The Dream Shifter

Chapter 144

The concrete wall shattered even more from Katsu assault exposing steel that re-enforced it. Haruo had no understanding of Yuki's powers, but it was pretty clear to him how little time that they had left. 'I need to do something… I said I would do this myself…but without this strange power I can't…' He tightened his hands with frustration starting to dig his nails into his skin. Time was running out and he had nothing. 'I can't…I need it from before…please…'

Thin beams of light burst out of both of Haruo's hands easily seen from the other side. It made everyone freeze in confusion to what was happening. Haruo stared down at his hands opening them up to see what it was that was causing the light to be created. However, the light was too bright for him to see anything clearly. Soon the light took on form growing out from hands expanding until a shape could be seen. 'Is this my power? But how…' As it grew larger and lifted out of his hand Haruo could see a faint shape within in it as the light was no longer as bright.

When the creation had been completed there were two animals transparent and bathed in pure white light as the tiger had been before. However, neither was a tiger this time. One looked like a dog, possibly a german shepherd and the other was a panther. They both sat obediently at his feet like they were awaiting an order from him.

Haruo stared at the two animals a little surprised having expected to see a tiger again. None of it was making any sense to him. It seemed to be reacting to his feelings, but he did not understand anymore than that. '…what is that in the center? All of the light surrounding it is making it difficult to see…' There was a bundle of light that appeared to be almost woven tightly into a ball near to where their heart would be were they living creatures. Every few moments there was a gentle pulse from the light almost like a heartbeat. 'None of this makes any sense…but…I must act now…'

After the next assault from Katsu Haruo rose to his feet. Both of the animals responded to him staying on either side of him. Haruo was short, but even being short was not enough to be protected by the crumbling wall anymore. He stared over at Katsu, who had taken a pause in his attacks.

"What do you think you're doing, Haruo?!" yelled Yuki, noticing that he was no longer keeping down from the attacks. His eyes shifted over quickly towards Akihiro recognizing the look in his eye. 'There's blades already coming out of the wall!' All Yuki could do in time was remove the wall completely. The blades disappeared as with the wall as they no longer had a surface to be attached to. "What the hell do you think you're doing give them a target like that?!"

"Stay out of this," Haruo declared sternly.

Katsu grinned to himself watching the disagreement between the two widen the gap in their efforts. "Trouble in paradise huh?" He raised his hands towards the two of them with a look that said he was planning to settle everything with one attack. The invisible attack was unleashed quickly at the two. Two fragile walls erupted up from the ground that were shattered instantly, but managed to take the blow. "Still playing with toys like that huh?"

'I've got to get in close to him…' thought Haruo, trying to figure out how he was going to stop the attacks. He started running towards Katsu with his animals keeping up the pace. There were minor explosions of the grass and dirt as he could feel the attacks that Katsu was making narrowly missing him. 'I've got to keep myself moving…' As plans came to him in his mind the animals seemed to be reacting taking action mirroring his thoughts. The panther leapt up going for Katsu's arm, but was knocked back as it came close to him but hit with an invisible force.

Haruo missed a step as he took a moment to see how the panther was after that. There was a strange white particle dripping out from its forelegs that had been cleaved off by Katsu. However, a second later both legs grew out of the stumps and the panther was standing back up charging around for another attempt. 'It's completely recovered… So it's not wholly incorporeal, but not completely physical either… And one hit from Katsu isn't enough to kill it like before… I need to learn more quickly…' Haruo directed the german shepherd to keep it in Katsu's blind side while the panther was distracting him.

Yuki was forced to watch one of Haruo's animals get destroyed by Katsu in a failed attack. He had seen through the blindside strike that Haruo had tried leaving him only one left to work with against Katsu. His mind was working through everything that he was watching trying to analyze it all. Yuki's eyes had widened in a moment when he stared at Katsu. '…I'm so stupid!'

It had surprised him that the rest of the g**g was not doing anything anymore, but simply watching. He had to guess that as dumb as they seemed they were smart enough to know not to get in the way of Katsu's attacks. 'Haruo being too damn stubborn and with everything happening right now I can't get into the fight… I thought I would be fight with my Kasuo-ryoku to go against Katsu, but the danger is fair greater than with the assassins I've been hunted by…'

Still keeping his distance from the fight, Akihiro kept waiting for his chance to attack. There had been too much movement and confusion caused by Katsu and Haruo that he did not have a clean shot. He also had to be careful not to catch Katsu in his attacks. The waiting had finally paid off for him as there was a moment snag Haruo and gave Katsu an opening to finish things.

Yuki had barely caught what happened as Haruo tripped through the grass. 'It's that Akihiro kid! He's making use of the grass again! I can't hold things back anymore!' He closed his eyes focusing for a moment and he pushed away the final threads of hesitation that he had. 'I wanted to avoid using my field and keep this as private as I could, but I can't do it anymore…' Yuki saw the panther take a shot for Haruo to protect him from Katsu's attack and disappear from the sacrifice.

'…Ayumi…Saki…sorry everyone…' A brief white ring rippled through the ground from Yuki's feet. Several more rings pulsed from his feet in anticipation. A massive wave then erupted from his feet that warped the ground and all of the territory around it speeding out passing through everyone harmlessly. Behind the wave all of the tall grass was being replaced by flat earth leaving nothing behind, but the g**g members and neighbors, left frightened by their homes disappearing on them (again). At the center, Yuki was surrounded by a thick wall of dust kicked up by the exposed dirt.

