A straight kick, accompanied by a trail of steam, smashed the boulder where Todo's head was just half a second ago. Extracting my leg from the rock, I swiftly leaped, evading a sweep, then, regaining composure mid-air, pushed off the boulder with my feet. The force was enough to crush the enormous stone behind me into gravel, and I, at a tremendous speed, collided with Todo, knocking him off his feet.
Once on top of him, I initiated a routine series of strikes, trying to break through his defense. Right straight, elbow strike, left hook, right hook, left straight. A crack appeared in his defense, and without wasting time, I prepared for an elbow strike, confident that he wouldn't be able to defend against it.
*CLAP*
A sharp clap echoed above my head, and in the next moment, I felt a strange disorienting nausea. However, it was replaced by a dull pain from a punch to the face. Followed by another one, and another.
Straining my senses to the maximum, I artificially slowed down time for myself... It was an uncomfortable situation—I was lying on the ground in a small depression, and Todo sat on me, delivering the next blow with a crazed grin.
Boogie-Woogie—an accursed technique of Aoi Todo. It involves him swapping positions with himself and his enemies, disorienting his opponent. He activates this technique by clapping his hands. However, with this technique, he can only swap places with objects within a certain radius. His ability can also work on inanimate objects, such as cursed dolls or weapons. In simpler terms, Todo shifts anything with even a bit of cursed energy.
Even with all this information, Todo still caught me off guard. Although, that's in the past now. The more critical question is how to defeat him.
I doubt I'll come out victorious in a straightforward brawl. While I do get stronger with each passing second, my body is simultaneously dealing with an incredible load, and by my calculations, in about ten minutes, I'll have to dispel the Enhancement to release all the heat from my body. So, it's unlikely that someone like Aoi Todo, who has been accustomed to pain and fatigue since childhood, will collapse within those ten minutes.
So, it seems I have to use my Cursed Technique...
It's comforting that at least I don't suffer from my fire. With this thought, deep inside my soul, a new spark of Spiritual Energy flared up, followed by Cursed Energy coursing through my body.
Second Aspect: Flame Armor.
Even before Todo landed another blow on me, my torso, head, and arms were engulfed in flames. Next, I positioned my hands in front of me like a shield, which, in an instant, took the brunt of the blow, and the next, and the next. I needed time, just about five seconds, and the nature of Todo's battle mania helped me a lot in this regard.
First Aspect: Compression.
Anticipating the moment when Todo had just struck, I sharply raised my arms, then thunderously clapped them against the ground. In an instant, all the fire on my body dissipated, gathering in my palms. Then, I directed it underground. Along with the kinetic force of my strike, the thermal energy of the fire, and the impulse of Cursed Energy, the ground beneath me shattered much more violently than Todo's before. However, I didn't stop there and, abruptly bringing my hands together, clapped them against Todo's ears, causing a mild shock and loss of balance. At that moment, we were already several meters above the ground, so I didn't need to exert much force to escape from under Todo.
Instead of continuing the attack, I decided to step back and look around. The place that had been filled with tranquility just a minute ago had changed drastically: numerous scorched and broken trees lay on their sides, there wasn't a single blade of grass or leaf left, only dry soil, and small craters were visible in three places.
"Interesting move, I'll remember that."
"You've got a solid punch, my brother," Laughter echoed from the side, and then Todo emerged from behind the trees, with only a couple of wounds on his body and a large bruise on his left rib.
"You know, I'm glad I came to Kyoto," I began, manipulating Cursed Energy in my body and Spiritual Energy in my soul. "For the first time in a long while, I have an opponent before me that I genuinely want to defeat."
"Well, in that case," Todo got back into a fighting stance. "Why did we stop?"
As an old man once told me, "Fighting against a Sorcerer or curse user with incredible mobility, the first thing you need to do is create as many obstacles as possible. It will take them more time to think about the next move, and then..."
Spell One: Fire Crows
Inside my soul, spiritual energy took the form of crows, creating a mysterious symbol that instantly propelled Cursed Energy into a frenzied state. In a second, six crows made of fire shot out from my back.
Third Aspect: Fire Armament
Imagining that I held an ordinary one-and-a-half-handed sword, but made of fire, I felt it in my grip the next second.
