[Rating Game Field]
Sairaorg Bael honestly didn’t know how to react right now… After all, this was the first time he was experiencing this. He had been in Rating Games before, but none once anybody had dared to directly challenge him.
Of course, Sairaorg wasn’t arrogant enough to think that he could defeat the high rankers of the Rating Games like Diehauser Belial, Roygun Belphegor, or Bedeze Abbadon, but he knew for a fact that he was the strongest among all the Young Devils.
Well, he wasn’t so sure right now since he had seen the performance of Sona Sitri and her Peerage members…
“So, you want to fight me?” Sairaorg asked curiously as he continued to stare at the white-haired girl standing in front of him.
“Yes” the girl answered in a monotone.
Sairaorg knew who the girl was. He might be confident about his strength, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t investigate the Peerage members of his opponents. Rias Gremory might be his cousin, but she was also his opponent.
Toujou Koneko was the only Rook in his cousin’s Peerage. He knew a lot about the girl, the girl is a Nekoshou-Devil Hybrid, her older sister was being experimented on by some of the members of the Naberius Clan.
Her older sister, Kuroka killed her own Master to protect her sister. After that, Kuroka abandoned Koneko and ran away, but in truth, Kuroka left behind Koneko to protect her. Kuroka knew that she was going to be declared a criminal by the Devil Faction.
But it didn’t work out like that. Koneko was to be executed, but she was saved by Sirzechs Lucifer and then she joined Rias Gremory’s Peerage as a Rook. After many years, the truth finally came out and the Naberius Clan was wiped out by Lady Hela as an example.
That was the gist of it… Sairaorg was sure that there was more to it since Lady Hela wouldn’t have paid attention to a simple Rook. He had seen what sort of cruelty Lady Hela was capable of, so she shouldn’t have been bothered by a little bit of experimentation, right?
After all, Lady Hela wasn’t known for her bleeding heart…
“You are Toujou Koneko, right?” Sairaorg obviously knew that girl’s name, but he still wanted to act somewhat oblivious. He simply wanted to hide the fact that he had investigated them.
“Shirone. I prefer Shirone” the girl corrected him in an emotionless tone.
“Then, I accept your challenge, Shirone, but what are you going to do while we fight?” Sairaorg asked as he glanced towards Akeno Himejima. The black-haired girl simply shrugged.
“I don’t have much power to keep going. So, I would probably stand aside and watch the fight” Akeno said in an unsure tone.
“Sairaorg, are you sure? This might be an elaborate trap!” Kuisha Abaddon warned Sairaorg in a worried tone. Sairaorg simply smiled after hearing her warning. He waved his hand and stepped forward.
“It might be… This would probably be the most viable strategy right now since their Knight has been eliminated and Rias doesn’t have any pawn to promote” Sairaorg admitted with a thoughtful look on his face and then he shrugged.
“Then why? We could just defeat them and be done with it, there is no reason to duel” Kuisha asked with a bewildered look on her face. She couldn’t why Sairaorg was taking such a risk even after he knew that this might be an elaborate trap.
“Well… where would be the fun in that?” Sairaiorg asked with a grin and Kuisha couldn’t form an answer after hearing Sairaorg’s words.
“Fun indeed” Shirone added in a monotone and Sairaorg started to chuckle after hearing Shirone’s words. Kuisha turned towards Akeno to see how the opposing Queen was reacting. Akeno’s eyes met with Kuisha and Akeno shrugged dismissively. Akeno knew from the reports that Sairaorg liked to fight, but she had no idea that Shirone was also a battle maniac.
Kuisha simply released a sigh and decided to let them do whatever they wanted. Then she finally turned towards Regulus, he is the only Pawn of Sairaorg Bael. Sairaorg had to use 7 Pawn Pieces to bring Regulus into his Peerage.
“Master, what do you want me to do?” Regulus asked and Sairaorg shook his head. Regulus is extremely loyal to Sairaorg and that is why he refers to him as Master and he always keeps asking Sairaorg if he needs any help much to Sairaorg’s annoyance and delight.
“For now? Nothing. This is my fight” Sairaorg said in a firm tone. Regulus seemed to be very reluctant, but he would never go against Sairaorg’s order, so he could only nod his head and walk away from the exact area of the upcoming fight along with Kuisha. Akeno also did the same, but she maintained her distance from Kuisha and Regulus.
Sairaorg kept intently staring at Shirone while Shirone was also doing the same. After a few moments, both of them nodded and each other and that was the only cue both of them needed. Sairaorg and Shirone lunged towards each other, the ground underneath them cracked as they lunged, but neither of them were worried about it.
