-Xeron-
Ari left right on time, with the clock moving to the fifteen mark at the same time Kuro spotted her dashing across the courtyard, far below on the floor of the lower layer. Xeron had been just out of view, and immediately after he stepped out of hiding, he looked directly at Kuro. Kuro smiled slightly, a small chuckle escaping his lips.
He threw himself up over the railing, quickly dropping to the distant floor below. He thought to himself as he plummeted. He maintained his posture, feet towards the ground. He hadn’t thought much about how he actually wanted to execute his landing, he figured he’d be able to wing it. When Kuro was roughly half-way down, he began channeling aether, converting it into a wind element in the palm of his left hand. He still hadn’t regained full feeling or control of his right arm, though it was getting there. He was confident he didn’t need it.
When he was roughly twenty feet away from the ground, he twisted his body so that his left palm was facing the ground. He exclaimed in his head, delivering the command to the sizable ball of wind magic in his hand. He’d visualized it blasting straight from his hand, and blowing back up toward him. He’d continued channeling aether, fueling his spell as it slowed him down, wind buffeting the surrounding impact area. His palm came inches from the ground as he came to a halt, before being lifted up slightly. He used this upward movement to flip himself forward, landing on his feet. The wind stopped as he landed, and a flash of red light burst from his hand as he pulled his sword - a simple broadsword, cutting edge on both sides - from his Demon Sheath. He pointed it to Xeron, his first opponent of the day.
Xeron responded in kind, summoning a glaive with a bright blue blade, a white streamer tied to where it joined the pole. Kuro thought to himself. He’d never had much chance to fight against weapons that weren’t swords or scythes.
He had a lot of time to consider his approach to this battle. He had trouble sleeping the night before, and got up earlier than normal. Xeron had the height advantage, and physical strength advantage. He was more than a foot taller than Kuro, and while he wasn’t as thickly built as Oroske, he was quite muscular. After much consideration, Kuro decided the best approach would be to be aggressive, and aim to end the fight quickly. As a Hunter himself, he understood that they had a tendency to slowly increment the amount of strength and effort they output. Most fights end up being the Hunter testing the strength and endurance of their opponent, since they know they’ll likely outlast them. Therefore, it would likely catch Xeron off guard if Kuro immediately went full force.
So he did. Kuro Accelerated, and launched forward, a blast of wind giving him an extra boost, his sword arm falling behind him as he moved, prepared to strike.
.
Kuro closed the gap in less than a second in real time, though for him it was a little more than a second. His right foot was forward, firmly planted, and he used the momentum from his initial movement to swing his left arm in an upward arc towards Xeron’s right arm, which held his glaive.
Xeron must have caught on, and Accelerated himself to match with ease. He moved to the side, his body gradually moving faster as his Acceleration kicked in. Kuro wide open, Xeron punched him in the ribs with enough force to knock him back a couple feet.
Kuro regained his footing quickly, recovering in time to partially block an overhead blow from Xeron, and safely stepping out of the way.
Xeron was moving faster, and likely had a deeper Acceleration than Kuro, he realized. It couldn’t be helped, Xeron had significantly more time to practice with it, and Kuro was already at the limit for what he could maintain for long periods of time. It wasn’t so fast that Kuro couldn’t react, and for that reason, he was confident he could manage.
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Kuro could not put much force into his block as he ineffectively attempted to parry. He covered his feet with selr magic, and attempted to sweep Xeron’s feet out from under him quickly. The older Hunter reacted quickly to the movement, plunging the tip of his glaive into the ground in the same motion he swung with, and jumped up, holding himself aloft as Kuro’s foot swiped at empty air.
Kuro utilized the momentum from his leg sweep to spin around, attempting another swing at Xeron’s arms. This made his opponent throw himself higher in the air.
The two cast similar spells simultaneously. Kuro took advantage of his enemy’s airborne status, where he couldn’t dodge, to send a slash of selr, primed to burst upon collision with the target, straight at Xeron’s chest.
