The Dream Shifter

Chapter 260

The conversation ended with him standing and the field turning back to the unpredictable shaking. He tossed aside the kunai to focus on his pressing concern. 'Where is she hiding? The direction had to put her…' Bakkhos tracked the line back to where he felt she should be. The area was still a general search radius, but it put him where he felt she should be.

Another sharp pain stabbed him from the back. His other shoulder held a new kunai. He spun around quickly trying to get a lock on the girl. 'Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Why can't I find her?' Bakkhos walked forward cautiously trying to get a beat on Chiharu. He suddenly felt like he was fighting a phantom rather than a child. 'There's definitely a different feeling to this fight than before…'

Before he had a chance to do anything more, two more kunai came from nowhere and embedded themselves into his thighs. It was enough to drop him to one knee. He ripped out of the blades and cast them aside. 'This is becoming troublesome.' Swiping through the air roughly, nearly a dozen blades slashed through the thick night air. 'My shoulders are slowing me down…'

The test strike found nothing. Dust clouds coughed up from the ground from the attacks painting the borders of his field in a veil. He narrowed his eyes reading out for any movement. 'She's here somewhere…'

Dust suddenly parted in bursting speed trailing off a black figure. Bakkhos only had seconds to react running out cuts. Blood sprayed from new wounds, but it did nothing to halt their advance. A flying knee plunged into his chest knocking him off his feet and depositing his body several meters away.

Chiharu came to a soft landing. She stood up ignoring the bleeding from her wounds. 'Sorry, Grandfather, but I still need to prove this to myself…before I can follow you…'

Out of the dust cloud rose the old Atlantean. Bakkhos coughed a little feeling the impact still in his chest. His hand rubbed his trench coat that gave him protection. 'It doesn't work well against cutting edges, but blunt attacks…without it I doubt I'd still be standing…' Glancing over the field, he caught sight of Chiharu staring back at him. Her face was as clear to him as if he stood in only centimeters from her. 'She's got her fight back. She looks even more determined than before…so troublesome…'

Lifting up her hands, Chiharu committed to a fighting stance. She felt the years of training passed down through her as part of the Chinen Clan coursing through her. It was all she needed to deal with her opponent. 'This is as far as I'll go with tricks. The rest of this is only me!'

Dust suddenly parted in bursting speed trailing off a black figure. Bakkhos only had seconds to react running out cuts. Blood sprayed from new wounds, but it did nothing to halt their advance. A flying knee plunged into his chest knocking him off his feet and depositing his body several meters away.

Chiharu came to a soft landing. She stood up ignoring the bleeding from her wounds. 'Sorry, Grandfather, but I still need to prove this to myself…before I can follow you…'

Out of the dust cloud rose the old Atlantean. Bakkhos coughed a little feeling the impact still in his chest. His hand rubbed his trench coat that gave him protection. 'It doesn't work well against cutting edges, but blunt attacks…without I doubt I'd still be standing…' Glancing over the field, he caught sight of Chiharu staring back at him. Her face was as clear to him as if he stood in only centimeters from her. 'She's got her fight back. She looks even more determined than before…so troublesome…'

Lifting up her hands, Chiharu committed to a fighting stance. She felt the years of training passed down through her as part of the Chinen Clan coursing through her. It was all she needed to deal with her opponent. 'This is as far as I'll go with tricks. The rest of this is only me!'

Bakkhos dusted off his coat starting a slow march back to Chiharu. He felt the slowness in his body from the attacks she made on him. His coat gave him protection from much of it, but he still had to deal with the force. 'I've never met anyone with the strength to lift someone off the ground and knock them back, especially with the size difference. They really are a different sort…' Checking on her position, unchanged, he examined her stance. 'Already got back that much strength, their bodies have remarkable recovery, very troublesome indeed…'

'I have some of my strength back… The time outside his field helped me, but still…' Chiharu noted the fact that his field already surrounded her. As he closed, it only felt stronger, the draining effects it had on her. Her feet balanced carefully on the changing ground to keep her defense up. 'I've got a better understanding of him this time…' A shift in her foot indicated her intention to act.

The intent did not slip past Bakkhos careful eyes. He did not want to deal with her again. "You've got your spirit back, but we've done this before al—" A sharp fist cut him off with his reflexes barely dodging it. After Chiharu cleared him, he took a few steps back. "That's rude of—" Chiharu cut him off again with a kick, which actually connected loosely. He slid back already knowing he acted too late. 'I guess my old tricks won't work anymore…'

Chiharu quickly moved in on Bakkhos before he had another chance to start talking. She had to keep to her strategy. Time factored into it so much that wasted seconds were crippling for her. 'There's a lot more at work with him than I originally gave him credit for…' They kept moving about with Chiharu only managing narrow hits. 'His strategy is to keep me distracted and off balance both with his words and his unstable field.'

Their fight intensified with Chiharu making quicker strikes against Bakkhos, but the physically draining effects of his field started to show their signs again. She began to miss him by larger margins, even trying to adapt to the changes only bore small fruit. 'I was so caught up by everything that I didn't even notice. I underestimated his ability letting him dictate pace.' Even with his injures, Bakkhos kept from serious harm, while also never countering Chiharu. He allowed her to remain offensive. ' I thought with my physical attributes I didn't have anything to be concerned with against him.'

Watching the fight, Bakkhos felt some respect for the talent he witnessed, troublesome as it was for him. 'Her adaptability is surprising, she's already almost completely use to the ground changes.' He blocked an incoming fist feeling the weight of it through his back. 'Against a normal human, my field leaves them completely full of openings, but it mostly unnecessary.' His eyes kept watch on Chiharu's footwork to keep his distance at a perfect separation for his comfort. 'In fights with others like me, it's nearly pointless as their field neutralizes it. This is the first time I've actually had a fight like this…'

'I still have a lot to learn,' Chiharu commented to herself. It was a fact she already knew, but something the fight reinforced for her. She needed better control to succeed her Grandfather.

Fumiko managed to leave the range of Bakkhos' field, in part, thanks to Chiharu's fighting. It was subtle, but she could feel the restored magic in her body along with her physical fatigue fading. Unfortunately, her fight with Stamatia already left her drained from the start. She was hardly in a position to help Chiharu.

Watching Chiharu fight made Fumiko realize she had never seen her in a fight before. She did not know how she fought, but felt something strange from the fight. 'Why is she holding back from using her other power?' Fumiko remembered seeing her use it when arguing with Seiji a couple of times, when everyone else missed it. With Seiji, Chiharu was definitely physically involved, relying less on the rest of her abilities. 'I just figured it was best she didn't take him seriously, but is there something else I didn't see before?'

So much of Chiharu remained a mystery to Fumiko. She often felt she knew her better than the rest of the group, but only because she watched her and kept an eye on her. 'She hides everything underneath that mask of hers…always so difficult to read…' Fumiko only made progress in understanding Chiharu through her interactions with others. Alone, she saw nothing.

Her fight revealed another new side to her. 'She looks so determined…determined to fight her own way on her own terms… What exactly is she is fighting against?' Fumiko's recovery restored her eyes ability to follow all of the movements of the fight. Lowered down to a mere human before, her body had neither the reflexes or focus to see much more than a blur. Yet, she could watch every move that Chiharu made in the fight now. She could see the look in her eyes. 'She's not looking at him… Her gaze is going past him, looking beyond…seeing something else… Her goal is further ahead…'

Seconds piled up into minutes for the fight. Fumiko assumed that Chiharu had to be slowing down. The field played against her. It left her open and weak. However, it was not what Fumiko saw. 'Is she actually moving faster?! She's driving him back!'