Luna stared at Darkness, her dark eyes narrowing as she gripped her katana with both hands. She held her weapon like a heavy rod, anticipating Darkness’s potential to manipulate its weight. She kept it in mind that here, Darkness could unleash the full strength of her Aura without worrying about causing a great amount of damage, embodying her nature as a follower of the War God.

"Let’s see how you keep up without the training room saving you."

'Prepare to be amazed, I guess.' Luna smirked from within as she attained a combat-ready stance.

After a few moments of dead silence, Darkness burst into action. Her instantaneous movement split the red sand apart as she flashed forward, her jian swinging in a beautiful, deadly lower arc. The air hummed with the force of her strike, a testament to her formidable power.

Luna reacted swiftly, using her katana to block the jian with accuracy. The sand around them exploded from the powerful shockwave produced by the impact. They jumped back after the first strike and continued their deadly dance, unrestrained by the fear of destroying their surroundings.

Darkness vanished and reappeared directly in front of Luna with a wicked smile on her pretty face as she brought down her Jian. She opened her second gate and Luna's body suddenly felt unbearably heavy. With no time to evade, she raised her sword above her head, bracing against the force of Darkness’s gravity blade.

"Urghhh...."

The weight was unlike anything she had ever sensed. Every muscle in her body strained as the katana absorbed the tremendous impact. Luna gritted her teeth, her legs nearly buckling under the immense pressure.

...it was heavy. So heavy that she would cry if she held it back any longer. Luckily, she didn’t have to. She rolled out of the way and Darkness's devastating blow struck the red sand, causing it to explode outward.

‘So this is Gravity.’

Luna stood up straight once again. Her hands trembling from the force she had absorbed, each nerve felt like it was about to implode or tear. If she were normal, her hands would have shattered entirely.

This is what Darkness meant when she said Mira would break easily from the sheer force of her strikes.

Before she recovered from the effect though, Darkness was already rushing through the falling red sand like a crazed maniac.

Her jian flashed in an arc, and the sand in front of Luna exploded, killing her vision in an instant. And when it cleared, Darkness was already behind her swinging her weapon with incredible precision and a victorious smirk plastered on her beautiful.

But...

To Darkness’s surprise, her sword's edge ended up cutting only the falling grains of sand. Luna was no longer in her previous position.

“Wha…”

Her state of shock was interrupted by the force of a sudden kick that emerged from the sand and struck right on the left side of her jaw. It was so powerful that Darkness heard a loud snap as one of her jaw bones cracked from the sheer impact.

Luna scoffed a little as she regained her balance and turned her sword to the blunt side. She approached a slightly disoriented Darkness with unnatural speed to deliver her final blow. She was relying on her senses to keep track of Darkness’s movements because the sand was messing with her vision. Here Luna was sure of having the higher ground.

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But she thought too soon because the world slowed down when Darkness cleared out all the sand and killed the advantage Luna had grasped for herself.

The tall woman lunged at her and their powerful blades immediately burst into action once again. Their weapons turned into a combination of blurs and beautiful sparks that danced wildly each time the blades touched and produced friction.

The Warmonger had grown considerably stronger since the last time they fought. She had no visible openings; her movements were close to unpredictable.

It’s like…

‘She studied me and adapted. Not bad.’

Smirking, Luna stepped forward and let one of Darkness’s attacks graze her cheek. Blood trickled down, but she ignored the pain, using it to fuel her resolve. Without changing the rhythm of the fight, she decided to abandon her style and mirrored Darkness's movements--performing the same intricate maneuvers that had just been used against her.

Their dance of death continued, each strike more precise, more forceful. Luna’s heart pounded in her chest, the weight of each blow resonating through her bones. She focused intensely, analyzing every shift in Darkness's stance, every subtle hint of her next move.

Just then, Darkness’s own eyes widened as she realized Luna was mirroring her technique. A flicker of surprise crossed her face, quickly replaced by a fierce determination.

