Aqua slowly sat up, her lip slightly split open, leaving the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. She wiped some of it away and looked down to her hand.
"I'm…bleeding? Someone like him made me bleed?" She thought to herself, completely bewildered.
The thought repeated itself in her mind, accompanied by a look of disbelief on her face. During her short internal breakdown, she realized something felt different. The tension in her body from the electricity was almost gone. She looked down to the ground and noticed it was completely dry beneath her.
"He knocked me out of the electrified area with that punch."
Before the thought could settle, a sudden pain erupted in her head. It was as if her brain was wrapped tightly in barbed wire and being squeezed. Her hand flew to her head.
"What is this… i–it feels like my brain is... Was it his attack? No… it wasn't him. This pain… this is something else."
She shook her head and tried her best to ignore the pain, but as she did that, a memory flashed in her head. It seemed to be one of her younger self again, but this time the atmosphere was different.
"Is that… me? Where am–"
Suddenly, she froze solid as she noticed something absolutely horrific. Her younger self was laying on the ground, trembling uncontrollably. Blood covered her small frail frame from head to toe and the scent of rotting death was so pungent, it was as if she could smell it in that present moment. Her younger self sobbed silently, mumbling something she couldn't make out.
"Wha–What is this? What's with all of this blood? I–I don't remember any of this."
Without a second's notice, the memory vanished, leaving her high and dry. She bawled her webbed hand into a fist and hit the trunk of the tree she was leaning against.
"Enough." She muttered, her voice barely able to be heard.
She stared at Kaito with a look of pure anger and frustration, who stood several dozen meters across from her.
"Enough of this… Enough of you, of your stupid speeches, of all these pathetic games! ENOUGH!"
She stood up and her arctic blue essence flared around her intensely.
"Raging Leviathan!"
She unleashed a powerful torrent of water from her mouth.
The water slammed into the ground in front of her, transforming into a massive wave. The wave towered higher than the treetops, and surged toward Kaito consuming everything in its path.
Kaito stood his ground as he stared the gigantic wave down with a straight face. In a split second, two figures stepped forward.
It was Tyrek and Enaros.
"Not so fast!" Enaros yelled out.
In unison, their essence ignited like wild flames surrounding them. They inhaled deeply and the scales on their necks began to glow. Then, as one they yelled out.
"Draconic Inferno!"
They unleashed streams of roaring flames from their mouths.
The jets of fire shot forward like raging flamethrowers, converging into a single massive wall of flames. The wall of flames surged to meet Aqua's towering wave head-on.
The trees around snapped like twigs by the sheer force of the elemental clash. Debris flew in every direction as a thick cloud of steam blanketed the battlefield. The heat and humidity smothered the surrounding area, making the air thick and heavy. Aqua stood in the steam calmly as her eyes darted around, but her vision was limited to only a few feet ahead.
"I can't see anything." She thought to herself.
She gritted her teeth, droplets of sweat falling down her face. Her fingers twitched slightly as she tried to shake off the lingering stiffness in her limbs.
"That damn lightning… Even after all this, it's still slowing me down."
Suddenly, a flicker of orange broke through the thick blanket of steam. Her eyes snapped toward it just in time to see a small glowing fireball heading straight for her. She narrowly dodged the attack by leaning to the side slightly. She barely had time to recover before another one appeared, then another.
"Damn it." She muttered under her breath.
She tried to form a hand sign, but her movements were sluggish.
"Not fast enough yet."
She dodged and weaved through the barrage of fire pouring down on her. One fireball whizzed past her cheek, leaving a burn mark. She growled in frustration, then flipped backwards to avoid a larger fireball. But in the middle of her flip, she saw something, a shadow moving in the corner of her eyes. A split second later, Kaito's foot emerged from the steam, aimed squarely at her face.
"Gotcha!" He yelled out, his leg only a few inches from her.
To his surprise, Aqua barely managed to bring her arms up, crossing them in front of her face to block the attack. The force of the kick sent her skidding backward. He landed in front of her, his eyes wide with surprise.
"Did she… actually block that? Her reflexes are insane."
The steam in the area began to dissipate. The ground between them was scorched and cracked from the clash of abilities earlier. Kaito stood opposite to Aqua, his fists raised.
For a moment, neither of them moved. They stood still, locked in a silent staredown as the tension in the air grew heavier with each passing second.
Across the battlefield, one of Enaros's team members began to run forward, gripping their weapon tightly. Tyrek's arm shot out, stopping them in their tracks.
"No. Just wait." He said firmly.
"Wait? For what? We've got an opening now!" The warrior said.
"No, we don't." He gestured toward Kaito.
"He'll make an opening. And when he does, we'll strike. Until then, I believe it's best we stay put and observe."
The team member looked over to Enaros, hoping for a different response, but to no luck. Enaros glanced over to Tyrek then looked away before responding.
"Tyrek is right. Stand fast until Kaito gives us an opening."
The team member hesitated, wanting to say something but ultimately nodded, and stepped back. Further behind them, Nix crouched behind a large piece of shattered tree bark watching the battle ensue.
"Come on Kaito, you've got this." He thought to himself.
The battlefield was eerily quiet as Kaito and Aqua stood across from each other, both in their respective fighting stance.
Then, they both darted toward each other simultaneously.
Kaito launched an upward kick aimed at Aqua's head. Aqua raised her forearms to block but before she could retaliate he faked it before immediately following with a spinning back elbow followed by a rapid flurry of low kicks and punches.
