(Muta): *Chuckles* I’m sorry, I think misheard you. Did you say you’re going to beat me?
(Jin): That’s right. Now come and get some.
(Muta): Oh this is too rich. Normally, I separate my personal feelings from my work. But I’m really going to enjoy watching you die by my hands.
(Jin): *Smirks* Well you’re a daisy if you do.
*Jin fires his wrist canon at Muta who easily dodges the shot with a sidestep, but Jin kept firing at him. Muta used his lightning-quick steps to avoid Jin’s attacks. Muta was closing in on Jin and just when he was about to leap in the air a metal net sprung from the ground and trapped him. Jin transmutated his wrist canon into a metal mallet and ran up to Muta to deliver a powerful blow to the side of his head. The attack sent Muta falling to the ground where he was dazed but quickly regained his senses*
(Jin): Don’t think that all this time I was hiding and doing nothing. I planted a few traps in the ground to give me an edge in this fight.
*Muta tears through the metal net with his claws and returns to his feet with an angry look in his eyes. He lunges at Jin who pulls out metal shards from his utility belt and combines them with his mallet to create his big shield. He uses the shield to block Muta’s attack, but continues his assault trying to rip through the shield like he did before, but Jin learned his lesson and reinforced the shield with stronger metal. While the shield may have been heavier it was worth it to keep Jin safe. After executing a perfect parry, Jin was able to leave Muta defenseless. Jin turned his shield sideways and swung at Muta smacking him across his face and upper body. Muta fell backward to the ground and Jin landed on him with the shield first. Muta tried to get up but the combined weight of the shield and Jin was just too much for him*
(Jin): Impact shield!
*Jin activated his Impact shield which set off a blast that sounded like an explosion. Jin went flying off to the side and into a destroyed wall back first. He slowly rose to his feet looking at the dust cloud where he set off the attack on Muta. Under normal circumstances, Jin would think he won, but he knew not to underestimate this opponent. Sure enough, as the dust settled, Jin saw Muta standing with his shirt slightly destroyed from the blast. He rips the shirt off to reveal his impressive physique as well as the red chest that was forming because of the blast*
(Jin): Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.
*Using his lightning speed, Muta quickly reached Jin and kicked him in the stomach followed by a series of punches across the face with his non-claw hand. Just as Jin was about to fall over, Muta caught him and used his non-claw hand to hold Jin by the collar as he prepared to kill him. As Muta was getting ready to stab Jin, he couldn’t move his metal claw and it was stripped away from his hand. The claw flew backward and attached itself to a large magnet that was being held by Jin’s ninja and blacksmith spirits. Jin took advantage of this distraction by pulling Muta’s hand away and headbutting him followed by a punch to the stomach and then an uppercut. Jin went to deliver an elbow strike, but Muta caught the elbow and retaliated with a back elbow to the side of Jin’s head. Muta then went to deliver a thrust kick but Jin caught it, spun him around, and locked in a rear-naked choke hold on Muta hoping to choke him out. Muta walked backward and ran Jin into the wall where he delivered repeated elbow strikes to Jin’s stomach. This forced Jin to let go of Muta who turned around and grabbed Jin to toss him through a door. Jin grabbed his lower back in pain but got back up ready to fight. He charged at Muta who also charged at Jin where he threw a punch that Jin dodged by ducking and then Jin went for an uppercut only for Muta to lean backward to avoid the attack. Muta attempted to sweep the legs of Jin, but he jumped just in time to avoid the attack. Once he landed, Jin tried to hit Muta with a thrust kick, but Muta rolled out of the way and returned to his feet where he finally managed to hit Jin with a knee to the chest. Muta tries to go for a second one but Jin blocks it with his hands and then delivers a spinning back fist to Muta. The hit dazed him and Jin uses this chance to go on the offense by delivering a jumping spinning heel kick to Muta which causes him to fall to his knees. Jin then rolled up his left pants leg to reveal a steel shin guard. He ran over to Muta to deliver a running knee to the side of his head. Jin felt confident that that was the knockout blow he needed to win, but to his shock, Muta rose back up with blood pouring down the side of his head and delivered a lariat to Jin who stood his ground not falling and absorbing the blow. Jin threw a punch, but Muta caught it and judo tossed Jin to the ground back first slamming him hard. Running on adrenaline, Jin got back up holding on to the arm of Muta and slammed him to the ground with a judo toss. Running on rage, Muta got back up as well letting out a primal scream and hooked the arms of Jin under his own to deliver an overhead suplex. Jin landed hard on his back but fought through the pain, rolled through and got back up on