Amari was carrying me on her back, taking me out of that place.
"Sorry, this may hurt."
The chain in her little finger stretched and pierced my body right in my heart.
"It's the healing one, don't worry."
"Amari...Stop."
The girls looked at me confused, stopping to run.
Amari tilted her head.
"Uh? Why?"
"Tell me, what did you do to the other 2 raccoons?"
"Well, we had a brief fight again, but they quickly surrendered. We simply tied them up with some ropes that were there."
"Hm... Well, Amari heal me faster."
...
"AH?! WHY ARE YOU SAYING THAT!?"
I was still lying on her shoulder.
"There is still people I need to save. And besides, I don't know how strong Iulius is, I need to go back and help him!"
Sayuri intervened.
"Yo yo yo, wait!... First you're without Sankalpa so you can't move, and Amari's chain can only treat your wounds, and at most make you not tired, but it won't restore your Sankalpa. This takes a few hours to restore at least."
"Hm... I don't care, I still can beat the ass of that guy, with or without Sankalpa."
Sayuri talked quietly, like a whisper.
"You intent to defeat him without any power?..."
"Yeah, that's basically it!-"
Amari shouted.
"Oh hell nah! That guy... He seems strong, you were almost dying against him for a reason! If even with Sankalpa you can't win, imagine without!"
Sayuri nodded.
"Yeah yeah... And uh, can you tell me about that thing you were? Sankalpa purposes only."
Tsk, goddammit I need to walk as soon as possible!
There are things that are not settled down yet!
Non-participatory narrator POV:
Inside the large stone space, with several holes in the walls, and now even in the ceiling, Iulius and the Raccoon'sProtector face each other.
Iulius more or less in the middle of the place, the Protector near the wall away from the gate (the one that had already been partly destroyed, by Kai in his battle with Blondie).
The Protector said, without moving a muscle, or demonstrate any feeling through the voice.
"You're not weak. Even without a leg. I could feel it just from our clash earlier. I'd say you're on the same level as that clown. Maybe a little less."
Iulius made a smirk.
"I'm flattered to hear that... Though."
He opened his right hand a little more, the one carrying the sword, and many, many red rays came out of it and covered it, not small sparks like Kai's, some very large ones, Sankalpa.
Iulius changed his face to very focused and serious.
"I have a purpose here, so I'm going to have to get you out of my way."
With a quick leap towards the Protector, Iulius stood a few meters away from him and said.
"Kami Mukae."
And then, in a few thousandth of a second, he swung his sword from right to left, in a horizontal quick motion.
The Protector was luckily able to dodge, moving his chest back, but-
"The gulp is not to directly hit you... There's always something more."
And when the sword finally "reached left", an enormous slash appeared from where the sword moved, moving in a direction.
The slash was extremely large even though it fit inside that place. It was larger in the center, which almost reached the ceiling, than at the ends (reached almost the corners of the place) which gradually became smaller and sharper.
The cut itself was light red, with a bit of white in the center. It was quite irregular, looking like a horizontal lightning bolt that fidgets very quickly.
And after firing it, it quickly went forward destroying what was the wall completely.
Iulius stopped there, noticing that the Protector was no longer in front of him, having probably been sent flying by the slash.
He remained calm and serene, stopping to summon the red rays from his sword.
"I doubt it killed him, so I intend to look for him."
He raised his sword, again invoking the red sparks of Sankalpa.
"Fuken Fubun."
He then buried the sword into the ground.
You can't see it, but under the ground the Sankalpa of Iulius (red sparks) are moving at an extremely fast speed, searching at a 360º angle for the target.
"Found him. In the middle of the forest? Alright then..."
He sheathed his sword and began walking out of the cave.
Outside, the forest in the background had been badly destroyed, with several trees cut in half.
But as soon as he took a step outside, he noticed the Protector in his distance, in front of the forest.
Iulius made a small smirk.
"Wow, my Sankalpa had spotted you in the middle in the forest and you already came here?"
The Protector had a big slash in his chest, that cut his clothes and left much of his chest exposed, red with blood.
Iulius drew his sword from its sheath, quickly activating the bright Sankalpa.
"Round 2?"
The Protector stood there for a moment, staring at absolutely anything, and then said.
"Maybe if I hadn't used my knife as a shield I would be dead. I have plenty of knives. That's all I need."
Iulius made a smile.
"Really? Don't underestimate a swordsman..."
The Protector simply moved his hand upwards.
"The second most powerful ability in Raccoon's Secret. Lames d'Aurora."
Iulius slowly looked up at the sky, and what he saw he definitely did not expect.
