Cross Worlds (Hiatus)

Chapter 56-2

"Heh, that's our leader for you. Now we can fight without worrying about other people!" Aseiko says with a grin.

Sorey focuses on the smoke hiding Riku's glowing figure. "You guys had better focus! That may have hit him but he's far from-" Before Sorey can finish speaking, Riku lets out a powerful battle cry. His dark blue aura explodes around him, blowing away the smokescreen, freeing him from his binds, and sending Aseiko and Arima flying into the air. The Teikoki members do their best to keep themselves from taking significant damage, but they fly high into the sky.

"Just the force of his aura is enough to push us back this much..? Bullshit!" Arima draws his black sword and lets out his own roar of power, pushing against Riku's aura with his blade. A black slash of energy flies out from the short bladed (barely longer than a dagger) sword. Rather than cutting through Riku's magic aura however, it simply turns back and seemingly becomes frozen in time just as Riku himself was.

Riku glances up at Arima. "Yeah, that's right, you don't know anything about how I fight since you've never seen me fight, now have you?" Arima smirks, pointing his blade at him. "While my abilities may not be as effective on you since you're so much more powerful than all of us right now, this blade will affect you nonetheless. And the only thing I need..." In an instant, the blade of Arima's sword grows longer, thinner, and turns bright red. At the same time, the hilt seems to grow a type of red energy rope that wraps around Arima's arm.

Before Riku can make any sort of move or react, Arima is right in front of him, body glowing in a bright red aura. "Is an opening." Arima swings his sword and leaves a slash right across Riku's chest. In rapid succession, Arima manages to slash Riku's chest a full 12 times before backing away. Riku doesn't react, his entire body becomes covered in a red light that holds him in place for exactly one second. Then, his body returns to its "original" state.

Riku's head turns to face Arima once more, his expression still blank as ever. "God damn... 12 slashes and you were only frozen for one second. That would make you about...12 times stronger than me, huh?" Arima narrows his eyes as he holds his sword backwards, the blade becoming short and black once more. "But even being as strong as you are..." Arima doesn't speak his next words, but thinks them. "If I hit you with the short end of this blade, that'll give every else a full five minutes to charge a powerful attack. One strong enough to knock you back to your senses."

For a few seconds, no one makes a move. The five top Teikoki all stare Riku down from separate spots across the battlefield, but Riku's head is faced directly toward Arima. In the blink of an eye, Arima quickly swings his blade at Riku, firing off another black magic slash. Riku is behind Arima the second his black slash looks like it connects. Arima swiftly turns around and his blade extends as he swings it at Riku. Riku blocks with his wrist blade, but his entire body turns black and white the second the blades clash. "Now!" Arima yells out.

Aseiko and Kari are suddenly at Arima's sides, Kari's arm large and monstrous and Aseiko's arm glowing yellow; sparking with magic power. Both of them punch Riku at the same time, sending him flying through the air. Eli appears in his path and catches him in an electricity net, zapping him repeatedly as he's flung in another direction. As he's sent flying once more, Sorey appears above him, his entire body encased in that white and deep blue aura. In the next instance, Sorey fires a powerful beam of his mixed elements into Riku's stomach at point blank range.

However, the second the beam hits Riku, he's suddenly unfrozen, and he manages to spin and slap Sorey down to the ground with two of his wings. Not only does Sorey fly right down into the explosion his beam attack caused, but Riku also fires a quick beam of magic energy himself. The beam makes contact with Sorey's explosion and expands it to be twice as large.