Cinder wasn't some hopeless amateur however as salem had personally coached her on how to fight once she got the fall maidens full power and recovered from the injuries leon gave her. despite getting caught off guard she reacted by summoning a shield in front of leon's fist causing the blow to send her flying backwards but totally unharmed. it was at this point she realized that leons physical abilities were just as potent as his elemental ones making her sport a dark expression. salem of course didn't skimp out on training cinders close quarters combat abilities but those lessons only applied against normal levels of strength rather than the superhuman level leon is at.
Most battles between magic users was an exchange of elemental attacks from the distance so salem couldn't be blamed for not preparing cinder for this situation. cinder was drawn out of her thoughts however as a rain of silver-black fire darts shot after her from the now dissipating fire cloud. cinder grew excited seeing this since as the fall maiden she had an innate control of fire , including those created by semblances.
She exerted her will on the hell flames and to her horror had the mental image of a massive pair of red eyes staring down at her mercilessly through her extended will. cinder was horrified at this since the only time this happens was when she tried to contend control of magical fire away from someone. this was the biggest limitation to her maiden powers , whenever she tried to control a flame produced via magic she needed to confront the will of the one creating them first. salem had trained her for this in case she ever found her self contesting ozpin for magic flames. but in this case she didn't even try to wrestle control away from leon since his will felt like a bottomless abyss much like salem's own.
Even worse for cinder was that she now realized that leon's famous fire was a type of magic that he could conjure without that insane magical language of his. cinder knew that people had been trying to recreate the thing this whole time from the fragments they saw leon use on video but all had failed until now. this even included salem herself who had confirmed that this was the first time in history that the language had surfaced and as a result she was equally clueless about it.
Cinder was liking her chances less and less the longer this fight dragged on because so far she had been on the defensive and the more power leon showed the worse the suppression was. she tried to dodge the fire darts but much like her own powers they were controlled remotely by leon into pursuing her viciously. cinder could only grit her teeth and summon a barrier to tank the hit as she immediately felt her sweat evaporate from the heat that managed to seep through her defense.
She was rather jealous of leon's fire since her own was basically at normal temperatures while his was clearly monstrously hot. what she didn't realized was that leon was equally surprised with the intensity that the small amount of fire produced when in contact with her energy. from his own knowledge the last time this happened was when he roasted torchwick and his companion. he had realized at that time that much like their name suggested hell flame burned most brightly when exposed to those with a large amount of sin. whoever this was had apparently done some truly dreadful things in their life for such a small amount of fire to frenzy like this.
Leon knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth though and pumped a large amount of power into the fire stoking it even further until he was interrupted as a huge bullet struck the side of his head. it obviously didn't cause him any harm due to his obscene defense but it shifted his focus letting cinder escape the onslaught of hell fire. leon's temper flared when he recognized the person who had just taken a shot at him from monstra's side as tyrian callows , a convicted mass murderer who had vanished during transport years ago.
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