Steel VS Fire

"... And now, the final battle for the championship title between the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect...commences!!"

"..." - "..." Valeria and Fu Lan were now looking at each other, each having their hands freed from any tool or weapon, in silence and as they heard the announcer finally declare their fight as officially started and only needing them both to fight until the victor was decided. The crowd was, of course, well-behaved but still crazily cheering as much as they possibly could.

“Fu Lan! Fu Lan!” - “Vale - ria! Vale - ria!” From the bleachers, even Eagerburning Flames Sect and Moribund Yearning Cult members were fighting to cheer them both in certain ways, though obviously not so honestly and heartily. It would’ve been their dream if one of them died at the hands of the other by accident of course.

The Eagerburning Flames Sect disciples were all mostly willing to believe that Fu Lan, carrying with her an incredible flame-based assaulting techniques and skills with her tools which would become actual techniques in the future once she crossed to the Conflagrate realm, would win. While the Moribund Yearning Cult had many more members around than the Eagerburning Flames Sect yet it was mostly for Valeria that they cheered on and on to win.

Ciemnosc, at the Preferential Light Justice Sect’s seats, looked down at them looking at each other in patience and silence as they slowly began to take their first step…

…step, step- whoosh, whoosh!

Valeria was the first one to stamp her feet against the floor, making a run for it towards Fu Lan, who was just slightly slower than her. Then, amidst the run to meet each other, both members of this loving lesbian couple began taking out their respective killing machine toys on their own.

Fu Lan’s bracelets appeared as if by a blink around her arms, and flames began appearing all over her outlined body. Her feet covered in flames gave her also some powerful boost as she took 1 step to advance what Valeria needed 3 for the same distance.

A short sword also appeared in Fu Lan’s right hand, and she slowly came to move her left hand towards it while keeping on grasping it to her side with her right hand amidst their running.

For Valeria, her black ruler dagger appeared in her left hand. But not with her hand grasping its handle but its chain instead. The ruler dagger wasn’t emitting its orange flames but was instead docile and as if cold, lying on Valeria’s left hand without being dragged through the air by the running of its owner and even posed in front of her to her left as if gravity didn’t affect it.

On the other hand, quite literally so, Valeria’s right hand was still free without the Mortal sword coming out of her Covert Space bag at all. And as they ran closer and closer to each other, which took about only 4 seconds, Fu Lan kept on running forth, while Valeria suddenly made another impulse of her feet stamping against the ground, her body slowly spinning in midair.

Swoosh!

“!” As soon as Valeria was finishing a 360 degree spin, her ruler dagger was suddenly shooting at full speed aimed at none other than Fu Lan!

Fu Lan couldn’t do anything else but to deviate from it so as to not stop her running force. Her left hand stopped moving towards her right hand as the latter was lifted to deviate from the incoming ruler dagger. But when it happened, a grunt came from Fu Lan’s, who couldn’t help but blink and frown, for she never thought the ruler dagger would so suddenly be this difficult to deviate.

But becoming once again alarmed, Fu Lan lowered her right hand to its previous position, where her left hand now quickly took a grabbing motion from the handle of her short sword and directly swung it from there to in front of her face right away!

The short sword itself, which was already small on its own became thinner as its body became 2 from 1, and her left hand was lifted to meet Valeria head-on! Valeria was no longer spinning, and her left hand had instead the Mortal sword, while her right hand was holding firmly onto the chain of the ruler dagger as she descended with her body leaning slightly leftwards.

The Mortal sword came cleaving down at Fu Lan from her forehead. But she raised her so thin of a short sword to meet it, not blocking nor deviating the cleaving attack but simply…meeting it head on.

Fwuooosh~!

At once, and to the surprise of everybody, there was a loud explosion when both swords met each other. The thin left handed short sword seemed to have turned into a body of fire as a small explosive area appeared where both steel bodies met.

Yet, the Mortal sword was the one being bounced backwards, or rather, upwards as Valeria was forced to hold tightly onto her Mortal sword in order for it to not fly away. Hence, her body ended up with her left arm fully extended up into the air, and her right hand is the only thing she could use to return some balance and control of her almost blasting away the body to herself in midair.

Swish~, sha lalalala.

While Fu Lan sent her right handed sword towards Valeria’s weakest spot, her uncovered heart and left-sided ribs, a chain in quick motion sounded, the ruler dagger came back from Fu Lan’s east and was making a clean swiping motion towards her neck from left to right!

Reluctantly, Fu Lan forced herself back, eating her own kinetic force but enduring it and dodging the incoming ruler dagger by a large margin. But as she backed away, she didn’t forget about leaving a pair of flaming tongues expelled from her bracelet tools towards Valeria’s body which was now spinning and with her warm brown hair spun with her in the air; beautifully.

