Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 36: Koko vs Hero

Upon seeing Christina coming, Koko dodged to the side, avoiding the long sword that had been directed at her before the hero stopped and swung at her again, making Koko duck underneath the blade his time. However, while she'd been able to completely evade the firs strike, Koko grit her teeth as she saw some of her hair falling after being cut by the second, and she suddenly knew that this fight wouldn't be like her sparring match with Wallace at all. Christina was simply to fast and to high level for Koko to be able to defeat easily, though it wasn't impossible as she started moving her arms along with the hero's sword swings, hitting the blade on its side each and every time as she deflected it away from herself. Though, given the advantage of reach that the sword gave Christina, Koko was having difficulty in finding an opportunity to counter attack.

Finally finding an opportunity in the series of deflections, Koko shoved Christina's sword to the side before closing the distance between them, aiming a Serpent's Strike to the girl's stomach until it was suddenly stopped just short as the blow hit a glowing barrier that Christina deployed herself. However, even if it had mostly shielded her, the effect of Serpent's Strike still seemed to have some effect as the hero staggered backwards while clutching her stomach.

"So this is the lowest rank in the academy?" Christina asked as she slightly lowered her guard and stopped holding her stomach.

"The system doesn't examine everything." Koko responded with a smile, beckoning with the fingers on her right hand just like she'd always wanted to do before as she provoked Christina. "Even if you don't listen to reason, one way or another, I'm not letting you take that orphanage!"

"Your goals are misplaced!" Christina yelled in reply. "Even if the children are innocent, the building must still be purged in order to stop any more evil from being committed!"

"There are other ways to stop it other than evicting everyone inside!" Koko yelled back. "How about this. Instead of purging the building and throwing everyone out on the street, how about replacing the caretakers there with priests from the church? The children would stay safe, the evil would be stopped and everything would be fine!"

"It would go against our faith and the evil could corrupt our priests in the same way that it did the caretakers!" Christina answered.

"So you would hurt all of them without even trying to do something different? Are you really so close-minded that you can't even see that what you're doing is causing even more problems?" Koko asked, this running forward herself before having to deflect Christina's sword as they started their struggle all over again. "Throwing people out onto the streets will only make them be victimized by the criminals of the city! They have to resort to stealing or begging for food, and then they have to seek shelter with those criminals, creating even more! It's going to keep building and building until the entire city eventually collapses in on itself!"

"The punishment of the gods is absolute! I can't change it!" Christina yelled, expanding her barrier so that Koko's punches wouldn't do as much damage before golden swords started appearing in the air behind her. And upon seeing then, Koko back-flipped several times to get away from Christina's sword before those behind her shot their beams, just like they had against Richard. However, Koko was ready as she hit each beam individually, twisting her palms as she struck them while cancelling them out entirely. Though, while Skill Cancel was a great skill itself, it had just costed her thirty focus almost instantly.

"Don't blame this on the gods! You're not even trying to help at all!" Koko yelled, jumping forward and slamming her open palm into Christina's barrier in the blink of an eye. However, when she attempted to cancel the barrier, her Skill Cancel didn't work before Koko had to dodge to the side again as Christina had recovered. Though, she'd been distracted long enough that the blade managed to cut her shoulder slightly.

"Whatever that strange skill is that disrupts mine, it doesn't seem to work against divine protection." Christina smiled fiercely at Koko, who'd already resumed her stance.

"Then that just means that I'll have to break through it the old fashioned way!" Koko replied, setting her determination as she lifted up her hands and changed her stance. However, Christina didn't seem to know the meaning behind it as she charged again, only to meet the awaiting Koko as she'd set herself up perfectly to counter almost any attack.

Ducking underneath the first swing of Christina's long sword, Koko then infused focus across her entire body before beginning to pummel the barrier with a series of ten strikes, though she was actually using her Lion's Barrage skill as each punch and kick hit harder and harder than the last. While it lasted, Koko evaded all of Christina's attack easily thanks to her increased evasion, and it was enough as Koko's last punch finally shattered a small section of the barrier. However, while Christina seemed to be shocked that her defense had been broken through, Koko used her chance by infusing her foot with magic and kicking the already weakened barrier, shattering the rest of it before she recovered instantly and struck the hero with yet another Serpent's Strike on her stomach.

Gasping from the force of the blow, Christina keeled over, but Koko wasn't nearly done yet. Uppercutting Christina's head, Koko lifted the girl almost a foot off of the ground before she kicked straight up, sending Christina several more feet into the air until she grabbed hold of the girl's foot. Yelling as she moved, Koko twisted herself around while dragging Christina though the air behind her before she finally slammed the girl onto the ground, causing the hero to cry out as a cloud of dirt burst into the air from beneath her and the hard dirt road cracked slightly. And after finishing her planned moves, Koko once again retreated, not wanting to be close when Christina rose again as she knew that what she'd done wouldn't be enough to defeat a hero.

"You can let this be a lesson." Koko said with a fierce smirk as she was having the time of her life. "Martial artists in these kinds of game-like worlds always specialize in combos!"

Having trained for so many years yet only being able to defeat weak monsters because of it, Koko couldn't help but have fun now that she was finally fighting a strong and normal sized opponent. This ment that all of her grappling moves and combos that she'd practiced for so long could finally be used, though she only wished that she could find better circumstances in which to use them as she knew that this incident shouldn't be fun at all. At least, not until Celdric was stopped.

"I'll admit that you're strong, but I'm not going to lose here! I'm the hero! I can't ever lose!" Christina, as expected, got up from the road and yelled while glaring at Koko with shining golden eyes. And while Koko had been about ready to continue the fight, she could only stumble as she once again felt her world growing dark around her. She was feeling the crushing weight of Magic Domination, and she most likely would have fallen unconscious immediately had it not been for the fact that she'd already been infusing focus into her mind from the previous confrontation. After all, this pressure was much more severe than Austin's demonstration.

"I-isn't this a little unfair?" Koko laughed hesitantly as Christina's figure continued to grow and grow in her vision, all the while as her golden eyes shined against the surroundings. "Aren't I supposed to get some new ability or something to resist this right about now?"