Playing with fire is the trait of hands washed in water.
Playing with heads is the trait of hands stained in blood.
— Spenser Lime
He (Spenser Lime) is a boy no older than twelve years of age. He wears high boots beneath a pair of boot-cut black pants, their design complementing the perfectly fitted white shirt he wears above them. A black tie hangs neatly around his neck, serving absolutely no purpose beyond its place in the ensemble. Over his shirt, he wears a black overcoat, its length and design concealing the weapon hidden underneath. Every element of his attire, from the high boots to the black overcoat, replicates the exact look of Vance Kaze, making his appearance an identical reflection of Vance's own style.
KTHK-FWOOSH!
By simply putting some strain on his knees and launching away from Spenser, Arashi surprised him.
[Spenser's thought]
Such mechanical precision—so he is just brain and legs. I will first damage his legs and then short-circuit his brain to win this fight easily.
"Heh!" Spenser smiled, thinking his plan would go as he planned it.
[Arashi's thoughts]
I sense no flux in him. Either he is suppressing it or he has such precise control over it that I can't sense it. It could be either way, but does that even matter? 'Cause he is against me. Nothing is saving him.
VRRIIIIING!
Arashi instinctively, without wasting a movement, grabbed the scabbard of God Garuda and unleashed him with lightning-fast speed.
Just at the sight of Garuda, Spenser's mind short-circuited. By the beauty of the blade, he was mesmerised, and then, for the first time, his expression changed to one of excitement.
"Listen, I don't have much time for this; I am gonna make this quick, and remember, as quick as possible," Arashi said, warning Spenser.
"Yeah, don't worry, I will also be very quick—making you completely blind," Spenser said, pulling a longsword from under his overcoat on his back.
As the words escaped Spenser's mouth,
DHUMPPPPP!
His heart skipped a beat, making his hands completely numb, resulting in his hands stopping pulling out the longsword; instead—
[Inside Spenser's Mind]
GNNNK-
His brain slowly began to grow larger inside his head, expanding more and more as it continued to increase in size. It grew so big that there was no longer enough space for it inside his skull. As it kept growing, the pressure began to build up, and cracks started to form in his skull as his brain continued to enlarge.
"Kill him, as Father said," Toma said inside the brain.
"No, just run! He is too strong; we should run," Lucian cried inside the brain.
KTHUMM!
Spenser suddenly fell to the ground as the feeling in his legs slowly began to fade away. His legs started becoming numb, making it harder for him to feel anything in them. As the numbness continued to spread through his legs, he struggled to keep himself standing, until his legs could no longer support his body and he fell to the ground.
THK... SKFF....
Spenser kept one hand pressed against the ground to support his body while his other hand tightly gripped his head, his fingers pressing against his skull as he struggled to hold himself up.
"Am... am I..." Spenser said, his voice shaking.
Tup... tup...
Two drops of water slowly gathered in Spenser's eyes before rolling down his face and falling to the ground beneath him.
"Why am I crying? What is happening?" Spenser said as even his hands slowly gave up.
"Hey! You! You just wait a few minutes, we will…
…definitely fight," Spenser said, crying to Arashi.
[Inside Spenser's Mind]
"It's not you, it's me," Lucian said, crying.
"It's me who is crying," Lucian said, accepting.
"Ahhh! What are these voices? Who are these people?" Spenser said in the real world.
Click!
Everything from Spenser's view vanished, and what remained afterward was just the empty, infinite plane of solitude.
KTHRUM—!!
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a door appeared in front of Spenser.
Spenser, gathering all the courage he was left with after those disturbing voices, and without even standing, held the knob of the door.
KREEEEK!
Spenser opened the door only to witness three people chattering continuously.
Their voices hit him like an attack of PTSD. Upon hearing the door open, all three turned their heads to see who was there…
…And upon seeing Spenser:
『RUN—DON'ْت EVEN TRY TO—HELP ME—KILL—HE IS HERE—KILLLLLLLLLLL—』
Both Toma and Lucian continuously shouted together to tell Spenser what to do.
In between the argument of these two, another door opened, revealing the dark silhouettes of 14 other people.
"Ahhh! Please just stop... stop," Spenser said, crying and scratching the ground, his nails bleeding and almost coming out of the nail beds without Spenser even caring about the pain.
SHNK!
Arashi put Garuda back with the respect given to a divine being, as Garuda shines when resheathed.
SHFF-
Arashi moved at such speed that in no time he was crossing the ground, bypassing Spenser, leaving him in that state without offering any help.
[Inside Spenser's Mind]
"Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill Ushimoto Arashi." The same words repeated in Spenser's mind in Toma's voice.
"Run!" A suppressed, sudden interruption of Lucian's voice was completely buried by the voice of Toma, resulting in the complete ignorance of those words in Spenser's mind.
"Yeah, right, Spenser—kill him! Kill Ushimoto Arashi," Toma said, provoking Spenser.
GRK-!
Spenser suddenly grabbed the leg of Arashi, who was about to pass him.
"I told you to wait," Spenser said in extreme anger.
THOK!
Arashi hit Spenser's face with his other leg to show disrespect.
"And who are you that I should listen to you?" Arashi said, disrespecting Spenser.
"KILL!!" Toma shouted inside Spenser's mind.
KRRK!
Arashi suddenly felt Spenser's hand grabbing his leg with so much force that his grip was not on the muscles of Arashi's leg, but directly on the bone.
