Staten Island vs Queens Squad, Part 3

"Screw it, let's just focus on the target in front of us!" I shout as I grasp my katana with both hands and wrap my wind around it. Lycan begins charging me again, but when I slash towards home with my Wind Blade, Lycan leaps right over my attack, slashing me in the chest with his claws before landing on the ground behind me. "Dammit…" I grunt as I drop to the ground on one knee, clutching my bleeding chest.

"Luis!" Ella cries.

Lycan then lands a flurry of slashes against my back before opening his mouth up wide, and chomping down on my shoulder, causing me to howl in pain.

"Knockback Wave!" Ella shouts as she sends another Knockback Wave flying towards Lycan, but Lycan counters by ripping a fireball Ella's way, scorching right through her orange ring of Cursed Power and blasting into Ella.

"Shit, he may be a dumbass mutt, but Lycan's strong…" I grumble. Lycan lands another flurry of slashes on me as I try to strike him with my Hurricane Slash. Arms, legs, back, chest, everywhere Lycan cuts me up with his claws. I feel my right arm go numb from Lycan's fang chomp.

It looks like I'm going to have to unveil that far earlier than I wanted to.

"Ella, get back!" I order, but when I turn to face Ella, she's already hiding behind some barrels.

"Eh…?" I ask.

"You've got this, Luis!" Ella cries as she flashes me a thumbs up.

"Wind Control…" I begin to as I clutch my katana tightly between both hands, bringing it high into the air.

I've never been stronger than when I was using my Blue Demon power. As ashamed as I am to admit it, without it, I'm pathetic. I would have lost against Daniel, and against King, when my veins began to glow blue before I reduced Nick and Mikey…that was also me subconsciously using my Blue Demon power. ALl those times where I caught my second wind? Blue Demon power, too.

That's why I need to grow stronger, strong enough to fight without relying on that Cursed, messed up power.

When I fought Daniel, despite being mostly unconscious, I somewhat remember a few things that my body instinctively did. An upgraded version of my Wind Blade, something that I also subconsciously used when I caught my second wind all those times, over a year ago now. I wrapped my wind around my blade, then condensed it, so much so that rather than having a tornado spinning around my blade, I formed an extra powerful, larger katana blade of wind. On top of that, I reinforced it with Cursed Power to give it more of a dark blue color rather than my wind's usual light blue now. When Nick told us to train before the competition? That's what I was doing.

As I raise my katana high above my head, I pour Cursed Power into its blade as I wrap my wind around it then condense it, forming an extra large, extra powerful katana of wind.

With a howl, Lycan comes charging towards me, fangs and claws bare.

I struggle to take a step towards Lycan, but find that I'm unable to. It's taking every last bit of concentration I have just to form this katana of wind. Which makes sense, because every other time I used this attack, I did it subconsciously or unconsciously.

"It's incomplete…" I grunt as I grit my teeth in concentration. "But this can work …I can do it!" I exclaim.

I allow Lycan to keep charging me, and then, once he's in my range, I move. "Wind Control…" I begin to say as I start swinging my katana downwards.

"SKY GOD'S KATANA!"

With a roar, I slice my katana downwards, slamming my Sky God's Katana straight into Lycan. As my Sky God's Katana makes contact with Lycan, the wolf yelps in pain as a powerful explosion of dark blue Cursed Power and wind bursts from my attack, one so grand that both Lycan and I are sent flying away from one another, and the barrels in front of Ella are sent flying away as well, and Ella has to grip on the fence besides her with all her might so as to not get sent flying backwards. Lycan is caught up in my vortex of wind and Cursed Power, getting sliced up and slashes from my powerful breeze

"KYAAA!!!" Ella cries.

When the explosion subsides, I drop down to one knee and pant, exhausted from expending so much Cursed Power fighting Lycan, as well as having been slashed up and lost a lot of blood from Lycan's attacks.

"If Lycan lost his fight with Ralph, we're screwed," I grunt. "I'm almost done…"

"There's no way Grover lost!" Ella confidently replies as she kneels down besides me, and begins treating my wounds. "Now…let's go find Ivy!"

