Chapter 48: Chapter 48 : Fierce Telekinetic Battle (Part 1)

Three days later…

Morning rays slipped through the curtain’s gaps and landed on Hana’s side profile. Gently moving over her fair features, it stirred her consciousness until she was fully abducted from the dream world. As her long eyelashes flickered, her consciousness became fully anchored to reality. And with that, her sweet dream was no more. But Hana wasn’t upset, for her current reality was even sweeter.

‘Ralf, he’s really back.’

Sensing Ralf’s Psi signature, her chest naturally warmed. Every day at the Orchard District was blissful. Just relaxing and spending time with her beloved son brought her great joy. Wanting to experience more of this joy, Hana’s eyelids flung open.

Soon, she was making her way downstairs. Turning the corner into the living room, Ralf came into view. His face lit up in unbridled affection. On the receiving end of this, Hana couldn’t help but be affected, a sweet smile bloomed on her face.

“Morning Ra-ah…you’re hopeless Ralf.”

Suddenly wrapped in his embrace, Hana smiled wryly before wrapping her arms around him as per her motherly duty. ‘He’s become so much more affectionate, especially recently.’

She noted this behaviour clearly. It was strange, but she didn’t dislike it; rather, she welcomed it with open arms. The eyes that lit up and the smile that automatically emerged whenever he saw her filled her with unending positive emotions.

‘Every morning feels like a long time reunion with him,’ Hana thought as she patted his back.

Her casual thought was on the money. To her, ten hours separated their last meeting, but to Ralf, it had been four months. To speed up their Psi training, the two had been making extensive use of the Mental Space's Altered Time. While three days had passed for Hana, a year had passed for the duo.

The intervals had been hard on the duo’s hearts, but they steeled themselves for the sake of improvement.

Absorbing his mother’s warmth for a few more seconds, Ralf pulled back and greeted, “Morning mom.”

“Morning son.”

Trading smiles, the two went on to have a wholesome breakfast.

The day would pass as the last three had; spending time with his mother, visiting Greg, and doing physical exercise. Plopping down, Ralf returned to the Mental Space where he and Rei continued their Psi training.

***

‘This place will do.’

Rei's eyes showed approval as he surveyed the street. His mind began mapping out the pathway and actions he would take to reach this place. Settling on a plan, he moved to the house at the end of the street. Circling to the backside, he began.

Slicing Strings!

A piano wire-like blue string materialized from his fingertips. Slithering like snakes, it quickly pounced on the structure. Whipping at frightening speeds, it sliced the wooden wall into neat chucks. Ten seconds later, they ceased. Dematerializing the deadly Psi strings, Rei moved on to the finer work.

Using his Psi, he fashioned the wood into arrow bolts. He wouldn’t win any craftsman awards, but it would serve his purposes. Dozens were made. They were all standard size, except two which were beefy two meters in length monstrosities.

Finishing that task, Rei took off his coat and with Slicing Strings cut it into ribbons. Afterwards, he brought one of the large arrows to the front. Then, attached the dozens of small arrows to it, and used the black ribbons to tie it all together. Importantly, he made sure that the small arrows weren't exactly parallel to the large one, but instead that they were all pointing slightly outward. The final product was shoddy, but it would do.

Satisfied, Rei grabbed the objects with his telekinesis and headed back to the street.

What was Rei doing?

Preparing, of course. The two were amidst a long string of clashes. This was just another. Their duels had evolved many times over. It would rarely be a straight-up battle. Most of the time, there would always be special conditions or restrictions. It kept things from getting boring, but more importantly, honed their combat sense and mental flexibility.

Things like fighting with only certain weapons or styles, or fighting deprived of a sense or senses, or fighting while protecting something, or fighting around NPCs that couldn’t be harmed, etc. All of these matches were meant to push the two beyond their current limits.

For this match, the two had five minutes in which to prepare traps using things that they would reasonably have on them or could be fashioned by the environment.

