#175 Akashi vs Esdeath

"Looks like you had your own fun before I arrived..." Akashi said with a smile while looking at numerous corpses of the Danger Beasts and ice sculptures.

'Her ice changed the shade of its color a bit, it's almost impossible to notice it with the naked eye but she definitely improved from the last time I saw her using her powers.' Akashi thought while narrowing his eyes at the ice sculptures.

"Nah, it was just a little warm-up before the main event! Anyway, what has happened to your clothes?" Esdeath replied with a sadistic smile. Even she noticed changes in Akashi's aura but all she could see with her eyes that changed on him was his clothes.

'He is usually a serious person who likes to wear formal clothes but this loose black shirt that is open at his torso is completely opposite to what he likes to wear.' Esdeath frowned as she began to observe Akashi and his changes.

Akashi sensed her intense stare so he turned from the ice sculptures at her with a carefree smile without replying.

That smile alone was enough to make her narrow her eyes in caution.

"Shall we start?!" Esdeath asked pointing her palm at Akashi and thousands of small ice spikes appeared behind her.

"Heh, I thought you would have never asked!" Akashi replied with a small grin and as he stretched out his arm and pointed his palm to the side, a raging sea of flames appeared behind him.

"Then let me have the honor of having the first move!" Esdeath shouted and her sadistic smile only widened as she waved her hand towards Akashi and thousands of ice spikes were shot towards Akashi.

"Feel free!" Akashi pointed his hand in front of him and the flames behind him moved forward even enveloping him in the process but not even his clothes were damaged.

The thickness of that wall of fire was several meters.

When Esdeath's ice spikes made contact with Akashi's wall of flames, they quickly melted after traveling a certain distance within the wall.

'Hm, 1 meter thickness is more than enough against such small ice spikes.' Akashi quickly judged and reduced the thickness of the wall which considerably saved him the energy.

[Energy: 2480/2500]

"It looks like I have won this exchange, it's my turn now!" Akashi said with a confident smile and put his index finger and middle finger together and pointed at the flames in front of him.

'Hm?' Esdeath frowned, displeased that her attack did absolutely no damage but she turned quite cautious when she noticed Akashi's actions.

Akashi gently and slowly flicked his 2 fingers up.

*Screech* The entire wall of flames took a form of a small Phoenix and flew right at Esdeath.

Esdeath narrowed her eyes and when the Phoenix was close enough, she jumped to the back, making Phoenix miss and slowly crashing into the ground but before it made contact with the ground...

Akashi released a nasty smile and Esdeath shudder a bit seeing his smile.

*Snap* *bang* Akashi snapped his fingers and the small Phoenix exploded and a cloud of dust appeared after the explosion.

*whoosh* Esdeath leaped out of that cloud of dust with one hand pointing close in front of her and slightly cracked ice shield connected to her hand.

[Phantom Strike]

[Energy: 2420/2500]

*Whoosh* The sound of sword tearing through the air resounded behind Esdeath which made her glance behind her.

"You haven't forgotten about me, right?" Akashi asked with a smile as his sword was about to touch Esdeath's back but his eyebrow raised when he saw her another hand behind her back.

*Clash!* The sword made of ice blocked Akashi's sword. Hearing the sound, Esdeath couldn't help but release an even more excited smile.

"How could I?! I want to make you mine, of course, I will never forget about you!" Esdeath replied and made her ice shield connected to her right hand in front to crack down before pointing the palm of her right hand towards Akashi's torso before ice spear began quickly growing in front of her palm.

"Hm?" Akashi was planning to use his physical strength to overpower her but he changed his plans when he saw her counter attack. He enveloped his free hand in flames and struck it towards the ice spear aiming to pierce his torso.

*bang* The explosion once again happened when his hand and her ice spear met.

When both of them leaped out of the smoke, both of them had light bruises on their respective hands.

[Health: 998/1000]

"Heh" Both of them raised their heads and when their eyes met, both of them chuckled.

'I have lost this exchange' Esdeath thought with a slightly irritated smile.

Why would she say that when both were injured? It was because Akashi used his own hand to block it while Esdeath's hand was quite far away from the supposed impact. In her mind, he should have been injured more if she was to be the one who won that exchange.

"Let me see how you intend on dealing with these!" Esdeath drew her rapier and pointed it at Akashi before Ice sculptures in the form of cavalry started appearing all around her.

The cavalry made of ice dashed towards Akashi who didn't wait for them and charged forward to meet them head-on with a curious smile on his face.

When the first spear attacked him from the ice horse with the upper body of human instead of its head, Akashi leaned forward, narrowly dodging it before slashing his own sword, cutting it's human's body part from its horse's part of the body.

"One..." Akashi muttered and he already had to take one small step backward to dodge another spear coming front his right side before he jumped towards his new attacker and put his hand on the face of the human part of the body, completely engulfing it in flames within a second.

'Hm?' Akashi frowned since they were much more resistant to his flames than any other of Esdeath's creations.

While he was thinking, he sensed at least 5 attacks from different directions so he decided to jump away from his location before he would be completely surrounded.

