Naoki puts out his hand.
"Blood Style: To Aíma."
A long red spear starts forming in his hand. He slouches forward and sends it flying towards Ari and Hawke.
The spear crashes into the middle of the rooftop, digging into the concrete and cracking the surface around the point of impact.
"Huh?!" Ari reacts, startled.
Hawke turns his head towards Naoki.
From a distance, Naoki makes a quick music conductor movement.
The blood spear immediately explodes, sending blood vessels flying in every direction.
Ari and Hawke barely manage to react. They both raise their arms to block at the last second, but the blood still splatters all over them.
The nature of Naoki's blood style was unlike any other. He possessed absolute control and manipulation over blood, he could make blood act even in unorthodox ways.
"Let the stretta begin…"
'That's the killer!!' Ari realizes as he thinks to himself.
Hawke's eyes widen.
"HARV!!, don't you miss a beat!"
The blood spattered over Hawke and Ari suddenly starts boiling.
It begins exploding across their skin at a rapid pace, each blast tearing into them and forcing them to stagger back.
The rooftop starts shaking beneath them.
It cracks and spreads through the concrete as the repeated explosions tear pieces of the roof apart, sending chunks of debris flying into the air.
Ari stumbles backwards into a roof unit, his back slamming hard against it and nearly sending him over the edge of the roof.
He quickly reaches out and grabs the railing, holding onto it as another explosion goes off behind him.
"Crap!"
Hawke uses the momentum created by the blasts to launch himself forward towards Naoki.
"Eat dust, punk!"
Hawke revs up a punch midair and sends it flying towards Naoki's cheek.
Naoki gives a weak smile before his body suddenly dissolves into a blood silhouette. Hawke's fist passes straight through him, hitting nothing but blood.
"Huh?!"
Hawke tries to pull himself together after the awkward motion of the missed punch, but the blood immediately wraps around his arm and traps it in place.
"What the fuck is this?!"
Hawke pulls against it, trying to break free, but the blood only tightens hard around his arm.
Harv films it all from a distance. A drop of sweat falls from his forehead as he watches intently, his camera staying focused on the fight.
"I knew this could be trouble…" He whispers to himself.
With quick speed, Naoki suddenly appears in front of Hawke.
He drives his palm into Hawke's stomach and sends a concentrated blood projectile straight through his body.
He looks down and sees Naoki impaling him.
Hawke's eyes widen as he coughs up blood.
"Time for your crescendo." Naoki jumps back.
Hawke suddenly senses something flying towards him from behind.
It's his own blood, the blood he just got impaled with, now being controlled by Naoki and flying directly towards the back of his head.
Hawke grits his teeth together.
"Don't screw with me!!"
He hardens his body,
"Script Style: Activate!"
Hawke activates Script Style and it freezes time.
Naoki stops in place.
When time resumes again, a fully loaded-up fist connects with Naoki's cheek. The punch snaps Naoki's head to the side and sends his entire body flying off the rooftop.
Hawke has broken free from Naoki's blood hold.
"Eat shit, asshole."
Naoki flies off the roof and crashes straight through an office window.
The glass shatters around him as his body crashes into the building, but he quickly uses his Blood Style to create a shield behind him to soften the blow before he hits the floor.
"Hehehe, that was an interesting move…"
Naoki gets back up as Hawke falls to a knee.
"This is nothing…" Hawke says to himself, breathing heavily.
Hawke puts his hand over his stomach where the impaled hole is. Yellow mana begins spreading from his hand as the wound starts healing itself.
He looks towards Harv on another building and gives him a thumbs up.
Harv returns the thumbs up as he continues filming.
Suddenly, Naoki flies up into the air and stares down at Hawke.
He manipulates the blood behind his back, forming it into massive wings.
The wings spread out and flap with enough force to keep him suspended high above the rooftop.
Hawke looks up at him and gets into his fighting position once again.
'It's gonna be hard to predict what he's going to do from up there, and he hits like a truck. I'm in a sticky situation.'
"What, you're not attacking me? I thought you were looking for me." Naoki says from the air.
His massive wings are a beautiful wine red color, stretching out behind him as the moon shines through the sky.
"Tsk, why don't you come down here so I can chin you again." Hawke yells.