Ralf and Rei were placed on opposite ends of the village. The village was Lagner. Most of the two's Psi training took place in this setting. For obvious reasons, they wanted to know this place like the back of their hand. Due to their insufficient exploration, it wasn’t one-on-one; still, they had enough footage to recreate all the important details.

*Step*

‘This will do,’ Rei thought as he eyed a section of dirt.

Finding it satisfactory, his Psi moved to dig out a rectangular hole. Placing the arrows in, he then refilled the hole and smoothed out the surface.

Nodding in approval, Rei moved to the final step. From his mini backpack around his waist, he removed two twenty-round magazines, containing his Uzi’s ammo. He removed each cartridge, and after digging another hole, he placed all forty cartridges inside before closing it up.

Taking in his actions, one might have a few questions.

The equipment; the knife, machine gun, and pistol on Rei’s person wasn’t something they had in the real world. While they didn't have these items, they could easily acquire them and even had a place in mind. When Greg lent them his revolver, he informed them about Golden Gun, a place his friend ran which they could buy armaments at. Once they stopped playing turtle, the duo had plans to visit this place and arm themselves with their current setup.

Another question one might ask is, if Rei was burying things, why not bury the machine gun as well? Bury it in shallow dirt, and have it face up or at an angle. Then, when Ralf was near, Rei could throw a camouflaged attack while driving his Psi underground and squeeze the trigger using his telekinesis. Ralf would surely be riddled, yes?

Rei would hear this question and shake his head, for it was a long-dead tactic.

To best his other self, and for his other self to best him, besides the coin flip that was direct combat, something very creative was needed.

((One minute remaining.))

Hearing the programmed voice, Rei snapped out of his daze and cast his gaze to the white opaque barrier that split the village into two.

‘Wonder what he’s prepared over there.’ Anticipation surged in his heart. His other self had never failed to disappoint. ‘Let’s find out.’

With this thought, he took flight.

Landing before the white barrier, Rei hid behind a sturdy barricade. Hand twisting into a gun firing gesture, he took aim at a 'random' spot. A dense Psi bullet materialized just off his fingertips.

‘Will he be thinking the same thing, I wonder?’

Ralf was.

As the white barrier was shattering, the two fired blindly. Their bullets would hit a house and a wall respectively, neither coming even close to hitting the other. After this dud, the real battle began.

***

*Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash* *Slash*…

Psi Stepping, Rei speedily zigzagged through the street as he bore the onslaught that was Ralf’s attacks.

Blade Storm Dance.

Ralf had always been enamoured with swords as weapons. To him, the image of dual-wielding short swords was the pinnacle of coolness. With this fascination, he naturally developed a fighting style based on dual wielding that focused on speed and delivering complex attack patterns.

But while cool, it didn't hold up against Rei. It wasn't like using the setup was a guaranteed defeat. It just worsened his odds of victory, which was unacceptable to Ralf. Not content with the setup as is, he went back to the drawing board.

The first thing he abandoned was the idea of two swords - or rather, two Psi swords being present at all times. Due to their limited pool of Psi, this was too expensive. Instead, he'd only materialize one blade at a time. Yes, blade. This was the second change. Instead of fixating on one type of blade, Ralf now wielded every kind.

While fighting, he'd constantly switch between types and lengths of weapons depending on the distance and his aims. This change was rapid and seamless. Within a blink of an eye, his rapier would be replaced by a knife which would then be replaced by a spear…

This speedy transition was made possible by his insane Psi speed and even more insane mind which managed to direct everything perfectly.

The third change was to include more unconventional attack patterns. Torso, back, wrists, legs; Psi blades were made to appear on all parts of Ralf's body. Sometimes they’d be fin-like and other times they'd be spiky.

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With this combination, Ralf would unleash a torrent of incredibly complex and unpredictable attack patterns. Then, to further the unpredictability, he'd throw conventional combat into the fray before returning to his blade stream.

All this made for a deadly combination. How deadly? Rei would raise his right hand to answer the question, but it was currently missing.

