Chapter 19: Another One Bites The Dust!
『"Guys, how long can you stand the heat?"』
Yelena moved, and Amara had exactly no time to think before twin blades carved through the space where her head had been.
She brought Angel’s Bane up on pure instinct, catching the first strike, then the second, the third. Each impact driving her backward, making her arms ache with the effort of blocking attacks that felt like getting hit by a car repeatedly.
It was getting too much. So she twisted, hoping to create distance—
But Yelena was already there, inside her guard. Her second blade came in low, aimed at Amara’s ribs.
Reacting, Amara jumped back as her sword swept down to parry.
CLANG!
Metal screamed against metal as sparks flew in brilliant arcs.
Yelena pressed forward with her twin blades, moving in patterns that seemed specifically designed to overwhelm—high-low-middle-high, each strike coming from a different angle, forcing Amara to defend on pure instinct because there was no time to think.
Even with the embedded combat knowledge Angel’s Bane provided, Yelena was too fast, too experienced, too perfect in her execution. It was only a matter of time before Amara’s defenses failed.
Her foot caught on something, one of the training weapons scattered across the floor, and she stumbled, falling ass-first onto something that definitely wasn’t floor.
A flat blue disc had materialized beneath her, carrying her smoothly backward toward Ethan like she was riding an invisible surfboard.
"You seemed to be getting into the zone," Ethan said with a slight grin, even with the tension in his shoulders. "I didn’t want to ruin that flow state."
"Thank you." Amara looked at him, feeling something click into place in her chest. "I want to go back in. Watch my back?"
"Who do you think you’re talking to?" Ethan’s grin widened.
Amara dashed back toward Yelena without hesitation.
Their blades collided multiple times in rapid succession.
clang-clang-clang!
The sound creating a rhythm that echoed through the arena. With each strike Amara failed to parry, a blue barrier appeared exactly where it needed to be, blocking Yelena’s blade at the last possible instant.
This allowed Amara to go all in without worrying about the openings Yelena could exploit. She could be aggressive, reckless even, because Ethan had her back.
The black edge of Angel’s Bane kept intercepting strikes with increasing precision as they moved like blurs across the arena. For one frozen moment, Amara felt something fundamental shift in her understanding.
The sword wasn’t just responding to her movements but also to her understanding of the fight. To the truth of motion, trajectory and intent behind each attack.
Angel’s Bane was built to cut through lies and deception. In combat, that meant it showed her the truth of her opponent’s intentions. Where they would strike, how they would move, the honest pattern beneath feints and misdirection.
What came next was the most intense three minutes of Amara’s life. A fight her body wasn’t remotely prepared for but her mind was beginning to grasp.
Sophia, who was seated by a corner, was on her feet now, watching intently. Raj pushed himself up from where he’d been paralyzed. Hiro still pinned to the wall. They all wore the same expression of shocked awe.
"You no longer move like statue in museum," Yelena stated. Perhaps that was her version of a compliment as their blades met dozens, scores, hundreds of times in increasingly complex exchanges.
With every clash, Angel’s Bane seemed to refine Amara’s instincts. Her stance grew cleaner. Her reflexes sharper. She was adapting through combat, accelerating the development of her skill with each passing moment.
Amara couldn’t really explain it. If she had to use a gamer’s terminology, it felt like +10 stats were being added to her overall capabilities every fifteen seconds. Although it still wasn’t enough to bridge the massive gap between herself and Yelena.
Like the situation couldn’t get any worse, Yelena decided to escalate.
She twirled the wind-forged blade in a single sweeping motion and Amara felt the oxygen being pulled from the circle they fought in. The air thinned to nothing, creating a perfect vacuum.
Crushing silence fell and Amara slumped forward, gasping as her body fought desperately for breath that wouldn’t come.
Then Yelena crossed her blades in an X formation above her chest. With one fluid motion, she drew the swords together. Wind and fire collided, merging into a spiraling inferno. The heat was instant and suffocating even through Ethan’s barrier.
Ethan had shaped Bastion into a perfect dome around her, creating a bubble that protected her from asphyxiation. Then the inferno crashed against the defense like a falling star, sending cracks spider-webbing across its translucent surface.
Amara coughed violently, clutching her throat. Her voice came out strained when she noticed the force field protecting her. "Ethan?"
He gritted his teeth, sweat beading on his forehead from the immense effort of holding back Yelena’s full assault. "I’ve got you!"
His jaw clenched as he poured more will into the shield, grunting his defiance at the overwhelming force trying to tear through his protection.
Hiro managed to yank the spear from the wall, his face twisted with confusion and growing concern. "Is it just me, or is she going a bit far?"
"Hey, crazy lady! Cut it out!" Sophia protested, actual worry behind her usual sarcasm this time.
As the dome strained under the inferno’s fury, Ethan’s strength began to falter. The cracks spread faster, pieces beginning to flake away, and in contrast, Amara’s grip on Angel’s Bane grew stronger.
In that moment of desperate clarity, the sword whispered another truth into her soul.
And she finally understood.
She could choose what to cut. There was a distinction between her truth and the objective truth itself. The blade responded to her understanding, her intent, her conviction about what was real.
She lifted the weapon, her blue eyes blazing with newfound comprehension.
Ethan saw her raise the blade and his eyes went wide. "No—wait!" His voice faltered. "You’ll shatter the dome!"
But Amara didn’t hesitate. The blade came down in a single, intentional slash.
Light surged outward from her strike, yet the protective dome remained completely untouched, as though it didn’t exist in the same space as her blade’s edge.
The sword ignored Ethan’s barrier entirely, phasing through it like it was made of air, and drove straight into the heart of Yelena’s inferno with purpose that transcended normal physics.
The clash exploded across the arena. Sparks and embers scattered as Amara’s truth carved into Yelena’s cyclone.
For one brilliant, impossible moment, the inferno buckled and wavered under her assault.
Yelena’s eyes widened slightly. The first genuine surprise she’d shown all day.
Then the fire and wind roared back stronger than before, swallowing her strike whole and pressing against Ethan’s shield with renewed intensity that forced it past its breaking point.
BOOM!
The shield shattered in an explosion of blue light and concussive force. Ethan and Amara were hurled backward across the chamber, their bodies skidding across the floor and Angel’s Bane dimmed in her hand before disappearing.
Yelena lowered her fading weapons, the twin blades dissolving as well.
She looked at Ethan and Amara on the ground, both breathing hard, weapons gone. Then she exhaled softly as silence reclaimed the training ground.
"Dead."
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