The Trick to Falling in Style

Victory

Vermillion jumps forward while the wind pushes against his back. He raises both of his daggers into an x-formation. Clara jumps into the sky to avoid his attack. As she flips, she lets her palm point towards Vermillion's back. She shoots out a burst of starlight that sparkles red as it shoots through the air. Vermillion turns his body quickly, a veil of wind forming around him. The sparkles disperse into the wind. Clara lands in a crouch, and she wings one of her legs out. More sparkles shoot from there, and they brush against Vermillion's ankles. They burn like fire as they collide with his pant's legs. He lifts both of his feet up to avoid the sparkles, throwing them forward. The wind forms a sort of tunnel around him, carefully delivering him to Clara's position as if he were on a slide. He has both of his daggers poised for a swing, and he manages to scrap the blade against Clara's cheek before she is several feet away from him. Clara jumps back when he's swung his blades so far back that they are over his other shoulder. Clara is leaned down with her fist back. She launches it forward the moment she's within range and sends some sparkles along with it to add salt to the wound. Vermillion feels burning pain across his torso as he is flung back with enough force that he slams into one of the metal shelving units, knocking it over and all the ones around it in a domino effect.

Vermillion groans as he climbs back to his feet. Clara stares at him, her red eyes rather flat compared to the light shimmering all around her. Vermillion lifts his ungloved hand up to wrap the winds around her. With the intent to kill, he closes the wind as slowly as he dares. Clara eyes her aerial prison warily before she throws her arms down. A ring of light shoots away from her, bright enough that Vermillion has to look away. When his vision returns to her, he finds that she has super-heated the wind until it all shot towards the roof. She slides out of the air bubble easily, landing on the ground with enough force that the concrete cracks beneath her boots.

Clara's hair is floating above her head, whipping around like a slow-motion fire. It burns just as brightly, too, even if her eyes are the same rosy color. She discards the long, red coat she was wearing. The light swimming across her skin pierces through the fabric of her black bodysuit, and her metallic armor seems to refract all the light around them. She raises her palm towards Vermillion, and he barely has any time to dodge out of the way of her beam of starlight. The metal shelving unit is not so lucky, and it explodes into flying metal rods. Vermillion uses the wind to twist the position of the metal rods towards Clara, and he uses them as javelins. She dodges them all with agile footing, but she is less prepared for the daggers that Vermillion sends alongside them. The purple-tinted blades scrap against her shoulders. The wound is too shallow for the daggers to remain lodged in her flesh, though, so they clatter to the ground with the rest of the metal rods. Clara presses her fingers against the wound, and she hisses as she cauterizes the bloody opening.

As she becomes distracted, Vermillion runs towards her with the wind speeding him up. He manages to get close enough to grab her hand. He ignores the way his nerves tingle painfully as he forces his secondary power into her. The reddish gold light around her body becomes tinged with a sickly green. A few sparkles convert to the opposing color on the color wheel, and the cracks that spread against her hand to her elbow seem to absorb all the light to reveal pale skin. Clara notices it immediately. She growls angrily as she grabs the hood of Vermillion's outfit. She twists the fabric in her hands until she has a good grip. She uses this to lift Vermillion into the air and slams him down behind her with enough force that he lets go of her. He spits up saliva mixed with blood as he lands on the concrete ground, but Clara's attention is primarily focused on the corruption now resting in her veins. Vermillion flexes his hand, feeling a small portion of her light sink into his body. It isn't enough to do much, but he can feel the temperature around him grow more bearable as his body grows lighter.

Vermillion lifts his daggers up with the wind as he grabs two metal rods. He scrambles to his feet as he quickly as he can, shoving his entire body weight into a downward slash with the metal rods. Clara's attention snaps up to him quick enough that she's able to grab the metal rods before they could hit her in the head. As soon as her grip tightens around the silvery beams, Vermillion lets go. Clara stumbles back a half-step as Vermillion grabs his daggers. He shoves them forward immediately, and they find a home in Clara's stomach. She squeezes the metal beams so tightly that they snap. Before Vermillion can dig the dagger's in deep, Clara kicks him in the leg. He cries out, knowing that his leg is going to be more than bruised. If that kick was revenge for one of the stabs, Clara pushes her fiery hand into his stomach in the same place she's already burned as revenge for the other one. Vermillion hisses as his skin burns painfully. He instinctively lets go of the daggers to get away from Clara as soon as possible. He trips over his bad leg. He would have fallen on the ground if not for the wind cradling him.