"Hey, Antonio, you did good out there man," Lythero praised his friend the mont he was returned to the rest area. "I didn’t know you had it in you."
"Not gonna lie, I didn’t know if I had it in either," Antonio seriously replied. "But now I know one thing for certain, I have a lot more questions than before."
"Well, welco to the club," Lythero inford him. "Because now I have questions about our friend Olstenna over there. By the way, are you going to get up from the ground or nah?"
"Working on it, I am very sore."
...
The next pair of combatants that the Blue Mirror of War chose to fight to the death were, surprisingly, the two mbers of each team that weren’t human.
Even more surprising though, was the fact that they were both mbers of the sa ancestry.
[Oh my, a pair of Aetherii. Now this is going to be rare treat.]
On one side was Olstenna, who was wreathed in purple flas and was known as wielder of the [Violet Berseker Spring Blade]. The Ignarii warrior carried the deanor of a man who hungered for battle constantly, and would burn any and all in his path in order to slake it.
"Extraneous circumstances an I get to fight a death match with little consequence. Fun," Olstenna comnted as he looked over his opponent across the way. "And against a mortal enemy no less, fun."
On the other side, representing the Silver-tongues, was another Aetherii who was wreathed in jet black flas and carried this vicious deanor that suggested that all who talked to him without the proper respect, would end being turned into ash stains.
This impression suited an Aetherii rcenary of dubious reputation like Bapara of the Black Fla.
"My flas will snuff yours out, Soot Sucker."
The tension for the two Aetherii was palpable to say the least, as an intense bloodlust seed to manifest the mont the warriors locked eyes with one another.
From an outsider’s perspective, their hatred seed almost personal, as if they were mortal enemies that have been waiting and hoping for the day they would get to finally kill the other in glorious battle.
This observation wasn’t completely off the mark, but the details were a little more complex.
In the sa mortals carry insignias and emblems to showcase what organizations and factions they belonged to, generating a particular response from a particular group, the Ignarii hadba way of permanently marking their bodies with symbols that indicated their history and places of origin.
The creation of these symbols were entirely involuntary on the Ignarii’s part, but it helped to
At this exact mont, Olstenna and Bapara recognized that the other was from an enemy faction of theirs.
"Funny. I thought the Al’enda Clan was too uptight to produce criminals such as you. How’d you get banished?"
"My kinsn could not understand my pursuit for power, so they banished without a second thought. But from the looks of it, the sa could be said about you," Bapara retorted. "You must’ve done sothing especially heinous for the Col’tin Clan to vanish you."
"Stole lost knowledge in the pursuit of greater things. I sought out the Origin Fla."
"That old myth? Did you find it?"
"No, but I think I’m getting closer and you’ll be my stepping stone in order to do just that."
"Charming."
By all rights, neither side should’ve cared about their forr clan affiliations, or the blood feud that was shared between them. However, their respective ties to their clans were still present regardless of how shallow they had beco. aning that they were more than wiilling to fight one another over the idea of being mortal enemies.
That, or they were looking for a noble excuse to kill each other than, "they wanted to".
As the Ignarii traded verbal barbs and took on fighting stances, three new flas manifested in front of Blue Mirror of War.
[Round 2,] the giant skeleton trailed off to see who between the two Ignarii would jump the gun first.[Begin!]
Once the signal was given, Olstenna and Bapara imdiately rushed in to land the first blow.
Neither of them used aether arts at this ti, as they didn’t need them.
Instead, both made use of the special aether flas that they had managed to cultivate during their respective travels.
[Tortorus Black Fla of a Thousand Souls!]
[Violet Berseker Spring Fla!]
Blasts of black and purple flas danced and clashed against one another as the two Ignarii exchanged blows with one another.
Torrents of flas, balls of fire and accelerated punches and kicks were used one after the other in attempts by both sides to get the edge over the other.
As the exchange of blows continued to play out though, it beca increasingly clearer and clearer to everyone watching that Olstenna was steadily winning.
As for the reason why, it was because of a very specific interaction that was occurring between the types of aether flas.
Bapara’s [Tortorus Black Fla of a Thousand Souls] had this "damnation" effect on any who were struck by it.
Those who were struck by these jet black flas of hate would be forced to hear the cacophonous screams of a thousand souls, all locked together in a hateful embrace.
The sound of these hellish screams, combined with the innate properties of the fla itself, would cause most opponents to go utterly mad as the voices in their heads just got louder and louder until it was all they could hear. Making matters worse, anyone slain by this fla would be forced to join this chorus of death and madness.
However, these types of effects weren’t that debilitating one soone who was already mad to begin with.
"BAHAHAHA! THAT’S RIGHT SCREAM MORE FOR ! MORE!" Olstenna shouted as the black flas of death being fired at him were absorbed by his violet berserker flas.
The [Violet Berseker Spring Flas] already had the effect of causing their wielders to beco stronger and stronger the deeper their madness went, so sothing like black flas that forced one to go insane from hearing the sounds of damned, was the equivalent of pouring refined whale oil into a bonfire.
Bapara was inadvertently feeding into Olstenna’s strength, and the forr could do nothing about it.
"YOU’RE FINISHED!"
"GAAAAH!"
Eventually, this all ca to a head when Olstenna managed to land a killing blow on Bapara.
Olstenna had managed to get at a tricky angle and jamd a violet fla covered hand directly through his opponent’s torso, grabbing the defeated Ignarii’s soul crystal before violently pulling it out.
Bapara’s body started twitching and tweaking as he attempted to reach towards the crystal in Olstenna’s hand.
"Sorry, brother. You know how battles between Ignarii must end."
FWOOSH
"AAAAHHHH!"
Once the crystal was in Olstenna’s hand, he ignited it in his violet flas and caused Bapara’s soul crystal to begin lting.
As it lted, Olstenna began to absorb the energy being released from the process, adding Bapara’s strength to his own.
The [Tortorus Black Fla of a Thousand Souls] was soon absorbed into Olstenna’s body, causing the Ignarii warrior to take on a more insidious visage.
Granted, he was already a vicious warrior to begin with.
[Winner of the Second Bout: Olstenna,] the Blue Mirror of War declared, much to the delight of Antonio and Lythero.
"Woo! We’re done!"
"Two out of three, victory is ours!"
"Godsdammit," the remaining rcenary of the Silver-tongues cursed.
However, this victory proclamation and drop into despair was quickly dampened by the Blue Mirror of War suddenly butting in.
[Did I say anything about this being a best of three match? I said it was to the death for a reason,] the giant skeleton interjected.
"Wait, what?"
[You may have defeated two out of three of your opponents, but he now has a chance to kill all three of you himself. He just needs to beat your strongest fighter before he’s allowed to slaughter the other two.]
"Wait, what?!"
"That doesn’t make any sense!"
Hearing this piece of information though, caused the remaining Silver-tongue to perk up.
"Wait,so I just have to beat that bastard child pretending to be a sword hero in order to have free reign to kill the burning freak and the injured cat?"
"Wait a minute, what did you call ?" Lythero asked once he heard the specific term he was being referred to as.
[That is correct,] the Blue Mirror of War nodded.[Because it is the ultimate survivor of war that determines the fate of the defeated.]
"Well then, I guess I shouldn’t hold back in the slightest."
As soon as he had been given this information,the Silver-tongue rcenary suddenly released his aether and manifested both his [Regalia] and [Astra] at the sa ti.
The appearance of the forr resembled that of a sabertooth tiger, causing Lythero’s hair to stand on end.
"You stand before Obara of House Sabertooth! Beloved nephew of the Duke Diamoro! I know all about you Lythero, and I will take your head!"
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