20: Chains (IV): Immovable

It was not a wise decision at all. The guy in front of him was so famous that an orphanage nobody had heard his name a handful of times since he was little. Anyway, he couldn't think of a better one either.

With his first stretch of land the margin of error in his plan depended on how much more time he could get. Layd took a deep breath. Ten more minutes, and that guy won't be able to exist near them at all, when he gets to the his second extension.

Echsos and Natsume waited. If Garyon tries to get to them first, he would have to go through Layd's area. They would not run away. They trusted him.

"Do you believe/"

Layd didn't hesitate to act at Garyon's first sign of aggression, while the old man in his forties roared like a bastard mule, he retracted his arms with open palms upwards, inhaled and expanded his chest to invoke his first technique; he stretched his arms to the center and crossed them after turning his palms.

On command, stakes were knocked off the ground straight into the air, an imitation of the hail that once struck his town. They weren't very precise, but Garyon fell silent, frustrated at having to move to dodge each one on tap.

It didn't give him time to notice the trajectory of each of the pointy rocks so his attention wandered along with his gaze into the air, just as the cheeky Layd had planned. He performed another similar stance —this time with clenched fists —, he leaned to the left with his right arm in the initial stance and summoned his next attack in the form of a mound of earth that was accumulating in the shape of a wheel by turning a couple of times around him and then go away with the gesture of a full-torso hit.

Garyon was more than five meters from Layd —eight and a half to be exact —so Layd would lose control of the wheel as soon as he reached the limit.

After making sure the wheel shot as far as possible out of his range, Layd shifted his focus entirely a second time. He spread his palms in front of her and closed his eyes; little by little the expression on his face changed to a horrible grimace of discomfort due to an immense tension in his muscles. Cracks were heard from the ground that caught the attention of Garyon who just noticed the huge meter and half wheel that was coming down on him from the left without having finished the stakes on the sky of him. First it was Layd's left arm, then the right, then the left again, repeat the right and restart the cycle. The earth rose close to his palms and when he lowered them a wave of earth was formed challenging the state of the same, resembling a non-Newtonian fluid. It cost him because his objective was beyond making the ground look like water, he wanted those waves to reach the feet of that psychopath, who will exceed his range limit, even if he lost control or lasted little. Which he did.

So it was necessary to follow a plan. Forcing your opponent to be on the defensive, relegating him to being concerned about his safety rather than noticing the weaknesses of his resonance. Create a situation in which the minimum of mistakes leads the enemy to suffer severe damage.

Trembling, projectiles, and a rolling mace, Layd's attacks weren't the product of anger, despair, or a hollow desire to finish off his opponent. Garyon frowned, he hated having to deal with those kind of people, the clever ones.

Layd didn't have the occasion to tell Seng, Echsos and Natsume how he trained his resonance. The truth, he was always terrible perceiving his soul, the spiritual did not go with him.

That is why he dedicated entire weeks of his life to sitting in one place, feeling every touch of the elements around him, trying to differentiate and witness the minute changes that existed on this earthly plane. For a month it was impossible for him to notice the little things, minute details like the tracks of an ant completely passed him. However, after several months in that place, he was able to differentiate the size of certain sand mounds that had been affected by the wind during the course of the day.

Maybe he was lucky. He doesn't know, Layd is not one of those who support the party that the resonances are decided from the beginning or that they come from lived experiences.

Nonetheless, he is grateful.

And he thinks to use that gift of manipulating the earth in his favor, even if it costs him to spend long hours connecting with the terrain and a few eternal and painful seconds to command it.

Layd's plan has always been the same. Dedication and perseverance, no respite, no downtime, no wasted opportunity.

Layd didn't even get a good look at the incredible waves he made, focused on what was necessary: ​​performing his next move, another technique.

"Don't think I'm going to fucking stop" he wheezed, ready for a second lethal succession.

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The gentle whistle of the wind whipped their hearts, that measly second was all the rest they both had. The next moves were the ones that would determine the outcome of the duel. None of them had held back until then, they had only made mistakes blinded by their overconfidence, why do it now?

