A/N: For this chapter we're going to assume lead bullet only affects Trion bodies and not weapons. Not sure if that's the case, but I'm just going to have it that way so I don't have to rethink the plot of this chapter. Also, I've written very few battle scenes before, so I apologize if this one is a bit shaky. Anyway, sorry for an errors, OOCness, typos and overall crappy writing. I'll be back next week with part two of the showdown :)
Rindo, Chika, Osamu, Jin and Tachikawa backed up until they were a safe distance away from the fight, far enough that they wouldn't get involved, but still close enough to be able to see what was happening. The area around then was open, but not exceptionally big. They could only get so far away until they ran into a pile of rubble.
"Jin," Tachikawa said, his voice low and serious. He didn't even look over at his rival, but Jin already knew exactly what the other attacker meant. The two stepped in front of Rindo, Chika and Osamu, Triggers in hand.
"Trigger, on," they said in sync, their voices a blend of serious, deep tenor and bass. With a flash of light, Trion bodies took the place of their flesh and blood ones, Kogetsu appearing at Tachikawa's waist while Jin materialized Scorpion in both hands. Tachikawa drew his blades and held them at the ready, his feet planted firmly on the ground for two reasons. First of all, he didn't know how powerful any stray attacks could be, and wouldn't be a very good guard if he got knocked down with one strike. Secondly, despite the plan, and the fact that he would be at a huge disadvantage against an experienced Black Trigger user, part of him still ached to fight the assassin. By keeping his feet rooted to the ground, he knew he wouldn't be going anywhere.
In front of the group of Border agents stood Yuma, now in his Black Trigger form. The assassin approached from the direction Yuma was facing, stopping about twenty yards away. Silence fell over everyone, the only sound being the almost mechanical sounds, like gears screaming in protest, that came from the assassin, with every heavy, deep, gasp-like breath. Nothing moved for a whole minute.
The battle started like a crack of lightning. In an instant, Yuma lunged forward, fist out as he immediately went to land a greedy blow. 'He who attacks first gains the advantage in most situations,' Yugo used to say. The assassin dodged easily and whipped out a cord in front of Yuma, which passed centimeters over his face as the white-haired teen leaned back in mid-air to avoid it.
Landing safely on the ground, Yuma spun around and instinctively brought up an arm to block the strike of a clawed hand swiping at his face, acting before his brain could even properly process what was happening. Yuma realized then that he'd have to be much faster if he wanted to do something other than block until he was so worn out that the assassin could kill him in its sleep.
'I need to put some distance between us,' he thought, and leaned his weight back on his heels in order to do so. However, the assassin knew exactly what Yuma was trying to do as it read his moves, and whipped a cord in Yuma's direction, causing him to duck. Before Yuma could regain his balance, which had been thrown off by the previous attack, the assassin's second cord swung at his ankles, smashing into the spot where the achilles would be in a flesh and blood body. The force alone was enough to smack Yuma's feet out from under him, sending the teen crashing to the ground. The assassin was on him before he even hit the dirt, attacking in quick succession, leaving Yuma no time to rest or even think.
A clawed hand swung down to where Yuma's chest was, and he rolled sharply to the left to avoid it. His instincts made a bad call though, and he had rolled right under the claws of the assassin's other hand. Yuma just barely got out of the way in time, earning a small cut on his back that leaked a tiny bit of Trion. That would be his reminder, the reminder that one bad move could cost him the battle.
As the assassin yanked its claws from the dry earth, Yuma took advantage of the short pause and jumped to his feet, crouching low on the ground before springing up and away, putting a good forty yards between himself and his opponent.
Judging by what had just happened, he would need to slow the assassin down or disarm it of some of its weapons before he could deal any real damage with his punches. It would be difficult to slow the assassin down though, since it was fast enough that it could very likely dodge any ranged attack Yuma tried. Plus, it seemed to have already caught onto him, since it had tried to keep him from moving away. For the assassin to know he wanted to do some ranged attacks was quite troublesome, and the other Neighbor would very likely try to keep the distance between them as minimal as possible.
Just as Yuma predicted, the assassin was quick to charge him, and it was just as fast as it had been previously.
"Bound," Yuma said aloud, stepping backward onto the blue seal he created and launching himself up and away once again. The assassin jumped after him, but without a boost like what Yuma had, it didn't even get close to him.
"Anchor plus Bolt, Quadra," he muttered under his breath, combining the two seals. Thick black lines darted away from the red rings that formed and hovered over his palm, launching themselves in the direction of the assassin. Unfortunately, the assassin fully dodged the attack, living up to the skill Border had thought it had. Only then did Yuma realize his mistake as he heard a shout from the ground. He winced slightly as he watched Jin and Tachikawa swinging their blades in a whirlwind blur to deflect the many lead bullets headed their way. Thankfully, the two successfully deflected every bullet. 'Sorry,' Yuma thought as he returned his attention to the fight just in time to avoid the assassin's cords, which whipped toward his face once more as he reached the ground.
Rindo, Chika, Osamu, Jin and Tachikawa continued watching the battle from afar.
"Yuma is struggling without Replica-sensei," Jin commented, his eyes narrowed as he watched his kouhai fight. No one commented on the breathiness of the teen's tone, or how hard he was breathing from a simple effort. He very obviously was nowhere near recovered yet. Rindo made a mental note to nearly kill Jin himself later for using a Trigger, and thought about how he would phrase his text to Shinoda and Kido about how Jin got the Trigger he wasn't even supposed to have. Judging by the fact that neither of the attackers in front of Rindo looked back at him, the man had a pretty good idea how the Scorpion trigger had found its way back into Jin's possession.
