When Blake and Innu arrived at the scene, Innu naturally went to help Kevin, who was in more trouble than Kai, leading Blake to join the fight against Garbo.
His red-colored swords were drawn, bright against the black-colored uniform of the Altered Hunters. Now that Kai was able to get a closer look at him, he could see more details.
The armor, although black in color, had faint swirling patterns all over it. It wasn’t the same type of armor that any Altered Hunter would wear. It was different from what Blake had worn the last few times.
Garbo, transformed back into his lion-like form with the ring of fire activating around his neck, looked like a mane on fire.
“Be careful, this guy is kind of strong,” Kai said. He was no longer in his transformed state after being hit several times by Garbo. On top of that, Kai was extremely exhausted, having already fought against Glutton and even having to fight Greed and Garbo both at the same time at one point.
“You have done enough,” Blake said. “You just sit back and rest, and don’t worry, because I’m quite strong myself.”
Garbo wasted no time, as he ran across the floor. With each step, small marks of flames would be left on the floor. Then, when he leapt up in the air, flames exploded out of the bottom of his feet.
A giant lion had preemptively exploded in the air, forcing them to boost in the air.
Blake readied himself, he moved his feet and gathered both swords next to each other. It almost looked like he was performing a dance, then at the same time he swung both swords right toward Garbo’s head.
Garbo’s teeth closed, hitting the swords, holding them in place, and the mane started to grow even larger with heat. Yet, it did nothing to Blake as he continued to push forward.
‘He’s matching an Altered’s strength. Is this the power of his equipment, or is it his own power?’ Kai thought.
Regardless, Blake was very calm, and shifting his feet forward, the boots he was wearing glowed slightly, giving him a boost in strength. Blake had chucked the large lion to the ground, detaching him from his swords.
Garbo quickly got up, as he wasn’t hurt from the attack, but was quite surprised that he had just been overpowered by a human of all things, rather than an Altered.
“I could have avoided your attack,” Blake commented. “I just wanted to test if I could beat you in every way possible.”
The comments agitated Garbo who charged forward again, and this time he blasted twice from his paws, giving him even more speed. However, Blake’s boots lit up again, and he, himself, seemed to get a boost of speed.
He had met Garbo earlier than expected, as Garbo was still in the air. Seeing this, Blake knelt down slightly and lifted his sword up.
Through his vision, he could see it, he could see white lines appearing on Garbo’s body, telling him the best places to strike, he cut across the stomach of Garbo, and stood up on his feet.
Turning around, he could see Garbo had pounced at him for another attack, but Blake struck again with his swords striking against his teeth perfectly, and with the other sword cutting through his skin drawing blood each time.
Kai, watching everything from the sideline, was impressed. It was as if he was witnessing a master swordsman at work. Even though Garbo was in his Lion form, his paw swipes were fast.
His speed was like that of Kai in his werewolf form and his attacks packed more of a punch due to the flame powers. Yet, Blake wasn’t just blocking each of the attacks, he was also able to deliver cuts back and attack at the perfect time.
‘The white lines, during this fight, I’m able to see them perfectly, this is the best I’ve ever seen them during a fight. Why is that, what is this feeling?’ Blake started to think.
Unbeknownst to him, his arms were moving faster than before, and Garbo was noticing something that was happening that he didn’t notice until now. One of the sword strikes to the side of him had completely missed, yet he felt a stinging pain, and a short cut appeared on him after.
Rather than going on the attack, now Garbo was moving backward, yet the swords from Blake continued to swing. There was nothing coming out from his swords, yet, Garbo could feel his body being hit and cuts were appearing over him.
He tried to block it as heat was building up, and then Garbo started to move side to side jumping everywhere.
Blake continued to not move from where he stood, and continued to swing his swords at the white lines he could see in his vision. Continuously doing this, he was still hitting Garbo no matter where he moved to.
Quickly, Garbo felt like he had no choice and had leapt behind a car. In doing so, the sound of metal scratching against metal could still be heard and cuts were being made on the car as well.
‘Invisible attacks… are his sword strikes moving through the air!’ Kai thought.
His guess was quite right. That was because Blake had managed to unlock a stage of Qi even further than that of Innu. The first stage of Qi, reinforcing one’s body with the mysterious power. The second stage of Qi, allowing one to use this power to coat items and weapons using it externally. Then the third stage of Qi, to truly use Qi outside of your body, projecting it out into an attack.
“I’ll show you how I became a 4-star Altered Hunter!” Blake said, the inner of his eyes glowing slightly white.
*****
****