“This ends now!” shouted Yumi, through the dusty wind. Her opponent barely remained visible to her eyes, but it gave her enough of a target. All of the crushed weapons from Photine rotated around Yumi increasing in speed until blurring into a ring. Yumi directed her hand out away from her pointing at the woman sending each metal ball back at its owner as it came around Yumi. Each fired off in succession like an automatic rifle. The custom-made bullets blasted through the wind punching holes from the speed and clearing out pockets of air.

Photine widened her eyes in shock at seeing her weapons completely halted and then turned upon her. She instinctively dodged out of the line of fire. In addition, she summoned up more weapons hanging vertically in the air in front to act as a shield for her. The defensive thinking ended up saving her as one of the projectiles failed to be evaded by her and slammed into her wide bladed bastard sword. Relief did not come to her though as the sword was instantly severed in two by the force and the metal chunk continued through. It had bought her the save she need with the angle deflected to a shallow near miss over the edge of her shoulder.

Given no pause by Yumi, Photine noticed the remaining pieces that she avoided still locked onto her and turning around. ‘Damn… Caught me off guard…’ Frustrated and embarrassed that her own weapons turned against, she dropped all of them from her mind.

Her tools taken away from her, Yumi dropped her hand back down. It took her a bit by surprise, but she forgot the sort of person that she was confronted with. ‘Right, she’s like Yuki. Everything in their space they control. Somehow, I doubt I’m going to get another chance like that…’ Yumi stared across at Photine trying to figure out her next move. She had powers, but no idea what she could do with any of them. Instinct guided her hand before, but she felt like she stood in control. It relied on her now. “I won’t give up!”

Chapter 115 – A Fighting Mind

Reassessing her situation, Photine felt the change in the winds of battle. The mood altered so quickly on her that it threatened to leave her behind. ‘She so different now. She’s acting serious now… I can tell… Was she not seeing me as a threat before?’ She stiffened her pose taking a rigid stance trying to fortify her mind. A new approach had to be taken with the changing scene.

New weapons materialized in the air as the wind became thicker, nearly impossible for anyone with normal eyesight to see through. As a benefit of it being her field, she had complete clarity through the dust-filled air. She manipulated the density to hid her blades and disorient her opponent. Disguised within the veil, a massive sword hovered effortlessly despite the weight it should have had. Accompanying the great sword, three small daggers, dwarfed by mere size, floated about at the hilt.

Still walking forward, Yumi remained unaware of the new attack mounted against her. Her determined face looked ready to take anything on with fearless resolve. Putting that to the test, the daggers flew at her taking a direct line for her. Each attacked from a different side forcing her barrier to take them, with obvious ease. However, a trap laid in wait for her as she carelessly moved forward uninterested in the daggers.

Coming from the left of Yumi, a terrible ripping roared out as if something stubbornly resisted being torn apart. Joining the sound to mix was a deep groan of a rigid surface scraping and grinding. The depth of the groan made it clear that it had great weight behind it. Ominous noise turned to rumbling in the earth vibrating through to Yumi’s feet. She needed no hint of intuition to know that she had to move. Unfortunately, her escape came too late. All the foreplay ended and fell through the dust, blasting out a wide wake in its path, one of the wind carved rock columns broke through the thick haze. ‘It’s too big! I’m too late!’ Reflex spared her for the moment, her barrier split down a vertical seam and opened up growing denser and more opaque the moment the massive rock slammed into Yumi.

