Rukidi immediately launched himself towards his opponent while adopting a strange posture. As he moved, he was hovering a few millimeters off the ground while his body maintained a perfect balance. His movement seemed almost robotic as he could move forward and horizontally without even changing his posture. This type of movement resembled a dragon fly’s flight thus it was labeled the [Dragon Fly Dance]. It was a form of martial arts that prioritized quick, unpredictable, and balanced techniques.
Although Jakuta retaliated with his own close quarters combat techniques such as the [Dark Lightning Fist], he still found himself a bit overwhelmed by his opponent.
“This is the genuine Dragon Fly Dance, not the fakes that are taught in many modern martial schools!” Jakuta finally had an epiphany on Rukidi’s martial arts. Rukidi easily countered his fastest fist art despite being slightly slower than him.
This was only possible as Rukidi was using the authentic Dragon Fly Dance instead of the watered down versions. A majority of schools in the continent only emphasized more on general programs and teaching empty martial arts forms that were only nice to look at. Many martial arts learners would end up emptying their pockets in these schools yet the system did not instill the true meaning of martial arts.
Jakuta was struggling to react to Rukidi’s blows but he still managed to hold the latter off with his [Radi Arts].
Rukidi pursued Jakuta before unleashing a powerful jumping side kick. Jakuta was not slow to react and responded with a front kick. In this exchange, Jakuta’s kick reached Rukidi’s stomach first almost knocking the wind out of him. As the two fighters were airborne, Rukidi was sent flying in a horizontal line like a glider before falling to the ground.
Jakuta did not give him space to breathe as he ran up to him before grabbing him and slamming him into the ancient temple’s central pillar which caused multiple cracks to appear on the hard stone.
The [Radi Arts] that Jakuta utilized emphasized precise, linear, and fast attacks such as the Dark Lightning Fist. The Dark Lightning Fist was an aggressive fist style that targeted vital areas such as the eyes to cause maximum damage. Jakuta used his lightning-fast punches to cause cuts on Rukidi’s brows and temporarily blind his opponent before unleashing a lightning barrage on him.
Rukidi constantly struggled to escape the bombardment but his opponent grabbed him by his clothes, slammed him back onto the pillar, before delivering a rapid of punches to his stomach. However, Rukidi’s stomach was harder than iron and he was barely injured by the attacks. He made sure to protect his face after he was cut so his head remained uninjured and his mind remained clear.
All seemed hopeless for Rukidi until a red glow of energy appeared on his skin.
“Red Star Aura Activate!”
“Scarlett Blazing Aura Activate!”
Immediately, Rukidi activated two aura techniques which gave his skin a red glow. He followed up by using another form of Martial Arts named the [Gudi Chini] or ‘Low Boxing’ to counter Jakuta’s continuous assault. Low Boxing allowed a martial artist to exhibit overwhelming force as long as their body was conditioned enough. It was extremely effective in medium to short range close quarters fights.
“Red Blast!”
With an aura enhanced punch to Jakuta’s stomach, Rukidi was finally able to free himself. This attack was followed by several more punches to Jakuta’s stomach and torso. As the two fighters moved backwards, Jakuta swung his left fist in retaliation which Rukidi ducked to dodge before moving forward and picking up Jakuta by the waist.
With his opponent over his shoulder, Rukidi raised his speed to the maximum and slammed Jakuta hard into one of the boulders forming the arc-way of the temple. Due to the powerful impact, the huge drum on Jakuta’s back emitted a loud booming sound that echoed throughout the entire temple and the valley outside. After pinning his opponent to the wall, Rukidi then proceeded to land five blows on different parts of Jakuta’s body where each blow managed to break through the latter’s guard.
On seeing that his guard was useless, Jakuta left himself open to Rukidi’s attacks before placing his arms behind his opponent’s neck. In that position, he delivered a terrifying upward knee attack driven by his lightning element.
Rukidi was too late to block this attack and his quickly placed defense was broken apart as Jakuta’s flying knee landed squarely on his jaw. The blow was so powerful that Rukidi’s neck seemed to extend as if his head would fly off! The momentum caused his entire body to bend backwards. With a front kick to his disoriented opponent, Jakuta was finally able to get free from being pinned against the wall.
At this point, the two fighters were already bloodied as they circled around each other. However, if one looked closely none of them had any fatal injuries.
“Hahaaa, even after being a king away from the frontlines for so long, your skills in battle have not waned.”
“You are already impressed? I have not even warmed up yet.” Rukidi replied with a cocky smirk.
“Bring it on then.”
Jakuta threw a straight punch at Rukidi which the latter blocked with an open palm. In a martial arts move that entered a new frontier of physics, Rukidi closed his palm over Jakuta’s fist and slightly tilted it upwards at the wrist which reflected Jakuta’s own fist power back into his body. If one had an X-ray, they would be able to see the power travel up Jakuta’s arm all the way to his shoulders and neck. The pain Jakuta experienced from this attack was so severe that he almost toppled over and only managed to support himself with one arm on the ground.
