The Promise of Tomorrow

Chapter 21

Silence ensued between Y/n and Kotori, both observing each other again for a few seconds before the former acted first and spun his staff. Suddenly, the staff was swung to the left, and Kotori dodged it by backing away for a few steps before trying to slam the chains once more. Quickly, Y/n pulled the staff away from the halberd right before it could fully slam itself to the chains, causing it to crash onto the ground. 

"That same shit won't work on me twice!" Y/n tauntingly remarked and slammed his staff on Kotori's unguarded temple and stunned her, leading to a follow up attack of two side swings, left and right and proceeded to be kicked upwards slightly before being slammed with the staff once more, making her roll and crash against the wall of the abandoned warehouse. 

"Merge!" Y/n commanded his staff and it then did as it was told. Looking at Kotori, he grinned as the staff that he was holding then burst into flames. "N-no... This can't be!" Kotori uttered out in disbelief as she struggled to move out of the way. "Oh, but it is! Thanks for your help!" Y/n replied, throwing his flaming staff at Kotori who struggled to deflect the staff away due to the strength and Reiryoku output Y/n applied to it.

Sending it upwards to the sky, Kotori took a deep breath as if to sigh in relief. However, Y/n wasn't finished yet with his onslaught as he attacked her with a clothesline, sending her to the ground and was kicked towards the warehouse as the force made her burst through the wall and sent her crashing to a warehouse's container. 

"You know, I'm quite disappointed. Really. I expected more from you other than being a mindless brute bent on destruction. Is this how you want Shido to see you? If you can't even control that power...

Then that makes it all the reason for me not to lose." Y/n grimly spoke, and made the staff collapse into three sections once more. As the blue portion of the staff glowed, a cold air resided in the area as ice blocked the hole that was made on the wall. Kotori growled and roared, slamming her halberd to the ground and a sea of fire attempted to burn Y/n down. He spun around the staff, and created water from it as to extinguish it and created a smokescreen of vapor in the process. 

From the smoke, Y/n took a deep breath as his body glowed purple again. Despite being the one on the advantage, he was also in danger. The Reiryoku usage was finally taking its toll on his own body. His consciousness was slipping away bit by bit, his body had shrunk by 2 inches, and his eyes started bleeding. Hell, his grip onto the staff was loosening and he had to reapply his grip onto it again. 'Calm down... You knew that your body would hasten its side effects when you go all out, but you won't get any results if you keep panicking...

Two minutes left...

Focus...

Focus...

FOCUS!" 

In a blinding speed, he initiated an attack on Kotori at all angles. Using his agility and the smokescreen to his advantage, he attacked Kotori in all angles but made sure to focus on her head. He was betting it all in his last 2 minutes in taking her consciousness away before his body gives out. 

His body was using 110 percent of Reiryoku, which hastened the 5 minute time limit to a 2 minute time limit. Everyone could detect the danger that was looming over Y/n. The Reiryoku scans had identified that his body was hastening its countdown to its cooldown state. 'Origami. On standby.' Reine commanded while Shido prepared himself to also interrupt the fight alongside Tohka.