Annie immediately jumped in surprise of Asuka's thoughts.
"What!? It hasn't been nearly long enough for this to happen! Unless..."
Suddenly, the demon had appeared in front of Asuka and before she realized, two of its fists collided with the girl sending her through the maze of stalagmites destroying them in the process. She stumbled to her feet and coughed up a bit of blood.
"What the hell just happened? Why'd he suddenly get so fast and strong?"
"I'm sorry Asuka. I neglected to tell you this because I thought it was extremely unlikely to happen, but what's happening is called ruina. It happens when a demon eats or absorbs through their flames a sufficient amount anima in combination with getting overwhelmed by negative emotions. When these conditions are met, they gain a significant amount of contra and their body transforms including gaining a new horn."
"What!? This is the hundredth time I've heard someone talk about demons absorbing anima and now you're telling me they can eat it? The contradictions are really conf-"
Interrupting Asuka's thoughts, another blow landed on the girl. One fist hit her head and the other struck her dominant arm. She was sent flying through more stalagmites, dropping her sword in the process, before smashing into the wall of the cave. Even more blood started to pour out of the orifices in her face and her eyes. The bones in where she was struck in the arm and abdomen cracked and she couldn't lift her right arm.
It was then that she decided release some of her contra and her injuries quickly healed.
"Asuka, I'll explain everything later! Right now we need to focus on killing this thing and saving Amelia alright!"
"Yeah."
Expanding her contra sense around the entire cave in order to better sense the demon. But there was an issue with this strategy.
"It equally spread out it's contra in the cave! I can't sense him!"
In the corner of her eyes something dark was being thrown her way and this time she was able to react to it. Unfortunately, she couldn't react to the second that came right after. The blow connected with her chin and she was flown upwards towards the ceiling. This time however, she didn't take much damage other than a rattled brain.
"Damn it! I can't believe I fell for that."
The projectile that had initially flown at Asuka, was one of the stalagmites that had broken off. The blow she received was from the demon.
As she was still flying upward, she managed to see a dark body with gleaming red eyes. This time she was able to block the blow coming from above. She landed on her feet, shattering the cave ground under them.
She then threw off her cloak and got into a hand-to-hand combat stance. She remained in that position for a good number of seconds before she started to slowly walk around.
"With its contra spread out evenly like this, sensing him is impossible. These rock structures also make it easy for him to blend in even with me enhancing my eyes. However, he made a mistake trapping me within my element."
She made the risky decision to rescind her contra and release back her anime. She then sent her contra through the ground and up the cave wall onto the ceiling. She was able to feel the insects crawling on and inside the ground. She felt them in every small crevice. But there was an area which her anima avoided. One area on the ceiling where her anima seemed to not detect anything. It was as if a piece of the world had suddenly disappeared. But Asuka knew better.
"There you are."
As soon as she found out where it was, she jumped cracking the ground beneath her feet. Catching the demon off guard, she landed a punch on its cheek smashing it's head into the ceiling. She dropped down and hastily dodged left, avoiding the demons newly formed claws.
"It's still transforming?"
The demon, with a burst of speed, dashed towards Asuka who began to evade the demon. In only fractions of seconds, the two figures traveled across the entirety of the cave dodging, countering and repeating this process.
Asuka was now currently wielding and a stone sword she made out of the broken off stalagmites. She was bruised up but none of her injuries were severe.
The demon however, didn't have even the slightest nick on its skin. And to make a dire situation even worse, its fourth horn was growing larger. It was currently charging towards Asuka but she managed to dodge and managed slice the demons eyes blinding it. But all this did was put the demon in a frenzy and she got side swiped by two of the demons hands. She flew back several meters and crashed into the wall of the cave. The demon continued to go swing it's four arms without logic while it slowly healed it's eyes.
"Damn it! I don't think I can keep going on much longer."
Inside of Asuka's inner world, Annie nearly yelled at the girl.
"What the fuck are you talking about!? Use your contra to its maximum! Right now, the power that it's gained and the pain by growing a new horn is too much and too sudden and he's fighting recklessly and is wasting contra. So this is the perfect time to use your contra and burn him away. "
At the notion of using contra a shiver ran up her spine. Of course, she knew all too well that using her contra to the maximum of her capabilities would almost guarantee victory. But despite her calm demeanor, she was burning with fury on the inside. It's why she hasn't used her element for the most part. Her emotions right now are at the edge and using her contra could push her to completely losing control. The image of her arm running through Amelia's chest.
The conflicting feels of the desire the kill the demon in front of her and the fear of bloodlust taking control and the destruction it could cause we're tearing away at Asuka's mind. Her body began to shiver unsure of what decision to make.
"ASUKA!"
Asuka flinched when Annie suddenly yelled.
"Now isn't the time to feel fear. If you die now, Amelia's death in guaranteed."
Asuka, realizing Annie was right, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She then slowly released all the contra she currently had access to. The usual features began to appear. But there were some small differences now. The black markings grew slightly in number and in size, the crimson color her crescent shaped iris was more pronounced, and the horn on her head had grown significantly curving now into an S shape. And a second horn had began to grow.
She then dropped the stone sword she had created, and a black form began to take shape in both hands. Once the two blades made from the black flames appeared in her hands, the temperature dropped and the anima that was running through the ground was absorbed into the darkness increasing it's potency.
The aura around Asuka currently was much more vile, and ominous than it ever had been before. And the smirk from the demon made it even worse.
"It seemed to have gotten used to the sudden increase in contra."
The cocky expression only fueled the flames of anger in Asuka's soul.
"What the hell are you smiling about bastard?"
The demon remained silent for a few seconds infuriating Asuka even more.
"That power. You have only achieved the second horn and it hasn't even half grown, yet your contra level rivals my own despite me having gained the fourth horn. It seems your true power is being suppressed and the full power of your contra is far higher than mine. Interesting. This should be a good match," said the demon, it's voice much deeper and more calculating than it was before.
"Match," Asuka scoffed, "You really think we're evenly matched. Sorry to tell you, but the only way this battle ends is with your head on a spike."