Water rose on all sides of Leo, boxing him in like a caged animal. It dawned on him that although they had made an agreement to keep each other alive, it didn't mean they should take it easy. And at that, Leo realised that his opponent was a lot more powerful than the rest of the bronze rank fodder. He wouldn't be able to solve this one by throwing a crystal. Sifting through the powers at his disposal in his head, Leo couldn't think of anything to save himself. He needed to get creative. He needed to fly.
Leo ran the logic through his mind, and decided to hope for the best. He clenched his fists, pointing them to the ground. Now, in his head, this was totally a necessary gesture to activate his abilities. He wasn't at all living out his childhood dreams of bending elements like in that millennia old cartoon he'd grown up with. No, not at all.
The crystal at his feet grew upwards and launched him into the air with seconds to spare. Water walls crashed where he once stood, making a noise as loud as stone breaking. With that, Leo rotated in mid-air to get a gauge on Firosah. By now, they probably would have moved to a more strategic position.
'Wow, Leo! That was amazing!' Never mind. Firosah's eyes sparkled with the corners looking like they were about to well tears. It was slightly absurd, considering they were so serious just moments before.
Leo didn't mind the attention, however. He finished his aerial turn, following up his spin with Nameless. The split blade sparked with lightning that webbed between its two points. It crackled with a ball of light, then flicked it down toward the still awestruck Firosah. Leo had to laugh to himself for ending up in such a funny little match up against someone that was one of his industry's heroes. The novelty faded as quickly as it took Firosah to vanish into thin air. The ball of lightning burst and vanished into the air with a few final sad little sparks. Well, crap.
'Oh, so good!' Firosah was on the crystal beneath Leo, and he was about to fall straight toward them. He was completely vulnerable. 'Let's make this battle a beautiful one.' They flicked a bolt of water at Leo, but he anticipated it and switched to his warhammer, Loderush.
The beauty of this weapon being made of black crystal was that he not only could swing it like a normal warhammer, but could focus his power over the earth elements to enhance it. The hammer moved so fast that he thought it would fly out of his hands. It smashed against the holy water, sending it raining back down on Firosah in smatters.
Leo made creative use of his power again, and placed the head of the weapon under his feet. He forced the weapon to stay in mid-air for a moment, and pushed off it like a swimmer diving at the start of a race. With that, he switched to Bellestar and took aim. He was clearly not the same level of shot as Prim would have been with the gun, but he fired close enough to Firosah to frighten them into teleporting again. This time, he watched for any movement that showed how they activated the power. Something that insanely powerful had to have a drawback, right? Otherwise, he needed to have a word with whoever developed these angel and demon powers with such poor game balancing. Seeing nothing that activated the power, Leo clicked his tongue and focused on the next problem–landing.
He dismissed Bellestar and sprouted Nameless from his palm in a brilliant flash. Letting his lightning course across the weapon, he whirled in the air, creating a ring of lightning around him for a split second. It was timed well, as another set of holy water shots tried to strike him down, but instead conducted his lightning and burst like sparkling poppers. In that same moment, he swapped back to Loderush to try and break his fall before it broke him. He planted his feet on the hammer's head again, then grabbed hold of the pommel. Pushing through the thought that he must look like someone on a pogo stick, Leo controlled the fall of the crystal, bringing himself to a soft landing. In that moment, two things occurred to him. Firstly, if he could ever muster the courage, he could probably fly on his weapon for a short time, which would never happen. Secondly, this was probably the most powerful he'd felt in quite some time. He'd never utilised this much power in succession, and it felt good.
Leo's eyes became cloudy for a second, like a dark mist passed over him. He shook off the feeling and swapped to Nameless again. Firosah must have been nearby after that last shot, but he couldn't even see their refracted shape in the crystals nearby.
A sound like a whip cracking came from behind him, and it was a rather accurate description of what was happening. Water lashed out to him like a tendril, but Leo reacted quickly. He decided to take a chance and go against the rock-paper-scissors of nature. Leo summoned a blazing hellfire hand and gripped the water whip before it could strike him down.
'Oh.' Firosah loomed at the other end, their hand gripping the other end of the whip. They dropped it like a hot pan, and leered backwards. 'Leo,' their beautiful and brightly smiling face lost all the joy and friendliness that Leo had come to appreciate. 'I didn't realise you were tainted. Maybe our deal cannot stand. A friendship between us might not be possible.'