Weight alone crushed Yumi into the ground. Her hand stretched out strained to give support to her barrier, while she laid prone on her side. ‘…so heavy…it’s crushing me!’ She did not know how long her body could withstand the pressure that ran through her. The hand that futility struggle to give support to her barrier already felt numb from the stress. Her shoulder mashed into the hard earth not giving her any room as the column of rock groaned over her. Each second the struggling continued Yumi felt like her bones pulverized and shot out tiny needles out of her arm. The weight was too much. She collapsed completely rammed into the earth tossing up a small cloud and bits from her impact. ‘…can’t take much more…’

The edges of the barrier cut into the ground bracing for support lost by Yumi. Cracks began to appear along the surface growing louder and longer by the moment. However, above was not the only problem. An alert from outside turned Yumi’s head and eyes up away from her trouble to the incoming weapon, the large sword, seeking to strike where her barrier no longer reached. ‘It’s too much!’ Her eyes widened and pupils shrank in realization at the opening that she left herself. She had not the strength to change the barrier with the weight that she supported. ‘If only I…’

It gave her no chance to finish her thought. Photine’s sword flew straight for her head hovering only centimeters above the ground. Dust from the cracked earth parted and failed to cling to the guard building thin streams in its wake. In the shadow of the pressing stone column, everything disappeared in a thunderous blast of dirt and earth blanketing the area where Yumi was trapped.

Slowly billowing out from the impact, Photine’s vision only penetrated the thick wind she created. Her field’s environment covered the area masking the certainty of her kill. She weighed her options. ‘If I remove it now I may be releasing her, yet leaving her hidden could be giving her the time she needs for a counterattack. I must remain cautious…’ If Yumi remained alive the fight continued, which presented less risk than an unknown counter. Photine waved her hand wiping away the cover.

Through the unimpeded haze, she found Yumi flattened to the earth with her barrier severely bent. Accompanying Yumi laid the sword partially hidden by Yumi’s body, not clear to the damage. The traitor was very much alive still. More to her surprise, though Photine to keep it from becoming visible on her face, she saw how Yumi survived. A smaller square of the barrier sat at a steep angle off Yumi’s shoulder with the blade of the sword resting against it. ‘She deflected it enough by creating an angle with her shield!’ Photine’s hand shook slightly in boiling frustration. ‘Her defense is strong and flexible…’

Yumi coughed shallowly against the pain from the metal that her skin hugged. ‘So much…pain…’ Her eyes darted to the sword giving it a push with her thoughts, finally freed from the strain. A moment later, the unwieldy sword gasped a quick groan of stress before completely compressing into a four-centimeter sphere of dense iron. Before anything more could happen to it, the sword disappeared. Another cough exhaled from Yumi as though to respond to the removal of her weapon.

The stone column returned in towering declaration. “I won’t let you use that technique against me again! So don’t even try!” Photine took a couple steps forward summoning more swords up with a new attack prepared.

A frail hand forced her body away from the dirt and towards the direction of the voice. ‘It’s so thick… I can’t figure out where she’s hiding…’ Yumi turned over sitting down, her chest heaving from all of the new sensations. ‘…how am I supposed to…’

‘You can’t rest!’

‘Huh?’ Yumi instinctively looked up as though the voice in her mind stood in front of her. One moment lasted for a minute it felt like for Yumi. She saw the array of weapons streaming at her. Cutting through the clouds, the swords gave her no time to react. Reflex brought up one barrier close to her, but came too late for her. Yumi gagged on the blood that pooled in her mouth as shock filled her shrinking eyes. Blades ran her through from all sides. Shown to her, the barrier revealed to her lacked the strength to take the assault. Cracks echoed through the semi-opaque screen as Yumi’s eyes unfocused.

‘Pay attention!’ shouted the voice.

‘What?!’ Yumi snapped awake forced to process everything in seconds as she came to the realization of what happened to her. ‘Another dream? Like before?! That means—!’ She cut off her own thought. Strength returned to her legs charged by her dire feelings. Time ran out for her she knew. The whistling of the blades sailing through the air tickled her ears and urged her forward. Yumi stumbled in her run, balance still uneasy from the wound along her right arm left by the sword. She forced a barrier up around her feeling the weapons in coming. The barrier snapped around her in where the blades penetrated, but they disappeared before staying. Yumi paused.