She increased her speed, her jian cutting through the air with lethal intent. But to her surprise, Luna matched her, step for step, strike for strike.

The realization dawned on Darkness: Luna wasn’t just copying her. She was perfecting the moves, exploiting the tiniest flaws, turning them into advantages. Actually, she wasn't perfecting her style, but rather changing it to fit her body. With chances mixed with her battle intellect, Luna was consuming the essence of one of the War god's techniques.

'What is your flaw, Darkness?'

In combat, it was good to know one’s flaws. Fighting a human was different from fighting a machine or a monster simply because a human could never be perfect. You could practice the same attack for fifty years and still not be able to create or use its most perfect form. Understanding one’s flaws always gave one the upper hand in combat. Luna was one of the few people in her clan who knew that. To train continuously just to perfect a single technique didn't create a great martial artist...

A great martial artist accepts their flaws and learns to grow with them. Only through that can the technique grow beyond its creator's limitations. And no, Luna didn't acquire this knowledge from a memory. She simply noticed while training a few years ago.

It is why she was a genius in combat.

Soon, the pair was in sync. Their strikes carried the same force, their blades sounded the same as they echoed across the deadly desert. The wind carried the force of their attacks and trembled each time they met.

Luna was now perfectly matching Darkness. Even though she was burning through her stamina at an alarming rate, Luna was sure she could peer into the essence of her opponent’s technique before she ran out of it.

Sensing the shift, Darkness gritted her teeth and unleashed a flurry of rapid strikes, her jian moving like a blur. Luna parried each one, her katana a seamless extension of her will. She was no longer just reacting; she was predicting, countering with almost preternatural accuracy.

And when it finally happened, she vanished and closed the distance between them in seconds.

Darkness’s eyes widened before the blunt edge of Luna’s sword collided with hers and caused a shockwave that destroyed the Jian.

They both watched it explode into bluish flames that vanished right away.

In that moment of shock, Luna smirked and abandoned her weapon to make this a fair fight. She squeezed her right hand into a tight fist. The one flaw she found was that Darkness’s sword grew weaker each time she ran gravity through it. This was because she was at Level 2 of zenshi control.

…This made her manifested blade imperfect. To break it though, Luna had done the unspeakable and tapped into a good percentage of her strength. Her body coursed with strength, and she liked it.

‘So this is her strength…incredible…incredible…incredible!!!’

Darkness recovered fast enough and prepared to take the full force of Luna’s strength by going to a block while squeezing her teeth.

But Luna’s fist never reached… Instead, she let out a guttural scream as her entire body erupted into a torrent of agony.

Muscles tore, sinews snapped, and her bones felt as if they were being ground to dust. The strain of shattering Darkness's jian had pushed her beyond her limits.

“Shit…”

A violent spasm cut off her curse, blood gushing from her mouth in a crimson flood. The metallic taste filled her senses, mingling with the acrid scent of fear and desperation.

She shot one last, fierce glance at Darkness, her eyes blazing with unyielding resolve even as her vision blurred.

Luna's body convulsed, her legs buckling under the unbearable weight of her own power. She tried to speak, to hurl a final defiance or command, but the words died in her throat, choked by the searing pain.

When her face up gave up, Darkness was already there to catch her before she hit the ground.

After she was her captain was still alive, Darkness let out a weak sigh of relief. Now that she had seen Luna in serious combat, the tall ascender felt nothing but respect for the young lady in her arms.

“Well done, Captain Lunaris. You win.”

***

Lena stared at the former battlefield. The bitter taste of fear still lingered in her heart after she witnessed the giant serpent devour most of the corpses of the creatures they defeated a day before.

This wasn’t the first time she had seen it, of course. But this was the first time she was so close to the damn creature. Its intimidating presence had left a scar on their minds.

As she was still staring at the field, the voice of a soldier alerted her out of her daze.

“Captain Lena! They’re here!”