"The situation looks bleak for both of us. I'll give you one more chance, do you want to surrender? That way we can have a happy ending without both of us getting tired, what do you think?"
"I will not surrender."
"Well, what are you going to do? Even if you beat me, there's another mage out there, how are you going to beat him after me?"
"I know the end is coming, fire mage. I just want to make sure she survives before it happens, and that's all I need to prolong it. After all, you'll start to stop breathing too, and then you'll have to lift the dome. I'll take it from there."
"Well, how are you going to drag it out? If you had mana, you would have killed me already."
"Even if I don't have mana, yours isn't the ocean neither."
He was not wrong about that. After all that chasing, it would have been easy even for non-mages to realize that Lylphia had run out of mana too.
"I think you're having a hard time understanding the situation. Let me explain, it's about to come to a fist fight and then I'm going to beat the shit out of you and if it doesn't come to a fist fight then I'm going to give you the gift of burns on your body that you will carry for the rest of your life and even if you manage to beat me you will be stopped by my friend waiting outside. You have nowhere to go, this is my last warning, surrender and let's end this calmly without any damage to your body. I think this is an offer you shouldn't refuse, accept it and everyone goes home."
Sony nodded again, and Lylphia, sure of his resolve from the start, didn't stop asking.
"I'll ask you even if I know why, why are you after me?"
"Huh? Are you trying to stall me until the air inside runs out, or are you a mana regenerator and you're trying to buy time. I want you to know that either way, you will fail."
Lylphia formed a thin spear of flame over her shoulder and, with a flick of her finger, hurled it at Sony.
Even though it looked like a spear, it wasn't going to pierce Sony when it hit him, it was going to explode the moment it hit him and hurt him very, very badly.
The flame spear went for Sony, and he darted after it. Sony formed a halo and threw it at Lylphia before the spear reached her, and when it came, she leaned her back against the wall to avoid being hit by the attack.
As the spear of flame traveled through the tunnel and blended into the wall of the flame dome, Lylphia easily dodged the incoming halos of light and came up to Sony and punched him in the jaw.
The punch knocked Sony off his feet, he flew into the air, hit his head on the ceiling of the tunnel and fell to the ground with a groan.
"It was shorter than I expected."
Lylphia was proudly looking at the fight she had just won when a sudden bulge beneath her feet caused her to lose her balance and fall. While Lylphia was on the ground, Sony gathered the light in his hand into a dagger and leapt at her.
"Holy shit!"
Lylphia was quicker, grabbed Sony's wrist and punched him in the cheek. The impact of the punch sent Sony tumbling to the side and Lylphia got to her feet and kicked Sony in the stomach.
She then bent down and grabbed Sony by the collar, lifted him up, punched him a couple of times in the face, then a punch in the stomach and, as Sony gasped, grabbed him and threw him against the wall.
She was physically weakened by the mana draining from her body, but her fists still hurt.
She punched him again in the jaw and when Sony lifted slightly, she grabbed him by the collar again and threw him to the floor. She bent down again and lifted Sony up and threw him against the wall again.
Sony took a few more punches to the face as he was pinned to the wall, and with the last punch he was thrown a few meters away, approaching the fire wall of the dome.
"I think we're making history with the first mage struggle in which magic was used so sparingly."
"How can you beat me?"
As Sony wiped his bloodied face with his hand, he couldn't believe how easily Lylphia had grabbed him as if he were a child's toy and slammed him to the ground. He spat on the floor and two teeth came out of his mouth.
"The story started before I was born, even though my gender was not yet clear, my father said the child will be a warrior and my mother said 'oh don't be silly, it should be a mage.'"
By the time Lylphia started to tell the story, she was back at Sony's feet. Sony used halos of light to get rid of her, but he missed Lylphia and was defenseless against her.
"They were still fighting when I was born; warrior or mage? Warrior or mage? Warrior or mage?"
With every word she punched Sony in the face, chest and stomach. Occasionally, when she got tired of punching, she slam him against the wall or use his kicks.
"Warrior or mage? Warrior or mage?"
After punching her opponent some more, Lylphia grabbed him by the throat and threw him across the tunnel. Sony rolled on the ground, narrowly avoiding the wall of flames.
"You're so annoying!"
As smoke began to fill the tunnel, it became harder and harder for him to breathe.
"But soon you won't be able to breathe either."
"You think I'm gonna let it go that far? You're gonna lose your mind when we get close to each other again."
"This sentence... I don't know... It had a bit of a seductive air."
He used some of his accumulated mana to create two halos, one for Lylphia's legs and one for her neck.
Lylphia jumped out of the halos coming at her, spun on her hands and did another somersault in the air, coming face to face with Sony. Sony tried to back away but was forced to stop by the heat he felt behind him and the realization that he was approaching the wall of the fire dome blocking the tunnel.
When Sony stopped, Lylphia's fist was coming at his face again, he shielded his face with his arms to defend himself against it, one of Lylphia's punches hit Sony's arms and the other hit him in the stomach.
The blood from Sony's mouth spattered Lylphia's face as he was struck hard in the abdominal cavity. Lylphia continued to punch Sony, oblivious to the blood splattered on her face.
Sony finally couldn't take it anymore and lowered his arms, screaming even as Lylphia's fists hit his face and he grabbed her around the waist and slammed her into the wall. Then he threw a headbutt, which shook Lylphia for a brief moment and he took advantage of the gap to grab her head and start banging it against the wall.
Lylphia could not hold back her tears as her head split open and blood poured down her face, unable to think of any other way out, even if it meant using the last shreds of her remaining mana, she placed her hand on Sony's chest and formed a fireball that could have killed him.
Sony was thrown against the opposite wall with a fireball in his chest. Lylphia was struggling to recover, but neither was Sony, and neither could move until they started coughing from the lack of air and smoke.
When they looked at each other again, they were both injured. Lylphia had burned her own hand in the fireball she had created without taking precautions to protect herself, and the ribbon she had tied around her finger had turned to ash.
She could not hold back her tears, her head had been repeatedly hit against the wall and her brain was throbbing. Nevertheless, she was still determined to fight and would not lift the dome until she had defeated her opponent. In fact, if she lifted the dome now, Ana could easily defeat him, but since it was a matter of pride for Lylphia, she didn't even entertain the idea.
Sony was in a terrible state. When he pulled himself together and stood up, his body was full of burns and he had almost no energy left.
Neither Sony nor Lylphia could fight any more, and neither could create a powerful spell.
But even though Lylphia knew she would faint afterwards, she had the means to make one last move. She could have plucked flames from the wall of the flame dome.
It was a small but effective move. Her eye shifted to the wall of the flame dome at the end of the tunnel, she raised her hand and pointed her palm at Sony, or rather at the wall behind him. Sony took a few steps back, expecting his opponent to throw a fireball at him, he had no strength to defend.
Lylphia closed her palm and pulled her hand back, as if she was grabbing something and pulling it towards her. Before Sony could realize what she was doing, a ball of flame from the wall of fire slammed into his back and sent him flying towards Lylphia.
When Sony arrived at Lylphia's feet, he was on fire. He was spinning madly on the floor, coughing from the smoke, trying to put out the fire in his body.
Lylphia no longer had the strength to stand, she fell on her back and her eyes closed. As Lylphia lost consciousness, the mana that formed the dome of flame dissipated.
As the dome of flame disappeared, Ana appeared at the entrance to the tunnel. With a single, powerful wind spell, she blew out the toxic smoke and rushed to Sony's side to save him, who was on fire.