Shaman, hearing her na being called, felt a rush of anxiety overco her body. She wasn't as worried at first as it would only be a mock duel, but now that the ti had actually co, facing Elaina was much more frightening than she imagined.
"You'll be alright." Elysia walked back into line looking extrely exhausted which only made Shaman worry. No one was able to tell what happened at the end of their duel, so for Elysia to look so pale it must have been tough.
"A-alright." In the end, Shaman took a step forward and grabbed Elaina's out-stretched hand. Teleporting to the middle of the field, Elaina took a few steps back, giving Shaman so space.
"Start whenever you are ready." This ti Elaina was going to go a bit easier to gauge what Shaman is capable of. For Elysia, Elaina already knew the kind of test she had to give to find out if Elysia was a good candidate for the black fla. For Shaman however, Elaina would let her show her talents before choosing a course of action.
Shaman took a deep breath before pulling Kotetsu out of her inventory. This instantly grabbed Jane's attention as she recognised the design.
"Is that one of my swords?" She needed to get a closer look to confirm if it was, but it looked extrely similar to one of her failed experints.
"Possibly, it did look familiar when I saw it, but I never saw a sword like that co out of your forge." When she first t Shaman, Hiko suspected her Kotetsu belonged to Jane, but it was quite far removed from the blacksmith's usual style that HIko shrugged it off.
"Well, that's because I threw out every sword of this style. It was ant to be a sword that would be able to evolve and get stronger as the user did. It's a combination of monster materials and cores, but I was unable to create a stable sword without it falling apart."
"I did however manage to create a katana with the only difference being that I used a dormant magic crystal to facilitate the monster cores' energy. The katana in the end did nothing and was just a regular weapon so I threw it away thinking it was another failure…. However, sohow that sword is now in her hands and has even managed to evolve." Jane tried racking her brain and the only possible weapon it could be was the plain katana she thought was useless.
"What materials did you use?" Hiko was curious as the sword had an alloy that resembled a mix of different materials, but she didn't know of what kind.
"If I rember, I used dragon skin, Serpent scales and…. Kitsune claws." It just hit Jane in the face as to why the sword could suddenly be working.
"The user needs to be compatible with the sword, otherwise it's just an iron stick. How did I not think to do that sooner? And what would I have to do for a human to be able to use it… would Human flesh even work for that?." Jane's blasphemous thoughts leaked out which terrified Hiko, but truth be told that might actually be the material needed.
"Let's wait until the fight is over." Hiko didn't want Jane to get too ahead of herself since for all they know the sword wasn't even made by her.
"Oops sorry, you're right." Jane quickly stopped talking and decided to postpone thinking about the sword until she got to see it up close.
*
"Interesting sword, now show what you can do." Elaina was impressed with Shaman's weapon as she felt the magical energy ooze out from the materials used to make it.
Shaman didn't say anything in response letting her actions speak for themselves. She was going to use everything she could in hopes of landing at least one scratch.
Shaman activated her [royal bloodline arts], surprising Elaina with her eye-catching stardust effect which danced all around Shaman's body. It felt similar to Elysia's hybrid form, but it was clearly much stronger which made Elaina raise her guard.
Shaman pushed her hybrid form as much as she could, causing her bright blue eyes to look like you're staring right into the center of a galaxy. The stardust that floated around her body looked as if it was cutting the fabric of reality and opening tears in space itself.
Elaina was almost srised by the effect, but she had seen this exact thing before.
'Cecilia's daughter.. looks like she has grown up well.' Elaina smiled hoping that this would be an exciting fight. What Shaman displayed was way higher than what her own tier should allow, but because of that she was still limited on how much oomph she could get out of her ability.
However, while Elaina was appreciating the hybrid form, Shaman vanished from where she was standing. As Shaman appeared right in front of Elaina swinging Kotetsu, the latter tried to block the katana, but the tip of the blade vanished before making impact.
A stardust portal then opened right behind Elaina's back with the blade coming out.
