Chapter 196: Stark VS Kokoro and Akira
~BAM, BAM~
Stark teleported behind Akira and Kokoro while they thought that he had died, and punched both of their faces right as they finally noticed his presence.
"-8938!" was what Kokoro received.
"-8123!" and this was Akira's damage.
As said before, when two [Domination] users clashed, their aura would massively protect them, thus reducing the damage they received.
This was one of the reasons Stark was able to withstand some attacks who normally should deal much more damage than normal.
~THUMP, THUMP~
Akira and Kokoro were sent flying backward, both still holding on to their weapons as letting their katana/tablet go out of their hands was instant-death.
And after traveling some distance, they both stopped, getting up almost instantly and staring at Stark, who was looking at them from their previous position.
"Fucking hell…" Akira sighed as he spanned his katana in his hands, ready to cut him in half.
"…" Kokoro didn't say anything, although some blood was dripping from her head as her cheek was visibly bruised.
And right as they were about to attempt to attack Stark…
"AURA SMASH, CRIMSON SPEARS!" before they could even attack, they sensed a powerful aura behind them, and once they turned…
They saw three crimson fists, as well as three spears heading their way, only three meters away from reaching them.
"Can't forget about the other me now, can we?" Stark smiled, and the clone did as well.
The two of them were visibly furious, Kokoro seemed to be of the gentle type, and anyone could almost imagine her talking in an emotionless voice when the messages of the tablet appeared.
But… this time, her expression was full of anger.
"GLITCH BARRIER," a blue and glitchy aura came out of the tablet in her hands, surrounding her completely like some sort of oval shield.
"COSMIC BARRIER," Akira did the same, and as for him, his barrier LITERALLY descended from the sky in a silver glow, its color was purplish/dark, reminiscent of the night sky as some stars could be seen in it.
~BOOM, BOOM, BOOOM~
The barriers tanked all the attacks, allowing both of them to receive 0 damage.
"ALRIGHT, LETS-A-GO!" Akira roared as he finally activated one of his skills after being interrupted twice, "POWER OF THE MOON!"
Suddenly, the aura around Akira whitened and… a silver moon, the size of his head, appeared and began to spin around him.
A silver trail of aura was escaping the 'moon' and going into his katana, infusing it with power.
And as for Kokoro…
She finally decided to use not one, but two of her basic skills.
"ALL-USE TABLET, HOLOGRAPHIC WEAPONS," the words appeared with a red tint on her tablet, which now had even more glitches showing up.
The tablet was now glowing with energy, and as soon as she activated her other ability... five immense blue holograms emerged from it, similar to when she first saw Stark's clone. A sword, shield, hammer, bow, and spear materialized, all towering above her and connected to the tablet by a thin stream of blue aura, proving their origin from the device in Kokoro's grasp.
Both of them were now ready, and it also meant that Stark was in a really bad position.
Even if his clone TECHNICALLY counted as another person, it was just another Stark but slightly weaker, meaning that he wouldn't be able to keep up with other people as strong as he was.
Kokoro and Akira were now back to back, the girl looking at the smiling clone, and the man in the suit at the original Stark.
"MOONLIGHT SLASH," Akira shouted, brandishing his katana with a pretty much unnoticeable flick of his wrist. The silver aura trail he had been building up earlier was now fully unleashed, and his katana seemed to glow with the power of the moon.
~SLASH~
And although he wasn't even CLOSE to Stark, at least ten meters apart, he still sliced in his direction, and what resulted from that attack was… a crescent moon trail cutting through the air, emanating a sharp, vitalizing silver luster.
"Aura Smash," Stark sent a crimson fist toward the aftereffect of the slash, which was still rushing at him, and they both collided, dissipating into thin air.
"…!" Akira was surprised, his attack would normally be almost unstoppable against most monsters no matter how much they tried to stop it, "Oh yeah… domination…" he mumbled as he remembered that Stark also had domination aura, meaning he could counter his attack with one of his.
Stark already knew that, but Akira took a few seconds to realize it.
To be honest, Stark was in such disadvantage in this fight that it was already scary enough he didn't just run for his life and hoped Sora would find the key to open the door: Stark attacked from close range using his fists, and who else attacked from close range? Well… Akira of course, he had a katana in hand after all!
And so… he dashed toward Stark.
"Half-Moon Technique," using this skill meant that Akira was entirely changing his strategy: going from long range to short range using the power of his half moon.
The moon that was spinning around him responded accordingly and went from a full moon to a half moon as well.
~FWISH, SLASH~
In a fraction of a second, the white-haired man was already right in front of Stark, his blade aimed at the boy's neck.
Stark easily avoided the attack by backing away though, yet Akira followed him.
~SLASH, SLASH, SLASH~
Using the moon powerhouse that was spinning around him, Akira kept slashing at Stark's decision, who was forced to keep avoiding the attacks to not get cut.
And after a few seconds…
"Crimson Spears…" Stark summoned one single spear above his head, then sent it not a Akira… but… the moon around him.
And while he was too focused on attacking Stark, he avoided the spear, thinking it was aimed to him.
But…
~BAM~
"-74271!"
The powerhouse could actually be hit.
[Moon HP: 925729/1000000]
'Bingo…' Stark thought as avoided another attack and kicked Akira out of his range.
"-1381!" the kick didn't do much, but it served as a way to temporarily allow himself to think before another assault.
All of Akira's power probably came from this moon, but it had so much HP, and it was so small that it would be impossible to destroy it, which is quite understandable as eliminating someone's powers easily would be bad.
In exchange for incredible powers, Akira was forced to put himself at risk by letting his powerhouse constantly spin around him, in the view of the enemies, although most of them never even thought of destroying that though…
But Stark was different: this was a 2v1.5, and so killing Akira's power core would be an almost instant victory in his book.
Stark glanced at his clone afterward, and he saw that it was holding on against Kokoro, who was sending her hologram weapons toward it in a frenzy, with not a single second of rest.
Kokoro vs Fake Stark, and Akira vs Original Stark, who would win this battle? No one really knew…
But one thing was certain: only one team would remain by the end.