Materiarth Genesis: Blue Moon

Chapter 7: Violent Fists

Demon Mask's cloak gave away trails of black mist as he stalked forward. The buzzing blue blade of his beam katana illuminated his dark form. With his face fully obscured by the mask, Tokine could not read his expression, though she was confident to say that he was unhappy.

"I admire your persistence, young miss," Demon Mask said. "But persistence is just another form of foolishness," another blue blade erupted out from the bottom of the hilt of his katana, and Demon Mask sprang forward like a wraith.

His move was so fast and sudden, that the first few strikes narrowly missed Tokine as she pulled backwards. Using both his hands, Demon Mask then spun his double-bladed katana rapidly in a circular motion and slowly advanced on Tokine, forcing her to retreat further back. With the fast spinning blades between her and Demon Mask, it was impossible for her to land a hit on him without getting a hand sliced off.

Hope this works or I'll be eating with my feet after this, Tokine mumbled in her thoughts. Drawing in a deep breath, she pumped in even more of Vandal's energy. This time, it was not only focused on her fists, but her entire forearms. She gritted her teeth as the intense energy burned through her muscles. The veins on her forearms became more prominent, while the pink vapours of energy steaming out of her glands thickened.

Demon Mask stopped spinning his blade and flashed an open palm at Tokine. A bolt of concentrated black smoke shot out and hit her in the head. Although the sudden attack did not harm her, the smoke shot stung both her nose and eyes. With his opponent temporarily blinded, Demon Mask stepped forward and unleashed a full diagonal swing across Tokine's neck.

Unexpectedly, his powerful swing stopped midway, and Demon Mask's hands froze as if he hit a solid wall. "Impossible," he sounded shocked, as one of the blades of his beam katana was now pressed against Tokine's left forearm, unable to cut through her skin, which was glowing in a raging pink colour from the tips of her fingers to her elbows.

With her left arm still blocking his energy blade and her right fist pulled back, Tokine swiftly pushed herself closer to Demon Mask, so close that their faces were only an inch away from one another. Aware of her next move, Demon Mask quickly dissolved himself into smoke and retreated before Tokine threw a charged punch into his stomach. With her attack missed, Tokine also leapt backwards, and once more the two opponents were metres away from one another.

"Well, I'll be damned. It works," Tokine whistled. She looked down at her own arms. The dozens, or maybe hundreds, of punches she had thrown had left her gloves burnt and torn. In addition to the glow and the heat building up in her forearms, they also felt lighter and stronger. Upon looking closer at her glowing skin, Tokine noticed that her veins were pulsating at a greater pace, and they were producing a brighter glow than her skin.

"Wh-what kind of power is this?" Demon Mask hissed venomously at her, deactivating the two blades of his katana.

Tokine removed her damaged gloves and tossed them on the ground. "To tell you the truth, buddy, I am about as clueless as you are," Tokine smiled, clenching both of her bare fists. "And I prefer not to think too much about it. Gives you unnecessary headaches, you know what I mean."

There was a brief pause, when suddenly Demon Mask gave a raspy cackle. "That's a very strange Spirit inside of you, girl," he spoke, his voice sounded different, slightly high-pitched and fiendish.

"Huh?"

Demon Mask then let out a struggling growl and his body twitched for a moment. He spoke again, this time with his 'normal' voice. "I told you, I don't need your interference!" thick black mist vented out from his cloaked form and surrounded him. From Tokine's view, Demon Mask looked like as if he was being engulfed in a pitch black flame.