There was a brief moment of silence before a huge wave of laughter hit my ears. Pride was one of them. " 'Ahh shit'? Those are your final words?" Pride asked, red as a cherry from trying to hold in his laughter. I nodded in agreement. Even though I couldn't see Alex, Lavender, and the rest, I could feel them hitting their heads on a wall. But I could already see Sarah burying her head in her hands, while Jason was awkwardly laughing with all the others. But I didn't care about the laughter. I was only trying to stall time, for Faith to get ready.
I began taking my stance. I kept Faith behind my body as I knelt forward. I didn't just accumulate my fighting knowledge from TV shows and movies, but also... Anime. And as for the stance I was taking, I 'borrowed' it from one of my most beloved sword-wielding characters, Kazuto Kirigaya, or more commonly known as the one and only- Kirito!
"Master... I'm ready," Faith whispered into my mind. 'Perfect timing, I thought to myself as I felt an aura envelop my whole being. Unlike Lucian's dark purple, mine glowed a bright red, even to the point of mistaking it for fire. The demons and demi-demons were shocked. None of them had seen a pre-chant so flashy. Pre-chants are usually used to catch their opponents off guard, and yet they saw someone openly showing off their pre-chant. "Let the match begin!" Pride exclaimed. "Now!" I signaled to Faith. "Yes, Master!" Faith exclaimed, and I felt much lighter, faster, and could now see much more clearly. What just happened? Faith was instructed to activate all the pre-chants she had accumulated from the past battles simultaneously.
Pride bashed right into battle. His speed and power were a force to be reckoned with, cracking the ground with a single leap, but till then, I was ready. "Pyro Blades!" I exclaimed and ran directly into battle. Pride saw me coming and slammed down his weapon onto me with one strong sweep. "Chameleon's Trickery and Ghost Steps!" I exclaimed and narrowly escaped death. With Pride still trying to look for me, I decided to use the 90 seconds of extreme agility to my advantage and began making cuts all over Pride's body. At first, it didn't seem to make a difference, but then cuts began to open all over his body. Pride, at first, felt no pain, but as the series of cuts continued, the pain and the burn had gotten worse.
This was because [Pyro Blades] had another useful ability; the more consecutive attacks I managed to land, the more powerful the attack gets. If, suppose I manage to get 5 consecutive hits, the next hit would be 5 times as painful as a normal cut, and so on. Pride knew he had to act fast, so he began chanting under his breath, but it could be heard by Faith. "Master, Pride has started chanting. Should I copy it?" Faith inquired. "Yes, go ahead," I answered back as I continued cutting Pride all over. The extreme speed did have a toll on my stamina as I began breathing heavily. Even though my body was on the verge of falling apart, I kept going in for cuts.
As soon as I realized Pride was done chanting, I quickly yelled out another chant. "Rhythmic Beatdown!" Suddenly, the whole world around me flipped, and I could hear music in the background. "Tyrant's Blow!" Pride yelled out the chant and went in for a heavy hitter, but then quickly realized his mistake. I was nowhere to found. "Master, I have copied the chant, and another chant has been created, that deals a heavy blow to immobilized opponents, what do you want to name it?" Faith asked. Immobilized opponents? I have the perfect name for it...
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He had only a few more seconds before his buff ran out, and he needed to find me quickly.
"Fool's Facade!" I whispered out. Pride heard the chant and knew that I was behind him, but was taken aback to see more than a dozen Jays, speeding in to hit him in different locations. While Pride's attention was on my doppelgangers, I sneaked on him from behind and slammed the blunt side of Faith on Pride's lower back, yelling out a chant at the same time; "IMPRISONING CRASH!" I yelled out, with adrenaline pumping through my veins. Pride heard the chant from behind, but he couldn't do much since Faith had already mowed through him, sending him flying into the invisible wall. Pride tried to move but to no avail. I walked over to the now limp and helpless Pride. I walked over, and raised Faith for a final blow, itching to try out the new chant, and then, yelled out, "Pride's Downfall!"
Boom! The whole stage was covered with smoke from all the dust settled on the ground was moved with the final blow. As the smoke cleared, all the demons and demi-demons could finally see. I was sitting with a tired look on my face. I had no energy left from fighting that hard. From what I could tell, Faith was drained too. But who knew the fight was yet to end. "I-is that Pride? He's still up!" One of the demons yelled out. I looked over to confirm my worst nightmare had come true. Pride was indeed awake and was walking towards me. I could feel the anger radiating from Pride as we walked over, filling fear into my heart with every step, and stopped, just a few meters before me. He knelt and placed his weapon on my weary shoulder. "You did well, for a demi-demon, can you still get up?" Pride asked, this time, his voice as soft as a feather. I nodded and tried getting up.
Even though it took me all the remaining strength I had, I got up. "Good," Pride commented, and then raised his hand. "Stained with the spoils of battle, deprived of life and vitality, patch it up and give it a rattle, heal the poor souls, the victims of reality," Pride chanted, then paused. "Restore!" Pride exclaimed. As soon as the word left Pride's lips, a new sense of power and energy began flowing through me. All the tiredness I felt dissipated as if I never fought Pride. "T-thank you, Pride... sir," I stuttered.
Along with me, Faith was rejuvenated as well. It felt like we could take on Pride once again, but of course, this time we wouldn't have the element of surprise, that I heavily rely upon during a fight. Wait, we wouldn't have to fight with Pride again, right?
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Psst- hey! This is the Future Author as I'm editing this, I realized this is way over 1.1k words, which isn't as much compared to Chapter 13's 1.4k words but still wanted to let you guys know!
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