The Future: Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 85 WINNING THE WAR

The Hidden Leaf Hideout

An army of 'golden darkness' darts rain down from the sky. Originally Clyde had struggled to do this attack, with it draining a significant amount of divine energy. However, with each second of combat his control improves little by little. It's a subtlety that only the strong will notice, the difference between good and great. It improves each time though, he refined it against Naruto, enhanced it against Lara and stabilised it against Carmen. Now, during this fight, he is doing more than he ever has before, he is multiplying his capacity and doing all three processes again.

Lara's improvement is also strong. She teleports to Clyde's side, placing herself slightly further away from him than usual. She knows that before now he has caught her out by predicting what she is going to do. That seemed to be a problem, but it is not truly, because if she stays out of his reach post-teleportation, his powers of prediction do not matter. When she does escape his prediction though, she still reaps the benefits, being just close enough to beat his reaction time.

Two punches from Lara, both dodged by Clyde. Predicted this time but not to Lara's detriment.

Clyde takes a single step backward, watching Lara's face change, watching the anger channel through her at his retreat. She steps in, refusing to allow his retreat, just as he foresaw when he made it. With Lara coming towards him, anger slightly clouding her mind, he strikes a powerful blow to her gut. Instinctually Lara teleports to his rear to escape another blow, but such instinctual retreats are never well thought out. This time Lara is not out of reach, so he turns and strikes her again. By forcing this animalistic fighting pace upon Lara, Clyde manages to get four successive hits before her brain can control the instinct.

Lara teleports away from Clyde, that's when he makes a mistake. He pauses for a moment, assuming his opponent's retreat would signal a brief pause in the fight. There is no pause, the moment after she flees Lara raises her hand and fires an ensemble of 'golden light' pellets towards Clyde.

The incoming pellets are not lethal, Clyde knows this all too well. He dodges though, it's pointless to accumulate damage when it's well within his ability to dodge. He weaves through the incoming stream. He takes note of the relative position of each incoming pellet immediately and after memorising them fixes his attention back on Lara. She is the real threat here.

Clyde catches only a glimpse of Lara as she teleports to his side. Even that glimpse is enough for him to predict where she is going. He leans to the left, knowing that her punch is incoming from the right. Turning his head, he sees that his evasion was wise, Lara was indeed going to punch him. However, he then notices something off about her position, she was too close, she wanted him to predict her movement.

Having foolishly dodged Lara's punch, Clyde walks into the path of the previously fired pellets. He gets hit several times successively, quickly being forced to put up a weak protective barrier around his arm as he raises it to shield himself.

'A distraction'. Lara strikes at Clyde, absorbing the pellets heading at herself while she does so. With him unable to counter, it is now her turn to attack uninterrupted. She senses the bending of his flesh each time she volleys another strike at his largely unprotected torso. He is helpless to stop her as the pellets continue to strike towards him.

The pellets are about to run out Lara notices. She has just enough time for one final attack. She channels energy to her right hand and creates a 'golden light' axe. She raises it above her head and slashes it down towards Clyde's neck.