BXBX NOVEL Chapter 255 - Clash of Ice and Fire
Chapter 255 - Clash of Ice and Fire
"Swift, but-" complimenting Haruki, Inferno hastened his pace and circled behind his opponent in the smallest frame of a second. "Not fast enough!"
Hitting Haruki from the hilt of the sword, Inferno sent him flying. However, before the pain could register in Haruki\'s head, Inferno circled back once more and appeared in front of him on the other side.
"Ughhh!" Coughing up blood, Haruki\'s eyes widened upon seeing Inferno ready to kick him again the moment he got closer to him. "Dark ice-"
Even though he managed to come up with a spell to deter it from happening, the reminder of his promise to not use magic, made him stop before he ended up breaking it.
\'Fuck!\' He thought, seeing Inferno lifting up his knees to hit Haruki again. The moment he was close enough, Inferno spun around in the air and hit Haruki in the belly with a flaming kick that was faster than a blink.
This time as the pain registered in Haruki\'s head, his mind shut down completely and his eyes went blank. Crashing into the coliseum\'s walls, he hit his head against it and woke back with a \'Curse of time: Activated!\' Finally, as the announcement rang in his head, he felt the pain soothing up, and his eyes and ears recovered blinding pain seeping through the skull. For a moment, the pain was so severe, all he could see was white and his ears couldn\'t pick up a single sound.
\'Curse of time: Activated!\' Finally, as the announcement rang in his head, he felt the pain soothing up, and his eyes and ears recovered briefly. Looking around, he noticed Inferno in the distance smiling by himself and with his flaming katana riding by his shoulders. However, that wasn\'t the most concerning part of the current situation as when he looked around, time seemed to slow down to a quarter of its original flow and the audience filling up the colosseum were all cheering in drawn-out voices.
\'Asmodia?\' He thought, and although he was right, the seed to control time in times of dire need had been planted into him long ago, after all fusing in body and soul with the mistress was bound to have lasting effects of boon and doom.
\'You\'re running out of time, be quick,\' hearing Asmodia\'s voice in his head, he looked into the section where all the demon lords had been seated.
Noticing her looking at him with her legs still crossed, he knew exactly what the gift Moriyana had passed onto him had been.
\'A temporary affinity for time magic…\' As the realization set in, and he noticed Inferno rushing towards him at a much slower pace than before, Haruki turned back to him with a smile.
"Mimic…" As his lips quivered while speaking, Inferno\'s eyes widened in shock as he noticed the smile riding on his opponent\'s face. "Species: Frost dragon!"
Unsure about what was happening, Inferno tried to just cut through Haruki\'s body and turn him into ash, but as his body burst out a storm of ice, the flames on his were easily deflected by a slash through Haruki\'s frozen claws. For a spell, the two looked at each other, and the flow time began to return to normal for Haruki.
By the time everything had transpired, the audience was barely able to catch anything and even Haruki\'s closest companions watched in shock as he stood with a bloodied head and his dragonic transformation already in effect.
"This…" Breaking the silence, Inferno put the sword back into its sheath. "Got a lot more interesting."
Taking a few steps back, he couldn\'t help but smile at Haruki\'s transformation. The scales of frost dragons coating his limbs, and the aura of cold surrounding his existence, he could even hear the cracking on the frozen heart of the incubus who\'d turned into a dragon.
"I once had a chameleon, he used to turn his skin in all shades of the rainbow," lowering himself into a fighting stance, Inferno swept the sleeves of his yukata back and made his fists burn with a deep crimson flame. "You\'re not all that different from that lizard, but you better have more tricks than a lizard."
"You\'d be surprised," Haruki replied, curling up his claw into fists.
Without another word spoken between the two, they both leaped forward faster than the speed of sound. Even Deus who wanted to commentate the fight couldn\'t even keep up with what was happening right underneath him to announce quirky commentary to the audience. Haruki was in no better situation as being a frost dragon might\'ve hastened his speed, but the slow depreciation of the curse of time was making it much harder for him to keep up with Inferno.
"What\'s the lag?" Inferno muttered as he managed to evade Haruki\'s claws as he tried to club him with fists covered with ice.
Not wasting any chance, Inferno struck Haruki in the belly and sent him flying again. However, being turned into a dragon, Haruki recovered in an instant, and this time, he had something to counter with.
