Yami stepped through the portal and saw a lunatic tearing up the land with a massive whip.
The whip was made of light magic—almost daring Yami to strike back.
He spotted Akeru dodging the whip, dragging Asta behind.
'Didn't he say he'd teach that brat Ki? Still hasn't learned it?'
Yami's eyes momentarily met Akeru's.
'Ambush this guy. Same as the one who jumped me.' He instantly understood what Akeru tried to say with his eyes.
'So this is the bastard who stole the stone and nearly killed him. Time to settle it.' Yami thought, preparing the most powerful spell in his grimoire.
Akeru had mentioned his assassination attempt to Yami and Julius, and this matter even came up in one of the Captain meetings.
From his memory, an illustration of the guy was made and shown to every captain, to make them aware of this dangerous enemy.
Click.
The slash nearly took Patolli's head off. However, at the last instant, his instincts kicked in, automatically activating his light magic.
Puchi.
However, Patolli wasn't unharmed.
His arm was cut off.
He gritted his teeth, a light cocoon enveloping the stump.
"Tch. Almost got him. But that would've been too easy." Yami took a puff from his cigarette.
Patolli ducked a neck-breaking kick and vanished.
"Why are your senses now only working? Were they hibernating till now?" Akeru whined.
Before he could move, space cracked open.
'It seems Plan A failed. Oh well, I will at least take out one of them, even if their fall would be temporary.' Akeru knew that killing Patolli now would be pretty difficult, and the other three could reincarnate in artificial bodies any time later.
However, that was only possible after Sally completes her research, which would take a few months.
A trio appeared, their mana eclipsing anything Akeru had ever felt.
"To think you would be reduced to this state, it seems your enemies are troublesome this time."
A man with a lazy expression appeared in front of Akeru, his hands tearing through Akeru's t-shirt and touching Akeru's grimoire.
"NO! DON'T" Vetto shouted.
Akeru smirked. Rhya froze as a spatial sphere tore toward his skull.
'My target is Rhya.' A cold glint appeared in Akeru's eyes.
But just before impact, Rhya vanished in a flash of light.
In the next instant, Vetto appeared from Akeru's right side and kicked him.
"Oh?" Vetto was amazed that the kid easily grabbed his leg unharmed.
'Spatial magic is useless due to natural mana flow around me. At least the ones that he creates on the pot. If he charges those attacks, I could easily dodge them beforehand as they would take time.' Vetto saw through Akeru's weakness.
As an elf, even a reincarnated one, his mana was incomparable to a human, captain or not.
Normal attacks won't even reach him.
The only chance Akeru had was when Rhya was immobilised, with the nature mana around him also disrupted.
'At least, that's what I wanted them to think.' Akeru internally smirked.
His Ki sensing skills had been recently helping a lot in predicting the behaviour of other people.
Especially elves.
"You think you are safe? How arrogant." Akeru said, and in the next instant, multiple holes appeared on his body— Concentrated spatial spheres launching themselves at Vetto.
The beast froze, pierced by sphere after sphere.
Before the last one penetrated his head, the boy in front of him mouthed something.
'Elf'
Vetto died again—eyes wide in disbelief.
"VETTO!" Fana shouted in horror, not anticipating him to die.
"This is quite unexpected," Rhya said, anger barely hidden behind his calm demeanour.
He was currently holding Patolli's severed arm, which he brought back from some part of the clearing.
"That lazy bastard can copy magic. Don't let him near your grimoire." Akeru shouted, pointing his fingers at Rhya.
"Here." Rhya gave the hand back to its owner. Patolli and Fana were already working on healing it, while Rhya went on the offensive.
Swords of light materialised and blasted toward Akeru and Yami.
"Troublesome," Akeru muttered, his palms covered with mana so dense that it could be mistaken for actual matter or some creation magic.
'Vibratory Chaos'
Akeru started using his palms to deflect or destroy the concentrated light swords coming at him.
'This is harder than I thought. This guy can use light magic better than Patolli.'
