"They are just eyes after all," she said aloud, trying to convince herself. While her mouth was saying this, her brain was in a completely different place.
26 years ago, a gigantic spider-like monster with similar round black eyes had, out of the blues, appeared in her village of assassins and wiped out her clansmen like they were nothing. No matter what direction the assassins tried to attack from, the monster was able to dodge or counterattack. It pierced them all one by one with its eight legs, eating them without letting even a drop of blood hit the ground.
Noma, who was only 9 years old at the time, managed to run away and abandoned her tribesmen. At some point they looked like they had lost their will to fight, standing still as the monster picked them off one by one. Noma ran without feeling a shred of guilt. What could she possibly do when some of the best assassins in her clan had failed? Die a dog's death? As she ran, she promised herself in her heart that she would avenge them. But then again, does an assassin's promise hold any value?
From then on, she took whatever job she could find to raise money to buy equipment and train herself. It took years and years to raise enough money to buy worthwhile equipment to confront that monster.
She went back to her village but found that it was actually a small town now, completely different people had settled there. She tried to find the monster but all she could find were rumors. Some said it disappeared into the black forest of ancient monsters while others said the royal guards killed it.
The black forest of ancient monsters was rumored to contain a portal to another dimension, but no one had ever returned to confirm this. Unimaginable beasts dwelled within, the rumor went, anyone that went in ended up an edible toothpick for something in there. Entering the black forest of ancient monsters to find one specific monster was suicidal, so she was left to live a life without any purpose.
But that was only until the war when she was hired as an assassin. She carried on her clan's tradition of assassinating for money, even after the war. Now, all she wanted was to improve her swordsmanship but she still never threw away the armor she had bought to face that monster.
To think her opponent today would have the same eyes as that monster. Maybe she could finally fill a portion of her empty soul, knowing that she had slain someone similar to that being.
Wait, what? Who was she kidding? She wondered. Just what kind of nonsense was her brain spouting? The two were completely different. Even if her opponent had the same eyes, so what? What did any of it matter?
She finally calmed down and removed the distracting thoughts of her past from her mind, preparing to face her opponent.
"I'm glad you were able to overcome the thoughts you had just now," Menzine said, approaching her with the broken sword in his hand.
"W-What do you mean?" Noma stammered.
"My new eyes. They make people lose their focus when they stare into them. You might want to avoid looking at my face," Menzine explained and advised, suddenly dropping the broken sword.
"More spells?" Noma asked, wondering what demonic rabbit will be pulled out of the hat this time as Menzine had started to move his hands again.
"Just one," he smiled and said.
Noma decided she would not let him finish conjuring whatever he was about to do. She ran forward with her blazing swords but soon tripped over something and fell. She turned around and saw a shield embedded into the ground that hadn't been there before. In fact, the entire place had become a field with swords, shields, spears, maces and other weaponry.
"You shouldn't show your back to your enemy," Menzine said, standing behind her.
She rolled on the ground and then teleported a distance away from him fearing that he would slash her. He didn't even try any attack. He was holding a black sword in each hand but didn't attack her, almost as if waiting for her to get up. This was his Tier 8 field spell, 'Small Battlefield,' where he created several weapons and shields on the ground that he could use. His weapon(s) of choice depended on what kind of opponent he was facing.
"Shall we continue?" he asked, rushing forward afterward to restart their fight.
Noma used her fire sword's range to try and keep her opponent at bay, but with a few swerves and flips he was in front of her. No matter what attack she had tried, Menzine was able to see them all and react in time. He knocked away one of the swords from her hand with a powerful swing of his own sword. While trying to dodge Menzine's next attack, she looked in his eyes and ended up falling rather than dodging.
She was lost in thoughts again about something irrelevant. She shook her head and found Menzine walking towards the sword he had knocked out of her hand. Her mind had drifted off that she didn't even see Menzine almost cutting her head off before he realized she was lost in her thoughts again. He picked up her sword and threw it at her feet as she stood up.
"Avoid my eyes," he cautioned.
"And this is your last chance. Show me what you've got," He said in a very serious tone.
Noma picked up her sword silently, not a shred of her earlier arrogance present. Menzine had somehow laid a heavy dent on her pride that she was slowly losing her will to fight him. Was this how her people felt when they realized they couldn't defeat the monster? She wondered.
She shook her head and decided to give it her all. If he wanted to see how good she really was, she was going to show him. She picked up her sword, infusing it with fire magic again. She bent her head slightly downwards so that she could only see her opponent from the chest downwards to avoid looking into the black eyes.
Slowly but surely, she started a rhythmic motion of swinging from side to side. This was her clan's technique to increase their motion fluidity, increasing the speed and complexity of their attacks. While maintaining the rhythm, she conjured a spell with her fingers and bent her knees again.
She launched herself at Menzine with the same attack as earlier but he blocked her swords by putting his own swords at his sides and raising his leg. She had launched herself forward with a lot of speed and couldn't avoid hitting her face in the raised foot.
Without sparing anytime to complain about the pain in her face, she started skillfully slashing towards Menzine with great speed. She tried all possible blind spot attacks, feints and even close up fire spells but he was always a step ahead.
Noma jumped back whenever he launched an attack and stepped in when he missed. She had been moving in and out of attacks that she hadn't noticed that she was steadily moving backwards, while her opponent moved towards her. Her speed had increased but her opponent was matching her every move with a block and a counter of equal speed. The assassin techniques she held dear as a last resort were failing… miserably.
She teleported a distance away to get some room but Menzine teleported right in front of her. A series of attacks later and it became evident that she couldn't win. Menzine had started to increase his strength and speed of attacks that she was stuck in defense or what looked like defense. Several attacks had landed on the armor she wore and started curving it in.
The armor that had been a handicap to protect herself eventually became a handicap against her. The curved in surfaces had sharp areas that started slightly piercing her skin as she moved to defend. She wanted to take it off, but a hit to her exposed side by Menzine's sword made her reconsider. Even though the armor was hurting her now, it still prevented her from getting decapitated.
She fought back with all her might but it just wasn't enough anymore. Her injuries started getting worse as the armor curved in more and more. She couldn't even look at her assailant's face to see if he was mocking her with his expression.
When she could barely stand and her hands fell to her side, she saw her opponent turn and started to walk away.
"Not strong enough," he commented as he walked away.
Her knees wobbled and she fell powerlessly to the ground on her back. She looked up at the clear sky, finding nothing interesting to look at. At that moment she was left with nothing, neither strength nor ambition, just her thoughts… nothing but her thoughts.
In the fight of Menzine against Noma, Menzine crushed his opponent by a longshot.