Author's note:- the chapter might have a slightly worse writing compared to other chapters. I only had two hours to make and couldn't fix the reorganize to make it look better.
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EAT THIS, YOU MASKED BASTARD!! Dark cloaked sharp Slash"
A black coloured aura envelopes Yami's katana as he dashes at Asta after getting deflected just a second ago.
But a simple strike wasn't enough to overpower Asta and Yami knew that from his earlier exchange. In actuality, the strike was just outer lie to make a fient.
It was not a sharp strike at all, it was a blunt one meant not to strike but absorb.
Asta moved, his hands going straight to the blade to parry the fient to the side just like Yami predicted. however the lack of weight behind the strike coupled with ki sense and instincts immediately helped Asta react.
The mana near his arm surged, gathering at one spot to make a unstable imitation of Jack's mantis blades.
He helplessly watched the fient shift into slash and tried to block. But-
Snap
"Crap! It wasn't enough! "
The imitation shattered instantly, only managing to decrease the speed enough for Asta to barely lean back out of the sword's path.
Asta watched as the blade passed half a centimeter away from his skin, however his worries increased as just dodging the blade wasn't enough and he felt another strike coming from behind.
A lightning fast kick struck him, sending jolts of electricity and a strong wind alongside a bang sound spread throughout the hall.
"Oi oi oi! That's unfair!" Luck immediately called out the unfairness of the fight. His kick hadn't even moved Asta an inch.
He could only watch as Asta turned his head like an owl, and just barely noticed a near instant blur and before being met with a heavy impact at his back.
before long, Luck realised something had struck him in the back, a horizontal spin kick that bent his body backwards.
The hit sent Luck Ragdolling to the other side of the hall, crashing straight into Gauche and Grey who he crashed into, dispersing their transformation and mirror clones of others.
The three of them immediately fainted, lessening the opponents Asta had to face.
"Three down... 7 more to go." Asta said as he jumped forward at Yami. His claws already coated in low level enhancement magic as spins and delivers a diagonal slash that Yami blocks.
Then punch after punch, Yami and Asta both eventually reached a stalemate in their attacks. It was like a barrage of fists against a storm of swords, both destroying themselves while refusing to yield to the other.
However-
"Dark cloaked slash!"
Yami fires a sharp slash made of dark magic that Asta easily sidestepped.
For a second Asta looks at Yami, finding him covered in sweat and his grip shaking. He noticed an opportunity and attacked, arriving in front of Yami, half crouched as he pulled back his fist.
Slash... Spurt
Struck off his balance, Asta notices something red flowing down his back–His own blood.
"Huh...? " Asta gets engulfed in pain as he realised he was slashed. His mind wavers for a second from the unexpected damage, turning blanked out for just a moment, "Did something hit me? But I didn't sense any attac—"
Yami closes in with the katana pointed at the ground, "You were too reliant on your senses. Now pay the price. Dark magic, "
[Threat capable of death detected: Activating Trait: Battle fanatic]
The world slowed down for Asta as his reflexes heightened. The system had clutched a saving grace for him.
In the same second, the quick learner trait and the Battle fanatic's effects compounded, giving Asta a moment of clarity as he felt how his mana was moving and instinctively moved it to his chest.
The mana enhanced his skin, not a low level imitation but real enhancement magic that many mages learn. His skin was quickly tightened, it's defenses reinforced while a purple layer of gravity magic surrounded his body.
"-Dark cloaked Continuous Cut "
Over a dozen of dark slashes struck Asta at once, sending him flying up into the air with several cuts on his body.
He flipped in mid-air, an understanding dawning him as found Zora looking at him from below and understood what had struck him a few moments ago.
However before he could crash down, he sensed something once again and hardened his skin with magic.
Just a second later, he was struck with a water dragon as big as a house and was smashed right back into the door he arrived from in the beginning.
Cough...
Greatly injured from dozens of attacks, Asta fell to his knees while coughing blood.
The damage was greater than he expected, but he didn't give a single damn about it. Since the beginning he has been thinking of this battle as training and the confident smile has not once left his face.
Soon Asta's muscles tensed up, his body turning into a literally fountain of blood as he stood up through the pain itself.
