Chapter 69 - Mummy-Man gets surprised

Nakoto looked at Marc and questioned, "What's the meaning of this?"

Marc locked eyes with Nakoto's devil-like eyes and said "Rofta never stated he would fight you alone. Did he? So he hasn't lost yet."

With his foot on Marc's hand, Nakoto looked down and felt the change of air around him that he didn't have before. The reason is Marc had already used [One Goal] to remove his unnecessary emotions and thoughts that would be unreliable in a fight. Especially when the opponent can swing his katana around faster than the eyes can see.

"Do you really think you have the strength to be the winners? Don't make me laugh. In this world, the weak are the sustenance of the strong. The strong live, the weak die. Don't mistake yourself with being strong with your meager strength-" Before Nakoto could finish his life lesson, a person that couldn't care less interrupted him.

"Whatever, Mummy-Man. I'm going to blow you off- gosh that sounded wrong!" With the hand he was using to stop Nakoto's foot from descending on Rofta's head, Marc was slowly charging up a [Shock Cannon] as soon as he touched the foot. He was doing it slowly, so it wouldn't be found out before it was ready.

Nakoto realized too late that Marc was using magic under his foot. If his talent in magic was higher, he would have felt it immediately. His eyes turned as sharp as they could be, and he only just barely managed to pull his foot back and move his katana in front of him with the side to defend against what's coming.

Marc's paw in his hand shined brightly before suddenly dimming.

[Shock Cannon]

*BOOOOM*

A wide shockwave exploded and sent devastating wind hurling forward Nakoto as a cannon shot it. The target of the said spell was sent flying backward and couldn't withstand the pressure from a point-blank attack.

Snow was sent hurling in the air and the people around had a hard time seeing with the eyes, but when they could, they saw the houses from the outskirts of the village were destroyed like the others Marc had destroyed earlier. It left almost half the village in ruins.

"Ups." Exclaimed Marc when he saw the destruction he caused again with an expression that said he wasn't sorry at all.

Inside of some debris was Nakoto. His expression trembled with anger and his condition was almost unhurt. The only thing that couldn't withstand the attack was his bandages around his body that got ripped apart by the wind.

*Baaang*

Nakoto just smashed the debris over him away and stood up slowly and looked at Marc like someone who just stole his wife.

Marc was stunned when he saw the completely burned body of Nakoto's, but the thing is, he couldn't spot any injuries that he might have made. Marc blinked once, and suddenly Nakoto that stood a good distance away was right beside him with his sword swung at his neck.

In an instant, he moved to behead Marc with blinding rage. So much that he forgot about the black spears that were floating at the side Gina was controlling and just fired at him this instant. Instead of evading with his own speed, Marc just stopped the katana with a kick, though the ice he was standing on cracked under the pressure and showed a spider web of cracks.

Having released some anger, Nakoto mind quickly settled down and he felt the incoming spears while he was deadlocked with Marc.

As the spears reached before Nakoto, Marc suddenly felt the pressure on him disappeared together with the spears that in a blink of an eye was cut to small slices. A technique that Nakoto has developed to slash over 100 times a second, leaving the target in pieces.

With cold sweat running down his spine and instincts ringing to be real careful of that technique, Marc blinked his eyes again, only to realize, that Nakoto had disappeared again and reached three-quarters of the distance to reach Gina while having sheathed his katana. He was holding onto it like he would draw it any second.

Gina couldn't keep up with the speed at all, so she just surrounded herself in a dome made out of her iron sand.

[Devil's Sand Dome]

Watching what should have been a near impregnable defense, Nakoto just snorted before drawing his blade in a specific angle to ignite the oil and set it ablaze.

"Rofta!!" Yelled Marc as he had a feeling that Gina's defense wouldn't do a thing, and he couldn't rescue her as he had no quick way to get inside the dome. So he could only call Rofta for help as he had just the right spell to get her out of danger.

A burned Rofta quickly used his magic to make a domain before exchanging Gina's position with one of Marc's new sandals.

[Position Reversal]

Gina appeared beside Rofta like she just teleported. At the same time, Nakoto had already slashed at the dome and made three fire slashes at the dome at once. Like cutting a cake, the dome was slashed open and would have cut Gina into three if she was still inside it.

With cold sweat running down her cheeks, Gina felt the world was way bigger than she had imagined. "Does a dragon's scales even stand a chance?" She wondered.

Instead of cutting Gina in three, Nakoto had just done it to Marc's sandal.

