Uehara was tired. He had been tired before, but now it was showing. His back was slightly hunched and the golden aura surrounding him would soon lose its luster. His skin was pale and the quills of bones lining his body were now more grey than white. The previous angry expression on his face was now replaced for a more tired one.
He was taking deeper breaths, trying to absorb as much air and nature energy into his tired body. He had at most a minute or two before he could no longer sustain his current state. He had to end this now.
Placing his senses on Keiji, the young hybrid could feel that the elderly patriarch was almost at his last wits.
"Grrrrr…"
The annoying chi protecting him was steadily being drained to the very bottom. Keiji barely had enough to maintain his transformation and even that much was being absorbed by the nature energy drilling through his body.
But Uehara could sense that Keiji wouldn't die from this. Not at all. The patriarch was fighting back.
"GRRRRR…"
The will to live encouraged his body to generate more chi to expel the nature energy. Given five minutes, Keiji would be back to normal.
Swish
But Uehara will not allow that. Having sped forward, he grit his teeth and created a massive tumour of bone that covered his right arm. It was grotesquely huge, easily reaching a height of four-metres. Uehara was taking no chances at all.
Crunch…BOOOM
The giant fist slammed into Keiji, shattering most of his bones and tearing muscles. The concussive force alone almost knocked him out, rendering him in a daze that numbed all feeling in his body. Keiji was sent flying at speeds beyond sound, his body travelling kilometres into the distance.
On the other side, Uehara hastily retracted the massive bone fist into his body. Still keeping his senses on Keiji, Uehara lifted his foot up, and stomped!
GRUUUU
Like clockwork, multiple obsidian pikes ahead of Keiji rose, all of them rising towards the position where Keiji's momentum would lead.
Doof Doof Doof Doof Doof Doof
Travelling like snakes, the six obsidian pikes moved with purpose. Their target? Keiji's burnt back.
*PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE PIERCE*
Keiji was rendered into a complete stop; six obsidian pikes having stabbed into his back. The shock of the situation was enough to bring him out of his semi-unconscious state. He was truly caught off guard that he couldn't even react whilst in the air from being thrown. Now, having half-a-dozen sharp, pointy things digging into his back, caused a huge amount of shock to his nerves. Although the pikes couldn't penetrate deep into his chi-hardened flesh, just the force of impact was enough to rattle his spine, effectively stunning him.
As for Uehara, the young demon wasn't still.
"Hnnrrr…"
Rushing forward in a burst of golden light, he ran towards the elderly patriarch. With every metre covered, his aura forcefully grew more radiant and more wild.
When he was near Keiji, Uehara jumped into the sky, his arms stretched above him as if ready to charge an attack. His expression was tense, his face scrunched up in pure exertion.
Like a whirlpool, a giant sphere of golden light began rapidly condensing between his palms, the diameter hastily expanding by dozens of metres every moment.
The young demon was putting as much energy into the attack, showing visible strain in doing so.
"GRRRRRR"
His voice came off in a mix of two tones, one tone being of Uehara's normal voice and the other being of a deep animalistic growl.
"RAAAAAAH!!!"
With a heavy throw, Uehara flung the giant golden globe of pure destruction. The orb spanned a hundred-metres in diameter.
Suffice to say, every single god that existed, abandoned Keiji.
Whuuuuu…CLASH
At the last moment, Keiji had managed to free himself from impalement and confront the massive globe of sage chakra. With the massive sphere being too close and its gravitational field keeping him from leaving, Keiji was forced to stretch out his hand and do his best to push back the massive monstrosity that was aiming for his demise.
On the other side, Uehara wasn't idle. Clenching his teeth, the young demon clasped his hands in the unison handsign. Still in midair, Uehara visibly began to tremble, sage chakra flaring dangerously from his body.
"Ke…ki…GRAAAAA!"
Exerting every ounce of effort, Uehara saw results when three massive black pillars with purple surin script sprouted from the ground. Each of the characters were scripts for "Suppress" repeated over and over and over again, each pillar containing precisely eighty-six characters.
As the pillars arced over the globe in a triangle formation, the surin script on them began glowing purple.
The result?
OHMMM
The gravity around Keiji immediately increased by roughly two-thousand-five-hundred-and-eighty-times. Each character on each pillar increased the gravity by ten-times on their own. But with two-hundred-and-fifty-eight characters, the gravity increase was immense.
