Moon shot Liquid Mountain into the sand.
His hands ran over the helmet, as if trying to find his head underneath, unable to resist.
Clang~
He took off the helmet. "FUCK DAMMIT!" he cursed.
He started scratching his head wildly with one hand, extending the other at Ed. "WHY WON’T YOU GET HIT?" he questioned, his face contorting beyond the human range.
Ed waved his blade around. "You failed to land a hit; that’s why!" he answered with a smile.
"The sequence was flawless," Moon said, still thinking hard, scratching his hair.
"It was just almost flawless." He whipped his hands forward with both blades twice. "I don’t carry these around for show," Ed retorted. "You forced me to use my second blade; that’s something for a brat after all."
"He has not the slightest control over his emotions or impulses," Lucen’s voice resounded in Ed’s ears.
"Just keep watching; you know nothing," Ed retorted to Lucen’s claim before returning his focus entirely on Moon, who was still trying to process the situation.
"Kid, I gave you the last exchange, so if you don’t mind," Ed said, before letting Moon grab his blade or prepare himself.
Ed, within a single breath, slashed 12 times; each was but a line, sharp and threatening.
Moon, who had yet to retrieve his Echo or get a hold of his blade, found himself both frustrated and threatened at the same time.
Moon opened his palm wide and swatted—
Rumble~
Moon decided he would use his body this time; blocking with his own body was always a valid option considering his constitution.
He also could sense the amount of Echo in these glares wasn’t too much, still—
Drip~
A drop of blood fell from the open wound on his palm, but he wasn’t done.
Moon stood his ground, swatting each and every glare angrily, unfazed by the damage or Fate Alert spamming in his head.
"That’s also a weird one to look at," Lucen commented.
"How so?" Ed asked.
"Damage Reduction gifts, all of them that I’ve seen over these years worked for all kinds of damage, not just Echo," Lucen explained.
"Is that so?" Ed asked in a skeptical tone.
"This looks like an upgraded form of Echo Resistance, or a new Echo Resistance gift that has just appeared," Lucen added.
"Hmm, hmmmmm, makes sense," Ed answered sternly, watching his Echo blades getting swatted by Moon one by one, or rather—
Slapped out of the way.
Moon stepped forward, staring with burning eyes at Ed’s relaxed face.
Rumble~
The last of the glares hit the ground to his left. Moon instantly brought his hands together and ran at Ed.
Ed raised one blade high above his head, gathered Echo on it, then slashed down.
The glare was more threatening this time, speaking volumes of Ed’s control and adjustments over his own Echo.
But Moon wasn’t aiming to swat it away as he did; he didn’t judge how threatening it was or his ability to swat it entirely.
Instead, he sidestepped once it was an inch away.
His Echo was returning, aiming for Ed’s head once again, but that wasn’t everything.
Moon wasn’t planning to get himself in a checkmate situation if that one failed; he knew now that Ed could sense his approaching Echo, like he could sense the Echo of others.
Thus, Moon didn’t stop; he ran, still unarmed and hands clasped together.
Ed paused for a second, watching curiously what Moon was planning this time. He could clearly see that his hands were empty entirely, but tightly clasped nonetheless.
His eyes shifted to the side. "Brat, you tried this trick already," Ed commented, yet Moon’s stride didn’t pause.
Once he was a meter away from Ed, Ed raised his blades, ready to strike. Yet, Moon dug his feet into the sand all of a sudden, coming to a complete stop.
His hands opened, scraping violently against one another, sending droplets of blood into Ed’s face, who had no way to evade.
His only option was to bring his head down to evade Moon’s Echo, yet that movement got more blood on his face.
Moon smirked, knowing too well Ed wasn’t done and his attack would still come.
The descending Echo, that should’ve returned to Moon’s body, it didn’t—
It instead slammed into his chest, sending him a few meters away from Ed’s attack.
Before touching the ground, Moon had already aimed his recoil lunge to bring him to where he dropped Liquid Mountain.
He extended his hand while still midair—
Securing the blade into his hand, Moon once again dug his feet into the sand to stop his body from moving further away.
Once he secured a foothold, he bent his body backwards like a drawn bow, held Liquid Mountain with both hands and—
"GET HIT!" he shouted at the top of his lungs and threw it at Ed, who was just running his sleeve over his eyes.
All of it happened within a little over two seconds.
From the moment Moon splattered his blood, to his own Echo slamming into his chest, sending him back, to the throw.
Clang~
Yet, against all odds—
Ed just slashed and sent it back, stabbing into the sand.
"Huh?" Moon’s eyes opened wide, almost falling out of their sockets.
Ed rubbed his eyes a couple of times more. "Sorry about that, you see... these seals strain my body but not my senses... I don’t need my eyes to fight you, actually," Ed said jokingly.
"YOU SHAMELESS OLD MAN, CHEATING A KID?" Moon snapped.
Ed tried to calm him down. "I really didn’t mean to do it that way, it just happened," he said, his tone apologetic.
"Happened to be my ass; you can fight ME with your eyes closed, is that what you want to say?" Moon spoke angrily, sending spit with every word everywhere.
"I didn’t mean it that wa—" Ed tried to retort.
"Then what, THE GREAT SKY SPLITTING KING HAD TO CHEAT A KID TO WIN?" Moon stopped and attacked verbally. "DO YOU EVEN HAVE ANY WARRIOR’S PRIDE?"
"Kid, don’t push it further," Ed said threateningly.
"I’M PUSHING IT TILL THE END, SHAMELESS OLD CHEATER!"
"I can’t say the kid is wrong," Lucen said. "He has a very valid point," he added.
"Wanna fight him in my place?" Ed asked again. "I’ll cook you some chicken popcorn too," he offered.
"I’ll have to decline," Lucen calmly said. "I’d rather not."
"It’s fun until he finds out you’re cheating, that is," Ed said in a troubled tone.
"Edmond, I have my prestige to maintain, you know what that is, right?" Lucen retorted again.
"Come on, your parents were average poor bastards like us, don’t be like this," Ed escalated without a warning, but Lucen didn’t return or reply in any way.
"Say, Lucen... do you remember your childhood?" Ed asked a cryptic question that didn’t have any reason or context.
"Not much of it," Lucen said sternly.
"What about what kind of work did your family do, how was your life?" Ed asked again, seemingly aiming for something.
"Is that important now?" Lucen evaded the question.
"Well, roots are everything... I’ll take that answer as a no," Ed said before asking again. "Do you at least remember the faces of your parents?"
Lucen closed his eyes for a moment, while Ed was still trying to calm down the wild Moon.
After a beat, "I’m not sure if I do," he answered.
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