Protecting herself with a shield, the wolves scraped by redirected. Keen sight allowed him to notice that they made a cut in her shield. ‘It’s taking a focused effort now to cut into her shield…the strength of it has definitely increased…’ Pressing on the attack, he sent one of the wolves to break through the shield and knock her off balance.
Unexpectedly, she spread out a shield like before for her feet. Haruo already started to understand how it worked. Any part of the body that touched the special surface could be dragged along in the direction, likely determined by her intentions. It allowed for unnatural and impossible movements. She needed them to keep pace with his wolves.
Sliding around on the shield, she kept her distance from Haruo’s wolves. While they gave chase, she countered with her beams again. Letting the wolves go free, they used their own intuition to dodge and keep pace with the attacks.
However, she hid a beam behind her allowing her to counterattack with the wolves having no reaction time. He lost the first wolf immediately in the blast. The one in the rear he managed to redirect enough to avoid a direct hit. Even still, the wolf lost the back half of it, dropping it to the ground unable to move.
Haruo’s eyes narrowed, preparing for what he already expected. Ligeia turned her focus on him immediately, calling upon her devices to construct two flanking pyramids on either side of her. Since he knew what the next action would be, it made it easy to dodge. He watched the power of the beams used on his animals and felt avoiding it a better option rather than defending.
Dodging something he easily saw coming was simple for him. Yet, something felt off about the situation. The look in Ligeia’s eyes told him she wasn’t finished. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a chance to act as a light engulfed him from behind.
The force behind the light felt familiar to Haruo. He knew it immediately as the beam weapon she used on him before as well as on his wolves. Haruo saw it enough to know it well. Knowing it still didn’t change the fact that it felt significantly stronger. All of his time taking punches made him used to dealing with pain and damage, but it was something completely different. It was all encompassing. The pressure poured over every part of him.
Everything went white.
Chapter 185 – Science of the Hypothesis
Smoke exploded along with light from the impact. A shockwave snapped outward from the epicenter whipping the wind around the Field. Ligeia lifted her hand to her face to allow herself to watch, barely. Her little trick worked. A small grin built across her face as the seconds counted on.
The longer time went Haruo’s fate turned into a question. Clouds from the blast still filled the area hiding him. Ligeia waited to know what happened. She contained her mounting enthusiasm, not wanting to become over confident.
While she waited, something popped up on her display. Alerted, she looked down to see what was wrong. ‘Something that’s not him?’ A blip on her display found something, but she didn’t know what it was. Haruo’s body was already marked on the display and she knew its position. All the time she wasted on her confusion should have been spent on dodging. A fact she understood too late.
Leaping from out of her blind spot, one of Haruo’s wolves closed on her given more than enough time. Ligeia tried to bring up her shield for protection, but it was clearly too late. The wolf lunged at her, knocking her off her feet and sliding with her for a few meters before leaping off her. It spun around and came to a stop a meter away. Slowly moving back in on its prey, the wolf howled almost like a cry.
Ligeia turned her head back to find the wolf. Pain from the attack lightly washed over her, as the least of her concerns. She watched the wolf slowly approach her. Moving the pieces into place with her mind, she prepared for a counter. However, it suddenly came to a halt, turning its head away from her. It looked back in the direction of the cloud of smoke covering Haruo. The wolf bounded off to pace around the smoke slowly.
Finally lifting, Haruo stood up out of the thick veil. From appearances, he looked unharmed, something that left Ligeia struggling with her shock. Behind him however, much of his tunic was burned away down to his skin. Redness of sores and blisters covered his back. ‘Hurt more than I thought…’ Despite the pain, Haruo’s expression never changed.
He caught sight of the wolf coming alongside him. ‘It took him longer to recover. I haven’t really fully tested this power, so I can’t really have too many expectations.’ Haruo glanced over at Ligeia to see her condition. He didn’t have any control over the wolf, it didn’t have the full capacity for intelligence unless linked with him. The surprise attack knocked her off balance and confused her, but as he saw it did nothing to her. ‘Must have done something in time to prevent an injury.’
They both held secrets. He turned his gaze behind him wondering about what happened to him earlier. All he remembered was the light and feeling, but not how it happened. ‘I dodged her, but she did something. Did she get one of those devices behind me? I never noticed anything…’
Ligeia pushed herself back to her feet. Her body felt a little shaky from the impact, but she worked through to focus on Haruo. ‘He doesn’t even look affected! Did he notice it?’ Changing her stare to the wolf, move confusion rose. ‘I killed all of them. Did he create a seventh I didn’t see?’ Events of the fight replayed in her mind trying to understand. Nothing came to her. It concerned her finding that he held tricks.
Questions surrounded both. Only one answer came to them.
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‘I’m going to have to keep fighting to understand it,’ Haruo decided.
‘I need to keep fighting for it to make sense,’ determined Ligeia.
Moving into position, the solitary wolf started its new approach. A look at its eye showed the desire for revenge.
Shifting the groups around, Ligeia brought her beams back to bear on Haruo and his wolf. She expected him to summon more animals, but didn’t let it stop her from attacking. Lining up her beams, she tried to strike down the wolf. She hoped to understand what she didn’t.
Gaining new knowledge to aid his tactics, he manipulated the wolf’s movement with greater finesse than last time. It dodged all of the micro beam attacks with ease. Focus on a single animal gave him the improved controls to keep up with Ligeia’s attacks. She could do nothing to touch the wolf.
While the fighting continued, it gave Haruo moments for pause. The whole scene felt strange to him. ‘I accepted her request for a fight, even though it is against my nature. Why?’ He went along with everything so far in Atlantis not saying anything. It confused him.
