Welldark B1 Ch. 01

I blinked and quickly found myself a step to the right, an easier and shorter teleportation. Infusing my punch with gravity magic, I hit her sabre. The already heavy blade pulled Esther down to the floor. My left foot came for her arms. She had to drop the weapon to dodge and stepped swiftly to the side. I set after her, aiming to separate her from her weapon. Then she was behind me, her weapon in hand and in a state before being weighed down. I jumped and rolled to dodge, stopping in a cowering position ready to launch into a sprint, if necessary.

'So she can use her abilities even while disarmed... no, that's not how Artefacts work... perhaps she can still use it while there is a point in time that she could go back to where she was holding it?' I quickly theorized as I dodged another barrage of thunder bolts. I had her powerset figured out, not quite the rules of it though.

Nevertheless, I had to get back into melee, at that range I was at a disadvantage. I simply didn't possess any reliable long-range tools without making them and Esther was clearly keeping her speed boost around for any attempt to make one. I don't even know what I could make. Guns (mostly bullets) were way too intricate to make on the fly, I would only have one shot with a crossbow and a regular bow would mean I'd have to draw the string and repeated ammunition manifesting would be an issue. I arrived at throwing knives as the best option.

I materialized a single one and quickly tossed it at her left side. Didn't really matter to me if it hit or not, I just needed to interrupt her casting hand. She turned her body to dodge, which gave me exactly the window I needed to sprint at her again. A second throwing knife hit her in the leg, she quickly pulled it out and tossed it aside. It vanished into Astral power while it was still flying. Now knowing that I was capable of weighing down her weapon, Esther's attack strategy changed again.

By the time I reached her, her weapons were separated, but their usual positions switched. Fending me off with the short sword in her right, whose blade was so light an increase in gravity would affect its weight a lot less, we were once more in a steady exchange of blows. One where I was the favourite. I couldn't go too much on the offensive, any overly ambitious strike would be punished by the sabre in her off-hand, but the shortsword was easily knocked away by my protected arms, allowing me to get in a number of strikes on her.

I got a light punch in at her shoulder, her waist and her upper thigh. Each time, I used gravity magic to weigh her down. Slower and slower she became and, as long as I kept reapplying and strengthening it, eventually she would become too tired to defy my attacks. She would either have to defeat me before then or disengage me for long enough for those effects to diminish. It would happen relatively quickly, ten to twenty seconds if I stopped hitting her, but that was an eternity in an ongoing engagement.

Esther also realized where this fight was headed if she kept up the current strategy and suddenly accelerated. She was utilizing her trump card while she was still a lot faster than me. She took one more of my strikes, just to catch me at a moment of imbalance, then she struck like a viper. Her short sword was buried in my abdomen down to the hilt. Her sabre I managed to partly deflect with my arm, the impact reverberating in my bones.

It hurt. It hurt a whole lot. However, I had expected to be hit like this at some point and gnashed my teeth. Quickly, I moved to take advantage of what I could. Grabbing the hand that stabbed me, I clenched her narrow wrist, fully intending to break it with a descending chop of my other arm. Generally, I would have been dismayed to see such a pretty lady hurt, but the reality of combat was as it was.

Immediately, Esther teleported back in time, escaping my grasp. Our fight had barely moved in the past few seconds, however. While she succeeded in freeing herself, she jumped back to a moment where my gravity magic still had its full effect on her. Her weapons removed from me, the Astral Body immediately restored me to my natural, healthy state and I pushed the offensive.

The one thing her backwards trips didn't restore seemed to be her Artefact charges and now I could seriously lay into her without having to worry about her powers. Something that she was only too aware about, trying to get away as quickly as possible.

"Oh no you don't!" I blinked and was behind her. My elbow hit her spine with the extra force of her own movement. She stumbled forwards and whirled around. I leaned back. The tip of her sabre sliced open my shirt and my skin, the latter closing immediately.

Her balance was off now and I attacked her with a quick succession of attacks. The more of the gravity magic I layered on top, the more sluggish her counterattacks became. I was already certain that I won, just because of how slow she was. Covering her in blunt attacks, I quickly tore down her Astral Capacity. Ruptured tissue wasn't as good as severed limbs or deep penetrations, but it was still effective. Desperately, she took one step back, two steps, three steps, I followed. Then she vanished again.

I must have underestimated the natural build-up and when I turned around I was met with a simply extended sabre. She wasn't even trying to attack me, just kept me at a distance to give her the time needed to regain her speed. I couldn't let that happen, but also had to be mindful of my own Astral Capacity. Teleports were costly, repeated ones doubly so.

With a series of feints, I tried to get around the tip of her weapon, but only found a slight opening after several seconds had passed. Her body got lighter as I dodged under the slice she threw my way. I had spent a whole lot of Astrality to slow her down like that and losing the build-up would put me in a bad position. It was time for desperate measures.

I tackled her down and our dancing back and forth of attacks and countermeasures became a primitive tumble on the floor. We rolled over the stone together, flying limbs and pinned down arms, continuously winding out of each other's grapples and avoiding any deciding movements. Neither of us were willing to give up. Her tricorne was lost. Her hair became a whip that blinded me for a moment when the ponytail undid itself. I managed to force the sabre from her, only to get hit by a heavy uppercut. We continued to wrestle. In the confusion, I struck her face, something that I would have avoided doing usually. Her sleeve tore, having gotten stuck on my scaled gauntlets. That was when she tensed up and engaged in a last surge of defiance. Suddenly, our tumbling ended. We were at the bottom of one of the ditches Aclysia had made.

Esther's short sword under my chin, my hands around her neck. We were both breathing heavily. My chest was bare, the smooth, muscular skin revealed. Her hair was fanned out like a halo made from black silk, one rebellious streak laying across her face. Controlled, she inhaled through the nose and exhaled through the mouth. Both of us were sweaty and frozen in place.

I was captivated by her eyes for perhaps too long. Also by the fact that my thighs were squishing her tits between them. Thank all the gods out there for big breasts. As much as I was willing to continue this pose for a little while, I eventually said, "Looks like we arrived at a tie, eh?" Practically speaking, this match would be decided by whether or not I would manage to choke her out before she managed to stab me beyond what Astrality could handle, but since this was only a duel, this situation was as good as a tie.

"No," she closed her eyes and lowered her weapon. "This is your victory," on the back of her sensual voice ringing out in a self-deprecating tone, she reached up to her face and tapped against her left cheekbone. A bruise was quickly forming there, almost invisible on her flushed skin, but definitely there. "My Astral Capacity is depleted," she announced and breathed out slowly. "I failed to request your name, good opponent."

"Karitas," I was happy to have her know of me.