EPIC: Path of Demons and Dragons
Chapter 322: Prize

Chapter 322: Prize

"Get up. I don’t have the habit of kicking people while they’re down, but I’m willing to make an exception," warned Miu, standing a short distance from Sunraku in a low, reactionary stance.

"Just...give me a moment..." responded Sunraku, lying face down with a trail of stream rising from his head where Miu had driven her heel into his crown. Luckily, he had a Skill called Endure, preventing his HP from falling below one for three seconds after sustaining fatal damage.

’Alright, Sunraku, time to focus up...’ Sunraku told himself, waiting for his HP to recover a few points before pushing himself up from the ground and onto his feet. At that moment, Miu stepped forward and launched a broad, sweeping kick at his head with her right foot, narrowly missing his chin as he somersaulted backward before leaping into the air.

"Alright, blondie! Your outfit is hella distracting, but now that I’ve had the sense knocked back into me, good luck landing another blow...!" shouted Sunraku, materializing his blue-tinted, flame-like swords and igniting them with cerulean blue flames.

"Talk is cheap...!" countered Miu, grounding her right foot and kicking out with her left so quickly her leg appeared to warp before producing a loud crack akin to a whip. As a consequence, a nearly imperceptible, spear-like projectile of highly compressed air surged toward Sunraku, threatening to impact him in the pit of his stomach.

"Maybe your tastes are too expensive...!" quipped Sunraku, strengthening the flames emitting from the sword in his left hand to propel himself to the right. Then, by tucking in his knees and contracting his body, he managed to transition into a tight spinning maneuver, causing him to resemble a top spinning through the air, veiled in flames.

Calculating Sunraku’s trajectory at a glance, Miu moved to intercept him, bolting forward to build up momentum before leaping into the air with her right leg raised, bent at the knee, and her left foot extended as she sailed nearly horizontally through the air.

"Nope!" barked Sunraku, creating a pale blue, hexagonal-shaped foothold in the air just before he fell into the trajectory of Miu’s flying kick, causing her to sail past him as he bounced once, broke out of his spin, and sent an expanding crescent of blue flames chasing after her.

"Hyaaa~!"

Landing on the toes of her right foot, Miu smoothly transitioned into a steep, spinning crouch that allowed her to transfer her momentum like a pendulum before kicking off the ground and spinning like a figure skater with her ankles crossed and hands folded over her chest. Her golden hair, fixed into a braided ponytail, was lightly singed by Sunraku’s attack, but it ultimately sailed past her.

"You are so going to be kicked..." grumbled Miu, landing on the toes of her left foot and descending into a low spin with her right foot shooting out to bring herself to a stop with a near-perfect circle of burnt rubber encircling her position. Like many women, she invested between thirty minutes and an hour each day caring for her hair, so having it damaged in any way was a slight against her vanity and pride.

"Just aim high so I’ll get to enjoy the view in my final moments," quipped Sunraku, his tone playful, devoid of tension as he held his swords out to his sides and increased their flame output to the max. Doing so depleted their durability and caused them to develop white-hot cracks along their surface, but since Miu didn’t appear even a little winded, drawing things out and conserving his strength as he had with Riko wasn’t going to work.

’Shameless jerk...’ thought Miu. However, the faint smile on her face made it clear she didn’t mind Sunraku’s crassness. It was better than guys who pretended to be gentlemen only to steal glances at her breasts, butt, and thighs when they thought she couldn’t see or sense them.

"Sorry in advance...!" shouted Sunraku, waiting for Miu to rush forward before swinging his swords to the front, producing spinning pillars of blue and white flames from their ends and pushing himself back. To his shock, Miu didn’t attempt to dodge. Instead, after pulling her fists back with her elbows tucked to her sides, she began punching with untraceable speed, throwing nearly thirty punches per second and dispersing the flames with a mix of her world’s Dou Ki and air pressure.

"Tooooooooooh—!"

