Chapter 35: Battle of the Bulls
The area where the Clover Kingdom's Magic Knights and citizens had started setting up to live was mainly empty now. The Knights had all paired off with each other and left to train, whereas the only ones left were the normal citizens as well as Asta, Yami, and Liebe.
"I'm fighting… Captain Yami?!" Asta screamed.
"What the hell kind of reaction is that, brat?" Yami walked up to the young Black Bull and looked down on him, intimidating him in the process.
"I can't fight you!" the ashen-haired boy stated, much to Yami's disappointment.
Yami reached for Asta's skull as he usually did, and the boy prepared for the pain. However, much to Asta's and even Liebe's shock, the Captain just rustled his squad members hair. "Look, to become the Wizard King, you have to become the Captain first. There's no way I'm wagering my position, but don't you want to test that strength of yours?" the Dark Magic user asked calmly, with a smirk.
"That is true, I guess… fine, but don't try and kill me like you always say you will!" Asta accepted the challenge but still didn't want to die, obviously.
"Now you're talking, kid!" Yami cheered and then turned towards Liebe who was next to Asta. "So… what's the actual goal here?"
Liebe grinned "you two can directly affect this world with your Dark Magic and Anti-Magic, if you test it on one another to its fullest capabilities, I'm sure you'll find something…" the devil said with his usual, eerie smile.
"I don't like how you said that, but fine… let's go kid" the Black Bulls Captain ordered to which the boy agreed and followed him.
A few minutes passed and the two Black Bulls members got in position. They had found a big, open area where they could spar with each other. The two walked across to opposite sides and readied themselves for the sparring session. Liebe returned to Asta's grimoire and everyone was set.
Yami slowly unsheathed his sharp katana and pointed it towards the young Black Bull. "You better give it your all!" He shouted.
"O-of course!" Asta responded back swiftly.
"Alright then…" Yami thought to himself. Within a blink of an eye he was behind Asta and was about to strike him with his blade that was enveloped with Dark Magic. "You're too slow!"
Asta was surprised and his ki detection was too slow to find his Captain "wha-what? Already?!" the boy screamed as he was hit by the katana. Luckily, Asta just barely managed to deflect the full force of the attack with the blunt edge of his Demon-Slayer sword.
Asta was already panting as he did not expect such a quick start to the sparring session, but even so, he had to focus on the task at hand. He had to level up.
"Let's go!" Asta started running towards his Captain at a high speed and went to slash his sword at the man but missed as Yami dodged effortlessly.
"Man, you're slow" Yami seemed unimpressed at Asta's efforts. "Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Lightless Slash!" The Captain moved his arm at a speed that was difficult for Asta to track with his ki detection. Without a few seconds even passing, waves of Dark Magic slashes were on their way to hit Asta straight on.
"This is b-bad!" Asta dodged the first slash. He then dodged the second. The third slash was about to hit him too, but Asta jumped out of the way. However, the slash did manage to make contact with the boy's foot, and he went flying up into the air. Asta was screaming.
"… Oi, idiot. What the hell are you doing?" Liebe shouted and demanded an answer from him.
"I j-just can't seem to concentrate… my mind is all over the place! He's way too fast" Asta said whilst still being flung into the air by Yami's attack.
"Hmph… you say you want to become the Wizard King… but you can't even focus on one sparring session…" Liebe replied, also seeming unimpressed by the boy's effort level.
Asta was silent. He knew he had to do this to become stronger than he was. He thought about the battle in the throne room again and how he submitted to his overflowing negative emotions. "That happened because I wasn't strong enough… I will not make the same mistake… ever again!"
The boy, as he was falling, extended his arms and held the Demon-Slayer sword and concentrated to transform into his Black Form, and after a few seconds he did, and he flew down to the ground safely.
Yami charged forward again "have you finally woken up? Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Black Blade!" the Captain wrapped his katana in darkness and went to slash his squad member.
"Anti-Magic: Black Hurricane!" Asta managed to counter his Captain's incoming attack by enveloping him within his Anti-Magic hurricane and cancelling the attack immediately whilst hurling Yami away into the air.
Yami managed to land safely and with little to no problem at all, however, this time he was impressed by the boy's abilities "looks like you're up for it now! … Then I guess I'll have some fun" he smirked. He projected more of his mana outwards and increased his speed and physicality with his Dark Magic.
"Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Black Blade!" Yami charged again.
"Not again…" Asta took in more of the devil power and flowed it back through the Demon-Slayer sword causing it to grow bigger in size. "Black Divider! Here I go…" Asta lunged in too and met Yami head on, they clashed swords and they made a bang as they hit one another.
Yami went to strike Asta's body from the side, but the boy's ki kicked in and he blocked it with his sword. The Captain then ducked down, much to Asta's surprise and slid underneath his body and held the katana upwards towards Asta's legs.
