Battle in the Rainy Night (3)

Kazama Ruri stood with his blade in hand, watching Lu Mingfei. He had no idea what Lu Mingfei meant by a second round. Did he still think he had a chance of winning?

The next moment, Lu Mingfei answered him with his actions.

Lu Mingfei held his Zanpakuto horizontally. He pressed his left index and middle fingers together and dragged them along the blade.

"Part, Zanshin."

As Lu Mingfei's voice rang out,

the blade instantly turned pitch-black. A thin black cord sprouted from the end of the hilt, with a small black cross tied to it.

Kazama Ruri felt the aura around Lu Mingfei surge.

With another Flash Step, Lu Mingfei vanished from a distance and appeared directly behind Kazama Ruri. Kazama Ruri hurriedly turned to block him. Their blades clashed with a bang, and he stumbled back several steps.

"His strength has increased, too?"

Kazama Ruri was surprised. He had assumed Lu Mingfei's Alchemy Blade had merely released an Alchemical Domain. He hadn't expected it to enhance his physical strength as well.

The two figures repeatedly vanished into the rain and reappeared elsewhere. Each time they moved, the ground beneath them shattered.

The rainy night did nothing to impede their relentless assault.

"Shhk~"

Zanshin sank deep into Kazama Ruri's shoulder. Without hesitation, he thrust his cherry-red blade at Lu Mingfei's neck.

Lu Mingfei could only dodge. What a shame. If he'd managed to cut a little deeper, the fight would have been over.

He hadn't expected Kazama Ruri's muscle fibers and bones to be so hard, quite apart from his skin. His body was nothing like a human's.

Lu Mingfei had no idea what Kazama Ruri was thinking, but Kazama Ruri also thought Lu Mingfei's defense was absurd.

Just what proportion of Dragon blood did a Half-Blood need to have to possess this kind of defense—and without any signs of Dragonization?

And Lu Mingfei's strange footwork was incredibly fast each time he moved, almost like teleportation.

If Kazama Ruri didn't have the extraordinary eyesight his current state granted him, Lu Mingfei might have cut him before he even realized he was there.

"I never thought I'd run into a monster like you. I'd believe you were Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto." Kazama Ruri flashed a bloodthirsty smile.

"You're not bad yourself." That was Lu Mingfei's assessment.

They were now far from where the battle had first begun.

"Erii won't get caught up in this now, right?" Lu Mingfei looked into the distance.

Erii watched their fight from far away. Every time Lu Mingfei was injured, her heart clenched. But Sakura had the upper hand now, so there was nothing to worry about.

Her eyesight let her see every detail of the battle.

She was only wondering whether Sakura would agree to let her help if she went over. The fight looked terrifying, but with Sakura there, it didn't seem scary at all.

Seeing how far away they were, Lu Mingfei relaxed a little. This was an abandoned factory with a vast interior and several derelict floors.

It looked like it had once been a large factory.

"I'm glad I got to fight you today. Will you tell me your name?" Kazama Ruri asked with a smile.

His smile was like that of an Irooni—beautiful and terrifying.

"Lu Mingfei. That's the name of the man who's going to cut you down today. You might want to remember it." Lu Mingfei shrugged.

"Kazama Ruri. That's my name."

Without another thought, Lu Mingfei stood still as his hair stirred in the breeze.

He stopped restraining his Spiritual Pressure and tightened his grip on the Zanpakuto.

A pillar of black light rose from Lu Mingfei, its shockwaves battering the surroundings and scattering the debris.

The air suddenly grew oppressive. Not a drop of rain touched Lu Mingfei; the downpour parted around him, as if it were trying to avoid him.

"Lu, you really are extraordinary!" Kazama Ruri gazed at him in awe. He, too, could feel a faint sense of oppression.

A black torrent surged into the sky, breaking through the dark clouds. The rain actually stopped.

Black mist rose from the Zanpakuto and burst into flame. The pillar of black light vanished in an instant.

Lu Mingfei swung his blade down, and a black slash shot toward Kazama Ruri.

Even with Kazama Ruri's reflexes, all he could do was barely dodge Lu Mingfei's attack. It grazed him, and the flesh on his left arm instantly vaporized.

The building behind him was split down the middle. One half remained standing; the other vanished entirely.

Only a stretch of white bone remained on Kazama Ruri's left arm.

The scales that had formed his first layer of defense and the muscle fibers that made up the second were both destroyed. Only bare bone remained. His left arm was clearly useless.

"Was that sword energy?" Kazama Ruri asked, not even bothering to look at his arm.

"It wasn't sword energy. Just sword pressure," Lu Mingfei replied.

"All right, I've enjoyed chatting with you. Let me send you on your way." Lu Mingfei narrowed his eyes and smiled.

He used Flash Step to close in and appeared directly in front of Kazama Ruri. He attacked from the blind spot beside Kazama Ruri's left arm. If he landed the blow there, he could cut him in half.

Kazama Ruri merely looked at him with a smile.

"Something's wrong."

Seeing Kazama Ruri's expression, Lu Mingfei immediately sensed that something was off.

The bare bones of Kazama Ruri's left hand suddenly changed. In the blink of an eye, his hand returned to normal, just as it had been before it was cut off.

He grabbed Lu Mingfei's clothes with his left hand and slashed at Lu Mingfei's neck with all his strength, using the cherry-red blade in his right.

"It's over, Lu."

It seemed that even if he was cut in half, he was willing to trade injuries, so long as he could sever Lu Mingfei's neck.

But when his blade struck Lu Mingfei's neck, Kazama Ruri's expression turned strange.

All that remained in his left hand was Lu Mingfei's coat. Lu Mingfei himself had disappeared.

What's more, six rays of light had bound Kazama Ruri. He exerted a little force and tore them apart.

Lu Mingfei stood on the rooftop.

When he realized something was wrong, he had used Utsusemi.

Utsusemi was an advanced Flash Step. When trapped or under attack, he could use it to escape in an instant—but only by sacrificing his outermost garment.

He had discarded his coat just then to escape.

The instant he got away, he used the incantation-free Six-Rod Light Prison. It couldn't hold Kazama Ruri for long, but it had bought him enough time.

Lu Mingfei turned Zanshin outward and held it in a reverse grip. With both palms facing down toward Kazama Ruri, he chanted:

"Ruler, masks of flesh and blood, all things, take flight! Crowned with the name of man, walls of azure fire inscribed with twin lotuses—await in the distant heavens the abyss of fire."

When he finished chanting, blue light appeared in Lu Mingfei's palms, then instantly erupted into azure flames. "Way of Destruction No. 73: Twin Lotus Blue Fire Crash!"