Chapter 73: Shido vs Tenka
In a desolate mountain, where the elevation was over 2,000 meter, two figures were standing 100 feet apart from each other.
The male was wearing light clothes, holding the sword Sandalphon in his right hand, standing in a steady pose.
The female facing him was wearing her dark purple Astral Dress, holding the sword Nahemah in her right hand, pointing it toward the male.
It was Shido and Tenka having a sparring contest, but Shido wouldn't treat this lightly. He knew how dangerous the attack from the other party could be.
"It's been a long time since the last time I saw you fight. Let's see how well you do right now."
Tenka said indifferently.
Shido knew that she was determined to have this fight, so he didn't talk much, simply saying:
"I'm ready. Come at me anytime!"
With a leap, Tenka charged toward Shido at lightning speed. With just one second, she reached where Shido was standing, swinging her Nahemah toward the side of his shoulder.
"Clang!"
Shido quickly blocked her attack with a swing of his Sandalphon, but the impact from Tenka was too strong, sending him backward for one step.
But that wasn't over. Tenka charged at him once again, swinging her sword toward his head this time. Shido quickly squatted down to avoid the attack, jumping forward and trying to get behind Tenka.
Suddenly, a cut was inflicted onto Shido's left shoulder. It was so fast that he couldn't react at all.
"Too slow." Tenka said indifferently. "I won't hold back next time."
Shido gritted his teeth. Feeling the pain on his shoulder, he activated Efreet's ability to heal the wound.
Then, Shido summoned the Angel "Michael" and activated its ability "Shifuru". With this ability, he awakened his full potential, improving his power dramatically.
Next, Shido charged at Tenka, swinging the sword at a much faster speed. Tenka was amazed by his increased speed, but she still blocked Shido's swings smoothly.
While clashing swords with her, Shido worked his brain and tried to find an opening. After a few more blows, he slashed the sword on the ground, causing a smokescreen. However, he coughed on the flying dust, stopping his movement.
Not letting this opportunity pass, Tenka leaped toward Shido and tried to attack, but it was exactly what Shido expected. He dodged sideways and swung his sword at her, but in a split second, she vanished!
Where is she?
Shido turned his head left and right, but there was no trace of her. It was like she never came here in the first place.
No, she's…
Shido turned his head around, seeing that Tenka was right behind him, pointing her Nehemah at his neck.
"Too easy." Tenka said triumphantly, but her gaze unfazed. "You are too naive to think I would fall for that."
"Of course," Shido simply smiled, "that's why I…"
He suddenly exploded and disappeared!
"Wha…" Tenka was surprised by the turn of events, but there was no time for her to think.
Dozens of light rays shooting toward her, most of them sealing her possible escape routes. In other words, she was a sitting duck in her spot.
But before the light rays reached her, dark purple whirlwinds appeared around Tenka's body and negated all of the attacks. Next, with the swing of her sword, a berserk sword beam headed toward the direction where the attacks came from, destroying the mountain behind it.
A figure of a man jumped out just in time before the attack landed, and he settled on top of a huge rock before regaining his balance.
It was clearly Shido. The previous one that exploded was a shadow clone, created by the power of the eighth bullet from his Angel "Zafkiel". Obviously, he used it as a distraction so that he could prepare an attack. He activated the angel "Metatron", creating dozens of light rays that were fast and strong. However, Tenka was way too powerful for that.
"Clever idea, distracting me with a clone of yours." Tenka commended him for his tricks. "But it's still too slow."
Shido gave a wry smile. He was not expecting this at all.
Before Tenka charged at him again, Shido shot himself with the first bullet, Aleph, increasing his own speed. To note that he had already increased his potential earlier with Michael, now his speed was at an unprecedented level.
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
Shido was fighting toe-to-toe with Tenka, making her genuinely surprised. Although his sword skill was still weaker than hers, he made it up with speed.
After a while, Shido's speed suddenly decreased: The effect of Aleph wore off!
Feeling the movement of her opponent had slowed down, Tenka seized this opportunity and activated her skill "Sky Splitter". She released two waves of sword beams mid air and stroked onto where Shido was standing.
Reacting quickly, Shido summoned a huge ice wall with the angel "Zadkiel" and blocked Tenka's powerful attack. Out of all the abilities he had, this was the most suitable one to use under such circumstances.
The ice wall collapsed in a mere 2 seconds, but it was enough time for him to get out of the way.
He quickly flew to the huge rock that he settled on earlier. But at this time, Tenka flew toward him as well.
Panicked, Shido summoned the guns of Zafkiel and fired the bullet "Zayin" toward her, hoping to freeze her time and stop her attack.
Tenka simply slid sideways, dodging it easily. But to her surprise, Shido fired the bullet "Dalet" in the same direction where the previous bullet traveled.
It was missing her no matter what, so why did he do that?
Tenka pondered, but her movements weren't slowing down at all. She activated the skill "Dark Edge: Perish" and created several horizontal cleaves, before launching them toward Shido.
He created an ice wall with Zadkiel's powers again. But Tenka's attack was stronger than the last one, destroying the ice wall in only one second, many of the shockwaves heading toward Shido and inflicting multiple cuts on his body.
Seeing Shido injured, Tenka charged forward and pointed her sword toward him. But when she was only 3 feet away from him, she suddenly found out that she couldn't move anymore, as if her time was frozen.
That's right, the bullet of Zayin hit her from behind, freezing her time in space.
Shido sighed in relief. He flew toward Tenka, wrapping one arm around her slim waist. Then, he summoned the gun of Zafkiel and pointed the muzzle at her soft chest.
After 3 seconds, the effect of Zayin wore off, and Tenka regained her ability to move, only to find out that she was in Shido's arm, unable to break free. In addition, the muzzle of his gun was pressing against her left breast!
"What are you doing?" She tried to struggle, but to no avail. "How dare you touch my chest!"
"I win." Shido smiled triumphantly. "Am I qualified to protect Tohka?"
"Fine, you win." Tenka turned her gaze away, her face flushed. "Just let go of me."
Shido deactivated his angel and let go of her. He knew that his sword skill could never top Tenka's, so he had to be creative with his strategy if he wanted to win. He didn't want to hurt her either, which made things more difficult, since she wasn't the type that he could defeat by holding back.
Even so, Shido came up with such a brilliant plan: Hitting the "Zayin" bullet with the "Dalet" bullet, rewinding the time of its trajectory. For example, if the Zayin bullet was fired from the huge rock and traveled for 3 seconds, by applying the Dalet bullet on it and rewinding its time for 3 seconds, it would make the Zayin bullet fly back to the location of the huge rock.
Since Tenka charged at Shido who was injured, she moved to the place of the huge rock. The bullet flew back and hit her from behind just before she could land another attack on Shido.
She had figured this out by herself as well. She pouted, turning around and leaving her back at Shido.
But, to her surprise, Shido wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ears:
"Thank you, Tenka."
Tenka was about to yell, but was taken aback by his thanks.
"For…for what?"
"For helping me get stronger."
Shido smiled warmly, clearly not blaming her for hurting him all over.
"Well, let's go back. I wanna take a shower."
Tenka was too embarrassed to return his gratitude, simply changing the subject, demanding to go home. But, Shido could see that her ears got red…
