The Dream Shifter

Chapter 237

A wicked smirk lined the individual's face. "Allies don't act friendly and aid the enemy!" Behind the two of them, Nerine let out a deep b****y scream.

Confused, Seiji turned to find that both of Nerine's arms lay on the ground and blood sprayed everywhere. Seiji's face wrinkled and turned dark. Shadow masked out his eyes. He tilted head back around at his enemy. His clenched fists tensed up the muscles in his arm. The rage inside boiled up in his body providing him a new fuel. His took a step forward. The spot that his foot landed cracked and bent in. "I'm going to kill you! You bastard!"

The energy that channeled through Seiji felt different from before. It was hot and uncontrolled worming its way through all parts of his body. None of it mattered to him. The odd sensation meant nothing to him. Blood dripped down his arm and it was nothing. Night disappeared from his sight. To his eyes, it seemed a bright and clear sunny afternoon. He could clearly see his enemy that he had to kill. No doubt or concern filled him. Seiji simply understood that he could not hold back his body any longer.

Seiji disappeared from the sight of the attacker. The thrown sword failed to meet its target. All he saw was several chunks of earth tossed up when Seiji moved. A ripple rang out from the man's feet altering the terrain and darkening his appearance further. Crunching of metal and earth sounded off behind him. He turned around planning to find Seiji, but he remained out of sight. Another crunch rang further away.

Beyond the field, Seiji set down Nerine in a safe spot. Using his torn tunic, he gave her a rushed bandage to try to stop the bleeding. He turned away staring into the distance at the enemy.

Nerine coughed feeling lightheaded from the blood lose. She did not know if she would even live much longer. The sight of Seiji's back and the blood that covered made her wonder how he remained standing. 'He should be exhausted… He couldn't move a moment before…'

Seiji tightened his hands in preparation. "Don't move from that spot. I don't know…how much of my reason is left… All I know right now…is that I want to kill him!" The earth cracked around his feet again from the pressure of his legs. "I can't forgive… So don't watch…please…"

She opened her mouth, but had no words for him. The fact that he felt so strongly towards the attack on her had her a little confused, while still seeming normal. '…going so far for a stranger and someone that's supposed to be an enemy…' He disappeared from her sight, signaling the start of the new battle. A b****y and savage battle began born of nothing but pure violence.

Pounding and crunching through the ground turning up metal and earth telegraphed Seiji's movements, even with his speed it made him impossible for human eyes to follow. It still made it difficult to predict his position. The enemy held up two simple swords waiting on the arrival of Seiji. He baited him in presenting a clear target for him. A smirk lined his face eagerly anticipating the moment.

Seiji suddenly appeared with his fist extended already. A percussive blast ripped up the earth outward throwing away chunks. However, the crumbling sound of metal stopped him before reaching his target. All that made it through was the force of wind from his flying fist. Seiji's eyes narrowed judging his situation.

The soldier's smirk disappeared a little when he realized that blood dripped down his cheek. A cool breeze stung his thin wound. However, the man's surprise did not last for long. His smirk returned with an excited hungry appearance turning even darker than before. It made his face seem almost pitch black. "So you're able to cut me with just the force of wind created by your punch? Very interesting…"

After the metal fell away, the man charged forward after Seiji. An arc of light flew through the air at Seiji. He dodged a couple of the swings, but not all of them. Blood and ash dripped from his minor wounds. It forced him to increase his speed and disappear. However, a blast and crash of metal exploded only a short distance away. It sent Seiji reeling backwards.

He stared up at the collapsing junk of metal. It had little form left from his impact. He looked at his hand to find the small cuts on it and blood coating most of his skin. The image confused him. He was certain nothing sharp enough cut him.

Quickly closing the distance, the Atlantean brought down his two swords on Seiji's defending arm. The weapons rattled in disappointment. Ash fell down from his arm. Seiji's arm remained safe. Failure did not prevent him from continuing the onslaught of attacks. Wild slashes came in from all directions in numbers impossible for the two the man wielded.

Seiji's raged fueled mind did not comprehend what happened to him. All he managed was to step back with each attack and stay mostly unharmed. Burnt edges blew away from the gathering at his feet, but new pieces returned after the next attack.

"I can see you're confused," the man spoke between attacks. He smirked as wide as before unfazed by his challenging opponent. "Perhaps you should look at your feet more carefully. The ground which you walk upon is not so simple."

Glancing down, the truth of the man's words came out. The soldier's entire field lined with swords of all make and type possible or impossible. Everywhere as far as could be seen, swords coated it all in metal. The presence of an armory weighed down the atmosphere. Like the man's smirk, the field felt soaked deeply in the dark pleasures that even the moon refused to reflect on their blades.

Everything was out of sight for Nerine with the pain and night making it difficult to see. However, she saw the man that attacked her long enough. It worried her. 'Who is he? I've never seen him before in the barracks. I thought I knew all of the MPs stationed at the South Gate. And his field…' She did not understand how someone so powerful could hide within the troops without anyone knowing.

"Since I have you here… I only grant this privilege to those that I'm about to kill. You can take my name with you to the grave."

Seiji moved to attack the man, but an array swords came up pointed at his neck. It halted his action. "I have no need for your name. You're the one that's going to die here."

The man's smirk widened further pleased to see the defiance still holding. "I'm very glad you still have plenty of fight left in you. It's quite boring taking an easy kill. Otherwise, my skills dull." He leveled his right hand at Seiji, point the blade at his nose. "But in all seriousness, you're going to die. And I always give those I slain the name of the one that killed them. That and it gets really awkward using generic nouns to identify me."

Exhausted of patience, Seiji grabbed up a sword from the ground and swung it at the man. "Enough talk!" However, his eyes narrowed in confusion to find his hand empty.

"Tsk," remarked the man. All of the blades around Seiji moved in closer to restrict his movements further. "Really now, you should know better than that. Not all of my swords in my field are actually real and even if one was I can make it disappear before you can do any harm with it." The man pressed his sword's tip to Seiji's nose drawing up a thin line of blood. The man held back a laugh in watching his target squirm. "Honestly already, the name—"

Seiji jumped up and grabbed the sword blade by his teeth. He ripped it from the man's hand, but it disappeared from his mouth a moment later. In the next moment, Seiji spun his leg around knocking all of the weapons out of the way. He finished by ramming his fist into the earth. A faint flash of light surfaced just moments before the explosion of earth blacked everything out. Seiji followed up by throwing the chunks of earth at the man.

He jumped forward as swords tried to come up at him, but earth got in their way. His hand gripped the hunk of earth and slammed it into the man's face. Seiji railed his arm through crushing the man into his field of weapons. The force from Seiji's hand pulverized the chunk into powder leaving the man's face stained brown. Still holding his hand to the man's face, Seiji leaned down to speak to him. "I don't care! I could kill you in an instant, but I'm going to make you regret your actions with pain before I kill you!" The swords and earth bent a little with Seiji applying pressure to the man's face.

The man's eyes flipped an annoyed glare off to something unknown (fine…the name's Cosmas, this'll probably be the last moment of comedy in a while, so cherish it…). Cosmas focused his vision back on Seiji. Swords drew up taking swings at him. Blood and ash fell around him, but Seiji stubbornness kept him on top of Cosmas. The pressure on his head felt like it was going to smash him in. It actually stole away his smirk when he felt the taste of mortally and the blood rage of Seiji's unwillingness to accept anything less than what he promised Cosmas.