The crowd watched as Koti slipped away carefully… She kept low, traveling along with the dips and grass cover as she tried to gain some distance. Iesa, for her part, continued to scan the area, fire still sparking around her as she waited for another attack.
Her opponent didn’t keep her waiting long… Once Koti had retreated comfortably, she set her eyes on another small stone near the defensive fire disciple. She let out a breath focusing on the small crystalline lump on the back of her fist… She felt it draining her, doing its best to devour her as usual, but Koti fed it only what she needed to and soon the stone rose, whistling as it flew towards the back of Iesa’s head.
Iesa heard it coming and responded quickly, turning and releasing another fireball, smaller and more controlled this time, towards the stone’s source. The stone was knocked away in the same motion and the fireball crashed against the lakebed, flames sputtering. Yet when Iesa moved to go search the wreckage, another stone came from behind.
It slammed into her shoulder, too small to cause much damage, but enough to cause Iesa to cry out in surprise and pain. She spun, looking for its source once again, but finding nothing. She massaged her shoulder quickly, feeling the tender and soon to bruise skin when she felt the ground beneath her tremble.
Iesa sprung to the side, just in time to avoid the earthen spear that rose out of the ground below her. She brought her sword down in anger, its blade wreathed in flames, a favorite miracle of Claire’s. It cut through the stone spear-like butter as Iesa glared around the lakebed, trying to calm herself as she thought.
But Koti didn’t give her the time, while the young tribeswoman continued to creep around the lakebed, she launched a steady series of attacks. The thing that Iesa found really annoying though, was the timing.
The attacks came slowly one after another. First a stone, several seconds later there would be an earthen spear… After that another stone… On and on it seemed to go. Koti was even mixing in the sinking sand attack the Jacta warrior had used before, forcing Iesa to take a stone to the side.
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None of the attacks seemed to have much power, and Iesa avoided most of them easily. But Koti was relentless, and occasionally Iesa would be caught by a stone whistling at her from a blind spot, or a dull earthen spear that would launch itself into her abdomen.
Soon the fire disciple had collected more than a few bruises and scrapes, panting as she favored one side. Her flames had spread across the lakebed, a result of her attempts at retaliation… Another stone flew towards her and Iesa swiped it out of the air haphazardly, her motions large and clumsy from exhaustion.
Tirr could feel Dun’s concern as the man stood next to him, occasionally flashing the young god a worried look. The fight had been going on for almost an hour and looking at the young woman’s bedraggled appearance, Dun was sure she had lost. “She doesn’t seem to be doing well…” Dun started probingly, “It's bad luck that Fari sent Koti out, but better to pull her out now before she gets really hurt…”
“It's not over yet…” Tirr smirked as he looked over the lakebed, his eyes watching the spreading fires, “Not bad for a fire brain…” Dun looked at him confused but Tirr refused to comment further focusing on the fight below.
Koti finished sending another projectile and turned to move once more, panting slightly herself. The shard had eaten way at much of her strength… Though the attacks didn’t take much, she was sending them continuously. Thankfully, it seemed her target was almost at her limit…
She searched for her next hiding place, only to stop and silently curse, flames and smoke seemed to block the area behind her and much of the surrounding cover had been burnt to nothing… As she tried to think of where she could escape too, a pleased voice called from behind her…
“Found you!”
Iesa laughed as she launched another fireball towards the figure crouched along the ground. After being bullied for so long, Iesa had come up with, what was to her, a brilliant plan. With how large the lake bed was and its varied terrain, it had felt like she was looking for a needle in a haystack... So, she decided, why not just burn the hay?
Following that thought she had slowly spread her flames, trying to make it look like she was attacking randomly while slowly cutting off the paths of retreat around her. Finally, there was only one area her opponent could be…
Koti dove out of the way as the blast struck the sand beneath her. The impact sent her rolling, and the flames singed her furs and leathers. She rose quickly raising her axe as she faced off against Iesa’s toothy smile.
“Finally face to face… This had gone on long enough…” Iesa said seriously closing in on the tribeswoman…