Cross Worlds

Chapter 37-1: "Master of Illusions and Tools"

Not even an hour passes before Riku heads off in search of Esen. Of course, he finishes his conversation with Kei first, then tells Gina and Haruto about his plans for the day so they don't go off searching for him in the middle of his fight. Finding Esen is a lot easier said than done however. After about thirty minutes of searching, Riku gives up and goes to find Artemis in hopes she might know how to find him. Low and behold, Esen is literally in her office talking to her about something.

"There you are!" Riku shouts, mentally drained from all the running around he's been doing.

"Ah, there you are Riku! I've been looking for ya buddy! Ran into Kei who said you were looking for me and then I started running around all over the place trying to find you. Literally couldn't find you anywhere dude, so I came to ask Artemis here-" Esen is cut off mid-explanation.

"I'm gonna kill you..." Riku growls with the harshest of venoms in his voice. Why is he so angry? Well, because it's obvious to him that Esen is lying to him and most likely knew about Riku searching for him the whole time.

Esen snickers. "Wow, I got found out so quickly~" Esen coos, running a hand through his hair. "I hope you understand that fighting me is going to be just as annoying, you know."

"And I'm gonna be able to break through whatever illusions you use with my own magic power." Riku says with confidence in his voice.

"Alright boys, if you're going to fight, let's not do it in my office?" Artemis asks, but it may as well be an order considering her tone and threatening aura.

"Y-Yes ma'am..." Esen chuckles nervously.

"Also, Esen, please stop messing around with new members of the resistance so much. I don't care if you consider it a challenge or anything of the sort, but you can at least cut them a little bit of slack? You literally hide our entire base from sight." Artemis scolds him.

"Hmmmm, I'll think about it! See you in the training room Riku." Esen cackles and vanishes from sight.

"Wait, which one?! You- Oh son of a..." Riku grumbles under his breath before running out of the office.

"Riku! Wait a moment before you go." Artemis calls out to him, standing in the doorway. Riku looks back at her and she gives him a proud smile. "Congrats on earning the tenth spot in the Teikoki, not to mention being able to hold it so well. I hope to hear about you getting that ninth ranked position soon."

"No pressure or anything?" Riku laughs, waving her off. "But thanks for the motivation, I'll make sure to do my best!" With that, he gives Artemis a wave and he runs off to search for Esen once more. Thankfully, he's a lot easier to find this time. After all, he's standing right next to the Teikoki's personal training rooms. "We'll be using yours I assume?"

"Correct. Also, we all have the same equipment, so don't think you're getting laid off or anything like that." Esen snickers once more before letting the card reader do its magic and walking inside. Just as he says, the equipment is exactly the same as it is in his own personal training room.

"I'm not gonna do any special settings or anything. Besides, no matter the environment, I can mess around with it as I pleased. Since I challenged you, feel free to mess around with the device as much as you like." Riku takes Esen up on his offer, but the setting isn't all that complicated. He simply sets the device to make the area around them to be a field of grass, and that's that.

The next thing they know, they're both in an empty field of grass, rays of sunshine beating down on them from above. "Yeah, this'll be good." Riku readies his blades. "Now, even if you use your magic and such, it won't be as effective if I were to put us in, say, a maze."

Esen smirks a bit and draws one of his blades. "Are you sure this is the location you wanna pick? You can still change your mind if you want to."

"Your intimidation tricks aren't going to work on me, Esen." Riku's blades light up as they're enveloped by his magic power.

"Alright then." Esen taps his blade on the ground, and almost af is they're blanketing him, the waves of sound literally wrap around Esen and he vanishes from sight. Riku immediately puts up his swords in defense, feeling a heavy push on them as soon as they're crossed over his chest.

"Hey, we didn't even count down yet!" Riku grunts as he feels the wind around him change. His eyes widen and he quickly teleports out of the way, watching as a green whirlwind spins around the spot he was just standing on. "Magic tools... Using those combined with illusions. No wonder he's such a threat..."

"That threat only becomes worse when you don't know the difference between an illusion, and reality." Esen says from right beside Riku. Riku jumps and quickly swings his sword to the side, but low and behold, there isn't anyone standing there.

"Oh hell no, we are not doing this." Riku makes his magic power burst from within him, shooting out and spreading a good distance outward. His magic should delete anything it touches, and yet, his magic doesn't even pick up anything. What Riku does notice is movement in the grass, and immediately shoots toward it. However, he realizes a little too late that it's simply another trick from Esen's magic.

"Boo." Esen says at his side, pressing his palm against Riku's side and blasting him quite the distance away with a bolt of lightning. Riku yelps and grunts, doing a couple flips in the air and holding his side as he continues jumping back and forth.

"What kind of tech does this guy have to not get blown away from my shockwave OR have my magic delete any device he's using..?!" Riku growls, shooting a look in the direction of where Esen just was. "There's no way he got past my shockwave and popped up right next to me in one go without some sort of gadget... I need to account for those if I'm going to beat Esen." For now, Riku decides to put up a barrier around himself, watching and waiting for whatever Esen's next attack might be.

However, when the area around him suddenly goes pitch black, he knows he's made yet another grave mistake. Esen was able to make physical contact with him, which means he's now able to mess with his five senses as a whole. "What's the matter, Riku? You don't like the change of scenery? Because I'm just getting started my friend..." Esen's laugh echoes all around Riku.

"Yep, shady as all hell this guy is..." Riku scoffs under his breath, readying his blades for what's sure to be another long fight, and another long day on top of it. "Let's see what my magic can do against an illusionist, shall we?"