The Village Disciples

Yuso was perplexed, to say the least. Currently, he was wedged into an asphalt road, lifting himself from the sizable divot his body created from the impact of his collision with the ground. His body stung. Tanjo's Disruption of Reality had once again knocked the Crimson Stalker back. Yuso's black kimono was hanging on by a thread, parts of his torso visible. 

After standing on his feet, Yuso glanced around, seeing and hearing citizens flee the area, sprinting in every direction that would distance them from the redhead. They were weak, mere particles that happened to inhabit Yuso and Tanjo's new battleground. 

Yuso had been quite lenient when battling the teenager. He truly did not believe that Tanjo would be capable of putting up much of a fight. However, in almost every instance that the Crimson Stalker pinned the boy up against death, he would have a surge of power expelled from his body, ultimately stunning Yuso for a few moments. 

'I've never seen a power like this. It has to be a curse of some sort. Whatever it is, the ability is not lightning.' Yuso mentally noted, inhaling deeply. 

Letting his Aura Sense flare, Yuso searched for Tanjo's presence by detecting the boy's magic. In a city full of vulnerable citizens, it was effortless to sense his opponent. This time, the Crimson Stalker would live up to his name and slay the teenager. 

*WHOOSH!*

The redhead shot himself into the air at lightspeed, producing a shockwave from where he formerly stood. Most of the city's remaining people had already fled, so it was only the abandoned buildings and vehicles that were flung from their posts. It took less than a second for Yuso to inevitably arrive at the location where his Aura Sense told him Tanjo resided. It was the same building the redhead had ravaged minutes ago before the teenage boy discharged his blue rifts. 

Debris filled the air, clouding Yuso's vision. 

'He's hiding in the smoke.' 

*BOOM!*

Without hesitation, Yuso unleashed a red beam of light that tore through the smoke and exploded upon hitting the cemented ground. The redhead gazed into the light of the explosion he caused, sensing as Tanjo's Aura Sense suddenly vanished. 

Suddenly, Tanjo's Aura Sense emerged elsewhere among the rubble.

*BOOM!*

Yuso promptly released another beam. The moment the beam of light had crashed down, Tanjo's presence had disappeared for a second time. 

"He's… veiling his presence from me." The Crimson Stalker realized, clenching his teeth.

Since when was the boy capable of evading Yuso's senses?

 *BRRMM! BRRMM! BRRMM!*

Blue, red, purple, and yellow Genso-Kyu were abruptly thrown from varying places within the city, each directed toward Yuso. The redhead swiftly flapped his wings and dodged the spheres of magic, puzzled by their movement. 

"Throwing the Genso-Kyu themself instead of releasing a blast? It's obvious the boy didn't pass his classes." The Crimson Stalker mocked.

With his Shirugeto swirling rapidly, the redhead formed a dozen pentagrams that sliced the Genso-Kyu in half, causing them to dissipate into nothingness. It was almost laughable. Warriors were taught not to use their Genso-Kyu as a blunt attack and to only use them as a means for producing more stabilized beams of light. 

*VWOOSH!*

A ray of blue light unexpectedly flew past Yuso, garnering his attention. Down on the ground, almost directly below the redhead, Tanjo stood tall. His face was concealed by a mask, adding to Yuso's confusion. 

"Yuso. I know you can hear me up there." Tanjo spoke, his voice steeled. "How many lives do you think you've ended?"

High in the sky, Yuso peered down at the masked teenager, his wings fluttering. His hearing was enhanced by his Aura Sense. 

"Irrelevant." The Crimson Stalker replied, narrowing his eyes. 

The boy raised his hands to his chest, holding his palms close together as he prepared to clap. 

"Good to know."

*CLAP!*

*KABOOM!*

When Tanjo clapped his hands, the air around Yuso was filled with multiple bright lights that spontaneously exploded. The blast blanketed the entire sky from where the boy stood, resembling a second sun that had enigmatically appeared above the city. 

*FWOOSH! FWOOSH! FWOOSH!*

 Crimson pentagrams materialized in the sky, ripping through the air as they soared downward. Tanjo spotted them immediately but refused to move from his position. 

*CRACK!*

Before the pentagrams could reach Tanjo, red barriers shimmered into existence, taking the brunt of the spinning circles. 

"Premature magic is a hell of a thing," Tanjo said, unperturbed. "Really catches the opponent off-guard. Magic that remains invisible until triggered."

Using his wings to clear the smoke that hovered around him, Yuso glowered at the boy on the ground. This was new. The boy could manage to stealthily place his magic around Yuso without being detected, meaning that Yuso would have to be quick to not be thrown in the middle of another surprise attack. 

"You hid the premature magic among the Genso-Kyu you threw earlier. Smart, but your Aura Sense is nowhere near potent enough to be fatal." The redhead stated, patronizing the teenager. 

Tanjo hummed, his blue eyes glimmering behind the mask. "It doesn't need to be."

*WHOOSH!*

Flapping his wings mightily, Yuso soared toward Tanjo, instantly closing the distance between them. Reeling his right hand back, the Crimson Stalker threw a fist outward, his knuckles inches from ramming into Tanjo's mask. The boy was not fast enough to react, but he did not need to.

*BRMM!*

Yuso's knuckles were caught by a red barrier that had quickly formed.

'More premature magic?' Yuso thought, feeling the heat of his opponent's magic wrap around his right fist. 'I simply have to burst through it. It's still just a kid's weak Aura Sense—!'

The sensation of being struck poured over the Crimson Stalker. Thin beams of blue light were fired into the redhead's stomach, propelling him back a few kilometers. Tanjo's magic struggled to penetrate Yuso's skin, yet it still had a surprising amount of power. 

Tanjo then blinked, realizing that Yuso had already attacked. 

