BANG!
There was a fierce clash between caster and utsuro who was barely managing to keep up.
Caster punched forward, utsuro subconsciously dodged it and counter-attacked with a punch that landed squarely on caster's ribcage .
Utsuro then quickly put space In-between for caster's speed could not be under-estimated.
Caster recovered from that punch rather slowly. Even after a few seconds he still winced in pain. He released his stance, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
"This is my chance" utsuro muttered before leaning slightly forward. As he raised his right leg off the ground and was about to make a quick dash forwards, caster's figure blurred.
The next second he was behind utsuro with his left leg raised high in the air above utsuro ready to smash him into the ground.
"Shit...he's fast" this was the only thought utsuro could process at the moment. He really thought it was over for him. If that leg landed on him, it would be game over for sure.
He knew caster was there, but his brain was too slow to react.
Then, for a reason, he remembered his last training session with Barney, his body identified the similarities in barney's and caster's attack.
Muscle memory kicked in, his body dodged to the right without permission, barely avoiding caster's leg which swung down with tremendous force putting a light crack in the molten ground.
Utsuro took over from there, quickly turning to caster and delivering a strong punch to his handsome face.
He put all his body weight into this punch which smashed caster's head to the ground and just like that, the fight ended.
On a normal occasion, caster could have dodged but he had not balanced and he never expected utsuro to have dodged that last kick. It was a surprise.
"I see you've found yourself an average student barney" Christmas said.
"He's only average for now" barney replied, not looking at Christmas "of course... afterall, every student you have ever thought has managed to climb up the ranks to a high position" Christmas said.
Utsuro watched in awe as a ring began to slowly carve on the ashen grounds of the volcano ,emitting a golden glow.
He stepped into the ring, immediately turning the once elegant golden glow into a pith black ghostly aura that swirled with mystery. He vanished.
The next place he saw himself was a square, 3 meters wide wood-like material floating steadily on top of the vast, endless blue ocean for as far as it stretched. The setting sun casted a glittering golden glow across the ocean giving it an elegant and beautiful scenery, It looked peaceful but to utsuro, it felt terrible.
The vastness of the ocean reminded him about where he found the cross... the endless expanse of darkness and the stillness of the ocean just brought back memories of how quiet, yet uncomfortable the space was... as if it could swallow him at any moment.
A strong force collided with utsuro's head, knocking him to the wood-like material which disrupted the balance.
The world was spinning. Utsuro managed to raise his head slightly up and turn it to look towards the attacker but before he could make sense of the figure in front of him, his face was gracefully rewarded with a very strong kick.
The attacker then sat on utsuro and started to rain a barrage of punches to utsuro's face. He regained his senses and held the attacker's next punch but the attacker used her left hand to continue the attack.
Then the space above the girl's head began to distort, giving a sign of erebus's appearance
"No erebus... don't" utsuro knew if erebus appeared, it would mean certain death for the girl. The distortion slowly vanished and of course, the girl who had no idea about the generous and merciful decision utsuro had taken considering her matter, mercilessly continued to attack.
utsuro used his second hand to punch the girl on the ribcage, which put her in miserable pain. utsuro had a habit of always targeting the ribcage in dire or emergency situations. This provided a higher chance of putting his opponents out of breath.
The girl winced in pain as she fell to the other side of the floating wood-like material.
Utsuro quickly got up and so did the girl before attacking again. She wasn't strong enough to badly wound utsuro but her attacks were still strong enough to hurt like hell.
The girl stretched out her hand and a rod made out of an unknown material appeared in her hand. she then attacked utsuro who dodged to the right when the girl swung left.
The ensuing battle made the floating wood- like material sway on the ocean. The girl lacked physical abilities but had tactics and little tricks.
Utsuro jumped up in irritation and punched downwards towards the girl. She dodged and barely avoided the punch, causing Utsuro's fist to land on the wood-like material beneath them. The punch shattered the thin platform, sending both of them plunging into the ocean below.
The ocean's temperature was cold, so cold it burned the skin of the two individuals that fell into it.
Utsuro was disoriented as he spun around in the raging ocean. The ocean seemed calm on the surface but, deep down, ravaging waves raged on mercilessly.
The individual was weighing utsuro down deeper into the ocean as she held on tight to his waist. The fight continued underwater, slowing down the attacks as utsuro and the girl frantically struggled with oxygen being the dangerous timer.
He managed to break free from the girl's intense grip but just as he did, a powerful wave swept him away separating he and the girl.
Just then, the debris of the wood-like material hit him hard on the head pushing him even further down the vast ocean.
Utsuro had been hit so deep he had lost his sight of vision and sense of direction.
Everything was dark. He didn't know which way was up of down, and he was loosing his breath terrifyingly fast.
Past memories began to catch up. Not the one of the endless expanse of void, but one that had happened far back... Far back in the past...