Chapter 2237: He Who Bears Lightning
Chills crawled down his spine as he realized the gravity of the situation.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!
His demeanor grew grim as evasion grew harder and harder.
Each time he tried, she managed to foresee exactly how he was going to try and evade herattack.
The worst part was that the speed of her sword style was greatly heightened by muscle memory.
He could tell.
She didn't need to think when executing even the most complicated combination of attacks. Normally, the mind guided and coordinated such attacks to ensure accuracy and precision were adequate.
However, this slowed down the frequency and speed of coordinated successive movements.
The body was faster than the mind.
Kane knew how much of a difference this could make. He had fought Hever many times, and despite being much slower than Kane in raw speed, he could keep just due to the fact that he had eliminated the drag of the mind on his body, allowing him to reach a level of rapidity that could compete with overwhelming speed.
He sensed that Master Inyen had done something similar.
"It actually made my job easier, since the absence of conscious intervention means lower pattern diversity, making it easier to form and refine predictive models on her," Rui analyzed the circumstances, comparing it to his own. "I'm compatible against her, but Kane is very much the opposite."
It was a good example highlighting how large a role compatibility could play.
Things that a compatible person could handle with ease could be absolute nightmares against those who weren't compatible.
"At this rate, you'll die, Kane." A faint mutter escaped Rui.
Even if he wanted to help, he couldn't. He was too far away in an attempt to ensure Kane didn't get distracted after he was there.
SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!
"Rgh...!"
Kane grimaced as several more cuts appeared on his body. "Dammit."
Many of the systems of thought that he had developed were ineffective in this battle due to the fact that they were centered around the combination and timing of switching between Neo Godspeed and Void Step. However, due to the latter being too ineffective against her because of her Martial Mind, he could not use them.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!
Their blades began clashing with even greater furiosity as she began nailing her timing on him even more frequently, forcing him to block instead of evade due to her inability to predict blocking maneuvers.
Once outside of his element of evasive maneuvering, she held the advantage when it came to their clash of blades. He had only adopted the twin daggers much later in life. It meant that he had far less experience with them than she did with her sword.
SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!
Rui watched with a calm expression as Kane began suffering even greater wounds from her extraordinary sword combinations. They were almost impossible to keep up with.
DRIP DRIP DRIP...
As more wounds continued piling on, he slowed down ever more. The blood loss made it harder and harder to maintain a high level of speed.
Rui didn't even need to strain his mind by running simulations of their battle based on the predictive models he had on both of them to know that Kane's victory against her was extremely unlikely if that was all there was to show.
His fists clenched as his gaze hardened.
Suffering a brain aneurysm was worth it if it meant saving his best friend's life.
THUD
Kane fell down to one knee.
The air crackled.
It boiled with peril.
"Now then," her voice was filled with murderous bloodlust. "Die."
Her blade surged down towards Kane at extraordinary speeds even as Rui's Martial Heart blazed into power.
WHOOSH!
Master Inyen's eyes widened as her blade crashed into an empty image.
A feint.
Both Rui and Master Inyen froze with shock as Kane disappeared from their senses.
STEP
He arrived behind her with closed eyes and a serene expression.
The air had changed.
"I didn't want to have to use this..." A faint voice escaped him. "Since I hadn't used it outside of a controlled environment, but..."
His head tilted as his calm eyes met her shocked eyes.
"...But desperate times call for desperate measures, amirite?"
CRACK CRACK...!
Sparks began crackling in the air.
"Oh well, here goes." Kane's voice grew more severe, activating a special breathing technique. "Let's hope this doesn't kill me, because man I would die of embarrassment."
His words were mirthful, yet the tone of his voice sent chills down her spine.
In that moment, she knew that he was dangerous. Every bone in her body felt the faint peril that he was radiating.
CRACK CRACK CRACK...!
She took a defensive sword stance as her fear lingered in her eyes.
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK...!!
The air began growing more charged, sparking with flashes of electricity as Kane bent heaven and earth with the force of his breath.
She didn't understand what was happening.
But Rui did.
"Kane..." Realization dawned on him. "You...!"
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK...!
The sparks evolved.
They became bolts.
Bolts of none other than lightning.
Not just around him.
Across the entirety of his new domain.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
He had created an ocean of lightning within the depths of his domain, as a tsunami of lightning bolts spiked across the entire domain.
Yet, they eventually found themselves converging onto a single point.
A single man.
CRACK CRACK CRACK!!!
Kane activated a second breathing technique in harmony with the first. One that allowed him to guide the lightning that soared towards him with murderous bloodlust.
Yet, he gently embraced it.
He bent heaven and earth, manipulating the path of each lightning to curl around him.
It obeyed him, cladding him in an armor of lightning.
"Fulminata..." Rui whispered with awe. He who bears lightning.
He had lived up to the name.
Kane's eyes shifted as his gaze returned to Master Inyen.
WHOOSH!
In the blink of an eye, he arrived before Master Inyen as a single whisper escaped him.
"Heavenly Punishment."
BOOOM!!!