But there was more.

More than his quick weapon switches or different fighting styles, the thing that most troubled Rei was Ralf’s accelerated attacks.

Higher momentum meant higher attack power. It was a simple equation. With their Psi Rank as low as it was, the duo was hurting for attack power. Using 'accelerated attacks' was the solution. By speeding themselves up enough, they could unleash very powerful attacks.

This was of course far from an original thought; every competent Telekinteic fighter had accelerated attacks in their move list. Still, while it was present, it was far and few between, and seldomly used.

This made perfect sense. For as strong as it was, it was equally dangerous. When creating one's Blinking technique, one had to make sure one's perception and speed were balanced in the right way. Accelerated attacks shattered this balance.

Even moving at double speed was risky. While one would earn power, they'd exchange control for it. Due to this, most chose to use accelerated attacks in very limited settings and durations. It was a technique that required both daring and skill to pull off.

The duo didn't shy away from danger and instead moved to master the technique. It was just too valuable. Mastering it would multiply their combat prowess several times over, and would allow them to compete with much higher ranked psionics. Over the last three days of training, both inside and outside the Mental Space, the duo had made massive leaps in mastering this domain. But while both had delved deeply, Ralf was clearly ahead.

Using rotations in the form of flips, twists, and spins, Ralf was able to conserve his high momentum very well. He wasn't just doing random spins and twirls, but naturally incorporating them into his movements. The result was that nearly all his attacks were heavy, if not outright one-shot level. Rei had fallen victim to the latter no less than a dozen times already.

With this being the case, he made it a priority to disrupt Ralf's acceleration attempts. Still, this was easier said than done, as his missing right arm proved.

Bam!

Clad thick with hardened Psi, Ralf's accelerated fist slammed into Rei's makeshift shield. The hardened Psi exterior and the embedded wood splintered at the punch's might. Rei was blown back, posture thrown completely off-kilter.

Seeing this, Ralf rushed in, not directly, but in an '˥' trajectory. At the angle he was going, he would pass by Rei's front by a good two meters. But this wasn't an issue, for just as he completed his second Blink Step, a three-meter-long odachi materialized in his hands. Once near, Ralf unleashed an anticlockwise slash.

The blade raced towards Rei’s ribs, looking to bisect him. Rei didn’t panic. With a mind as calm as ever, he steadied his stance and raised his left arm to guard. A circular shield rushed into existence to meet the blade.

But their meeting wasn't meant to be. Just before the sword collided, Ralf discarded the Psi making up the sword, causing it to break into countless blue particles. Then, using his circular momentum, Ralf did a rotation, conjured another Psi odachi, and performed an upwards slash.

The sequence was seamless, but Rei was a step ahead - or rather a step back. Shifting back, he left the blade's range.

Seeing this, Ralf naturally transitioned to his next attack. Stilling his blade’s rise, he pushed forward while performing a downward slash at Rei's retreating figure. He would hit nothing but air though. Rei did a minute flicker while slanting his body. This deft movement caused Ralf’s blade to breeze past him by mere centimetres.

Registering the miss, Ralf immediately discarded the sword and summoned his Psi mask. While dodging, Rei had conjured up a dense Psi projectile and fired it his way. With so few meters separating the two, Ralf chose to the tank the hit.

*Swish*

While the usual bang that accompanied a gunshot was absent, the speed and the power weren’t. At the collision, web-like lines sprouted on the mask. Still, while cracked, it held. But Rei wasn’t done.

Ralf’s blank expression flickered as he took in his other self’s next attack. Rei darted in. Starting off low as though going for a tackle, he suddenly shifted up to deliver a left-high kick. With its current trajectory, it would pass half a meter away from Ralf. That is, if not for the seventy-centimetre Psi blade attached to the end.

It drew a quick arc from Ralf’s right to left, looking to decapitate him. A sliver of amusement passed through Ralf’s heart as he reacted. Ducking while shifting back, he slid under the attack. Rei took another page from Ralf’s book, and with his left leg still in flight, he launched himself up and towards Ralf while transitioning into a spinning axe kick.

