An odd surge came up from the ground. It sent a chill down Chariton’s back. His hands tensed up, causing the brooms to rotate slower than before. ‘…this…presence…’ A little sweat dripped down the side of his face.

He knew he had an advantage in his disruptive ability, but against Eudokia he still wondered. If she was serious in the fight, it left him with uncertainty. ‘…she’s seen my abilities…’ It left him in a difficult position. ‘…she’s an unknown, while I’m an open book for her…’ Chariton knew he only kept the advantage against her because she didn’t take him seriously. She held back, as if he was not worthy.

Questions increased. Concerns mounted.

‘What is she hiding behind the fog?’

Chapter 195 – Denied Expectations

The fog compressed to the ground. It pooled around the snow, hanging with no desire to leave. It grew thick with a life of its own tumbling over itself. However, it merely laid down a stage. The stage presented the recovered Eudokia low to the ground on all fours. She looked as feral as she sounded.

Her previous appearance changed dramatically. The kimono and shorts disappeared in favor of something more for fighting. A black one-piece suit covered her entire body. No details or embellishments lined it. It was simple. Over top, deep blue ice covered all of the critical areas. Her hands and feet were completely buried in ice. Eudokia’s face remained visible, but with a different look in her eye. Her face was thin and narrowed with harsh lines of shadows deepening her features. “This is what you wanted…”

“…Eudokia…” A grim look filled Chariton’s face. ‘…this is…’ The appearance of Eudokia gave him back some of his focus. He rotated the brooms around faster knowing that she would be coming after him soon. ‘…she’s still going to have trouble with the disruption…’

Ice formed along the sides of her head. It grew out to cover up her eyes. Only faint lights broke free from the deep blue ice. The ice stretched down to cover her nose, forming a mask.

The fog suddenly swirled about, disturbed by something. Eudokia leaned back looking ready to jump. However, a blast of snow and fog erupted behind her when she moved. She shot out towards Chariton with greater speed than she had before and quite possibly a normal human as well.

Watching her leap forward, Chariton took a step back feeling surprised. He didn’t have enough time to react how he wanted. His brooms came in to block her. The force and weight of her attack made his feet slide a little as the ground gave before his balance. ‘…such power…all from that jump…’ Chariton pressed back on Eudokia once he re-established his balance. The weight in the brooms forced her back, but she quickly darted around attacking from a flanking position.

He couldn’t get almost any rotation on his brooms before she struck again. The timing between her attacks had decreased leaving him short on reaction. He managed to keep up with her, but the pace changed. ‘She knows that I get greater force from the rotation, she’s keeping me from building any momentum.’ Chariton did what he could to keep up with the changed Eudokia.

In the next clash, he saw multiple sparks jumping up from his broom. He had been so focused on dealing with her, that he missed her weapons. Before the snow buried them, but she bore them on him. ‘Claws…’ The ice covering her hands extended beyond and sharpened into blades. Each finger manipulated an individual blade. The ice worked as an extension of her fingers and even kept the same flexibility, never breaking or cracking.

Chariton kept watching her movements, trying to read her actions. The quick boosts in speed made it difficult. She even made use of the snow Field as before to keep combat a three-dimensional fight. ‘Everything is direct and clear, no hesitation or mistakes…she overcame the distortion effects?’ Each move she made had him questioning the situation. ‘That can’t be it…’

Blood came up from a blow he failed to parry. The claw marks didn’t cut deep, his clothes provided him some protection. However, their powers clashed tightly together. The stronger power would win in their contest.

‘If she’s not affected, then she’s taken the advantage, but how…’ He still needed answers. The answer would be the only way he could take back his lost lead. However, he wondered if he discovered the answer, if he could find a solution. ‘…I won’t know without the answer…’

More cuts appeared on his body, always just shallow enough for him to keep going, but they continued to build up. His formal attire hid the injuries from sight, sealed up after the attacks. He was losing more and more ground with each minute.

The battle wore on with Eudokia continuing her lead gained through high speed movements. Chariton’s brooms looked battered, nearly falling apart with his attention toward other things. It took longer for him to recover.

Amongst the fighting, he started tossing in other things from his wide arsenal of normally impractical weapons. Chalk tried to put dents in her tracks, but she stayed ahead of his attempt. A frying pan worked as a shield and even gave him a parry that knocked her off him for a moment. It applied enough force to chip her claws briefly. Rope gave his arms a little more protection as he countered her attacks. Mix between attacks, he used some twine to trip her up for a moment. It gave him the chance for a counterattack, but the ice armor dampened the damage significantly.

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When he focused on the fight, he actually managed to keep up, mostly.

His thoughts fought with him over the need to figure her out. ‘At this rate, she’ll win by default. I need something…’ In his spare moments, he looked over Eudokia again. The only thing he came out with was the mask she wore, but he already dismissed it. ‘It can’t be the mask, she’s able to still see me through it. Any disruption the ice creates would only make it harder on her to fight.’ It was his only lead. It still felt like a dead end for him.

Chariton deflected the next blow. Some of the motions started to become easier for him to read, but her speed still made it difficult. The broom changed into a deck of cards. He waved the card, palmed, through the air leaving a trail of cards behind. They blocked the incoming strike leaving him a moment to counter. A small plastic loop, only forty centimeters in diameter, rested atop his index finger. When her claws broke through, he caught one of her hands in the loop. The loop quickly shrank in size to fit her wrist perfectly.

