Yuki stood facing her transformed son. Akira's direwolf form was nothing short of majestic with its snow-white fur gleaming faintly in the mist, and glowing purple eyes fixed firmly on her. She hadn't even known he was learning it. For Akira to perform a full-body transformation without any wolf bloodline power at such a young age was impressive.
Yet, she couldn't understand why he chose a dire wolf and not something stronger.
"Forget it," she thought, shaking her head. "Knowing him, he'll probably say something stupid like, 'Dire wolves are cool' or something." She could already imagine his response, she knows her son too well.
Akira, realizing his first strike had failed, growled and melted back into the mist. Yuki narrowed her eyes. "You can't escape after showing yourself before me, my son." Her mystic eyes locked onto his mana signature. Even in this mist, she knew exactly where he was.
"Step one complete. I got her attention. Now… what the hell is step two?" Akira thought as he darted through the fog. As far as he was concerned, everything was going according to plan. He had successfully drawn his mother's attention the next step was to keep her focus on him a while longer.
The battle became one of shadows. Wolves lunged from the mist in perfect sync with their master's movements, striking, retreating, and striking again. Yuki deflected every blow, though she noted her son's growing coordination with his constructs.
From the viewing seats, Ryuji sipped the last of his coffee as the giant screens displayed the fight despite the arena being blanketed in mist. He nodded in approval. "Not bad… he's holding out longer than I expected."
"But he's not going to beat her like this," Akira's father mused. "She'll soon run out of patience and counterattack. I'm sure he knows that too. What is he thinking?"
Suddenly, he sensed something and looked above the fog. His eyes widened in shock, "Wait… when did he learn this?"
Inside the arena, Yuki's voice echoed coldly through the mist. "You're good at evading… but what will you do about attacks you can't dodge?"
She raised her hand, a glowing magic circle spinning into existence. From it, dozens of shimmering purple discs shot out, homing in on Akira and the wolves.
The sand wolf tried to dodge, but a disc curved sharply and cut through it, shattering its body into sand.
"It's a homing attack! Everyone, evasive maneuvers! Use them against each other!" Akira quickly ordered the remaining wolves telepathically.
The wolves began running in a coordinated pattern, drawing the purple discs toward one another. At the last moment, they veered away, causing the discs to collide and explode.
"Not a bad move, but how many times can you do that?" Yuki said with a smirk as the magic circles glowed again. More purple discs launched toward Akira and his wolves.
"This is bad. Do your best, everyone. We need to buy as much time as possible," Akira commanded, knowing his wolves wouldn't last much longer. But if he wanted to defeat his mother, he needed every second they could buy, Akira gritted his teeth. "Just a bit more, everyone, Initiate self-destruct!"
One by one, his elemental wolves hurled themselves into the swarming discs, exploding in brilliant bursts of mana and dragging dozens of projectiles with them.
The arena shook. The mist glowed with fire, lightning, and wind as wolf after wolf sacrificed itself.
Yuki shielded her face against the wind. When it cleared, Akira stood with only a handful of wolves left.
He gave them his final command, "Now! Attack together!"
The last five wolves charged from every direction.
Yuki's lips curved slightly. "You can't use the same move twice against me." She raised her palm, a magic circle blazing to life. A shockwave of compressed wind erupted from her body, blasting outward like a hurricane.
The wolves were hurled back, their forms tearing apart under the force. Even Akira was thrown from his feet, his direwolf form undone as he crashed to the ground in his human form. The mist thinned, finally clearing the arena.
"Our little game of hide-and-seek is over now. You actually did quite well. This is the longest you've survived. But now, it's game over," Yuki said with an almost villainous tone as the fog cleared and Akira came into view.
Then suddenly, Yuki's eyes narrowed. She sensed something and looked up.
Seven purple magic circles formed high above, aligned across the ceiling in the shape of the Big Dipper.
"…Oh." She said in surprise, feeling the familiar power of the stars, and then she felt something clamp onto her ankle.
She looked down. Half-formed from the ground, the sand wolf's jaws locked tight around her leg, refusing to release.
"Heh… I finally got you, Mother." Akira's exhausted voice rang out, still kneeling but with a faint smile tugging at his lips.
Slowly, he lifted his hands into position, the left hand spread wide, its palm open, while his right hand pressed above it, with only the index and middle fingers extended, like a blade pointing forward. The two hands overlapped, forming a precise magical seal, identical to the anime he watched before.
"May the seven stars bring judgment upon you—Grand Chariot!"
The seven circles connected, glowing lines tracing a constellation in the sky. A heartbeat later, seven radiant beams of light poured down like spears from heaven, crashing toward Yuki with unstoppable force.
The entire arena was consumed in light.