Cross Worlds

Chapter 37-2

Riku's barrier begins spinning his barrier rapidly, expanding it and using his magic to delete the illusory effect Esen has casted on the battlefield. "Now for the guy himself..." Riku lets down his barrier and waits, not relying on his senses, but his instinct to let him find Esen. He closes his eyes and shuts off his mind, swinging where it feels right, and his blade makes contact just as he had hoped.

Riku opens his eyes to see Esen's invisibility being cut off, but his blade is being guarded against by Esen's own sword. "Relying on pure instinct alone eh? Don't know if you just got lucky, but I'm pleasantly surprised. It's very rare that I get hit once I start using my magic."

"Too bad for you then, because I won't be letting you get away." Riku immediately teleports behind Esen, swinging both of his blades rapidly. Esen manages to keep up with his attacks, wielding two katanas of his own that glow with magic power. "I'm sure he's probably prepared for situations like this, I need to be careful of any magic tools that he might use..."

Riku continues his assault, but keeps his guard up all the same. "Goodness, you're fast I'll give you that!" Esen cackles, parrying each of Riku's strikes despite his words. It's hard to tell if he's taking it easy or giving it his all right now. "But I can switch back whenever I want..!" And just like that, he swings his sword down, releasing a massive burst of wind and smoke from the blade as the sword collides with Riku's wrist blade.

"No you don't!" Riku fires a blast of magic power from his free hand, but all too late. His beam doesn't connect; though it does get rid of the magic smoke, Esen is nowhere to be seen. "Shit..!" Riku immediately puts a barrier around himself and takes a step back. It's then that he notices a small bomb at the bottom of his feet, too little too late in fact. "Double shit!" Riku goes to teleport, but it blows up the instant he tries to activate his magic, destroying the barrier and knocking him through the air.

Riku quickly puts another smaller barrier around himself, knowing Esen is planning on following up the attack somehow. He sets up the barrier just in time, a bolt of lightning crashing down on the barrier from above and being deleted by Riku's magic at the same time. "Damn, too bad. I almost had you there." Esen's chuckle echoes from every direction, giving Riku no information on his actual whereabouts.

"For all I know, he could have some device that fired lightning from above, so there's no telling if he was actually at the point from where it was fired... Even if he was there though, he wouldn't still be there. I need to wait for his next attack. If I can at least destroy his devices one by one, then-" Riku's thoughts are cut off as dozens of colorful lights begin to appear around him. "There's no way he has that many...this is a trick. Only one of these will be real. But if I have to expend a lot of magic to win...then so be it."

Riku accepts Esen as the formidable enemy he is, and begins gathering as much magic energy within himself as he can. "I need to end this the moment I can see him, and I have to be sure it isn't some kind of fake or anything either. Even the most cautious of people will make mistakes. I just have to look out for that mistake." Riku relies on his instinct once more, but it's then that he hears something.

The whirring of a magical tool powering up with magic energy. "Is that fake? Is he trying to mess with me using a fake sound or..?" No, Riku knows this sound well because he's heard it so many times whenever he and Bibi went on a quest. However, Riku acts as if he hears nothing, and just continues to charge up. His entire body begins glowing in a bright blue light, his magic aura becoming more intense.

The second Esen fires both a real shot of magic from whatever tool he's using, as well as all the illusory shots, Riku immediately teleports right toward the sound he hears. "Got you." Riku thrusts his arm forward, and just like he predicted, Esen is standing right there. Riku smiles to himself slightly before firing a massive amount of magic power from his hand. He sends Esen flying through the air, causing a small explosion due to the amount of magic power in the shot he fires.