"Got you!" Esdeath said with an excited smile and Akashi looked below him just to see the ground shining in cold blue light before numerous ice spikes erected from the ground.

However, Akashi just smiled and remained in the air with the wings formed out of his flames on his back.

"Nice try but that won't be enough to catch me off guard." Akashi said with a smirk towards Esdeath who widened her eyes while standing on the ground, looking up at him.

"Wha-? Haha, it looks like our minds work alike, both of us created a lot of similar techniques!" Esdeath released a hearty laugh and a few pieces of ice appeared around her wrists and ankles before she began to float as well.

---On the hill---

"What the hell are we even watching?" All of them were immersed in watching the fight but when Poney saw both of them float in the air, she couldn't help but mutter with open mouth.

"Battle between two monsters, of course, fufu" Mera replied naturally and covered her mouth with her hand while laughing.

"Only 1 monster, Akashi Nii-sama is completely normal yet stronger than that mad woman" Kurome said while hugging her katana.

"Are you sure about that?" Mera asked with a particular smile.

"? What do you know?" Kurome frowned and asked Mera when she saw her smile and everyone else also directed their attention to Mera.

"Since I am the most rational and experienced of all of you girls, he decided to tell me a secret." Mera said with a teasing smile which made everyone glare at her with a hostile intention.

"Calm down, he actually told me to prepare you for what's to come." Mera quickly calmed them down when she sensed the danger from all directions and decided to proceed with the explanation.

---Back to the battle---

Akashi looked down and saw hundreds of ice cavalry waiting for him there, he was aware that aerial battle would be much easier for him instead of getting rid of them but he wasn't trying to get a win here. He was here to literally conquer Esdeath and show her that none of her moves are significant against him.

He raised his head to look at Esdeath floating in the air.

"Shall we start making some bigger moves from now on?" Akashi asked but he didn't wait for her answer before he pointed his index finger towards the sky and on tip of his finger, a ball of fire started to quickly enlarge itself before it became as big as one 2 houses. Akashi swung his finger down at ice cavalry and the entire ball of fire flew down at them.

*BANG* *rumble* The debris of the ground flew everywhere as did the chunks of ice.

'Hm?! Is that...magma?' Esdeath thought when she noticed some kind of denser liquid of orange and black color scorching the ground and her cavalry.

Akashi actually put in the middle of the ball a bit of magma to make the destruction much bigger.

"Were you always able to use the magma?" Esdeath stopped floating and descended on the ground while asking with a frown.

'Her balance was slightly unstable which means that she hasn't perfected her flying technique yet...I should just follow her example' Akashi thought with a smirk before he also descended on the ground.

"Nope" Akashi shortly replied and then with one hand he stroke along the entire blade of his sword, the blade in return caught on fire.

[Phantom Strike]

[Energy: 2340/2500]

He didn't wait for her answer and moved in an instant behind her while slashing at her back with his flaming sword.

"Tsk" Esdeath clicked her tongue and quickly turned around while parrying Akashi's attack to the side which made the entire ground in 10 meters distance completely scorched.

However, by parrying his attack, Esdeath gained a chance to counter-attack so she struck her rapier towards Akashi's shoulder. Akashi already anticipated her counter-attack so he quickly struck her rapier with his own sword to the side which in return left a long straight line of the hard ice covering the ground and freezing all plants.

This time, both of them drew their hands back and performed slash attack, Esdeath in a vertical motion and Akashi in a horizontal motion.

*WHOOSH* When their attacks met each other, their auras also clashed, they were so dense and fierce that it allowed for even other people to see their pure, fierce crimson and cold light blue auras clashing with each other.

In terms of auras, Akashi's aura was slowly overpowering Esdeath's but Esdeath wasn't going down easily. The results were similar even in their physical exchange where Akashi had a relaxed smile and held his head high while Esdeath's hand was actually shaking, trying to overpower Akashi while gritting her teeth but the smile on her face never disappeared.

"Are you having fun, my Esdeath?" Akashi asked with a teasing tone.

"..." Esdeath actually didn't reply and only frowned, sensing some hidden meaning in my words.

'Fun comes first, then comes despair' Akashi thought with a slightly crazy smile as he widened his eyes and pushed his sword with even greater strength.

*creak*

'?!' Esdeath's eyes widened when she felt the disparity between their physical strength as she began being pushed back by Akashi, even her weapon was slowly nearing her face.

'I can't win the frontal confrontation' Esdeath wasn't only battle junkie who fought without thinking, she was able to admit minor defeat for the sake of the major victory.

Esdeath used her all strength to push Akashi's weapon to the side before finally letting go under the pressure of his strength.

*bang* Both of their weapons slashed the ground, making debris fly around.

Esdeath let go of her weapon which slightly surprised Akashi but when he saw her putting both of her hands together and sensing large amounts of her aura gathering in the area of her hands, he quickly kicked off the ground to the back.

"Mahapdama" Esdeath muttered as a large amount of blue aura concentrated in her hands began to spread to all locations at extremely fast speed.