"I think you're right, Jin-san. When fighting Miwa squad, he didn't even have to go all-out and he beat both Yosuke-senpai and Miwa-senpai. Sure, they didn't have Black Triggers or as much experience as this assassin, but Kuga doesn't look like he's as organized as he was when he had Replica," Osamu added in agreement. Jin mentally slapped himself.
While Jin realized he couldn't change the past, he still wished he could have come up with a better way to end the Second Invasion. Yuma wouldn't be having such a hard time if he hadn't let Replica get taken away.
"Let's just hope he can pull through. He's good, but this assassin...it's as good as we thought," Rindo commented. No one else spoke after that, their eyes fixated on the battle in front of them.
-000-
Yuma backed away from the assassin again, but it simply followed right after him, closing the gap.
"Boost, triple." Blue light illuminated Yuma's back as his speed and strength increased, allowing him to back away faster. He managed to move faster than the assassin, but he still wasn't getting far enough away. Yuma put his arm behind himself, ready to set Bound on the ground behind him, but the assassin read his moves and lunged, clawing at his chest and reaching a cord for his neck. The claws nearly connected, and Yuma had to arch his back and forget about Bound in order to avoid them. The cord on the other hand, while it missed Yuma's neck, did catch his arm in an iron grip, causing the teen to stop abruptly and fall to the ground from the force of his sudden halt in motion.
The assassin went in for the kill, but missed the glowing blue light under Yuma.
"Bound, double." Yuma flew into the air, jumping up with only one foot. The force of his ascent was enough to tear him from the assassin's grasp, but a cut opened on his arm and began leaking Trion. Yuma let out a quite huff of annoyance as he stared down at the enemy. The assassin watched him from the ground, it's intimidating vibe daring Yuma to come down and fight.
Unfortunately for the assassin, Yuma would not be drawn in that easily. There was no ego giving Yuma the urge to fight. However, the assassin knew that Yuma wasn't fighting entirely for himself. While it didn't want to include Border agents who weren't targets in the fight, the assassin quickly turned and sped toward Rindo, Chika, Osamu, Tachikawa and Jin. It swiped out at them with its claws, and both Jin and Tachikawa blocked. A cord whipped toward Tachikawa, who didn't know what was happening until Jin's scorpion halted the cord just inches away from his head.
"Thanks, Jin," Tachikawa muttered, only being loud enough for the other to hear as he focused on the fight. Tachikawa and Jin blocked each attack, but noticed that the assassin didn't seem like it intended to kill them. It's speed, attack strength and bloodlust were significantly less than when it was fighting Yuma.
'Speak of the devil,' Jin thought when he saw the white haired Neighbor himself falling toward them from the sky, returning to the ground from his powerful Boost as he made his way to his comrades. Without hesitation, Yuma landed behind the assassin, and just barely avoided taking the brunt of a swinging cord to the chest. He was still knocked back, but little damage was done. Yuma knew instantly that his instincts had been right when he first spotted the assassin going for the others. It had been a trap. Osamu must have been rubbing off on him if he was nearly getting himself killed for others so easily.
In the few second it took Yuma to recover from the blow and get back to his feet, the assassin turned its sights from the other Border agents to him. It whipped its cords around in a wild way that looked random at first, but was actually timed to leave few openings for Yuma to defend from other attacks.
Tachikawa, Jin, Rindo, Chika and Osamu watched, unable to help, as Yuma and the assassin clashed in a flurry of motion before them. It was like two hurricanes had collided, and were pushing each other back and forth as they fought for control. Yuma was on the defense, blocking every attack he could while the assassin rained blow after blow, slash after slash on the young teen, leaving him with no time to even think about fighting back or putting distance between them.
The intense hand-to-hand fight lasted for at least thirty seconds, possibly even close to a minute. It only ended when Yuma's eyes caught a brief image of Jin and Tachikawa blocking the cords on the assassin's head when the fight got too close to them. Neither of the two looked very well, given Tachikawa had been practicing fighting Neighbors not long ago, and Jin was still injured. In fact, Jin, while he obviously was trying to hide it, seemed to be struggling with his blocking. He wouldn't last much longer on defense, and things would be hard for Tachikawa if he had to shoulder the burden alone.
Yuma himself wasn't doing great either. He hadn't done much damage to the assassin, and while he himself wasn't in too bad condition, he had quite a few small cuts that leaked Trion. He would do be overpowered at the current rate of the battle. That left him with very few options and not a lot of time.
Putting his faith in Osamu, Yuma created a seal that levitated over his palm.
"Anchor plus Bolt, double." Black bullets sped at the assassin, all missing their mark despite the close range. That only happened because the assassin backed off a bit when the seal appeared to focus on dodging, giving Yuma some space. 'Gate would have been more useful, but I don't know how to use it. Only Replica does,' the young Neighbor thought as he spun around, sprinting as fast as his Trion body would go toward the remains of the collapsed factory nearby that Osamu had pointed out earlier. The assassin followed after him as the onslaught of Lead Bullets ended, staying close on Yuma's tail. The other's could only watch as Yuma went for what could be his best chance, or, if he slipped up, quite the opposite.
His demise.
A/N: I put up another poll for the story, so if you have time, it would be great if you all voted. Will Yuma win the fight, or has his luck run out? Take a guess and find out as the battle continues.