Chapter 504. Two Dying Flames Guttering Out

Chapter 504: 504. Two Dying Flames Guttering Out

William, still seated on his bench, caught Catherine’s eye across the yard. He found her watching the scene with the particular, fond exasperation of someone who had long since given up trying to make sense of the chaos and had instead settled comfortably into simply enjoying the spectacle.

Her silent smile said everything: ’This is exactly what we deserved.’

But the spectacle was about to become something far more primal.

The match didn’t begin with a test of skill; it began with an explosion of intent. Kaela moved first, her body coiled like a spring before snapping forward.

"Let’s see how you handle a real storm, Lia!" she roared, her voice carrying across the courtyard as she launched herself forward.

The air itself seemed to ripple as Kaela activated the enchantments woven into her Tempest Fang gauntlets. A faint, crackling aura of wind and lightning coalesced around her fists, humming with lethal energy.

She closed the distance in three impossible strides, each step cracking the packed earth beneath her boots.

Lia didn’t flinch.

"Come then, Princess!" she challenged, her voice steady despite the approaching hurricane.

As Kaela swung a devastating horizontal haymaker, Lia activated her own defensive magic.

"Tide Stance: Flowing Current!" she commanded.

A faint blue translucence shimmered around her greatsword as she met Kaela’s strike not with brute force, but with perfect, fluid redirection.

The impact sounded like a thunderclap BOOM as the wind magic from the gauntlets collided with the water-enhanced steel. Sparks of blue and white light sprayed across the yard like shrapnel.

The force of the collision sent a shockwave through the ground that made the spectators stumble. Kaela’s first strike didn’t land, but the sheer pressure of Lia’s redirection forced her to skid backward, her boots carving twin furrows in the dirt.

"Too slow, Lia!" Kaela hissed, already pivoting.

She didn’t give Lia time to reset. She became a blur of motion, her fists becoming a cascade of lightning-enhanced strikes.

Clang! Crack! Whirr!

Each blow was accompanied by the distinctive whine of displaced air and the sharp crackle of electricity.

Lia danced backward, her greatsword moving in intricate patterns to parry the relentless assault. "You’re overcommitting, Kaela!"

"You’re leaving your ribs exposed every time you wind up that left hook!" Lia shouted over the cacophony of metal and magic.

"Then come and take them!" Kaela countered, her eyes blazing.

She channeled more power into her gauntlets, the wind magic intensifying until it formed visible spirals around her arms. "Thunderclap Strike!"

She slammed both fists together in front of her chest. The resulting concussive blast of wind was so violent it forced the nearest guards to shield their eyes.

Lia reacted instinctively, driving the flat of her greatsword into the ground to create a barrier of water magic, but the sheer pressure of the wind forced her to one knee.

The sound of the impact was a wet and grinding CRUNCH as the displaced air pressure momentarily buckled the protective magical barrier.

Lia gritted her teeth, the strain visible in the tendons of her neck. "Is that all?"

"I’ve had worse drills from Ardyn before breakfast! " With a guttural cry, she unleashed her own counterattack. "Wavecleaver Arc: Crushing Tide!"

She swung the greatsword in a devastating, wide arc, the blade trailing a crescent of pressurized water that cut through the air with a terrifying whoosh. The magical blade wasn’t just cutting air; it was carrying the weight of a breaking wave.

Kaela read the telegraph the way Lia’s shoulders dropped and the water coalesced around the edge a half second before it landed. She threw herself sideways into a desperate roll, feeling the icy spray of the water magic sear past her cheek.

The force of the missed swing was so great it created a vacuum that pulled Kaela toward the blade, forcing her to dig her gauntlet into the dirt to anchor herself.

’Damn it, she’s getting stronger,’ Kaela thought, her heart hammering against her ribs.

Her inner monologue was a frantic assessment of Lia’s shifting patterns. ’She’s not just parrying anymore; she’s trying to overwhelm my magical reserves.’

Kaela scrambled upright, immediately diving back into the fray.

"My turn to control the weather!" she yelled.

She slammed her fist into the ground, sending a localized shockwave of wind outward to disrupt Lia’s footing.

The two women collided again in the center of the yard, a chaotic symphony of steel, wind, and water. The sounds were visceral: the metallic ring of blade on gauntlet, the wet slap of magical barriers breaking, and the occasional ominous thud as boots met earth with bone-jarring force.

