Seeing that Akaza had really gone back in, Marcus was left speechless.
But shaking his head, he got his focus back and inhaled deeply.
"Third Form: Flower Passage"
Swish
He appeared behind Akaza.
Swoosh
His blades traced a lethal arc toward the demon's neck. The speed was such that the sound was left lagging behind his blades.
But despite all that, Akaza managed to turn around and raise his arms at the very last millisecond.
!!!
He saved his neck… but he paid a price.
One of his arms was sent flying through the air, and the other was marked by a deep cut that exposed the bone.
Looking at his wounded arms, Akaza's eyes lit up with an unsettling delight.
"That cut is even better!"
In an instant, his arm fully grew back at once, and in a reverse motion of the hand, he caught one of the swords between his fingers.
Marcus's pupils shrank. He quickly retreated.
"Fourth Form: Mist!"
A pink haze exploded across the area, hiding his figure in an instant.
Akaza's fingers caught nothing but air, leaving him alone in the center of the dense atmosphere that wrapped around everything.
And even though the mist canceled out his vision, he could sense him… Marcus was still there, hidden at some point, lurking with his gaze fixed on him.
"Interesting."
With excitement spilling all over his face, he took a defensive stance.
He waited a second… two… three…
Swish
A silver flash shot across from the left.
Twisting his body, he dodged it, but almost instantly, another flash came from the right.
He raised his arm to block, and immediately felt a third flash closing in from behind.
He threw a punch backward!
However… his blows only found air. Those flashes were nothing more than illusory bursts that dissolved on contact.
Decisively, Akaza closed his eyes.
He focused on Marcus's fighting spirit.
This was his specialty: detecting killing intent and the impulse to attack.
As long as it was a living being, those emanations would be unavoidable.
Bending his knees, he extended his right arm with the palm open and kept the left close, with his fist clenched.
"Technique Deployment."
Under his feet, a light blue compass shaped like a snowflake was drawn. "Destructive Kill: Compass Needle"
In that instant, his perception sharpened to the maximum, and he suddenly lifted his head.
He'd found him!
Marcus was descending from above, bringing his swords together to split his skull.
Reacting quickly, Akaza crossed his arms over his head.
Swish!
This time, both arms went flying.
Taking advantage of the momentum from the impact, Akaza leapt backward with his face red from excitement.
"Got you!"
His arms sprouted again instantly and struck the air.
'Destructive Kill: Air Type.'
Five fist-shaped shock waves burst out toward Marcus.
Mid-air, Marcus had nothing to push off of, all he could do was fire off his arrows to mitigate the force, followed by a frenzied flurry of slashes.
Crimson flashes wrapped around his body.
"Crimson Curtain!"
The shield of a thousand slashes managed to block the impacts, but the magnitude of the shock wave threw him violently backward.
When he landed, he skidded a bit along the ground until he steadied himself.
He glanced down at his right hand.
The skin between his thumb and index finger had torn open, causing blood to flow down the entire hilt.
Then the mist gradually faded. Revealing a motionless Akaza watching him with a smile. "That defensive technique is also really good… How many Forms do you have exactly?"
"How many Forms..."
Even though he was injured, excitement was also surfacing on Marcus's face.
The adrenaline of this battle was dragging him into a kind of addiction!
In his fights, he had always limited himself to toying with his opponents, but this was different. This frantic pounding… It was something that felt strange and addictive to him.
"Don't worry! You'll see them all!"
"I can't wait!"
Crouching down, the earth beneath Akaza's feet shot backward like bullets as he disappeared.
'Destructive Kill: Leg Type'
This attack was even faster!
A low kick sliced through the air, going for Marcus's calves.
He jumped to dodge it.
But Akaza had already seen that coming.
The very instant he missed, he brought his legs together and slammed them against the ground with overwhelming violence.
Boom
The ground was blown apart, creating a huge crater.
Marcus hadn't yet reached the peak of his jump when a shadow covered the sky above him.
Akaza was already there.
Then came the second attack. This time, a fist.
'Destructive Kill: Crush Style - Ten Thousand Leaves Flashing Willow'
"First Form: Valkyrie!"
A blade of pink flames sprouted in the air with a crackling roar. Although it didn't reach its maximum state, it still traced a diagonal cut, severing Akaza's arm at the elbow.
Riding the momentum of the cut, he fell backward.
But Akaza didn't care in the slightest about losing an arm.
His style consisted of exactly that: trading wounds for wounds.
So with the remaining stump, he slammed violently into the ground.
BOOOM
The earth cracked like a sheet of ice under a hammer blow. From the point of impact, concentric waves erupted, shredding everything in their path.
Marcus had no choice but to jump again.
And as he jumped, he landed right in the trap.
"Here it comes!"
Akaza's voice came from right above his head. There he was, suspended above him, fists joined together and bringing them down like a sledgehammer.
!
Marcus's pupils shrank. He couldn't dodge it!
"Makomo!"
With his shout, the sword in his right hand stopped dead mid-air, defying all logic, and pulled him along, abruptly changing his direction in the air.
Akaza's blow came down grazing his shoulder.
BOOOM!
The ground burst open again under the impact, opening up another huge crater next to the others.
Landing on the edge of the crater, Marcus was panting.
His shoulder burned with a throbbing intensity… and that was with the blow barely grazing him.
Springing out of the crater in a single leap, Akaza looked at him with eyes that were getting brighter and brighter.
"You really don't plan on becoming a demon!?"
"Are we starting with this again?" Marcus sighed.
"It's the truth. If you were a demon, this would just be a warm-up. Your wounds would heal in the blink of an eye, you could train for a hundred, two hundred years… It would be a real shame for someone with your talent for fighting to die so soon."
"..."
Marcus stayed silent, but a slight curve began to transform his expression until it turned into a smile.
"You want me to become a demon that badly? Just so you can have a fair fight with me?"
"That's right."
"And why don't you turn into a human?"
"... What?"
"What I'm saying is, if you want me to become a demon so badly just so the fight will be fair, why don't you do the opposite? Turn human. Wouldn't it be fairer if we fought that way?"
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Throw your stones, drop them ALL! 💎
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And if PS aren't your thing but you still want more chapters...
P-a-t-r-e-o-n → Athome790