Bang!
Esdeath calmly avoided Mine's shot and continued walking toward Akame at an even pace.
That alone placed Akame under enormous pressure.
She did not dare relax for a second. Gripping Murasame tightly, she focused entirely on the strongest enemy she had ever faced.
"Where are you looking?"
Esdeath's voice came softly from behind her.
An ice sword formed in her hand, and she brought it down toward Akame's back.
Akame was tense, but she had not lost her composure.
She thrust Murasame backward, forcing Esdeath to raise her ice sword and knock the cursed blade off course.
The moment Akame felt the impact, she dropped low, turned around, and swept Murasame horizontally.
A pillar of ice rose beneath Esdeath's feet and lifted her out of reach.
Murasame only cut through the surface of the ice.
"Good reactions, Akame. It seems you might entertain me for a while."
As Esdeath spoke, she fired an ice spike toward another beam coming from the distance.
The two attacks collided and canceled each other out in midair.
Esdeath had not even looked toward Mine.
Even while fighting Akame at close range, she remained completely aware of the sniper attacking her from afar.
Akame's expression grew tense.
She could already feel the overwhelming difference between them. Mine's support fire could not be relied on, and this was not a gap one or two more fighters could easily overcome.
At this rate, both she and Tatsumi would die.
'How can I free Tatsumi and get us out of here safely?'
She forced herself to think.
'Come on, Akame. Don't give up!'
"You seem distracted."
Esdeath immediately noticed her hesitation, and it clearly displeased her.
"You're thinking about something else while fighting me. Should I call that arrogance, or do you simply not know how to enjoy yourself? Forget those useless emotions and focus on the battle."
She rushed forward without using her ice ability.
The sword in her hand seemed to thrust endlessly, surrounding Akame with a dense field of icy blades.
Akame was quickly pulled into the rhythm of the fight.
She had always been someone who valued efficiency once she entered work mode.
When that switch turned on, she could be just as relentless.
"Burial!"
The two entered a fierce exchange at close range.
To anyone watching, the clash between sword and blade resembled a storm of ice and steel.
An ordinary person who came too close would be torn apart before they even understood what was happening.
"What a troublesome blade. Even I would have a hard time if it so much as scratched me."
Despite her words, Esdeath looked delighted.
The death of her father, the destruction of her tribe, betrayal by friends, and even the loss of her subordinates had never affected her too deeply.
Only one thing could make her forget everything else.
Battle.
The stronger the prey, the more she enjoyed the hunt.
She would not lose.
She was always the hunter, the creature standing at the top of the food chain.
The strongest!
Esdeath kicked toward Akame's head.
Akame leaned backward and avoided it.
A faint smile appeared on Esdeath's face.
Cold air spread along the path of her leg, instantly forming a trail of ice spikes that continued forward after the kick.
The physical attack had only been bait.
Realizing this, Akame followed her backward motion into several flips, then cut apart the ice spikes in front of her.
"Oh? You reacted to that too?"
Esdeath sounded surprised, but she was clearly more pleased than anything else.
Her excitement continued to rise. She snapped her fingers, and an enormous mass of ice formed in the air above them.
"Then try this."
The glacier dropped toward Akame.
There was little she could do against an attack of that scale.
Akame specialized in assassination.
She was fast, agile, highly responsive, and capable of explosive bursts of movement.
With Murasame's instant-death curse, she had never needed overwhelming physical strength or a heavily built body.
That also meant she had no reliable way to stop a falling glacier.
Its shadow covered her completely.
Had Akame been alone, the battle would have ended there.
But she still had companions she could trust.
"Demon Armor: Incursio!"
A passionate shout rang across the deck.
A figure covered in white armor appeared beside Akame. Bulat stood tall with a red-bladed spear in both hands, his body as steady as a pillar.
He leapt upward with explosive force, rising like a small meteor against the falling glacier.
"Haaaaaaah!"
His spear struck the ice.
Bulat roared as he forced open a huge crack.
Countless fractures spread across the glacier until the entire mass finally shattered, filling the air with fragments of ice.
"Another one, and he's slightly stronger than Akame. Good! You're worth fighting."
Esdeath's excitement fully awakened.
Despite wielding an ice Teigu, her passion during battle burned hotter than anyone else's.
She seized control of the broken fragments and multiplied their number.
Hundreds of ice spikes hung in the air. With a sweep of her hand, they all descended at once.
Bulat spun his spear like a shield and knocked them aside.
The proper response would have been to evade while deflecting only the attacks he could not avoid.
But with Akame behind him, Bulat had no choice but to stand his ground and keep his spear moving without leaving a single opening.
The repeated impacts pushed his tall frame backward.
Some of the ice struck his armor directly, and the force traveled through it into his body.
Frostbite and bruises began forming beneath Incursio, but his stance did not break.
His expression inside the helmet remained firm.
By the time the attack ended, Bulat had stopped every ice spike, though his breathing had grown heavier.
A fighter of his level could normally battle for several hours, perhaps even days, if the pace remained steady or the opponents were evenly matched.
But blocking hundreds of potentially fatal attacks within a single minute placed hundreds of times the usual strain on both mind and body.
Incursio itself also consumed a great deal of stamina.
It was not the kind of Teigu that could remain active indefinitely, and the armor would automatically disappear once its wearer became too exhausted.
In return, it raised the user's physical abilities enormously.
Without Incursio, even Bulat could never have shattered a glacier of that size.