Xeron muttered, his speech sped up by his Acceleration so much that Kuro could barely make out the words, “Rel’ron.” A narrow beam of light shot out from in front of his mouth, and pierced Kuro in the same shoulder Recen had hit him in. Initially, it didn’t hurt much, but he quickly felt a burning sensation within. Had that hit sped up the process of ridding him of his paralysis? Kuro rolled the hit shoulder as Xeron fell to the ground, stunned by the intense shock Kuro’s magic delivered. He still couldn’t really move the arm at all, only the shoulder. That was still more progress than he’d had in the days since he was ambushed.
He couldn’t let himself be idle too long, lest Xeron get back up. He readied his blade and used sentem to leap above his elder. Kuro couldn’t simply Xeron, he kept that in mind as his mind raced to determine his approach and actions. He cast two spells in quick succession, another selr’tur, and a maintained downdraft of sentem, as he landed, standing above the black cloak, feet at their sides. He brought his sword to the side of Xeron’s neck, a motion that Hunters often used in training and sparring to silently say “I won.”
Xeron didn’t like that, however. He pushed past the selr shocking him, and the wind being knocked out of him by the constant wind hitting his entire body, pressing down on his chest and filling his throat, and grabbed the blade of Kuro’s sword with his left hand. Xeron’s right arm moved as though he was going to summon another weapon from his Demon Sheath.
Kuro gave himself an additional burst of Acceleration, which he calculated - and hoped - would be enough to give him an edge. He let go of his sword, and quickly formed a Lightning Blade in his hand, and drove it into Xeron’s chest. Kuro thought to himself,
The sustained current of electricity made Xeron’s body lock up, and he dropped Kuro’s sword. His right hand flashed red in Kuro’s peripheral vision as a sword appeared. His hand twitched, attempting to grip the weapon. After both arms stopped struggling, Kuro dismissed his maintained selr-sword.
“Damn,” Xeron said, the small red glow of Acceleration disappearing from his skin. Kuro undid his as well, still standing over the man’s torso. “Oroske taught you well. I underestimated you.” He was struggling to talk, and Kuro was worried he’d really hurt him. Xeron weakly lifted a hand towards Kuro, “You won, I’ll let you go. Help me up first.” Kuro pulled him up to a sitting position, and backed up slightly to give him room.
Xeron had a forlorn expression. “I told you before that Oroske’s relationship with Uin’Ari was a point of jealousy for me, right?” Kuro nodded. “Well, there’s more to the story, more reason I hate your mentor. To this day I don’t know why, but Oroske is the one who killed him, along with the rest of the people in their ‘family.’ Oroske is the only one who’s still alive.
“They were a group of misfit kids whose parents either all died, disappeared, or simply didn’t love them and gave them up. Danfis took them all in, practically raised them all. While few, if not none, were related by blood, they all considered each other to be family. One day, Oroske killed the majority of them. No one knows why, and he and Danfis refuse to speak of the event.”
Kuro was shocked. “Wh-why are you telling me this?”
“I thought that you should know,” Xeron said with a tired shrug, “The Tsumi, especially the elite within the Clan, have a darker side to them than even the public sees. Perhaps… I just wanted someone to know why I hate Oroske so much. It’s for the best that you came instead of him, I may have escalated the fight to the death. You should go, do what you came to do.”
Kuro nodded, “Well, thanks for telling me, I guess.” He turned to face the building as Xeron pushed himself off the ground. He didn’t give the man another glance as he sprinted full force towards the building.
Once inside, he pointed his sword at a receptionist, not taking any time to appreciate the building’s immaculate interior. “Where is the office of Yenva Muwal?”
The receptionist, a young man, stuttered as he spoke, giving directions to her office on the top floor, at the back of the building facing in towards the courtyard. Kuro gave him a small nod, and resumed his full-speed sprint.
He made his way to the office, busting the door down. Yenva was in a meeting with a lot of important-looking people. Executives within the company, he guessed. She stood up, demanding he explain why he’s there. Kuro could tell she thought she knew why, and looked like she was bracing herself for a fight.
He pointed his sword not at her, but at Recen. “For no reason other than to kill Recen Muwal.”
