It was easy to say, but I still had no idea what I should do. Learning by repetition naturally meant that I had to slash a bunch of times, but how, when, or where exactly I should do it were still questions that I couldn’t answer.

I tried to burn Akari’s final moments into my mind, with the hope of learning something from her last display of the blades. However, I soon came to a disappointment—Akari’s stance wasn’t one that I could imitate, at least not right now. The pose of having one blade straight up and another straight down was meant to create a perfect balance, but it was by no means a conventional technique. Any half-hearted attempt at copying would only result in the user looking like a fool.

“Screeeee!”

The shriek dragged me back to reality. I didn’t have time to be leisurely thinking like this, not with this dragonfly breathing on my neck.

Turning my gaze to the left, I found my two teammates knocked down, but not out. Aozaki had bruises and dirt all over his armor, while Yamabuki was largely unscathed—light injuries overall, so they could help me. Given that the boss didn’t attack them first.

But the chance of that was zero. In this so-called second phase, this thing was much more aggressive than before, shown by its now hostile gaze towards us. If it had kept its old body, the eyes would be shining red. Instead, we only got a mass of green and a surge of wind to notify us of its massive attack.

I couldn’t spare a moment to check whether or not they were still conscious, and much less so about how I should spare my power. With my knees bent, I could feel muscles bursting in my calves as the system’s voice echoed:

[Activating the unique skill, Red Flash. Remaining number of usage: 2.]

With a stomp, I flew as fast as I could, grabbing the other two by the collar just in time for the blast of wind to escape the dragonfly’s mouth—I was right in my intuition, its aggressive nature had led it to use the faster sonic blast more than usual. However, as soon as the three of us landed on the ground, the backlash from using powers beyond my current physical strength came back to bite me.

My legs contracted, then stretched repeatedly, as if suffering from a sudden stroke. A pain unlike any other coursed from my legs to my head, going straight from one nerve to another. Even my arms felt an uncharacteristic numb, as if I was struck by lightning.

“Yakushi-kun, are you alright?” Yamabuki, only now seeing my condition, gasped. “Here, let me…”

Before she could shoot me with one of her numbing needles, I had already stopped her with a hand raised forward, shaking as it might have been. “I’m… fine. Just a bit numb, that’s all…”

“Boy,” Aozaki interrupted. “Was that Transformation?”

“… You knew?” I widened my eyes in shock.

“It’s the main way to evolve in Ryugashi,” the man answered, taking off his arm. Only now did I realize that it was indeed just armor, and not his skin—Aozaki’s hand was as human as me, only bigger and rougher due to heavy labor throughout the years.

“So… what does it mean?”

“Well, for one thing, you can use Soul Techniques,” flicking his fingers to summon a small azure flame, Aozaki explained. “The armor is your partner’s soul fused with your own, so you inherited their powers as well. I’m assuming that those blades on your hips are the same?”

I gave a nod.

“In that case, they’re the key to our victory, if your Onigiri… ah, no, it evolved just now, so Onisatsu’s technique is anything to show us before.”

It was unbelievable. Aozaki, despite his limited understanding of me, as well as the stress that the situation brought, was still able to assess the situation to this degree. However, there was only so much he could have guessed.

“But… I can’t use it.” I shook my head.

“Why not? Didn’t you undergo the Evolution ritual just now?”

”That… wasn’t it. It’s a bit hard to explain, but I also have this… Dragon God fragment inside my head. It’s harmless, but it has been the one showing me what I can and can’t use.”

“And Akari’s technique is one that you can’t use?” Yamabuki asked.

“Yeah. There’s apparently an entire tree that I have to learn, but I can’t learn without a clear target…”

“Well, that should be easy then,” Aozaki signaled towards the giant dragonfly. “You have a giant punching bag over there already, right? We’ll help stall it out for you.”

There was nothing I could have asked for more. The idea was in my mind already, but suggesting that would be akin to telling the rest to go die for my sake. And I’d had enough of that to fill two lifetimes’ worth, let alone one.

“… I’ll be in your care,” I nodded.

“Just to be sure, but how many more jumps like the one before can you do?” Asked Aozaki.

“One.”

“… You’re a handful, you know that?”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“You’re only realizing it now, Blue?” Chuckled Yamabuki. “He even had our two previous leaders, well…”

“I’m sorry, for both of them.” The tears silently flowing down her cheeks were enough for me to bow my head. “I really mean it.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Yamabuki answered, shaking her head. “I just… needed a moment. I’m better now.”

“We’ve lost so much already,” Aozaki sighed. “Let’s survive until the end, okay?”

”Yeah.” All of us nodded at the same time. And it was just in time too, for there was already another puff of air waiting for us.

“Move!”

Yamabuki and I rolled to the left, while Aozaki rolled to the right, barely escaping the sonic blast. At the same time, Yamabuki was quick enough to shoot one of her needles at each of us.

“You’ll need it,” when my eyes met hers, she only said as much.

Meanwhile, the system in my head also sounded. [Due to decrease in nerve’s receptors to pain, the number of Red Flash usage has increased from 2 to 3.]

