tex

A Hero Tale {Complete}

~ Chapter 64 ~

_{Need A Hand?}

Rajaka pushed himself back onto both feet and stomped the ground heavily. Again, and again, he stomped, hissing short bursts of air through his nose as he tried to overcome the pain with his ki manipulation. He'd never had a limb torn off before, and although the bleeding stopped almost immediately, the pain sure as hell didn't. "You peppy little..." Rajaka gasped and stomped on the ground again, shaking Jenso's body awake. "Shit eatin'.. Grah...Grrrrff..Grrrr!!" The giant stepped towards Jenso with his head held low and looked down at the defeated hero with his brow creased tightly. "GRAAH! OK! I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT! I'M GOING TO SMASH HIM NOW!" Rajaka roared. He looked towards the edge of the arena with a jerk of his neck, where Zelriane was watching from afar. "I'M GOING TO SMASH HIM NOW. PROBLEMS? CONCERNS? OB-FUCKING-JECTIONS???" Zelrian didn't respond for a moment, but shook his head, allowing Rajaka to proceed. The yellow Giant grunted and lifted his foot above Jenso's head.

"RAJAKA-" Rajaka started, "SMASH!!!" With a might huff, he brought his foot down, scattering debris and smoke as his crashed into the ground. But as the Dust settled, there was no blood. Jenso's head wasn't smashed, and his body was gone. Rajaka blinked and glared at his foot, lifting it slightly. "W-Wah!? Where did he go?? Did he dissappear? Or.. Was he never there to begin with!?" Rajaka questioned. He shook his head and looked around, immediately spotting Jenso in the hands of a new challenger. "Oh, there he is- HEY! YOU THERE! I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF SMASHING THAT!!" The newcomer turned around and faced Rajaka, carrying Jenso between her hands. No, not hands.. Talons! It wasn't a human, nor was it even a fighter. It was a giant green hawk, larger than any bird that Jenso had ever seen before. Rajaka glared at it and his eyes drooped.

"Why the fuck am I talking to a bird."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Rajaka didn't quite register it, but he knew Jenso was coming straight for him. His speed was abnormal, but on sheer instinct, the yellow giant reacted with an attack of his own. He timed it as well as he could manage, and pulled his entire body down, lower to to the ground. He lowered his right arm, and just as Jenso was about to crash into him, he fired a punch that right for Jenso's shoulder. There was a loud crashing noise as white flames whipped around both fighters. It whirled and whirled for a minute, and when it settled down, Rajaka was left standing with his head held high. Jenso on the other hand, was on the ground, his fire doused, and his power overcome. Rajaka looked down and chuckled.

"Ki fusion?" He grunted, "No fuckin' way.." Rajaka knelt down and grasped his left shoulder angrily as an familiar feeling crept across his back. Something he hadn't felt so profusely for over a thousand years. He slowly turned his head towards his right arm, and in an instant, the muscles in his face contorted into a grimace. He was in pain.

He looked down and saw the outline of his fingers grasping into the white, wrecked, battlefield floor. His muscles were as big as ever, but bones protruded from both his bicep, and forearm. Nothing new, not at first. What concerned him was how far away his hand was. Jenso's attack didn't just hurt him.

It ripped Rajaka's arm right off.

---

~ End Of Chapter 63~

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Rajaka ended up up falling forward entirely, crashing head-first into the ground. He barely managed to push himself back up when Jenso's flames struck him head on, and pushed him to rolled away on his side before standing back up. Part of his long flowing hair was burned away, but it grew back immediately, and the burns along his neck from the fireballs, along with the torrent of flames healed faster than before. But the look on his face was new. He looked awfully angry. Rajaka glared at Jenso for a moment, and then smiled, taking a deep breath, and calming himself down. He lowered his arms and nodded, putting one hand to his chin, and holding his that arm with his other, in a thinker pose. Rajaka closed his eyes for a second and nodded.

"50%"

In an instant, He threw a one-two punch towards Jenso, launching even faster blasts, faster than anything Jenso has ever face before, from only 30 feet away. There was no way Jenso could dodge on such short notice. For such a slow, bulky opponent, his energy blasts were extremely fast!

