The Shooting Star

23. Playing with Shadows

A familiar wind blew with the suns' light against the two in the field. Their agreed upon spar was technically already underway even if neither of them moved yet. His stance was leisurely confident, and that was doing psychic damage to Averine. With a breath held, she quickly threw herself at her target with an extended leg. It cut through the wind and hit the ground, yet the entity wasn't anywhere in the vicinity. A glance across, around, behind, nothing gave a trace to his. . . . is that a string? Whys it dangling like th─

⦅ Moderate effort, I give it a four out of ten. ⦆

Her glance shot upwards and was met with the same cocky smirk he always wore. She didn't even feel him standing on her. . . did he weigh nothing? Her thought process was unfortunately cut by a very cold hand touching her pseudo ears.

⦅ Huh. . . I thought they would be more fire-y. Kinda feels how space looks in the jpegs. ⦆

A parting maneuver split the two apart with a cold shiver running down Averines spine. ❝ Why are your hands so cold? ❞ ⦅ I put them in ice for extra damage. ⦆ ❝ But. . . I was watching you the whole. . . what? ❞ ⦅ C'mon, c'mon, you're wasting time. ⦆ Another exhausted groan left the girls mouth as she darted towards him once more, keeping a much harder lock into his movements. Each strike she threw was met with a dismissive counter, each kick was evaded, and when she opted to counter his counter. . . . he just socked her in the face. This was bringing back a very cold memory of not too long ago.

❝ Why are so many people so good at dodging? This is making two in the past week, is there something I'm missing? ❞ Error met her question with nothing but a blank shrug. ⦅ It works? Can't speak for Xyzon. . .Xyzonelli or whatever but I'm practically untouchable. ⦆ He spoke with careless confidence. . . that was now strangely admirable. Averine threw herself at him once more just to be completely evaded, which caused yet another game of cat and mouse to begin. Pounce into a counter, strike into evasion, she even tried the same multi-strike maneuver that caught Xyzonellion off guard; which was negated by the tail she forgot they had. ⦅ I don't know who trained you but I think you should get your money back, maybe with a montage if the first didn't have one. ⦆

The collection of remarks were definitely chipping at her, with another burst of that blue flare warping her body for a moment longer than usual. Her ears glowed brighter and her eyes omitted a dull light, which made Error raise a brow. ⦅ Ah, I knew there was a stage two. ⦆ Averine lunged once more with a great difference in speed, almost being able to catch them slipping. Emphasis on almost though, as it led to another session of block, parry, dodge. She was making much better progress in breaking through his defenses with a new found wildness, as the blocking was slowly rotating into an extra serving of dodging. So much so that he backed just in front of a nearby tree with Averines oppressive assault chasing him. A few strikes led to a small opening to evade a heavy kick from the star girl, which led to the tree enduring a harsh crack. Averines foot endured the blow, though the pain felt much more internal then external for whatever reason.

⦅ Be nice to nature, I'm sure they're just as busy as us. ⦆ Averine was much too occupied with the shocking pain in her foot to even care about what he said. She pressed it down for an operational check, and stood her ground once again now that she knew it wasn't out of service.❝ Are you going to be like this the entire time? It's getting annoying. ❞ ⦅ Well why don't you come and shut me up if it's that bad? You've only missed twenty-eight times after all, wanna try for thirty? ⦆ The consistent prodding was scaling the poor girl up a wall, so much so that her flare returned and caused her cosmic tied to burn brighter with a harder glow.

She ran in a rapid circle around Error with only a faint blue trailing her path. For the first time since the start of the fight, the entity had to actually follow her movements. He raised his defenses to his back and nearly missed her approach from in front of him. Averine threw her fist directly toward his face, yet her strike was met with a coiled tail wrapping and throwing her just out of the way. Before he had a chance to turn his glance, Averine was already recovered and lunging once more. Above was evaded, behind was nullified from his tail and in front was where he was prepared. She flickered in each possible direction with a blurring speed, only stopping to set herself alight to continue her assault. After a moment of bombarding, she managed to land a direct blow on Errors arm. One opening led to three swift kicks slamming into his side, with the third being heavier to knock him away.