Chapter 39: A Fair Fight

“The rules are simple,” says the angel, still in that eerily emotionless tone of his. “We’re having a one-on-one fair fight between you and me. You’re free to use any sort of weapons you want. The duel stops when one of us dies. Is that clear?”

“Basically, it’s a public execution for yours truly, right?” As he’s released from the cage and emerges onto the field, Peng replies with a smirk on his face while stretching his arms for a final warm-up. Upon closer look, however, I can see the slight shivers in his arm. Naturally, he would be scared about this. He was beaten not once, but twice, after all.

“So, you’re just going to settle for dying?”

“Who says that was about me?

“Very well,” Raphael lets out a rare smile, “at least I can say that none of the sons I’ve raised turned out to be a coward.”

“I’d personally beat the shit out of myself if I had to beg for my life,” replies Peng. It seems like the taunting and mockery from the angel have actually raised his fighting spirit. However, fighting spirit alone won’t be enough… Peng, what else do you have in store?

“Shall we start?” Continues the angel.

“One more question,” gesturing towards his back, where we are being held, Peng asks. “What about them? They’ll just get in the way, right?”

“Surviving is their job, not ours,” to Peng’s surprise, Raphael answers without much care in the world. “You can feel free to protect them. I won’t stop you.”

“Heh…” Peng, upon hearing the reason, turns his head up to the sky and lets out a smirk, before immediately spitting on the ground and throwing a glare at his opposition. “Fair fight my ass. You’re clearly creating a hostage situation. And you expect me to believe that this is fair?”

“Think what you will. Now, shall we start?”

“Game on, old man.”

As soon as the words leave his mouth, a blistering hurricane forms just from Raphael’s one sprint, almost blowing off the cage holding us completely. Dust and sand have blocked most of our vision, but they can’t mask the large “thud” sound of impact between fist and flesh, the rummaging of something crashing into a wall, and the loud cracking of bones that comes after. Once the dust settles, only the angel stands on the field, while far away on the surrounding wall, a giant crack has already formed itself in a shape similar to the one made back when he landed, and in the center lies a motionless Peng with a shirt dyed red.

“Damn it! It’s just as I was afraid of!” I exclaim with a punch on the golden bars. However, before I can get the chance to continue to vent, a sudden realization dawns on me as I retract my hand.

“Wait, this stuff is actually made of gold?” Gazing at the bent bars, I ask myself out loud. Benkei, thinking that the question was directed to him, answers instead:

“Seems to be so.”

“What kind of dumb mistake is this? We could easily break out of this cage then.”

“Was it actually a mistake, I wonder…” my partner inside remains cautious as he glances towards the current battlefield, where Raphael is wasting no time continuing his assault.

“Shit! We’ll worry about that later; let’s go help him!”

“Got it!”

Channeling my cross’ power on my whole body, I conjure a spear in my hand. With a crimson burst of flame, the cage is soon broken to pieces, leaving me, now dressed in my old jet-black armor, completely free to spread my fiery wings.

“Is that a new form?” Asks Benkei, who has also summoned forth his jacket and cap, along with the two muskets in his hands.

“An old form, actually. Defense is useless against this guy anyway, so we’re going all out!”

“Will do. On my mark…”

You are reading story Peters’ Crosses at novel35.com

“GO!” Benkei signals our counterattack with a determined battle cry, and in that same instant, the bullets in his guns are fired, and the spear in my hands launches itself towards our target. The wind bullets spiral around the base of the spear at a blistering speed, using themselves as fuel for my fire to burn ever so brighter. My flaming spear expands its outer layer of fire, growing tens of times bigger than it was normally into a swirling vortex of extreme heat, before finally transforming into a full-size fire dragon ready to devour its prey.

Our combined effort, however, only serves to look cool.

The angel hasn’t noticed the attack until the last moment when the tip of the spear is just mere inches away from tearing his face apart. But he only needs that much time, maybe even less than that. Without a single extra movement, Raphael raises his hand forward and completely catches the spear, putting out our boosted flame with just a grip, then breaks the spear in half with only that grip. An absurd display of power, as if he’s not ridiculous enough already.

