James First Peerage Vs. Team Vali II

Dimensional Gap, Team DxD Base.

After Ayame's short interruption, Mizore and Bikou were once again ready for their spar to begin. However, since the starting signal had already been given, they rushed each other as soon as they were sure no one was going to appear between them again.

As soon as Mizore was in range, Bikou lashed out with his staff in a wide arc. Mizore, having trained with Scathach, Cu Chulainn, and Tsubaki, was used to fighting opponents who used long handled weapons, so she used her ice claws to deflect the staff upward. However, because he was using a staff instead of a spear, he quickly swung his staff around and struck out once again using the opposite side of his staff.

Despite the difference in fighting style, Mizore was not caught off guard, continuing to deflect the staff as many times as Bikou swung it. And just like that, Mizore and Bikou's first clash continued for around forty-five seconds.

"Damn it, don't you have anything else you can do besides swing that stick around?" Mizore asked in annoyance, unable to close the distance with Bikou.

In the next instant, Mizore thought she heard someone say: "Ooh, poor choice of words." But she decided to ignore it.

"Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?" Bikou replied with a chuckle while increasing the speed that his staff was flying at Mizore.

"Fine, if that's how you wanna play..." Mizore said, changing her annoyed expression into a solemn one.

In the next instant, several ice spikes appeared in the air around Mizore, each aimed at one of Bikou's vital areas.

Although Bikou expected Mizore to do something like this eventually, his eyes widened, and he felt a chill running down his spine when he saw that nearly half of the produced ice spikes were aimed at his crotch. Then, when Mizore fired the ice spikes, Bikou immediately stopped his offensive onslaught and began swinging his staff to deflect or destroy the majority of the incoming ice spikes, while putting on quite the acrobatic display to dodge the ones that he could not.

"What the hell, Woman!?" Bikou exclaimed angrily once he was free of all the incoming ice spikes.

Like Bikou, all the males present felt a chill when they saw how many ice spikes were aimed at Bikou's nether region. Also, like Bikou, they knew they would exclaim in anger, as well.

Instead of responding, Mizore appeared in front of Bikou with her right arm extended, trying to land a palm strike on Bikou's chest. Luckily, Bikou's reaction speed was just as fast as Mizore's, and he was able to block the palm strike with his staff.

Unfortunately, a moment later, Bikou noticed that the part of his staff that Mizore hit began to freeze over. However, before he could think about it for too long, a barrage of palm and finger strikes followed the initial palm strike.

Like before, Bikou was able to block all the incoming attacks. That led to a whole different problem, however. As Mizore's hands made contact with Bikou's staff, more and more of it was frozen. On top of that, the ice was encroaching on the rest of the staff as time went on.

"What kinda bullshit is this?' Bikou asked incredulously. "What the hell is up with this ice?"

Bikou wanted to lash out with a kick, to create some distance when Mizore blocked or dodged. However, he thought better of it when he saw the state his staff was in.

'There's no way that ice wouldn't freeze flesh as well.' Bikou thought.

Then, Bikou took a quick step back, lowered himself closer to the ground, and spun in place, sweeping at Mizore's legs with his staff. This, naturally, caused Mizore to pause her assault for a moment. Using that slight opening, Bikou rolled backward before somersaulting back a few times to gain distance. Meanwhile, at the same time as Bikou's sweep, Mizore was able to knick Bikou's left shoulder with one of her claws.

Although he was able to gain some distance, Bikou could only click his tongue at the part of his shoulder that had frozen over thanks to Mizore's little scratch.

"Tch! Didn't think I'd have to use this after going through Chiron's training." Bikou said as he aimed the tip of his staff at Mizore.

A moment later, Bikou's staff grew wider, causing the ice that was coating it to shatter. Then, it returned to its normal size before the end that was pointed at Mizore began to extend at high speed.

"Oh, shit..." Mizore muttered as she noticed the end of the staff coming at her.

Mizore then crossed her ice claw clad hands in front of her chest, catching the tip of the staff between her claws. However, as the staff extended, Mizore was forced backward, leaving two shallow trenches in the ground where she passed.

Eventually, Mizore was able to force the staff downward, causing it to be stuck in the ground. Then, she froze it to the ground.

"Alright, now that that's taken care of..." Mizore said, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow.

Before Mizore could finish, though, Bikou smiled at her. Then, he reverted the staff back to its usual size.

"Oh, come on!" Mizore shouted in annoyance.

"Hahaha... You can't beat me, so why don't you just give up?" Bikou boasted while spinning his staff before resting it on his shoulder.

"*Sigh* I'm not as good at it as James or Auntie Leona, but I guess I'll use it." Mizore said while determination filled her eyes.

An instant later, Mizore vanished from her spot. Then, she appeared to Bikou's right. Although he was surprised, Bikou was able to dodge Mizore's claw strike with some impressive footwork. Then, he swung his staff with great force. However, Mizore disappeared once again, just before Bikou's staff strike could land.

For the next minute, Mizore and Bikou's game of cat and mouse continued with Mizore using the [Flash Step] while Bikou reacted to her sudden disappearances and sneak attacks with counterattacks of his own.

Eventually, after Mizore disappeared once again, Bikou let the two ends of his spear extend into the distance. Then, he began twirling it, covering as many blind spots as he could. On top of that, he also began to rotate in place so that he could see as much of his surroundings as possible.

Unfortunately, those rotations were what Mizore was waiting for. Shortly after Bikou started spinning in place, the ground below him froze over, causing him to lose his balance while thinking...

'I thought she had to touch a solid object to freeze it.'

As he fell to one knee, Bikou saw that it was not just the ground beneath him that froze. Instead, there was a path that he did not notice due to his high-speed rotation, extending into the distance where Mizore was standing.