As an ice pick rammed with purpose into a slab of ice, more weapons appeared in turn besieging her barrier on all sides. She froze. The strength she had just a moment before drained away. ‘I’m not fighter!’ Yumi knelt down. Barriers cycled subconsciously rotating in two layers to keep her safe. ‘…I can’t do this…’ Her right arm felt numb and her fingers did not budge for her. ‘…I’m not like Yuki and the others…’

The dreadful crackling of her barrier ran a ripple of chills through her body each time they sounded off. Her whole body nearly crystallized from the pressure left on her cold interior. She felt as though a thousand deaths had poured through each equally terrifying as the last. Yumi needed to crawl away from it all.

‘Stop whining because things are difficult!’

Once more, the voice distracted her from the world before her. ‘I shouldn’t be here!’

‘Damn it! Shouldn’t or should ain’t the thing you should be thinking about!’ The voice seemed to carry a weight to it that forced itself upon Yumi applying pressure.

Yumi shook her head. It was all just a dream. No voice shouted in her head.

‘The only way out is forward! Behind is destroyed to hell! There’s nothing!’

Nothing spoke.

‘You can’t ignore the situation like me!’

Loud snapping rolled around Yumi from her barrier shattering. The world returned to her eyes painfully abrupt. Her transition felt like she took whiplash jerking around. ‘Is this it?’ Yumi stared slowly on in awkward wonderment as the shards of her protection rained down around her.

‘If you have enough time to stare, you have enough time to act! Borrow from me for your strength!’

‘Who are you?!’

‘One that walks at your side…’

‘…walks beside me?’ No further thoughts were allowed. Warmth bloomed inside Yumi, a familiar feeling that she knew she experienced before. Out of her grew a three-layered barrier that halted the swords that struck for their final blow. Yumi stood up. The weight that shackled to her legs disappeared. ‘So strange…yet so normal…’ Heightened senses from Yumi detected the next wave that arrived upon realizing the last’s failure. The soft brown eyes of Yumi flashed with a glow before everything around her felt tremendous gravity crushing it. Further attempts met the same fate even faster.

Photine’s features narrowed watching all of her attacks failing. ‘Her crumbling defenses are back to full strength. And there’s that resolve in her eyes…again… What’s happening?’ Her teeth ground together as she dug deeper. ‘I won’t lose!’ A massive array of all imaginable weapons appeared, possible or not. More than fifty individual armaments clustered overhead in an arch. The swarm hovered around like an army of angry hornets. Her face began to sweat feeling the strain on her mental resources. The fight dragged on far too long for her.

Searching out through the dirt soup, Yumi walked around for Photine. Her senses tapped into the potentials that existed plucking at each thread feeling out the vibrations. The unnatural grasp that she suddenly had on her powers almost flew past her. She knew the knowing feeling of acting with great understanding than she possessed. It happened before. Somehow, she knew as much. ‘My mind was foggy then…trapped away…but now I’m looking with my eyes and not through them…’ She had to survive. She had to get back to Yuki. ‘All I have is my resolve… I’m not strong or smart… But for someone like me that is enough! I want to change myself!’ A small hint of Yuki’s presence rested on her shoulder giving her encouraging words as he had done before for her.

Yumi broke out into a sprint letting her mind guide her feet. The pain in her arm no longer mattered to her. She threw out her hands placing out barriers to block the incoming attacks. The desperation of her opponent was palatable as far as she was away. All the storm of weapons did only confirmed that fact. Sections of the barrier disappeared and rotated around quickly responding to her needs. Overlapping layers from the barrier turned razor sharp cutting through embedded weapons and cast aside. Yumi continued her charge undeterred from her goal. ‘I’ll change myself for you!’

The barrage continued thickening the air with metal from all angles. Particles and chunks of the barrier flew away on the wind replaced just as quickly. Her protection found itself on a quickly downward path of attrition. She needed a new plan other than running. A glance to the ground as she stopped made her mind discover a new idea. Yumi slammed her hands against the ground producing a five layered dome wall around her larger than she had been using. The exertion finally set in to the energy consumption she had been using, however she shook her head and focused on the earth. ‘This will work!’ she silently thought for encouragement.

