A moment of tension ensued, both of them staring at each other and waiting for something. ‘Wonder if we would have ended up in this exact situation but in reverse, had I chosen Moira over Rave all that time ago.’ John rolled his neck to not get stiff from the anticipation. ‘Unlikely, but an interesting thought experiment.’

He had barely finished that sentence when the fight suddenly began. With a flare of blue around her, Rave darted forwards at extreme speed. She was met with an uppercut swing of Moira’s hammer. Reversing her momentum with a backwards jump, the techno lover pushed herself backwards.

An Aura of pure white ignited around Moira. Rave barely had touched the ground when the Warden took a single step and accelerated forwards at tremendous speed, practically sailing over the ground. Although John didn’t know that specific one, it was pretty easy to recognize a martial art.

‘She learned some new tricks,’ John thought, as he watched the high-speed battering ram close in on his girlfriend in a second. From her perspective, it must have been little more than the tower shield approaching at insane speed. A speed that even Rave found herself unable to react to on time, surprised as she was by it.

The impact sent Rave flying backwards, this time without any guided purpose. Back first, she landed in the sand. Moira set right after her, taking a single step and then raising her warhammer over her head and bringing it down like a smith aiming at the hot iron on an anvil. It could have been the decisive blow, but Rave reacted in time.

The hammer met her outstretched feet. It wasn’t a real impact, Rave only provided a counterforce to slow down the attack while still letting it descend. By the time her legs were almost completely folded, the descent had come to a standstill.

Moira was still in the advantageous position, and shifted her weight to add the pressure her attack had just lost. Something that Rave had bet on, as she opened her legs in a split second. The hammer slammed down into the sand. John let out a relieved sigh when he realized her perfect butt had not even gotten scratched.

Proving that she was quicker, Rave rolled up and pushed herself off the ground. A motion normally only serving to get up to her feet in a showy manner now served to launch herself heel first at Moira’s face. The upper edge of her shield was brought between them just in time.

A blast of energy burst through the thick, magical plate of metal. Only the scattered rest of it touched Moira’s face, so little it didn’t even make her blink. Copernicus’ blessing followed right thereafter, a ripple of light that spread from the impact outwards, but not even that bothered the Warden, standing her ground with stoic might.

John whistled, impressed, just as both brought some distance between them, to find better ways to engage again. While Rave prowled in circles around her target, cat ears raised attentively, Moira stood her ground and made sure the shield always faced her opponent. Both had their auras deactivated to regenerate some mana.

“Have you, perhaps, underestimated our Warden?” Lorelei asked. She had a soft and servile voice, the kind happy housewives stereotypically had. The Gamer couldn’t help but wonder if he could turn her into something just like that. She was exactly the kind of woman he was normally attracted to: gorgeous, odd, interesting, kind-hearted and able to hold a conversation. Potentially submissive was just a cherry on top.

“Not sure I would go that far…” John scratched his chin, trying not to leer too much at her breasts. Although neither absurdly large nor unveiled, her robe was very tight. “I just didn’t expect her to hold up to Rave. You did say you could receive visions earlier, can you tell the outcome of this duel?”

“My gift, albeit potent, does seldom allow me such precise glimpses.” Lorelei shook her head. “I’m a seer, my gift to find and tell prophecies outdoes most entities’ in the world, even many gods, but what I see is what the Lady lets me see. I may request help, I may touch related items to trigger a vision, but the Lady remains what my gift is caused by and bound to.”

‘The Golden Rose gets curiouser by the moment,’ John thought, glancing over back to the battlefield just in time to see his girlfriend raise her foot in a scarily familiar fashion. Her leg was angled at the knee, the foot and lower segment dangling in a straight line. Her aura ignited. Moira, perceiving a weakness in her enemy’s stance, charged forwards. “Well, this is about to get serious,” John warned and suddenly embraced Lorelei in a protective fashion.

Behind him, Rave’s Seismic Step caused the earth to quake. A fountain of sand exploded into the air from the sudden force. Small particles, pebbles and wet clumps all flew into the air and some of them bounced off John’s back. Once he was sure nothing else would come down, he backed off. Lorelei was beet red again.

“Sorry if that was a bit too sudden,” he apologized.

“It is of no concern!” she assured him, a bit too intensely.

There was no time to be amused or awe-struck by her adorable reaction, there was a fight to be had. Sand was too heavy to stay in the air for long, especially after rain, so the dispersion of particles did little to obscure the view. John witnessed as his girlfriend managed to get between Moira’s shield and hammer, courtesy of the redhead having her footing blown away.

The Gamer very much doubted that this had been Rave’s intention. Either the Lightbearer had decided it was time to do something or the song she was listening to had dropped and made her move out of loyalty to the rhythm. One would think fighting to a song would be predictable but, given that only she knew the song and that not even John understood how she picked which part of the ensemble she paid attention to, she was just a forward moving, chaotic bundle of focused fighting instincts.

