CHAPTER 39: GREEN ROCK

The man looked at Luna, the same boredom in his eyes. But this time there was also a slight annoyance in them.

Another white light shot from his palm and hit the ground near Luna’s feet. The ground blew up, sending sharp rocks flying everywhere.

Luna was already moving and diving to the side as another bolt of light flew past her head and exploded behind her.

He started firing them one after another. The ground all around Luna kept exploding. Chunks of black rock flew through the air as waves of heat washed over her.

She was being forced to stay on the defensive and was unable to get close.

But she was waiting.

After another blast forced her to jump back she saw it. A tiny pause and an opening. A split second while he prepared his next attack.

That was more than enough.

She charged forward with a trail of golden hue chasing her but instead of running all the way, she put all her strength into her arm and threw her glowing sword.

It flew through the air like a golden spear, aimed right at his heart.

The man didn’t even flinch. He just casually slapped the sword out of the air, hitting it away like it was an annoying bug. The golden blade went tumbling into the smoke.

But Luna hadn’t stopped.

She was still charging but her hands now empty she closed her right one into a fist; it gave off the same golden glow as her sword.

The man saw her coming and the annoyance was now more visible on his face. He raised his own hand up, ready to block her punch.

However, just before her fist could hit him his eyes widened a little as he felt something. A spike of energy coming at him from behind. It was fast.

Her sword, the one he had just hit away had curved around and was now flying back at his blind spot at an insane speed.

"Lament: Grade 3 activation," Luna whispered.

And then, she vanished from in front of him.

The man had a single, split second to understand what happened.

A hard punch glowing with golden energy slammed into his back. At the exact same time, the tip of her sword flying back on its own hit the armor right over his heart.

Both attacks hit at once. And although both were still stopped by his invisible shield, there was a bit of an anomaly this time.

A bright white light flashed where the attacks hit. The air rang with a sound like shattering glass.

On the invisible shield, two spiderweb cracks appeared, glowing with a bright and unstable light.

A smile appeared on Luna’s face, and without wasting any time she twisted her body and delivered a hard kick onto his face. This too was stopped by the barrier, but a crack appeared like before.

"So you aren’t all that well protected huh," Luna said, a smile on her face as she backed off a few steps, her sword coming back in her hands.

The man looked at her and then sighed. "All that for this..." he said, almost in disappointment.

In no time the cracks that had appeared on his invisible shield began to heal and were completely reverted to how they were before. As if no damage had ever happened.

"Well, let’s see how long you can keep this up for," Luna said, charging toward him.

She charged again with her golden sword glowing in a blur of light.

If she could crack his shield once, she could do it again.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

She hit him with a storm of attacks aiming for the same two spots she had cracked before. She wanted to shatter his defense, only then could she hope to directly damage him.

But this time, he was ready.

Rather than just standing in one place and blocking her attacks he moved.

With a lazy and easy grace, he stepped to the side of her first attack. He knocked her second one away with the back of his hand and ducked under a third.

It was clear he wasn’t even trying. He was toying with her.

A hint of frustration appeared on Luna’s face. This was not working.

She pretended to thrust forward then put all her power into her arm and threw her sword.

It flew past his head like a golden spear that disappeared into the smoke behind him. Just like before.

However, this time it was a little different. Rather than charging mindlessly at him she disappeared from her place, completely gone.

A flash of golden light appeared thirty feet to the man’s left as she swapped places with her sword. Before he could turn she vanished again, swapping back to her original spot as the sword now flew at him from the new angle.

The crater became a dizzying storm of golden light.

She was like a blur of motion blinking in and out of existence. A flash of silver on the right as she appeared, a streak of gold from above as the sword was teleported there.

She was moving at an impossible speed, swapping places with her weapon dozens of times in just a few seconds and creating a confusing web of afterimages and false targets.

She was trying to overwhelm his senses in order to create an opening so small and so unexpected that even he couldn’t react in time.

Through it all, the man in silver armor did not move. He just stood in the center of the storm, his head not even turning.

He simply watched her with his cold eyes tracking her every move and his expression one of complete and utter boredom.

Finally, she made her move.

She appeared directly behind him with her fist glowing with a blinding golden light, aimed right at the back of his head.

At the exact same instant, her sword appeared in front of him with the tip aimed directly at his heart.

She came from both directions at once. But the man didn’t even turn around.

Her fist slammed into the back of his head, stopped by the invisible shield while her sword tip struck his chest and was stopped by the same invisible shield.

Two new spiderweb patterns of glowing white cracks appeared on his defense and a triumphant smile flashed across Luna’s face.

But before she could press the attack she swapped with her sword again which now appeared in her hand fifty feet away.

It was a perfect, clean reset. She was ready to do it again.

But as she looked, the two glowing cracks on his shield simply faded away, healing themselves in less than a second. His defense was perfect again.

Frustration and cold and bitter regret washed over her. It didn’t matter how fast she was. It didn’t matter if she could hit him. He just healed the damage. She was just wasting her energy, slowly killing herself while he did nothing.

She was back to square one.

She grit her teeth, ignoring the burning in her lungs and the pounding in her head. She had to try again and she had to be faster.

She threw her sword again and the deadly dance began once more. The crater was filled with flashes of light as she and her weapon swapped places at a speed that was almost impossible to see.

This time she wouldn’t give him a single second.

She appeared in front of him, her glowing fist aimed at his face. At the same time, her sword appeared behind him.

But this time the man was ready. He had seen through her pattern but more than that he had seen through her desperation.

Just as she appeared his hand shot out. It moved faster than she could ever have expected. He didn’t block her punch.

He caught her with his fingers wrapped around her throat.

His grip was like a band of cold and unyielding steel. Her attack stopped instantly, the golden light around her fist sputtered and died. She was caught and was quite possibly in a serious situation now.

Her feet dangled uselessly in the air as he lifted her, his arm not even straining. She clawed at his hand but it was like trying to break rock.

"I have played enough," he said with his voice flat and empty. "As expected, this farce isn’t worth anything."

His grip began to tighten.

Panic seized Luna’s heart. The air was being crushed from her lungs and black spots started to dance at the edge of her vision.

With the last of her will, she gave a silent, desperate command. Her sword, lying on the ground fifty feet away shot up and flew toward him like a golden spear aimed at his back.

Without even looking he raised his other hand and casually backhanded it out of the air, causing it to clatter uselessly to the ground.

Her feet kicked restlessly in the air as her body fought for a breath that would never come.

It was in that moment as he stared into her fading red eyes, that he noticed something.

A strange, buzzing sound.

He tilted his head slightly. Something was slowly descending from the sky, stopping only a few feet from his face.

It was no bigger than his fist. It was black, made of some strange, dull material he didn’t recognize. It had four thin flat wings on top that spun so fast they were just a blur.

It made a low and humming noise like a strange insect.

He found it strange. He hadn’t sensed it at all. This thing had no magic presence. It felt... hollow. Dead. It wasn’t something that was supposed to be here.

Before he could even begin to understand what this strange little thing was his eyes caught another movement.

Something else was tumbling through the air toward him. It was a small, dull green can about the size of a pear. It looked like a strange smooth rock with a metal pin on its side.

A rock? he thought, a flicker of confusion passing through his mind.

Who would be stupid enough to throw a rock at me?

As the green object passed across his face a thick, white smoke began to hiss from its sides.

And then with a deafening, ear-splitting BANG the entire world went white.