As soon as Satoshi disappeared from view, Emma prepared a couple of portals around her since there was a good chance Shiroi would launch a surprise attack. She was right on the money. In an instant, Shiroi sent out a couple of ice spikes her way before she started charging.
Emma jumped into one portal, trying to flank Shiroi who had attacked her without a signal. That's the only thing she could do since she was severely disadvantaged against Shiroi. While Shiroi's superpower can be used for offense and support, her superpower was purely support type. That's why even if she could get near Shiroi, she won't be able to attack without getting hurt. The only thing she could do was keep her at bay.
However, Emma knew that that was not what Satoshi wanted. She was aware of how powerless she was against offensive types, but if she remained that way, then she stood no chance against her would-be opponents on the school's testing day.
That's why, for the past few days, she had been undergoing special training. Her superpower was probably one of the most dangerous superpowers to ever exist, and she used that to her advantage. Her training consisted of teleporting objects as close to their size as possible. That meant, if she was going to teleport a ball, then she should create a portal with the same shape and almost the same size as that ball. If she wanted to go head-to-head with other superpowers, she should get at least that level of control.
Shiroi was not aware of her training, but she didn't let her guard down either. The moment Emma showed up behind her, she erected an ice wall behind her, cutting Emma off.
That didn't stop Emma, though. Thanks to her fast reflex, she managed to create another portal through the ice wall before she aimed a punch at Emma's neck— her blindspot.
It was a perfectly timed attack, and Shiroi was hit squarely on her chin before she realized that an attack was coming right at her. Apparently, Emma manifested a mobile dimensional portal and have it appear on Shiroi's neck. Since Shiroi was running forward, she had to control the portal by moving it forward, just so it wouldn't damage Shiroi's neck. This level of precision was sophisticated enough that Shiroi didn't notice it, and Emma was able to pull it off.
Her control was better than she thought.
What Shiroi didn't know as well was that Emma had been training under Tatsuki's wing for the past week. That means, she had the same regiment as Satoshi when it comes to their father-son training. Of course, she couldn't keep up, but she had drastically improved thanks to those training.
Shiroi softened her landing by creating a pile of snow under her. She then rolled sideways before Emma could deliver another punch to her stomach. This wasn't the first time she fought Emma, but she could tell that she had drastically improved ever since their last fight. Not only was she more precise in her portal creation, she was also pretty resilient with her attacks and movements, able to adjust in an instant as if it was pure instinct.
Emma punched straight, but Shiroi jumped forward despite the punch being in front of her. Somehow, her intuition told her that Emma won't be punching with such an obvious punch, and she was right. Emma's punch landed where Shiroi's cheek was supposed to be.
"Great dodge," Emma called out, creating another set of dimensional portals around them before disappearing into one.
As for Shiroi, she summoned hundreds of ice spikes and shot them through the portals, thinking that that would destroy them. Well, the portals disappeared as soon as some of the ice spikes passed through— however, it wasn't purely because of Shiroi's ice spikes in reality, it was actually because some of them managed to hit Emma while she was jumping through the portal.
This was one of Emma's weaknesses— her portal can be used by other people unless she closes them after usage. Still, there's always one correct side of the portal, Shiroi just got lucky that she was able to aim at the right side.
Grunt.
Emma came out of one of the portals with ice spikes piercing through her body. She was hit on the shoulder, on the stomach, and on the legs. Before she knew it, she fell on her knees and her wounds bled all over. A pool of blood formed on the ground, and Emma couldn't actually remove the ice spikes on her body since they pierced her right through.
"Do you forfeit?" Shiroi asked, keeping her distance from Emma. She was aware that Emma could easily teleport towards her and give her a hard time if she let her guard down. That's why she remained vigilant even though it was clear that Emma had already lost.
"Forfeit? Why would I?" Emma forced a smile on her face as she extended her hand. With her remaining strength. She created a set of portals and surrounded Shiroi with them.
One portal appeared right on her neck, and another portal on her waist. There were also portals on each of her appendages, rendering her immobile. In an instant, Shiroi tensed up. She could tell that if she made one wrong move, she was going to get cut... or worse, chopped to pieces.
The tides immediately turned towards Emma even though she was in a worse state than Shiroi. "One wrong move and you'll get chopped. How's that?"
"This is not enough to make me forfeit," Shiroi refused, forcing a smile on her face even though her wrists and ankles already bled due to the portals touching her skin.
"Are you sure about that?" Emma's consciousness dwindled since she had lost a lot of blood. "You do know that if I lose consciousness... my portals are going to close automatically, right? Do you really want to say goodbye to your hands and legs? Do you want to win this fight in three separate pieces?"
Emma's breathing had become ragged, and her vision dimmed a little. Any second now, she was going to lose consciousness. Of course, she lied about her portals closing automatically when she faints. They would just disappear in mid-air if she passed out.
"A draw then... how about a draw?" Shiroi asked, falling prey to Emma's lies. While she wasn't sure whether Emma was lying or not, she didn't want to risk anything.
A smile appeared on Emma's face as she extended her hand, exchanging a handshake with empty air. She had accepted Shiroi's offer. "I'll take it." She continued. Simultaneously, her dimensional portals vanished into thin air, leaving Shiroi unscathed.
Even though the fight ended in a draw, Emma was more injured than Shiroi. In terms of winning, one could argue that Shiroi bested Emma.
"I, um... I'm sorry about the ice spikes. I didn't realize they were going to go through your portals and hit you." Shiroi apologetically said as she gently removed the ice spikes while using her frost to cover the wound and heal them with her ice-healing skill.
"That totally caught me off-guard. I guess I have to watch out for that in my future matches." Emma said, letting gravity pull her into a lying position. "I wonder how Satoshi's doing right now."
"Yeah... but I'm sure that he's going to pull it off. Before the two days are up, we'll see him descend the mountain with the Quasar Lightning Snake." Shiroi confidently responded.
"Hopefully," Emma smiled, agreeing with Shiroi.
...
The stormy atmosphere was very fitting for the legendary battle that was about to come down. Satoshi faced the Quasar Lightning Snake, a titan representative that was exponentially larger than him. At the moment, he had no idea how he'd go about the confrontation. However, he was fairly certain that it was only a matter of time before he found the weakness of the snake. He's got Dex on his side, and formidable familiars who would help him without question.
"Dex, are you sure you don't have any information regarding this snake? Judging from its name... it's an electric-type beast, right?" Satoshi confirmed as he spoke with the corner of his lips. Currently, the Quasar Lightning was staring at him, right down to his very soul, as it continued hissing. That's why Satoshi couldn't move at all.
[Quasar Lightning Snake is a Celestial Type, Satoshi, that's why it's called quasar lightning.]
"Yeah, right." Somehow, Satoshi felt like Dex was making fun of him, but he didn't take it to heart.
'To think that this snake is actually a Celestial Type. This is going to be more difficult than I thought.' Satoshi said to himself.
"..."
"..."
"You are?"
To Satoshi's surprise, the Quasar Lightning Snake spoke to him. "I'm Satoshi, Midoriyama Satoshi." He responded, almost choking on his saliva as he did so.
"I see... and what made you come all the way here and join me in my dull presence?" The Quasar Lightning Snake continued.
"Um... I'm here to tame you?" Satoshi responded with a question, wondering why the Quasar Lightning Snake even bothered to talk to him.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