Can It Even be called War? X

Charging up her holy sword during the final approach Artoria let loose with a much more powerful attack than ever before in their fight, drowning Sirzechs in what looked to be a sea of golden light.

The crimson haired Satan kept his release of the power of Destruction at his maximum output, putting up a fierce resistance but he was still being eroded away.

Eventually though, the wave of light had passed, leaving a flickering thin figure of reddish black energy behind.

'I see . . . He is not just controlling this destructive energy, he essentially becomes an avatar of it, much like an elemental, a being composed of pure energy.' Artoria realized and frowned.

'Defeating him without killing him will be quite difficult then. He essentially has no weak spots to target, the only way to beat him without finishing him off is to exhaust his energy reserves.' She concluded.

If eliminating Sirzechs was an option, she could have just employed an extremely powerful attack to overwhelm his output and completely erase him before the crimson haired Satan even had the opportunity to exhaust his energy reserves but since Jun did not want him dead, she had to take the much more tiresome road of slowly exhausting his demonic power.

Sirzechs quickly recovered from his flickering state and he once again became a humanoid figure emitting massive amounts of Power of Destruction but despite this, he was at a loss.

He knew that he was outmatched and could not defeat his opponent and that that very opponent was clearly not going all out.

'Haikami Jun definitely gave orders not to kill me but defeating me in this form without killing me is almost impossible . . . I have to figure out a way to defeat this formidable foe while my demonic power reserves are still high. I'll probably have to fight again when I return from this dimension.' Sirzechs thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Artoria began pondering on the quickest and most efficient way of decimating her opponent's energy reserves but at the same time there was no reason for letting her opponent plan calmly against her.

She could not let him recover spent energy either since he had most certainly spent a whole lot already. What the King of Knights did not know, was that Sirzechs' energy reserves were in fact, still nearly at full capacity.

Not only did the crimson haired Satan have huge energy reserves, far greater than she or Jun thought, he also recovered extremely quickly, specially in his true form.

In fact, one of the reasons he constantly emitted so much energy, was because it was generated so quickly and in such a large amount that he could not possibly control it all and it inevitably leaked out.

Still, knowing or not knowing did not change a thing. With her Magic Core which had extensively improved during her time in Jun's group, Artoria also generated energy faster that she could spend it nearly all the time and her reserves were equally monstrous.

And so did the King of Knights resume her vicious attacks, this time, with no intention of stopping after every blow and instead keep going until her opponent did not get back up.

Without bothering to get close, she unleashed wave after wave of destructive golden light whose holy properties made it all the more effective against the Super Devil in front of her.

Sirzechs was knocked around like a small boat in a colossal storm but, much like he had expected, not of the attack carried enough force to kill him, they were steadily depleting his energy reserves however.

'Still . . . I have no idea how much energy this woman has but . . . Considering my the size of my own reserves and my recovery speed . . . She has to constantly dish out massive attack after massive attack so she must be using more than me.' The crimson haired Satan thought, even as he took a humiliating, even if painless, "beating".

He was right as well. Of course, he had no idea that Artoria was carefully managing her reserves not to spend more than she constantly generated which meant her actual energy reserve was not decreasing at all.

However, seeing her opponent attempt less and less to resist, Artoria realized he was aiming to conserve his own energy while tiring her out and while that would not work, it would mean a huge amount of wasted time.

'I have a way to finish him quickly though and while it his far from efficient . . . He will still be on the losing end of it . . . I have to make sure he does not dodge however but firing from too close might kill him even if I hold back so I must come up with a way to keep him still.' The King of Knights began concocting a plan for a swift victory.

And so, after a few moments of thought amidst the golden storm of her attacks, Artoria finally began to put her plan into action.

Slowly, she began to put less and less energy into each of her strikes, very very gradually. Then, the interval between attacks which was previously nearly non existent, started to become longer and longer.

'She's getting tired!' Sirzechs noticed, falling for Artoria's little scheme and thinking he was going to successfully outlast her.

'If I hit her with a huge attack the moment her reserves fall low enough to stop her from repeatedly attacking, I can win.' He thought.

And, just like he wanted, Artoria pretended to get more and more tired, even without showing much in the way of external signs as she did not want to make it too obvious and possibly tip her intelligent opponent that she was weaving a trap for him.

Eventually though, after she fired one noticeably weaker blast of golden light, the next attack did not come.

Sirzechs who had been accumulating as much power as he could without compromising his safety, immediately saw this opening and struck with all of his might . . .

Unaware that he was playing right into his opponent's hand . . .

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.