Swish Swish…CLANG!

[And it certainly won’t be me!]

Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom

They clashed all over the region, offsetting catatonic winds with their overwhelming auras. Keiji was truly one with his swords, displaying mastery that had never been seen before. His high level of perception gave him an almost precognitive ability that allowed him to predict how and where Uehara would strike. Even though the young hybrid was unpredictable with his strikes, Keiji’s perception allowed him to dodge or parry.

But this didn’t mean that Uehara was at a disadvantage.

*Pierce*

Keiji almost had his arm crudely amputated. While blocking an overhead strike from Uehara, the young demon had directly grown a new bone spike from his elbow that just managed to graze Keiji’s left arm. If Keiji didn’t swivel his elbow in time, his little brother may have just lost his lifelong companion.

But swivelling his elbow caused the balance of strength to deteriorate, giving Uehara an advantage in their momentary clash. With his two-handed bone battleaxe, Uehara pushed downwards, the blade of the axe almost kissing Keiji’s face.

The man himself was struggling fruitlessly, his jaws clenched and his teeth bared in exertion. Both their aura’s flared wildly, one trying to dominate and the other trying to resist. Keiji’s twin blades were flickering violently, their owner doing his best to make them maintain their solidity.

“Grrrr…”

Keiji groaned in exertion. The feeling of gravity pressing down on him came again. The sides of his spectral blades were already level with his forehead, and Uehara’s axe was almost acquainted with the tip of his nose.

Keiji was getting angry. Being this passive was unbecoming of a man of his stature. After gaining so much power, he couldn’t allow himself to lose in a contest of strength.

Rumble Rumble Rumble

With the churning of his chi, the earth began to tremble, the ground itself cracking like aged glass. Uehara responded in kind and released his own chakra. At the same time, his bone battleaxe increased in size and weight. Under the increased gravity, the axe was pulled down more, earning more exasperated grunts from Keiji.

At this point, Keiji only had two options left. Either he fruitlessly continued to resist or…

*Slice*

“GAH!”

BOOM

He had tried to redirect the battle axe, even though he knew injury was an inevitability. Fortunately, the axe just grazed his shoulder. But the same cannot be said for the ground. The battleaxe was buried to the hilt in the hardened earth..

But even though Uehara was left wide open with his swing, Keiji couldn’t take advantage immediately. His shoulder was cut to the point that bone was showing. Bleeding profusely, he couldn’t immediately capitalise.

But that didn’t mean the young demon couldn’t. When Keiji was about to fire a chi blast from his mouth, Uehara directly grew an armoury of bone spikes from his back that lashed forward towards Keiji like a dozen little snakes.

Keiji was forced to swallow his attack as he leaped back. Using his swords, he managed to cut off a few bones that managed to get too close to him. Despite the stinging pain from forcefully moving his injured arm, he gritted his teeth and held on.

Having retreated to a far enough distance, the sword on his right disintegrated. Using his freed hand, he began to attend to his injured shoulder, his gaze not leaving Uehara’s form in the slightest.

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The young demon retracted all his bones, his hunched back straightening in the process. The battleaxe in his hands entered his hands as well. His chest heaved from exertion, his skin lightening slightly. Having to generate that many bones in such a short interval consumed a lot of blood. His state didn’t escape Keiji’s eye.

Ripping off the tiniest pieces of bone from his shoulder, Keiji condensed a spectral sword in his right hand again.

“The first round goes to you, demon.”

The wound on his shoulder healed itself, leaving only dried blood.

“But not the next one.”

Swish…Clang!

Keiji was the one to initiate this time. Swinging his swords, he had every intention of decapitating Uehara. But the young demon didn’t even move. The bone spikes on his shoulder grew bigger, serving to block Keiji’s cross-strike. Uehara extended his hands forward, his palms aligning perfectly with Keiji’s abdomen.

Golden sage chakra circulated in both palms, two bright golden orbs manifesting in the process. No technique name was uttered or thought. Only instinct was left.

