Chapter 7: killing to understand another
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Elisa wastes no time launching a counterattack; she crouches into a low pouncing position, her double-sided gun-blade trained on the black mafia commander, then propels herself off the tree root she stands on, leaving a large crater beneath her feet as a blinding flash of green light streaks past Dolta's eyes.
Dolta's smile widened as she dropped into a defensive stance, reinforcing her body to its absolute limit; shortly after, a combination of three slashes came from Elisa: one to the body, another to the dual blades Dolta was using to fight, and a third aimed at the commander's wrists.
In an attempt to prevent further damage, Dolta stomps her foot on the ground, sending waves of condensed time orbs scattering across every point on the other side of the battlefield arena.
"50% oracle queen."
The orbs collide, shaping into a half-dome of space-time, akin to a floating palace of diamonds that stands high above.
Behind Dolta stands a massive ethereal woman, like an oracle from old fantasy tales, dressed in flowing robes of white silk, with a delicate, glass-like frame and a black blindfold covering her eyes.
Methodically, all around the oracle's arms and delicate hands, shattered pieces of white glass look like clock hands ticking forward and backward at once; three clicks sound off from her hands and arms. Suddenly, her eyes bleed deep black blood. The oracle clasps her hands together almost as if she's praying.
Seeing this, Elisa turns her head slightly, confused. But without wasting any more time, she opens her palm, manifesting brown and red seeds.
She aimed her palm forward and fired at
at immense speed, five different seeds; three brown seeds embed in the ground, bursting forth with large, expansive, thick tree roots that form a wall, disrupting Dolta's field of view and forcing her to rely on hollow energy sensing.
Quickly after, Dolta switches stances: one blade to the front as offense and the second blade to her back as defense; in the next moment, massive tendrils of green hollow energy, created from the deeply embedded roots and the titanic world tree, swept across the arena like wildfire.
The roots Elisa manifested began digging into the battlefield's foundation and snaking underground toward Dolta; however, the oracle watching quietly was not there for show, and as the roots crept up, ready to attack Dolta,
Instantly, the trees were snapped in half and reduced to crushed splinters, flying through the air. The black blindfold sat atop the oracle's fragile face, then dropped, revealing her deep black eye sockets as she continued breathing in and out.
Elisa, on the opposite side, controlled her roots like powerful whips. Snapping her fingers every three seconds while giant clock hands were speeding past Dolta to attack in the midst of combat with the bounty hunter; a moment later, their blades would clash once again, sparks dancing amongst the two warriors while Elisa's undying forest was fighting against Dolta, the time oracle.
In the midst of fighting, Elisa & Dolta's eyes locked onto each other's faces once again while both were in a battle of harrowing violence; a light voice resounded outward: "You know, little bounty hunter, color me impressed. I was expecting to have killed you many times over from the beginning of our duel, expecting you to be something I would simply walk over with ease
But… you, despite all that, have greatly exceeded my expectations, and even now, as we fight, I feel no less than pure joy fighting whilst I meet your blade." Dolta continues to jump several seconds between her strikes at different angles and awkward jump-contact points; trying her best to gain an upper hand over Elisa's aggressive but focused style of swordplay is not easy. As the young weaver's third eye darts furiously around, sending continuous visions to Elisa's mind for the next few seconds of which attack Dolta will try to land next.
Blocking from the left, then right, and up above. Elisa keeps her head on a swivel and her mind at ease; the best way for her to fight, like all her hunts, is with a steady heart and the will to put extreme pressure on those she hunts in battle.
"You know, Dolta, I can say the same thing about your skills; they are quite adept for someone at such a young age, then most other irregulars who've been in the weapons manufacturing line of work; how about we make this easier on both of us, and you be sweet and tell me where your big scary boss could be hiding at?" Elisa spoke to Dolta with an air of confidence & playfulness.
Dolta shook her head stubbornly and smiled at Elisa's wild suggestion and replied: "Why would I do that? And miss my battle with you. After all, I'm having so much more fun than I've ever had before, and you think I'm giving that up? For my leader? Oh no… You are mine! To battle, and the boss won't be having any say in my decisions to have some much-needed fun." While in mid-air, Dolta uses burst flow, propelling herself into the forest using the world tree's thick roots as her own cover against Elisa's quick sword strokes.
Elisa's head snapped back toward the undying forest she created, and she quickly followed the traces of Dolta's hollow energy scent; with one swift motion, she leaped high into the air using burst blow, and in a powerful, sweeping forward motion of her blade, she whispered, "crescent sweep."
