Snippet #2250196

The Phoenix sighed, shutting the door of her room behind her. Well, that had taken much longer than she'd expected. For a simple shopping trip, she was at least half an hour overdue, all because of that pointless little skirmish out in the courtyard. Why had she even bothered to help, anyway? The battles themselves had been not only boring, but also far too easy to actually test or improve her skills. It had been like watching an ant try to overcome a boot - a hopeless, futile struggle that could end only in the enemy lying crushed beneath her feet. In such an engagement, there wasn't any fun to be had, nor any gain for either side except perhaps the lessons in prudence learned by the defeated. But Tieria Arcander was no teacher, nor did she intend to be. She was here to learn things for herself, and to become stronger. If she helped other people in the process, fine, but going out of her way when there was no reason to was something she did not like doing. Seriously. Had that boy even needed her help? Had he even wanted it? It hadn't seemed that way to her, considering he'd taken the funnest part immediately and just relegated her to the role of blowing up a couple newbies. Although that "Dragon" from class 4a had been pretty interesting, she hadn't even gotten the chance to fight him. She sighed yet again, turning away from her quarters where she had safely deposited her groceries. To make up for lost time, she'd just skip over lunch for the day and head straight on to training. That would do it.

In that case, she'd just head down to the sparring ring. Usually, she'd be doing endurance and targeting training on a day like this, but, being tantalized with the prospect of a real battle, she just could help but feel like she deserved the pleasure of actually having one. Jogging across a skywalk connecting the dorms and the main training wing, she swiftly turned in the direction of the familiar place. Two doors down, a turn left, then down a small flight of stairs, and... voila. The large, dark door to the sparring ring was right in front of her. Entering, she found to her disappointment that there didn't seem to be many students there at all, and those that were seemed like they were just waiting for something interesting to happen. The teacher on oversight duty had fallen asleep, which meant that there probably hadn't been anything interesting for the past while. Augh, damnit! Could this day get any more boring?!

Stepping into the arena itself - a gigantic, round ring with a high, vaulted ceiling, cordoned off from the spectators' booths by a magic barrier - she resolutely raised her arm over her head. "Caladbolg. Who's going to challenge me today, huh?" She called out, an then, with a powerful sweep, she planted the giant blade in the ground at her side, a clear declaration of her intent to fight whoever might try to take her on. To her surprise however, an unseen voice from directly behind her answered her question almost immediately.

"I will."

Tieria recognized that voice in an instant. Spinning about, she found herself face to face with just who she had expected, or rather dreaded to see - the "Ice Demon" of Class 8 Advanced, a boy known as Victor Balefrost. He was an enemy on a level even higher than herself, one she'd only fought once before, back when she'd been a mere rank 3b. In that fight... she'd been completely outmaneuvered and systematically demolished, unable to even follow the movements of her enemy. She hadn't even been able to scratch him over the whole course of the spar, and had left with a shattered pride, two cracked ribs, and a broken sword, as well as a multitude of cuts and lacerations from the boy's attacks. And that had been one of the better showings against him. As far as she knew, nobody had beaten him in the past few years. But, what interested her more was the fact that 8A should have been in a group exercise right now. That meant he must have been here for a reason. Specifically... to fight her? What? But what reason did he have? Somebody had to have put him up to this, and, with a second glance over the spectators present, she realized who it was.

The sneering faces of three familiar ice students gazed back at her. So, this was their revenge for getting in their way. They were going to set her up against one of the most infamous students near her level that they possibly could, a boy whose reputation for completely and utterly defeating his every opponent went beyond even her own.

"It's been a long time, Phoenix," Victor said quietly, a slight smirk on his face. "I thought I taught you last time not to pick fights so carelessly?"

"I guess I'm a slow learner," She replied. "Or maybe I just don't feel like taking the advice of a hypocrite. You fight just as much as I do."

"Don't be so foolish as to compare your indiscriminate battle-searching to mine," the Ice Demon replied coldly, a slight smirk on his face. "You fight because you don't care if you lose. I fight because I already know what the outcome will be."

"Well, you're certainly confident," Tieria said, a sarcastic yet nervous smile playing on her lips.

"Should I not be? I defeated you once easily enough. This time won't be any different."

"We'll see about that. I've improved a lot since then, Victor," Tieria replied, bracing herself to draw Caladbolg.

"Not enough," The boy replied icily. At that moment, Tieria's eyes went wide, for a loud snap had just sounded out from beneath her, and an frozen chill was spreading across her feet. Looking down with surprise, she saw what she had feared: a long swath of ice bridging the gap between herself and Victor, encasing both her giant weapon and her feet. Instantly, she tried to flare her power to escape, but knew in her heart it was already too late. She already knew all of her enemy's powers, understood exactly what he was trying to do. His first spell, Man in the Frozen Mirror, was one she had been unable to counter enough to know its effects by heart. The spell had two stages, first creating a flat surface of ice across any given plane, then allowing Victor to phase from one surface of ice to any other freely, and without having to recast the spell or perform any sort of incantation. It was a spell with no activation conditions save the ice's initial creation, allowing the Ice Demon to travel instantaneously from one location to another any time he wished to. It was through this formidable spell that Victor had defeated her before, evading all of her attacks with ease and striking back too fast for her to stop him.

