Chap 116: Divine and heavenly clash
Her face turned grim and bitter, as she bit her upper lip watching them. She was an imposing and overwhelming figure, both beauty and beast in one. Filled with love for those close to her and burning hate for everyone who dared to take them away. And in this very moment, these two emotions were in a terrifying storm.
Toji bore an expression that no one had yet seen, but it was easy to learn.
Mahoraga knows this is jealousy, for she too has been feeling it, able to only watch someone else bring joy to him.
"So....he did manage to tame you," Toji spoke, looking at the divine general.
Mahoraga nodded while walking forward. Agito was barely standing when her head was grabbed by Mahoraga. She tossed the weak Shikigami aside like it was a pest, her attention never left Tojiko as they had a stare down.
Tojiko did not like her, she felt threatened. Not in a physical sense, no.
But on an emotional level, the Shikigami's existence alone is enough for something to stir within her heart.
From the moment she appeared, catching Takumi's unconscious body and laying him down. Tojiko knew that this thing could not be around her lover.
*pop*
"You understand me right ?" The Divine General responds with a nod, "Then understand this." She pointed the soul-splitting katana at her.
"I don't want to share him." She spat.
Mahoraga smiled, a grin extending from ear to ear. Then she said.
"Me too."
The air was so tense that the sound of a pin drop could be heard.
Then both bodies shot at each other, they crashed into one another like meteors. Shockwaves released like the tide, sending everything into chaos and destruction as they met.
Mahoraga was shocked, she greatly out-sized the smaller woman, yet she held firm like a deeply seated tree.
The ground cracked under the force of their clash. Tojiko was the first to break the balance as she swung her Katana.
Without cursed energy, Mahoraga’s automatic adaptation can’t “read” her the same way she would a sorcerer. Toji exploits this immediately, closing the gap and driving her soul split katana into Mahoraga’s flank.
'Big. Heavy. Not slow, though.
The wheel’s turning. Something about it… reading me? No cursed energy to track, so it’s guessing. Good. Let it guess wrong.'
*clang*
The heavy sound of metal meeting was heard, Mahoraga's pure black blade stopped her. Now their blades are locked.
Again, the Zennin moves were quicker. She kicked the Shikigami right in the knee, sending Mahoraga off balance and letting her blade be free again. She swung and cut the curse spirit's head.
The blade bites deep, disrupting the shikigami’s cursed construction but the wheel turns once. Mahoraga’s body shifts subtly, its defenses morphing.
*Click*
Something wrapped itself around her hand, the white hair from Mahoraga. She picked the woman up and was about to stab Toji with her blade arm when another kick allowed Tojiko to set herself free.
""ARGH!""
The two screamed in pain, both reacting in time to face their challenger again.
Rubble explodes around them as the shikigami presses the attack. Tojiko’s raw physicality lets her keep up, flipping over an overturned bus and stabbing down toward Mahoraga’s head.
"You think, you can take him from me ?!!" Toji yelled.
The shikigami catches the sword tip with its free hand and flings Tojiko like a rag doll through a storefront.
"You don't deserve him!" Jumping on top of her, Mahoraga has one foot pressing on Tojiko's chest.
*BAM!* A punch came down, sending vibrations across the ground.
Another *BAM* from Mahoraga, her face scowling full of envy as she repeatedly beat on Tojiko's face.
"It should've been me!"
*BAM*
"Not you!"
*BAM*
"It's not fair."
*pop* *Stab*
Impaling her feet with a curse tool, its effect kicks in right away with a freezing cold layer of ice opening a path for Tojiko to escape.
Blades moving at a speed unperceivable by the eyes, Tojiko and Mahoraga. They move with deadly intent, the wind cloud was picking up from the two of them.
"I was there first, you don't get to complain when you only came in second place."
"Die!"
Dashing in circles, zig-zag, and other movements not detected by the eyes but by the destruction they bring.
Equal in speed and strength, Tojiko has the advantage of being more experienced. Constantly being able to out-trick or fool the Shikigami into making a mistake, which she exploited very much.
'Its wheel just turns again. That’s bad. Means it’s learning.' She thought after seeing and hearing another *click*
Mahoraga holds one good quality over her. She is a very fast learner, each time she was cut. It matters not if it is a beheading or piercing of her heart.
She came back, already knowing where the strikes could be, as more time passed. She grew to be more ferocious, with an increase in every stat she uses, and the efficiency of any weapons could deal damage to her, dropping just as much. Soon, no weapons in Tojiko's arsenal can harm her.
"Then all I need is to kill you to open up a spot."
"Ha....hah...you can try."
Slowly, blood began to flow out of a wound. Small, but that was just the beginning. The longer this battle goes on, the more likely Toji is to lose and die to Mahoraga.
To each hundred slashes Tojiko landed on Mahoraga, one cut can be made on her. But to Mahoraga, who can heal with no problem, Tojiko's healing has a limit.
The heavenly bodies have a very impressive regenerative speed, but in comparison to Mahoraga. She is going to lose.
Curse tools are not a viable option as the more tools she uses, the more Mahoraga can adapt. Their effects can only last for so long before the wheel on her head made a spin and she is right back at where she began.
*pop* *pop* *pop* *pop* *pop* *pop* *pop* *pop* *pop* *pop*
There were hundreds of blades, with their own special abilities. A sword that can cut through a shield, a spear that chases its target, a lance made from flames, and many more.....
Curse tools ranged in the hundreds. Toji stored them all along the years as an assassin. Now, she is using all of them to halt Mahoraga's process of adaptation.
*clang* She bashes a mace down Mahoraga's head, increasing the gravity on the shikigami by ten times.
Right away, she heard the distinct *Click* made by the floating wheels on top of its head.
She switched her weapon to a chain flail. She whipped them, hitting Mahoraga and creating an explosion on top of her.
*BOOM!*
Pale hands claw pass the smoke and punch at Tojiko's face, sending her into a building and collapsing it.
Each hit makes the wheel turn again. Mahoraga’s regeneration accelerates, and its sword now swings with the precision of someone who’s fought Toji a thousand times before.
Right now, Mahoraga has successfully adapted to fire damage, explosion damage, soul damage, any type of blunt attacks, and all types of slashing attacks.
Kicking the rocks away, Toji bleeding form emerged from the dark and then threw her body at Mahoraga right away.
While they are both smiling like crazy maniacs, inside their heart. Something else stirred, something....rageful.
The ground shook under their intense pressure, like multiple earthquakes happening at the same time.
In her hand, the last of her tools. The inverted spear of heaven. In a last attempt, she tries to drive that blade through Mahoraga's head and wheel.
'No idea if this could work, but *heh* I got nothing left anyway.'
Mahoraga’s wheel spins one last time, its body fully adjusted to Tojiko’s physical patterns. It steps forward, the thoughts inside only telling her to kill this woman.
""Stop.""