Aleph found her hands trembling as she backstepped away from Tom’s furious blow.
Trembling with excitement.
After all, she was a little crazy too.
Aleph Longstradia had found the man who could restore her house to its former glory.
“Good!” She exclaimed. “You want to fight? Then I shall offer you a fight!”
She knew that she shouldn’t be exposing her cover.
But the prize was simply too great.
“Reform!” She bellowed.
Tom marvelled as the shattered crystalline shards that had comprised the defensive sphere rushed back to the silver-haired woman. He naturally wanted to interfere in the process but the shards were too numerous and moved too swiftly for him to knock out of the sky. He had made a gross misjudgement by assuming that he had destroyed the crystalline sphere in its entirety— although the cumulative impact of his blows was nothing to be trifled with, they had all been focused upon a single region; there was no reason why the shield should have exploded into as many fragments as it had.
“Shardweave Regalia,” Her sonorous voice rang out with aplomb as she outstretched her right hand. Tom watched as an effulgent crystalline rapier finished forming in her right hand, but that was not truly what had snatched away his attention. Her silver hair juxtaposed nicely with the regal crystal breastplate she had donned. If it stopped there, Tom wouldn’t be as dismayed as he was— crystalline leggings had encrusted any vulnerabilities and a spiky skirt that was lined with the sharpest fragments made her even more difficult to approach.
The air of poise and grace that swirled around her would make her unapproachable to most, but Tom refused to yield to her imposing presence.
“Prepare yourself!” She offered a warning, before stomping her right foot forward. The rebound force generated by her immense strength sent her propelling forwards, right at Tom.
[Castellan of the fallen house.]
Tom had thought that his two [Nether Blades] coupled with [Haste] would be enough to hold the charging woman at bay but her swordplay was…. simply beyond anything he’d experienced since stepping upon Artezia’s lands.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
He would barely manage to parry a slash with two crossed swords when a second thrust would follow from a different angle. [Rend] sent purple sparks flying as it made contact with the crystal rapier but its lattice had been compressed to the point where even a Nether tainted blade couldn’t scratch it.
Step by step he was pushed back without being able to offer resistance— though he was the one that wielded two blades, the silver-haired woman was achieving a similar effect with one hand held behind her back.
“God damn berserker!” Tom screamed as a Nether Blade— the one held in his left hand was swatted away by her Rapier. Or rather, Tom was the one who allowed it to be swatted away, as his [Revenant Claw] unleashed a torrent of scathing flames at close range.
Refusing to underestimate the silver-haired woman, Tom backpedalled as fast as he could without leaving the range of [The Flame].
A minute later he cancelled his ability as a terrible unease washed over him.
The scene began to clear, a circle of steam exploded outwards from the site of the impact.
“No way…,” Tom muttered, his breath seizing in his throat, his gaze betraying his utter disbelief.
A crystal vizor now covered her visage, both her hands resting over her rapier, that was lightly digging into the ground as she stood there, unfazed.
“Are you done?” The pride that her voice hadn’t betrayed earlier was now something that Tom managed to pick up on. “Then, it is my turn.”
Tom had expected her to charge at him only to have his expectations befuddled as she drew her rapier from the soft earth and… pointed it at him.
‘Fuck.’
The rapier’s body began to rapidly elongate as it rushed towards him with a momentum that was a tempo faster than the silver-haired woman’s movement speed.
He wanted to move.
He needed to move.
But his reflexes failed him.
A whistling sound echoed in his ears as the rapier crashed into a empty hut somewhere to his left, missing him by a wide margin.
In that movement, everything clicked.
A card— A [Deck Card] — or even a [Soul Card].....
Tom’s face blanched.
It couldn’t be….
Tom had seen what one of the most powerful cards in Artezia— The [Ephemeral] Ranked Card— was capable of. The silver-haired woman definitely did not possess a card of equal rarity… if anything, that would dampen the blow of the shock coursing through his veins.
No card had enough skills to accomplish what the silver-haired woman had done— An impenetrable crystal aegis—A complete crystal armour set— A compressed crystal lattice sword that the Nether couldn’t pierce.
She had accomplished that through sheer control alone.
“Who are you?” Tom asked, no longer bothering to put up a token resistance any longer.
If she wanted to kill him—- he would already be dead.
Tom flinched when her now retracted rapier moved, but she simply tossed it in the air like a discarded implement.
The next instant she clapped her hands together and her crystal armour along with her sword, that was still arcing through the air, shattered.
Shattered into an uncountable number of crystal dust that rained down upon the entire alleyway, their twinkling making for a breathtaking scene.
Aleph Longstradia allowed a delighted giggle to escape.
“I thought you would never ask!”