Ginka rounded a corner with twin blades at the ready and found David standing in the middle of a lane in the abandoned parking garage. The light from the setting sun had taken on a bluish-purple tint, making it more difficult to discern the expression on his face.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting, David.”
David did not respond. He waved his hand, and a new swarm of retainers came crawling out of the shadows.
“Go,” he ordered.
The retainers scuttled along the walls, avoiding Ginka and continuing past her.
Ginka did not move.
“Are you abandoning your friend to her fate...?” David asked. He seemed surprised that she would prioritize taking him down over protecting Ruka.
“No, I trust her,” said Ginka. “I have not abandoned her like you have abandoned the alliance.”
She saw the corner of David’s mouth twitch and noted his growing levels of stress and anger.
David let a long breath out—to calm his emotions, perhaps—before pouring exoforce into the cylinder of his gun. “So you intend to defeat me before the young lady’s supply of sacred silver dust runs out? Very well... Very well, indeed. A showdown it is. I’ll take you up on that.” He closed the cylinder of his weapon with a snap of his wrist.
Looks like he’s completed his preparations for battle. Good. I’m ready too. Ginka brandished her two silver blades and pointed them at the slender renegade before her. “I’ll take you down here and now, Lucid Eye.”
“Just what I was hoping to hear, Silver Dancer.” David aimed his gun at the girl he acknowledged as the strongest vampire hunter.
Ginka charged forward, propelled by exoforce under her feet. At the same time, David reinforced his legs with exoforce and ran up a pillar and across the ceiling to distance himself from her.
“Did you think I would face you directly?” David pulled the trigger again and again. His shots were straight, curved, fast, slow, and all aimed at Ginka.
Ginka easily deflected the bullets with her twin blades and sped up to close the distance between her and David. “Did you think shooting me would work?”
He only laughed. Somehow, his voice didn’t sound tense at all.
As she chased after David, Ginka’s thoughts raced. I heard the cylinder... He must have finished reloading. Those retainers were troublesome, but they possess far less combat ability than vampires—especially right now when the sun is out. David’s attacks are becoming weaker. Victory is well within my reach, but there’s no way he hasn’t realized that too.
David jumped off the ceiling and hid behind a nearby pillar.
Pure reflex made Ginka throw her blade. It spun and carved across the floor until it sliced through part of the pillar. David’s foot, severed at the ankle, flew through the air. His leather shoe slid along the floor.
Too easy. That didn’t feel right... Something’s wrong. “David, I’m sure you don’t want to suffer any more injuries. You can still use exoforce to reattach that foot. If you wish to make it to the grave with your body in one piece, show yourself.”
David didn’t respond and showed no signs of moving from behind the pillar.
I didn’t really want to use this, but he leaves me no choice.
“I warned you,” said Ginka, and she focused on her hand.
The parking garage shook as a wild storm raged inside. Dust scattered everywhere, and a high-pitched, ear-shattering noise rang out. All the light in the garage started to disappear like it was being sucked into the silver whirlwind forming on Ginka’s palm.
She aimed at the pillar and got ready to unleash the exoforce she had been holding back.
“Hyaaaaaah!” Ginka launched a swirling blast from her hand.
A thunderous explosion shook the entire building, and debris rained down from the ceiling. The exoforce surrounding Ginka’s body protected her from harm, but the same could not be said for the rest of the garage. Through the new hole in the pillar, she heard and saw the rebar inside bend and groan before a cloud of dust and rubble shot out from the other side and David fell.
“Respond if you’re still alive. You’re a hunter, so that attack shouldn’t have killed you.” Ginka used her silver blade to clear away the lingering dust clouds and approached David’s body.
A retainer lay motionless on the rubble. One of its feet was missing.
“A decoy?”
“Indeed.”
Ginka sensed the presence behind her, but before she could react, something hard slammed into the back of her head. She didn’t need to look to know it was a gun.
“I disguised that retainer to take my place using a face mask and a speaker,” David explained, “but it was pointless against a beam attack like that.”
Ginka breathed out through her nose to steady herself. “It wasn’t a beam. That attack is called Ring Achoo.”
“Ring Achoo... Quite the intense sneeze,” David replied with an unpleasant laugh.
After distancing himself from me, thought Ginka, he hid in the shadow of the pillar, disguised that retainer, and moved to the ceiling. After my attack, he looked for an opening and found one.
“Still, it feels rather pathetic for the strongest vampire hunter to meet her end this way,” said David.
Ginka noted a faint tinge of elation in his voice. Is he impressed with how well his plan is going? Excited by the chance to defeat me? Both, perhaps.
“Do you have any last words?” he asked.
She had once asked the last vampire the same question.
How ironic. To think I would be in that position now. Maybe it’s fate... The thought amused Ginka, but she did not smile. After all, this battle wasn’t over yet.
“David, you did not fight on the front lines until the war of extermination. In other words, you’re not familiar with all the skills I possess.”
“What of it?”
“This will be a good opportunity for me to demonstrate.” Ginka let her arm hang down. “First, I can manipulate the exoforce of those I touch to a certain degree. Moving an entire body may be difficult for me, but immobilizing a single finger is simple enough.”
“Wha...?!” David seemed to have realized that he could no longer move his finger. His arm muscles were tensing and flexing, so he must have been trying to pull the trigger.