"Don't fail me this time."
Right before Lily and Charlie stepped through the channel, they watched as Valerie and Val, the twins from Talonia, were handily defeated by Wu and Fatera after the girl that none of them has ever heard of completely turned the tide of battle all by herself.
"Thanks for the words of encouragement." Charlie shot back at her older sister, "Don't you worry. I got something special planned for them..."
"I will take the dark girl." Lily said, "She's impressive for a fresher, but her rampage ends here."
As a member of the Boarded, the top fifty Wave users in the entirety of the Infinite Academy, Lily will teach her a lesson.
Or so she thought.
As her burning body was tossed hard onto the ground yet again after Fatera picked her up by the arms, ignoring the heat from her flames, Lily let out a low grunt before letting off jets of flames and dodging one of Fatera's furious kicks as it shattered the ground that Lily was just lying over, launching pieces of rocks up into the air.
"Tsk!" Lily tapped the ground lightly with her hands and propelled herself up into the air as Fatera chased after her with her crimson eyes lit up yet again. There's nothing she hates more than clingy boys, and Fatera is acting exactly like one of them after she rejected their confessions.
She continued backing away, flying around the battlefield in circles and looking back at the pursuing Fatera as her footsteps created a series of footprints shaped like craters. Then, Fatera has had enough of the chasing game at last as she breathed in sharply and started channeling the power of the Wave in her body further.
That was when suddenly, Lily felt as if the entire world was turned upside down as her Wave-sensing abilities started screaming in her head. In a split second, it was as if Fatera has doubled her strength, and as her foot touched the ground, the earth was scooped up behind her with waves of dirt being sent flying back and her body shot forward as if lightning had arisen from the earth.
In the very next instant, Fatera's punch found its home over Lily's stomach. Lily's eyes barely had the time to roll down before the immense pain from the impact jolted through her entire body and her vision turned white for just an instant.
"...shit...I am starting to lose it..." Lily said, her mind shot back in time, back to the very first time she encountered her flames manifest, and the feeling of eternal warmth and security that bounds her, while the same flames burnt Charlie, it was her sanctuary, "Are you with me...or are you not..."
That was when suddenly, rock columns shot up from the ground all over the battlefield as massive walls rose up and blocked out the area between Fatera and Lily. Before losing line of sight to the other three fighters, Lily caught the cheeky glance from Charlie as he single-handedly morphed the shape of the battlefield to his will.
However, even he wasn't expecting Lily to be hit this badly, and there were no outer walls stopping Lily's fall!
Stilling her breathing and pushing Wave through her wounded stomach, Lily let her body carry its momentum after Fatera's furious hit. She didn't quite suppress the pain as much as she accepted it. It has become a part of her, and it has become a necessary hurdle for her journey towards Perfect Synchrony.
Riding the momentum of her body, Lily allowed it to follow a trajectory that headed straight towards the edge of the battlefield. Then, everything slowly started to slow down, and then warm up.
With every breath, she surged the Wave within her body back and forth, matching the rhythm and flow with the sounds of her own heartbeat, then, she let it become warmer and warmer. It was all so effortless, and the flames started pouring out from the exposed parts of her body, filling up the airspace within the arena as Principal Khan quickly set up a protective barrier around the battlefield itself so the audiences won't be cooked alive.
And there it is. When Lily opened her eyes up again, her body was glowing white as her specially designed clothes started to char and melt away even at this level of heat. In the middle of the white, the flaming symbol of her manifestation over the right eye was dark as a piece of charcoal. Surrounded by her own Manifest, Lily moved her arms and fingers experimentally before willing the flames to surge forward.
Like an extension of her body, she grew limbs of fire down onto the ground and out to her sides. Then, she reshaped her arm into a column of fire before thinning it to make it into a whip near its end. Now, she is piloting a mecha made out of fire with a burning whip as its weapon, and she smirked at the progression of her own strength.
Everything felt so...effortless. It seemed stupid that it had to be this way, yet in the line between relaxation and concentration, Lily found the apex of power for Manifesters.
"Perfect Synchrony! Flames of Life!" She declared, gesturing towards Fatera that looked up at her with her forehead covered in sweats of excitement, "Thank you helping me get here, Fatera."
