Chapter 48: Wolf in a pit (2)

#

Both of our strikes are now also accompanied by our persona striking each other, to the others we're simply exchanging attacks, but to those with trained eyes, and those who had seen the other world, knew what's happening.

"Tch, you're still holding back huh? I'll show you how much I've grown."

Holding back? I'm giving my all here.

His attacks got heavier and more aggressive after calling forth Tsukuyomi, matching his strikes head on is tiring me out and numbing my arms. Even with Izanagi's help it seems that it's still barely enough.

Well I must admit that Izanagi is a bit outmatched.

A sound of glasses scattering can be heard, as I switched out Izanagi to Hanuman. Immediately I can feel a bit better taking his attacks head on. It seems that my persona affected my swordplay somewhat as I spin my katana around between strikes, it's a lot more playful than usual.

We exchanged a lot more blows than before, as my persona can finally match his head on. I can see Hanuman having fun, his smile is reflected on my face as I also somehow enjoying our duel.

"Damn you're a cheat you know that."

I have no comment on that, you're the one who brings out Tsukuyomi first.

Another overhead strike comes my way as I backstepped, after his katana is swung, I step on his katana, breaking it and nimbly stabs towards his torso. He dodged to the side, to trap my katana in his arms, to then strike it with his other arm, breaking mine.

"Ha… it's frustrating that even with all that training I still wasn't able to beat you in swordplay. But I won't lose in a fist fight."

I can see Tsukuyomi also sheeted her sword as she's giving me a 'come at me' gesture.

Me and hanuman responded in kind, with hanuman sheeting his, and I got into my stance.

As usual Sakamoto took the first move as he rushed towards me grabbing my gi, he intended to throw me, I simply strike his hands which are holding my gi, before holding it tightly. Surprisingly, amidst all that he lifted me all the way up, before intending to slam me down towards his back.

I was ready for the throw as before I jumped up myself before the backwards slamming motion. And before he brought down my body, I was already on my feet, using my whole body strength I threw him away instead, slamming him to the cage.

He recovered mid air, his legs reached the cage as he uses it to spring himself towards me. Coming in for a punch, as he was in mid air, I waited for the last second before ducking down dodging his aerial maneuver.

As I heard a *thud* I can confirm that he hit the ground.

"Hey What's with that dodge! Can't you take it like a man?"

I sweat dropped at that statement.

But Sakamoto doesn't relent as he immediately jumps my way and does a jumping side kick.

I managed to block his strike by raising both of my hands to protect my head, since he's still in mid air, I replied in kind as I sent a kick of my own towards his body that's still in mid air.

My kick hit his body, but he managed to recover mid air. Landing softly on his feet.

"Damn this is not getting anywhere."

I have to agree to his statement, none of us is getting the edge in this confrontation. As we both rushed and met in the middle of the arena again, before long our confrontation continued as I suddenly felt the urge to step back.

Listening to my instincts, I jumped back quickly.

Thankfully I listened to my instinct as I notice now there's two wooden katanas thrown from outside the arena, one landing by my side and the other landing by Sakamoto's.

"Tch I missed."

"Age must have caught up to you gramps."

"You missed too."

"Intentionally."

I heard those murmurs from our VIP stand. I can imagine it's Akira and Isshin sensei throwing us katanas, urging us to fight with those instead of using fists. Both of us quickly picked up the thrown katana.

""[[Charge!]]""

Both of us charged our power at the same time. The air around us turned heavy. Our physical specs rise sharply after the buff. Sakamoto had the same thought as me, ending the duel with a final move.

I took my usual stance, with my sword by my side, facing sideways, ready to intercept at a moment's notice. Sakamoto on the other hand, took a lai stance. With his blade 'sheathed'.

Both of us felt the 'signal' at the same time, the indescribable feeling of completing the 'charge'. Sakamoto rushes at me with speed faster than before.

The first blow came from the right, I met his blade head on.

Like fire, his blade filled with vigor, came at me again for another blow. This time it's a horizontal rising slash. I placed my blade in front of his, but I let myself get carried by his momentum, the lack of resistance shocked him, as he almost lost his balance. I made the same vertical slash, using his earlier momentum as my own.

With pure instinct, he jumps back away from me, but I manage to hit him with the edge of my blade, evident by the blood oozing out from his forehead.

