An Assassin's Respite

Kazuna's Secret Technique

Kazuna analyzes Ken's armor.

"Seeing as it's made from the same metal that he's been using for his attacks, I won't be able to cut through it easily. His face is exposed, but I doubt it would be as simple as attacking him there. Dammit, I assumed too much about how his power worked," He thinks to himself.

Kazuna stops his lightning armor and jumps back.

"If I want any chance of winning, I'll have to turn this into a battle of attrition. I can only use so much lightning and using my lightning armor along with stream really drained me. I'll have to rely on reactions and intuition and what I learned from my earlier attacks," He decides as he prepares for what would be the deciding fight.

Just as he was about to move, Ken burst forward, charging Kazuna. Kazuna, surprised by his speed and decision to initiate, barely has time to activate his power and dodge Ken's attack.

"He's way faster and more mobile than I thought he'd be. He must be able to move the armor the same way he moves any of his metal," He notes.

Ken continues to press Kazuna, keeping him on the defensive. As long as he kept his focus on evading attacks, He could get away with not using his power, but he could only dodge Ken's attacks for so long. He had to think of something fast. As he dodges another attack, he's slammed from the right by a few metal scraps. 

He was sent tumbling for a few feet, but managed to right himself quickly, but not before Ken was able to take advantage of the opening and land a strong punch into Kazuna's gut. The blow threw him back, and he landed next to Kari, who was still trapped inside a sphere of metal.

"Mr. Kazuna!" Kari shouts in anguish.

He shakily gets up and gives Kari a smile.

"Don't worry, I've got this under control," He says while blood drips from the side of his mouth.

"But, but-" Kari tries to retort as she stares at the blood that had dropped to the floor.

Kazuna notices that she was worried about him bleeding.

"Don't worry about this, this is nothing," He assured her or tried to assure her. She was still very worried about him.

"Just leave me here, I don't want to see you getting hurt anymore," Kari cries.

"Leave you here? Like hell I will, I don't want to see you getting hurt anymore either. So, why don't you sit there and watch me blow your mind," He replies.

Kazuna focuses back on Ken, who has started to make his way towards them.

"You know, Katsuchi, I thought that I would be able to have more fun with you. But it seems that you aren't taking me seriously enough," Ken states.

"What makes you think that?" Kazuna asks.

"From what I hear, you have some powers that you haven't yet shown to me," Ken elaborated.

"How do you-?" Kazuna questions.

"Surprised that I know that, huh? Let's just say my patron is pretty knowledgeable. But never mind that, why don't you show me what you really got?" Ken answers.

Kazuna grits his teeth and clenches his fists.

"Why should I do what you say?" Kazuna growls.

"Well, he did say that I would have to be very convincing to get you to cooperate, so how about this. If you don't come at me with everything you've got, I'll have to slice that little one into tiny little pieces," Ken threatens.

Kazuna's eyes widened with fear, then anger.

"You wouldn't dare," Kazuna replies.

"Although it would be quite the loss, we could still manage with the data we have. So I would dare," Ken retorts.

"If you so much as scratch her, you'll regret the day you were born," Kazuna warns.

Ken lets out a maniacal laugh.

"Yes, that's what I want. I want that killer instinct that the Katsuchi clan is infamous for," Ken laughs.

Amid Ken's laughter, Kagura runs into the area that Kazuna, Ken, and Kari were in.

"Kazuna, Kari!" She shouts from across the room.

"Perfect, it seems that I won't have to kill her after all. I'll just kill her instead," Ken says as he runs towards Kagura.

Once Ken started making his way to Kagura, Kazuna snaps out of his shock and races to beat Ken to her. He decides to focus entirely on speed, ignoring control or defense. He zips past Ken and grabs Kagura.

"Oh, it seems you're faster than I thought," Ken notes as Kazuna comes to a halt at the front entrance. 

It was as if all the progress that Kazuna had made had been reversed, or so that's how it seemed.

"All that effort erased just like that," Ken states.

"Is that what it looks like to you? Because to me, it's like the last piece of the puzzle has fallen into place," Kazuna retorts.

“Kari, Remember that time you saved me? Sorry, but I’ll need you to save me again.” He says.

"Huh?" Ken grumbles.

As Ken stood there confused, he heard lightning behind him and turned to see that Kari had broken out of her cage.

"How?" Ken asks in utter shock. 

Before he could ascertain what happened, his instincts scream at him to jump back. As he retreats, he feels a knife graze down his eye. He lets out a pained scream as blood pours down from his right eye. His experience with fighting for his life had saved him at that moment. He searches frantically for his attacker, and Kazuna uses this chance to have Kagura use her power to carry Kari over to them.

Ken, blinded by rage and pain, rushes Kagura instead of grabbing Kari. Kazuna activates his lightning armor and goes to intercept him. So far, everything was going exactly as planned, but plans often go haywire. Before Kazuna could clash with Ken, Ken uses the metal from his right arm's armor to push Kazuna to the side.

"It... It moved like a liquid?" Kazuna thinks to himself in surprise.

This entire time, Ken has moved his power as if he was forcibly pushing solid material forward. But he had changed the state of his metal from a solid to a liquid. It was a possibility that Kazuna hadn't even considered. Ken continued his mad dash until he was right in front of Kagura. He molds the armor on his left arm into a blade and prepares to impale her. Kagura freezes as she faces an opponent that was ready to kill her.

"Am I going to die? Should I run? Should I scream? What should I do?" She thinks to herself in a panic. 

