A gust of wind snatched Daniel’s hat from his head as he ran. He pumped his legs to run as fast as he could, heart pounding in his chest as he crossed the cracked road and hopped over a toppled streetlight.
He hated Ultimates like these! Most people’s ultimates were simply powerful attacks, or they summoned some new thing for their attack. Then, there were the extreme cases — landing an initial hit to pull their opponent into a parallel pocket dimension. Now that he was in her Ultimate, blocking physically wasn’t an option.
All he could do was survive.
As the storm roared, Nimbus soared overhead, piercing through the churning sky like a ray of light trailing a supersonic jet. Her blade commanded the winds themselves; she swung upwards, and Daniel reflectively raised his arms to protect himself as a gust of wind launched him into the air.
The wind from the second swing sent him careening across the city, screaming through his ears as he passed skyscrapers in a flash. As he rolled at the mercy of his momentum, Nimbus followed him through the air, flying beside him, so bright that he had to squint to even see her.
But, like the hand of a god, the final swing pulled him into the sky, right into the stormcloud itself. Grays and shadows filled his vision in every direction, churning with thunder and flashes of lightning. Nimbus flew up to meet him soon after. As she raised her sword into the air, lightning converged onto the blade.
“Hurricane Priscilla: Final Blow!”
For a moment, Daniel thought he finally knew how it felt to be hit by a train. But, being hit by a train was child’s play compared to taking the full force of a storm, crashing into the concrete, and not immediately dying. Every neuron in his brain failed to process the experience before it all went dark.
And then they returned to reality. The furniture all over the dessert store was decimated and shoved to the edges of the wall, like the world’s worst temper tantrum. Nimbus crouched a few feet ahead, panting, leaning on her sword. Pain hit a moment later, lacing every movement, stinging from the scrape on his forehead and from the burned skin on his chest where the lighting had hit.
She had brought him down to a third health, and, even worse, he couldn’t feel his left arm. Daniel leaned on his right arm, and used the nearby remains of a table to rise.
“You can give up if you need to,” Nimbus said between breaths, grinning. “I’ll even throw in a sale on my line of cologne to ease the pain.”
Wincing, Daniel clenched his right fist. His numb left arm hung at his side, but he fought to at least twitch his fingers. Hurry!
If he couldn’t move both arms, he couldn’t counter.
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“No? Fine! Someone else can take that coupon, once I finish kicking your ass!”
She slashed at the air, firing a dark-gray cloud — a lighting-based Weather Report — before firing a Wind Slash with the second swing. Daniel tried once again to move his left arm, but the fading numbness left aching muscles in their wake. The Wind Slash drew closer.
Daniel shoved through the stiffness, letting out something between a roar and a cry of pain as he struck his counterpose. The Wind Slash collided with his body as power surged through every muscle, drawing time to a standstill. Even the pain had disappeared for a brief moment, long enough for him to phase through the Wind Slash.
The lighting!
Immediately after the Counter ended, he grit his teeth against the pain and struck his pose again, countering the lightning to lunge forward once more. A final counter against Nimbus’s desperate slash, and the blue bar at his wrist flashed.
Four bars of Meter.
Time to end this. Down, Forward, Back, Down, Back, Forward, Back!
The veins in his left arm shimmered like a cerulean star of strength, lashing out from his skin, building an aura as he drew back. Once time resumed, Nimbus gasped in horror and tried to raise her block, but she was too slow — Daniel slammed his fist into her jaw. Four bars of Meter and his compounded damage worked hand in hand to delete 75% of her health, leaving her at a mere fourth.
She crashed into a fancy display of a croissant across the room — the last table that hadn’t been destroyed. Outside the window, the slowly-building crowd flared, but Daniel caught a quick movement from the corner of his eye.
Carmen dashed past their fight in the opposite direction, back where they’d came.
As Nimbus staggered against her blade, gripping the handle, Daniel’s face melted to seriousness.
I have to finish this.
But, she didn’t leave an opening. She took a slow step forward, eyebrows drawn, likely measuring whether or not she could get away with a Wind Slash against Daniel’s Counter. Her sword drew sparks along the ground as she prowled through the space between them. Daniel edged closer. His shoe squeaked.
And then she pounced. As she exploded into an upwards swing, Daniel shouted through the pain and struck his counterpose. But her swing was aimed too high. Her sword flew over his head, leaving him wide-open as the counter whiffed. Nimbus elbowed him in the face with her other arm.
She released her sword for the final punch, but she winced, stumbling at the critical moment. Daniel recovered and weaved underneath the slower attack, planting a medium cross into her ribs before finishing the fight with a left hook across the face.
“K.O.!” the referee announced, swiping a hand between Daniel and Nimbus as she sprawled out on the ground. “Chase wins!”
Outside the window, money changed hands as their placed bets earned their rewards. But, Daniel couldn’t focus on the crowd, nor on the menu that spawned in to congratulate him on his victory and confirm he’d kept his Class. Once the referee repaired the dessert shop and his clothes, he sprinted for the door across the room.
“No!” Nimbus shouted. “Dammit, my rank! Chase, you little — I’ll sue! My lawyers are gonna find you! I’m suing for defamation, for slander of character, for—”
Daniel didn’t even hear the rest. He shouldered the door across the room open, hoping that he wouldn’t be too late. If Carmen had won the contest and decided to choose the same disgusting pizza place she chose last time, he’d rather starve.