224 The Dragon Slayer

"Not this again!" Meliodas exclaimed as water entered his mouth. He felt the cold chill of water all over his body. Around him was the blue darkness of the ocean. 'First I got sent to a different continent. Now I'm somewhere underwater!'

Meliodas could feel the entire ocean shake a beastly roar bellowed with rage from up above. 'Acnologia!'

Meliodas held his breath and flew up towards the surface of the water. Meliodas shot out of the water and hovered above the ocean. In the distance, he noticed Acnologia flying towards where he believed to be the direction of Fiore.

Like a black blur, Meliodas shot through the sky, instantly appearing in front of Acnologia.

"Stop!"

"There you are! I knew I smelled you nearby!" Acnologia charged straight at Meliodas and slashed at him with his claws.

Meliodas spun around his claws and delivered a powerful kick into Acnologia's chest, causing the black dragon to flip backwards through the air.

"What's wrong, you're not going to turn into your human form for this?" Meliodas smirked as he chased after Acnologia, catching up to him and kicking the dragon on the chin.

"Hmph!" Acnologia snorted, as he regained his balance and took in a deep breath. Meliodas could sense a huge amount of magic being built up in Acnologia's mouth.

Acnologia roared towards Meliodas, shooting a massive beam of energy towards him. Meliodas gripped Mel Force and swung his blade.

"Full Counter!"

Just as the beam was about to clash with Meliodas, it split into multiple different beams, each one looping around and launching at Meliodas from every angle.

A singular, massive explosion occurred as all the attacks converged onto Meliodas. Nearby clouds were immediately dispersed and the water beneath them was pushed away from the shockwaves. Only a small cloud of smoke lingered in the air where Meliodas was standing. Inside the smoke, Meliodas was bleeding heavily and darkness was surrounding portions of his body.

'Natsu's hellblaze from earlier is still affecting my healing a bit…and if I didn't deploy my darkness in time, I would be in an even worse state…'

"You think I haven't figured out how your reflection works by now? Let's see how you reflect something coming at you from every direction!" Acnologia dove straight towards Meliodas.

"Nice trick, but that won't be enough!" Meliodas rushed towards Acnologia. In his free right hand, a black sword began to materialize

"Requip: Sacrifar!"

Just as Acnologia swiped at Meliodas with his right claw, Meliodas spun around his entire arm, rotating his body as he slashed across Acnologia's arm and up through his shoulder until he was behind him. Sparks flew from the blades as they made contact with Acnologia's solid scales.

Acnologia quickly spun around, slamming Meliodas with his tail and knocking him away. Meliodas recovered himself in the air and looked back at Acnologia with a confident smile.

Acnologia suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right arm where Meliodas had cut him. He noticed blood dripping in between his scales. 'He pierced my defense?!'

Meliodas gripped the handle of Mel Force even tighter and darkness started to leak out of his hands and surround the blade, extending its length.

"That's enough games!" Acnologia spread his wings wide. Brightly glowing orbs of magic began to form in front of his wings before all being shot at Meliodas with blinding speed.

'Too many to counter!' Meliodas spun around in the air as he maneuvered his way around the orbs. To his surprise, the orbs began to follow him as he flew around. 'I'll break them all!'

As the orbs began to converge around Meliodas, Meliodas let out a flurry of slashes with both of his blades, releasing large crescents of darkness with every slash that collided with the orbs.

Meliodas continued to fly through the sky towards Acnologia, cutting through the orbs with his darkness. Acnologia flew towards Meliodas as he was cutting the orbs and slashed at him with his claws.

"Die!!" Acnologia yelled out.

Meliodas flew right towards his claws, avoiding the attack by moving in between the claws. He moved towards his upper body and delivered a powerful kick to the dragon's neck. Acnologia gasped as he had the wind knocked out of him for a brief moment. In that moment, Meliodas unleashed another flurry of darkness imbued slashes at Acnologia's neck. Blood began to splurt out from Acnologia as his scales were being cut right off.

Acnologia suddenly let out a roar filled with both pain and anger. He flipped himself forward quickly, slamming his tail right onto Meliodas. Meliodas raised both his blades up to try to guard as he was knocked straight into the ocean below.

A huge pillar of water shot up from Meliodas being knocked into the water. Before the pillar could finish falling. Meliodas shot out from the top and charged straight at Acnologia.

Acnologia swiped at Meliodas with his claws again. Meliodas imbued more darkness into his swords, making them match the size of Acnologia's claws. He blocked the attack, parrying it to one side. Shockwaves from the swipe cut into the water below as Meliodas flew straight into Acnologia's chest with his right foot out.

Acnologia flinched as he was pushed back in the air. Meliodas suddenly dispelled the darkness around his blades, concentrating them into thousands of tiny, condensed balls that appeared in front of him.

"Trillion Dark!"

Thousands of balls of darkness slammed right into Acnologia's body. Acnologia let out a roar of pain as his scales were cracked and chipped away. Suddenly, Acnologia's body began to glow. Meliodas' eyes widened as the glow expanded from Acnologia's body and outward, engulfing Meliodas in a huge, dome shaped explosion.

Meliodas emerged from the top of the explosion, badly bruised and bleeding. Darkness attempted to mend the damage from the wounds.

Below him, he noticed Acnologia already flying straight at him. Acnologia's wings began to glow brightly. Orbs started to form around his wings and huge lasers of magic shot out from the wings themselves.

Acnologia spun around in the air as he flew at Meliodas. A laser collided with Meliodas, knocking him back in an explosion. Meliodas spit the blood from his mouth as more lasers were swung right at him.

Meliodas weaved in between them while orbs of magic were shooting straight at him. Meliodas glared at Acnologia and in that instant, he could see a clear path. Putting both swords out in front of him imbued with darkness, he launched himself right into the orbs.

"Lightning Sword Flash!"

Meliodas bounced between each individual orb with blistering speed. The explosion of each orb breaking upon being pierced propelled Meliodas faster and faster as he closed the gap between him and Acnologia. Dodging the last laser, he kicked down onto Acnologia's back.

Acnologia let out a roar of pain before being launched into the ocean. But Meliodas wasn't done yet. Thousands of more tiny balls of condensed darkness were thrown right at Acnologia's back as he fell into the water with a huge splash.

Meliodas remained hovering in place above the water, waiting for Acnologia to resurface. A minute passed before Acnologia shot out of the water, his claw now formed into a fist imbued with magic.

Meliodas imbued the swords with a huge amount of darkness and flew straight down at Acnologia. The two of them clashed, seemingly even. They continued to fly through the open skies, clashing with each other.

Approaching in the distance, Meliodas noticed a large island. On that island, he could feel dozens of familiar magic signatures.

"Is that…Fiore?!" Meliodas was stunned as he stared at the changed Fiore, "What happened to the landmass. Everything has been shifted around. Is this the cause of that spell that teleported me?" Meliodas thought. Suddenly, Acnologia struck Meliodas, causing him to spit a mouthful of blood.

'Damn, I got careless, I can't distract myself. I have to trust that the others can take care of this. I already sensed Jellal and the others. Jellal should be able to fight most of the Spriggan.' Meliodas thought as he continued his fight with Acnologia.