The Dream Shifter

Chapter 289

"I see you've got your playfulness back, kid." His mind played through the previous moments in the fight. He tried to search for an answer, but none of it made any sense to him. 'The kid managed to do something that I didn't actually foresee. This really is getting interesting.' Vangelis grinned back at Yuki. "How much more will you show me?!" Opening his hands, a cube filled up his entire palm enclosed only loosely by his fingers.

Gripping his sword tightly, Yuki dug into the grass to charge for Vangelis. 'Those shapes again, with a Greek architecture field,' he mentally noted, continuing to store all of the information in their fight.

Vangelis tossed the first cube at Yuki, following it up with a second that materialized. The other hand held on to the cube. It gave Yuki his signal to charge forward. Slashing through the cubes, Yuki continued through for Vangelis. However, the cubes did not vanish. They grew larger in size and started to spin appearing like cones.

The changes did not go ignored by Yuki. He immediately changed the shape of his sword to transform into four small knives that fit nicely in his palms. Yuki threw out his hand in the direction of one of the flanking half cubes. The knives soared out towards the object, but one of the knives diverted its direction suddenly ending straight for another section of cube. All of the knives sought out their own target entering a momentary dance as they dodged and turned about. However, the knives eventually sunk into the surface of each half cube.

Yuki closed his hand and acted like his pulled on something invisible. The knives moved back to Yuki dragging the cubes along with them. Once they came closer to him, he started to spin the group around before launching them back at Vangelis. Taking away the cube, Vangelis still had to contend with the four knives flying through the air.

The other cube in Vangelis' hand flew out along with several more geometric shapes. They collided with Yuki's knives and danced around once more. He kept up the pace with the changes that Yuki made to the knives. 'The kid's come up with something new. He keeps going.' Vangelis smirked a little. Then the shapes all suddenly disappeared.

A forest sprouted up around Vangelis. The knives, which started to change direction, became wrapped by a whip. It had four separate lashes, each tying down one of the knives. While he had the knives restrained, a spear appeared in his off-hand. The spear extended out at Yuki.

Dodging quickly, Yuki sidestepped the attack. He dispersed the knives and returned the sword back to his hand. A smooth motion from the sword removed the spearhead. It disappeared before hitting the ground. 'He's taking advantage of my injured side.' Yuki jumped forward while dodging the reformed spear. A moment later, Vangelis brought down a sword, replacing the spear.

Yuki parried the sword, adjusting to his balance. His missing arm threw off his weight a little. He found himself compensating for the difference. 'This feels weird still. I keep thinking that it is still there.' Yuki's hand tightened around his sword, sharpening the blade to cut through the sword. Riding in the rest of the distance, Yuki closed with Vangelis coming up against a scutum shield. His sword slammed into the tall shield's metal surface sparking light particles of energy.

Arrows appeared in the air above the clashing forces. Yuki's eyes darted around checking his surroundings. Pulling from his back, transparent daggers flew up to hover over his head. While Yuki pressed against the shield, the daggers attacked the arrows keeping them at bay.

'He's getting more complex with his tactics,' noted Vangelis. The shield transferred out just as two spears jutted out for Yuki. A blast of dirt coughed up a small cloud at his feet, shooting Yuki into the air. Vangelis glanced up a little curious. He grinned enjoying the show.

Yuki changed his sword into a chain. The chain stretched up to one of the daggers, wrapping around it. It anchored Yuki for the moment as he swung around and released the dagger. He redirected all of the daggers back down, while also changing back to an aspis. 'I'll break an opening up!' The aspis clashed into the shield Vangelis pulled out from another dimension. His daggers came up against other shields that suddenly materialized on flanking sides of Vangelis.

Leaving behind the shield, Yuki jumped off his still formed aspir and climbed over the scutum. Another blast came off his feet to propel him over Vangelis. His hand reached out for one of the daggers growing it into a sword. Yuki rotated around slashing down from his upside-down position at Vangelis' exposed back. A sword blocked him before he got too deep, but he saw a faint trace of blood.

