With brilliant tactical maneuvering, Tsuna had completely toyed with the Ishtar Familia and utterly crushed them.
"Guh…!?"
Aisha had been violently slammed into the ground, yet she somehow managed to cling to consciousness. However, the sheer force of the axe kick had severely injured her right shoulder. She knelt on one knee, clutching her wounded arm as the magical light surrounding her body faded away.
Looking at their defeated commander and the unconscious bodies of their comrades, the few Amazonesses who had managed to avoid the blast lost all will to fight. It was painfully clear that turning this situation around was impossible.
It was then.
"What is taking you all so long!?"
A hulking Amazoness, well over two meters tall, stomped out from the intersection. But it was her appearance that immediately drew the eye. She had massive, bulging eyes and a wide, split mouth. Her arms and legs were strangely short compared to her massive, bloated torso, giving her the distinct appearance of a giant toad. To make matters worse, she was fully clad in heavy armor designed to look exactly like a frog, and she gripped a massive great axe in both hands.
"Phryne…"
So this is… Aisha glared at the newcomer with pure hatred, while Tsuna immediately recognized her from the description the Loki Familia had given them: the Captain of the Ishtar Familia.
Which means… these guys really are the Ishtar Familia…
Tsuna finally confirmed the identity of their attackers.
Is that…
Suddenly, Tsuna noticed a small figure wrapped in a white robe standing nervously behind Phryne.
"What the hell is this pathetic display? Are you telling me you got bested by a bunch of nobodies?" Phryne croaked, her voice grating and arrogant.
"Don't be an idiot…" Aisha spat. "We clearly picked a fight with a total monster…"
"A monster?"
"He took down all of us by himself… He even absorbed my magic…"
"Making such pathetic excuses! You're embarrassing me! This is exactly why ugly people are useless."
Even after hearing Aisha's warning, Phryne showed zero signs of caution, instead opting to mock her own subordinates.
Despite her grotesque appearance, Phryne genuinely believed herself to be the Goddess of Beauty, utterly convinced her looks surpassed even Ishtar and Freya. She was the ultimate narcissist. Due to her complete lack of cooperation and empathy, she had zero respect from her Familia. Behind her back, Aisha and the other members simply called her a "Toad."
"I'll crush a weakling like him right now."
Apparently believing it was impossible for her to lose, Phryne plastered a sickeningly smug grin on her face and began stomping toward Tsuna.
"…Stand down. I have no desire for meaningless conflict." Tsuna warned her, trying to de-escalate.
"You might not, but I sure do!"
Ignoring Tsuna's warning entirely, Phryne charged forward, swinging her massive axe wildly in all directions. The sheer force of her reckless charge gouged deep trenches into the stone floor.
"—What!?"
Tsuna effortlessly caught the blade of the great axe between his bare hands. Phryne's smug expression shattered into pure, unadulterated shock. She hadn't expected him to stop it, let alone with his bare hands.
"Mikoto, do not deactivate your skill under any circumstances. The rest of you, stay vigilant for monsters," Tsuna instructed his team without looking away.
"Y-You little…!!"
Seeing him perfectly calm, more concerned with his allies' safety than the giant weapon in his hands, completely enraged Phryne. Her face twisted into a grotesque scowl as she poured all her monstrous strength into the axe, trying to cleave him in two. Yet, the blade didn't budge a single millimeter.
"This is my final warning. Walk away."
"Who do you think you're ordering around, you cocky brat!!"
"You leave me no choice…"
Realizing that reasoning with her was completely pointless, Tsuna switched his ring's attribute from Sky to Lightning.
"X-Spark."
"GYAAAAAAAH!!"
Tsuna unleashed a high-voltage surge of Lightning Flames directly into the metal axe. The current instantly traveled up the shaft and into Phryne's frog-like armor, electrocuting her. Her earsplitting, agonizing scream echoed through the corridor.
Realizing she would be roasted alive if she held on, Phryne immediately let go of her weapon.
"You little shit!!"
Blood rushing to her head, the furious Phryne raised her massive right fist into the air and brought it down on Tsuna with all her might. But—
"GYAAAAAAAH!!"
That idiot… Tsuna casually tossed the axe aside and caught Phryne's incoming fist with his Lightning Flame-coated glove. Phryne was electrocuted for a second time, screaming in absolute agony.
Aisha watched in disgust, internally cursing her captain. Phryne had blatantly ignored the obvious danger after being shocked the first time, only to launch another brainless attack and suffer the exact same consequence.
She's exactly like Dendro Chilum… Tsuna's mind flashed back to the future, recalling his battle against Dendro Chilum at the Melone Base. Dendro, much like Phryne, possessed absolute confidence in his brute strength. However, the moment he tasted humiliation, he would fly into a blind rage, losing all sense of rationality.
"How are you even a Captain? Are you seriously the one leading the Ishtar Familia?"
"Y-YOU BRATTTTT!!"
"Too slow."
Enraged beyond reason, Phryne swung again, but Tsuna was far faster.
"Guh!?"
His left straight punched cleanly through her thick armor, burying deep into her gut.
The primary characteristic of the Lightning Flame was Hardening. This drastically increased the density and durability of his gloves, granting his strikes terrifying destructive power. By tightly controlling the flames and focusing them into a single, concentrated point on impact, he magnified the damage exponentially. Shattering Phryne's armor with a hardened strike was as easy as breaking glass.
The sheer concussive force brought the hulking Amazoness to her knees. She clutched her stomach with both hands, her face contorted in agony.
"Do you understand now? The difference in our strength."
"You little… brat…!?"
Looking up at Tsuna, who was staring down at her coldly, Phryne glared at him with enough hatred to kill.
"Haruhime!! Buff me right now!!"
"What!?"
"Huh!?"
Keep your big mouth shut, you stupid Toad!! Besides, her interval isn't up yet, so she can't even use her magic!!
Phryne screamed an order at the figure standing behind her. Bell and Mikoto gasped in shock, completely stunned to hear Haruhime's name coming from Phryne's mouth. Aisha cursed violently in her mind, furious that Phryne had lost her temper and blurted out their most closely guarded secret.
"Cool your head, you damn Toad!!" Aisha yelled.
"Don't you give me orders!!"
Phryne snapped back, completely ignoring the danger. She completely ignored the critical situation and only grew angrier.
"So you only got the Captain seat through brute force… No wonder you lose your cool so easily."
"YOU SHITTY BRATTTTT!!"
Tsuna delivered one final verbal strike. Completely blinded by rage, Phryne lunged forward, stretching her massive arms out to crush him. But in the blink of an eye, Tsuna vanished.
"Where the hell did you go!?"
Phryne wildly looked around, but Tsuna was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't just her; everyone else in the corridor had lost track of him as well.
"Up here, you oversized doll."
"Above!?"
A voice echoed from above. Everyone looked up to see Tsuna suspended in mid-air. He was firing Sky Flames behind himself with his left hand to maintain his position, while his right palm was aimed dead-center at Phryne on the ground.
"X-Burner Air."
A colossal torrent of pure, destructive flame erupted from his palm, rocketing straight down toward Phryne.
Firing the X-Burner at full power strictly required the use of Spanner's headphones and contact lenses to balance the flames. However, if Tsuna intentionally held back the output, he could manually fire the technique without the targeting gear.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
Unable to mount any resistance against the descending inferno, Phryne took the attack head-on. She screamed her final death throes as the sheer force of the blast blew a massive hole through the floor, sending her plummeting into the level below.
----
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