The Dream Shifter

Chapter 288

Tension built up between the two as Yuki waited in a delayed action. Vangelis seemed to pick up on Yuki's hesitation and let the tension play out. Like with everything else, he enjoyed playing with Yuki in any way possible. Everything dragged out for his entertainment. He knew he would win. It was a question of how far he would have to go before the end. 'He's making things very fun, finally…I think it's about time to throw off the balance he thinks he's found…' Vangelis grinned at the thoughts playing through his mind.

The grinning devil only made Yuki's body more rigid with tension. He could see the man had things planned, but could only guess as to what they were. 'I wish he'd stop drawing this out. I know he's just playing with me and I can't do anything about it. I need to understand his power to beat him. All this switching he's doing is making it clear that he doesn't want me to figure him out. It's all part of his strategy, to keep me off balance and moving at his pace.' Tightening his fists, Yuki felt a change in the winds as an omen of things to come. 'I'll have to keep playing his game until I've got him figured out and hope I survive until then…'

Resuming the fight, Vangelis casually flicked his finger at Yuki with the tip of his finger discharging a wide green blast. It completely engulfed Yuki with no time to react. However, moments later Yuki burst through the light trailing off dust from his gi. Vangelis immediately disappeared and reappeared nearby him giving him enough time to notice before firing off another green blast of energy.

Yuki managed to have enough to transfer his defenses forward to deal with the force of the attack. It merely blew over him, but it still pushed him back. The previous attack left his body sore and stinging, unable to dampen almost any of it. 'He's back to the energy blasts and the disappearing thing again! It's significantly more powerful because of his folding technique, but I've dealt with this before. I know how he moves and what to expect. I'll show him how useless it is against me and force him to change to something else, perhaps another I've seen and counter easier!' Yuki got a little excited to know he started to feel comfortable with the fight. He could finally fight Vangelis.

Lifting two fingers at Yuki, a ball of green light grew at the tip of his fingers. 'He's doing something different this time. I figured wide blasts weren't the only attack he had, but I can handle this as well.' Yuki dug in as he prepared for the attack. He kept his eyes focused to respond to the type of attack Vangelis planned to use next.

A narrow beam of bright green light came at Yuki. It looked concentrated unlike the previous shots at him. Yuki's mind instinctively redirected all of his defense towards the left side of his body, while he tried to get himself out of the way. Yuki turned his head only a little in the time he had to watch his left arm disappear from sight as the force of the blast turned him and made him stumble backwards. He could feel his arm heating up from the blast with things become even more uncertain.

Vangelis gave a wicked smirk to Yuki as he pulled out a pistol from behind his back. He quickly took aim at Yuki.

Wide eyed with shock, Yuki did not know how to react. The blast slowly ended with his arm still intact, but when he heard the gunshot, his defenses were not ready. 'Both?! He tricked me again!' A large amount of blood sprayed up into the air as Yuki fell backwards. Pain screamed through his body and reached his lips. He could not hold it back.

Suddenly, all of his bruises, bumps and minor injuries felt like crippling ailments. Yuki struggled with his wrecked body to look over at the injury. His eyes shrank to the size of pins when he saw his arm completely missing. Blood continued to pour out into the grass. Shock kept him from being able to scream anymore. 'I still don't understand…' thought Yuki, as light faded from his eyes.

A narrow beam of bright green light came at Yuki. It looked concentrated unlike the previous shots at him. Yuki's mind instinctively redirected all of his defense towards the left side of his body, while he tried to get himself out of the way. Yuki turned his head only a little in the time he had to watch his left arm disappear from sight as the force of the blast turned him and made him stumble backwards. He could feel his arm heating up from the blast with things become even more uncertain.

Vangelis gave a wicked smirk to Yuki as he pulled out a pistol from behind his back. He quickly took aim at Yuki.

Wide eyed with shock, Yuki did not know how to react. The blast slowly ended with his arm still intact, but when he heard the gunshot, his defenses were not ready. 'Both?! He tricked me again!' A large amount of blood sprayed up into the air as Yuki fell backwards. Pain screamed through his body and reached his lips. He could not hold it back.

Suddenly, all of his bruises, bumps and minor injuries felt like crippling ailments. Yuki struggled with his wrecked body to look over at the injury. His eyes shrank to the size of pins when he saw his arm completely missing. Blood continued to pour out into the grass. Shock kept him from being able to scream anymore. 'I still don't understand…' thought Yuki, as light faded from his eyes.

Everything went white on Yuki. The number of times he faced death almost made it feel like he was returning home. It still scared him, but it scared him even more such feelings of familiarity coming from it. 'I'm having so much trouble with him. He's not even the same as Demosthenes. That man did not need tricks when he got serious, I could tell the difference in our powers, but this man. I'm having trouble with him…'

It was doubt. Uncertainty surrounded him. He was back at not knowing anything. 'I thought I understood, but it's so very clear I still don't understand anything…I don't understand anything at all…'

Thoughts went back to the villagers. 'I was impulsive. I didn't consider them.' A myriad of dark questions swarmed his mind. Yuki wondered about the path he chose. 'Is this what they want? What they need? Am I doing the right thing?' The thoughts only made things worse for him. He sank deeper. 'Can I even do anything? I don't understand anything…'

'It doesn't matter if you don't understand anything!' shouted Seiji, within Yuki's mind. He held out a clinched fist as proof of his declaration.