Though the strength behind her punches was significantly less than her kicks, Miu’s speed continued to increase as she charged toward Sunraku with the force of a runaway locomotive.

"Ole~!" exclaimed Sunraku, angling his swords toward the ground and leaping forward as Miu approached within three meters of his position. As the flames impacted the arena, they pushed him up, allowing him to use the rotation from his leap to flip through the air.

"Not this time...!" exclaimed Miu, driving her right foot into the ground and allowing her momentum to carry her head and upper body forward while her left foot traveled in a sharp circular arc. Sunraku’s evasive maneuver placed him more than a meter out of her range, but hitting him wasn’t her goal. Instead, she converted her forward momentum to rotational torque, allowing her to stop, change direction, and perform a sharp, spinning flash kick aimed at his head while he was upside down.

’This girl is a monster...’ thought Sunraku, creating hexagonal footholds below his feet and pushing off from them to flip in the opposite direction, over Miu’s kick. She wasn’t the only one who could change direction on a dime, but he required a hotbar’s worth of Skills to pull off maneuvers she could perform naturally.

"Tsk..."

Seeing Sunraku once again evade her attack, Miu clicked her tongue and bounced backward several times on her foot to create distance from the smoke bombs he threw near her feet. From within the produced clouds, a large shuriken came spinning toward her, producing a high-pitched whine and curving toward her as she dodged to her right.

"I don’t think so...!" shouted Miu, grounding her right foot and performing a maneuver similar to the one she had used to arrest her momentum. This time, however, she caught the shuriken by its opening with her heel, using its momentum to spin on her right foot and change its direction to fly back in the direction it had originated.

"Oh, come on! Are you even human...!?" exclaimed Sunraku, performing a dodge roll out of the smokescreen, now modeling an outfit resembling the attire of a traditional Shinobi with a long and tattered red bandana around his neck and a white, oni-themed mask.

Hearing Sunraku’s exclamation, Miu’s brows creased slightly as she was reminded of her impulse to become a Devil. She knew it was best to avoid shortcuts if she wanted to preserve her martial spirit and stay on the path of the righteous, but if she had become Rias’s or Ravel’s Rook, she could barrel through whatever Sunraku threw her way and move one step closer to being able to compete with and surpass women like Xenovia.

’Now isn’t the time to be distracted...’ Miu told herself, inhaling through her nose and exhaling slowly from her mouth as she gradually lowered herself into a relaxed, knees-bent posture with her feet spread wide, her right hand extended, and her left tucked near her hip, shaped like a claw. Then, invisible to the naked eye, air coiled around her limbs, particularly her forearms and thighs, as she stimulated the Dou Ki within her body and compressed it within her limbs like high-tension springs.

’Well, that’s ominous...’ noted Sunraku, narrowing his eyes behind his mask as, above Miu’s head, the text [Atk Increased], [Def Increased], [Spd Increased], [Focus Increased], and [Crit Rate Increased] appeared in quick succession. He didn’t know what kind of Skill Miu was using, but it was clear she was preparing to end things.

Deciding he would rather not wait around to see what Miu had planned, Sunraku produced a coiled scroll with a red tassel and formed a seal with his hands, the scroll balancing atop his thumbs. As he did, his scattered shadow condensed beneath his feet, becoming a pool of shadowy black liquid that surged up his legs and spread to the rest of his body before he melted into it, disappearing completely.

’More tricks...’ Miu grumbled internally, her brows creased and blue eyes focused as she scanned her surroundings. She was gradually coming to respect Sunraku’s perseverance and adaptability, but that didn’t make his actions any less frustrating.

"Below...!" shouted Miu, leaping backward as Sunraku emerged from her shadow, spinning rapidly and producing a helixical tempest with a pair of large, gale-green daggers in hand.

"Rising Tempest—" shouted Sunraku, reaching the apex of his attack’s arc before twisting his body with his hands and daggers trailing behind him as he appended, "—into Fire Dragon’s Descent!"

