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"Begin," Leopold said from outside the barrier.
He was truly anticipating the battle between his brother and Akeru, as he wanted to understand Akeru's exact prowess.
In the past year, Leopold had noticed that Akeru was not only holding back but also providing a genuine challenge during their battles, which made Leopold wonder about Akeru's limits.
As the saying goes, to win a battle, one must know both the enemy and oneself.
Akeru quickly released water bullets at a blinding speed towards Fuegoleon. These were different from a year ago, being more condensed and even faster.
"Creation Magic: Ignis Columna," Akeru heard, as a fire pillar erected around Fuegoleon, withstanding the water bullets with relative ease.
'That really has good defensive prowess. It has similar defensive measures as my current version of Seraph's Shell,' Akeru internally noted.
In the next instant, Akeru saw a red line in the form of a punch aimed at him, which quickly turned red. In the actual world, Fuegoleon, still within the crimson pillar, instantaneously appeared near Akeru with a punch heading towards the latter's gut.
'Seraph's Shell,' Akeru, having already sensed him with his Ki sensing, quickly created his defensive spell.
The punch connected with the shell.
BOOM.
However, the shell didn't break.
Fire met water. Steam started emerging from the contact.
Akeru had recently trained all his water spells, making them more condensed and considerably increasing their prowess. Seraph's Shell was no exception.
"Now that's a strong defense. Let's see if it can handle this," Fuegoleon said while summoning a lion.
"Leo Rugiens" The lion materialized near the shell and began spewing fire at it point blank.
'That's probably the spell Leopold was talking about, which he took inspiration from to form Crimson Cannon. I can already feel the heat. My defense won't last more than a few seconds,' Akeru thought.
"It won't last that long," Akeru said calmly while sending mana into the surroundings.
Fuegoleon noticed this and, for some reason, was already anticipating something.
"Mana Zone: Viscous Hush" Suddenly, the surroundings around Akeru stilled.
If one observes carefully, one might witness something incredible. Water vapors from the atmosphere could be seen moving in a specific pattern.
To Fuegoleon, it felt like he was seeing the world in slow motion. The lion spewing very hot fire seemed to be moving at an extremely slow speed towards the water shell.
Fuegoleon felt that moving his body had become difficult.
'I feel like my speed has reduced to around one-hundredth of my normal speed. Are the water vapors present in the air trying to replicate the friction present underwater?' Fuegoleon instantly analyzed the mana zone in a second.
Seeing things as they were presented to him and hearing the spell's name led him to a correct conclusion.
In the next instant, Akeru appeared on the right side of the Crimson Lion's captain and kicked towards him.
'In my domain, everything is under my control,' Akeru didn't say it out loud, feeling it was embarrassing.
Moreover, the statement wasn't entirely true, as only mana was under his control, which could be used to create spells spontaneously while attacking from any direction.
Suddenly, numerous water bullets materialized near Fuegoleon from all directions, heading towards him at a blinding speed.
"You have me impressed," Akeru's eyes widened as he felt the temperature near Fuegoleon rapidly increasing.
He saw a red line on his leg, instantly deducing that it would get burned. He quickly moonwalked backwards.
In the next instant, the area around Fuegoleon turned reddish-orange.
"Mana Zone: Fiery Hell" Suddenly, all the water bullets, already dangerously close to Fuegoleon, vaporized as if they had never existed.
One more second later, Akeru's Seraph's Shell was also vaporized.
Two domains clashed with each other.
Due to a new mana zone appearing, Akeru's mana zone was pushed back to surround only him.
'Damn, that zone is a death zone. I bet that even if I throw a stone there, it would definitely get vaporized instantly,' Akeru made some deductions based on his observations.
He was not far from the truth.
"I didn't really expect you to learn mana zone already, but with your control, it was a matter of time," Fuegoleon said, his mana zone already overwhelming Akeru's.
'If my mana zone is broken, then I will die instantly,' Akeru gulped.
"Go All Out," Fuegoleon suddenly said.
Akeru looked at him for a few seconds before nodding.
Mana words instantly materialized near Akeru into an array, and his mana zone suddenly expanded.
This was due to natural mana in the air coming under Akeru's control.
"HAHA, I didn't really expect you to actually copy the famed mana method of Heart Kingdom," Fuegoleon said while increasing the mana going into his mana zone, which clashed ferociously with Akeru's.
Akeru started deducing a method to defeat Fuegoleon.
Suddenly, Fuegoleon's mana zone decreased in size such that it was around him in a smaller radius.
Akeru's mana zone, no longer having resistance, increased in size and again clashed with Fuegoleon's zone. However, it wasn't able to overwhelm it to reach Fuegoleon.
Steam was being rapidly created.
"It seems I would have to finish the battle soon as I don't have the advantage of larger mana reserves anymore," Fuegoleon said while rushing towards Akeru.
Due to Fuegoleon's mana zone protecting him, his speed wasn't reduced as the water vapors were constantly being repelled from an ordered state to a chaotic state, so he was only slightly slowed down, not to 1/100th of his speed.
Akeru in the next instant saw a trail of steam rushing at him instantly.
'Fuck,' Akeru cursed while two hands of water formed near him, doing a clapping motion very quickly such that they caught Fuegoleon.
However, in the next instant, they were evaporated.
Akeru quickly jumped into the air.
Even without considering the presence of the mana zone, he could now float or "walk" in the air.
Fuegoleon quickly followed.
'Fuck, I knew that most of my arsenal is defensive spells or auxiliary ones. Why did I even think that he won't have a mana zone?' Akeru cursed his foolishness.
'Time to use that,' Akeru thought while creating a Seraph's shell on the boundaries of his mana zone.
Akeru along with his shell was kicked towards the ground at high speeds by the fiery captain.
Just as Fuegoleon reached instantly near the shell for a follow-up, he instinctively stopped as he felt the boundary of the shell starting to vibrate.
'Hehe, I can finally add Oscillatory Dysfunction to any water spell. Combined with Seraph's shell, it makes the ultimate defense,' Akeru gloated while looking at Fuegoleon, who had stopped and created a big lion.
Oscillatory Dysfunction was the most powerful attacking spell of Akeru's, made possible by his impressive control.
"That's an impressive defense, and even I won't dare to attack it head-on by myself," Fuegoleon said. Even though he spoke those words, his whole body posture radiated confidence.
Akeru had a bad feeling.
Suddenly, he saw a big red line aimed not at him but at his side, passing through the Seraph's shell.
His eyes widened as he saw it get red very quickly.
Fuegoleon concentrated nearly half of his mana present in the mana zone towards the lion, and the lion shot an intense fire beam in the next instant.
The "absolute defense" crumbled like a sand castle.
The fire beam which had entered Akeru's domain slowed down to nearly 1/10th of its speed instead of 1/100th due to water vapors being dispelled by the sheer amount of heat it was radiating.
***
Alternative Title- Clash of Mana Zones
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A/n- Well, Mana Zone is an advanced skill and we haven't seen Fuegoleon having any domains, but I felt like he could use one, so I created this one for him. What do you guys think?
Also, mana zones are similar to domains from JJK, so I would be using them like that. There would be slight differences from the cannon, but not that much difference as all properties from the cannon are still present.
Also, one more thing, is it me only or does Fuegoleon remind you of Rengoku?
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