Her arm suddenly dropped down to the ground, knocking snow away. Following up quickly, the broom spun around once before connecting with her midsection. The force sent her flying into the air. Chariton kept a keen eye on her during the entire motion. She recovered in midair and a blast forced her back towards him. ‘Still didn’t make any sort of impact even with that much of an opening. I’m going to have to do something more…’ He blocked her return strike, before their dance resumed.

The constant fighting finally started to leave its marks on Chariton. He felt sweat dripping down his face. His body stuck to his clothes as a reminder. Initially, he worried his mental energy would run out first with the slow paced fighting, however he started to fear physical fatigue more than mental. ‘Eudokia might be highly trained, but even she has limits physically, she’s got to be having troubles as well.’ If she had troubles, he couldn’t tell from the way she kept up a relentless attack.

Fatigue or not, Chariton pushed through any complaints his body sent him. He had to keep focus against Eudokia, she already had him up against the wall. It felt like he was throwing everything at her and barely keeping his head above water in the fight.

A slip of his leg left him exposed to a counterattack. Eudokia granted him a fresh wound for the trouble. ‘Damn, I need to figure something out. I’m running out of tricks. She’s taking everything I’m tossing at her and I’m barely slowing her down.’ Chariton flipped his broom around with the head turning into a light bulb. It flashed brightly in Eudokia's face to blind her for a moment.

Chariton took the chance to summon both brooms and build up some weight in the rotation before slamming them in from both sides of her waist. He followed up with a ladle to knock her flying backwards. While she flew through the air out of control peanuts shot her, turning her in different directions as they hit. Eudokia crashed in the snow shortly after his assault ended, small cracks spread out through her ice, but sealed up quickly.

Clenching his teeth together, he saw how little it affected her. ‘All that and I still only barely cracked the armor?! How much force do I need? I don’t have enough time to build up that much force against her…’ He didn’t have much more time to think. Eudokia charged back in taking advantage of his frustration clouding his mind. He tried to dodge out of the way, but already saw it was too late.

However, when Eudokia’s attack came it missed by a narrow margin. Chariton stumbled away with some surprise lifting to his face. ‘What was that?’ He kept up the parries against Eudokia, trying not to let his thoughts overpower him. ‘She missed me, but it was an easy hit. She hasn’t missed me for any easy opening.’ The question started to consume more of his focus. He lost track of the fight and caught a deep blow on his upper arm. Pain shot up when he moved his arm, but he couldn’t let it get to him.

Exchanges played out, continuing on until Chariton noticed another strange action from Eudokia. ‘She moved more to the left than necessary…’ The position pushed her clearly in range of his attack, which he naturally took advantage of the situation. She went tumbling away. Once more, he felt puzzled. ‘I find it odd she’d make such a mistake…I’m missing something…’

The battle started to take a new direction. Chariton’s discovery changed his tactics. He read every movement Eudokia made with scrutiny. His victory hinged on him understanding the mistakes she made. It cost him some of the ground he built back, but over the next few rounds, he started to gain an understanding. Enough pieces fell into place for him to make theories to act.

Another mistake slipped in for him. It confirmed his theory. He was right about her. ‘I see…’ It made sense suddenly. All of his questions found answers in an instant. ‘Very clever, she knew my abilities and she must have planned for this beforehand, but it has a weakness. It’s why she’s been so aggressive. She knew I’d figure it out eventually.’

Chariton grinned with his discovery. ‘It’s checkmate, Eudokia!’ Taking advantage of what he knew, he created an opening for himself. ‘Your mask provides you a filter against my clothes, something like seeing things in only black and white. It makes all of the colors and variations lessened so you aren’t affected by them. However, it has the drawback of making colors hard to differentiate from others. So if I just make it like the background it’ll seem like part of me disappeared, foreshortened or extended.’ She fell into the trap and he knocked her away. As he took his move, he saw a brief change in Eudokia expression. She knew he figured it out. ‘I have to end things now. She won’t give me another chance.’ Chariton knocked her back with his broom.

A pencil flew at her, the tip pointed at her. She tried to pull up snow to block the explosion, but it already went off. Unlike the last time, blinding light came from it. ‘Now!’ Chariton’s broom had already been spinning around after he launched her. Wielding his second broom as a vault, he leapt into the air still twirling the broom around to increase the weight.

Soaring over top of Eudokia, Chariton took the final spin on his broom. Wind blew out from the sides of the built up momentum. He brought both hands together to swing it down on Eudokia. The force shot her down into the ground, blasting out snow. ‘Damn, I only managed a dent to the armor.’ He threw down a couple of pencils with the erasers pointed down. They blew up close to the ground, keeping her pinned down as Chariton fell, the second broom already spun.

The second broom, swung with one hand, slammed into Eudokia’s back cracking the ice armor. It still didn’t do enough. He had his first broom ready and brought it down again. Chariton kept up the barrage alternating without letting Eudokia a chance to recover. Her body pushed through the snow. The force of the broom started to cause cracks to the ground and crater around, her armor providing her the only protection from the crushing tonnage dropped on her.

Each pound of the broom knocked her in deeper. Her limbs jumped up with each hit. Chariton continued in what seemed like a futile effort. No sign made from Eudokia said he did anything to her. The seconds just crammed through with the brutal beating continuing.

Suddenly, it all changed with the ice armor shattered. The next hit ripped through the suit underneath exposing her back. Blood jumped up over Chariton’s face. Bone broke skin and likely organs ruptured. Eudokia’s Field disappeared along with her equipment. Her tunic returned, blood already soaking into the material.

Eudokia made no movement as the next swing came down for her.