The floor beneath Shan Yu's feet erupted in ice, changing the terrain. The wood vanished under a sheet of ice spreading outward in a ten-meter radius.
Shan Yu didn't slip, as he adjusted his stance instantly, with his feet finding grip on the ice like it was solid ground.
I created thick barriers of hard ice shooting up around him to contain him and trap him in a frozen cage.
CRACK
Shan Yu's fist punched through the ice wall like it was paper. He'd absorbed kinetic energy from his own movement and channeled it into the strike; the entire wall shattered outward.
I was already moving, creating an ice ramp behind me, and slid backward across the training hall, putting distance between us.
Shan Yu walked through the broken ice like he had all the time in the world.
"Running already?" His voice was mocking. "Chi fu sent me a coward?"
I ignored the taunt and focused on the problem.
Standard attacks wouldn't work. Ice walls were useless if he could break them with absorbed energy, and direct confrontation was suicide.
I have to adapt and find a solution.
I created ice beneath his feet again. This time more slippery, making the entire floor a skating rink.
Shan Yu's balance adjusted, and he moved across the ice with ease.
Of course. A master martial artist wouldn't be thrown off by terrain changes.
I tried something different. Created ice pillars around the room, dozens of them with different heights and thicknesses, which changed the environment to a obstacle course.
Then I moved faster than the human eye could see; my ice sliding carried me between pillars. I circled Shan Yu, keeping obstacles between us.
He tracked my movement with his eyes and waited.
I created more ice. Covered the walls, the ceiling, every surface. The entire training hall became a frozen landscape. The temperature dropping even more.
Shan Yu's breath misted in the cold air, but he didn't show any discomfort or even shiver.
I needed to think bigger.
I created a hundred Ice clones, filling the training hall.
Shan Yu's eyes narrowed. "Interesting."
The clones surrounded him from all directions and tried to hold him still.
Shan Yu's response was immediate.
He exploded into motion.
WHAM
His elbow shattered the first clone; the ice construct exploded into frozen shards.
CRACK
A palm strike destroyed two more.
The clones pressed in.
Shan Yu shifted styles mid-combat.
He turned with the momentum, using it"s own movement to throw it into three others.
CRASH
Four clones shattered against the wall.
Then he switched back, a rapid chain of punches destroying clones faster than they could reposition.
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK
I watched from the back of the room, hidden among my clones.
The clones trying to freeze him through touch weren't working. His body awareness was too good. He never let them maintain contact long enough.
Thirty clones were destroyed in fifteen seconds.
I needed to change tactics again.
The remaining clones spread out, creating walls and barriers. They worked together to build a maze around Shan Yu.
BOOM
His fist punched through an ice wall, and the wall exploded outward
BOOM
Another wall destroyed, he was creating a path through the maze.
I had the clones attack from above. Dropping down from ice platforms attached to the ceiling. and tried to overwhelm him with assault while he was focused on breaking walls.
Shan Yu looked up.
CRACK CRACK CRACK
He deflected falling clones mid-air. Sent them crashing into walls, into each other, into the floor.
Fifty clones left.
They regrouped, formed a defensive perimeter, and created a wall of ice between them and Shan Yu.
BOOM
One punch and the wall shattered.
The clones attacked in waves, trying to get an opening through pressure.
Shan Yu's response was shifting through multiple styles, Eagle Claw strikes destroying clones with targeting. Baguazhang circular movements evading multiple attacks simultaneously. Wing Chun chain punches create defensive barriers of motion. Bajiquan's explosive power shatters groups of clones at once.
CRACK BOOM CRASH WHAM
Twenty clones left.
Then ten.
Then five.
Shan Yu destroyed the last clone with a spinning back kick.
CRASH
The clone exploded against the wall.
Silence fell over the training hall. Just me and Shan Yu, surrounded by shattered ice and destroyed constructs.
He wasn't even breathing hard.
"Impressive," he said. "Better than I expected from a child, but ultimately futile."
I created more ice and covered every surface again, making the entire room my domain.
Shan Yu watched me work, like a cat watching a mouse build a trap it could easily escape.
"You can't win," he said. Every attack you throw feeds my quirk and your Ice creations I can easily break; you're fighting a battle you've already lost."
"Nah, I'd win."
I created an ice platform beneath my feet and launched myself at Shan Yu from above while simultaneously attacking from three sides.
Shan Yu saw the pattern and predicted my aerial trajectory; he waited for the exact moment I'd be committed to my attack path.
WHAM
His jump carried him twelve feet straight up, intercepting my approach. His fist connected with my stomach mid-flight.
The impact drove all air from my lungs, and I felt my ribs crack; the world quickly started spinning.
CRASH
I hit the frozen floor hard and slid across the ice and slammed into the wall.
Pain exploded through my body. I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn't support me.
Shan Yu landed nearby. "I'm still surprised that Chi fu thought you could reclaim his dojo?, I must have overestimated his intelligence." He laughed, "You're just a child with a powerful quirk but no skill."
He kicked then kicked me.
THUD
I rolled across the floor and coughed blood. Ice tried to form around my injuries and regenerate them, but my energy was low, and regeneration takes a toll.
