Boom.
The shock wave blew all the steam away, revealing Ayaka and the shrimp's appearances.
The shrimp managed to withstand Ayaka's spear while Ayaka tried to push him down with another explosion on top of her spear.
Not wanting to get hit, the shrimp summoned a few water pillars and surrounded the Magic Circle. Instead of engulfing it, he spun the water, trying to extinguish the fire before it caused an explosion.
His plan succeeded because no explosion occurred until the Magic Circle disappeared.
"Tsk." Ayaka clicked her tongue and looked to the left.
"No one can save you!" The shrimp harrumphed and turned around, trying to take away her spear.
"Scarlet Explosion." Ayaka summoned another Magic Circle beneath them without hesitation.
Boom.
The explosion engulfed them again, but the fire soon disappeared with Ayaka coming out of the smoke unscathed.
The same applied to the shrimp as he couldn't understand Ayaka's train of thought. He didn't know whether Ayaka was careful or reckless because she kept changing between both of them.
Ayaka raised her hand and summoned several star-shaped flames. This magic was inspired by her firebirds in the past. They might be useless, but this version wasn't the same.
"Fire Star!" Those ten fire stars flew forward, heading straight to the shrimp as if there were tracking on them.
The shrimp tested their power by sending several water pillars to extinguish them.
However, the fire stars soon formed a line with a certain gap between them. The star in the front hit the water pillar and turned it into steam. That burst of steam dispersed the water pillars in the surrounding, allowing the stars to head straight to the shrimp, albeit the latter was already gone.
"Huh?!" Ayaka widened her eyes, not seeing the shrimp anywhere. She looked left and right but still couldn't find anything. "Where did he go? Did he escape? Did he use the smoke from the steam to hide?"
When Ayaka was about to search for him, the ground beneath her feet started to crack.
"Below!!!" Ayaka panicked and jumped up.
Unfortunately, the shrimp's legs had caught her legs and pinned her to the ground. After that, the shrimp made his appearance and sent a fist to her jaw.
"Not good!" Ayaka formed a magic shield to protect her, but it was shattered in an instant.
The shrimp ended up giving an uppercut and launching her into the air.
"Kh!" Two of her teeth fell off from the impact as her lower jaw seemed to be broken, making her endure the constant pain.
The shrimp took this chance to launch another attack.
Ayaka raised her spear to block them, but the shrimp grasped it with his walking legs and hit Ayaka's legs with his swimming legs.
Not wanting to be beaten up easily, Ayaka raised both feet higher and knocked them down.
Her plan succeeded because none of the attacks connected, allowing her to sustain her body, albeit she soon experienced pain from her stomach.
She was blown away and crashed to the ground. Rolling a few times, she ended up stopping twenty meters from the landing spot.
"Argh!" Ayaka endured all the pain and rose from the ground. She looked up and saw her spear getting thrown away by the shrimp.
And to make it even worse, the shrimp landed in front of her and leaped forward, planning to deal another strike.
Ayaka hurriedly stepped to the side while raising both hands, covering her body with flame armor. However, the shrimp reacted to her movement and hit her lower arms, blowing her away.
"This is the end." The shrimp felt confident in defeating Ayaka and planned to maintain this superiority until he killed her. "I can't cut you because of that annoying flame armor, but you will die sooner or later."
Not wanting to lose, Ayaka steeled her resolve and made a hard decision.
Right before the shrimp hit her, Ayaka opened her arms wide and caught his walking legs for the first time.
"Useless struggle!" The shrimp snorted.
"No. Where do you think we're standing?" Ayaka made a tired smile.
"Huh?" The shrimp furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding her words.
However, a huge Magic Circle suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"What?!" The shrimp was dumbstruck because he didn't feel the Magic Power fluctuating from Ayaka. That meant Ayaka didn't use her power this time. "Then, where did it come from?"
The shrimp looked around, trying to find the culprit.
Ayaka chuckled and made a smug smile. "You don't remember, huh."
That smile of hers reminded him of a certain Magic Circle. It was the biggest Magic Circle Ayaka had summoned, but he managed to destroy it by summoning a few water pillars from underground.
"Wait, this place is…" The shrimp came to a realization and looked around him, finding more and more Magic Power fluctuation.
Ayaka snapped her finger and revealed the real Magic Circle. It turned out, the big one was nothing but a fake. The real Magic Circle was not one, but around fifty Magic Circles.
These Magic Circles were none other than Ayaka's time bombs she prepared as the worst scenario.
"I guess I need to use this." Ayaka smirked and covered her body with fire. "Let's see… Who is stronger? The water that covers your body or my flame armor…"
"You are crazy!" He shouted in anger while using his water to protect his body.
Little did he know, she had this concept from the first time she and Kai hunted together. It was in the virtual world and Kai literally dragged many monsters with him.
However, she made sure to adjust her power, making sure her body managed to endure everything. After all, she couldn't afford to die since she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Kai.
"Time bomb, release!" Ayaka smiled and activated the magic while pinning the shrimp down.
The red light shone, blinding many people's eyes. After that, a series of explosions occurred in unison, engulfing Ayaka and the shrimp.
Boom.
Because of the number of explosions, they didn't create mushroom smoke, but it certainly covered a part of the battlefield with it.
Seeing such a scene, Leah hurriedly flew toward the smoke, trying to rescue her. Ayaka had told her about this plan, so she had been standing by. Unfortunately, she couldn't convince Ayaka to use a safer method.
"Ayaka!" Leah shouted inside the smoke, trying to sense Ayaka's body.
She kept running around to find her before something tripped her over.
Leah managed to avoid the fall, but she soon dropped to her knees and used her Teleportation, transferring her and the thing that tripped her.
Luckily, the one that came out with her was none other than Ayaka. However, her condition was terrible.
Seventy percent of her body was charred and almost all her hair was burned.
She spared no effort in getting Ayaka to Evan, asking him to heal her.
"Evan!"
"I'm working on it." He replied in frustration as he was healing both her and Sofia simultaneously. After seeing Ayaka's state, he couldn't help but gasp.
A water bubble hurriedly wrapped her and started healing her wound.
"How… is… he…" Ayaka opened her mouth tiredly.
"You should care about your body more. I don't think you will gain any scars after I heal you, but your hair… I'm afraid I can't recover them. You need a long time to regrow it." Evan let out a long sigh, looking at this rash girl.
Leah gritted her teeth and turned around, looking at the state of the shrimp. As soon as the smoke was cleared, she could only find several shrimp's parts and his head. "He… has died. You killed him!"
Hearing her words made Ayaka feel relieved.. She finally lowered her guard and received the treatment fully. "I… see…"