"What an infuriating magic. I will give you one last chance before I kill those two-" Nakoto spoke with a dead-serious voice, but a cry interrupted him.

"NOO!! My new sandal?" Marc didn't know Rofta had used his sandal to exchange positions with Gina, so the sight of his slaughtered sandal made his heart ache.

Nakoto can't remember the last time he has been so mad like now. It didn't help that his burned and deformed skin is turning hotter by the second the longer he fights. His biggest weakness is long drawn fights and he was already hot after fighting before coming back to the village with the 'gift' to his son. He was mentally tired of dealing with the burning sensation.

"Forget it. I'm killing him!!" Like adding more oil to the fire, Nakoto used his Oil magic to add more oil on his sword while holding it with two hands to the side. The fire intensified greatly before it formed into a twenty-meter-long fire cobra. It was connected to the end of the katana and hissed when he turned it to the side.

"Scheisse (shit). Use everything you have Gina." Marc cursed in German and was grinning. He had already forgotten he was fighting Rofta's father for a reason and not having fun. He told Gina to help while getting another [Shock Cannon] ready to stop the fire snake that was getting thicker before their eyes.

"Let me show you how truly weak you are." Said Nakoto before he pointed his katana forward. The fire snake then slithered with a fast speed at the Marc and co.

[Final Secret Sword: Blazing Cobra]

"Let's do this Gina. Now!" Marc signaled Gina to let her iron sand flow before him and create a plate. Then he let his glowing hand explode with power, sending the iron wall hurling with extraordinary power at the fire snake.

The two attacks collided, but not many seconds went by, and it was clear who's side was at the disadvantage. Nakoto's fire cobra was pushing the metal plate back toward the three slowly but steadily.

Marc looked at Rofta while at a fast rate emptying his Magic Power by, in turn, charging his spell over and over again. "You mind giving a hand? Mummy-Man is stronger than I thought. I will treat you to alcohol if you can make that big slash of yours."

"You don't have any money…" Deadpanned Rofta when he heard how his friend was trying to trick him. He continued "But you don't have to ask. I miscalculated his strength too. That won't happen next time!" Before he raised his long nodachi high in the air where a purple aura started surrounding the sharp end of the blade. The purple aura quickly intensified and his muscles in his arms began bulging and the veins were clearly showing all around them. When he was ready, Rofta jumped in the air and made a swing like a baseball player, and sent the purple aura flying.

[Reversed Slash: Norimitsu]

Leaving his sword the purple aura transformed into a nodachi of its own and stopped his father's attack from advancing any further.

Though that quickly changed as no matter how resilient Marc is, his already damaged arms from overuse were turning darker coupled with his near-empty Magic Power let the fire cobra advance again. Being against the wall, something broke inside Marc, and an explosive change happened and his eyes shined a little, clearly showing the paw-shaped pupils.

But then again, his new strength didn't help when Rofta's attack stopped as he fell to the ground. He was forcing his eyes open to watch the conclusion, although he was pretty pessimistic about the outcome. Only Marc and Gina were left standing and the attack was getting closer rapidly.

Marc had just raised his foot intending to kick Gina out of the way, but then a blur came by his side followed by a cold wind.

It was Esdea that had already used [Spirit Assimilation] to fuse with her Ice Spirit. Over her shoulder was the head of Ice Spirit and was wearing it like a shoulder guard. Her long white boots turned into light blue-- near white-- ice. The last thing that changed was her big rapier. On the guard, ice shards appeared around it while the blade itself turned frosty.

Esdea didn't say anything and just thrust her transformed rapier forward.

[Ice Spirit Slayer Magic: Shoot to kill]

The ice shards on the guard, suddenly extended, making the already big rapier, very long and hit the metal plate and push it back with a fast speed.

The fire cobra was pushed back in Nakoto's direction and he was forced to swing his blade to the side. The snake followed the direction of his sword and it forced the metal plate to the side and hit the ground beside him.

Failing to overpower his opponents' combined attack didn't taste really good and Nakoto was getting angrier than he thought was possible, but the anger was exchanged with surprise when he saw his daughter stand beside the little runt that intervened in this fight.

"Why are you defending them… Esdea?" Nakoto questioned his daughter.

Though Esdea was asking herself the exact same question in her head "Yes, why did I help him?"

***

(A/N: Inspiration taken from Gin (Bleach). About Marc's eyes— You will have to wait as I don't want to spoil it.)

(Words: 1825)