A blazing hot aura surrounded Feratu. His hair turned a glowing white and grew down to his hips. Claw-like auras formed around his hands and feet, and he appeared larger.
"Flame Circus: Lion!" he called this form.
On the other side, Zenso took a deep breath and raised her arms. With a circular motion, she summoned multiple fire staffs that now floated in a circle around her.
"Burning Martial Arts: Staff Dance!" she named her technique.
For a moment, both waited.
Then Feratu attacked. With lightning-fast speed, he launched a strike. But Zenso evaded it with an acrobatic maneuver using her staffs and delivered a kick to his face.
She could control the staffs she created with simple hand movements. Additionally, the staffs could hover in midair during this technique, allowing her to use them for various evasive actions.
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Feratu, however, used the momentum from her kick to spin and launch an even faster strike at her while she was still in the air. But once again, she managed to dodge using her staffs and flexibility.
She landed safely behind him and, with several movements, summoned her staffs again. Just as he turned around, she sent the staffs speeding toward him. One after another, they struck him all over his body. It looked like a barrage of staff blows, hitting him with considerable force and sending him crashing through a wall.
With more gestures, she summoned even more staffs and launched them at Feratu, whom she couldn’t clearly see through the dust cloud in the rubble. There was a loud crash.
And then, a shadow rose.
Slowly, Feratu stepped out of the dust. He had suffered hardly any injuries. Her staffs had barely affected him.
"Is that all you’ve got? I thought you’d have at least trained a little since our last fight," he said, disappointed.
"Oh, don’t worry. I’ve trained! Enough to make you pay!" she responded.
The fight continued.
Meanwhile, Kawao and Koru were nearing the gates of Kurani.
At the same time, a large dark shadow was approaching Kurani from the north.