Chapter 18 - A Part-time Job 3

Blade Tornado no longer cares about his pride as he pushes himself off the ground in anger. As soon as his feet touches the ground, he releases each blade he has.

Forehead, elbows, knuckles, shoulders, shoulder blades, knees, and foot; all 13 blades appear once again. The blade coming out from the slits of his Roman helmet, and his boots especially gives out an illusion of an apex predator.

*WHOOOOAAAHH* The crowd switch from amusement to excitement once again.

Blade Tornado's anger furthers when he receives a simple lazy tilt of the head from Red as a response.

Meanwhile, Fumio who has been watching in awe at Red's evasive display, becomes worried seeing the ominous glint in Blade Tornado's thirteen sharp blades once again.

Blade Tornado, despite his anger at his situation, learned better. Instead of rushing forward, he assumes a Muay Thai stance even though he is only a few steps away from Red. He then starts bouncing on the balls of his feet as he carefully approaches Red once again.

Before he can get in striking range, however, he stops. Him looking at Red's blank mask reminds him that Red is 'blind'.

With the blade of his left foot, he kicks the clay ground. The pieces of clay fly towards Red and Red dodges. Seeing Red's response, Blade Tornado smirks, finding hope in getting through Red's defenses.

*CHEER* The audience too, realize that Red is 'fooled' by Blade Tornado's tricks and they cheer in anticipation.

Blade Tornado then repeats the same action and more pieces of clay fly towards Red to which Red once again agilely evades.

Blade Tornado suddenly gets an idea and as he watches a piece of clay fly towards Red's face. He then estimates which direction Red will dodge to next and he kicks out, with his right foot, to that direction.

To his surprise, he feels that the blade of his foot makes a slight contact. He then sees Red do a backflip to get away from him. Soon, he sees a shallow but long cut across Red's chest, leaking some blood.

This pauses the action.

*CHEER* The audience, seeing Red's wounds in the LCD display, get on their feet in excitement.

"…" Fumio bites the sleeve of his kimono in nervousness.

*Smirk* Blade Tornado smiles in satisfaction. While he knows that the damage he dealt is but a scratch, he is pleased to see that Red is no longer as relaxed as before, that the casualness left Red's body, replaced by alertness.

"BLADE TORNADO MAKES USE OF OLD PHANTOM'S HANDICAP AND DRAWS BLOOD!" The announcer too, exclaims in excitement.

"THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT OLD PHANTOM IS WOUNDED!"

*CHEER*

Blade Tornado, seeing the result of his handiwork, gets his confidence back. He once again rains clay pieces to Red's direction and same as before, he blindly kicks to the general direction to wherever Red is dodging. This time however, he misses.

He does not give up on his trick however and makes use of it in the next moments.

*Groan* *cheer* *groan* *cheer*

The audience react accordingly at each miss and each scratch that Blade Tornado achieves.

Despite seeing the shallow wounds that accumulated on Red's body, Blade Tornado is not satisfied. He just realized that his tactic will not work forever as he noticed that he is making less and less contact.

"EVERYONE! IT SEEMS THAT OLD PHANTOM IS GETTING USED TO BLADE TORNADO'S TRICKS!" The announcer and the audience too, realize what is happening.

Blade Tornado however, wants to squeeze his trick once more and he kicks clay pieces to Red once again.

*thck* *thck*

To his surprise, he sees that Red is no longer dodging the clay pieces and is simply letting them hit his body and mask. He brushes aside his surprise and continues to kick more clay pieces.

Seeing that Red really is not dodging, he gets an idea and immediately acts on it.

He kicks one more piece to Red before he following it with a thrust of his own left bladed knuckle, the weight of his entire body following through. He gets excited as the blade of his fist gets closer and closer to Red's chest, while Red seems to not perceive any incoming danger. The next moment however, a familiar scene happens right in front of his eyes.

He sees Red turn his body sideways to the left, narrowly avoiding the knuckle blade. The momentum of his attack makes Blade Tornado realize that he is now very open. Out of instinct, he tries to lean on his left hoping that the blade of his left shoulder will land anywhere on Red's body.

*shhinnkk* He then feels the blade of his left shoulder make contact, before rolling on the floor to recover his footing.

He then looks back at Red to see what damage he did, and he is pleasantly surprised by what he sees.

The bottom of Red's porcelain mask falls to the floor, having been sliced off by his blade, now exposing Red's entire bearded mouth.

"OOHHH!!! THE OLD PHANTOM WAS ALMOST UNMASKED EVERYONE!" The announcer excitedly reports and, *RRAAHHH* the crowd goes wild.

