(3.85k/5.69k Powerstones for Mass Release.)
"I didn't know somebody was looking for me," Akeru said while he turned around.
He blinked at the figure.
Twice.
"May this humble being know the name of this beautiful one?" Akeru said with a straight face.
"Hmm? I go by Vespera, you talk weirdly, anywa—"
BANG
The purple head was interrupted as a bullet streaked towards her with terrifying speed.
The shock wave due to the movement of the bullet alone was enough to cause a decent amount of damage to the surroundings.
Vespera blinked as she noticed the bullet a few millimetres away from making contact with her head.
However, to Akeru's and Erza's amazement, she didn't do anything to the bullet as it made contact with her.
What happened next was very quick.
'What the fuck,' Akeru, who was observing everything with 'Still Spectator,' was dumbfounded at the series of events.
Vespera's forehead deformed as the bullet made its way forward.
However, unlike how one would expect the bullet to pierce her forehead, that didn't happen.
As if her head was made of rubber, the bullet made its way a few more centimetres until it stopped.
In the next instant, it was hurled back in the same direction from which it came, but at twice the speed.
Erza was caught off-guard, and even if she wasn't, it would have been impossible for her to dodge it as that bullet was heading towards her at speeds over 20 Mach.
That's more than 5 times the speed of an average Senior Magic Knight.
Blitz
Green lightning appeared on the bullet as it drew near Erza, before getting demolished completely.
A water hand also formed in the next instant to stop the after-effects of the momentum the air around the bullet was carrying.
"I got the message. You go and help Ren; I will deal with her," Akeru ordered as a robe made of purple lightning covered him.
"Yes," Erza wasted no time as she rushed towards the location where she could hear fighting sounds.
Just as Erza was moving, her eyes widened as she noticed a figure with his arms covered in some dense substance above her.
She recognized him as Broccos instantly.
He cocked his fists as he intended to kill her.
'Fuck, I don't want to die before having the best fight of my life,' Erza thought as she saw her life flash before her eyes.
However, before his fist could touch her, a beam of water hit him on the side.
Surprisingly, the beam of water had a similar speed to Erza's rebounded bullet; however, unlike the former, its penetrative power was way higher than the bullet.
If Broccos had not instinctively covered the part where he got hit just before it made contact, he might have died.
In the next instant, just like a broken kite, Broccos was sent flying in a completely different direction from where Erza was going.
"Go," Akeru said while still staring at Vespera.
His face maintained its usual stoic self.
However, to somebody who knew Akeru well, they would have instantly realized that he was pissed off.
Erza hurriedly disappeared from the scene.
He hadn't stopped staring at Vespera since she had first appeared.
However, it was not solely due to her looks.
It was due to the number of blue lines Akeru could see on her.
0
That was the number of lines he could see.
"How about we change locations? I don't think you would want to hurt the civilians and other bystanders, right?"
"Well, I guess, Aetheris-chan would be annoyed if I do fight in the city."
'Aetheris should be one of the shining generals, I guess.'
"Hmm, what if I just decide to take the entire city as hostage? What would you do?" Akeru suddenly asked.
"Well, what could we do in that case? I guess I would have the excuse to give to Aetheris-chan; he wouldn't be that angry," she shrugged.
'Tch, she was just my type, but her personality seems to be bad,' Akeru internally whined.
"Well, I was just kidding. He won't get mad at you for that; let's go out of the city," Akeru said with a smile.
"Hehe, thank you for that," Vespera said while disappearing in the direction where Broccos was sent flying.
Akeru followed closely behind.
They arrived a decent distance away from the city, at a place where Broccos was patting his clothes.
"Old man, weren't you supposed to guard those two? Why did you come here?" Vespera asked.
"I have a personal feud with that kid," Broccos hatefully said to Akeru, who just shrugged.
"I can't let you guys leave from here," Akeru declared to the two.
'As expected, Broccos doesn't really like me due to my action of indirectly killing Ragus, and this led to an illogical decision made by him as he left those two unguarded. If he had remained logical, our plan was for me to go there and remove him from those two duos' side; however, the latter had high chances of failure, if I consider this gal.'
"Hmph, quite arrogant of you to expect to leave alive," Broccos said while armor covered him, denser than the previous armor.
"Well, I wanted to have a fight with him, but I guess I will let you have the fun first. Don't worry about dying; I would save you, old man," Vespera shrugged as she leaned against a tree.
"You think I will lose?" Broccos asked with an irritated expression.
"I never said that," Vespera said while playing with the hem of her jacket.
She was currently wearing a skirt along with stockings and a jacket, under which was a sleeveless t-shirt, the jacket unzipped.
"I just said, you will die," Vespera said while her eyes narrowed.
"Though I am not as strong as you, I am not that weak. Let me show you how strong the Diamond Kingdom was when people didn't rely on external power," Broccos said with a serious expression as he bumped both of his fists together.
In the next instant, he rushed at Akeru, who was holding a popcorn cup in his hand and eating.
He wasn't even looking at Broccos, who was approaching him, but rather at Vespera throughout.
This irked Broccos, but he didn't lose his calm.
Dozens of dense shards made of ochre were hurled at Akeru.
'Tch, I really thought that they were going to fight between themselves, so much for bringing out the popcorn,' Akeru internally sighed.
Red-green lightning appeared around him along with multiple palms of water in front of those shards, as they were stopped.
However, his gaze didn't leave Vespera even after his mana zone dealt with those projectile attacks.
This really irritated Broccos; however, he continued using some more ranged attacks, trying to gauge Akeru's prowess.
'Jeez, I don't even know her abilities. The Diamond Kingdom had done a good job in protecting the information of their top brass,' Akeru threw another popcorn in his mouth.
Though one purpose of not looking at Broccos at all was to irritate him, the main reason was that he was trying to analyze Vespera, while remaining cautious about any sneak attacks he might get.
Broccos, after nearly a minute of futile projectile attacks, decided to take matters into his own hands and rushed at Akeru in close range.
He got the bombardment of Vibratory Chaos as he entered Akeru's zone.
However, his speed didn't change as he moved undeterred towards Akeru.
'Is he dumb? Or do they really not know the ability of my mana zone?' Akeru wondered as he transferred the popcorn from his left hand to his right hand, while his left palm turned into a fist.
Suddenly, Broccos' movement slowed down to a very considerable degree; however, Broccos already knew this would happen.
Despite knowing that, he rushed into Akeru's zone for one reason only—he was confident in his defence.
Akeru, without looking at him, punched directly at the giant's chest.
BOOM.
A large sound resonated throughout the clearing.
Broccos stood there, unharmed.
Akeru was actually gauging the reaction of Vespera at the moment.
'As expected, it was really wise for me to remain cautious. At the moment, I had the chance to use my new move to directly kill Broccos here; however, I sensed with my Ki that if I had used that move, Vespera would have moved, and when that happened, the blue line I had on Broccos disappeared.'
Though Akeru was happy that he didn't show off his hidden card yet, the situation represented was not what he liked.
'She is fucking strong,' Akeru frowned.
He didn't even look at the slow punches Broccos had thrown at him.
'Well, though I can't kill Broccos, at least I could knock him out,' Akeru decided to do that.
Akeru side-stepped as he dodged Broccos' punch.
Red-green lightning coalesced at Akeru's foot; the amount of lightning mana present in this spell was for the first time this high.
'Vibratory Chaos'
***
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