11 Chapter 11

Long before the start of the battle, Hiro had noticed his lack of weapons. Anyone could guess how much power that old rusty katana had. But being the person to go against it, made him all the more nervous. His instincts screamed at him to run for his life but Hiro was determined to win this duel. He just needed to somehow figure out how to make his weapons.

"You are entirely dependent on your imagination and mental energy in the battle. While you can create methods to generate other forms of energy, your mental energy is essentially important. But sadly we don't have any practical way to improve your mental energy. The only way to get past the issue is to zap it out of you and continue to increase your reserves. So prepare yourself, cause here I come!!"

Vi knew that he couldn't use more than 15% of his full power on Hiro but seeing the look in his eyes, he felt as if Hiro would be able to overcome him even at half of his power. Feeling excited about teaching Hiro who may very well surpass him, Vi decided to enjoy this battle to the fullest. In the next moment, Vi kicked the ground so hard that the pristine floor below developed many spiderweb cracks on it. His momentum generated a huge shockwave in the air as Vi became a black blue moving at insane speeds in the vicinity.

Imperceptible to normal eyes, Vi drove towards Hiro's head, funny intending to finish this scuffle in a single strike.

But Hiro was quick on the uptake as he imagined the detailed structure of his weapon while willing his draconian supersenses into existence. Almost instantly the pupils and iris of his eyes started shrinking until they became horizontal slits that were reptilian in nature.

Vi seemed to slow down even if it was for an infinitesimal second. Hiro quickly acted as he brought his left hand and elbow to his front in a guarding stance. But knowing his bare hands would get decimated from the sword strike, Hiro quickly devised another plan. Almost in the next instant, the black T-shirt Hiro was wearing started morphing. A green circle adorned with a number 10 on it had suddenly popped in the chest area of the shirt. Seemingly followed by it, bright green bands had latched themselves onto the end of the sleeves as well as the round- collar of the shirt. Another one had descended downwards after meeting the circle in the middle until the hem of the black shirt. But Hiro failed to notice these changes as his body had already started changing according to his needs. The skin on his legs had exploded outwards before seemingly rearranging themselves to gain a yellow metallic sheen as two miniature vents emblazoned themselves onto the calf of his legs, moreover, the sole of his feet had turned into steel color as his feet and had become longer, retaining only three claw-like digits. But the most important change has occurred in his left arm. Previously where stood an arm made of flesh and bone, now stood a large angular arm made entirely of extremely hard turquoise diamonds.

Hiro had not been surprised as he had expected the changes. But still, what did surprise him was that he could still feel everything through his almost rectangular fingers. These transitions had not taken a single second but they had zapped nearly 4/5th of his energy. And he was already low on reserves.

It might not occur to Hiro but Vi had waited. He had waited just to see what the boy before him could do, what gimmicks he had under his sleeve. And sure, Hiro was not one to disappoint.

Vi had watched the transition happen and change Hiro. He had been impressed at how fast the boy could change. But that could not warrant him going easy on the chosen one.

"On Guard", Vi sped even faster and seemingly appeared in front of him out of nowhere, arms outstretched, holding a flaming katana. It seemed his teacher had a thing for Samurais.

<Sling>A horizontal slash seemed to cut through the air, powerful enough to sizzle the very molecules of his body. The part of the space that did take the strike was simply deleted, everything, dust, air particles and all, deleted from existence.

<Swoosh><Swish>

Before Vi could strike, Hiro had dug up a heavy shield and allowed it to settle to the ground to fully absorb the impact. But could anyone ever hope to fool being like Vi?

His strong "master" had seen through his trick completely as if he was reading a book and sidestepped while also moving forward automatically changing his attack to a swift vertical slash. Hiro wasn't ready for the sudden change of momentum though as he bumbled with his shield, quickly realizing he had made the shield a little too heavy for use.

From there it had been a game of cat and mouse. Vi would strike with precision, keeping himself as unpredictable as a mongoose. And as for Hiro, he would simply try to dodge the attacks. With a heavy emphasis on 'try'.