"Captain... I told you to give it your all."
Asta's words caused Yami's danger senses to peak, causing his grip to tighten as he prepared for the worse.
Yet before anybody could notice, two figures flashed right behind Asta without any hostility or will to attack.
Immediately, a surprised expression formed on Asta's face, his eyes almost completely wide open in shockas he felt two slim hands touch his left arm and Turned to witnessthe formation of a sealing magic seal on it.
It was Nero, her small body being carried by a pale faced Luck who was bleeding from the top of his head. It was a last ditch effort to do something, and it did, but not exactly what they expected.
BOOMM!!
A gigantic explosion of black colour appears on Asta's location.
"Nero!"
"LUCK!"
The still conscious blackbulls scream the name of their comrades while Yami's facial expression turns to one of horror.
Immediately he sprints forward, darting ahead like a arrow with his sword already in full swing as he prepared to Slash Asta into two.
However, a giant black blade pierces out of the smoke, intercepting Yami's strike before the sword spins by itself, bashing Yami with its blunt side.
The strike sends Yami back, his feet sliding across the floor as he lowered his center of gravity to slow down from the impact.
Soon the cloud was blown by a strong wind, revealing Asta who now had the appearance that many blackbulls know– the single winged transformation.
Anti-magic was flooding out of his body, devouring every bit of mana in the surroundings as he had barely stopped his instincts from killing Nero and Luck in their spots.
...
....
"A-Asta? "
Nero stuttered as she spoke, her eyes involuntarily going to the edge of Demon-Dweller that was placed near her neck while Luck stared in shock at the pointed crystal edge of Elsdocia almost touching his eye.
The hall was immediately filled with silence, not one person being able to say a word for 10 full seconds before Asta moved first.
At the same time Yami felt a surge of emotions aimed towards him, not hostility but emotions of regret and dissatisfaction.
"I am sorry, Captain."
Thwack- Thwack
The sound of two near instant hand chops reached Yami's ears before Asta voice.
He immediately fainted in the next moment, slowly falling to the floor after being hit on the back of his neck two time by Asta's hand that pierced through his mana skin thanks to Anti-magic.
However Asta caught the Unconscious Yami. He supported him with his shoulder, slowly lowered himself down, gently putting his Captain on the floor while also grabbing the katana from his hand in the process.
By this time, the other black bulls had recovered from their trance and turned towards Asta and Yami.
However before any of them could speak, Asta appears right in front of them with a finger on his lip.
"Shh~... It will be long over when you guys wake up."
Slam. Slam slam slam.
Within an split-second, everyone in the black bulls fainted, Each slammed to unconsciousness by Asta using Gravity magic.
It was over just like that. However hurting his friends so mercilessly was still taking a toll on his morality.
But nevertheless, he couldn't change his mission, So he sighed, shifting his focus on the other important stuff.
"Could you take them to safety, Sir Lemiel."
"Sure thing!"
Lemiel replied instantly, his message going straight back to Asta's head thanks to the owner's mark he received before.
Soon after, the ground beneath the black bull members split opens to reveal a passage, taking them all deeper into the city's middle zone through a tunnel mechanism.
Meanwhile Asta narrows his eyes, taking a brief glance at Yami's katana as he fills it with Anti-magic and sends it into his grimoire.
He had achieved one of the things he needed, now it was time to move to another.
It was time to defeat the Captain of Green Mantis- Jack the ripper.
However before he could move further, Asta noticed something sticking out in front of him.
He moved closer, his eyes losing a bit of their tension as he pulls out two pieces of clothes out of a satchet Magna was carrying with himself earlier.
"You guys... This is just what I would expect of idiots like you."
Asta said as his smile grew brighter. He grabbed the two things from the satchet, immediately wearing them without hesitation.
The items were none other than his cloak and hairband. While the clothes still fit, they were surely much tighter to wear thanks to difference between his current and past body size(muscles).
However the emotional support the items gave was more than enough reason to keep them on.
So, with a enthusiasm that matched his personality, Asta strode ahead towards the gate again. His mind now filled with a determination to end everything with the least amount of damage to everybody... Except Lucius, of course. Asta was gonna take his time beating him to a pulp.