"H-Hey.. Akio..!"
As he gets off the wall, Akio ignores Genkei's calls; he's unconscious. Now, Akio is acting purely on instinct, and his instinct gives him one simple order:
Kill Genkei.
Almost instantly, Akio appears in front of Genkei, punching him directly in the stomach. Spitting blood, Genkei is flung backwards as he panicks. This isn't normal. Now, Akio is stronger, faster, and feral.
Even so, Genkei still thinks he can manage it. As long as he keeps his guard up, Akio won't be that much trouble. Now, Akio swiftly puts his hand on the ground, as he runs towards Genkei, releasing fireballs around him.
The General puts his hands up, assuming that Akio is going to attack, but instead, he simply claps in front of Genkei.
"What the..?"
This move confuses Genkei, but he realizes that he's frozen in place. By using his own strategies against him, Akio has caused Genkei to enter sensory overload, as all the fireballs hit him. Genkei's injured a bit, as Akio follows up with an actual attack.
Now, Genkei does congratulate Akio. He's become powerful, even if in a state that he can't control.
"However.. you still can't beat me."
Genkei knocks Akio back, as he lets out a primal roar. Before the sensory overload, he was able to see the flow of magic energy within Akio. Instead of flowing normally or being concentrated in his limbs, Akio's body is fully submerged and enhanced by his magic.
This is something that Genkei can somewhat replicate. His muscles bulge, as his hair stands up from the intense pressure.
"Let's go, Akio!"
Akio lets out his own roar, as round two begins.. on equal footing. Akio attempts to punch Genkei in the face, but the latter dodges, grabbing Akio's leg and planting him into the ground.
Genkei attempts to stomp Akio, but he dodges out of the way, instead tripping the Wind General. Akio creates a fireball in his hand, aimed to hit Genkei in the back, but he instead puts his hand on the ground, doing a back handspring.
Swiftly, Akio gets up, as Genkei touches the ground with his feet, using it as extra force for a jump kick. It does make contact, but Akio grabs Genkei's legs, opening his mouth. Fire magic starts building up within it, as Genkei forces Akio's hold on his legs to break.
Afterwards, Genkei takes the opportunity to flip around and kick Akio in the face. This time, it does work. Akio's knocked backwards and Genkei follows up, using his entire hand to plant Akio in the wall before jumping back and throwing blasts of wind at him.
This does seem to do the job. Akio has stopped moving. Genkei slowly moves towards him, wanting to assess the damage. Suddenly, though, Akio throws one last attack before he's really done: a final fireball, having all the magic energy that remains within.
Genkei doesn't dodge, instead taking the blast head on. It doesn't even do any damage except for fully destroying his top, revealing his bulged muscles and popped veins. Undeterred, the Wind General walks towards his cousin again.
Akio has a pulse. His eyes seem to have returned to normal, but naturally, he's unconscious. Though, what fascinates Genkei is the fact that.. Akio is unharmed. Well, he does have a few bruises, but nothing more.
Meanwhile, Genkei is bleeding and slightly burnt. Now.. this makes Genkei laugh.
"What a yough bastard. You surpassed yourself, Akio. I'm proud of you."
After a while, Akio opens his eyes, seeing that he's in a medical room. He gets up, looking around and seeing Genkei.
"Oh, hey! Look who's up."
- "Ow.. what the hell happened?"
- "You don't have any memory of what happened, huh?"
- "No. The last thing I remember is.. I could sense your energy."
- "You could. However, you also lost control of yourself?"
- "What?"
- "Yeah. After grasping the skill, you went all wild and stuff. Your eyes turned orange too."
Akio gives Genkei a weird look, until the realization comes to him: he does remember that his right eye did turn orange in that dream, but he doesn't get the time to think about it.
"Let's leave that aside, though. Can you feel my energy now?"
- "Well.. yeah, but not all that much."
- "I see. Then we shan't do sparring anymore!"
- "What?"
- "We'll meditate instead. Who knows? Maybe you can use that weird state again too, but consciously."
- "...Are you sure?"
- "Yup. Let's go."
- "Right now..?"
- "You scared? I won't bite."
- "Shouldn't we take some time to recover? From the looks of it, you're injured too."
- "Allow me to remind you that someone said, and I quote: 'There is no time to rest'. You remember that?
- "..Touche."
- "Good. Now get your ass up."
A few minutes pass. Akio follows Genkei to the training room, which to his surprise, is still intact.
- "So.. was the fight we had when I blacked out not strong or something?"
- "It was. Hell, I had to push my body to the limits in order to put you down."
- "Then how has nothing happened to the room..?"
- "Jack is a genius, I guess. Anyways, prepare yourself."
- "Right..."
Genkei and Akio get in the liberation pose.
- "Akio, close your eyes, then inhale and exhale slowly."
Without replying, Akio does as told.
"Good. Now, focus on your energy. The way it flows in of your body.. and outside of it."
Genkei notices the aura outside of Akio's body. It's still heavy, but it is his magic energy. Recalling back to a few hours earlier, there was no aura outside of Akio when he had lost control; it was all contained, and that's how he entered that powerful state.
- "I am. What now?"
- "Try to sense the energy around you, except for your own. That being said, I recall that you consciously used your magic to create a space in which you could sense all energy, no?"
- "Ah, yeah. I did."
- "Don't do it again. There's a chance that the enemy will be able to use it to their advantage and trip you up. Focus on simply feeling the flow of energy outside you."
- "Alright, alright."
Akio does as told, and he can materialize the energy in the air. It's different to his. It's passive, having no gravity or temperature. As one would expect, naturally.
"I see it."
- "Now, try to sense any disturbances in this energy. Other sources in certain."