The Dream Shifter

Chapter 187

Once more, the voice distracted her from the world before her. 'I shouldn't be here!'

'Damn it! Shouldn't or should ain't the thing you should be thinking about!' The voice seemed to carry a weight to it that forced itself upon Yumi applying pressure.

Yumi shook her head. It was all just a dream. No voice shouted in her head.

'The only way out is forward! Behind is destroyed to hell! There's nothing!'

Nothing spoke.

'You can't ignore the situation like me!'

Loud snapping rolled around Yumi from her barrier shattering. The world returned to her eyes painfully abrupt. Her transition felt like she took whiplash. 'Is this it?' Yumi stared slowly on in awkward wonderment as the shards of her protection rained down around her.

'If you have enough time to stare, you have enough time to act! Borrow from me for your strength!'

'Who are you?'

'One that walks at your side…'

'…walks beside me?' It allowed no further thoughts. Warmth bloomed inside Yumi, a familiar feeling that she knew she experienced before. Out of her grew a three-layered barrier that halted the swords that struck for their final blow. Yumi stood up. The weight that shackled to her legs disappeared. 'So strange…yet so normal…' Heightened senses from Yumi detected the next wave that arrived upon realizing the last's failure. The soft brown eyes of Yumi flashed with a glow before everything around her felt tremendous gravity crushing it. Further attempts met the same fate even faster.

Photine's features narrowed watching all of her attacks failing. 'Her crumbling defenses are back to full strength. And there's that resolve in her eyes…again… What's happening?' Her teeth ground together as she dug deeper. 'I won't lose!' A massive array of all imaginable weapons appeared, possible or not. More than fifty individual armaments clustered overhead in an arch. The swarm hovered around like an army of angry hornets. Her face began to sweat feeling the strain on her mental resources. The fight dragged on far too long for her.

Searching out through the dirt soup, Yumi walked around for Photine. Her senses tapped into the potentials that existed plucking at each thread feeling out the vibrations. The unnatural grasp that she suddenly had on her powers almost flew past her. She knew the knowing feeling of acting with great understanding than she possessed. It happened before. Somehow, she knew as much. 'My mind was foggy then…trapped away…but now I'm looking with my eyes and not through them…' She had to survive. She had to get back to Yuki. 'All I have is my resolve… I'm not strong or smart… But for someone like me that is enough! I want to change myself!' A small hint of Yuki's presence rested on her shoulder giving her encouraging words as he had done before for her.

Yumi broke out into a sprint letting her mind guide her feet. The pain in her arm no longer mattered to her. She threw out her hands placing out barriers to block the incoming attacks. The desperation of her opponent was palatable as far as she was away. A storm of weapons only confirmed that fact. Sections of the barrier disappeared and rotated around quickly responding to her needs. Overlapping layers from the barrier turned razor sharp cutting through embedded weapons and cast aside. Yumi continued her charge undeterred from her goal. 'I'll change myself for you!'

The barrage continued thickening the air with metal from all angles. Particles and chunks of the barrier flew away on the wind replaced just as quickly. Her protection found itself on a quickly downward path of attrition. She needed a new plan other than running. A glance to the ground as she stopped made her mind discover a new idea. Yumi slammed her hands against the ground producing a five layered dome wall around her larger than she had been using. The exertion finally set in to the energy consumption she had been using, however she shook her head and focused on the earth. 'This will work!' she silently thought for encouragement.

Another two barriers erupted from Yumi even while her defense took hastening damage, two layers nearly destroyed. Time ran out for hesitation. The recent two domes did not come close to the outer wall, but further inside spaced apart from themselves with nearly half a meter of room. Yumi closed her eyes concentrating of the two domes. Vibrations and shifting emitted from barriers, but nothing more.

Yumi sighed in relief and allowed herself a small smile. 'It worked!' The two barriers disappeared as she stood up from the ground moving her arms away from her sides straight out. Her feet lifted from the dried earth hovering centimeters.

The last barrier defending Yumi shattered letting in the weapons. Yumi looked up at the points of the blades screaming at her. A massive explosion and cloud smoke blasted from Yumi masking her from sight, even for Photine.

'Why can't I see the girl?' questioned Photine, sifting through the layers of her dust cloud. She pulled out the pieces from her thoughts letting them disappear. The deeper she went the same view remained. Darkness covered the spot where Yumi should be. The last layers peeled away and Photine understood.

Broken chunks of earth floated around Yumi with the assorted weapons from Photine pierced through. Below a perfectly cut hemisphere in the ground stood as the answer. When the Atlantean attempted to remove the earth she realized what happened. 'The girl dug up the ground as a defense! Since it's real and not created by my field I have no power over it. Damn it! I'll just have to use my weapons then…' Her eyes focused directly on the area around Yumi calling to her blades, yet they only vibrated in groans unmoved. She moved her hands in front making use of them to increase the strength, but nothing still. 'I can't move chunks of rock with my weapons! She's holding them…'

Yumi's eye narrowed upon her target through the gap of earth. 'I can see her now!' Specks of dirt and stone fell from the floating masses of earth as life returned to them. The opening volley began. Sent hurdling like fastball from a pitcher, the chunk sped towards Photine. All of the weapons disappeared from around Yumi just before the target had impact. Earth exploded upon the woman showering a curtain of dirt around her body. The aftermath made Yumi's features sharpen.

