Episode(17): Boss Fight(3)
SOVEREIGN OF DEATH~(5)
Man and beast engaged in a round of trading blows back and forth.
Each attack dished out by a single fist strike caused a shockwave making the deep rooted trees dance as though they were threatening to fall.
Vibrations constantly shook the center of the forest like a storm was raging within.
Tap* Tap*
Both the wolf and man's every step echoed intertwining and overlapping with each other. The wolf's steps were aggressive and heavy while Nagisa's every step was soft and light.
The wolf attacked wildly. Nagisa on the other hand opposed its nature with his accurate and well timed strikes that never failed to miss the target.
Born with a powerful constitution the wolf probably thought it was natural to beat a human. However to Nagisa its strength was of no concern to him at all.
His technique as he exchanged strikes was focused on combos, counters and taking advantage of the wolf's weakness giving it no space to fight back.
Seeing that it was being pushed against the ropes, the wolf decided to rush forward and forcefully break away from the bad situation.
But Nagisa didn't retreat, rather he also leapt out closing the distance between himself and the wolf.
It attacked first quickly to grab the momentum, but fighting against Nagisa there was no way it could grab the momentum.
Its fist struck out.
Woosh!*
A startling force made the air tremble as the fist struck towards Nagisa. He glanced at the fist that looked nothing but slow in his eyes and smirked before he shifted his body and crouched slightly. The fist passed over his shoulder and the next moment before the wolf could even react, it was struck with an uppercut.
Its head bobbled wildly from the force alone and the wolf became disoriented immediately losing its balance.
Taking advantage of this obvious gap, Nagisa folded his right fist and struck a heavy blow to the wolf's unguarded stomach. It released a muffled groan as the force made it spit blood and ruffled the surrounding leaves.
Feeling the terrifying force sink into its abdomen the wolf folded and bent forward without resistance. It could only see a blurry world for a while but the moment it regained its vision it saw a foot from the corner of its vision.
???
The wolf was confused wondering what it was. It was already too late by the time it realized that it was an attack. Nagisa's heel struck the wolf perfectly on the side of its face flinging it a far distance away from him.
Nagisa stood up straight and bent his wrist while rolling up his sleeves. Still wearing the bloodied white shirt from before, he could only make do with it for the moment but that barely mattered now.
While gripping the sword tightly, he glanced at the wolf and wanted to immediately rush forward but was stopped by a loud shout.
[HUUMMAAAN!!!]
Noticing that the shout came from the wolf, Nagisa was stunned into a sudden retreat.
[Woah?!]
Nagisa didn't know it could actually talk.
'Well figures since their evolved but, I dunno. Kinda creepy if you ask me'
Either way it didn't matter whether or not they could speak. Rather this made this way made it all the more exciting than fighting with a brainless mutt.
[What's up mutt!? Didn't you wanna fight with fists????]
Nagisa taunted.
He didn't even wait for a reply and rushed forward sneaking into its flank before it could answer. The wolf merely saw a blur before Nagisa's fist squarely collided with its jaw.
A crisp cracking sound rang through the forest the moment the fist made contact with the wolf's face breaking it in an instant.
It nearly fell over while fumbling to regain balance from the strike. Everything before it was blurry thanks to the strike shaking his consciousness but after planting his foot to the ground for anchor he gradually recovered.
Nagisa was once more awed by the wolves' natural recovery. It was simply a cheat-like ability but he wasn't too envious of that. What was the use of natural recovery when it would still die?
The wolf was about to howl in anger but before it could do so, a heavy strike sent the howl right back into its throat.
The wolf looked at him in disbelief.
[H-Human! D-Did you not see me about to cry like a warrior? Is it not a formality to at least let your opponent recover their spirit if not anything else?!]
Nagisa thought about it seriously. Sure, in novels and anime both parties would cry like wild animals while getting into the mood of battle. It seemed something like a ritual for warriors in cases like this.
But-
[Don't wanna. Sounds like a pain]
[W-What?!]
