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Chapter 59: Collisions

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What did it mean to have omnipresent vision? Unlike natural vision which takes in details through the eyes, Robin's Bloodlust gives him information of someone from every angle. Robin's mind does not approximate how far someone is from his location. He literally knows the dimensions of whoever his semblance deems to be an enemy. As if that wasn't absurd enough, Robin's semblance had evolved so that it could recognized objects as well as people at around the same time he became able to hide his Bloodlust from others.

However even with his current semblance, it couldn't be considered omnipotent. It a lot of ways, it was just like having regular vision. When shown a piece of paper full of words, a human mind will “understand” that there is a paper full of words in front of them, but they can only focus on a few details like the name written in the corner. The only difference here is that Robin's mind is forcefully focused on his enemies. From a young age, Robin's parents trained him and taught him how to expand his vision to even recognize the “non-threats”.

Even now, Robin's evolution is still occurring. With him acquiring the most recent skill, Echolocation, his body has already starting to merge the skill with his semblance in the same way Diane merged Hack with her own semblance. It would not be long before Robin would have omnipresent vision of ALL objects rather than items and individuals aiming to hurt him. It is thanks to this incomplete evolution that Robin detected his next crisis.

As an assassin, Raven aimed to strike quick and deadly. Naturally, the most opportune moment would be when the opposing side's guard was down. However, that moment was getting harder to find. She waited in the shadows, hidden from sight, and observed the fight. With each moment that passed, more enemies fell. Raven watched, so she saw Robin's eyes confirming each enemy, counting each one.

= He knows.. =

Against an enemy who is aware of how many they are fighting, the moment their guard would be completely down would never come. Thus, she decided to strike at the second-best moment, the moment right after a successful kill. It is then that their mind will briefly relax. The best evidence would be Pyrrha's smile that indicated she was about to congratulate Robin for his one-sided slaughter. It didn't matter if Robin saw it coming. In this case, Pyrrha was no longer a threat.

Raven masked her killing intent perfectly. She went in as if she wasn't even going to hurt someone, but instead stab her katana into the stone they stood on. A blood red portal opened above Robin. Through it appeared Raven falling with her katana drawn.

Robin counted the bodies, so he was aware there was a twelfth person. Knowing Cardin, Jaune, and Dave was a part of this group, it didn't take him long to guess who it was. Thus, he had already taken care to not to be surprised by the portals he knew Raven could use. Even so, he was still almost unable to react in time due to the suddenness of her attack, the proximity of it, and the hidden animosity involved. But the reality was he did, and he leaned left to just barely avoid the blade slipping past his face.

Raven changed targets. Since her first blade failed to hit, she used her second. With a snap of her arm, Raven threw a throwing knife embedded with a Yellow crystal similar to Robin's at Pyrrha. The unsuspecting girl never fathomed she would be attacked right then, forget by a girl falling from the sky. It was impossible to draw her weapon to block it, but purely by instinct she leaned and avoided the blade aimed at her eye.

It was reaction speed that would have been applauded by the masses, but Raven already thought that scenario through. The moment Raven fell through the portal, she had already closed the one in the sky to open one behind Pyrrha's head. No matter how insane her instinct was, Pyrrha couldn't dodge the same thing twice without knowing it was coming. The Yellow knife slipped past her left ear, into the portal, out the new portal Raven opened near her leg, and the knife embedded itself into Pyrrha's left thigh.

With a clinking noise, Raven's katana made contact with the ground. She landed kneeling to soften the impact at the same time Pyrrha's body fell paralyzed due to the electricity. Robin did not idly watch this occur. He drew Pantomath from his back and swung downward at Raven who swung her blade to change the course of Robin's blade to the side. She followed up with a sweep of her blade at Robin's feet.

Naturally, he jumped to avoid the blade. To his surprise, Robin's foot was grabbed by the individual in question, stopping him from traveling any farther. Light suddenly filled their vision. Apparently, Raven had also used a flash grenade in order to blind Robin and Pyrrha. She then opened a portal underneath them like he feared, and jumped in with Robin in tow.

