Gunfire rattled Amanda’s ears as an explosive buckshot smashed against her hexagonal ice barriers. Its beautiful snowflake-like surfaces crunched like glass as it met shearing hot metal.
She fought back putting her core energy into her sword and with a swing of her long-bladed implement her resulting slash produced numerous shards of shining arrows of frost. As she did this, she hid behind cover and the arrows flew at extreme speeds at Itsuki.
Expending his core energy as well, Itsuki countered by dodging and rolling out of the way. The edges of his moves tinged with a transparent aura, a tell that he was enhancing his speed. Preempting the trajectories of the incoming ranged attacks his body moved as if he had dodged something like this before.
Cocking the handle of his shotgun he fired at the incoming groups of flying shards Amanda continued to throw at him. With another spray of buckshot, Itsuki threw off and broke the numerous shards’ paths of attack.
This gave him room to dodge and enough leeway to reload shells from his belt into his shotgun, keeping him in the fight. He made sure to remember which kind of cartridge he loaded and in which order he put them in. If it was scatter, break shot, explosive, or incendiary.
Knowing this was crucial. He was firing unceasing shots at Amanda, engulfing her in a torrent of chaotic sounds, kicked up air, and dirt. He hoped to get her attention off him for even just a second.
This was key to his strategy. Throw the opponent off by using a variety of shells with different effects. As a grunt type explorer, all he had were tricks and the tools in his hands so he made every shot count. Keep her guessing on what he was aiming at and prioritizing next.
Was it her shields, herself, the terrain, or her projectiles, Amanda’s mind had to process all of this while trying to close in to attack but the mental pressure from Itsuki’s actions were slowing her down.
It didn’t help how his gaze always caught her attention. In a singular moment when he glared at her, the sight of his shotgun seemed more apparent and she thought to defend as she was expecting another barrage was coming, but this was a mistake since it gave Itsuki time to reposition.
With a better firing angle on her Itsuki mercilessly filled her eyes with the sight of gunfire and her ears with booming shockwaves. Picking up on his misdirection, Amanda charged, her sword ready to slice him but found herself blown back from a sudden kick to her stomach.
The next second, Itsuki leveled the shotgun at her as she almost keeled over and Amanda gritted her teeth in frustration and confusion whilst holding her stomach.
“Just how can you keep up?” She sighed but then quickly righted herself. “No matter, let’s see if you can keep up, with THIS!.”
She dashed, becoming a blue blur to Itsuki’s eyes. Circling around, Amanda used as much speed as she could muster and thrusted the tip of her sword towards the back of Itsuki’s neck. But instead of Itsuki feeling the touch of cold steel to his skin, Amanda felt the muzzle of a pistol pressed to her forehead.
With enough mind to duck to the side, she got out of Itsuki’s new sudden line of fire in a flash just before a booming ring rattled her eardrums.
She thought that her attack was perfect, just how did he anticipate her? It was bewildering Amanda since her opponent hadn’t even looked in her direction and had pulled the pistol out as if already knowing where she was going to be.
“You’re too simple. I’ve fought explorers, unlike you.” Itsuki said plainly as he continued to not look in her direction. Finally he turned around and aimed his pistol and shotgun at her again. Firing another barraging blast at where she was moving next he kept Amanda on her toes as he swerved his body around like a turret.
She was always in her sights and was keeping Amanda’s blade at a distance away from him as best he could as to not let her get another chance.
His shots only got a glancing blow doing no real damage but the mental pressure Amanda was under was extremely heavy. It had only been a few minutes into the fight but the onslaught Itsuki exuded was pushing Amanda to her mental limits.
No one could think clearly in a chaotic situation and this was double for this fight where a young girl like her was hailed by the crack of constant gunfire. Itsuki on the other hand looked calm, as if he was one with the chaos of the fight.
He moved as if he was working like clockwork. Firing in areas where Amanda wasn’t but had anticipated he would close her options off. To the crowd, he looked as if he was firing at random yet Amanda could tell that there was an assurance behind where he placed his bullets. It made Amanda shiver at how cunning his human senses were.
