Kasumi emerges from the lilac purple sphere of light, donning her Second State appearance. She also regains her left arm in the form of armor.
“Whew! That is a gorgeous look for you, Coldhart-san! What a contrast compared to your previous dark hair!”
“I thank you for the compliment, however. . .”
Kasumi enters her Iai stance and puts both of her hands on her left side, grabbing something with her right hand, even though there is nothing in her waist.
*ZRRRRKKKSSS*
But then, a purple lightning appears in her right hand, mimicking the shape of her katana.
“That won’t change what I am going to do to you for your foul words towards Luna-chan!”
“THAT’S WHAT I LIKE TO HEAR!!” said Vega, smiling widely and confidently.
“Kasumi style!”
*ZRAAAAAAARRRRRRR*
Her entire body is suddenly emitting purple lightning that zaps randomly in all directions in short ranges.
*FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM*
Vega enters his battle stance at the same time that his entire body catches fire.
“COME, COLDHART-SAN!”
*BWOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH*
“LIGHTNING IAI SLASH!!”
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM*
Kasumi vanishes from her spot and slashes Vega on the same torso, swinging her ‘katana’ at a different angle to create an X-shaped wound, but instead, a large explosion happens the moment her lightning katana comes into contact with Vega’s fiery body. The explosion also leaves a massive cloud of smoke that quickly flows upwards, high towards the sky.
*THUD*
However, Kasumi herself moved at the speed of lighting and she was never hit by the explosion. She lands 5 meters behind Vega and the large explosion.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHHAHAH!!!”
*FWOOOOOOOOMMMMMM*
*BRSSSSHHHH*
There is a laughter coming from the inside of the smoke, followed by a fire bursting in large scale from the inside of the cloud of smoke, pushing all of the smoke away, creating a five-meter-diameter raging fire in the middle of the snow.
“BLAZING METEOR!!”
*BWOOOOOOOOSSSSHHH*
*FWOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM*
The giant raging fire suddenly moves and flies towards where Kasumi is. It moves at 250km/h and reaches Kasumi within a second. Vega was at the center of the fire, and he swung his right fist at Kasumi.
*ZRAAARRR*
*BWOOOOOOSSHHHH*
But Vega misses his punch and keeps moving 20 meters ahead before stopping abruptly. Kasumi vanished from her spot, long before Vega even swung his hand.
*ZRAAARRR*
Kasumi suddenly appears next to Luna, and she is almost startled by her.
“Luna-chan! You okay?”
“Nothing happened to me, Kasumi-chan! But you, what is this form, Kasumi-chan?”
“Ah! That’s right! You passed out when I first achieved this, Luna-chan! This is how I look in my Second State!”
*!!*
“S-SECOND STATE? When did you achieve this? Did you always have this beforehand?”
“No, Luna-chan! As I’ve said, you were knocked out when I first unlocked this form during the fight with Hana-san!”
“Ah. . . I see!”
“But that’s not important now, Luna-chan! Can you do something for me?”
“What is it, Kasumi-chan?”
“. . .”
Kasumi takes a second before she finally talks.
“I feel. . . guilty for asking you to do this, especially after I know what you’ve been through, but can you go into that building down there and inform Quroe about him? Because I don’t think I can win against him even with Second State! I can only stall for time at least until Quroe-kun is here!”
“I see! I’ll do that immediately! But one second, Kasumi-chan! I just remembered something!”
“What is it, Luna-chan?”
“From my last chasers, I got some info that someone who’s ranked 13th Strongest in the world with Fire Faith power will be after me after them, so I think this is the guy! He matches the Fire typing at least!”
*!*
“13th Strongest? But he said he was Eighth?”
“Yeah, that’s what confused me at first! But I am pretty sure this is him!”
“. . .Alright then! If that’s the case, my chances of winning are improved by 0,0000001%! Great! Off you go, Luna-chan! I’ll distract him before he notices your departure!”
“Okay!”
*ZRRAAAARRRRR*
Kasumi’s entire body was covered in her purple lightning, and she disappeared from Luna’s sight.
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“Kasumi style!”
*!!*
“THERE YOU ARE, COLDHART-SAN!!”
Kasumi suddenly appears behind Vega, with her hands above her head, holding her ‘katana’ with both hands. He has been searching for her for a while after completely losing track of her.
“THUNDERBOLT POWER CLEAVE!!”
