#177 Ice Blossoms
---On the hill---
"Ugh" The girls shivered a bit when their legs were suddenly covered in snow and when the entire temperature dropped by many degrees.
"Here, drink this quickly!" Mera quickly took 3 vials from her clothes before throwing 2 of them towards Kurome and Poney while Taeko took the same vial out of her own clothes.
*Gulp* "What is it?" Poney drunk the content of the entire vial and then asked with a curious expression.
"The recipe from Oarburgh, it will protect the blood in your veins from freezing. We even experimented on it a bit before arriving here with Akashi. Therefore it's our quite effective recipe combined with a drop of his blood." Mera explained while gulping down the liquid before licking her lips with a playful smile.
"What?! H-His blood?" Poney exclaimed as both she and Kurome turned at Mera with widened eyes. Poney had complicated feelings about drinking something containing Akashi's blood but when she suddenly stopped feeling like freezing she just shook her head and calmed down.
"fufu, maybe even a drop of his blood is a bit too much, I am starting to be in heat." Mera chuckled with a light blush on her cheeks as she began ogling the girls around her with a perverted look in her eyes.
"Wha-?!" This time both Kurome and Poney exclaimed at the same time with a shocked expression and they immediately understood what Mera meant by her words as they also began blushing. The only one who was still completely focused on the battle in front of them was Taeko however even she had a faint blush on her cheeks as she felt the heat down there.
"You tricked us, you said that you have experimented on it..." Poney said, trying to sound upset but she had to focus on not losing her mind so she just sounded cute instead.
"Hey, I have never mentioned that we actually tried this out with his blood. One vial of that liquid is expensive so we can't just test it out like that plus do you feel like freezing right now?" Mera shrugged her shoulders before walking to Poney, swaying her hips seductively in the process.
'Tsk! Of course, I don't feel like freezing because my entire body feels like on fire! I am already starting to feel weird down there...' Poney just shook her head while looking downwards, focusing all her attention to suppressing the side effect of the vial.
'This is so embarrassing...Even more when I actually know that it's because of Akashi Nii-sama's blood.' Kurome bit her lower lip as she was suppressing her emotions.
---Back to the battle---
"...If you can adjust the distance, why did you make it affect the girls too?" Akashi before doing anything else, he looked towards the hill where the girls were watching their battle and then turned at Esdeath with narrowed eyes, asking her with a serious tone.
"Because I want them to feel my power, to feel despair!" Esdeath said with a crazy smile while spreading her arms. In the truth, Esdeath didn't want to admit defeat but she was already making sure that in case she loses, all the girls around Akashi will distance themselves from him because of her overwhelming presence.
"Aren't you here to make me yours? Don't you have to make me feel despair instead?" Akashi frowned and asked while shrugging his shoulders when Kiyomi informed him that all of them are fine.
"Hmph!" Esdeath snorted and didn't say anything else before pointing her hand at Akashi while flicking her fingers down.
'?!' Akashi's eyes widened in surprise when he was completely surrounded by ice spikes from all directions.
Esdeath made those ice spikes shot forth towards Akashi without even caring if he can survive her attack, right now she was attacking him as if he was her mortal enemy.
Akashi quickly crouched down while slamming both his hands on the ground and suddenly a magma formed shield all around him however before the ice spikes could make contact with his shield, he made that magma explode into small bullets to all directions. The magma bullets quickly met with Esdeath's ice spikes but both attacks were negated. Her ice spikes were stopped as they all dropped down more than 1 meter away from him, however, she herself was forced to protect herself with ice wall since the number of Akashi's magma bullets was much superior to her ice spikes.
Akashi remained in his original position with both hands on the ground before he raised his head at Esdeath, revealing a challenging smile.
'?!' Esdeath's expression changed to surprised one once a large wave of magma appeared behind Akashi, towering over both of them.
Her eyes narrowed once the entire wave of magma intended to fall down on top of her.
"This is my territory!" Esdeath shouted with a wide smile, showing off her white teeth. She waved her hand upwards in a quick motion and the mass of ice began to rise from the ground, completely enveloping the entire wave of magma. The ice was being quickly melted but it was also being quickly repaired as this was truly Esdeath's territory. It wasn't just a replica of Northern lands, she actually brought them here herself.
[Energy: 1490/2500]
'She is keeping her distance from me which indicates that she has no intention of exchanging moves with me in close quarters. I can keep pressuring her but in the end, I will still have to use "that". For now, let's see how well she will receive my onslaught of attacks!' Akashi thought with an anticipated smile and decided to attack her.
[Phantom Strike]
Akashi appeared in front of her with his sword already overhead, ready to slash downward but instead of being surprised, Esdeath took one small step back with a frown before a thick ice wall was erected between them, blocking Akashi's attack.
