Chapter 253: Thunder in the Night!
"It's the ash!"
Outside the perimeter, Fusui Kure stared at the tactical monitors, her
black-and-white eyes wide with disbelief.
"He's taking the scorched residue from the explosion, mixing it with gravel, and
hurling it with enough torque to turn it into lethal shrapnel!"
"What kind of insane fighting style is this?!"
17th Floor, Interior Hall.
Tch...
Ren Shiroki raised his arms, his muscles suddenly bulging and vibrating.
Mimicking the technique he had seen Oliva use earlier, he attempted to "eject"
the foreign objects from his skin through sheer muscular contraction.
Pop! Pop!
Only a couple of the larger stones flew out.
Ren let out a frustrated huff and shook his entire frame, finally dislodging the
embedded ash and grit. Thin trails of blood began to leak from a hundred
microscopic puncture wounds across his torso.
He felt the searing sting across his skin and bared his teeth. "Terrifying..."
"Heh... so you can feel it after all."
Gaia's boots crunched on the floor, grinding the scorched debris—a mixture of
charcoal, masonry, and shattered glass. Nearby, broken floorboards, twisted
rebar, and jagged metal frames provided a near-infinite supply of ammunition.
"The City... it is merely another part of the natural environment."
Gaia opened his hands, gesturing to the ruins around them. "Humanity is truly a
magnificent species. To think they've managed to thrive in an environment as
hostile as an 'Urban Jungle'!"
The observation felt entirely out of place in the middle of a duel.
Seeing Ren's confusion, Gaia spat a blood clot and continued: "Compared to a
prehistoric rainforest, an asphalt road is harder than dirt. The walls of a
skyscraper are more resilient than any tree trunk."
"And unlike wild beasts or venomous snakes, humans are everywhere. You cannot
distinguish malice with the naked eye. You must remain on high-alert for an
attack that could come from anyone, at any second."
"Survival in this environment is no easier than survival in the deepest jungle."
Gaia pressed his fingers together, displaying his palm to Ren.
"In my hands, even a handful of water becomes a lethal projectile. A handful of
sand? Even more powerful."
"And if that sand contains solid debris—shards of wood, bits of stone? Then it
is no longer sand. It is a Weapon!"
"And look at this place..."
Gaia's smile turned feral. "Rebar, timber, ash, broken glass... everything here
belongs to me."
"—EVERYTHING IS MY WEAPON!"
Zip!
Gaia's right hand scooped downward, plucking a handful of ash and gravel from
the floor. With a violent, snapping motion of his wrist, he hurled it straight
at Ren's chest.
WHOOSH—!
Ren drove his right foot into the floor, performing a lateral slip while
crossing his arms in a tight guard to protect his face and vitals.
BANG!
The "Ash Missile" scattered mid-air. Half of it missed, but the other half
slammed into Ren's left side, drawing blood instantly as the shards bit into his
flesh.
"..."
Sikorsky, watching from the wall, felt a bead of cold sweat roll down his face.
"It's... it's exactly like being hit by a shotgun!"
In the hands of an "Environmental Master" like Gaia, the spread of the debris
was massive. No matter how Ren dodged, he was caught in the "cone of fire."
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
A relentless barrage of ash missiles began to drown Ren Shiroki. His chest and
arms were quickly reduced to a bloodied mess of lacerations.
Kazuo Yamashita was trembling so hard his glasses were rattling. He remembered
Oliva tanking the shotgun earlier, but the logic didn't follow here. "This is
bad... Shiroki-san's muscle density is incredible, but he's not Oliva! He can't
tank 'gunfire' forever! He's being completely suppressed!"
Gaia could feel the tension in the room. He knew the observers thought Ren was
being slaughtered. But he didn't stop. He threw faster and harder, his
silhouette blurring as he became a human gatling gun.
Don't you dare underestimate this boy...
As the one trading blows with Ren, Gaia knew better than anyone. A sense of
unease was festering in his gut—a feeling like the sudden rise of a flood in a
jungle ravine.
Here it comes—BANG!!
Another ash missile was launched, but the sound of the impact was heavier,
deeper. It sounded as if the power had increased.
Was Gaia throwing harder?
No. Gaia knew his output was consistent. The sound was deeper because the
Distance had changed.
Ren Shiroki was closing the gap!
BOOM!! BOOM!!
Using both hands, Gaia fired a twin-salvo of debris. Both hit Ren's crossed
forearms with enough force to draw more blood.
But only his forearms were being hit now.
As Ren got closer, the spread of the "shrapnel" decreased. The cone of fire was
narrowing, and Ren's high-speed perception was finally beginning to track the
individual trajectories!
"Just like him..."
Ren spat a mouthful of grit, his eyes narrowing into slits as he stared through
the gaps in his guard. He locked onto Gaia.
