Seira blasted mana behind her, launching herself towards Rynn in an explosive jump. The Final Fist flared to life in her hand, and with a grunt of effort, she thrust it towards her exposed opponent. Rynn put up a palm to block, but they had been in this situation before. Even despite his superior mana reserves, the man could never block a full-on strike from her. If he channeled earth to stabilize himself, her green flames would simply eat away at him, and if he channeled water or fire to negate them, the blast itself would devastate him.

She watched in slow motion as her fist inched towards him, grinning furiously. This entire fight had gone perfectly. It was as if she knew every one of his moves before he made them, and after minutes of careful maneuvering, she had finally cornered him!

The attack impacted, and a blast of green fire exploded out from the point that their fists met. She elegantly flipped backwards, landing on her feet with a woop.

"Yes! I finally beat him!"

A gust of wind blew away the dust, and Rynn stood there, unmoving. "Have you now?"

A ginormous fist of solid rock rose from under her, and she was forced to blast herself away. But, as she had learned many times now, she couldn't win in the air. A gust of wind rushed against her, pushing her towards a set of conjured spikes. She sent a stream of emerald flame to dissolve them, but Rynn was already next to her, a jet of compressed water held at her throat.

"Give up."

She gave a huff, stepping away and reaching for a mana-recovery elixir. "Fine. You win again. How did you block my attack?"

He laughed, assuming his all-too-familiar lecturing stance. "Why, it was quite simple! I simply imbued my body with both water and earth, combining the powers of the land and the sea in order to weather your strike!"

A silver blur appeared behind him, and Aer gave a long sigh. "So you disregarded my warnings again and decided to imbue with two elements at once."

He proudly nodded, ignoring her disappointment. "True strength requires you to take risks. Honored Saint, while those two might be satisfied with your cautious training, I must reach above and beyond to achieve perfection."

Seira rubbed her temples. Every time that he beat her, he gave the same heavens-damned speech about strength and perfection. She gave Aer an exasperated look, begging her to do something. The Saint nodded, contemplating for a moment.

"Hmm… Rynn."

"Yes, honored Saint?"

"How about we make a bet. Kiro and Seira have followed my training since we've arrived. I will halve the weight of the world on you, and you will spar against them. If you win, I'll concede that your 'power by any means' approach works better, and will give you the fastest path to power without all this 'foundation building' that we've been doing. However, if they win, you will follow my training, or at least stop taking stupid, life-threatening risks for no reason."

The man snorted. "They have never individually won a fight against me, and yet you think that together they'll be able to?"

Aer stared at him adamantly. "Yes. That's another flaw in your 'lone wolf chasing perfection' approach. Sometimes, when you fight alongside an ally, your strength can grow to be greater than the sum of its parts."

Rynn gulped down a mana recovery elixir, slapping his chest. "Fine! I will simply prove you wrong, then."

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Aer slapped her bag, throwing out a myriad of weapons into the air. "Take your pick. I'll go get Kiro."

Rynn hefted a flying sword, turning back to Seira. "Why do you listen to that woman? She clearly has no idea what —"

"Shut up. Just shut up, Rynn. For one minute, stop speaking about how you're always right and how we're all blithering idiots. Please."

He took a step back. "Seira, I am simply trying to get you to see —"

"Well, save your preaching for if you win."

"If?"

"Yes. If."

"Don't tell me you believe in that 'greater than the sum of its parts' shit that the Saint was spouting?"

She stood, gripping Storm. "You've fought against us individually, but you've never fought against us yet."

Aer floated back over, Kiro following close behind. "Are you two recovered?"

"Yes, honored Saint."

Seira checked her core. The elixir had done its job — she was now almost full again. "Just about. Kiro, are you ready?"

He nodded. "Just like we've been practicing."

She grinned. All those days of staying up late to train, of meticulously honing her sense of battle, all of it was leading up to this point. More than that, though, if they won, maybe Rynn would finally shut his damn mouth.

They walked to the center of the clearing, and Aer waved a hand at Rynn. "There. Now you should feel twice as light, and your attacks should be twice as potent. Now, because I'm here, you don't need to hold back your attacks. I'll stop anything that'll injure you too bad, so don't feel like you have to hold back. Now, is everyone ready?"

They nodded.

"Then the duel starts… now!"

Before anyone else could do anything, Kiro tossed a vial to the ground. A bloom of red smoke exploded out from beneath them, obscuring them to their opponent. Rynn instantly started blowing the smoke away, but it was just a diversion. Seira blasted upwards with her movement technique, sending out a thin sheet of veridian fire. A wall of stone came up to intercept it, but the flames simply clung to it. This was another technique she had created, named the Saint's Grasp, and given enough time, it would eat through the entire wall. However, time was something that she did not have.

Faster than she had ever seen, Rynn pushed down on her with wind, sending her into a rising fist of rock. But she had known that he would do that, and it looked like Kiro had too. He appeared under her with a flash of red, holding out his blade.

"Now!"

She stepped off of his blade, launching herself towards Rynn and launching Kiro away from the incoming stone fist. Rynn shot a concentrated stream of water at her, but a quick blast took her out of its range. Another gust of wind buffeted her, but her job was already done. Kiro appeared behind their opponent, dodging a spray of techniques as be brought his blade down in a slash.

Rynn held out his hand to catch it, but seemed to realize at the last moment that the newly weighty blade was too much even for him. With a display of speed that was only possible because of Aer's aid, he sidestepped, landing an open palm on Kiro's chest. Her brother went flying back, but right as he had been struck, he had crushed another vial.

Fire mana exploded around Rynn, just a single spark away from igniting. And Seira hadn't been idle during the skirmish. Rynn tried to contest her control, but even his augmented power couldn't change the fundamental will of flame. She jumped away as the concoction exploded, readying Storm.

After all, she had already learned that such blasts wouldn't take him down. She should be expecting the flying sword right about… now.

Rynn leapt from the smoke, descending on her with a slash of air. She easily dodged, but the upcoming barrage of attacks was too fast. Three blades of wind connected with her, drawing long cuts along her torso. She had been forced to take those, in order to avoid the attack coming at her back.

She blasted herself up, and a blazing stream passed through where she once was. That attack didn't belong to Rynn, though. Kiro's Flowing Fire pushed against the speeding flying sword, redirecting it slightly to shoot straight towards its user. Rynn quickly dodged to the side, but her fireball was already there.

He staggered, and another blast slammed into him. Then a third. And a fourth. By the fifth, Kiro was above him, swinging Rain down in a perfect arc. A fist of stone rose to meet him, but hitting Rynn had never been her brother's goal.

Kiro easily blocked the jet of water intercepting her, allowing Seira to land a smooth, final cut on his neck.