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"I see." An unreadable expression appeared on his face.
"I guess it's only fair for me to take revenge then?" Kaiser asked in a chilling voice.
In the next instant, Kaiser kicked towards Miko, only for the latter to duck as another tentacle attacked Kaiser at his heart.
However, even before it could come in contact with his body, the tentacle was evaporated by the fire on his body.
Miko was caught off-guard with this and wasn't able to block as Kaiser's fist hit her in the gut, throwing her like a ragdoll backwards.
She didn't think that it was possible for the fire engulfing Kasier to get hotter.
This impact almost knocked her out, as her eyes rolled back and saliva came out of her mouth, only for it to be vaporized.
She flew in the air for a few seconds until she crashed on the ground on her back.
Kaiser appeared where she landed in the next instant, and his leg—which was coalesced in a huge amount of fire—was raised as he intended to stomp her head.
Miko had just regained her wits; however, she didn't have enough time to do anything other than instinctively use all her water tentacles to protect herself.
However, that soon became futile as even before they could make contact with his leg, they were vaporized.
Miko's life flashed before her eyes.
Her first meeting with Kaiser was not the first time she had met him, as she had met him on multiple occasions later, too, before Kaiser's family was executed.
So, they had become somewhat of friends in that time; however, after that incident, Kaiser had moved away from that city, and Miko had been lucky enough to get into a knight training school despite her commoner status.
Raviel had done the same, but in a different city, and due to luck or some other factors, she had been in touch with Kaiser for years.
Kaiser's eyes met Miko's as her face was replaced by the Miko in Kaiser's memories.
Kaiser instinctively changed direction at the last second, such that his leg smashed the ground a few inches from where Miko's head was.
"I can't kill you after all." Regret could be heard in Kaiser's voice as the flames present on his body started dying.
Miko, who had prepared a water bullet in a last-ditch effort, released it. It hit Kaiser in the chest and sent him flying for a few meters backward before he landed on the ground on his back.
Kaiser's body had turned black as it got charred completely.
'I don't know anymore. who should I hate now? What was the purpose of training for these years only to hesitate at the last instant?' Kaiser's eyes became moist as he was feeling a lot of conflicting emotions.
A few moments later, only one emotion remained—disappointment.
He was feeling immense disappointment—at himself.
"I am pathetic," he muttered.
"It would have been better if you killed me. Choosing to hesitate at that time was your blunder, as unlike you, I don't have any qualms about killing you," Miko said as she got up and walked until she stood next to his lying form.
Her hands stretched as a small water ball formed near them, pointing towards Kaiser's head.
"Is that so? Then why are your hands shaking?" Kaiser asked without looking at her, continuing to look at the sky.
"S-shut up, I-I... Just die," Miko said as her face hardened, and she released the bullet.
BANG
Suddenly, a bullet made of steel intercepted the water bullet before it could touch Kaiser.
Not only that, but it pierced through the water bullet and reached Miko. The latter could only use mana skin as protection at the last instant as she got hit.
"Who dares to bully my teammate?" A voice very familiar to Kaiser was heard in the clearing.
---
"Jeez, how are you not getting caught despite the fact that I am faster than you?"
Vespera asked. Currently, she was mid-air and used the air in her domain as a platform to jump towards Akeru.
If one had noticed carefully, they would have noticed the air in her domain stretch backward like it was solid—like rubber.
BOOM
Her movement through the air was enough to cause destruction to everything around her.
It was quite contrary to her opponent, who felt like he wasn't even present in the scene, causing no damage to his surroundings despite moving at hypersonic speeds.
This ironic speed would have definitely made a certain somebody paint something on seeing it and create a spell which would cause trouble to both of the individuals present, if that certain somebody was present.
"You are too strong, ya know. How could weak me even contend against you?" Akeru said in a pitiful voice as he just landed on a tree branch.
The tree branch didn't even move a little despite Akeru's speed.
"Wh—" Vespera was dumbfounded by his statement.
Even though he was weaker than her, it was really ridiculous for him to mention himself as weak.
Due to that reason, she wasn't able to change her course as Akeru changed his direction and was currently heading towards her directly.
If she had spells like 'Still Spectator' or perception-related spells, she might have been easily able to change directions, as for her, fighting on ground, in air, anywhere is the same.
'Oof, I've been training this move for nearly 2 months, since I started this mission on the border. I really didn't expect to learn it this soon. Oh well, this attack's penetrative power is in a different league than "Vibratory Chaos" '
Akeru stretched his palm as an orange-colored spheroid formed above him.
"What the fuck," Vespera cursed as she instinctively used a considerable amount of energy or momentum from her reserves to convert the air near her right arm to stretch quickly, such that the force that it created on her was enough for her to barely dodge that orange spheroid as she was hurled sideways.
"So, you do have limits, huh?" Akeru said with a chuckle as he saw her right arm damaged enough to be unusable in the fight anymore.
It was very similar to how a spring or rubber would break after a certain amount of force has been applied.
Vespera tilted her body in the air to stabilize herself.
"I didn't really expect you to know spatial magic. You really are dangerous. It's a shame that you missed, though it means I could have my fun for a longer period of time," Vespera said with a grin.
"Hehe, bold of you to assume that I missed," Akeru said with a grin.
Vespera furrowed her brows as she looked at him in confusion.
She turned around to see the location of where the spatial magic hit.
What she saw shocked her to the core.
However, she immediately moved sideways as she dodged another orange spheroid of spatial disturbance.
"When you are battling, you should not move your eyes away from your opponents. You might die due to that," Akeru cheekily said.
'Hehe, she might be able to bounce off any attack and even turn it against me, but it's pointless when you are dealing with attacks that could transport anything to outside this dimension. I really need to thank Langris for showing me his moves against Ragus.
Though Ragus had thought of a countermeasure to try to use high-density mana attacks and multiple them to neutralize those spatial attacks, Vespera technically can't do that, as her medium of attack is physical.
And even if she decides to throw some material at me, it won't make any difference as my speed is closer to hers, unlike the case with Langris and Ragus.'
"Fuck, fuck, Aetheris is going to kill me. I let the old man die," Vespera said with a freaked-out expression, completely ignoring Akeru's words.
When she had turned back previously, she had seen the headless body of Broccos.
Broccos, one of the shining generals from the old generation, met his end at the hands of Akeru—a member of the Black Bulls—in an area near Shardfall.
"I think you should be more worried about yourself," Akeru said while dashing towards her.
And so the chase began again, with the roles being reversed.
'It's a shame that Broccos died,' Akeru internally sighed, almost feeling regretful.
'I really wanted to torture him properly before killing him.' An intense killing intent flashed in Akeru's eyes before disappearing.
'I wouldn't have really minded much if that guy wanted to kill me, or if he just wanted to kill Erza. At most, I would have just killed him calmly. But I am definitely sure that bastard wanted to kill Erza for the sake of gauging my reaction and disturbing me emotionally.'
Akeru could gauge other people's intentions to some extent outside of fighting with his Ki Sensing.
So, he was really pissed at what Broccos was trying to do.
"Where are you going, Vespera-chan? I thought you wanted me to fight you seriously?" Akeru taunted while avoiding another spatial orb she hurled at him.
"Yeah, this was exactly the battle I was craving for," Vespera said with a grin as she cocked her fist and launched a concentrated amount of air, which made Akeru do a dodging maneuver.
'What a mad girl!' Akeru rolled his eyes.
***
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