"Nice try, but you're not quick enough." Elaina expected this kind of attack as this very move was used against her before. Enhancing her tail with mana, the spade at it's tip blocked Kotetsu from piercing her back.
"Are you sure?" Shaman smiled while ice ford on the blade and all around her. Spikes shot directly towards Elaina, but before they could touch her skin black flas burst out from her body lting the ice.
Shaman quickly vanished back into her stardust space to avoid the fire, but then Elaina did sothing Shaman thought was impossible.
While in her stardust dinsion, Shaman suddenly noticed black cracks starting to form. Shortly after, black flas exploded into the dinsion tearing a hole through it.
"So this is what it's like inside." Elaina stepped through the hole she created while smirking. The shock on Shaman's face was amusing since she could only assu this was the first ti Shaman had seen soone break into her own dinsion.
"H-how?" Shaman had been feeling confident after the first few seconds of the fight, but to see her one safe zone be so easily torn open, the rush of anxiety ca back with vengeance.
"No ti for answers, show more." Elaina charged at Shaman swinging her axe, wondering how she would react. This forced Shaman to snap out of the small panic attack she was having.
Using wind to increase her speed, Shaman moved to the side, just barely avoiding the axe swing. She then switched to using water, an elent she has underutilised so far.
Thankfully like most of her other elents, she had achieved the ability to use them freely and was not bound to only using skills.
"Oh?" Elaina was impressed with the number of elents Shaman was using. She knew beforehand Shaman was capable, but didn't know to what extent.
Water burst out of Kotetsu creating a water blade that constantly moved like a rapid stream. Shaman also ford water tridents around Elaina preventing her from moving.
However, Elaina needed only light a small fire on her finger and all the water evaporated into steam. This crushed Shaman's spirits as it seed like Elaina had no weaknesses when it ca to the elents. Her flas were just so powerful that they cancelled out the usual counter elents.
Shaman jumped back while exiting the stardust dinsion hoping it would give her so ti to think, but Elaina did not let that happen. Once again shattering the barriers of the dinsion, she walked through like it didn't exist.
'Fuck.' Shaman was at a loss for what to do next since almost all her elents could be countered.
"More!" Elaina was trying to push Shaman, making her desperate enough to use everything.
'Wait, my galaxy ice.' Shaman had almost forgotten the sub-elent she had gotten in the dungeon. It needed to be consciously used since rather than using her usual ice it was a whole different elent.
With sothing new to try, Shaman used her domain which had a significant change once again. The flowers now took the sa look as her hybrid form, looking like tiny galaxy flowers. There were also different colours among the flowers representing each of the group mber's eye colours.
Elaina stood completely still wanting to see what Shaman will do. It made Elaina happy that there was more to see so she wanted to give Shaman a chance to perform.
Shaman dashed forward while covering Kotetsu in galaxy ice and creating ice spikes to send through portals. As she got closer, Shaman sent a handful of ice spikes at once praying that the black fla wouldn't lt the ice to catch Elaina off guard.
Elaina, though, would not use any flas and perfectly positioned her body to dodge all the spikes. She was able to sense where the mana ford in the air and was able to picture in her head the exact pose needed to avoid them.
It was to be expected, but it still baffled Shaman that Elaina was able to make all these choices in a matter of seconds.
Nonetheless, Shaman swung with Kotetsu while also sending ice spikes off the blade straight for Elaina's neck and body. The Galaxy Ice shined brightly as it ca into existence, its many miniature suns making it almost too blinding to look at.
Just as Shaman hoped, Elaina went to light her fire to stop all the ice, and yet even when she did nothing happened.
Elaina's eyes widened as the ice was refusing to lt, forcing her to enter her demon form. This allowed her to harden her skin with demon essence causing the ice to shatter upon impact.
Shaman was happy to see she managed to get a hit in despite the ice doing absolutely no damage.
After all the ice was gone Elaina dismissed her demon form and smiled at Shaman. It was unclear if the fight was over, but Elaina stabbed her axe into the ground signifying that it had.
"Well done, I'll take you on as a disciple." Elaina patted Shaman's head, extrely happy with the results.
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