The power of destruction was an incredible weapon. It didn't just destroy; it disintegrated matter and then erased its very existence. It didn't leave a speck of dust where it struck.
Altair watched Rias use it. She unleashed the power and let it do its work. No grace, no control. He wouldn't be surprised if she had never trained it in any way other than simply making it more powerful.
That was a disadvantage; it only served as a missile, a missile without the ability to change direction. Besides, it took time to summon it. Altair wondered if she did it on purpose, like a character charging up a special attack in an anime.
"Attack me, Rias!" he ordered. The girl looked at him suspiciously, as if she were afraid of hurting him. "I'll tie up Akeno while she watches us if you manage to hit me," he added, to convince her.
He watched her charge the attack, a magic circle under her feet, and her body glowing green. It took Rias seconds to charge. The moment she launched the attack, Altair appeared behind her, and the attack exploded against the ground in the distance.
"Iahh~," Rias screamed/moaned as he put his hand on her neck.
"You're... slow," he whispered in her ear.
Rias tried to turn around quickly, but Altair held her tightly, not allowing her to move. His strength had reached the point where it surpassed Rias'. He had been in Japan for about a month and had become several times more powerful than he was in England.
"Let me go," Rias said, although she actually stopped trying to escape as she sought to rub herself against his crotch.
"This isn't the time, Red," Altair said. "You can't even escape from me."
"Oh, please don't take advantage of your strength and my weakness to unleash your savages and lustful dreams with me," she said playfully. "Don't steal my purity once again, please ahh~," Altair spanked her butt.
"Hentai," he heard Koneko's disgusted voice.
"So what?" he asked the cat girl. She remained silent as she narrowed her eyes, looking ready to scratch his face. "Rias," he called her in a firm voice as he let her go.
"Yes, love?" she asked as she was finally able to turn around.
"Can you take this seriously?" he asked her. Rias had asked to train, and he loved helping her. But if all Rias wanted was to flirt, he needed to know.
"Hai," she replied as she sensed his earnest gaze.
"Like I said before, you're slow. You couldn't hit me before I knocked you down," he said. She frowned slightly, as if she didn't want to believe his words. "You waste too much time charging. If it's an attack that requires it, try to shorten it. If not, do it quickly. You can't just waste time while fighting," he told her. It was a bad habit, a product of anime.
"I need to charge it up, but it's not that simple. It's a pretty complicated attack," she justified as she looked away, a pout appearing on her face.
"If it's not simple, make it simple. I don't have the power of destruction, but I'm sure you can cast it faster if you train for it. You don't always need to unleash all your power; sometimes, a small fraction is enough," he said gently.
"I know, but it's not as powerful... I think I can do it better," she said, taking his words better than he initially thought she would.
"Good. Second mistake, you're static," Altair told her.
"Static?" she asked in confusion.
"Since you got here, you haven't moved a single millimeter," Altair said. "You're an easy target. You have legs and wings, use them," he told her.
"But if I move, I can't charge my attack," Rias replied more vehemently.
"Have you tried?" This time, she blushed with embarrassment. "You're a prodigy, Rias. I know that. You're powerful, you probably don't know how to work when things get complicated."
"I know how to work hard!" she snapped, a little annoyed.
"Show me. I want you to change the form of your power and hit me. Don't worry, I'll be fine," he said as he walked away. He deliberately turned his back on her, wanting her to attack him while he was off guard. But apparently, Rias was too proud to do something so low.
"Here I go," Rias prepared herself, and Altair cast a freezing spell at her feet. Rias slipped and fell on her butt. "Ouch! That was cheating!"
"Get your ass up, Rias," Altair said.
She got up and attacked him, the Power of Destruction shooting quickly from her hand. It was small and linear, and Altair dodged it by stepping aside. It wasn't very powerful, but it was a step toward creating more powerful attacks.
"Ouch!" Rias fell to the ground again. "Stop freezing the ground!" she demanded.
