C90: Battle of Might, Mission
Overall Word count = 2182 on 5/29/2024.
Tiona's punch connects with Axel's face, sending him flying further up in the cave until he collides with the roof. Cracks adorn the entire ceiling that trail far and wide along the cave path. Axel dislodges from out of the rocks by releasing some ambient energy around him. He falls back down, landing upon the ground. He turns his head to crack his neck as he states.
"Not a bad first hit"
"I learned from the best"
"Awe, thats cute" Axel responds with a smile
"I learned from my sister" Tiona shuts down Axel's original thoughts before taking a proper fighting stance
"Humph, cheeky now that you're strong?" Axel snorts in retort as he takes a casual stance while bobbing forward and backwards to keep himself ready. He makes no move to take initiative in the fight as he already knows that he is still the stronger one here. He has adjusted to his divine energy more and is also higher level than her.
The most Tiona has going for her is that he allowed her to get a half step into the wrath influence in addition to her full control of strength. Depending on how well she integrates herself into it. She could give him some trouble. As such, he takes the fight seriously as Tiona bursts forward to charge at him.
When she nearly strikes Axel, he moves his palms forward, crossed over each other. When they come into contact with her fist, the power is completely dispersed due to Axel utilizing the very nature of wrath to dispel her power. After all, Wrath is strength gained through emotion. It ensures that anyone who comes at him with hostile intent cant harm him physically and would instead re-energize him again.
(think of 7 deadly sins commandments but instead of paralyzing those with hostile intent. It outright nullifies physical force which is fueled by hostile emotions.)
With her punch weakened to less than normal, Tiona panics a bit and rightfully so as Axel kicks her in the stomach which sends her flying back. Causing another crater in the wall which she simple flexes to break out from but Axel doesnt give her time to rest now as he had charged forward.
When he arrives before her, he does not actually attack. He simply hovers over her with his superior height. When she looks up at him in confusion. He simply flashes a grin at her which sparks her rage. She uses her strength energy to lash out at Axel but this time he showcases another aspect of his Wrath.
His power is uniform, while strength is the greatest boost, all other aspects also receive a boost unlike Strength which is purely focused on that singular aspect of power. As such, when Tiona tries to unleash a combo upon Axel, he simply sidesteps or dodges each one due to his superior speed before unleashing another gut punch which sends her flying again.
"Do you want to continue or have you learned your lesson?" He taunts her and she suddenly unleashes a sonic boom caused by her dashing forward. Her fist comes in contact with Axel's face and while the power should have been nullified like before. The opposite occurred as Axel was sent flying. His feet drag along the floor which creates a ditch. A hole is made in the ground due to Axel's body sinking through it like mud.
"I think I'm getting the hang of it. " Tiona simply retorts. Axel quickly understands that with him showing the way on how to utilize wrath. She used the tiny bit she was able to understand to temporarily drain herself of rage. She instead used that bottled up emotion as an energy source for her strength, enhancing it further. Thus, Axel had nothing to negate and was blasted away as a result.
Axel grips the roof of the hole he is in and with exceptional might. Breaks the ground above him before he throws it at Tiona. Her fist shatters the large amount of dirt but this only serves to cover Axel's approach. His right fist connects with her right knee and then his left fist connects with her right knee. The double impact forces her to kneel to which Axel shoves his knee into her chin. This sends her flying up a few feet. Axel continues by spinning before releasing a back wheel kick to send her properly flying into the distant wall.
The multiple impacts sends a tremor throughout the Elsos Ruins, Tiona again creates an imprint of herself in the wall, but this one is right next to where Axel first sent her flying.
She breaks out again, rushing off towards Axel with even more sonic booms. Her fist coming in contact with his shoulder, only to be blocked by one of 3 distinct arms coming out from Axel's shoulder. The arm grabs her forearm, she tries to retaliate with her other arm, a successful strike which only leads to her other hand also being grabbed as she was drawing it away.
With both hands locked, the last set of phantom arms begins to hit her straight on the face. Axel keeps this up for a few seconds before it begins to look like his punches have no effect. Tiona has a grin on her face and Axel also quickly understands that she now has learned how to nullify physical force against her created through Strength.
The situation would appear as though both have reached a standstill but that would be false as Axel still has the upper hand since he can use magic but also with enough wrath energy he can overpower her strength energy that was nullifying his attacks. He afterall, has his prototype ring which refuels him much faster than Tiona can gather energy naturally. Sure she can absorb the physical energy he emits when he hits her but that would require her to actually take the full powered hit and not dispel it.
Axel gives a quick leg jab into her stomach which knocks her back as he lets go of her arms.
"Full force yea?" He tells her as he begins to gather his wrath energy into his body, ready to be used for the first time in it's entirety. Tiona can sense the dense energy building up on Axel as she begins to do the same with both her Wrath and Strength energies.
