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A Hero Tale {Complete}

Jenso wasn't hiding anything.

Yzeira looked at the man's hand briefly, and then met his eyes.

"Are you serious right now, Kid?" Luke said quietly, "You're willing to sacrifice the entire world for a few friends?"

"And a parent," Yzeira hissed, raising one of his hands towards Luke. "There's an added tax. One of your parents dies now." A small amount of energy began to gather in his hand. He swayed it slowly towards Jenso's mother, and sighed. "One who you'll pick now."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"You, and 10 people of your choosing may join us in leaving this universe. Then, I will destroy it. Other than that, the conditions are the same as my previous deal."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

~ Chapter 201 ~

_{You're An Enigma}

Yzeira pulled himself away from Jenso and hissed angrily. "There's nothing special about you," he concluded, "You're a freak accident. A mistake that can't be explained any other way. Your existence is no more an enigma than my left shoe." He began huffing as he spoke as he spun away from Jenso in annoyance. "No. There are no mistakes that cannot be explained, in this universe, or any other. It is... It is enigmatic- A mystery..." He grunted again, and again, scratched his red hair vigorously with his left hand. It was unusual to see him so shaken. Not knowing something, and not having an opportunity to research it, was the greatest torture for a man who's sole purpose was to gather knowledge. He paused and his hand dropped.

"Maybe there's still a way." He turned back to Jenso and his parents slowly, and narrowed his eyes. "I propose another deal. One far less generous than my last offer, mind you."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Nexus narrowed his eyes. The notched blade bounced off the ground and began to hover, engulfed in light. In a spark, it split into several tiny shards and began to circle around Bruce silently. Nexus summoned a long sword of his own, one with a much bright sheen than any of his previous weapons, and blocked Bruce's diagonal slash with the strongest part of his blade. The resounding flash pushed outwards, but the shards from his earlier notched blade moved slowly toward him from behind. The force of the impact left Bruce suspended in midair.

"Your success is fleeting," Nexus said loudly, his voice filled with a sober determination. A blow glow engulfed his injured arm, and the blood began to shrink away. Any droplets on the floor moved back towards his injury, slipping past the slits in his armor, before the metal itself was repaired. He glared at Bruce intently and grunted. "Let me assure you..." His hair and mask were suddenly engulfed by a helmet that morphed up and past his neck, leaving the tiniest slit for his eyes to shine through. "I do not grow weaker on a larger scale."

---

~ End Of Chapter 200 ~

A Hero Tale {Complete}

There was a bright flash of blue light as Bruce's attacks made contact. Both blades came to an immediate stop, like they'd hit a wall, rather than flesh. As the light faded, the result became clear. Nexus had moved his right arm into their path, using the energy he'd began to amass as a barrier to protect himself. But it hadn't manifested quickly enough into his planned armament. Instead, the reduced velocity of the blades was barely enough to allow him a guard. There was cost, however. The blades were embedded deep enough into his Armour to hit flesh. One dug into a slit on his forearm, drawing a moderate amount of blood, while the other pierced the center of his right hand. He held his arm sturdy, keeping the blades steady. It was like the Armour had wrapped around his weapons and dampened their energy to disallow any further movement, even if only briefly.

Bruce would feel his power welling back up quickly, gaining access to his Ki and arcane energy in one immediate burst.

Nexus's eyes widened, and he kicked himself off the ground with a tremendous amount of force, pulling his arm free of the blades, and shattering them both as he leaped backwards. In the same motion, he grabbed his notched blade and tossed it into a spin towards Bruce, before landing several yards away on both of his feet.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Nexus followed through with his slash, pushing against any resistance with the full force of his entire body as he attempted to dive forwards into his lean, ultimately falling into a roll as Bruce pushed down on his shoulder. He pulled the chain that locked his left hand and spun around on his right side, skidding across the ground as much as he could, just underneath Bruce's next strike with his left arm tugged over his chest. By now, his Katana had shrunk down into a simplistic pair of scissors, or something similar, which he wielded with his thumb and four fingers in a grasping manner. He thrust his right hand forward, and snipped through the chain of Ki, freeing his hand and inching backwards with his feet. Having his back to the ground was less than optimal. Although he'd taken no damage, losing footing didn't bode well for him, despite having an endless arsenal at his disposal. He dispelled the scissors after they'd served their purpose, and began to conjure something larger. It didn't take form yet, but began to encompass the entire side of his right arm. At the same time, he tossed his tiny dagger towards Bruce with a quick flick of his wrist, and reached over his chest for the small notched blade that was housed in the ground.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Nexus Parried Bruce's blade with the small dagger, pushing the piece of blueish ki between his middle finger and index finger. As the tip of the swordsman's weapon struck Nexus' dagger, he moved the blade to sit rigid with his thumb grasping the length of the weapon, and his two smallest fingers folded opposite to his index and middle finger. The blade slide between the dark blue metal of his gauntlet, and the shining slit of Ki in his hand as he directed it to the side and rushed forwards, past the ball that moved for his head with reckless abandon, ignoring the chain that connected it to Bruce. The small dagger in his hand slid up the length of Bruce's blade as Nexus' body careened towards him. But he wasn't moving in recklessly without thought. He was not on the defensive, or pushing for an all-out offence. These short spurts of energy, attacks that aimed to chip away at Bruce's openings, were how Nexus chose to fight. His style was reactionary, with fragments of astounding all-out offensives that almost seemed like they didn't belong.

