Chapter Sixteen: Earth and Crystal Martial Arts

Daichi's P.O.V.

Kristy's skin shimmered, as if she herself was an actual crystal, though with her Element Drive active, she essentially was a crystal. I always found it funny how I, the Earth Elementia, used Gendai Budo, and she, the Crystal Elementia, used Koryu. Even though she had the upper hand element wise, I had the superior technique. I almost wanted to hold back, but decided against it. It's not like it was my first time fighting hand to hand with a woman, and if she learned I had held back, she'd probably do everything she could to kill me. She never even talked to me, yet I could feel in my very core that is what she would do, although she was already trying to do that whenever we met anyway.

I blocked and parried her onslaught of attacks, having to dodge any time she'd suddenly raise crystal spikes from the ground toward me. I dashed at her, moving down into a crouch to dodge her palm before rising back up to palm her gut. She jumped back to dodge, but I had suspected that, and I used my power to bend the earth in front of me, forcing a rigid rock pillar to rise from the ground toward Kristy. She blocked with her arms, but was still sent flying into a small hill.

She coughed and groaned a bit, but I knew she wasn't all that hurt, considering she landed on her feet almost perfectly. She jumped and kicked her feet on the hill behind her, a crystal pillar shooting out of it and launching her toward me. I took my stance and as she palmed at me, I grabbed her wrist, turning around and flipping her over my shoulder onto the ground, pressing my palm against her chest above her breasts. She growled at me and I quickly jumped out of the way before I could be impaled by a crystal spike that had formed on her chest where my palm just was. I had to remember our fight wasn't an actual martial arts match and that I had to be more careful.

As I landed, I retook my stance, this time having four pillars of rock surrounding me. Kristy stood up and crystal spikes formed on her elbows and calves, and I watched her crystal, color changing eyes as she took her stance. I waited, seconds, minutes passing, until I heard and felt her feet scraping against the ground. She rushed at me, spinning and swinging her elbow at me and I raised my arms up in defense, my four pillars moving to protect me. She cut through the first with only two swings of her elbows, doing the same to the second with her legs. She then went to kick and I jumped back, a crystal spike forming on the sole of her foot and impaling both of my final rock pillars.

I clapped my hands together, the pieces of the broken pillars rising and closing in on her. She swiftly moved to free herself however, spinning like a tornado, breaking my rocks into pebbles. Even so, I used those to pelt her body repeatedly. She blocked, growling and grunting as she tried to run through the barrage of small rocks hitting her, but I managed to keep pushing her back while I thought of a plan. Even though we'd both been at this for almost over a year, I still had no idea how to beat her. A steel sword is superior to a stone sword, and a crystal sword was even more superior to that, so how was I, a stone sword, supposed to compete with the crystal sword that is Kristy?

I didn't have much time to think, so I acted. My eyes flashed as I continued to hold my hand out, several layers of earth surrounding Kristy and forming a dome around her, and I formed several more domes around the first. "That should buy me a little time, but not much..." I could already feel her cutting through one of the layers with ease. I sat, meditating, calming myself, and thinking of what I could do to beat her, or at least subdue her. I felt her cut through the second layer, the third, the fourth, and then there were only three more to go, each layer bigger and thicker than the last. It was then that an idea formed in my mind and I actually smirked a bit to myself. "It's so simple...but it just might work."

I jumped up, taking my stance as she broke through the last layer, coming right for me. I watched her, spreading out her arms and legs as she jumped, like she were about to tackle and cling to a lover. Though, she looked like a porcupine with all the crystal spikes covering her body. I didn't move as she hugged me, each of her spikes impaling me. She whispered something, but I didn't hear what she said. I mean, she was stabbing a very convincing stone clone of myself and I was really several dozen feet away, watching everything. I warped the clones form as well as the earth underneath of Kristy, trapping her in a tiny ball of stone, her spikes keeping her stuck to the clone. I lifted the ball of rock to the sky and made it expand, encasing the ball in several more and layers of rock. Even if I had made all that crush her, she wouldn't die because of her Element Drive.

I could feel she had freed herself from my clone and the first small ball of rock. I wonder if she could feel just how many layers of earth there were around her, or how large it was. Not to mention she was also floating high in the air in the giant sphere of earth. My plan was to make her tire herself out cutting through so much rock and even more by stopping herself from crashing into the ground. I'd do this as many times as it took before I finally knocked her out. The ball was as massive as I could've made it then, not to mention it was rather tough just holding it in the air.

For whatever reason, she wasn't moving at all. I didn't understand why at the time. I assumed she was just wondering what to do like I was, but several minutes had passed and she still hadn't moved. In fact, it felt like she was laying down in there, relaxing even. I was utterly confused, but it was too late when I finally understood why. She knew exactly what I was trying to do, and used it against me. Holding something that big in the sky, not to mention holding it together for so long, severely tired me out. I was panting and sweating at that point and I kneeled, trying to hold it up still, hoping she'd lose patience or something of the sort. But she didn't move at all, until the sphere of rock began to fall.

I felt her stand up and start to drill through the crumbling sphere with ease. I had to get up and move, but I couldn't until the sphere crumbled to the ground. That was what she was waiting for, and I was too blind to see it at the time. I got too cocky and believed she might be stupid enough to fall for that trick. "Just another list of tricks to cross of the list to try on her... Unless I die here today..." I chuckled to myself at the thought.

Kristy then came barreling out of the bottom of the sphere, flying down right at me, completely covered in purple crystal, which was her favorite color to use. I completely dropped the sphere at that point and let it crumble so I could jump and avoid her as she drilled into the earth where I had been standing. She came up from under me and drilled toward me as I was suspended in midair. I blocked, but she scraped my arms and sent me into the ground with a good kick. I coughed and panted, standing quickly and rolling to move away, knowing if I stayed still too long she would kill me. I watched as she stabbed the ground with her arm where I had just been, her arm encased in a crystal blade.

I tried to get away from her, but she was too fast. Before I could move anymore, she stabbed through my chest with her elbow spike. I coughed up a bit of blood and stumbled back, falling over and groaning in pain as I watched the blood pour out of my wound. I glanced at Kristy, who looked like she was about to finish me off, but froze just as she was about to stab me. I don't know why, but she decided to leave me there without killing me. I'm guessing she thought I might bleed to death.

As soon as she was gone, I hardened my wound and my blood hardened along with it, stopping the bleeding. I had already lost a lot of blood, my vision blurring, but the rock would hold up until one of the others found me. I would have to bet and pray on that fact. If not, the rock would crack, and I would bleed out and die. "I'm sorry...for failing to beat her...Akari..." I coughed, watching as Kristy's figure faded in the direction of the flashes of white and black in the distance. At that moment, I wondered why that woman almost never talked to me whenever we fought, just before passing out.