“Defensive martial arts?!”
“Indeed, most of my martial arts like the ‘Dragon Fly Dance’, ‘Dambe’, and ‘Gudi Chini’ focus a lot on defense. When combined with my divine vow which can reflect attacks, my defense is almost impenetrable!”
“Almost, almost, huh. Let’s test that!”
With three limbs on the ground, Jakuta jumped high while twisting his body at fast speeds. He was aiming a spinning back fist at Rukidi’s neck with his left hand. The force of the punch compressed the air around the fist and even the sonic boom from the strike’s extreme speed was left far behind as Jakuta’s speed reached the extreme almost instantly.
In his [Radi Arts], Jakuta was using the [Lightning Dance] when spinning which boosted his speed with the lightning element. As his fist reached Rukidi’s neck, the latter utilized [Dambe] to block the punch with his outstretched left arm but he did not counter it with force. Instead he went along with his opponent’s momentum throwing Jakuta off balance.
With his left arm still tightly grasping Jakuta’s wrist, Rukidi took 3 well spaced steps circling around Jakuta while delivering three lethal blows to his opponent: one blow to the lower back, another to the right side where the liver was, and a frontal attack to the stomach on his third step.
Rukidi finished the ‘three step maneuver’ by throwing Jakuta onto the ground with the wrist he had been grabbing before jumping high up to deliver a stomp with both legs. However, his opponent was quick enough to react and rolled away from the attack which broke apart the earth causing huge cracks to spread everywhere.
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After reorienting his body, Jakuta realized that Rukidi was nowhere to be seen as his jumping stomp had so much force behind it that it drove him deep into the ground like a nail being hammered. Only a hole was left in the original position.
“He’s in the ground! He will attack from below!” Jakuta thought before quickly jumping into the sky and hovering several meters off the ground.
In this martial arts exchange, Jakuta had already realized that Rukidi was superior to him in close quarters combat. However, as a lightning element warrior with exceptional speed and power, Jakuta was still confident in his strength in mid range and long range battles.
“Rukidi! At the end of the day it does not matter which martial arts style you use, a punch is a punch, a kick is a kick. Victory goes to the best of us!”
As Jakuta watched the ground carefully, cracks started to appear everywhere. What followed was a large chunk of the earth shooting out of the ground towards him.
“Petty tricks.”
With a smash of his fist, a large chunk of earth was destroyed. However, more kept coming!
‘It is not a boulder?!’
It is only when Jakuta realized that the attack was not just a simple boulder that he decided to fly out of the way. Indeed it was not a boulder but a road emerging from the ground. This road was similar to the one previously seen in Rukidi’s domain and clearly represented his martial path as a journeyman. Once again the earthen road extended from the ground to the sky; [The Journeyman’s Road].
Standing in the middle of this road was Rukidi. As the road was vertical going all the way to the sky, Rukidi was standing horizontally defying gravity.
In his hands, Rukidi was holding a black magical spear. This was a dark black spear made from the bones of a creature called the Shadow Mountain Beast. The spear was so dark that it appeared unreal. It looked like an ink line as none of the light that touched it could escape it. This was a magic spear of the darkness attribute.
As the two fighters stared each other down, someone else appeared on the scene. It was not the newcomer’s identity that was shocking but what he had in his arms, a severed head. The man who had just appeared was the Hidden Elder who fought against Haraka, the [Wind Walker Swift Gale]. The Wind Walker was said to be one of the three fastest warriors in Toro yet he had been beheaded! Yet another famous character had died in this island on this night.
The Hidden Elder was holding Haraka’s head in his right hand and a sword in his left. For him to reach Rukidi and Jakuta’s battlefield, it was clear that Haraka had ran away but the Hidden Elder managed to chase him down and kill him thus ending up here.
Both fighters were shocked to see the elder but Rukidi still refused when the latter offered to help him. It was beneath him to work with someone else to gang up on his opponent. ‘Wouldn’t that be the same as admitting his weakness? That he was not up to par.’
“Forbidden Magic: Violet Flame of Repentance!”
As a combat magician who mastered both martial arts and magic, Rukidi could perfectly fuse these two powers together. Once he activated his forbidden magic, a purple flame suddenly appeared on the pitch black spear. The magic he used combined the fire and darkness element. As for the spear, Rukidi used it to channel his magic in the same way a mage would use a staff or wand. This spear was forged using Dark Magic and was an excellent weapon for a combat magician.
There were many different types of magic in the Zika world. Some of these included: Elemental Magic, Summoning Magic, Enhancement Magic, Forbidden Magic, and Evil Magic. In the case of Evil Magic, it was especially notorious for ruining the reputation of Dark Magic. Dark Magic was a type of elemental magic that was feared and outlawed in many places in the past because of people confusing it with Evil Magic.
