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Chapter 42: Full Power
Tsuna, who had been presumed dead from the Spirit's devastating magic, was very much alive.
"HAAH!!"
He finally broke through her defenses, burying his fist directly into the Spirit's face.
But—
Damn it, it's still not enough…!?
Not believing for a microsecond that she could be defeated, the Spirit merely stared back with a mocking sneer. Having burned through a massive reserve of his Dying Will Flames to block her Super Long Chant, Tsuna knew his physical strikes lacked the power to deal critical damage.
Instantly, the Spirit's tentacles whipped toward him. Tsuna kicked off her face, launching himself backward into the air to evade the lethal strike.
"He slipped through that entire meteor shower…!?"
Finn stared in awe, finally realizing exactly how Tsuna had managed to reach the untouchable Spirit. Hearing his realization, the rest of the Familia stared up at the sky in pure shock.
Until now, the Spirit's impenetrable wall of tentacles had made it impossible to even approach her. Combined with the apocalyptic meteor shower, it had been a completely hopeless situation. But Tsuna had turned that despair to his advantage. He had intentionally dove into the falling meteors, using the chaos and the massive dust clouds as a smokescreen to blind the Spirit and close the distance.
"And he did it just to buy us time to heal…!!"
Finn bit his lip so hard it bled, his hands clenching into fists as he understood the sheer weight of Tsuna's actions. Believing his team would survive the meteor strike, Tsuna had launched a suicidal charge to draw all of the Spirit's aggro onto himself, giving the Loki Familia the precious seconds they needed to recover.
"Drink your potions and heal immediately!! Do not let his resolve go to waste!!"
Finn's roar echoed across the battlefield. The adventurers, previously paralyzed by despair, felt a surge of adrenaline upon realizing what Tsuna was risking for them. They moved with frantic precision, treating their wounds as fast as humanly possible.
Ghk!?
A massive swarm of tentacles lashed out. In his exhausted state, Tsuna couldn't even attempt to counterattack; he was barely managing to dodge the relentless onslaught.
"Pierce forward, spear of thunder. I command in the name of the proxy. My given name is the incarnation of the Lightning Spirit, the Queen of Lightning—"
Sensing that Tsuna was significantly weakened, the Spirit bypassed her longer spells and immediately began a Short Chant.
"[Thunder Ray]."
A mighty thunderbolt forged into a great spear surged forward, hurtling straight toward Tsuna. Mid-air and unable to maneuver, Tsuna took the blast head-on. A deafening crack echoed as he was completely swallowed by the explosion, the impact throwing up a massive cloud of dust.
"A direct hit!?"
"No…!?"
Lefiya and Ais cried out in horror. Seeing Tsuna eat a high-tier magic attack directly, the despair that had briefly lifted crashed back down upon the Familia.
A Short Chant was inherently weaker than a Long or Super Long Chant. However, magic scaling depended entirely on the caster. If the caster was a monster of this caliber, even a Short Chant was a guaranteed fatal blow. For some entities, their shortest spells eclipsed the ultimate magic of ordinary mages.
Something's wrong…
Yet, amidst the panic, Finn narrowed his eyes. Something about the way that spell had connected felt completely unnatural.
"AHAHA!! AHAHAHA!! AHAHAHAHAHA!!"
Certain that she had finally eradicated the annoying human, the Spirit threw her head back and shrieked with triumphant laughter.
But then.
"!?"
The Spirit abruptly choked on her laughter, her head snapping back toward the crater where her magic had struck.
The smoke cleared.
Tsuna stood there. The flames on his Vongola Gear and his forehead weren't flickering—they were burning larger and far more intensely than before.
"My turn, monster."
"It's Tsuna!! Tsuna's alive!!"
Tiona cheered wildly, her voice instantly bringing the color back to the rest of the Familia's faces.
"Guhak!?"
In the blink of an eye, Tsuna vanished from his spot. Before the Spirit could even track his movement, he materialized right beneath her and drove a brutal uppercut into her jaw. The impact was so fast she didn't even have time to deploy her petal armor. Her massive upper body violently snapped backward. The Spirit stared down in utter bewilderment.
"Goff!?"
Pivoting perfectly on his heel, Tsuna unleashed a devastating roundhouse kick. Boosted by centrifugal force, the brutal kick buried itself deep into her flank. The Spirit, who had merely sneered when he punched her earlier, contorted in genuine agony.
"How dare you…!?"
She rapidly stabilized her massive body, but Tsuna swung his right hand, hurling a blinding wave of orange flames directly into her face. Operating purely on instinct, she raised her arms to protect her eyes.
"Gaha!?"
Using the flames as a blinder, Tsuna had launched himself high above her. Flipping vertically in the air, he brought his heel crashing down in a brutal axe kick directly onto the crown of her head. The blow rattled her brain, blurring her vision, but she forced herself to stay conscious, immediately lashing out with a barrage of tentacles.
But Tsuna had already vanished, the vines striking nothing but empty air.
He hovered upside down high above the 59th Floor, staring down at the monster with cold, glowing eyes.
"That monster is actually hurting!! And is it just me, or are Tsuna-kichi's movements way sharper than before!?"
"It's not just you!! I don't know how he did it, but he's significantly faster and hitting harder!!"
Don't tell me!?
