Riku had to rely on instinct as he was rushing at Kei, who was repeatedly making copies of parts of the walls and floor in Riku's path. At first, Riku was dodging rather well, right up until he reached Kei. As he lunged for Kei with his fist pulled back, a pillar copy of the wall appeared right in front of Kei, knocking Riku back into the wall once more. "Agh! Ugh..." He fell to the ground, face planting. "Okay... That hurt..." He slowly rose to his feet. "There's more to your power than you're telling me...isn't there..?" Riku panted, glaring at Kei.
"Whatever do you mean?" Kei smiled innocently, not wanting to give up his secret that easily.
"Oh come on! If those copies of yours really were just 'appearing' then I wouldn't have gotten knocked away just then! I would've just slammed into it. I know my physics dude!"
Kei blinked and held in a laugh. "Fine, I'll tell you. When I make my copies appear, they can appear anywhere, but they can't go through living things. Think of it like this." A small human shaped doll made of stone formed in his hand. "If my power were like normal, then I could easily kill any foe like so." A wooden pillar was suddenly shaped through the torso of the stone doll. "But since that's not how it works, whenever I make it appear where someone is standing, my power will do this." The stone doll was suddenly sent flying and it smacked into the beside Riku's head, the small pillar not having budged an inch.
"I see...and that's only living things?"
"Yes, or if it happens to try to go through something non living then it'll just be like this." Kei made a small wall form in his hand, the wooden pole seemingly going through it. "The pole's not actually going through the wall, there are simply two wooden poles attached to both sides of this wall."
Riku nodded. "That's gonna make things a lot more difficult... I'm gonna have to keep moving so he can't send me flying everywhere... But as far as I can tell, he may be ready to summon some kind of pillar whenever I step into a certain radius of him..." He internally came up with a strategy. "Well, if I can't get close..." Riku lunged at him yet again.
"I thought you were smart? Doing the same thing over and over isn't going to work." Kei swiped his rapier to the right before taking his stance again.
Riku smirked, his palms glowing in a glitched, blue light. He jumped and fired two beams of his magic at Kei, surprising Kei for a moment, but he reacted instantly and copied part of the wall, placing it in front of him to shield himself. "Gotcha..." Riku thought, having actually fired the beams one after another and not at the same exact time. The first beam hit the wall, Riku choosing to store it for himself for later use, but the second beam continued onward, too close and too fast for Kei to defend himself with another copy. He chose to block with his rapier, and Riku chose to take that for himself as well.
The aftereffect of Kei's rapier disappearing caused a slight shockwave, knocking him back toward the wall, and he just barely caught himself. "Tch..."
Riku now held Kei's rapier, chuckling. "Does this mean I win?"
Kei smirked lightly. "Not by a long shot." A copy of the rapier appeared in his own hand, lightly swinging it as energy encased the blade.
Riku frowned. "Should've known it wouldn't be that easy." The rapier in his hand vanished, via Kei's power.
"Let's see you try that again." Kei smirked as several pillars of stone and wood began appearing and vanishing all throughout the room at random, all the same shape and size.
"Hey! No fair!" Riku hollered as he jumped and dodged. Riku had to keep moving so he wouldn't get hit, to the point he had to increase his speed and reaction time with his magic. He tried to charge more beams in his hands, but whenever he tried, a pillar would suddenly form and either knock him away, or form in front of the area he was moving and he'd smack into it.
"Rahhhh! God dammit!" Riku roared in rage as he swung both of his blades outward, both blades encased in Riku's glitched aura and firing glitched energy slashes across the room as he swung them. Everything the slashes touched was deleted, getting rid of all the pillars at once, but when they reached the actual wall, all the slashes did was smack into it and dissipate, nothing happening to the wall. "Huh..?" Riku looked to the wall behind Kei, confused.
"The walls are anti-magic. Don't want our training rooms getting destroyed after all." Kei said, easily able to guess what Riku was thinking.
"Oh, that makes sense. For a second I was really confused. Thanks."
"No problem." There was an awkward silence between them for a few seconds before Riku blasted another beam at Kei quickly, but Kei summoned a wall, saving himself from harm once more.
"Dammit!" Riku growled.
"I know, sucks huh?" Kei chuckled.
"I'll get you." Riku dashed yet again, and Kei proceeded to use the same randomized pillar trick. Riku swung his blade gauntlets rapidly as he charged forward, slicing through and deleting any pillars that tried to stop him. He managed to get dangerously close to Kei, but Kei created another pillar through Riku, sending him flying forward into the wall behind him. "Oof!" Riku fell back, landing on his back and groaning.
Kei held the tip of his blade at Riku's throat. "Do you yield?"
Riku smirked. "Not on your life." He glitched, reappearing on the other side of the room and quickly firing a beam before Kei could start doing his randomized pole attack. However, Kei summoned yet another wall, and Riku stored that wall once his beam hit it.
"How many times are we going to do this before you give up?" Kei sighed.
Riku continued to smirk. "Big words for someone who's about to lose."
Kei sighed again before chuckling, slightly annoyed now. "Is that so..?"
"Yep!" Riku spread his arms, his glitched aura forming a sphere of magic around himself and then it bursted, like a shockwave, spreading throughout the entire room, Riku thinking to himself, "Please let this work..." Since the magic Riku was using was harmless, the anti-magic didn't go off, and so the walls, ceiling, and floor of the room all turned into pink fluff.
"W-What the..?" Kei lost his balance and almost fell over. "What the hell did you do?!"
Riku smirked. "Remember when I said I could change the material of any substance I can see and touch my magic with to anything I want as long as I have it stored with my magic?"
Kei's eyes widened as he remembered, having completely forgotten actually. "Son of a..."
Riku glitched into the air, flying to Kei. "It's over for you! I win!" Kei scoffed and backed up, his rapier still drawn, but he backed up into something hard. He looked behind him, seeing three small stone walls positioned so he couldn't move back or jump without hitting his head.
"Crap..! I have to move fast!" Kei quickly turned.
"You're already too late!" Riku yelled, a beam of his magic already closing in on Kei. Kei's eyes widened as he was hit, the walls all crumbling to bits from the explosion. Kei slammed back into the wall of fluff, falling down face first into the fluffy floor next with a groan, his body smoking somewhat. "O-Oops... Maybe I overdid it a bit..." Riku scratched the back of his head.
Kei coughed, slowly standing. "You did just fine... You've beaten me..."
Riku's eyes widened. "Huh? But you could still do that pillar through me trick or whatever right..?"
Kei sighed. "I was hoping that something like this wouldn't happen... If the material I copy isn't as strong as the being I'm putting it through, then it's the same as if the being was a lifeless wall, like I showed you before."
Riku recalled his explanation before. "I see, so I really win huh..?"
"Yes, you've beaten me. I would say you got lucky, but you used your brains as well as brawns to prepare in advance. You have one of the many skills needed to defeat me." Kei looked up at him. "Congra-" Kei's eyes widened as he watched Riku fall backwards. "Hey! Are you alright?!" He ran over, the room returning to normal.
Riku sighed. "Yeah, just tired." He grinned confidently at Kei. "Twelfth strongest member."
"Tch." Kei looked away. "I'm still better than you at combat, don't get cocky."
"Oh whatever, you're just salty." Riku snickered.