Chapter 147: The Unfolding Dance
Moon barely had time to settle into his stance before the world exploded in a flash of white-hot pain. Monkey's fist, wrapped in glowing green chains, connected with his jaw with the force of a seismic charge. The impact echoed through the chamber, a sickening crack of bone and cartilage. Stars swam in Moon's vision, and his legs buckled, the edge of unconsciousness clawing at his mind. He staggered, somehow keeping his feet, and a warm, coppery stream of blood began to flow from his nose.
With a feral grunt, he swiped the back of his hand across his face, smearing the crimson line. He then brought his fingers to his lips, licking the blood away with a dark, focused intensity. His eyes, now burning with manic energy, locked onto Monkey.
"My turn," he growled.
He didn't telegraph the move. He simply appeared in front of Monkey, his own knuckle-clad fist a blur of motion. The counter-punch landed with identical, brutal force. BOOM. Monkey's head snapped back, a matching stream of blood immediately erupting from his own nostrils. He staggered back a step, shook his head, and then looked back at Moon. The smile, impossibly, was still plastered on his face, now smeared in red. It was the grin of a true battle junkie who lived for this exchange.
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Across the room, Kai was engaged in a far more delicate and deadly dance. Shami was a phantom, a flicker of black armor and a whisper of displaced air. She would vanish from his front, only to materialize at his blind spot, her compact scythe slicing toward his kidney. He would parry, the ring of metal on metal sharp and brief, before she was gone again, reappearing above him for a downward strike.
Teleport. Strike. Vanish. Repeat.
Although Kai's defense was a masterpiece of precision, turning certain death into shallow cuts, the accumulated damage was taking its toll. His clothes were shredded, and fine lines of blood crisscrossed his arms and torso. Almost blocking wasn't enough; the difference between almost and completely was a slit artery.
He needed to break the rhythm.
Feigning a moment of exhaustion, Kai left a deliberate opening. As Shami predictably teleported into that space to exploit it, he was already moving. But not toward her. Instead, he drove Luminis Aquae forward in a powerful, seemingly reckless thrust—into empty air.
It wasn't reckless. It was calculated.
Shami materialized directly into the path of his blade. Her eyes widened in shock as the sword's tip bit deep into her shoulder, grinding against bone. A sharp gasp escaped her lips. She instantly teleported backward, ripping the sword from her flesh with a grunt of pain. But Kai's sword had been there first. The edge, already present in the space she fled to, caught her retreating hand, slicing a deep gash across her palm.
This sequence repeated itself, a brutal game of teleportation chess. Kai would strike at emptiness, and Shami, guided by her own predictable patterns, would deliver herself into his blade. Soon, her black armor was just as marred as his own, slick with blood from multiple gashes.
Shami clutched her bleeding hand, her breathing ragged as she stared at Kai. Confusion and fury warred in her dark eyes. How? How is he predicting every move? It's like he's reading my mind!
Kai's voice was calm, cutting through her turmoil. "You're wondering how I'm doing this. How I can anticipate a teleporter." A faint, almost imperceptible shimmer of moisture clung to the air around her, remnants of the microscopic water particles he had subtly transferred during her earliest attacks. "I possess an essence art that allows me to trace the echoes of my opponent's intent. Your mind is an open book to me now."
It was the first technique of the Abyss Cannon Sutra: Echo Tide. By touching her, even indirectly through the moisture in the air, he had mapped the currents of her combat psyche, turning her greatest asset—her unpredictability—into a predictable pattern.
Enraged and cornered, Shami made her move. She gripped the bottom of her small scythe and twisted. With a sharp click, a second, identical blade snapped out from the base. Then, she pulled the weapon apart, the two sickle-like blades now separated but connected by a fine, razor-sharp chain. It was no longer a tool of assassination, but a whirling, unpredictable instrument of dismemberment. She began to spin the chain, the twin blades carving deadly circles in the air as she prepared for her final, unrestrained assault.
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Meanwhile, the brawl between Moon and Monkey had escalated into a raw, elemental display of martial prowess. There was no finesse, only overwhelming force and relentless aggression.
Moon was a whirlwind of styles, his Shatter Vein art fueling every move with explosive, destructive energy. He launched into a Capoeira sequence, his movements a deceptive, flowing dance before a spinning heel kick, empowered by shattering force, slammed toward Monkey's head. Monkey ducked, and Moon seamlessly transitioned into a Muay Thai clinch, driving his hardened knuckles into Monkey's ribs with a series of sickening thuds.