He remembered his fight with Yanagi Ryuko in the alley. The Poison Hand had used
a Kusarigama (chain-sickle) to create a massive, invisible kill-zone.
If the chain-sickle was an "Invisible Arc," then Gaia's ash missiles were
"Invisible Straights."
And the principle for countering an attack that exceeded the eye's speed was the
same. All movement of the weapon begins with the hand of the wielder. Watch the
man, and you can predict the orbit!
Bang! Bang! BANG!!!
Gaia dumped a final, frantic salvo of ash directly at Ren's face. A blizzard of
dust filled the space between them, choking the air and blinding the observers.
"DAMMIT!" "It's spraying over here! Captain!" "Gaia is going for the kill—?!"
But the next heartbeat—CLACK!
An ash missile hit, but not on Ren's arm. Ren had swiped it out of the air with
a vertical hand-chop.
[ZANGIEF'S MACHINEGUN CHOP]!
Ren had read the flick of Gaia's wrist. He had locked onto the trajectory. Now
that he was within striking distance, his "blade" was faster than the
projectile.
Slap!
The first chop pulverized the missile mid-air, turning the dangerous gravel into
a harmless cloud of dust.
Zip-zip—!
Gaia's eyes widened. He had lost his suppressive advantage. Ren's hand-sword was
already rising again, tracking a diagonal path toward Gaia's face.
In that millisecond of peril, Gaia's expression turned demonic. He let out a
piercing, high-frequency screech.
"SCREEE—!"
The sound was like a physical blow. Ren's ears began to ring, his vision went
white for a fraction of a second, and his momentum faltered.
Gaia used the opening to perform a massive backward leap, resetting the distance
once more.
"Truly... worthy of Motobe-sensei's praise. To push me this far..."
Seeing Ren preparing to press the assault again, Gaia took a deep, agonizingly
large breath.
Sssssss—!
The breath was inhuman. Gaia's lungs expanded until his chest looked like a
barrel. His stomach retracted, forming a hollow "Vacuum Abdomen" (Nauli). His
entire physiology looked distorted and alien.
Then, Gaia's throat began to vibrate. The air in his lungs was hammered through
his vocal cords, erupting in a deafening, soul-shaking roar.
"RAAAAAAA—!!!!!"
A visible shockwave of sound rippled through the hall, tearing through the air
like a physical tide.
The audio sensors on Ren's bodycam peaked and then died, emitting a sharp static
whine. Even without the mics, the police units outside on the street could hear
the roar echoing from the seventeenth floor. It sounded like a localized crack
of thunder!
The group below was stunned. Inside the seventeenth floor, the spectators were
nearly crippled. Their pupils vibrated, and several felt a sudden, suffocating
pressure in their chests.
Ren Shiroki, being at ground zero, felt blood leak from his nose and mouth. His
eardrums throbbed with a searing pain, and his vision blurred into a smear of
colors.
Gaia watched Ren, evaluating his state. For a heartbeat, he considered a
follow-up strike, but then he hesitated and withdrew.
The four special forces soldiers, who had pre-emptively covered their ears,
looked confused. "Captain, why didn't you finish it?"
"You wonder why I didn't pursue?"
Gaia answered without looking back. He picked up a piece of timber and flicked
it at Ren. Zip!
The moment the wood was about to hit him, Ren's waist twisted instinctively. His
elbow snapped forward with a sharp CRACK, pulverizing the timber mid-air.
Gaia let out a dry, weary laugh and explained to his men:
"He hasn't lost consciousness. His vision is a wreck, yes, but if I had stepped
within his reach... the moment I touched his skin, he would have counter-hit me
into the next life."
The soldiers stood in awe.
Gaia used the time to retreat further, scanning the room to ensure he wasn't
being cornered. Once he had a safe distance, he watched as Ren finally blinked
the fog from his eyes.
"That move... it's a breathing technique derived from ancient Indian Yoga," Gaia
explained, his voice calm again. "It allows me to inhale a volume of air several
times the human norm and store it. Indian monks can bury themselves in the earth
for a full day on a single lungful."
"But if you release that volume in a single pulse... the air becomes a
blunt-force weapon!"
"Using that weapon, I have once again reset the distance."
Gaia reached down, scooping up two final handfuls of ash.
"I've broken a sweat. Spilled some blood too... it feels quite comfortable."
"I think I'll use it one last time!"
Zip!
Gaia tossed the ash into the air, but he didn't aim at Ren. Instead, he fanned
the dust out, creating a massive, swirling cloud that filled the hallway around
him.
Zip! Zip-zip-zip!
He did it again and again, throwing up a curtain of black soot. Some of the ash
adhered to his sweat-slicked skin, turning his petite frame into a mottled grey
blur.
Slowly, the unthinkable happened. Gaia... vanished.
In the middle of the crowded lounge, under the watchful eyes of the world's
greatest fighters, the Deity of the Earth had achieved total invisibility!
(End of Chapter)
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