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Return of the Fallen Volume 6 Chapter 53

Author: Blue_Rat

ch53

Groud’s anger rose from such repeated mockery and humiliation. Having his own moves used against him, this was a grand insult.

Groud climb back to his feet. Raising a hand up, parts of the ground separated and condensed into large boulder-sized cannonballs. Each one was made from the tough flat stone and each one could crack the side of a mountain. In only a few seconds, dozens of these wagon sized balls became hundreds.

(“ROTATION! GRAVITY!”)

With a shout, his crown glowed brightly and the cannonballs started to spin. Not only did they spin dangerously but their weight increased dramatically. Waving his hand forward, the cannonballs came raining down like a hail of meteors.

Kazuki could not see these rocks due to the darkness but his hearing picked up all of their trajectories. Instead of waiting around to be crushed, Kazuki rushed forward. Kicking off the ground, he leaped into the air.

Groud saw this and grew excited. Seeing his foolish opponent rush into the sky to meet his death, Groud awaited his doom but his expectations were not to be met.

With the staff in hand, Kazuki came before the first cannonball and swung the staff like a bat.

*BAM!*

The impact was heavy and he felt an unnatural vibration navigate up the staff and into his forearms, almost making the staff fly away from his grip but with a tight squeeze, Kazuki held true and swung for the fences.

The cannonball was batted away and its course changed entirely. It flew off backward and hit another cannonball which led to another impact. A domino effect took place. Several cannonballs wrecked into another, because of this, Kazuki was free to move about without restraint. He landed on the ground and with a swiftness launched himself back into the sky. Kazuki found the weakness of Groud’s attack as soon as it was fired. Due to the Cannonballs being so fucking big, they were slower than anticipated. Not only that, because they were so big, their paths were easy to figure out, making them easier to dodge.

With the staff that was just as tough as the cannonballs in hand, the threat was lessened greatly. The only real trouble was the spinning effect and the extra gravity applied everywhere. Knocking a single one away required a good deal of strength. However, because of their movement, Kazuki could tell precisely where to hit them to make them crash into one another.

As they came flying at him Kazuki also noticed these large objects were difficult to control even for Groud for if he had control then the moment Kazuki batted one away, Groud would simply change the cannonballs course and make it follow after Kazuki like a homing missile. This did not happen and it showed itself as a weakness on Groud’s part.

Spinning into the air, Kazuki resembled a mini-tornado. Each cannonball he hit, in return, crashed either into another cannonball diverting their course or he hit the cannonballs directly toward the apes watching from the sidelines or he’d launch a few deeper into the city itself.

Groud’s eyes grew round and were filled with rage.

(“YOU DARE TRY AND DESTROY MY CITY!”)

Walls rose up one at a time and blocked the cannonballs from crashing into the city. The ones falling onto his warriors though, Groud ignored their safety entirely.

(This Ape bastard doesn’t seem to give a fuck about his people but instead puts his city first. Too bad, this means I probably can’t use any of them as hostages.)

As he bated these boulders away, Kazuki was constantly looking for a way out of this mountain pass but found not a single crack in its defense. Not only that, he was using his full strength to bat these boulders away. Using the tough staff to hit the equally tough cannonballs, he expected to see some damage to either the weapon or the boulders but even using his strength, neither could break the other. That’s just how tough the stone was.

Usually, even if the objects were made from the same material they could still be broken or damaged by bashing them into each other. All that would require was enough force. Kazuki apparently didn’t have that force. So his idea of smashing through the stone wall with the stone staff was dead before it got off the ground.

In the end, Kazuki’s first plan would have to come to fruition. He had to take out Groud.

Spinning in the air, he hit another boulder with the staff in his hand and aimed it at Groud. The boulder raced across the sky toward Groud but before it could hit him, a barrier of wind appeared around Groud and the boulder with both spin and added gravity bounced harmlessly off of Groud’s wind barrier.

(He didn’t use that barrier against me but he used it against that boulder. That either means he thought I posed no threat physically or that the boulder just seemed to be an actual one. Either way, this is good. For him to block the boulder means he has some fear of it, otherwise, why would he bother to defend against it. It means this stone material can cause some type of harm to him and if it can harm him it can kill him.)

Kazuki changed his tactics and instead of hitting the boulder-sized cannonballs toward Groud the city of the apes he simply batted them down toward the ground.

Groud thought this was a sign of Kazuki growing tired and so he added in wind blades from time to time to try and exhaust Kazuki even quicker.

Every boulder now came with several wind blades racing behind them. Kazuki slammed the staff atop a boulder bating it down below him before spinning the staff like a fan and destroying the incoming wind blades. Every once in a while, the blades would strike against Kauzki’s body and the sound of scraping metal would ring out as the blades tried to slice into his skin. Up to this point though none could and the ones that managed to fully land across him only caused small scratches here and there.

Groud saw that his wind blades were almost useless but they still kept Kazuki on his toes. He could see that Kazuki’s skills were far too good to go down to wind blades and changed things once more. He changed the shape of many of the boulders. He transformed them from large heavy objects to long thin ones. He made lances and spears. With their reduced size, he could fire them at terrifying speeds and did just that.

Spears and lances made from the weird stone material came tearing across the sky like lightning. Since Groud wouldn’t engage in close combat, Kazuki was already on the defensive at this point but with the increase in objects flying at him and now moving at unprecedented speeds, Kazuki was put in a difficult spot.

He could no longer defend himself properly in the sky and landed back on the still moving ground.

Now, these bullet-like lances and spears were coming at him constantly. Kazuki circulated his ki into his eyes, allowing him to see these objects even clearer. They seemed to slow down in his eyes and with it, his body began to move to match his eyes sight. His movements became smaller and smaller as he dodged things by a hair’s reach. With a slight side step here, leaning 2 degrees there, Kazuki was able to escape everything.

Groud didn’t seize with the boulders either, he made more along with the lances and spears and mixed up which ones he threw. Whenever a boulder came flying down, Kazuki was forced to move or bat it away. This was the only time Groud was able to get him to move more than a few feet at any given time causing much frustration.

Sometimes Groud added gravity and sometimes he reduced it on an object. He did this to try and confuse Kazuki’s senses and throw him off balance but Kazuki’s wasn’t lost for even a moment. In fact, as time went by, Kazuki’s movement only became smoother and smoother as though he was flowing like water.

(This weird creature is getting used to my power. Not only that, he isn’t getting weaker, he’s not exhausting. I can’t use close combat to my advantage because his body is harder than mine and his speed is better too. To stop such a weird animal, I’ll have to go all in.)

As he was thinking this, Groud looked at the layout of the land and saw something odd and his eyes grew bright.

(This Bastard.)

Groud’s crown lit up and armor made of metal covered his chest, legs, and arms. At the same time, he gathered all of the boulders, lances, and spears and threw everything he had at Kazuki at once. As soon as this attack came flying down, Kazuki made his move.