In the forest of death, Kinto, Baraka and Mori tore through the foliage with incredible speeds.
Kinto, now sixteen, leapt from tree to tree with deadly precision, hurling explosive shuriken at a group of four elusive shadow puppets. The moment the shuriken made contact—BOOM!—a wave of fire and smoke consumed the area, leading trees to collapse in mere seconds. But from within the smoke, dark tendrils emerged—elongated, jagged spikes shooting directly at him.
"Kinto, look out!" Baraka shouted.
With a hardened growl, Baraka—also sixteen—rushed in, his arm transforming into solid rock. He slammed it into the spikes with brute force, shattering them mid-air.
The shadow puppets, sensing the threat, immediately split into four directions.
"Hey, ir would be a good idea to split up. Dont you think?" Mori said calmly. "Each of us will take one.". Kinto replied "Yeah, yeah."
Without hesitation, the trio scattered into the trees.
Mori's Pursuit
As Mori chased his target with incredible speed, a fiery red aura began to engulf his body.
"Fast Greed."
The moment he whispered the name of his technique, his speed skyrocketed. With a flash of red energy, he dashed forward, nearly at the speed of light.
The shadow puppet reacted by launching a volley of dark spikes, but Mori's body moved like a blur—elegant and untouchable. He twisted mid-air, his body spinning like a blade, and before the shadow puppet knew it, it's body was cleanly sliced through by Mori's sharp attack. "Alright, that's one down."
Black mist burst into the air where the puppet fell "That was easier than I expected." Mori muttered to himself.
Baraka's Brawl
On another path, Baraka sprinted toward his opponent, his arms transforming once more into massive, stone-like limbs.
Seeing him approach, the puppet's arm morphed into a giant sledgehammer.
Baraka grinned. "Two can play at that game."
With a roar, he summoned his own Rock Hammer, enlarging it with both hands.
The two clashed with a thunderous impact—BOOM!—the ground split beneath them as shockwaves erupted through the trees, Baraka and the shadow puppet were moving and fighting at insane speeds as they were tearing down tree's and big rocks. After the fight went on like this, Baraka's final swing smashed the puppet's head into the earth, forming a massive crater and toppling several trees.
He stood in the center of the destruction, breathing heavily.
"...I really need to calm down a bit. Using too much strenght that isn't needed is just annoying." he muttered to himself with a guilty smirk.
Kinto's Trap
Meanwhile, Kinto's battle was far from over.
The shadow puppet facing him expanded its hand into long, jagged blades and charged towards Kinto. Kinto ducked, flipped back, and threw more explosives, causing a rapid chain of explosions that echoed through the forest. His explosives were blowing trees down while the shadow puppet was tearing through tree's and Kinto's explosions. They were both moving at incredible levels of speeds in their combat.
But from the smoke, the puppet emerged again—relentless—its blade-arm aimed straight for Kinto's chest.
Kinto smirked.
Snap!
The sound of fingers echoed.
Red glowing marks suddenly appeared across the puppet's body.
"And.....Boom," Kinto whispered.
KA-BOOOOM!
The explosion that followed was deafening. Even Baraka and Mori felt the impact from where they stood. Mori muttered to himself "Kojin said go to the forest and kill the shadow puppets, not blow the entire damn forest to ash."
Few moments later, they all united.
A few minutes later, the three regrouped at the forest's entrance, their clothes stained and energy slightly drained.
"Did you guys get yours?" Kinto asked casually.
"Yeah," Baraka replied, stretching his shoulder. "But honestly, I was expecting a better fight. This one felt like an excersice."
Mori nodded. "It's crazy how far we've come in just three years. Looks like we all trained our balls off.", Kinto then asked "Did you really have to say the word balls?"
But before they could celebrate, a towering shadow puppet suddenly burst from the trees behind them, screeching with rage.
The three boys quickly took battle stances—ready to finish it off.
But before any of them could move, a red blur shot down from above and caused a huge explosion of red energy.
BOOM!
A glowing red blade ripped through the puppet, eviscerating it in one devastating strike. Smoke and dust spiraled into the air.
As it cleared, a figure stood atop a tree branch, wearing a red hood and black jeans, the Blade of Death still crackling in his hand.
A familiar smile spread across his face.
"Yo you guys,It's been a while," said Alex.
End of Chapter.