Kaeline and Velzari clashed, exchanging a barrage of blows, each showing off their unique hand to hand fighting styles. Kaeline ducked under a wild swing, retaliating with a palm strike to Velzari's chest.
He grunted and retaliated with a kick that she barely managed to block. They disengaged and leapt back away from each other.
"I must say, I'm curious about this shinobi way of yours… But from where I stand, it seems like nothing more than trickery and deception." Velzari said, a slight hint of disgust in his voice.
His yellow essence flowed around his body calmly.
"Trickery and deception are tools, like any other. It's how you use them that matters." Kaeline rebutted as her CPI scanner came to life in her eye.
Velzari: 675,000 CPI
She reached into her pouch behind her.
"The shadow veil jutsu would give me an advantage, but it drains too much essence. It's smart to only use it twice per day, and that blast he used earlier forced me to use it both times there. Not only that, he's seen it twice already and is probably waiting for it again."
She pulled out over a dozen shuriken and leapt high into the air, nearly touching the treetop of the large red and orange trees. With a flick of her wrist, she sent all of them flying toward him.
Velzari smirked, preparing himself to blast them away, but as the shuriken neared him, their shadows casted on the ground by the lone yellow star became much larger than normal, as if they grew in size, but they didn't.
Suddenly, many much larger black shuriken seemingly made out of pure darkness shot out from those same shadows on the ground, flying directly to him from a different angle.
"What th–" Velzari spouted.
He jumped to the side but wasn't able to dodge all of them. Two of the large shadow shuriken grazed him, drawing thin lines of purple blood where they sliced his face and leg.
"Shadow Shuriken Jutsu." Kaeline muttered calmly.
"Impressive trick. But let's see how you handle this!" Velzari scowled.
He raised his hand.
"Oblivion Blast!"
A beam of yellow essence shot from his palm, screeching through the air towards Kaeline.
Before it reached her, she threw a kunai with a cable attached towards a nearby branch, lodging into it. She pulled herself away just as the blast destroyed the huge tree behind her, sending debris flying in all directions.
She used a few of the larger pieces of timber as stepping stones and threw another volley of shuriken toward Velzari. He shot a barrage of yellow essence from his hands and long green tail that collided with the shurikens in mid air, canceling each other out.
"His essence is strong, and his control is impressive. I need to find an opening." She analyzed in her head.
She landed on the ground then reached into her pouch again, this time pulling out a small black ball. She threw it to the ground, engulfing the area in a thick black smoke.
Velzari coughed and looked around as best as he could.
"Hiding… hiding, hiding! Is this your shinobi way? Hiding like a damn coward?"
He fired essence blasts blindly into the smoke around him in all directions.
"Show yourself! Show me the reason for your cowardice!"
Suddenly, the smoke behind him shifted slightly. He noticed it from his peripheral and spun around and reached into the smoke, grabbing her by the neck.
"Did you really think I'd fall for that?"
He tightened his grip and lifted her in the air, clearing the smoke around the both of them. She looked down as she watched his other hand hover over her chest.
"Oblivion Blast!"
A blast of yellow essence shot right through her chest at point blank range, leaving nothing but a gaping hole in its place. She began to gasp for air, clutching at the nothing in her chest. She was barely able to talk but began to mumble something.
"What are you saying?" he asked.
Kaeline pressed her hand softly on his chest and the words coming from her mouth became loud and clear.
"Did you really think I'd fall for that?"
He looked down to see a piece of paper stuck to his chest where her hand was a second ago. When he looked up, he saw her eyes and mouth hollow and wide open.
"What the?! What is the mea–"
BOOOOOOOM!
An explosion engulfed a portion of the floating piece of land they were fighting on, sending numerous trees and debris into the air.
The explosion drew Sera's attention.
"What's going on over there? Is that Velzari? Who's he fighting?"
Her thoughts were interrupted by a gigantic tree hurtling toward her through the air. She waved her hand in a series of rapid motions in front of her. The tree fell apart, the pieces flying right past her.