Clank. Fwooeish~.

Valeria’s ruler dagger embedded its tip onto the ground, and her spinning body allowed for the incoming, dangerous flames to be sent away from truly making contact with her body. While her Mortal sword was sent into the air and slowly came to dive with its tip down in front of Valeria who had already stopped spinning with traces of flames on her shoulders and in front of her face.

…step! Shlan~...whoosh whoosh.

Catching her mortal Sword just as it was about to fall on the ground and penetrate at least half its body into it, Valeria wasted not a single extra second with her left foot impulsing her quite but also moving the extreme of her sword’s handle to meet the ruler dagger’s end of its handle in the run.

Together, they once again ‘became one’, and the Mortal sword regained the ability to be ‘driven’ by the same chain however their owner wanted them to. On the other hand, Fu Lan’s short thin swords were presented in the air for all to see, as they could now see that they…were Mortal grade swords as well!

“Fu Lan! Let’s. Go!!” - “As expected from the grand ancestor’s disciple, her current capabilities and her arsenal are just as good as Valeria’s!” - “Nooooooo, what about my catfight? AAH!”

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Though it was surely more a Mortal sword with affinity to flames, not the Fire element, it was one that could be separated into two and, by the looks of it, remain as strong as if they were one. Though it may seem, for everyone else, as normal. To Ciemnosc, this was something he could think about and about like a crazy addict and still feel he wasn’t being smart or imaginative enough… This definitely helped him to think more of the future things he could do…more than ever!

But at the arena, Fu Lan lowered her central balance a lot, her bum just a few inches from her achilles heels with her knees bent by a lot and her arms projected semi-sideways while they were also bent and with both short swords’ tips crossing each other without touching above her head.

Meanwhile, Valeria was already reaching up to her. Whereas Fu Lan remained in her same stance and looked at Valeria, who no longer jumped but opted for a direct brunt of bodies and their raw strength!

Both were using their Power Energy to gain their total 2,000 kg strength all over their bodies, capable of retaining such strength for hours without end, unlike what a Phrenic realm could do for just about half an hour or so, even when at the apex of that realm.

The floor trembled but not by much, yet the air seemed to roar wherever the now left handed Mortal sword was aimed full up ahead like a spear or pike and her right handed ruler dagger was held in reverse, ready to strike lethal attack after lethal attack on Fu Lan the moment they went melee and became terrifying going at each other’s throat.

Swing~, clank. Clank clank- boom clank clank- boom boom clank, clank! Sweesh, fwoosh…

Valeria spun as fast as possible, her left arm lifted then quickly lowered as she did, as her right hand boosted her ruler dagger into the air and then her whole right arm was raised in order to grab a hold of her sword’s handle in midair as it still aimed down with its tip at Fu Lan’s head.

Her left hand grabbed the ruler dagger as she completed her spin, but her right arm was already in the midst of forming a sweeping motion with her sword at that moment. Fu Lan remained in her same pose but then sent her right handed short sword to meet head on, tip vs tip, against the incoming sword.

Deviating it at the last moment but not fully, Fu Lan jumped in the air, her feet directing her body as she faced downwards. Her body flew up into the sky, their soles meeting the sun at the east while her left handed short sword was thrust at Valeria’s solar plexus!

But blocking it with her ruler dagger, Valeria was so quick with it that she was already making an attack with it right after blocking an attack with the very same! Fu Lan’s left-handed short sword could only meet the blade of the ruler dagger with its lower bottom. But it suddenly emitted an explosion that lifted her higher into the air and sent Valeria flying a few meters away.

While Valeria only took a somersault to recompose herself and stop her body from flying any further, her left hand was now slightly reddened while her fingernails were somewhat altogether broken. She didn’t even flinch though, as she instead looked up into the sky to see a vulnerable Fu Lan who couldn’t fly, and so…her sword flew into the sky in a straight line towards Fu Lan!

Fu Lan directly used both her short swords to make a hacking down motion with them, exactly hitting the sword’s tip at the same time and causing yet another explosion but this time with both of them at the same time.

Yet, as soon as those explosions and swords met each other, Valeria had already begun a run for it before forcefully pulling at her sword in the air. Its hilt was as if stuck in midair when the explosions and the Valeria’s pulling of its chain occurred. And against all odds but forming countless admiring smirks from the crowd, she was ‘drawn’ into the air like this!

Valeria’s body began flying upwards, her face fearless as she quickly went through the air and smoke caused by those explosions, and being already so high up from how their stadium was built, it only served for her to look more heroic with her sword already falling towards the arena and her ruler dagger being sent flying towards yet another arena.

