Deus Didymus: Rend

Chapter Eighty-Three: Hanam Rumble

Hikaru skidded across the dirt with her bow primed. She tracked Yuri as the young girl bounced between the trees. Giggles echoed through the forest with crackles of lightning following shortly after. The blue hue trailing through her vision stood Hikaru's hairs on its ends, filling her with a sharp irritation.

She copied Shen's allele too.

The energy string of Hikaru's bow snapped, shooting a crystalline arrow toward Yuri. Without trouble, Yuri shrank before reappearing in front of Hikaru with a mischievous grin.

"Boo-!"

Hikaru slammed her foot into Yuri's face, grimacing as layers of lacerations piled onto the same leg. She quickly regained her balance, and with the pluck of her bow string, an energy arrow pierced Yuri's right arm.

Yuri grasped a crystalline dagger with her left hand. It shimmered whilst she sliced her arm off below her shoulder.

"That was close!!"

The rune planted on her left hand glowed with a golden light, growing her lost limb from the bone up. She extended her new hand with a smug grin. A ball of yellow lightning crackled at her fingertips, crashing into the woods behind Hikaru. Trees numbering in the handfuls collapsed in the Hanams' volley. Through the commotion, Hikaru slipped behind Yuri, shooting an energy arrow at her nape.

Fragments of the instructor's energy trailed behind the arrow like a comet's tail. The intangible arrow sliced through the air, filling Hikaru with a building sense of relief the closer it got to rending Yuri's neck from her shoulders.

Yuri reached behind her back, summoning a katana into her hands. She giggled as the arrow bounced off her weapon. "Does this look familiar?"

Mind's eye too?

"That's Ahn Y/n's allele. You were behind it?"

"Nope~" Yuri smiled. "I only copied it. His allele would be useful for us to mass produce though."

Both combatants danced around the cleared grounds, trading volleys of projectiles.

"You're stealing alleles to mass produce them?" Hikaru questioned.

Yuri shrunk herself, appearing with a shield to intercept a second volley of arrows, "We haven't gotten there yet, but that's the plan."

"And the attacks on our students have been in an attempt to steal their alleles. If so, why haven't you attacked our stronger students; or our adult forces?"

"Because the plan was to weaken your growing talent to make a window to strike you in the future," Yuri replied.

Hikaru fired a triplet of arrows, intercepting Yuri's, "You don't seem to mind giving out vital information."

Yuri's eyes glowed with a dense flow of energy. She hunched forward, charging her hands with blue lightning. "'Cause I'm going to kill you right here!!"

The instructor reciprocated with her own dense energy flow, sighing, "I guess I'll get serious too, then."

A deafening silence fell upon the forest's floor. Only the crackling of Yuri's lightning and the swaying of the leaves severed the silence, but failed to break the tension. Clusters of sunlight filtered through holes in the canopy created by the pair's carnage, casting dappled shadows on the forest floor wherever they didn't touch.

Hikaru danced around the trees, circling around her target. Her breaths were slow and steady as she changed elevation. She kept her steps light, for each time she landed, she hid a string of energy primed with its own miniature arrow. Every trap she set was a testament to her expertise and experience, a deadly dance waiting to be triggered.