"You want things to be easy, princess?" Altair asked her.
She didn't answer; she just got up and continued attacking. With each passing second, her rapid attacks gained more power. Rias launched them like lightning bolts, although Altair was sure he had seen her use orbs. 'Are lightning bolts faster? More efficient?' he wondered as he continued to dodge and freeze the ground at Rias' feet.
The girl seemed to get used to it quickly. Altair cast a Tarantallegra charm on Rias. She dodged it with a smile on her face.
Clack! Clack!
Rias began a ridiculous dance.
"Take this off me! Altaiiiiiiiiir," she shouted.
"Ara ~ Ara ~ Buchou, I didn't know you could dance so well," Akeno teased her king. The masochistic black-haired girl was sitting in a chair with a parasol, drinking a cocktail. She seemed to really enjoy Rias' suffering too much.
"Altair!" she begged, tears of sadness in her eyes.
They were fake tears; you'd have to be stupid not to see that, but Altair quickly cast the counter spell anyway.
"Did you see what I did?" he asked her. Rias shook her head.
Altair raised his wand again. He cast the Rictusempra spell in Rias's direction. She followed it with her gaze, and before it hit her, it curved toward Akeno.
"Pwah, ha, ha, ha, ha-what-ha-is-ha-happening!" Akeno began to laugh hysterically. She felt tickles all over her body.
"You change the spell direction," said Rias.
She attacked him again before he had a chance to cast the counter spell on Akeno. Altair had to dodge Rias' new attacks. The girl moved nimbly across the training ground and shot lightning bolts at Altair. Altair noticed they were different. They curved naturally, but in a predictable curve determined at the cast.
"BUCHOU," Akeno shouted before continuing to laugh out loud as she held her stomach.
Altair dodged a lightning bolt of Power of Destruction as he watched a dark orb heading towards him, moving behind a lightning bolt, almost overlapping it. When he dodged the lightning bolt, the orb moved in his direction.
"Good, Rias!" Altair said, reaching out to catch the orb in his magic-reinforced palm.
The power of destruction erased layers of magic on Altair's skin, which he quickly replenished. It seemed as if the power was designed to destroy a specific amount of magic or any material, eventually becoming weaker until it faded away. Lily had overcome the Power of Destruction before with a spell; it was the same principle.
"Ha, ha, I got you," Rias celebrated as she pointed an imaginary gun at him.
—-----------------
Akeno had buried her face in Altair's stomach while pretending to cry. The girl had been playing the victim since Altair had thrown the Rictumsempra at her.
"And I don't want to laugh anymore," she said.
Altair scratched her side, and she writhed as she jumped away. She looked at him with betrayal in her eyes.
"Oh," Altair shrugged at her deadly stare. "My hand slipped," he said with a long, sad sigh, as if he were truly deeply sorry.
"Maybe one day one of my fingers will slip too," Akeno warned with a sweet smile. Altair felt uneasy when he saw her smile.
"Crybaby," Rias said as she wrote in a notebook.
Altair had told her to look for ways to improve her power. He would teach her about wizarding-world spells based on arithmancy. It was the only thing he could use to help her besides combat training.
"Akeno," Altair called her. Kiba and Koneko had left, both refusing to train with him. Koneko hated him a little, and Kiba seemed to hate him a lot after his fight with Ruval.
"What is it, Black-sama?" she said respectfully and distantly.
"The holy lightning, can you show it to me?" Altair asked. The girl had used it against Lily when she thought Rias had died.
Akeno remained silent, looked at him with wide eyes, before shaking her head.
"I don't want to use that power, ever!" she exclaimed. Then she disappeared into a teleportation circle.
Altair looked at Rias, who continued writing. She began to write only lines and circles, scribbling without any meaning.
"Akeno, she—"
"Please. Don't ask her to use that power, it's a sensitive subject for her," Rias said, looking him firmly in the eye. She looked like a true leader.
"I want to find out why," he said as he got up to look for Akeno.