Their duel continued, gunfire deflecting from her sword every now and again as Itsuki continued his onslaught of steel rain that hailed most, if not all, possible paths Amanda could have taken to advance. He dashed around like her in concert albeit slower but at speeds that could be said to be above human limits.
The crowd went wild. The spectacle was out of this world. It was like seeing an action movie in real life and the fact that this wasn’t all the product of CGI or video editing only compounded just how exhilarating witnessing this fight was.
They watched as Itsuki loaded then fired his weapons in rapid succession making Amanda turn to a defensive strategy for a few moments. This would drain Itsuki’s shotgun’s full ammo capacity in a few seconds. He had just fought off another wave of Amanda’s ice arrows and she seemed to have laid her attack on thick this time.
Seeing an opening since he was out of shells in his shotgun and bullets in his pistol, Amanda took a chance and rushed him again. This time creating a mist in front of her to obscure his vision. Within the mist she felt safe, until her vision filled with the sight of a grenade that was likely prematurely thrown in by Itsuki.
Not again!
She thought and hurriedly sliced it but in that second Amanda was occupied, Itsuki had quickly loaded his shotgun again. It was so quick that it seemed impossibly fast yet she saw him do it with her adept kinetic vision.
Itsuki countered and rushed at her instead of firing right then and there. His shotgun barrel raised to leveled position, it roared and spat blistering chitin armored lead.
He was moving like some sort of military specialist throwing a shoulder check here or there to disorient Amanda while also performing dangerous close-range maneuvers to shake Amanda up some more.
Retaliating, Amanda swung but by just the skin of his teeth he would dodge her blade. A cold ghostly touch ran across Itsuki’s cheek and he could tell that Amanda’s sword had more to it than just looking pretty.
Amanda did not let up though. He was in range now and Itsuki was willing to meet her in close combat. Even if she was being put on the back foot in range and evident battle experience, she knew he’d run out of ammo and would have to reload again at some point.
Better yet, his core energy would be used up before her own, so he’d slow down which was when she could pounce and press her advantage. When that moment came she would make the difference in power clear.
Amanda jumped back making Itsuki be perplexed why she would move out of range and forfeit her advantage, but soon understood why as countless shards of ice produced from her sword rained down on him as if it were hail in the winter.
Amanda could produce an endless amount of frost arrows. They were simple enough to make and Amanda knew her higher core affinity allowed her the ability to hail even more projectiles than Itsuki since he was limited on physical ammunition.
“Let’s see just how long you can last! Better not miss or these arrows might hurt you pretty bad!”
Giving him a sarcastic warning, Amanda sent forth another wave of her attack. With a single commanding wave forward of her sword, legions of ice arrows descended on her opponent.
“Hmmmm, a good strategy.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Itsuki mumbled as he took a breath to steel himself. Recalling a situation like this he loaded more explosive shots to weather this rain.
Expending his ammo again to fend off her hail of ice, Itsuki’s guns ran dry quickly and Amanda succeeded in opening up another chance. Hearing the click of an empty gun, Amanda saw a momentary opening as Itsuki tried to change his equipment. The movements needed a few seconds but those seconds were enough.
She sprang, reducing the molecular friction her armored heels had with the ground by freezing it. Like a skater she slid across with speeds that left numerous trails of bluish wispy blurs around Itsuki.
“Let’s see what you can do.” Itsuki said, pissing Amanda off with his attitude.
“Hmph! impudent twerp. I’ll do what I want!”
She struck at him, cutting him with purposefully light slashes while dancing around him to keep him guessing where she was coming from.
“Come on! Let’s see if you’re as tough as you act you little punk.”
Amanda jeered and taunted, trying to get a satisfying reaction from his always unamused expression. But all Amanda got were a few low grunts from him. Itsuki didn’t even flinch but was instead following her with his eerie black eyes while his arms were up in a guard over his face.