"Damn, she tricked me." Bikou muttered as his knee and other foot was frozen to the ground.

Watching Bikou slowly freeze over, Mizore smiled. Then, she approached to deliver the winning blow. However, when she was close, her eyes widened as she noticed the grin on Bikou's face. A moment later, the tip of Bikou's staff shifted slightly before extending toward her abdomen.

*Bang!*

While the end of the staff was approaching, Mizore exerted all her demonic energy on her ice. Then, when Mizore was struck and sent flying with blood oozing from between her lips, Bikou was completely frozen over. And when Mizore landed in the distance, she had lost consciousness, causing all the ice she had created to quickly melt. Unfortunately, being flash frozen, left Bikou unconscious as well.

"A draw..." James muttered after seeing both Mizore and Bikou fall unconscious.

"Still, that was intense." Dante said.

"It was." Cu Chulainn nodded. "If I were still at the peak of the ultimate-rank, I don't know if I could beat Mizore anymore."

"I really wanna fight, too." Shion said with fire burning in her eyes.

"Yeah, but I feel sorry for Mizore." Moka said with some sadness in her tone.

"Well, she didn't win, so I get it." Dante said.

"But a draw isn't that bad, right?" Flora asked.

"it's not that." Moka said. "She let her guard down when she thought she won. So..."

Hearing that, Cu Chulainn, Dante, Lady, Flora, Ayame, and Shuna shuddered. Then, they all slowly looked toward Scathach, while Shion was still excited by the thought of having a good fight of her own.

Although Scathach's expression was still expressionless, they could all feel the anger and disappointment rolling off of her in waves.

"Well... Mizore is probably gonna die several times over the next several weeks." James said sadly.

"It'll probably be even worse, since she let something like this happen in Kyoto when she fought that Heracles guy, too." Moka said, mimicking James' tone.

Once again, the others shuddered. Before they could sink into their fears, though, James looked at Cu Chulainn and Shuna.

"So, which of you is next?" James asked curiously.

Cu Chulainn and Shuna then exchanged glances.

"It doesn't matter to me." Cu Chulainn said casually with a shoulder shrug. "I can go first if you want."

"Thank you, Lancer-San." Shuna replied gratefully. "I'll go after you."

"Then I guess that means I'm last." James said.

"Of course, you're last." Moka said with a mischievous grin. "In what kind of third-rate story does the leader fight before is subordinates.

"*Sigh* Although you're technically right, I would never call my best friend and my lover subordinates." James said while shaking his head.

"And that's why we love you." Flora said, jumping on James' back while wrapping her arms and legs around him. Then, she kissed him on the cheek with a happy smile on her face.

While James continued to flirt with Moka, Flora, and Shuna, he also mercilessly ignored Ayame, who loved it. At the same time, Lady glanced at the happy group of lovers. Then, she glared at Dante, who seemed to not even notice. Then, she kicked him in the shin out of anger.

"Damn it, Lady!" Dante roared. "What the hell was that for?"

"For the shameless way you won." Lady said before looking away. "I have to make sure you don't get even more cocky than you already are."

"What the hell?" Dante asked in confusion. "Your reaction was late as hell."

While Dante and lady continued to bicker, Cu Chulainn glanced at them and shook his head.

"Seriously, you too really need to just sleep together and get it over with." Cu Chulainn said in a tired tone.

"Shut the fuck up, Lancer!" x 2

As Cu Chulainn drew the ire of both Dante and lady onto himself, Asia finished healing Mizore. When the healing was complete, Mizore began waking up immediately.

As Mizore opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Asia's smiling face.

"Mizore, I'm glad you're alright." Asia said happily.

"Ugh... Did I lose?" Mizore asked, a bit downheartedly.

"No, it was a draw." Asia replied. Then, she clenched her fists in front of her chest before she continued. "You fought really hard."

"Yes, you fought quite well." Said a cold voice from the other side of Mizore. "But what good is fighting well if you drop your guard in the end?"

Hearing that cold voice, Mizore froze while Asia smiled wryly. Then, Mizore turned her head toward the source of the voice very, very slowly. When she eventually laid her eyes on the speaker, she felt the world turn colorless.

"It seems this Scathach's training is not intense enough if you continuously let this kind of thing happen." Scathach said emotionlessly. "Worry not. I will endeavor with all that I am to fix this deficiency."

"Thank you, Master Scathach." Mizore replied with tears in her eyes.

Nodding in response, Scathach then picked up Mizore by the back of her collar and stood her up on her feet.

"Now, return with me to the others and observe the rest of the matches." Scathach ordered. "Seeing fights of this nature will help you improve your own techniques."

"Yes, ma'am." Mizore replied.

Then, Scathach and Mizore walked toward the rest of James' first peerage.

"Master Scathach, I thought you would be watching the matches with Master Chiron." Mizore asked curiously while she walked alongside Scathach.

"I will." Scathach replied. "But I need to put a seal on My disciples before they can fight their opponents. Otherwise, things will be too one sided."

"Oh, okay." Mizore said with a nod.

Once Scathach and Mizore reached the rest of the group, she slapped suppression seals on James and Cu Chulainn. Then, without a word of explanation, she turned and walked away. Naturally, Cu Chulainn was left dumbfounded, while James frowned slightly.

"Master, if it's only suppressing my power down to the minor god-rank, I don't need this." James said, hoping to find out why Scathach decided to seal his power as well.

"Do not look at me like that, my disciple." Scathach said without turning around. "We both know that you indeed intended to keep your power in the minor god-rank. But we also know that you intended to bully that boy with your Super Devil form, as well. And these runes will prevent that."

"*Sigh* She knows me so well." James said while smiling at Scathach fondly.