"JINNNNNNN" Kraft shouted as he raised his hand up. The Chi within his hand caused the black purple aura he emitted to solidify right in front of him. Multiple spirals of the black aura spun around Kraft and Jin could sense a consolidation of Kraft's powers taking shape. Teeth and later the shape of a mouth could be seen until the multiple chi spirals began to grow a body out of the chaos. As expected, silhouettes of foxes were conceived out of the chi spirals and they squeaked before instinctively zooming towards Jin.
Their movements were incoherent as they swooped past Jin and later attacked him from the back. The Astral Panda Cultivator tried to evade them but unlike normal bullets and chi projectiles, they did not seem to stop. Whenever Jin moved away from them, they would merely swirl to the side and continue to follow their target.
It appeared as if they were to possess some level of 'intelligence', at least enough to follow up with the attack and the only way Jin could stop the attack was to either block it or dispel the purple fox silhouettes entirely. To make things worse, the aura that Kraft emitted around Jin seemed to thicken and more of those fox silhouettes emerged whenever the Panda tried to put one down to rest.
"Ahhh… good luck to Jin. Of all the attacks and techniques, Kraft had decided to use his signature technique against him. Our young little Panda is in a terrible mess right now." Kiyu pointed out as she recognised the technique that Kraft had pulled out as he smiled happily at the side.
Black Mist of the Fox Graveyard.
One might say that he named the technique by harnessing his sadness and loneliness he had once experienced. As the name suggested, Kraft had created it as a sort of tribute after he became the last remaining true Fox Clan descendant. As long as the Chi generated mist around Jin was around, the creation of those fox silhouettes was only the start. It was the foundation for a series of techniques that he had coined as the 'Graveyard Combo'.
Remembering the origins of this technique, Kiyu couldn't help but compare the two combatants' history. One had been blessed with the luxury of companions on his journey to fulfil his personal goal of becoming the Number One Dungeon Supplier whereas the other… his path had been riddled with difficulties, pain and the loss of companions which had ultimately led him to a great sacrifice.
The Panda had an ever growing companionship while the other kept losing his allies until he trusted almost no one. Sure, things changed with time and Kraft could have grown a little more wiser but as long as this technique existed, it would serve as a grim reminder of the sufferings the Original Bellator had endured during his prime.
Perhaps the chance to fight Jin had not stemmed out of sheer boredom or an 'itch' to fight, but from a long suppressed jealousy towards the good luck he had never been privy to in his own youth. There was a sort of bitterness within him that had never been resolved and the only way to keep it in check had been to 'entertain' himself, to get what he wanted through any means possible.
"Behind that mask of mischievous smiles, Kraft probably just wanted someone to resonate with him and have a friend with equal standing," Rex spoke solemnly and almost every single fox turned towards Kraft's 'brother', hoping he could provide some clarification. Rex had always been one with little words, and small talk about Kraft did not come by easily even after he became king of Demopolis. Despite the fact that everything else with regards to him seemed to have calmed down and his rage for the System had subsided, Rex still broods several scars that were kept even from his fellow foxes. Hence, this revelation of Kraft was so that they could understand their 'keeper' a little better and not hate him for the things he did previously to them, like making them part of his arsenal.
"I will not deny that I too felt that I might be the closest to him considering the deadly battles we went through. The thick and thin, blood and sweat, the mountains and seas. We hid and ambushed, claiming both victories and losses but in the end, I had just been a comrade in arms, a means to an end for him. To defeat my Father, the Panda Lord." Rex explained.
"After all, the two of us had been resurrected to provide the Panda Clan with a chance to get revenge and return it to its previous glory. Instead, by breaking this taboo the System of that time had created far more internal strife and had forced all of you to get involved. It was at that point, the System was uncontrollable in my opinion. So keep this in mind. No matter the outcome of this particular duel. Life goes on, the System will continue to grow in strength with Jin and make sure that we keep it in check once in a while."
"We understand." The foxes said that two words in unity, something which had never occurred for a very long time. Rex nodded his head with a gentle smile and looked at the broken expression Kraft was showing when he fought with Jin.
"In my heart, all I had felt had been anger and rage for having been betrayed while he had struggled with loss and grief. It pains me to admit that at those times I did not think of Kraft as a brother as much as he considered me to be his, because each of us had been focused on our agendas. Still, I would reminisce that the things we did were nothing short of memorable." Rex nodded his head while he momentarily thought about the past even more and the rest watched the battle in anticipation.
Sadly, recollecting the past was meaningless to both Kraft and Rex as the battle had taken a sharp turn towards Kraft's advantage. The consistent harassment of the fox silhouettes eventually wore Jin's senses down a little partially due to the exposure of Kraft's chi despite the Panda Cultivator's ability to shrug it off initially.
