The air seemed to be still as the swordswoman and swordsman stared at each other. The battle that was yet to start had already played out in their minds, both participants unleashing their best arsenal to attain victory. Or so Noma thought.
In her mind, she formulated the best attack moves and counters to any of her opponent's possible moves. She trusted her swordsmanship and combined it with her fire magic to become quite the formidable warrior, if not a beast.
Not that she would let anything get past her swords but her armor had been fashioned to withstand heavy physical attacks. If her opponent wanted to win, he would have to free her head from her neck, but that was only over her dead body, she thought.
Over the years, Noma had trained her body enough to be able to conjure and cast lower level spells with just her index and middle fingers. This skill was rarely attained but if one was able to attain this, their battle prowess would increase by leaps and bounds. The skill allowed her to wield a sword in each hand even when conjuring, but only up to Tier 4 spells.
Although during casting time her grip on the sword would reduce, as long as she held the sword, Noma was confident she could still attack and defend. In her quest for perfection, she planned to advance her techniques to be able to silently cast the lower level spells without any finger movement. Noma grinned at the thought of becoming a far more deadly warrior than she already was. But such thoughts would have to wait, she had an opponent waiting for her after all. She reverted to a serious expression as she focused on the fight.
What felt like a long time of planning and day-dreaming turned out to only be a minute. The two opponents had been staring at each other for a whole minute, with Noma being the only one shifting between expressions.
After a few more seconds of staring, Noma decided to test her opponent's strength. Her fingers moved slightly and she bent her knees into a running position. A flame burst under her feet and sent her flying towards Menzine at an unbelievable speed. She was holding her swords outwards but when she was close, she crossed her hands to attempt a double slash.
Menzine ducked and sidestepped to her right side before trying an upwards slash. Noma's blazing foot kicked his exposed shoulder and sent her body away from him, his sword cutting nothing but air.
Menzine quickly put out the fire with his free hand before getting back to staring at her. Noma chuckled at the sight. In her mind, she was certain that the gentlemanly opponent she was facing didn't stand a chance.
She moved her fingers again but this time, infused her swords with fire magic that set them ablaze. She watched her opponent's expression very closely, but like a true poker king, his expression didn't change.
She was expecting something different. Perhaps he didn't understand her fierceness, she concluded.
Noma put her left arm holding one blazing sword forward to point at Menzine. She started walking forward while slowly moving her right hand with the other sword behind her. This was a simple distraction technique she had devised a long time ago, that often resulted in her opponent's being unable to keep track of both swords. In trying to deal with the sword put forward, the other sword would launch to slice and char an exposed part of the enemy.
Unfortunately, often did not mean always.
She stepped in for a stab but he lightly parried and stepped backwards, outside the swinging range of both of her swords.
"Interesting," she said with a nasty grin.
She tried several more attacks but no matter what she did, he only slightly parried her attack. He would then immediately shift his weight to keep his sword free and body balanced to receive an attack from the other sword. Seeing that it was no use keeping the sword behind her, she went in for all-out attacks with both swords.
She started using slow but heavy attacks that were hard to parry with her right hand while using swift left slices whenever Menzine was exposed by the previous attack. Her opponent continuously stepped back and she gained more confidence with each step she took forward.
Sparks flew as the blazing swords tried to decapitate Menzine, who blocked them with the sword he had picked up earlier. Each exchange ended up in a draw of sorts although Menzine had yet to launch any meaningful attack. After several exchanges, Noma finally had the upper hand in an exchange when Menzine used his sword to block a heavy attack that snapped his sword in two.
Without missing the opportunity, Noma's swift left sword was already moving to pierce his chest. Luckily, Menzine bent backwards in time and avoided a potentially fatal blow. The sword passed a few centimeters above him but his mind was focused on the other sword. Noma, while pulling back her left hand, used the motion to shift her weight and put more power in her right hand for a swing. All Menzine could do from that position was use the remaining end of his sword to stop Noma from cutting through him. Unbalanced and with a broken weapon, Menzine was sent spinning, falling and then rolling in the dirt before using the broken sword to come to a stop.
"Kukuku," Noma hysterically laughed.
"You know, two swords are better than one," she sarcastically said with an evil smile, "but now imagine two swords against half a sword!"
She broke out into more laughter as Menzine got up and started dusting himself, looking slightly upset. The fact that he hoped to completely be clean throughout a fight against her was completely laughable, she thought.
"Have you warmed up enough?" Menzine asked out of the blue as he continued to dust himself.
The question interrupted her laughter but she soon continued in even more hysterical laughter.
"That was a warm-up huh?" She sarcastically asked when she had calmed down a bit.
At this point, Menzine's hands started moving at a very terrifying speed.
"Okay then. Yes, I hav-" Noma wanted to say.
She really, really, wanted to finish her sentence but her opponent did something unexpected. What had been a grin she couldn't erase from her face turned into surprise and then fear-filled rage she couldn't overcome.
Her palms became sweaty but she held her swords tightly. She had completely ignored her Tier 8 spell getting hijacked by Lord Canning but she needed it if she was going to fight her opponent now. She dropped her swords and started conjuring her Tier 8 'Desert Sun' spell again.
When she was done, the 'Desert Sun' appeared and she picked up her swords, moving her fingers to set them ablaze once more. The fire on the swords was much more intense this time, looking wider and growing longer along the length of the sword. Soon, the metallic swords were two long swords of fire that looked like a giant wielded them. The 'Desert Sun' spell had boosted her abilities even further now.
Her mind was slightly in a haze but started to calm down a little at a time.