Swii…

The only thing Keiji saw was golden light clouding his vision before he suddenly felt immense pain.

BOOM

Even with his perception, Uehara’s moves were too fast. He had only comprehended that energy was being gathered when his stomach suddenly felt like boiling oil had been poured on it. The pain of crashing metres deep into the crater edge didn’t even register in his mind. His chi was rushing to expel the nature energy that was slowly seeping into his body.

Upon opening his eyes, he was greeted by a sight he did not want to see at all.

[W-what?!]

In the skies were quite literally, dozens of giant golden palms.

(AN: For your convenience, attack names will be listed but remember, Uehara’s instincts have taken over.)

[Monkey-Bird-Rat-Monkey-Dragon-Horse-Pig]-(Concept-Wind-Gravity-Concept-Lightning-Light-Fusion)

Clapping his hands, Uehara’s gaze intensified.

[Sage Art: 86 Palm Tribulation]- “Graaaaa!”

The hands began descending like meteors…extremely fast meteors.

Fwoop Fwoop Fwoop Fwoop Fwoop Fwoop…

An impending sense of danger clouded Keiji’s mind. He tried moving his body but the gravity suppression exerted by the palms restricted his mobility heavily.

“?!”

Hastily, he reinforced his body with chi, churning it through his coils.

Bolting forward, he managed to avoid the first three palms.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

But the other palms instantly changed their course towards him.

[Damnit!]

Swoosh Swoosh

In a feat of acrobatics, Keiji began dodging the palms, expertly channeling balls of chi beneath his feet and exploding them, allowing him to gain instantaneous movement. Cold sweat covered his brows, his eyes darting frantically around the area.

His skin felt like it was burning from the high levels of nature energy he could feel from the palms.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

[Ah!]

BOOM

“Agh!”

BOOM BOOM BOOM

With one palm having got him on his arm, three more palms directly descended on top of him. Keiji had hastily put up a crossguard, using both arms and legs to shield himself from the incoming barrage.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

The ground quaked violently as the palms pummeled Keiji into the ground. Even though he was floating before when he used all his limbs to protect himself, Keiji could already feel his spine digging into the hardened earth.

His limbs shook violently, his bones rattling within their joints. It absolutely did not help at all that his left arm was struck right on the elbow because right now, it was acting as a weak point.

BRRRRR BOOM BOOM

Palm after palm descended like an aerial carpet bombing. Keiji’s aura flickered violently within the blast zone. His teeth were grinding against each other in a test of will to resist the incessant tribulations.

But right when his resistance was about to wane out, the barrage suddenly stopped. All eighty-six palms had descended and the attack had ended. But instead of capitalising on Keiji’s beaten form, Uehara didn’t move. To be more accurate, he couldn’t.

The previous attack had rattled his chakra veins. But it wasn’t without reward. With the smoke clearing, Keiji’s ashen form was revealed. His skin was visibly burnt, crackles of golden lightning surrounding it. Immense amounts of nature energy were riddling his body with wounds, greedily purifying his own chi.

But Keiji didn’t give up. Getting up from one knee, he opened a single eye, killing intent pouring dangerously from it. He forcibly channeled chi from his core, doing his best to ignore the gnawing pain he was feeling in his gut.

His teeth were clenched tight and despite his reddish, burnt skin, he exuded a fierce desire to survive.

[I…won’t…DIE-]- “?!?!?!”

Keiji had blinked once. Only…once. And the next moment he opened his eye, a giant fist of bone was what greeted his sight.

Crunch…BOOOM

(AN: Here is the further explanation. Uehara’s instincts have taken over. The state he is in is comparable to the Avatar State. Now, it has been quite a while since I’ve last updated. I have been busy with a little project along with a friend of mine and it is only recently that things are starting to calm down. We are approaching the end of the year but unfortunately, instead of being free, I’ll be swamped with more work. But besides that, I had promised before that this story would never get abandoned. That promise still stands. I’ve invested way too much time to let this story die.)