The Lightning Claw was too fast and too close for Bill to dodge in his current state and he watched as the lightning claw spelled out his doom.
However, just as the Lightning Claw came close to him, Bill suddenly noticed the claw moving slower than before and it was actually shifting a bit to the right as the individual blades of lightning were expanding and separating further apart from one another.
Bill was a bit skeptical about how the blades of the lightning claw were moving because it looked like it would just barely hit him.
Bill didn't know what to think, but he knew he couldn't risk getting hit by such a highly concentrated amount of lightning aura, as even a singular blade would damage him a lot.
He gathered his wind aura once again and launched himself into the air, but he was able to launch himself three times higher than before to the point that he had crossed all the trees and was reaching far above into the sky.
Mako had yet to see Bill while he was using his mutant gene, but he wouldn't have to wait any longer as from his perspective he could clearly see Bill's eyes glow green which signified his Wind Mutant Gene.
Bill could feel the surge of strength within his body as he knew he was now stronger than ever. He dived back down towards Mako full of confidence that he would finally be able to end this pointless battle.
He dived back down towards Mako and just as he was about ten feet above the ground, he gathered all of the wind around him and the momentum of his fall and combined it to do a backflip in mid-air while creating a massive wind blade with his feet that that dragged all the wind aura and launched it to the ground, aimed straight at Mako.
[Sprint has been activated]
Mako activated the skill which was basically the advanced form of Dash to increase his agility even more, granting him enough speed to outmaneuver the massive wind blade that wrecked everything in its path.
The wind blade left dug a trail into the ground, kicking up tens of pounds of dirt into the air as it chased after Mako who was barely faster than it.
After taking a couple of sharp turns, Mako was able to eliminate the giant wind blade by having it crash into a lone tree which was completely uprooted and torn to shreds by the power of the wind blade, even leaving Mako in surprise and shock as he observed Bill's power.
However, he didn't have any time to rest as Bill appeared right in front of Mako using his wind as a means to boost his speed by projecting streams of air from his limbs to increase their movement speed.
[Motion Sense has been activated]
Mako dodged the first incoming kick by bending his knees back so that his entire body was completely lying down with his legs still standing from the knee down.
However, Bill wasn't done because, with his heightened senses, he was able to react immediately to Mako's dodge while he was still in mid-air crossing over Mako's body, he used the wind to propel him downwards and change his trajectory.
Mako thought that he had successfully dodged the attack and could counter once Bill had crossed over his body, but Bill's body spun around right above him with the two of them coming face to face and without giving a single second to react, Bill thundered down a strong punch right at Mako's face, punching him down and into the ground.
[-40 HP]
[User's nose is broken]
It was a strong hit that landed cleanly on Mako's face with no protection, dealing a good chunk of damage.
Bill's momentum still carried him forward and he landed a couple of feet ahead of him. He quickly got back on his feet and rushed back in to deliver another punch at Mako who was still on the ground, but this time his eyes caught something right before he landed the punch on Mako's body.
Mako's body flickered a bit and he could see a hazy outline of Mako getting up and moving to the left.
'So that's how he does it!' Bill said in his thoughts as he changed the direction of his punch toward the left.
From a third-person perspective, it looked like Bill intentionally moved his punch away from Mako's collapsed body and instead punched the air to his left; however, in the next second everything made sense, as Mako's collapsed body disappeared and Mako appeared right in front of Bill's punch which connected beautifully.
"You ain't getting me with the same trick twice!" Bill shouted as he launched Mako into the trees similar to how he had launched Bill at the start of the battle.
[Phantom Shift has failed]
[-30 HP]
[The user has fractured two ribs]
Mako crashed into the tree with a bloody broken nose and blood leaking from his mouth but instead of showing signs of pain or anger, he actually smiled at Bill, creeping him out even more.
'Activate Emergency Healing!' Mako commanded the system.
[Emergency Healing has been activated]
Mako removed himself from the tree and landed back on the ground, covering his fists in red fire once again. There wasn't much he could do with his fire ability as his strongest skills required time to charge up and use, something he didn't have the luxury of.
He rushed back at Bill with his flaming fist, hoping to pay him back for the painful punches he had given him, and to his surprise Bill didn't counter back and instead allowed Mako to come close to him by standing still and keeping no guard whatsoever.
Mako arrived with great speed towards Bill and unleashed a fury of punches but not a single one of them connected as Bill was able to dodge each and every single one of them using a weird Wind skill that covered his entire body and allowed him to detect any incoming attacks just by the shift in the atmosphere, allowing him to dodge everything.
Mako mixed in some elemental fire and lightning attacks as well but that was dodged easily by Bill too.
Seeing this the smile on Mako's face widened even more as he tried his best but could land a single punch on Bill.
After letting Mako have his turn, Bill finally made a counter as he lifted his arm up just at the right moment to hit Mako right in the face and knock him back once again.
Mako landed on the ground again and Bill was hot on his tail as he wanted to end the fight with a final punch which he knew Mako wouldn't be able to dodge.
However, this time it was Mako who allowed Bill to come close to him as he didn't move after landing on the ground and allowed Bill to reach him ready to deliver a final punch, but just as Bill's fist was about to connect with Mako's bloody face for the third time.
[Electrical Discharge has been activated]
A pulse of electricity erupted from Mako's body quickly enveloping Bill and the surrounding, paralyzing him from moving forward.
Bill's fist was right in front of Mako's face such that from his perspective he couldn't even see Mako's face as his fist was covering it.
Mako tilted his head to the left so that Bill could see his face which was still smiling.
"Still think you're not worthy, or strong enough?" Mako asked with a smirk as carefully cleaned some of the blood from around his mouth.
Bill's eyes stopped glowing green as he was completely confused by the sudden change in Mako's character as he was back to being his usual self again.
"You almost completely destroyed me, a newly promoted private, if that isn't considered a great achievement for your current status, then I don't know what is," Mako said as he secretly accessed his inventory while putting his hand into his pocket to take out two healing pills.
He took one himself and placed the other one in Bill's mouth which was still paralyzed.
Moments later the paralysis finally wore off and he was able to move again, but due to being in such an awkward position while being paralyzed, he lost his balance and fell face-first onto the ground.
"I am not apologizing for that, you totally deserve that for wrecking my face," Mako said jokingly as both of them began to laugh.
"Mako... this entire time..." Bill began to say but was cut off by Mako who completed his sentence for him.
"Was trying to get you to open your eyes to the insane power and potential that now resides within you, you are not that 12-year-old boy that your father called a failure, you're much stronger, faster, better than that," Mako said.
Bill couldn't believe he was having such angry and bad thoughts about Mako when he started attacking him when he was only trying to help him open his eyes to his own strength and see just how far he had come from being a weak boy.
The two boys fist-bumped each other to end any hard feelings and rested in the forest to regain their energy and health.
After about an hour, the boys were ready to move on. Bill finally had the confidence to face his father again and left right away to meet him, leaving Mako alone in the woods.
At first, Mako wanted to just relax and sleep the night away but seeing Bill so eager to talk to his father, reminded Mako that he needed to talk to someone important too, so he also began walking out of the woods and into the city.
This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om