Chapter 47: Icey Climax

The ice ball hovered in the sky remaining motionless. The sun poured down on the ball of ice. Mute intently stared at the ice ball watching it quiver. Mute feels a gust of energy engulf his body as the ice ball begins to separate. 

The ice ball transforms into thousands of fragile ice needles. The sheer amount of ice needles blocks out the sun, casting a shadow over the destroyed town. Mute stares at the needles until they start to slowly fall out of the sky like snowflakes. 

The needles fall slowly until they stop, and around a hundred needles suddenly create sonic booms as they appear in front of Mute's face in mere seconds. Mute activated his cursed technique blocking the needles. The needles lose momentum before falling, piercing the ground.

The needles start to glow a shiny blue before a massive explosion erupts engulfing Mute, Luckily Mute keeps his technique activated shielding himself from the explosion, a smoke cloud forms covering Mute before it quickly fades away from a powerful gust of wind, Mute stands in a crater unarmed looking up into the sky staring at the thousands of needles before the sound of footsteps enters his ears. Mute looks to his left and sees Fubaki walking towards him with a serious look on his face. 

There won't be any more talking. Fubuki has less than two minutes. He plans on ending things quickly. Mute glances to his right before seeing a half-intact building. A massive hole was blown into the right side of the house, Mute quickly shrinks the distance, appearing next to the hole, Fubuki waves his right hand sending a wave of needles toward Mute as he leaps into the house with hundreds of thoughts running through his mind...

This is not good, my body flips over a wooden table before I land on my stomach, I quickly push myself off the wooden floor until I hear two loud gasps, I snap my head up and stare at a middle-aged woman with black hair and a child. The woman held the child tightly in her grasp. I stared at them until I activated my technique after hearing needles pierce the roof above.

Before the woman could make a noise, a massive explosion erupted engulfing them and destroying their bodies into mere atoms. The house I was hiding in was gone. I gingerly stand back up while taking a deep breath. I glance around until I sense someone behind me. I twirl around and slip a kick from Fubuki's right leg.

When I fought Fubuki earlier using a scythe I realized that I could track his movement far more clearly. At the beginning after his transformation. I had to constantly use my innate technique to even keep up with him but his movements are becoming slower. Is the time limit finally affecting him?

Fubuki slams his right leg back on the ground before throwing a jab and an overhand. A sharp pain ripples through my forearm as the jab lands, before I lean my body to the right slipping the overhand, and throwing a counter hook. I twist my wrist and slam the hook into his chin. Fubuki stumbles forward before shaking his head and snapping his fingers. 

My hair blows in the wind as I hear thunderous sonic booms above me. I glance up before freezing hundreds of needles in the air. While looking up into the sky, I hear a single heavy footstep echo out. I start to lower my gaze until a white fist comes into my vision. The punch slams into my chest launching me into the air. 

My body crashes onto the ground and starts grinding across it. An intense pain engulfs my chest. Even with my insanely high pain tolerance, the pain is sharp, rippling through my body. There's no telling how many bones I have broken. While I slide across the ground, Fubuki steps forward shooting a massive barrage of ice towards me. 

I extend my arm out and snag onto a metal shingle sticking out of the ground. I point the thin shingle towards the approaching ice, until increasing its size, the enlarged shingle slices the barrage of ice in half. The lower part of the sliced ice comes to a grinding stop, as the upper portion flies above me, casting a shadow that engulfs my body. 

As the ice flew above me, Fubuki appeared directly in front of me. I raise my guard blocking a powerful punch until Fubuki breaks through my guard, slamming a knee into my lower jaw. The powerful knee launches me into the air. My body crashes through the ice above me, until I appear on the other side surrounded by hundreds of ice sickles floating in the sky. 

Hundreds of sonic booms happen in unison. The sonic booms surround me as hundreds of needles appear next to my skin, until I wave both of my arms shooting out a massive web of razor-sharp string. The string slices the needles into small fragments, the sun reflects off the destroyed needles making them glow, the glowing fragments encircle my body.

