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Rise of the Spiritualist: Entry 11
After another ten minutes of running, I saw another humanoid figure standing in the middle of the subterranean tunnel, its silhouette cloaked in a shadow cast by a dull light a bit further ahead. As I closed in on this humanoid thing, I slowed my pace down to normal walking speed, since I didn't want to startle it. As I drew nearer, I could make out a man's face, the lower half of which was cloaked by a bright red scarf.
"You must be Leonardo, the brat that Forte has been prattling on about..."
The mystery man's voice was rough and grainy, and there was an air of arrogance in his tone of voice. He pulled his scarf down to his neck, revealing a toothy grin that reeked of evil intent.
"...Name's Joachim. Good to meetcha, kiddo," he said sarcastically with a sneer.
"If you know Forte, then let me ask you: are you one of his allies?"
"Yeah, he's got me on commission right now. If I 'manage' to take you out, I'll make a mint. Old man's completely batty, thinking that it'd take someone of my expertice to deal with some punk like you.
"Oh well," he said, adjusting his stance and squaring off with me. "I guess beggars can't be choosers, huh? Hit me with your best shot, kiddo!!"
"You'll regret giving me the chance," I shouted angrily, and I lunged forward at him. Once I had closed the distance, I started throwing punches at different speeds and angles to get a feeling for his reaction speed and patterns.
"Aw, come on," Joachim moaned in disappointment as he blocked my strikes. "Are you even trying, kid? This ain't no fun at all; can't you do any better than this?"
"I thought you'd never ask...!!"
Before he could react, I brought my right knee up hard, landing a direct hit to his stomach. As he doubled over, I brought my fists together and smashed them down on the back of Joachim's head, sending him face-first into the floor. I could hear him gag on the stale, dusty air as he tried to catch his breath, still lying on the floor where I had knocked him over. After a few more seconds, he stood back up and rubbed a small cut near his nose.
"Dang, that actually hurt...!! You're better than I thought, kiddo...You really had me going, faking me out like that...Heh...Good thing I was faking it too, or I'd be in a real fix..."
"What do you mean...?!"
"This is what I mean," he replied, grinning again, and before I could understand what he was saying, his body began to shimmer. In the next split-second, several things happened: first, Joachim's body vanished right before my eyes; then, he reappeared behind me, his left fist raised as if he had just dealt someone an uppercut; next, I began to feel the painful shocks of multiple punches all over; and finally, his finishing attack hit me, and I was knocked off my feet and into the ceiling face-first.
"Sorry about that, kiddo," he said calmly as I fell to the cavern floor, "but ol' Forte told me not to take you lightly. He knows a lot about you, and he was happy to share your secrets with me. Now I can use those things against you and abuse you at my whim!!"
It took me a while to take in his words, as I was still lying on the ground, choking on ages-old dust and sand that had tried to enter my windpipe and fighting for precious oxygen. Once I had recovered sufficiently from his attack, I started thinking about what he had said, and I was immediately reassured that I could best Joachim.
"Actually," I said, still coughing a little, "I should be the one to...apologize...*cough*...Heh heh...After all...Forte doesn't know everything about me..."
I laid both of my hands to the ground as I laid there, and stone spikes began rising from the floor and into the ceiling. Joachim dodged the first wave with ease, but he eventually backed into a solid wall; I had raised it, too, to prevent him from escaping my earth chakra. In a desperate attempt to avoid my chakra, he began crushing the rock spires with his fists and his feet. I was surprised at his raw strength, but all he was doing was returning the stone javelins to the floor, where I could re-use them as I wished. Finally, I heard a pain-wracked cry from my enemy as one of my earth spears pierced his left arm, and I knew I had him. I lowered the spikes back into the earth and saw Joachim leaning against my artificial wall, his arm soaked in blood.
"That's...He said...HE TOLD ME YOU COULDN'T...!! So how did you...?!"
"What, use my chakra without saying its name? I've always been able to...but incanting the name of the chakra boosts its power. It's not necessary, though; just an amplifier. Forte never knew that I could use chakra without saying its name, since I never did it when I fought him before. He couldn't have known, and thus, neither could you."
Joachim let out a savage growl from the back of his throat, obviously enraged, before screaming, "There's no way...!! I've got at least twice as much experience in years, and I even had Master Forte's power to aid me..."
Suddenly, something clicked within Joachim's mind, and his face suddenly changed from a frenzied expression to the appearance of a hysteric. He began laughing uncontrollably, which sent a chill up my spine; whatever he had just realized, it couldn't be good for me.
"Heh heh...That's right...I still haven't used all of Forte's dark power yet...Watch closely, little punk!! This is the true power you're meddling with!! This...is CHAOS!!"
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