In a split second, the masked Kandrian dashed forward.
Yoshimoto's chest expanded as his arms and torso moved together, drawing a tremendous volume of air toward him. The atmosphere compressed between his palms until its density visibly changed, bending the light passing through it like a sphere of water suspended in the middle of the jungle.
Then he pushed both palms forward.
BOOOOOOM!
The sphere expanded.
What had fit between Yoshimoto's hands became a massive wall of compressed air that tore across the jungle with enough force to bend trees in its path. The masked Kandrian crossed his arms an instant before it reached him.
A smaller burst of air erupted from his guard.
The two attacks collided.
The difference was almost laughable.
Whatever technique the Kandrian had released vanished beneath Yoshimoto's attack, and the remaining wind slammed into him hard enough to drive his feet from the ground. His body flew backward through a cloud of leaves and dirt before he twisted in the air and landed several dozen meters away.
A roar immediately rose from the Sekigaharan battlements.
"YES!"
"Lord Yoshimoto!"
"Keep him back!"
Mikan's own fist clenched as Sekigahara's most powerful Martial Apprentice in the battle engaged with Kandria's supposedly most powerful Martial Apprentice.
Yoshimoto didn't chase after him, after all, the horizon was his domain.
The masked Kandrian recovered almost immediately and rushed forward again, forcing Yoshimoto to draw another breath. His arms swept through the same synchronized movement, gathering the surrounding atmosphere into another pocket of distorted air.
The Kandrian was fast, but clearly not fast enough.
BOOM!
The next blast swallowed him before he could cross the distance.
Again, that smaller burst of compressed air appeared in front of the Kandrian. It was pitiful compared to Yoshimoto's technique and disappeared almost instantly, but Mikan noticed that the collision took some of the force out of the larger attack.
The Kandrian didn't go flying this time.
His feet struck the ground and tore two trenches through the dirt as Yoshimoto's wind drove him backward. He remained behind his guard until the pressure weakened, then lowered his arms and immediately started forward again.
Mikan's brow raised in confusion.
"Is he a brute? That's not going to work."
The man apparently disagreed as he rushed Yoshimoto for a third time.
The same thing happened: Another breath. Another distortion. Another enormous blast of air.
The Kandrian answered with the same smaller attack just before impact and was driven backward across the jungle floor.
Then he tried again.
And again.
Each attempt ended the same way.
Yoshimoto controlled too much space. His air blasts proved too powerful, proving his status as a premier Martial Apprentice.
The masked Kandrian could change his approach, weave through the trees, or try to attack from a different angle, but Yoshimoto only needed to turn with him. The blast expanded across such a huge area that moving several meters sideways accomplished almost nothing.
And the farther away the Kandrian remained, the easier it was for Yoshimoto to prepare another.
It was quite the horrible matchup.
Mikan had watched the masked man dismantile and nearly kill several Sekigaharans before Yoshimoto confronted him. Against them, his strange Martial Art had seemed to change depending on whoever happened to stand in front of him.
Against Yoshimoto, there wasn't much to change.
He just needed to get close... and Yoshimoto wouldn't let him.
BOOM!
Another blast rolled through the jungle.
The masked Kandrian's own air attack burst against it, weakening the section directly in front of him before disappearing. His body still slid backward, boots grinding through the soil until he stopped.
Everyone on the Sekigaharans side cheered again.
Except for Mikan and a few others with sharp eyes.
Something had changed.
She leaned farther over the wall and narrowed her eyes.
The first blast had thrown him through the air.
The next had forced him into a long skid.
This one had pushed him less.
Yoshimoto's attacks didn't look like they were getting weaker. If anything, the distortion around his hands had become more pronounced as he increased the amount of air he gathered.
The Kandrian was slowly getting better at receiving them.
Mikan watched him approach again.
His stance had changed slightly. His feet were farther apart now, his body lowered as he prepared for the impact. The smaller blast he released appeared a fraction later than before, meeting Yoshimoto's attack almost at the instant it reached him.
BOOM!
He skidded backward.
Still far.
But not as far.
"What...?"
The Kandrian came forward again.
Yoshimoto fired.
Another skid.
Again.
Another.
Mikan's smile disappeared.
The man was unable to overpower Yoshimoto's wind technique with his own pitiful technique... Instead, he was placing it directly between himself and the incoming blast, sacrificing it just to tear some of the momentum away before the rest reached him.
