-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Joy Vs Kenshin-

Joy was thrown again by a punch to his stomach and nearly coughed blood. From the moment he arrived here to now, only 5 minutes passed. But he had already endured more than a thousand punches and kicks. He didn’t want to fight, he just wanted to get away from here as soon as possible, but Kenshin wasn’t giving him the chance to.

“Agility Boost: Overdrive” Joy shouted in desperation, as body glowed faintly. Everything in his vision started to slow down as if the whole world was moving slowly. At that time, Kenshin’s fire covered fist had already arrived in front of his face.

As the whole world in his perspective move at a snail’s pace, Joy jumped back twice and made as much gap between him and Kenshin as possible before running at the other teleportation point. Gritting his teeth, he ran. Finally, the teleportation point was just within his reach; a punch came to his face from left.

To protect himself, Joy crossed his arms and blocked the strike, and was thrown away further from the place. He was down to square one again, with Kenshin on his ass like a rabid dog.

“Dammit! Overdrive could last for two seconds… are you saying it's not enough for me to run away from him? Are you kidding me? I had enough of this, Kenshin, you asshole…” Joy shouted frustratingly. Retrieving the [Thunder Knuckels] from his back, he decided to fight back with everything he had. Earlier he was holding back because he didn’t want Kenshin to hurt when he was obviously in the middle of something important, but now, he realized that he couldn't afford to be in defensive if he wants to live unscathed.

Thunder enveloped his arms as a serious light flashed on Joy’s eyes. At that time, with a flash of blue, Kenshin appeared with his fist aiming at Joy’s heart. Gritting his teeth in anger, Joy countered the punch with a thunder punch of his own.

Fist met fist, creating a resounding noise followed by a massive shockwave that blew away everything, including the burning debris. At the same time, Fire and thunder fought for supremacy, both powered by magic and skill. One using his own body, while others using the equipment.

Boom!!! Chi!chi!

Fire and thunder fought with each other creating explosions, sending both Kenshin and Joy flying. They both stopped their flight midway, stepping on the ground hard enough to create a huge dent, they again lunged at each other with their fists pulled back for a punch. Fire fist and thunder fist met each other again

After exchanging more than a hundred blows, Joy suddenly sneaked in a knee to Kenshin’s stomach, lifting him off the ground and sending him flying. But Joy didn’t let him just to fly away. Grabbing the leg of still airborne Kenshin, Joy pulled him back and punched Kenshin on his cheek with a thunder concentrated fist.

Boom!!

A booming noise was heard when Kenshin’s head lodged itself into the ground, deep enough to bury half to his chest. But Joy didn’t stop there. Shouting a “Strength Boost: Overdrive” he rained punches after punches for two seconds, which was at least fifty punches. After the effect of overdrive wore off, Joy stepped out of the huge crater formed from him punching Kenshin, with the victim laying on the ground motionless with a tiny ember burning on his head. his body looked battered and beaten, and even a few scorch marks could be seen here and there.

But Joy didn’t stop to see his work. He ran like a devil on his ass towards the teleportation point. Kenshin was still laying on the massive crater with his eyes closed. The tiny blue ember on his head was flickering as if it would go out any time.

Joy stepped on the teleportation gate and looked back where Kenshin was laying. Shaking his head, he jumped into the swirling space, to escape as far as possible. He was well aware of what happens during the process of awakening. Basically, all the organs and muscles go into a weird state where they would be bathed by the magic in the atmosphere. During that time, the body, as well as senses and brain, turns off, and everything works on their instinct.

During this state, every moving object was their enemy. Joy didn’t want to become a punching bag for nothing.

Five minutes after Joy fled, Kenshin opened his eyes once again. Deep black eyes with blue sclera greeted the red sky, accented by blue fires covering everything. With a low growl, he steadily stood up and roared at the sky, as if he was rebelling against the very heavens. Instantly fire burst out of his body and extended to the sky in a huge pillar. As the flame touched the sky, a blurry silhouette of a muscular man could be seen forming on the sky by the smoke coming from the fire.

But the image vanishes as soon as it formed. Then the fire pillar that nearly touched the sky sucked into Kenshin’s body. Then a considerable whirlpool appeared in midair, that continued to suck all the blue fire on the first floor of the dungeon. A minute later, all the fire sucked into the whirlpool and then it gradually diminished in size. The colossal vortex compressed into a small marble-sized fireball, that slowly descended to the ground. It landed on Kenshin’s right shoulder gently before thumping like a heart.

The moment the fireball landed on Kenshin’s shoulder, he stopped shouting and started to calm down. The floor that looked like a level of hell now had the appearance of the aftermath of a forest fire with charred trees and black molten ground that was starting to cool down.

Like Joy had thought after he left the area, Kenshin stopped behaving like a rabid dog and just stood like a statue inside the deep carter while a little fireball pulsated on his shoulder.

…

“Haha…yes! It’s happening. It's happening. Kenshin is finally going through his first awakening… now that seed I planted must have started to grow. Yes. Soon… soon enough, I will be free form this confines…” sitting inside an old fashioned room, a girl wearing black gothic style dress had her hairs in twintails, smiled serenely. This girl was the same who was imprisoned by The golden skull’s leader. She was the one whom he would regularly go to predict his future.

As she rejoiced, many runes started to flash all over the room as well as her body. Soon, a stream of green light generated from the walls before taking the shape of a huge river. The green river then flowed down, passing through her body, at the same time, retrieving something white from within her.

As the white light left her body, the girl instantly lost all her happiness and emotions. Her face settled back to an emotionless mask that wouldn’t care even if the whole world was thrown into chaos.

Looking at the rapidly vanishing runes, the girl said, “You perverted Hell Emperor, just you wait…the moment I leave here, you will be the first to become a holy artifact by me…”