THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 375: 375. ZAKA ASAKAN VS SAGIRI II

The battlefield fell deathly silent as Sagiri vanished from the crater without warning.

One heartbeat he stood with Nokai resting upon his shoulder, and the next there was nothing but empty air. Gasps erupted from both armies. Even Salka’s eyes narrowed, while he instinctively reached for his weapon, unable to follow the movement.

Zaka Asakana did not look phased. His eyes remained ahead of him and his cats skulked even lower. Then suddenly as if dodging the air Grand chief Zaka Asakana twisted his enormous body just as a fist appeared seemingly from nowhere.

Their punches collided with a deafening explosion that shook the entire Outer Nonagon. The impact sent a violent shockwave racing through the ancient forest, flattening bushes, ripping branches from centuries-old trees and throwing dust high into the evening sky.

The impact was so deafeneing and strong Zaka Asakana bent his knee and slip back an inch. He was truly a beast. The strenth could have flattened a lesser man.

The earth beneath them shattered into a massive crater, yet neither man gave an inch. Zaka’s grin slowly spread across his rugged face as he realized he had blocked the attack.

”There you are,” he rumbled the difiant smile on his face not leaving.

Sagiri did not answer. Instead, he disappeared again. A heartbeat later another explosion echoed through the forest as Zaka spun on instinct, meeting another strike that would have shattered an ordinary warrior into pieces. The Grand Chief laughed, the sound rolling like thunder through the trees.

”Again! Same tricks will not work on me. Dont tell me this is all you got. Even the air betrays you little tricks” he roared before launching himself forward in an attemot to attack sagiri but sagiri eveaded him each tim

The ground exploded beneath every step of his charge.

Despite his monstrous size, he moved with terrifying speed, each punch carrying enough force to demolish stone. Truly the cream of the top of the Asakana clan.

”Dont tell me that all the glory of the dear beast of the south belongs to his beast. Don’t dissapoint me. I have been wanting to see what man is worth becoming a supreme ruler at ninenteen...”

Sagiri remained impossibly calm. He slipped beneath the first blow by the width of a finger.

The punch missed him again completely and struck an ancient tree instead, vaporizing the enormous trunk into a storm of splintered wood. Before the debris even reached the ground, another fist came. Sagiri pivoted smoothly, his crimson cloak dancing around the attack as another towering tree was obliterated behind him.

Blow after blow followed. Every missed strike carved another crater into the sacred training grounds or reduced another ancient giant to shattered timber, while Sagiri flowed between them with effortless precision, never wasting a single movement. He did not attack. He did not draw upon the Archive. He did not even lift Nokai.

He merely avoided every devastating strike by inches, redirecting the Grand Chief’s overwhelming strength against the battlefield itself. Warriors from both sides watched in stunned silence as the legendary forest was slowly transformed into a wasteland by Zaka’s own fists as frustration slowly crept across the Grand Chief’s face.

”Fight me!” he bellowed, hurling another punch that Sagiri quietly guided past his shoulder with nothing more than the palm of his hand. The redirected force sent Zaka stumbling a single step, the first sign of imbalance since the duel began. Sagiri answered at last, his voice carrying clearly through the ruined forest despite its softness.

”I am.” Sagiri answered,

Zaka’s eyes burned with fury.

”No,” he snarled. ”You’re dancing.” Sagiri’s expression never changed.

”No,” he corrected calmly. ”A fight is meant to be enjoyed dear chief and after you waiting for me all this months wouldn’t be too shameful to end it quickly.” The words struck harder just as Sagiri had expected.

Rage exploded across the Grand Chief’s face as he unleashed an even more ferocious barrage, his massive frame becoming a blur of destruction, yet the more violently he fought, the calmer Sagiri seemed to become.

Finally, after another thunderous exchange that split the earth between them, Sagiri stepped back and looked quietly across the devastation surrounding them. Hundreds of shattered trees lay scattered across the Outer Nonagon. The once-pristine forest had become a landscape of broken trunks and smoking craters. He slowly turned his crimson eyes back toward Zaka.

”Do you see it?” he asked. The Grand Chief frowned. ”See what?” Sagiri gestured calmly at the destruction around them.

”You’ve been fighting me for several minutes.” He paused, letting the silence settle over the battlefield. ”And yet...” His gaze locked onto Zaka’s. ”...I haven’t attacked you once. You are just like a beast tearing everything in your wake. How dissapointing.”

The realization struck Zaka hard and for the briefest of moments, the Grand Chief stood frozen, his chest rising and falling as his gaze swept across the ruined forest. Everywhere he looked were the scars of his own strength.

Splintered trunks, craters gouged into the earth, clouds of dust still hanging between the trees. Not a single one had been caused by Sagiri. The silence lasted only a heartbeat before Zaka’s face twisted into pure rage.

”Enough!” he roared, the sound shaking loose leaves from the battered canopy. His aura erupted around him like a storm. The ground beneath his feet collapsed as he lunged once more, this time abandoning all semblance of technique.

He became a living avalanche.

Every step crushed stone into powder. Every swing split the air with a shriek loud enough to make nearby warriors cover their ears. Sagiri disappeared again, reappearing atop the trunk of a fallen tree just as Zaka’s fist obliterated the ground where he had stood. Before the dust settled, the Grand Chief was already there, refusing to let him breathe.

A knee shot upward aiming for sagiri who was still midair where he had been most of the fight. Sagiri twisted sideways in midair, the attack grazing his cloak before another punch came from below.

He landed lightly upon the giant forearm itself, sprinted along it with impossible balance, and vaulted over Zaka’s shoulder.

The watching armies could scarcely believe their eyes. It looked less like a duel and more like a man trying to catch smoke. Snarling, Zaka spun with frightening speed and seized the trunk of a nearby ancient tree. With a grunt, he ripped the massive tree from the earth, roots and all, before swinging it like an enormous club. T

The forest groaned beneath the impossible display of strength. Sagiri crossed Nokai before him for the first time. The black blade caught the trunk with a sharp metallic crack, yet instead of cutting through it, he redirected its momentum upward.

The colossal tree sailed into the sky, disappearing above the canopy before crashing back to earth hundreds of metres away with an impact that echoed through the entire Outer Nonagon. Even so, Sagiri refused to counterattack. His restraint only fueled Zaka’s fury further.

Veins bulged across the Grand Chief’s neck as he bared his teeth.

”Stop looking down on me!” he thundered. ”Fight me like a warrior!” Sagiri’s crimson eyes remained steady, almost sorrowful.

”The moment I do,” he answered quietly, tightening his grip on Nokai, ”this fight will end. Besides I don’t see a warrior before me. I see a rampaging beast.”