\'Curse of time: Activated!\' As the announcement rang once again, Haruki was delighted to be right about the requirement for the curse\'s activation. Just like last time as he was hurt, the skill activated again, giving him a brief edge in time to counter Inferno with.
\'If only Asmodia wasn\'t the one who I got this skill from.\' Although pissed that Asmodia was still able to control his actions to a certain degree, Haruki pushed those thoughts to the side and rushed towards Inferno with floating claws of ice. Reinforced by darkness, a single strike from them was enough to tear down a wall of diamonds.
"Fuc-" Perhaps realizing what was happening, Inferno tried to curse right before he was smacked back with a strike to the head.
Watching a demon lord crash against the ground from his attack, Haruki felt his blood pumping faster as his frozen heart began to revolt by shooting an extreme shot of adrenaline course through his body.
"What\'s the lag?" Looking at his bloodied fist, he began to cackle up a little.
Noticing Inferno getting up on his feet, Haruki held his hand forward and shot him with accelerated spears of ice. Getting drilled in by the spears, Inferno let out a slight grunt before he liquified them all with a flame burning up his entire body.
"Clone!" Pushing further, Haruki leaped towards him once again with an army of identical clones ready to attack the demon lord.
"Cluster bomb!" In retaliation, Inferno used his own skill to rain down balls of fire on Haruki\'s clones.
The fire burned up all the clones and was extinguished without a trace of it ever being there because of the aura of ice around the clones. Having neutralized each other\'s attacks, Inferno blocked his opponent\'s claws with his katana, and Haruki kept trying to smash him with the floating ice claws. Yet the flames around him burned have our quirks, she has time and magic, I have…"
As his eyes opened back up, Haruki saw his body growing in size them both, and even his claws started to burn up from the fiery katana.
Unlike before, neither of them backed off and kept finding openings to draw their weapons back and try to slash at their opponent, but their attacks were deflected by the other. Barely catching onto what was happening, the audience felt as though they were watching a dance of ice and fire. Each strike turned part of Haruki\'s claws into steam, while the flames on Inferno had begun to die off as well.
As the arena was filled with mist from the evaporated ice, the two stood amidst the haze glaring at each other from a distance. His eyes burning a mix of blue and violet, Haruki followed Inferno\'s flaming gaze as they circled around each other through the mist.
"You\'re better than I thought," muttered Inferno, holding his sword in Haruki\'s direction.
"It\'s hard to believe you\'re Asmodia\'s brother," Haruki replied, speaking his mind.
"I suppose, she\'s the strongest of us all, but-" Closing his eyes, and quickly sheathing his sword again, Inferno disappeared through the mist as the flame of his body had completely died down. "We all have our quirks, she has time and magic, I have…"
As his eyes opened back up, Haruki saw his body growing in size and the frame of him alone shadowed him under a flaming giant. Burning up all the fog with his burning body, Inferno presented himself in the form of a massive shogun with a red mask painted with open jaws, and numerous swords and bows hanging at the back of his plated red armor. Glancing even further up, Haruki noticed a horn-like crown riding on top of his head.
Abruptly pulled out of his shock, he felt a scorching flame coming out of the blade the demon was just drawing from his back. The more he pulled out the giant sword from behind, the more his surroundings were painted in a crimson glow.
"To the death, emperor of lust," the raspy voice coming from behind the mask, made the very foundation of the Colosseum grumble.
Arching the sword forward from behind him, he held its massive blade inches from Haruki\'s face. The flames seeping out from the sword, melted off the neon as well as the stone walls separating the arena from the rest of the Colosseum. With the blade inches away from him, Haruki felt his transformation into a frost dragon melting away and on its path to be undone.
\'My skin…\' Everywhere the scales were burned off of him, he felt his very skin beginning to melt instead of burning.
"Y-you\'re one resilient bastard, you know that?" Although he could feel his throat all dried up, Haruki couldn\'t help but hurl out that insult even if it forced him to speak through a bloodied mouth.
"That, I sure am!" Drawing his sword back to strike, Inferno let out a series of grumbling cackles.
Too tired to move, and too weakened to strike back, Haruki simply turned to look at his companions while the demon lord of envy got ready to end his life.