Suddenly, a beam of fire was fired at Akeru, who could only convert one part of his mana zone directly to a water beam and counter it.
Why not use his zone to counter the swords?
The answer is simple. Coz some of the light swords were concentrated enough to break through his zone or Seraph shell.
Akeru was using his Seraph's shell to counter the normal-looking light swords while personally using his palms to take care of the lethal attacks.
"Ah, fuck." Akeru cursed. A massive light beam charged above.
He couldn't change his location due to being in a deadlock between the light and water beams.
If he stops the water beam and leaves, the light-speed attack will reach its destination.
'I can't even use Orion's ordeal at full power on my whole body coz of my wounds. I could boost my legs—at 30% power tops as I am focusing on healing the wounds on my torso... or should I stop healing them and focus on combat fully?'
Akeru had inscribed arrays inside his body, especially in the torso region, around his stomach and above it in the afternoon.
The spatial spheres were instantly launched from there with just a thought. Due to them coming from inside his body, it was impossible to sense them unless you were using Ki Sensing. Even then, Shigure has countermeasures for Ki Sensing.
The only downside was just some fist-sized holes in his body. Nothing that he couldn't heal.
His initial plan was to catch Licht-wannabe off-guard and end him there only. But that plan didn't come to fruition, and he went with killing Vetto instead.
The beast-like elf could use some form of Ki, and Akeru didn't want his only advantage against light magic to be vaporised.
'Well, I need to first deal with dodging this attack.' Akeru let go of the water beam and focused on all of the mana above him, creating another water beam.
Before it formed, the light beam ripped through it like paper.
Next up, it clashed with a big sphere made of spatial distortion.
It slightly stopped, before snuffing out the spatial distortion and landing on the ground.
"FUCK, why are these flames so hot?" Akeru gritted his teeth as flames threatened to consume him.
He had jumped in the direction of the fire beam at the last second, in the moment bought by his spatial attack, dodging the humongous light attack.
The other escape routes were bombarded with light swords. This was the most optimal choice.
The stench of burning flesh made Akeru flinch.
Only his head was shielded—everything else charred.
"Captain, why don't you help me a bit here?" Akeru left the fire beam, summoned a new track from his spatial storage, which directly clung to his skin.
He'd added that feature recently, expecting his clothes to burn off in big fights.
What if somebody like Mimosa sees him butt-naked?
All his coolness would vaporise to nothingness.
He won't be able to show his face again to her.
'Nah, I'm too thick-skinned.'
"I am too busy, kid, saving my own life." Yami could be seen shielding himself from the light attacks from Licht.
Asta was currently fighting Valtos.
"What a reliable captain you are, can't even help when your squadmate is being bullied." Akeru rushed at Fana, only for Rhya to create a whip of light, blocking his path.
"Toughen up. Surpass your limits. Right here. Right now."
"Easy for you to say." Akeru cursed, racking a solution to kill Patolli.
'Sending half-assessed Spatial attacks would be useless as they don't even need to dodge, given how their presence in the space is... actually, let's analyse how they're doing this. I need it to upgrade my mana method.' Akeru changed his focus and started stalling while carefully analysing Fana and Rhya.
'Ohhh... I see, that's what True Magic should be.'
"You won't be able to hit me." Akeru taunted as he activated Orion's Ordeal on his legs, zooming around the battlefield.
Rhya readied a light cannon.
Moments before Rhya fired, Akeru jumped off the ground.
'Saf—'
CRACK
Akeru's face froze seeing space breaking in front of him, the light cannon heading at him through it.
'He could use multiple attributes at once?' Akeru had instinctively put his hands in front of his face. However, he knew that it was futile.
'Well, time to apply what I learn now only.'
The red-green lighting vibrating on his hand changed into yellow colour.
'True Lightning Magic: Controlled Chaos.'
Yellow lightning coated his arms, shielding him from the blast.
"How about double fun?"
CRACK
Akeru's eyes widened in horror as he felt a space crack from behind him, another light cannon heading towards him.
But this time, he was out of tricks.
***
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