Ashas heart was pounding in her chest like it hadnt in years.
In her hands she held the two axes with which she had fought as long as she could remember. The axe in her right hand was uncharacteristically heavy. Its blade went down half the length of the handle, its shaft was tipped with a sharp spike and on the back it had a pick. The axe in her left hand was different. While it had the same dimension, there was a gap in the axe blade, reducing its weight by a considerable margin. And while there was no tip for thrusting at the top, the backwards facing part had three barbed hooks, good for hooking into armor.
She was clad in the typical steel armor of the tribes. A heavy leather gambeson with expertly forged steel inlays over any vulnerable area. The armor encased her whole body, but was fitted so that she lost barely any mobility. On her pauldrons, the tops of her thighs and on her shins, thin metal sheets were welded onto the steelplate, pointing outwards at an angle, helping with the dispersal of heat. Everything was forged from the best quality steel, a stable of the tribes, and the leather of beasts she had hunted herself. Asha was as prepared as she could have been.
Despite all of those things, Asha could not initiate. The woman in front of her wore no armor except that oddly shiny black armguard and the black, almost translucent blade in her hands.
The duel had started what felt like hours ago, and yet Asha could not move. The red thirst flowed through her body like molten metal through her veins, causing her heart to thunder, and yet she could not move.
The spectators were whispering amongst themselves, something only her subconscious picked up.
The longer she stood still, the worse it got. From her soul, the red thirst poured forth in greater and greater volume, threatening to overwhelm the careful control she had spent years mastering. The more of the red thirst poured forth, the harder it got to control. Her heart was beating so fast that it was starting to hurt and just when the thirst threatened to overwhelm her, the woman in front of her twitched. Little more than a minute shifting of her forward facing foot, but it was enough.
The Muscles asha had spent years building, uncoiled and she shot forward, in a wild dash. Her posture was as low to the ground as her body allowed, and her half opened mouth caused drool to spill down her chin, forming two thick trails from the corners of her mouth.
Asha arrived in front of the woman, stopping her forward momentum by pushing her heel into the ground, and in a single motion uncoiled her body from the ground up, attacking with both axes from above.
Every minute muscle twitch went as perfect as it could have. The transfer of momentum through her body, her center of gravity snapping from low to high and back to low, even her edge alignment was utterly perfect. And for a single moment it looked as if an ethereal monster was lashing downwards with its claws.
Only for her strikes to hit the ground with a dull thud.
Momentarily, ashas confusion threatened to overwhelm her carefully controlled trance, but the moment she looked to the right, she saw the tip of the glassy black blade come thrusting towards her face. As the thinking mind was cast into the backseat, Asha pulled her head backwards, letting the blade pass a haird breadth from her face. In a timeless moment, she saw her eyes reflected in the shiny black surface that grew transparent at the edge. Her pupils were as dilated as they could be, and from the edge of her eyes, a red color dyed the normal white of her eyes.
Then the moment passed.
Without leaving Asha a moment to think, the blade was pulled backwards from its missed thrust, in such a way that if she did nothing, it would cut into her chest.
With a step backwards, asha shifted her momentum, lowered her center of gravity, and tried to parry the blade with her heavier right hand axe.
Instead of meeting her axe blade to blade, the sword was pulled backwards faster than before and brought back into a high guard position.
The force of ashas failed swing carried her forward, having her step into a very wide stance as to not fall over. The tiny moment she had focused on her foot, the black sword came downward in a masterful slash. Both of Ashas hands were too far downwards to get them up in time to parry, and so she intended to take the strike with her right pauldron.
Instead asha watched as her left hand with its lighter axe shot upwards, and slapped the blade sideways causing it to miss her body entirely.
Again the thinking mind tried to push to the forefront, but in an uncharacteristically gentle way, the red thirst pulled it into the background.
