on a dime, subject to a superheated beam of expanding light that nearly consumed my silhouette entirely. And Orion's voice echoed somewhere beyond the sheer blindness. I hurried to escape.
"Nazun may be foolish enough to be captured by an enemy more than once, but you didn't think your little trick would work on me, did you, Kozuna?"
The pain was great. I barely kept one eye open as the burns seared into my flesh. I'd narrowly escaped certain death, but not freely. My right arm and leg were scorched and sizzling. And to make matters worse, Orion was nowhere to be found. He fucking vanished!
With what strength I had, I burst toward a downed Nazun and forced him against the floor by the throat. If nothing else, he was still useful as leverage. Or a human shield. And by then, Mifune had surfed back over to my side.
"Hold still, Nazun! I'm not against frying you down to ash!" Teeth clenched tight, my glare shot everywhere possible. "Orion! Wherever you are, if you want Nazun to live, I suggest retreating and never coming back!"
Mifune began icing over my burns, and the cool of the ice was beyond soothing. But we got no answer. The only sounds we heard were Nazun's bloody gurgling. He struggled to mumble something indistinct to himself. If he was trying to escape like before, it clearly wasn't working.
"Where'd Orion go? Did he flee?"
Mifune shook his head. "Doubt it. Stay sharp, idiot."
The world fell eerily quiet, and the darkness of night had returned. But only for like, seven seconds. Probably less.
Out of nowhere, the still winds shifted dramatically. A pillar of shifting light boomed down from the heavens themselves on Nikai. Mifune and I gazed over our shoulders to find his icy prison abruptly melting down to water marks in the sand. Nikai woke on his own, coughing incessantly and lurching up and down. That was when Orion appeared out of thin air, flickering into existence behind rays of light.
Just as I'd grabbed Nazun, Orion stood between Nikai and us. But he didn't move to even touch Nikai. He cocked his head as he stared at Mifune and me, like something was just wrong in his head.
"This ordeal shouldn't still be ongoing. How is it possible that you two are still not experiencing the backlash of your curses?"
Mifune and I briefly exchanged looks. Was Orion, a Hanakai member, really unaware?
Mifune pulled away as he finished icing my wounds. "We have your buddy Emper to thank for that."
"Em…per?"
Orion fidgeted as the name crept its way outta his chapped lips. Nazun started twitching and fucking kicking around uncontrollably, borderline blood-screaming. Surprisingly, I had to hold him down with all my might while Mifune froze his limbs to the dirt!
The hell is up with these two? Why're they freaking out all of a sudden?
Everything got weird. Mifune and I seemed to be the only rational ones left on the battlefield. He and I looked at one another with faces of confusion and disgust. Orion paced back and forth, his hands trembling. He scratched at his hair frantically. His breathing randomly grew loud enough to hear from a distance, and his eyes grew more bloodshot with every passing second. It looked like his veins were gonna pop any second. Strands of light squiggled away from Orion's outline, disappearing into the darkness.
And the more the wind blew in our direction, the more I got a sense of bloodlust.
Was I witnessing killing intent? A curse-to-curse reaction? Or was it something else?
"Keep your guard up, Kozuna."
"Yeah, I know..."
Orion twitched in place for a couple more seconds. Then, he creepily began trudging toward us. I couldn't help but tighten my hand around the back of Nazun's neck and push his face deeper into the sand. He would've been smothered completelyif I'd gone any further.
"Take one step closer and Nazun's nothin' but ash!"
"Kill him, and you'll never see Nikai again," Orion responded without hesitation.
I gritted my teeth, my eyebrows twitching on their own.
Damn it! What do I do!?
"Whaaat..? Finally losing your cool, Kozuna?"
Orion cracked a really unsettling, toothy smirk, mere seconds before vanishing again. But that time, he'd left a trail of luminous particles. Mifune and I found Orion levitating high overhead. He aimed his palm to the starry night sky, manifesting countless airborne needles of light.
They dotted the skies just as much as there were stars, and Orion didn't wait to let loose.
He swung his seal-bearing arm toward the earth, and Mifune dragged his seal-bearing arm toward the skies. And he was right on time. Mifune's icy ramp curved over our heads just before the stakes of light could strike. He kept a hand directly against the ice, feeding his own senten to replenish the ice as it melted above.
The rest of the world around us had no such protection. Some of those stakes expanded into beams, causing way more destruction than their smaller counterparts. We watched the ground explode in just about every direction. Dust and dirt went all over the place. The only spot Orion avoided blasting was where Nikai rested.
He's missing on purpose. Maybe we can use that to our advantage-
Within a few more seconds, though, the bombardment just suddenly stopped. Mifune kept his defenses primed and active, but when I peered out from the edge of protection, I heard another fuckass voice.
"FIRE!"
Don't tell me-
***
Several armored trucks pulled up, rigged with anti-curse artillery all over. The vehicles took opposite targets. Some firing at the airborne Orion, and others blasting Mifune's ice down to smithereens. We had to get the hell outta the way to avoid being caught in the blast ourselves, and those anti-curse vehicles still aimed at Mifune!
I didn't even bother fucking thinking! I hurled Nazun's near-dead body in front of Mifune right on time for HIM to take the next hit instead! By that point, he was drowning in his own blood and probably ninety-five percent dead on the ground. And that was when Izanai perked his fuckass head out of the window.
"Kozuna! What do you think you're doing!? You're lucky I haven't had you executed!"