Rave’s reinforced fists smashed against Moira’s chest three times, to sparkling, multi-coloured and golden light. One punch in the gut, one to the solar plexus and a third to the collarbone. Each attack caused blasts of energy that were still visible behind Moira as shimmers in the air. Before she could aim at the Warden’s head, the redhead shouted, “LADY, GRANT ME YOUR PROTECTION!”

A white-golden light flared up in front of her face, blocking Rave’s punch and consequently exploding into a wave that threw Rave back. Her feet dug a half-metre trail through the sand, as the ground absorbed the kinetic energy. “Oy, that’s cheating!” Rave complained, once she came to a standstill. “I ain’t calling Eliza here, so why do ya get to ask that sassy, prime-butt for help?”

“I’m merely an extension of the Lady’s power,” Moira asserted, scoldingly wagging the tip of her hammer at the pink-haired, half-Asian bombshell. “My channelling her aid through words is as much part of my powers as the rest of my abilities. If you do not accept this, you might as well accuse my entire Innate Ability to be cheating.”

“It kinda is, but fine,” Rave rolled her shoulders, “just gimme a second here, new song is about to start.”

“I don’t think I will,” Moira responded. Her white aura flared up and she accelerated in a moment’s notice. Rave stepped to the left side to escape the shield bash, hoping to get into her open right that way. A one-two combo of the redhead whirling her protection around in a sweeping gesture, immediately followed by a swipe of her hammer, covered any opening she could have had. Dodging both, Rave found herself in front of the living wall that was the Warden, who raised her hammer to shoulder height and stabbed.

Rave twisted out of the way, then had to take a step backwards as Moira advanced with a thrust of her shield. The motion repeated itself in exactly the same way. Three more times, four more times, the Warden did not let up. Using her hammer like a short spear, she acted like a single phalanx. Although less optimized for the task, her weapon could fulfil it, and the shield protected her either way. All Rave would be able to see from her perspective would be the shield, Moira’s head and the tip of the hammer.

John saw exactly what Moira’s battleplan was. For the sake of fairness, and because he knew Rave would have given him an earful if he intervened, he kept quiet. Step for step, his girlfriend was driven backwards. When she tried to dodge to the side, Moira threatened her with a swing. It was a short breathing period for the Lightbearer, but the redhead charged back into position and continued to press her into one direction.

Rave must have noticed what was going on when she felt the ground under her feet change from the wavy sand of the main beach to the muddy flat of the ocean adjacent area. Moira was trying to get her opponent into the water. An old and almost always valid strategy.

“FOR THE LA-!” Moira began to chant, likely to conjure an energy wave that would catapult Rave into the ocean. Before she could finish up, Rave suddenly charged forwards. Adjusting her plans the Warden thrust her hammer as before. A single skewer to the shoulder could tilt the whole match more decisively than driving a supernaturally nimble fighter into worse footing.

Rave disappeared before the pointed tip could hit her. Immediately, she reappeared behind Moira. Shift had carried her to the other side of her opponent, and now Rave was turning around for a high kick. A few successful blows, and it would be Moira who got to wade through the waves instead.

The Light Bearer, although more adept at them from the look of things, wasn’t the only user of martial arts in this fight though. Twisting around at immense speeds, Moira knocked aside the kick coming for her with her shield. Reacting quickly to the failure, Rave resumed a straight stance. The Warden’s hammer came down, but was met by a blast of multi-coloured light from Rave’s palm. Magic clashed against enchanted metal, light became kinetic energy and Moira’s attack was blown back. Out of bare necessity from the expenditures, Rave’s aura extinguished.

Controlled breaths would restore it, where the lack of daylight failed, but it wouldn’t come quick enough. “Lady bless me!” this plea was answered with a flash of light that descended on Moira, as she suddenly advanced. The shield slammed into Rave’s torso and sent her stumbling back. Before she could regain her footing, the redhead followed it up with one of her accelerated charges. Rave was thrown backwards and now completely off balance. Two quick steps, another bash with the shield.

John’s girlfriend barely escaped by throwing herself to the ground. In doing so, she opened herself up for an ugly but practical kick to the ribs. They were in the sand close to the green strip now. Rave took a desperate breath, regained as much mana as she could, and a ray of light was launched at Moira’s face. It bounced uselessly off her shield, which the Warden brought down on Rave’s body, the flat surface slamming the Lightbearer into the ground with enough force that the nearby sand was blown away.

Rave only groaned in pain. It had done damage, there was no doubt about it, but not enough to be fundamentally threatening to her. The continued immobilization by the tower shield pressing her entire body down through the power of the Warden was another matter entirely. The redhead was half-lying, a necessity to hold her shield in such a way that she could keep the force up. For the moment, she had let go of the hammer.

“Surrender,” the Warden demanded.

“Urgh,” Rave groaned, trying to draw air properly, but unable to take anything but shallow breaths. Anything more and she could have regained mana for a counterattack.

“Come on, I take no pleasure in drawing out your pain unnecessarily,” Moira pleaded. “Take your loss, we’ll both live another day regardless of the thing you wanted.

