Before they had even had a chance to focus on that fact, the teacher gestured for them to start, and the heavyweight was launched toward Iza almost like a bullet. She pivoted on her foot and dodged to the side. Ivan wrapped the chain around his forearm and pulled on the chain, attempting to hit her with the weight on the back.
The ground underneath her froze as an ice wall was made, trapping the heavy weight and some of the chain inside as she sprinted toward him. She would run the spear across the ground, damaging the arena and launching the debris toward him, thrusting the spear toward his chest.
He unwrapped some of the chain from his forearm, using the sickle to block the debris before dropping to the ground to avoid the spear. He wrapped the chain around the spear and pulled it downwards, trying to take it away from her, but she held onto it tightly. Ice would spread on the chain, but it disappeared as soon as it did. He brought his foot down on the spear as he took the spear from her hand.
He kicked the spear behind him. Despite this, she held her hands up, ready to fight; she seemed momentarily surprised before raising her arm to guard herself as she turned around as the weight and chain wrapped around her arm.
He threw the sickle at her, and she created a crude blade of ice and smacked the sickle away as he pulled the sickle back and kept attacking her from range. She frowned as he stepped away whenever she tried to move in. She had gone relatively unhurt so far, except once in a while, they would pull on the chain and try to take her off balance, which caused her to receive a few minor cuts.
The wounds were healing quite quickly, unnaturally, making him curious about how it was possible. Not even a drop of blood made its way out of the wounds. She kept frowning as she seemed to be muttering something under her breath.
Then the strangest thing happened: the sleeve of the tunic, the chain wrapped around her arm, deteriorated before disappearing as the chain held onto her arm. The Change wasn't noticeable at the start, but she grew slightly in height, and her face became more mature as her hair grew. She was getting older and at quite an alarming pace. Ivan, all the while, had a smirk on his face.
She looked to be in her early twenties, and two things happened immediately after. The first was that his heart was racing quite a bit. He would have to be made of stone not to be stunned by her beauty. She had aged gracefully, so her clothes seemed too small as they clung tightly to her body. He would have been lost in many thoughts if not for what happened next.
She deflected his sickle one more before bringing her arm down and lifting her leg before slamming it down on the chain, which dragged Ivan closer. She brought down her sword and grazed his shoulder, his body barely managing to get out of the way. As soon as the sword hit the ground, it seemed to meld onto the ground as the ice spread and trapped his feet.
Ivan's smirk immediately dropped as his gaze moved down; the ice on his feet started becoming undone as he tried to gain distance once it was gone. In his moment of distraction, he failed to notice that Iza had wrapped more of the chain around her other arm as the two were now locked a few meters from each other.
Iza looked to be in her thirties now, and yet her beauty remained unfazed. It was her turn to smile as she silently spoke.
"No more running, now let's play."
Ivan seemed to hesitate before freeing his arm from the chain and holding his sickle with his right hand. The chain glows even brighter as she ages faster; she doesn't seem phased as two daggers made of ice form in her hands. She thrusts one toward his face as he swings her sickle, trying to deflect it.
She let go of the daggers and stepped up to him; as he attempted to stop the dagger with his sickle, it put him off balance. She got around behind him and brought her foot down to the back of his knee as she wrapped the chain around his neck and held him up in the air by holding him onto her back. The daggers touched the ground, and as soon as they did, they mended onto the ground, and two icicles formed as they stabbed into both wrists, making him let go of the sickle, forcing a soundless scream from him.
The ice wasn't undone like before, and the chains glowed brighter. At this point, Iza had aged extensively. Her face was wrinkled, her hair was pure white, and she looked brittle and weak. She was akin to a grandma. Her arms and legs trembled, yet she still had that same smile as before. Her eyes hadn't lost their intensity.
Ivan soon went limp, and the chain stopped glowing. She let go of him as the chains unwrapped from her arms, leaving behind bruises and marks. She fell onto her knees as the ice holding Ivan up by his wrists vanished; before he could fall on top of her, one of the teachers with blond hair grabbed hold of him as his wrists healed slightly, and he awoke with a gasp. The healing stopped as soon as he woke up, and the two were teleported back to their spot.
"Good job defending your spot, Iza; you better work quickly to rid yourself of the effects of his magic. Ivan, you relied too much on your magic. Maintaining range was a good plan, but that only really works if your enemy fears fighting you up close. You should work on fighting in close range."
Iza's aging was slowly going backward as she seemed to close her eyes and begin meditating. Her weapon was by her side; if he had to guess, she was using her Chi to undo the effects of his magic...he had no clue how it worked exactly. He suffered from something similar with his body locking up, but using his Chi seemed to help.
She seemed to stop around her late forties, which probably was good to save herself some Chi for her next match if it came. The teacher once more put his hand into the hat as it seemed they weren't given long to relax.