"Hey...wanna see how unhinged I can get yo?" - Ryu
Ryu didn't move. He just stood there. Shoulders twitching, electricity crawling over his skin like restless serpents, his whole body humming with that unstable charge. His chest heaved, half from exhaustion, half from the euphoria of frying himself alive and surviving it. Enra's shadows stirred, but he didn't attack. He watched. He contemplated. His grin faded into a thin line as his eyes narrowed.
"So he unleashed high amounts of electricity into the pool, which caused it to somehow trigger and reopen like a lock, and it nearly killed him in the process." - Enra's thoughts
"I'm guessing the current also affected his nervous system, causing him to be like...this. He's shaking a lot, and every hair on his body even on his limbs, is standing on end." - Enra's thoughts
"..."
"This night might not be boring after all" - Enra's thoughts
"I'm glad you're less of a disappointment now Ryu, no human has ever escaped shin'en before, so I am very much amazed." - Enra
"Now, shall we pick up where we left off?" - Enra
Enra goes into a stance
"Your move, let's see how different you are now" - Enra
Ryu tilted his head, sparks snapping across his face. Then—
FWSSH!—he was gone.
The air itself split with the crack of thunder. In the span of a blink, he crossed the field, lightning trailing like an afterimage. Enra's eyes widened, his guard already up, the wall of shadows thickening, hardening into an impenetrable mass.
But the blow was already there.
CRRRAKKKTT!
Ryu's fist ripped straight through the shadow barricade, tearing a hole in the dark guard like paper. The impact burst with a flash of light, scorching the darkness away. Enra stumbled, the recoil slamming into his chest, forcing him back. He hissed under his breath, disbelief prickling.
Another spark cracked, and Ryu was gone again—already moving, already striking. Enra's vision lagged behind, his shadows always a fraction too late to intercept.
Ryu shot off the ground like a bullet, ricocheting off the trunk of a tree with a thunderclap, vanishing without a trace. Enra twisted—too late, Ryu was already across the clearing, launching himself off the cliffside, the stone face cracking from the sheer force.
Again and again, he rebounded—tree to rock, rock to branch, mountain wall to shattered boulder—his trail of lightning carving a mad, dizzying pattern in the night. The air was alive with afterimages, phantom strikes, his outline flashing in and out of reality faster than the eye could anchor him.
Enra's eyes narrowed, shadows twisting into a spike as he spun with brutal precision—certain this time.
"Got you!" - Enra
But his strike cleaved nothing but empty air. Ryu wasn't behind him.
BZZZT!
Lightning coiled around his arm as he slid under Enra's swing, his whole front wide open, Ryu's eyes gleaming like a raptor. In the fraction of a heartbeat before Enra realized the trap, Ryu's fist drove inside Enra.
THWOOOOM!!!
The gut punch landed dead-center, a thunderous blow that sent shockwaves rippling through Enra's body. His shadows fractured, dispersing in a violent shudder as his torso folded under the sheer force. For the first time, the yokai staggered, eyes wide with confusion—Ryu had been one step ahead the whole time, grinning.
Enra coughs blood
"Heh heh heh heh" - Enra
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH" - Enra
"I thought he was your friend, that blow could've killed him if it weren't for me—" - Enra
"I don't care bout him anymore, I just want you dead" - Ryu