Chapter 26

"Guys you don't know what you're doing stop this instance!" Shinobu cried trying to control her continuous coughing the smoke was getting worse.

Getting his fans ready, Douma got into a fighting stance. Atashi was still standing there, Douma guessed he was waiting for the blonde to go first so he could calculate his movements to determine when to strike. It seems like his friend wasn't playing around.

I'll have to go easy on him. Atashi isn't going to stand a chance against any of my moves at their full power. Douma glimpsed at Shinobu who was standing away from the battlefield. From the looks of it she was very uneasy. If Atashi doesn't pull up any devastating tricks up his sleeve the battle should end in no time.

"Incinerating Vortex!" Spinning his spear, Atashi gathered all the flames around him and fired them at Douma.

The young founder backed away from the spot and rose to the air waiting for an opening to land a hit on Atashi's shoulder. Seems like that attack of his is going to take a while to recharge he's saving it for later.

Once Atashi was distracted by Douma's sudden disappearance, the blonde dived in and attempted to strike Atashi with his fan, however Atashi took notice of that and blocked the attack with his spear.

With much force, Atashi pushed Douma away and nearly sliced his arm. Douma wasn't expecting Atashi to be very skilled, the teen never had any actual experience with swordsmanship, only passion and observations. The man who gave Atashi the artifact must've seen potential in him.

Regardless, Douma wasn't afraid his friend was playing on easy mode without even realizing it. Maybe he already knew but no matter what he had in mind, nothing was going to touch Douma at all. If he wanted to he'd have to try harder to try to catch him off-guard at the most.

Bolting towards the corner, Douma fired a gust of cold icy wind towards Atashi which sent him flying towards a wall. 

The teen placed a foot against the wall before he collided with it and pushed himself towards the middle of the battlefield summoning more flames around him for his next attack.

"Raging Firestorm." A dozen fireballs rose to the air and sped towards Douma, all of the missing and burning the ground. Shinobu quickly moved away from where she stood frightened by the sudden attack.

Now that Atashi was having a hard time trying to figure out how to improve his accuracy, Douma used this chance to teleport behind him and strike his shoulder blade.

The spear fell to the ground. Atashi let out a cry of pain and clutched his wounded shoulder in agony.

Douma watched his opponent kneeling on the ground covered in ashes. Ironically, Atashi was trying to act all tough but he couldn't handle a mild hit, his shoulder wasn't even bleeding. He was making a huge mistake.

"Just quit it already. You don't know what you're getting yourself into." 

"What do you know?" Looking up at his superior in anger, Atashi grit his teeth from the pain and forced himself to get up.

At the corner of Douma's eye was the spear, quickly the blonde dashed towards where it was lying and grabbed it.

Seeing his weapon in Douma's possession, Atashi yelled sending waves of flames outwards from where he stood. The Earth was shaking to its core, this wasn't any normal power something was controlling the extent of Atashi's powers, it appeared to be giving Atashi some sort of boost to counter him not having a weapon to fight back.

Shinobu ran further away from the battlefield jumping over the oncoming flames. Hearing her muttering, Douma immediately rushed over to her and carried her away to a safer spot.

"Stay here." The blonde said holding onto the spear tightly.

"Be careful." Was all Shinobu could say.

A gulf of flames rose from Douma's hand as the spear vanished and appeared in Atashi's grip.

Both Douma and Shinobu looked at Atashi in shock. When did he have the ability to do that?! They both thought.

Immediately, Douma returned to the battlefield and blocked off Atashi's attack. Barrel rolling back in the air, Atashi raised his spear and waited as another set of flames burst out of the weapon and formed a blazing source that spread to the whole spear.

Let's see what you're made of. A wheel of flames appeared. Atashi stood right on its surface and rolled over towards Douma at full speed. 

Douma jumped up dodging the wheel of fire and put it out with a slash of his fan causing Atashi to tumble down to the ground clumsily.

"Good job Douma!" Shinobu exclaimed.

The young founder smiled at her and watched as Atashi got up clenching his fists.

"I will not be humiliated." Spinning his spear in the air, Atashi stood at his spot waiting for his next move to build up. He was determined to finish the battle with one more attack.

"Jack O Lantern Formation." The flames engulfing other areas of the city such as the damaged vehicles and infrastructure got absorbed by the spear and formed a large flame that overlapped it. Atashi was now holding a large flame. Both Douma and Shinobu were curious to see what it could do. Even though Atashi has been getting tossed around like a ragdoll his powers were still quite unique.

With one last effort, Atashi threw the now large fireball at Douma swinging his spear to the side to keep his stance.

