Akira knew one thing for sure, he could never win against his mother in a straightforward fight. At least not right now. His mother's mastery of magic was absolute, her overwhelming strength leaving no opening. Against her, brute force was meaningless.
But history had proven something time and time again, humanity had always triumphed over creatures far stronger, faster, and tougher than themselves, not through might, but through intellect.
"Then…the hunt begins." Akira thought as a faint smile crept across his face as he snapped his fingers.
In an instant, the entire arena was swallowed in a thick, rolling mist. Visibility plummeted to nothing, the cold haze cloaking every corner.
Yuki narrowed her eyes, completely unfazed. "Not a bad idea against a stronger opponent… but you should know it's useless against me."
Her purple eyes glowed faintly as the Mystic Eyes of Reason awakened, granting her the power to perceive mana and energy as vividly as shapes in daylight. But the moment her sight pierced the mist, she froze.
"…Oh?"
This mist was no ordinary trick. It was saturated with mana so dense that it drowned her vision in a sea of raw energy. She could see nothing but a blinding haze.
"Oh… not bad," Yuki murmured, smiling faintly despite herself. She waited patiently, listening for her son's move.
Suddenly, something lunged from the mist. Yuki instinctively raised her barrier as an ice wolf slammed against it, crystalline fangs gnashing against the glowing sphere. Before she could counter, two more shapes darted out of the fog, a wolf of fire and a wolf of water, flanking her from both sides. Their claws scraped against her shield, unable to penetrate the barrier, they soon retreated back into the mist.
"These aren't spirits…" Yuki narrowed her eyes. "They feel… artificial."
The ground rumbled beneath her. Yuki shot into the air just as a sand wolf erupted upward, snapping at the space where she had stood. A gust of wind followed, slicing through the fog. A wind wolf lunged from her flank while a lightning wolf crackled down from above, striking her barrier with thunderous force. When their assault failed, they too vanished back into the fog.
Hovering high, Yuki studied their presence more carefully. Each wolf carried an independent mana signature, they were self-sustaining, not simply projections of her son's magic.
"So they're autonomous constructs…" she realized, narrowing her eyes. "But how exactly did he make them?"
Her thoughts were cut short as the wolves regrouped. This time, they didn't rush directly. From within the mist came a barrage of long-range attacks: Fireballs, shards of ice, bolts of lightning, and blades of wind rained down from every direction on her barrier relentlessly, but Yuki's spherical barrier stood firm.
"Impressive. If this were anyone else's shield, they'd have been torn apart already." She smiled faintly.
"But, you'll need to hit harder if you want to breach my defences. As I've told you many times, normal elemental attacks won't cut it," she said with a smile. Just then, she sensed something in front of her. Looking forward, from the mist, a wolf of pure light charged at her. Yuki prepared to intercept, but instead of biting, the wolf flared brilliantly, flooding the arena with blinding radiance, momentarily disorienting her.
If Akira had been executing the move, he might have yelled, "Solar Flare!" Despite the temporary blindness, she remained calm, her barrier intact, until she heard the sound of shattering glass. Her sight cleared just in time to see a wolf of darkness and its jaws locked on her barrier, biting down as tendrils of shadow ate through the magic itself.
"It's eating my barrier with darkness magic. Impressive," she acknowledged. Raising her hand, she conjured a spear of light and hurled it, but the light wolf leapt in front of its dark counterpart. Instead of piercing through, the spear dissolved into the beast's body, absorbed harmlessly.
"…Absorbing attacks of the same type? You really went that far, Akira?" Yuki whispered, half impressed, half exasperated.
The wolves howled together, surging forward. Fire, ice, lightning, wind, sand, water, light, and darkness all struck at once. Her barrier trembled, cracked, and then finally shattered under their combined assault.
For the first time, Yuki allowed herself a small smile. In a shimmer of light, she teleported away just before the attacks landed. "So… you finally forced me to evade, Akira."
But before she could regain her stance, she suddenly sensed something.
ROOOAR!
A massive white form lunged out of the mist. She barely had time to conjure a fresh barrier, deflecting its strike as claws raked against her shield. The impact shook her bones.
She looked up, and her eyes widened.
Before her stood a colossal white direwolf, the size of a horse. With snow-white fur and its glowing purple eyes, its presence radiated power unlike the others. But Yuki instantly recognized the aura within.
"…Akira," she whispered.
The wolf's form loomed tall, unmistakably her son. She muttered softly, "I see… transformation magic. A full-body transformation at that. I didn't know you were learning this, Akira. I am impressed," she said with a smile, ready for the next round.