The entire front line of large world-tree roots was cleaved in half, clearing a portion of the undying forest. Dolta saw the attack cut through her cover as she jumped up again mid-air to another branch deeper into the forest, but before she could fully react, she noticed one of her arms was missing, cleanly cut off.
'Wait, what??' Confusion ran through Dolta's face as her eyes turned to the left side of her body. Elisa was already there, her weapon in hand, while Dolta looked down to see the bounty hunter's double-sided gun-blade, Midnight, coated in the blood of her left arm.
" I tagged yah! That's payback for my chest and wing; they can be very sensitive at times! Also, you're quite possessive, aren't you? We've just met, and you are already claiming me before anyone else can do the same… how thoughtful."
Dolta's cheeks flush red for a brief moment. She turns to look over for a brief second at the undying forest still locked in battle with her time oracle. 'Good, as long as she can manage against the forest, I'll have more than enough time to get an advantage against Elisa's third eye & wing.'
Dolta began time-jumping, landing down onto the ground by where Dolta's sword from her hand was dropping; red seed flew down towards the blade, and Elisa blinked in front of Dolta once more, already in motion to slash it that's what the mafia member had assumed at first- until, in the next moment, Dolta was shot three times with her six-shot blackout revolver, Rosetta; two silver-ingrained bullets tapped twice into Dolta's chest and another two into her abdomen.
She quickly stumbled, then immediately jumped backward a few hundred feet away and began slashing at extremely wild speeds, faster than she had ever expected to be moving in this battle; the flowing hollow energy slashes were blasting through the air, coming towards Elisa directly.
Green smoke billows from Elisa's soft lips as the sound of a gun cocking back resonates through the air; green bursts of hollow energy radiate through her weaver wing, and a deep orange hue radiates from her left eye.
"Deadeye."
Elisa loaded back her gun and aimed at Dolta. In a nigh-instantaneous sequence, three more shots materialized inside Dolta's body, knocking her back into the wall from the sheer force released by Elisa's divine instrument, Momento Rosetta.
"You wanna play? We can play!" Shortly after, Elisa pressed both feet into a jumping stance and launched herself into the air; she instantly caught up to the wall Dolta had been thrown into and began pummeling her with barrages of reinforced punches and kicks.
Dolta kept reinforcing herself as much as she could while she was still being shred asunder; in her mind, she thought of something that would help her. In the next moment, she time-jumped into another four-second jump; she used a secondary skill to mitigate more of the extra damage while Elisa was still chasing after her. However, it required an intense amount of hollow energy reserves, known as the rock armor skill.
A defensive technique used by powerful irregulars and similar races, it works in tandem with one's natural body. It coats one's body with a thin layer of extra reinforcement to protect against deeper wounds and pressure. In contrast, when used, the hollow energy around the person feels noticeably sturdier, with jagged edges around their flowing hollow-energy aura.
'I can let her get any greater of an upper hand.' While being pummeled by Elisa's barrages, in those split-second moments between punches, she starts up her punch, then throws it, managing by a narrow breath to slip one of Elisa's mighty punches; the spring turns into an expansive net of cracks rumbling through the arena and wall.
"Didn't tag me that time. Huh, miss, bounty hunter." Still in the motion of slipping the punch, Dolta takes the black blade she still has in hand and slashes upwards in a wide arc, splitting more of the surroundings and the forest near them; Elisa, using her weaver wing, reshapes into a large hand, catching a sizable portion of the arcing slash with the palm she forms.
Following this, Dolta yells out in pain as steam blows profusely from her wound; small white explosions of what looks like bone form from the light blue sparks of hollow energy restoration kicking into gear. Bone and flesh weave & mend together, forming layers of muscle and skin over the lost arm as it fully restores itself to Dolta, and she immediately sends an orb of dark blue hollow energy past Elisa, who is still holding back from the slash Dolta dealt just moments ago.
She pulls her revolver back out cocking it to be ready as her wing finally dissipates the slash.
Elisa immediately aims and fires two shots, but instead of hitting Dolta, they blast two seeds she's been scattering around the battlefield since the beginning of their first few clashes together.
Learning and adapting again and again, while also adapting to the differences in each other's blows with weapons like sword vs. sword or gun and bullets alike, coupled with the elite use of burst flow to give them more dynamic movement and a constant flow of trigger-ability uses like oracle queen and undying forest, respectively.
However, this battle was far from over, and both opponents were slowly approaching the climax of their fight; what had been nine hours of pure battling had become not just a fight, but a long conversation between warriors.