Evelyn began to rise from her spot, she felt the warm blood underneath her trying to keep her attached to the ground. She sighed as she checked herself. Her healing spell closed the wound and healed her of her blood loss, yet the pain lingered. She could hear in the distance the clashing of blades. Evelyn took hold of the staff and used it to help her walk. She walked past the 2 bodies that were bisected by Adrith and the 3 white boxes left by the Face Stealers. She looked at them and was scared of such a thing existing. They were intelligent enough to not only use the information they took, but they could then use that information to create new ideas. She could only think of the power that could be gained from the monster core of these monsters.
Evelyn then heard a loud clash and what sounded like metal breaking. She raised her gaze back to the path as she began to make her way forward. The closer she got, the louder the clash was and the more ferocious the breathing became. Evelyn then saw the 3 people on the ground and just further ahead she could see even in the dark a clashing of blades. Every time a blade clashed with another, skated across armor or made a solid impact with it, sparks were sent flying and lighting their fight for that moment. Evelyn brought her staff up as she cast a simple, “Light!”
A single brilliant white orb of light appeared as she moved it over Adrith and Maidrin, and what she found was astonishing. Adrith was covered in countless slashes, multiple cuts were made into his gauntlets, his helm, and his body. The metal was cleanly ripped through, his flesh was at first bleeding profusely, then his wounds stopped bleeding. His weapons were chipped in countless areas, warping, with the guards even being broken.
As for Maidrin, she could see that they had no visible damage, and their blade was pristine, then she even noticed, that anytime Adrith was able to make an impact onto Maidrin, their armor did not give. There were no scratches, no marks, there wasn’t even scuffing. Evelyn then realized as she sensed further, now looking into how the fight was going, It was not only Maidirn’s sword that was enchanted, their armor was too. There were countless layers of enchantments that had such potent protection that she thought there was another person constantly buffing Maidrin from the amount of energy swirling around their armor.
That wasn’t all, their internal energy rotation, as Adrith called it, was on completely different levels. For Adrith it was a constant fluxing and flowing through his body, multiple areas that were centers as the energy swirled out from those areas as they moved. For Maidrin, their energy from every spot was a central vortex as their energy was flowing with such speed that if Evelyn had to guess how their power was derived, Maidrin was somewhere near three if not even four times more powerful than Adrith.
She didn’t have much hope in this fight, Evelyn at least knew that they solved the situation they could have found themselves in. At least Maidrin would not be haunted by the Face Stealers. Yet Evelyn then realized, as Adrith said, that Maidrin carried the Standard of Leadership. Maidrin was stronger from their sword, their power was just greater, and their armor probably even gave greater strength. Evelyn couldn’t think, how is Adrith able to stay in this fight at all?
Evelyn tried to pay attention to the fighting more, she could see that blow for blow, Maidrin had Adrith beat. Yet there was something she didn’t notice until she was watching them separately. Maidrin’s attacks were much more powerful and quicker. Adrith, however, was moving somehow faster. Anytime he made an action, he then followed up that same action. It was then Evelyn noticed, as Adrith attacked or defended, he then forced a response from Maidrin. As Adrith forces a response, he can predict the response and take an action accordingly.
Even then, Evelyn couldn’t fully place what she was feeling, she felt like she was missing something. She felt this same feeling when Adrith was fighting the Soulless, he was very apparently being overwhelmed in many different regards. Yet it felt like he wasn’t fighting to die. Evelyn took up her staff as she began to chant quietly.
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“Hear me, oh northern star that illuminates the night, answer me”
“Hear my request, show to me the truths beyond the veil, answer my wish, Sight”
Evelyn could feel her magic run across her body, as he magical senses were enhanced to the point of being as accurate as Evelyn could even see magic and energy with her bare eyes. Evelyn looked at Adrith as she noticed his movements were almost blurry to her now. She blinked a couple of times because of the strain it put on her eyes. She looked at Maidrin to see if it was similar, and she found that Maidrin wasn’t a blur. Maidrin was surrounded and engulfed by a constant thick layer of energy that followed very closely and condensed anywhere an impact would land.
Evelyn didn’t understand it, she tried to turn back to Adrith as she saw his very blurry form. She squinted and reeled from the sight, it was painful to look at, it didn’t make sense. The energy around him was constantly waxing and waning. She saw it constantly brighten and dim. She could see his energy constantly being moved around, sometimes it moved in front of him, behind him, under, and even over. She couldn’t comprehend what was happening as she sometimes even saw that his energy made a different move than he did.
The strangest thing was when she sometimes saw him act, a burst of energy appeared and he suddenly reacted faster. Evelyn watched the fighting, she didn’t know how long the fighting would go, yet she felt almost transfixed upon this fight. Maidrin was a fantastic warrior, Evelyn had never seen someone with such pristine sword work before. If Adrith said this was a Captain among his knight order, she’d believe that any higher than there would be literal Demigods of combat.
Yet she wasn’t transfixed upon Maidrin, it was Adrith and his energy she was most interested in. As Adrith fought, she could see he became less blurry, his energy became more refined, and it took his shape. It was then she began to see what he was doing. Anytime he stepped, his energy condensed at his feet, and in a moment he needed to defend against a faster attack or wished to step in for an attack, he released his energy and moved at a speed faster than he was before.
Evelyn began to see that the damage that his weapons were taking slowly stopped. She could see he began to use the same concept of performing these powerful steps onto his weapons, anytime they clashed with Maidrin’s weapon, Adrith expelled energy from his blade to provide impact and deflect Maidrin’s blade away. Adrith used this same energy expulsion to increase the impact of his attacks as well. Evelyn could see these hits left some impact on Maidrin, not upon their armor, but upon their footwork, as anytime Adrith impacted Maidrin, he always aimed to do it when Maidrin was mid-action to stumble them and make the impact exhaust Maidrin further.
The combat was fierce, so long-lasting that Evelyn began to see her light beginning to give out. It broke her concentration for that moment as she realized they had been fighting for 8 hours straight. She could feel their energy waning, and even her own as she took her staff and began to chant. Yet she froze as she saw behind Adrith, a woman behind Adrith and performing the same moves he did. As Adrith dashed back, so did she. As Adrith lept, so did she. Anything Adrith did, she did, and the same vice versa. Evelyn realized who that woman in the form of Adrith’s energy was.
She was the spirit that they set free. Adrith was performing moves Evelyn remembered seeing the Revenant spirit performing. She even remembered the many moves the Soulless even knew. She could see the moves, his action mimicked hers. Evelyn stopped that thought as she realized, this wasn’t mimicry, she could see Adrith’s own abilities coming in, as there are multiple times where when his energy does one thing, he does another. He doesn’t perform the same moves as the woman does, he acts on his own and makes it suit his needs. Yet there was one thing for certain, within this fight, Adrith grew stronger. He became more skilled as she then noticed what allowed Adrith to compete even when outclassed in countless regards.
Adrith’s mind for fighting far exceeded anything Evelyn could have ever imagined. As he was becoming better in the fight, Maidrin was then set on the back foot.
As only one of them was honing their blade at this moment.