"Eyes on me, theater reject! You should be focusing on your own fight, not someone else's."
Sera turned back to her and a smile slowly spread across her face. She began to chuckle a little, but it quickly grew into a full-blown psychotic laugh.
"AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAHA!!!"
Talon stared at her with a confused and annoyed look.
"What's so damn funny now?"
Sera's laughter stopped, but her smile didn't leave.
"Oh, it's just... I was so focused on that other fight because I wanted to see who she was up against."
"She? Who the hell are you talking about?"
"Why, my bestie Aqua, of course!" Sera said, as if the information should have been obvious. "I was just thinking about how lucky your little boyfriend is to be facing her."
"Aqua… that's the one who took Enaros's daughter." Talon thought to herself.
"What's so special about that brat, Aqua?"
Sera's grin widened.
"You see, Aqua may not be the captain of the starborne troupe, but she's by far the strongest of us all… She's an A-rank star traveler. I wonder how long he'll last against her!?" Sera said in a teasing voice, covering her mouth to contain her chuckle.
"Your boyfriend, I mean. He seems like the type that has a lot of stamina. I bet Aqua is going to have so much fun with him! I wonder if she's going to show him her little surprise. Gosh, I'm so jealous she's going to show him without me! Hey, what was his name again… Faito right?"
"You're annoying…" Talon mumbled under her breath.
"Huuuhhh? Can you speak up a little? I can't hear you from over here?" Sera said, cleaning out her ear in a mocking way like Talon did before.
"I SAID SHUT UP YOU DAMN REJECT! YOU'RE ANNOYING!"
"Excuse me!?"
"You heard me. I'm so sick of your constant babbling. Your voice, your attitude, your whole 'I'm the greatest star traveler' act... it's annoying! And it's not just you. Your whole crew is a bunch of walking headaches. That overgrown man-child Jorak, the emo pretty boy Velzari, and your weird bestie Aqua. Annoying."
Sera tried to retort, but before she could say or do anything, Talon continued.
"And then there's this whole situation. Crash-landing on some random planet, only to find out it's being overrun by a bunch of cliché, power-hungry maniacs who want to enslave its people that we have to save? It's like the universe is playing some sick joke on me! THIS IS ALL SO DAMN ANNOYING!"
During her outburst, memories began to surface in her head. A younger Talon, no more than five years old, crying and trembling in the corner as her father—King Taeron—loomed over her mother, beating her down viciously.
"You worthless… fucking… bitch!" He grunted out, just as he finished his assault.
As he left the room, he looked over to Talon.
"Let's go Talon."
She looked up to her father with pure fear in her young eyes. She began to walk towards him, but as she did, she briefly glanced over towards her mother and saw something that stuck with her throughout her entire life.
Despite being broken physically, her mother was… reaching for her.
"Ta…lon…"
But the poor young Talon didn't know what to do at the sight in front of her.
She was confused.
She was scared.
So…
…she walked away.
"Everytime someone's in trouble… everytime someone needs help... I freeze up and become useless. That's the type of person I am. It's... annoying. But him… He never hesitates, no matter how strong the enemy, no matter how messed up the situation... he always fights for what he believes in and to protect those who are in need. That idiot... he's going to get himself killed one of these days..." She muttered to herself.
She thought back to his face as he talked to Aqua right before they saved him, even with a hole in his chest. The fire and determination in his eyes when he flipped off Myzen. And then, Farro's story of his rough childhood.
"What's really annoying is that in the short time since we've met, I know now that the type of person I want to be..." She began to say in her mind
At the same time, on the second distant battlefield, Aqua jumped from the cliff top and began to approach Enaros and his battered up team. Bodies laid scattered across the ground, some of them barely clinging on to life after the attack. She walked closer, but then, she stopped. Her eyes locked onto someone standing between her and the others at the same time Talon finished her thoughts.
"...is like you, Kaito."