The uniqueness of Evil Magic could be seen in the balance of costs after using magic. All magic had a cost and the stronger the magic spells, the more the cost. However, evil magic was deemed evil as it tried to pass on the cost of magic to someone else. Evil magicians would usually use other people’s bodies and sols instead of taking on the burden themselves. Dark magic received a bad reputation because of how closely entwined it was with evil magic.
As for Forbidden Magic, it was a type of magic that involved advanced spells of each form. Ordinary magic spells went from Rank 1 to Rank 10 while forbidden spells were rank 11 spells. Any magician could use a forbidden spell as long as they had the knowledge but the cost to be paid would be devastating. The spell would either require a large magic source or an exceptionally powerful magical item.
After activating the forbidden magic on the spear, a Battle Spirit was summoned. This was the ‘Shadow Mountain Phantom’, Rukidi’s Battle Spirit. It was a giant humanoid phantom that stood several meters in height and wreathed in purple flames.
Jakuta did not hesitate to pull out his trump cards too. He dug his hands into his chest and pulled out a huge double-headed ax! This ax was actually the tattoo on his bare chest. As he grabbed it, the tattoo extended and turned into an oversized ax. However, with Jakuta’s large frame this weapon did not look unnatural for him to use. The ax was red hot with arcs of lighting and tongues of fire snaking across it.
Seeing Jakuta’s violent momentum, the Hidden Elder felt like he should still help Rukidi but before he could think further, a shocking force blew him away from the battlefield as Jakuta’s battle spirit erupted. The force was so powerful that Rukidi’s road to the sky was shattered. An endless rain of boulders fell from the sky!
“Is this an apocalypse?!” The elder could not help but exclaim once he stood up again. The sight in front of him shocked him to the core. A gigantic lightning bird circled around the skies emitting shrill cries. With each cry, lightning would shoot forth and with each flap of its wings, violent tornadoes would form.
This was Jakuta’s Battle Spirit: the ‘Storm God’s Messenger’ – Divine Lightning Bird!
However, even after the two fighters activated such powerful techniques, neither of them made a move. In the end, Rukidi was still the first to speak.
“Why are you still fighting? I know you are not like the other assassins. What do you hope to achieve?” Rukidi had once tried to recruit Jakuta and he had known of the latter’s talent for a long time.
Jakuta was not a man who would willingly become an assassin. Although he did not have a slave seal like the other assassins, he still came here tonight under the king’s orders. It was clearly not his choice and Jakuta could not refuse as he had to think of his people. The people of Oyo were entirely reliant on him. Their rise and fall would also be tied to him.
“Assurance. I’m waiting for assurance.” This was the short answer Jakuta gave. Before he was sent on this mission, someone important had sent him a secret letter. It assured him that all his questions would be answered and all his worries would be taken care off once he stepped foot on Sese.
“King Rukidi, we can work together to take him down and return to the compound to help the rest if they need us. There is no need to negotiate with an assassin.”
“Ha ha ha ha ha.” Jakuta found these words a bit comedic before replying to both of them, “Indeed, I am not going anywhere. Feel free to attack.”
Rukidi did not respond to any of the two and proceeded to ask Jakuta, “Jakuta you did not use your Divine Invocation: Wrath of the Storm God. I know it is very destructive especially on a rainy night like tonight. Your Annihilation Storm could have threatened to destroy the entirety of Sese Island. Yet you did not use it. Even more shocking, you did not beat on your drum even once!” Of the assassins that came here tonight Jakuta and [Rain Walker] were the strongest on a rainy night.
Rukidi also knew that Jakuta’s strongest weapon was not the ax in his hands but the giant drum on his back. This was because he and Jakuta were very similar. Rukidi’s strongest weapon was also the drum tied to his waist that could absorb attacks among having many other abilities. Neither he nor Jakuta had gone all out.
It is only after hearing Rukidi’s words that the Hidden Elder realized that Jakuta had never taken the assassination mission seriously. He did not use any of his strongest techniques.
“Cough.” The stare-down was interrupted by a cough which stood out even amidst the rain. A hooded figure had somehow appeared in the middle of the battlefield. As they watched him remove his hood, everyone was slightly surprised but Jakuta finally broke out into a grin.
“It seems you did not trick me.”
“I always, keep my word.” The man said to Jakuta before bowing towards King Rukidi and speaking, “Your Highness, I rushed here on the heir’s call.” By the heir, this man was referring to Kato.
To this, Rukidi only replied with a soft, “Umn, I understand now”, before flying back to the town. Some of the things he could not make sense of tonight had finally clicked into place. He deactivated his technique to return to Sese town where everything would conclude. As for Jakuta, he nodded at the man before the both of them also flew toward Sese town.
However, the Hidden Elder was left frozen in the rain by what he had witnessed. He had a shocked and perplexed look on his face because of the identity of this man. If anyone in Toro knew of what transpired tonight and who this man was, chaos would ensue.
As everyone including Rukidi, the Hidden Elder, and even old man Kasi converged back into Sese town, a decisive event that would affect Toro’s future days occurred in this island town of the Great Lakes.