Through the 12 Realms

Chapter 19: Playtime Is Over

The ice-cold air that Fiora emitted violently brushed against Alora's lava-like heat. The two girls stood apart and stared each other down relentlessly. It became a standoff between who would make the first move. 

"Make your move~" Fiora said, attempting to taunt Alora.

"Please, after you." Alora smiled as she replied. 

The two returned to their staredown as Dagothur, Nattie and Antoinette looked on in amazement from the sidelines. 

"Woah...I didn't know Alora could do that kind of stuff..." Nattie said as she looked on in awe.

"Yeah and Fiora too, she's really strong even though she doesn't look like it. But Alora's wings...they look so nice and soft even though they're made of flames." Antoinette added in as she too looked in awe. 

"I have to admit, your friend is pretty strong. It'd be a piece of cake for me but she's going pretty good against Fiora." Dagothur complimented Alora. '

"What do you mean?" Antoinette asked Dagothur.

"Well, Fiora is known to be pretty strong throughout the entire kingdom. She's an S- rank combatant, though just barely." Dagothur replied.

"S-...rank? What's that?" Nattie curiously asked. 

"It's the ranking system we use to judge the combat ability of the combatants in our kingdom. It starts at E Tier, the lowest one and usually the rank that new applicants start at. From there it goes to D, C, B, A and S rank. S rank is divided into 3 sections, S-, S and S+. Each representing a different portion of S ranks fighters. S- is the bottom third, S is the middle third, and S+ is the top third. That pretty much sums it up, any questions?" Dagothur explained.

"What rank are you...?" Nattie asked.

"Me? I'm an S rank." Dagothur replied with a chuckle. 

"So then you're pretty strong...right?" Antoinette asked.

Dagothur stood there with his finger to his chin for a few moments before replying. 

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." He replied. 

"Stronger than Fiora?" Nattie asked.

"Yeah, I'd say so." Dagothur replied.

"Wow..." Nattie said as she tried to process just how strong Dagothur could be.

"Now, let's keep watching," Dagothur said to the two girls behind him. 

A layer of ice had slowly been building and wrapping around Fiora's hands, slowly covering it. Once it had finished voering Fiora's hands, small spikes of ice had started to protrude out of the thin layer of ice on the palms of her hands. 

"Well then, allow me to make the first move~" Fiora said.

Suddenly, Fiora flung her arms towards Alora, crossing them over each other. Out of the swing came 3 small spikes of ice from each hand, 6 in total. Each spike was small and extremely sharp, each was flying at incredible speeds towards Alora who had only just noticed the spikes flying at her. 

Alora only stood still calmly as she stared down the spikes of ice flying at her. 

"Alora look out!" Nattie called out to her.

Just before the ice spikes came into contact with Alora, a sudden burst of immense heat came forth from Alora. Expanding out in all directions from her, the burst was so hot that small flames that expanded outwards were seen. The burst of heat stopped just before it had reached Dagothur, making sure that the spectators were safe from the blast. 

"Cute tricks." Alora said with a smirk on her face. 

"You're not too bad~" Fiora replied.

"This has definitely been fun, but I think it's time to end this," Fiora said as her usual lazy and carefree attitude began to disappear and her face turned to an expressionless state.

"Try me." Alora said as she steeled herself for the upcoming attack. 

Fiora quickly rocketed from where she was standing and began charging at Alora. Before she was so fast that Alora wasn't able to perceive her movement, but now, she could see Fiora moving. Fiora quickly sprinted towards Alora and closed the gap within a second, quickly arriving in front of Alora. 

"Not fast enough this time!" Alora said as she moved in and threw a punch towards Fiora who quickly blocked it. 

"Neither are you!" Fiora replied as she sidestepped to the right and kicked Alora, knocking her back a meter.  

Alora only let out a small grunt from the pain that she felt from Fiora's kick. 

"You're a tough one aren't ya?" Alora said.

"Right back at ya~" Fiora replied.

Alora then quickly stood back up and used her wings to send out a gust of flame-like wind towards Fiora. Who only increased the amount of cold air around her, cancelling out Alora's attack. 

Alora clicked her tongue at this, slightly annoyed. 

"You're really hard to land a hit on aren't you?" Alora said. 

"Aww, thanks~" Fiora replied. 

Alora then used her wings to create one strong gust of wind that sent her flying towards Fiora who wasn't able to react in time. Alora had landed one clean heavy hit that sent Fiora flying back a few meters and into the dirt, scraping her face slightly. 

Fiora only clicked her tongue as she stood back up with an annoyed expression on her face. Rubbing it slightly with her fingers, which came back with a small smudge of blood on them.

"I'll commend you for getting this far, but now you've really done it." Fiora said in an annoyed tone.

"Aww, don't get so worked up~" Alora taunted Fiora.

Fiora said nothing in reply, only taking a neutral stance a few meters in front of Alora. 

"Playtime is over." Fiora said as she suddenly appeared in front of Alora, who was not able to track her movements at all.

"Wh--" 

Before Alora could finish, a heavy blow was struck against Alora's stomach, sending her flying towards Dagothur, falling short only by a few steps. 

Alora could barely move as she writhed around in pain from the devastating blow sent out by Fiora. 

"You've got lots to learn~" Fiora said as she seemingly returned to her normal carefree attitude. 

"Yeah..." Alora said as she was coughing.

"I think so..." She finished.

"I think you're out of the fight now aren't you? Alora." Dagothur asked.

"Yeah, I'll tap out on this one, that one really hurt." Alora replied.

"You did good! Just not good enough~" Fiora added.

"I think you were really cool!" Nattie joined in, expressing her amazement at Alora's performance. 

"Yeah, those wings were really cool, I didn't know you could do that!" Antoinette said.

"Yeah, I have to admit, you did really well." Fiora said, complimenting Alora. 

"Hah, Thanks." Alora said as she slowly stood back up, although still in moderate pain. 

"Well, I think you can be next~" Fiora said as she pointed towards Nattie.

"Wha-Me?" Nattie asked to confirm as she pointed to herself.

"Yep, you! What was your name again?" Fiora asked.

"Uhh, Nattie." She replied.

"Well then! Nattie, let's go have some fun~"