‘No good.’

This thought passed through Ralf’s head as he captured Rei’s fast descending right leg. The attack was a blunder in his eyes and his mind worked to punish it. In the end, he was affected by Rei's actions, so just as Rei had mimicked Ralf's style, Ralf moved to mimic Rei’s.

Swoosh!

Ralf shifted rightward while doing a right cross. Then, using his palm, he knocked the descending leg off course. The impact robbed both parties of their momentum, but Ralf had crunched the numbers perfectly. With Rei's body opened up before him, he moved at once, transitioning seamlessly into a right elbow strike aimed towards his opponent's gut.

*Crack*

Meeting with Rei's Psi armour, Ralf didn't let up; with a turn, his cocked left fist came rocketing in and slammed into his opponent's torso.

Rocked hard by the punch, Rei's sense of balance was sent further into disarray. Seeing Ralf's right fist cock back and gather with Psi, he expected another punch.

But this was merely a deception. Planting his feet while leaning into Rei’s body, Ralf, using his mighty physical brawn alone, launched Rei's airborne figure upwards with a push from his left palm.

Swoosh!

Fated String.

Ralf, while dodging Rei’s subsequent Psi projectile, ejected a long Psi string from his right hand. This string lacked the cutting capability of those used by Rei earlier. Still, when it came to battle between these two, it was far more useful.

While sharpness worked wonders on real objects, it wasn't so useful against Psi constructs. Psi had a natural repulsion to other Psi, so making an ultra-thin blade was largely ineffective.

As such, the two didn't really make use of Slicing String in direct battle too often. What was a more frequent sight was Fated String. Its purpose was to latch onto various body parts, and tug their opponent off balance or send them crashing into things.

Ralf’s current focus was on the latter. His mind rushed through Conceptual Memory slots, moving through an array of Fated String variants. Finding an appropriate one, he activated the technique.

Swoosh!

With a surge of Psi, the seven-meter-long string was made to whip out at supersonic speeds. It followed a predetermined trajectory as it raced toward its target.

Its overwhelming speed and nonlinear movement made avoiding it nigh impossible and in Rei’s current position, even less likely. Making contact with Rei's right ankle, the string's secondary mechanism was activated, causing it to perform its preprogrammed wrapping motion. Executed in an instant, Rei's leg was bound tightly in its grip.

Registering the successful capture, Ralf sent a second wave of Psi through the string, causing the base to accelerate to hundreds of meters a second. The string’s whip-like nature served it well as the initial force and speed were amplified dramatically as it moved up the string.

Should this colossal force reach Rei, the resultant tug would send him crashing to the ground like a meteor, killing him in an instant.

But it didn’t arrive as…

Bang! Bang! Bang!…

Ralf zigzagged, avoiding Rei’s gunfire. Only after hearing the metallic click did he stop in place and examine his foe.

‘Urgh, if it was his other leg, that would be game over. I should have taken it into account,’ Ralf thought with some regret.

At the last moment, Rei had managed to use his telekinesis to pull the trigger of his hidden leg holstered pistol. Just before the tug arrived, the string was snapped by the bullet.

This setup wasn’t new to Ralf, firing hidden weapons was an old tactic by now. He had himself done this trick earlier, which caused his pistol and machine gun ammo to deplete entirely. Throughout the battle, he had been paying very close attention to Rei’s pistol, waiting for when he’d make use of the tactic in one of his attacks.

'Using it as a severance method and an attack simultaneously, not bad but you'll have to do better than that to best me. You flubbed, I flubbed, so we'll call this a wash. Now, let's resume this match.'

With this thought, Ralf readied himself to jump back into the fire that was battle. But while he chose ‘fight’, his other self chose ‘flight’. After landing, Rei turned tail and Psi Stepped away.

‘Another chase? Fine, let's go.’

Following the thought, Ralf gave chase.

The match entered its second phase.

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