The globe that was threatening to explode now suddenly compressed on itself, the three pillars keeping it compact and at the same time, pushing it towards Keiji. As for the assassin himself, he had to use a lot of chi to keep the globe from quite literally "purifying" him.
Right now, the globe containing a distinct amount of nature energy was "absorbing" Keiji's chi, garnering a very annoyed grunt from the man.
[T-this…brat! I'll…kill him. I'll…kill him!]
He was already on one knee, his recently healed bones audibly creaking from the amount of pressure they're under. Although every single practitioner under the Minamoto banner had to undergo gravity training, at most, it would be up to fifty-times. Even Keiji himself had barely scratched the five-hundred mark. To now suddenly have to withstand a pressure five-times the amount he's used to was incredibly straining on his body.
It is only because of his merger with Hozuki's body as well as his new transformation that he wasn't crushed into paste yet. But the most damning matter he has to face now is the giant globe that is greedily sucking his chi. Although he had gained a larger reserve of energy upon merging with his brother, it still wouldn't be enough. Even his boosted chi regeneration paled in comparison to the amount of chi being absorbed by the sphere. Attaining and maintaining his newfound transformation already takes some amount of power. If things progressed normally, he would've been able to maintain it for half-a-day at most. That estimation includes his state after surviving the eighty-six palm tribulations. But now that there's a parasitic globe taking his chi and a crushing gravity level forcing him to expend more chi, Keiji could at most, last ten-minutes or so in this position. Even that was a lenient estimate.
But on the other side, it wasn't as simple as waiting for the young demon. Having both origin energy and nature energy in his infantile body was too much. Even with his draconic half that improves his physical capabilities, he would have to at the very, very least, be half-a-century-old to handle such power safely.
But with him just barely being above twenty-years of age, he wasn't even a quarter of the way past his infancy period.
Either way, what he didn't have in physicality, he more than made up for it in spirit and tenacity. Although his entire body was shaking, Uehara soundlessly held the unison handsign, baring his canines in concentration. Veins were bulging all over his body, a result of his chakra pathways expanding to accommodate the large surge of origin chakra and nature energy.
His skin was also darkened as well, mostly due to some of the arteries, capillaries, and veins transporting the blood being pushed to the edge of the skin. Mist exited through the sides of his mouth as he strained himself to keep the pillars functioning. The golden aura around his body was flickering excessively, like tendrils that were lashing out.
This was a battle of wills, of who could hold out longer. Either Keiji would be wrung dry of chi or Uehara's body would no longer be able to sustain his origin-sage mode.
But if Keiji hoped the young hybrid would give, he had another thing coming!
Author's notes and explanations begin here:
1. 'The globe that was threatening to explode now suddenly compressed on itself, the three pillars keeping it compact and at the same time, pushing it towards Keiji. As for the assassin himself, he had to use a lot of chi to keep the globe from quite literally "purifying" him.'
(AN: Just like how nature energy is the origin energy of ki and chakra, chi is the culmination of ki and chakra. If nature energy is the beginning, chi is the conclusion. Despite the contradiction, these two energies CANNOT mix together without consuming the other. If there was more chi than nature energy, then the nature energy would be forced to transform into its "conclusion". If there was more nature energy than chi, then the chi would be forced to revert back to its "origin". Slightly confusing? I know. But I'll do my best to simplify the meaning. Imagine two points labeled 'A' and 'B'. Now on point 'A', there is ice and on point 'B', there is water-vapour. Now to label things. The ice is nature energy and the water-vapour is chi. Are you understanding? Good. Now, we know that temperature will largely determine the state of the water, whether it will be solid, liquid, or gas. Now, don't focus too much on the technical aspects of this but imagine the water-vapour is hot. If there was more water-vapour than ice, then the ice would melt and become water-vapour. If there was more ice, then the water-vapour would condense and become ice as well. Again, don't focus too much on the technical aspects of why both don't become liquid and whatnot. This is fiction, not physics.)
1. 'But with him just barely being above twenty-years of age, he wasn't even a quarter of the way past his infancy period.'
(AN: Casual reminder. Infancy periods for surins last a hundred-years. Even if Uehara is a hybrid, his growth process (I'm guessing) will follow that of a surin because of Volkarin's blood flowing through his veins.)