The Magician of Sound

"This is what I mean." Kai smiled. The sword had returned to his hand in an instant. The proof that he managed to impress Rapakha was the fact that his expression changed, and made a smile.

"That one is good." Rapakha nodded. "I won't say anything like what if you don't have your friend, because I know that you dare to do something like that because your friends are beside you right now. So, for this…"

He clapped a few times. "To think that you managed to catch me off guard, it takes a lot of skill."

"No, no. Elder is simply playing with us. If you fight seriously, we won't stand a chance. And you even give us a handicap by not using your Space Element." Kai shook his head, replying with a humble tone.

"Well, I am just going to give you some pointers, so it doesn't require me to hurt you," Rapakha admitted that he had been holding back this whole time.

At first, he wanted to say he wasn't to boost their confidence, so they could perform better, but it would just go into their heads. He decided to tell them the truth, and how they interpreted it would depend on them.

Rapakha didn't continue for a whole minute as he thought. 'Kai should have no problem after this. With a new fighting style, his offensive power should increase. As long as he has time, he will get used to the new style.

'Isabelle and Tasha don't have any problems in their fighting style. In that case, I will focus on the other three.' Rapakha took a deep breath before he suddenly raised an offensive stance.

"!!!" The group was startled as Kai shouted. "Here he comes!"

Even without him saying those words, the group knew that Rapakha would seriously attack them instead of standing there while taking all their blows. In other words, Rapakha would be very dangerous at this point.

Kai gritted his teeth and leaped toward him, slashing both swords.

In response, Rapakha simply smiled as he stepped back, and a magic circle appeared in his original position.

"That stance is a bait?" Kai frowned as he watched how stone spiked from the ground, trying to pierce him. Luckily, he managed to slow his movement first and slashed the sword in his main hand to destroy those spikes and defended himself with the sword in his off hand.

Yet, the attack he was expecting didn't come. Rapakha took a huge leap to get closer to Michelle and Ayaka.

"!!!" Kai realized that Rapakha actually baited him to take on the bait, so he could leave him in the dust. He couldn't help but mutter, "How many moves does he actually predict before he makes a move?"

This was truly shocking. In terms of battle experiences and combat ability alone, his teacher might not be able to defeat him. And if he brought the remaining stone statues to attack the US base, it would become dangerous.

Rapakha, on the other hand, didn't have this intention. He simply wanted to see what kind of future the Earth would have in the hand of the youngster in front of him. And to see that none of them could die before they influenced the world. Hence, the only way to solve that was to strengthen them to the limit he had.

The moment he arrived in front of these two, Rapakha threw a punch toward Michelle.

Knowing he would do this, Michelle already prepared something as she released a magic circle beneath his feet.

"Shadow Manipulation." Michelle smirked as Rapakha's shadow appeared and stopped him from moving.

As Michelle was about to attack, Rapakha snorted and broke free in an instant, moving at speed faster than he had even shown, continuing his punch.

"What?!" Michelle gritted her teeth and shifted her sword downwards to block this attack.

"Strength. You need more brute strength. Even when you don't have strength, why are you still using that feminine sword? Do you think your man will not like you if you show your brute side? If that were the case, just leave that man!" Rapakha shouted and blew her away.

Rapakha then turned around while summoning a stone pole from the ground, looking at Ayaka, who was going to strike him with her spear.

*Bang!*

The two clashed before Ayaka realized something wrong. She instinctively activated her Fire Armor before an immense pain spread from her left waist.

"Your body is your weapon, not that spear. That is just a tool. Why are you so fixated on that tool?"

A thought crossed in Kai's mind after listening to those words coming out of Rapakha's mouth. Although he didn't know his aim, he knew that he was saying those words, so the two could improve.

Even so, seeing your women getting hurt in front of you wasn't an easy matter. Kai attacked him again from behind.

"Hmph!" Rapakha snorted and struck him with his fist.

Kai didn't know whether this was another bait or not, but there was one thing he could do.

He stomped the ground with his right foot before launching his body one meter above Rapakha.

Rapakha didn't care and tried to attack him with his staff.

