Chapter 40: Growth

He might be simple, but Raphael is not dumb. Just by the action of Peng grabbing his wrist, he has already realized his adoptive son’s course of action. He tries to retract his arm, but the young man’s grip has more strength to it than he expected. Of course, he could just easily rip his opponent’s arm from their joint, but somehow, looking at the angel’s usually stoic expression, I feel like he doesn’t want to do it, even if it’s as easy as breaking a toothpick for him. Instead, in the heat of the moment, the angel makes a decision that no one else would have thought to do: using his other hand as a replacement for a blade, Raphael delivers a quick, yet brutal, chop to himself, cleaning cutting off his hand just in time for the first speck of gold to form on it.

As the hand has now left its host, its transformation process is greatly hastened, so much that when Raphael rips off a part of his robe to bandage his now handless arm, the lump of flesh on Peng’s hand has already turned into a mass of solid gold, completely clean of any blood left.

“Just as expected from you, old man,” Peng comments, throwing the useless piece of gold away. “Always rational in every move you make.”

“The same can’t be said with you, Peter,” answers the angel. “I thought your policy was to never use that power on living beings?”

“I guess people change,” the young man spits out a drop of blood towards the side in anger.

“… Do they really? I wonder.”

As the two are about to clash once more, I focus all of my strength in an attempt to pull myself up again. From where I stand, the timing is minuscule, but it’s the only chance I have. If my spears can reach our opponent, even if they’re only enough to graze him from a surprise attack, even if the help wouldn’t be much at all, any little damage we can deal with him will be of use in the end.

Before I could conjure a spear, however, a hand has already grabbed onto my wrist. Along with it comes the voice of my other partner, who has recovered before me:

“Focus your strength on defending for now.”

“Only staying on the defensive can’t get us out of this situation!” I retort while picking up myself.

“That’s true,” nods Benkei, whose aggression has strangely been subdued. “But going on the offense wouldn’t help, either. You know how outclassed we are.”

“I know that! But…”

“Of course, that’s not the main issue here,” directing his gaze towards the battlefield, Benkei rubs his chin, seemingly pondering about the events that have transpired until this point. “Surely you must have realized how Raphael could have killed us all in one hit if he wanted to, right?”

“… Yeah. I’m not dumb, you know.” I let out a sigh along with a weak excuse.

“Well, that begs the question. Why didn’t he?”

A giant exploding sound and immense seismic waves interrupt our thoughts, forcing us to once again keep our eyes on the battle that ensues. The field where the two competitors once stood is now dyed in a nasty color of red and grey – a mix of blood and dirt. However, there is a key difference from when the battle started: instead of the blood being ours, most of it right now comes from the angel standing on the field. Even though his expression remains unchanged, the fact that the measly piece of cloth he hurriedly used to bandage his lost hand had already fallen off due to the extra weight of being soaked in blood. Peng, meanwhile, is stuck on the ground beneath a giant crack yet again, and consider his oddly-shaped left arm, that part of his must have also been broken.

“Weak,” Raphael exclaims as he approaches the crater. “I thought you said the main act was going to start, Peter? Where’s that flare? That enthusiasm?”

“Stand up and fight, Peter!” The angel’s voice booms all around the area, as if a miniature storm has just hit everyone inside. However, answering him is an equally deafening silence, as if his opponent has already left the living world.

“Shit! I have to go in!” In that split second, as if I’ve regained my full strength, I conjure up a spear at the fastest speed I’ve ever managed to. However, I’m once again stopped by the young man standing next to me, who has also created a wind wall in record time:

“Don’t interfere with them.”

“Interfere? What the hell are you talking about! It’s a massacre!”

“Look.”

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Only one word comes out of Benkei’s mouth, but one word is already plenty to describe the course of action that’s happening in front of me. With all of his strength, Peng springs up to life faster than the average eye could see and delivers a punch with his remaining arm as hard as he could straight onto Raphael’s handless shoulder.

The angel, meanwhile, stands still. The punch just now doesn’t seem to affect him at all, even just a tiny bit. Quickly swiping away the fist on his shoulder, Raphael thrusts his knee right onto Peng’s stomach, causing the latter to bend in pain, coughing out another splash of blood in the process.

“Wrong. All wrong,” the angel continues, and with each of his words comes another round of beating towards Peng. “Your attacks, your posture, even your strategy! Everything is wrong! Why can’t you just drop the petty act and fight like how you were taught?”

“Answer me, Peter!” As the last words come out of Raphael’s mouth, Peng has already been drowned in a pile of blood, so much that I can’t even believe that a normal person could lose that much and still survive. But still, he remains motionless even after the beating, so I’m not even surprised that he has already kicked the bucket at this point.

“Damn it Benkei, why did you stop me?” My frustration causes me to accidentally blurt out my thoughts. However, it’s not even my partner’s turn to answer, as, on the field, a fistful of dust has already made its way towards Raphael’s eyes, and along with it, Peng has already distanced himself with a backward jump.

“You wanna know why, old man? I’ll tell you why!” Peng’s shout echoes through the field. “Because I despise you! I loathe you, so much that I want nothing to do with you anymore!”

The young thief charges towards the angel for one final Hail Mary, but the way he does it is unlike anything we’ve seen before. Using his remaining good hand to grab his broken arm, Peng holds the part up like a knight holds his lance and starts his assault. With each desperate step he takes, the broken arm slowly but surely changes to a golden hue, much to our astonishment.

“… Foolish child,” Raphael, for the first time since this fight happened, lets out a disappointed sigh. “Going so far as to sacrifice your own body… And for what?”

It’s not even a fight anymore. With yet another simple straight punch, Raphael sends Peng flying to the edge of the arena once more. The angel then disappears from our sight and reappears with his opponent in his grip – a scene I’ve already been used to seeing in this short timeframe.

“It seems like I was mistaken, Peter,” exclaims the angel. “I thought that you’ve grown, but no. You’re still that same whiny child I once took in. You’re no chosen one, no hope for the weak. You’re a failure.”

As the last words leave Raphael’s mouth, the angel throws away the wounded person in his hand like a piece of garbage, and finally turns his full attention towards us:

“Well… I didn’t think that it would come to this, but let’s finally start our duel, shall we?”

“Don’t interfere, eh?” With nothing else to say, I turn to Benkei.

“I certainly did not expect this to happen.” Answers the young man, whose hands are now sweating bullets.

“Did you actually think that he would be able to win on his own?”

“Well, no, but…”

As the two of us converse, a sudden rumbling appears behind Raphael, far away from where we stand. Before we could realize the source of that noise, something flies past the angel like a speeding bullet, not piercing through him, but still enough to leave a graze on his cheek before planting itself on the ground in front of us.

Out of pure curiosity, I pick up the strange object. No matter how much I look at it, this looks like some kind of crystal or ice with its clear and transparent nature, but this is no doubt a shard of rock, and an extremely hard one at that, considering that just this one piece was able to injure the otherwise invincible foe.

“Is that a diamond?” Benkei asks in an astonished voice. But he doesn’t need me to answer, as the young man continues right away with a smile on his face:

“Stay back, Petra. It seems like we might just have a chance after all.”

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