Darkness surged on one side, while on another, multiple hands transformed the terrain into something artistically grotesque.
The barriers of our two domains erected and smashed in the middle, racing for dominance. For once I was surprised to see that my domain in this case wasn't the inferior one.
It didn't just hold on, but it was going neck to neck against Mahito's.
One might think that Mahito would have a better domain among all the disaster curses since he could replicate Satoru Gojo's feat of a 0.2 second domain against Aoi Todo and Yuji Itadori.
But nope, here it was, both domain barriers clashing with each other right in the middle while the sure-hit effects from both sides were equally refined.
'Did my refinement increase ?'
I couldn't say, it was just an abstract concept to begin with. And once I knew my domain wasn't going to be crashing any time soon, I didn't care much about it either. I only opened it knowing I wouldn't be landing it. Just holding Mahito's own domain back.
Instead, I looked around, Nobara had been dragged inside the domain as well. That gave me a little edge.
As for the girl herself, she had long lost her voice, a chill ran down her spine when she felt the overwhelming sensation of two domains clashing.
Shifting her eyes from Mahito to me like we were freaks. "H-how come you never told me you can do this." She complained. Eyes still roaming all over the two clashing domains. This was the first time she saw it.
Mahito's side had a lot of creepy hands while the boy's side, the one where she was glad to be in, wasn't that much better. It was dark, a darkish fog lingering around like death lingering over the place, and behind the boy was a towering cross with two weight plates hanging on each side.
It was ominous and it sent chills running down her spine just looking at that cross.
I ignored her, I had more important things. My eyes roamed further, taking in the entire domain.
'Tch, he isn't here.' I grumbled, irritation rising inside me.
'This means I need for my domain to completely land and finish… how irritating, what's the point of that when I can already set trades when that happens.'
Mahito looked around the domain and slowly closed his mouth, letting go of the hand signs which formed in his mouth, I did the same as my hands dropped down to my sides.
Since both sides' refinement was almost equal and the barriers were incapable of pushing forward, this left us with only one option.
Damage the other until either he is dead or incapable of holding the domain and their own domain prevails.
"Nobara, be careful, inside my domain I can't use domain amplification. Meaning all the damage has to be dealt by you. And also remember, if I were to take too much damage, the domain will collapse, and we both are cooked. So don't hold back." I stated as clearly as I could, without even looking at the girl.
This was true, using domain amplification and expansion together was impossible, they were literally of opposite nature. Though knowing Gege Akutami, he might intentionally make someone like Gojo or Sukuna pull off crazy feats like that for them to aura farm… breaking rules like cheaters.
Nobara for a second, looked baffled but quickly enough her sassy side took over, "You don't have to tell me idiot. Sit back and watch how professionals do things." She snorted, already nails and hammer out, ready to give Mahito hell.
I smirked, I honestly was happy that Nobara was here, cause I otherwise would have no way to hurt Mahito inside the domain.
"Ladies first then." I made way.
She just huffed, "Don't think I have forgotten about what you did, we are not done about that. For now though, just follow my lead." She said and marched forward.
Shaking my head at her antics, I just followed, "Yes, Ma'am."
And with that said, both of us were once again on Mahito. The curse born from humans' distrust of each other was no different, his hands formed into blades and he rushed at us with equal ferocity.
I was the first to move, faster than anyone else, closing the distance before Mahito could dictate the pace, and to create an opening for Nobara since now she was the primary and only damage dealer.
And Mahito seemed to realise that as well, he was coming at me now with reckless ferocity.
I threw a punch, forcing him to react, but he slipped around it with unnatural flexibility, his technique shifting his body in ways it was hard to even comprehend. And knowing he wasn't going to take damage, this entire showcase was either to throw me off guard and use his technique on me, or go after Nobara.
I was right, his arm stretched toward me in the same motion while his other arm elongated and snapped towards Nobara. I pulled back immediately, barely avoiding contact. Nobara was the same, she avoided the incoming hand at the last second, but that was where we were wrong, the hand ended up splitting apart when it reached Nobara and blocked all of her escape routes.
I poured cursed energy into my arms and grabbed onto the elongated arm of Mahito and yanked it hard enough to shift the multiple extensions of Mahito's arms, moving towards Nobara in time, leaving a tiny opening for her to slip in, and she did just that.
Mahito shot his other hand once again at my side, but I slipped away, revealing Nobara who was right behind me, with hammer and nails in her hands. The girl needed no permission to strike, and she did just that when I opened an opening for her.
She struck from the side, driving a nail into him before activating her technique, the resonance visibly distorting his form again, but even then, he endured it, his body reshaping but much slower since his earlier damage accumulation and opening of the domain had stretched his brain a little too much.
He snapped at us, going directly for Nobara seeing the girl could still hurt him, but I covered her just in time, going for the good old-fashioned charged tackle to disbalance him, and immediately moved back so he doesn't get any chance to touch me.
Nobara charged in right after me, needles flying at Mahito; however, these other attacks of hers didn't do any damage, only her resonance technique had the power to damage Mahito's soul.
