"Mahapdama" Esdeath muttered as a large amount of blue aura concentrated in her hands began to expand to all locations at extremely fast speed.
[Fire Form]
[Energy: 2290/2500]
Akashi didn't hesitate and his entire body became transparent before becoming just pure flames but these flames were very different from the others. They had a pure crimson color, no shade of orange.
The blue aura quickly enveloped him and he felt a heavy pressure on his body which slowed his movements but it wasn't anything drastic.
'Hm, I thought that she would perform large scale destructive skill but it was most likely supposed to freeze the time. I could have just enveloped my body with my aura and endure it for a bit since such a large amount of energy she had to gather...she won't be able to maintain it for a long time.' Akashi thought that he made a little mistake by being too cautious. Therefore he canceled his skill not to waste more energy than needed since maintenance of such skill also cost something.
"?! You can move?!" Esdeath exclaimed with a shocked expression but she quickly kicked off the ground, not sparing any second to attack him.
The ground under Akashi glowed in blue light so he quickly jumped to the side before the ice spikes erected at the previous position he was standing at. Esdeath in meanwhile appeared in front of Akashi and struck her rapier towards his midsection.
'My body feels heavier but her impatience makes it easy for me to read her attacks' Akashi thought and struck her rapier slightly to the side while also turning his torso to the side to dodge her piercing attack. When he dodged her attack, he took a step forward closer to her and thrust his other hand towards her neck.
Esdeath moved her head to the back and grit her teeth while watching his nearing flaming hand. Esdeath stomped her right foot and a large pillar suddenly was erected behind Akashi, unfortunately for him, he was right at the edge of the pillar so he was taken to the sky with it.
'She is really good but her techniques are ineffective against me' Akashi thought while regaining his balance on the ice pillar.
He looked down from it at Esdeath's figure and jumped down from more than 100 meters height and before he landed, he activated his wings to lighten his fall.
'Since this is useless against him, there is no need to waste even more of my energy on it' Esdeath thought with a displeased frown while watching Akashi land in kneeling position before standing up. She canceled her own technique and pressure around Akashi's body disappeared.
---On the hill---
"WHAT?!" All girls exclaimed at the same time when they blinked and suddenly a large ice pillar appeared on the battlefield and even Akashi and Esdeath's positions completely changed.
"Hm...I see, so that was it." Mera muttered with a thoughtful expression when she recalled the memory before "blinking" when she saw blue light around Esdeath's hands.
Girls immediately looked at her with questioning gazes and she slowly explained her hypothesis of Esdeath slowing time or maybe completely freezing it.
"Akashi wasn't affected by it most likely because his powers are exactly opposite to it. He might have been hindered somehow but that should be all, judging that nothing really happened between them, no new injuries or anything." Mera said while holding her chin and watching destructive exchanges between Akashi and Esdeath.
When one of them attacked, the ground around them was either scorched or frozen.
---Back to the battle---
Esdeath jumped to the sky and snapped her fingers, making a large meteor made of ice appear in the sky, falling down on Akashi with Esdeath standing on top of it.
Akashi looked up while standing still before narrowing his eyes. His vertical pupils suddenly became enlarged.
"USELESS!" Akashi shouted with an arrogant smirk.
[Absolute Dominance - ACTIVATED]
"HA!" When the meteor was above his head, he punched up.
*CRACK!*
"?!" Esdeath was surprised when Akashi actually decided to defend against her attack with his physical strength alone but she was even more surprised when the entire meteor stopped more than 2 meters above the ground while cracks started quickly spreading on its surface.
Esdeath decided to quickly jump down from it and as she did, the entire meteor crumbled down into the chunks of ice. The chunks of ice started falling down all around Akashi's figure.
---On the hill---
"You are kidding...right?" Poney muttered with a disbelieving expression while her eyes were shaking when she saw Akashi actually catching the enormous meteor with only one hand.
"Are you still saying that he isn't monster despite not seeing his trump card?" Mera asked with a slightly helpless smile when she saw this.
"..." Kurome kept quiet and only continued observing the fight with all her attention focused on it with her lips slightly parted.
'I wouldn't be able to keep up with her...!' Kurome thought while clenching her fist.
Mera just noticed something strange and that was Taeko who was quiet the entire time, when Mera turned Taeko's direction, her eyes actually widened when she saw Taeko's calm expression.
'How can she be so calm? I mean, even I am quite overwhelmed by their battle not to mention Esdeath is her rival in love so she should feel extreme pressure.' Mera thought while observing Taeko who was calmly watching the battle between Akashi and Esdeath.
However, unknown to everyone, Taeko was already simulating her own battle against Esdeath in her mind, she was observing all of her moves and her habits when countering Akashi's attacks. She had no desire to lose against Esdeath so she was already preparing for the worst.
'That technique...how can I counter something like stopping the time?' Taeko was confident in her swordsmanship but she was helplessly thinking of strategy against Esdeath's powerful technique.
'If I were to use twister and disappear large distance away...Not sure, the range of her technique is unknown and it actually affected us who are standing quite a large distance away from her, however, if its range was just slightly behind us, it would definitely be manageable. Still, I need to train more for this to be possible.' Taeko was in a completely different world than the other girls observing the battle.
