"Pretty good defense, Luis!" Nick says as he aims both arms out to the sides, electricity crackling around his fingers. "If I wasn't me, then I wouldn't be able to break out of it!" Tendrils of electricity then fly out of Nick's fingers, striking my hurricane, but more importantly, striking me. I howl in pain as I feel my entire body getting fried. By the time that Nick's attack ends, I'm almost fully paralyzed, other than my shoulders just a bit. Meanwhile, Nick's lighting sends the winds of my hurricane scattering in every direction.
Just what I wanted.
Before my winds can fly too far out, they pause, before molding into large needles of wind. "What, there was an attack hidden in there?!" Nick cries. "I let my guard down against a rookie, I figured my lightning fired you!"
"This is a little something that I picked up from Austin!" I shout. "Wind Control: Sky Needles!" My blades of wind then fly towards Nick, who's forced to activate his Electricity and leap into the air to dodge. Unfortunately for him, by manipulating the wind, I send my Sky Needles after Nick again.
"Electricity: Electric Fence!" Nick shouts as he extends his hands outwards, tendrils of lighting flying out of his fingers just as before. Nick's bolts of lighting blast into my wind blades, blowing them away.
But little does Nick know, I had a second attack prepared.
"And this one I've learned from Grover!" I roar as I leap into the air behind Nick, bringing my katana high into the air as I clutch it tightly with two hands.
"Your body should be paralyzed by now, how can you still move?!" Nick cries as he turns and peers over his shoulder to face me.
"Wind's a pretty cool thing!" I answer. "By using a powerful gust of wind, I can manipulate my own body into moving when it can't by itself!" Just as before, I pour Cursed Power into the blade of my katana, preparing ym Wind Blade. "And this, is something I've seen Jamie do! Wind Control: WInd Blade!" I roar as I slash my katana downwards, slicing Nick diagonally across his back, before he has the chance to defend. After my attack, Nick yelps in pain before activating his Electricity to zip safely to the ground. Meanwhile I crumble to the ground, my body too paralyzed to land.
"Two things," Nick begins to say. "One, in order to use my speed, I constantly have a Cursed Power Barrier around my entire body up at all times, so attacks that aren't all out won't work on me. And two…don't bring the battle to the air if you can't land!" Nick can't help but to huff a disappointed sigh with that last comment.
"Well, I was going to use my wind to land, I've gotten pretty good at using it to recover, like in platform-based fighting games, but I was a little too paralyzed for that," I grunt as I dig my katana's blade into the ground to help me stand up.
"Either way, you should be proud, landing a blow on the strongest Pro Slayer, even if it is shallow and I'm holding back a lot. Not many can say they've done that," Nick says. "But as I said, Luis, I'm not going easy on you," Nick then smirks, before turning to face the sky and thrusting his hands into the air. Nick's hands then begin to dance and twirl through the air, as storm clouds intensify. I pause and raise an eyebrow at Nick, wondering what he's doing. But when I hear the boom of thunder directly above my head, I can tell.
Nick's controlling the weather.
"WOAH!" I yelp as a bolt of lightning crashes down right in front of my feet, and I jump back just in the nick of time to dodge, leaving the ground scorched in my place.
"Why manipulate wind when you can manipulate storms?" Nick cackles. A bolt of lighting then crashes down in front of me again, forcing me to dodge. And then another then another. I can barely keep this up.
"With Nick facing the sky like that, he should be defenseless," I grunt as a bolt of lightning smites the left side of my body, which grows numb instantly. Luckily, my Cursed Power Barrier keeps me from dying. "But then if Nick can't see me, how is he pin-pointing me with such accuracy?!"
"I'm using Cursed Power Sensing to enhance my smell and hearing," Nick answers. For a second, I'm impressed that he can hear me over the boom of thunder and howl of wind, but that's also the Cursed Power Sensing's doing. "That way, without seeing you, I can still target you. The rustle of wind through your clothes, stench of sweat, breathing, smell of blood, footsteps, there are many ways to track you without sight," Nick continues, without breaking concentration from the gray sky above for even a second.
"The wind is working against me, ironic," I snort. But then, that gives me an idea. I emit a thin wave of Cursed Power out of every single pore in my body, until my entire body is covered by a one inch film of Cursed Power. Using my Cursed Power, I manipulate the wind around me, causing the wind inside of my Cursed Power Barrier to halt completely.
Nick frowns. "I can't feel the wind around you anymore," he announces.
"I'll call this…Air Control!" I reply.
Slowly, I creep towards Nick, as to not make a sound. In response, Nick's lightning bolts strike the ground in a random pattern, Nick unable to tell where I am. "Normally, I'd just look away from the storm to find you, but that feels like cheating in your little training game here," Nick calls to me. "Hell, I wouldn't use this weather manipulation attack to begin with!"
"Heh, I thought you weren't holding back on me?" I smirk, which causes a lighting bolt to crash down on top of me, sending me dropping to the floor like a sandbag. I grunt as I stand back up, my clothes and body smoldering and charred black. My Cursed Power Barrier is really saving my ass. Good thing Nick's using real lightning, and not his Cursed Power lightning, which is surely stronger than my own Cursed Power.
"Tricked ya'," Nick smirks. "By getting you to talk, you reveal your location.
Careful, as to not make a noise or reply to Nick's taunts, I use my Air Control barrier to creep over to Nick. Once I'm in front of Nick, I tighten my grip on the holt of my katana. "Alright…I have to deal a finishing blow to Nick, one stronger than his Cursed Power Barrier, before giving him a chance to notice my presence and strike me with a lightning bolt…" I whisper to myself. And so, once I'm behind Nick, I slowly form my Wind Blade and thrust forwards.
"Too slow!" Nick exclaims. Before I can slash Nick, a small bolt of lightning cracks down in front of me, forcing me to hop a step backwards. Next, Nick pivots and turns away from the storm raging overhead, aiming a palm strike to my guy. Quickly, I bring my katana up to block and reinforce my defenses with Cursed Power, but using my blade to counter is useless, when Nick says: "Electricity: Joy Buzzer!" Electricity begins crackling around Nick's palm, which discharges into my blade, traveling down my katana, and eventually, shocking me to a crisp. I yelp in pain before dropping down to my knees.
"You're not using your training, Luis!" Nick barks.
"You're right," I grunt as I slowly push myself back to my feet, using the blade of my katana as a cane. "Using ranged attacks with my Wind Control Stage Two is difficult, so I've only been using melee attacks," I continue as I sheath my katana. Nick smirks approvingly. I aim my left palm at Nick while chambering my right hand. "Wind Control…" I begin to growl as wind begins swirling around my right hand, as I stockpile Cursed Power into it. It shouldn't be that hard to do. All I have to do, is use my Wind Blade, but as a projectile. Fire out a blast of Cursed Power while changing it into wind, a wind beam. Just like Nick. Next, I take a step forwards, my foot dramatically slamming into the ground and creating a small crater in the earth. "CURSED POWER EMISSION!" I roar as I thrust my right palm forwards, while chambering my left hand.
What I expected to happen, was that I would fire off a beam of wind towards Nick, something that I was never able to do, even with my Wind Control Stage One. But as Nick sees nothing more than a beam of dark blue raw Cursed Power flying his way, he raises an eyebrow at me.
"Are you even trying?" Nick asks as he electrifies his right hand, using it to effortlessly knock away my Cursed Power emission, without even lifting his second hand out of his pocket.