Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

Eya raised her eyes when Gigi suddenly shouted. Did she doubt her ears-- Kuzu? Did he say Kuzu?-- her heart jumped, she dashed through the French door, and loosened her grip on her wand. She lightly picked her wand in the air when the glass shattered and spilled on the bathroom\'s floor.

Kuzu\'s feet swirled on the polished floor, he drew his blade but could not cut through her, he lost his balance and fell on his ass.

Eya took a step back, away from the Kuzu and the bedroom\'s French door. Gigi dived inside the bathroom and pulled the trigger.

"Petri---" Eya ducked the bullets that shattered the glass behind Eya, she moved her wand in a circle to create a defense shield.

She acted the opposite of her strategy. \'I am not here to defend. I need to throw them out!\'

With an angry swing of her wand, she repelled all of the bullets, they created holes in the wall behind Gigi. He covered his head with his battlesuit\'s helmet.

Eya, anger on her nose and rage in her eyes, strode forward with every slash of her wand. As if she was cutting the bullets.

Kuzu pushed his blade into the tile as he got to his knees, his feet again slipped on the floor, the pieces of glass all over the floor, yet Kuzu raised his dagger at Eya\'s thigh.

Eya glared down at him, she raised her palm and cast, "Bakuhatsu!"

Kuzu\'s knees slid back on the floor, Gigi\'s eyes widened when he saw the incoming Kuzu, Gigi raised his legs and rolled back. Kuzu banged against the wall, creating an impact mark.

Kakashi jumped to his feet when he heard the banging and firing noises. He looked at the house not say anything, he stepped away from the door, yet he saw nothing, then he got back to his position.

Eya pulled her wand to her ear. "Flamethrower!" she shouted.

Gigi\'s face turned pale. "Fucking magicians!" he rose and pulled the trigger.

Eya pulled back the flamethrower and moved her wand in a circle. "Defense shield."

She scratched the air with her left hand, repelling the bullets again. As she got ready for another and a more powerful flamethrower shot, Gigi stopped firing.

He threw his gun at Eya, bent down, and grabbed Kuzu\'s leg. Kuzu was still conscious but his stomach pain prevented him from moving.

Eya angled her elbow up and jerked her hand forward. "Flamethrower!"

Through the glass pieces, Gigi pulled Kuzu out of the bathroom. He wanted to lock the French door behind him but she had already made her move, only a few feet away from the bedroom.

Gigi reached for his inner pocket while he continued dragging Kuzu. Eya cast the Bakuhatsu spell again before entering the bedroom.

Gigi ducked to cover him from the shatters of the balcony\'s door. Gigi pulled a ball and pressed a button before throwing it in the bedroom behind him.

Gigi closed the door behind him, dropped Kuzu\'s leg, and ran to the guest room. He closed the door and raced by to Kuzu, kicking the glass pieces and broken wooden pieces.

Gigi dived down to his knees and opened a kit. He lifted Kuzu\'s finger and placed it inside the miniature kit. While the kit did its job, Kakashi heard another, but a bigger than before, explosion.

"Fuck!" his hand shook on the way to his ear. "Eya-nee, come in! Eya-nee, do you fucking hear me?!"

Her voice came. She replied, and she picked up the call. Her wand by her ear, she was on the floor, struggling through the smoke that covered the whole bedroom, she replied:

"Ka---" she coughed, "Kaka---" coughed again. "Fuck this smoke, I can not breath."

Eya crawled on her knees and reached the balcony, she used the wall to get up and inhale the outside\'s fresh snowy air. Kakashi kept calling her.

She coughed again. "Kakashi," she said, "They are coming. Kuzu Erabu is coming!"

She inhaled the pure air, the grenade\'s smoke found a way to get out but the wind forced it back into the room. She shivered due to standing out in the cold for long.

Eya held her breath as she charged inside the fog. "Defog!" she swung her wand slanting down.

A strong blow of wind from Eya\'s wand blew the grenade\'s fog. The lamp had extinguished and she was finding her way in the dark. On her way out, she banged her foot on the bed\'s corner and realized the door was near.

Outside, Kuzu coughed a mouthful of saliva. She was sitting on the floor with a pale face and choked eyes. He grabbed his blade off the ground, then looked at Gigi.

"Let us go."

Gigi jumped to his feet, he pulled Kuzu off the floor and bolted towards the entrance. They heard a loud kick behind them, the bedrooms fell forward, and Eya bolted out.

She pointed her wand and cast, "Petrify!"

Gigi grabbed Kuzu\'s hand and jumped out of the floor\'s door. They both cracked their back on the stairs, rolling down to the ground floor.

Eya clicked her tongue, she called, "Kakashi! They are here!"

Kakashi closed his eyes and got lost in his deep incantation. After a second he started and Kuzu got up, a branch moved. Snow fell down a tree\'s branch as the whole tree expanded its branches.

Kuzu slipped again, he heard the loud footsteps above them. Kuzu glanced around the room, he saw through the drawing hall\'s sliding door that the woods outside were moving. He turned to Gigi and gestured inside the house. "The kitchen, get to the kitchen!"