<Boom!!!>

Hiro held his shield against the seemingly unstoppable blow, slightly relieved he wasn't a stain on the floor.

However, such a thing is very short-lived. Vi's katana seemed to snake into his opening, to where his arm attached itself to his shoulder. To Hiro, it seemed more like a ribbon than a rigid steel katana.

He grew dismayed.

Even in this mock battle, his teacher didn't seem to show any mercy.

<Rip> You could probably guess what happened next.

"AAAARGGGHHHHH", his arm was ripped off from his body. It landed on the floor next to him, making a squish like a piece of dead flesh. Debris and dust flew in all directions. Hiro's body along with with his shield was thrown back several meters. As the cloud cleared out, it showed Hiro's barely standing figure sweating bullets. As the pain seized him, trying to blind him, Hiro with a colossal effort still managed to retain a fearless smile on his face. He would not show weakness in front of his soon-to-be 'master'.

He has just now begun to understand the full implications of Vi's actions. All of this, was definitely a presentation, a starter pack of the things he was about to face in the future, about the things that would come hurling his way, trying to knock the literal life out of him.

Seeing Hiro in a battered state, Vi had felt he had gone a little over the top. He thus disengaged his stance and approached Hiro. Hiro's entire body tensed up seeing Vi walk toward him, fearing another devastating blow, Hiro brought up the only hand he had left and formed a shield on it. But when Vi let his sword vanish, it confused Hiro. Hiro for a moment felt as if the battle had ended and became complacent. But as soon as he dropped his guard, Vi's voice came up from his behind. Hiro didn't even have time to face Vi as he spoke up, proving the Vi who had walked to him was just a mere illusion, "You have to focus on every detail in the battles. Dropping your guard was never an option. So be it a friend or a foe, always be ready to take action for/against at a moment's notice."

Hiro thus saw a fist drawing closer to his face. But as it was about to contact, the world suddenly lost its color. Hiro realized that this one was the same situation as the one during the robbery.

He felt as if he was viewing the world from a separate perspective as he saw his face mere inches away from Vi's fist.

This one would have been a pretty good ability had he had the power to move his body as even Vi had come to a standstill. But what should he do now that he was in this sort of metaphysical plane?

Should he wait or should he devise a plan?

He decided to wait. But as he suspected, seconds changed into minutes yet nothing happened. Next, he started inspecting several things and tried to devise a plan, but no luck there. His mind just drew a blank.

'Nothing I do is working. How in the world do I even get out of this place? Gosh, I really wish I was an anime protagonist now, being able to think your way out of anything was a really useful skill I definitely don't have'. Thus having nothing better to do, Hiro focused his mind, he tried to imagine being able to interact with the stuff on this plane. But as soon as he did so, Vi who seemed to have been frozen in time outstretched a hand and yanked him out of it. Like literally, yanked him out of his ability.

Such was the might of a guardian. Like imagine somebody powering up a devastating ability and you just slap them in the face and smash and pummel them on the ground before they can even understand what happened.

The world quickly regained its vigor leading Hiro to believe it was some kind of hidden talent that allowed you to analyze your options in dire straits. But it was useless if he didn't have the power to do it properly.

<Screen Freeze>

"That's some nice little shit you got there. Almost caught me off guard.", Vi seemed not fazed by it at all. However, Hiro didn't have any time to think further as more words spilled out of Vi's mouth. The seemingly composed guardian had lost his composure, and an annoying old geezer had taken his place.

"Now since you have oh so gracefully shown me your powers, I guess I must respond in the same". Hiro really didn't like the amused smile that seemed to appear on Vi's face.

Though Hiro tried to find a solution, eventually he couldn't help but accept, "This is gonna hurt and a lot!!"

<Boom!!!>

The last thing Hiro saw was a shining light followed by Infi's arrival and Vi's painful howls. As unconsciousness claimed him he muttered with a smile on his face thinking, "I have finally found my family again....."