Another two barriers erupted from Yumi even while her defense took hastening damage, two layers nearly destroyed. Time ran out for hesitation. The recent two domes did not come close to the outer wall, but further inside spaced apart from themselves with nearly half a meter of room. Yumi closed her eyes concentrating of the two domes. Vibrations and shifting emitted from barriers, but nothing more.

Yumi sighed in relief and allowed herself a small smile. ‘It worked!’ The two barriers disappeared as she stood up from the ground moving her arms away from her sides straight out. Her feet lifted from the dried earth hovering centimeters.

The last barrier defending Yumi shattered letting in the weapons. Yumi looked up at the points of the blades screaming at her. A massive explosion and cloud smoke blasted from Yumi masking her from sight, even for Photine.

‘Why can’t I see the girl?’ questioned Photine, sifting through the layers of her dust cloud. She pulled out the pieces from her thoughts letting them disappear. The deeper she went the same view remained. A darkness over the spot where Yumi should be. The last layers peeled away and Photine understood.

Broken chunks of earth floated around Yumi with the assorted weapons from Photine pierced through. Below a perfectly cut hemisphere in the ground stood as the answer. When the Atlantean attempted to remove the earth she realized what happened. ‘The girl dug up the ground as a defense! Since it’s real and not created by my field I have no power over it. Damn it! I’ll just have to use my weapons then…’ Her eyes focused directly on the area around Yumi calling to her blades, yet they only vibrated in groans unmoved. She moved her hands in front making use of them to increase the strength, but nothing still. ‘I can’t move chunks of rock with my weapons! She’s holding them…’

Yumi’s eye narrowed upon her target through the gap of earth. ‘I can see her now!’ Specks of dirt and stone fell from the floating masses of earth as life returned to them. The opening volley began. Sent hurdling like fastball from a pitcher, the chunk sped towards Photine. All of the weapons disappeared from around Yumi just before the target had impact. Earth exploded upon the woman showering a curtain of dirt around her body. The aftermath made Yumi’s features sharpen.

A shining heavy sword hovered centimeters in front of Photine’s body. The force of the mass split on the blade leaving the woman only slightly dirty from the encounter. However, the counterattack did not end with a single lob from Yumi. Three more streamed through the air for Photine only to end in a similar manner. Undeterred, the attack continued filling the once metal dense air with earth. Ammunition for Yumi’s attack quickly disappeared. ‘I just have to keep up my defense and she’ll be out of chunks to throw at me soon. Then I’ll end this finally…’

Hovering over the ground Yumi closed her distance. She relinquished the last of her supply. In the wake of the final shots, Yumi motioned with her hands as if she was trying to cut the very air. Brought forth from her hand, green light gathered quickly already in action. Once they put a meter between Yumi, the shape completed itself. An elongated arch of energy shaped to an edge along its length. Four of the green crescents formed roaring at twice the speed the earth flew at nearly over taking the swarm.

Photine cut through the final piece already preparing for her own counterattack with the last chunks. However, her eyes grew in shock to see the earth explode in front of her without hitting her weapons. A green light surrounded her before she knew what was happening. Instinct saved her from the first attack. The green arch split on the sharp edge and dug into the ground at her sides exploding. The second strike proved to be better. Her sword cleaved in two, cast aside. All of the remaining weapons surrounded her, but all met the same fate.

Metal shattered around her blasted behind her. A few shards dug through her skin before fading. The three arcs slammed into her body knocking the wind from her and forcing up a mixture of blood and saliva. Photine’s eyes grayed out with her consciousness fading. She did not feel her body hitting the ground or she her field disappear. No thought entered her mind. Only shock remained on her face.

Yumi lowered to the ground collapsing to a sweating, heaving pant. “It’s over…”

To be continued…