"You must have learned your lesson. You ought not to have dared me to a duel. You are currently helpless to escape, like a fly caught in a web. You are a simple target for a hunter or predator to take out."
Kou watched the battle take place, but it was obvious that Ayuka had nowhere to go. He wanted to intervene to help her, but it was unthinkable for him to do so because he was encased in a lethal cable that might end his life in an instant.
"I need to do something fast! If I don't step in he'll kill her! Come on, just think of something Kou, think!"
As he was trying to reason things out in his thoughts, he saw how one of the chord cables was wrapped around Ayuka's neck. It was comparable to a crawling snake that wants to "taste" its prey before instantly murdering it.
The idea of her life coming to an end was unsettling, and Kou could hear the tight cords squeezing into Ayuka's neck. He could only hear the agonizing cries of Ayuka as she began to rapidly lose her breath.
In case she managed to escape, Trap knelt down in front of her and secured the cord.
"I told you so. This is your due compensation for what you did to us earlier on the shore. You don't have to fight too hard since I can instantly snap your neck."
She resisted him and fought him off as he pulled the cord to shift her head to the side and slowly continued to snap her neck. Ayuka's neck began to twist even more to the side as he began to pull hard.
The ropes were rubbing her neck violently and gradually wounding it, almost causing her to bleed. She was making obvious anguish sounds, and her grasp on the sword was gradually slipping.
She was showing signs of losing consciousness, which would make it simple to snap her neck, but she refused to give up, even as her face turned purple.
"There is no one who can turn the path around at this point. It's time to experience what it's like to be frozen, but unlike us, you'll be frozen forever."
"Sh-Shut... up... s-say whatever... y-you want... I am not d-dead... y-yet..."
Hearing her suffering, Kou was unable to remain calm. When his crewmate, a true friend, got into danger, that was more than enough to make him give in to his power, and it eventually unfolded.
He eventually let it all out since he had no intention of holding anything back. He believed that his choice was the best one to make until he finally sensed a peculiar power flowing through his body. His eyes were blazing a brighter shade of mint, white hair was like magnets pulling its tips up.
The same alternative energy he had before discharged outperformed itself and detonated. He lacked a means of stopping it. He had no one to make him regret his decision or refuse to assist him.
He let out a resounding battle cry. A huge dust cloud engulfed the roofs as the bricks of the rooftop underneath him bounced to the side.
He moved ahead in a specific way that allowed him to outmaneuver and delay the detonation of the rope. He suddenly materialized in front of Trap's view, blocking out anything but Kou's indignant impression of negligence as if he had been called out of thin air.
"You..."
Right arm muscles in his own body began to tighten and pressure began to build up that was strong enough to flatten a whole hamlet. His veins in that arm practically protruded as if they were about to burst, causing him to suffer a severe wound that he would later regret.
Trap was stunned as he hovered in midair, which caused him to lose concentration and experience real dread. Kou's immense power made him feel as though he were a completely other person, whose strength was beyond the comprehension of normal people.
"Leave..."
Kou tightened his fist and raised his arm to his shoulder height behind him. When it came to a complete stop behind him, it released a force that blew out and crashed through the castle's encircling towers. It cast up a sudden windstorm that collected shattered bricks and other debris after knocking off the roof and sliding it down the slopes like an avalanche.
The green sparks that were being released from his joints were comparable to the strength that Garuda might have offered, but due to Kou's smaller stature than Garuda, that power was deemed to be too much for him to manage.
"Her..."
His body was surrounded by what seemed to be a thunderbolt, a green energy that excelled once more. The only way to avoid being blasted was to dodge out of the way, which was also difficult because, in compared to earlier, his force was insurmountable. The cords would eventually have to be released in order to avoid Kou's strike, but Trap had no chance because Ayuka made sure to hang onto the last of her power and grab it tightly enough to prevent Trap from being able to cling onto it.
Finally, Kou's eyes began to glow with a brightness that rivaled that of the sun. Although a green energy bolt appeared to be shooting from his eyes, the force he possessed was nothing like that of thunder.
"ALONE!"
Finally, Kou's fist was thrown forward, followed by a violent wind that wouldn't go away from visibility. His hand truly drove deep into Trap's organs as if he were being crushed while still alive.
The tremendous shockwave that resulted from the collision vibrated the sky once, then three more times, each one stronger than the previous one. When Trap's mouth gave out and he was unable to control himself, he coughed out a torrent of red and felt his own bones pierce the skin.
Trap immediately felt as though his body had made contact with something. When he finally managed to blink, he noticed that his body had slammed into the farthest tower of roofs and that the only thing he could make out in front of him were three holes.
Even his nerves were unable to stop him from falling at the speed of the punch till it eventually stopped. He wasn't even able to feel his body react to pain or move after it had already occurred.
He could only watch as his body fell onto the roof below him; it felt like a frost bite that never faded away. Nothing else was heard or felt by him.
Before his body could even respond with pain, he experienced this, a deadly blow that could kill 1,000 people, if not more, all at once.
That was the secret power Kou had been holding inside but had been unable to unleash until this very second.
The results were, of course, more than plausible. Kou's body was immobile at the time of the blow and couldn't move an inch. Only his bleeding arm was visible because his sleeves were completely ripped apart. His fractured bones felt as though they had been burned to a crisp along with the rest of his body.
He started to diaphore, and the roofs that had been hanging on by a thread eventually caved in. All three bodies, including Ayuka's, fell through the ceilings and a few levels.
Both of them were unable to halt, so they crashed through the ceiling where Ralphie and Codey were engaged in combat with Bow.
The three bodies were placed in the middle of the hallway after the pile of roofs. First to fall was Ayuka, then Trap, and then Kou. Ayuka was the only one still conscious, although even she was in a miserable state, fatigued but relieved that she could finally breathe. Two of them were totally out.
Codey, Ralphie, and Bow were utterly astonished. They had never experienced it before. One of their friends was on the verge of death, the other was practically destroyed, and the adversary had been defeated for a considerable amount of time.
Even Bow, who initially appeared to be more at ease than anybody else, eventually shown symptoms of surprise. As he observed the mess, he hardly managed to hold his bow. They didn't waste any more time and as soon as they heard Ayuka cough, Ralphie hurried over to check on her, grasping her shoulders while Codey examined them.
"Hey, what happened, Ayuka?"
Ayuka clutched her own throat as he gave her a gentle shake. She voiced worry and dread for Kou while looking to the side where his body had lain motionless.
She gently rose to her feet without responding and moved in Kou's direction. When she gently stroked his shoulder to try to wake him up, she saw that his right arm was useless and almost incurably wounded.
Ralphie and Codey were the next to experience trembling eyes from her fear.
"Kou... He's nothing like us... He's just a kid and look what he did. He sacrificed his own limb to save me..."
When Ayuka spoke, Codey and Ralphie both found it hard to accept what they had just heard. Ralphie even had to ask the same question again.
"Y-You mean to tell me that... that... this wreckage was caused by Kou and *only* him?!"
Once this was established, Bow, Garuda, and finally Muro were the only foes left.
Three remaining...
To be continued...