Chapter 45: Path of the Shura (Part 1)

Haruki and Eris were surrounded by Amalgamated Grimm.

The Grimm were standing still. The part of them that was still human is telling them to stay put. The part of them that was Grimm was instinctively trying to run and survive.

The clash between the two was unworldly, Haruki uses brute strength to put pressure on the other. While Eris uses her skill honed from countless of battles to fend off his attacks.

They both tried to make some distance away from each other.

Eris gave Haruki a mocking stare, she raised her eyebrows.

"Lord Pride thought it's important to take measurements against you... our sole enemy who could even threaten us, and yet I find you...

lacking."

Haruki smirked, He raised his blade and pointed it towards Eris.

"I've dealt with your kind before, and I've put him in the ground.

Soon you'll be joining them."

He spun his blade, he held it in an reverse grip.

He charged towards Eris, As he neared He spun his blade.

Eris parried, Haruki was relentless on his strikes.

Eris noticed something, He was using a different style each time he strikes, mixing it up to confuse her.

He kept the pressure on, His mournful vengeance tripled his damage output every fourth strike. But Eris parried all of it, she felt the weight on his attacks.

But she just shrugged it off, she just redirected the force from his blade to their surroundings.

"What's this? You rely too much on brute strength behind your strikes, I'm quite disappointed... if you could beat corvus into that state I was expecting you to put up a fight..."

Haruki just shrugged his shoulders, "I kinda expected that you're strong... after all you are Pride's Sinner... But that arrogance is exactly why... it'll cost you..."

He attacked once more, Faster this time.

Eris was surprised, He was using his mixed style efficiently, it was like he has been using this for years.

"What's wrong Eris? That was only a warm-up..."

Eris scoffed, She closed her eyes...

Silence dominated the battlefield, The Grimm that stood behind her, as if they were disappearing.

His senses telling him to ignore everything else, Just focus on the opponent right in front of you.

She was strength.

She was Power.

She was skill itself.

She was just standing there and yet the battle aura that she exudes was far greater than any that he has seen.

Haruki's expression turned glum. His hairs stood on end. His instincts telling him to run.

But he was frozen stiff, paralyzed. like a frog eyed by a predator.

Everything in his surrounding disappeared, he solely focused his attention towards Eris.

Eris opened her eyes, She immediately disappeared.

Her stab reached the limits of speed and surprise, There was basically no leeway for Haruki to dodge. However, in what appeared to be the same instant, Haruki swerved his upper body into an arc, Evading the incoming stab.

But In the next instant the second stab was already underway, then the third, it took Eris twenty stabs to finally injure Haruki.

He got stabbed in his shoulders, Grimacing from the pain. He summoned his void bats to consume the other Grimm to heal him.

Eris stood still and watched in amusement.

"Don't you have other weapons? why don't you use them? and what about your semblance?"

Eris stabbed her sword towards the ground, "The power that's hiding inside you could bring peace to remnant... Only you could brave the horrors of the Sins, stand up to their power. Which is why you gotta die..."

Haruki slowly healed his injuries, and it seems as if Eris was waiting for him to finish healing and gaining strength.

Eris uprooted her sword from the ground, she waved it to remove the dirt.

"I will use other weapons if... and only if you use your own. Be it magic or a semblance I don't give a fuck. As long as you don't use other weapons or tricks, I won't be using mine."

Haruki said as he charged at Eris.

Eris received his blade, "You're going to battle me on pride!? You!? The proud man always wants to do the right thing is that it!? But you want to do it with your own strength? You're not fighting me then!! you're fighting with yourself!"

She kicked Haruki on the stomach as his strikes were countered.

Eris continued, "Pride is my domain!! Behind every argument lies someone's ignorance!"

Haruki laughed, "It's not pride it's Honor..."

Eris laughed, "Look around you!! You stand among the ashes of a trillion dead souls, and ask the ghosts if honor mattered...

Their silence is your answer."

Haruki stood up, Eris's expression darkened...

"You still try and fight!? You've already lost! you are no match from me! Unless you throw away that meaningless pride of yours! you won't be able to fight me!"

Haruki Gripped his blade, "Are you really telling me to let go of pride to fight you? a sinner of pride lecturing me about being humble!? How ironic is that?"

Eris waved her arms around, "Pride is a personal commitment. It is an attitude which separates excellence from mediocrity."

Haruki activated his lightning form, And tried to strike Eris from behind.

At this moment , Eris's body suddenly turned dim as she did a backflip. His strike missed the target once more, And Eris stabbed her blade towards the ground to do a backflip once more, trying to increase the distance between them.

Haruki immediately gave chase, He used his lightning form once more, They traded blades. Haruki was using his fastest speed to strike but it was met by Eris's blade each time.

Haruki bellowed,"Well where's that semblance or any trace of magic? it's only fair if you show yours..."

Eris laughed, "Semblance? Magic? Special weapons? I don't have none of those... Ever since I was young I had none of those... I wasn't blessed by magic, nor was I blessed with a semblance...

