The Dream Shifter

Chapter 186

"Damn…" cursed Phontine, monitoring her success from a distance. "I made it through, but a secondary defense split up my weapons at the last moment. Only managed a glancing blow." She had only seen it for a second, but a flash of green light alerted her in the middle of her strike. 'I haven't seen her other techniques used yet… Is she holding them in reserve for a more desperate situation?'

Wanting time to nurse her wounds, Yumi stepped away from the woman. Fear built up thick inside Yumi finally realizing wholly that she found herself in a real battle against someone and she was alone in her struggle. '…I'm all alone…' None of her friend could help her, trapped in their own battles too far away from her.

Those seconds of peace granted to her ended on a punctuated moment feeling something ominous behind her. Something told her to fall. Acting upon the urge, an instant later a spear whizzed over her shoulder. Yumi caught herself on one knee stared wide eyed in shock at the spear embedded in the ground, the wooden shaft shaking a little from the left over force being bled off. '…if I hadn't…'

'I had her blind spot and I still missed! What powers does she have?' Shaking off the uncertainty, Photine straightened up and concentrated back on Yumi. She knew giving Yumi a moment reprieve was too long. New weapons appeared in the air ready for the next strike. 'I'll have to attack from multiple sides to get a shot in…'

Yumi caught the spear disperse into the haze. It suddenly vanishing from sight made her startle. '…this woman…' She fought to keep her shaking under control as she strained to see through the thick wind at the Atlantean. 'She's like Yuki… Not a normal human… But I'm just a regular high school girl… What can I do!'

'Damn it! Stop thinking that way!' yelled the voice in her head, nearly feeling as though her brain rattled in her skull from the volume.

'Who are you?'

'Focus on yourself! Fight to live!'

'But I can't…'

'Stop it! You're going to get your a*s handed to you thinking like that!'

The harsh voice made Yumi shrink in its invisible presence. She did not dare to think her own thoughts to herself for fear that the voice would snap at her. Her invading voice from within consumed her. Little made sense to her already and the voice only complicated matters. Yumi feared that she was going insane.

'Pay attention! She's coming for you again!'

'Huh?'

'Fight back this time! Prove your worth to him that you're so desperate for!'

The voice's words triggered a revival in Yumi's heart. Clarity came to her mind. "…I have to do this for Yuki…" Yumi turned her head up and straightened up her back. Blood that slowly trickled down her cloths sat ignored with the dull pain that accompanied it. "…I…have to…fight?"

'Damn, right! Use your powers!'

"Powers? I have…powers…abilities…" Her words turned into a chant that strengthened her body and mind. Yumi took a slow sluggish step forward into the tan haze. Another step rang out in the ground. Then another as well, each became stronger and more resolute. Her eyes narrowed slightly feeling the boldness of determination that swelled in her heart.

'Yes! Fight!'

Thick soup like wind rolled in nearly obscuring the woman from Yumi's view. Grayed silhouettes multiplied in the space around them. The count seemed to grow beyond the numbers used previously. A fierce attack leaned on the edge as streaks of shadows flew about. Photine's weapons lined up all around the unaware Yumi.

'Trust yourself!'

"Yes!" responded Yumi, as a battle cry to herself in preparation. The tension of the imminent moment tried to taunt her again, but she held fast. As though realizing its futility, the weapons released from their hold. Loud clanging and massive impacts shook through the dust cloud. Allowed to thin, more than twenty weapons, appearing as though randomly ripped from a weapon smith's shelves, surrounded all sides of Yumi. So closely knit, in the low visibility Yumi appeared pierced by all of the weapons in a horrific sight.

Yumi's soft brown eyes still held a strong defiant look. Viewing clearly, a patched work of three barriers layered upon each other protected her. Blades sat held in place pierced through the layers within centimeters of her body. "Yuki will see my strength!" The barriers disappeared suddenly and the weapons rapidly shrank crushed under massive forces. All the finely made instruments turned to small balls of metal in mere moments. "I will end this now!"