"You're getting better! But this is nothing compared to me… I'm not even at 100% yet" Yami laughed as he managed to slash Asta's right leg. The fabric of the trousers he was wearing was split open and his leg's skin was revealed. "By the way, Weird-Fangs… We're not supposed to attack properly are we? This is just a spar, right?" the Captain got up from the floor and paused to ask.
"… Do whatever… we've got Mimosa to heal any injuries, geh, geh…" Liebe said from inside Asta's grimoire.
"Well alright then! I'll get a bit more serious then" the Captain got excited from what Liebe said.
Asta paused for a moment and stared at the cut in his trousers. "Wait… so the Captain didn't know we could go all out, so he slashed at my legs specifically aiming for the fabric and not the skin…? WHAAAAAT?! He has that much control?" Asta rustled his head to try and make sense of it, but quickly readied himself for a fight that would become harder now that they could get more serious. "Can I improve somehow? My control with the swords is good… but can I improve on that?" sweat fell from Asta's head.
"Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Wild Slash!" the Captain used a move he hadn't used since the elf invasion. He swung his right arm in a flurry at breakneck speed with dark mana overflowing from the blade's swings. Many slashes headed towards the boy and he found it hard to dodge.
"This isn't good!" Asta tried to bring the Demon-Dweller sword out of his grimoire and he did so after a few seconds. "… Okay, here goes" the boy pointed the tip of his blade towards the incoming attacks and managed to absorb most of the dark mana and then fired it off back at the Captain. "How'd you like that?!" Asta screamed, but he didn't realise that one slash was still incoming, and it hit him full on in his chest, sending him flying back into a wall.
Yami saw the approaching attack from Asta's Demon-Dweller sword and jumped out of the way, almost instantly and avoided it. "Woah, that was a cool move from you… but you're still way too slow in changing from sword to sword!" the Captain said and charged at the boy again.
Asta was panting heavily but was not going to give up "no… this time, I'm going for the first strike!" Asta infused his own Anti-Magic right back through the Demon-Dweller sword causing it to spark from the increased devil power. "Black Slash!" he fired five slashes towards Yami, in quick succession.
Yami looked worried for a second but jumped and dodged out of the way. However, since Anti-Magic homed in on the flow of mana, the slashes began following the Captain even after he had dodged them.
"What the hell? Stop following me…" Yami jumped, swerved, and ducked but they kept following him without stopping.
"This is good, now I can take a breath…" Asta breathed heavily.
Yami then smirked "guess I'll bring this move back into play… Dark Magic: Black Hole!"
Asta's eyes widened.
The Anti-Magic slashes were completely gone after being sucked up by Yami's black hole. Even if they were Anti-Magic, they were still weak and couldn't nullify the black hole.
"That was a good move, I'll give you that" Yami smirked with a cigarette in his mouth.
Asta, however, didn't even hear the praise his Captain just gave to him. Instead, he was frustrated "one of my new moves, were cancelled out… just like that" he clutched the handle of his sword and went for the charge once more.
Yami noticed Asta's weird behaviour here and started to get annoyed "this kid… he's way too hard on himself. I can feel it in his ki. Even when he says he's fine, he's really not…" the Captain's thought process lead him to try harder against the kid. "Maybe if I go all out, something will awaken in him".
While he was running, Asta grabbed the Demon-Slayer sword from the grimoire. He jumped forwards and used the momentum to propel himself and fly towards the Captain. "Black Meteorite!" he shouted whilst homing in on Yami and a very high speed. Yami didn't have much time to react so quickly brought his katana in front of him to block the incoming strike.
The majority of this training session was frustrating for Asta. He only managed a few tiny hits in, which did no damage, whereas Yami managed to strike Asta with almost all of his attacks. Asta was fighting a losing battle, but he was still carrying on. Yami noticed this too.
As Black Meteorite got closer to Yami, the Captain stopped it with his katana enveloped in Dark Magic and blocked the full force of Asta's attack. Or so he thought, the Anti-Magic sparks that were radiating out from the Demon-Slayer managed to touch the Captain's arm and he let out a slight groan of pain.
The two landed back on the floor a few metres away from each other. Yami clutched his right arm where the Anti-Magic hit "god damn… your power is a real pain for whoever you're up against" he half-smiled. After a second or too, he stood up tall and towered over the boy. "You know what kid? You're way too slow in switching from sword to sword. I get they're stored in that freaky-ass grimoire of yours but isn't there a way to switch quicker?" he pointed the katana at Asta's face as if encouraging him to stand up and find an answer to his predicament.
Asta looked up towards his Captain "switch quicker?" he thought. "I have no idea, but I'll find the answer through this battle!" he stood up too, ready to go.
Yami looked slightly surprised but realised this was just Asta's nature "I thought for a second he was going to give up… but that's not the brat I recruited. No way, he'd ever give up!" Yami chuckled slightly.
