Akumu had been teleported to the same stone platform much like the competitors before him, and the stairway quickly manifested as it connected to the entrance of the reverse castle.
The timer began to count down, however the audience didn't follow suit. They just sat and watched carefully. They knew that if Japan was able to win this round, then they would have a small chance at taking back the whole game.
3..2..1.. FIGHT
The doors burst open as a swarm of grade 3 knights stormed down the stairs. Not only that, but a wave of arrows from the grade 1 curses hiding in the walls was fired at him too. In response, 4 black tendrils' emerged from Akumu's back, which were coated in sharp but flexible blades.
During the 2 weeks of training, Akumu had doubled his cursed energy supply and output, but his biggest development was definitely the way he now controlled his dark whips.
He focused 2 of the tendrils on deflecting the arrows, and the rest on attacking the curses in front of him. With this deadly combo, he quickly swept through the first wave of curses with relative ease, by either severing their very brittle bodies, or knocking large groups of them off the stairs as they were incredibly light.
By the time he reached the main hall, he was instantly assaulted by 2 grade 2 curses. 2 spears instantly shot forward at him which were quickly destroyed by the tendrils that he still had manifested. The curses were quickly torn apart, however another swarm of them all charged at him yet again.
Sure, he could keep this up, but by the time he reached the boss room he would be exhausted. If he tried to take a break, he was sure that it would come to him rather than waiting like it did for Sung gon-ill.
He could use his simple domain, but then he would run into the issue of energy efficiency again. Against this number of spirits, and the grade 1's that have yet to appear, he would be done for.
"I guess it's time I used this."
From his feet, a small circle of dark whips was formed. But then it appeared to melt before turning into a strange black liquid that was like water, but clearly not water at all. This water then grew as it slowly started to encompass the room.
Once one of the knights reached him, Akumu quickly created a blade of shadows that easily cut through the knights armour. But then he was attacked from his back by two more knights. From the strange water beneath them, two spikes of darkness instantly pierced their chests, killing them on the spot.
When Akumu used black flash, he learned how to create weapons from his dark whips by compressing them together, and then sharpening them thanks to the increased understanding of cursed energy. Dark water was an application of this, instead of compression, he stretched out his cursed energy to a point it took on the properties of a liquid. Since his cursed energy is so malleable, this liquid can also be sharpened much like his dark blades. And it also costed less energy to make than any of his previous creations.
The water then began to ripple, so the knights suddenly froze. They felt something was wrong, the water they were standing on had suddenly become very dangerous. However, there was nowhere they could run.
This move, was inspired by the way Shinji Kamo used blood manipulation.
'Rising Black Sky.'
Hundreds of droplets of water then rose. In an instant, every single curse that had broken into the hall were wiped out in just a few seconds, as individual droplets of black water pierced through their armour creating numerous tiny holes in their steel bodies.
Since they were hollow on the inside, they had no weak point, however they would die if they took too much damage which is what just occurred.
They all collapsed to the floor, as the rest of the grade 1 knights finally stormed into the hall. They were supposed to have killed a weakened Akumu, but much like gon-ill, he had taken out all the curses to easily.
'Falling Black Sky.'
All the droplets of black rain which had gathered in the sky, quickly fell back down on the new knights. These knights were much more durable than their predecessors, but since this rain was falling, it was much more powerful thanks to gravity.
It easily shredded through the armour of the grade 1 curses, however these were slightly more resistant to it then the others. Just a handful had managed to survive, but there movements were restricted due to the damage.
Akumu manifested a greatsword made from dark whips, and easily destroyed them.
Without wasting any time, he quickly advanced to the final hall. It was exactly the same as when Sung gon-ill first entered it, however this knight was incredibly impatient. Without giving Akumu anymore room to breathe, it quickly launched itself at him.
"WHAT!"
Akumu raised his greatsword to block it, and felt the crushing weight of the knight as both of their weapons collided. In an instant, Akumu's sword broke.
He had not expected this at all. When he witnessed Sung gon-ill fight the boss, he thought that their combat ability was similar, and that they would perform similarly against it. However, he was completely wrong. It wasn't even his weapon that was the problem, but the physical strength gap between them was also immense.
Akumu quickly raised his guard as the red knight smashed his fist into him, sending Akumu flying through the hall as he was sent back to the original one. His arms weren't broken, but one more hit would surely finish him off.
The red knight was already rushing towards him, preparing to cleave Akumu in half with one hit, but Akumu smirked.
As the red knight entered the room, it was instantly swept by a tide of dark water making it lose it's footing. Akumu never dispersed it, and instead left it hanging close to the ceiling incase things went wrong.
Akumu extended out his hand, as the water began to change and suddenly grow tighter. The knight desperately tried to escape, but it could feel its movements growing slower as his body got harder and harder to move.
'Dark prison.'
Akumu was careful not to make it too hard, so as to not make it brittle. Since it could already break his greatsword, he focused on making the prison more elastic instead.
"Let's finish this shall we?"
He could feel a struggle taking place in his prison. The movements of the knight were erratic and fierce. Despite drowning in darkness, it did not give up on trying to break free, and if given anymore time it would probably succeed.
Akumu would not give it that time though.
The darkness inside of the prison began to stir, as numerous spikes formed and suddenly began to pierce the knights body. Of course, the armour of the special grade knight was much more durable and resistant to piercing attacks compared to the rest of its brethren. But Akumu had multiple attempts to do so. Eventually, it will fail.
And so it did.
The barrage of spikes was continuous and relentless. If they shattered they would reform, and every fail resulted in a small dent forming in the knights armour. Those dents grew both in number, and size, until the first breach was made.
It didn't end there. The darkness of the prison quickly flooded into the that tiny hole, attacking the knight not just from the outside, but the inside too. Even though Akumu couldn't see it, he could certainly feel the knight writhing in pain.
'These things could feel pain??'
And very quickly, it was dead. The prison of darkness melted away, and all that was left was the knights shattered remains.
The colosseum was.. silent. It took them a while to comprehend what just happened, but very quickly they all screamed. A rush of excitement and adrenaline then rushed throughout the entire arena as they all chanted Japan's name.
"HE'S DONE IT! AKUMU SAIGO DEFEATS ALL 100 CURSES! TYING HIM FOR FIRST PLACE WITH KOREA'S SUNG GON-ILL!"
[Note: While writing this chapter, I got carried away and made Akumu's fight too long. Han Meiying was also meant to fight too, but I got lazy, and I can't fit it in the next chapter, so I'm going to cut the fight entirely lol. All you need to know is that she tied for 1st place with Japan and Korea.]