"This ends now!" shouted Yumi, through the dusty wind. Her opponent barely remained visible to her eyes, but it gave her enough of a target. All of the crushed weapons from Photine rotated around Yumi increasing in speed until blurring into a ring. Yumi directed her hand out away from her pointing at the woman sending each metal ball back at its owner as it came around Yumi. Each fired off in succession like an automatic rifle. The custom-made bullets blasted through the wind punching holes from the speed and clearing out pockets of air.

Photine widened her eyes in shock at seeing her weapons completely halted and then turned upon her. She instinctively dodged out of the line of fire. In addition, she summoned up more weapons hanging vertically in the air in front to act as a shield for her. The defensive thinking ended up saving her as she failed to evade one of the projectiles and slammed into her wide bladed bastard sword. Relief did not come to her though as the sword was instantly severed in two by the force and the metal chunk continued through. It had bought her the save she need with the angle deflected to a shallow near miss over the edge of her shoulder.

Given no pause by Yumi, Photine noticed the remaining pieces that she avoided still locked onto her and turning around. 'Damn… Caught me off guard…' Frustrated and embarrassed that her own weapons turned against, she dropped all of them from her mind.

Her tools taken away from her, Yumi dropped her hand back down. It took her a bit by surprise, but she forgot the sort of person that confronted her. 'Right, she's like Yuki. Everything in their space they control. Somehow, I doubt I'm going to get another chance like that…' Yumi stared across at Photine trying to figure out her next move. She had powers, but no idea what she could do with any of them. Instinct guided her hand before, but she felt like she stood in control. It relied on her now. "I won't give up!"

Reassessing her situation, Photine quickly examined the tear in her long collared trench coat. She mended the tear and glanced back. Photine felt the change in the winds of battle. The mood altered so quickly on her that it threatened to leave her behind. 'She so different now. She's acting serious now… I can tell… Was she not seeing me as a threat before?' She stiffened her pose taking a rigid stance trying to fortify her mind. The changing scene required a new approach.

New weapons materialized in the air as the wind became thicker, nearly impossible for anyone with normal eyesight to see through. As a benefit of it being her field, she had complete clarity through the dust-filled air. She manipulated the density to hid her blades and disorient her opponent. Disguised within the veil, a massive sword hovered effortlessly despite the weight it should have had. Accompanying the great sword, three small daggers, dwarfed by mere size, floated about at the hilt.

Still walking forward, Yumi remained unaware of the new attack mounted against her. Her determined face looked ready to take anything on with fearless resolve. Putting that to the test, the daggers flew at her taking a direct line for her. Each attacked from a different side forcing her barrier to take them, with obvious ease. However, a trap laid in wait for her as she carelessly moved forward uninterested in the daggers.

Coming from the left of Yumi, a terrible ripping roared out as if something stubbornly resisted. Joining to the mix was a deep groan of a rigid surface scraping and grinding. The depth of the groan made it clear that it had great weight behind it. Ominous noise turned to rumbling in the earth vibrating through to Yumi's feet. She needed no hint of intuition to know that she had to move. Unfortunately, her escape came too late. All the foreplay ended and fell through the dust, blasting out a wide wake in its path, one of the wind-carved rock columns broke through the thick haze. 'It's too big! I can't avoid it!' Reflex spared her for the moment. Her barrier split down a vertical seam and opened up growing denser and more opaque the moment the massive rock slammed into Yumi.

Weight alone crushed Yumi into the ground. Her hand stretched out straining to give support to her barrier, while she lay prone on her side. '…so heavy…it's crushing!' She did not know how long her body could withstand the pressure that ran through her. The hand that futility struggle to give support to her barrier already felt numb from the stress. Her shoulder mashed into the hard earth not giving her any room as the column of rock groaned over her. Each second the struggling continued Yumi felt like her bones pulverized and shot out tiny needles out of her arm. The weight was too much. She collapsed completely rammed into the earth tossing up a small cloud and bits from her impact. '…can't take much more…'

The edges of the barrier cut into the ground bracing for support lost by Yumi. Cracks began to appear along the surface growing louder and longer by the moment. However, above was not the only problem. An alert from outside turned Yumi's head and eyes up away from her trouble to the incoming weapon, the large sword, seeking to strike where her barrier no longer reached. 'It's too much!' Her eyes widened and irises shrank in realization at the opening that she left herself. She had not the strength to change the barrier with the weight that she supported. 'If only I…'

It gave her no chance to finish her thought. Photine's sword flew straight for her head hovering only centimeters above the ground. Dust from the cracked earth parted and failed to cling to the guard building thin streams in its wake. In the shadow of the pressing stone column, everything disappeared in a thunderous blast of dirt and earth blanketing the area that trapped Yumi.