With a twist of her wrist, Asha thrust the axe in her left hand further, and hooked the three clawed teeth into the black armguard. The teeth found purchase between the bicep and the forearm, hooking into the armored gauntlet. With a grunt that caused saliva to splatter everywhere, Asha pulled with her left hand. Meanwhile her right hand moved independently, hacking at her enemies' unprotected midsection.
Instead of attempting to dodge in any way, as an enemy would normally do, The blade arrived just in time to parry the attack on her enemies midsection, causing Asha to almost hit her own arm with her heavier axe. Now with her arms crossed in an awkward position, her enemy quickly moved past Asha, gliding across the floor as if the surface was smooth. While moving past her enemy manouvered their right hand in such a way, that they removed the teeth of her lighter axe from between the plates of her gauntlet.
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Instead of letting Asha breathe for even a single moment, another slash came at her, this time from an uncomfortable angle, forcing her to lower herself back to the ground again, where she was comfortable.
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Morok watched transfixed at the two women locked in vicious combat.
And that was what Asha was, he had to acknowledge that. No child could fight in such a manner. No child could move their body, in such a way. No child could throw attacks that would maim or kill with every strike of her axes. No child could have mastery over her weapons and her own body to such a degree.
No child should be able to control the thirst.
When Morok had seen the look of both concentration and dissociation on what he thought was a girl mere moments ago, he thought her a prodigy. But even lacking in any proper magical senses, Morok could feel the thirst building in the woman.
When she began to drool and her eyes began to grow red, he thought the thirst to have overwhelmed her. She would rush into a clash and take blood for blood. When Asha exploded into movement, he thought she would impale herself on Lucifer's sword and bite at her face like the slovering beast she looked like. Instead she rode the wave of the red thirst and began a vicious dance.
That alone would have been enough to consider Asha Stoneskin an adult in his eyes. But the manifestation of a rabid beast he saw when she first struck changed everything.
Asha should have only awakened a few weeks ago, when the wave of fire mana threw the surroundings into disarray. Instead, here she stood, showing signs of a manifestation.
Even with Moroks decades of experience, he would not have been able to properly react to that slash. While he was a marksman by path, Morok naturally knew how to defend himself when it came to close quarters.
Still that first strike could have killed him, had he faced Asha unprepared.
But while the young woman fighting like a barely controlled rabid beast was impressive to watch, her opponent was something entirely different.
Lucifer, as Lady Ain had called her, had barely moved.
She parried the masterful strike of the young woman in such a fluid way, that even Moroks trained eyesight had trouble keeping up with.
The children behind him, who had first whispered at the intense staredown, were utterly silent.
Both women were moving at such speeds and Ashas strikes had such force behind them, that it looked as if at any moment one would be mortally wounded.
Morok looked towards Lady Ain, only to see her squatting on the ground and drawing in the dirt with her sharp fingernail.
Now that Moroks attention was no longer on the two combatants, he noticed that the surroundings were utterly silent. Neither bird nor insect noises could be heard. Magic swirled in the surroundings and all that could be heard was the swish of weapons cutting through the air.
A loud grunt pulled Moroks attention back towards the fight, just in time to see Lucifer perform an expert manouver, extracting her armored arm from the claws of Ashas axe, stepping past her, and with a masterful movement, slashed at Ashas neck.
Asha ducked under the slash, lowering her center of gravity almost to the floor. As Asha looked upwards into the impassive eyes of Lucifer, her aura changed.
Morok saw the moment the white part of Ashas eyes was fully overtaken by a red hue, both due to the bloodvessels exploding, and the red thirst exploding outwards.
Staying low to the ground asha seemed to become even more rabid, her tongue hanging out of her mouth as saliva spilled forth. With unpredictable movements, she began to attack Lucifer's legs, hacking at her knees and ankles, in movements that were intended to cripple her adversary.
Yet despite Ashas descent into the red thirst, Lucifer continued to parry. She never blocked or outright dodged but always redirected Ashas strikes in such a way as to unbalance her. Despite Moroks relative inexperience when it came to melee combat, he could tell that Lucifer was a Master of the sword. He did not know what rank she had achieved, but to weather such an onslaught while moving as slow as she did, it had to be higher than he could fathom.
