Return of the Fallen Volume 2 Chapter 43
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch43
Kicking at the spot just in front of him, Shin’s leg arced forward before his foot, with his toes pointed flicked forward like a whip. Within his mind, he roared.
(VIPER WHIP!)
A single blade of wind came cutting through the air slicing it apart like a knife through paper.
*Schick*
Shin stomped his foot down and regained his balance. Not even a moment later.
*Thud*
Something had split apart in front of him and he felt his face getting splashed with something hot. He felt the ground tremble slightly on his left as well as his right. A large smile flashed across his face and a bit of the liquid dripped into his mouth, causing him to spit.
(Bleh this iron taste, no doubt this is blood.)
Shin using his sense of air energy could tell he had cleaved the Mangshi in two but still, he felt the ground around him to be extra sure. Besides seeing, there was no better confirmation than to touch. Feeling the two halves around him, Shin felt a rush of energy within him.
(Hehehe, even without sight, I can do this. Before when we were ambushed in the forest I was terrified, never knowing when and where I’d be attacked from. Now though, now that I can truly see, these Mangshi aren’t so difficult one on one.)
Kazuki could smell the Mangshi’s fast approach. Hiding in the forest, he stood a dozen or so feet away from Asuna, where she waited for the signal.
*SCREeeeeeeee*
The Mangshi released a sharp cry, as it closed in on Kazuki for the kill.
(Hmph, keep squawking you dumb bird.)
Standing behind the tree Kazuki sniffed at the air.
(Close.)
Suddenly, Kazuki jumped backward. A chunk of something flew off and hit Kazuki in the face, scratching from his eye down to his neck.
(Fuck!)
Kazuki gripped his face in pain, half expecting his eye to have fallen from his head but miraculously there was only a minor injury.
(This is…)
He couldn’t be sure in this darkness but the only thing that made sense at the moment was debris from the tree. If the Mangshi rammed into the tree, then bits of bark and a few sharp chunks of wood must have flown off in his direction. That was the only thing he could think of at the moment.
(Were it the Mangshi’s taloned foot that got me, surely my face would be torn to shreds. It must have come from the tree.)
*Whoos thud*
Kazuki had been distracted and the Mnagshi landed a heavy blow to his chest.
Kazuki was thrown back several feet before he finally regained his balance. In his hand, the already broken sword broke even further leaving him with only a handle.
He was caught off guard but Kazuki’s reaction time was superb and he had negated enough of the attack with what was left of his sword.
(Damn, that was close.)
Tossing the handle of the sword away, Kazuki took in a deep breath through his nose. Smelling a Mangshi and identifying where it’s moving to was a hell of a lot easier than smelling where a tree stood. The reason being is that there were so many trees and they all gave off similar smells. Still, there were very minor differences that Kazuki’s superior nose could pick out. His movement though had clearly decreased because it took him slightly longer to identify what smell was coming from where.
Kazuki leaped into a nearby tree and started his climb. 10 feet 20, 50, 100, 200 feet. Standing on a branch halfway up, Kazuki felt the branch tremble beneath his feet.
(So he’s come.)
Kazuki took a few steps back until he was nearly at the breaking point of the branch.
(This is it.)
Kazuki waited for a moment and just like he thought the branch trembled violently one good time.
(Now!)
Kazuki jumped nearly 10 feet into the air and with a twist of his body, he flipped and landed on something. That something, of course, was the Mangshi’s back. As soon as his body touched the other, Kazuki’s arms slipped around the Mangshi’s neck and with his right hand gripping the inside of his elbow and his left hand gripping the back of the Mangshi’s neck, Kazuki locked his arms firmly into place and put the oversized turkey in a chokehold.
(Let me hear you screech now, you piece of shit.)
The Mangshi immediately began to panic and tried to fly up but because of the way its wings folded both of them were trapped underneath Kazuki’s body.
Tightening his legs around the Mangshi, its wings were going nowhere. Kazuki put power into his arms and began to squeeze the Mangshi’s neck, cutting the blood supply to its brain. The Mangshi panicked and tried desperately to shake Kazuki away but Kazuki’s hold was basically perfect. The Mangshi tried to repeatedly slam its back into the tree but the few times it tried, Kazuki would preventively kick at the tree negating most of the bird’s force.
As the bird felt a wing become free, it tried to flap it but Kazuki was too fast and re-wrapped his leg around the body. With no other option, it could only do one thing. Stepping over to the side, the Mangshi jumped off of the tree branch with Kazuki and they both began to fall. It hoped that Kazuki cared for his own life and would release his grip in time so the two could escape this. It was playing a risky real-life game of chicken but it was the only thing it could do.
