Chapter 23: 22 - Fighting An Ace

"Oh, we're already down to the last group? Well, that's a shame. Okay, I'll tell you exactly what I told the other three groups...I'll hold back on the scale of my Primary Manifestation, but that's all I'll be holding back. So feel free to throw everything you've got at me. Oh, and we won't be using Phantom Mode. So hurry up and come at me already...<Primary Manifestation: Colossus>!"

As his Manifestation wrapped around his body, it didn't expand much this time, just enough so that it was a little bit bigger than the average person.

"Well, that's your cue...unless you're scared?" I taunted Misaki, as she nervously took a step back.

"I swear, one of these days I'll...! Grr, whatever, I don't care anymore...<Primary Manifestation: Electric Sai Daggers>, <Secondary Manifestation: Vision Boost>!" She exclaimed, before gritting her teeth and rushing forward towards Instructor Silva all by herself.

"Oh, wow, I can't believe she's actually doing it...what a prideful idiot," I remarked with a laugh.

"...you're pure evil, man," MumbledKiran, as Misaki got in close and began swinging her manifested daggers at her opponent.

"Only to those who deserve it."

The instructor dodged her swipes and slashes with ease, evading all of them without the need to block or deflect at all. Just like with Instructor Jin Satou, there was more to him that just his X-Ability...his natural physical skills and reaction time were incredible, such was the ease with which he was avoiding her attacks.

"What, are you guys trying to take me on one-on-one? Well, fine by me, I get to savor the fun!" Exclaimed the instructor with glee, as he stopped evading and swung his right arm across, knocking one of her daggers away, before grabbing her other wrist and tightening his grip, forcing her to drop the other one.

He then drew his right arm back, closed his hand into a fist and drove it forward, slamming it onto her with some serious force. She went flying back and crashed onto a section of the wall of the training hall, knocked out in an instant.

"Crap, he calls that holding back?" Muttered Kiran, as Misaki slumped to the ground with a bloody nose.

"Oops...my bad, got a little carried away there, heat of the moment and whatnot. Oh, well, no point crying over spilt milk, amiright? Besides, I'm sure she's fine...maybe. Moving on...who's next?"

Hm, I liked his style.

"Not it," Kiran called out immediately.

"Not it!" I swiftly jumped on the bandwagon.

Bytra hesitantly stepped forward, her knees shaking slightly.

"<Primary Manifestation: Thorn Whip>, <Secondary Manifestation: Speed Boost>."

She tentatively moved in closer till he was within the range of her whip and then lashed it out at him with a swift flick of her wrist. He evaded it, but she wasn't done, as she rapidly flicked her wrist in the opposite direction, whipping her weapon across towards him. He sprang forward to try and get inside the line of her attack, but as soon as he did, she responded by swiftly backing away and pulling the whip back with her, the flexibility of her wrist making it look easy.

The whiplash from the sudden pulling force caused the whip to rapidly zip back, the thorns grazing the side of the instructor's right arm. She kept moving as he started chasing her, using another fluid flick of her wrist to bring the whip closer to her, before swinging it down with all her might as he began to close it, the whip whistling through the air as it cut down towards him.

Right before it could strike him, he swung his hand up at it, the claw-like shape of the fingers of his Manifestation deflecting the whip back, and sent her stumbling back a bit. He put a lot of power into that deflection, which forced his stance and guard open. An opening!

I swiftly shot forward without wasting so much as a second, and as I passed Bytra, I kicked her shin to further upset her balance, before grabbing the end of her whip with both hands and swinging it straight towards the instructor with all the strength I could muster. Just as I'd hoped, Bytra was still holding on to the whip, so I ended up pulling her up and through the air as she let out a yelp of surprise, before swinging her straight down at the instructor, who looked taken aback and unsure as to how to respond, before attempting to catch her and break her fall.

The moment he took his eyes off me, I shot across to the left, aiming to slip behind him, as I increased the output on my X-Blasters to maximum and took my X-Blade handles into my hands, wincing slightly since I'd hurt my palms when I grabbed the thorn whip. The instructor caught Bytra, and then quickly dropped her, his eyes rapidly darting around as he frantically looked for me.

I was already behind him. I took aim and fired a couple of shots from each of my X-Blasters, right as he turned around. He crossed his arms in front of himself as I fired, I swiftly shot around and across towards his side, as he was preoccupied with blocking my XFE bullets, his vision focused on them and unable to follow me.

My shots struck his arms and chest, the XFE around the impacted spots fading and leaving his body exposed in those areas. But within a couple of seconds, it was back to being intact, his body once again fully protected.

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Okay, I've used up the element of surprise, but this isn't over yet, I can still do some damage...he doesn't know how agile I am or anything about my fighting style at all for that matter, I'll use that to my advantage by pushing my body's flexibility to its limit.