‘I don’t owe him anything.’ Memories from the fight with Katsu wormed back inside him. He knew what Yuki did then, but watching his actions, he understood something about him. ‘Even if I did owe him, he would never say it. He’d just say things were equal. He doesn’t care about it. He doesn’t make any sense.’ Haruo came to the heart of the matter. He understood something, but he still didn’t understand Yuki. Yuki was a mystery to him.
Focus had to return. The fight continued the progress into deeper troubles. Haruo noted that the beams became faster. While he adapted to her movements, she did the same to him. They learned off each other. His eyes drew into the fight trying to keep track of everything the wolf didn’t see. ‘My advantage is I have a wider field of vision than if I was close up like the wolf. However, she’s been keeping up despite the disadvantage.’ His eyes glanced at the device on her arm. ‘Must be that…she keeps looking at it.’
Ligeia slid around on her shield keeping the fight moving. ‘The wolf is more troublesome than before…it’s keeping up with my attacks better…still improving…’ Moving part of her thoughts to a secondary group, it shifted to her desire. ‘I’m going to need to change the pace of the fight. He’ll just exhaust me at this rate.’ She could feel the drip of sweat down her face. Her body already was starting to feel the length of the battle and her mind complained too. ‘I’ve never used so much of my power, so quickly…even with endurance I’m not making it any better… This is the first real fight I’ve had…’
Amidst the attacks from Ligeia, Haruo caught sight of her changing her tactics. He saw the pyramid shape move into position such that when his wolf dodged it would come after him. The wolf already moved out of the way of the beam. Haruo knew he could avoid it, seeing it coming. It flew past him, evading with ease.
However, light shone from behind him coming back at him. Haruo, already moving, turned to see the beam coming at him. ‘Figured she’d try it again.’ The light surrounded him with the same intensity as before with the energy washing over him. Yet, he remained visible, unlike the last time.
Widening her eyes a little, she tried to figure out what Haruo did. It made her lean forward a little with curiosity. ‘What’s he doing?! He saw it coming?’ The closer she looked the more she found. His hand held back the beam and broke it into pieces. Energy poured out around his hand evaporating into the air. ‘I can’t believe it! Just his hand?!’
She quickly replayed the events through her mind. The pieces started to come together. ‘I thought I had him right where I wanted him. I saw that I actually did damage to him the last time. I just needed another hit, but…’ Haruo had turned into the attack as though expecting it. No surprise filled his eyes. She remembered how he moved. ‘He set me up! He intentionally arranged it so that I would do it again! He wanted to see what I did! Damn him, he’s smarter than I thought…’
Brushing off the remaining strength of the energy, Haruo threw out his hand directing the beam away from him. He slid his foot back around to face her. ‘It was too fast for her to have used her pyramid to attack me. Additionally, the angle it came at me was the same…’ Before the light of the beam completely blocked his sight, he remembered seeing one of Ligeia’s devices arranged like her shields. ‘So that’s what it was…reflecting the beam back.’
Emotionless as Haruo was, Ligeia felt an unease from him as though he figured her out. She didn’t like that he spoiled her secret and only after two uses. ‘Most of the others in training took much longer to figure it out and usually too late. If the secret’s out, then I don’t need to hold back anymore!’ Suddenly, the sets of projectors fell apart and rearranged themselves.
Haruo narrowed his eyes a bit judging the next action. ‘I’m guessing she’ll start reflecting more now since I’ve figured out her secret.’ Accurate to the prediction, a beam shot out from a pyramid hitting a reflector bouncing the beam. However, it didn’t bounce just once. Another reflection happened changing the course of the beam again. Then, he noticed the beam moving. ‘She’s altering the angle of the beam by moving the reflecting surface. Calculating all of the possibilities is not going to be simple.’
It started with only one beam, but another beam fired off quickly. Soon an array of beams played out over the Field. The wolf kept up, but Haruo’s slower movements left him taking hits. Ligeia kept it up until the explosion's impacts covered him. However, she didn’t feel like stopping anymore. She continued her assault on him, while holding the wolf at bay.
After a few moments, something about the attacks on Haruo felt wrong to Ligeia. She ceased the assault. Smoke masked Haruo for the time, but it didn’t last long. Pockets of light broke through the thick clouds before shaping out a familiar figure in shadow. Suddenly, the clouds burst apart with dozens of shadows jumping out. Underneath, Haruo showed himself, only minorly wounded by Ligeia attacks, not looking the part of one under a long assault. ‘What?! I had to have done more to him than that!’
Examining his body, Haruo saw only a few places in his tunic burned away by the attacks. ‘Worked out better than I thought, though I have some reservations about it. No choice.’
‘What were those shadows?’ Ligeia looked around trying to figure it out. ‘It had to be the reason my attacks did so little to him!’
‘I need to move while she’s off balance…’ Haruo took a step forward. The wolf appeared behind him, wrapping its large body around in a semicircle.
Above in the sky, chirps echoed from a chatter to a chorus. Ligeia looked around trying to figure out where the sounds came from. Suddenly, a shadow flew past her face. It turned her around to follow it, but another shadow flew past. She summoned up her shield for a defense, hearing dull pounding against it. ‘What’s going on? What is he doing?’ Trying to focus, Ligeia managed to calm herself down enough to look at the shield.
Birds. They were birds, pale white birds. ‘More spirit animals…’ The birds had the same transparent appearance of the wolf. She tried to use her beams to knock them away, but their numbers only increased. They swarmed over her shield, throwing her into a state of confusion. Ligeia couldn’t get them off her.
However, the birds flew off suddenly. The reason for it came too late to Ligeia. A large shadow cast over her and knocked her to the ground. The wolf pinned her to the metal floor with its mouth closing on her. Ligeia glanced around at her projectors. She tried to fire, but all of her beams were blocked by the birds. ‘I’m trapped! I can’t get it off me! Damn it! He’s got me right where he wants me!’