Chapter 1337 – Back in Black Finale – Race Against the Sun [Rave POV]
‘Gaia, I love this thing,’ Rave thought, feeling her new bodysuit, Illuminare, mend the broken bones in her shoulder. The healing was accompanied by a warm, fuzzy feeling that numbed the pain and then went on to incite a different kind of tingling. Adrenaline kept that particular feeling at bay, for the moment.
Moira rushed headfirst towards her at a speed rivalling her own. Admittedly, Rave was surprised that the Warden managed to accelerate to such a degree, just as she was surprised to see a literal halo above her pretty red head. However, Rave had learned a valuable lesson over the last few encounters. A lesson both Copernicus and her boyfriend had given her repeatedly. A lesson that didn’t resonate well with her straightforward fighting style, but that was nevertheless true.
In a drawn-out engagement, the person that exhausted all their resources first, lost.
‘Alright, take me for a spin,’ Rave thought, as she reached out to her bodysuit. The semi-sentient object responded to her call, just like it had responded in making her martial arts and magic stronger, as long as she had used them in the required rhythm. Now that the summer sun nourished her fresh mana, she could unfold fully and Eclipse her regular Unleash.
The claws of her healthy, left arm turned from hard-light to prismatic metal. The borders of the many facets within the iridescent alloy were highlighted by the elemental power that flowed into it. The eclipse elemental that occupied the same space as the Lorylim scars, shining through the pink bodysuit, devoured her mana at an incredible rate, unsustainable even for a few seconds without the sun. With this, she had a few minutes. That was all she would need.
“A solemn reign, for the few that rise up high,” Rave began chanting again. The words passed her lips easily, her mana circuits widened even further. “And we all fight...” Moira’s hammer came down on her head again. Not moving at all, it appeared that she would be hit before the final words were spoken.
Then Rave gave herself to the sunlight that was recharging her mana. It was pure instinct, something she had never done before but just felt like she could. Her physical form ceased to be for the blink of an eye, turned into a technicolor show that ephemerally went one step back. Her will focused on returning her to a physical form. She was senseless for that split moment, unable to perceive anything but the presence of other light. When she pulled herself back into flesh and blood, Moira was moving her shield between them.
Rave was done trying to crack that annoying thing.
“...Let our worlds collide!” Her chant ended and the burst of speed took hold of her. All mana circuits strained to the breaking point, Rave’s incantation manifested in five streaks of light hot enough to deform Astrotium. The swing started from Rave’s lower left and went up and across.
“Lady, protect me!” Moira managed to ask for Gaia’s protection once more. More than ever, she needed the magical shield, having been too slow to get the ‘holy’ armament in the way of the complete attack. The majority of Rave’s extended claws did break uselessly on the indestructible wall of bullshit. Two streaks, however, continuously demanded the reaction of the Warden’s magic. Golden light drained from her shield and armour, as it was consumed to form a barrier against the attack on its path upwards.
The halo flickered. The barrier around her outer areas collapsed and her hammer, extended half to her side, was cleanly cut and melted through. The heavy head fell down into the mud. The halo disappeared. With vestiges of the torrenting power, Rave reached the upper corner of the shield. Moira tried to duck. Too slow to save what of her head peeked over the quarter-circle cut-out at the corner of her shield.
The Warden let out a shout of intense pain and stumbled back, her eye ruined to a degree that not even her constant healing could fix. “Ya should see Undine about that after we’re done here!” Rave shouted and pressed the advantage. Her Unleash was still active, Eclipse was still active, and whatever exactly Moira’s own incantation had done, it must have faded with the halo.@@@@
Rave dashed to the Warden’s right. The side was now completely exposed, the headless shaft was no threat. Even now, Moira’s shield arm moved ahead of the Lightbearer. That pre-reaction did not suffice to make the current difference. Rave slashed Moira’s side, cutting through her armour and the tabard like they were made out of paper. Turning into light, she moved to the other side, away from the shield, and slashed one more time, landing another clean hit.
Tossing away the useless remains of her weapon, Moira attached both arms to her shield. Somehow, that boosted her reaction time even further. It was as if the shield had gone from guiding just her arm to her whole body. No matter where Rave dashed, no matter how well she stayed in the blind half of the Warden’s field of vision, the shield always moved along.
Shifting, running, and turning into a streak of light, Rave manoeuvred around the redhead. Even with that extra measure, Moira only minimized the damage she took. Piece for piece, her armour was shredded apart and rained down on the ground. Metal claws drew blood. Kicks connected directly to her body. Each attack was delivered on the move, always staying ahead of the shield. Moira remained standing stubbornly right where she was. Her shield continuously shrunk.
The techno music swelled in Rave’s human ears, motivating her to keep going. Further and further, as fast as her feet and her magic would take her. The warmth of the sun was on her back. Streaks of light magic accompanied whatever she did, sometimes launching themselves at Moira. She had no knowledge of what exactly she did. She intuited it all. Gave herself to the summer sun and the song.
“Just didn’t think your steady annoyance was ‘cause ya wanted me that bad.”
“It’s not because... it’s a side effect of the blessing, okay?!”
“What? Receiving power from the supreme deity makes ya horny? That’s – oh my Gaia, that’s exactly something she would do!” Rave found the power to shout and started laughing. “Ya get submissive and breedable from fighting! That’s hilarious!”
Moira growled and used the laughter of the Lightbearer for an assault. Jumping over the meteorite shard, she tackled Rave. Both of them went to the ground, the redhead was on top. Before Rave could make a joke about that, she had to twist her head away from the shield’s point. Flexible as she was, the Lightbearer rolled up her lower body and caught the Warden’s neck between her feet. One last display of superhuman strength later, Moira was slammed flat to the ground.
Both of them lay there, heavily breathing, for half a minute. Rave wasn’t sure if Moira was taking that long to control herself for the same reason as her, but both of their gasps sounded less exhausted than desperate at this point. Slapping herself across the face, the Lightbearer got the adrenaline rushing for one last clash. Moira rose on mostly steady feet herself.
The two stared at each other, raised their fists, and moved closer. Like almost every time before, Rave started things off, throwing a simple flash of blinding light at Moira. It hit her and allowed the Lightbearer to duck under the punch that came back at her. Although Moira had been keeping her shield in reserve, she was simply too sluggish to ward off the uppercut that came next.
For all the supersonic strikes, the prismatic claws, the changing of the weather, and the back and forth with powers far beyond that of any regular Abyssal, Rave had to say that there were no other aspect of violence she cherished more than that moment when a proper uppercut connected. Knuckles against jawline, the head tilting backwards, then the entire body getting just a bit lifted off the ground by force and involuntary response, and finally the fall backwards down into the mud.
Moira was obviously dazed down there, laying on her back. Dazed enough that Rave could have done whatever else she wanted in this violent clash. Instead, she just stood over the Warden and said, “My victory, Moi-Moi.”
“Wha- you-“ the Warden stammered and then suddenly started laughing. That felt entirely appropriate to the Lightbearer and she joined in. “You don’t- hahaha- you don’t just declare victory!”
“I just did!”
“...Ha...Haow... How many times did we fight?”
“Five times that mattered,” Rave responded, wondering where this would go.
Moira’s good green eye met her opponent’s gaze in complete jest. “Best out of nine?”
That broke the Lightbearer completely. Laughing madly, she extended a hand to help Moira up. The Warden took it. It almost caused both of them to go down. The redhead couldn’t control herself either. Incapable of stopping or letting go, at the end of the violence both parties laughed and shook hands.
Just as Lorelei had said.
Season 3 Arc 7 End.