The Astral soul system-Chapter 138: Charge!

Pointing his sword at Zyro, Virgil asked

"Ready"

"Whenever you are"

Zyro replied holding his staff.

"Good"

Virgil suddenly dashed towards Zyro, signaling the start of the match as he started with a wide swing, openly daring Zyro to attack while he was open and he accepted the invitation slamming the staff towards his side.

Virgil smiled and didn’t try to stop it , continuing with his attack towards Zyro. Zyro internally sighed and quickly used the other end of his staff to stop Virgil’s hand, abandon his attack.

Part of him was still suprised by the decisiveness Ben and now Virgil was showing.

"Hmm?"

Virgil pulled back and made another simple slash, this one quicker than before but Zyro countered it again, using the bottom of the staff to hit the flat edge of the sword to ruin his balance.

This time, Virgil seemed really confused. He’d seen, Zen fight before and it was nothing like now. Sure it was the same level of precision but the intention in his movements were completely different.

"You’re pretty serious about this not hurting people thing"

Zyro nodded still looking cheerful.

"I’m not too good at that, the other two do enough of that for all of us"

"Hmm?"

Virgil immediately resumed, sending out slash after slash which Zyro masterfully dodged and defended using both hands to manouver the staff around the sharp edges of the blade.

Internally, Zyro was confused. He’d picked the staff because it was the longest blunt weapon they had, planning to use it’s reach against Virgil’s considerably shorter sword but all he’d done was basic movements.

"Alright, that’s enough warming up"

Virgil suddenly said before taking another swing, except this one was different. With barely enough time to respond, Zyro put up his guard, holding the sword slightly tilted to the right, causing the swords edge to only slightly graze it before sliding down.

After successfully blocking, Zyro matched the pressure, holding one end with both hands and finally attacking with full strength, swinging at Virgil’s head.

"That’s more like it" Virgil said, letting his hand get hit instead of his head and thrusting forward with his sword.

Zyro took a big dash back, creating distance as he gripped the staff like a baseball bat, hitting the flat end close to the tip of the sword to knock it away before driving it upward to the right towards Virgil’s ribs, but following the motion of his sword, Virgil moved his body out of the way.

Now we’re getting somewhere

The rest of the fight from this point was fast-paced back to back clashes between them, surprising all the students in the room as it looked like they Zyro was actually going hit for hit with a teacher.

On the outside, Zyro was parrying every hit while returning calculated counters, not even breaking a sweat yet. Meanwhile on the inside, Zyro was stuck. He was almost completely out of options here. This battle was clearly going nowhere and Virgil who was holding back was about to loose his patience. The way things were going, he didn’t see a way he could have win, he needed to move around to get the distance his staff needed and Virgil’s speed was steadily increasing.

"What’s wrong with you? Get serious already!"

Virgil said and suddenly swung downward, his sword hitting the ground as the ground literally shattered, spitting up debree.

Virgil grinned, swiping away at some dust to find where Zyro was but when it was all gone, he couldn’t see him.

"Scary"

A voice behind him suddenly said.

He looked behind him and saw Zyro with a nervous expression, standing crouched on his staff like stilts

"You’re awfully flashy"

Zyro chuckled, confident that Virgil wouldn’t attack. He wanted to enjoy the fight as much as possible

"I know" he said stretching, causing the staff to bend threateningly but Zyro’s smile didn’t waver as he stood properly on one leg, balancing perfectly

"It’s just... I’m still breaking it out. Three years is such a long time,it barely even feels right anymore. I mean...look at me! I’m so tall!"

Zyro exclaimed, gesturing to his feet like an excited child, causing the staff to bend again but he still didn’t fall off.

He spoke very loudly but no one understood what he meant so he was just getting a bunch of strange looks from everywhere like he was crazy or something.

Zyro quickly calmed down, thinking about how to beat Virgil. He didn’t know what the blades of Tartarus was, but it sounded like something he’d want.

Jumping down, he grabbed the edge of the staff, swinging it down with him, looking like he was once again avoiding a direct clash.

Expecting this, Virgil stepped back, letting him land before slashing down. Getting a strange feeling he shouldn’t try to dodge this one, Zyro quickly moved his weapon out of the way and ducked , and it was lucky her did as he looked at the ground the sword had touched and saw it had been split.

Gritting his teeth, Zyro thought

’This is getting dangerous’

Hearing something snap, he suddenly looked at his staff that had been split in two

’Disappointing, but I can work with this’

Zyro suddenly held both sides like they were batons and suddenly took off his shield, throwing it into the air

[Charge(maximum power)]

[Dash]

Zyro suddenly charged towards Virgil, striking first for the first time. Virgil tried to counter but Zyro suddenly ducked, sliding between his legs

"Wha-"

Distracted, he didn’t notice Zyro’s shield had started flying towards him and with a huge amount of force it slammed into his face , knocking him back.

Gasps erupted as Zyro landed his first heavy hit on Virgil

Keeping the pressure, Zyro charged in and struck at Virgil’s head, but was surprised when he shifted his head like he could see behind him.