'Glad to see my barrier was strong enough. I can't react to his faster movements, so I have to rely on prediction. I connected premature blue Genso-Kyu to my barrier so they would trigger the moment he touched my magic.' 

*KRSSHH!*

In his hands, Tanjo drew out his Disruption of Reality, letting the blue rifts float above his palms. 

'As much as it hurts to use this, it'll hurt him so much more.'

*BOOM!*

A ray of red light flashed toward the boy, making him leap back. Yuso quickly retaliated with vengeance, pounding one of his fists into Tanjo's chest. Tanjo grimaced as he felt himself fall into the earth, his chest thrumming with a hot pain.

'Can't have that…' Tanjo thought, an idea brewing within his head. 

The boy touched his stinging chest, allowing the Disruption of Reality to cling to his body. 

"I'm not finished, boy!" Yuso asserted, towering over the teenager and landing a solid punch to Tanjo's stomach.

That was Yuso's first mistake. The Disruption of Reality that clung to Tanjo's body instantly traveled onto the Crimson Stalker's fist the moment it made contact with the boy, encircling his arm. 

Although Yuso knew it was not electricity, it acted like it. 

"Gragh!"

With his left arm spasming, Tanjo took advantage of the situation and grabbed the rifts that were hooked onto the redhead's left arm. Swiftly, the boy covered his free hand with an amalgamation of the four Aura Senses and forced his fingers into Yuso's left eye socket.

Unfortunately, Tanjo failed to retract his hand from Yuso's eye socket before being stabbed in the waist by a stone spike protruding from Yuso's right palm. From this, the Disruption of Reality on the redhead's left arm vanished.

'Shit!' Tanjo cussed, coughing from being stabbed. 

Despite losing an eye, Yuso did not hesitate to pour an immense amount of magic into his left hand. The Crimson Stalker's Aura Sense felt far too potent, concerning Tanjo greatly. The teenager instinctively covered his face and formed a barrier made of different Aura Senses. 

"Yuso! Don't—!"

*KABOOOOM!*

The entire city and beyond were evaporated, a massive portion of the planet becoming scorched. Every cloud was blown away, every blade of grass was turned to ash, and every hill and mountain crumbled. Tanjo's body was flung into the atmosphere. His mind was jumbled as overwhelming heat hugged him tightly.

The entire time they fought, Yuso was holding back. Tanjo now knew that.

A red blur whizzed past Tanjo, knocking the boy into a spiraling motion. Hovering above the teenager, Yuso's single Shirugeto eye whirled rapidly. 

"I've had enough of you!" The redhead spat, feeling the lack of oxygen due to their current elevation.

A red Genso-Kyu dressed in several crimson pentagrams appeared in Yuso's right hand, threatening to incinerate Tanjo. 

*KABOOM!*

Tanjo had only a moment to react, forcing his body to stop spiraling uncontrollably as he thrust both of his hands at the impending beam of potent magic. 

*KRSHH!*

Using the Disruption of Reality as a shield, Tanjo successfully negated Yuso's attack. Disappointingly, there was still one problem—Tanjo was being pushed back down into the planet with a ferocious amount of force. 

As Tanjo descended downward, he racked his brain to develop a plan that would prevent him from slamming into the earth and potentially dealing even more damage. 

'I could really use a pair of wings…' The boy thought, looking at the ground below from the corner of his eyes. 

Tanjo's Aura Amalgamation flared, a foreign sensation overtaking the boy as a clump of magic rushed to his shoulder blades. With every passing second, the wind that brushed against the boy's skin grew more gentle, his velocity slowing down. He must have been going insane. Tanjo's exhaustion must have caught up with him, his incessant output of magic diminishing the strength of his mind once again. Had to.

Mostly because It truly felt like Tanjo had wings. 

Looking to his side, the boy's eyes widened. Massive green wings had sprouted from his back, flapping briskly. They were translucent, but also thick. The wings felt like they were just another part of his body—appendages that Tanjo had never used. 

'Green Aura Sense?' Tanjo stared at his new wings.

Eventually, Tanjo's descent came to a halt, and Yuso's powerful beam no longer pushed him downward. Gritting his teeth under the mask—*KRSHH!*—the boy let his Disruption of Reality propel upward, riding the beam of red light until it eventually reached Yuso at the top. 

Tanjo was still amazed, fluttering his wings like a muscle. The green magic reminded him of the rogue he fought in Furusato. The same day he saved Mizuki. 

Yuso, on the other hand, was enraged. After being assaulted by the boy's blue rifts, which dissipated after a handful of seconds, the redhead could visibly see Tanjo's new pair of green wings. 

"He's officially utilized the green Aura Sense… I was wondering when he'd draw it out. His Aura Amalgamation includes all of the Aura Senses, after all."

The Crimson Stalker was familiar with the green Aura Sense. Not simply because he fought and killed the Furusato rogue known as Doryoku, who wielded a ring that was cursed with that particular Aura Sense, but because of his studies. The green Aura Sense was the creator of aura prints. The power of the green magic was then diluted and almost entirely erased. However, too many people carried the green Aura Sense through their DNA, causing it to mix with one of the other four Aura Senses, effectively creating the aura print ability that a handful of warriors currently possess. 

Yuso knew that was not the whole story, but facets of lost information that he one day obtained. Reiwa Takuetsu, otherwise known as Lucifer, once harnessed the green Aura Sense to wipe out divine beings—it was only right to be aware of its capabilities and history. 

All that mattered now was finishing the fight. 

"Even with the green Aura Amalgamation, you are still just a boy. A boy sentenced to death."

XXX

The fight is heating up! Who will win? Who will fall flat? Stay tuned to find out!

Have a Great Day!

Peace - Cr1ticalz_