But I don't have much time to breathe. Mikey comes charging at me, using his dual pistols to enhance his speed with his flame exhaust. I wrap my wind around my feet and ankles to enhance my speed as well, before charging Mikey back. Mikey brings his right fist up, using his flame exhaust to strengthen his punch. In response, I bring my katana up, wrapping a tornado around its blade. With a roar, Mikey and I launch our attacks forwards, my wind sword vs Mikey's flaming punch. The impact from our attacks colliding sends an explosion of wind and flames flying everywhere, knocking both of us backwards.
But that doesn't stop us.
Mikey and I charge towards each other yet again, interlocking our blade of wind and fist of fire. This time, when our two attacks collide, we manage to stay on our feet. Instead of just getting blown back like earlier, we each keep up the assault, exchanging various punches and kicks, elbow attacks and sword slashes. Hell, I think I may have gotten bitten at one point?! But I notice myself slowly yet steadily getting overpowered. The more blows we continue to exchange, the more I realize that Mikey countered attacks I can't counter, blocked more moves that I can never block, and hit me with attacks I've never even seen before. Not only is his Cursed Ability impressive, but Mikey's hand-to-hand combat skills are on a whole 'nother level as well.
Mikey aims both of his dual pistols onto the ground and fires off a pair of bullets, sending him propelling himself into the air. Mikey then aims a pistol at his right foot and fires off a bullet, engulfing it in flames.
"Fireball Spectre!" Mikey shouts as he launches a flurry of side-kicks towards me, which sends multiple fireballs flying out of Mikey's flaming foot towards me, but I manage to dodge his attack.
I take a step back, prepare an Air Bullet attack, then fire. "Wind Control: Air Bullet!"
Mikey, in turn, shoots out a few flaming bullets of his own, countering my singular Air Bullet attack. Upon collision, my Air Bullet explodes into a hurricane, catching Mikey up in my attack and wrapping around him. On the inside of my Hurricane, Mikey is getting shred up my my speedy, slicing winds. In order to get away from my attack, Mikey then angles his dual pistols downwards and fires, the explosions of his flaming bullets hitting the ground hurdling him up into the air. Mikey then angels his dual pistols back at me and spews a rush of flames my way, which I counter my wrapping a tornado around my katana then jamming it's blade into the ground, kicking up a tornado wind shield around me, which blows away Mikey's flames, who lands back on the ground.
Mikey and I keep up our barrage of ranged attacks, firing off our own flaming and wind-created bullets at one another, neither side willing to give an inch.
"Shit, I'm almost at my limits now!" I grumble to myself. "When's this "special power" that Nick always talks about gonna kick in. When am I gonna catch my second wind?!" During my brief moment of panic, I let my guard down, and I feel a fireball collide with my chest, which instantly knocks me off my feet, and ironically knocking the wind out of my body. Using my wind, I blow some more air into my mouth to force my body to recover, my entire chest stinging from the impact.
"What's the matter, are you finally giving up? This fight has been going on for far too long, you just won't give up! I'm clearly stronger, you know!" Mikey cackles.
With a groan, I struggle to push myself to my feet, as I bring my katana high up anova my head, clutching it tightly with both hands. I wrap a tornado around my katana's blade, before charging MIkey, who, in response, angles his dual pistols and uses his flame-exhaust to propel himself forward. Mikey then raised his left fist. The flames spewing out of his left pistol grew larger and larger, until they enveloped Mikey's fist whole, turning it into a powerful fireball!
"WIND CONTROL: WIND BLADE!"
"FIRE FIST!"
I slice my katana forwards just as Mikey punches, our two strongest attacks colliding, and fighting for dominance. But Mikey's flame grows brighter and brighter, eating up my wind, until I'm faced with the rush of a heatwave. Red, all I see is red, as I'm met with an intense scorching heat, which envelopes my entire body, knocking me backwards. Next, I feel something kick my leg, knocking me off my feet. When the red flash subsides, and I can see again, I find myself lying on my back, with Mikey looming over me, keeping me pinned to the ground with one knee, and pinning my left arm down with his. Mikey's free fist is cocked back, ready to deliver a finishing blow if needed.
