Shattered Hope Part Three

On the west side of Grava City, miles away from Grava City Tower, a battle between Akira and Elias has begun.

After Elias throws her through five buildings, Akira lands on the ground.

"Hey, Elias, you realize you're supposed to be on our side, right?" Akira asks as she gets into a fighting stance.

Elias jumps down from the hole in the building in front of Akira.

"I was never on your side. I was on the side of myself!"

Elias lands on the ground with a calm expression.

"Ok, this girl is also in class one, just like Paul. I believe she's number three in the class, which means she has to be decently strong, but she forfeited in the very first round of the tournament for who knows what. Maybe I'm giving her more credit than she deserves; she might be a wimp."

Elias suddenly recalls how Akira stopped his arm before he attacked Emiko not too long ago and then assumed a strong fighting stance.

"She's definitely strong physically; my arm is still stinging from that, but I don't know a damn thing about her! Whatever it's fine, I just have to stick to my strengths and get close so I can hit her with my counter!"

While Elias thinks to himself, he notices that the ground around Akira is turning into lava.

"I already knew his power from the battle he had with Paul during the tournament. That counter allows him to take all of my physical attacks and throw them back at me way stronger than they were before!"

Akira stomps on the ground, and lava jumps from the ground and starts spinning around her.

"I don't have to play around with this guy or be clumsy. Emiko needs my help!" Akira screams with a determined expression.

The lava spinning around Akira stops and clings to different parts of her body. The lava burns through her leggings and clings to her skin. The same happens to her arms, and finally, the lava turns into a mask and covers her entire face, excluding her eyes.

"Lava armor!"

Akira gets on all fours and starts sliding on the ground like it's an ice skate ring, but with lava as the ice.

"Lava? So that's her power! If I can't touch her, I can't use my counter! I need to aim for her torso! It's the only place without lava covering it!" Elias thinks to himself as he dodges two beams of lava.

Akira slides over to the left of Elias and Inhales.

"I need to keep this battle long-range, so he has no chance of getting an advantage while I keep this lava armor as insurance!" Akira screams in her head.

Akira exhales and releases a beam of lava from her mouth.

Elias activates the accelerate technique and uses it to quickly move out of the way. The second Elias moves out of the way, Akira starts to rain molten lava from the pool of lava at her feet.

"She's trying to keep this battle long-range! Well, I won't let that happen, because I am the Vengeful Destiny!" Elias screams with a proud expression.

Elias stops running and looks head-on at the molten lava coming towards him.

Elias swiftly runs forward toward Akira, avoiding the lava.

"I'm coming straight for you, Akira!"

Elias dodges molten lava once again, but this time it spreads once it smacks the ground.

"Shit!"

The lava strikes a part of Elias's leg, and a few droplets hit his face.

"Ahh!"

Elias falls to the ground, but then he rolls out of the way of more molten lava.

"This isn't enough to slow me down! Stout said to take you down, so I will!" Elias says as he jumps back up.

"His speed is crazy fast! It reminds me of Unknown's accelerate technique! I'm way too scared of that counter; it looks like it hurts, so I got to keep him far away!" Akira says as sweat slides down her face.

Akira notices Elias getting closer, and she slams her fist into the ground.

"Even if you're strong, your powers can't do anything to me back there!" Akira screams with a relieved look on her face.

Akira swings her fist out of the ground with lava extending from it like a whip.

Akira whips the lava at Elias, and he instantly falls to his back to avoid it.

Elias then rolls away, avoiding the lava whip again.

Elias avoids the lava whip five more times by rolling away, and finally gets back to his feet.

"Rushing at her any way I want is way too risky! All it takes is one wrong move, and I'm dead!" Elias says to himself in a dire tone.

Elias jumps to the left to avoid the lava whip once more, then grabs two rocks off the ground.

Elias runs to Akira's left, throwing one rock at her.

"Huh?"

Akira immediately destroys the rock with lava splurging from the ground, forcing it to splurge out of the ground.

Elias rushes forward and once again throws the other rock in his hand.

"What is he up to? Throwing rocks isn't going to do him any good; his power is counter, or unless that's what he's been tricking me to think! Oh no, I might be in trouble!" Akira thinks to herself in a panicking tone.

Before Akira even realizes Elias is directly in front of her lava.