I glance through the fragments until they glow a dark blue. I cross my arms as the fragments explode engulfing my body in smoke. I started falling through the smoke cloud with some of my skin charred. I couldn't activate my technique in time. I fall towards the ground as the smoke warps off my body until in the corner of my eyes, a shiny object flies up to me before I can react. A sharp piece of ice cuts through the top of my forearm, slicing my string in half. The cut string falls off my arm as I stare at it in shock. 

I reach out my arm and start to shrink the distance between my arm and the string but before I can use my technique, I feel something tightly clutching onto the back of my head. I glance back and see Fubuki holding onto my head, My body goes flying through the smoke cloud as he violently slams me into the ground, He holds onto the back of my head before he starts to sprint forward dragging my face through the ground. 

My face slides across the ground as my mask starts to shatter. I see black pieces fly off until I reach up and grab onto Fubuki's forearm. I start to inject my cursed energy into his forearm before his forearm twists becoming mangled. I feel Fubuki's grasp weaken before I push off the ground spinning, as I slam my leg into my arm launching his hand off my head. 

Fubuki stumbles back with a shocked look on his face, as I roll onto my feet before slamming a punch into his chin morphing his face as his feet go sliding across the ground. Fubuki comes to a grinding stop. He locks eyes with me and is about to walk towards me until several cracks suddenly appear on his body. 

Fubuki stares at his body in shock. Looks like his time is coming to an end. There should be around 45 seconds left. Fubuki grits his teeth angrily before waving both of his arms forward crossing them. The sound of thousands of sonic booms ripples through the sky. I activate my technique as the needles near my body freeze, the other needles pierce into the ground. He's not aiming them, instead just blindly firing them. Looks like his condition is worse than it seems.

Beautiful orange explosions happen all around Fubuki and I, We glare at each other until we both take a step forward. I shrink the distance appearing directly in front of Fubuki. Fubuki and I clash fists as a shockwave ripples out. 

I feel a grin creep onto my face under my cracked mask. Fubuki and I exchange a fury of blows. Going punch for punch. I slam a powerful punch into Fubuki's chin making teeth fly out of his mouth, I throw a kick into his side before shrinking the distance between my knuckles and his body, slamming a punch into his solar plexus, Fubuki vomits out purple blood as he stumbles back crouching over.

His cursed energy is rapidly depleting, I throw a knee that slams into his nose rocking his head back, I shift to my weight throwing an overhand before a cube of ice slams into my side sending me stumbling back in pain, His movement and attacks have weakened, I watch as several more cracks appear on his pale skin. 

Before he grits his teeth angrily and slams his hands together creating a circle of ice directly in front of him, the circle flies toward me before I tap my right leg creating a stone wall. The two objects clash making a loud bang.

I start walking around the wall. The explosions from the needles have finally seized, the once flourishing small town is gone, turned into a complete wasteland of ashes and ice. I lock eyes with Fubuki. He's breathing heavily as sweat rolls down his cracked body. The white crown on his antlers slowly crumbles and disappears.

"Since you love giving history lessons how about I give you one, what is the curse of kings?

I say to him before reaching up to my hair and plucking out several pieces. I inject my hair with cursed energy creating a long black string. Fubuki glances down at the black string before extending his palm. A small ball of ice forms in his hand before it crumbles and falls to the ground. 

Fubuki glances at the ground annoyed. Looks like he can't maintain his ice anymore. I take a step before my body flickers appearing behind him, and the string dangles in front of his pale neck. Until I tightly yank it, wrapping it around his neck tightly. I press my knee on his back as purple blood leaks down his neck.

Fubuki grabbed onto my wrists trying to free my grasp but it was too late. Fubuki drops to his knees as he looks back at me. I lock eyes with him before grinning and talking.

"Throughout history. The one weakness of a king was arrogance. You could have killed me as soon as you transformed but instead, you told me your history like a dumbass. "

I say to him. He glared at me angrily until I violently yanked the strings. The string digs deeper into his neck before cleanly slicing his head off, blood spews out of his neck covering my face and body in purple, I stare at the headless body with a grin on my face.

On this day, the king of ice, Mō Fubuki was slaughtered...