Time had seemed to slow down, and her eyes darted over to Kazuna. At first, hoping that he would help her, but then it turned into motivation. She remembered what she said before they came here. That she would fight to survive, she couldn't give up and rely on Kazuna again. She pushes the panic from her mind, draws her sword, and uses her wind to put more power onto her swing, allowing her to block Ken's attack enough that she was only pushed back.

Kagura was able to have a short moment of victory before Ken connects with an attack from her left.

"Kagura!" Kazuna shouts in concern.

His worry was alleviated a little once he saw her groggily stand. She had used her wind to soften the impact against the wall, but Ken wasn't going to give her a chance to recover. He started to make his way toward her, covering his face to protect himself against another surprise attack. However, Ria takes advantage of his right arm, still being exposed, and jams her knife into his shoulder, causing him to shout in agony.

But this time, instead of grabbing at his wound, he grabs where he expected the attacker's arm to be and manages to catch Ria. He raises a metal wall to his left and slams her into it, forcing her out of her invisibility. 

"So you had someone that could go invisible. What a cheap trick, but you're all out of tricks, aren't you?" Ken growls.

Kazuna grits his teeth as he finds himself in a horrific turn of events. He looks over to Kagura, who was still struggling to stand, to Ria, who was pinned to a metal wall next to Ken, and to Kari, who was off to the side. 

"Dammit, I made too many assumptions. I barely have enough left in the tank for two attacks, but there's no way that that will be enough for me to finish him off. Come on, think, how do I get everyone out of here alive?" He thinks to himself.

He rummaged through everything he had available, the people there, their powers, their weapons, anything that they could use to their advantage. But he was drawing a blank. He couldn't come up with anything. Just as he was about to give up hope, he hears Kagura shout out.

"That's where you're wrong, Ken," She starts as she begins to stand upright.

"Kazuna hasn't even shown you half of what he can do. Isn't that right, Kazuna?" Kagura says while looking over at him.

Kazuna meets her gaze and smiles.

"I can't believe I was willing to give up and let them die before I tried everything I could," Kazuna thinks to himself.

He sheathes Kirin and places a hand over Karma.

"Use my wind to save people." He says under his breath.

He grips the hilt and begins to unsheath Karma.

"Master, are you going to allow me to let loose?" Karma asks.

"Yeah, just a little," Kazuna answers.

Karma began to shake from excitement.

"Calm down, Karma, this is a one-time thing. I'm still not sure if this is going to be a common occurrence," Kazuna tells him.

"I know, but I can't hold my excitement," Karma replies.

"Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss using you," Kazuna says.

He looks between Kagura and Ria.

"That's enough lying around, I need you two to buy me a few seconds," He shouts.

"Yeah, yeah," Ria grumbles as she disappears.

"A thank you would be nice," Kagura replies.

"If we get out of this alive, I'll owe you a favor as an apology," Kazuna states.

"I'll take that, but how do we stop him from attacking you?" Kagura says as she rushes Ken.

Ken prepared an attack, but Kazuna was a step ahead of him.

"Kagura, to your right!" He shouts.

Kagura processes the command in time to jump back and dodge an attack from the right. Ken glares at Kazuna in outrage.

"Did you think I was too distracted by your transformation to note where you sent the remainder of your metal? I know that your metal can only be thrown away from or pulled towards you or another piece of your metal," Kazuna states.

Ken tries to turn his attention towards Kazuna, but the feeling of something slashing through his arm distracts him. Ria had switched to quicker, less-lethal attacks in order to avoid getting caught again. He decides to ignore Ria and continues to make his way to Kazuna, but a burst of wind pushes him back. 

"You won't be able to just ignore us," Kagura states.

Ken decides that Kagura is his first target and rushes her. As he ran toward her, he used the metal he had lying around for surprise attacks, but Kazuna was able to tell Kagura where his attacks were coming from, allowing her to avoid these attacks. Even though Ken's attacks weren't able to connect, they allowed him to close the gap. He attempts to impale Kagura, but an invisible attack knocks his arm to the right. 

Kagura uses this chance to launch a fury of strikes onto his armored arm to little effect.

"So hard," She thought to herself after she jumped back.

"Focus on his chest," Kazuna shouts.

"Got it," Kagura shouts in response as she charges Ken.

With the help of Ria and Kazuna, Kagura was able to get multiple attacks off on Ken while avoiding his attacks. The damage Ria did to Ken's arm and eye along with Ria attacking Ken as well, they were able to hold their own.

Meanwhile, as Kagura and Ria stalled Ken, Kazuna was preparing his attack. 

"It's been a while since I've used this power, so it's taking a bit longer than I'd like," He thinks to himself.

There was a funnel of air around him that was growing stronger by the second. Kazuna watches Kagura and Ria's fight against Ken.

"I couldn't have asked for anyone better to watch my back," He notes to himself.

He finishes his preparations and calls out to Kagura and Ria.

"I'm all ready, get away from Ken now!" He shouts.

Without hesitation, Kagura and Ria both retreat. Kagura grabs Kari and runs behind Kazuna.

"Ken, this is your last chance to surrender. If you don't, I won't show you any mercy," Kazuna warns.

"You dare make a fool out of me?" Ken yells in anger.

He clasps his hands as he pulls all his metal around him, focusing entirely on defense.

"Not a bad response, but it's not enough," Kazuna states.

He takes a deep breath and takes a step forward. As his foot hits the ground, winds that neared tornado levels burst out of him, nearly sending Kagura, Ria, and Kari flying.

'Katsuchi style secret technique: World splitter' He mutters as he swings his sword down.

The winds blowing from Kazuna surpassed tornado levels and continued to blow at that speed for a few seconds before they finally stopped, and everything went still.