Both of their fists collided mid-air, creating a small shockwave. The ground beneath Shirone’s feet shattered and she had to jump back to maintain her footing. Due to her short stature, Shirone was at a disadvantage from the beginning, but besides that, both of them were on kind of equal footing. Obviously, neither of them were going all out and it would have been a waste to do that from the get-go.
This time Sairaorg was the one who took the initiative to attack and Shirone easily blocked his kick and returned the favour with her own kick. Sairaorg grinned as he continued to exchange blows with Shirone. The white-haired Nekoshou might be unable to express her emotions correctly, but internally she was also feeling just like Sairaorg.
After a couple of minutes of exchanging blows… both of them decided to take a small break, so the two of them jumped away, creating some distance in between them. “You are quite good” Sairaorg grinned and Shirone simply nodded her head at the compliment. “I think we should kick it up a notch. What do you say?” Sairaorg suggested and once again Shirone simply nodded her head.
Shirone slowly started to raise her power level and once again she felt the restrictive force, trying to suppress her, but she kept pushing forward. After only a few moments of silence, both Sairaorg and Shirone lunge at each other. This time, they were much faster and their blows were much stranger too.
While Sairaorg had the advantage of a bigger stature… Shirone’s small stature also had a few advantages like she could easily get fast Sairaorg’s defence if she was fast enough. Now, that Shirone was much faster than before, with a little bit of timing, she managed ti get past Sairaorg’s defence and landed a solid blow in his gut.
“Omphh!” Sairaorg grunted as he skid back due to the force of the blow, but the smile didn’t leave his face. This time it was Shirone who pressed on to keep Sairaorg on his backfoot. Both of their fighting techniques were on par, so neither of them were at an advantage in that regard. Shirone was able to land two more blows before Sairaorg finally returned the favour to her.
Shirone grunted as she finally stabilized herself after getting hit. She quickly got into her fighting stance as Sairaorg continued to attack. Shirone started to keep increasing her power output, trying to get an opening, but Sairaorg was also doing the same, trying to get another opening. The two of them kept going on in a similar manner for a few minutes without a pause.
Opposing the restrictive force, which was trying to suppress her power was finally taking a toll on her face. She had to use a lot of stamina to keep on going while opposing the restrictive force. Finally, Shirone decided to use Senjutsu arts. Unlike Kuroka, who had decided to hone her Youjutsu, Shirone had decided to hone her Touki. It wasn’t like that Shirone couldn’t use Youjutsu, it was simply a matter of preference.
Shirone quickly covered herself in ki, increasing her strength, defence, and speed. Saiaraorg knew that something must have changed because he could feel that Shirone’s aura has changed, but he couldn’t put a finger on it. His eyes grew wide when Shirone appeared in front of him out of nowhere and he was barely able to dodge the blow. Shirone knew that she needed to finish the fight quickly or she would lose by being unable to move any longer.
Two blue orbs surrounded Shirone’s hands as she started to use Senjutsu to concentrate power on her fists. Meanwhile, Sairaorg also decided to stop holding back. Sairaorg grinned as he continued to match Shirone’s blows with his own blows. Their fight has already devastated everything around them and Kuisha, Regulus, and Akeno had to move farther away to stop themselves from getting tangled in the fight.
After a couple of minutes, Shirone finally started to become slow, she was dead tired and she was only fighting due to her sheer determination. Sairaorg also noticed that Shirone was getting slower and her attacks have also lost a lot of power. So, he decided to respect Shirone by defeating her when she was still able to fight. He could at least do that much.
Shirone was much younger than him and she was still able to match him blow to blow… Sairaorg could and would respect that. So, he finally used a burst of power and landed a punch on Shirone’s gut. Shirone groaned and tried to return the favour, but she was much slower and Sairaorg’s fist slammed on her shoulder, dislocation her shoulder.
“Looks like this is the end” Shirone said in an emotionless tone and lunged forward.
“Yes, it is” Sairaorg said and he also lunged forward. Both of their fists landed on each other’s faces, creating a massive shockwave, but both of them stubbornly held their ground. Sairaorg finally straightened up and pulled back his arm and Shirone fell forward, but Sairaorg caught her. Shirone was barely conscious and Sairaorg was tired too.
“That was the best fight I had in quite some time” Sairaorg declared with a grin on his face. “Let’s do this again if you have time” Sairaorg requested in an almost hopeful tone.
“Yes” Shirone muttered and closed her eyes as she slowly dissolved into white particles. Sairaorg slowly sat where he was standing and decided to lie down with a grin on his face.
After that, it was just a matter of time. Sairaorg’s other Knight finally reached the top of Yggdrasil and ended up winning the match for Sairaorg Bael. With that, the Elimination Round of the Devil Faction was finally over…
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