Yuki's face went flat staring at Seiji's appearance. 'What are you doing here? In my mind?'

Taken back a little, Seiji's floating body moved away from Yuki. 'What are you talking about?! This is the moment where I use our friendship to recharge your burning desire to fight and turn the tables on that bastard! I'm supposed to do this! You already did it for Saki!'

Not immediately responding to Seiji, Yuki straightened up to confront Seiji. 'I'm fine that I don't need a motivational speech.'

'But you said these were normal! These are important moments to have!'

'They're also too cliché. They're like a deus ex machina, and I'm the main character here! I don't need such overused devices!' Yuki turned away from Seiji, starting to walk away and back towards the fight. 'l show you a main character that can stand back up on their own!'

Seiji looked a little dejected from the whole scene. 'But this was supposed to be my chance to help you out.'

'Besides, I wasn't in despair. I hadn't given up. The fight just made me realize something things I've been ignoring.'

'Sounds like you're being tsundere.'

'You shouldn't know that word, Seiji. And don't use your trump card of being smarter than you appear, that is completely outside of your character type.'

'I am a figment of your imagination.'

Yuki had nothing more to say to Seiji. He closed off that part of his mind. Returning to reality, the pain sobered Yuki up quickly. Color returned to his eyes, as did energy back to his body. "Damn, Seiji…ruining my moment. I'll have to punch him the next time I see him." Yuki pulled himself back up. He already quickly had the wound on his arm sealed up by the energy surrounding him. He stared out with more determination to figure out Vangelis' powers. "Thanks you I have more to spare. I can do something like this now." Closing up his hand, the ambient energy in the air took form to become a simple sword.

Grinning like a jackal, Vangelis became even more excited about the fight. 'I was curious to see how he would react to it. I had planned on just healing his arm after I saw his reaction, but this is even better than I hoped for. This is just simply too much fun.' A few stray thoughts clouded his mind, but they quickly passed. 'It's been too long.'

Blood soaked into the tall grass that surrounded Yuki. It gave him a reminder of the situation he was in currently. 'I've lost a fair bit of a blood. I'm not too light headed right now, but my body doesn't feel right. I'm going to have to be careful about anything else that happens.' Alerted, another blast came at Yuki, reminding him he still had to fight. Making use of the sword, he swung the blade upward through the air at the blast. It divided into two, safely dispersing to his sides.

It made him feel a little more assured of his position. He countered the attack successfully. 'I have to keep watching his powers. I've got to memorize each one so I know what to expect. He's got the upper hand until I know what to expect from him. When that happens, I'll be able to change the pace of this fight!'

Testing out Yuki's new defense, Vangelis fired off several more blasts. 'So he really has made use of the spare energy. That sword is strong enough now to alter my attacks. Just means I get to try something else.' The ground turned into red felt stretching out. Drawing out magic circles in front of his hand, ice shards blasted out at Yuki.

Yuki's eyes widened a touch, taking everything into his mind. The sword transformed into an aspis type of shield. Opacity in the swirling mass grew as more particles drew up from his arm to harden it. Ice shattered on the surface, doing nothing to Yuki. 'Magic now. I remember this, and he's using felt with it.'

He knew it was a chance to counterattack. Yuki remembered the different spells he used in the fight. 'This is my chance to get a real hit in against him! I've got to make it count!' Rising up the shield a little, Yuki focused more of his barrier into the surface of the aspis. It glowed a little brighter before releasing several orbs of compressed energy.

Already expecting something, Vangelis placed a barrier spell up to take the hits. However, one of the shots strayed from their course and crashed into the dirt. It coughed up a cloud around the entire area. 'Interesting, he's making a smokescreen for himself. What's he got in store?' Vangelis slid around his eyes to keep watch for the smoke to clear, while listening closely.

Expecting a flanking attack, Vangelis did not think that Yuki would come from the front. It took him a little off guard hearing the clashing of something hitting his barrier. All he saw through all of the smoke was light. It cleared out soon. Vangelis saw the edge of Yuki's sword. However, he did not expect to see the entire barrier suddenly collapse on him. The shattered bubble rained down chunks of transparent magic slowly fading away.

His defense down, the next attack came as little surprise, but Vangelis still had trouble dodging it. He staggered back as the blade came in for him. Lowering his hand, a cube flew up forcing Yuki to pull back. Everything played out with only centimeters to spare.

The two leapt away from the other settling on a small distance apart. Yuki's sword only managed to catch a touch of Vangelis' clothes. The man still wore his military uniform, almost like declaring the fact that he did not need to change for the fight.

'So close, but I actually managed to get a successful attack off!' Yuki praised himself. He found his constant struggling to keep up with the pace of Vangelis trying for him. It made him wonder if he would ever find an opening. 'He's not perfect. I just have to be smarter than him.'

Examining his uniform's cut, Vangelis admitted to the moment of surprise. "Very interesting, kid. It's been a while since someone's actually made it that close."

"You're not going to get all angry and power up because I ruined your pristine clothes are you?" Yuki grinned a little at Vangelis.