"Ahh! He closed the distance!" Akira screams with a dumbfounded expression.

"Is this girl dense? Those rocks were clearly meant to distract you while I closed in the distance. I didn't even expect it to work—what idiot falls for shit like this?" Elias thinks to himself.

Akira jumps up, and with lava circulating, her foot kicks Elias in the face.

"No! I got scared and kicked him!"

"Yep, and that's finally a physical attack!" Elias screams with a joyful expression.

Elias winds up his left fist and, with a fresh burn on his forehead, punches Akira in the stomach with 100 times the power she hit him with.

"Ahhh!" both of them scream in pain.

Akira gets sent flying into a tall building, and Elias drops to the ground while holding his left fist.

"That bitch!"

The moment Elias punched Akira in the stomach played back in Elias's mind, and strangly he recalls the part of Akira's shirt he punched burning.

"She also coated herself in lava under her clothes!"

Elias takes a look at his left knuckle and sees that it's badly burned. After seeing his burn Elias begins to hear a rumbling from the building where he just punched Akira.

"What is it now?" Elias asks himself in pain.

Suddenly the huge building in front of Elias comes off the ground, almost like it's floating. Elias looks behind the building and sees Akira pushing all her muscles to the limit to pick the building up.

"You've got to be kidding me," Elias exclaims with a petrified expression on his face.

Akira throws up the building and catches it with both of her hands.

"Let's see how—wooh!"

Akira steps on a rock and almost slips, but instead she stumbles back and forth.

"Woah, this thing is heavier than it looks." Akira says while also stumbling over her words.

Akira stumbles forward, backward, to the left, and then to the right. Akira finally balances herself, allowing her to hold the building without issue.

"Ok, like I was saying! Let's see how you like this six-story building!" Akira screams with an unsure tone.

The shocked Elias slowly looks up to the top of the building, then looks back down to Akira.

"She isn't strong; this girl is brolic!" Elias says as she stares at the blood vessels popping out of Akira's muscles.

"Hah!"

After hearing her battle cry, Elias snaps back to reality.

"Oh shit, I'm a dumbass; I have to move!"

Elias begins to run, but then he quickly comes to a realization.

"I can't escape it; the building is too tall!"

Akira pulls back and tosses the six-story building at Elias with full force.

"Ahhh!"

The building smacks down onto the earth, completely breaking apart.

"Oh crap, did I bury him alive? I hope he's still breathing down there."

Akira starts to run around looking for Elias.

"Wait! I can't worry about him right now; Emiko is still in trouble! Plus, he wouldn't help me if this happened to me anyway!"

Akira shakes her head to remove her nerves and looks up with a determined expression.

"Yeah, that's right! Emiko, here I come!"

As Akira turns around to leave, behind her Elias breaks out of the rubble.

"Ahhh! I'm not dead yet!"

Akira turns around, and she sees Elias with a bloodshot left eye, blood leaking from his head, and a badly injured left hand.

"I can't believe you threw a freaking building at me!" Elias yells.

Elias starts to scan himself for all his injuries.

"Ok, a few broken bones and a little internal bleeding have never hurt anybody," Elias says in a sarcastic tone.

As Elias starts to use the recover technique to soothe his injuries, Akira begins to think to herself.

"Ok, so he's badly hurt; then that means I can defeat him easily now, right? Well, I was right about his counter; it hurts like hell, so I need to avoid getting hit by it again," Akira thinks to herself with a focused expression.

Akira stomps on the ground, and the rubble around her starts to turn into lava. The large amount of lava being created around her begins to rise and surround her right fist.

"But I can't afford to be soft. I need to smack him when he's off guard so I can get a K.O." Akira screams in her head with an aggressive tone.

"Is she trying to end this fight with one punch? Doesn't she know my counter will make a punch like that kill her? Ha, fine then! Bring it on, and I'll take you head-on as well!" Elias says to himself as he jumps into a fighting stance.

Akira activates the accelerate technique and, with great speed, rushes toward Elias.

"Rah!"

Akira goes to punch Elias, but she sees Elias start bracing for the attack.

"Nope!"

Akira stops her attack and jumps to Elias's left.

"So I was right, she's still scared of my counter!" Elias says as he smirks.

Akira tries to hit Elias from the left, but then she once again sees Elias brace for the attack.