A shining heavy sword hovered centimeters in front of Photine's body. The force of the mass split on the blade leaving the woman only slightly dirty from the encounter. However, the counterattack did not end with a single lob from Yumi. Three more streamed through the air for Photine only to end in a similar manner. Undeterred, the attack continued filling the once metal dense air with earth. Ammunition for Yumi's attack quickly disappeared. 'I just have to keep up my defense and she'll be out of chunks to throw at me soon. Then I'll end this finally…'

Hovering over the ground Yumi closed her distance. She relinquished the last of her supply. In the wake of the final shots, Yumi motioned with her hands as if she was trying to cut the very air. Brought forth from her hand, green light gathered quickly already in action. Once they put a meter between Yumi, the shape completed itself. An elongated arch of energy shaped to an edge along its length. Four of the green crescents formed roaring at twice the speed the earth flew at nearly over taking the swarm.

Photine cut through the final piece already preparing for her own counterattack with the last chunks. However, her eyes grew in shock to see the earth explode in front of her without hitting her weapons. A green light surrounded her before she knew what was happening. Instinct saved her from the first attack. The green arch split on the sharp edge and dug into the ground at her sides exploding. The second strike proved to be better. Her sword cleaved in two, cast aside. All of the remaining weapons surrounded her, but all met the same fate.

Metal shattered around her blasted behind her. A few shards dug through her skin before fading. The three arcs slammed into her body knocking the wind from her and forcing up a mixture of blood and saliva. Photine's eyes grayed out with her consciousness fading. She did not feel her body hitting the ground or she her field disappear. No thought entered her mind. Only shock remained on her face.

Yumi lowered to the ground collapsing to a sweating, heaving pant. "It's over…"

Far from clear sight of Yumi's battle, a strange forest of oddly cut trunks stood erect from the surface. Spread out across the ground was a vast junkyard that no one would wish to stand in. The air held an awkward, thick and stale odor that did not manage to have a single identifiable smell, but simply a horrid reek left as enough to distract and no more.

All of the countless wood columns rose out of easy reach. Therefore, Seiji had to stay on the ground. The bump on his face from the crash he made early still annoyed him, left as a very pronounced angry vein. His opponent was making a fool of him. The scrawny creep never left his annoying perch. Seiji wove around the logs keeping his eyes up at his target, anger raging through his eyes and voice. "Get down here and fight like—" Yet another low angled trunk blasted out from the ground at him slamming into his shoulder. It would have pinned him to the adjacent wood pillar had he not staggered back.

Frustration forced his fist to ram into the wood still growing out. "Damn you!" Seiji pounded against the wood a second time bothered that he had yet to even get close to the man after all of the time. "You can't stop me!" He jumped up on the wood that had just tried to take him out and started sprinting up it as though a ramp to the next flight. More columns quickly rose up around him looking at him for targets. Seiji bound out to the closest one latching tightly onto the flat top. He legs wrapped around the width for support.

Once it came to a stop Seiji scrambled up to the top less than skillfully, nearly falling twice. He managed to fit both of his feet on the small surface and stand tall finally staring down with the Atlantean ten meters away from him. "No more games!" declared Seiji with an eager look returning to his face, "It's time for a straight fight!"

Across the leafless canopy, Miltiades crouched on a conveniently level trunk with perfect unwavering balance. All the strong wind could do to him was play with his shortly trimmed red-orange hair. The wind seemed to have no other influence on him. The white lightweight jacket, pushed up to the elbows covering his simple blue shirt, seemed to exist outside of the space not budging as if great weights pulled on it. Yet it was far lighter than contemporary materials.

Miltiades judged the teen in front of him and keeping the warnings in mind. 'I've got to keep him from closing with me. Well this is why I was chosen…' He removed the column that Seiji stood on dropping him down, but a little impressed by his stubbornness.

Seiji sweated a little clinging to the neighboring pillar. "What the hell did you do with my tree? This is supposed to be a fair fight, not one with cheap tricks!" He had no more time to complain though as that tree disappeared on him too. Since he had not been paying attention while talking, he had no chance to move. Dropping the couple of meters, he landed on the angled log he had previously used as a ramp.

Not thinking, but just acting on wanting to get close, Seiji ran along it leaping out for the next column. Closer he was, but he had no further hope. The wood was already disappearing. Seiji knew enough to keep going and already put himself in motion before it happened. He jumped and flailed around the middle of the trees trying to close their distance. However, every time it seemed that he was making progress he had to turn.