The Laughing Swordsman

Apollo dashed towards Mark, but did not do so at full speed. On the other hand, Mark began floating back.

This continued for a few moments until Mark shifted to the side. Apollo immediately changed directions to follow him. He made sure not to go too quickly so that he wouldn't end up charging into the wind boundary itself, or let Mark slip by.

It appeared that Mark realized what Apollo was doing. He didn't want to use his previous wind attack or use other large objects as Apollo had proved he was able to take advantage of them and get closer.

But that didn't mean Mark couldn't do anything.

Apollo suddenly found several forces pressing against him, almost like rushing river currents. Although they didn't have a particular direction, they came together to push Apollo away from Mark.

Apollo pouted as he found himself helplessly pulled away. His bright yellow hair flapped wildly in the wind and his clothes were pressed tightly against his body.

Mark attempted to slip by, but Apollo suddenly gave up on resisting the winds, letting them take him back. Along with that, he moved to the side and cut Mark off.

Then, the winds shifted, carrying Apollo to one side, while Mark went towards the other. Lightning gathered around Apollo's body until it nearly covered his entire figure.

Then, his figure flashed.

However, the moment Apollo began charging up, Mark's body had begun to glow white. The both of them swapped positions.

Mark chuckled.

"I suppose if this is the extent of your power, it is not bad growth."

His eyes narrowed.

"But it is quite lackluster. Especially for someone that plans on getting strong enough to resist the ever increasing power of the demons."

Apollo turned around. Lightning gathered on his body once more. Mark shook his head when he saw this.

"You will not win a battle of endurance against me."

His body glowed white.

Then, Mark vanished before materializing where Apollo was. As for Apollo, he did not move.

Apollo giggled as he lifted his bokken up.

"Tricked you!"

Mark chuckled.

"I must admit, that is quite embarrassing on my part."

As Apollo brought his sword down, he suddenly found it twisted to the side, avoiding Mark entirely. Then, his body was taken away by a strong gust of wind. Mark too began swirling around with these winds.

They did not blow in a straight line. Apollo's body was taken up and down randomly, until he eventually was tossed out of his wind current and into another one. Then, he was taken in another direction, thrown around like he was on a terrifying roller coaster.

There was no pattern to which way Apollo went, thus it was far too difficult for him to control himself. In this time, Mark began slipping away.

Apollo pressed his lips together.

"Wait!"

Mark waved with a cordial smile on his face.

"Bye."

Apollo pouted.

What could he do to catch up?

Apollo coughed from the black ash entering his lungs. It was then he came to a realization.

The black ash would flow in the direction of the wind. Although Apollo couldn't see it directly, he could still figure it out using the black ash.

Apollo quickly spotted a current that led in Mark's direction. A bit of lightning gathered on his body before he did a small blink. From there, the wind current carried him straight towards cutting off Mark.

Naturally, Mark noticed this. To avoid getting close to Apollo, he backed up and shifted the direction of the winds once more.

The ashes in the sky briefly paused in place before following the current. Apollo quickly scanned the ash and figured out a new current. This one was right next to him, so just by twisting his body, he was able to fit into that one.

And so, he got closer to Mark once more.

Mark raised an eyebrow. He watched Apollo's eye movement, thus was able to easily figure out what he had been doing.

"Hm. I suppose that it is my blunder for keeping such obvious signs that tell you what is supposed to be arbitrary."

Suddenly, the ash scattered.

Apollo continued to cough and even coughed up some ash in the process. He lost his method of navigating the winds, but at the very least, he could now breathe in clear air.

Mark rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"Is there anything you can do now?"

Apollo continued to cough up ash, but intentionally. Though it was quite a disgusting process, he wanted to use them to determine which way the wind was blowing. Unfortunately, any ash that escaped him seemed to ignore the wind currents entirely before leaving the proximity.

Mark started to slip away once more. Unless Apollo found a way to catch up, then Mark would no longer be cornered and had the entire city to run away in. If he wanted to save himself a lot of pain, then he would have to change something.

Under normal circumstances, most people would continue to struggle even as they thought. But Apollo simply closed his eyes and let his body be taken away by the wind.

He felt all the forces of wind acting upon him.

Although they were certainly random, they also reminded Apollo of something.

The time when he was stuck in a time loop fighting Willow. Granted, there was no threat of death from where the wind blew. However, the randomness felt similar. When Apollo fought against Willow at that time, he would frequently use the recoil of one strike to block another.

And that was despite not being able to see either attack.

This was because this kind of randomness wasn't truly random. It was the way a human perceived it. In an effort to be unpredictable, a person would not frequently repeat the same thing several times over.

That was because it no longer seemed random if that was the case.

And with that, Apollo began shooting towards Mark.