Swinging both of his daggers along the same arc, their surfaces igniting with bright orange flames, Sunraku formed a fiery projectile in the shape of a winged dragon that descended toward Miu. The temperature of the flames reached close to 3,000°C within the dragon’s maw, but Miu stood her ground, her blue eyes gleaming with resolution.

’Furinji Style—Rending Spear...!’ Miu exclaimed internally, pulling her right hand back as if it were attached to her left by a pulley, causing the latter to shoot forward and air to spiral rapidly around her forearm as she spun her hand as if gripping space itself. There were no spatial distortions, but as her Dou Ki mixed with the air, twined together, and surged forward, the flames that came into contact with it were drawn into it, forming a coiling, white-hot spear aimed at Sunraku’s chest.

’Well, fu—’ started Sunraku, his thoughts cut off as the spear pierced his chest, causing his vision to cut out briefly before he found himself seated on a sofa in what appeared to be a luxury viewing box with steel grey and white furniture, carpeted floors, and a fully stocked bar.

"What the hell...?" Sunraku asked aloud, looking around to see if there was anyone else present. When he saw that there wasn’t, he got up and made his way over to the slanted window, leaned forward with his hands on the wooden railing, and looked out over the stadium. The view caused him to experience a wave of vertigo, but it quickly passed as he adopted a smile behind his mask and sighed, "What a woman..." while focusing his gaze on the distant Miu.

"Indeed..." hummed a voice Sunraku vaguely recognized, causing him to tense before turning around to find Vahn standing behind the bar, smiling back at him.

"Wow, I wasn’t expecting a meeting with the Big Boss himself," remarked Sunraku, his throat tensing slightly, but his tone and demeanor casual as he approached the bar and took a seat atop a white leather stool, asking, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Shaking his head, Vahn answered, "You’re the first within your bracket to be eliminated completely. I’m here to explain what you can spend or trade in your Rank Points for."

Sweeping his right hand over the bar’s counter, Vahn produced a row of pear-sized crystals in a ROYGBIV arrangement, each emitting yellow light from their core.

Recognizing the crystals, Sunraku raised his right brow behind his mask, crossed his arms, and noted, "D-Rank Stat-Enhancement Crystals? I’ve never seen them this large and luminous."

Shaking his head a second time, Vahn revealed, "Though they look very similar, these aren’t Stat-Enhancement Crystals. Rather, they’re D-Rank Skill Crystals, an exceedingly rare item that, when consumed, grants the user a suitable Skill between F and D-Rank depending on their capacity to absorb the stored energy."

"Then, what’s with the colors...?" asked Sunraku, his curiosity sufficiently piqued.

"As a Gamer, you should be aware that Skills are generally tied to specific stats," answered Vahn, clarifying, "In other words, if you consume the red crystal, you will acquire a Skill that is either related to Strength or benefits from it. And the higher the associated parameter, the higher the chance of acquiring a D-Rank over an F-Rank Skill."

"Alright, I’m reading you..." affirmed Sunraku, offering a curt nod before getting straight to the point, asking, "So, how much are they? I doubt I can pick all seven."

"On the contrary," countered Vahn, adopting a broad smile as he pointed out, "You received five Rank Points by being the first within your bracket to enter the arena. You then lost two to challenge Riko before acquiring an additional four for your successive victories. That leaves you with seven in total—same as the number of crystals."

"Are these the only prizes...?" asked Sunraku, excited by the prospect of acquiring seven new Skills but choosing not to get ahead of himself. This ended up being the correct decision as, in response to his question, Vahn brought up a window with a pearlescent white background reminiscent of an online shopping website. The Skill Crystals were unquestionably one of the better values, but as they were ultimately Gacha items, he only picked two—the Dex and Luck Skill Crystals—before investing his remaining five points into a VR Stasis Capsule resembling a spaceship...

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