The snow in the air blew wildly as a path of devastation carved down the mountain. An armada of sea creatures laid waste to the surroundings as they ruthlessly attacked a young man wielding a large spear. As if that wasn’t enough, a giant ball of water made of torrential tides ripped apart anything in contact with it as it charged the man. Yet despite all this, not even one of them could reach the young man. Even after Akito’s Ocean entered its second stage it couldn’t pose a threat to Tai.
The confidence on Akito’s face had long since drained away and been replaced with frustration. Tai’s strength was beyond any of his expectations. Dozens of his strongest troops besieged him for twenty minutes and had nothing to show for it. And to make matters worse, he used a low-level technique like Flame Wave repeatedly! He was clearly still looking down on him.
If Tai knew what he was thinking he wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry. His flames didn’t last long, he naturally wouldn’t waste his time learning a bunch of Anti-Group attacks. It’s that simple. It can only be said that Akito was truly overthinking it.
However, even through his frustrations, Akito didn’t believe he’d lose. His Ocean’s third phase provided a huge qualitive upgrade to his armada. He didn’t believe there was anyone in the exam who could easily deal with him then.
An eel lunged forward and crunched nothing but the earth for its trouble before getting sliced through by a spear. two swordfish left streamers in the air as they darted forward at sonic speed to pierce Tai before he could recover. But a spiral on his armor brightened and a loud pop sounded before both fish passed harmlessly by him as a small explosion turned his body perfectly. That wasn’t its only purpose, the added momentum was put into the next spear thrust, splitting the whale before him in half and destroying three of its twelve core beads.
Tai didn’t hesitate, thick flames covered his spear as he cut sideways with a Flame Wave. The improved load-bearing formation immediately lit up, but it was akin to a paper fort before a flame without the whale to take up the nexus. Lightning and flames clashed for a second before the flames won and mowed down dozens of Akito’s troops. The pufferfish hovering in the air shot out concentrated lightning pins at Tai, but Flame Wave was too casual of a move for any flaws to form in his movements.
‘Don’t even think about it.’ Tai’s eyes narrowed as he watched over a hundred surviving beads flying towards Akito. His armor’s spirals glowed again, and small nozzles of flames shot from his back, arms, legs and shoulder, propelling him forward at extreme speed. Akito’s surviving armada tried to intercept him, but they became unusually sluggish in their approach as he sped up.
Tai’s armor had a passive effect that made Spirit Sense have trouble sticking to him. Akito’s powerful and well-practiced senses could still track him at normal speeds, but he could only make estimates when Tai really got moving. Since Akito’s fish armada were just constructs, they didn’t have any senses of their own and relied entirely on Akito to guide them. Once he could only estimate, they could only estimate.
Tai blatantly ignored the floundering armada and launched another flame wave at the fleeing beads. A whale started exiting out of Akito’s Ocean to block the attack, but it was too late as the flames already reached and burned them all to ash.
Tai had learned that Akito’s greatest point lied in his energy efficiency. Even if the fish construct was destroyed, most of the qi used would still be saved in the beads and can be easily reused. To make matters worse, if one bead is close to another when it gets destroyed, it transfers much of its remaining power over. It’s a style that allowed him to fight effectively while still building up his ocean.
The flame wave vanished as soon as it finished burning the beads. Even without the whale in the way, Tai knew from experience it couldn’t penetrate the swirling torrents of Akito’s stage two ocean.
He glanced down at Scorch. It was hard to see, but three red circles were carved on the socket of it. Throughout the battle, one of them slowly filled with an even brighter shade of red, as if molten metal was poured into it. With that last attack, that circle became completely filled
‘Time to end this.’ He thought as he looked back up at Akito’s approaching Ocean. It a shame. He’d wanted to see Akito’s third phase, but he’d already committed to treating him seriously and set this time limit. He’d already confirmed enough to validate Marina’s information, it was time to move on.
The moment he saw Tai’s eyes a chilling shiver ran down Akito’s back and his eyes shrank in fear. His instincts were screaming at him that something huge was coming!
His oncoming ocean grinded to a halt as he took immediate action. The remains of his armada at Tai’s back collapsed and shot towards him!
He understood instinctively that his guard whales couldn’t do anything against this level of threat. He didn’t hesitate at all to pour all his remaining energy into forcefully upgrading his ocean to the third tier!
‘Oh? So they had a function like this too. A bit late though.’ Tai’s expression didn’t change as he brought Scorch up unhurried. The spear hummed in excitement like a child about to perform their favorite trick.
Gears whirring sounded through the air as the blade grew longer, the cracks on it shifting and lengthening, revealing hidden vents beneath. The blade grew redder and redder, as if containing untold heat, yet there was no change to the surroundings. Even the small flecks of snow falling on the blade didn’t melt any faster, the odd juxtaposition of snow building up on red hot metal made Akito feel an unprecedented level of danger.
He wasn’t just waiting for death either, Akito rapidly merged the two parts of his ocean. The rapid torrents of his phase two ocean shrunk and became completely enveloped in the calm shining surface of his phase one ocean.
On the outside it looked like his previous phase one ocean, but the raging torrents were hidden beneath the depths. The beads inside swirled within the currents, forming several arrays that he set to full defense. He paled and his limbs trembled weakly, but he continued pouring all his energy into finishing the transition. ‘Just this attack. After defending this I can recover and –‘
“Heat Path.” Tai’s voice completely cut off Akito’s thoughts. Scorch thrust forward in a simple motion, Then a giant hole burned straight down the middle of the Shining Ocean. No, it’d be more accurate to say everything directly before Tai was burned away in an instant.
The glow of the remaining water along the edges vanished, and the pseudo-domain crumbled. Akito hit the ground hard, his mind having blanked. If he’d been a little more to the right, he would’ve been eliminated. Tai hadn’t found a way to overcome the distortion of his domain, so he’d simply aimed for the largest area and tried his luck. His bet lost, but the end results were the same anyway.
Even as Akito’s his mind reeled with shock, he didn’t give up. A bead in hand, he pushed himself off the ground, trying to force his mind to work. ‘A technique like that should’ve used a lot of energy, if I hit him now, I might sti –.’
Akito’s thoughts were cut off for the second time today. Scorch’s reverted blade lay just inches from his neck. His eyes moved upwards from the spear to Tai’s face, but instead of the exhausted face he expected, the bastard wasn’t even breathing hard as he looked down on him with cold eyes.
His eyes trembled with unwillingness, but he was forced to accept the reality. He’d lost.
