Fragments

Ch.18 - I Stopped Resisting Long Ago

"Four years before the crew I'm currently in charge of at Station 2 arrived, the system for teaching Guardians changed… Nobody else will have to live through the hell I survived, because it was deemed too expensive and inefficient… And I'm relieved. They live calmer lives than I ever did, but I still wish they spent their youth elsewhere."

Backstepping away from a deadly slash, the Reaper countered by charging forward with a flying knee kick, thin trails of blood dripping out of its dismembered arms wherever it moved.
But Asuma phased through the attack, ending up behind the monster and hitting the back of its neck with an elbow strike to knock it down. At this point, she wasn't even looking at her opponent… Its moves were too predictable, but she still acted cautiously, trying to knock it out.
However, the Reaper cushioned its fall and quickly stood back up, attacking again while its opponent had her back turned towards it. But instead of a successful, underhanded attack, the arm it attacked with lifelessly soared through the air a moment later, separated by a clean slash of Asuma's sword.

With another arm gone, the Reaper was on the verge of collapsing from blood loss…
Asuma crouched in front of it, her sword coated in greenish blood pointing forward by her abdomen to deliver a decisive strike.

"Perfect," it thought. "You must be so convinced of your victory, huh?" In slow motion, the Reaper watched Asuma extend her arms, the tip of the sword getting closer to its chest with each passing moment. "You'll run me through, leave me tossed aside like garbage and return home… I can tell you hate doing this, so let's release you from it."
The Reaper's ability was to establish a large zone around itself, and anything caught inside would be unable to hear or emit sound. Throughout the battle, Asuma did well adapting to the environment…
Too well.

Its goal was an ultimate move where the ability is deactivated when the target least expects it. The Reaper adapted to any sudden changes long ago, but that wasn't the case for Asuma.

With a snap of the Reaper's fingers, which cut through the silence like a scythe, all sound returned. The blaring sirens from smoke and fire alarms, the hum of the outside, leaking pipes and the crackling of fire… What humans usually perceive as ignorable background noise flooded Asuma's ears after she got used to complete silence.
In the middle of her lunge, she became completely paralyzed, as if frozen in time, her ears bleeding.
She stopped completely.
"I delayed it so much for maximum effect… Because I'm not sure how well it'd work on a monster like you. Goodbye, "Strongest Guardian"..." Pulling out its last knife, which was preserved exactly for this situation, it stabbed Asuma in the heart.
But the first to fall in battle…
Was the Reaper.
Crimson blood spurted from where Asuma was stabbed, painting the knife red, but the monster received a worse fate, its body suddenly tearing itself apart on a molecular level.
In 1 dimension, Asuma becomes invisible, inconceivably fast and can pass through matter, but her lack of size makes her unable to attack. In 2 dimensions, she retains the benefits of the 1-dimensional state, can attack as well, but becomes slower. Depending on how drastic the change, she can maintain the forms from 1 to 3 seconds, so they require extremely precise timing.
The strongest move of her own lies in turning back to a 3-dimensional state while inside something. The rapid, unstoppable "expansion" of her body tears anything apart without exception. It is a guaranteed one-hit-kill for anything it touches, and Asuma dropped her sword to hit the Reaper with it the moment she recovered from her sound-induced paralysis even slightly.
It was a victory, but she wasn't left unharmed.

"Tch… That'll leave a scar."

The Reaper's last knife impaled Asuma's hand, sliding between the metacarpal bones of her ring and middle finger. "That took me by surprise and I panicked… Never thought he'd use his ability like that. Shit… It burns." Picking her sword back up, she slung the dull part of the blade over her shoulder, kicking open the nearest door to exit the hellish hospital. "Ow, my ears are ringing… Hopefully that won't be permanent."
By cautiously trying to defeat rather than kill throughout the whole battle, she nearly died… But only nearly.