Third Layer
Chapter 7 Ranko Fights Part 2
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Ranko smirked her usual infuriatingly smug expression, the kind that screamed "I'm so much better than you that I don't even have to try" and got into her usual nonchalant and (seemingly) open to attack stance. Ojiro stared at the layer, intense concentration on his brow as he now knew that this may actually be a tougher challenge than usual. His mouth was twitching into a grin from time to time as he had Wizard circle around Ranko once more.
Ranko blurred. Wizard blurred. Lightning fast strikes echoed through the forest. In the trees. Whizzing around the trunks in seemingly circular patterns. Wizard was on the advantage, Ranko seemed to be getting hard pressed. Then she disappeared. What? Where? Below for a sweep? Above for a head strike? Ojiro couldnt find her even with his advantage of being able to see the whole battlefield. There, a streak of white and blue, zig-zagging around the trees. Wizard smirked and stood straight, taking the blow.
Ranko smirked. He was letting her get a free shot. Last time he'll make that mistake! They may be in the center of the field, but the Saotome School of Anything Goes was an expert at aerial combat. This included flight patterns of your own opponent and how one could throw their opponent into a more advantageous position. For example, an area with pits with very small foot holds (hence why Jusenkyo was a prime training ground, or so Genma thought at the time) would be a severe hindrance for, well, almost anyone who wasn't a Saotome (or an Amazon...or other super-high powered martial artist. And even then, it would still be quite tricky for those involved) because they were trained for superior balance and aerial combat ability. Fighting in midair, and launching opponents in midair for that advantage to be exploited was deeply trained. Even Tai-Chi fighters would find it hard to center themselves against being thrown by a Saotome. So being far away from the layer edge was not enough of an advantage for Wizard, and here he was, allowing himself to take a direct hit. What is Ojiro thinking?
As she came in for her launching kick, a sphere of inverted color flashed for a moment around him, and Ranko found herself being the one hurtled backwards. 'What? What just happened?' Squeals of delight around her brought her attention to outside the layer for a moment.
"That was Wizard's Magic Guard!"
"No one would be able to break that guard! It's the perfect defence!"
Oh? Great, more fans to watch the fight.
"Well Hikaru did it once."
"Yeah, but no one knows how she did that! Remember, she still had to hit it several times in order to break it. She wasn't all that powerful, so she didn't exactly break it. I've seen other fighters hit it even harder and more times, and it never broke!"
Aha, so that's it then. You gotta go in slow. That musta been it. Try to force your way through, and it would just resist all that much harder. Ranko smirked, silently thanking the fans cheering on Ojiro for the help to defeat him. She came at him quickly, but right at the edge of where she judged the shield to be, she slowed down impossibly slow. For her, at least. Slow enough to get through the shield. Not so fast for it to be considered an attack. Closer. Closer. WHAM! She found herself being flung backwards again, head over heels. She planted a hand into the ground, and flipped back onto her feet. Okay, so that was too fast then, was it? Alright then, slower than a big fat old non-martial artist can throw a punch. She approached again. However, it felt...wrong to go this slow. Her opponent would have a free shot at her going this slow. But, just to get through the shield. She tried it again, but just as she predicted, as she approached that slowly, Wizard dashed in for a lightning fast strike. Abandoning her slow attack for an equally fast defence, she parried the blow and slammed an open palm strike on Wizard's cheek. Aha, as long as he's not attacking, he can't use that defence. That musta hurt him!
"I'm impressed. Trying to come in slow to defeat my Magic Guard. But it is no use. Going slow only lets you open for attack. Not only that, but just try that again at that speed. I promise I won't retailiate." Ojiro commented.
Wizard got into that open standing pose again, and put out a hand in a "come on" gesture.
'Yeah right,' Ranko thought, 'Just invite me for attack, will you? Promise not to fight back, will you? We'll see about that!' She whirled around to Wizard's blind spot and came in again in that oh so slow approach. WHAM! It still hits? Dammit! How's she going to get through it? Maybe above? She leaped up high for a kick. WHAM! She did a double-footed kick from up high again. WHAM! This was getting annoying. She leaped up once more, up into a tree, and used it as a springboard to try attacking from directly above Wizard's head. Wham. Hmm, not as strong up here. She kept at it, finding a spot right at the top of the dome where she could continually just keep bouncing from. Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wizard looked straight up, and seemed to just see Ranko's feet bouncing a few feet (centimeters) from his head.