his feet to deliver a shotgun dropkick to Muta that sent him crashing backward into a rock and he fell forward on his knees while Jin fell on his lower back gritting his teeth in pain. Both men were breathing heavily. The fight had been exhausting for both of them, but neither one was ready to give up. Crawling on his knees, Muta made his way to Jin who was also crawling to Muta. Jin delivered a headbutt to Muta who retaliated with a headbutt of his own. The two began ramming their heads into each other like a couple of rams fighting each other to prove who was the strongest. They stopped after a few more headbutts and rose to their knees where Muta delivered a punch across Jin’s face and he retaliated with a punch of his own. Muta delivered another punch but Jin shaking his fist delivered another punch as well. This one almost knocked Muta down, but he managed to stay on his knees and punched Jin once again only for Jin to quickly return the favor. Jin then started to slowly rise to his feet and delivered a punch to Muta followed by a second punch, a third punch, a fourth punch, and then a fifth punch. For the sixth punch, he reached into his utility belt and pulled out a metal shard. He transmutated the shard into brass knuckles when he was about to deliver the final blow, Muta slashed at Jin with his claws that he had created using his lightning magic. Muta punctured Jin in the lower back where he felt the pain and let out a sharp cry. Muta pulled the claws out and Jin clutched his back trying to stop the bleeding but had no luck. The spirits who saw Jin in trouble quickly ran to his aid, but Muta wouldn’t allow it as he used his speed to slash through the two spirits and caused them to disappear from sustaining too much damage. Muta then destroyed the magnet and reclaimed his metal claw. With the lightning claw in one hand and the metal claw in the other, Muta was finally going all out and had regained control of this fight*
(Muta): To think that I’d be forced to use my lightning claw against someone like you. I didn’t think a human like you could push me to such great lengths. But this story ends here and now. Don’t worry, I’ll be sending the others your way as well.
*Jin rose to his feet gritting his teeth and using one hand to grab his lower back*
(Muta): It truly is a shame you were born human. You would have been a great demihuman.
*Muta charged and slashed at Jin with the intent to kill him, but Jin activated his Counter Dial which reflected Muta’s attack back towards him. Muta went flying backward as his blood splattered everywhere and his body fell to the ground lifeless with a big X across his upper body. A spark came flying from Jin’s chest where unzipped his shirt and saw that the sparks came from his Counter Dial which was now destroyed*
(Jin): *Takes a deep breath* Looks like the dial was barely able to absorb and reflect the attack. I’ll need to do more research before the final model is ready.
*All of sudden Ryuuji and Morgan appeared where they saw him clutching his back and ran to him immediately*
(Ryuuji): Jin, speak to me, are you alright?
(Jin): Yeah. I just got punctured in the back.
*Ryuuji went to grab Jin and sat him down on a nearby rock to examine the wound. While Morgan examined the body of Muta*
(Ryuuji): This is bad. We have to close it up immediately or risk infection. Morgan!
*Morgan quickly rushed over and prepared his wand*
(Morgan): Hold still Jin, this is going to sting a little bit.
*Morgan pointed his wand at the wound and ice began to form over it. Jin screamed and flinched a little from the pain and Ryuuji covered the area with bandages*
(Morgan): That’s the best we can do for now. Let’s head back up to the RV and hope we can salvage any supplies to better treat your wound.
*Ryuuji helped Jin and they began to walk towards the entrance*
(Jin): Wait! What about him?
*Jin motioned to Muta*
(Morgan): It’s no good. He’s dead.
*Jin gained a sour look on his face as the three knights continued to walk back toward the entrance. Jin looked back one last time at the body of Muta. Even though they were enemies and he knew in his heart he had no choice, this was the first time he had ever taken the life of a person. He knew that as a knight there would always be a possibility that he would have to kill something other than Eclipses, but he still didn’t know how to process it*
***
*Back in Brister, a pilot of the Blue Knights was in the bathroom. Just as he was washing his hands, he heard a seductive moan coming from one of the bathroom stalls. He continued to hear the moans and went to the stall where they coming from. Swallowing a lump in his throat, he opened the door and what he saw almost made his jaw drop. Sitting on the toilet seat was a half-naked Zia with her pants around her ankles, her shirt lifted up exposing her midriff, one hand in her red underwear covering her crotch area and the other hand fondling her left breast. With eyes half-lidded and breathing heavily, she focused her attention on the pilot who just opened the door*
(Zia): Oh, thank goodness. Someone finally came. My body has been burning so much. Please, hurry! I need it now! Give it to me! My hands aren’t enough!
