Lunar Awakening-Chapter 86: Don’t Unlock This - Yet

Leo managed to shake himself free of her tight grip to see the familiar room that looked like a gymnasium straight from the future. The walls were crafted from reinforced metal strong enough to take considerable damage from a superhuman of transcendent rank. The room was illuminated by several huge panels of light located at the edges and several sections of the reinforced roof.

Leo fell to one of his old habits and cased the room for cameras, despite knowing they were there he had to know if they were active. He asked, "Are those active or they ran outta batteries?"

She turned and glared at him, the look in her eyes giving him the much deserved answer he did not want to hear. Leo gulped down and stood his ground.

Cassandra raised an eyebrow and asked. "Why aren’t you changing?"

Leo found himself deeply offended by the tone at which she spoke, it almost felt like he was missing a big picture. "Listen here young lady, why the hell am I here in the first place? Is there a new protocol made to torture people like me, come to think of it I’m not really special that you have the leeway to pummel me anytime you want."

Cassandra fell to the long silence that she was widely known for and then she sighed before saying. "Do you remember what I told you about on that day, I will need your help if I am to successfully break through to the ascended rank."

Leo tapped his fingers on the side of his rib as he paced around her, he had almost forgotten about that day. "Listen Cassy, I don’t know what you saw in me but tell me why in the entire world did you pick me when nobody really sees me as more than trash."

There was a strange silence in the room that almost felt deafening in it own way, several seconds passed and Leo was already getting annoyed when Cassandra finally opened her mouth, but she did not speak immediately. "I see you, Leonardo. No one does and that is why I need you, I don’t understand it quite yet but I want to."

Leo’s face contorted in rage, "That’s a load of shit! You’re crazy, if you are pissed off about something then go find a therapist because I’m no one’s plaything."

Annoyed Leo turned and walked back to the door, as angry as he was he was trying to bottle down the primal rage he felt at the moment. He had things to deal with and involving himself with Cassandra had never proved to be in his favour, not once.

As he walked Leo could not tell when he was sent flying through the air and into the wall several meters away with so much force that he could have shattered a truck. Her felt all of his bones shift before he fell to the ground and groaned loudly.

He tried to catch his breath as he climbed up on all fours and coughed heavily. "What the hell."

He looked up to see Cassandra standing still her face darker and her eyes flashed a bright white light. No calling it light was an understatement, it was a white mist that burned right out of her eyes like white flame. Her hair started to levitated behind her, swimming in waves like a living breathing organism. The glare she shot him was cold and empty.

She opened her mouth slowly and spoke, "I make orders and no one resists, all except you. It infuriates me to see you still defy my omnipotence."

Leo climbed up to his feet feeling a primal rage growing out of him, his fangs threatened to grow out but he barely suppressed it. "Omnipotence, what the hell are you on Cassy?" Leo did not know how to describe it but he felt like he was standing before something that was neither human nor beast-like.

And he did not want to fight it.

Cassandra then grinned darkly, which was something the young awakened had never done. "Come one fight me, if you can lay one hit in me-- I will let you pass."

Leo knew he had no choice, he also knew there was no way he could beat her. But if it was to lay a hit on her, perhaps there might be a chance.

Leo asked himself what would be the best course of action, at least now that he knew moon god’s battle art he had a chance. But he still did not have a form grasp of the battle art, "No, don’t think nonsense you fool. If you want to get stronger so you don’t die, you are going to have to beat the strongest."

Reassuring himself he dashed forw—

"Too slow." Came the lifeless voice of Cassandra as she appeared behind him with her hand barely inches from impacting his face. Leo did not even have time to breach before his face was smashed into the reinforced wall causing an explosion of wind. Luckily the wall remained intact, but Leo could not say the same for his skull.

Before he knew it his body was sent flying by a knees to the gut, his cloth exploded off his body, rendered to shreds by the wind pressure.

"Ack!" He screamed as he rolled for several meters on the floor before coming to a stop. His body exploded in pain, the only thing that gave him a bit of solace aside from the fact that he had not damaged any of his bones or internal organ was his ability to heal faster than any other superhuman at his level. "Do you wanna kill me?"

Cassandra was waking towards him, her intent still bent on beating him— preferably to death.

Leo gnashed his teeth, "I’ve had enough of all this."

He stood his ground and waited for her, this time he would be ready. He did as he had done many times before and relied solely on his instincts while integrating everything he had learned into moon god’s battle art. Given it barely worked most times this time he had an inkling that it would work.

Leo felt his body burning and his heart racing four times as fast as it had ever been before, just like earlier Cassandra was right before him but this time he could see her. She was not vanishing and reappearing like he had thought but moving so fast that he could not follow her with his eyes previously.

This time she threw a strong fist at his face and he evaded it, or his body evaded it on its own-- twisting so quickly and unnaturally that he almost snapped his spine.

He knew he had done it again, had entered that world of flow that he had only done on the day of the awakened battle royale when he fought the man in beach shorts. Being in this state drained him of form of energy both physical or mentally but somehow it was the only way he could keep up with the monster before him.

’Crap, crap, crap!’ He screamed in his head. ’My body feels like it’s tearing itself apart.’ 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Another strong blow came for his head and he dodged it by an inch avoiding the deadly finished and leaving a funnel of wind that ripped some of his head from off his head.

He could barely keep up with her speed and she was getting everything more faster by the second.

"Show me more Leonardo, go faster." She said as she threw blows like missiles right for his face. "You’re holding back."

Leo did not have the time to think of a strategy, all of his mind was solely on the fight. He felt his limbs threatening to fall apart every time he tried to weave her blows, the blows that managed to slip through and connect shattered his bones.

Leo was no longer thinking about landing a hit he was trying to survive the brutal battle.

But Cassandra was better in every other way, she slipped through his attacks and punched him in the gut. It was an attack aimed to incapacitate him and it did just that, Leo staggered backwards almost losing his footing.

Leo’s face was dripping with hot sweat by this time and as he was about to fall, an image surfaced into his mind. He could see the silhoutte of a crescent moon, the very same one he saw the day he fell to his death. The image displayed before his eyes riled him up as he refused to fall. He used all the pain he felt as fuel to launch a counter attack at Cassandra, he doubted she would be able to react in time to it but she did. She weaved his blow like it had come in slow motion.

After that Leo tried to stand but his body gave out, all of the stress had destroyed him both physically and mentally. As he lay in a pool of his own sweat, he tried to catch breath in his lungs but failed several times.