Segma placed her lantern at an empty spot at the center of the parking lot. I did not understand. It didn't seem to matter to me where we were about to fight since my opponent was Ulii. She was old woman through and through.
There should be no way for her to win.
She distanced herself about fifteen meters away from where I stood and stopped.
Caesar and the others spectated from the side.
"Hope you lose! There's no way you can beat Ulii!" yelled Qara.
"You're too loud," said Khenbish next to him.
Qara tilted his head. "Hah? There's no one here, Khenbish. It's night. They're all upstairs."
"Er, Qara's right. Yes," joined Odval.
Khenbish batted an eye at her. "Oh? You support him because . . .?"
"Because I like him that's why," said Odval boldly.
"Er, no. I don't want. No," commented Qara. He stepped back a bit when Odval approached him. "At least not right now!"
"Really?!"
"Yeaaaaah, maybe."
The trio continued to argue about the relationship between Qara and Odval, where Qara consistently denying Odval's feelings for him.
"Teenagers . . ." Segma sighed and realized Ulii and I had our eyes on her. "Yeah. I missed my teenage life. You know, falling in love and all that."
Ulii tapped her cane at the floor and the sound of it echoed throughout the parking lot. "That's why I always tell you to find one."
"Maybe next time."
"Great, we've stepped into the romance section of the rebel squad," said Caesar. "And I always cringe when I read any book that has that kind of thing, Lady Ava. You want an intense action scene. One you would expect from a rebellion, but instead, they shoved right in your face all of that unnecessary romance."
His complaint made me believe he actually read that kind of books. I never thought Caesar was someone who bothered to even read fiction novels.
I'd imagined him to not be able to stay still for a long time, but it appeared that I was wrong in that regard.
Lily did not move from her seat to watch the fight, as she munched on the last slice of bread in her hands.
"Can we start?" I said aloud.
"Absolutely." Ulii placed her wooden cane in front of her and adjusted her posture to look more intimidating.
And so, I pulled at the sleeves of my jacket and dark blue crystals immediately covered my arms. Tendrils made from it sprouted and darted at Ulii.
"Hmm. Too slow," she muttered. With a quick motion, she swung her cane armored in amazonite green crystals. My tendrils bounced off that cane from it. Immediately, Ulii dashed towards me.
I was certain I'd blinked only once after that, but she was already in front of me.
My heart stopped for a moment.
She swung her cane at the side of my head but a large, crimson talon that emerged from my right arm stopped that attack. I formed a crimson moon blade at my left arm, and she evaded it swiftly. Her feet nimbly moved her figure away to have a good amount of distance between us.
I found myself frozen after that.
"You're not focused, dear Ava. I'm not even in my top shape here," said Ulii. "But I must admit. Your control of Aegis is admirable. You form your objects at a rapid rate. Faster than anyone I've known."
"How?"
"Hmm?"
"How can you move so fast?" I asked, my voice was a bit raspy.
Ulii smirked. "What do you think?"
"Erm." I drooped my head as I thought.
"Heads up!"
A cane struck me in the face and I fell down.
"Haha! We're fighting, remember?" Ulii's cane struck my head a few more times before I could counter. My spikes clawed at her as she moved away from me. Her legs stopped, and she hit my spikes in one, huge arc with her cane. "Too slow my dear. I suspect you're holding yourself back? Don't feel bad if you end up losing your head. Haha!"
I wiped away the traces of blood on my forehead, slowly standing back up.
'She's so fast,' I thought.
"She must have been working out," said Aegis in my head. "Her body's lean and her muscles were tight. That old woman has been keeping her body in shape. And she must have a lot of experience fighting in close combat."
"Are you holding back?" I asked my Aegis.
"Do you want to hurt her?"
"I have to if I want to win."
"Ah, okay."
"Release my limiters."
"No, Ava. That will be cheating. You accepted the condition of not using any specialty. Me even talking to you right now is not allowed actually."
"Fine."
Ulii dashed towards me and I watched out for any movement she made. Her cane thrust at me and I formed a curved blade from my right arm and hit it, forcing that thing to be pushed upward. Seeing her exposed, my left arm produced a corded white javelin and it darted at her.
It stopped in mid-air just a few centimeters away from her neck.
Ulii's eyes widened as her mouth gaped at me. Moments afterward, she shook her head and sighed. "I lost."
"What?!" exclaimed Qara far away. "You can defeat her, Ulii! Don't give up now!"
"I lost,"she repeated. Her face was sullen.
'What happened?' I thought. Her change of mood did not make sense to me. I was certain she could avoid my last attack.
I jerked up when Caesar patted me in the back out of nowhere.
"Good job!" he said.
"Well done, lady Ava," said Helena.
Lily was looking at me from where she sat down and nodded.
I cast a glance at Ulii as the trio teenagers surrounded her.
"What's the matter, Ulii?" said Khenbish.
"It's nothing." She stared at me with sad eyes and I couldn't help but wondered as to why she acted like that.
Her sudden change of behavior surprised me more than anything.
"Caesar," said Lily as she approached him.
"Yeah, we'll get our own rooms," he said. "Though, I don't mind sleeping anywhere."
I noticed Segma had made her way to my side.
"Ava," she said. "About the rooms . . . I lied. There's plenty of them actually. Empty. We don't need it anyway. At least, not yet."
I frowned. "Why would you do that?"
"She doesn't like strangers. We all do anyway." Ulii tapped her cane at the cement as she walked to me. "I hope you three don't mind sharing what your specialties are, hmm?"
"I'm actually curious," said Helena. "How can you move like that? It's unnatural. Especially for someone your age."
"Like what?"
"When you fight lady Ava."
Ulii raised her eyebrows. "Ah. Yes, yes. It was nothing special, actually. Ever since I consumed that Aegis container, I've been stronger than ever. I can only assume it helps me with my vigor. You get what I'm saying?"
"Regeneration factor," said Caesar.
"Hoh? You're not scared of my name? Haha!"
"Not right now. Er, I'm also curious. I think you can move like that because of your regeneration. One way or another, it regenerated what supposed to be dead cells at your age. And you've must have been in the military once. You're skilled in hand-to-hand combat. I can see that from your fight with Lady Ava."
"Ah. Yes, yes. I was in the military. Back in the old days, we Mongolians are trained to become experts in what you said. We learned all sorts of techniques. The memories, yes, it was grueling. Now it's your fault for reminding me."
"This is a discovery," said Caesar. I did not know what was his expression at that time, but I was sure he was pondering about that subject in hand. "Since the scientists never did allow an Aegis container to be used by old people, it never occurred to them. Who would want slow-moving soldiers in the first place? I bet if they find out about this, they'll come for you."
Ulii laughed. "Then let them come! I would like to see what they will try!" She wiped the tears off her face and focused her attention back to the three of us Aegis Users. "You haven't answered my question. What are your specialties?"