There was a concrete difference between the two of them, and yet as far as Rune could think, this was the first time he and Vera had ever truly been on the same level.

“Art thee ready Rune? We shant hold back, try thy best not to perish.” The fox princess spoke with her usual arrogance, and yet something was different. It was a subtle change, definitely not one that someone like Rune would ever catch notice of, but Vera had referred to him by name.

The two wordlessly took their places on both sides of the arena. The ring was a floating plate of earth that was around twenty meters across by any side. The two youths locked gazes.

Neither one wanted to make the first move, caution was ingrained into their nerves, but this standoff couldn’t continue. Rune was the first to attack, true to his training he dashed forward towards Vera landing squarely behind the young fox girl and poised his arm to attack before suddenly noticing  a flash of iridescent blue light starting to surround his body.

Pale bolts of electricity flickered around him, immediately followed by a loud crack of pure thunderous energy. His reaction was quick  ducking beneath the flashing bolt of power and kicking out a leg to trip Vera. The princess having anticipated this stepped back just out of his kick’s range.

This short exchange displayed the rudimentary differences between the fighting style or rather the Ideologies of the two youths. Rune fights in a simple, almost beastly, manner as taught to him by Tera, the idea that a single instantaneous strike that is as powerful as it is unpredictable has imprinted itself onto Rune, explaining why the boy prefers physical attacks over more arcane methods.

Vera, on the other hand was raised with a certain sophistication. Her every action carries with it the grace of nobility and the decisive ferocity of a predator. To her it was necessary for each individual movement to be made as concise and effective as possible.

If Rune’s attacks could be equated to fire, always venturing forward without fear growing in both power and speed over time, then Vera’s style would be water, simple, natural, never expending more effort than necessary.

For a moment the two stopped, their previous exchange lasted for about as long as a snowflakes descent from the ground, and while neither of the two were injured it was also true that neither of them managed to land a satisfying blow on their opponent.

Both competitors adjusted their posture before returning once more to their starting positions. There was no actual need to do so, yet both children followed their instincts.

“Thou art better than this one had expected, one supposes that even a filthy mutt like thee canst learn new tricks.” The fox princess chuckled lightly.

“Thank you, Mistress Vera. I’ll try not to disappoint you,” Rune responded, not even bothering to hide his sarcasm.

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The young lady dropped one of her arms to her side, gathering up Prana from her Astral haven. Strands of multi-colored light poured into her tiny hand. The lights converged in her palm accompanied by a flash of radiant brilliance. After a moment the light subsided leaving only a single decorative fan in the clutches of the beautiful lass.

“This is a technique of our Fox-clan, it converges the power stored within one’s tails and creates a weapon out of that energy.” The little mistress informed Rune, naturally unconcerned that he would be able to follow suit.

“I don’t think that fan is much of a weapon,” Rune blurted awkwardly, in his previous life he had heard of ancient martial artists using fans as weapons but those were iron bladed fans made for war as opposed to the thin ornamental tool the heiress clutched.

Vera ignored him, raising the fan up above her head behind opening it in a single fluid motion. Within the fan was an illustration of a glamourous silver moon, the beauty of the portrait was enough to steal souls.

Instantly a several legions of fiery spears materialized behind Vera, they were created in the blink of the eye. Appearing in the brief lapse of thought between when the princess had opened her fan captivating Rune’s sight and the next instant when he regained his senses.

*CLAP*

The silver haired princess elegantly shuts her fan while bringing down her arm to signal the spears descent. Dozens of lights flashed in the sky as the spears rained down in mighty conflagrations of power.

If nothing else Rune proved himself to be a master of evasion, ducking past numerous bolts of fire in rapid succession, this could however have been due to the fact that the spears themselves weren’t aimed at Rune specifically they were simply aimed downwards.

Seeing  as the crisis  was evaded Rune naturally decided to concentrate on Vera again, but not a sight of the princess remained.  This wasn’t a good sign for Rune, when it came to close combat he could barely be considered her equal yet as far as long-distance battles were concerned he wasn’t even worthy of being called her opponent.

It was simply impossible for Rune to win a fight where he couldn’t see the enemy, making matters worse was the fact that Vera’s legion of blazing spears hadn’t disappeared, and persistently blazed orange radiance.

The heat generated by the several dozen lances wasn’t enough to cause a Divyne Beast like Rune to feel light headed but it was more than enough to distort his vision trapping him within a heat haze.