Mikey's fist shoots outwards, towards my nose. But before my face can get a chance to meet with Mickey's hand, he pauses. Mikey stares down at me, panting heavily, as I stare up at Mikey, panting just as heavily. The two of us are soaked in blood and sweat, not just ours, but each other's. A droplet of sweat and blood seeps out from between the cracks in Mikey's clenched fist, landing on my face, and causing me to flinch.
"I've…won…" Mikey grunts.
I've lost. My first real loss as a Pro Slayer. And so, my second mission…
…Has ended, in utter failure.
"Luis!" A voice cries, and I look over to see Ella and Austin running towards me. I don't have the strength to respond ,and neither does Mikey. I peer up to see Mikey locking eyes with Austin, which causes Mikey to flinch and tighten his hold on me.
"Excuse me, Mr Pyromaniac? Can you let Luis go please? You already won, we won't attack you," Ella politely asks.
Mikey huffs and puffs, looking between Ella and I twice over. "Sure," Mikey then grunts, and retracts his knee from my chest, getting off of me. I grunt and sit up as well.
"Hey, Ella, sorry…but do you mind?" I ask.
"No problem!" Ella replies, as she kneels down behind my back and begins healing me.
Why didn't my "second wind" ever kick in during that fight? Probably because I subconsciously let my guard down, fighting a kid rather than an adult for once. I suppose my instincts just didn't see Mikey as a true, lethal threat.
"Just…tell the Slayer Organization to leave me alone," Mikey grunts as he turns around and begins limping away, but that's when Austin does the anime glasses guy thing again.
"Just because you won some silly bet with Luis, doesn't mean that I won't take your head," Austin says as he creates a Cursed Power shotgun in between his hands, and aims it at the back of Mickey's head.
Mikey pauses. "Oh?" He asks as he turns and peers over his shoulder at Austin.
Austin then fires a double shot of Cursed Power bullets from his double-barreled shotgun at Mikey, who counters by spinning around and drawing his dual pistols, aiming them at Austin before firing off a round of flaming bullets back. The two volleys of bullets collide with each other in a small explosion of flames and bright orange Cursed Power, stopping one another in their tracks.
Amazingly, after fighting against him, I'm completely out of Cursed Power, while Mikey still has the strength to fend off Austin!
"Austin, what are you doing?!" Ella cries. "We promised that we'll leave the Pyromaniac alone if he wins!
"Well I'm not Luis," Austin answers. "And we have a mission to complete. I won't let our second mission end in failure just because you two don't have ambitions."
That's right. Our second mission hasn't ended, not yet. Just because I lost, doesn't mean it's over.
After the two rounds of bullets collide, Austin changes his Cursed Power shotgun into a net cannon and fires, sending a Cursed Power net flying towards Mikey, in an attempt to restrain him.
"Woah, Austin can create nets too? Not just bullets?!" I exclaim. "That must be so much harder to do…"
"Hah!" Mikey spits after doding Austin's net shot. "You Slayer doesn't even stick to your word? Not surprised!"
"Unlike Luis, I don't make idiots bets with the enemy," Austin smirks.
Mikey then fires another volley of bullets towards Austin, who dodges the attack, then transforms his net cannon into an assault rifle and fires back. Both Austin and Mikey duck behind cover in order to shield themselves from their opponent's fire, occasionally peeking out from behind their cover to shoot another round of bullets back at their opponent, before doding behind cover again. Eventually, seeing that it's futile, the two duck out from behind their cover, and resume the battle.
Even without his special battle goggles on, Austin's aim and skills with a gun far surpassed Mikey's, although he is certainly better in hand to hand combat, and has stronger Cursed Power. Plus, Mikey has the advantage of using his guns in very creative ways, with his flaming, exploding bullets, compared to Austin, who rapidly switches between various net cannon, shotguns, and assault rifles, in order to counter Mikey's gunfire.