Eheron didn't have the opportunity to appreciate Seng's figure in detail, however, he knew that the situation was mutated by the strange feeling of discomfort that caused his knuckles to itch. Behind that tree Seng assimilated the shape of a shadowy coyote —a product of his need to visualize what his shadow will be in order to control it— ready to raze Eheron's neck.

The two performed their first action in unison, the chains retracting in what Eheron determined was the most likely direction Seng would move, Seng gritted his teeth accepting the cruel reality that befell him and continued to circle the trees just like Eheron. predicted.

If there is a flaw or weakness that can be emphasized in Seng's shadows, it is that they are tied to their natural origin; if the light is coming from above they are below, if it is coming from the front it is behind, so no matter how much you want to use a couple of cool tricks you have to stay on the path that you know will cause no anomaly, to achieve your goal.

He advanced steadily and received a strong impact from a chain, although he was about to dodge it —that other Eheron resonance was a pain in the ass —, he choked out the cry of pain and rage and ignored the presence of the chain to move on.

"Ah... so you'll do that." Eheron's pride was squeezed as if someone had sullied his effort, the time it took him to learn and perfect his technique. "Fuck you!"

That's right, Seng's plan was to gain the upper hand by grossly reducing the distance between them. Attack, not defend. That's why he was going to use his shadow to force his body to move, of course he won't hesitate to dodge attacks if possible, but he really didn't care at this point.

And that made Eheron furious.

Eheron pulled hard on the chains, roughly brushing Seng's back without being able to stop him. Is he going to ignore them? SO DO IT!

He reaffirmed himself on the ground, he wasn't going to back down. It was a challenge that he was not going to lose.

Three meters for Seng to reach him.

Eheron flapped the chains like a beast. The first blow came from the right, Seng jumped believing that he would avoid her while still approaching, however, that attack was a feint to connect the real blow that came unexpectedly from the other side through the ground. The shock was such that Seng had no choice but to stop using his muscles and rely on his shadow not to stop, which brought dire consequences.

One, two, three, four, face, neck, foot, head, arm, shoulder, eleven, twelve, thirteen, knee, heel, foot, chest, eighteen, nineteen... In less than three seconds, in what it took to Seng walking alone with his shadow about two meters, Eheron gave him as many blows as he could imagine.

Seng's shadow did not detach from his body and on the contrary, he managed to make him get up with a good speed straight to the wretch with the chains.

It hurt…

He heard something inside him crack several times and felt it even more.

It burns...

His silver eyes were ringed red with irritation. He had made it. He was in front of Eheron, it was the moment he fought for, the opportunity to strike back.

Why hadn't he used that Berserker tactic to flee? If he could do it to advance clear that he was also capable of the opposite and even he could be left with fewer injuries, perhaps even resume his first plan. As strange as it sounds, Seng thought about that and aware of the meaning of his choice, he didn't hesitate to close the distance for one reason:

TO BREAK THE FACE OF THAT MOTHERFUCKER IDIOT!!!

The endurance duel was not only in Eheron's mind; it was Seng's as well. Seriously, seriously, seriously he wasn't going to allow himself to run away like a coward when his rival dared to take that cocky stance and not back down.

Being less than a meter away, Seng pushed the shadow away from his face —revealing a fiery laugh and each of the gaping wounds on his face — and stretched out his arms at the same time as the shadow to catch Eheron. He bit his tongue in frustration at failing to kill him, felt him stomp on his pride a second time, and carried out his last resort.

Instead of backing down and trying to avoid Seng, he moved his chains with such force that they began to encircle them both in a wide circumference.

"Are you going to tie us together? Well, let's do it! " Eheron's neck was almost in his hands, yet it didn't take Seng long to realize the mistake that always possessed his plan.

Seng's euphoric expression disappeared as Eheron stretched his arms down and behind him as he took that slight leap back. The chains tightened and closed that circle of death, trespassing its owner and leaving Seng in chains.