Yasuke enveloped his body in black smoke and whispered to himself, “Hidden Draw Style Fifth Technique: Walpurgisnacht.”
Before Jeannot could move, Yasuke was already behind him and clicked his sword back into the scabbard.
Jeannot turned around and faced Yasuke, completely unfazed. The sword sliced through his clothes, but the wounds on Jeannot’s skin caught fire and healed instantly.
“Did he just cauterize the cut that fast?” Yasuke thought to himself.
“Very impressive!” Jeannot clapped his hands, “You use that black smoke ability to obscure your movements and use your impressive speed to hit vital areas in an instant. It's an excellent plan for most opponents, but what do you do if those attacks don’t hurt your opponent?”
Yasuke sucked his teeth, whispering, “Hidden Draw Style Sixth Technique: Dark Pledge to the Devil.” He began to move much faster, slicing Jeannot from every single direction multiple times a second, as Jeannot stood there motionless. After a few seconds, Yasuke took a step back, panting.
Jeannot’s clothes were completely ripped apart, and exposing his entire chest which had even more severe burn marks over his incredible physique.
Jeannot tore away the remaining bits of clothing, “There’s something strange about your smoke ability, it’s almost as though you’re scared to use it fully. Even still, your potential is unreal, I almost want to take you with me,” Jeannot’s wounds were set alight with white fire now, and his hands were now covered with the same fire, “Let’s begin in earnest now.”
Jeannot sent a barrage of white fireballs at Yasuke, and right before they could reach his body, they stopped in the middle of the air. As Yasuke swung his sword to cut them, they exploded into giant pillars of fire, that scorched the ground and reached up into the sky. Yasuke barely dodged out of the way of the fiery inferno. He gripped his left arm and looked at it, a mass of burned flesh ran from his elbow up to his shoulder.
“Damn! Already this injured from one simple attack? I need to go faster…” Yasuke thought silently to himself as he closed his eyes and placed his sword back in the sheathe.
Jeannot pointed his index finger at Yasuke, and a fireball began to form on the tip of it. Before Jeannot could take any further action, he noticed some cuts on his chest and arms. Still pointing at Yasuke, he attempted to count them quickly.
One, two, six, twelve deep cuts on his body and more began to appear by the second, each getting deeper than the last.
Just out of earshot of Jeannot, Yasuke whispered, “Hidden Draw Style First Technique: Mudo.”
Jeannot shot off the fireball from his finger, but found himself looking into the sky involuntarily as he did. Yasuke pushed his chin up with the hilt of his blade.
“Your strength is extraordinary. But without speed, strength is nothing. We don’t have to prolong this, just come with me,” Yasuke stated plainly.
Jeannot leaped backwards, and got into a crouched position, “Mr. Yasuke, you’ll have to forgive me. I’m going to start being a little more unfair now.” His hands still engulfed in white flames, he placed them parallel to each other as a condensed ball of fire began to form between them.
“I can’t keep letting him use his abilities on me, even being near this fire is choking me up a little bit. Sorry Olo, I can’t catch this guy alive, but maybe I can…” Yasuke then shouted out, “Hidden Draw Style First Technique Alternate: Mudola!” The blade whipped through the air at an unnatural speed towards Jeannot’s neck. Jeannot remained motionless, focusing solely on the fireball between his hands. The blade reached Jeannot’s neck, and passed straight through Jeannot as his body transformed into flame.
Turning back to human form, Jeannot looked at Yasuke and smiled unnaturally, his lips stretched beyond the bounds of what his face allowed, “Mr. Yasuke! Your ability with a sword is uncanny! Unfortunately though…” Jeannot continued to speak unflinching as Yasuke cut through him tens of times in a few seconds, all the attacks fazing through him, “You’re talentless. It’s strange, you’re lacking in even the most fundamental areas of magic. I understand not being good at it, but you gained a prominent position in one of the biggest armies on this continent, you still can’t use it at all? Can you even sense it?”
Yasuke remained silent, only backing away after a few more slashes and clouding the whole area in thick black smoke.
Jeannot rolled his eyes and looked down at the ball of flame. The flame was considerably more stable and more dense now, causing Jeannot to smile even more wildly, “This smoke ability, I’m sure the cleric would love to know how you can use this with no talent for magic. Either way, I’m going to let you in on a little secret, my friend. My ability isn’t to control fire, it’s to control all forms of plasma. And this little beauty right here,” Jeannot lifted his arms above his head, with the ball of fire still between his hands, “isn’t just some ball of fire. It’s a Fusor. Pure plasma energy.”
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Jeannot slowly moved his hands apart, letting the fusor float in the air and pulsate as it gained mass. After about a minute, the fusor tripled in size and pulsated brightly. Jeannot finally looked away from it, attempting to search through the smoke for Yasuke. He whispered to himself, “Vanguard,” and strained his sight as his view changed into a blue display full of strange symbols. He whispered in an ancient tongue and the symbols shifted immediately, but Jeannot still found himself unable to see.
