Throughout her 999-year-long existence, Akamana had the spotlight stolen from her on multiple occasions. But in such a complete and overbearing manner? Never.
This was a first.
Mithras' challenge reverberated throughout the land, causing Akamana to tilt her head with a little pout.
"Don't you think it's a bit shameless for a man to ask a girl to hold back?" The Grand Priestess asked. Although she thought fighting Elektra at a lower level was all fun and giggles, Akamana had no desire to try the same with Mithras.
"Don't you think it's a bit shameless for a 1,000-year-old demoness at the peak of Blood Longevity to take a 20-year-old girl captive?" Mithras clapped back immediately, causing Akamana's pout to curl into a sinister smile.
The insolence. Or was it confidence? Both, for sure. Yes, surely one had to be remarkably bold and insolent to face death with such a pretty smile.
"Well cutie pie, I'm feeling generous, so why the hell not? Courage like yours is rare nowadays. I will honor it by giving you the same opportunity I gave Elektra girly.
Same rules apply, I stay one full rank lower than you and can only use Sid Manipulation. If you can slice up my pretty face, then no matter what...I won't kill you today," Akamana said and raised her fists in the southpaw stance, reducing her Sid rank to the fifth level of Flame Refinement.
"Come on then. Let no one say I'm bullying the junior ge—" barely had Akamana reached this point that Mithras vanished, blitzing the Grand Priestess in a blaze of violet flames. But a step before colliding with Akamana, Mithras shrank to the atomic scale, activating the Quantum Tunneling to reappear at Akamana's back.
Quantum Tunneling occurred at the speed of light. By the time Akamana had noticed Mithras' presence, the Human Aphrodisiac was standing behind her, sending his fist crashing into the Grand Priestess' back.
"Ooops..." But that very instant, the Akamana teleported to a distant Sid Particle, blowing Mithras a kiss, before racing back with an ax-kick. Mithras didn't spare it a glance. Tongues of violet flames coiled up his form, condensing into an adamantine barrier that sent Akamana reeling back.
A multitude of Akamanas appeared the moment next, covering all across a large surface. Again, Mithras stayed composed—better, his lips curled up, and with a playful grin, he stomped his foot, causing a violent blast of vibration waves that sent the Akamanas on the ground flying into the ones upward.
At the same time, a gigantic net of violet flames spread over the scene, lighting each Akamana it touched on fire. Once more, the Grand Priestess vanished, but this time around she didn't escape, instead using the Reduction Secret to shrink to the atomic scale and reach Mithras through the same Quantum Tunneling.
"But why doesn't she dismantle his divine flames? Aren't Inner Flames made of Sid?" Confused by why Akamana didn't use the same dismantling trick she did with Elektra's mantras, Cassandra asked.
"It's not that simple. The structure of an Inner Flame generally depends on its class. The higher the class, the more complex the structure. And at the divine level, you must also consider the origin.
Mithras' divine flames came from Vritra and Heruka, Wrathful Gods whose Sid Manipulation skills are not below Akamana's. She can't dismantle their Inner Flames even if she wanted to. And in any case, to dismantle a Guru's Inner Flame, you also need a higher Flame Manipulation level than theirs.
Akamana is no doubt better with Sid. But when it comes to Flame Manipulation..." Elektra's words trailed off, and Mithras' fireball ballooned to gigantic proportions, dwarfing all across the scene.
"I just realized...the most annoying thing about you is your ability to use Sid particles as teleportation portals. And it's not even that hard to deal with," Mithras said with a wink and snapped his fingers, causing the fireball to break into a volley of one million flaming bolts, racing into the sky before curving down, all aiming for Akamana!
The Grand Priestess sneered at the attempt, teleporting as before. Yet Mithras didn't mind, firing more and more bolts, reducing their might and shrinking his energy expenses to map the trend and guide the pattern.
Because yes, Akamana's teleportation trick had its limits. When she jumped from one particle to another, the Grand Priestess was restricted to a certain range. Otherwise, she could just jump from here to the Higher Planes—going back and forth as she liked. And she obviously couldn't do that.
It wasn't long before Mithras narrowed that range to a 40-meter radius, lighting up the place and raining flaming projectiles to take control of Akamana's range and guide her to where he wanted.
By the time the Grand Priestess had noticed Mithras' intent, his right elbow was slicing into her, anticipating her last teleportation.
Or so it seemed at first. A group of Sid Particles sent Akamana bouncing back, propelling her out of Mithras' range.
"Oh come on now you didn't really expect it to be that easy, did you? My range is actually 100 meters and I still have a couple of tricks up my slee—" Akamana wouldn't get to finish those words because, in that instant, a violet flame slash went down her face, followed by hundreds of flaming trails that whistled down the Grand Priestess' body.
A burning blood gash sliced up Akamana's face. Half a dozen more lining on her chest, arms, and legs.
"Mithras, 1. Akamana, 0."