The sky was covered in knives, lots and lots of them, taking up the entire sky, positioned perfectly, leaving a space between them equal to all of them.
"Oh, I count at least 1000. It's right-"
When he looked ahead, there was a small rock wall in his front blocking his view.
With a quick swing of his sword, he sliced the wall, but the Protector was no longer on the other side.
"How funny... But now I have to deal with these knives. That's why he disappeared?, so he wouldn't get hit? So it's an area attack?"
Iulius smiled to the knives, preparing his sword.
"Ok then, I'm waiting. I'm not going anywhere."
And right after, many and many knives started to come in Iulius direction.
They didn't all come at the same time, but they weren't one at a time, 3-5 at a time.
Iulius saw the knives coming in his direction, and quickly realized.
"Oh, it's not an area attack... It'll just come a few knives at a time until I open the gap. The problem is, I'm a swordsman who doesn't get tired and I don't open gaps."
Iulius quickly started to deflect the knives that came with his sword.
As soon as they were touched by his sword, Iulius stopped being the target of the knives and they simply fell to the ground.
Iulius was simply there, deflecting the various and various knives that came at him extremely quickly, but he was still focused on his surroundings.
"Well, I could use one attack to tear apart all those knives at once. However, maybe this is the opening he wants to sneak attack me, so I'll just continue to deflect the knives, that way I can still focus on my surroundings in case he attacks unexpectedly."
Even with just one leg, yes, for Iulius it is easy to keep deflecting 3 to 5 knives every 3 seconds, while paying attention to his surroundings.
"Zenketsu."
Suddenly, a root of red blood went in his direction, Iulius managed to cut the blood before it reached him, but with that he was pierced with a knife in the shoulder.
"A-Ahhh... Wait t-there's another?"
As he turned back to deflect the knives, he noticed a bloodied blond man on the ground in the distance.
Blondie muttered to himself as he lay on the floor unable to move.
"I-I'm using the blood that's already coming out of my body from all my wounds, I don't even need to stab myself anymore... I-I'll probably die soon, but it doesn't matter... Zenketsu."
Another burst of blood came towards Iulius, this time he preferred to focus on defending the knives, so the blood pierced his chest, being quickly cut by him.
But before he could even think, he just heard from behind.
"Yuka."
A great distance away from him, the Protector touched the ground and started an earthquake beneath Iulius, the ground quickly starting to split apart.
"Zenketsu."
And the Blondie made another blood attack.
There's an earthquake happening making it difficult for him to stand (especially since he only has one leg), a rush of blood coming towards him and knives flying to hit him. All at the same time.
Noticing all that, Iulius smirked.
"You are all in my range... I don't like doing this because it takes a lot of Sankalpa, but anyway."
He raised his sword, red rays shooting out from it.
"Koritsumuen."
Right before the knives and the blood reached him, from Iulius's sword came a huge explosion, a shockwave of light red energy, Sankalpa.
Instantly, it filled a huge area, mostly horizontally reaching the blondie and the Protector.
Red lightning bolts everywhere, the wound on Protector's chest instantly reopened, and he felt an enormous pressure that even made it difficult for him to stand, the blondie simply fainted.
The knives in the sky stopped coming and instantly broke apart, tearing into many small pieces, along with the spray of blood that was also torn apart.
The ground stopped shaking, Protector's Yuka instantly deactivating.
After around 10 seconds, the explosion quickly contracted back into Iulius' sword, stopping, removing the red glow from everyone's vision.
Iulius slowly turned back to face the Protector.
"I wonder, you have all this abnormal speed and strength, is it part of your Sisu?"
The Protector, with blood coming out of his chest and visibly tired, responded calmly and without emotion.
"No. I'm just like that. Training."
"Hm, very well then."
Iulius opened his right arm with the sword.
"Let's see who's the best in speed and brute strength then?"
"..."
Thus, the two began a series of quick attacks, cuts and clashes at high speed.
A speed so fast that anyone watching from afar would simply see 2 sparks moving back and forth.
The Protector using 2 knives is his hands, Iulius using his sword infused with Sankalpa.
A battle that lasted a few minutes, but at the same time a long time, 2 very evenly matched opponents.
But eventually, the Protector's right leg was cut off and it fell to the ground.
With that, the two stared at each other.
Iulius:
"It's over?"
"No. I fight with my 2 hands. You don't have a leg either. Now it's fair."
"Hah, let's see then."
And so, they went back to the same old thing.
Meanwhile, inside the cave, inside the gate, Kai is already on feet (after being healed by Amari).