And for that, she needed a direct hit.
The fight settled into a tense rhythm where neither side could fully commit. I had to hold back, my primary role being a distractor, cover for Nobara while trying to find an opening for her.
Her role was to deal damage, purely damage while keeping pressure on Mahito. And she had the same problem as me, if she got touched by Mahito's palm it was over.
As for Mahito, he was getting grind between us. One touch, that's all he needed but it was extremely hard when both humans were covering each other so well.
The back and forth continued, our motto was simple, attack if it connects, if not then focus entirely on evading.
Time was on our side, sooner or later both domains would collapse, while I was feeling the dips in my reserves, Mahito would be the same.
Outside the domain, I can once again damage him, so evading mattered more. It was a good plan, until Mahito broke it.
He suddenly shifted his focus entirely toward Nobara, his movement accelerating as he lunged straight for her, his hand outstretched with clear intent.
The most troublesome thing about this enemy wasn't just his technique making him immune to most attacks, but the fact that even one touch from him was lethal and his ever-shifting body was hella confusing to get a read on his movement.
If you're not someone named Yuji Itadori, fighting this guy one on one was a death sentence.
I reacted without thinking when his arm snapped at Nobara, stepping in between them just in time while forcefully pushing Nobara away, knowing full well what that meant. His hand made contact with my arm.
Nobara's eyes widened when she registered what happened. Mahito had an ecstatic look in comparison.
However, I was a bit faster, I poured a ton of Reverse Cursed Energy into my arm as fast as possible. Before even Mahito's curse technique could take effect, it was pouring positive energy into his hand.
Result, both our hands were thrown back with an erupting force of two opposite kinds of energy colliding.
Pain rang inside me when I felt it, my hand was burned due to that sudden output of CE and RCT.
Nobara visibly sighed upon seeing my hand intact, and her eyes shifted back to Mahito.
"Damn you..." This entire fiasco gave Nobara her opening.
And the girl wasn't someone to hesitate; her technique activated the moment she had the chance, striking directly at Mahito. His body twisted again, more violently this time, and before he could recover, I forced reverse cursed technique through my body, repairing the damage just enough to move, just enough to act. I felt it, my cursed energy reserves dipping more.
With the domain, Jogo and Dagon's powers gone, and that earlier burst of RCT to fight him off, I have burned a big portion of my reserves.
Panting, I still stepped up as soon as my hand was recovered. In one motion, I stepped forward and drove my fist into his face.
He was the same, pain rang inside him from Nobara's earlier Resonance and he had to pour that anger somewhere, so seeing me coming next, he let go of the defence, knowing I wouldn't be doing anything, and struck back at me.
Both of our fists passed each other, and connected at each other's faces at perfect synchronisation.
For a fraction of a second, everything aligned. Time seemed to slow down for a while, a strange and familiar vibration appeared around us and then...
And then—
Black Flash.
Not just me, he too. I felt my vision go blind, for the first time being at the receiving end of a Black Flash.
And then, everything spun, the world, me and the domain.
The impact distorted the space around us as both blows landed simultaneously, cursed energy erupting at the point of contact with perfect timing. Black lightning flashed violently.
The force of it shattered the fragile balance of the domain clash, and I felt the structure around us collapse almost immediately. Both of us were sent flying back, outside the now crumbling domains.
I stopped sliding across the surface, Nobara rushing towards me, while Mahito was much like me, thrown backwards.
"Hey, are you alright ?" She asked, looking at me with a bit of concerned eyes which was quite foreign on her face.
"You know, you look cute when concerned."
"Heh... let me tell you I always look cute, thank you very much." She snorted immediately but the tension was gone from her face.
Not mine though, that punch rattled me from within, the world still felt like spinning. I wished to pour a bit more of RCT on my body to flush out any lingering damage; however, I was dangerously low on CE.
And RCT was a cursed energy drain.
Not to mention, I had a feeling that our trouble had just increased by the way Mahito was slowly getting up with that creepy smile on his face.
For someone who had not landed a Black Flash, the difference between him and someone who had experienced the phenomenon before, is extreme. The understanding of one's own cursed technique and energy after a Black Flash improves drastically.
If Mahito was already giving us this much trouble before this, then now I could only wonder how bad it would be. I shifted my eyes back to Nobara, the girl also seemed to have realised the matter.
If I wasn't wrong she herself had experienced a Black Flash before. Heh... that only left that bumgumi....
A small voiceless chuckle left my throat.
Mahito on the other side was laughing now, like high on ecstasy. I knew the feeling from the first time landing a Black Flash. If it was his first time, I couldn't recall entirely.
And that laughter was enough to say trouble was brewing. He took out some small items from his pants, didn't even know he had a pocket on that thing, and slammed them to the ground.
The next second, multiple disfigured humanoids came alive, rushing at us from all sides.
Tch... knew it.
I pushed my body up, going for Nobara to get her out when I heard it.
CLAP...!
xXx
A/N : Honestly speaking I believe MC should be winning domain clash with this lethal domains since they are usually more unrefined, but whatever. I'll not upgrade his domain just yet.
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