- Lucifer, Devil, Amaterasu -
Devil was clicking his tongue. 'Mercy is poison. Pathetic.'
Lucifer took a deep breath and made Devil disappear. He had let his anger get the better of him. He wanted Amaterasu to suffer, he wanted her to understand that he didn't need Death by his side to defeat her, all of what had happened in the duel was what he wanted, and yet he couldn't help feeling shame for his actions. That feeling disappeared the moment Amaterasu moved.
Amaterasu lined up her four rings vertically in front of her. She conjured an explosive orb and sent it through the rings. The orb's speed amplified to the point of blurring. Amaterasu's breathing was heavy with strained concentration. She was waiting to see if Lucifer would avoid the orb or destroy it with his own attack.
Lucifer walked forward slowly, put out his hand to catch the orb, and shifted the direction of the attack to the sky. The explosion from the orb lit up the sky and shook the ground. The referees and Amaterasu both stared in shock. Lucifer conjured his own explosive orb, tossed it up slightly, and slammed his palm against it, rocketing it toward Amaterasu.
Amaterasu shifted her focus, causing two of her rings to disappear. She used her hand to deflect Lucifer's orb behind her. Before she could counter, a wave of blue flame cut across the ground toward her. She grabbed onto one ring and took to the sky once more. She knew she had to shift strategies.
Lucifer stayed on the ground. He looked up at Amaterasu. Every time he tried to calm himself down, he couldn't help the anger he felt boiling over. His frustration made him want to end the fight quickly. The familiar feeling of an approaching mistake scratched at his mind. He took another deep breath.
"SCARED, FALLEN?!" Amaterasu shouted down.
Amaterasu had been taught by her brother, Susanoo, that taunts in a battle can help shake an opponent, especially one who relies on destructive force. She normally wouldn't resort to using mockery as a tactic, but Lucifer seemed to be the perfect target for it. She hated doing it because she felt as if it was admittance to her disadvantage.
Amaterasu and the referees were closely watching Lucifer. They had expected him to shoot up into the sky with anger. The shadow yokai was already warning the others. What none of them had expected was Lucifer's still frame as he stared up at Amaterasu and laughed.
"STOP!" the shadow yokai was shouting.
Amaterasu suddenly remembered a story she had heard of Susanoo's fight against Michael. The battle had been close. Susanoo had been taunting Michael for most of the match but stopped about halfway through as he gained respect for the archangel. As the battle continued, Susanoo started to lose and decided to make one last taunt in an attempt to shake Michael.
A chill ran down Amaterasu's body as she heard Susanoo's voice in her head. 'His body went still and he laughed.'
Lucifer's wings ignited into blue fire as he shot from the ground. The remaining bits of debris burned as he bulleted toward Amaterasu. He increased his speed using a concentrated blast of flame behind him.
"Stop the match now!" the shadow yokai was commanding the others.
"How?" the other yokai looked down in horror.
Amaterasu had been surprised by the effectiveness of her taunt. She made a sharp inhale, filling her chest. She conjured two more rings and shifted the three rings in front of her once more. She jumped off her flying ring and moved it in line with the other three, creating the familiar coil-like pattern. As she fell and Lucifer rapidly approached, she let out her fire breath into the rings.
The flames that shout out of the fourth and final ring engulfed the entire battlefield. The training area had become a sea of flames. The shadow yokai was looking amongst the flames for Lucifer. He was certain that Amaterasu had just doomed the territory to Death's wrath. Amaterasu didn't have the same worry.
'That won't be enough,' Amaterasu thought.
Amaterasu's breathing was heavy as her feet touched the ground. Three of her rings disappeared as she tried catching her breath. She was readying herself for a burning figure to come flying at her. She transformed her legs into their wolf form. As she expected, Lucifer came out of the flames. Unexpectedly, he was barely injured.
Lucifer's wings covered his front as he appeared from the flames. The blue fire from his wings was in sharp contrast to the orange fire that was painting the area behind him. He glared at Amaterasu with bloodlust. The cheers from Devil were muffled as he placed his palm on the ground. An eruption of blue fire shot from the earth underneath Amaterasu's feet.
Amaterasu needed to take to the sky. If she stayed on the ground she would be incinerated by the blue flames. She grabbed a ring and had it lift her as fast as it could go. As she ascended she kept her eyes on Lucifer, waiting for another attack to follow. What she saw terrified her. Lucifer's palm was already pointed to the sky, with a small jet of blue fire in the center.
Amaterasu threw herself up onto her ring, sat down, and did her best to focus on weaving the two rushes of flame. If she felt the flames start to burn her body her only option would be to transform again. As the heat of the flames approached, she tried to take a deep breath. The breath was uneven, marred by the pain from her side and the exhaustion she had accrued during the match.
The fire engulfed Amaterasu. The referees moved to save her. In the center of the blue flames, Amaterasu sat, legs crossed, eyes closed, arms outstretched opposite one another. She looked as if she was praying to the fire as she did her best to create a safe area for herself. The skin on her right arm's stump blackened, and her face tightened with pain but she didn't open her eyes. Her fingertips began to sear.
'One ring~ two rings ~ I want to match the sun,' Amaterasu was singing in her head. 'Three rings~ a fourth ring~ a thousand for the sun.'
Even though Amaterasu was somewhat successful in her weaving of the flames, the sheer heat from being trapped was breaking her concentration. She knew she couldn't last much longer. As thoughts of her body being consumed by the fire started, the flames dissipated. She opened her eyes and saw the shadow yokai prick a dagger's tip to Lucifer's throat.
"I already stopped it, you don't need the dagger," Lucifer said.
Amaterasu jumped off her ring, stumbling as she landed.
"Thank the void," The shadow yokai sighed.
Amaterasu's mind was overloaded. She wanted to mock Lucifer but she knew she lost. She wanted to question the referee's decision but she knew why he made it. She wanted to argue for a rematch but the pain of her body's burnt flesh warned her not to. Everything she wanted to say was being countered in her mind.
Lucifer waited for the shadow yokai to pull the dagger from his throat. As the blade's tip left his skin, he turned around. He wasn't waiting for healing, instead opting to just leave before he potentially made another mistake. He said one thing before flying off.
"Just so you know, Azriel was well-known for two things among my kind: His brutality toward enemies, and using soldiers as distractions. He never thought you were capable, just that you could buy him time."
Amaterasu's eyes went wide. Whether Lucifer meant for it to be or not, his words had been her breaking point. She slumped to the ground and stared glass-eyed at the scorched dirt. The burning smell of the training area irritated her nose. She had only two things on her mind: If she had both hands, she could have won; if Lucifer hadn't stopped, she'd be dead.