Eya climbed down half of the staircase when Gigi and Kuzu ran back to the front door. They had to walk near the storeroom to take a look outside-- vines and branches wiggled in front of the door while roots climbed up the veranda.

Kuzu covered his head when he saw Eya, still on the staircase. "Fuck!"

Eya bit her lip and swung her wand. "Petrify!"

A cement color beam flashed from her wand. Kuzu ducked the beam and raised his dagger, which got petrified with his wrist.

Gigi pulled out a pistol and fired at Eya, she was forced to climb back the stairs even when she had protection. Gigi fired a set of ten bullets.

Those bullets were different from the normal bullets, those ten were modified with something that made the bullets more powerful than before, Eya could not guess what actually.

Kuzu and Gigi took a step back as Gigi continued firing. Kuzu kicked the door and charged outside.

"Do I need to use the Fix-it Flashlight?" Gigi asked as they climbed down the two stairs.

Kuzu glared at Gigi. "Are you mad?! Fucker, no!" Kuzu shouted. When they got close to the portal, it became visible again.

Kakashi was deep in his incantation, he noticed that Kuzu and Gigi had run past the house, towards the portal. Kakashi was waiting for their portal to show up.

The branches, roots, and vines wiggled, crawled, and flew to mangle both the guys. Eya jumped down the three stairs and raced to the front porch. She shouted as she ran to the front:

"Destroy their fucking portal!" Kakashi snapped out of his incantation when Eya shouted, and the vines and roots dropped dead.

Kakashi turned to see Eya standing beside him with her wand stretched. Kakashi reached for his wand but then discarded the idea, he raised his hand instead as Kuzu was only a foot away from the portal.

Kuzu\'s heart was beating this fast for a long time, he had never got himself in such a tight situation before. His specialty was assassinating the target, not engaging with them in combat. Although Kuzu was very well trained for close combat, he had to use his Karate skills.

Kuzu jumped first, his head entered the portal, and Gigi followed him. Kakashi jumped to his feet and chanted, "Destruction magic: Hakai---"

Kakashi\'s words disappeared in between, his body jumped and banged against the main wall. It created a crack in the wood and a huge amount of snow fell on Kakashi, burying him under the weight.

Eya focused on Kuzu, they were fleeing, Kakashi\'s spell failed, so she had to do it. The Blood Curse. "Ketsueki no Noroi!"

Her chant reverberated through the empty snow-covered fields. Kuzu disappeared in the portal and Gigi vanished too, but before Gigi did, the brown beam touched Gigi\'s foot.

After the portal disappeared, Eya lowered her wand and raced back to Kakashi. She removed the snow off him and then leaned down to Kakashi.

She delicately moved her wand. "Naose." A blue light fell on Kakashi whose eyes were closed and face was pale.

Eya removed more snow as the healing spell did its job when she noticed that Kakashi\'s right arm was burned to crisp. "Oh, god!" she grunted and continued healing Kakashi.

After a minute, she felt it was her limit so Eya stopped healing Kakashi and sat on the wooden platform.

Kakashi was conscious, he opened his eyes, and stared at Eya. He looked tired, he dropped his lids and partially opened his eyes again.

"I told you not to use that spell! It backfired again!" Eya stammered.

Kakashi chuckled, "It was not the Kaminari spell that backfired. I do not know, while casting the destruction spell I suddenly felt drained."

"Of course, you are drained. It was a normal spell, it would not backfire even if a first-grader casts it. You were already exhausted, you should have used your wand."

Kakashi stayed silent for a while. He grabbed Eya and stood on his feet. Eya showed him his burned hand and gave him her potion, but Kakashi\'s concern was something else.

"Did your curse get them?" he asked.

Eya stared blankly. "No," she said, "but Kuzu\'s partner was not able to perfectly dodge it. The curse partially inflicted his partner."

Kakashi threw the potion flask in the woods. "Will he suffer through the side effects then? His blood will rot but he will not die."

Eya nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Sometimes I think partial inflicted curses are more dangerous than perfectly cast curses," she scoffed.

Kakashi and Eya walked down the two stairs, Kakashi turned to take a look at the house. It was mangled. The windows, the doors, the glass doors, the woods around the house, everything.

"Help me fix this." Kakashi raised his hand but Eya stopped him, she shook his head.

Kakashi frowned at her. Eya raised her wand and started fixing the house all over.

"I think I will heal the woods then," Kakashi said, but Eya stopped him again.

"The trees are not important, your spell may backfire again, so stay quiet. We will come here at dawn and you may heal the woods then, but not now."

After fixing the broken glasses, doors, and windows, Eya was pretty tired herself. But she had enough mana to teleport.

She walked toward Kakashi and asked, "Can you teleport?"

He nodded. "I think we should walk---"

"Good." Eya grabbed Kakashi\'s hand.

"But I think we should walk---"

"To the restaurant? Nah, too far. It will take forever to reach there."

Kakashi was surprised. "To... where?"

Eya smiled. "Our New Year\'s dinner is still waiting for us."