Just as Tohka had asked Miku Izayoi to stay outside and entered on her own, she quickly saw the one waiting for her—Mandarin. She had to admit, this guy was completely different from what she saw on TV.
What kind of presence he had on television she couldn't be sure, but this Mandarin in front of her was releasing a terrifying aura from head to toe. But Tohka still had a question—wasn't this guy's opponent supposed to be Tony? She remembered this guy not only thoroughly crushed Tony, but if she recalled correctly, this was where the two of them had their final battle. She had no idea why this time he'd come looking for her instead.
"Your strength—you already showed it in New York. So, I think you're more suitable to be my opponent, and as long as I take you down, my biggest obstacle disappears." But what surprised Tohka was that this guy actually had his own objective. Only…looking around at this empty gorge, Tohka suspected maybe he simply wanted to fight her. Otherwise, he wouldn't have so openly sent her a letter, and would have just ambushed her in America.
"Come, let me see for myself the so-called greatest power spoken of by the outside world." But this time the Mandarin didn't waste words. He simply raised both hands, and instantly the rings on them began to release a massive wave of magical energy.
"The Ten Rings." Seeing the power radiating from them, Tohka tensed. "But where are your terracotta soldiers? Why don't you bring them out?"
"Hmm, you know quite a lot about me." The Mandarin looked at Tohka with some surprise but didn't answer her question. Because this time, facing Tohka, those terracotta warriors were not suited for this battle, so he hadn't bothered to summon them.
But he didn't intend to waste any more time either. The rings on one of his hands suddenly unleashed fire and storm that swept toward Tohka.
"Hmph." She let out a cold snort. Tohka wasn't afraid of this kind of attack at all. Raising her massive sword, she swung it down. Immediately, a torrent of sword energy erupted and forcefully split the storm and the flames in two. The energy didn't stop there but kept flying toward the Mandarin.
"Hmm." Watching the sword energy coming his way, the Mandarin didn't dare take it head-on. With a quick movement, he dodged aside. In the next instant, he flashed away from Tohka's attack.
But just then, Tohka raised her sword and closed the distance, swinging it straight down at his head. Yet at that moment, she suddenly felt the air around her shift strangely and begin to swirl. She immediately unleashed her own spiritual power, forcibly shattered the vortex, and charged out of it.
But soon Tohka noticed that the surroundings had changed again, becoming pitch black. At that moment, she felt a chill behind her, and instinctively she raised her sword in front of herself. A cutting beam swept forward and slammed hard against her blade.
"Ugh." Tohka was pushed back by the force and smashed into the ground. But at least she could breathe a sigh of relief. "Phew, that was close."
She knew that if that attack had landed directly, she might very well have been sliced clean in half by that extremely powerful cutting beam. She didn't know if it would have killed her, but it definitely would have hurt like hell. And her guts and all that…just thinking about those grotesque images made her want to gag. She wasn't like that certain red girl next door who could get used to this sort of thing.
"So that was your burst attack. I'm quite curious whether you can use that beam again anytime soon." Just then, Tohka saw the Mandarin looking somewhat astonished. Obviously, in his eyes, that strike should have been enough to kill her. He hadn't expected Tohka's giant sword to be so tough that the beam couldn't pierce through.
"Hmph." Though he couldn't use that beam again so soon, the Mandarin's aura didn't diminish in the least. Both hands clenched, and the next moment, a storm of mixed elements roared toward Tohka.
"This guy…to use such a massive attack." Seeing the Mandarin's assault, Tohka didn't dare take it head-on. The energy storm made her feel inexplicably uneasy. She immediately shot upward at top speed. The storm crashed down where she'd stood, and with a deafening boom, the entire gorge shook violently.
"Phew…thank goodness I dodged in time. But I have to end this quickly before that beam comes back." She exhaled and decided not to waste any more time. "Last Sword."
A gigantic sword over ten meters long appeared in her hands. This was an uninhabited wilderness anyway, so she didn't need to hold back. She swung the massive blade, slashing repeatedly toward the Mandarin's location.
If you wanted to see how powerful it was, you just had to think back to the time in Date A Live when she fought Origami. Countless sword strikes poured down from the sky, not only bombarding the Mandarin's position but completely destroying the mountains and plains behind him. The last person to see Tohka go all out like this was Tony and Professor Yinsen. But after all this time, her attack power had grown even stronger. Especially after obtaining the Kabbalah Tree of Life—if she fought Apocalypse again now, even he wouldn't dare take her attacks head-on.
"Haah…haah…this guy should be dead now, right?" After swinging dozens of strikes, Tohka finally stopped. The once-beautiful Dragon Valley had been completely transformed. The scenery was gone, replaced by a wasteland of intersecting sword scars and shattered rock and upturned soil.
"Hmm…gone?" What surprised Tohka was that after waiting a long time, there was no reaction at all. When she came down to check, she found several broken rings and an arm that must have been severed by one of her attacks. As for the Mandarin's aura—she couldn't feel a trace of it.
"Forget it, this will do. Miku must be getting worried by now. And these things left behind are nothing but trouble—better to destroy them." She vaguely remembered that even the Mandarin's arm could cause disaster, so she simply didn't hesitate and obliterated the severed limb. As for those rings, she didn't even bother to look at them—after all, they'd already been broken by her strikes.