The crowd along the edges of the yard had gone fully invested. Ellie was practically vibrating on her crate, waving her improvised flag with increasing, frantic enthusiasm every time Kaela landed a clean hit that sent sparks flying off Lia’s armor.

Clara, meanwhile, was a portrait of focused intensity, her quill scratching furiously against parchment even as she shouted observations.

"Kaela’s footwork has improved considerably since the academy!" she yelled over the thunderous clash of elements. "Weight distribution is noticeably more efficient!"

"Lia’s redirect timing has also tightened significantly, likely a result of the Corps’ advanced kinetic training regimen!"

"Nobody wants the technical commentary right now, Clara!" Ellie shouted back, her eyes locked on the swirling vortex of magic in the center of the yard. "Just watch! This is insane!"

"The commentary remains valuable regardless of emotional investment!" Clara shouted back defiantly, not missing a single syllable of the combat as she documented the precise moment Lia’s water magic began to spiral into a more aggressive offensive pattern.

For twenty grueling minutes, the courtyard became a crucible of elemental fury and raw human endurance. This was no longer a demonstration of technique; it had devolved into a war of attrition.

The air in the yard felt thick, ionized by Kaela’s lightning and humid from the spray of Lia’s water magic, creating a misty, charged atmosphere that clung to everything.

They traded advantages like currency in a desperate market. One moment, Kaela would press an overwhelming offensive, her gauntlets screaming with wind pressure as she unleashed a flurry of strikes that sounded like cannon fire—BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—forcing Lia into a desperate defensive spiral.

The next, Lia would seize a sliver of opening, using her greatsword to whip a torrent of pressurized water across the yard, catching Kaela mid-stride and sending her skidding across the dirt.

Kaela’s breathing was no longer controlled; it was ragged, each inhale a desperate struggle against the burning in her lungs. Her vision blurred at the edges.

’Just one more opening,’ she screamed at herself internally. ’One clean hit through that watery shield and it’s over.’

’Don’t let her dictate the rhythm.’

’Break the rhythm.’

Lia was in no better condition. Sweat streaked through the grime on her face, and a thin trickle of blood ran from a small cut above her eyebrow where a stray spark from Kaela’s gauntlets had grazed her.

Her muscles screamed with every swing of the greatsword, the weight of the blade feeling twice as heavy as it had twenty minutes ago.

’She’s faster than she looks,; Lia thought grimly, her teeth gritted. Every time I think I’ve found her pattern, she shifts.’

’She’s like the wind, impossible to pin down.’

The violence grew more desperate as exhaustion set in. The clean, flowing motions of their training had been replaced by something uglier and more visceral.

Kaela swung with raw desperation, a punch aimed at Lia’s ribs that carried enough wind pressure to crack the stone tiles beneath Lia’s feet.

Lia didn’t parry with elegance this time; she stepped into the strike, taking the blow on her armored shoulder with a sickening THUD that made her entire frame shudder, only to use that contact to drive the pommel of her sword into Kaela’s sternum.

The sound of the impact, a wet, bone-jarring CRUNCH made the spectators gasp. Kaela gasped for air; the wind knocked completely out of her, but she refused to fall. She rolled away, coughing violently, blood speckling the dirt.

"Still standing, Princess?" Lia taunted, though her voice was cracked and strained.

"Try me, Commander’s pet!" Kaela spat back, wiping blood from her lip with the back of a gauntlet.

The final exchange arrived not with a roar, but with the hollow sound of two dying flames guttering out. Both women were operating on pure instinct now, their bodies moving through muscle memory while their minds screamed for rest.

Kaela saw a momentary lapse in Lia’s stance as she lowered her guard to reset. Kaela threw everything she had left into one final, desperate haymaker, her gauntlet glowing with a dying, flickering light.

Simultaneously, Lia committed to one last, sweeping arc of her greatsword, a last-ditch effort to overwhelm Kaela’s guard with the sheer momentum of the blade.

The two attacks met squarely in the center of the yard. The collision was devastating: a resounding, metallic CLANG that reverberated through the very foundations of the palace.

The magical discharge wind meeting water created a final, pathetic burst of steam that enveloped them both. The shared force of the impact was too much; it acted like a physical wall, sending both combatants stumbling backward.

They hit the ground within half a second of each other. Lia collapsed on her back, her greatsword slipping from her numb fingers with a dull scrape against the stone.