*ZRAAAAAAARRRR*
Kasumi swings down her ‘katana’ and at the same time, a giant purple lightning strikes down out of nowhere from the sky towards Vega’s head.
“HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
*FWOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM*
But fire suddenly bursts in a 10-meter radius from his entire body.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*
A gigantic explosion quickly occurred the moment the giant thunderbolt from above hit the large, bursting flame below. The explosion was 25 meters in diameter, and every snow and tree caught in the explosion vaporized without a trace. The gigantic explosion creates a 20-meter crater, 6 meters deep into the center of the ground. It also leaves a giant cloud of smoke that covers the entire crater.
*ZRAAARRR*
A purple lightning strike the snow below, 10 meters away from the crater, and Kasumi emerges from it. She has imbued her entire body with lightning and moved away quickly, narrowly dodging the giant explosion.
“(This is not good! At this rate, I’ll be too busy trying to escape unscathed from the explosion that will happen every time we clash our attacks! I’ll have to bait and counter to land a hit, but at the same time, his full-body flaming burst is so fast that an explosion will surely happen if I fail to hit him directly. I’ll have to hit him from afar!)”
*FWOOOOMMMMMMM*
A large fire suddenly erupts from the center of the crater and pushes away all of the smoke from the vicinity. The flame suddenly disappears, and Vega emerges, standing still at the center of the crater.
“Hmm, explosions after explosions after explosions. . . Gotta say, this fight is boring if explosions keep happening over and over again. I won’t get to enjoy anything from the smoke! Let’s do this then, Coldhart-san!”
*SSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
*!!*
Kasumi sees that Vega’s entire body is glowing dimly and smokes are coming off his skin. His skin is also turning bright yellow, very slightly; it looks like something is glowing just under his skin across his entire body.
“(W-What is that now? What is he doing?)”
Vega crouches down in a position ready to jump.
*BWOOOOOSSHHH*
*!!!*
And he jumps up diagonally upwards into the air, leaving the center of the crater instantly. He reaches 30 meters above the sky and is already falling down towards Kasumi.
“HEAT AXE!!”
He raises his left leg and swings it down towards Kasumi’s head, though there was no fire at all in his feet.
*ZRRRTTT*
“Kasumi style, LIGHTNING PUNCTURE!!!”
Kasumi thrusts her ‘katana’ upwards towards his incoming kick.
*ZRAAAAAAARRRR*
*!*
Her ‘katana’ rages wildly against his skin, and she cannot pierce through it.
“(W-WHAT?)”
“HAHAHAHAH!!”
*ZRAAARRRR*
Vega suddenly increases the strength of his kick and disperses Kasumi’s ‘katana’ forcefully. Vega lands on the snow, and Kasumi immediately creates another ‘katana’ and swings it at his neck.
*!*
Vega simply smiles and does not react to her slash.
*ZRAAARRRRR*
Her ‘katana’ hits his neck and immediately disperses, goes awry, and disappears on contact.
“. . .”
“(What happened? All of a sudden, I can’t harm him at all, even in my Second State. . . Also, he’s fighting without his flames to eliminate any explosion from our clash. . . . and now I can’t even pierce his skin. . . Are you saying that this is his pure physical strength alone? How laughable the difference is. . .)”
Kasumi moves quickly behind him and creates another ‘katana’.
“Kasumi style, THUNDERBOLT POWER CLEAVE!!”
*ZZRAAAAARRRRRR*
Kasumi does the same attack as previously; she swings her katana down, and a giant purple lightning bolt strikes from above.
*ZRAAAAAAAAARRRRRR*
*GRABS*
*!!*
Vega raises both of his arms, and he catches both the giant lightning strike and Kasumi’s ‘katana’ swing with his bare hands, albeit glowing dimly. Strangely, both the giant lightning bolt and Kasumi’s ‘katana’ stay in his hands without zapping him at all.
*GRIP*
*ZRAAAARRRRR*
He grips both of his hands, and both the giant lightning bolt and her ‘katana’ were destroyed and disappeared. But Kasumi continues her attack. She crosses her arms in front of her chest.
*ZRRRRRTTT*
Her entire body is covered by her purple lightning.
“LIGHTNING CAGE!!”
She spreads her hands wide open to the sides as she shouts.
*ZRAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR*
*ZRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTT*
Kasumi emits a powerful lightning shock in a sphere shape, five meters in diameter, from her body. The purple lightning rages wildly, zapping anything within range without stopping.
