The majority of the enemies within this hideout weren't much more of a challenge than the ones they'd encountered out in the desert. Only a few of them offered more resistance, relying on stranger and more creative instances of shadow magic combined with more power and talent than the mooks, who she could easily get rid of with a single swipe from her claws. The stronger ones... Well, Akemi was still too strong for them, and beyond that they faced the issue that any attack directed at her that she couldn't just evade was instead swallowed, turned into more energy for the dark claw assassin.
However, she could also tell that the strongest marauders would be found within the great hall, which she and Mura were leaving for last. While that gave these strongest adversaries time to react, it was necessary to clean up the side chambers to ensure that the two Fairy Tail members would not be caught from behind while they were dealing with the more significant threats. None of the enemies they'd encountered so far could stand up to them one on one, so numbers were a greater threat than individual ability.
It was easy for powerful individuals to forget that power came in many ways, and often it came in the form of many weaker individuals banding together to perform feats that were difficult even for the strongest.
That said, she was correct in assuming that the stronger individuals in the central chamber would not be sitting still while all their subordinates got eliminated. As she was clearing up the last of the chambers that were under her responsibility, raising dark spikes from the shadows of her victims to pierce their torsos and bleed them out, a massive burst of dark magic began to sweap through the place, first aiming for Mura but then sweeping around towards Akemi's position. A beam, black as obsidian, swept through everything without slowing down or thinning, demolishing everything in its path. A rather crude application of dark magic, but effective nonetheless.
On the other hand, it was also very vulnerable to being countered.
When the beam reached her Akemi reached up her dark claw, the talons swelling up and wrapping around it. Upon contact the beam shuddered and distorted, falling apart into thick streams of dark energy that were drawn into the claw and absorbed. Whatever properties the beam might have had, its core element was still dark. And with such a massive amount of it concentrated to cause such a destructive effect, there was no reason for Akemi to not devour it. If she was a more emotional person she might have felt elated at the amount of energy that was flowing into her, not only negating any stamina she might have lost ripping her way through the chambers but pushing her significantly beyond her usual limits. While it might not be as powerful as the strongest magics that she or Mura could conjure, it definitely spoke of a powerful foe she couldn't just blitz.
It seemed that the man responsible for the beam had realized that he was just feeding Akemi his magic, because he retracted the beam and reformed it into the shape of a club. Most likely it would retain most of its destructive properties, in which case it would be unwise to come into direct contact with the weapon unless Akemi was prepared to consume that as well. Wrapping herself in shadows Akemi turned invisible as she considered her next more. That man was already fully aware of their presence, and strong enough that a surprise attack was unlikely to work until he was already distracted.
While that man was preparing himself for a frontal fight another shadow spell was spread out over the hideout, one with a curious effect: anything that moved was leaving behind afterimages that simply didn't dissipate, quickly cluttering the place with many images. Mura's rock pillars kept the complex from collapsing, but there was still a lot of debris flying around as a consequence of the beam, not to mention those marauders who had been gathered in the main hall and who hadn't been taken out yet. Akemi's invisibility meant that she wasn't leaving any afterimages behind herself, but that only made a small difference. More importantly, Akemi couldn't ignore this like usual: it wasn't magical dark or an illusion, so she couldn't see right through it.
Thankfully, she could still rely on her other senses. Akemi closed her eyes as she dashed about invisibly, taking the opportunity to slit the throat of another target who had been reading out from a scroll which had caused her shadow to start shimmering. From the looks of it this spell had been meant to summon an endless stream of minions, to overwhelm the invaders while the many afterimages hindered their ability to react or defend themselves.
The afterimages, together with the other spells they'd encountered so far, spoke of a rather creative mindset for whoever had written these scrolls. Akemi was very literal-minded, so her own dark magic was mostly in the form of invisibility, quick movement, and materializing shadows in useful shapes. But now they'd already encountered those who'd turn themselves into dark entities so as to become immune to most types of harm, a spell which would change cause and effect so the target would receive all wounds they inflicted on others, and now one which materialized one's "shadows of the past" as three-dimensional images. That definitely supported the theory that these people had gotten their hands on scrolls belonging to one of those God-Kissed: it was unlikely that these marauders, or even most modern mages, would develop such complex techniques.
From a tactical perspective, disabling the caster who was responsible for the after-images was the first priority. Mura would be able to help deal with what appeared to be the boss of the marauders, the one who was currently charging the shaman with his club raised, clearly intending to use that stygian mace to destroy Fairy Tail's guild master. Shooting forward like an invisible arrow Akemi grabbed Mura's shoulder and moved the both of them to a shadow on the other side of the room before teleporting herself to another shadow. So far as she was aware Mura couldn't rely on his other senses like she could: humans had excellent eyesight, but their other senses were... less excellent.
The person responsible for the afterimages... Akemi could sense all the magic signatures in the hideout, and the club-wielding man wasn't the only impressive presence. The other one had spread themselves to cover the entire area, but as she focused she could track down the point of origin. A small person, hands interwoven and hidden underneath a shadow veil as they kept the spell going that caused the afterimages to keep spawning. While the boss was already charging Mura once more Akemi turned herself into a shadow and slid up the wall and onto the ceiling.
Positioning herself above the spellcaster she left the ceiling behind and shot down, the claw around her arm turning into a black spike that pierced the floor and the person who was sitting there. However, instead of undoing the spell and revealing a corpse, the person she thought she'd sensed simply disappeared, reappearing several meters to her left. The same way that they were causing afterimages to spawn, they were also hiding their position by creating fakes.
Akemi was fast. Her actions took less than a second to execute. However, the boss was also fast, and he was quickly closing in on Mura. The shaman could defend himself, but she'd rather make things easier by getting rid of all the afterimages first so he could use his eyes to see. Even if he could sense the soul of the boss, that weapon had no spiritual presence, and was not something he could just block with his weapon. With no time left for precision attacks the assassin decided to use her first powerful spell.
Summoning a second claw on her other arm Akemi lashed out in a circle around her, dark talons carving deep lines in the floor. From the scars poured forth stygian flames, quickly increasing in volume as they covered her surroundings and ripped into anything and everything. This black blaze contained no heat: it simply disassembled everything it touched on a molecular level, consuming all matter and magic to fuel itself and continue burning. Afterimages were pointless before this attack, as everything was quickly obscured by lightless flames.
The spellcaster responsible for the afterimages tried to throw up a barrier to defend themselves against this sudden brutal attack, but the flames tore their way through the hastily conjured shield and consumed the person as readily as everything else they encountered. With the spellcaster's death the afterimages disappeared, allowing Mura to clearly see the boss who was charging him at high speed, club raised to reduce Mura to nothingness while the rest of the hall was being devoured by Akemi's black flames. The dark claw assassin herself was nowhere to be seen, but most of the marauders that remained were now more busy trying to escape or put out the dark fire.
Akemi didn't like relying on brute force, but being fooled by the decoy had left her with not enough time to kill the spellcaster carefully. A truly irritating thing to admit, but what's done was done. For now she'd use the fact that her prey was distracted to hunt them down from the shadows, dancing about invisibly as she ripped them apart while leaving Mura to deal with the boss for now. She trusted her guild master to be capable of dealing with the man by himself, but even if he couldn't he'd last enough that she could help him take the boss down afterwards.
Although she might have to delay that to get rid of her black flames before they brought the roof down upon them. A dark dragon's stygian flames weren't as destructive and energetic as those of a true fire dragon, but they'd eat away at stone the same way they ate away at everything else.
- Current Appearance:
Height: 5'7" (170cm)
WC: 1,697
PWC: 11,400
TWC: 19,752
@Mura Kensho