Not bothering to check for damages, Sakamoto simply rushed at me again. This time he's abandoning all defense, and all technique from before.

Then he jumped, his acceleration was too fast, and his angle of attack was good, I might not be able to dodge. Then there's only one thing I can do, I held my sword in a lai stance just as he did previously.

"NARUKAMI!"

"SAKAMOTO!"

(WN: NARUTO!

SASUKE!)

*Bang*

---

Akira Pov:

*Bang*

A loud sound reverbs towards the whole arena. What's with this display of skills? I get it we're in japan but shouting like that is just.... Embarrassing.

Both fighters stood side by side after that exchange. Skilled viewers could already tell who wins and who loses. Moments later, Sakamoto's body felt limp, as he was held by Yu.

"Hey, did Yu win?" asks Yukiko, who looks like she had no clue what had just happened.

"Well it depends I guess. Yu did knock out Sakamoto, but his blade did break on that exchange. In essence Yu did win the match."

"Huh? What's a broken blade got to do with senpai winning?" asked Rise curious.

"Well let's put it this way. If you wage war, then won, but only to have all your troops die in process, is it still a victory?" I answered

"It's more than that though, It seems that Sakamoto had almost reached sword intent. If only for a split second. He still did. While Yu on the other hand, displays superior calmness."

"Huh sword Intent? Like all those Wuxia novels I've been reading? Those are real?" Asks Chie with eyes sparkling.

"It's as true as your Personas and mine."

"Hmmm! I don't believe you, Prove it! Otherwise for all I know you're just teasing Chie and telling lies." Rise said with a demanding tone.

"Hmmmm, how do I prove my intent. Mine is not sword intent you know"

"See, Chie, he's trying to scam us."

Wait you guys have personas, use touki on a daily basis, even sometimes intent, but don't believe it.

Suddenly as if someone heard my conversation, which I'm sure the florist did. The announcer suddenly announces:

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, since we're still scheduling the Gold bracket fights, we have an exhibition match for you all. Courtesy of the Demon King Himself."

As all the stage lights gather and point in my direction.

"The Demon King Issues a challenge, whoever wants to try to take his life, right here and now, step into the ring."

OOH. I hate people putting words inside my mouth but this, I like this.

"Hey, what's he talking about?"

"Yeah, you can't just announce something like that"

"I'll help you complai---"

"It's alright." Said a voice not mine. It seems Yu's back.

"Watch closely Yu."

He nodded.

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# Chapter 48.5: The Demon in a pit / trapped with the demon.

I stepped into the Fighting Ring. to my surprise, there's quite a number of people here, I counted 12. All of them are foreign threats. It seems the florist is doing his job quite well,luring out foreign threats. I can only hope TJC and OA can take advantage of this and trace them back to their hiding place.

As to why there's 12, it seems that my head has a nice price tag on it. I removed my shirt and suit, no point in getting them dirty. With my back laid bare. The commentator started to comment:

"Now will you look at that irezumi, it seems fitting for a Demon King don't you think?"

As I see the cameras Zoom into my Irezumi, the demonic scorching skeletal Figure with six arms, is laid bare for the world to see.

"Brothers today, Akira Dojima, Demon King of Osaka, Butcher of traitors, will finally have a chance to prove his worth. Within a short time, he managed to finalize the peace treaty between TJC and OA, but no one has ever seen him fight. "

"This is a special match, a match to death. No surrender, your life is the winners to decide. If anyone wants to step down now is the time."

Seeing no one stepped down, the familiar steel cage fell.

"It's nothing personal Kid."

Said one of the mobs.

"Poor choice of last words." I said as I took my fighting stance.

A *bang* from a gong is heard signaling the start of the round.

"!"

I rushed forward to the closest man, before he had time to react, I already struck his abodemen with my elbow. The force bent the man into a position which looks like the letter 'C'. I proceed to smash both sides of his head with my fists, before dragging his head to my knees.

(WN: I tried describing it. It came out strange)

*Bang*

The sound of impact resounded to the whole colosseum.

"It's nothing personal. Just know that your blood will be the Ink on which my message shall be written."

It seems that a few of the fighters knew each other as they sent out waves of fists and kicks at me, some finally drawing their hidden weapons, be it knives, batons or …. wait, is that a Mace? Who uses mace in this day and age.