He had thrown down his guns, since they were worthless without any ammo in them and he couldn’t load them under this condition he was suddenly caught in, so tossing them aside was the best course of action. He now opted to focus core energy into his eyes.
This technique of focusing core energy into a specific part of a person’s body was a high-level skill that only veteran explorers could utilize after years of training.
As unique as it was, it was little help since its benefits were only slight. It allowed Itsuki to see Amanda’s cheeky smile through the blue blurs she left around him. He sighed, wishing that the new students weren’t all this naive.
Finding a break in her movements, Itsuki pulled out a large metallic riot shield from his storage ring. It was a simple action and could be done quickly since it was easier to pull from his storage rings.
On it, it had what looked like thick and heavy block plates attached to its front. He raised it up, anticipating where Amanda would come from next.
Amanda saw the shield and had no idea what Itsuki would do with such an outdated piece of equipment. It looked ram shackled and like a DIY project gone wrong.
“You can’t defend against me with a shield like that! Especially with one as weak as that! I’ll just cut through it!”
Slashing, the blue hued metal of Amanda’s sword slid horizontally through the metallic alloy like a hot knife through butter, but at the sound of a click the front of the shield suddenly burst into an explosion, throwing Amanda back.
“What the heck is this!”
Covering her face from the heat, she slid away as fast as she could but found that Itsuki was somehow keeping up with her. She could see the faint trails of a pair of flickering flames sputtering out from behind Itsuki as he closed in at an impossible speed.
This was incomprehensible. Amanda thought.
This guy was an E ranker and had low core affinity. How could he produce and channel enough energy to increase his speed to keep up with her, but she didn’t get any time to think about that. She heard another click and yet again an explosion enveloped her. She was caked in a smoking torrent of fire.
Using the riot shield, Itsuki triggered the numerous explosive devices he had rigged to it in advance and had stored away in his storage ring. This was his method of throwing off tricky opponents that liked to play with their enemy. It gave them a dose of explosives right to their face and was perfect for beating some sense into a naïve opponent.
With the last of the explosives used up on the shield, Itsuki tossed it at Amanda, hoping to nail her in her pretty face. Amanda cut the sturdy metallic shield to ribbons as if it were a piece of trash. The metallic strips clattered to the ground and Itsuki sighed since he knew that wouldn’t have worked but felt like he got the intended effect.
“Don’t toy with me kid! Your tricks don't work on me. If you want to surrender I suggest you do so right now. I might be merciful and not be too harsh on you and the boys when I become supervisor of the dorm after we win this fight.”
Amanda angrily pointed her sword at Itsuki. She could tell by his expression and demeanor that he wasn’t taking this seriously and was looking at her with constant disappointment throughout this fight. With cold anger in her voice, she demanded.
“Fight me seriously, hurry up and—”
But yet again, Itsuki pulled out another trick from his sleeve. Suddenly shouldering an assault rifle, his weapon thunderously belched lead. With his other free hand, he threw down a few grenades at her.
Amanda flinched since she had figured out that Itsuki had a pension for explosive attacks, so she braced for fire. Instead of exploding fire, colored smoke quickly enveloped them both in a black haze. Itsuki moved ahead into the smokescreen as a visor was pulled down over his eyes.
Amanda raised her sword to whip up a clearing wind but as she did, the hilt of her sword jolted uncontrollably.
“Huh? Where did that-”
She then felt a sudden jolt to the back of her knee and almost doubled over. It only got worse as more seconds of struggling went by.
She was pelted from all sides by a barrage of silent gunfire. These hits did no damage due to her armor but the constant jostling was messing up her fighting posture making it hard to stand upright.
She knew who it was and knew that Itsuki had switched to firing a higher caliber with more weight behind it, giving it that kick that was throwing her off.
Amanda focused, she needed to look closely, figure out where Itsuki was. While dodging blind was almost impossible she turned to hearing the almost silent pops of his rifle. Triangulating where he was, she guessed where in the smoke he might be.