Vangelis finished turning around as Yuki landed back on the ground. The sting on his back turned his usual smirk into a flat line. "You've managed to cut me, kid. I'm impressed." All of the shields disappeared, but were replaced by more than a dozen swords floating in front of him.

Yuki's features narrowed, the situation suddenly becoming graver. "I thought you weren't the type to get angry over a wound." He wiped away sweat from his forehead, the physical exertion starting to get to him.

"I'm not, however I am the type to up the ante when I've found someone worth my attention." Another dozen swords materialized followed by another dozen. The air started to become cluttered with them. "I've been soft on you so far, kid!"

"I'm crush," Yuki droned. He already saw the significance of what Vangelis showed. It had been a while since he saw someone control so many independent objects and it did not even look like the man broke a sweat.

"It's time to dance!" Vangelis motioned with his hand to signal the charge. All of the swords went flying at Yuki, each with different speed and trajectories. It was clear even the effort he showed was merely child's play still.

Yuki jumped back to give himself a little more distance. He summoned up his dagger to try to divert a few of the swords, while he began to dodge the first bout. Unfortunately, the weight of the swords prevented his minor daggers from altering their vector. He leapt into air once more, but directed a heavy blast against the grass at his feet. It blew up chunks of earth at the swords, while he tumbled away.

Quickly latching out to a floating dagger, Yuki managed to alter his course and cushion his drop before confronted by another barrage of weaponry. 'Damn, there's so many of them. And I haven't gotten used to the balance either…I'm going to have to change that. I'm running out of time!' Suddenly, Vangelis appeared at Yuki's side, the swords disappeared, but only replaced with a wide blast from his hand.

Yuki blocked with his arm, using the aspis to absorb the damage. However, Yuki saw another several rounds of blasts sent off from Vangelis' fingers. 'Can't do anything with so many…' Yuki blasted off to throw himself out of the blast range, when the explosions went off from all of the attacks. He tumbled over the ground as earth chunks rained down around him.

Vangelis appeared in front of him with a hand pointed down at him. The glow already started to signal a point blank attack. "How will you get out of this one, kid?" The grin on Vangelis' face grew wide again. "Impress me, again!"

Gritting his teeth together, Yuki screamed out in pain. He glared up at Vangelis, lifting himself up. The light from the blast grew even brighter so close to Yuki. "As you wish!" yelled Yuki. His other, previously missing, arm came up slamming up against Vangelis' hand. All of the light and energy streamed out from between their fingers as the two clashed.

Yuki blocked with his arm, using the aspis to absorb the damage. However, Yuki saw another several rounds of blasts sent off from Vangelis' fingers. 'Can't do anything with so many…' Yuki blasted off to throw himself out of the blast range, when the explosions went off from all of the attacks. He tumbled over the ground as earth chunks rained down around him.

Vangelis appeared in front of him with a hand pointed down at him. The glow already started to signal a point blank attack. "How will you get out of this one, kid?" The grin on Vangelis' face grew wide again. "Impress me, again!"

Gritting his teeth together, Yuki screamed out in pain. He glared up at Vangelis, lifting himself up. The light from the blast grew even brighter so close to Yuki. "As you wish!" yelled Yuki. His other arm came up slamming up against Vangelis' hand. All of the light and energy streamed out from between their fingers as the two clashed.

The pent up energy could not last long in such an unstable state. Light shot out from their hands brighter than before until it blinded both of them. An explosion followed the loss of sight sending the two tumbling away from the epicenter.

Vangelis flew and skidded backwards over his field with him narrowly missing direct impacts with the trees in his forest. They only changed how he tumbled and jumped around like a flat rock skipping the surface of the water. Once he came to a dragged out stop, his body was covered in bruises, torn cloths and scrapes from his flight. It left everything in his body sore.