She managed to block all of his attacks easily but he continued to press on the offensive, his moves becoming faster and faster.
Not long after, her slowed movements left an opening, and Kaito saw it.
A loud crack echoed off the giant trees as Kaito landed an upward elbow squarely on the bottom of her chin, lifting her a bit off the ground. With zero hesitation, he followed it with a crane kick, his leg arcing high in the air above his head.
She barely managed to dodge just before his leg came shrieking down, the ground beneath cracking from the sheer force.
Tyrek stood in the background watching the intense fight unfold. His eyes followed Kaito's movement closely, almost as if he was studying him.
"His fighting style, I've never seen anything like it. Even Aqua is having a hard time keeping up with him at this range." He thought to himself.
Kaito continued on with his onslaught. He ducked under a punch, twisting his hips as his knee shot upward toward her stomach, driving it deep into her guts, almost causing her to spit up whatever meal she ate earlier. Frustration was written all across her face.
"Keeping the fight at this range with him isn't good… I have to create distance." She glanced over towards the shed.
"I think it's about tim–"
Before she could finish her words, a sudden movement in the treelines above caught her attention. She looked up to see the tall tree branches filled with draconic warriors.
"Now!" Enaros yelled.
At his signal, a group of warriors armed with flamed bows and arrows pulled back and shot numerous arrows towards Aqua. She effortlessly dodged each arrow one after another, almost as if she was toying with them. Without warning, a flaming sword came rushing towards her head.
"Take this!" Enaros yelled out.
The flaming blade swung down, barely missing her by mere inches as she jumped back to avoid the attack.
But that's exactly what they wanted.
She landed on the ground, only to realize too late. The ground beneath her glowed intricate red symbols etched into the soil.
"Draconic Paralyzing Seal."
The symbols pulsed once, and transparent red chains shot upward, sinking into her limbs then wrapping around her entire body.
"Tyrek, now!" Enaros shouted with everything he had.
On a branch in the distance, Tyrek stood with his arms stretched in front of him and his essence gathered into a mass of energy in his palm. Sparks began to fly around him as the energy condensed into a spear-like projectile.
"It's time to end this Aqua! This is the true power of the Draconians! Take this!" He yelled out passionately.
With a sudden release, the attack screamed forward at a blistering speed. The pressure rippled outward, flattening the grass and shaking the trees. Kaito watched as the attack screeched towards Aqua.
"Yes! We got her. We actually got her. That seal… she can't move at all with that holding her down and Tyrek's attack won't miss from this distance. This is it. We did it."
The attack surged closer and closer.
Then…
…it missed.
An explosion ensued several meters behind Aqua, creating a crater large enough to swallow a building. Dirt and debris rained down as silence took over the battlefield.
Tyrek's expression froze in shock, his arm still extended.
"What…? I missed? Impossible!"
The rest of the team's confidence that they once had began to waver. Enaros' face was a mix of pure confusion and shock as he took a step back.
"That's impossible. The seal is in effect… so how? How did it miss?"
Kaito's eyes darted toward Aqua, his stomach dropping. Something was wrong. The air around her had changed.
"What's going on?" Enaros muttered to himself, echoing Kaito's thoughts.
But Kaito felt it first—a chilly breeze against his skin. His breath misted in front of him, an icy vapor floating in the air like smoke.
"It's… cold?"
The temperature plummeted with unnatural speed. Frost crept across the ground, spreading outwards in all directions. Aqua stood in the source of it, her chest rising and falling and her breaths became visible as thick clouds of vapor.
She raised her head slowly and made eye contact with Kaito.
Her eyes, once filled with anger and frustration, were now unnervingly calm. Kaito's eyes slowly widened as the realization of what was happening finally dawned on him.
"No… no way." He whispered to himself.
Above, several team members dropped from the trees, weapons drawn and ready to strike.
Kaito's heart skipped a beat.
"No! Don't attack her—"
But it was too late.
"Absolute Zero."
A surge of blinding icy blue essence erupted from her body. The temperature nosedived instantly—ice exploded outward in jagged shards, engulfing everything in its path. The attackers were caught mid-fall. Their screams were cut short as the ice encased them in a flash, their bodies covered in crystal-clear ice.
The blast radiated outward, expanding across the battlefield in a massive wave. Trees were frozen solid in an instant. The ground turned to a glacial wasteland.
Kaito raised his arms instinctively as the shockwave slammed into him. Ice formed across his sleeves, stinging his skin. He stumbled back and dropped his arms after the initial shockwave passed, and his wide eyes took in the devastation before him.
The surrounding forest of giant trees was completely decimated—dozens of trees lay shattered or encased in ice. The battlefield was now gleamed white, frozen solid. Several of Enaros's team members lay frozen to the ground, encased in jagged ice, and some were frozen in the air, their weapons frozen mid-swing.
The silence and stillness was… creepy.
Enaros's voice shook as he finally found his words.
"Ice? What… What is this power? She… she wiped them out. Just like that… How is this even possible?"
"She… She has an ice sub-affinity." Kaito tried to reply to him, but muttered to himself, full of shock.
"Not only that… this feeling, this power… it's even stronger than Myzen."
Sweat rolled off his face and froze before hitting the ground. His CPI scanner flickered on and rose rapidly before finally landing on a number that made him nauseous.
Aqua: 1,000,000 CPI