The sword falling down seemed slow, but it immediately made the Conflagrate realms around and kept watch to frown, but a simple second later of their thought coming to their minds eased that frown and any other incoming restless thought for that matter that would come next.

On the other hand, since Valeria no longer had any blade to attack with cut, swipe, thrust, or cleaving or hacking down then…the only thing she could do was to…fist fight!

And she wasn’t the only one thinking like so, because as soon as Valeria flew through the smoke and saw Fu Lan with her fists already readily set and about to go, Fu Lan was just the same as she slowly came to fall down after recoiling from striking Valeria’s sword just now! The chains of Valeria’s blades slowly encompassed below her, forming a wide arch that was captivating.

Fwoosh, fwoosh.

Both fists flew and met each other, their arms trembled and their grunts echoed through the crowd, amazing and leaving them speechless. One couldn’t forget that this fight consisted of a Spirit Gathering realm 10th stage against a 9th stage one. And it wasn’t uncommon to see a lower stage cultivator beat one from a higher stage in this tournament, true.

But this was no longer ‘just’ about cultivators fighting at the preliminaries or so. It was about the strongest 2 in the entire tournament fighting each other and yet being at the very same level that amazed the crowd the most, for it should’ve been impossible!

More usual than unusual, the last battle for the championship would always end with the strongest ones in the entire Region at the Spirit Gathering realm, be it at the 9th stage, 10th stage, or even 8th stage! But so very few times have there ever been fights like this one…and even more so in a final battle for the championship!

In the air, as they fell down, Valeria and Fu Lan continued to exchange their grunts as their bodies connected and connected. Fist, palm or a simple swiping motion with their hands taking a knife stance against the other’s bracelet, hands, palms, fists, and fingers.

…Cruuuush!

But as they began falling down, their speed at doing so became slow and fast at times, depending on who had the advantage in their last bout. Valeria’s sword which was still falling away…finally hit the arena, with its tip…and with such speed that… The entire arena formed dust in midair and began crumbling beneath, large pieces of the arena falling down the stadium with a blue barrier appearing to surround all of the floors from the debris reaching the crowd.

Sha lalalala. Fwoooshh, crackle crackle~.

To each their own; while the crowd ignored the debris falling on them but them being protected by such a barrier, treating such as the most inopportune obstacle to observe the battle directly from below, Valeria and Fu Lan each employed their own sets of moves to basically not fall to their deaths as the central arena in the topmost floor crumbled!

Valeria’s chains began working, still not emitting their iconic orange flames around itself though, her body became like fish bait as it flew straight towards one of the nearby arenas, as they all swung the moment the central one was destroyed. Valeria’s ruler dagger that had previously been sent flying was, of course, the reason why she could escape such a predicament with ease.

On the other hand, though she also premeditated such an outcome, Fu Lan was much more unprepared than Valeria. Yet, as she began falling down in a free fall, her arms were placed to her sides and at a 60 degree angle from her legs to her sides. While her feet were placed together and her body- no, her clothes…seemingly began burning to ashes.

Fwooosh!

At last, her clothes were burnt into ashes, and it all flew around her, covering her fully as her extremely beautiful naked body was visible to none. Everyone was waiting to see her beauty once the ashes dispersed. But as Ciemnosc looked pensive at said ashes, they finally dispersed but…with her entire body being covered in not just flames - but also by a thin and bronze armor!

From her feet to the top of her head, naturally not fully covered and with her face being cleared out while her blonde hair was also allowed to come out from the back of her head in a ‘natural ponytail’ of sorts and on her back were both her thin short swords.

As everyone saw her face becoming hidden by the thing armor and her blonde ‘natural’ ponytail recede back into her armor, the short swords whose tips of their blades were each aiming at her neck at the center of her beck and lower back began flaming up along with her entire body, orange flames with yellow covered her entirely as the handles of her swords began creating a pair of beams of fire that impulsed her towards the arena on the exact opposite side to Valeria.

Her face becoming clear once more, she turned around with her ponytail visibly swinging a bit to her left. While Valeria on the other hand had a surprised face. But after just thinking for a couple of seconds with her eyes blinking so slowly, she pulled her ruler dagger out of the center of the arena, and her sword came back to her right hand from the ‘chasm’ between several of the arenas surrounding the already destroyed central arena.

Slowly…she began to make a change that would destroy the mind of Ciemnosc who could only look on and on with obsession, while all of the crowd and leaders of the major organizations would be cheering explosively and raising, jumping, and crooking eyebrows from; respectively.

Both her blades’ handles were adjoined, and together, orange flames began to come out as the chain interconnecting them finally began to emit them. The handles naturally once more became covered by those orange flames. But not only did the handles become fully covered by them this time, but even their whole bodies began to be encompassed by the orange flames as well…

…