Yami, while Asta was still smiling, quickly went in for an attack "sorry kid, but in a battle, no one is gonna wait for you… Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Black Blade!" he went in for the strike towards Asta's chest again.
Asta, reacted just in time though. He quickly brought out the Demon-Slayer sword and negated the attack by the blunt edge. "Woah that was quicker! But nowhere near enou-" Asta paused while he felt a slight cut on his chest. There was a tiny injury where the katana had managed to pierce through.
"Damn, I didn't mean to cut through… guess you're starting to push me too! However… Dark Reinforcement Magic: Wild Punch!" the Captain used his magic to strengthen his right fist and he slammed the handle of the Demon-Slayer sword causing it to land away from Asta. He couldn't reach out to it, so he only had two swords left. Yami then flung the boy away to make sure he couldn't retrieve the sword.
Asta stood up, panting from the intensity of this training session "I've still got… the Demon-Dweller sword…".
"Mana Zone… Dark Magic: Lightless Missile!" Yami finally started to use his Mana Zone and managed to form a new spell from it. "Woah this is new, my grimoire unlocked a new spell? Sweet". As the Black Bull Captain emitted his mana outward and took control of the mana surrounding him, he managed to condense his Dark Magic into three missile-looking shots in front of him. He then fired them off one-by-one towards the kid. "This brat…" Yami was panting too "… pushed me to my limits".
Asta was worried "M-Mana Zone! What, why… hang on, I can't worry…". The boy held out his Demon-Dweller sword, but instead of absorbing the attacks straight away, he was finding it hard to do so because of the increased force and power behind Yami's attack. He was losing his footing and was being pushed back. "No… I need to… surpass my limits!" After a few seconds of being held back by Yami's Mana Zone attack, he managed to absorb the first Lightless Missile and he used the power to his advantage "Anti-Magic: Devil's Erase!" the power and force of Yami's attack was directed right back at him, as well with his own Anti-Magic power mixed in.
The attack was going to hit Yami but… "Mana Zone… Dark Magic: Black Hole" the Captain nullified the entire attack easily. "He absorbed… my new attack? Woah, this kid's a freak!" He laughed.
However, in more bad news for Asta, the second Lightless Missile hit the Demon-Dweller sword's handle point blank causing the sword to fling far away from him "n-n-no! I only have one sword!" Asta panicked, but he couldn't even manage to do that for too long as the third and final Lightless Missile hit the ground in front of him, hurling him away towards another wall.
Asta crashed into a wall and the pieces crumbled from underneath him. "F-fine… Demon-Destroyer sword… here I go!".
However, much to Asta's shock, his Captain was already behind him. "Sorry kid… you were a great partner in this sparring match, but…" he picked the boy up and threw him away. Asta lost his grip on the Demon-Destroyer sword too and he was out of weapons to use. For the first time, Asta, in his Black Form, was out of swords.
The boy landed and dented the wall behind him and fell face first towards the floor. He wasn't getting up.
Yami slowly walked up to the boy "sorry if that was a bit rough from me, kid… you were a great fight though" he put another cigarette in his mouth and lit it. "This is ove-" Yami stopped as he was interrupted.
"… da…"
Yami stopped and looked at Asta, who was still lying on the floor.
"… da da…"
The Captain took a step back and saw Asta's face rise slowly from the ground it was buried in. It was covered in little cuts and bruises.
"MADADA…!" Asta shouted as he reached his hand out towards the Captain's direction.
"… This… isn't… over…"
One second passed.
"I need… my…"
Asta, who was still in his Black Form was reaching out for something. This 'something' was even further away than where Yami was standing. All of a sudden…
"Demon-Slayer!"
Asta's right hand was out and covered in Anti-Magic and as he called for it, the sword started to rumble and loosen itself from the ground it was lodged in and it quickly started flying towards the boy's arm. It was heading towards him, but Yami was right in the way and it struck.
Yami was absolutely shocked at what just happened. "Did this brat just summon the sword towards him?!" the Demon-Slayer sword was barely just blocked by Yami's katana and ki combination, but the tip of it pierced through Yami's wrist causing it to bleed. "He managed to cut through me…" the man smiled. He turned around and there was Asta.
He had fainted.
The Captain sheathed his katana and put his grimoire away as he walked up to the young Black Bull. "You really are something…" he smiled as he picked the boy up slowly and rested him in his arms. "I knew, right from the start, that you were someone destined for great things. I sensed your overwhelming determination and drive to improve even at the entrance exam two years ago…" Yami then started walking back to the main area where everyone had set up camp.
"You'll definitely become the Wizard King someday".
NOTES:
I had a lot of fun with this chapter tbh lol. There was no way I was having Asta defeat Yami because he's so strong :P
Asta being pushed to his limits ends up with him learning a new technique. People who are up to date with the anime know what the new technique refers to.
Yami also learned a new move!
I liked the last part with Yami speaking about his faith he has for Asta, quite wholesome