'What was this? Am I getting through?' Ranko thought. 'No, it's just not moving. What is this? Ain't ki. Can't sense it. Don't think they built this thing to handle true magic. Must be something exploited from the physics of the game. But what?' Ranko began wracking her brain to try to figure this out.
Ojiro grimaced. 'She's keeping me from attacking. I can't lower the guard without split second timing, and if I mess up, she'll get a hit straight in. That counterattack she made brought Wizard's health lower than hers, so if he didn't do something fast, she'll win from continually wearing me down. In a flash, as Ranko was falling down for another kick, still trying to figure a way through the shield, it disappeared and Wizard grabbed her leg. He used the speed of her fall to swing her onto her back. WHAM! A shocked expression on Ranko's face was there for an instant, then she was rolling onto her back, somehow redirecting the last bit of the shock.
'Didn't think he would stoop to THAT! That was a good shot. I was still thinking of a way to get through it, then he just unexpectedly drops it. This is a great fight.' Ranko thought to herself, the grin on her face once again. She stood up and got into a proper stance and was about to attack once more when she found herself once again hurtling through the air. 'No way! Ain't gonna happen again!' Wizard was trying that knock out of the ring move again, but this time, she was prepared. She untwirled one of those cords wrapped around her arm andflung it into a branch in a split second move. The end stuck into the wood and she used it to swing up and over top of Wizard. The move was so fast and unexpected that Wizard seemed to only be able to gawk at the bottom of Ranko's shoes before she hit.
Landing in a sort of crouch on Wizard's shoulders, Ranko tightened her hold on his head with her legs and flung her body backwards as hard as she could, flipping the both of them backwards. She loosed her hold for a split second during the backflip and adjusted her position relative to his body so that she would land with her knees on his abdomen just as he landed on his back. WHAM! Or at least, she tried to. Wizard somehow thrust both hands forward and pushed her backwards into the ground milliseconds before he did. This Ojiro kid had great fighting instincts. No wonder everyone admired him. He too was a martial arts prodigy, in the mental capacity at least. Plus, he had that weird shield thingy. And, when it's ineffective, he knows when to drop it to cause the most surprise.
There were murmurs through the crowd. Speculation began running rampant about who the new girl was. No one recognised her, but everyone acknowledged her martial arts prowess against a master.In her moment of confusion about what just happened, she suddenly felt hand grab her wrist once again. 'Damn! That move stunned me. My body isn't reacting as quickly as it should.' She felt the pain, but it wasn't as intense as it should have been. But it still felt like she couldn't move as effectively as if sheWERE in intense pain. Part of the programming, probably. Of course, feeling pain shouldn't be possible at all, or something. It should have just been a bunch of sensors or something. Another oddity about her ki transfer thingy. She felt herself being lifted by her arm and was again swung out from the layer. 'This guy...he likes doing this, don't he?' she thought for the split second while still in Ranko...
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Author's notes
Very sorry for this extremely short update. I know this is a short chapter. I just wanted to finish the fight, and I'm still thinkin of what's gonna happen right after, so there WILL be more of this chapter to be posted later. Please stay tuned!
Oh yeah, and as for chapter 2, I've fixed that up and added titles to each of the other chapters. Most of them are kinda corny, cause I just made them up on the spot.
And, I'm sure you can guess where I got the idea for getting through the shield, right?
Update: Oh crap! Thanks for that notice there, Obsidian-Fox. I totally forgot about that. I spent some time rewatching the entire Angelic Layer series, for research purposes of course, and I guess I kinda got some of those concepts direct from the series stuck in my head and not the details of the fight at hand. Thank you very much for that little minder. I've fixed that up now, but it was a bit tricky cause I had to continue the fight just a little bit longer.
So anyway, in that addition, you may also figure out where I got that backflip grapple move.
Minor update: This is right before the chapter 8 update. Found another minor error with the time out thing. Don't worry, Chapter 8 is on the way!
As always, please leave a review!