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Rajaka immediately swung at Jenso as soon as he was in range, jabbing with his left hand and barely missing as he looped over towards his side. But as Jenso struck the ground beneath his feet, Rajaka shifted his weight onto his right foot, his balance only slightly upset by the sudden quake and destruction below him. White shards flew up and sliced at his skin, but the cuts sealed immediately, and Rajaka was ready to send his right arm right into the top of Jenso's head as a direct counter, albeit with a delay due to his imbalance.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

~ Chapter 63 ~

_{50% Control}

Rajaka sprinted towards Jenso, suddenly much faster than he was before, with his fist still up. While running, he threw a punch, launching a more visible Ki wave at Jenso that traveled even faster than before, before stopping just short of wherever Jenso might've ended up with his fists at the ready.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Rajaka didn't give Jenso's technique any time to get near him, immediately launching another Ki wave to engulf Jenso's first fireball as it transformed, and a second Ki wave to take down Jenso's second fire ball. The consecutive punches made proper use of the distance between them, offering a controlled counter to Jenso's ranged attacks. "Now I know what you're thinkin'," Rajaka started, flexing his right arm, "Man! This guy can't be hurt! This guy can counter all of my attacks! Why hasn't he just come right up to me and crushed me like a tin can? And the answer, might surprise you!"

Crack!

Suddenly Rajaka's right arm cracked back into position, looking as good as ever.

"I like seeing self-righteous little heroes squirm before I smash them."

---

~ End Of Chapter 62~

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Rajaka punched at where Jenso would have jumped, but his sudden shift in movement took him by surprise. With the sudden attack, Rajaka didn't seem to care, but as it shifted in mid-air into a new form, his stance loosened, and he stepped back. He was too late though, and the saw dug into his right shoulder. But instead of sawing straight through, it stopped mid-way, and ground against his body. Something was pushing his back, stopping it from getting entirely through his arm. A moment later, the saw was encompassed in a yellow energy that burst out from Rajaka's entire right arm, coating it for a moment, outright destroying the flame saw, and disappeared right afterwards. Rajaka took his stance again, and chuckled. "Sweet focus, kid. You mage-types are just full of surprises," Rajaka acknowledged. But his smile disappeared as his right arm began to fall lower than his left. There was a massive gap in his guard now. His right fist fell lower and lower, until it was hovered just above his waist. He looked down at the wound on his shoulder right afterwards. It wasn't open, but it was taking a little longer than usual to heal. Jenso's saw actually managed to cut deeper than he thought. "And you all manage to piss me right the hell off. Fine!"

Rajaka pulled his left arm closer to his face and flexed it.

"30 percent!" He shouted, punching towards Jenso with his left arm. This time, there was a visible yellow cloud of energy flying towards him at top speeds, almost as fast as his fireballs had flown.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

As Jenso dashed forwards, something overcame his body, immeasurable pressure pushed him back, and cut off his forward momentum like he'd just hit a wall. Nothing was visible, but it became clear that it wasn't his body being hurt. It was his Ki.

Rajaka Smiled and pulled his arm back into his boxing stance. "Fixed," Rajaka said in a low pitch, punching at the air again with his right fist, and then with his left, prepared to aim at wherever Jenso might have tried to dodge, if he was able to figure out Rajaka's technique.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

The flames engulfed his arm, and Rajaks stepped back, waving his hand towards the fire and outright blowing it away with the air-pressure he'd created. Burn marks were littered along his arm, though. Still, it was strange. The injuries he'd suffered earlier were not gone, replaced with the new burns that he'd just suffered. Rajaka clenched his fists and hopped back several feet. His smile sunk through the black mask that covered his face, bright like blinding sunlight.

"Fine, fine! You wanna act like a little shit? I'll treat you like a little shit!" Rajaka shouted, suddenly taking a far more refined stance, with his feet squared at a 45 degree angle, and his arms raised into a proper fighting stance. He looked like a Boxer now. Suddenly, he punched forward, towards Jenso, but nothing happened. "Ten percent focus, fucker. That's all I'll need to knock you out."

A Hero Tale: Felix

The man watched Felix closely, moving from one side of his wreck to the other. Using his dead horse as cover, he got himself a pretty close look, and recognized Felix's garb immediately. But he didn't say anything. The horse he peered over had a series of holes carved out of its neck, like something had shot it, or rather, bit into it. The man didn't seem too bothered by the fact. He didn't speak again. Not a word. He let Felix continue down the road, eyeing him cautiously as he disappeared towards his destination.

An hour passed, and his path was unimpeded. No rogues, no monsters, and not a single shift in atmosphere. He wasn't lost. Ulon was only about a day away on foot, so an hour wasn't long, relatively speaking. But didn't Durwith mention how the south was currently, how did he put it.. Warring? Something along those lines. Where was the bloodshed? Where were the people? Perhaps the villages were far more scattered than Felix had thought.

Not ten minutes later though, something peered over the horizon. A silhouette of hills, grey and ragged like stone, that looked far closer than the giant mountain-line in the far east that lined the edge of Jorgon. The closer he came, the more detail revealed itself. There were figures, smaller than humans, littered throughout the exterior of the rock-like hills. It was too difficult to discern what they were from so far away, but they were definitely alive.