= Shit! =

Polarity

Pyrrha expelled the electricity using her trump card. However, by the time she stood up, Robin and Raven had disappeared. When Robin exited the portal, he found himself in a large room with steel needles lining up the floor. Raven threw Robin toward them. If he wasn't a faunus or didn't have his semblance active, he would have not noticed the needles since it was nearly pitch black in this room.

Aura Limbs

EoD: Item Creation

Silver arms manifested and stopped Robin's motion and he readjusted himself to float upright. Upon doing so, he found Raven safely perched on a black platform that wasn't there before she tossed him. Despite being in darkness, the two stared directly into each other's eyes. Their hands simultaneously reached out to grab throwing knives from their Inventory. What happened next was the sound of knives colliding in midair.

= Info check: Raven can use portals in succession. From evidence gathered, I can conclude she can only open one set of portals at any given time. =

Robin threw a knife behind him to block the knife Raven threw into a portal to catch him by surprise.

= Current maximum number of portals she can create is unknown. Best to assume it's infinite. Despite being in total darkness, evidence suggests that she also has night vision despite being human and not faunus. =

Robin glanced at the platform Raven stood on.

= That gives off the same vibe as the iron bars I found sealing the windows of the mansion of the guy I was a bodyguard for some time ago. It also feels the same as that time when she erased my Aura somehow. Does she possibly have the ability to create objects? =

He glanced back at Raven.

= Portals, item manifestation, and that black Aura which she hasn't used despite being at school for an entire year... If the situation remains as is, I can only defend against her attacks. I will never win that way. I must change the situation in my favor... =

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= Two surprise attacks have now failed. I had made sure to hide the portal from his view all four times I used Pursuit. Even if I passed the first time he dodged my attack as pure instinct, the last one was definitely expected. He must know my identity as the masked vigilante. Why? No, that doesn't matter. What matters now is to take down the criminal, Diane. The faster I take down their team, the faster Diane goes behind bars. =

Raven stared at Robin's hands which continued to draw out knives.

= ..But just how abundant are his resources? It's unthinkable for the average person to have the money necessary to

spend on so many useless knives.. So long as he knows I can use portals, my greatest weapon as an assassin is useless. At this rate, he will take back the momentum... =

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= I cannot beat her so long as she has more cards to play. =

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= I cannot beat him in a prolonged fight. =

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= = I have to bet it all on this! = =

EoD: Item Creation

Black Aura manifested itself in her body, which she directed outward. She forced it to crystallized as a new type of Dust: Black Dust. Combining the Black Dust with her Black Aura, Raven made it manifest itself into an actual weapon, a katana. Robin, at the same time, grabbed from his inventory one Smoke Bomb, one Smoke canister, and one Elixir.

Raven realized what he was aiming for, pointed her already existing katana at Robin, and pressed a button. The blade extended rapidly towards Robin, but he merely dodged it since he saw it happen before and threw both the Smoke Bomb and the Smoke canister at the floor, instantly causing smoke to expand in the darkness. She might be able to see well in the dark, but it didn't mean she could see hard enough to see through smoke. This did not apply to Robin, since his Bloodlust became his second pair of eyes.

Raven threw her extended katana to the side and gripped her new one with both hands.

EoD

Aura Sword

Black Aura enveloped her body and her blade. Her eyes darted back and forth in an attempt to grasp where Robin was. However, her efforts were in vain since Robin never moved. Instead he used one of his Aura Limbs to toss an object at high speed toward Raven's right side. Hearing the sound, Raven slashed downward, thinking it was Robin's sword.

Tick...Ching

It was a time bomb that Raven's empowered katana sliced through like tofu. The slicing of the bomb only forced it to explode. Raven opened a portal in front of her so that the explosion would not harm her.

Boom!

Aura Sword

Robin did not miss this chance. The moment he saw her swing, he used his other Aura Limb to extend. His body shot like an arrow toward Raven as he swung down on her. He was met with another surprise. Raven had used the explosion of the grenade to readjust the course of her blade.

= This person..! Is that reaction level even human?! But this is still my win! =

The explosion still caused her to only be able to grip it with one arm. Because her right hand let go of the grip, the katana flew left. Two arms against one, great sword against katana. It should've been obvious which broke. But reality wasn't like that. The katana Raven created defied common sense.