Some of the fox silhouette's attacks connected and wounded Jin by grabbing hold of him. The Panda Cultivator realised that if he were to stop even for just a moment to remove them away, he would be bitten by another two more fox silhouettes.
Thus, his only way to stop this was to do something similar to what he had done in the innards of Orochi's body. By exploding himself with an acc.u.mulation of Maqi. The only difference from now and then was that he had full control of his Maqi compared to the limited quantities he had been able to summon forth in the subconscious plane.
Hence, with a quick breath in, he discharged his Maqi throughout his entire body while causing an explosion to occur by mixing a bit of explosion magic, astral fire and lighting Maqi into it. The entire room shook as if there was an earthquake within their midst but they could clearly see that Jin was able to dispel the mist for a while.
"Do you really believe that my mist would dissipate so easily?!" Kraft questioned with a sadistic grin as he powered the Black Mist of the Fox Graveyard technique into the next stage of his Graveyard Combo.
The Black Hurricane of the Fox Graveyard.
The dark purplish mist around Jin instantly swooped towards him, catching him in the chi technique and Jin could already feel multiple bites gnawing at him as he tried to withstand the attack. At the same time, he could feel his body getting weaker not because of the lack of Maqi but rather the debuff the second stage of the Graveyard Combo was inflicting.
"Not many could handle this but even if they could, can they handle me attacking them as well?!" Kraft smiled widely as he once again shot his No Mercy before turning it into a scythe, heading towards Jin with no mercy in thought. The situation was entirely skewed to Kraft's benefit and the foxes also agreed unless Jin decided to not just use his Maqi.
But this was a fight to the 'death', right?
And that means Jin had other items at his disposal to ensure the fight would continue until one of them dropped dead. Another explosive burst of Maqi was sent out to stop the projectiles from reaching Jin while dispelling the black hurricane for a moment. Jin did know that it would not stop Kraft from charging him but he needed just a second to do what was needed.
To equip his System Rider Belt on and fight with his might.
"I hardly use you but I guess, it's time to show that fox who is actually the master of Graveyards, Half Ghoul Lord Derek!" Jin shouted as he performed a sleight of hand and shoved a card into his System Rider Belt, calling forth the Zombie Lord to merge with him.
System Rider Zombie.
"JINNNNNNN" Kraft shouted as he raised his hand up. The Chi within his hand caused the black purple aura he emitted to solidify right in front of him. Multiple spirals of the black aura spun around Kraft and Jin could sense a consolidation of Kraft's powers taking shape. Teeth and later the shape of a mouth could be seen until the multiple chi spirals began to grow a body out of the chaos. As expected, silhouettes of foxes were conceived out of the chi spirals and they squeaked before instinctively zooming towards Jin.
Their movements were incoherent as they swooped past Jin and later attacked him from the back. The Astral Panda Cultivator tried to evade them but unlike normal bullets and chi projectiles, they did not seem to stop. Whenever Jin moved away from them, they would merely swirl to the side and continue to follow their target.
It appeared as if they were to possess some level of 'intelligence', at least enough to follow up with the attack and the only way Jin could stop the attack was to either block it or dispel the purple fox silhouettes entirely. To make things worse, the aura that Kraft emitted around Jin seemed to thicken and more of those fox silhouettes emerged whenever the Panda tried to put one down to rest.
"Ahhh… good luck to Jin. Of all the attacks and techniques, Kraft had decided to use his signature technique against him. Our young little Panda is in a terrible mess right now." Kiyu pointed out as she recognised the technique that Kraft had pulled out as he smiled happily at the side.
Black Mist of the Fox Graveyard.
One might say that he named the technique by harnessing his sadness and loneliness he had once experienced. As the name suggested, Kraft had created it as a sort of tribute after he became the last remaining true Fox Clan descendant. As long as the Chi generated mist around Jin was around, the creation of those fox silhouettes was only the start. It was the foundation for a series of techniques that he had coined as the 'Graveyard Combo'.
Remembering the origins of this technique, Kiyu couldn't help but compare the two combatants' history. One had been blessed with the luxury of companions on his journey to fulfil his personal goal of becoming the Number One Dungeon Supplier whereas the other… his path had been riddled with difficulties, pain and the loss of companions which had ultimately led him to a great sacrifice.
The Panda had an ever growing companionship while the other kept losing his allies until he trusted almost no one. Sure, things changed with time and Kraft could have grown a little more wiser but as long as this technique existed, it would serve as a grim reminder of the sufferings the Original Bellator had endured during his prime.
