> Of ice, of fire. Our power, in a shared pod of pyre.
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The wheels would carry on in their contiguous gyrations. The viewers watched in great anxiety. And Tōmii and Dgiag kept stern focus in preparation for the members of the coming endeavor.
Probacon, Noot, Adashu, Couch, Fighter and others kept watch, questioning their potential upcoming roles.
The wheels began to slow, doing so even more and more at every single complete revolution.
Finally, they halted totally, one of them indicating to a familiar tag.
"Huh,” chuckled Noot as he was teleported into the Field, his friends stunned by the development.
"Aw…,” sulked Probacon in disappointment, reclining onto his seat with folded arms. "Patience, Djin Pro,” said Fighter with a slight forward crouch of his own body.
"This just means it’s only a matter of time…"
After he was placed in the main Field, Noot looked around, once again taking in its atmosphere and all that surrounded him.
He looked in the distance at his opponent. A fair-skinned man, with blue irides and braided brown hair, tall and muscular, with an engraved ax in a pouch on his back, and wearing Viking armor with sleeves of ringed chainmail. He too would look at his novel opponent, initially with indifference.
A moment later, he would give Noot a rough but friendly grin.
"Hmm…" Noot hummed with an upturned mouth, assessing his opponent.
"BEINGS OF THE OMNIVERSE, WE HAVE OUR CONTESTANTS!!!" Dgiag announced, drawing reactions of grandeur from the audience.
"On this side, we have the Arct-nix of the Mystical Saska-29 Universe! Of paranormal speed and a mind beyond minds, and deeply warmer than his nature entails! Ärctikas¹, The Motivator, Noot!"
The cheers procured from the masses were monumental, honoring both Noot and his prior battle.
"And in the other! An ultimate master of heat and cold. A legend of the Norse. The God of The Thermal Effects, Maxï Bjornson!"
This individual would also receive cheers from the general audeinces.
"So I battle thee, Ärctikas?" He said to Noot, somewhat respectfully.
《Maxï Bjornson. Asgardian Demigod of Degrees. Age 345.》
"It seems so.” Noot replied.
"Show your respects, notable ones.” Dgiag beckoned to them.
Noot performed Àbyeshk greeting, a strange hand gesture involving interweaving some fingers and bending the hand downwards.
Maxï performed Asgardian greetings, a quick and simple knee.
And both prepared themselves for the charge, with Maxï completely retrieving his ax, while Noot would place a hand on its hilt, with Dgiag teleported back to the Coliseum.
"BEGIN!!!" He signaled as per usual, as Maxï in particular bolted at his prepared opponent.
Noot defensively clashed the fuller of his now-compacted falchion-looking sword against Maxï's ax. And entering a bind with their weapons, they exchanged looks.
“The Grand Celestial Sword against The Axe of Jötunn. Who shall be victorious?,” asked Maxï with a smirk, as the dyad now shifted the placements of their weapons in order to gain an upper hand.
"Who knows?" Noot responded. "It's more a battle of skill, rather than power. And skill…comes from the hand that makes use."
"Thou art correct, mine winged adversary. Now…,” said Maxï.
"Let us test said acumen!" He exclaimed, using physical might to force Noot back.
Noot braced properly, rigged for his opponent as he rushed at him.
The two engaged in armed combat, constantly clashing their weapons, with Noot fighting defensively and Maxï displaying more aggressive offense. Both were of equal speed, where Noot portrayed a greater margin of skill, but Maxï's bigger weapon had an advantage on its own.
Maxï once again used physical force to push Noot back.
And from his ax he released a slash of pure ice at the latter..
Noot defended by raising a wall of ice of his own.
"Ho?,” worded Maxï, his interest piqued.
The ice wall fell to reveal Noot, with his right hand holding The Grand Celestial Sword, and his left arm completely made of ice and releasing a cold vapor, stretched out before him.
"Magic of thine Arct-nix lineage, I presume?” Maxï asked.
"...Combined with the awakened Pome of Ice. But I'll focus on the more effective act of display.” Noot stated, taking another more flexible gait with his weapon.
"Ho-ho,” chuckled Maxï.
The Asgardian would hurl his weapon towards Noot with a strong grunt.
But it simply passed through what had appeared to be Noot, leaving Maxï dumbfounded beyond comparison.
“Projections. More fit for my natural style.” Noot spoke as he suddenly appeared behind and placed his hand on the shoulder of a shocked Maxï.
Trickery? Or enhanced speed!? Maxï thought as he stepped back recalled his weapon, preparing to strike again.
But swiftly, Noot enacted a technique of his own.
~Water Style: Pacific.~ In an instant, Noot became still and in utter tranquility, with not a singular part of his body making any kinesics.
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Maxï rushed in, as a prime opportunity had presented itself, and he looked to make full use of it.
But rather than gain any leeway, Noot would swiftly parry away his attack in inordinate ease.
What..?, questioned a rather befuddled Maxï.
This sequence of blocking and deflecting of attacks would carry on for a while, defining Noot’s “manner” of combat, and which way this battle would play out.
《A technique from the Shizenryū-ryū's Water Style, which incorporates the idea of “control in tranquility”.》
A manner of combat that would repeat for a long stretch, over a long while.
《Such so that the user allows his body to completely relax and still so as to enact complex maneuvers.》
But this was somewhat a bore to Maxï, who desired to see more “fire”.
But the nix did not relent in his ways. And in a sudden instant, time seemingly jumped.
