System Breaker: Surviving Apocalypse with Nine-Tailed Kitsune-Chapter 31: Shattered Bonds

A vile laughter escaped Kade’s mouth at the sight of Ivy’s fallen body.

"It’s over, Damon," he scoffed, "Give up now and I’ll spare-"

Before Kade could even finish his offer, a sudden flame burst from Ivy’s body, engulfing her whole with a raging orange flame.

It was different from her usual flames. It looked brighter, and despite her unconscious or perhaps dead body, the flames moved with a will of their own. The temperature of the entire station jumped so high that sweat beads began to roll down everyone’s faces as they stared with disbelief at the scene.

"This-" Kitsune’s shocked voice cut through Damon’s head. "How... How is it in this world?"

’What is it?’ Damon asked in his head, though most of his attention was still locked onto the sight as the flames began to move more violently with each moment.

"It’s..." Disbelief clung to Kitsune’s voice as she spoke, "It’s a hidden technique of the Phoenix Clan. Resurrection."

’Phoenix Clan? Wait... Resurrection?’

Just as Damon finished the thought, Ivy’s arms suddenly began to drag across the ground before pushing herself up. The bright orange flames still danced around her as she rose to her feet. Her injuries were gone, replaced by a burning determination.

Before she could move even a single step, a wave of water tore through the air toward her. The water ability user grimaced as he sent all of his mana into the attack.

Ivy’s crimson eyes didn’t even look at him as she raised her arm to the side, flames coiling around her palm before shooting at the upcoming attack.

A loud hiss echoed through the entire floor as water met fire. Steam filled the air before her flames quickly overwhelmed the water attack. They inched closer to the water user with each second before his mana ran out, and the flames reached him.

Only when the water-based ability user’s scream had died, and his scorched body slumped to the ground, did everyone snap out of their daze, and their focus snapped back to the battle.

"You damn witch!" Casper cursed as he vanished and reappeared from all around her. But with water ability gone, and her flames burning stronger than ever, there was no opening for him to find.

At the same time, Damon had turned toward Kade, whose smirk, though hidden behind the greathelm, vanished at the scene of his man dying to Ivy’s flames.

"You were saying?"

Kade didn’t reply to Damon’s retort, and instead, he charged forward with a newfound rage.

His mace whipped through the air again and again, but Damon stayed quick on his feet, focusing on evading first and countering second.

Overwhelmed by anger, Kade’s movements became more thoughtless, far more predictable than they were just moments ago. Damon’s tachi began to retaliate, finding small success in the armour’s gaps, thrusting just in time to catch Kade again and again. But before his success could lead to anything substantial, Kade’s chained mace whipped in an angle so unnatural that it caught Damon off guard, slamming him hard in the leg and knocking him to the ground.

Before Damon could even get back up, Kade’s mace came down again. Damon’s tachi raised just in time to block the strike, but when the two weapons met...

CRACK!

Half of Damon’s blade flailed through the air as the weapon cracked under the heavy strike. The mace followed through, crashing against Damon’s head. His vision went dark, his world became a blur of moving shapes until his vision returned to see Kade’s mace whip through the air once more.

Gritting his teeth through the pain, Damon raised his arm and shot two shards of black ice straight into Kade’s face. The greathelm blocked most of the damage, but the impact sent Kade stumbling a few steps back, just enough for Damon to scramble back to his feet.

"Don’t!" Damon hissed through the blood escaping his mouth.

Perhaps it was due to how much he had raised his mana, or perhaps due to his heightened senses amidst the battle, but he could sense Kitsune’s intent just now. She wanted to change to her full form and save him.

’It’s my battle,’ he added in his head, before shifting his stance.

At the same time, Kade turned to a few of his men, who began to approach him to help.

"Stay back!" he yelled as he took off his damaged greathelm and threw it away.

The two best friends lingered for a couple of breaths. Their eyes locked on one another with complex expressions. Kade could’ve probably ended it by commanding others to help him... the same way Damon could’ve won easily by asking Kitsune for help.

But in that moment, neither of them wanted to win with outside help.

The two of them charged forward.

At the same time, Ivy was standing above Casper’s burned corpse, watching the battle between two best friends. Everyone’s attention shifted to the center of the station, where Damon’s broken tachi met Kade’s mace again and again.

Their breaths grew ragged with each exchange, wounds began to accumulate across their entire bodies as their defences began to falter. They looked almost equally matched.

The battle looked impossible to predict. Kitsune shifted uncomfortably in her fox form as she debated joining in against Damon’s words. In the same way, Kade’s men, those who didn’t die to Ivy, began to whisper to one another if they should do something.

But in the end, none intervene, and just as both their lives were nearing their ends, Kade overswung his mace, leaving his armpit and with it, a large gap in his armour open.

Damon thrust his blade without thinking, his mind dazed from all the injuries as he pushed his broken tachi all the way through.

Kade’s mace dropped from his hands. His eyes locked onto Damon’s for a couple of moments before he drew his very last breath.

It was only when Kade’s body dropped to the ground that Damon realised what had just happened.

[You have slain a Level 23 Human: Kade]

[New Monster Index bonus: +4 Stamina, +4 Dexterity, +6 Vitality]

[You have reached Level 19. You have received 1 Stat Point.]

[You have reached Level 20. You have received 1 Stat Point.]

[Your Class limit has increased.]

[You have received a Class card.]