Shan Yu kicked me again.
THUD
More of my ribs cracked, and pain lanced through my chest. Breathing became agony.
"This is the difference between us," Shan Yu said.
He grabbed my collar. Lifted me off the ground with one hand.
"The old man's legacy dies with you."
His fist drove into my face.
CRACK
My nose broke, with blood spraying. The world went white with pain.
Another punch, then another.
WHAM WHAM
I couldn't defend, couldn't create ice fast enough, and couldn't think through the agony.
He was killing me just like he'd killed the Chi fu students.
Shan Yu threw me across the room.
CRASH
I hit the wall so hard it cracked, and I slumped to the floor with blood pooling beneath me. My vision blurred.
Everything hurt, ribs broken, Internal bleeding probably, and my face was shattered.
I was dying.
Not again, I can't go out like this.
Shan Yu walked towards me, Ready to deliver the finishing blow.
But then something started happening, my quirk surged.
The ice covering my injuries didn't just form around them anymore.
It became them.
My flesh transformed, cells restructuring at the molecular level. Organic matter converting to organic ice.
My broken ribs reformed as ice, stronger than bone, my shattered face reconstructed, and my bleeding organs healed.
The pain vanished.
I stood up.
Shan Yu stopped walking. His eyes widened slightly.
My entire body was ice now.
I felt good, the best I've ever felt.
I was...perfect.
I am....perfect.
"Impossible," Shan Yu said.
I looked at my hands and watched ice flow and shift.
I had become my quirk.
Shan Yu attacked.
WHAM
His fist connected with my chest.
My chest dented inward with the ice cracking, but it reformed instantly with the damage healed in a fraction of a second.
Shan Yu's eyes widened even further.
I was behind him before he could react.
Created ice around his legs, restraining him, ice encasing him from feet to waist.
Shan Yu absorbed kinetic energy from the ice formation, used it to shatter his restraints.
BOOM
Ice exploded outward.
But I was already creating more. Faster now.
Ice encased his arms. His torso, his neck.
Shan Yu broke free each time. His quirk turns my restraints into fuel for his strength.
But I could create faster than he could break.
For every restraint he shattered, I created three more.
The battle shifted.
Now I was on the offensive. Creating ice faster than he could destroy it.
Shan Yu shifted strategies, stopped trying to break every restraint, and started evading instead.
His martial arts mastery let him slip through gaps in my ice constructs.
But I was learning.
Every gap he found, I filled. Every pattern he used, I countered. I quickly adapted to his techniques.
We danced across the frozen training hall.
Shan Yu landed a hit.
CRACK
His fist shattered my shoulder.
The ice reformed instantly.
I grabbed his arm. Ice spread from my hand up his limb.
Shan Yu tried to shake me off and absorbed more kinetic energy, he shattered the ice on his arm.
I just kept creating more ice, nonstop, and kept trying to trap him.
His quirk couldn't keep up, for every bit of kinetic energy he absorbed, I created ice that required more energy to break.
Shan Yu's stamina will eventually run out, while I'll still be in top shape as long as I'm in this form.
Shan Yu realized his mistake. His eyes showed understanding, Recognition of the trap he'd walked into.
He tried to disengage and create distance.
I didn't let him.
Ice spread across the floor. Up the walls and across the ceiling.
Every surface was ice, with every space being under my control.
Shan Yu had nowhere to run.
He stood in the center of the room, breathing hard now. His energy delepted from constant quirk use.
I walked toward him. Ice is shifting around my feet with every step.
"You said I had power but no mastery," I said. My voice sounded strange, like wind through ice caves. "You were right, but power can overwhelm mastery if it's great enough."
Ice erupted from every direction, it was one massive formation.
Shan Yu fought back with everything he had.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
His strikes shattered the ice, but there was just too much ice, so much area that he had to cover but couldn't
The ice closed in Inch by inch, second by second.
Shan Yu's movements grew more desperate. His calm façade cracking, for the first time since the fight began, I saw fear in his eyes.
"You can't—" he started.
The ice encased him.
I poured everything into it, creating layers upon layers of ice, each layer thicker than the last. Each one reinforces the others.
Shan Yu tried to break free.
BOOM
Kinetic energy exploded outward; the inner layers cracked.
I immediately replaced them, created new ice faster than he could destroy it.
BOOM BOOM
More explosions, with more cracks.
Shan Yu's struggles grew weaker. His kinetic releases less powerful. Energy depleting with every attempt to break free.
Finally, he stopped fighting.
Stood there in his prison of ice, completely immobilized.
I walked up to the frozen tomb and looked at his face through the translucent ice.
"This dojo," I said quietly, "belongs to Chi Fu again."
Shan Yu's eyes burned with rage, but he couldn't speak or move.
I turned away and started walking toward the exit.
The training hall behind me was destroyed, but the dojo was reclaimed. Mission accomplished.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
A/N: Regarding Chi Fu not telling the parents it is on a purpose, he is a pretty shitty person and you should know that from him letting a 12 year kid go to a murderer that killed three of his students.
700 powerstones: Incomplete
900 powerstones: Incomplete
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Read up to 10 advanced chapters on patreon.com/keyblast