The Bringer Of Darkness: Shadow Slash is one of Tsubaki’s strongest techniques, it requires all her shadows to be absorbed into the blade itself, potentially leaving the wielder of Tsubaki defenseless. But when the strike has landed on a target, a delayed explosive slash excessively damages the target, this same deadly explosive slash is what Heracles was feeling. Never in his life did he know such pain. He would have never imagined such pain existed in the first place.
The attack cut him deeper than any of Tsubaki’s previous attacks, Hell, it cut him deeper than any blade had ever done before. His blood sprayed, geysering out as his eyes rolled back into his head.
But that wasn’t all, the force of the explosive attack was so strong, in fact, that it sent Heracles flying outside of the ring, and he no longer had the strength to stop it.
The attack sent him flying fast up towards the viewing room. The first to react was the beastman, Angus, who grabbed Moon D, then moved out of the way. A second later, the large body of Heracles came crashing through. Equipment was damaged, glass was everywhere, assistants yelped and screamed, not expecting a giant man to come crashing through.
After the screaming had settled, there was chatter heard all through the room as everyone watched as Heracles laid spread eagle on the floor.
“Holy shit!” Moon D shouted. He then burst into laughter. “Hahahahahaha! I was wrong! I was so wrong! That kid was amazing!”
He continued to laugh as he approached the downed man. He gazed at the large man’s bleeding gash on his chest.
“Damn, that kid got him good,” Moon D remarked.
Moon D was now nearly inches away from Heracles. Someone else admiring Heracles’s cut, but for a different reason, was the double-bladed axe, Rickenbacker. While still up against the wall, he thought to himself, “How impressive to be able to take my older sister’s strongest slash and get away with only a cut is truly impressive. This man, wherever he comes from, is much more than human.”
Back to Moon D, he had come closer to Heracles, now touching his body. He laughed again, “Oooooh, that’s going to leave a mark,” he snickered.
Then he was stunned as Heracles sat up quickly. Out of the blue, Moon D was startled and fell back as the assistant in the room screamed in terror. The only one ready for whatever could happen was Angus. He got into a stance, but Heracles paid no one in the room any mind. He simply stood up, bleeding, as he mumbled to himself over and over again, “I have to keep fighting.”
He repeated as he took a step towards where he had crashed in from. Then he stopped, taking a look behind his shoulder. What he saw was Rickenbacker behind him. Heracles was frazzled, he was completely out of it, but he registered that his last two weapons were destroyed by Jake in battle. If he was going to continue fighting, he needed a new weapon.
The giant man turned and walked toward Rickenbacker. Assistants and even Moon D gasped as they watched him come closer to the mystic axe. Many looked at Angus, but the beastman didn’t move from his spot, and on top of that, he didn’t even seem worried. He didn’t intervene with what Heracles aimed to do.
Once Heracles was right up on the axe, he reached out and grabbed it. Then he turned, pulling it, but he soon noticed that Rickenbacker wasn’t moving. Heracles turned back around facing the axe. He tried pulling it again, but it still wouldn’t move. He then tried both hands, yet it wouldn’t even budge. Even with all of Heracles’s strength, he couldn’t lift the axe.
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As he tried, Rickenbacker spoke out loud, “Foolish. You seem more than human, but you’re still only a foolish human.”
Rickenbacker spoke these words out loud, clear as day, yet none except Angus could even hear those words, including Heracles. After struggling for a while, the man stopped trying to lift Rickenbacker.
“Another mystic blade,” he said underneath his breath. He then turned away from it, aiming to continue his fight with Jake.
“I must keep fighting. I must,” Heracles kept repeating these words over and over as blood poured from his chest.
Heracles took a step closer to the entrance he created when he crashed in. Then his head felt hazy, but he tried to take another step. But his vision started to slip as his eyes rolled into the back of his head once again. Heracles began to fall forward, even as he did so, he was still muttering to himself. But that came to an end when his face met the floor.
Even though he was filled with willpower, Heracles’s body had reached its limit. He now laid on the floor unconscious.
Back in the auditorium, Jake had finally stood up from his kneeled position. He stood tall, breathing heavily. Like Heracles, he was bleeding badly from his own wounds.
But he didn’t seem to notice,” the boy started to look around in search of something. When his eyes caught sight of what he was looking for, he smiled softly. What he saw was Tsubaki’s sheath. He had dropped it after he unsheathed her for the second time. He was so absorbed in the battle; he hadn’t noticed till now.
