Mei Ling was on the defensive. Ako was not letting up on any of her attacks. She wanted Mei Ling to push past her limits and get out of this idea of being too friendly in the face of an enemy. She wanted Mei Ling to realize that even in a duel, one should always take it seriously.
Hundreds of orbs of chaos were flying across the stage. While Mei Ling was easily using her new footwork to dodge them, she was only able to do it by a hair's breadth. She knew with how strong these attacks were, she would be seriously hurt if she got hit even once, but she couldn't figure out how to counterattack.
She was struggling. She was struggling with how she could fight this match. While she had no issues fighting devil cultivators with the idea of either you die or I die mentality, it was different for those she knew and knew she should not hurt. Even earlier, when she killed those disciples, even though she felt nothing afterward, she really did not mean to kill them.