The Founder-Captain held out one hand, and in response one of his rods zipped to his hand for him to clutch it. He pushed himself to his feet, slowly, wobbling, and as he rose he used his free hand to rub his jaw.
“That very nearly put me out,” he commented through gritted teeth. “If not for my bodies natural reactions, you might have done more than just knocked me out.” The Adept didn’t dare try to move his jaw more than he thought reasonable. A partial bit of fear trickled through him that Lucia had just paid him back for the punch he’d delivered earlier.
Unlike the healer, he couldn’t just fix his jaw until after their fight was over. It still throbbed painfully, and Seven Gods help him if it really was broken. Casting with a broken jaw would be hell.
“You’ve done well, Lucia,” he admitted, his voice coming through strained teeth, “but now it’s time to end the fight. I can no longer face you as I have been.”
The Adept blurred, a surreal image of movement blending together naturally with intent and purpose. A singular step that carried him straight to the medic where he lashed out with all his might, a gleaming white blade wrought from his own reiatsu jutting out from the end of the rod.
In that moment, time stretched on for an impossibly eternal second. The moment between Haresuno’s strike, and Lucia’s end. Where their existence was suddenly made obvious; how tiny they truly were hung above their heads like a falling blade of a guillotine. That was the moment where they were the two most important people in the world. Two opposites fighting in a struggle for life or death. Where only one would emerge victorious, and the other would be left to rot.
The captain’s blade surged forward, the gleaming tip of the serrated blade sweeping inwards for Lucia’s gut like some ancient hunter.
The blade appeared from near invisibility, the titanic blow ripping through her in an instant. Her body was cleaved clean in two, torso separated from waist in its entirety. However, instead of landing with a thud on the arena ground, the form dissipated in a white mist.
The ground next to Fusei continued the glow, the lavender-haired girl appearing far ahead of the Adept. The two stood side to side, the ethereal form of her zanpaktou towering far above her. In unison they both drew back, staggering amounts of reiatsu rising up around them. The energy was fueled into their palms, spiraling and being compressed into a singularity between them.
“Great King, ruler of the worlds, a guardian asks for your assistance,” they began to chant in unison, voices melding together into a single tone. The reiatsu increased in strength tenfold as the incantation gave the spell form, “Lend me the strength to destroy the evils that plague society. Let my power rival the strength of the Titans themselves. Let this soul touch the legendary powers of old.”
Her eyes gazed up, looking back towards the Founder Captain. She was fueling her life into the attack, the very drive that delivered her to this spot. It was to be the single assault that would decide if she would remain standing after this ordeal. It was with this manifested resolve that she released destruction upon Haresuno. The two beings thrusted their palms towards him, “Hadouken!”
The energy cascaded outwards, expanding into monolithic cones of pure energy. They fired forward with jaw-dropping energy, the essence of Kamikakushi Fusei being imparted into it, as the spirit fueled in its might. The ground was ravaged, ripped and vaporized by the cataclysm that loosed.
Haresuno let out an audible tch as he went for his second strike, only to find out Lucia had switched places.
Creative, and impressive, he thought. Should have expected that.
He caught the faintest traces of Lucia’s words. She wasn’t exactly shouting, but he knew incantations when he heard them. “The kingdom’s army, sworn to crush the enemy. The call to arms begins as each soldier takes up a weapon to defend their honor. As they march forward, eighty warriors race outward to drive back their many opponents to finish the war.”
The field rippled with power as Haresuno and Lucia recited the poems of some of the most devastating powers imaginable. Surrounding Haresuno began the phantasmal copies of Sekiryouku Houshiki Xiezhi, each one a different color from the other. Not one of them the same color or completely solid.
Two more of the five rods joined together with the one he held, the long blade jumped in size with that of a bastard sword. Haresuno truly meant to end this, and as he recited he waved his free hand through the air, traces of ghostly fire dancing across his fingertips before a shield of reiatsu coalesced before him.
He wasn’t done there, either. He fueled his body, pushed it to its limits by straining his mind, wrapping it in layer of protective energy not unlike the one Lucia had done earlier.
There was no guarantee he would make it through her attack, but he wanted to know.
“Hadou Number Ninety-Three, Gun no Kyousei!” The myriad of copied rods crashed down on the Founder-Captain like a wave, and the rush of power felt intoxicating as it did every time he used the spell.
Lucia’s spell tore over the earth, twin devastating spells both aimed at Haresuno. He rushed forward, intent on meeting the spell head on with Svalinn and the power of Taikaku Chuutetsu his only defenses.
The powers slammed into him, an explosive and ungodly power that shattered Svalinn the moment it touched the legendary shield. The same power hit the Adept only a moment later, and he felt the power of Lucia’s spellcraft through his defense. It shook his bones, tore at his flesh, and stopped him in his tracks.
The ground exploded, rocking the arena as cracks spiderwebbed across the fighting floor, and flashed in a blaze of dazzling light.
Smoke and dust and rubble floated through the air. Huge chunks of rock slamming against the ground as the barrier protecting the spectators warbled in protest to the almighty spells power.
Amidst all the debris, the Founder-Captain remained. His haori in tattered disarray, his skin full of fresh wounds. He stood with his eyes burning azure, pure intent focused directly on the medic as his gaze made the world too big once again.
“Zankensouki Art...,” he muttered to himself. A tired flash-step carried him directly before Lucia, three of his rods dipping across to the spirit and locking her down in a binding. “Dragon’s Retaliation.”
Lucia lashed out at him, and in response he poured on more speed to his swing, the graceful blade of his bankai streaking across her midsection in a fearless attempt to gut her.
Through the exhaustion she summoned the last of her strength, a bulwark of lavender covering her skin. Her body reacted on its own, seeking to protect herself through instinct. As the blade ripped across her stomach once more, she sought the stop the assault. The energy was released into the environment, the ground caving from two powerful forces, evenly matched and directly opposed. Rubble and dust clouded the arena, the spectator crowd drawn down to a silent gasp.
As the cloud began to dissipate, the two fighters were revealed once more. Haresuno stood forward, though his knees shook as his body wished to collapse. Lucia stood, her own body in shivers, the force still rattling her muscles and bones.
However, the girl couldn’t falter now, she had invested too much, she had been brought too close to run now.
Her body moved unsteadily as she lashed out, a punch that carried neither the refined grace or devastating force being thrown to Haresuno.
Hiren: 3941
Hare: 4037