Naoki puts his palm forward and aims it down at Hawke.
"You won't have to worry about that." Naoki responds calmly.
A blood ball starts forming in front of his palm.
'A blood ball? Is it a projectile!?'
Hawke braces himself for impact.
Five pressure beams suddenly shoot out from the ball of blood at a rapid pace, forcing Hawke to move immediately.
Hawke's eyes widen.
He rolls heavily across the rooftop and manages to dodge one of the beams, but another one cuts across his cheek, leaving a line of blood.
Another beam slices into his forearm.
Hawke jumps over one that nearly impales him before twisting his body and narrowly avoiding the final beam.
Naoki loads up another ball of blood.
Hawke reads Naoki through like a book,
"Script Style: Activate!"
When time resumes again, Naoki gets hit with a clean uppercut in midair.
Hawke's fist drives underneath his chin and knocks his head back, disrupting his movement and sending him higher into the air.
Naoki brushes it off quickly.
"What an annoying power…"
Naoki flies himself higher up. He suddenly changes direction, performing a high yo-yo maneuver before charging back down towards Hawke head first.
At the same time, Naoki starts forming a massive blood scythe in his hands.
The weapon grows longer and heavier as more blood gathers around it, he grips it tightly before revving it up for the attack.
'He's gonna swing at me! Easy money.'
Hawke prepares Script Style.
Right as Naoki closes in, Hawke activates his Script Style.
"You're dead!" Naoki growls,
Hawke's eyes widen in shock, time doesn't stop this time.
"Huh?!"
Naoki's scythe slashes straight through Hawke's chest in one motion.
Blood sprays from the wound as Hawke's body is thrown backwards from the force of the slash.
Naoki front flips in midair and follows it up by driving his heel into the top of Hawke's head, smashing him down towards the rooftop.
'Why didn't it work?!' Hawke thinks in a split second, completely caught off guard by what just happened.
Naoki is still close to the roof when suddenly something tackles him hard.
Ari appears out of nowhere and grabs onto Naoki's back, holding onto him and disrupting his flight.
Naoki struggles and scrambles to keep himself in the air as Ari holds onto him.
The viper strikes again.
"Scorpio Style: Viper Pulse."
Ari grabs both of Naoki's wings and starts pulling them out with all his strength.
The blood wings stretch under the force before Ari rips them off completely.
Naoki's eyes widen.
"Night night." Ari says.
For the first time, Naoki feels panic.
They grab hold of each other midair as they start crashing down.
Neither of them manage to stop the fall,
They crash down into downtown Roxanne with massive force.
The impact tears apart the pavement beneath them and sends pieces of concrete and debris flying across the street.
Civilians immediately scramble away in panic as smoke begins clearing from the crash landing.
Cars force stopping in the middle of the road, people are running from the area while others are left injured from the impact.
Ari gets up, breathing heavily.
Some distance away, Naoki struggles to get up.
"Not so scary now are you…" Ari says.
Naoki looks up at him with fear.
He points a finger at Ari and a spear of blood rapidly shoots towards him.
Ari manages to dodge by side stepping, causing the spear to fly past him.
It instead hits a civilian in the distance, piercing straight through him and knocking him to the ground.
"Don't send threats to a living prodigy…" Naoki whispers.
Ari reacts to the civilian getting struck and immediately turns his attention towards him before looking back at Naoki.
Naoki moves quickly,
He crouches beside a man who is trying to help a woman that's stuck underneath a car.
The impact from the crash earlier has sent people into a panic, and several civilians are injured throughout the street.
"Excuse me sir, I'm in need of your services."
Naoki grabs the man and holds him by the head, pointing towards Ari.
He instantly drains the innocent man's blood.
The man screams in agony as Naoki consumes his blood, his body weakening in Naoki's grip.
Ari gets into his fighting stance.
"Help me…" The man says, struggling, before his body suddenly explodes into blood.
Blood splatters across the street and rains down around Naoki.
Naoki calmly steps forward through the blood rain.
New wings begin forming behind his back as the blood gathers and takes shape.
The scythe reforms in his hand, growing larger as he grips it tightly.
"Every grand performance requires a sacrifice for its apoteosi. Tonight, I am unbeatable."
Ari's Scorpio Style starts fading as the second round is about to begin.
…