User blog comment:Piyush Banerjee/Shin DxD 2 discussion/@comment-34061653-20190122110131/@comment-2602:306:CD9A:C860:2CAE:ADC8:BCB7:B20B-20190127231749

You people are not giving Rias enough credit. Rias did the best with what she had. In the opening stage of the game, she took out 2 of Issei's team members which even out the numbers and she had a chance to defeat Issei in that surprise attack.m

As for countermeasures, Rias Aeon Balor form was a near perfect countermeasure against Issei. His dressbreak and Pailigual was useless and on top of that, the abilities of Rias Aeon Balor form was a countermeasure against Issei's fighting style. Issei fights best at close but he couldn't do that because Rias would just slip into the shadows to avoid him and counterattack him. Not to mention she had time stop so Issei had to be extra cautious to stay of her 3rd eye line of sight.

Every time Rias launched a POD attack, Issei had to counter it with his own dragon shot because if he simply dodged it then Rias could use it's homing ability to follow Issei.

If he used Infinity Blaster or Longinus Smasher than Rias would simply avoid it by sliping into the shadow and Issei would be wasting stamina. The point is Rias Aeon Balor form had really troublesome abilities that limited Issei's options. Issei won by catching Rias off guard by using a move she never seen before. Issei's fight with Rias was basically like his fight against Cao Cao.

When it came to Kiba, Issei had trouble with Kiba's speed and had to endure the pain from the strikes from Gram. In short, while Kiba and Rias weren't the strongest, they were one of the most troublesome. Instead of overpowering them, he had to think his way to win.