BOOOOOOOM. Once both of them have fully gathered their energies, they move to strike against each other. The result is cataclysmic as the Entire Elsos ruins immediately collapses under the the strain of their attack, but even then, the very ceiling evaporates from the powerful shock wave that travels tens of miles as a result of their collision.
"Bleugh, Plooo " The duo both say as they got dirt in their mouths as the both of them were sent flying away from each other by a few miles. A short distance for them to travel but only due to their high stats. They both throw out the dirt in their mouths and meet up again. Both are drained of divine energy which stopped the fight.
"Not too bad. You learned fast enough. Your head ok?" He compliments her before asking.
She shakes her head, "I'm so sore and my head would be better if you didn't keep punching me in the face. I'm surprised my nose isn't broken."
"Our divine energies subconsciously move to protect our bodies to ensure they don't break."
"Doesnt that mean we can be drained of energy?" She questions a bit worried if she is somehow captured and tortured.
Axel shakes his head, "The amount is miniscule. Except for our last strike, the energy you used for the entire fight was less than 1% to protect your bones and muscles from breaking. Currently, your regeneration speed is faster than mine naturally because your energy capacity will grow for the next day or two. I on the other hand depended on my ring to collect energy again to protect myself faster." He explains to which she nods as she finally notices that her own ring has multiple cracks in it.
"Um!" she shows the ring to Axel who is surprised but not too much that the adamantium broke under their intense collision.
"Alright, let's return to Orario. We can immediately make you a new ring with your own energy included so that you can recover strength energy faster like me. Meet you there " he says and begins to speed off towards Orario. Tiona huffs as she too begins to sprint but quickly realizes that she cant exert the same amount of speed. So, she takes an alternate approach. She leaps into the Air and kicks out behind her which sends her flying forward, this allows her to keep pace with Axel's sprinting.
Axel grins upon seeing her speed and ingenuity. 'It seems her mind was enhanced as well. I doubt she was "this" smart before' he makes a mental jab at her before sparks begin to fly around him. "Try to keep up". Axel activates his minor soul fragments nen Ability, GodSpeed. His body is coated in lightning which more than doubles his speed as he creates a line of fire behind him due to the friction he causes. His every step igniting the floor underneath him. The fires don't last long but Tiona is still left behind, shocked by his powers.
"Ugh, I should have Tione get speed so she can just carry me along and we can keep pace with him." She grumbles but doesnt relent as she still keeps trying to bridge the gap. She keeps going until she has Orario in view and finally can see Axel. He has stopped and is waiting a few miles away from the city. She lands beside him, "why did we stop here?"
"It's better to teleport inside, unless you would rather wait in line with the rest and I don't know if you brought your ID but like me, you have changed a lot. Completely different than how you were before, in a good way." He says and she nods in agreement as she actually had not brought her ID with her as she wasn't sure if she needed it or not. But it would not help here in this situation.
The duo teleport inside the city and just outside Adelaide's store. He guides Tiona inside and to the forge. Today seems to have been a half-day for work as Adelaide and Mash would prepare for tomorrow's magic item sales. The ritual had taken hours and as such, from the early moments of the day to now late afternoon they had missed the duo. Axel was given a spare key when he had initially signed up for the partnership with Adelaide. Though the key is now much worse for wear with various nicks on it. Axel plans to reforge it after making Tiona's upgraded ring.
Soon the duo get to work, Tiona mostly watches but when commanded by Axel, she has her Strength energy flow through the new ring until she is told to stop. They had to repeat this process a few times as she lost control a few times and snapped the ring apart under the oppressive energy. But after 6 failed attempts, they finally got the final product done.
Tiona got the new ring and then Axel told her that he should meet her sister for a spar soon so that he can properly judge her for what rituals she can undergo. Tiona understands and scurries off to surprise her sister with her new strength and hot body. Axel sighs a breath of relief as he is quite sore from their fight. Not to mention that their every contact had constantly drained Tiona of her stats and it would definitely be noticeable when she gets her falna updated. He hopes she forgives him as he didn't intend to do that. It's just activated automatically.
Axel quickly makes a new key which is much more durable and returns home. Upon arriving, he finds that Raikou is meeting a Guild member. It seems to be a formal meeting as Raikou has a serious expression on her face, but as if sensing his gaze, she quickly locks eyes with him and invites him over. He approaches and the guild member seems to grow nervous but puts on a stoic expression.
"Hello sir, I am here to deliver a mission from the guild to you. All the details of the mission are in this scroll" He hands it over to Axel who nods. The member looks to Raikou and says, "Thank you for your patronage, your excellency" and takes his leave.
The duo hug and go inside, Axel talks about what he has been doing and Raikou nods until she understands that Axel got himself another woman while in the dungeon. She makes him upside the head then they open the mission scroll from the Guild.