Monkey, for his part, was a fortress of relentless boxing. He absorbed the blows, his chain-wrapped fists countering with piston-like jabs and crushing hooks. He weaved under a wide hook from Moon and delivered an uppercut that lifted Moon off his feet. Moon landed, laughed through a mouthful of blood, and charged back in, his fighting style a beautiful, brutal chaos against Monkey's disciplined, powerful punches. It was a symphony of pure, unadulterated violence, a stark contrast to the deadly, intellectual duel unfolding beside them.
Moon was poised to launch another furious assault when Monkey moved with impossible speed, becoming a green-tinged blur that flowed past his flank. Before Moon could process the movement, a soft, mocking chuckle reached his ears.
"Hehheheh..."
A sudden, constricting pressure enveloped his entire body. He looked down to find himself completely entangled in the same glowing green chains that wrapped Monkey's arms. The chains were pulled taut, holding him fast. Then, with a sinister shink, sharp, needle-like protrusions emerged from the links, digging into his flesh and disrupting his balance. Just as he began to topple, the chains violently rotated, the serrated edges slicing through his clothes and skin like razors. He crashed to the ground, a web of fresh cuts stinging across his torso.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Moon forced himself back to his feet, only to face a new horror. From Monkey's body, a grotesque lattice of woody branches and thick vines erupted, forming a crude, humanoid shape around him. The wooden limbs snaked out, their roots seeking to burrow into and connect with Moon's own limbs. An excruciating pressure mounted, a feeling of his very bones being wrenched apart, as if his arms and legs were about to be torn from their sockets.
In that moment of supreme pressure, Moon whispered two words, charged with devastating intent: "Heaven Breaker."
A storm of concentrated, violet lightning erupted from his core. The energy was so pure and violent that it didn't just burn the wooden constructs—it atomized them in an instant, leaving only a shower of glowing ash. Monkey, reacting on pure instinct, flung himself backward, the heat of the blast singing the air where he had stood a fraction of a second earlier.
Now shirtless, his chest heaving, Moon ran a hand casually through his hair. "That was quite the hard hug," he remarked, his voice a low rumble. As he spoke, his right arm became sheathed in a crackling, brilliant purple electricity. He began to advance, each step charged with lethal purpose.
Monkey responded in kind, gathering all his chains to wrap around a single fist, the links glowing with intense green energy. He stepped forward to meet the challenge.
Simultaneously, Kai and Shami were also a hair's breadth from a final, decisive clash. Her twin sickles whirled, and his sword was poised for a killing thrust.
But the four simultaneous finishing moves never landed.
Two girls, both around 5'9", materialized in the center of the chamber with a silent pop of displaced air. They moved with an eerie, synchronized grace, their hands moving in fluid arcs to intercept, deflect, and redirect the four attacks away from their intended targets. Kai's thrust was angled upward, shredding the ceiling. Moon's lightning fist and Monkey's chain-wrapped blow were sent spiraling into opposite walls. Shami's sickles carved deep gouges into the floor.
The redirected attacks caused the entire fortress to groan and shake violently, dust and debris raining down from above.
Moon, Kai, Shami, and Monkey all stared in shock at the two interlopers. But before anyone could speak, the two girls vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.
A moment later, another figure emerged from the shadows. She had sleek black hair, piercing golden eyes, and an oval face that held a faint, unsettling resemblance to Moon and Kai.
Seeing her, Shami cried out in frustration, "Aria! What did you do? I was just about to win!"
Monkey remained silent, a complex expression on his face. Moon and Kai, however, immediately raised their weapons, their guards up, ready for this new and unknown variable.
Aria's voice was calm but held a note of urgency. "Shami, do you even realize why I deflected those attacks? The main point is, didn't you get Big Brother's message? He has chosen the second option. He has already entered the battlefield himself. So why are we still fighting?" As she said this, her voice cracked slightly. The rest of the conversation between her and Shami descended into a rapid, melodic code language, utterly incomprehensible to Moon and Kai. It was a dialect where sound and essence were intertwined; perhaps only a Gandharva, a master of sonic essence, could have deciphered its meaning.
After a brief, hissed exchange, Aria pulled out a scroll and a teleportation stone. She channeled essence energy into them, and a familiar green portal shimmered into existence. Without another word, Monkey and a reluctant Shami stepped through. Aria took one last, lingering look behind her, her golden eyes sweeping over the scene, before she too disappeared into the emerald light.
The portal snapped shut, leaving the brothers alone in the devastated, trembling chamber.
Moon let out a frustrated breath. "What was that? What did that girl say to make them just run away?"
Kai, his mind already analyzing, replied, "It was undoubtedly a code language. But forget that. We need to leave. Now. Unless you want to be buried alive when this entire structure collapses."
Moon nodded grimly, taking in the crumbling ceiling and groaning walls. They both turned to the map, locating a direct route out, and began to run, fleeing the underground complex as it shuddered and came down around them.
To be continued…