Return of the Fallen Volume 6 Chapter 74
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch74
Groud constantly changed the flow of the floor shifting it and rotating it non-stop to try and keep Kazuki off balance. With no footholds and the floor moving beneath him at random, Kazuki’s footwork looked unstable on the surface and it appeared as if he were struggling. In reality, Kazuki was surrounded by his aura and he was mimicking the nature of wind.
The air silently rushed around Kazuki.
Kazuki pushed and pulled his body with the wind and managed to stay on his feet. Groud couldn’t comprehend how he was able to stay standing but he could sense a constant and steady stream of aura overflowing from Kazuki and knew that it was responsible for helping him.
(“Let me see how long you can keep standing!”)
Groud pulled his fist to his side and a mass of air and energy gathered around his large hand. His eyes continued to glow along with his crown. Thrusting his palm toward Kazuki beneath him, Groud shouted.
(“MONKEYS PALM STRIKE!”)
Grouds hand blurred as he struck out 100 times in an instant. The wind took on the shape of Groud’s palm and came crashing down with the combined power of air and gravity. All at the same time 100 palm strikes came down atop Kazuki.
Kazuki didn’t shy away from this. From the first fight, he knew that out of these 100 strikes 95 of them were mere feints. Yes, they carried real attack power but to Kazuki, none of them could be considered fatal. The 5 real strikes though were on a different level. If Kazuki were to be struck by them, even he didn’t know if he could walk away from them intact.
Kazuki had already absorbed Danny’s experience when it came to wind. He could feel the path of the air coming at him and knew which attacks were fake and which were the real deal. Using the aura of air, he pushed and pulled his body around, dodging each of the strikes. As soon as one of the real attacks came down upon him, Kazuki gathered the aura around his palm, and using his strength he clapped at the sky above him.
The aura of wind concentrated around his hands, crushed and tore Groud’s 5 strikes apart.
“What was it you said a moment ago? You think I’ll allow the same thing from last time? More, give me more of a show.”
Groud’s stomach burned from the obvious mockery. To have his own words thrown back in his face after a failed attack, this humiliation, he could not allow.
Groud raised his hand high in the air and following that 3 tornadoes began to spin up. With it, he extracted hundreds of orichalcum boulders from the ground, and with his tornadoes, he picked up the rocks making the tornadoes deadly grinders.
All at once, the three tornadoes surrounded Kazuki and started to close in on him. The sight of tornadoes was something of nightmares for most but Kazuki only found this to be funny. Now that he could feel the flow of wind, he knew what to do. Kazuki grabbed the whip he had smacked from the soldier’s hand earlier before relaxing his body and reducing his aura around him, allowing one of the tornadoes to pick him up. Immediately a few boulders came racing at him.
Kazuki surrounded the whip with wind aura and whipped it forward. The whip cut through the air and wrapped around one of the boulders. Kazuki then pulled the boulder in front of him like a shield and blocked himself from the other boulders.
(“WHAT!”)
Groud and the other apes in the arena watched on in shock. Their king’s power which seemed unfathomable and absolute had once again been dealt with by this outsider. Not only had this outside intruder not suffered from their king’s might but the way Kazuki had done it seemed to be as if he were dealing with something barely bothersome.
Kazuki amplified his voice and spoke over the harsh wind of the tornadoes and mocked Groud again.
“Is this what you’d call honorable or fair! Groud! King of the Adrola ape’s! Why is it that you can’t seem to face me head-on and have to fight from such a distance!? Could it be, the great ape king is scared to go toe to toe with such a small creature such as I!?”
His voice was incredibly loud and cut through the wind like a searing knife. All of the pride, all of the honor of Groud, by the looks of their faces, some of the apes began to question it. A murmur started to spread among the Adrola apes before growing louder and louder.
It seemed as if the apes were saying something but Kazuki couldn’t understand their language at all. By the evergrowing sour expression upon Groud’s face though, Kazuki knew it couldn’t be good.
While Groud was distracted, using the whip, Kazuki swung the large boulder around him before launching it at Groud.
*Bam!*
A barrier of wind was already waiting and the boulder slammed into it before being deflected away and crashing into the ground.
Groud turned and looked down at Kazuki. At the same time, Kazuki purposely slowed the circulation of his blood while making his heartbeat erratically and terrifyingly fast. He made his face appear as white as paper as he drained it of blood and he breathed heavily like a fish gasping. He forced sweat through his pores and covered himself head to toe with it. With the finishing touch, he made his entire body tremble by a small amount.
By all looks of it, it seemed like Kazuki was tiring but from Groud’s eyes he saw it differently and a devilish grin appeared on his face for barely a second before he controlled himself and went back to his normal calm. A thought flashed within his mind.
(The poison has taken effect. The edge is mine, I can take him up close now.)
All around the arena the noise was getting louder and louder before Groud roared and beat his chest.
*ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRR BOOOOM BOOOOM BOOOM BOOOOM!*
The sound of his roar and the beating of his chest rang out louder than thunder. Thousands of apes gripped their heads in pain and the world fell silent. At the same time, Groud waved his hand and the tornadoes dissipated.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!*
The ground shook as hundreds of boulders fell out of the sky. The rotating beneath Kazuki’s feet stopped as well.
(“WHO!…”)
…
…
(“WHO DARES QUESTION MY HONOR AND STRENGTH!?”)
…
…
None dared breathed let alone utter a word. To do so would be suicide.
Groud put on a show now that he thought he had the upper hand over Kazuki.
(“I understand you all. I’ve ruled for so long and before me was my father. You’ve only known my bloodline to be in power but that doesn’t mean you’ve known my power. Our city is all about strength and honor. The strongest rules and that is as solid as orichalcum. Nothing can break it. That is our society. As long as the strongest rules, we Adrola apes will never fail nor fear anything. So I’ll say it once more. WHO DARES QUESTION MY HONOR AND STRENGTH!?”)
…
…
One by one, all of the apes began to kneel and bow down before Groud. Groud gave a nod.
(“Lift your heads! Right now your bows mean nothing to me. They are nothing but a false gesture. I understand…I understand far too well. Honor and strength…I’ll show it to you. I’ll show all of you how even without fighting in the air, I can still beat this meat doll up close and personal.”)
Kazuki gave Groud an odd look after hearing that last sentence.
(Beat this meat, he seriously just said that?)
Groud then turned back to Kazuki.
(“Kazuki I will fight you fairly on the ground and show everyone true honor and strength. Count yourself lucky.”)
Kazuki wanted to roll his eyes.
(I should be grateful, count my self lucky, this guys acting is quality shit. If these apes knew the truth, I wonder how many would still buy his drivel. Especially knowing he still hasn’t reduced the gravity pressing down on me. What a fake bitch.)
“Thanks, I definitely feel lucky. Now, if you’re done speaking out of your ass, could you come down here and join me on the dance floor. Our songs about to start and I’d hate for you to miss it.”
Groud didn’t understand what Kazuki meant by the last half of that statement but he knew he was being insulted. He wanted to crush Kazuki there and then but seeing Kazuki’s weakened appearance he remembered he still needed to put on a bit of a show and make the fight look good.
Groud spoke so that only Kazuki could hear him.
(“You are a lot different than I initially thought. This is good. Make sure you don’t die too quickly, otherwise, my point will not get across properly to my apes.”)
“I’ll do my best but there’s no guarantee.”
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