Galaxy Fall: All My Skills Are Maxed-Chapter 117: I Won’t Lose

"Seems you’re left." Yakima turned her dual-colored Soul Eyes slowly to Austin, the final standing member of the vanguard trio. The sheer pressure of her gaze felt like a physical weight pressing down on his draconic aura.

​"So what if I am left!! I will still fight you!!" Austin yelled, his voice rough. He tightened his stance, fully prepared to go down swinging to defend the honor of the Invincible Five.

​"I like your co---"

​Before he could even blink, Yakima vanished. The displacement of air was the only warning before she instantly stood directly behind Austin, completely bypassing his five-times heightened reflexes.

​"--urage." She finished her words in a whisper directly into his ear, and lightly tapped his broad shoulder with two fingers.

​Austin froze instantly. The dense, red draconic aura surrounding him shattered like fragile glass. His spiky white hair rapidly returned to its normal crimson color, and he dropped heavily to the obsidian ground, his entire nervous system instantly paralyzed by the necrotic debuff.

​"You?" He managed to gasp out, looking up at her from the floor, his eyes wide, completely stunned by the absolute disparity in their speeds.

​"I like you, boy... Once you graduate and refine your reckless energy, you can come to the Dragon Tooth Guild. You will make a good vanguard member," she said with a small, approving smile, staring down at him.

​"Ok now, it’s time to clear the arena." She clapped her hands together sharply. A burst of spatial runic light enveloped Austin, and he vanished, instantly reappearing safely outside the arena bounds, right beside his sister Aurelia.

​"Now." Yakima raised her head to look directly at Hayatobi in the stands, her posture relaxed but her aura still simmering.

​"Lord Hayatobi, as you can see, the warm-up is over. I am now in a hurry. Who else wants to face me?" she asked, her voice carrying over the silent crowd.

​Without a word, Hitachi stood up from his seat. He leaped high into the air, his robes fluttering, and landed silently on the arena floor exactly twenty yards from her.

​"I will be your opponent," he said, his voice flat and emotionless, looking across the scarred stone at her.

​As he spoke, his red eyes slowly started changing. The crimson irises fractured, adding more vibrant, swirling colors to the mix. In less than one second, Hitachi’s unique, colorful Celestial Eyes were spinning rapidly, locking onto the flow of Yakima’s energy.

​"Oh, it seems your Celestial Eyes are far different from the ordinary, Celestial Eyes recorded in the archives. I am guessing you gained a Legendary-grade skill recently which perfectly complemented those unique eyes of yours," she said with a small, analytical smile, recognizing the signature of an anomaly.

​"Come on," Hitachi said seriously, ignoring her observation, his spinning gaze fixed solely on Yakima.

​"Ok then. Let’s start."

​Yakima vanished. The ground didn’t even crack this time; she simply ceased to be in one location and instantly appeared directly behind Hitachi. She reached out and placed her hand firmly on his shoulder, ready to deliver the paralyzing debuff.

​"Sorry, you lost," Yakima said, her voice devoid of triumph, merely stating a fact.

​"I thought those eyes of yours could see everything."

​"Huh?"

​Yakima’s brow furrowed. The voice hadn’t come from the boy beneath her hand. She looked ahead of her, back to her previous spot. There, standing calmly with his hands by his side, was Hitachi, his expression completely flat.

​She blinked, startled, and quickly looked down at the person she had just touched. The physical form of ’Hitachi’ instantly shattered into a cloud of dense, colorless smoke.

​"A clone?" she muttered in genuine surprise, retracting her hand. It was a high grade assassin technique, perfectly executed without a single fluctuation in energy to give it away.

​"Wow! Young master Hitachi is so good!!" a student yelled from the stands in absolute surprise, breaking the silence.

​"That is Master Hitachi to you. He is always so cool," a elite girl reprimanded softly, watching with awe, her eyes glowing with admiration for the stoic prodigy.

​Up in the VIP seating, Mirabella watched the exchange with a completely different kind of intensity.

​{Skill cannot be copied. Bloodline Restriction Detected.}

​’Ahhh!!’ Mirabella yelled inwardly, her frustration mounting. She angrily unwrapped another piece of candy and shoved it into her mouth, her jaw tight as she watched the battle unfold before her.

​’I must acquire a high-grade skill from this fight!! I only gained some basic movement techniques from the previous match. I must gain at least one Legendary skill from these two monsters before this is over!’ she thought, leaning forward, watching their every micro-movement with a deadly serious expression.

​Down in the arena, Yakima quickly recovered from her surprise and smiled softly.

