"Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Lightless Slash!"
Yami shouted as he cut all of the light projectiles heading his way.
"Master Licht!" Valtos exclaimed in worry. An unnecessary emotion because Licht remembered from his recent expression and dodged the attack instead.
"Trap, eh? I'm sure you wouldn't have been able to win without doing something underhanded. This time, come right at me.
I'll show you the true power of a Magic Knight Captain!"
Then suddenly, his aura changed.
"Hup!"
*BOOM*
Yami launched himself at Licht, finally on the aggressive and the ground beneath his feet cracked. In a mad dash, he swung his sword at Licht who teleported out of the way, and launched his own attack at Yami who parried them all.
Then they locked their eyes.
And…
…they disappeared.
*SWOOSH*
*BOOM*
*TING*
*TING*
*ZOOM*
*THDRR*
*BOOOOM*
With the final sound of an explosion, both Licht and Yami returned to their original position. In this brief moment of time, both of them exchanged blows between each other. Yami appeared with a bit of dust on him but his expression remained lackadaisical.
"Hey, brat. Were you watching that?" Yami asked looking at Asta who nodded hurriedly.
"Y-Yes, sir!" Asta spoke almost saluting him.
"Good. Now try the same thing."
"Yes, sir!" Asta said getting carried away. A moment later, he realized what Yami had said.
"Wait... Like I could actually do that!
Of course, I can't!" He cried at the injustice of the command.
"Oh? Who do you think you're talking to?" Yami asked in a threatening tone.
"Huh?"
Then he grabbed Asta his head and brought his face close to his squeezing it all along.
"I told you to do it, so do it."
"Ow, ow, ow, that really hurts! Ow, ow, ow!" Asta moved like a fish out of water in Yami's hands as he cried in pain.
'Not only did he manage to stop all of Master Licht's attacks, he even managed to counter.
The Black Bulls' captain...
Does his strength actually rival the Wizard King's?!' Valtos thought as he looked at Yami with a serious gaze, completely opposite to what Yami was doing with Asta.
"I see... So this is dark magic." Licht muttered with a pleasant smile feeling the strain that their brief exchange put on him. But he did not feel any fear due to it. And the reason was…
"Light Recovery Magic: Healing Light Particles."
"He can use recovery magic, too?"
"I haven't seen it in person much, but apparently, guys loved by mana can use all sorts of magic.
It's especially rare for an attack-type to also be able to heal." Yami educated Asta, and then gripping his sword spoke with his eyes stilled on Licht.
"Anyway, get ready."
"No, really! I can't!
Not in the middle of fighting!
Not to mention, I don't have any magic!
I can't see his attacks! They are too fast!
And I can't block attacks that I can't see!"
Asta shouted with sweat on his forehead in desperation.
"You're hopeless." Yami said facepalming and after taking a huff, continued.
"I'll explain it just this once. You'll have to pay me 500 yuls later."
'He's charging?!' Asta cried internally.
"The reason I've been able to react to the attacks is because of something called "ki" from back in my homeland."
"Ki? Not mana?" Asta asked with confusion.
"Yeah." Yami repeated.
"Ki
People looking at you, the sound of their breathing, their smell, the motions of their muscles, the vague sense that they're there...
Ki is the blanket term for all of the different types of life energy the human body emits.
I read that ki and predicted his next move, then made mine.
You've done that before, haven't you?" Yami ended with a question aimed at Asta who with a contemplative face said in realization.
"Come to think of it...
When I do it, I combine it with magic and muscle and fight that way.
Muscles! So that's why your neck's so thick, Captain Yami!" Asta said with certainty as if he had discovered the hidden truth of the world.
Seeing this thing happening once more, Valtos seethed in rage.
"He has the nerve to converse during a battle.
The insolence..."
He murmured as he launched a curse at Asta from a portal he had created on the ground behind him, but…
*WHOOSH*
…he cut through it without even seeing it.
'What?'
This caught Valtos by surprise, who then went all out as Yami was engaged in the combat by Licht.
"Take this!"
He created muddy portals all around Asta and showered him with magic bullets all around, but seeing it Asta did not become scared and instead…
"…Hoo…"
…took a deep breath.
And remembered…
'Read…his…ki…'
…and started to weave his sword around in a manner that was alien to the way Asta used to do before. With newfound precision, Asta used the flat side of his blade as a shield to deflect the magic bullets back at Valtos while he used the other blade to cut the bullets that came way too close.
In an instant, he dealt with the attacks, which Valtos was forced to stop because of being pelleted by his own magic bullet.
"Argh!"
*BOOM*
Valtos grunted as he quickly made a portal to dodge the attack that exploded with a boom the instant he left through the portal, kicking up a cloud of dust behind.
*ZOOM*
With a characteristic sound, Valtos left the portal gasping for breath. With minor scratches on his face due to being exposed to the explosion a bit.
'He's just full of surprises.
To think he could keep up with this speed, as well.' Valtos thought as he gasped for breath before looking at Yami who was going toe to toe with Licht.
Aiming at the space between Yami and Licht, Valtos created a portal, timing it perfectly that allowed Licht to escape the fight.
"I cannot allow him to trouble you any further, Master Licht." Valtos spoke as he saw Yami's and Asta's collective gaze still on him. Hearing this Yami clicked his tongue in frustration and said…
"Try messing in my fight once again and I will carve lines passing through your eyes."