"Not here either," Akira screams in distress.

The second Akira stops, Elias pulls in closer and headbutts her in the nose. Then he follows it up with a punch to the gut.

"If you really think counter is the only thing you have to worry about when against me, you're dead wrong!" Elias screams with a smile.

Elias kicks Akira two times in the head, forcing her back.

"Dang, I got too distracted with his counter. I forgot that he can still attack me regularly!" Akira says as she rolls to the ground.

Once on the ground, Akira instantly turns the ground in front of her into lava to block off Elias.

"I need to find a way to hit him with this lava fist," Akira says to herself with a struggling expression.

While Akira is on the ground, she looks to her left, and instantly an idea pops into her head.

"Ok, this better work!"

Akira jumps up, with lava still surrounding her right fist.

"You know you can't beat me unless you hit me, right? This battle is mine!"

Suddenly, Akira throws three rocks at Elias.

"Rocks? You can't just take my strategy and expect it to work!"

Elias prepares his right hand to smack the rocks, but suddenly the rocks crack and burst into lava.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Elias screams as he jumps to the left to avoid the lava.

After getting to safety, Elias quickly looks back to where Akira is.

"She's gone!"

"Nope, I'm right here!"

Elias turns his attention to below him, and he sees Akira bending her knees right in front of him with her right arm pulled all the way back.

"Damn it, she was copying my strategy from earlier; she only used it to get me directly where she needs me!"

With lava circulating her right fist, Akira punches Elias directly in the chest.

"Ahh!"

The ground beneath them cracks from the impact of Akira's punch, and Elias starts to go flying, but at the very last second, Elias lightly taps Akira's head with his left foot.

"Counter!"

Elias takes the power from Akira's punch and sends it right back at here times 200.

Akira gets sent flying to the left at the same time Elias gets sent flying backward, knocking both of them out.

After their clash, seven minutes passed, and Akira awakened on the cold, rough ground.

"Ahhh! I'm dead!" Akira screams in a cold sweat.

Akira starts to look around, and she sees the aftermath of her battle with Elias. Then Akira starts frantically grabbing her head.

"Oh, I'm not dead. Yippee!"

Akira gets up and goes to look at Elias. When she sees Elias, she sees that he has a huge burn on his chest and that he's slumped on the side of a building knocked out.

"Dang, we really did a number on each other," Akira says as she touches the wound on the side of her head.

As Akira thinks she remembers something very important.

"Wait Emiko!"

Akira instantly starts rushing over to where she left Emiko and Strout alone together.

After three minutes, Akira makes it back to the location, and the first thing she sees is a devastating situation.

"Emiko?" Akira says with a shaky tone.

Akira sees Emiko laid out on the ground with blood all over her face, multiple broken bones, and looks to be barely conscious.

Akira runs over to Emiko and starts shaking her.

"Emiko! What's wrong? Say something, please," Akira screams with a desperate tone.

Without moving an inch of her body, Emiko mutters a few words with her damaged windpipe.

"I'm...sorry...for...being...such...a bad big sister," Emiko says as she passes out multiple times in a quick concession.

As Akira watches tears fall from her sister's eyes, many words from Emiko play in her mind.

"Oh well, if it isn't all perfect, long time no speak! So what is it this time, Akira? You came here to show how much my father loves you! Or maybe you want to lead me into another sniper bullet!"

"You? Don't make me laugh! I hate you! I hate you with every fiber of my being, and if I have to keep seeing you, I might kill you! Get out!"

As the memories continue to flood her mind, tears start to build up in her eyes as she bites her lip.

"Ha, work together! Do you think you have the right to ask to work with me? It's all your fault! I couldn't have a childhood because you existed!"

"I told you already, I don't care what our father thinks of you or thinks of me; we are enemies, and that's that!"

As Akira recalls all of Emiko's harsh words, Emiko pushes past her injuries and grabs Akira's shirt with her right arm.

"I'm...so sorry," Emiko says in a remorseful tone.

Instantly after this, Emiko passes out from her injuries.

After hearing the thud coming from Emiko's hand hitting the ground, tears started to pour from Akira's eyes, but at the same time she gritted her teeth.

Akira looks forward and sees Strout with multiple blood stains on his clothes.

"Hmm, well, shit, I was just about to be on my way."

Chapter 170 end