The two combatants eye each other, slowly approach one another. The smell of death permeates throughout the forest, dead bodies lay strewn about the patch of land not covered by the large bluewood trees. The hectic breathing of our parties is heard in the background, the only audible sound in the forest. Our anxiety is palpable. Some of us are trying to keep our nervousness on the inside, but all are sensing dread, no one is exempted. Akane stops and raises her sword, entering a stance. This has her feet spread about 3 feet apart, with her left foot in front of the right. The blade she wields is being held with both hands, with the tip of the blade aimed straight at Archer. She takes a deep breath with her eyes closed, and as she exhales she slowly opens them. All of the veins in her body start to expand, so much so they are now visible to the naked eye. On her face outlines are present and her eyes are slightly red as the veins bulge. At the same time a tremendous amount of aura is released from her body, more so than anything witnessed in the battle so far. So much is emitted that the aura goes up to about ten feet above her. The power is so great that nearby pebbles are starting to float up into the air.

“I can tell you’re using your full power, but I’m disappointed. I was hoping there was more” Archer laments.

He starts to emit his own aura. Like Akane it envelops him, showing more aura than ever before. But there is a very noticeable difference between them. The aura being emitted from Archer is greater, far greater. The power is so great that the ground is starting to shake like an earthquake is occuring and his aura goes into the air twice the height of Akane’s. It was as if a small flame was right next to a raging inferno. Electricity then starts to emanate from his body as well.

“Ready whenever you are!” Archer states as he pulls out his shotgun and cocks it.

I do not envy Akane right now.

Akane v. Archer round 2

Akane launches herself from the ground with so much force that it leaves a small crater in the ground. She reappears in front of Archer. With both hands still on her blade she skids the tip of her blade alongside the ground and slices upward causing dirt to encase his face, temporarily blinding him for a very brief moment. Blood shoots out of her forearms with one stream seeking to impale his face while the other sought to impale his heart. Archer sensed the danger, despite not being able to see. He tilts his head to the right to avoid the spike aimed for his face and immediately fires his shotgun which destroys the second and sends Akane flying back. Fortunately she was able to raise a blood shield in the nick of time, preventing herself from being pumped full of lead. She rolls for a half a dozen feet but quickly gets up . She then winces in pain. Her blood shield wasn’t fully effective, some bullets got through. She looks up to see Archer has switched to his revolver, firing off round after round in quick succession. He’s firing quicker than any normal man could by using his affinity with electricity to pull back the revolver's hammer for him, essentially turning it into a fully automatic weapon. This is BS, he’s straight up nullified a revolver’s weakness, a slow fire rate. Akane summons all of the blood around her to put up a massive blood shield, at least the size of a house’s wall. But the bullets change trajectory by shooting upward then angling back down towards her. Seeing this she starts to run into the forest hoping to find cover. She hides behind a nearby tree but the bullets angle around that too. She continues to run deeper and deeper into the forest, heading east from the castle. She bounces from tree trunk to tree trunk and this strategy slightly works as a few bullets hit the trees instead of her. But she can’t keep running like this, the fatigue is starting to set in. What’s worse for her is that more and more bullets are joining the chase.

Back where Archer is, he's just firing his revolver into the forest, not aiming at anything in particular, knowing that his bullets will track down Akane no matter where she is. The more bullets he sends after her, the more likely she’s gonna get hit. As he fires he looks at us with a huge sadistic grin.

“Oh don’t look so sad. You can join in now if you want, the more the merrier I say. ” he offers.

“Don’t mind if I do you bastard!” Nerva shoots back, trying to make her way to Archer when I pick her up like an owner picking up a barking chihuahua.

“Not yet hold on! Has anyone thought of a plan yet?” I ask everyone.

“I haven't thought of anything yet but we know he’s an arrogant asshole.” Remi remarks.

“I suggest we blow him up” Ryder proposes.

