Black Clover: Nah I'd Lose

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Akeru landed on the ground just as a few more chains rushed at him.

'Poison Chain Magic. Though due to the layer of mana on my body, poison shouldn't be a problem, but-'

A number of water bullets manifested around Akeru, phasing between red and green in colour.

They all moved towards the chain, hitting the pointed tips, pushing them back enough for Akeru to Moonwalk backwards.

'The mana of those water bullets was disrupted the moment they touched the chains. Though the momentum of the bullet was enough to do the work required, it would be deadly if I touched the chain.'

Akeru ducked as a fire phoenix barely passed above his head.

'It's the same magic circle that was on the rocket. That array disrupts mana it contacts with, though that's for one side only, as the other side is in direct contact with the magic it's stuck to,' Akeru analyzed as he did a horse kick to Kaiser, who was barely able to reinforce his gut and was hurled backwards like a ragdoll.

'Fuck, it hurts,' Kaiser managed to send dozens of phoenixes at Akeru, which created a few bullets to take care of some of them while dodging the other ones directly.

It was successful in keeping Akeru busy with some chains intending to touch him once.

'I was initially going to battle him in close quarters, but looking at Erza,' Kaiser, still airborne, looked at the figure of Erza, who was spasming on the ground.

BOOM.

Kaiser crashed on a hill, directly destroying it.

Fire enveloped his legs as he rushed at Akeru again.

Akeru only sent a big water bullet at him, however, Kaiser dodged it this time and added more phoenixes while making a big phoenix.

'How troublesome. Not only are these two attacking me with good coordination, Kaiser's attacks are more annoying. If I got hit, it would slow me down, and that chain's pointed edge only needs to touch me once to end the game,' Akeru furrowed his brows while manoeuvring his way through the chaotic scene.

He ducked slightly as a pointed edge of a chain just passed where his head was.

He sent three small water bullets, two sending back the chains coming at him and one hitting a phoenix that was dangerously close to his head and coming from behind.

Akeru closed the distance between him and Ren for the first time in the battle.

'Despite being considerably stronger than him, I see fewer blue lines on him other than using my mana zone, though, for some reason, all of them feel fake' Akeru looked at Ren's calm eyes.

'It feels like I am looking at my reflection,' Akeru chuckled as red-green lightning manifested on his right hand.

'Vibratory Chaos'

Just as Akeru thrust his hand, he suddenly felt a red line on the ground, which just as it appeared, reached the threshold of intensity which signifies that an attack is launched.

A magic circle appeared on the ground, and Akeru felt it hard to control his magic. Even Vibratory Chaos was getting disrupted and hurting his own hand, making Akeru expel all the mana.

'Damn, what a move,' Akeru was shocked at what the guy did.

He could understand what happened, and that's why he was dumbstruck.

'I only sensed that magic circle at the last instant, as it wasn't activated by Ren's intention, but rather had a random time at which it could be activated. Does this mean he predicted when I would attack him?' Akeru was speechless at his own assumption.

'Though he won't know from which direction I would come, that's why he put it all around him,' Akeru thought while looking at Ren, whose mana was disrupted too.

'Hot,' Akeru thought as even without turning back, he could feel the heat of the large fire phoenix Kaiser threw at both of them.

Due to the magic circle, Akeru couldn't properly use mana without breaking the circle first.

"Tch, I am impressed," Akeru said while internally enhancing his leg, kicking Ren sideways and doing a Moonwalk in the opposite direction such that both of them went in opposite directions, barely dodging the fire phoenix.

'He probably didn't know that my internal control would be enough to dodge it, though with that kick, some of his bones should have broken.'

Just as Akeru exited the area of that magic circle, the layer of mana protecting him came back.

However, due to the temperature of the flames, even without direct contact, Akeru had some light burns on his body.

Not only that, but due to losing control over his spell, Akeru's right arm was not only burned considerably but his nerves were fried, such that he wouldn't be able to use the lower part of his right arm.

'Hehe, the amount of damage they did to me is several-fold lesser than how much damage I did to myself,' Akeru internally chuckled.

Just as he stopped, Akeru's eyes suddenly widened.

Erza's form was lying on the ground.

However, having "coincidentally" landed near her was not the reason for his surprise.

The surprise was due to a small bullet exiting the tip of the knife she was holding.

WHOOSH

The speed at which it was coming at him was nearly 10 Mach, which was not the highest he had seen from Erza's bullets. However, unlike the last time, this wasn't reinforced by Ren.

Not only that, the distance between them was not even more than 3 meters, unlike more than 100 meters last time.

Akeru's reaction was instantaneous.

Just as the bullet reached near his head, red lightning appeared on his body.

However, that itself was not enough as the bullet slowed down to 1/100 times its original speed.

This all happened instinctually, just as Akeru activated Still Spectator.

Red-Green Lightning appeared in his zone, obliterating the bullet before it could touch Akeru.

'That was fucking close,' Akeru thought while deactivating 'Still Spectator'.

He also stopped himself from killing Erza almost on instinct.

He didn't expect the small bullet to come out of the knife and at such speed with so small a fluctuation of mana.

"Hehe, you used your mana zone, which means we won," Erza broke the silent battlefield while inside Akeru's zone.

Akeru realized that he was still leaking killing intent, so he immediately stopped that.

"My bad, you activated my instincts there," Akeru said while smiling wryly and shortening his mana zone to be only around him.

"I would take that as a compliment," Erza grinned while trying to stand up.

"Let me help you," Ren said while one of his pointed chains softly pierced Erza.

"Woah, is that an array that reverses an attribute?" Akeru asked, shocked.

Though the mana disruption array was clearly advanced level and he had thought about it before, this array was the first time he knew about it.

"Yeah, it reverses my poison to be able to heal people. It's one of my own creations," Ren said in his usual stoic manner, but Akeru could feel a hint of pride in his words.

'Or maybe that's just me,' Akeru thought.

"So, how is the criteria of the reverse of an attribute decided?" Akeru asked.

"Well, it's kind of complicated as it doesn't purely follow the natural attribute pairing of its weakness and strength, but rather an altered form."

Attribute pairing is basically a theorem that gives us the strengths and weaknesses of an attribute along with which other attributes they are closely related to.

For example, Water is stronger than fire, but weaker than Lightning.

Also, for derivation, lightning is derived from Wind magic.

(A/n- This is canon)

"I see, I guess it probably was altered to fit your needs while making it compatible with the 'reversal' array."

"Yes, exactly," Ren nodded.

"You guys, we are here too, you know," Erza, who had now got up from the ground, said in an exasperated tone.

"Ahem, anyway, good job. You guys are really strong," Akeru said, not embarrassed for actually forgetting the other two's existence for a few moments.

'I would say apart from Kaiser, both of them are first-class, though I would say the most dangerous of the bunch is Ren,' Akeru analyzed the battle.

'He had me exactly where he wanted me to be in mostly all instances. To be honest, I don't like such kind of people to be my enemies.' Akeru was seriously impressed at Ren not only making a series of actions which led Akeru to rush at Ren, which was in plan with the magic circle's activation.

And Ren's achievements didn't end there. Due to the positioning of Kaiser's phoenix, Akeru would have to dodge in the direction where Erza was if he wanted to hit Ren while doing that.

So, it was understandable for Akeru to be freaked out by Ren as he could exactly understand what happened in detail.

"Well, I forgot to give my introduction last night, so let me give you one now," Akeru said while water enveloped his right arm, rapidly healing it to how it was before.

"I am Akeru. I like trying out new things, improving my skills, good food, and hanging out with my friends," Akeru's right hand completely healed.

"My goal is to explore this world properly."

***

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