“See, Peter?” Only at this moment do I realize his remaining hand is still holding onto Peng’s collar like an iron claw. Raphael, meanwhile, still keeps the smile on his face. “I told you, this is a fair fight.”

 

The young man in question remains motionless. Or rather, even if he wanted to, he couldn’t possibly move his body when his collar is locked in place. Instead, all Peng could muster to do is to throw a death glare at his former master, even if he knows all too well that his enemy isn’t one to be intimidated:

“This… isn’t over…”

“You’re right, it’s not over,” nods the angel. “In fact, it’s nowhere near over… am I right, you two?”

Immediately, Raphael lets go of Peng’s collar and kicks him precisely in the chest, blasting him away to the other side of the field yet again. Meanwhile, his two hands cross to utterly nullify our surprise attacks; his right hand blocks my spear from the left, while his left hand crushes the bullet coming from the right.

“You still lack proper cooperation,” shaking his head in disappointment, the angel exclaims. “That first attack was better, so why didn’t you attempt it again?”

“So we can do this! Full power, Benkei!”  

Our idea of a counter was simple: if we can’t knock him out in one hit, then we’ll whittle him down with a barrage of moves. One of us – me, in this case, would serve as bait and engage in close combat, while the other would serve as the long-range artillery and blast our opponent away. And it seems to be working well: by the time Raphael lets go of my spear, it’s already too late. I waste no time transforming into my defensive white armor and cloaking myself in a wall of fire. Benkei, meanwhile, flocks the sky with countless rifles, each one floating thanks to a separate gust of wind, and each one filled with an endless supply of air bullets. Their owner flies high in the center of the formation, and, with a simple gesture of the arm, commands all of his guns to point at one exact spot.

“Fire!” Along with Benkei’s shout, all of the guns are fired at once. Bullets come raining down like a downpour, and as each makes contact with its target, high-pressure wind is released at the point of collision, easily able to crush the opposition if it wasn’t a being at the pinnacle of strength. Instead, despite the onslaught of howling wind, the angel stands still while his surroundings are slowly but surely reduced to mere rubbles.

“A valiant attempt,” Raphael, amidst the raging storm, comments. “However, …”

Before we could notice, he has already disappeared from our attacks and reappeared behind Benkei without so much of a scratch on his body. “It’s still not enough.”

A straight punch. Nothing fancy, nothing grandeur. But with just a single straight punch, Benkei is forced to crash down on the field, making yet another crater in his already tattered arena. My fate isn’t any better, either, as before I could even make another move, a swipe of Raphael’s arm clears away my wall of flame, and a kick sends me flying the length of the field, crashing on the wall right next to where Peng was sent earlier.

“Shit…” tears well in my eyes as I could do nothing but let out a bitter laugh. Damn it, first Byleth, now this guy… I can never catch a break, huh?

The angel, after another round of thrashing, appears before me, or rather, before the young man still stuck on the wall next to me. Grabbing him by the collar again, Raphael pulls him out of the wall with no effort before lifting him up:

“Well, now. Any last words, Peter?”

Peng, like before, remains quiet. However, unlike his previous instance, his consciousness seems to be working to its full capacity, as his eyes show no signs of defeat while shifting around as if to find a key to our victory.

“What’s the matter? Didn’t I teach you that it’s rude to ignore adults?” The angel asks once more. However, before he could express any more disappointment, Peng’s hands have already gripped tightly at his wrist, even digging their nails deep into his flesh in hope of not being flung out. Contrary to the seemingly desperate act is the wry smile of the fairy thief as he finally answers his opponent:

“The main act begins now, old man.”

You can find story with these keywords: Peters’ Crosses, Read Peters’ Crosses, Peters’ Crosses novel, Peters’ Crosses book, Peters’ Crosses story, Peters’ Crosses full, Peters’ Crosses Latest Chapter