The wolf was speechless. This guy, was he really a human? Why was his way of speaking as if everything was a pain?
[Are you not a warrior?! What kind of attitude is that?!]
It asked Nagisa in confusion and fluster. Nagisa shook his head.
[I am a warrior though, or would it be better to say I'm a swordsman? A fighter? Martial artist?]
What was a warrior? That question was too profound for Nagisa to ponder about it. In the end he didn't even bother to think much about it.
[I think you misunderstood something]
Nagisa put on an arrogant smirk as he looked down on the wolf with derision and contempt in his eyes.
[Small fry like you dare to think you can ignite my fighting spirit? Don't make me laugh]
The wolf was stunned into silence, but then it began to laugh wildly. Soon that laugh turned into a loud growl and it howled to the sky.
Nagisa didn't try to stop it this time. Since it wanted to live like a third rate villain then who was Nagisa to halt its dreams. He'd just watch from the sidelines. As for killing it? He didn't think too much. To him it was like letting a dying man have its last wish.
Mana surged into the wolf's body and a shrill shriek echoed as the mana encased the entire surroundings.
Nagisa clapped with a shocked expression but it was obvious he was only mocking the wolf. It was also no fool and saw this fact as clear as day.
It didn't wait any longer and directly stomped forward. Unlike before it's speed was extremely fast. So fast that it appeared before Nagisa in just a few seconds and threw an attack.
Feeling the incoming attack, Nagisa shifted his head to the side and dodged the attack carefully. Nagisa watched its movements with his eyes and immediately moved to evade the following strike.
One after the other the wolf struck. Complementing its strikes, shockwaves would shake the surroundings every time it struck yet Nagisa evaded each one.
The wolf thought that Nagisa was dodging because he couldn't fight back and started to mock him.
[Hahahaha! Human scum!
That's right, this is what you should look like! A cockroach just barely hanging to its life by a weary threa-!]
Right now it was high on the power it was using and could only see Nagisa dodging for survival. It didn't stop striking at Nagisa thinking that sooner or later an attack would hit.
However the next moment the wolf's mind was blurred as a heavy fist struck its face.
Swerving to the side the wolf could just barely keep itself upright. Nagisa didn't stop his advance because of this and decided to go on the offensive.
He felt like he had enough fun now and was ready to end this boring game so he eagerly closed the distance and struck out with his right fist.
The wolf saw his movements and predicted the strike hurriedly guarding his head, but the next moment it felt like its lungs were completely out of air as a kick landed on its side.
It couldn't even breathe from the sudden feint. What was worse was that even though Nagisa switched attacks midway through the kick had the momentum of a rhinoceros charging with all its might and nearly crippled the wolf on the spot.
However Nagisa didn't want to stop and kept his momentum going.
He raised his right leg high. Although it was in a lot of pain, the wolf still hurriedly reacted to block its side, even though it knew that this could also be a feint but it didn't see how Nagisa could switch from this kick to another attack.
It obviously underestimated Nagisa. The moment the kick was about to land, Nagisa swerved his leg up and drew it back striking the wolf's chin with his heel.
The wolf felt the world shaking at this moment and nearly fell to its knees.
It just couldn't comprehend how this human was so adept at fighting that even he, a wolf couldn't keep up at all. Its thoughts were in a flurry but before it could even regain its stability it was struck again.
Nagisa spun his body and sent a kick right towards the chest of the wolf sending him flying back. Its two legs dug out the ground as it came to a stop sill not falling over in the slightest. Nagisa was stunned, because at the last second it managed to block by reflexes but that shock quickly faded.
'grrr!!'
The wolf now looked manic. It crawled on all fours and shot towards Nagisa clawing instead of striking with its fist. It had completely lost its sanity in this battle with Nagisa and it couldn't be helped. It was completely bested in its area of expertise after all.
However Nagisa didn't panic. Instead he preferred the wild monster. He easily avoided he claw slash and twisted his body facing the wolf before striking a blow at its liver.