“Wow, good plan. What gave you that idea?” Azura inquires, obviously sounding sarcastic.

“I don’t know, this stuff just comes naturally to me you know?”

“How about we run away? I still think that’s our best option” Adam argues.

I lift Nerva so she’s eye-level with Adam. She slaps him across the face.

“Ow!” he screams, rubbing his cheek.

“No more pussy talk from you Adam!” Nerva yells.

“Yeah it’s time for dick talk now!” I concur.

Everyone stares at me.

“Wait a minute…” I say, realizing how strange I just sounded.

“Ugh anyway, Will, do you have any ideas?” Remi asks him.

Will is leaning forward with his eyes wide, staring at Archer. He’s been ignoring the current conversation.

“Come on Mythril, Akane doesn’t have that much time, hurry up” he utters under his breath.

“What was that?” Remi questions.

“Huh nothing. A plan is slowly forming, I’m getting ideas” he answers.

Archer continues to fire until he notices something’s changed. He fired the last bullet that was in the chamber but instead of it flying into the woods to track down Akane, it instead hit a tree causing a chunk of it to blow off. He raises his eyebrow in amusement. Why did the bullets stop tracking Akane? Did she do something? Come on Quincy put it together. She got shot, ran into the forest to dodge the chasing bullets, and now the bullets can’t chase her anymore. Is his tracking ability based on magnetics? Does a bullet have to be in your body in order for other ones to track you? Did she remove the bullets from her body? Ugh I can’t tell, it’s just a hunch. Archer decides to switch weapons, taking out the large bolt action rifle on his back. He pulls back the bolt and inserts a bullet. Fire is now circling around him, in conjunction with the electricity.

Hype music

Archer raises the rifle up and aims in the direction Akane went. The fire and electricity are swirling around him faster and faster. By combining his affinity for electricity with his fire, it appears he’s forming a railgun. Archer pulls the trigger. The shot released from the rifle is so great that it causes everything behind him to be blown back. The trees behind him shake, leaves fall to the ground, the dead bodies of knights fly. Ahead of him air is torn as a bolt of fire and electricity fly ahead. Tree after tree is destroyed, creating a path of carnage.

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In the forest Akane is on her knees, surrounded by a blood bubble she encased herself in which stopped the bullets Archer shot at her. In front are the bullets that were lodged within her. She was able to take them out by using her blood to push them. It’s hard for her to move however, removing the bullets caused electricity to surge throughout her body. Archer did that on purpose, if someone wanted to remove one of his bullets, they cannot do so without paying the price. She breathes heavily, trying to regain some of her stamina. As she does so her head shoots up because she hears something. It sounds like something is whizzing towards her. Other recognizable sounds are noticeable too. The sound of electricity and fire. Akane springs up and removes the blood bubble, hoping to get out of harm’s way. The bullet arrived sooner than she expected. She jumped to the side but wasn’t able to completely dodge it. The bullet goes through her right shoulder causing a sharp pain. The bullet doesn’t slow down, it went through her and is continuing to go further into the forest, destroying more and more of it. Akane gets up, her eyes narrow, showing her determination to run to where the shot came from. She can’t win by staying away, she needs to get close, get so close Archer can’t use his guns. She leans forward and starts to run back at an incredible speed, only the blur of her red aura visible.

______________________________________________________________________________

Archer smiles content with the path of destruction that his one shot created. Our parties are behind him, taking cover behind trees in order that we won’t be blown away if he decides to shoot his rifle again. Out of the woods dozens of blood spikes fly towards him. He shoots them with his shotgun destroying them midair. Archer sighs.

“Swordsman there’s no way you expected that to work” he comments.

“I didn’t. They did make good distractions though” a voice says beneath him.