“F…ine,” Rave pressed out and got to inhale properly once the shield was lifted. “Ya win! Bah!” The Lightbearer kicked the sand in blind protest. “Best out of five!”

“You want another four rematches immediately?” Moira asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No, this is your second win, we gonna make it best out of five sometime else!” the Lightbearer explained herself as she sat up. “Not that I’m saying ya don’t get what we bet for today. Just call me up whenever ya want to have that tour. Do ya have my number?”

“No, how would I?”

“No clue, but the Abyss is weird, so ya could have.” Rave looked at the hand that was suddenly extended to her and took it, letting herself get pulled to her feet by the Warden. “Ya got nicer, even if you’re still sanctimonious as all everything.”

“And you got more patient, even if you’re still insufferable,” Moira returned and looked at John, Lorelei and the rest of the group as they closed in. “You better kept your hands to yourself, Mr Newman.”

“That’s my father, you can either call me President or just John or just Newman, if you want to try and be threatening,” John answered and stopped, only for Undine to flow past him and tend to Rave. There would be some unsightly bruises if she didn’t get healed. “You doing fine, by the way? I’ve seen what Jane’s punches can do to people. I’m surprised you aren’t spitting up blood or anything.”

“I was surprised to see she could punch through my protection, but I’m made of sturdier stuff than the average person,” Moira returned with a shrug, as she put her hammer back inside her shield. “Martial arts are another way of power, it’s normal that they wouldn’t be as decisive in battles against someone of equal or higher strength.”

That basically went without saying. Moira’s armour and shield were taken by a golden glow, intensifying over several seconds. Her body was only an outline of light for a few seconds, then all of it peeled off her in arcs of energy and condensed in her hand. Now back in the clothes she had been wearing previously, she held the shield-shaped pendant and hooked it back onto the chain around her neck.

“Although,” she added and pulled at the lower edge of her top, “I would be lying if I said it didn’t do any damage whatsoever.”

In the middle of her gut was a quickly darkening spot, about twice the diameter of Rave’s fist, with a lighter bruise surrounding it like a ring. The energy of the Penetrative Blast had scattered inside her and then a second impact from Copernicus’ blessing had made it worse. Moira moved with no visible sign of discomfort, after pulling her top back into normal position. This spoke either to her discipline or for the bruise to look worse than it was. Probably both.

“You sure you don’t want help with that?” John asked, gesturing at Undine. “Wouldn’t even be me who does the touching.”

“But you would share the sensations through your mental link.”

“Ah, well, maybe. I could give you my gentleman’s word that I won’t – I wouldn’t even touch the memory.”

“I don’t need to rely on your word, the Lady will have it fixed the moment I leave this Illusion Barrier,” Moira returned, not too aggressively. Her doubt towards his honour was relatively small, it seemed. That was something to be happy about. She was right though, just leaving the barrier would fix most physical issues. John had his girlfriend healed purely for comfort reasons. “Now if you have nothing else to discuss, I would like to take my leave.”

“Just the number,“ John pulled a business card with his private number on it from his inventory. “Send me a text there and I’ll forward Jane’s private number to you. I’d be much obliged if you kept official matters of diplomacy between our factions to the normal channels.

“The Order will honour that,” Moira promised, grabbed the card and raised her hand to leave. “Lorelei?”

“At your lead, Warden,” the seer said and turned to John for a second. “It has been pleasant to make your acquaintance, John Newman… man of gold and purple.” With those words, both left the barrier.

‘Strange that she’s focused on that particular aspect of me,’ John thought and walked over to his girlfriend, who was still standing. “So, how’re you doing?” he asked, not too concerned.

“Physically? Nothing Undine can’t fix. Otherwise, I’m absolutely disappointed in myself.”

“I can believe that.” John took her hand. “In your defence, it’s a cloudy day.”

“More mana wouldn’t have let me win there,” Rave shook her head, “I put all I could in those three punches and she shrugged them off with basically no issue. I’m quicker than her, but that’s about all.” Her cat ears disappeared and she took off her earphones. “Without my Aura, even that gap wasn’t too big. I need to become better.” She winked at him. “And thanks to your mark, tiger, I will.”

“You’re taking this pleasingly well,” the Gamer hummed.

“After dying to a crazy nazi experiment, getting barely resurrected by a blood infusion by the same, then going to Europe to meet my mother and consequently getting beaten up by her once, seeing a nuke go off in front of my eyes, returning to America and having to live through ya getting used to magical eyes, losing banal duels like this isn’t that bad,” Rave listed off a series of unpleasant things in the past.

“That is fair enough… still can’t believe you were dead once.”

“I mean, it was like ten seconds tops. Still better than people that drowned once.”

“You just look really pretty for a vampire thrall.”

“Ya do remember that the traitor cunt,” Rave spat the curse out with conviction, “ripped all of that blood out of me, ja?”

“Still, you’re a very pretty corpse.”

“Imma put ya ten feet under if ya don’t stop this line of jokes right now and kiss me, Johnny!”