"Don't get too cocky!" Fatera shouted with exhilaration, "I ain't losing yet!"
Then, with a newfound sharpness in her movements, Fatera launched her body forward and conjured up more and more layers of the Wave around her arms and legs as Lily slammed her flaming whip down. As it moved through the air, Fatera could hear the cracking of the air, a sharp hiss sizzling away and giving off an unpleasant scream. As she reached her hand forward and tried to parry it, doubt arose from within her.
Is this...fear? Is this...doubt? What is this power?
An unfamiliar feeling of unease caused Fatera to hesitate briefly in her movement, but that only lasted for that specific moment before she forced her mind to focus on the present yet again. She had come here to fight strong people and win. If this is the place that her mind goes to the first time she faced someone with this strength, then how is she going to become the strongest person in the world?
How else is she going to live with the memories and visions of her father?
With fearless resolve and determination, Fatera instead planted her foot down on the ground and faced the tip of the flaming whip head-on. Her head was bustling with headaches as the concentrated Wave at the tip of the whip started boiling up every single cell within her body.
Pouring everything she had into her fist, Fatera sent it forward, "PUNCHY PUNCH!"
Beams of crimson light shot out from her fist and swept around the area and walls around them before the whip and the Wave-glove around Fatera's fist clashed. At the moment of impact, Fatera felt as if her entire arm was dislocated, but as the tendons and ligaments within her shoulders began to tear and rupture, she immediately reinforced it with the wave, literally holding the connective tissues in place in a tug-of-war with her own body.
Channelers are innately the most in tune with their bodies in the way they fight, and Fatera is already one of the best of the best. Embracing the pain, Fatera reinforced her Wave-glove even as it started melting away.
"This is over." Lily declared, pouring more and more of her power into her strike as she dissipated the whip and conjured up a massive hammer instead.
However, before Lily could wield her massive weapon, Fatera already leapt up, meeting her in the air with an impending attack. Orienting the bottom of her burnt sandal, Fatera kicked straight through Lily in her form of Perfect Synchrony, ejecting her from the core of the 'fire mecha' before she prepared to strike again.
Lily smiled as she fell through the air, the outer shielding of the fire mecha dissipating the majority of the impact and it felt nothing more than a tickle compared to the punch delivered by Fatera before. As the fire mecha that was left standing disappeared, yet another one reformed around Lily's body a moment later, propping her up and kicking aside Fatera before she could follow up with her another attack.
Then, the stone walls suddenly morphed in its shape and formation as Fatera landed on it. She hopped off from it immediately and tried to reposition herself before the ground nearly slipped from underneath her feet.
Regaining her balance rapidly, Fatera tried to attack Lily again when she clapped her hand together and sent forth a tsunami of flames in her direction. Though visually impressive, Fatera could feel the considerable reduction in the intensity of the Wave behind the attack, and that's because a tsunami of stones and rocks accompanied the flames instead! This attack is actually mostly Charlie's efforts, and he is able to hide his Wave within the earthly materials rather than revealing his true strength.
As Fatera's body was thrown backwards and slammed onto the ground by the wave, she used the impact and whiplash to reset her concentration when suddenly, everything cleared up. The flames disappeared, and the wave of rocks retreated back.
"What's this! You scared?" Fatera shouted, getting back up onto her feet when suddenly, massive vines and chains were shot out from behind her and held her implace.
"Fatera! You have been knocked out!" Principal Khan announced, his voice thundering overhead and cutting through the chatters and gasps of the crowd, "The defenders of justice have eliminated Wu's partner!"
WHAT...
Fatera looked down, and both of her feet were firmly outside of the outer circle that surrounded the battlefield. But she made sure to keep track of the geometry of the battlefield, and there was no way that she was anywhere close to the edge?!
How is this even possible...As Fatera's head started to spin, and she dropped onto her knees, her hands touched the outer circle...No...this isn't over.
She will not accept a defeat like this! With the power of the Wave surging through her body, Fatera yanked her arms forward and tore through the Binding Chains of Principal Khan as more started flooding out from behind her.
"I ain't losing yet...not yet..." Fatera grunted with effort when suddenly, the figures of Wu appeared in front of her, his face and body battered up, though a smile remained over his face.
"It's going to be okay." Wu smiled, "Don't break the rules...just for me."