Up in the crowd seating, Commander Masin was stuck in a spiral of thought. He could not stop wondering who the strange woman known as Violet is, or to be more accurate, what she is.
The more she showed off in her fights the more convinced he was that she is not sothing simple. From her magic to her attitude, she is sothing unique, powerful and soone that he dearly wanted to know more about.
Watching her pull out a victory in her last fight was quite the feat, seeing how she used a good mix of strategy and raw power to overco the near perfect counter that was Ivan struck sothing deep within him.
Then as he was still processing that victory the second person of interest ca out to do her next bout.
Luna, the snow leopard beastkin, or at least that is what she looked like. But Masin had never seen any one of his kin wield such mastery of ice than her. Every snow leopardkin had an inate aptitude for ice magic, it was in their blood, yet she was sothing else.
It was as if she didn’t even need to consciously control the ice, more like the ice willingly followed her every whim. It was a thing of beauty, of subli talent or abundant luck. He was leaning toward the first two options though given her aptitude for combat as a whole however.
Now he watched on as she waged a brutal battle against the lightning warrior. His inate lightning allowed him to deal with the majority of Luna’s lingering ice damage and debuffs quite well. Then coupled with the fact that he was able to instantly counter her illusions put the girl on the back foot right from the start.
Yet to Masin’s amazent, he watched in real ti as the girl adapted, learnt and improved almost every aspect of how she fought. The more he watched the battle down below the more he desired to be able to et this amazing woman.
**
Back down in the arena Luna was having the ti of her life. Every mont of the battle felt like she was dancing on a knife’s edge, ever on the precipice of utter failure, yet she managed to keep her ballence and maintain their deadly dance.
Based off the wide smile Kaldor had on his own face, she knew that he too felt the sa way.
When she landed her first significant cut along his abdon she felt like she had taken her first tentative step onto flat ground. As if she was no longer balancing on the edge of failure.
Yet Luna did not allow that small victory to get to her head, she knew that such a wound would not bring this warrior down, if anything it would just spur him on to fight all the harder.
And so it did, Kaldor grin grew impossibly wider, now gaining an almost feral intensity. He did not delay or allow Luna to regain her footing from dodging back, instantly he dove after her, unwilling to let her gain any ground.
The two fighters once more clashed. Ice sword t axe in the musical sound of clashing weapons.
Luna lost track of anything and everything that was not her opponent, completely focused as she was on the fight. Her mind worked overti, processing every single twitch of the man’s form, from how his muscles tensed to the angle he held his axe at.
Another part was constantly going over everything that she knew about combat, how to dodge, how to parry and how to attack.
She had already learnt a lot from this battle, yet she felt that she still had so much to learn, so she fought on.
Luna twisted her torso slightly to one side, a thin layer of ice forming across her chest. Just in ti to avoid the whistling crack of the axe head coated in lightning, the stray bolts impacting her barrier of ice and leaving her untouched.
With a flick of her wrist her sword elongated into a short spear and lunged forwards, scoring a deep gash along Kaldor’s thigh. He grunted in slight pain but did not relent in his onslaught.
More blows were exchanged, where at first Luna was on the back foot, now she was slowly eking out a slight lead.
Whilst Kaldor’s electricity was effective at removing the lingering frost left from Luna’s attacks, he was unable to deal with the ever growing impact of her strikes. With every blow that she landed, the next one hit just that much harder. With ever hit landed, just a touch more frost would form on his body.
A dozen wounds appeared on his body over the next minute. Each one slowing him down, he was no longer faster than Luna, allowing the leopard to finally utilise her impressive agility.
Soon the fate of the battle was all but decided, Luna knew it and so did Kaldor. They stopped their duel, standing a ter apart from one another, both taking heaving breaths as they took the first true break ever since the fight started.
"Hahaha!" Kaldor half laughed, half wheezed. "This- this has been brilliant! But, I’m not done just yet, I still have one last trick that I would like to show! So brace yourself for I shall not be holding back!"
Not doubting his words Luna lept backwards, creating so more distance between them. Then she too started to revolve her mana, circulating it through her body as she too readied herself to unleash her most powerful skill. Luna had hoped that she would not need to utilise it, but she also refused to allow herself to loose this battle, not now, not after she had fought so hard!
Lightning crackled across the bleeding man’s body. Instantly all of the ice coating his limbs sizzled away, burnt by the intensive current running through him. He lowered his axe, holding it horizontally behind him to one side as he leaned forwards and tensed his legs.
The very air seed to crackle with power, Luna tasted ozone as his power built up in a cataclysmic surge.
Kaldor seed to move slowly, his legs tensing as he kicked back with world shattering force, electricity arcing off his feet as they seed to move in slow motion. The axe, nearly entirely enveloped in surging electricity began its inevitable arc forwards, power surging around it as Kaldor unleashed the single more powerful attack he possessed.
Yet he moved slowly, the sand he kicked up seed frozen in the air. The bolts of lightning hung, suspended in space as they leisurely ford their unknown paths.
The only thing that moved at a normal speed in this Frozen Mont was Luna. The mont that she sensed the build up of power and saw Kaldor about to move her instincts had scread at her to act. She knew that if that attack hit, she would loose this fight.
Yet even in this frozen mont of ti Kaldor was still moving, yes it was slow, but he was still moving!
Luna had never seen anything be able to move whilst under the effects of this skill, yet this man sohow was still moving. She held nothing but respect for the warrior before her.
Yet she did not delay, in the instant that ti froze she took a step and appeared besides him, on the opposite side of the man as his axe. Her swords glead as she thrust them forwards, aiming for his head.
Luna almost flinched when she saw Kaldor’s eyes turn to track her, yet she did not allow herself to falter in this decisive mont. She noted the minuscule widening of his irises as he was sohow able to witness her movents whilst under the effects of her ultimate skill.
It was a truly impressive feat, of that she was sure. But he was still unable to react as her sword peirced the skin on the side of his head. It was prevented from going any further however when a golden glow enveloped the giant of a man.
Then he vanished, and Luna collapsed to the ground as exhaustion claid her.
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