Violynn spoke with a flat voice. “Do you think you have what it takes?”
Comiter turned towards her. He was already absorbing a great deal of frustration
by the council’s disapproval but at least now he was given ground to step and defend himself.
“Of course I…”
Violynn didn’t even let him complete that sentence before she jumped down to the lower level
where Comiter was standing. The cloak she was wearing opened like an orchid around her,
reducing the falling momentum so that she eventually landed softly into the ground
like she had been flying.
“Fight me and prove your might. If you can defeat me I shall consider your request.”
She adjured him.
Then the lights of the lamps turned off and only the illumination of the ceiling
and the counselors’ windows was falling from above them
in what seemed to now be a battle arena.
The stained glass was painting the outside light of the moon with hues of pink and blue
making it feel unnaturally bewitching.
From within the currently dark perimeter of this central arena
a red scythe dragged into the floor and reached Violynn’s feet.
She then picked it up, but not in the way someone would stoop to pick a rock.
That would be ungraceful.
With solemn motions, forming circles with her hand and then spinning with her body,
she created an air flow that was dancing around her
like a whirlwind and so the scythe followed along this cyclone and ended it up in her hand.
Comiter was really astonished by this technique but did not let himself feel inadequate.
After all it was the result of the battle that really mattered, not some cool looking maneuver.
“If it is necessary.” He said with a deep and steady voice.
Then a barrier was raised around them.
It was coming from the dark corners of the arena
where Comiter could now see gyarii dressed in the yolenthian uniform.
They were performing a puro spell, combining their energy,
creating an internal shield that would restrain the force of their clashing cause collateral damage.
“Do not hold back.” Violynn said while she had her head slightly inclined towards the floor.
Comiter snapped.
“You are thinking about constraining your power,
fearing that your fully charged attacks will destroy this building.”
She was reading him like a book.
Indeed, Comiter was worrying if he should use his full power.
After acquiring the Hoozang and practicing alone he had witnessed its destructive potential.
A mere puro shield would not be enough to constrain its force, or that’s what he believed.
Violynn then wore the hood of her cloak,
but her tied hair passed through the cloth’s back hole
and was now floating about due to her internal manifestation of astral energy.
She bowed low, crossing legs in deep plié, one bent one straight, toes facing outwards.
Her one arm extended to the side, while the other, holding the scythe, was folded above her back.
Like a dancer she appeared on the stage with a preparation pose
and like a warrior she had already planned her combat strategy.
She jumps now, dashing towards the giant man like the wind in a zigzag motion.
Comiter tries to spot her by constantly shifting the focus of his eyes.
She might be maneuvering around but she is not moving very fast, is what he thinks.
Her motions are gentle and soft.
They are pleasant to watch
but Comiter almost shows pity to what he perceives to be an unsuccessful elusiveness.
With a swing of his hammer he would blow such a target away,
even if not directly hitting her, getting her caught in the blast of the shockwave.
It would require much higher speed than that to avoid the massiveness of his attacks.
And so Comiter materializes the Hoozang.
Being an astral weapon it is infused with his very soul
and so the shape of it is manipulated by the astral powers of the wielder.
He then swings the mighty hammer, performing a horizontal attack
which creates a conical blast in front of him
covering a huge amount of space that his target would need to teleport to avoid it.
And teleport is what she does.
When her body of wind becomes lighting, Violynn sharply vanishes from view.
In an instant she is now behind Comiter’s back.
Her flowing motions had become a sharp bolt, exerting speed unmatched by the motions of the eye.
Being caught by the momentum of his own attack, there is absolutely no time for Comiter to react.
And so Violynn strike his exposed neck with the scythe.
However she had not used the blade of the weapon rather than the wooden pole.
Comiter received the strike hitting his nape in a crucial spot that numbed its neural system.
In an instant he felt weak and the sensation of losing control of his muscles.
Within his currently blurry eyesight Violynn appeared in front of him.
She had taken a straight pose, arms extended diagonally outwards and towards the floor.
“As I said, do not hold back.”
Comiter takes the bait. He accepts the challenge and thus prepares himself.
He now charges a huge amount of astral energy, coming from within and stimulating his body.
The excessive blood flow that is created returns his senses back in full control, enhancing them even,
to the point that he is now steaming the whole arena.
Smoking clouds of pressure are generated, emitting outwards from his feet.
Comiter lowers and twists his body and with it extends his arms,
both holding the tilt of the hammer, preparing for a devastating attack.
An attack that will shake the whole arena, or rather, the whole building they were standing on.
Violynn, no matter how elusive, would not be able to avoid it,
since the shockwave would cover every inch of the space around them.
Mighty and raw the hammer swung
and on its way it pressured the very particles of the air that was colliding with.
The unmeasurable amount of astra unleashed like a heavy storm enfolding the entire arena.
Inside this thick hurricane Comiter thought that surely Violynn would have been caught by.
He just hoped that she wouldn’t suffer much damage.
However when the smoke cleared,
Comiter witnessed an unscathed Violynn floating around the waves of the blast.
She had performed an Astra Call to protect herself. But it wasn’t a regular astra call.
The flowing aura that was created in the air around her was spinning in a spiral motion,
receiving and redirecting all the external force away.
The rest of the shockwave had been absorbed by the puro barrier of the yolenthians.
“How was my devastating power restricted like that?”
Comiter genuinely believed in his raw power being unrivaled. Sure,
his attacks were possible to evade, but blocked?
The warrior dancer lands again on her toes like she had been flying.
Comiter clenches his teeth. “Fine, I’ll try again then.”
But the moment he is about to perform another attack something stops his motions.
Comiter is taken by surprise as he witnesses pink chains of puro energy binding his wrists and forearms.
The chains restrict him and because he lost control of his muscles the astral weapon dematerialized.
“What… is the meaning of this?”
He watches directly at Violynn. He wants to complain.
Yet the moment he opens his mouth the warrior dancer leaps high in the air
and as she reaches a certain altitude above his head Comiter feels a chill run down his spine.
The hooded cloak that Violynn is wearing combined with the scyther gives the impression of
a grim reaper about to take his life.
Comiter can’t move. “Am I about to be executed?” he thinks in distress and braces himself,
closing his eyes and averting his head. Violynn extends her arm and the scyther swings.
When Comiter opened his eyes again though
he saw that the blade had stopped just before reaching his neck.
The warrior dancer was standing in front of him and had ceased her motions.
She then retracted her weapon and raised a straight pose.
“This concludes the fight.” She said in an absolute tone and started walking away...
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