As soon as Yuna had noticed the guns, she canceled her attack. It was impossible for her to evade every bullet now. No matter how much essence she would use, Akito would use more, and continue to force her onto the defensive.
They were both sure that they would keep this up until one of them made a mistake or runs out of essence.
Akito could increase the bullet speed, the fire rate and the number of guns, turning the odds in his favour, since she could only increase the speed at which she could dodge.
The bullets left the barrels and flew so fast that Yuna wasn't able to fully dodge them.
There was no place to take cover. Not that a building could stop these bullets, but it could at least disrupt his line of sight enough for Akito to shoot more inaccurately.
Somehow, only a couple of bullets had grazed her. One created a small hole in her triceps where it had hit and passed through her. Aside from that, she had been managing fine for now.
It took merely a few seconds until Akito stopped his onslaught of bullets for a short while. If he were to make Yuna believe he was lower on essence than he actually was, then he could bait out an attack and wound her fatally. Not only that, but by stopping for just a short while, he could also preserve more of his essence compared to continuously shooting.
Yuna wasn't foolish enough to fall for his tricks. She knew that what he was doing, as long as she didn't play along, would benefit her more than him.
She was a self-augmentation user and he was a summoner. Keeping the summoned material from fading into nothingness costed essence the entire time. Seeing how many weapons he had at the ready at that moment, made her realize that she could simply wait this battle out.
It didn't go unnoticed by Akito one bit, and soon, he attacked once more, suddenly firing all of his guns at her with killing intent.
"Aren't you growing tired of hiding behind a wall of bullets?"
"No. Why would I?"
"It shows that you're just a weak nobody. In truth, all of you from the jade palace are. I know that all the wealth your city has amassed wasn't gathered in just ways. Blackmailing, robbing and killing others mercilessly without warning is a thing you people constantly do, no? All of your so-called strength is completely reliant on surprise attacks as well. It's because you aren't even strong to begin with. It's all a mind game to you. As long as one simply doesn't play along, you're as easy to kill as a rat. The same goes for all the others in the jade palace. That's why I'm certain that we won't have any significant losses here. You are done for and so is your city, killshot."
Yuna talked condescendingly and with extreme confidence. Akito simply couldn't take such disrespect. His blood boiled with rage and an uncontrollable desire to give her a slow and agonizing death.
"You accursed wretch! How dare you insult someone so far above you?! How dare you believe you're any better, huh?! You're just an emotionally immature fool who runs their city with force and fear! You act like you cannot feel, yet I know very well how deeply it all hurts you. Hahahahah! You're more pathetic than anything I've ever encountered-"
Her plan was a full success. Akito was easy to frustrate, meaning that she could distract him with words like this. She made a run for it and attempted to kill him once again, forcing him to abruptly leave his train of thoughts behind. He started jumping and dashing away from Yuna yet again while also firing all of his guns right at her.
She had planned to pressure killshot more and deprive him of his essence further until he would naturally die from spending too much of it. At least she planned on doing so until her key to victory had arrived.
It was Kei, appearing in the distance.
"Yuna! Catch!"
He carried a guandao made solely out of metal, and after calculating the speed and distance that Yuna and Akito were going at, he threw it in her path.
At this exact moment, Yuna spiked her expenditure of essence to strengthen herself. She rushed forward, knowing that this was her best shot at killing Akito, and picked up the guandao on her way.
The killshot became anxious, his eyes widened, and a cold sweat ran down his spine, as he started using up his last bit of essence in a desperate attempt at staying alive.
The bullets merely grazed Yuna, some hit her directly and created non-lethal wounds, but nothing else was achieved.
The guandao wasn't the best, because it was created by a rank 1 Enlightened, but it was sufficient. The guandao extended her reach enough for her to finally deliver a fatal blow. She had managed to slit his throat open.
Everyone, including Kei, Yuna and Akito stopped dead in their tracks. The guandao, as well as the guns Akito had summoned, all faded into nothingness. They were no longer of any use because the battle had been decided.
Akito had lost.
He fell to his knees as blood started to gush out of it. Gibberish was all that left his mouth, yet by observing his facial expression, it became clear that he was cursing both Yuna and Kei.
Instinctively, he clutched at his throat and tried to stop the bleeding by any means as more and more started to release in streams. His mouth became just as overfilled as his throat, and it didn't take long before it started to drip down his lips.
Neither Yuna nor Kei cared about him or gave him a quicker death. The threat had been neutralized, nothing else mattered.
"You did amazing, Kei. Thank you for helping me with the guandao. Let's finish what we've started now. Just stay alert and warn me if anyone dangerous appears, and help me defeat them. I'll do all the rest."
Kei didn't listen to her praise or words much. All he could think about were the injuries she had. None were major, yet they all worried him greatly. Furthermore, as Yuna took a few slow and steady steps, she collapsed onto her knees.
"Are you alright, Yuna?! Are you severiy injured somewhere?!"
He rushed over and helped her stand up gently, yet she dismissed his concerns.
"I'm fine. Don't worry. It's just that I've used a lot of essence already. I can keep going."
He didn't believe her, yet he didn't talk back to her either.
Fortunately, she was correct and she did manage to keep going. They roamed around the jade palace, destroyed all, and killed all they saw without hesitation before returning to the first stronghold safely after their mission was fulfilled.