The duel continued in absolute silence, that was only occasionally broken by one of ashas grunts or the lightest sound of Lady Ains scratching on the floor.
With every moment, Ashas attacks grew tighter, no longer being thrown off balance after her attacks got parried. She began to feint, at first only with her axes, but then with her elbows and knees, slowly but surely working to open Lucifer's guard.
While her movements grew tighter and her attacks more savage, an image began to appear at her back. At first it was just a faint outline, but the deeper Asha sank into the thirst, the more real it grew. Behind her stood a humanoid figure, covered in dark gray fur with digtrigade legs, and centimeter long claws at its fingers. Its head was vaguely like that of a wolf, but slightly misshapen.
Every movement of Ashas was imitated by the beast behind her, and slowly but surely she grew faster.
Morok was already straining his eyesight while observing Lucifer, but now with asha starting to speed up, he dared not blink. Ashas strikes grew faster and faster, not because she became stronger, but because she managed her momentum. Wether unconsciously or not, she no longer stopped, chaining one movement into another, adding to her momentum.
Despite Asha improving moment after moment, Lucifer looked like she barely broke a sweat, continuing to parry every movement with an ethereal grace.
After dodging an incredibly low slash that would have taken both her legs, Asha accelerated again.
From Ashas open mouth a red haze was expelled with every exhale, lingering for moments like smoke. The Manifestation of the rabid beast behind Asha grew more corporeal, but at the same time started to overlap her body. It grew closer to her actual body, stepping into asha as if a ghost trying to possess her.
A strange glint passed through Lucifer's eyes for but a moment, before she properly moved for the first time. With sure and firm steps. Lucifer stepped forward, while bringing her sword into an upwards thrust. Asha leaned backwards to dodge, but in a single fluid movement, lucifer brought her sword back into a proper stance, before slashing at Ashas ankles. Now unbalanced, she had no choice but to jump.
Morok cringed the moment Asha jumped. As if she had forgotten every rule of proper fighting, Asha jumped upwards and brought her axes before her, trying for an overhead slash.
The moment her feet left the ground, Lucifer, in one fluid motion, spun around keeping her momentum, and slashed horizontally, faster than Morok could see.
For a moment he thought Lucifer had decapitated Asha, but then he saw the Beastly manifestation's head evaporate. Lucifer's slash had missed the girl completely, only passing through the manifestation. Immediately Ashas eyes unfocussed and she limply fell forward.
With one hand, The tall woman caught Asha, while her axes fell to the ground.
Morok watched in stunned silence as Lucifer gently patted Ashas head, while he and the children watched with mouths agape.
The awkward moment was shattered when, from behind, Lady Ain spoke up.
“Get that out of your system?”
Morok saw a content smile spread across Lucifer's face before she answered in her strange language. Then she gently laid Asha on the ground, got on her knees and laid Asha's head on her lap.
Lucifer spoke a few more words to Lady Ain, causing an eye roll and a translation.
"The young one collapsed from exhaustion, she will wake up shortly. It seems like we will need to make use of your hospitality if Lucifer has taken an interest in her "
Morok was momentarily taken aback, but then he remembered his manners.
"It would be an honor Lady Ain. I'm glad Lady Lucifer enjoyed herself."
And Morok meant it from the depths of his heart. For Asha to manifest her intent during her duel with Lady Lucifer was incredible. Asha was barely old enough to have achieved her awakening, but from what he saw just now, it would not take much for her to cross the great leap.
If she managed to control both her intent and the thirst, Asha could become the next warchief. Something that had not happened in hundreds of years.
Just before Morok could lose himself in daydreams, a rustling from inside the basin drew his attention.
Moments later an angry girl burst through the underbrush, her armor tattered and loose, twigs in her hair and her face full of scratches. The girl looked at the gathered people and the glint of rage passed through her eyes.