"Fatera!" Wu and Lera called out from afar as Fatera sent her hands out far and wide to acknowledge them, though her attention were paid completely in front at her designated opponent. Barring the faux dominance of Dragon wielded by Ilias Fals, Fatera ended up being the only person facing off against another individual with access to the Dominance mode.
As a matter of fact, she cherished the opportunity of going solo here. Though, out of all of the bombastic opponents she could have chosen, Ajax Hawks ended up being the most annoying kind.
Though never one to feel bad about her own remarkable speed, individuals such as Yuna when pushed to the brink, and now Ajax in his own dominance mode, consistently reminded Fatera of the realms of power far above her current level.
The realms with mythical living gods like the Ten Heavenly Pillars, and ones like her father.
"Oh~" Ajax threw his head to the side, nearly straining his neck muscles when he squinted his eyes and looked towards Wu and Lera as they stood watch, "They were not supposed to be here..."
His body suddenly moved, a loud whooshing sound accompanying him as he dashed right over ground, the imagery of his body compressed into the shape of a single arrow.
"Get out of the way!" Fatera called out, hoping that the speed of her sound would reach Wu and Lera faster than Ajax could. However, they ended up arriving at the exact same time.
During that instance between Ajax's initial movements and him being here, Wu had only one chance to perform a single action, and he flicked on his Void Domain, the dark cloud that permitted no flow of the Wave immediately surrounding them as the thin white veil around Ajax's body became sniffed out.
Ajax's eyes shot open, and he swung his arms and legs out uncontrollably, hoping to control his ridiculous speed without the aid of the Wave but failing miserably. His body flew right past Lera's ear as Wu wrapped her close as a massive gust rushed after him, stirring up the dusts before he crashed into the ground.
"Woah?!" Even with his face buried in the dirt, Ajax's surprised voice came through before he flipped around and spit out the dirt. Then, he hovered off the ground, the white veil of Wave armour around him revealing to be that of the shape of an eagle, "That was weird!"
"Wu!" Fatera shouted, her body bouncing dozens of meters at once as the dark black aura from her own dominance mode helped her rebound off the ground. Dolly, making out of the aftermath of Fatera's and Ajax's clash just fine, initially tried to get in her way with a massive energy blast, but Fatera simply flicked a finger her way and the jets of condensed air knocked her clean out.
"Oh shit!" Ajax cursed, "Hey! Focus on me!!"
"She's just knocked out!" Fatera explained, landing hard into a crater besides Wu and Lera, "Ya two should stay in the Void Domain for now. He is someone I need to face."
"Ok...fine." Ajax said, crashing forward as the squeal of an eagle came from the outline behind him as he dashed in front of Fatera in the blink of an eye and slammed the Wave-claws into her body.
Fatera was thrown onto the ground, the impact of her back sending a massive shockwave of dust and dirt in all directions before Ajax turned and lifted her high up into the air, "Then you will be my prey! Dominance of the Eagle: activate!"
"Dominance of the Demon! Dominant Flicky Flick!" Fatera growled, turning her wrist and unleashing a devastating jet of air from her fingers when Ajax giggled and moved his head out of the way, the jet of air slicing past his cheeks and wobbling his facial muscles slightly.
"You are far too slow, Fatera!" Ajax laughed, his hands rapidly whirling around his body as he tossed Fatera straight up into the air before flying away briefly to build up even more momentum. Then, he carried all those speed into a single attack, sharpening and concentrating his Waves that formed the wings of an eagle before it sliced straight through the outer layer of Fatera's Wave armour.
Her body was knocked out to the side by the initial impact, when Ajax had already made a run from the other side before coming in and slashing her body right up with another attack. Bounced around in between the consecutive attacks way too fast to react too, Fatera stored up all of her anger and swung her fist out, hitting nothing but air.
"Aww~ You. Almost. Got. Me~" Ajax gigggled, each word of his taunt coming from a different angle as he landed precisely five more hits onto her body. None of his attacks were strong enough to take Fatera out fully, but they were persistent enough to wear her down, leading to an eventual lethal blow when her guard was finally dropped.
Fatera torqued her body rapidly, tracking the dashing presence of Ajax in the Wave before spinning around in the air and kicking back. A massive column of air swirling around her feet as Ajax's movements became swept up ever so slightly, the next hit ended up in a near miss as his wing tips barely scratched Fatera's abdomen.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Oh?!" Ajax exclaimed excitedly before pausing to look at Fatera for a moment as the two of them started free falling together. Fatera, due to her lack of flight, and Ajax simply matched her downward speed by directing the eagle shaped outlines around his body, "You still got fight in you."
"Always." Fatera said, "Come! I am just figuring ya out!"
"No, you aren't." Ajax shook his head, suddenly emerging in front of Fatera before cloth-lining her in the head with one of his fists, the hit sounding like the bell of a church as Fatera's body plummeted from the air.
