Tales of Aria | Piercing Lightning

XVII: Avaron

"Grand Vermillion."

The man stood still, perplexed for the moment noticing the drastic change on the very air surrounding him. Lyria slowly twirled her spear, seemingly to taunt her adversary. He was about to send another fiery wave when he noticed tiny sparks of lightning started lingering on his peripheral vision, air's heavy, dense.

As Lyria thumped her spear to the ground, a knife-full eye, he felt her presence everywhere-all around him, as if she held the whole arena on thunderous lockdown.

Playtime was over.

"Great," He brandished his peculiar sword in reply. "Let's get this over with."
"Yeah..." She replied, firming her clenches. "Why don't you come here and get me?"
"Heh, don't think you've intimidated me just with sparks and shining eyes." The man broke his equanimity as he held is blade up. "Don't get too cocky!"

The sword swiped down, he hurled another ball of fire, directed towards the young girl.
"Lyria!" Ray yelled, while Miko and Lilia kept their eyes opened wide in dread upon seeing the young girl's stillness, calm and unmoving from the impending peril.

The fireball drew closer and closer at blazing speed, before it came crashing unto Lyria. The others gasped as a wave of strong wind gushed over the hall, causing the three to cover their faces, resisting the rushing air, gruellingly anticipating the young girl's fate.
But much to their surprise, Lyria survived, still standing tall with a trail of lightning around her. The man's slightly perplexed expression turned into utter confusion as he hurled another fireball-this time two. Lyria's eyes widened, red shade shimmering, and sliced the first one with Axalat into two pieces, crashing to the cracked wall behind her. She threw her spear afterwards, piercing the second ball of fire, scattering it to uncountable embers.

At this point the angry man was probably agitated to throttle her, as he spawned dozens, dozens of portals behind him with a twirl of his sword, like gates to an elemental plane filling his background, each preparing to fire a fiery spinning saucer, directed towards Lyria.

"Lyria," Harriot calmly-amazingly calmly-called out to her. "The fort can't handle an attack that powerful."

"Wouldn't it be good if you can neutralise it without our duel-braking intervention?"
"I'm not in for two months of masonry. Roger that!"

Eyes and wit sharpened, Lyria leapt high up, striking lightning horizontally with spins of her spear, each strike shattering one portal. With only several portals remaining, the vexed man pointed his sword towards Lyria, commanding the spinning, fiery projectiles to shoot out. The young girl lunged forward, elegantly slicing and stabbing the saucers to embers with her spear like she was dancing.

With the blonde left gasped, Lyria landed right in front of him. Without a word, she stormed forward, rushing straight to the man with spear hung backwards, ready for a slash. With only splitseconds to react, he was only capable of bringing his sword up for a sloppy block at the last moment before their blades clashed.
"I'm not interested in having a losing streak." She said, eyes determined as she started to overpower the block. "I'll start with you!"

With her legs tapped by electricity, she lunged forward, instantly destroying the man's posture, and struck the blade right across his chest, taking out a chunk of his focus at last.
Still in the process of getting his composure back, a frustrated grunt, the man turned around, trying to hit back Lyria, yet she was already gone, blinked. By the time he realised that the young girl was already behind his back, she managed to strike another hit. Every time he tried to hit Lyria, the elusive girl sidestepped from the peril with ease, and counter-hit him. The man had nothing to go against her substantial boost in speed, forcing him on the defence quickly. Lyria took advantage of the turning tide, continuously overpowering the cornered man's guarding posture with swift, unexpected attacks and exploiting his blindside.