…menacingly.
Valtos did not pay attention to Yami and turned to Licht with reverence in his eyes, and asked politely.
"I know this is impertinent of me, but would you allow me to assist you?"
With a soul-soothing look, Licht replied shrugging off any worry in Valtos' heart.
"Thank you, Valtos. You're always so helpful."
But then, he turned to look at Asta and with a meaningful look said, "In that case, that boy...would you capture him? You may injure him slightly if need be."
"An easy task." Valtos spoke filled with a sense of duty to accomplish the task assigned to him by Licht.
Saying this, Licht again dashed to engage Yami in a fight, and without looking at Asta, Valtos started to spawn portal after portal around him, but all of them turned to nothing by Asta's magic sword who grinned at him and said, "Come at me! You scrawny line-faced dude!"
True to his words, Valtos started to attack with renewed vigor, and while Asta in the beginning was able to deal with it just fine became overwhelmed moments later. Slowly wounds began to creep on his body.
'Dammit! He is getting faster.' Asta thought through gritted teeth as he was thrown away by the waves due to the explosion.
*TING*
*THUD*
*BOOM*
Seeing Asta getting overwhelmed, Yami who was in a fight of his own spoke dealing with Licht's attack.
"You said you were going to become the Wizard King, didn't you?
Surpass your limits. Right here, right now.
There's no other way."
"Yes *GRUNTS* sir!" Asta said as he tried to close in on Valtos who was just out of his reach by teleporting.
'I don't get it at all, but...
For starters, concentrate... Concentrate!' He said to himself internally as he kept on moving through sheer determination.
"Someone with no magic like you could never stop my attack-" Valtos said as he tried to put down Asta by sneaking an attack on him after dodging him through the fight. But before he could complete the sentence…
"You're there!"
*SLASH*
"AHH!!"
…Asta 'felt' where he was about to attack and slashed his bigger sword at him, which struck Valtos with the flat side, stopping all of the attacks he was doing send him straight to the side of the cave.
"Hell yeah! I used ki!" Asta shouted with a sense of completion raising both of his arms with swords when Yami who was engrossed in his fight shouted at him, with veins bulging on his neck.
" You can't fool me, kid.
You just reacted to your ears that time. That ain't ki.
Use all five senses, and sense it with your whole body, you moron!"
"With my whole body?"
"Yeah. You can't just rely *SLASH* on your ears or your *SLASH* eyes-Can't you see I am about to tell something important to him!?" Yami shouted as he kicked Licht back which he defended with a light shield but was still taken away by the force of the impact.
Then Yami turned to Asta and continued.
"Visualize something halfway between instinct and a prediction.
If you don't do it right, I'll kill you!"
"That's insane.
But I think I kinda get it.
Not just my ears, not just my eyes...
Then... I'm just going to reset everything.
Concentrate..."
Asta muttered as he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, and increasing his senses. He started to only feel the way he normally did.
'Breathe in…'
'Breathe…out.'
"You're there!"
"Wha—"
*SLASH*
*BOOM*
With a sharp swing of his sword, Asta slashed at Valtos that left a long gash on his body and threw Valtos at the side wall of the cave, hitting his spine in the process.
"I did it!
I did it, Captain Yami!" Asta shouted in triumph.
"Wow, you actually managed to do it?
Talk about creepy, you weirdo."
"What?!" Asta squawked in surprise.
On the other hand, Licht seeing the slumped figure of Valtos stilled in the air and the atmosphere around him became oppressive.
"Valtos...
How dare you... harm Valtos?!" Licht said in an eerie calm voice with his eyes that wished for nothing but an inhumane level of violence.
Then the pitch of his voice steadily increased as he thundered.
"I cannot allow people like you to harm my comrades ever again!"
"What's your deal? You're the ones who started this!" Asta called out his stupid statement but Licht was in his own world.
With a look of malice on his face, he spat the words out like poison.
"The path this spell traces resembles the motions of a whip.
Can you predict its movements?
It's said that whips were used to punish criminals, once upon a time.
That makes it a perfect fit for you two!
Light Creation Magic: Light Whip of Judgment!"
*WHIPLASH*
*THUDR*
Licht broke down the whip of light at a tremendous speed that Yami and Asta dodged. Well…Yami took Asta on his shoulder and dodged with him. As they left, the whip crashed on the ground, digging far too deep into the earth to the point that Asta could not see the end of it and sweated due to this.
"It's useless to struggle!" Licht commented as he attacked the pair once again who kept on dodging all of the attacks but this did not deter Licht and the result of this was…
"The cave!"
…cave that started to collapse and rumble.
"That nutcase has gone ballistic!" Yami spoke out loud seeing the rocks falling at him while he thought inside.
'What is Mr. Creepy doing now? I gave him enough time to lay his traps.'
Valtos on the other hand looked at Licht with blood flowing down his mouth.
"You're amazing, Master Licht!
Your strength is *COUGH* *COUGH* practically divine!
If you felt like it, *COUGH* Master Licht, the Magic
Knights would be no more *COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH* than infants!"
Hearing this comment, Yami looked at Licht with a newfound eye and spoke with a meaningful look.
"The leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun... Licht, was it?
Talk about a huge forehead. I guess you'd expect that from a light magic user."
***
Thank you Himanshu_Dwivedi_4919, Marcus_Leyero, Beleth_85, can_kan, lord_of_Wright for powerstones