Still not up, he glanced at his hand. It still felt the cold presence of Yuki's hand. His face twisted a little sorting through the facts. His hand looked deep red from the blast and a little mangled from the contest. In the last moments, he had redirected and dampened the focus so it did not cause as much damage to his hand, but it happened so fast. 'I never would have expected him to do that…he's more resourceful than I would have thought. He's learning quickly.'

His body still could move and that was enough for him. Vangelis stood up and began knocking the dirt off his uniform. He glanced in the distance where Yuki fell, noting the kid standing back up. "You've ruined my uniform. I'm going to have to get a new one, kid." Walking forward back into battle, the Atlantean continued to pat down his uniform getting the last bits off him. The rest remained stuck, stained into the fabric.

Yuki emerged from all of the dust and dirt coughed up by the explosion. Unlike Vangelis, his shield gave him the protection from the out of control flying he did. It still left him a little sore and roughed up. His body protested to him about the a***e, but he ignored it. Yuki only grinned, feeling like finally managed to surprise Vangelis in the fight. "If I had known you cared so much about your appearance I would have been a bit more gentler."

Laughing, the field around Vangelis changed again. "Good, keep that going! Show me everything, kid!" Mushrooms sprouted up of various sizes to replace the forest.

'Show me everything, kid!'

Materializing in his hand, Vangelis grabbed a hold of a grenade. It had a very modern appearance to it, a smooth almost spherical shape. The pin did not seem to be present, same for the lever meant for holding the timer from starting. He held on to the grenade longer than one should, had it been normal. It was clear it had no intention of exploding until he wanted it.

Vangelis smirked suddenly, a signal for his empty hand to sweep over the area in front. In front, behind, flanking and even in the air, a massive armory of modern age weaponry appeared around Vangelis. The grenade almost seemed inferior, like it was merely a joke stacked up against all of the heavy weapons. "No time to be gentler, kid!"

"I see," grimaced Yuki, already forming up his aspis for protection. He worked to expand the size to give him more coverage.

'Is that all you've got, kid?'

Gunfire released a storm of smoke layering a hazy film over Vangelis. The loud cracks from the weapons made it feel as though the ground was shaking. Yuki felt the impacts against his shield, but worried about the battery of attacks. 'He's already tricked me before with his guns. I have to be on the watch on his movements, but through all of this I can't…'

Yuki gritted his teeth as his arm started to go numb from the constant barrage. He sacrificed all of his rear energy to build himself more defense in the front. 'I'm certain these bullets he's using are different. They aren't like before where they were too weak to do anything. They were just a ploy by him to keep me going at his pace.' Pieces of Vangelis methods continued to stitch together for Yuki.

'What's this? Trying something different, kid?'

While under fire, a long metal blade stretched out, partially masked by the cover fire. It managed to sneak in to Yuki's space. His white hand reached out grabbing the blade before it did any damage. "I thought you might try something like that again," commented Yuki. He crushed the blade under the pressure of his hand, twisting the metal. A low mechanical whirring came out from his hand.

No response came from Vangelis, not even a flinch for the foiled attempt. However, Yuki was already deep in thought over the latest attack. 'This is the second time. I thought he could only use one type of power at a time. But he's using two different types. Is he…' Yuki narrowed his eyes trying to read deeper into Vangelis impregnable wall of smirking poker faces.

'Pretty smart, kid.'

A little chuckle came from him, never disappointed. 'I've played at this pace long enough. Let's see his reaction to this.' Everything surrounding Vangelis disappeared. The mushrooms vanished from sight, replaced by red felt.

The moment Yuki saw the felt, his eyes widened a little. 'This is it! He used magic when he had that field!' Yuki swept away the aspis back to the normal size. In his white off hand, he gripped on his swords. Another few daggers surfaced above him. Yuki charged in ready to counter the man's magic.

'It was a good fight, kid.'

It was not magic.