I ran my XFE through my blade handles, extending them out as my XFE took shape in the form of sharp black energy blades. I shot towards him and swung the right blade straight down at him.

"A frontal attack? Don't underestimate me!" Exclaimed the instructor, swinging his left arm up towards my blade.

Right before his XFE claws could knock my weapon away, I adjusted and loosened my grip on the handle so that it would deflect straight upwards. The instant he knocked the blade straight up into the air, I got in close and drove my left blade towards his right arm, while simultaneously firing a blast from my right X-Blaster at his left shoulder, blowing away the XFE around it.

He managed to deflect the thrust of my left blade, knocking it away. Now's my chance, before he gets his guard back up. I took a swift step back and sprang up as high as I could, right as the blade he deflected up reach the peak of its rise and began to drop back down. Good, the XFE hadn't dissipated yet, and his left shoulder was still exposed...gotta time this perfectly or I'm just going to look stupid.

As the blade plummeted back down, I braced myself in mid-air, my eyes focused on the back of the blade handle...wait for it...now! The instant it dropped down to the ideal height, I shifted my center of gravity and twisted my body across while airborne as hard as I could, swinging my right foot with the momentum. My heel slammed onto the back of the blade handle, kicking it straight down at his exposed shoulder.

He managed to react at the last second and spring off to his right, but he wasn't fast enough, the blade slashing past his shoulder, leaving a deep gash. The XFE from my X-Blade then dissipated and the handle fell to the ground and skidded away a few feet.

"Gahhh-...! Why you little...!" He growled, the XFE around his right arm expanding and shooting towards me, trying to grab me before I could land.

I fired a couple of shots from my X-Blasters to blast off a couple of the claws off of his Manifestation, planted my feet on it and kicked off it to get back to the ground quickly. My back slammed against the floor a bit painfully, but I gritted my teeth and ignored it, getting back on my feet as quickly as possible and sprinting towards him as fast as I could, before he could shrink the right arm of his Manifestation back.

As I got in close, he stepped back and drove his left arm towards my head, wincing in pain due to the bloody wound on his shoulder, I ducked backed to avoid it at the last second and grabbed onto it, wrapping my arms and legs around the arm, slamming my heel against his injury, before firing both X-Blasters at his wrist, wiping out the XFE covering it and doing a bit of damage to the wrist itself. Before I could fire again, he managed to shrink the XFE around his right arm and swung it at me with a look of fury.

Uh-oh.

I quickly let go of his left arm and crossed my arms, positioning my X-Blasters across each other and forming a protective barrier around me. The instructor struck my barrier with his claws, cracking it slightly, before rapidly expanding it and grabbing the barrier within the palm of his Manifestation, before raising his arm and swinging it down, slamming me onto the ground and shattering my barrier. I let out a stifled gasp on pain as my back hit the ground hard, though I don't think anything was broken, the barrier had absorbed just enough of the impact to prevent any injury...still, that's gonna hurt tomorrow.

I raised my right hand to wipe off a bead of sweat off my forehead, when I realized that my hand was trembling. Huh, now that I think about it, I feel kinda...giddy. A slight smirk crossed my lips as I firmly closed my trembling hand into a fist, as the last few minutes sunk in...even if he'd been holding back, I'd made an Ace bleed...a quiet chuckle escaped my lips as I got back on my feet...what a valuable learning experience that was, I finally got to really put my skills to the test, and the results were more than satisfactory.

"'Kay, I'm done here," I declared with a sigh, stretching my arms up and heading back towards the sidelines after picking up my blade handles.

Crap, the one I'd kicked was kinda busted up. I should get a shockproof cover for it. I noticed that the instructor had his eye on me as I stepped onto the sidelines, where Bytra was seated and Misaki was layed down and still unconscious. Kiran was stepping forward onto the training area, rubbing the back of his head lazily.

"Last one, huh...alright, let's get this over with," Said the instructor, without nearly as much enthusiasm as he'd had before.

He had torn off his left sleeve and tied some of the scraps around his bleeding shoulder and damaged wrist. Despite the damage, there wasn't so much as a hint of instability in his Manifestation...I had hoped to destabilize it when I shot his wrist, but even with that much pain he'd had no trouble maintaining the stability of his Manifestation.

Oww, my palms and back hurt so bad...both my palms were bleeding from when I grabbed Bytra's whip, and my back felt sore and almost definitely bruised. Well, nothing a visit to the infirmary on the first floor can't fix...for now, I'll watch how Kiran fights. Come to think of it, he never used his Secondary Manifestation in the training exercise with Instructor Sato.

"Okay...here I come," Sighed Kiran half-heartedly, "<Secondary Manifestation:...>..."

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