Chapter 157 - #156 Training Kurome (1/2)

When Akashi arrived near Kurome, he slashed his sword, attacking her midsection from the left. Kurome took the exact amount of steps back needed to narrowly dodge his sword but Akashi already expected that she wouldn't try to fight him head-on since he was much stronger. The second he missed her, he swung his empty hand, throwing a small fireball at her face.

Kurome narrowed her eyes since it interrupted her planned counter-attack but she still slashed down with her katana to split the fireball in half.

”?!” However, the fireball Akashi sent at her was the only distraction and Kurome immediately realized it once she was his leg attacking her, trying to trip her over. She was definitely surprised by it but her eyes instantly regained calmness and she jumped up, dodging Akashi's kick while also swinging her weapon down at his head.

*Clang* Akashi blocked her attack and both of their hands were shaking a bit.

'She focused all her balance forward while falling down to make her attack much stronger. She is insecure about her strength but she is already quite experienced in using no matter how small things to her advantage.' Akashi thought with a satisfied smile. He was currently limiting his physical strength so when he blocked her attack, he truly struggled a little bit since he didn't expect it.

However, that wasn't everything, once Kurome has fallen back on her feet, instead of getting away from Akashi, she took a step forward, pressing her weapon tightly against his weapon, trying to overpower him.

'I see what she is trying but I guess I should let her have her fun, after all, if it wasn't for me seeing her training personally, I wouldn't be expecting it.' Akashi instantly knew the reason behind her actions but instead of trying to get away from her, he pressed his weapon back, trying to overpower her.

Kurome immediately began struggling when Akashi pressed back but instead of being distressed, she smiled and her weapon suddenly became coated in yellow lighting which immediately traveled across Akashi's weapon into his hand thanks to the direct contact with Kurome's weapon.

Akashi reacted quickly and kicked out at Kurome's midsection, however, since she has done what she intended, she no longer kept contact with him and quickly jumped back away from him, just narrowly dodging his kick.

'It seems that my hands aren't as much paralyzed as I originally thought they would be, however, instead of that, I can feel my entire body being slightly sluggish. If I were to use my energy and flames to cleanse my entire body, I would be completely fine but this way is also good, after all, not every human has the same resistance as me' Akashi discovered what exactly happened to his body in the matter of one second but he chose not to treat his state.

[Paralyzed: -15% to your speed and strength (8s)]

[Health: 800/800]

'Oh? That's new...So it works like some kind of debuff instead of damaging ability, 15% is really a lot but I guess the duration depends on the person's natural resistances. Also, it will definitely lose its effectiveness over the course of battle since the more shocks people receive, the higher their resistance will get.' Akashi thought while Kurome already rushed towards him.

Instead of blocking her attacks, he began dodging them while targeting her legs.

Akashi had to be really careful these 8 seconds since he also matched his speed with Kurome which meant that he was forced to anticipate or react instantly to dodge her attacks that were slightly faster than himself. However, after the debuff disappeared, he had no problem dodging her attacks which pretty much frustrated her.

Kurome stopped attacking Akashi when she noticed that she was only wasting her stamina by swinging her sword around.

”What's wrong?” Akashi asked with a small smile that indicated that he already knew the answer.

”...Akashi Nii-sama, what should I do when my opponent can completely read my attacks? For example, if he can predict the future.” Kurome asked after a few seconds of silence with a weak voice.

”Hmm, it's actually quite simple. If someone can predict your attacks, you simply have to become unpredictable, fight only with your battle instinct instead of your techniques and rational thinking. However, if it's not only about predicting your moves and he truly can see the future, you need to push yourself past your limit and never stop attacking him. Even if he can see the future, he will eventually be overwhelmed by the sheer number of attacks. But the best way is still to overpower him with your speed, that's why speed is usually much better than strength.” Akashi replied with a smile while watching Kurome who was thinking hard about his words.

However, suddenly while she was wearing that ”thinking” expression, she kicked off the ground, attacking Akashi's midsection from the right side.

'Good start of being unpredictable.' Akashi thought and he was forced to block her attack instead of dodging which once again applied the debuff on him.

[Paralyzed: -15% to your speed and strength (7s)]

After getting debuff, Akashi jumped back, trying to maintain distance from himself and Kurome but she didn't let him and constantly followed after him while swinging her sword from completely random angles which made them quite hard to predict, however, they were also unrefined since this was her first time fighting this way. However, unrefined doesn't always mean bad, since they looked unrefined and quite poorly performed, it added to their unpredictability.

Akashi who already had to focus on dodging her attacks when he had the debuff, now began to having problems dodging them due to her unpredictability.