*Grinning happily the pilot enters the stall and begins to loosen the belt around his pants when all of a sudden he was knocked out from behind by Raika who shocked him with a stun gun. The pilot fell forward and Zia got up just in time before the pilot landed on the seat. Zia quickly pulled up her pants and lowered her shirt while Raika searched the pilot’s body for his ID card*
(Raika): Alright, I got it. Good job getting that guy’s attention, Zia.
(Zia): Thanks. Although it is sad that such a simple trick was enough to fool him.
*Raika and Zia exited the bathroom making sure nobody saw them and met up with Gael and Sanada who were hiding behind a corner*
(Gael): Did you get what we need, sis?
(Raika): Got it. Now let’s go before they find the body.
*The group hurries to the hangar area where Amarti and Hibana were in the control room. Hibana was hacking into the system to open the hangar doors*
(Hibana): Alright. Doors are open. All we need is the keys and ID card.
*The two elves heard the doors open and saw the group enter with Raika holding the ID card*
(Amarti): Which have just arrived.
*Raika walks up the stairs and hands Hibana the ID card which she uses to unlock the safe which holds the airship keys. Hibana takes one of the keys and exits the control room with Amarti and Raika. They exit the control room and head down the stairs to join the others who were entering the airship which was a cargo helicopter that was blue with grey stripes and the Blue Dragon Order emblem plastered on the side*
(Raika): Ahh~ the Bluejaw. I remember this bad boy. Medium body but light, fast, and has good combat capabilities in the sky. Also has a good selection of weaponry.
(Amarti): I think the weapon inside will suit your taste plenty.
(Raika): I’ll be the judge of that.
*Raika enters the helicopter and sees the weapon Amarti was talking about*
(Raika): Holy shit, that is beautiful! Let’s go!
(Sanada): This is going to be quite the trip.
*Sanada enters the helicopter followed by the others. Hibana enters and sits in the pilot’s seat while Amarti sits in the co-pilot’s seat. Hibana uses the key to start up the helicopter while everyone else took their seats*
(Gael): So, are we sure Hibana can fly this thing?
(Hibana): Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Hibana Airlines where our destination is a nonstop flight to Carnivale. This is my first time flying an airship but not to worry. If it’s anything like the flight simulator games I played, we’ll be fine. If not, then I hope you guys aren’t afraid of jumping off the plane.
*Gael was smiling nervously and quickly buckled up and grabbed the parachute case under his seat. The helicopter began to move forward just as Bradley ran in screaming his head off and ordering the group to stop but they weren’t listening*
(Bradley): Close the hangar door, now!
*The Blue Knights hurried to the control room to close the hangar doors but had no luck*
(Blue knight): We can’t, there’s a virus in the system. It’s not letting me log in or do anything.
(Amarti): Thanks for the ship, Bradley. I’ll try to bring it back in one piece.
*The helicopter exited the hangar and flew off into the sky with Bradley standing there infuriated at what just happened*
(Bradley): Goddamn you, Amarti!
Author’s Note: And a new chapter is done. Man, this had to be one of the most intense fight scenes I’ve written in the series so far. Jin was definitely the underdog in this fight and I wanted to show him pulling off all the stops to win. At the start of he displays a little male bravado to hide his fear, but as the fight goes on he slowly starts to gain confidence and realize that he can do this, he can win. The final stretch of the fight with Jin was my favorite because it’s two men exhausted and running on adrenaline to see who can get the final hit in. Through this fight Jin grows and gets over his funk, while Muta, for the first time in his life found a human he could respect. Even though he hates Jin he does respect his fighting abilities and wishes he would have been born a demihuman so that they have possibly been friends. After the fight, I wanted to slow things down and end on a laugh with the other members of Shadow Eye taking the helicopter by force. Well that’s all for now. Look forward to the next chapter where we see how Jade is doing and get ready for a real emotional scene. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.