526 Yokai

Ahead of the army, deeper within the woodlands that acted as a natural borderline between the two kingdoms, Asai de Trichia and Robin Sol had located their target.

[??: Lvl 87]

Stopping in his tracks abruptly, the fallen leaves and twigs shuffled from the sudden gust of wind, the copper-skinned dekan stood in what appeared to be a half-transformation. Retaining their humanoid legs and torso, but sporting the long draconic tail, head and claws.

Curious as to how strong such a form would be, Asai confidently gestured to his partner to sit back. And even if she didn't, Asai had already casted [Sealing Square] to lock his foe within an arena with him. Whilst the half-elf could technically disable the skill with [Holy Testimony] she also knew that forcefully doing so would end up distracting and disrupting the man's mana-consumption. Which would only result in her actions becoming a liability, as such, the half-elf continued to patrol the skies as she ensured no beast or monster even made it anywhere remotely close to his duel.

..

"Human, you must've eaten a fish this morning huh?" The dekan fiercely inspected the man as he slowly circled around the edges of the arena, scrutinizing her as if she were prey. With a breastplate that protected only her chest, exposing her shoulders and mid-section entirely as a means to not reduce flexibility and mobility, and a studded-leather skirt to protect her groins, the man felt greatly tempted to run a certain test, for scientific-reasons of course.

"I- I'll be honest lady, I have no idea if what you just said is supposed to be an insult or not. But, it is quite the pleasure to meet you, my name's Asai, what's yours?" His two katanas twirled as he loosened his wrists, with [Ruin] soaked in [Chaos] and [Decay] surging with [Blazing] flames, Asai wondered as to how best to approach his target, to maximize his gains. 

The copper-skinned dekan chuckled as her tail swiped the tall-grass behind her, severing them in two. "Lalaxi."

Without the use of a start-signal of sorts, Lalaxi shot forwards like a kangaroo as she utilized her tail like a powerful-spring.

Withholding himself from casting skills, Asai defended with only instinctive-reaction, honed-experience and pure-swordsmanship. 

Two deadly claws swiped down from above, as two powerful legs built for power shot from underneath, being advanced further into the human's position with the tail behind. 

Blocking and parrying only the claws, Asai found himself falling face-first as his legs were kicked back and off the ground.

Throwing himself towards the side, he dodged the follow-up attack as claws punctured inches deep into the ground where was he prior.

"Damn, skills it is then."

[Summon Pegasus]  

Surging out of his shadow, the young-stallion charged forwards with courage, recklessly headbutting the dekan's groins like a goat.

[Summon Bird] "Do something useful!" 

The very second Cotton opened its eyes, and realized it was no longer within the comforts of its own nest, he found himself frown onto Lalaxi's face as his wings opened up instinctively, which ended up blinding the dekan until she swiftly clawed both summons back into mana-particles.

Annoyed that her opponent would resort to such low-tactics, no different than throwing dirt to obscure, she pulled her forefoot back like a soccer-player would. Entirely intending on destroying the human in a single-hit, albeit at the cost of her own health. However, her senses failed her greatly as the human was no longer in sight, leaving her apparently standing alone within the red arena.

[ANNIHILATE] [ANNIHILATE]

[ANNIHILATE] [ANNIHILATE] 

Asai's four shadow-clones emerged from all four cardinal directions, north, east, south and west, as they all vaulted out and equally slammed their own nuke-skills into her backs and arms.

Asai gazed in surprise as all four shadow-clones were instantly slaughtered. A bite for one, penetrating claws for two, and a tail that severed the fourth. Dead before they could even finish landing from their individual vaults.

"Tastes like shit." Lalaxi spat a mixture of saliva and blue-blood onto the grass, as she felt greatly annoyed that upon consuming the shadow-clone, no HP, MP or stamina was regenerated. "Even goblin-testicles taste better than you."

She turned around to catch sight of the human palming his own chest, as a gentle light swirled and entered him.

[Heal] recovered the HP loss from her earlier double-whammy kicks. 

"Lady please, your insults aren't making any sense to me. I think our societies and cultures are too different, so stop trying to play the mind-game, it's not working." Within the tone of his voice, Lalaxi could've sworn she could hear laughter, mocking her as he grinned ear to ear behind his mask. 

Raising [Solace] his beloved dragon-spear above head, he began charging it with copious amounts of [Divinity]

Taking his upfront challenge head-on, she knocked her forefoot back as every muscle-fibre within that leg tightened and expanded as further amounts of mana and blood was pumped into it, entering a state of transient hypertrophy.

Asai wasn't sure if he saw it properly, as it lasted only a fragment of a second, but the dekan's forefoot sparked little glitters of electricity as it was launched forward.

[FOREFOOT SWING]! Sacrificing 10% of her own current HP to nuke her target like a freight-train. Her leg sliced through the air as Asai also ushered his ability down.

[Weighted Slash] !

Massive amounts of amplified and multiplied kinetic energy via mass incorporation hammered down, crashing into the freight-train in a contest of speed, power and mass, before erupting and sending Asai crashing backwards into his own arena. As for the dekan, with her greater mass, weight and muscle and draconic tail that gave her the ability to withstand the shock blast. Lalaxi remained standing, as she staggered a couple steps forward, eager to consume and absorb the high-quality mana-heart before her.

Thanks to [Yokai Mask] the dekan failed to notice the grin stretch across the human's face as she played right into his next card.

Without any awareness, tunnel-visioning on the prize, the prey that appeared dazed and concussed, Lalaxi suddenly found herself equally on the ground as her spine fractured throughout multiple areas.

Suddenly finding herself unable to move or command any of her limbs, dragon-tail included, she could only gasp in fear and confusion as the human stood, once again palming his own chest and casting [Heal]

"Lalaxi, that was a lovely-date. However, I regret to inform you that you're not my type. Sorry." With [Ruin] glistening with a layer of ice upon its beautiful-blade, as [Frozen] surged throughout, Asai plunged the blade into the dekan's back, allowing the icy-cold temperatures to enter her body and spread as her body froze from within.

Before life and colour faded from her lizard-like eyes, Asai answered the question that was clearly spinning within her thoughts, all the while maintaining eye-contact, ensuring he would be the very last thing she saw before departing from the world.

"I have a skill, [Lingering Shadow] Although it costs me a lot more mana, it allows me to double-down on a skill I recently casted. You walked into the second skill, that's all."

Watching her eyes close as her life froze over, Asai only then did he stumble backwards and onto his ass. Removing the arena, Robin was quick to descent, throwing her arms around him as she embraced him from behind. Due to [Robin's Desire] she had felt a tremendous blow strike her like two sledgehammers, although knowing how powerful the man was, it appeared he was still recklessly running his tests and experiments, be it for information-gathering or self-betterment.

Asai continued to stare at the frozen-corpse, as his bloodthirsty and killing-intent subsided, as [Yokai Mask] was removed and back inside [Inventory]

His adrenaline diluted as his mind returned to reality. No longer was his desiring bloodshed, no longer did he desire to inflict pain upon his enemies, as he stared at the dekan he just killed. A lingering remnant of humanity resurfaced as he wondered why he had such a personality-shift, to a persona that was so cruel and uncaring of life.

"Bloody-hell, either I'm literally slowly turning into an actual heartless [Monster] or [Yokai Mask] needs to be benched..."

...

Wondering whether or not he could consume their hearts, to absorb mana or anything like they did, Asai decided not to waste the fine-frozen specimen, storing it into [Inventory]