Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 197

Chapter 197: Relearning to Fight

Serrena and Lysette stood back to back and each walked ten paces before turning around and bowing to one another.  Lysette tilted her neck back and forth, eliciting a single crack, while Serrena stretched her arms behind her neck, groaning a bit as she did.

“Alright, Rayleigh,” Serrena said.  “Your training for this morning is to watch the two of us.  I don’t think you can move like we do or fully anticipate all of our movements just yet.  But if your eyes can track us, it’ll be a good indication that you’re making strides as a Cultivator.”

Rayleigh nodded.  “As you say.”

“Now then, Lyse.”  Serrena made a beckoning motion with her hands.  “At your ready.”

Lysette waited, analyzing Serrena’s fighting stance.  As expected, it was completely impenetrable.  Not a single weakness to be found.  And with her already knowing about Lysette’s teleportation ability, she certainly had preparations for an attack from whatever angle Lysette might try.

She instead chose the straightforward frontal assault.  It wouldn’t work, but she would get a better sense for how Serrena intended to counter.  She charged forward, sprinting at nearly her top speed and closing the gap in under a quarter second.  A quick jab sent a wave of air at Serrena, who was unfazed and batted away the punch with her forearm.  A subsequent feint was promptly ignored, and the volley of ice shards which Lysette launched were vaporized long before they met their mark.

Serrena unleashed a torrent of flame which Lysette scrambled to evade.  She blocked the next flaming orb with her Ice Blade, annihilating both and filling the surroundings with a thick vapor.  With visibility reduced somewhat, she focused through the fog with her left eye and closed the gap, using her aura to supplement her visual acuity as the two engaged in yet another round of close-quarters combat.

Punches collided with hands and forearms, while others were deflected or evaded.  Those which hit did so with enough force to send shockwaves through the foothills, scattering birds and wildlife and adding further to nature’s quiet song.  Even with the fog still covering their battlefield, Serrena wasn’t slowed down an inch.  Her own eyes were closed, and Lysette wondered: Did she have some aurasight ability like her own, or was Serrena fighting purely on instinct and sound alone?

In either case, Serrena pushed Lysette even harder than before, mixing in flaming spheres from all around with yet more fists, reminiscent of Lysette’s previous fighting style.  The fog vaporized, revealing the sun once more.  And through it all, Lysette could only stay defensive, evading attacks and falling back as Serrena continued pushing the initiative.  But just as Serrena closed in and surrounded her from every possible angle, at the last second, Lysette warped, emerging an instant later a few paces away.

Even Lysette’s post-teleport attack was ineffective.  Serrena seemed to have found a way to temporarily convert her physical body into flames.  Although she wasn’t able to hold the dissolution for more than a second, it was still enough to dodge the attack.

“I was wondering when you’d start taking this seriously, Lyse.”  Serrena smiled.  “Ready to continue when you are!”

Lysette charged forward once more, again jabbing as before, but when Serrena didn’t react, Lysette’s body teleported by pure instinct, narrowly evading a wall of flame erupting out of the ground.  She attacked again, sidestepping around two more plumes of pyretic uprising before reaching the unflappable demigoddess standing before her.

This time, she coated her hands in gauntlets of ice and punched clean through the shimmering haze that surrounded Serrena.  Even protected as her fists were, she still felt the singe of the incredible heat radiating out from the roaring flames.  But she persevered, and the chill of the knuckles was able to cancel Serrena’s flame dissolution.  Serrena attempted to respond with an even faster attack, a quick jab to Lysette’s stomach, but after a quick jump to reposition herself, she reappeared and scored a glancing blow across Serrena’s shoulder.  Then she jumped again, even quicker this time, to avoid the counterattack.

Her heart raced and her blood quickened from the intensity of the attack.  The Domains of Ambition and Reciprocity resonated.  And as the two clashed once more, a single unspoken desire formed, born of two minds: to push each other right up to and beyond their limits.

But Lysette knew she needed some way to close the gap in their offensive and defensive capabilities.  Her only chance was to use her new plant animation techniques, and to do so in a way that Serrena wouldn’t predict and couldn’t counter.  But there weren’t many flame-resistant plants, and none that she could see in the vicinity.

As she evaded Serrena’s next round of attacks, she used her left eye to peer through the dirt, looking for something, anything that might turn the tide.  And after a minute which felt like an hour, she finally found something.  A small seed, hardly larger than a grain of rice, buried about six inches under the topsoil.  A pyriscent species of redwood, and one particularly resistant to damage from flame.  She called it to her with her plant animation and stored it within the sleeve of her blouse, waiting for the opportune time to wield it.

She danced out of the way of the next barrage, backflipping and sidestepping each plume with grace and celerity.  No opportunity to use her secret weapon had emerged yet, but the small wound on Serrena’s right shoulder seemed the perfect target.

Mirae and Rayleigh were watching with bated breath, but as the two combatants pushed even faster, they each began cheering, the former for Lysette and the latter for Serrena.  And with so much noise, Kiarra and Amalia had shown up as well, watching with just as much awe as the other two.

Lysette pressed the fight further, looking for the perfect opportunity to strike.  She fought through pain and flame so intense even her innate resistance to heat was being overwhelmed.  Her attacks were slowing down bit by bit and her stamina was running low from so many teleports in rapid succession.  But while Serrena looked far from fresh, her stamina was far higher than Lysette’s, and she would win a battle of attrition.