It was at this time Kai accelerated once more using his Sound Blast. He passed Rapakha and stopped his momentum by using another Sound Blast. With this, he positioned himself right behind Rapakha and struck him with his sword.

*Clang!*

"His pole?!" Kai widened his eyes, never expecting Rapakha to block his attack with a slight movement from his pole. However, he suddenly realized his mistake and thought. 'No. My attack pattern is too simple. In that case, I need one that can't be predicted.'

Letting his instinct take over, Kai created another Sound Blast again to launch him in another direction and repeated it again and again, making him look like a pinball. And yet, he didn't forget to strike a few times with his sword, giving many cracks on Rapakha's stone body.

Rapakha was surprised by how fast he adapted and improvised. 'He is full of talent… Still…'

Kai thought Rapakha couldn't react to this attack, but he suddenly slipped on one of the Sound Blast and rolled on the ground.

"Still, your body can't handle that kind of speed without getting used to it. Letting you attack my body a few times is a low price to pay to wait for you to slip up." Rapakha said as he appeared right above Kai, punching his abdomen.

*Bam!*

That punch packed up with power because it created a small crater on the ground. If Kai didn't have protection from the exoskeleton, he might have spat blood by now. Luckily, he somehow managed to lessen the impact even further by blocking it with his swords.

Even though the swords touched his abdomen, the impact wasn't that hurt.

"Fortunately, I could react…" Kai, on the other hand, was full of shock. He never expected Rapakha to send that kind of attack.

"You!" Michelle and Ayaka appeared not far behind him, trying to attack him. And yet the latter turned around, smirked, and took a huge leap to leave them behind.

Michelle and Ayaka, who were on the move, forced their bodies to stop, but they didn't have enough time to stop Rapakha, who was going toward Sofia.

"Not good!" Tasha and Isabelle shot him.

It only took him a glance for Rapakha to shift his body and let the two attacks miss. He continued heading toward Sofia and smirked while throwing a punch.

Sofia gritted her teeth, knowing she couldn't escape from this attack. She activated the exoskeleton and used all of her strength to stop this attack.

*Crack!*

A cracking sound echoed when the two hands collided before a small crater below Sofia was created. In a normal condition, Sofia wouldn't be able to hold a candle to this punch. Even so, she utilized her right hand to the fullest to hold the attack even for a few seconds.

She lifted up her left hand and created a few spear-shaped ices, and rained Rapakha with them. This action was taken because she found Rapakha leaving his stone armor to gain speed. Hence, his body shouldn't be powerful enough to stop these spears.

"Ice Spear!"

Sofia swung her hand down as the spears understood her command and flew down.

Rapakha smiled as he summoned magic circles, rising spikes that matched the spears in number.

Each of them clashed, not leaving a single behind to hit Rapakha.

Michelle and Ayaka were going to help her, but Kai suddenly grabbed their hands.

"Kai?!" Both were confused with this.

But Kai shook his head and whispered. "Remember his words earlier and try to improvise."

"!!!" The two were taken aback.

Michelle was the first one to react because it was too absurd. "What does he mean by brute force… Wait… I think I understand."

She recalled when Kai wielded two big swords on Cuba's battlefield. Kai shouldn't be an expert on that, resulting in his speed decreasing. However, there was one solution that could be used to limit that negative effect. It was the most important in swordplay.

Footwork

'Still, changing it right now is impossible because I need to learn a new type of footwork first. And mastering them takes too much time, so it won't be possible to use it here. I might even not make it for the raid mission. But there are a few months of holiday that I could use… I will perfect it during that time.' Michelle had a solution and smiled. 'Still, I should try to use it first.'

She raised both hands before enveloping her two Shadow Swords with even stronger energy, forming into two two-handed swords. "It's a bit heavy, but I think I can manage."

Ayaka also had the same enlightenment as she remembered the kick from Rapakha. It must mean to rely on her body, like increasing the weight of her boots. It should be easy for her to wield them with her current strength.

Seeing how the two realized what they were lacking, Kai smiled and stopped them again. "Listen to me. I have a plan."