Chapter 49: Triumph
Akira chased after Toji, parkouring and jumping off the walls to try and reach him as fast as possible as he abandoned RCT to reactivate Dash.
Seeing Toji already recovered and standing up from a small crater on the ground Akira clicked his tongue.
'That magic resistance and endurance combo is too cheaty, he barely took any damage from a corpse explosion to the face.'
Akira grimaced further the more he analysed the current situation.
'Magic and techniques won't work. With how much resistance he has they are just simply not worth the cost of using them.'
'Then.'
'I just have to do this old school style.'
Akira rapidly pulled out his last potion from his inventory, a mana potion. He already had mana and health regeneration intermediate applied to him from potions. He also had novice stamina regeneration but it wasn't worth a mention.
Akira landed beside Toji and rapidly activated his cursed techniques using thought acceleration. The drain was large but without Thought Acceleration by the time he took to activate the techniques he would be passionately making out with the pavement thanks to Toji.
'[Cursed Energy Reinforcement], [Dash], [Iron Fist]!'
Feeling the power surge through his body Akira found it hard to temper his excitement as he lashed out with a quick straight at Toji who blocked it with his forearms but for a single millisecond, his grin turned to a grimace.
'I actually felt that one. This could be bad.'
For Toji, losing his edge on the physical might competition was not ideal. Especially against an opponent who could fully regenerate on a whim.
Toji threw a kick but Akira moved out of the way before backhanding Toji and stomping on his foot before kneeing him in the stomach. But Toji took the opportunity to kick Akira in the liver and slugging him in the face launching him into a building.
For the first time throughout this whole fight, Toji felt it. A feeling he rarely felt these days against third-rate sorcerers. Yet a feeling he was familiar with.
Danger.
This little brat, half his age that hadn't even finished high school. One who's abilities hadn't even matured yet.
No, it would be more appropriate to say they matured now.
That same brat was actually making Toji feel trepidation. Something sorcerers thrice his age couldn't do.
'Should I run away?'
It wouldn't be cowardly. He had already lost almost all of his cursed tools. He was getting tired, small burns of flame and frostbite as well as small lacerations and bruises littered his body.
Of course, this would not be the first time he ran away from a bad situation. Not all of his contracts were easy. He knew when to run and when to plan.
But...
'This is fine. I can do this.'
Akira was also in bad shape. Choosing to use RCT would make it so that he would not be able to do offense and vice versa, he only had so much cursed energy to spare.
But.
It was do or die and Akira had already danced with the reaper.
It was do time.
Akira burst out of the building he was smashed into and charged Toji with a fearless smirk. The flame-like iron fists burned bright.
Fists clashed. Toji parried Akira's blows and struck harder but Akira just wouldn't go down.
He hit his solar plexus, his temple, his legs. But he just would not fall down. Anytime his injuries reached critical levels he would just switch to RCT and resume fighting.
He was weaker physically, especially without reinforcement but Toji was getting worn down. He might have had an above-average regeneration that let him recover from wounds normal people would not be able to but in the end, it was incomparable to Akira regenerating an arm in a few moments.
Toji was tired at this point, he may be superhuman but he had limits to his stamina and he was damm near reaching them. He was starting to get sloppy and getting hit more than he would have liked.
On the other side, Akira was running out of cursed energy for the nth time. With his rampant abuse of reinforcement and reversal, his body was crying. But regardless he had to push on.
Suddenly as Toji was about to block another blow from Akira, Akira suddenly disabled Iron Fist. And instead brought out Frost Pain and slashed Toji's waist, drawing a red line across it before Toji stepped back.
HP: 1,020 | CE: 1,602
Akira swung Frost Pain once again, leaving a trail of frost behind it and tagging Toji on the side before Toji grabbed a rebar sticking out from the ground and stabbed it deep into Akira's leg.
"Urk!"
HP: 940 | CE: 1,390
Stumbling to recover Akira reversed his grip on Frost Pain and stabbed down catching Toji's forearm and leaving a deep frozen gash as he was not able to dodge the slightly sluggish stab. He grabbed the rebar stuck in Akira's legs, twisting it and digging it further into Akira's leg.
Powering through the pain Akira tried slashing again. Only leaving a tiny scratch on Toji's cheek as he dodged, grasping the opportunity Toji stomped on his foot, breaking his already faulty balance before slamming his right fist into Akira's jaw.
HP: 560 | CE: 920
Shifting his stance Toji threw a left hook right after. Shaking Akira's whole skull as his vision went black.
HP: 280 | CE: 810
Just before the third strike hit him Akira summoned his katana to get launched from his shadow, hitting Toji in the knee before Akira headbutted his face. Taking the stunned opportunity Akira employed his RCT.
HP: 680 | CE: 410
Neither of them had enough stamina to actually dodge attacks reliably. Both of them were stumbling over their feet trying to one-up each other. Akira once again desparately swung limply.
Or so it appeared.
Just as the swing was about to be dodged by Toji, it suddenly changed Trajectory. Stabbing into the ground. The grimace that Akira had been carrying for the past few minutes returned to the same prideful smirk it once was.
"ICY BURST!!!"
A giant storm of ice erupted from the weapon that was buried deep in the ground. Depending on how it's used, icy burst can be used to emit a slash or a blizzard. Why didn't he go for the slash?
Because that wouldn't be enough to finish off Toji, he could've ridden the wave of ice to get further away before pelting Akira with debris. But with this, both of them would be in the middle of the epicentre of the giant blizzard freezing the entire city block.
Why would Akira let himself get hit by the attack too? Especially knowing its potency?
Options:
1: Frost pain deals additional frost damage with every hit and has a chance to inflict chill and frostbite.
2: Grants the user increased frost resistance (50%)
3: Skill: Icy Burst
[Charges: 0/3] (Recovers every 8 hours)
-When activated releases a burst of ice that deals heavy damage and inflicts freezing.
As the one wielding the blade Akira could survive for just a second longer than he needed to to finish this. Toji's eyes widened as the wave of icy energy swallowed him whole, freezing his body as he struggled to move with his injuries.
He would die in 10 - 30 seconds.
Akira would die in 6 - 18 if he used RCT only 5 seconds without.
So he had a single second to spare huh?
Plenty of time to spare then!
After all, fortune really does favour the bold.
Second: 1.
Akira raised his left arm toward Toji with two fingers raised, the other still holding frost pain firmly to receive the cold bonus.
Second: 2.
Akira channelled his cursed in technique in reverse, instead running it with positive energy as his arms started to freeze and his breath turned cold but his green eyes still ran thousands of calculations to make it happen.
Second: 3.
Akira regained his cocky grin at the face of death as he stared Toji down, the name of his cursed technique on his tongue as he uttered...
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Widen Wounds."
Second: 4.
Toji's eyes widened as he felt the foreign energy invade his body before all the lacerations across his body quite literally exploded into a fountain of blood. The last thing he saw before his vision turned black was the prideful grin of Akira staring him down.
Second: 5.
[Scenario Clear! Forcefully Exiting Scenario...]
HP: 32 | CE: 0
'Victory...' Akira couldn't wipe the smirk off of his face as his body was turned to specks of light and forcefully sent back to his own world by his cursed technique.
He had proven himself. He didn't just survive against Toji, he had triumphed over him. Picturing Toji's face as his mind started fading to black Akira couldn't help but think.
'Eat shit asshole...'
And then promptly passed out.
A/N: What did you guys think about the Akira vs. Toji fight? I would love to hear your thoughts about it. It's about time to kick things into gear as Akira finally participates in the cannon of DxD.
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