The area where Douma stood exploded upon impact. Ashes rose to the atmosphere it was hard to breathe with the toxins and fumes in the air. Atashi grinned and squinted his eyes to see if there was any figure in the smoke.

"No!" Shinobu widened her eyes at the scene she didn't understand why Douma didn't get out of there.

"Guess I'm the only one-

After a few seconds the smoke cleared revealing an empty crater in the ground. No Douma just a bare floor.

"Where did he go? Did he turn into ashes?" Atashi looked around in confusion he swore the blonde was there. "I can't be seeing things-

Suddenly he felt a presence behind him, one that was very familiar.

Before Atashi could even turn around to see who it was, the person flicked the back of his neck with the same fan that struck his shoulder. 

The impact contained so much force that getting knocked in the head by a golf ball felt like a feather compared to this. How does one store such magnitude of power in just a simple flick of a fan? Atashi couldn't comprehend what had hit him no one's ever showed such brutal amount of strength.

Landing on the ground on his face, Atashi pushed himself up wiping the dirt from his face. Not only was his shoulder aching but his neck was too.

Shinobu sighed in relief she knew Douma would be able to withstand anything. At the same time she was a little worried about Atashi he was in a lot of pain he should just surrender he's not going to keep up any longer.

 "That's it! Quit fooling around and fight seriously!" Clutching his shoulder, Atashi managed to balance himself but from the looks of it he was still struggling.

Douma narrowed his eyes at Atashi. After all this he still wants to fight? What is he thinking he's putting his life at risk!

"Atashi are you insane? You're clearly injured." Shinobu yelled at him.

"Why are you here Shinobu this has nothing to do with you."

Shinobu was taken aback by his response. "To help you that's what friends are for."

"Friends?" The boy in the orange sweater laughed. "You think this is about friendship? Wow you just don't get it do you? No wonder you're so slow and naive."

"That's enough Atashi one more word and I'm going to have to finish this battle myself and I mean that, it's not going to look pretty for you." Douma said sternly what Atashi said to Shinobu was completely unacceptable. "This battle is over anyways you don't stand a chance against us."

"I guess that's why Reiji and Aunt Mai haven't gone out to look for you because you're an ungrateful pile of filth. No wonder Eiko hasn't said a word about you because you're just so disappointing if I had you as a brother I'd be disappointed too." Shinobu stormed off towards the spot where Douma told her to remain she just couldn't see Atashi's face anymore.

Atashi swung his spear back and forth waiting for Douma to get ready. 

"Moeru Kūdō Style: Mezameta Honō." Raising his spear up again, Atashi gripped the middle of it tightly and slammed it to the ground sending mounts of flames towards Douma's way.

"Freezing Clouds!" Cold air spiraled towards the incoming flames erupting from the ground, clashing with them for a while which sent everything flying towards Atashi's direction.

Though fire was notorious for melting ice at any given cause, this time it was struggling to fend itself from the sheer cold. Atashi was speechless he never expected his powers to get beaten by an element that was supposedly inferior to it.

"What do you think you're doing? Ice doesn't stand a chance against fire do you not know that?" Atashi mocked him.

"Let's see about that." Douma added more pressure to the cold wind that was lifting Atashi off his feet. The last few flames had been extinguished leaving ashes spiraling around with the frost.

Shinobu watched the battle carefully. Deep down she was hoping Douma would unleash an attack that would scar Atashi and teach him some manners. But there was something else not adding up. If humans faint upon seeing Douma's abilities especially the more devastating ones, how was Atashi unfazed by all this?

"That's because he's been concealed by hatred." Douma suddenly spoke.

"Hey don't you think it's not nice to-

"Atashi has been controlled by the fiery anger within him, this guy is completely blood lusted now he can't decipher anything properly." 

That made a lot of sense, throughout the entire battle Atashi didn't flinch or anything he just carried on with the fight like nothing happened. Shinobu didn't know how to feel about this Douma's powers were fascinating but in the long run they might encounter something with powers that are just straight up terrifying. This was starting to ponder at her thoughts.

The teen ran away from the approaching wind that left cuts and bruises on his hands and forehead. It was a miracle he was still able to withstand these attacks the heart of fire was truly on his side.

Shinobu backed away when Atashi got to where she was. Climbing one of the pillars, Atashi raised his spear and jumped aiming his weapon at Douma who stood there watching his next move.

"This is it leader of Paradise Shrine! You're not getting away this time!" Atashi had a sinister smile on his face, one that meant whatever he was about to do next wasn't looking good for the young founder.