An unlucky star... I was caged by my family! My only talent was the sword...

I never really anything to take pride in but my swordplay... and yet my father ignored all of this... He wanted me to be just an eye candy...I was shackled and caged. I was forbidden to interact with anyone, but my sister...

No one was to touch me except her... She was just like me, but she could roam outside freely her beauty was equal to her power..."

Eris was retelling her story as they clashed blades.

Haruki thought he could use this chance to distract and attack her but it was useless, her skill was unparalleled.

Eris continued, "She was my lucky star... and yet when the kingdom fell... I was stuck down there... The kingdom was burned to the ground by Salem's followers. I had to watch my sister get used and killed right in front of me as she tried to free me. But my cage was special... It was an ancient relic from the age of magic."

Eris's strikes we're getting more erratic. As her emotions slowly resurfaced.

"I was helpless!! I couldn't even save the only thing that kept me alive... So those bastards showed me... Everything they did...

What they did to her...

WAS UNFORGIVABLE!!!

She was like the sun on my dark days, but honestly every day was a dark day... being caged and all that.

Those monsters figured that they can't open it anyway... So I lay there motionlessly as I watch my sister plead and beg, only to be silenced by her own blood choking her..."

The feeling of helplessness... She has begun to feel non-existent. She had no strength to retaliate, as she lost the very reason that kept her alive all this time.

She gripped her sword Her strikes we're getting more and more ferocious.

Haruki was being backed into a corner.

"I couldn't even she'd any tears... maybe I cried for days, weeks... years... I don't know how long... it was probably a thousand or more... This accursed mark made me watch my sister become nothing but bones, forever stuck there to stare at her cold corpse...

I asked for help until my throat dried up... yet no one could hear me buried by the ashes of days gone by, That was who I was... That was what I am... I was nothing... to anyone. to everyone.

Then the cage finally couldn't stand the test of time...

I was set loose, my hatred for the world was set loose, as I stared at the remains of my sister... the reminder of my pain. I realized those that killed her were long dead.

I had no purpose, so why was I even set lose? what was the point?

I was... I am disgusted by the selfish brutality of the world."

As she was talking Haruki managed to get a hit in.

Eris was wounded on her cheek, blood slowly trickled down.

She held her face, anger surfaced from her expression.

She stared at Haruki as she stared at the blood she wiped from her face.

The structure of the human body possessed many restrictions, even if one excelled in skills and techniques, anyone would be at wits end when facing something much stronger...

But Eris wasn't like this, Even beneath her anger and hatred, She was smiling madly.

It was the first time someone has lasted this long In a battle against her...

Even against terrifying monsters she never backed down, she wanted to experience the thrill of being so close to death, She enjoyed the feeling of death.

Her longing for it, amplified by her longing for her sister...

Then suddenly as the two were clashing blades.

*Crack!*

Her blade was smashed, broken into pieces... this wasn't her first blade, but every time it breaks she would choose a traditional long sword, no extra gimmicks just a normal blade.

Eris looked at Aergia, She sighed as she tossed another Long sword towards Eris.

Eris caught the blade and vanished into thin air once more.

*Clang clang clang*

Haruki had to use lightning form to even keep up.

"Everytime that I fight I'm always giving it my all!! That is my pride! My trait! So if you're still holding back you better go all out! For not even once did I hold back."

Haruki was silent, he realized that Eris wasn't holding back at all, He was only insulting her pride by holding back.

He Turned into a jet black werewolf, he summoned warmonger as his mournful vengeance slowly disappeared.

He immediately sent a punch towards Eris, she ducked and sent a kick to his stomach.

Haruki stepped back to soften the damage but she was already dashing towards him.

They traded blows but even after all this Haruki was still forced to be on the defensive.

Haruki was thrown backwards.

He slowly stood up as he spat out blood.

"Sigh... even after all this I'm still no match for your sword play..."

He undid his transformation, and stretched his muscles.

"Are you giving up?"

Eris narrowed her eyes, seemingly dissatisfied by the outcome.

Haruki shook his head, "No... it's something that I am really reluctant to use... it's sealed inside of me... deep down. Caged along with my past filled with bloodshed.

It was a style taught to me, power of destruction. Murdering everyone for the sole sake of getting more power...

It exists only because it is fueled by conflict itself..."

Neo and the others went closer to observe their battle after clearing the Grimm blocking the way.

What they saw was a different Haruki all together.

It was his past self that was drowned in blood and despair, it was as if a switch was flipped.

His atmosphere, his entire being went cold.

"Old man... it seems I have to use this again."

He exhaled and opened his eyes.

Eris shuddered, it was like she was fighting a different person all together.

Haruki slowly stepped forward, and yet every step he took shook the atmosphere.

It was heavy it was as if they were drowning in blood, hatred, and killing intent.

Haruki clenched his fist, and sent a punch towards Her.

Boom!*

The air shook, Eris dodged but she was sent flying backwards.

She was shocked, His strike was different.

It was a technique Haruki has used for the longest time.

The Path of Blood.

The Path of Carnage.

The Path of Shura.