Jean took a deep breath as the ground beneath them cracked - Anastasia had moved, closing his eyes, he began to imitate Ana, her style, he knew it all too well.
But so did Anastasia.
He knew she would prefer to attack to the right. But she also knew this, and he also knew that she knew this, in the end it would become an endless loop of useless thoughts - such was the style of Anastasia.
Driving her opponent into complete madness before even making an attack. That was why Jean had closed his eyes. He had fought her more times than he could count, he had lost only 23 times, those being the most-recent ones.
And he was not going to let himself lose a consecutive 24th time, not before understanding what he was now capable of.
One second passed.
Anastasia was nowhere to be found, not with sight, smell nor sound. It was strange, considering the maggots normally smells disgusting, even from a distance. It even apalled the members in the meeting - who chose to hide it.
Dust hit his face violently, masking the area around him. However, he knew better, he quickly moved forward consequently evading an attack on the left.
He snapped his fingers and with a red spark, the whole area was rid of dirt. A maggot suddenly lunged at him, which was too quick for him to dodge and ended up piercing his shoulder.
Opening his eyes, he saw an eye stare back at him, its pupil though red was clear as a lake, almost translucent, reflecting Jean himself. The maggots wriggled around fanaticly, expressing...no, it was better not to say what it meant.
He then grabbed the maggot which was still in his shoulder and suddenly, blue sparks ignited at his finger tips which literally disintegrated the maggot.
Anastasia saw this and cut off the maggot before it disintegrated to her face.
"So, fire and that huh?"
Both were currently not fighting at their best but were carefully observing their opponent. In terms of information, she had an upper hand now, she knew more or less what growth Jean had achieved, but it couldn't be said the same for Jean.
Just after three seconds, she felt a little irrigated, and urged him to find an even more faraway place to go all out, which Jean quickly complied.
They met some crabs on the way which was either disintegrated, burnt or devoured. She also commented on his adaptation a bit.
"Only fire and disintegration? I don't think that's all of them, considering it was a successful adaptation against a mother."
"I don't know."
"I guess that's what we're here for anyways."
Suddenly stopping, they turned towards eachother. After a bit of serene silence, a maggot suddenly flung forward but the target was already gone.
Pulling her forward, she avoided an attack from above. The attack destroyed the ground, surprisingly not much. It seemed like he held back.
Dashing towards Jean who still had his hand in the ground, she flung her arm forward with incredible speed, however, it hit nothing as Jean ducked under, and rammed her stomach with his elbow.
She was sent back a couple of meters, quickly catching herself with the maggots and suddenly sung a song.
Jean's eardrums suddenly burst and he felt blood in his eyes, his head felt heavy as he saw everything turn black.
"Oh come on."
Very much disappointed with Jean, she approached him then picked him up and carried him on her shoulder. However, it was actually a trap as she felt two hands grab her neck.
"You won, get off."
Dropping Jean on the ground, she became disappointed in herself for not accounting for her opponent's ability, though it was a failed one, it was still able to grab her neck.
'How did I even forget about that?'
Concluding that excitement clouded her judgement, she continued walking forward when a voice called for her.
"Kinda tired here, carry me."
"Just walk."
"Pretty please?"
"Okay."
She then came back and picked Jean up, placing him on her shoulder. Looking at her face, he saw the maggots cover her skull again, even though there was no source of heat anywhere near them.
"You okay?"
"..."
"Alright."
The walk back was uneventful, rightfully so, as they pretty much wiped out all the Zirtues in the vicinity. They weren't really scared about the progress of the meeting as they were only gone for five minutes.
Dropping down into the tubes and landing gracefully, they walked towards the encirclement of people and sat down. Even after 5 minutes, they were still talking about the mother.
They sat in their original spots and no one really noticed their disappearance except for a few that didn't join in on the gossip.
"So boring, that girl didn't even read the book, give it...ahhhhhh."
Groans, or screeches came from beside him. Looking around, he saw some members even fell asleep, Aceso and Iris and well Tyche but she didn't count.
Looking closer at Iris, he could see that she looked more 'human', her eyes, even though closed looked ordinary, as though there were real eyes in them, her hair was also more luscious.
And if he was correct, it seemed Aceso had a breakthrough in her abilities, which was great news. He had heard from Xander about the new uses of her ability and also how she killed an underground Crab-III by burrowing inside of it.
It sounded absurd, because there was no way Aceso could have survived the concentrated acids inside their bodies but Jean had a guess as to how she did it.
The acid melted away her skin and flesh but it helped fuse with the Zirtue, creating new skin and flesh. In better words: it took away the flesh and replaced it with new ones.
He then looked at the capsule next to the sleeping girls. They had long known the meat of the crabs had healing properties but had never known they could be used in conjunction with healing. It gave him hope, hope for 'Fate' to make a return.