"Right!"

***

Jamie and Austin stare at Luis' impressive final attack against Lycan, speechless.

"Hey, remember when Luis was the weakest of our squad?!" Jamie cries.

"Well he's certainly not stronger than me, now, but Luis has improved," Austin snobbishly agrees.

Jamie then turns to face Mikey, seeing that he's smirking at Luis. "Hey, you're smiling, you're smiling!" Jamie exclaims as she jumps out of her seat, pointing at Mikey.

"How can I not? All this means is that when I beat this super-improved Luis for a second time, it means that I've improved even more than he has," Mikey replies as a sadistic smile spreads across his lips..

"Woah, people watching at home, did you see that?! And people in the audience, you must have felt that wind, didn't you?! That super powerful wind sword from Slayer Fūjin, striking down the mad beats that is Slayer!" The announcer booms.

Nick whistles. "Hey, I don't think I've taught him that one! Only everything else," Nick smirks.

***

After Ella heals me, the two of us get up and begin chasing Ivy again, and as we do so, Ivy's glute playing grows louder and louder, and by using my Air Control, we follow Ivy's flute playing (the feeling of her fingers against her flute, or gusts of air from Ivy's flute against the air). Until eventually, my Air Control catches wind of something, causing me to pause.

"What is it, do you sense something?" Ella asks.

"Yeah, it…feels like something moving, something…inhuman," I answer.

"Like an animal that Ivy is controlling?" Ella asks.

"Yeah, but…when we fought alongside Slayer Renzu's Squad, we never saw Ivy controlling an animal other than Lycan, and we didn't see anything of the sorts in any of the clips of her," I answer.

 "What kind of animal does it feel li-" Ella begins to say, she's interrupted when a giant barrel comes hurtling towards the two of us.

"OH CRAP!" I cry as Ella and I duck to the side as the barrel slams into the ground beside us, the barrel in the gasoline exploding upon impact.

Ella whimpers in fear.

"Jeez, is Ivy or whoever trying to kill us?!" I snap.

"No, because then they would fail," Ella sighs.

Another barrel -one surely filled with gasoline- comes flying towards Ella and I again, and this time, I use my wind to catch it, setting the barrel safely onto the ground.

"Let's go!" I order as Ella and I rush forwards. "This way!" I say as I round the corner in front of us, and we find ourselves standing face to face with Ivy, who's perched on the fire escape above us. Well…sort of. In actuality, we're faced with what appears to be a giant, hulking gorilla made out of Ivy's medium green Cursed Power.

"WHAT THE HECK?!" Ivy yelps.

"SINCE WHEN CAN SHE MAKE ANIMALS?!" I cry.

"Oh, hello, you two, it's been awhile, no?" Ivy smirks before bringing her flute back up to her lips, and resuming her playing. As Ivy does so, her Cursed Power gorilla reaches over and grabs another barrel, using it as a projectile to hurl towards Ella and I. In response, I jump up and slash through the barrel, forgetting about the gasoline inside, which explodes from the sparks of my katana clanging against the barrel.

Swiftly, I activate my Cursed Power Barrier as well as a small wall of wind, shielding my body from the explosion.

"Crud…" I grumble as the explosion sends me skidding backwards a few feet. Using her Knockback Wave, Ella then repels a gasoline-filled barrel that was sent flying my way, which explodes mid-air. "Thanks," I mutter. Ella nods in response.

"Ivy has become far more threatening than since we've last seen her," Ella says. "She's even stronger without Lycan, now."

"Well if we beat Ivy, then we beat our animals, so we just have to take the fight to her!" I exclaim as I ready my katana and charge Ivy.

In response, Ivy continues her flute playing, and her Cursed Power gorilla sets down her barrels. Instead, Ivy's gorilla lets out a roar, before launching a large, meaty fist my way. I slash my katana towards the gorilla's fist, but rather than connecting, my blade just slips right through it.