She knew she had to act, and fast.  Gathering her remaining strength, she sprouted her wings and coated herself with ice, ready to gamble the entire fight’s result on the next and final clash.  She charged one final time, not bothering to evade the weaker attacks aimed at her.  Some of them punched through her icy armor, diving through the gaps made by the joints and burrowing into her skin.

The burns on her arms and chest screamed at her with a searing sensation that drained her strength with every step, and Serrena’s confidence and arrogance was growing with every step.  But Lysette had her target— the small wound which remained in Serrena’s right arm, and she calculated.  She knew Serrena’s tendencies, as well as her own, and now it was time to mix it up.

She jumped early, reappearing a half-step behind where she’d been previously, before leaping into the air to avoid the magmatic plume bursting from her feet.  She began her dive toward Serrena, creating hundreds of hexagonal plates of ice and constantly reforming them as a barrier from the overwhelming temperature hurtling toward her.  But Serrena was making no attempt to dodge, just as Lysette had calculated.

Lysette pulled the small seedling out of her blouse and grabbed it between the index and middle finger of her left hand.  And when Serrena appeared to be gloating in her apparent victory, Lysette threw it alongside a bevy of hundreds of ice shards to serve as a distraction.  With her ability to manipulate and animate plant matter, she curved the seed around, letting it pass through the flames just enough to ensure its germination.  And as her icy shards fizzled against their mark, she guided it into Serrena’s wound and collapsed to the ground.

“Well, Lyse,” Serrena said.  “You fought valiantly, but it seems your attempts to best me came up just short.”  She extended a hand.  “But well fought.”

Lysette smiled as Serrena’s arm held frozen in place, transfixed by the now-germinated seedling burrowed in the wound from earlier.  With another mental command, the plant forced Serrena’s arm to the ground, taking the fiery demigoddess’s body kneeling along with it.  And Serrena scowled with anger.

“What in the Infernal realm did you do this time?”

“My last attack.  Earlier while we were fighting, I found a seedling from a special type of pyrophilic redwood tree.  It was dormant at the time, but by coating it within your flames, I coerced it into germinating.  In the wound from earlier.  And now, with my ability to manipulate plants, I’m afraid your body is at my mercy.  And don’t try to burn it either; it’s virtually flameproof.”

Serrena shook her head and sighed.  “Yep, sounds just like you, Lyse.  You should by all rights be defeated.  Your body is at its limit, you’re injured all over, and you were outclassed the entire fight.  And yet, somehow, whether through someone up there smiling on you or sheer dumb luck, you pull a win like that out of your ass.”  She lowered her head.  “Fine, you got me.  I admit defeat.”

Lysette dropped to a knee beside Serrena.  “Alright, let me go ahead and guide this out of you.  If you wouldn’t mind holding still.”

“Yes, hold still, because I can very definitely move right now.”

Serrena grimaced as Lysette gently coaxed the seedling out of her arm, threading carefully to ensure that no root or stem fragment remained embedded somewhere deep in her muscles.  Once she finished extracting the plant, she eyed Serrena’s arm with the Scrying Stone one additional time to ensure the extraction’s success.  She offered a quick nod and buried the sapling into the dirt beside her before collapsing onto the ground.

“Lyse!” Amalia said.  “Are you okay?”

Mirae knelt down beside Lysette and clasped her hand, imparting a bit of cooling sensation into her.  “As always, my love pushed herself too hard in what was supposed to be a sparring match and a practice session to help her recuperate.  But she’s stubborn in body and spirit alike, and injuries as minor as those will keep her down for… A few hours, at most?”

Lysette smiled.

“I’ll make sure she gets at least that much rest.”

“Well, Rayleigh, did you learn the most important lesson out of this fight?” Serrena asked

“I did, Serrena.  I learned that, no matter how far you strive, the path of Ambition is one without end.  There will always be someone better, and even when there isn’t, we need to continue blazing forward to be the best.  Because there will always be people hot on our heels.”

“That’s a good lesson, Rayleigh.  But there’s an even more important lesson.  Overconfidence is the quickest path to the grave.  I thought I’d won; I was certain that Lyse didn’t have the strength to defeat me, and I didn’t even consider the level of diversions and strategizing she was considering.”

Serrena spat.  “Damn, it hurts like hell getting outsmarted by her.  But anyway, don’t let your guard down until you’ve confirmed the mission is complete and your foes are incapacitated or dead.  And even then, be wary that they might try something underhanded like what you just saw.”

“As you command, Serrena.”

Mirae turned to Amalia.  “Can you fetch Lilia and have her come back to our place?”

“Um, sure.  Is something the matter?”

“I use Ice techniques, but I’m not great with Water techniques despite the two being similar on the surface.  And exposure to ice is worse for burn wounds than cool water.”

“I understand,” Amalia said.  She nodded and ran toward the northeast.

“Alright, Lyse,” Mirae said, picking her up in their arms.  “I think that’s enough practice for one day.  Kiarra, can you guard the northern perimeter and keep watch for Terean partisans?  I’ll keep a mental link between us if you see anything.”

Kiarra tsked.  But then shook her head and then nodded.  “Sorry, old habits.  I’ll do as you ask.  Though I’ll need lunch pretty soon.”

“Alright, and thank you both.”

“Yes, thank you, Kiarra,” Lysette whispered.  She closed her eyes and enjoyed the refreshing sensation of Mirae’s embrace as they carried her back to her bed.

Chapter 196: https://www.patreon.com/posts/111625025

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/table-of-101896170

Chapter 198: https://www.patreon.com/posts/111625034