I knew that the number is only meant for how much more recoil my body could take, damn it. I thought, but couldn’t complain. At this point, I had to take everything I could—it was no place to save face like last time.

Meanwhile, the dragonfly was preparing its second breath, this time aimed at Aozaki. The man in blue, however, was calm as a river.

“Flowing Water, Gentle Fist.”

This time, I got to see his prowess up close. With his palms open, Aozaki swept his torso around in a crescent moon pattern, then his leg in the opposite direction. Right when the dragonfly unleashed its sonic blast, from his hand burst an azure flame, and the man, as if touching the wind itself, flicked his arm with enough force to actually swat the breath attack away like a fly.

As I was still gasping at how flawless the technique looked, Aozaki had already turned to me and said:

“Did you get that?”

Right as the words left his mouth, another blast came flying straight at him. But another quick flick of his arm once again sent the tornado flying, while his body suffered no risk.

“Listen, Yakushi. A Soul Technique relies most on your connection to your partner. By evoking emotions from within you…”

The flames on his hands burned even brighter as Aozaki turned around, this time directly pushing the sonic breath against itself, fizzling out both sides with just one move.

“You can draw out your fused souls and use it as fuel. Don’t worry, it’ll regenerate as your body recovers. As for how to attempt your techniques, however, I have no clue. You’ll have to figure that out yourself. Get ready, it’s coming.”

True to his words, after two failed attempts at a quick strike, the dragonfly was learning. No longer did it try to use faster but weaker attacks to get rid of us one by one. By the way that it flew back, and with its wings ramping up in around a 45-degree angle, it was trying to go for a mid-range air strike.

[The boss monster is about to unleash the unique skill, Dust Tornado. Effective range: vertical conical shape, 20 meters in diameter, 30 meters in travel distance. Special effect: the wind will carry dust around it to blind the opponents.]

This little shit!

“Yellow! Ten o’clock, twenty steps, now!” I hastily gave an order. If anything, Yamabuki had to be the one to survive, as we still had a second chance with her around. But the creature’s intention was clear—it was trying to blind us, or more specifically, me, from seeing its patterns.

“Focus, Yakushi!” Aozaki shouted, his hands already glowing his blue fire. “Remember, evoke your emotions! Resonate with your partner, and you’ll unleash your Soul Technique!”

It was easy for him to say. I didn’t know his past, but Aozaki must have had something he loved beyond his partner. It wasn’t just that, but whatever else he had that he could draw out the mutual feelings to ignite his soul.

But me? Other than wanting to protect Akari, what else did I have? I failed to protect her, my precious partner. I failed to stop my first friend from being corrupted. I didn’t even manage to stop my enemy from sacrificing himself for my sake. What worth did I have, except to lash out in anger and to wail at my own incompetence?

The soul was the proof of life. As long as my soul burned, I was alive. That much I knew. But so what? Could I really be called alive if that was the only thing?

“It’s coming! Yakushi!”

The warning shout snapped me back. The tornado was coming at us indeed, but…

“It’s… slow.”

I gazed down my arm. To my surprise, there was another needle plunged into the elbow joint. Along with it, Yamabuki from afar gave me a wink and a thumbs-up, completely trusting that I would be able to pull off a miracle.

It was a stupid thought. I had no miracles. However, that needle was the boost I need for something else.

“That’s right. There are things other than emotions to confirm that I’m alive.”

Senses. The burning sensation from all the times I was stabbed. The scorching pain when the Shinbachira poison seeped into my body. The sparkling light of the night’s stars. The chilly, but nice feeling of the wind caressing my body. The sweet smell of honey, mixed with the dirty stench of fertilized ground. The mind-numbingly sweet taste that I once had. Everything was proof of me being alive. Of the experience that I’d shared with my beloved partner.

A bright red flame burst from the blade in my right hand. Along with it, a flash of image flowed into my brain, as natural as breathing.

[You’ve learned the skill, Single Strike.]

I didn’t let the joy of learning the skill overwhelm me, for I knew that everything was still only surface-level information. Right now, what I needed was the hand-eye coordination to actually slash the tornado apart.

I took a deep breath and took a good look at my target again. It was a strange feeling—as if my eyes could see just exactly how many dust particles there were within the tornado, how it moved, in which direction, and most importantly, how to completely negate its momentum with an opposite movement.

Blade reversed in hand, I slightly bent forward. The tornado was moving in a clockwise direction, so to negate it, I needed to move counterclockwise—in other words, from my right to my left.

I swapped my red blade from my left to my right, and did the same movement. When the tornado came my way, it was time to strike.

There was an odd feeling. Since the blade went through air, I wasn’t supposed to feel anything, but at that moment when my blade crossed with the tornado, I could definitely feel something being cut. The spiral wind in question burst into a bright red flame and quickly dissipated, before the fire returned to my side as if nothing happened, but it only fueled my curiosity even more.

“If I can really cut through nothing, then…”

[Notice: Step 1 of the unique skill path, Endless Zero/Bounded Infinity is complete.]