Jeannot put a hand out and shouted out, “Drain!” The smoke began to dissipate slowly. As the smoke grew thinner and the area became more visible, Jeannot continued to look for Yasuke. Jeannot finally spotted Yasuke, but to his suprise, he stood with a hand inside the large fusor, smirking. With a loud scream, Yasuke filled the fusor with smoke, until it turned from blinding yellow to a pitch black and hit the ground with a thud. The smoke had completely choked out its color, turning it into nothing more than an immobile black orb.
Yasuke stood a few yards away, panting heavily as he held his left arm with his right, “Who has no talent with magic?” Yasuke barely choked the words out between exhausted breaths. Yasuke struggled his sword back out of its scabbard and took up his battle stance.
Jeannot ground his teeth together and shouted out, “Good job Mr. Yasuke! You keep impressing me more every second, don’t falter now!”
Yasuke wrapped his sword in smoke and in a single motion appeared an inch away from Jeannot and slashed his head diagonally.
In a ball of flame, Jeannot teleported a short distance away and screamed out in pain as he grasped at his mask, unable to stop it from falling apart. As the pieces of the mask fell to the ground, Jeannot spent several seconds attempting to pick them up as Yasuke slowly walked over to him, shaking the blood off of his blade.
“Damn, the cut was shallow! It barely cut his face, but at least I landed a blow on him,” Yasuke thought to himself.
Jeannot sat on his knees for a while and stared at the mask as Yasuke approached even closer.
“Fine,” Jeannot said aloud. His voice was now completely changed, it was no longer jovial and bouncy, it was now flat and serious. He stood up and revealed a older man with deep wrinkles and numerous scars on his face, including the shallow one Yasuke had just inflicted. Jeannot stood up and faced Yasuke defiantly, a giant flaming wheel appeared from nowhere and began to follow behind him closely, “I guess I’ll behave in a manner more befitting a member of the Seraphim. The cleric would love to see me like this, I’m sure.”
Jeannot waved his hand above his head in an arc motion, creating five small fusors. Jeannot pointed at Yasuke, and immediately all five fusor rushed at Yasuke.
Yasuke remained calm and breathed in deeply, slicing two of the fusors with a single fluid sword stroke. The two gaseous balls exploded in a fiery inferno, causing Yasuke to raise his arms up and brace himself from it.
A third fusor, hidden in the smoke of the explosion rushed in and buried itself into Yasuke’s shoulder and exploded, taking a chunk of his left arm with it.
Yasuke flew in the air from the strength of the explosion as the two other fusors raced in as well. He nimbly landed on his feet and sliced the two remaining furors while only holding his katana in his right hand.
Yasuke stood a distance away from Jeannot, barely able to breathe as he gripped his sword in his right hand with all of his might.
After staring at each other unmoving for ages, Yasuke dropped his sword. He undid his light armor and let it hit the ground. He took the undershirt he was wearing and ripped it up, using most of it to wrap his injured left arm and the other part to put around his forehead.
Yasuke sat down with his knees to the ground and moved his sword to be in front of him.
“Are you really going to attack from there Mr. Yasuke?” Jeannot called out.
Yasuke ignored him, instead placing his forehead to the grass and whispering, “Hidden Draw Style Simple Technique: No Name.”
As Yasuke grabbed his sword, time slowed down, then completely halted. Jeannot, in the middle of taunting Yasuke, became little more than a statue. The color was slowly sapped from the world, and was replaced by grays and blacks.
Yasuke was frozen as well, completely unable to move his body.
“What the hell is this?” Yasuke thought to himself.
A booming, deep but unmistakably female voice began to speak. Yasuke looked around but was unable to spot the source.
“What. Is. Your. Desire.” There was something ethereal and otherworldly about the way the monotone voice spoke.
“I need to be stronger!” Yasuke cried out.
“What. Can. You. Give?” The ethereal voice asked matter-of-factly.
“My dream. My freedom. I don’t need to be free, I just need to be strong. As long as Red can accomplish his dream, I don’t need to accomplish mine.”
There was a long silence.
“The. Pact. Is. Now. Initiated.” The ethereal voice cheered, its voice becoming significantly more lively.
Color returned to the world. Time flowed normally once again.
Yasuke now found himself standing directly in front in Jeannot in the middle of a sword stroke. Jeannot had not even remotely registered what had occurred, he was still in the middle of taunting Yasuke.
Yasuke completed the sword stroke and slashed his neck. Blood came gushing out of the wound, and Jeannot stumbled back, grabbing his neck. Even after Jeannot set his neck ablaze, the wound continued to bleed profusely.
“What’s wrong Jeannot? Can’t cauterize your wounds anymore?” Yasuke taunted.
Jeannot fell onto his back and spit up blood. Yasuke took his sword and thrust it downward, directly into Jeannot’s chest.