[Phantom Strike]
Akashi once again appeared behind her however the moment he disappeared from Esdeath's sight she already jumped towards the ice wall while turning around in the process. When her back hit the ice wall, it actually crumbled as if it was just a very fragile mirror and she once against separated herself from Akashi with her ice wall.
[Phantom Strike]
[Phantom Strike]
[Phantom Strike]
Akashi started using his skill like crazy always appearing behind her or above her, however despite his speed, Esdeath was able to keep up with him by only attaining a few scratches from the entire exchange.
'Even he has to have limited stamina! He can't move around so quickly without wasting a lot of stamina.' Esdeath thought when the onslaught of Akashi's surprise attacks finally ended
"I told you it's useless, in my territory, I have an unlimited source of power. Plus I think it's time for the second part of this technique." Esdeath said with a relaxed smile.
'The second part of her technique? ...?!' Akashi thought before he widened his eyes when he finally noticed the snowflakes on his body and clothes that should have melted down even before even landing on him however it was too late for him to do anything.
Each snowflake bloomed into ice blossoms, completely overwhelming Akashi and freezing him in a large blossom-like ice prison.
Esdeath looked at the large blossom made of ice with Akashi inside it with a crazy and victorious smile. She decided to slowly walk closer to him.
---On the hill---
"?!" All the girls except for Mera were suddenly caught in the ice prison of the blossom's form.
"Hm?! Oh? So that's the secret move within her already deadly technique...how unique. She is truly one of the kind...Esdeath." Mera muttered while looking around with a curious expression, she was the only one who wasn't caught because ever since it started to snow, she began using her umbrella.
*crack*
Mera turned at the prison where Kurome was located and noticed yellow lightning running rampant on the surface of the ice prison however despite her effort, the entire prison was cracking very slowly.
'Those snowflakes are probably made to bloom on the contact with the living body. Or once they make contact with anything with its body temperature high enough to survive in this coldness, they will bloom. Anyway, I should help them get out of this predicament.' Mera thought with a curious expression before she walked towards Kurome's prison to help her out first.
Mera wasn't the leader of one of the most infamous assassination group just for show, she was actually able to judge the concept of Esdeath's technique just by observing the surroundings. Just by the fact that snowflakes on top of her cold umbrella never bloomed out, unfortunately, she couldn't have a look at any other living things since everything already died out of the coldness but seeing that no snowflakes bloomed on their corpses only strengthened her hypothesis.
---Back to the battle---
Akashi felt that even Kiyomi was captured which made him narrow his eyes since if she was captured then even the girls were captured.
'Esdeath, you...' Akashi thought as he glared at Esdeath with a hostile intention.
Sensing what was on his mind, Esdeath stopped with a smile across her face.
"I just wanted to show them that they can't compare to me" Esdeath said while shrugging her shoulders.
"Anyway, it seems that it is my win!" Esdeath came close to the prison and put her hand on it and the insides of the prison began glowing in light blue color.
'If I will take this attack head-on, I will probably even lose my arm but I should be able to survive it, however, there is no need to wait any longer...She had her time, she had her time of playing arrogant so I think it's finally time to completely crush her!' Akashi thought before closing his eyes, readying himself since this was the first time he was about to use his new trump card.
Suddenly a crimson aura started glowing on Akashi's skin, quickly spreading to the surroundings and completely devouring that light blue glow.
"Wha-?!" Before Esdeath was able to even exclaim, she had to jump back when she felt an earthquake right below her.
"HA!"
*BANG!*
She heard Akashi's shout before the ground under her ice prison exploded while magma burst out however instead of falling down, it kept rising up, forming a large pillar touching up to the skies.
Her ice prison that was meant to be made out of her toughest ice she could form was completely engulfed by the pillar of magma before it disappeared into nothingness, there was nothing like melting down, it just disappeared.
Esdeath watched this with wide-open eyes and her mouth open in surprise but it was quickly replaced when she narrowed her eyes with an excited and crazy smile.
'That's what I was talking about! Finally, he is using something that makes me feel threatened!' Esdeath thought while watching in anticipation however she wasn't allowed to just carelessly watch.
The ground in the perimeter of numerous kilometers began tearing open, forming something like veins where the magma started to flow from the lower ground. The snow and ice started slowly disappearing as the ground was slowly transforming into scorched black color.
"AGH!" Akashi's pained groan resounded in the air and traveled even numerous kilometers away from them.
'?!' Esdeath who was until now jumping from the place to another place to avoid the magma occasionally bursting out of the ground stopped for a second to look cautiously towards the large pillar made of flowing magma.