Page 458

~~Holiday Special (Day 7/7, Page 4/6)~~
Karkash was briefly quiet. His reaper, Hoyohté, was right behind him, and the two of them were probably speaking, but Karkash never removed his eyes from Hector. “You must tell me where he is,” the man said.

Hector’s expression tilted. ‘Is he serious? I don’t understand why he’s not just attacking me...’

‘...Ah!’ said Garovel. ‘Because he’s still not confident that he can beat you! He wants to buy time for the others to arrive and help him!’

‘Err--you really think so?’

‘Attack him now! We have to get away from here before they show up!’

Hector obliged. And for his opening move, he chose a sneaky thing. He put his hands together, disguising the motion by pretending to crack his knuckles, and behind Karkash, a line of four large catapults took shape. In truth, they were nothing more than seesaws with iron boulders lain at their far ends. Larger boulders took form over the seesaws’ raised ends, and when they dropped, the original four boulders were launched.

Hector’s trajectory wasn’t perfect. The first two boulders missed Karkash, but the last two were on target. They still didn’t hit him, though. Rather, they became caught in the man’s swirling magnetic field, but that was enough. Their sudden appearance from outside of Karkash’s view forced him to take his eyes off Hector for a moment, and in that time, Hector used a sudden platform to propel himself into the air.

When Karkash saw him again, Hector was already barreling toward him. Hastily aimed lightning cut through Hector’s chest as a two-handed punch connected with Karkash’s collarbone. Karkash torpedoed into the ground while Hector’s body fell back down at normal velocity, spasming a bit from the electricity coursing through him.

When he tumbled into the grass again, Hector started running toward Karkash’s body, knowing the deed to be yet unfinished. Fleeing on a motorcycle would be impossible so long as this person remained undefeated, so he annihilated his catapults and made fresh boulders over Karkash’s head.

They stopped in mid-air and lightning shot up and bounced between them, crackling with furious energy.