84 Burning Bright

Whilst Yami and the others felt like they had been plunged into the depths of purgatory, Grim and Mereoleona kept their competition going.

"What's wrong boy?" Mereoleona grinned. "Can't take the heat?"

"Says the one sweating more than a whore in a church." Grim grinned back seeing that she was also sweating. While it may be true that he was drenched at the moment, the fact that Mereoleona wasn't having an easy time was enough to make him continue this insane competition.

"Heh, you're the first person to insult me without getting beaten straight away. Be proud of that achievement."

"So what you're saying is I'm your first?" He smiled and pushed [Breath of Flames] even further. "Well since we're trading firsts, I should probably let you know that you're the first person to make me want to go even further with this fire magic of mine."

"Is that so!" Mereoleona smirked releasing an even greater wave of fire based mana that blew strong gusts of hot air towards Grim.

"Urh." Watching her fiery aura grow to an even larger extent and feeling his skin start to sting, Grim was forced to put his arms up to help block the hot air that was pushing him back.

'So this is true fire magic... Just based on this pressure alone, it looks like Captain Fuegoleon still has a ways to go.'

"What's wrong boy?" Mereoleona laughed. "I thought you'd be able to handle more than this."

'Is... Is she mocking me!'

"Ha... Ha... Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!" Grim suddenly burst out into a fit of deranged laughter.

'Eh? Did I fry his brain.'

"What's so funny?" Mereoleona questioned while the others who weren't part of the black bulls looked at Grim with confusion.

"Oh its nothing." He chuckled planting his feet firmly onto the ground. "Its just that... this is the first time a woman's ever made me feel like this."

"WHAT!!" Noelle and the Crimson Lions said in unison.

Ignoring them and keeping his eyes trained solely on Mereoleona's figure.

"That fire of yours... its wild, untamed, savage."

"So what?"

Hearing her question, the smile on Grim's face started to widen once more.

'I've never tried this before... but with my current level of mana control and with someone demonstrating what a wild fire looks like, this is the perfect time to put this to the test.'

While proficient in using [Breath of Flames], if compared to something like [Breath of the Beast] Grim's achievements in this magic would seem pitiful. But with someone like Mereoleona standing before him and challenging him with an element that he uses, Grim couldn't help but want to trample over the magic she was so proud of. So to this end Grim was even willing to try something dangerous and untested.

"Watch closely, I'm about to surpass my limits." Closing his eyes, the fiery aura around Grim started to calm down and lose its wild nature.

"What's this?! Your flames growing smaller. Is this what you call surpassing your limits?." Mereoleona laughed.

Ignoring her, Grim could feel the blood running through his veins.

Remembering the Salamander and the uncontrollable fire it released during its attack on the witches forest, a small smile crept onto Grim's face as his fiery aura weakened to the point that it became a thinly coated aura around his body. It was only after watching as Mereoleona's fiery aura that started covering on the whole area and swallow up Grim's figure that Asta and the others started to panic.

"GRIM!!" They screamed as they saw Mereoleona's flames devour him.

"Tch, there goes one of my subpar subordinates." Yami muttered. "I'll drink to his memory."

"Shut up will ya." Mereoleona snapped while looking in the direction Grim's figure had vanished.

"I might not know this kid like the rest of you do, but-"

"Earlier I said that I would surpass my limits didn't I?" Grim's voice erupted from inside the flames.

"GRIM!!" Noelle and the others gasped hearing his voice.

"Still kicking eh?" Mereoleona smiled.

"Let me rephrase my earlier statement, I'm not only going to surpass my limits, I'm gonna go even further beyond."

[A/n: Is that you Goku?]

Feeling the air around them tremble, an astonishing amount of mana gathered around the area Grim's voice was coming from until-

*BOOM!!*

A bright blue light burst out pushing Mereoleona's flames back.

"WHAT!!" Everyone's eyes went wide.

"Hmm?" Mereoleona looked on in interest unconcerned that her flames had been pushed back.

"This blue light." Noelle muttered. "Is this his water magic? No, this feeling... its similar to Mereoleona's fire magic... but at the same time it feels completely different... what did you do Grim?"

Creating a safe area within Mereoleona's aura of flames, standing bare chested and surrounded by a fiery blue aura, Grim's figure was revealed to all.

"BLUE FLAMES!!" Everyone's eyes widened as blue flames danced around Grim's figure.

"I see." Mereoleona said staring at him from her location.

Using his newly acquired level of mana control, his experience of using fire magic and Mereoleona's demonstration of untamed fire in front of him, Grim was able to combine all three of these elements to understand his own fire magic and instead of letting that power run wild like he normally would, he restrained that power and used his mana to up the concentration of heat within his flames causing them to turn blue and surpass his previous flames.

"H-He has blue flames..." Leopold mutter absent mindedly.

'His control of mana surpasses mine, dealing with him in my current state will be difficult.' Yuno observed.

"So you managed to control your flames and ignite that fire within you. Not bad, this might even become fun now."

'Become fun? This bitch is still looking down on me!'

"When your flames were getting smaller and it looked like you were being swallowed by my aura, you were just making your flame smaller in order to gain better control over it weren't you?" Mereoleona asked.

"Who knows." He shrugged.

"Heh, straight to the point, a man after my own heart." Clenching her fists, Mereoleona's aura started rising again.

"Ready for round 2?"

"Bring it!"