~Moon Style: Lunarian Chains Ire.~ Noot swung his sword rapidly in two gigantic crescent slashes, from which a storm of smaller crescents spread.
The attack would cause ample destruction in a small area, creating a cloud of dust to block Maxï's vision.
Maxï hopped out of that dust cloud, bewildered by the manner Noot had approached this contest.
Is this the intensity o’ unorthodox and refrained combat brought forth by the Fastest Wing himself? He thought, premeditating his next move.
He swiftly noticed something was amiss, and looked up to see Noot flying far above him via butterfly-esque wings in two pairs.
Celerity or another trick?. "Howsoever doest thou conceal those?” He shouted as he looked upwards, asking curiously, but Noot did not answer.
Instead, he pulled both of his hands to his chest, gathering energy, ki.
He then fired the beam straight at Maxi.
A Gala-gun?!, thought Maxi, himself creating a large, sturdy wall of ice in defense.
But the beam did not strike the wall, instead refracting around it, to the even greater confusion of the Asgardian.
Maxï then attempted to comprehend what precisely the nix's aim there was. He refracted it about me? That maketh little sense. Unless…
He then spun about in quick realization, and hoped to possibly prevent what he believed a trap.
He was, of course, correct. As the previously refracted beam gathered again far behind him, now entrapping him in a cage of solidified energy.
And the Asgardian was swift to notice something else. While something Noot seemed to be able to naturally do, he was aided by something. A ring he had placed on his finger at some point.
“I see you’ve noticed the Totem Ring.” Noot commented with a snarky disposition.
“Incredible…,” said Maxï in heightened awe.
With a successful enactment of this plan, Noot began to analyze all he should, thinking through especially all the possibilities of Maxï's escape, such as powerfully expunging out omnidirectional blasts of one or both of his used elements, making aid of his ax, or other unused or unknown powers, decreasing his temperature as a trick, raising his temperature as a counter against Noot, increasing the environmental temperature so as to make the bars of energy more brittle, and so on. Even with the success of this, this is still a highly battle-witted individual, with quite a few ways to turnover this situation…
So I must be on high alert!
And as he had foreseen, Maxï flared out with a thermal omnidirectional burst of both ice and fire to completely shatter the cage.
Noot reeled a little, but wasn’t left particularly harmed in any fashion, and swiftly began thinking up a new strategy.
Maxï then landed upon the floor, crouching with angled legs and a palm onto the floor.
But then he wasted no time or effort, immediately beginning to fire a variety of blasts of his two elements at Noot, who at extraordinary rapidity eluded each and every one of these.
He then quickly rushed back to the surface as Maxï watched, where the former's back faced the latter.
"HAAAAAHH!!!,” shouted Maxi, as he lunged towards his opponent with an ice spear whose head was covered in flames.
Suddenly, still looking away, Noot pointed his exposed wristband in Maxï's direction.
And then shot a strange bubble from it, trapping Maxï within it.
An act that left Maxï unable to properly gather or even procure thought for a moment, and appearing as though parts of his body were slower or faster than others.
And just as perplexed were the viewing masses, who were confused and inquired about this sudden development.
“That's a chronoknot bubble, which freezes or distorts time for those trapped within it…” Noot explained as he rose up.
“Just what shall you do now?”
In an instant the bubble exploded with great force, as Noot braced himself.
As expected…
Maxï then fell to the floor with great verdure.
The dust he'd caused to rise from it would begin to clear, revealing him to be grinning widely in invigoration.
Ah, he is one of ‘those’ types. Noot thought with a reaction of an opened mouth and raised brows.
"Take heed…this is a battle that proceedeth.” Maxï said energetically.
Noot simply nodded in response.
And in an instant, he moved in a randomized pattern made to confuse Maxï, at speeds beyond the superluminal, even seeming to become like light.
Maxi anticipated this strategy, touching the surface and making ice and fire protrude from beneath it.
Noot evaded the attacks, eventually using his wings to gain higher ground.
He clenched his fist and rocked it lightly and swiftly a few times, and the rocky platform, with over a million mountains on its surface, became more fluid.
He bendeth the battleground? Maxï mentated in quick notice.
Preposterous! He missiled a giant blast of ice from his left hand at Noot.
Noot simply paid close attention to the rapid blast as it came towards his very location.
But with his hands moving at a certain frequency he touched it, completely reforming what it was to a mere burst of gas, baffling Maxï.
How?! Maxï thought as he stared in disbelief.
“Simple molecular vibration to cause a chain reaction can do that…” Noot replied, as though he had read the other's mind.
Maxi looked down as he smiled, amazed by the response. “Thine brain truly ist one of stellar principality…”
“But…I haveth not a care of it!” He proclaimed, puzzling Noot slightly.
“Showest to me…”
“POWER!!!”
Noot simply sighed, having foreseen this behavior, and previously having looked to avoid this by being on the defensive. But the inevitable had happened, and now he needed to act.
“You want to see power?” He asked sternly.
I don't want to dwell on this for too long, especially with the looming crisis… He contemplated, as his body began becoming more luminous and with flickers of flame around it.
Maxi beamed in childish anticipation of his adversary's show of strength.
“Oh, fine…”
“If I must…” Noot said with a dead-focused look, preparing for a move of absolute power…
《The great mind procures a great show…》
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1. Àbyeshk: Snowstorm. Written as მσף¢θነ¢მ∫
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