Dream of the Sword Saint: Open Dream
CLINK! CLINK! CLANG! CLANG!
If the subjects of Inazuma could see what was transpiring right now, they'd be in utter disbelief.
CLINK! CLINK! CLANG! CLANG!
It should be impossible, inconceivable, that a mortal could ever stand up to a god.
CLINK! CLINK! CLANG! CLANG!
And yet, it was a reality, this human… no… this Sword Saint, wielding a strange black katana, was currently on equal footing with the millennia old warrior.
"Come now! This can't be all a god has to offer!" Isshin was using a sword style completely unfamiliar to Ei, one that combined inhuman speed with unrelenting power and ferocity, the famed 'Ashina' style.
"Ghhk!" Ei was more than capable of keeping up with the human, but the sheer speed and power behind his attacks kept throwing her off. She was currently trying to fight thousands upon thousands of years of instincts telling her that mortals shouldn't be able to match the divine, and those brief lapses in attention were fully being fully exploited by the Sword Saint. "This mortal's faster than a tengu and stronger than an oni. And that blade hasn't once dented despite directly clashing with Musou Isshin, within the Plane of Euthymia! Who is this ma-" Ei's thoughts ceased when the man stomped on the ground, fire erupting from around the point of impact. "!"
"GGRRAAHH!" Isshin used the flames and slashed at them to coat the Black Mortal Blade in fire. Ei barely managed to react in time, still reeling from the fact that the man summoned fire beneath his feet despite not having a Vision, blocking the flame empowered strike and sending her a good distance away.
Ei wouldn't have time to rest, as Isshin quickly rushed at her with a barrage of strikes. Managing to deflect each and every blow, she was expecting the man to finish his barrage with another sword strike. So imagine her surprise when he followed up the relentless barrage with a grapple.
"Wha-" Ei barely had time to finish her statement of confusion as the man grabbed her sword arm, and proceeded to throw her overhead before slamming her into the ground. "ACK!"
Isshin attempted to follow up his grapple with a piercing strike, but luckily Ei managed to recover in time to jump away from the strike, before sending Electro discs at Isshin. The man responded, by launching wind slashes, canceling out the Electro discs.
"?!" To say Ei was shocked was an understatement, this human was an anomaly, something completely unprecedented. A human, stronger and faster than any divine creature she's met, and able to control not only Pyro, but seemingly Anemo as well? "He cannot be let outside! I must finish him here!" Ei sheathed her sword, preparing to do a cross slash. Isshin, following up his long range attacks, did the same, dashing towards Ei while preparing to do the infamous 'Ashina Cross'.
CLANG! CLANG!
The two quickdraw attacks met each other, the sheer power canceling each other out while also creating a deafening ringing noise. Ei decided that now was the time to stop holding back, and dispersed into four illusionary avatars.
"Hoh? How amusing." Isshin was swiftly dodging the Electro slashes headed his way, slashes that kept increasing in speed the longer they went on. "One must be the main body. As to which one that is… I'll probably lose my limbs before I figure that out." Isshin sheathed the Black Mortal Blade, black energy charging up and funneling into the blade, more and more being collected until it was drawn.
WOOOSH!
A massive black disc was followed by a deafening reverb, dispersing all the avatars, and revealing the main body, who's forearms were only lightly cut due to reacting in time, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was that the attack hurt. A lot. One thing was clear to Ei now. That blade was capable of killing her. She needed to end this quickly. She started funneling immense amounts of Electro energy into the Musou Isshin, summoning lightning strikes all around the arena. Isshin responded in kind, dashing directly into the eye of the storm, Black Mortal Blade in sheath, ready to draw.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
SLASH!
The two warriors striked each other before ending up and facing opposite sides, before sheathing their weapons. Flurries upon flurries of Electro and sword slashes clashed and struck the two warriors, wounding them heavily. Isshin's 'One Mind' technique met the Raiden Shogun's famed 'Musou no Hitotachi'.
"GHHK! I'll… admit… a beautiful technique…" Isshin was heavily wounded, slashes and burns all over.
"How… are you…" Ei wasn't in much better condition, numerous slash wounds were present all over her. For the first time since the Archon War, Ei had felt bodily pain. But what was more inconceivable to her was not the fact the man survived the Musou no Hitotachi, just like that other monstrous human, that would've been in the realm of possibility if he was related to that 'Genichiro'. No, this man not only survived the famed technique, but had the pride to clash with it with his own. Ei was currently gathering more and more energy, accelerating her regeneration in an attempt to finish this fight.
