Artificial 3: The Valla Chronicles

Chapter 16: Final Round

(Seth's POV)

I shadow swing from house to house, up the Tribe and landing near a mountain. "Niel."
That was all I said. He faces me,
his hand resting on his chokuto sword. "Glad I could finally catch up to you. Sorry about the mess, I only asked for my associates to get everyone's attention, not blow up a few houses in their own Tribe."
He gets into a martial art stance I've never seen before.
"One last round, if I win, you'll come with me and answer for your crimes." I take a Taekwondo stance and throw up my hands to guard my face.
"You know what? Sure, why not? Not that I would lose."
We stand there in silence for half a minute, the nightly breeze blowing, our auras, subtle but faint enough to kick up a miniature sandstorm,
us being in the epicenter,
acting like it's the ring.

There was something unique about his stance that caught my attention.
Even though I talked a big game,
I get this sense of dread that close-quarters combat is a no-good strategy without weapons.
Niel takes two steps slowly,
but I don't budge,
a few more seconds pass,
and I cast a shadow rune on my fingertips and make the motion of throwing it,
giving the illusion that I am when really I'm firing them.
Niel grabs my first shadow,
throwing knife with his mechanical arm, then uses his other mechanical arm to shield his face,
I rush him as he ditches the knife, sidesteps me,
and redirect my arm,
causing me to overswing.
I spin real fast and spin kick to cover my blind spot,
then throw a flurry of punches,
Niel uses his hands to block my fists and then redirects my kick,
I land my foot safely on the ground, then lunge with a backward flying kick. Niel gets out of the way and then steps forward,
putting him in an optimal position so that when I strike and he blocks, I can't defend because he's too close.

Niel slams me with his open palm like a sumo wrestler,
but I felt his aura detonate on contact with my chest,
most unusual and extremely interesting, Niel takes another step forward going for a finger jab with his middle and index finger,
to a human all it would look like is just that,
a stupid finger jab,
but to any trained martial artist,
an aura can be a lethal weapon,
Neil's aura coats his fingers like a superheated scalpel and cuts into my collar bone.
I instinctively teleport away,
and my wound heals good as new,
whatever this martial art is,
it's definitely new and will definitely keep me on my toes.
Perhaps I'll have a bit of fun with him one last time before I get serious.

I conjure up ten familiars Jackal style by putting all ten of my fingers together, casting a shadow rune on all of them, then letting my shadows touch the floor, taking on the appearance of me,
each of them arms themselves with a shadow knife and rush Niel.
He dodges, ducks, bobs,
and weaves through them,
taking them out one by one.
I run up behind him and go to flying kick him,
but he merely sidesteps me,
two of my familiars attempt to sandwich him between them,
only to end up on the ground with a roundhouse kick.

All my familiars attack at once,
and Niel compresses his aura around his body to his skin so the moment one punches,
his aura detonates on anything he touches.
On the surface level,
he gives off the illusion of having a full 360-degree line of sight,
that's what the aura compression is for, to cover any and all blind spots, impressive as it is deadly.
I create multiple familiars this time without using the Jackal method and have a small army of a hundred familiars of myself attacking Niel,
he bashes and beats in every single one of them that gets within his striking range.
"You make this too easy!"
Niel comes charging at me by rushing past all of my familiars,
then finger jabs me in the hearts. "On paper, this is a solid strategy, but because the others are attacking and you aren't, it's only a logical deduction that you are the real one. Am I wrong?" He asks so to lour him into a false sense of security.

I dispel a few familiars. "Tension Style:
The third form, sever.
Allows me to focus my ki into a razor-sharp scalpel or compress it into an explosion.
So tell me, are you not the real one?" I detonate that familiar into a smoke screen,
not saying the sandstorm isn't helpful, just that a nice black mist would really help.
The real me lunges, and in less than a blink,
he counterattacks with a palm strike to my chest,
causing an explosion.
I create several more familiars to confirm my basic understanding of the martial art he calls the Tension style and have all of the familiars circle him, they lunge from all directions and he redirects all of the aura I have into them, condenses the aura then explodes them, nice, nice,
I love what I see.
"You're more than just in my range. Tension Style: Sever technique, Force Palm! Ace Palm! Miniature Palm! Ninety-Five Sever Strike!"
I get blasted away by the shockwaves, my body filled with ninety-five holes, and all regenerate relatively fast.