More importantly, he kept changing the angle, timing, and footing each time he used it.
Every approach looked almost the same until Mikan paid attention to the details.
"He's... adapting," she muttered.
The masked Kandrian rushed forward once more.
Yoshimoto gathered the surrounding atmosphere and fired.
The Kandrian's attack collided with it.
BOOM!
His boots tore through the earth.
And surprisingly, he stopped.
For the first time since their fight began, he didn't immediately rush back in.
The masked man simply stood there.
Yoshimoto waited.
The battlefield continued around them. Martial Apprentices crashed through the jungle, trees shattered beneath missed attacks, and artillery shells screamed overhead toward the two opposing military positions.
Yet the two men remained still.
Mikan couldn't see the masked man's expression, but something about the pause made her uneasy.
He had spent the entire fight trying to reach Yoshimoto.
Now he'd stopped.
Why?
Yoshimoto seemed to have reached the same conclusion.
He didn't attack first.
His chest expanded slightly, arms held ready to begin gathering air the instant his opponent moved.
The masked Kandrian lowered his body.
Then he dashed diagonally forward.
Yoshimoto reacted immediately.
Air rushed toward his hands as the Kandrian accelerated toward his left.
The distortion formed and Yoshimoto fired a powerful blast.
BOOOOOOM!
The blast tore through the approaching figure.
Mikan's eyes widened as the blast passed through the figure.
There was no impact.
The Kandrian vanished inside the wind.
"An illusion?!" Mikan yelled, remembering her sister Ichigo's Mirage techinque.
Yoshimoto's head snapped toward the opposite side as the real Kandrian was already there, twisting his torso and struck backward.
A compressed burst of air exploded behind him.
BOOM!
His body shot forward as the masked Kandrian struck backward again.
BOOM!
Another blast erupted behind him, and the recoil accelerated him even farther.
He was using his own wind attack's recoil as a boost to reach Yoshimoto!
"What the fuck?!"
Yoshimoto's eyes widened.
He hastily began drawing in another breath, his arms sweeping through the familiar motion as air rushed toward his palms, but it was too late.
For the first time since the fight began, the masked Kandrian crossed the distance, changing the fight to close combat.
BAM!
His fist smashed into Yoshimoto's guard, sending the giant sliding backward.
The Kandrian followed, not giving Yoshimoto enough room to breathe.
Yoshimoto planted his feet and answered with a punch powerful enough to disturb the air around his fist. The masked man slipped aside, only for a second fist to come after him immediately.
He raised his guard.
BAM!
The blow landed.
The Kandrian's arms bent beneath it, his shoulders turning as his body guided the impact instead of meeting all of Yoshimoto's strength head-on. His feet shifted beneath him and he slid away just enough to bleed off the remaining force.
Yoshimoto hit him again.
This one caught the masked man across the shoulder.
Yet his body twisted strangely at the instant of contact. Instead of taking the blow squarely, his shoulder rolled away with Yoshimoto's fist, turning a direct impact into something that glanced across him.
Yet, the Kandrian still stumbled.
Yoshimoto was too strong for those tricks to erase the difference completely.
The Kandrian recovered immediately, but this time, it was Yoshimoto's turn to chase.
He drove forward.
A heavy fist forced the masked man to retreat. A knee followed, then an elbow when the Kandrian twisted away. He defended against one, narrowly avoided another and took the third across his guard.
For several exchanges, Mikan finally relaxed.
Yoshimoto was a long-range specialist.
That didn't mean he was weak up close.
That's what it took to be an Apex, or Grade 10 Martial Apprentice. A person who was practically on the doorstep to the next realm.
The enormous strength behind his wind attacks came from brutal training, and now the masked Kandrian was experiencing the fruits of his labor. Every punch carried enough power to make the surrounding air jump. Even when he blocked, the impact forced him to move.
Yoshimoto pressed him harder as the Kandrian was forced into a defensive.
A fist hammered into his forearms.
BAM!
He slid backward.
Yoshimoto immediately stepped after him.
Mikan grinned. "That's it!"
Then the masked Kandrian ducked beneath the next punch.
Yoshimoto's fist passed over his head before immediately following with his other hand.
The masked man moved again... a little earlier this time.
The punch missed.
Yoshimoto stepped closer and drove a knee toward his abdomen.
