Artemis dove towards Maric after speaking in such a serious tone, she looked like a Queen of ice as her magic power whipped up crystal white winds that formed a spearhead at the tip of her blade. She truly looked terrifying like this. Internally Maric felt that this was when she was at her happiest, He could feel it screaming in her heart.
As the blade and magic force coalesced Artemis yelled out.
"Ice Magic: Crystal Lance!"
She stopped 8 feet away from Maric's position as the frigid air at the tip of her blade burst into solid ice launching towards Maric's chest. He felt as if he was already frozen, he couldn't even draw his blade let alone draw a breath, this was the true difference between a veteran and a rookie.
«.. Move.»
Maric felt his voice echo in his mind. But strangely enough it didn't feel like it originated from himself. But before he could question it his body bolted backwards with Yin-Fire exploding from underneath him. The residual flames destroyed the Crystal Lance and as he landed it happened again.
«Inner Path: Burst»
Magic power in the form of Yin-Fire began to form around Maric's back and ankles in the form of wings. He felt as if he was incredibly light on his feet but Artemis wouldn't give him a chance to adjust.
"What?! An enhancement spell chantlessly? So interesting! Let's up the pace then." Artemis smiled as she followed the path of her Crystal Lance and chantlessly began to cast.
"Ice Style: Dragons Maw!"
"Ice Style: Otil's Frozen Sphere"
Once again when she slashed down ice condensed and formed a massive dragon formed of blue ice that rushed towards Maric, At the same time the Frozen Sphere formed around the size of a horse that began to descend on his head. He regained his cool after being surprised by the double cast with no verbal components! This was incredibly dangerous.
"Ah!" Maric dodged out of the way of the Frozen Sphere, almost becoming a blur. He was even more shocked by this development, he was fast, too fast. A smile formed on his face as he aimed to dash towards Artemis.
"Let's see if I can catch her off guard too.."
As he dodged under the Ice Dragon he attempted to double cast right back at Artemis.
"Yin-Flame Style: Fireball"
"Yin-Flame Style: Draconian Slash!"
A large fireball launched towards Artemis as Maric quickly stopped to launch himself in a sideways arc to launch Draconian Slash as a dark crescent followed his hand slash. Mind you, he hadn't drawn his sword this whole time.
"Too weak." Artemis shouted before a fine mist began to swirl around her body until it became sharp like a large shuriken.
"Ice Style: Whirling Ice Wind"
The purple fireball began to fizzle out more and more until it disintegrated. She then met the Draconian Slash head on! As she swung her Ice blade it flowed with a deep azure energy that seemed to reinforce the blade.
Boom!
"HAHAHA! This is it! You're the real deal kid! Let's see if you can handle this!"
Artemis yelled out from behind a cloud of icy mist and dust as magic energy began to flow into Artemis at an insane rate. Her gauntlets began to freeze while her ice blade absorbed the now ice element energy that violently whirled around the forest. Even though it was day time and the sun hung high in the sky on this battlefield it was a hazy misty blur. Artemis's laughter began to echo from an unknown location before a thunderous sound broke the mist.
"Ice Style: Frozen Thunder!"
The energy that gathered at her blade cried out as cyan blue lightning launched towards Maric, It was so quick that he barely had a chance to form the Yin-Fire: Flame Array as a shield to avoid the blow. He managed to summon 4 head sized orbs of inky black flame that were instantly destroyed by the cyan blue energy. Before Maric could even dodge his blood ran cold and he was paralyzed, the blue energy curved around him and destroyed the tree to his back.
He felt like she had taken it easy on him but he forgot about the Ice Dragon.. it was still under Artemis's control as it circled around in the now cleared mist and hurdled towards Maric's head.
"Wait! Lad- Argh!"
Then, Maric's vision faded to black.
Artemis still had a wild smile upon her face before she shattered her blade and sweeped her wild white hair out of her face. She walked over to the now unconscious Maric who had a decent shiner and bump on his head. She picked him up and began to walk back to the Manor.
As Artemis walked the path she was thinking to herself. Maric truly did put up a thrilling fight, she thought this whole teaching thing would be unpleasant but the response to her unorthodox assault was more than amusing!
"Although.."
She thought back to the chantless enhancement spell. There was something about it that tingled her battle sense, not only was it out of his current scope of ability but it wasn't a common form of magic Yin-Fire would manifest as. Typically it would be offensive in nature if he were merely relying on his affinity and level of control but this was different.
Her smile crept back upon her face once again as she whispered to the sleeping boy.
"Very interesting. I can see why Ishmael & Seraph speak so highly of you. The next generation is truly formidable."
The two entered the Manor's outer gates only to be greeted by Ishmael's screeching and Artemis's hearty laughter.