"I need to put myself in my victims’ shoes to experience the pain I caused to others. It’s the only way I have to make peace with my past and forgive myself." Acala said.
’So you are your own judge and jury?’ Friya thought in outrage. ’And you’re already willing to absolve yourself? What an arrogant prick!’
"Fine. Let’s fight, then." She actually said, calling her rapier, Dreadnought, to her hand and shapeshifting into her Harbinger form.
Six serpentine bodies ford in the space from her neck to her shoulders, and deep green scales replaced her pearly skin. Friya’s pupils beca vertical, and her teeth turned into long fangs dripping a viscous substance.
"One second, please." Acala gestured for her to wait as he took off his Davross armor and shaped a prism blade out of Dawn’s crystal. "I suggest you remove your armor as well. Otherwise, you won’t understand how much punishnt your new body can take until it’s too late."
’Gods if I hate it when he’s right!’ Friya inwardly snarled.
"A fair point." She switched her enchanted clothes for brown linen pants and a white shirt. "Can we fight now?"
"Whenever you want." Acala shrugged, holding his sword in a neutral guarding stance.
Friya charged forward while performing several lunges despite her sword being too far from Acala to reach its target. Each move released an elental blast from Dreadnought with a power equivalent to a tier three spell and allowed her to weave mystical runes with body casting.
Acala remained still and conjured several small but dense hard-light shields that intercepted the incoming spells. The concave shape of the constructs reflected part of the spells back and scattered the mana released by the detonations widely.
Friya’s own attacks created a dense mist of mana that, along with Acala’s shields, blinded her Life Vision. Acala exploited the opportunity to Blink behind her and go straight for her head.
’Blinking against a dinsional mage? What an idiot.’ She inwardly sneered as her Collapse spell detonated Acala’s exit point. ’It’s stabbing tim-’
Friya was about to turn around and impale him on Dreadnought, her extra heads taking a deep breath to spit acidic venom to counter anything Acala might have prepared.
Anything but his flight spell riding the explosion’s shockwave to accelerate and catch her unprepared. His elbow struck Friya’s main neck, pinning her to the ground while his left hand pressed the prism blade against her scales until she bled.
"That was good, but stupid." Acala let her go the mont Friya tapped out, admitting her defeat. "You knew about my regenerative abilities and should have planned accordingly."
He turned around to show her the ruin of his back that was covered in white crystals and already healing.
"You said you are but a normal man!" She grunted.
"I said that my body is that of a normal man." He countered soberly. "You can think of as soone with the strength and mass of a man but the healing abilities of a Vampire or a Redcap.
"They would hit you much harder than and still have no care for these kinds of wounds. Consider our spar a good practice against undead and Fae. You can’t kill any of them with a re explosion."
"Tell when you are ready." Friya nodded and took her guard stance again.
"I’m healed and I’m coming for you." Acala perford a standard attacking sequence that Friya deflected effortlessly.
His blade aid at her head, then her neck, and lastly at her hand. The prism blade released flashes of light that she countered with darkness and heat that she cooled with water.
A hard-light construct suddenly enveloped the prism blade, allowing Acala to alter its weight, reach, and thickness according to the situation.
’Damn, if he’s good!’ Friya was forced to admit. ’I’m holding out so well only because I’m heavier than him and at least one of my heads doesn’t get blinded by his flashes. I’ve never seen Lith fight like this, let alone Nalrond.’
Acala released a tier five War Mage spell, Raging Sun, from his body, engulfing the area around him with violet flas and magma conjured by the mixing of the earth and fire elents.
This ti, it was Friya exploiting the cover of the spell to Blink to the ceiling unseen. As the rampaging flas started to fade, she let herself fall in a rain of blade strikes and spells.
"Shit!" Acala had to give everything he had to block part of the onslaught, taking what he couldn’t avoid and readying his blade for a counter.
The mont the two blades were about to touch, Friya Blinked to the ground. Acala was standing straight and looking up, so he failed to see her blade and react before she cut his head off.
"Victor- Fuck!" Friya fell to one knee, holding her right shoulder while blood gushed out of the stumps of two of her extra heads.
Acala had extended his blade with a construct, ssing up with Friya’s depth perception and managing to hit her before the Blink carried her to safety.
"Yes, this is your victory, but it’s a hollow one." Acala said while putting his head back on his neck. "Were you fighting against more than one opponent, the shock from losing two of your heads would have created a fatal opening.
"Even if you survived that, I’m sure that losing whatever spells those heads had at the ready would have ssed up your battle plan badly."
"And that’s without taking into consideration how it ssed with my balance and perception." Friya groaned, reattaching the severed heads and accepting Acala’s help to stand up. "It took a long ti getting used to having seven points of view.
"Losing two is like going partly blind while Mogar suddenly tilts to a side."
"All the more reasons to keep in mind to protect your extra limbs. I noticed during our exchanges that you fight like you have only one neck instead of seven. You have the bad habit of leaving the other six defenseless."
"That’s because I’m new to this form and none of my previous sparring partners ever considered beheading ." Friya groaned. "I guess you are right, Zepho Acala. I have been as conceited as the old Rezars, and I can use a sparring partner."
"It would be my pleasure." He replied. "It’s not easy to find a dinsional mage, and I can use the practice. With seven heads, you are probably the most dangerous of your kind. Aside from Tezka the Suneater, of course."
"Thanks." Friya liked the complints, and her brains were spinning at full gear as she pondered how her newfound ability to assess seven sets of dinsional coordinates at the sa ti could improve her fighting skills.
While Dawn painfully and utterly destroyed Nalrond without ever letting him touch her, the fights between Acala and Friya were more balanced. Friya achieved her share of victories, but there was a sour note to it.
Sotis Acala won without suffering a single wound, whereas when she won, they always traded blows. On the other hand, the viciousness of her opponent and his healing abilities allowed her to use every weapon in her arsenal.
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