Nexus had still held the hilt of his Katana as he rushed.

Pushing off of Bruce's blade, he suddenly leaned his entire body to the right, allowing the chain's length to scrape past the side of his head, passing dangerously close to his temple as the spiked links brushed against his hair. With his Lean, the Katana in his right hand moved towards Bruce's torso from below, slashing underneath both his blade, and his ball and chain. Sifting through Bruce's air-tight defence was no easy task, and Nexus knew it all too well. Fortunately, it fit his style perfectly. As his blade slid through the air underneath Bruce's blade, Nexus made sure he couldn't pull it back down to guard with the tiny dagger in his hand. A three-pronged maneuver in such a simple motion of the hand. It served to increased the momentum of his strike, help him tilt underneath the chain of Bruce's flail, and prevent an immediate parry of his unorthodox strike from below. It put him completely off balance, but there was no guarantee that anything would strike if he didn't risk such precise acts. Through the air, or from the ground, Nexus eyed the small dagger that still stuck out of the ground for a brief moment as he looked to ensure a deadly blow.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Nexus pulled his blades together. They merged into one as his falling notched knife embedded itself into one of the shallow cracks in the floor. With both hands on his blade, he drew the lower half closer and held it perpendicular to Bruce's strike. The crash of Ki against Ki resounded through the room, but he held his stance firmly, knees only slightly bent as he took a step backward against the might of Bruce's upwards slash. His right elbow and shoulder were locked straight as the main support that held the blade back, while his left arm only served to stabilise the guard against the initial shock. He held the sword, bending his right arm slightly as he released his left hand, and conjured a small throwing knife and spun it skillfully between his free fingers, while sliding the bottom of his blade against the length of Bruce's. But he didn't let the sword slip off of Bruce's, instead, bearing down into the blade from above with his height advantage once again, and forcing it to the ground to the left of his feet. He stepped towards the incoming ball of spikes, waiting for Bruce to make another move while the throwing knife in his left hand began to emit a pulse of blue light.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Nexus pulled back, pulling his right blade to his side while pushing Bruce's sword to the left with his other, all while stepping back, out of range of the flail-like ball of spikes. But after taking one step backwards, his right leg pulled him up, into the air in a single bounding leap. His body spun around, flipping forwards until his feet were directly above him, with his head pointed downwards as his body soared. One of his blades caught a notch in the third bit of steel that flew above them, and with the momentum of his spin, he launched it at once of Bruce's shoulders at a diagonal angle. As he flipped down, his body spun around horizontally as well, and he brought both of his blades towards Bruce's back, each parallel to each other as he landed on the ground with his knees beginning to bend.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"Without Ki control, those chains are a hindrance," Nexus claimed boldly, readying his katana. As Bruce drew close, he pulled the blade apart at the hilt, splitting it into two shorter blades. There was an added bit of complexity to the split, however. As the blue metal parted, a third blade, one without a hilt, appeared between them and spun towards the ground. He caught the free blade with his two swords like they were a pair of devil sticks, and flipped it high into the sky before readying himself against Bruce's approach. The singular blade spun elegantly overhead. It was notched along its length, with an inch of steel separating each little indent. Nexus caught Bruce's Katana between both of his blades in a cross-guard, bracing himself with his right foot against the floor behind him. His bracing wasn't in reaction to the force behind Bruce's one handed strike, though. Two arms versus one, simple math of applied force Versus Nexus' stance gave him an immediate advantage in terms of controlling his own posture and reacting accordingly.

He began to pull his right blade down, gliding it against Bruce's sword, preemptively preparing to guard, parry or dodge whatever he'd planned with the ball and chain in his other hand. The center of Bruce's blade began to crack as Nexus pulled his right blade against it, while also applying pressure with his left blade. The armoured warrior thought over his options carefully, measuring probability and outcomes as best he could with his eyes shifting focus several times every second. His combat-ready demeanour was slowly becoming more precise as time went on. Bit by bit, the vague expression on his face was softening into one of a methodical killer. His eyes were like softened needles, piercing the possibilities without leaving a mark. It was a familiar glare, comparable to that of his master. Their eyes were all too similar, even with such a radical difference in hue.