"I need to save her!" Lera said, her Book of Casts floating besides her as Wu deactivated Void Domain for an instant for Lera to complete her Cast. Through the Cast array, a twirl of Vines caught onto Fatera's free-falling body softly, but during that opening, Ajax had already invaded into the space between Wu and Lera, knocking Wu down with a elbow to his jaw before kicking Lera into the dirt with his feet.
"Ka....kah..." With the wind knocked out from him, Wu gasped for breath as the bald man glanced down at him with his red eyes before he prepared to pierce through his body with his wings.
No...not like this! Not like this! Wu screamed internally, reaching to activate his Void Domain when Ajax leaned forward and dug his claws into Wu's chest. Then, he yanked out the gemstone embedded underneath layers of armour before tossing it out to the side.
"No more tricks for you." Ajax said, easily cutting through the rest of Wu's armour set and exposing his tattooed chest, "You do not belong here, commoner."
"Get...get away from him..." Lera said, pressing herself up before activating the Void Domain around her. However, all she saw were Ajax's knees before her head was cocked back as Ajax knocked her out cleanly.
"Tsk...you are both so weak..." Ajax said, when suddenly, the same ominous feeling from the Void Domain returned as Lera made sure to fully activate the final variation of her Void Domain before Ajax's attack. Looking all around them, a veil of darkness slowly started to surround the entire area as the sky above was darkened and images of the desolated forest disappeared.
There was only darkness and silence all around him. Not even able to see his own hands, Ajax instead turned his senses inward, focusing on the Wave. Yet, he felt nothing.
Void Domain Drown, as all presence of everything is completely swallowed up by the domain itself. An ultimate equal playing field, and one where Wu had learned to utilize. To the targets of the Cast itself, it might seem like every ounce of information had been taken away, but the directionality of the darkness and silence had been specifically focused on the individual. Meaning that Wu's still able to move around in it and perform his attacks, particularly due to his lack of Wave not being registered at all by the Cast itself.
Ajax scanned around with confusion, when Wu clubbed him in the jaw and knocked him to the ground. He let out a pained grunt before trying to swipe Wu away, though he backed into the darkness as creepily as he emerged. All Ajax was able to see were the outlines of his wrist an instance before impact, and not knowing where he was or when he was attacking, there was nothing he could have done.
"Show yourself! Coward!" Ajax called out, his voice immediately dampened by the Cast too as his ears instead started picking up the sounds of his own racing heart. Wu emerged again, this time kicking down his knees and folding him over as Ajax tried to run forward and out of the darkness.
"How does it feel?" Wu asked, his voice fading in and out around him before he kicked Ajax in the stomach again, "How does it feel to be powerless?"
"This Cast cannot last forever!" Ajax cursed, accidentally turning around and dodging one of Wu's attacks, though he still managed to shove him off balance, "When I get out, you are DEAD!"
"You won't last until then." Wu said, turning to the side as Fatera walked in besides him, the Anti-Void Domain Cast glowing on her body as she marched through the veil of darkness with power surging out from her body, and she emerged as the first thing Ajax saw fully out of the darkness.
A girl with a pair of dark red horns, glowing crimson eyes, caramel skin, and a bald head slamming him in the forehead and knocking him down onto the ground.
The impact started with a sharp crack before a low boom rocked the earth. Wu picked up Lera as Ajax's body softened and his eyes rolled up, then, he grabbed onto the gemstone before piercing his skin with it, disabling her Cast Array with a temporary activation of his own Void Domain from the outside.
"Ya gonna be okay?" Fatera asked, standing up from Ajax's body with a fist still held up as her horns started dissipating a way, "Ya suit, I mean."
"I don't know..." Wu said, looking down and trying to put the gemstone back into its place, but it didn't look like it want to get in there anymore. Speaking of which, now that this is the first time Wu had seen the gemstone in a while, it appeared that it's colors seemed to have faded just a little bit too, "But regardless, we need to fight on."
Fatera nodded, wiping the corner of her lips before heading over and slapping Lera in the face slightly. Her face was bruised, though her expression looked peaceful. It seemed like she would be out of commission for at least a little while, and after all she's done, she deserved that bit of rest for sure.
"See." Wu said, carrying Lera on his back, "We fought around you, right?"
"Yeah." Fatera smiled, grabbing Lera's soft hand, "And she had more than proved her ability to impact the battlefield today..."
With Yuna, Braka, and Matty defeating the Demon Manifester Bez Aro, Shin and Augen defeating the Faux Dominance of the Dragon user Ilias Fals, Wu and Lera defeating Dolly Hawks and Fatera defeating Ajax Hawks with their help, all that's left are the battle between the Ice Manifester Icy Hale and Ver and Lily, two of their very own powerhouse Manifesters.
As Fatera looked on in the direction of the center of the battlefield, a bitter chill started spreading all throughout the forest as if Winter had returned.