*!!!*
But Kasumi sees that Vega stays still inside her purple lightning cage firmly. He’s still in his battle stance, and every time her purple lightning zaps his skin, it is deflected to the side. This keeps happening thousands of times across his entire body during her entire attack.
Vega himself is smiling widely inside her purple lightning cage. He clenches his right fist, and it glows brighter.
“HEAT IMPACT!”
*!!!*
*BAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM*
He destroys Kasumi’s lightning cage with a single attack.
Vega takes a quick step forward and swings his right fist at Kasumi’s belly.
*BAAAAAMMM*
*BWOOOOOOSSSHHH*
It was a clean hit to her tummy, and she was sent flying backwards for 40 meters straight while her entire body also rotated clockwise. Again, there was no fire in his fist, just like previously.
*THUD THUD*
*ZZZRRRRSSSSSTTTTT*
She bounces off multiple times on the snow and stops after sliding on it for a few centimeters. Kasumi immediately gets up and stands on the snow.
“. . .”
She checked on her belly, and it was okay. She covered her belly with her purple lightning on impact to hope to reduce the damage somehow.
*THUMP*
*GRAAHK*
Vega suddenly jumped down from above and landed two meters away from her. He creates a two-meter crater with a depth of three meters on impact.
“Oh, good! You’re okay! You’re an Armament-type, right? Not only do you gain the abilities of your Armament to your body, but your body itself is also covered by invisible Vein armor fully on a different level during Second State! Your belly is hard! I’m impressed! And I punched you with a little bit of strength as well!” said Vega.
“Hey! Care to explain what happened? What happened to you all of a sudden? You’re a Fire-type Elemental Believer, and yet you fight without fire now, and you seem to be just as strong as when you used your Fire! What kind of trick is this? Are you a Hybrid perhaps? You have a separate Faith power to boost your physical capabilities?” asks Kasumi.
“Hm? Ah, I guess it is confusing to others, huh? See this?” said Vega as he raised his right arm forward, pointing it with his left index.
“This glow is actually fire! I am layering my entire body with a powerful yet thin layer of flame, just underneath my skin! Doing this creates a similar occurrence, just like my dense hot air barrier, and also, now that I think about it, this is just like Vein armor itself, granting physical prowess to the normal human body!”
“T-That’s possible. . .?”
“Yeah! This is something I just discovered a while ago by accident! I went on and experimented a bit more afterwards, and this is what I came up with! It’s a pretty strong technique, and I am pretty satisfied with this! The thing is, though, I usually combine this technique with my flames as well outside my body to maximize the damage! Consider this a service only for you since our attacks just causes explosion on every single clash! That would be an awful battle that I would not enjoy!”
“. . .I see. Then, can I ask one more thing before we continue??”
“Sure! Sure! Consider this a handicap since I am the 8th Strongest Believer in the world after all!!”
Kasumi suddenly points her finger at Vega.
“There! Right there! Why do you call yourself the 8th Strongest Believer?? I just got some info that you are actually ranked the 13th Strongest in the world? Why lie about your rank against me? I genuinely don’t see any point in that!”
“. . .”
Vega suddenly went quiet for a few seconds. He lost himself in his own thoughts for a while.
*SIGH*
He suddenly lets out a giant sigh out of nowhere.
“That’s right! I’ve been kicked out of the Ten Commandments of God! How could I forget about this. . .”
“Y-You get kicked out of that group? I didn’t even know something like that was even possible!”
“I was picking a fight with the Tenth Strongest, but he declined! I wanted to fight someone else, but everybody was busy with their missions. I was the only one free since I completed my task quickly, so I kept pestering the Tenth Strongest and attacked him unprovoked, hoping that he would get mad and attack me so we could fight. But unfortunately, the Second Strongest knew what was happening all the time, and she scolded and kicked me out of the group! *SIGH* The Second Strongest Believer is the strongest woman in the world, and I was no match for her. She completely wipes the floor with me. It was a very humbling experience! Couldn’t even land a single hit against her.”
“. . .Is that so?”
“But enough about me, LET’S JUST CONTINUE OUR PRECIOUS FIGHT, COLDHART-SAN!!” said Vega in high spirit as he re-enters his battle stance.
“Thanks to your long babbling, I actually prepared an attack that I hope would be enough to take you down!” said Kasumi as she smiled confidently.