It could feel its consciousness slipping away and hoped the fear of falling to death would loosen Kazuki’s grip.
175 feet, 130, 100, Kazuki’s grip stayed in place and the Mangshi felt the grip get even tighter.
(This damn boy, does he really intend to drag us both down to hell.)
90 feet, 70, 50, The Mangshi’s eyes started to roll up into its head.
40, 30, finally at 20 feet Kazuki let go. As the Mangshi inhaled deeply it began to flap its wings however it was too late.
*Bam!*
The light from the Mangshi’s eyes faded, the last thing it saw was Kazuki hanging by the waist a dozen feet off the ground.
(This…can’t…be.)
A small crater had formed and the Mangshi’s blood was draining down into it. Even with its hard, armor-like wings, falling from such a height, there was no way it could survive that.
Kazuki was silently swinging back and forth. An earthen rope tied to his waist.
Asuna had read the note written in blood and stared in surprise.
(Isn’t this plan too risky. He actually wants to basically bungee jump from that high up from a tree.)
Kazuki had tied the rope to the base of a tree and ran it around a few branches before tying part of it to Asuna’s waist. the remainder of the rope went around his waist. His plan was simple. Get the Mangshi to follow him up the tree, it of course would, because it was already trying to kill him. Next, he would back to the edge of a branch and wait, this way he looked cornered. Naturally, when the Mangshi sensed where he was it attacked Kazuki. Never did it imagine, Kazuki would suddenly flip over it and land on its back before placing it in a chokehold.
After Kazuki had it in a hold and locked its wings in place it knew the Mangshi would have no other option but to leap off the tree in an attempt to scare Kazuki off. This, however, is exactly what Kazuki wanted. Right when they got to the last moment, Kazuki let go of the Mangshi and pulled hard on the rope tied around him. As soon as Asuna felt that she did as the note instructed and pulled back and ran backward with all of her strength.
After about 10 or so feet, she felt the rope snap tight with tension and she felt the rope burn her hands, which almost caused her to let go. She knew what was on the line, though, and bit down and grit her teeth. A moment later she slowly began to lower the rope. She could feel the rope moving around a bit before all of the weight suddenly vanished from it.
She wondered what was going on before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She reflectively pulled a dagger from her side as she turned around and thrust it forward.
*Fshhh*
A small orange flame no bigger than a grape appeared before her eyes lighting up a familiar face. Asuna’s hand froze and her blade appeared not even an inch from Kazuki’s neck.
(Ryuta!)
Asuna wanted to express how happy she was that he was alive but she couldn’t communicate a single word in this silent world. Instead, she hugged him tightly and spun him around with a joyful expression.
(Ryuta Ryuta Ryuta!)
Asuna was so excited to see that he was alive she didn’t notice until almost 30 seconds later that he had a pained expression on his face and was slapping her on the shoulder.
She quickly put him down and began to inspect him.
(What could be wrong? Don’t tell me the Mangshi clawed out his guts but I don’t see any blood.)
Kazuki could guess what she was thinking and slowly lifted up his shirt.
With the light from Kazuki’s flame, the first thing that filled Asuna’s sight was Kazuki’s well-defined six-pack abs. Asuna’s face turned bright red but Kazuki didn’t even notice as he was looking at his stomach and sides.
There was a large dark bluish-purple ring around his entire body. Falling from that height and having your entire body weight catch on a thin rope, left him immediately bruised. Had he fallen slightly faster or weighed a bit more, the rope could have easily cut into his body ripping some of his skin off from friction.
Asuna shook weird thoughts out of her head and looked on with worry. She gently touched Kazuki’s side, which made his face wince in pain. Kazuki slapped her hand away and looked at her with eyes that said.
[ “What are you, crazy!?!” ]
Asuna pouted a bit but wasn’t too mad seeing as how she was in the wrong.
Kazuki shook his head at her pouting figure and sat down with his eyes closed for a moment.
(I can’t afford to wait around. There’s still half of the Mangshi left and no one else can detect the Mangshi in this darkness. I need to build up my power now.)
Kazuki’s hands began to flicker and flash as he quickly made ancient hand sign after ancient hand sign. Asuna looked on with both curiosity and confusion but Kazuki had no time to write out in the dirt an explanation.
(I didn’t want anyone else seeing this but this concerns life and death. Right now…aw fuck it, I need to at least survive first and foremost.)
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