At this moment, the crows had already reached Todo, but because speed wasn't the main strength of this spell, he easily dodged them and, with a sudden jerk, rushed toward me. I didn't avoid close combat and dashed towards him with the sword at the ready.
The sound of the collision between my sword and Todo's forearm, strangely reminiscent of the clash of two metallic rods, rang in my ears. Without stopping, I slightly turned my torso to the side, and behind Todo, an explosion sounded, throwing his body forward, allowing me to slash him along the body with the sword. However, in the last moment, Todo accelerated forward, preventing my blade from gaining momentum, causing it to simply collide with his body, inflicting no serious damage.
Spell One: Fire Crows - summons fire crows that excel at intercepting and fixing the target simultaneously. While the speed of this spell may not be as high as [Spell Two: Blazing Spear], it is ideal for pursuing an opponent.
First Aspect: Compression
Compressing one of the remaining five crows into the flame on the blade, I sharply turned around and delivered a strike from above.
*CLAP*
The clap in the palms marked the shift in our positions, and now Todo was preparing to strike at me. But before his fist could reach my back, another explosion next to him sent him flying ten meters to the side.
Three crows left. And that's enough!
Restoring balance and gathering strength in my legs, I chased after Todo. Once again, he blocked my strike, but this time he immediately clapped and swapped our positions, causing one of the fire crows, which was already behind him, to lose its target and soar into the sky. The more we fought, the better this guy adapted to me. So, a minute had passed since our combat dance began, and we were still darting through the forest, beating each other up.
First Aspect: Compression
Squeezing another crow, numerous crimson fireballs formed around me, which I compressed again, creating one large sphere. It wasn't on the level of [Fourth Spell], but I didn't need to create a hundred-meter crater at this location!
Once again, there was a clap, after which a fireball flew towards me. However, at that moment, two crows descended from the sky like two fighters, to which I had previously given the command to attack me. Almost simultaneously, we were enveloped in crimson flames, but the explosion only sounded from Todo's side.
Fourth Aspect: Delayed Explosion
The crimson flames raging around me swiftly descended to the ground and lay in wait.
"How long has it been since I felt like this?" A huge shadow emerged from the smoke in my direction. "Blood on my teeth, pain in my sides! What a wonderful day!"
After a few minutes of battling, Todo was no longer unscathed and pristine: blood flowed from his forehead and along the right side of his face, although the initial large bruise had already faded. In its place, many other small cuts and bruises covered mainly the right side of his body. And not to mention his arms, which had almost no unscathed areas. However, even though I didn't look as beaten as all my wounds quickly healed thanks to natural regeneration and a special Enhancement, I felt that I was not in the best shape: due to the intensive use of Aspects and Enhancement, my heart was already working at its limit... Six minutes, not ten — that's how long I endured under Enhancement.
"Indeed, it's been a while since I had this much fun," I smiled knowingly at this robust guy with a scar.
"I'm glad I met you, Sukehiro Yami!"
"Do I have to be embarrassed?"
"You're indeed interesting, I didn't make a mistake," Todo paused and took a deep breath, slowly and smoothly stretching his arms towards the sky. "Do you feel that scent, my brother?"
"There are so many of them that it's impossible to count. Which one exactly are you talking about?"
"The scent of victory!"
"It's strange that we both sense it."
"There's nothing strange about it, my brother. After all, we both wholeheartedly believe in victory!"
"In that case, attack."
"Alright, I'll let you lead this dance now," Todo looked at me as if I were an idiot.
"Nobody held a gun to your head."
Sixth Aspect: Fiery Infusion
Thanks to Spiritual Energy, my flame was somewhat special... Besides directly attacking souls, it could also linger in the opponent's body. Each of my fire attacks, in both close and long-range combat, gradually introduced the flame into the opponent's body. In the end, I could detonate it.
After a few minutes of intense battle, four hits from the fire crows, and numerous times Todo came into contact with my flames. In any other case, it would have resulted in an explosion inside the body with the force of an anti-tank mine, but now the flame just momentarily flared up, like a beacon at night. I didn't want to kill or maim my new "best friend," so I used another hidden and essentially unnecessary feature of [Fiery Infusion]—due to such a sudden temperature rise, Todo's brain simply... shut down.
And now, amid the scorched forest, I stood opposite Todo, who had lost consciousness but still stood there... Stood with a straight, spear-like back.