"Clever. Excellent, that’s more like it"

Virgil muttered before turning around and slashing

[Dash]

[Shadow steps]

Zyro dodged and started using Zen’s pinball technique, mastering it on his first try as he circled circling him with a Zigzag in his step

"Excellent! Now give me more!"

This only lasted for a second before, Zyro suddenly attacked from a random direction with another dash powering his movements as he swung his batons again and again, the two dropping the fancy moves and clashing directly at this point.

After a few confrontations, his batons were completely useless but this was part of the plan as the shield suddenly flew in in the middle of another confrontation, forcing him to give it his attention.

Zyro took the chance to step back and threw something towards Virgil. Halfway through, it suddenly gained a blue glow. Noticing the new annoyance, Virgil snarled , slashing away the shield before attacking the flying star shaped object. The moment his sword touched it, he noticed a hint of blue light and some frost forming on the surface of his blade.

Now having his chances, Zyro dashed in with his fists

’it always boils down to this in the end. HAMMER!"

While he was still dealing with the persistent liu xing, Zyro suddenly slid past his defenses, throwing a heavy punch straight at his abdomen.

He stepped back slightly, allowing Liu xing to pass him but Zyro didn’t let him rest and kept throwing heavy punches.

With a violent smile, Virgil slashed at the unarmed and unarmored Zyro but this was expected, sidestepping the attack, Zyro suddenly held the edge of the blade, ignoring the blood that started spilling

[Charge(maximum power)]

[Hammer]

[Soul blade]

Wait a minute? What’s he doing? Everyone’s going to see the Astra.

A faint light suddenly coated Zyro’s arm but before it could fully form, it lessened, almost disappearing. Zyro was out of Astra, he’d used the last bits powering his charge for this attack,he’d only used the form, not the power.

His fist struck the body of the blade and with a snap the blade broke off the hilt.

He didn’t stop there, charging Virgil with his shoulder and quickly dashing away, throwing away the blade.

Virgil looked at the empty hilt of his sword and smiled, throwing it away

"I knew i picked the right opponent"

Somewhere in the audience, Sable and Jade were worried when they saw his bleeding hand. He was smart enough to use his left hand so his right glove was still intact but something bothered sable.

’He’s not healing properly’

Virgil smiled,a predatory glint in his eyes

"I said I wasn’t holding back"

He suddenly opened his hands and from the weapon wall,two shorter swords suddenly flew into his hands like how Zyro summoned his shield

’Well that plan was a bust’ Zyro thought, gritting his teeth.

He had nothing left,no Astra,no tools that would suprise Virgil and no time.

"Hey!"

Zyro suddenly looked at the audience and he suddenly noticed something heading towards him in the air. He quickly recognized it, dashing towards it and grabbing it, careful not to cut himself.

"Don’t fucking waste it"

Zyro nodded, equipping the bladed steel tonfas and looking at Virgil who nodded, signaling that he’d let it happen.

Mentally throwing his shield, Zyro followed behind it and the two continued their brawl, this time in close quarters as Zyro no longer ran around, throwing his fists and feet around and either dodging to the side or down,or just hooking the blades with his own and counterattacking.

The entire room went silent except for the sounds of blades clashing,Virgil laughing maniacally and Zyro giggling excitedly.

The ground beneath them was ripped open and cracked multiple times from the impact and sometimes even directly by their confrontations of the two lunatics duking it out.

The class had unknowingly filled with students who’d heard that a student haf challenged a teacher and was holding his own, everyone froze at the masterful display as the two clashed fully focused on each other.

The system’s description of "two devils ripping a hole to the underworld" didn’t seem so extra now as blood was spilt on the ground, mostly Zyro’s as he utilized every skill he had, his shield flying around looking for a chance to slam into the devil butcher.

This close up, Zyro really felt like he was fighting a devil, every swing of the sword filled with malice, ripping through the air like it was on its way to a massacre. Unintentionally, his own bloodlust had started spilling out, and it only made the battle that more graphic for the audience as it looked like the two actually wanted the other dead, every swing filled with determination to draw blood,in time even Zyro started laughing like a madman, ignoring the damage notifications as his eyes started glowing.

"Yes! More! Bring out more! That can’t be your limit!!!!"

Zyro grinned and when Virgil was bringing down his swords again, he suddenly did something insane and held the other edge of the tonfas, the blades digging into his skin painfully as he used the safe handles as hooks to spread Virgil’s arms

"Wha-"

Zyro suddenly leaned in, violently slamming his head against Virgil’s.

Before he could respond, the shield suddenly flew in again, this time with a bright golden glow as it violently slammed into Virgil’s chest, knocking him down.

Zyro sighed, dropping the tonfas , thinking he’d finally won. He was about to sit down when he suddenly heard laughing

"Ha...ha...haHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! You really are something kid"

Zyro felt his breath pause for a few seconds as he looked at the teacher who was already back on his feet, one of his blades shattered again as he pointed his sword at him

"....He...heheheHEHEHAHAHAHAAAAaaaa"

Zyro laughed and ended with a sigh.

"No way. You’re not even human"

He muttered, ignoring the irony in those words coming from him, and picked up the tonfas again

[HP: 30/200]

[Astra: 25/230]

Zyro sighed.

[Charge!]