Perhaps the chance to fight Jin had not stemmed out of sheer boredom or an 'itch' to fight, but from a long suppressed jealousy towards the good luck he had never been privy to in his own youth. There was a sort of bitterness within him that had never been resolved and the only way to keep it in check had been to 'entertain' himself, to get what he wanted through any means possible.
"Behind that mask of mischievous smiles, Kraft probably just wanted someone to resonate with him and have a friend with equal standing," Rex spoke solemnly and almost every single fox turned towards Kraft's 'brother', hoping he could provide some clarification. Rex had always been one with little words, and small talk about Kraft did not come by easily even after he became king of Demopolis. Despite the fact that everything else with regards to him seemed to have calmed down and his rage for the System had subsided, Rex still broods several scars that were kept even from his fellow foxes. Hence, this revelation of Kraft was so that they could understand their 'keeper' a little better and not hate him for the things he did previously to them, like making them part of his arsenal.
"I will not deny that I too felt that I might be the closest to him considering the deadly battles we went through. The thick and thin, blood and sweat, the mountains and seas. We hid and ambushed, claiming both victories and losses but in the end, I had just been a comrade in arms, a means to an end for him. To defeat my Father, the Panda Lord." Rex explained.
"After all, the two of us had been resurrected to provide the Panda Clan with a chance to get revenge and return it to its previous glory. Instead, by breaking this taboo the System of that time had created far more internal strife and had forced all of you to get involved. It was at that point, the System was uncontrollable in my opinion. So keep this in mind. No matter the outcome of this particular duel. Life goes on, the System will continue to grow in strength with Jin and make sure that we keep it in check once in a while."
"We understand." The foxes said that two words in unity, something which had never occurred for a very long time. Rex nodded his head with a gentle smile and looked at the broken expression Kraft was showing when he fought with Jin.
"In my heart, all I had felt had been anger and rage for having been betrayed while he had struggled with loss and grief. It pains me to admit that at those times I did not think of Kraft as a brother as much as he considered me to be his, because each of us had been focused on our agendas. Still, I would reminisce that the things we did were nothing short of memorable." Rex nodded his head while he momentarily thought about the past even more and the rest watched the battle in anticipation.
Sadly, recollecting the past was meaningless to both Kraft and Rex as the battle had taken a sharp turn towards Kraft's advantage. The consistent harassment of the fox silhouettes eventually wore Jin's senses down a little partially due to the exposure of Kraft's chi despite the Panda Cultivator's ability to shrug it off initially.
Some of the fox silhouette's attacks connected and wounded Jin by grabbing hold of him. The Panda Cultivator realised that if he were to stop even for just a moment to remove them away, he would be bitten by another two more fox silhouettes.
Thus, his only way to stop this was to do something similar to what he had done in the innards of Orochi's body. By exploding himself with an acc.u.mulation of Maqi. The only difference from now and then was that he had full control of his Maqi compared to the limited quantities he had been able to summon forth in the subconscious plane.
Hence, with a quick breath in, he discharged his Maqi throughout his entire body while causing an explosion to occur by mixing a bit of explosion magic, astral fire and lighting Maqi into it. The entire room shook as if there was an earthquake within their midst but they could clearly see that Jin was able to dispel the mist for a while.
"Do you really believe that my mist would dissipate so easily?!" Kraft questioned with a sadistic grin as he powered the Black Mist of the Fox Graveyard technique into the next stage of his Graveyard Combo.
The Black Hurricane of the Fox Graveyard.
The dark purplish mist around Jin instantly swooped towards him, catching him in the chi technique and Jin could already feel multiple bites gnawing at him as he tried to withstand the attack. At the same time, he could feel his body getting weaker not because of the lack of Maqi but rather the debuff the second stage of the Graveyard Combo was inflicting.
"Not many could handle this but even if they could, can they handle me attacking them as well?!" Kraft smiled widely as he once again shot his No Mercy before turning it into a scythe, heading towards Jin with no mercy in thought. The situation was entirely skewed to Kraft's benefit and the foxes also agreed unless Jin decided to not just use his Maqi.
But this was a fight to the 'death', right?
And that means Jin had other items at his disposal to ensure the fight would continue until one of them dropped dead. Another explosive burst of Maqi was sent out to stop the projectiles from reaching Jin while dispelling the black hurricane for a moment. Jin did know that it would not stop Kraft from charging him but he needed just a second to do what was needed.
To equip his System Rider Belt on and fight with his might.
"I hardly use you but I guess, it's time to show that fox who is actually the master of Graveyards, Half Ghoul Lord Derek!" Jin shouted as he performed a sleight of hand and shoved a card into his System Rider Belt, calling forth the Zombie Lord to merge with him.
System Rider Zombie.