He looks down to see Akane who has her sword at the ready. While Archer was busy shooting down the blood spikes, he neglected to look at the ground. Akane is low, her body leaning so far forward she almost tripped due to gravity. Akane springs up from her position like a jack in the box with her sword. The sword goes up at an angle, cutting Archer from his right thigh all the way to his left shoulder. Blood spurts out from the wound. Archer’s face switches from one of amusement to one of annoyance. He attempts to aim his shotgun at her but is hit with a kick to the stomach sending him skidding back. Akane takes out a smaller secondary blade. Her blood moves to the blade’s edge, adding to its length. So much is added that it’s the same height as her standard sword. She now had dual wield blades.

Akane charges with her two blades while starting to rotate her body. As she closes the distance Archer repeatedly fires his shotgun but he continually misses as she moves about the area like a ballerina. She keeps rotating until she looks like a mini cyclone. While still rotating, Akane approaches Archer launching an unfathomable amount of sword swings, both from the real blade, and the shorter one with the blood extension. Archer has to continually jump back, using his shotgun to try to block everything. It’s not very effective. While he can easily see the attacks, the sheer force behind each swing due to g-force and the rapidity of them causes him to only block the first dozen with his shotgun. It eventually becomes too much, making the shotgun fly out of his hands, forcing him to put up his forearms for defense. His arms get cut over and over again as he keeps trying to make distance between them but to no avail, the further he goes back the more Akane rushes forward. As this occurs his demeanor changes. Before he was having fun, now he’s getting annoyed. Looks like someone’s not having fun anymore. Boo freaking hoo.

As Archer continues his dance with Akane, something starts to rise out of the ground near us. The blue hand of an amphibian rises followed by the rest of its body. Now fully visible it can be seen that it’s a bright blue eel-salamander hybrid. It has the body of an eel yet it has the limbs of a salamander. Why is this a thing? I need to read more books on this world’s creatures. It’s so bright and transparent it must be a spirit like Remi’s wolf or bear. It’s large as well, about the size of a big dog. Blue electricity surges throughout and across its body, visible to the naked eye. Slowly it starts to make its way towards Archer and Akane.

“Ugh guys, what is that!” Adam yells, pointing at the creature.

“I-is that a salamander?” Azura questions aloud, confused as to what she’s seeing.

“No, I think that’s an eel?” Lilith answers.

“Should I blow it up?” Ryder asks.

“Wait a minute ....Akane, watch out he has a spirit!” Remi exclaims, realizing what the creature’s presence means.

It was too late however, the spirit had already started to affect Archer. More and more electricity starts to emanate from his body. Using this influx of power he reaches his hand into Akane’s artificial tornado. He gets a grip on Akane’s sword stopping her dead in her tracks. His right hand is holding onto her blade but his hand is unharmed, the electricity surging through him preventing the sword from inflicting damage. Without hesitating Akane plunges her modified short blade into his right arm. Archer doesn’t react in the slightest.

“Swordsman I had my fun, to be completely honest. But it’s time for you to rest now. When you’re asleep, you can dream of all the fun we’re gonna have together later.” Archer tells her.

Electricity starts to course through his body so much that it makes him look like a lightbulb. The electricity transfers to Akane’s blades, making its way through them to make contact with Akane herself. It happens so fast she doesn’t have the chance to let go of her weapons.

“AHHHHHHHH!” Akane screams as the electricity courses through her body.

The shock is so great that the blood on the short blade dissipates. The electricity is unbearable, it is as if a whole thunderstorm shot its lighting straight at Akane. Archer turns off his electricity and Akane stumbles back, her body has burn marks all over and her hair is frazzled. Losing consciousness, she topples to the ground. The fight is over. David could not beat Goliath.

“Well that was something. Now time to focus on you guys. Say, which one of you is the One of Blackness?” Archer questions, approaching us.

“Oh this him right here” I say, pointing at Adam.

“Quincy no!” Adam screams.

“Oh don’t be upset. You’re all going to die, some are just going to go through more pain than others.” Archer consoles.

“Ah shit” everyone curses, getting into our battle stances.