Mifune stomped in front of me before I could get a word out. "You abortion endorsement! Can't you FUCKING tell whose FUCKING side I'm on right now!? You're lucky I don't execute your ass right now! Pompous-ass, council-circlejerking motherfucker- your overly-extended EXISTENCE is a shit stain on humanity! How do you continue to breathe with that nasty-ass stench clinging to your skin!?"
Mifune clipped his own nose on purpose just for added insult. Meanwhile, the whole battlefield just, fucking, paused. And that included Orion. Despite being on the enemy side, I spotted the makings of a real smile forming on his face, and damn near everyone in the armored trucks had to cover their mouths. I, for one, promptly flattened my lips and turned away from what could've become quite possibly the funniest argument of all time, at the entirely wrong time.
I cleared my throat to stifle the laughter. "N-no point in speaking to Izanai, Mifune. He won't listen."
"I KNOW, and I don't give a fuck! I'm gonna say what the FUCK I want!"
"Who the hell do you think you are!?" Izanai's entire face twitched uncontrollably and crunched inward. "No one talks to me like that. You've officially been bumped up to priority number one, Mifune!"
"Alright- bring it, pussy! NO BALLS! Let's see how tough you are when I ain't sleep!"
I had to stop myself from losing my composure. Unfortunately, it was not the time to start laughing my ass off.
"Izanai! Mifune has done nothing but help the Ozukashi! He was the one who tricked Nikai into leaving the city without destroying everything, and he's the only one who's been by my side battling Nikai and the Hanakai this entire time!" I stepped back in front of Mifune and aimed an electrified palm at the trucks. My hair began to stand up and glow. "If you attempt to kill or even capture Mifune, I won't hold back!"
I went to prison without a fight. But Mifune never wronged the Ozukashi. I'm almost positive he was kidnapped. Izanai won't let him go, though. And now, it feels like I'm at a crossroads.
Both Nazun and Nikai were still on the ground in different places. Orion remained in the sky, and Mifune was by my side. Izanai and everyone else stood opposite us. We were in the middle of everything and everyone.
I pursued Nikai in hopes of getting him back to his senses, but I can't allow Izanai to enslave Mifune again, either. Agh- I can't fight the Hanakai and the Ozukashi at the same time! Am I really gonna have to choose?
"Fools, all of you," echoed Orion from above. "Enough of this!"
Apparently, both Orion and Izanai had had enough. The former rained superheated swords of light from the sky, and the fucking latter fired some disc-shaped anti-curse device into the sand. One that released seal-sealing waveforms more powerful than the ones underground, or up in Sand Tower!
And just like that?
Mifune and I- our curses- our Shadow Seals- de-fucking-activated.
We were defenseless.
The only one who wasn't affected was the Hanakai's curse wielder floating high overhead. The electricity swirling up my arm fizzled down to black dust, and Mifune's remaining ice melted down to water marks in the sand. There was truly no better time to be fucked extensively.
My arm dropped on its own. Mifune and I exchanged equally pissed-off looks before glaring back at Izanai. Apparently, he just couldn't comprehend how profoundly buffoonish he was acting. But he was the only one giving us a hard time. Fucking, everyone else in the trucks was trying to shoot Orion out of the sky.
Their efforts to keep him busy were our only saving grace. Blinking from place to place, Orion couldn't concentrate on killing us. But Mifune and I were still faced with the Izanai issue when he hopped out of his truck, dual-wielding pistols. Mifune cracked his knuckles and matched Izanai's approach.
Damn it, this is NOT the time!
"Your clan leader's just full of bright fucking ideas, huh, Kozuna?"
Totally.
My teeth crunched together. I hurried between them and strung my arms out as a failing method of damage control.
"Mifune! Izanai! We need to concentrate on Orion! He'll kill us ALL if we don't act quickly!"
At last, Izanai aimed in on Mifune and me. "Oh, Kozuna. We'll deal with Orion, but I need you two back under my command. It'd be a waste of your abilities to kill you two now."
My seal might've been deactivated, but that didn't mean things weren't playing in slow motion for me. Izanai's fingers began to pull the triggers. Orion laughed psychotically amid airborne evasive maneuvers, rocketing massive light swords into the earth and shaking the world. And finally, Kaiten climbed out of a truck, pointing his gun at Izanai.
"Enough! End of insanity! Lower your weapons, Izanai!"
"Kaiten? Really?" Izanai halted, pulling one gun away from Mifune and me. He glanced over his shoulder, plain-faced and almost pissed. He aimed that other pistol at Kaiten. "Don't think I won't do it. You've seen what the power of curses does when left unchecked- look at The Primary! Are you really about to side with them?"
"Izanai. Curses don't make the wielder evil. You're pointing your weapons at the wrong curse wielders."
"There's no such thing as a right curse wielder."
Kaiten and Izanai both exhibited hesitation to shoot. I saw it in their eyes and the way their hands trembled. But when one bullet rang out, so did the other.
"Kaiten!"
"Commander!"
Everyone in the trucks shouted for the commander, and Kaiten's one good eye opened wide. His jaw dropped to the floor, and the rest of him followed shortly after. He flopped backward onto the truck before hitting the sand, dropping his rifle, and bleeding out. His shot, though?
It seemingly missed Izanai. Instead of Izanai plunging into a pool of his own blood, I felt senten surging up my veins. And in that moment, I'd realized that Kaiten had shot the anti-curse device, rendering it cracked apart and useless. Izanai didn't even seem to notice.
Kaiten!
"Should've worn a bulletproof. Do me a favor- play dead for me, Ten.Can't have things comin' to light, now can we?" Izanai crowed, turning his new grin away from Kaiten. "Now, it's your turn, Mifune, Kozuna."
Izanai would shoot his own brother!? Just to get his way!?