Blade Tornado, meanwhile, is not excited as the audience. Far from it. He feels coldness climb up his spine as he sees the now exposed mouth of Red, raise its corners to form a smile.

It is not the sinister he often sees in the fighters of the underground fighting ring. It is not the murderous smile he often sees in the most murderous combatants. It is instead, a misplaced, kind and benevolent smile.

The misplaced and unknown smile he is seeing for the first time in an opponent, puts an eerie feeling in his heart.

Soon however, 'What the fuck are you smiling like that for?' Blade Tornado's eerie feeling is replaced by offense.

He is not seeing on Red's face the expression that he expects or likes to see.

'After all of that… don't give me that smile…' He grudgingly kicks clay to Red once again and repeating his earlier tactic by thrusting out another straight.

This time however, his arm is caught and clipped between Red's underarm. He is stunned, and before he can take further action, his elbow is intertwined by Red's cane, making it and its blade useless.

The next moment, he receives a punch in his gut.

"*aaackk*" His lungs almost run out of air from the well placed punch to his diaphragm and he bends over. His arm however is used by Red as an anchor and he is forced to stand up straight again and this time, he receives an upper cut to his chin.

Unfortunately, his helmet does not cover his chin, and his vision shakes and his world spins. He tries to attack Red with his free limbs but each attempt that he tries, it is easily diverted or parried, making his efforts useless.

Even if he uses the blade on his knees, or the blade on his forehead to try detach himself, Red simply makes use of his locked arm as an anchor to maneuver him helplessly like how a hand puppet's movements is in the entire control of a puppeteer.

"EVERYONE! IT SEEMS THAT THE OLD PHANTOM IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF THE PERFECT COUNTERPLAN TO BLADE TORNADO'S TRICKS! OHH!! BLADE TORNADO SHOULD GET OUT OF OLD PHANTOM'S HOLD IMMEDIATELY!" The announcer commentates.

The crowd meanwhile, is stunned at the turn of events. Earlier, they were cheering for Blade Tornado as if cheering for a lion chasing an evasive deer. Now, it is as if the deer suddenly grew huge antlers and large hooves, trapped the lion in its antlers, and is now clobbering its victim.

Blade Tornado cannot think of a way out so he keeps receiving blows to the body and to his head. He is confused at first as to why Red is pummeling his helmet, but he slowly realizes that Red is giving him a breather by doing so.

Realizing that fact however is useless and it took him too long. He receives another uppercut, and his world is rocked once again. He then feels his body and limbs go limp, as if his brain has disconnected from the rest of his body. He also feels his blades recede back inside his body, his concentration failing to maintain them. He feels one last blow to his helmet before being let go by Red. He can barely stay conscious and can only allow himself to fall face flat on the ground with a thud.

"THE BLADE TORNADO IS DOWN! IT HAS BEEN A WHILE SINCE HE IS DOWN THIS BAD!" The announcer remarks in excitement.

The audience meanwhile falls into an awkward state with only a small part of the crowd cheering.

"…" Fumio meanwhile, is trying his best to not celebrate.

After all, he knows why the audience are reacting strangely. Earlier, when he was placing his bets, he realized that the odds are heavily stacked against Red at 1:5.

"Shit… The Old Phantom wasn't like this before…" He hears a middle-aged spectator nearby, utter.

"I know right… Wasn't he a counter fighter? I thought he'd be the same with Blade Tornado." A younger male spectator says.

"Same. I thought Blade Tornado is impossible to counter so I bet on him. Fuck. There goes my money." Another spectator begrudgingly agrees.

"WHAT'S THIS? OLD PHANTOM IS NOT CONTINUING TO ATTACK. IS HE WAITING FOR BLADE TORNADO TO STAND BACK UP? IS HE WAITING FOR BLADE TORNADO TO YIELD?!" The announcer continues to remark to fill the lack of action.

As if proving the announcer's words true, Red takes a few steps back from Blade Tornado and resumes standing at a casual posture once again by leaning on his cane, waiting for Blade Tornado to stand up.

A few seconds pass however, and Blade Tornado is still on the floor, barely being able to push his body up the ground, and can only raise his head to look at Red.

Suddenly, "Kill… Kill…" A soft unorganized chanting starts in the crowd once again before, "KILL. KILL. KILL.", descending into unison.

The audience members who bet on Blade Tornado are feeling bitter that their horse on the race let them down, while the audience members that bet against him are getting carried away by the satisfaction of the incoming multiplication of their bets.

"…" Fumio is disgusted by what is happening, but he is more concerned if whether or not Red will really take a life.