​"You are good, Hitachi... The moment I contracted my muscles to move, you used that microsecond to switch places with your shadow and leave a perfect clone behind... Truly impressive reaction speed," she acknowledged.

​As she spoke, the contrasting black and white colors in her eyes violently mixed together. Both her eyes turned a solid, dead gray, and a pitch-black, jagged star appeared where her pupils should be.

"Let me show you the true, terrifying strength of my eyes."

​BAM!!!

​Hitachi froze instantly, his spinning eyes locking in place. He blinked, the world around him shifting violently. The obsidian arena vanished, replaced by a sky the color of dried blood.

​"Is this... a mental illusion?" he asked softly, his voice echoing unnaturally. He looked around, staring at the thousands of human skeletons littering the ground as far as the eye could see. He was standing in the middle of a colossal, ancient battlefield, the air thick with the metallic scent of blood and the crunch of brittle bones beneath his boots.

​"Welcome to my inner world, Hitachi," Yakima’s voice echoed from everywhere at once before she materialized right before him, floating slightly above the sea of bones.

​"You!! What kind of domain is this?!" Hitachi yelled at her, feeling his spirit energy actively being drained by the oppressive atmosphere.

​"It’s nothing complex. Just get ready to lose," Yakima said coldly. She raised her hand gracefully, and in response, tens of thousands of rusted, jagged weapons buried in the battlefield violently rose into the air. They hovered perfectly still, all pointing their lethal tips directly at him. The eerie red sunlight reflected off their unnaturally sharp edges.

​"I won’t lose that easily to a mere trick of the mind!!!" Hitachi yelled. He forcefully pushed his Celestial Eyes to their absolute limit, spinning the colors so fast they blurred. Blood began to flow freely from the corners of his eyes, trailing down his cheeks as he desperately fought against the mental intrusion.

_

​Back in the physical reality of the Arena, Yakima stood perfectly still, controlling the illusion. Suddenly, she flinched, genuinely stunned. "Huh?"

​Hitachi gasped violently, breaking the mental lock. He dropped heavily to his knees on the obsidian floor, dark blood rolling down his cheeks, panting for breath. "I won’t lose," he gritted out, his voice hoarse.

​"You actually escaped my mental domain, even without possessing the Absolute Will passive skill. Impressive. Truly, truly impressive," Yakima nodded, her smile widening into one of genuine respect for a fellow warrior.

​Hitachi didn’t waste time talking. He stood upright, his form instantly shattering into a thick cloud of smoke, which surged rapidly toward her across the arena floor.

​"Changing the physical form of your body to evade physical strikes! What a nice tactical idea!" she praised. The black stars in both her gray eyes began to spin counter to Hitachi’s own.

​"Break!!" she yelled, releasing a burst of concussive soul energy.

​BAM!!!

​An invisible, kinetic force smashed brutally into the incoming cloud of smoke. The smoke was thrown violently backward, immediately reforming into Hitachi, who fell hard onto his knees again. He coughed violently, vomiting a splatter of blood onto the stone, staring up at her in shock.

​’Why is she taking me so seriously from the start?!’ he thought in surprise, wiping his mouth. He was expecting the same dismissive treatment the vanguard trio received.

​"You are strong, Hitachi... But do not expect me to fight you the way I fought those three amateurs," she said, her tone dropping any pretense of a warm-up.

"Come on." She spread her arms wide, inviting his next desperate move.

​"You are the last surviving member of the Azul clan... You are one of my father’s personal disciples. So of course, I will be completely serious with you. And by that, I mean using my eyes to their full capacity," she explained calmly.

​"You!"

​Hitachi used every ounce of his remaining strength and raised one trembling finger, pointing it directly at her heart.

​"Soul Piercing." He activated the newly acquired Legendary-grade skill Hayatobi had just given him, channeling all his remaining energy into a single, unblockable point of attack.

​"BREAK!!"

​Yakima yelled instantly, her eyes flaring as she identified the invisible, lethal attack trajectory. With a pulse of her own soul energy, the invisible, incoming attack violently shattered mid-air before it could reach her.

​"Hitachi, you can’t win against my—"

​WHOOSH!

​A sound like tearing silk echoed across the silent arena.

​Yakima froze mid-sentence. Everyone in the stands, even Hayatobi, froze in absolute shock, staring down at the arena in disbelief.

​Slowly, almost mechanically, Yakima raised her hand and touched her left cheek. She felt a sharp, stinging pain. She removed her hand and lowered it, her eyes widening as she saw a smear of fresh, bright crimson blood on her fingertips.

​"Blood?" she muttered, completely stunned. An attack had actually bypassed her perfect defense.