He was right. This time was no different.

With a flash of pale light, Victor had crossed the distance in an instant, appearing with his swung fist already planted firmly in her gut. His momentum wasn't just conserved between teleportations, it was actually amplified. The force of this punch released a shockwave like an explosion, picking Tieria up off her feet and shattering the ice beneath her as she lost her grip on her weapon and was sent flying across the arena. Flipping over in mid-air, she landed on her feet, skidding backward until she crashed headlong into the barrier on the edge of the arena, disarmed and disoriented. That punch... it probably would have been enough to break most of her ribs outright if she hadn't reinforced her own body in anticipation of the impact. As it was, the area stung like it had been burned with hellfire. A few more hits like that and even her formidable physical resilience wouldn't be able to hold up. So... he really had gotten stronger since last time.

But there was no time to think. She had to get her weapon back. Already, Victor would be launching his next attack. Regaining her balance, she looked up just in time to see her enemy already coming down towards her, casting his second spell, "Armory of Ragnarok." This was another multifaceted spell. Its main purpose was to create whatever weapon its user could imagine, forming it out of magically condensed ice that might as well have been diamond. However, just by wielding one of these weapons, that same reinforcement effect carried over to the Ice Demon as well, vastly increasing his already formidable physical strength, speed, and endurance. And, as far as she knew, he had no limit on the number of armaments he could summon, making his physical ability theoretically limitless. Although she had put on a confident face, she had known right from the beginning the sort of enemy she was going up against. In this battle, she had very little chance of actually winning... but like hell if that meant she would stop trying to!

As the enemy raised his hand, a long, thin sword of silvery ice taking shape within his grasp, Tieria extended her own hands, calling to her own blade within the ice. With a loud snap, the gigantic weapon rose into the air, shattering the freezing spell that had kept it immobilized with its own flames. Then, like some sort of enormous steel boomerang, the huge sword began to streak towards its master, falling right into her waiting hand as she raised the blade over her head. At the same instant, Victor struck, and the two magically created weapons clashed with a shockwave like a bomb going off, releasing a wind so powerful that it was even felt beyond the barrier around the arena. The spectators recoiled, bracing themselves against their seats and holding on tightly to anything that wasn't tied down so it wouldn't be blown away, watching in awe as the Demon pressed down amidst a chilling blue aura of magic, and the Phoenix steadily held him back with a searing aura of crimson flames.

"Oh? You actually managed to block my opening move this time," Victor noted, impressed. Yeah, she remembered this attack pattern alright. He had used it to open that battle as well. She'd been taken so much off guard that he'd managed to run her through the right shoulder effortlessly at the very start of the match. Not this time, though. Even though it was like trying to raise the weight of an entire glacier over her head... she was most certainly not letting him cripple her so easily!

"I... told you...!" She snarled. "Don't... underestimate me... you cocky... bastard!" Groaning under the incredible strength of his attack, even as her knees slowly began to give way beneath her, she turned her blade ever so slightly... and then flared her power and fired.

"Sword... SPARK!" The Phoenix howled, a giant torrent of scarlet flames splitting the arena from one end to the other, engulfing the icy swordsman instantly as they raged uncontrollably across the stone arena, breaking against the barrier and spreading across its surface, snapping and hissing as they writhed throughout the air. And yet, in another instant, with a loud crack, their red light was suddenly subsumed by pale blue luminescence. Tieria's eyes narrowed as her flames abruptly went out in a cloud of steam as, from the midst of the dying fires, ice expanded in all directions, melting only to be replaced in an instant. In the blink of an eye, the entire floor had been covered in hard, thick frost, and the fires that had burned so furiously had been completely extinguished.

Smiling calmly, Victor emerged from the steam, glancing down at the broken sword in his hand before casting it aside and summoning another.

"How interesting. You actually forced me to defend myself, and even managed to break my weakest sword. Perhaps I'll have reason to teach you your lesson again, after all," The Ice Demon said, eying the Phoenix confidently.

"Damn," Tieria cursed under her breath. This wasn't good. Like this, she didn't stand a chance at all. And, if he kept attacking like this... her only hope would be to use that, but without the time to prepare it, she couldn't hope to manage something of that sort. And, she had a feeling that Victor wouldn't just stand around while she powered up. But how? How could she turn this around?

(Nobody interfere quite yet. I'm having a bit of fun with this battle scene, and want to continue it a little until there's actually a reason for other people to jump in. Also, I apologize for the length. I just really like writing things like this. X.X Sorry.)