His dashing made it hard to pinpoint it but going by the intensity of the gunfire he was keeping his distance while also aiming for non-vitals. He was messing with her again and it didn’t help how, to her, Itsuki seemed to be grinning at this moment. The thought of this began to make the sheet of ice that was her sanity start to crack.
“Goddamnit! Enough!”
Stabbing her sword into the ground, jagged spears of ice rose up all around her, spreading outward like a tide of razor-sharp death. Through his visor, Itsuki could see the jagged shapes on his heat sensing function of his visor and had to back away but he was not fast enough.
Caught by her ice by his foot, Itsuki attempted to shoot it free but the layers of polished clear ice were too thick. He could see his leg through the still uncracked and cement like ice. Looking up, he heard Amanda approach.
“I have you now! Prepare to die!”
Sensing through the ice, Amanda could find where he was in the smoke without even looking. The runt was trapped with one of his legs stuck, so Amanda leapt to end her one on one with this lowly grunt.
“Good job.” Itsuki said appraisingly but there was no smile on his face. “But not good enough.”
Hearing the familiar sound of a click, Amanda watched as Itsuki supposedly blew himself up. He self-destructed in a blossom of flames with himself at the epicenter. She wanted to rush in since she knew that this didn’t mean victory but didn’t since the explosion would have done damage to her.
He had done something like this before and came out Scott free. She didn’t know his trick on surviving his reckless actions but she did know it left him fatigued, perhaps some kind of short-range teleportation device to get out of danger.
Yet that was unlikely since she would have noticed such a large amount of core energy being used and teleportation was still an experimental tool only a few mystics could use. She didn’t put it past Itsuki of possibly having this option since she was starting to realize that he was a piece of work. He just had so many tools.
He used whatever he could. Explosives, guns, bullets, even shields, things that you wouldn’t usually use against mystics or explorers in general. Yet, here he was, flaunting these weak and unusual tools.
Even somehow using them effectively to tip the scale of power between them. As the dust cleared, Amanda charged in, hoping to find a mark for her blade.
“Oof!”
She cried out in pain the next moment, as all she got was another kick to the stomach from a leg that emerged from the black smoke around her. Rolling back a few times, she landed on her feet but was met by the sights of a pair of submachine guns again.
The black haze of the smokescreen had finally blown away, revealing Itsuki standing just a few meters from her. He was unharmed and unfazed, looking as if all her attempts and attacks did nothing to affect him.
“That was a nice warm up. Ready for the real fight?” Itsuki asked as if Amanda already knew.
“Tch! Once you run out of ammo, you’re dead meat!” Amanda growled.
“That’s IF I run out of ammo.”
Itsuki punctuated as he tapped the numerous storage rings on his arms. Amanda shuddered at the realization she had as he did so. If each of those storage rings were of a high quality then the amount each one carried could possibly equip an entire army.
But that was unrealistic, just how could a kid like him have that kind of gear? As if to answer that question, Itsuki’s guns fired with what sounded like a resounding yes that irked Amanda to no end. On the backfoot once again, all Amanda could do was wait as Itsuki drained his ammo supply.
She could rush in again, but why? Her victory was inevitable when he began to slow down from a lack of core energy.
But every time Itsuki took out another set of guns, Amanda felt her already cracked sanity melt like pieces of small ice in the summer heat.
Her brow twitched in increasing annoyance, especially since this time, Itsuki fired grenades at her from a drum feed launcher while in his other hand, he sprayed a flamethrower to melt the frost arrows she tried to fire from a distance. While unintentional, the added distance she opened up made it easy for Itsuki to predict her attack's destination.
“What are you! Rambo!” Amanda screamed but Itsuki didn’t respond. He just single mindedly fired, reloaded, and switched guns when necessary to adapt to how Amanda moved. This was how he fought, gave it everything he had and didn't let up. No slack, no shortcuts, no leeway, just the hard way.