The Kandrian's palm touched his thigh and redirected it just enough to clear his body.
Mikan's grin faded.
Yoshimoto attacked again.
His opponent slipped aside.
Again.
Blocked.
Again.
The Kandrian's body shifted before the strike properly began!
Mikan watched Yoshimoto's shoulders.
Then the masked man's feet.
The exact moment Yoshimoto moved... so did he.
Almost together, in perfect sync.
"What...?"
It seems Yoshimoto also realized it as, the giant changed his rhythm. Making the the masked Kandrian hesitate for a fraction of a second.
Good!
Yoshimoto threw a shorter punch instead of the heavy strike he'd been using, catching the Kandrian off-guard.
BAM!
The man was driven backward.
Yoshimoto followed with another, but it was blocked.
A third strike, but the masked Kandrian moved aside, his fist stricking Yoshimoto's ribs.
THUD!
It wasn't especially powerful as Yoshimoto barely reacted, swinging back another strike of his own... but the Kandrian was already outside the attack.
Another exchange followed.
Then another.
Mikan stopped shouting.
The fight didn't change all at once. Yoshimoto was still clearly stronger.
When his fists connected with the masked man's guard, they still forced him backward. The Kandrian still had to respect every clean strike, and several times he was forced to abandon an attack just to defend himself.
But Yoshimoto was slowly touching him less.
The masked man was hitting Yoshimoto more.
A jab struck the giant's side.
Yoshimoto answered, but it missed.
The Kandrian moved inside his next punch and struck his chest.
Yoshimoto tried to catch him with an elbow, but it missed.
He had already moved.
Mikan's fingers tightened against the Ferendil Iron.
It reminded her of what she'd seen earlier.
The Shinken fighter.
The Kaze woman.
The Oni fighter.
Three completely different opponents.
Three completely different fighting styles.
Now a fighting style was being built for Yoshimoto.
The giant apparently realized it too. He suddenly stopped pressing forward and drove both arms outward, forcing the masked Kandrian to retreat several meters.
Yoshimoto inhaled, his chest expanded as air rushed toward him.
The masked Kandrian exploded forward.
Yoshimoto abandoned the technique and swung, but missed as the man slipped beneath the punch.
His own fist struck beneath Yoshimoto's ribs.
THUD!
Mikan blinked.
It hadn't looked powerful.
That was why Yoshimoto's reaction made no sense.
His entire body seized.
The giant's face twisted as one knee dipped toward the ground. One arm instinctively dropped toward his side, his body folding slightly around the point of impact.
Mikan's stomach tightened.
"Liver..."
The masked Kandrian stepped forward before Yoshimoto could recover.
His leg drove into the giant's abdomen.
BAM!
The impact didn't send Yoshimoto flying. Instead, his mouth opened as no breath came.
His chest tried to expand and failed.
Mikan's eyes widened.
Yoshimoto's Martial Art depended on breathing... and now, the masked Kandrian had taken it away.
The battle is over.
The Masked Kandrian pivoted as his leg snapped upward.
POW!
The kick struck Yoshimoto across the jaw, snapping his head sideways.
For a moment, the giant remained standing.
Then his eyes rolled shut.
THUD!
Yoshimoto collapsed.
"YOSHIMOTO!"
Mikan lurched against the battlement.
The enormous Sekigaharan lay motionless among the torn vegetation, his purple dougi half-covered by dirt and broken branches. The masked Kandrian stood over him, looking down at the unconscious Martial Apprentice.
Then he raised his leg.
Mikan's stomach dropped.
Of course he would finish him.
Yoshimoto wasn't some random casualty on the battlefield. He was one of Sekigahara's strongest Martial Apprentices, perhaps the strongest fighter they had deployed today. Killing him would cripple more than their fighting strength. Every Sekigaharan on the battlefield knew who Yoshimoto Seishin was.
"NO!"
The masked Kandrian's leg moved.
Something massive tore through the jungle.
FWOOSH!
The masked man instinctively twisted away.
A greatsword screamed past his body and buried itself into the earth beside Yoshimoto.
BOOOOM!
Dirt erupted around the massive blade.
The masked Kandrian immediately turned toward whoever had thrown it.
Dark iron armor came through the shattered jungle, worn by a massive man.
The masked Kandrian's eyes sharpened as he saw another pair of black eyes staring back at him.