Slowly billowing out from the impact, Photine's vision only penetrated the thick wind she created. Her field's environment covered the area masking the certainty of her kill. She weighed her options. 'If I remove it now I may be releasing her, yet leaving her hidden could be giving her the time she needs for a counterattack. I must remain cautious…' If Yumi remained alive the fight continued, which presented less risk than an unknown counter. Photine waved her hand wiping away the cover.

Through the unimpeded haze, she found Yumi flattened to the earth with her barrier severely bent. Accompanying Yumi laid the sword partially hidden by Yumi's body, not clear to the damage. The traitor was very much alive still. More to her surprise, though Photine worked to keep it from becoming visible on her face, she saw how Yumi survived. A smaller square of the barrier sat at a steep angle off Yumi's shoulder with the blade of the sword resting against it. 'She deflected it enough by creating an angle with her shield!' Photine's hand shook slightly in boiling frustration. 'Her defense is strong and flexible…'

Yumi coughed shallowly against the pain from the metal that her skin hugged. 'So much…pain…' Her eyes darted to the sword giving it a push with her thoughts, finally freed from the strain. A moment later, the unwieldy sword gasped a quick groan of stress before completely compressing into a four-centimeter sphere of dense iron. Before anything more could happen to it, the sword disappeared. Another cough exhaled from Yumi as though to respond to the removal of her weapon.

The stone column returned to its original position, towering declaration. "I won't let you use that technique against me again! So don't even try!" Photine took a couple steps forward summoning more swords up with a new attack prepared.

A frail hand forced her body away from the dirt and towards the direction of the voice. 'It's so thick… I can't figure out where she's hiding…' Yumi turned over sitting down, her chest heaving from all of the new sensations. '…how am I supposed to…'

'You can't rest!'

'Huh?' Yumi instinctively looked up as though the voice in her mind stood in front of her. One moment lasted for a minute it felt like for Yumi. She saw the array of weapons streaming at her. Cutting through the clouds, the swords gave her no time to react. Reflex brought up one barrier close to her, but came too late for her. Yumi gagged on the blood that pooled in her mouth as shock filled her shrinking eyes. Blades ran her through from all sides. Shown to her, the barrier revealed to her lacking the strength to take the assault. Cracks echoed through the semi-opaque screen as Yumi's eyes unfocused.

'Pay attention!' shouted the voice.

'What?' Yumi snapped awake forced to process everything in seconds as she came to the realization of what happened to her. 'Another dream? Like before? That means—!' She cut off her own thought. Strength returned to her legs charged by her dire feelings. Time ran out for her she knew. The whistling of the blades sailing through the air tickled her ears and urged her forward. Yumi stumbled in her run, balance still uneasy from the wound along her right arm left by the sword. She forced a barrier up around her feeling the weapons in coming. The barrier snapped around her where the blades penetrated, but they disappeared before staying. Yumi paused.

As an ice pick rammed with purpose into a slab of ice, more weapons appeared in turn besieging her barrier on all sides. She froze. The strength she had just a moment before drained away. 'I'm not fighter!' Yumi knelt down. Barriers cycled subconsciously rotating in two layers to keep her safe. '…I can't do this…Why did I think…' Her right arm felt numb and her fingers did not budge for her. '…I'm not like Yuki and the others…'

The dreadful crackling of her barrier ran a ripple of chills through her body each time they sounded off. Her whole body nearly crystallized from the pressure left on her cold interior. She felt as though a thousand deaths had poured through each equally terrifying as the last. Yumi needed to crawl away from it all.

'Stop whining because things are difficult!'