The wolf took the shot and nearly passed out on the spot. Saliva dripped profusely from its mouth as it gasped for air like oxygen was leaking out. But it was just in too much pain.
Nagisa looked at the sturdy wolf and realized that he had enough strength to send a bodybuilder to the grave if they took a single strike from him.
The wolf roared as it recovered and charged with its teeth ready to sink deep into Nagisa's flesh, However Nagisa had long took off the child gloves and was completely fighting to kill now.
The moment it closed the distance, Nagisa swung his elbow striking the side of the wolf's face.
As it swayed, Nagisa bent his knees and with mana gathered in his fist he struck a full powered blow at its stomach. Cracks echoed in the forest as the wolf flew away and stopped with a crash into a tree.
Still, after a while the wolf persistently stood up unwilling to concede defeat.
It was barely able to stand up, and yet it still rushed out with all its remaining might. Probably knowing it was no match, the wolf charged out with no hope in its eyes.
It slashed at his right, however Nagisa deflected the attack with a slap of his left and then struck heavily at the wolf's face.
The other generals could no longer stand it and charged out together. Nagisa never expected all the generals to act at once so it threw him off but he couldn't lose initiative so he calmed himself down and quickly began to counter them.
When Nagisa tried to make distance, behind him the space twisted and a black wolf appeared. It had the power to appear from the shadows and bind him with those shadows. If he wasn't careful he might have already been ambushed by this wolf from the start.
It was hardly powerful however its skill made up for its power. Worse was when Nagisa attacked it, the shadow wolf would just slip into the shadows and then appear out of nowhere when he was focusing on another wolf.
Then as Nagisa quickly tried to attack again it would vanish allowing a small gap to open up for the other wolves to attack from.
Even so, Nagisa was always quick to react and was never placed on the back hand. His sword waved through the air slicing through flame and ice attacks leaving behind nothing but a streak of light.
He quickly adjusted to the situation. By the time the shadow wolf tried to mess with him again, Nagisa deflected all the attacks at him towards it and continued to focus on his other opponents.
But, it was then that Nagisa was suddenly grabbed by his collar from behind. Nagisa was so stunned that he couldn't react and could only be flung across the forest.
As he soared with a dazed expression through the forest, all of a sudden a silver wolf appeared before him with a leapt and slashed. Magic slashes flew towards Nagisa with an incredible force leaving him no choice but to block.
He raised his hand believing in the defensive gear he made. But even then he was still blown heavily to the ground with a loud crash.
'Gosh'
Nagisa sighed not expecting to be pushed this far.
He looked at his now destroyed defensive gear with a pained looked but sighed once more with a resigned look.
'Indeed, fighting against this many seems impossible without a hidden card'
With reluctance in his gaze, Nagisa took out his newly forged ice sword. It released a cold breeze that was chilling to the bone and everything in the forest as long as it was a living entity felt the chill.
Damn.
Frost blew from Nagisa's mouth as he sighed.
He knew that he underestimated his opponents and overestimated himself by a lot. In a battle there were just too many factors to consider before he looked down on his enemies.
The silver wolf hurriedly attack feeling the danger of the sword. Nagisa glanced at it from the corner of his eyes before avoiding the attack.
It reacted quickly the moment it missed and turned before attacking again.
Nagisa also moved forward. He didn't even dodge as he used the sword hilt to strike the wolf's hand and chin. The power caused the wolf's body to slightly raise off the ground and fly up.
But very quickly, before it could fly back, Nagisa folded his fist and struck a blow filled with mana to its chest. A muffled boom rang out as the force of a train sent it crashing through the forest.
Bones broke and organs were definitely ruptured. Not to mention the frost of the sword. Even if it wasn't hit by the blade, unlike the owner others wouldn't have immunity to the cold.
Nagisa held the ice sword firmly in his grasp as he gazed around. He was completely surrounded without a single path of escape in sight.
However he didn't despair, he merely smiled.
[Now that it's come to this I can only go all out!]