He started to limp slowly to the scabbard. As he did, he noticed how quiet it was in the auditorium after his last attack. Not a soul said two words, not even Tsubaki was speaking.
He continued limping to the scabbard till he was standing over it. As he reached down to grab it, the Beastmen Angus was reaching down to touch the back of Heracles. After a moment, he nodded. ‘He’s alive but unconscious,’ he said.
As he turned around, he caught a glimpse of Moon D, who was cracking the biggest smile in his life, ‘THAT WAS AWESOME!’ he shouted, nearly bursting the eardrums of all in the room. ‘THIS HAS BEEN THE BEST EXAM I’VE EVER BEEN A PART OF!’ he laughed as he jumped around the room.”
Angus could only shake his head as he stood. ‘That kid was awesome, awesome I tell you…’”
Moon D froze for a moment as he realized what he had just said. ‘Kid, kid, that kid is more than just a kid, he’s a damn badass. It’s wrong of me to even call him something as low as kid,’ Moon D turned to his assistants. ‘Hey, his name, what’s that guy with mystic swords’ name, tell me now!’”
“Moon D’s assistants became frazzled even more now because of the man’s over-enthusiasm. One of his assistants turned to the monitor that hadn’t fallen to the floor and started typing in keys. After a moment, they pulled up what they were looking for. ‘Applicant 1267,’ they said aloud, ‘his name is Jake Su…’”
While reading, the assistant’s words got caught in their throat as their eyes widened, looking at the screen. ‘Jake what,’ Moon D asked impatiently. ‘JAKE WHAT?’”
It took a moment for the assistant to find the words to speak, but when they did, they said, ‘It says his name is Jake Sullivan.’ Hearing the last name ‘Sullivan’ put everyone in the room in a vice grip, but the one who was shocked the most was Angus. He turned in the direction of the assistant, stunned to his very core. As he parted his lips to say “his……a Sullivan.’”
Back in the auditorium, Jake had finally picked up Tsubaki’s scabbard. Then he sheathed the katana. As he did, the referee T.K, who had been pushed out of the ring when Jake had first unsheathed Tsubaki, was now standing up. The man looked disheveled as he gazed around the room at the destruction, the damage. T.K never expected a battle between two applicants would cause such a frenzy.
As he looked around, he noticed something, or the lack of something, or better yet, someone. T.K didn’t see Heracles; he was gone. As he searched for the man, thinking he had been knocked out of the ring, his eyes were led up to the viewing room and the crater-sized hole that wasn’t there before.
Seeing this, T.K’s eyes went big as he stared at the hole. Then he looked at Jake, the young man that still stood in the damaged, splintered ring. ‘Did he defeat that man?’ T.K asked himself. After staring for a while at Jake and the crater leading to the viewing room, his assumptions were confirmed true.
Once T.K came to terms with the results, he made his way back into the ring. When he did, he loudly announced, ‘THAT’S IT! THE FINAL ROUND OF PHASE 3 HAS BEEN DECIDED! THE WINNER IS APPLICANT 1267, JAKE!’ Gabby, Biscuit, and Zack broke into smiles. ‘He won,’ said Zack. Great relief came over him, as other assistants were still in shock from what they saw in the ring.”
Jake had pulled Tsubaki up closer to his face. ‘Hey, did you hear that? We won!’ ‘Yes,’ she responded. ‘It seems we did, boy.’ Tsubaki’s response made Jake frown a bit as his legs started to feel like jelly. ‘You know, you don’t have to keep calling me boy. It’s not my name…’
Jake lifted his head up and froze, thinking for a moment. Then he looked back at Tsubaki. ‘Hey, speaking of names, I don’t think I ever got yours, would you tell me?’ He waited for a moment, then the mystic blade answered, ‘I am the 20th child, the 20th blade, the 20th born. I am Tsubaki.’
Jake smiled softly as his legs gave out and he started to fall forward. As he fell, he spoke to her once more. ‘Well, Tsubaki, nice to meet you. I’m Jake, and I guess we’re partners now,’ Jake said these words before he hit the ground as his consciousness faded. The boy then hit the ground with a loud thud, still holding onto the katana.
Tsubaki was quiet for a moment, thinking of the past. Then she answered the unconscious boy. ‘Yes… I guess we are.’