It was created with EoD, the Essence of Darkness, which consumes normal Aura. The moment the black katana collided, it began to eat away at the Aura which surrounded the sword due to the skill, Aura Sword. Without Aura Sword empowering the blade, the sword could no longer have the durability that would normally prevent its destruction from colliding with colossal Grimm. The two blades collided, sparks flew, and Robin's Pantomath was sliced in half.

= WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!! =

Raven stabilized her grip on the katana, but before she could swing...

Piercing Bullets

Bang!

Robin pulled the trigger on what was leftover of his sword. The barrel was cut in half, but it could still fire by some stroke of luck. The bullet broke the blade of the katana which was already damaged by the collision earlier.

= Impossible! =

Raven couldn't believe her eyes, but believing would have to come after the fight was over. Normally, skin would be able to stop the entry of bullets if enhanced with Aura. Of course, it wouldn't be stopped at the surface, but the bullet wouldn't travel all the way through at the very least. Even though the bullet would have Aura running through it since all weapons were conduits for Aura, Raven was confident even her damaged black blade wouldn't be snapped by simple bullets.

But the bullets were under the effect of Piercing Bullets, a skill Coco had designed with the intent to rip through the armor Grimm possessed on the outside of their body. Normal bullets would deflect off the same armor that would be pierced like cheese by Piercing Bullets. It should also be noted that this is the same skill Coco spent hours creating and perfecting, but Robin acquired by seeing it once.

Raven ducked as Robin's body flew overhead from his leftover momentum. Robin landed on the platform only to immediately feel some of his Aura being consumed by the Black Aura in the platform. It wasn't as quick as when Raven held him when they were younger. The two foes stared at each other. Only afterimages remained as they approached on that thin beam Raven had created.

Enhance

Enhance

Left with no weapons, they could only fight with their arms and legs. With each moment, Robin's reserves were depleted, and the same went for Raven. EoD converted her Aura into Black Aura. The longer she held this state, the weaker she would become. They aimed to settle the match quickly, so they made their body stronger, yet their own skills and prowess would not allow even that.

-350

Fist collide with fist.

-320

Blow matched with blow.

-150

-120

-70

Eventually, their Auras was depleted, yet their fight raged on.

-10

-7

-9

It shouldn't even be said that because they trained so much, their bodies were sturdy enough to endure weak blows even without Aura. Even with the situation as it was, Robin couldn't help but smile.

= You! =

-7

= You were my goal. My superior. Even now, I cannot land a decisive blow you monster of a woman. =

-5

= Other people cannot compare to you. Raised inside the kingdom, their strikes are weak! =

-3

= Nobody else could make my blood rush like this! =

-4

= Nobody else could hit as fierce as this! =

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= Why won't he go down? =

-7

= You are just a regular nomad who I happened to deem as a friend! =

-5

= Even now, I don't understand why I opened up to you. Why did I help you? Teach you? =

-3

= You are different from the rest. You spend each moment like it was your last. =

-4

= Don't you smile at me! I hate it. Why is it you can laugh with your friends while I must suffer? =

-15

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= So that I can surpass you! So that I can reach my goal! So that I can never feel that pain again! =

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= So that I can redeem myself! So that he can rest in peace! So that Summe's death will be avenged! =

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= = I WILL DEFEAT YOU!!! = =

Their fists, each with its own burden and desire, collided with their opponent's faces. Their body recoiled backwards, but only one stood standing. The other collapsed backward. The ceiling started to collapsed. It wasn't noticeable before, but the needles and ceiling was made from Raven's EoD just for the match.

As the pieces of the roof collapsed, it dissolved into Black Dust before disappearing into the air just like the bodies of Grimm. With the ceiling gone, the sound of the crowd was heard. Robin stood tall, light reflecting off his silver hair as he stared at the clear, blue sky.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

His two fists clenched at his sides as he howled at the sky in victory. Raven watched his silhouette from the shadows of what remained of the stage she had set up. Even though she was filled with bitterness from her loss, she felt that despite everything, she couldn't bring herself to hate him.

Author's note: "= = " refers to both people having the same thoughts.