"Heh… I'm just warming up!" Isshin's own wounds started healing at an accelerated rate as he stomped the ground. Ei expected fire to come from where he stomped, but instead what emerged was a horn-spear. Isshin was now dual wielding the Black Mortal Blade alongside a weapon that was longer and heavier than he was. "HOW MY BLOOD BOILS! FACE ME RAIJIN!"
"!" Ei responded in kind by summoning the Engulfing Lightning polearm in her left hand and dual wielding it with the Musou Isshin, preparing for the man's next move.
"RRRAAAAAAAGGGH!" The two gathered Electro energy and wind respectively into the blades of their polearms, and launched swift vertical slashes at each other, before rushing towards each other to prepare to barrage the other with attacks.
CLINK! CLINK! CLINK! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The Musou Isshin met the Black Mortal Blade, while Engulfing Lightning met the horn spear of Shuzen Tamura, more infamously used by Gyoubu the Demon. Blow after blow was struck, each combatant gathering Electro and wind respectively to empower their strikes to overpower the other, but no matter what was done, they were locked into a stalemate until Isshin charged up a powerful overhead strike with the horn spear, forcing the Raiden Shogun to block it with an Electro shield, sending her a good distance backwards. Ei should be able to take a breather, the chances of someone getting through this shield was near imposs-
Crack.
"Wha-"
Crack. Crack.
The shield was cracking? How? Why? The answer? The sprinting Sword Saint now with a flintlock pistol in hand, rapidly firing it at the Raiden Shogun, each shot chipping away more and more of the shield.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
More and more of the shield was cracking, relentlessly fired upon by the man's gun, until said man crossed the distance and plunged his spear directly below the Shogun, shattering it completely. Ei responded by summoning down lightning, momentarily stunning Isshin, before summoning numerous Magatsu Electroculi. Isshin, recovering from the shock faster than Ei expected, now had yellow sparks emitting from him. He raised his sword into the air before rushing towards the Shogun at blinding speeds, doing an uppercut with the spear so powerful it sent his body flying upwards. Ei deflected the spear's strike but didn't expect him to remain suspended in the air, what was- "!"
Yellow lightning struck the man as he remained suspended in the air. As Isshin swung his lightning empowered strike, the Electroculi went off, exploding into numerous slashes. While both were heavily injured from their respective blows, the two still had enough energy to imbue their respective polearms with Electro energy and the yellow lightning respectively, and swung at each other.
BOOM!
The resulting clash created an explosion of yellow and purple lightning, sending the two combatants flying away from each other, and crashing into the ground.
"Hah… hah…" Isshin was the first to get up using the massive polearm to balance himself.
"..." Ei said nothing, not even gasping for breath as she did the same.
The two's wounds were regenerating, but it was clear that the battle was taking a toll on them.
"I'll… be the first… to admit… I've only ever danced with death three times… Once, by one not too different from you… Second, when a One-Armed Wolf ended my life… and now…"
"... Only through Eternity… are you closest… to the Heavenly Principles…" Ei's eyes glowed brighter and brighter. More and more energy was being gathered, and then she disappeared.
"?... !"
"THIS BODY IS ETERNAL!" Ei reemerged, now sporting a different attire, with two massive hands under her, three spectral arms to her left, and a massive sword wielding arm to her right. The Raiden Shogun has entered her Baleful Shadowlord state. The amount of power radiating from her and the arena turning a shade of purple, almost as if it was literally being changed by her power, made her statement clear to Isshin. She was ending this now.
"Heh… HEH!" Isshin raised his sword as yellow sparks started emanating from him, before stomping, causing a massive bolt of the Lightning of Tomoe to strike him, causing a massive shockwave and dust cloud. Euthymia's skies were now blotted by an intense thunderstorm of said yellow lightning. "I'M NOT DONE YET! RAIJIN!"
The Plane of Euthymia was now being enveloped in massive amounts of Electro energy with numerous yellow lightning bolts striking the ground, almost as if they were vying for dominance. The two warriors stared each other down with their full power, serenaded with the sounds of thunder.