Tsubaki and Gareth were stunned by the sudden, dramatic shift in power. Finn, however, realized exactly what had caused it.
"Freeze like the eternal permafrost, countless blades. I command in the name of the proxy. My given name is the incarnation of the Water Spirit, the Queen of Water—"
Realizing Tsuna was a genuine, lethal threat, the Spirit glared up at him and began rapidly chanting a different Short Chant.
In response, Tsuna didn't dodge. He simply floated there. He extended his right hand forward, palm out, and brought his left hand close to his chest, palm facing inward. Angling both hands slightly, he connected his thumbs to the side joints of his index fingers, forming a distinct, diamond-shaped gap between his hands. He closed his eyes, and the flames on his hands and forehead began to flicker erratically, pulsing like a failing heartbeat.
"He's not dodging!?"
"What the hell is he thinking!?"
Riveria and Bete stared in utter disbelief as Tsuna hung defenseless in the air, making absolutely no effort to evade the incoming spell.
"Hurry, provide cover fire!!"
"Do not interfere!!"
"Captain!?"
Raul had already drawn his magic sword to intercept, but Finn sharply barked the order to stand down. Raul stared at his commander, completely lost.
"It's fine. Trust him."
"Captain…?"
Raul had no idea what Finn was thinking, but recognizing the absolute certainty in his commander's eyes, he lowered his blade.
"[Icicle Edge]."
A Magic Circle materialized in front of the Spirit's mouth, and a colossal, jagged spear of ice shot upward, hurtling straight at Tsuna.
Once again, the spell scored a direct hit. A massive explosion of freezing mist swallowed him whole.
But—
"What is that…!?"
As the frost dispersed, Tsuna remained suspended in the air. He was encased in a swirling sphere of absolute cold energy. Suddenly, the sphere contracted, shrinking rapidly until the freezing aura entirely vanished into the palms of his hands.
"[Zero Point Breakthrough: Revised]."
Instantly, the dying will flames on his hands and forehead erupted into a roaring inferno, burning brighter and purer than ever before. The Spirit stared in sheer, unadulterated shock as her magic was completely neutralized.
"He absorbed the magic and nullified it…!?"
"No. That's not quite right."
"What do you mean, Finn…!?"
"He didn't just absorb and neutralize it. He converted the magical energy into his own physical power."
"What!?"
Tione gasped in disbelief, and the rest of the executives were left utterly speechless.
Just as I thought.
Hestia hadn't told anyone about this particular skill, simply because, much like the [Blood of Vongola], it was an incredibly rare and abnormal trait.
But during his duel with Ottar, when Tsuna had caught the Boaz's massive greatsword, he had attempted to freeze it using the First Edition of the Zero Point Breakthrough. In that moment, his Hyper Intuition had sensed a faint, untapped potential. Later, during the fight with the Blue Crab in the lower floors, he had used the technique again to freeze the monster, solidifying his theory. He had finally unlocked his signature defensive technique.
"Natsu."
At his call, the exhaust vents on his arms vanished, and his right hand transformed, encased entirely in a sleek, metal gauntlet. The orange flames aggressively converged onto the weapon.
"!?"
Her survival instincts screaming, the Spirit immediately drew her petals shut, rapidly weaving every remaining tentacle in front of her to form a massive, double-layered biological shield.
"[Burning Axle]!!"
Tsuna thrust his gauntlet forward, unleashing a highly compressed sphere of hyper-condensed fire. It was identical to the attack he had used to obliterate the Valgang Dragon, but exponentially larger and far more unstable.
The roaring fireball tore through the sky and slammed into the Spirit's double-layered shield, vaporizing the tentacles instantly and blasting straight through the petals.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
The fireball gouged out a massive chunk of her right flank and lower torso, ripping away flesh and vine. The Spirit shrieked in absolute agony.
She shifted her body!
Tsuna had aimed that strike directly at where her Magic Stone should have been. However, the double-layered shield had successfully blocked his line of sight just long enough. Sensing the lethal intent, the Spirit had violently twisted her body at the last possible microsecond, narrowly avoiding a fatal strike to her core.
Even so, the attack had blown away a massive portion of her body, inflicting grievous damage.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!!"
Panicking, the Spirit whipped every surviving tentacle wildly at Tsuna in a desperate frenzy. Reversing his flame propulsion, Tsuna gracefully weaved backward through the erratic strikes, retreating back to the ground.
He landed smoothly next to Finn, while the Spirit frantically focused every ounce of her remaining energy on regenerating her missing torso.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah. Thanks to you, we had enough time to heal."
"Good."
"I'm sorry. I hate to admit it, but we've done nothing but force you to do the impossible."
Ashamed of his own powerlessness, Finn sincerely apologized for making Tsuna bear the entire weight of the battle.
Everyone is fully healed.
Confirming that the Familia was back in fighting shape, Tsuna turned his gaze back to the agonizing Spirit.
And so am I.
He hadn't thrown himself into the meteor shower just to buy his allies time. He had done it to restore his own depleted flame reserves. He had gambled that by showing the Spirit he was weakened and exhausted, she would opt for a faster, slightly weaker Short Chant rather than another apocalyptic Super Long Chant—one that he could safely absorb with the Zero Point Breakthrough.
"Now, I can finally fight at full power."
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