I get up and immediately notice that all of the demonic energy was temporarily cut off from my brain,
meaning I can still use my demonic strength and demonic leap,
but anything beyond that is out of the question.
Well, I got my feel and memorized all the important fundamentals now than to crush him.
I summon Yagato to my side and draw it, Niel draws his Chokuto from reverse grip and flips it 180 degrees, then grips it with both hands.

We clash blades,
but I easily overpower him and throw him up the side of the mountain,
I demonic leap several stories high and land near him.
He takes a defensive stance,
and I just pose with Yagato in front of me,
perfect for a thrust attack.
"Just because I'm out of demonic energy doesn't mean I can't beat your ass with a weapon."
Niel is silent but takes a step further, we lunge and strike,
and we begin to fly around the mountain,
clashing swords.
Niel swings strongly and ferociously, but I just parry each slash and knock him down a few feet in the air,
I fly into his blind spot as he looks for me and slashes him hard enough that he flies into a rock in the rocky mountain and then breaks through the wall,
I fly into it,
front flip,
then land on my feet to see Niel regenerating instantly.

I vertically slash,
he horizontally blocks,
I throw him, and he blends into the darkness camouflaged, but his footsteps are loud and clear,
I camouflage myself as well, turning invisible and then pursuing quietly, Niel could see my aura and used that to block each attack,
but if I wanted to,
I could have concealed my aura and made a fast assassination kill but chose to toy with him.
I sneak around the corner while he looks around and nearly decapitated him as he ducked under my slash,
he turns around and swings,
and I make myself visible as we sword bind.
He pushes with all my might as I barely exert any strength and push him back at his power level.

Niel finally musters enough power to overpower me and sends me flying through several layers of the roof,
I turn invisible and hide long enough for him to leap through the same hole and look for me,
I create a massive Shadow Flame Fireball and fire it from behind,
he hears it coming and leaps over to another ledge on the mountain several feet away,
I give chase leaping after him,
make myself visible and we sword fight some more,
he uses my Shadow Wind ability with his chokuto,
and I dimension cut the attack along with several rocks and open a dimension above him and in front of him,
making Niel jump to another ledge of the mountain.

I jumped after him,
sword fighting in the air,
we land, he slashes,
I parry, I slash, he dodges,
I slash again, he parries.
I leap back into the air,
dimension cut a ledge off,
sending it towards Niel as he phases through it,
we continue to weave our swords across the air and bind again,
we land on a small ledge,
barely enough room for us both,
I kick his shin and then knee him in the stomach over the edge.
He uses the shadows to catch himself and stay glued to the wall of the mountain.
"I think it's about time we closed the curtains on our sword fight here."

I quick draw Yagato three times so fast, Neil's eyes couldn't see me draw until the fourth time when I drew it slower, I slowly sheath my blade and the upper half of the large mountain falls into a bunch of large debris.
Niel hacks and slashes his way through the rubble floating in the air,
I descend to him,
hide behind a piece,
and surprise him like Sephiroth,
he slashes me upwards and jumps after me,
we jumped through the falling debris, hacking and slashing at each other, but I was wearing down Neil's defenses as he took a quick exit into the cave in an area I didn't dimension cut.
I pursued, and we resumed fighting at the top.
He dodged my slashes and sloppily slashes back.
He was getting slower and tired.
I parry and hit him in the head with my hilt,
then rush him,
grab him by his greasy hair,
and start kicking him repeatedly in the air and then into the wall of the cave, knocking him out.
"Whew, that was fun, now then to get back to my siblings and Reina."