The man with a knife tries to gut my stomach with a reversed grip. I felt bad for the knives. But this is a show so I must be flashy. When the knife came for me, I simply pinned his arm with my knee and elbow. I heard a *crack*.

Taking advantage of my unusual stance, another man came towards me with a sword, he came from my back. It would've been deadly. I stepped aside from The man whose arm I cracked just a moment ago.

As the blade came, I readied my right fingers as if I wanted to chop someone, since this is a show, instead of stabbing the man, I stabbed the blade coming for me from the side, breaking it to pieces, shocking the man. It seems that his mind did not comprehend what just happened.

I quickly kicked his sheen with a sideways kick, sending him flying to the rest of the still standing fighters, while my legs were still extended, I angled it back, while twisting my whole body for extra force, kicking towards the man whose arm I just snapped a moments ago sending him flying towards the other end of the ring.

A grappler sneaked by my side and tried to bear hug me into submission, sadly for him, his moves are slow and telegraphed. Before the arm reached me I ducked, placed both my hands at the ground, and sent a powerful kick with both my legs to his head while doing a backflip, this made him fall backwards with a thud.

I then grabbed his leg, spun his body around before throwing him to the edge, thus clearing the middle portion of the arena.

The next fighter came towards me with tonfas, he's spinning it around, showing off. Thinking it will distract me as his friend came from behind and tried to hit me with a mace. Tried as he may, but what he's hitting isn't me, as I grabbed the fool spinning his tonfa by his hands. His tonfa didn't even tickle as my arms were hit a few times, it's cheating how much Romulus boosted my body's spec. After holding him tight I lifted him by the arms, then swung his body sideways and smashed his head towards the oncoming mace, releasing his body after, sending my other assailant off with another kick towards both of them.

A burly man came at me when I was taking a breather with a baseball bat, swinging it sideways to hit my gut, not my head, smart. I simply tanked the hit. He smiled as if he had done something great. But too bad. I didn't even feel the pain. I just locked his arms that swung the bat with mine, and pounded his head with my free arm.

*bang* The first strike is enough to knock him out. But I did it again just because his hand is still firm holding onto the bat, you know what they said, make sure to double check.

* Bang * blood comes out from god knows where. As his hands finally let go of the bat.

Holding the bat that had been graciously given to me, I found a fool rushing towards me with reckless abandon. I made a motion of as if a hitter was trying to hit a ball, this only made him cross his arms, but didn't stop the rush. When he's close enough, I sidestepped a little, when he realized he missed me it's too late. As I had his head on an inverted headlock from his back, I brought his whole body upwards from a headlock. To then bring his whole frame down face first performing a brainbuster.

"Is this all you got?"

I said that as I rushed towards the closest man, the shock on his face is evident as I grabbed his whole body by his wrist and thigh and place him on top of my shoulders, a fire-man carry. I then slammed him on the side.

The rest are still in shock of what I did. More than half of the original participating contestants are already out, either dead or crippled.

Those who are still standing have mostly lost their will to fight. Ending it quickly I performed a few more wrestling moves I know, the DDT, Full Nelson Slam, a giant's swing.

--

And finally, the last man stood before me, waiting for his execution it seems. But I like the fire in his eyes. They're still burning with a fighting spirit. It seems that the last man is a contender of the diamon bracket.

He seems to be a taekwondo practitioner, so JingWoo Mafia huh.

I simply give a come at me gesture.

He really came rushing. He kicks towards my face which I dodge by tilting my head, when he misses he forcefully brings down his raised leg, turning the miss into an axe kick.

I stood there letting the kick land to my shoulder, if it was any other person their shoulder would've dislocated. With his legs on my shoulder I held it tight with my right arm, but surprisingly he raised his other leg, locking me into a head scissor-leg lock, attempting to perform a takedown on me.

But too bad for him, he's too light to take me down with his body weight and momentum, so I just replied in kind by kicking his face which is conveniently placed right in front of my feet.

He tried to get away from me, but I still held his legs tight.

Grabbing his legs tightly with both my hands, I bring him up above me before slamming him down, it seems almost comical, I did it a couple more times until I got the hang of it. Ah hulk you always have the best part.

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# I dunno how it got to this point but it did. Don't thank me, thank youtube for suddenly recommending me wrestling moves. Or hate it, your choice.