Chapter 231: So I took a deep breath

With both of my sword and saber ready, I dashed forward. 

A swing, a dodge, and another swing.

She was rather fast but she wasn't warping around- at least not often. And one of her hands was occupied with the stone. I guess that was more or less a double-edged sword. 

She mostly evaded me.

But- even if I landed hits on her, she just recovered. 

She couldn't really hit me either, thanks to my alpha and beta particles but maintaining this was tough. With my powers almost sealed, just using the particles was draining me hard.

So technically, this was more or less a stalemate of sorts. A stalemate that I was gradually losing.

"To think you've progressed this far. You really are a genius." And Hyora still found the time to compliment me. 

She was nowhere near taking me seriously.

"No, not really." 

I didn't consider myself a genius. I knew I had powers to destroy maybe a country or two but there were plenty of people in the world who could do the same. 

"Become mine and I'll let all the bygones be bygones and even let your family be together. You already are engaged, and I'll let you keep them too." She eyed Marg and the rest of the girls down who were still fighting. 

Now, wasn't that awfully generous of her?

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not interested in you."

Even with the minimum amount of radiation I could produce right now, I tried to embed it with my sword and saber and hit with it. 

But Hyora was a good dodger. Out of 10 swings, only one or maybe two at best scratched her. 

But with every hit I could tell, I was internally damaging her. However, her recovery was still far superior. Maybe if I had my full powers, I could damage her more than she could recover but for now-

A ball of fire. 

Hyora dodged it. 

Enira's surprise attacks weren't doing much either. 

In fact, we weren't enough of a threat for her to even try.

'Should I go all out and- no, she has plenty of trump cards…'

"Tell me one thing." Hyora for the first time ever looked serious and stopped. 

"That is?"

"Why do you have that snake with you, but you'd rather not be with me?"

Why the hell was everyone calling her a snake when she was clearly a dragon-snake thingy!? I was offended!

Enira wasn't though.

"I don't know. Love works in mysterious ways, I guess?"

"Love?" Enira pondered with a grin.

"Ooops." 

I actually didn't have any intention of saying that. My feelings might or might not have leaked.

I looked down and Marg was glaring. Why the hell was she paying attention to my battle instead of hers? 'This will not end well.'

Anyway- "Can't you do anything more than just fireballs and stuff?" 

Why was Enira doing this stuff half-heartedly even? Both she and Hyora weren't taking this seriously. To them this almost seemed like a game, I guess?

To me, it wasn't.

"I could do more but that'll catch your family in it too, remember?"

I guess just having barriers wasn't good enough. I distinctly remembered the giant cobra I fought and how my barriers were insignificant to its poison cloud. 

"I see." There were no smiles from Hyora. I actually rarely saw her without a smile. "Then you too shall meet the same fate as him."

Her voice almost felt different- and maybe had an echo to it.

"As who?"

Hyora didn't say a word but a red aura leaked from her body. A distinct metallic scent was in the air- the smell of blood. 

I looked down and most of the normal people and some of the Battlesuins were now on the ground, leaking blood. Even moments ago, they weren't leaking blood at the very least.

And that leaked blood was flying up in droplets and Hyora was absorbing them.

"That is both scary and disgusting at the same time."

Enira sighed. "She was always like that. Treating her faithful followers as nothing but disposable tools. I don't get why's so fixated in you though. "She pointed her finger and like firing a bullet of sorts- fired a small purple needle at Hyora: a hit. But nothing happened apart from a purple bruise on her forehead.

"Me neither. But-" I took a deep breath. "But she dropped the stone and that means-"

"I'll go and absorb it." Enira winked and left. 

'Wha-?'

Enira dashed downwards.

Even though the stone was dropped, the situation didn't change- but the moment Enira ate it, its effects disappeared.

Which meant, though my powers were back, I had to frigging maintain this damn barrier now.

Just perfect. 

But sighing wasn't going to get me anywhere. 

So, I sheathed gramps' sword and again focused on my hand making a much larger- football-sized plasma ball. 

My powers were back in full throttle and there wasn't any point in holding anything back. I didn't have much time anyway. The longer this dragged on, the worse my chances got.

"Be sure to make a decent enough barrier," I yelled and threw the ball. A very bright, hot ball.

Hyora was still gathering the blood. So, the ball hit her hard. She didn't bother dodging. 

It took a second but the ball exploded and Enira wasn't creating any barriers, so I had to do it myself. Even with the barrier, there was a compressed boom.

While creating the barrier, I looked down, and well, Enira was peacefully asleep. 'I'm gonna pound you senseless when we get home.' That damn dragon-snake thingy screwed up and was in zzz land. But thanks to her, I could at least use my powers.

The barrier shattered and a bit of wind rushed past me; a sizzling sound! But the blast hadn't quite the impact I was hoping for. 

Something was wrong. 

'Well, this doesn't look good.'

A very neutral-looking Hyora dismissed the smoke with one hand. Her clothes were torn, and no, she wasn't wearing anything underneath: so, I could see a lot of stuff. I guess she had a lot of stuff already planned on ahead. 

But anyway. She looked neutral- or rather on the madder side of neutral. 

So, I took a deep breath.