"I can feel it," Arashi mumbled to himself.
[Arashi's thoughts]
I can feel it now—he is pushing all of his flux directly into his arm to hold my leg like this; his control is unimaginable.
FSSSHHH!
Spenser was still on his knees as the skin inside his clothes started burning like meat left on a grill, but the fuel used in the grill was lava.
"I am failing to understand this. Are you here to fight me or—" Arashi stopped as…
TSSSSSSSSSSSSSS-!
Smoke started to arise out of Spenser's clothes like his skin was in contact with something so hot that it was burning with uncatchable speed, his eyes getting swollen from crying.
WHOOSH!
Before Arashi could speak another word, his motionless frame was lifted into the air.
BWHAK!
Spenser, using just one hand and monstrous strength while forcing himself to a stand, lifted Arashi into the air.
"Heh!" The only part of Spenser's body that moved was his lips, which curved upward.
KRRRSSSH-!
Spenser dragged one leg across the ground, keeping it low without lifting it, while tightening his grip around Arashi's leg even harder.
[I will smash him on the ground and then cut his neck. EASY GAME.] Spenser thought as he was about to smash Arashi on the ground —
KTHWAAK-!!
At a speed recorded to be faster than light itself, Spenser swung Arashi directly into the ground to shatter his head.
But little did he know...
VZRAK-!! BWSSSHHH-!
Before his hand could complete its movement, Spenser had already been disarmed, and at such speed that without the arm, the blood rushing through his severed veins was released with enough force to reach the end of the alley.
"Oh! So I underestimated you—you are also faster than light," Spenser said, acknowledging Arashi.
"But don't worry, I will sever your legs so you won't even be able to move, 'cause faster than light is in another tier." As Spenser completed his sentence—
FWHHH!
Suddenly, a wave of wind brushed Spenser's face as he saw Arashi drop his severed hand to the ground. And before his hand even hit the ground, Arashi vanished.
GRKCH-!
Spenser's severed arm was still suspended in mid-air when he felt his hair being grabbed violently from behind; all of this happened so fast that his brain was still registering the afterimage of Arashi standing in front of him, which was about to drop his severed hand.
BWDDOOM-!!
He regained consciousness a moment before his head was about to get slammed against the ground with the hand that was even missing its fingernails.
SHIFT!
Even before Arashi could remove his hand from Spenser's hair, Spenser's hand regenerated in a flash.
KLANG-KLANG-!!
At the exact same time, just before getting slammed, as both of Spenser's palms faced the sky, two short swords emerged from his overcoat, landing directly into his palms.
GRAB! GRAB!
Before Arashi could react to this movement, Spenser gripped both of the short swords.
VRRAK!
Using Arashi's attack momentum, Spenser lifted his head from the ground, spinning mid-air.
"Flux Restoration: Lumen Reversal," Spenser said, spinning and recovering from every injury he got, including the regeneration of his severed hand.
BWUMP-!!
Using the air itself as a trampoline while spinning, Spenser launched himself into the air just after—
"You may move at light speed, but...
...I am the one who cuts light," Spenser whispered in Arashi's ear before launching himself into the air.
KSHRAK! KSHRAK! KSHRAK!
Three circular saw blades appeared above Arashi's hand, and before he could retract his arm, it was already severed into three pieces, which were falling to the ground.
DUMM!! PLOK! PLAK!
Spenser landed on the exact coordinates on which Arashi was just a moment before. Spenser's severed hand—which Arashi had dropped earlier—landed on Spenser's foot just as Arashi's newly severed arm pieces hit the floor.
"Not bad, not bad," Arashi said, pretending to clap while missing one hand.
"But you know, your technique had many flaws," Arashi said in genuine appreciation.
"Who are you to even tell me that? Do you even know about this technique?" Spenser said, swinging his short swords.
"Oh yeah! I need to show you how it's done.
FLUX RESTORATION: LUMEN REVERSAL," Arashi said, raising his severed arm stump.
As Arashi chanted, his flux rushed through his arm like a camera flash; new bone burst forth from the remnants of the old.
After that, wrapping around the bone like a creeper plant, every nerve, blood vessel, muscle, and finally the skin grew back from scratch, making his severed arm whole in front of a shocked Spenser.
"Are you sure we are at the right address? 'Cause sometimes it's good to say sorry," Spenser thought inside his mind.
"That's what I am saying—let's run!" Lucian cried inside Spenser's mind.
"KILL!!" Toma shouted inside Spenser's mind.
"Damn, he shouts too much," Spenser muttered to himself in the real world.
SHIIING! TIK!
As Arashi took one step toward Spenser, he instantly drew Garuda. It was so dazzling that upon seeing it more clearly, even Spenser's eyes gleamed like stars.
NNNNNNNG-!
The two short swords vibrated upon seeing their master like that.
"Don't worry, I am just looking at that sword to compare it with what I'm going to do to it afterward with your help," Spenser told his weapons.
"Wait! Did you talk to that weapon?" Toma asked inside Spenser's brain.
"Doesn't matter," Spenser said, taking a step forward.
KCHNNNG-!!!
Spenser brought both short swords together to combine them, not using a complex technique, but one that takes a long time to master; he performed it effortlessly to merge the two short swords into a single longsword.
"Because the Weapon of Destruction...
...Liǎng Yì is ready," Spenser said, pointing Liǎng Yì toward Garuda.
[To be Continued]