Alex and Acnologia continue their fight that turns into a fistfight again. They also shoot spells at each other from a close distance as they fly around in the sky.
Their movements are very fast, so Alex's friends at the Battle Fairy can't follow them to give any assistance. They can only wait for the best moment to help while preparing themselves.
Alex is guiding Acnologia to fight above the clouds to minimize the damage on the land. The nearest civilization is a few mountains away, but Acnologia's attacks can easily reach that place, so it's better to avoid that.
By now, the nearest cities should have realized that a very dangerous battle is going on nearby. If the people there are smart, they should've been evacuating already.
Fortunately, even though a lot of people are oblivious about the ongoing battle of monsters, the Magic Council already alerts all countries. So the nearby countries alert their cities and towns near the battleground to evacuate already.
As the battle gets more intense, the people of nearby towns and villages finally start feeling that something is really wrong in the direction of where the battle happens.
Good thing they already started evacuating after their leaders ordered them. None of the Kings dare to ignore the Magic Council's warning because they only send such a warning when the whole continent is in grave danger.
The Magic Council and many Magic Guilds are moving quickly to the battleground now. They can't just stay still when an enemy that can threaten their whole continent appears.
Many Mages are also prepared to sacrifice their lives when they hear that Acnologia has appeared again. There's no safe place if Acnologia decides to rampage on the continent, after all, so they rather fight than just accept fates.
They move as fast as they can with their airships or hitchhiking on other Guilds' airships because not all Guilds have airships. It's very expensive, after all, especially if the airships have strong weapons and many functions.
Anyway, the first to arrive is the Magic Council's airship. Makarov and the 3 Gods of Ishgar are on that airship, which is the best airship owned by the Magic Council. It's very fast and has a very powerful Jupiter Cannon, that's why not everyone can use it.
The airship looks luxurious despite being the best battle airship the Council has. But neither Makarov nor the Gods of Ishgar have time to enjoy the luxury of this airship. They only choose it because it's the fastest.
When they arrive near the battleground, they are stunned to see the battle. It makes all their fights in the past look like child plays. None of them knows what to say in this situation and they can only look at the battle with their mouths agape.
Alex is exchanging attacks with Acnologia high in the sky. He has removed 4 arms and 2 faces, so his giant form looks more normal now and it looks even more like Naruto's Kurama Mode now except that the body is more like a masked human than a golden fox.
The battle happens high in the sky, but it can be seen clearly because there's no cloud as all of them have been pushed away, clearing everyone's view.
Alex and Acnologia are throwing punches and kicks that are enhanced with magic power. Magic sparks appear every time they clash. The shockwaves are so powerful that everyone can feel them even from far away.
Their punches hit each other's punches, hit their bodies, and also hit their faces sometimes. Alex knows it won't be easy to defeat Acnologia, but he didn't expect it would still be this difficult even after all his years of training.
Acnologia keeps getting better as they fight. But Alex knows that there's no way Acnologia can suddenly get much stronger while they fight. That means Acnologia is already that much stronger and only adapted to Alex's skills.
Alex's skills might be very unusual for Acnologia, so he needs to adapt first. Now he has adapted with Alex's battle style. It's usually Alex who adapts quickly with his opponents' styles, but now the situation is reversed.
The 400 years gap is much bigger than he thought. Acnologia is already a genius to begin with, proved by how he is the best Dragon Slayer in history, even if his personality isn't the best.
His genius is proved even further by how he can understand Alex's battle style this quickly. Combined with his great power, he can quickly overpower Alex who has basically reached a higher peak than almost all human Mages.
All of his punches are very strong and heavy, damaging Alex's body that could compete with Susanoo. At least Asura could do that, so it might be different in Alex's case. Maybe he hasn't fully developed this form's power.
But still, it seems to be as strong as Dragons' bodies. Zeref who knew some Dragons personally says it, so it seems to be true.
Zeref also attacks Acnologia with his Black Magic. He flies around by himself to attack Acnologia from blind spots, but Acnologia quickly disposes of him.
Acnologia slaps Zeref down with his tail. It is a very strong attack that planted Zeref very deep underground. Acnologia enhanced that attack with a lot of magic power.
His body is damaged so badly that even his great self-healing ability he got from his immortality needs some time to recover.
That attack looks like an attack full of annoyance. As if Acnologia doesn't want Zeref to disturb his good time.
They have fought numerous times, so Acnologia is bored to fight Zeref again. Alex gives him a much more interesting fight, so he disposes of Zeref so quickly.
Acnologia gets very excited about this battle because Alex can give him a very good fight. Their physical strength is almost equal, and so are their spells.
Furthermore, Alex adapts with the battle very quickly too, so they keep changing and improving as the fight goes on, making the battle keeps getting more intense as the time goes on.
Acnologia adapts with Alex's battle style quickly, but Alex is also very observant and can see through all of Acnologia's attacks. His Rinne-Sharingan eyes can see everything Acnologia does.
Even when he uses sneak attacks like a hidden tail attack, Alex can see it and block or dodge it. His Rinne-Sharingan helps him see attacks very clearly like they move slowly and he can even see them before they are fully executed.
Acnologia's reaction time is also very fast, but it's still not on par with Alex's Rinne-Sharingan. He gets hit many times by Alec. In fact, he gets hit much more than Alex, but he is still in a good condition after this long.
That's because his body is very durable and his self-healing magic is much faster than in the past. He can heal most of his attacks in just a few seconds, so he's always in prime condition.
Coupled with his ability to eat magic power from his surroundings freely, he basically can keep recovering his body without any fear of running out of magic power.
Alex can't eat magic power freely from his surroundings because his ability is absorbing magic power from others or lacrima.
He tries to absorb Acnologia's magic power with his every attack. It works at first, but when Acnologia realizes it, he suddenly can't absorb Acnologia's magic power. Obviously because Acnologia knows how to counter this ability.
Alex has gotten much stronger, but Acnologia is still a very hard opponent to fight. He can't even dominate the fight after so long and can only manage to be quite equal with Acnologia.
This is frustrating because he thought he had grown much stronger. Strong enough to defeat even Acnologia. But the truth is different. Acnologia is still stronger even after 7 years.
In fact, he might actually help Acnologia get stronger because he makes Acnologia learn more things through their fight. So this turns out worse than he thought.
It makes Alex wonder just how Igneel managed to rip Acnologia's left arm. Igneel was weakened at the time after living in Natsu's body for years and used his power to prevent Natsu from turning into a Dragon from overusing his magic.
He shouldn't be Acnologia's match 400 years ago in his prime, so there's no way he is Acnologia's match when he's weakened. So either Acnologia made a mistake in the fight, or he wasn't serious, or it was possible to injure Acnologia that badly by sacrificing himself.
Alex doesn't want to just die like that, so he won't take that option. That's why he thinks the other 2 possibilities are also highly possible. Acnologia literally eradicated almost all Dragons years ago, including the Dragon Kings without sustaining any injury, so he might be holding back against the weakened Igneel.
Whatever the case at that time, Alex's problem remains the same now. He can't dominate the fight and only seems equal with Acnologia. But he can't replenish his magic power infinitely and he starts running out of it while Acnologia still seems to have a lot of magic power, so this starts to look very bad for Alex.
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Ch. 273. Dragons and Guests