Once everything else had ceased the turbulent wind around Yuki exploded away from him casting off the dark gray cloud. As particles came to settle Yuki stepped out walking into the earthen field he had created. All those around stared on in shock and confusion. "It's time this ends!" shouted Yuki, now donning his white fighting clothes.

Katsu looked a little more serious in expression seeing Yuki stepping forward, but less than impressed with his display. He raised his hand towards Yuki and fired another attack, however to everyone's surprise it was visible and colored green. It looked like a crescent thin and sharp vibrating as it displaced the air around it speeding towards Yuki.

Yuki did not even try to avoid it as the crescent shaped attack sped towards him. It impacted on Yuki's chest along his shoulder causing the loose dirt of the ground to be kicked up from the blast of wind. Everything happened so fast that no one was able to see what happened to Yuki after the initial hit. A second later Yuki marched out of the cloud completely unaffected by the attack. "Your wind attacks won't harm me anymore…"

Yuki did not even try to avoid it as the crescent shaped attack sped towards him. It impacted on Yuki's chest along his shoulder causing the loose dirt of the ground to be kicked up from the blast of wind. Everything happened so fast that no one was able to see what happened to Yuki after the initial hit. A second later Yuki marched out of the cloud completely unaffected by the attack. "Your wind attacks won't harm me anymore…"

The effect of Yuki coming out unscathed left a deep and dramatic impact on everyone in the street. They had seen Yuki getting sliced up and running away from Katsu before, the sudden reversal of the situation so soundly left a silent void that drained away everything. He had already proven himself to be unharmed by Akihiro's attacks and with Katsu's invisible attack not even scratching Yuki the morale of the g**g members fell apart.

Katsu was not convinced of Yuki's declaration as it only made him more frustrated to see Yuki trying to feint his way through the fight. "It's just another one of your illusions!" Determined to prove Yuki wrong Katsu raised both of his hands. Two green glowing crescent shaped forms materialized in front of his hands. The distortion around Katsu appeared to be shifting into a pale green hue that swirled and twisted around his arms feeding into the creation of the crescents. Even as he was fueling his attack wind was blowing out from him pushing down the grass and trickling out particles of green light.

Yuki was undeterred by Katsu building attack. He took a couple of steps forward even when Katsu launched the wind crescents at him. The visibility of the attacks made it significantly easier to dodge, but Yuki did not even bother with that. They sped towards him with razor edged sharpness and swirling with rapidly folding gales. Yuki snapped his hand up vertically slicing through one of the crescents causing its bound torrents of wind to be unleashed and blast the area with an explosion of gusts. The second crescent he allowed to simply graze off his shoulder and fall apart in the air behind him.

"Understand now?" Yuki firmly declared narrowing his features.

Chapter 84 – Growth

A grim thinly pursed lip had replaced the permanent smirk on Katsu's face. Knowing that it was not a trick of Yuki's made him start to run pale in the skin. "I understand that you're a cocky bastard who's seen too much anime! What did you do to my powers?"

The serious tone from Yuki had not changed. He was no longer acting carefree and cocky with the g**g. "Once I understood you're power it was simple enough to develop a countermeasure. Since wind is invisible I applied a law stating that wind you use will be colored. The rest is simply a matter of using equal and opposite force of wind to break apart your attacks before it can cause harm to me."

"What the hell are—" Katsu was unable to finish his question with Yuki having closed the distance between them the moment after he finished speaking. Yuki did not give Katsu a moment to react forcing him to take a direct punch into his stomach. Katsu stumbled backwards coughing up blood as he lost his balance dropping to the dirt. Even though Yuki had only punched him it had felt like his insides were being torn up and screaming in violent agony.

All of his boys ran forward to try to come to their boss' aid, but Yuki stopped them all with a sharp glare. Katsu continued to cough hoarsely spitting up bits of blood intermittently. Everything seemed to be waiting as the grave condition of Katsu became darkly acute. Once he had managed to subdue much of the pain and involuntary coughing he turned his head up towards Yuki. His lips were coated with blood along with the sides of his chin. "W-what did you…do to me?!" Katsu received nothing but a deep stare that spoke of his defeat, but Katsu refused to give in.

He tried to form together his wind to mold into an attack with pale green threads appearing in mass. A faint shape of a crescent began to take form, but it was suddenly shattered to pieces to his shock.

"At this proximity I can completely neutralize your wind with my own. It's useless."

Katsu glared back at him feeling that defiant emotion that he had seen before from Haruo and Yuki. It was a bitter taste for him to accept. "What the hell are you?!"

Yuki was not about to answer the question, especially since it had been asked too much already. He was ready to put an end to the fight. Most of the g**g members had already lost their will to stay. A few had fled from the scene while others were simply too paralyzed to react. Yuki took a hold of Katsu's collar lifting him back up to his feet. The piercing stare from Yuki leveled at Katsu trying to break him down. It seemed the mental contest would have never been solved until Haruo broke them off getting between them.

"I already told you this is my problem to deal with. Stay out of it." Haruo and Yuki locked eyes for a moment as Yuki was not about to back down after everything that had happened. It was a fact that Haruo quickly understood. He turned back towards Katsu, struggling to keep his legs straight. "Back down or I'll bring out my animals again."

There was a choking laugh from Katsu even while he barely was able to keep himself together. "You've got pretty…full of yourself…kid!" Katsu tried to grin, but the pain made it difficult.