---Back to the battle---
[Absolute Dominance - INACTIVE]
The battle between Akashi and Esdeath was already going for a while and both were mostly passive.
'I am quite drained, I can use Mahapdama one last time but it's almost useless against Akashi...Despite all that training and all those things I have gained in 2 weeks, will I truly lose to him in such a pathetic way?' Esdeath thought when she took Akashi's kick head-on into her midsection, which had blown her away and her body crashed into one of her ice pillars, making it collapse.
Esdeath looked at the sky for a split second before she narrowed her eyes and grit her teeth. She slowly stood up while holding one hand over her stomach where she was kicked.
'Hm?' Akashi frowned when he sensed the change in Esdeath. At first, he felt like her aura was getting weaker and was about to break but another second...
'I am prepared to lose, however, I must show those girls that none of them can compare to me or steal Akashi from me!! I refuse to lose in a pathetic way!' Esdeath gripped her left wrist with her right hand and released a completely different crazy smile from her usual one.
Esdeath could sense that Akashi wasn't even going all out against her, she still hasn't seen any significant moves that would make her feel threatened which completely irritated her.
Instead of light blue aura, a dark blue aura started gathering around Esdeath.
'She is...?' Akashi narrowed his eyes when he felt her potent killing intent, even he who was quite experienced killer felt threatened under her killing intent. It must be mentioned that Esdeath actually killed many more people than him and she also tortured numerous of them which gave birth to her dense and almost evil aura. Akashi never liked words evil and good since many people might perceive others' actions as evil and others might perceive them just as necessary or selfish, everything depends on people's perspective, however, her aura truly had that taste of evilness or maybe a better word would be destruction. Even the destruction can give birth to something good.
Esdeath suddenly put her right hand on the ground and ground all around Akashi in the perimeter of numerous meters glowed.
Akashi smiled a bit since he knew that his regular speed wouldn't be enough to escape so he decided to creatively avoid her attack by attacking her on his own.
[Phantom Strike]
[Energy: 1890/2500]
Akashi appeared in front of kneeling Esdeath and kicked out with his right leg, intending to kick her into the side of her head but she suddenly released a nasty smile. She moved her head down, dodging Akashi's attack.
When he missed his attack, he used the momentum to spun around and then kicked behind him with his left leg. Esdeath created a shield of ice on her left hand and blocked his kick that only cracked it but the shield served its purpose as Esdeath used her right hand to materialize in it ice sword slashing Akashi's back.
'Her ice became more solid?' Akashi was surprised when his kick actually didn't break through the entire ice shield.
*splash*
Akashi's back was protected by his flames but it wasn't enough to melt down the ice sword.
[Health: 980/1000]
'?! Such a shallow wound?!' Esdeath's eyes widened when her sword made only small scratch across Akashi's back however it was enough for blood to show up.
While Esdeath was surprised Akashi took her attack head-on despite having the way to counter it in exchange for wasting more energy, he didn't waste any time and performed another roundhouse kick with his right leg and this time Esdeath was caught off guard as she quickly put her cracked ice shield in front of her.
'It will break!' Esdeath quickly judged and put her other hand behind the shield,
*Crack!* *Bam* As she expected, the shield this time broke and she received his kick with her hands first, making them slightly numb, however, she used this chance to perform her own kick towards his midsection.
'?! She isn't retreating?' Akashi was actually surprised that Esdeath decided to continue her attack therefore her attack connected with him, making him slide back a few meters.
"Heh, your abs are quite solid, even my foot feels a bit sore after that kick." Esdeath complimented while looking at his abs since he had open shirt that was tied at his waist with the crimson belt.
"We can arrange some massage if you will surrender" Akashi jokingly replied while shrugging his shoulders.
"I have better idea and all I need to do is to defeat you for you to give me massages every day and only to me, alone." Esdeath said with a wide smile. Her confidence was already once again in a regular place.
"From where do you get that confidence of yours?" Akashi asked curiously not underestimating her after her recent change.
"From this! You have an honor of being the first to experience this new technique of mine..." Esdeath shouted with a crazy smile while spreading her arms and Akashi narrowed his eyes, ready for anything.
"This new technique of mine is still in experimental stages and it will also drain me of my all energy but that won't matter at that time anymore, heh!" Esdeath shouted while pointing her index finger towards the sky and all of the ice pillars and chunks of broken ice sculptures began to dissolving back into her energy and began gathering on the tip of her index finger.
"This was supposed to be a new technique just for the biggest wars but I made sure to adjust it so I can use it against only a few people and I must say that even I was slightly scared of its power at first!" Esdeath said jokingly as the sun was covered by dark clouds and it even started snowing.
'This must be her last move or maybe she just wants to create terrain suitable for her where she can use her powers without even her energy. Simply said, she will be drawing the energy from the outer sources. Nevertheless, I better keep my distance before trying anything else.' Akashi narrowed his eyes and moved into his optimal stance.
"Welcome to my humble home, the Northern Lands, Akashi!" Esdeath shouted with a crazy smile and sadistic look in her eyes as the perimeter of numerous kilometers around them was covered in snow, ice, and even ice pillars began growing from the ground.