There is a saying within this world. Whichever fighter strikes first with magic, loses. Mana is an important and key aspect to your survival in a fight between magicians. And even though with an evolution, your pool of mana increases, if your opponent is on the same level… you might as well wait for them to use their mana first.
What I'm trying to get at, is that whoever runs out of mana first, well… loses. Simple as that.
As Sheek prepared for another strike, Glover unleashed his Ashen Ignition technique. Heaps of ash burned through his pants and sleeves, revealing his bronze appendages that were clicking and whirling with steampunk viscosity.
They were creating the very same fire that superheated the ash he had conjured, turning it into intense flames. Coating his limbs with the burning ash, he delivered a devastating strike, sending fiery waves toward Sheek. The flames erupted on impact, creating fiery explosions that engulfed the immediate vicinity.
Sheek countered swiftly with a precise roundhouse kick, the only bare parts of his skin being revealed, glowing a bright luminscent blue, seemingly increasing every aspect of his attack.
He swung his leg powerfully, the arc of his foot moving through the air like a blade. With his impeccable precision, he managed to redirect some of the fiery waves away from him, but at the same time, he was injured ever so slightly by the bursting pockets of ash.
Glover responded by releasing an Ashen Subjugation. From his bronze-plated knees and elbows, they opened up, dumping and embedded ash into the ground beneath him, manipulating the terrain to his advantage. The unstable, ash-laden ground shifted beneath Sheek's feet, throwing off his balance and making it challenging for him to maintain his stance. Though, it was apparent this ash was slowly beginning to dissolve with time, meaning Glover needed to seize this opportunity.
And so he did.
Glover executed an explosive downward roundhouse kick. The momentum of his rotating body was channeled into the rear leg as he swung it around to slam the ash-coated shin into Sheek's chest. Increasing the power was his knee firing off spurts of ashy explosions that sent his leg practically whipping through the air. The impact was ferocious, launching Sheek into the air and further igniting the ashen debris surrounding him.
Sheek flipped mid-air, his bare skin once again glowing with lines of blue lights, recovering before displaying the dexterity of a seasoned master. He performed an Axe Kick in mid-air, the explosive turn-up of the ashen floor fueling his momentum. His heel was poised to strike Glover, whose hands had been disconnected from his wrists, held together by thick bronze wires, stood ready.
With a thunderous explosion, Glover unleashed another move: Fiery Resonance. Resonant waves of intense heat emanated from him, pouring out from every single bronze aspect of his body, simultaneously damaging Sheek and enhancing his own attacks.
Now although, Sheek's axe kick hit its mark, Glover's resonating fiery energy engulfed them both, causing excruciating burns and burning away their top articles of clothing. This revealed just how much bronze their bodies had been tampered with.
Glover, bearing an artificial heart and two large chambers on each side of his six-pack ripped away the remaining bits of clothing. These two large chambers suddenly opened, puffing out a massive screen of smoke before instantly shutting with a light spark, creating hundreds of explosions around him.
Sheek, also bearing an artificial heart, held no other visible steampunk modifications. But each time he attacked, with his movements seemingly being sped up by his temporal properties, his entire body would glow with long and winding blue strips. These were clear activations of his steam that not only enhanced his body but his mind as they traveled up his spine and onto the back of his head.
"YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Sheek screamed through the unbearable heat. "YOU'RE A SICKO!"
"LIKE I GIVE A SHIT!" Glover cackled back as his own body was also being eaten away by the intense flames.
As soon as the two just barely managed to slip away before literally melting together, Sheek confronted the relentless onslaught of Glover's ash-based attacks, with his own mastery of time manipulation. To turn the tide of the battle, he focused his attention on the spell of Temporal Bubbles, conjuring a localized pocket of altered time just in front of Glover.
From the surging blue veins inside of his body, they pulsed towards his palms. This revealed bronze circles in the center of each one of his hands, opening up and conjuring nothing but two simple blue lights. These lights magically converged into… nothing. It was an invisible attack purely reserved for lords of time.
The temporal bubble distorted the passage of time, slowing it to a crawl within the confined area. To Sheek, it was as though everything outside the bubble moved at a snail's pace. Glover's fiery strikes, while still formidable, seemed lethargic and predictable within the altered temporal field. Sheek utilized this advantage to move with unmatched speed and precision, countering each of Glover's fiery attacks with astonishing ease.
Glover, although already aware of Sheek's abilities, struggled to adapt to this newfound agility. The precise master executed a series of rapid kicks, launching them in a whirlwind of motion. A barrage of kicks including the side kick, roundhouse kick, and jump spin hook kick seemed to happen in an instant, each separated by a twirl to build up even more power.
VWOOM
Sheek's blue veins glowed once more, directing toward his head and making his icy-gray eyes light up with a similar turquoise glow. This granted the man, another innate ability: Precognitive refinement.
Precognitive refinement granted Sheek the ability to foresee Glover's movements a millisecond before they occurred. He anticipated Glover's signature downward roundhouse kick and, with impeccable timing, sidestepped it gracefully, letting it pass him by without a hint of contact.
As the temporal bubble began to dissipate, Sheek added on swiftly with a twirling back kick, his heel connecting with Glover's chest and sending him hurtling backward. The impact was brutal, and Glover crashed into a pile of charred rubble.
"Oh man… this rust is sticking to me like crazy," Glover's smile widened even further, a mound of ash helping him regain his balance.