Ravens of Eternity

133 Orsethii Reborn, Pt Orsethii visibly relaxed her guard by a millimeter after Eva’s question. But only just. The two of them might have held some respect for fellow pilots, but it didn’t mean they weren’t enemies.

After all, they were still in the middle of a deadly match.

Eva leapt forward, ducked into a roll, then sprang up blade-first at Orsethii. But her swing purposefully lacked power, and Orsethii was able to evade it with ease.

“So what, ape?” she said. “What’s it to you?”

“Why’re you even wasting your time here?” Eva countered. “In a dusty arena under the surface of your own planet? Aren’t you a pilot? Don’t have any pride in your wings? You oughta be flying! Up there, far out there!”

With each question she posed, she attacked Orsethii with her blade. But it was plainly obvious to the Drogar duelist that none were lethal in any sense of the word.

Basically, Eva stopped attacking to kill. Not that anyone else noticed.

Orsethii harrumphed in response.

“It’s none of your business why I’m down here!” she said. “And if you love flying so gods-damned much, why in heavens are you down here yourself?”

.....

Eva slashed at Orsethii and just barely left a scratch across her chest.

Cheers and boos swept through the crowd in waves. They hoped that the human bladedancer would at least put up a decent fight. Even those who wanted to see her fall. What they got exceeded their expectations by a great margin.

“‘Coz I’m grounded, dammit!” Eva yelled. “If I could fly, I would! You think I wanna be down here, slugging it out with meatheads and their blades?”

The Drogar hopped backwards to avoid further attacks, reset her balance, then thumped on her armored chest with a reinforced fist. A WHONGG resounded as she growled a response at Eva.

“I’ll show you what a meathead can do!” she said.

She drew herself back, as though she was gathering herself, then shot forward with tremendous force. Sand kicked up behind her as she rocketed towards Eva. Orsethii cocked back a huge fist, then swung it at the flimsy-looking human in front of her.

Eva fell back to avoid her strike decisively. She knew that a single direct hit from Orsethii would have been the match. The Drogar was much more physically capable than her. Or, at least, had higher potential.

But even as she backed off, Orsethii pressed her attack. She advanced forward with deft footwork, and launched punch after punch in Eva’s direction.

But none met their mark. Eva fell to a fully defensive dance and evaded her opponent with expert precision. Every strike Orsethii made was all but useless.

All other duelists had stopped their fights not just because they lost their audience, but because they too were caught up in Eva and Orsethii’s duel. Not a single one of them would have believed any human could go against a Reborn.

Never mind living past a few scant seconds, but being able to keep up? To them, Eva was clearly not just some human.

Some were glad they didn’t have to face either of them.

Monsters!

“Why so defensive?” asked Eva. “It’s an honest question!”

A swarm of blades flashed by Orsethii’s head while a flurry of fists rained around Eva’s.

“Why not keep your questions to yourself, ape!” Orsethii answered.

Her response came with a few more jabs, but were unable to connect in the slightest.

Although the both of them were panting from constant exertion, their breaths were relatively even. Eva kept her stamina in check simply by keeping herself mostly on the defensive. As long as she didn’t overextend herself with any reckless or pointless attacks, she would be able to last a long while.

She knew this was a fight of attrition, and at some point one of them was going to make a mistake. Whoever it was, it was going to cost them the match. But if both of them gave it their all and didn’t even fuck up a single time – well then it would become a test of endurance and stamina.

Eva was certain she had less total energy. She had no choice but to break through, but first she needed an opening. She grit her teeth as she studied her opponent.

Orsethii was clearly a highly practiced hand to hand combatant. Her moves were clean and precise – the product of years of practice. Eva’s couple hundred hours of bladedancing experience was formidable, but paled in comparison to her current opponent.

Though she was physically stronger and tougher, Eva was the more nimble and agile. As long as she played to her strengths, she could win.

Once Orsethii began to breathe heavily from her repeated attacks, Eva began to spin up the tempo of her dance. She spun inside Orsethii’s defenses, and in between attacks, right when Orsethii had only one foot on the ground, Eva struck.

She lashed out at Orsethii’s inner right thigh and sliced a thin cut across it. Thanks to the large gaps in her plate armor, the wound was long. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very deep, and only a sliver of blood seeped out.

The Drogar yelped in pain, then backed up to prevent any more damage. But because she was in the middle of an attack, she stumbled as she did so. She did her best to recover with her footwork, but Eva continued to press her attack.

She spun left and right and slashed at Orsethii with perfectly controlled strikes. Each and every one she threw was done to keep her opponent off-balance and on the run.

The crowd went wild when they saw the reversal happen. The human went from being almost completely suppressed to pushing forward aggressively. All within the span of a moment!

The anti-humans had gone berserk within the stands. They threw slurs, insults, threats, whatever they could to attack Eva. Others in their ranks instead cheered on Orsethii and prodded her to prevail.

“You were Reborn to beat that scum!”

“Don’t fail your descendents!”

“Crush the ape with your power!”

In order to preserve her stamina, Eva made sure to put in low amounts of energy into her slashes and thrusts. After all, because her opponent was only half-armored, she didn’t need to use extra power to cut through its thickest portions. All she needed to do was hit her in the spaces between.

The Drogar had a clear physical advantage that Eva needed to whittle away, and the gaps were the perfect way. Orsethii might have been used to fighting regular Drogar, and could defend against them, but defending against Eva’s speed was something else altogether.

Although the Drogar evaded or parried Eva’s blade every other time, she still found herself with numerous cuts all over the unprotected portions of her body. She quickly realized that she was getting nicked to death and charged into Eva to break their bind.

She simply rushed forward and attempted to catch Eva by the neck with a wide sweep of her arm. And when her opponent bent backwards gracefully to evade, Orsethii instead leapt forward, tumbled into a roll, then spun around to face Eva again.

By the time Eva sprang back up, there was a half dozen meters of space between them. She lowered her guard, then spoke with a slightly mocking tone.

“Running away?” she said.

Inside her armor, Eva was sweating buckets and panting heavily. She scanned her opponent as she circled her with a slow, defensive dance.

Orsethii’s breathing was also heavy and a little ragged. The cuts and nicks around some of the more unprotected parts of her body were small and thin, but as a whole looked painful. They were no doubt distracting as hell, too.

“Let’s talk stats,” said Eva, “Pilot to pilot.”

Orsethii collected herself and began to counter-circle Eva.

“I’ve no words to share with an ape,” replied Orsethii.

“Look, just put down the bullshit for a second,” said Eva. “Mammalian brain, reptilian brain, it’s all the goddamned same pink soup in the end. Tell me what you flew.”

Orsethii simply hissed at her in response.

Both their breaths began to ease back down to more manageable levels, and their movements became sharper once again. Eva adjusted her stance as Orsethii loosened her shoulders.

“Fine. I’ll go first,” Eva continued, “Before I woke up in this universe, my hangar had twenty-one different S-ranked mecha chassis. Can you believe that? A suit for every occasion. Too bad I didn’t get to keep a single one. How ’bout you? Did you get to keep your Devastator Mecha?”

Orsethii’s eyes narrowed.

“This universe?” she asked.

“That’s right,” answered Eva. “You’re not the only species blessed with Reborn.”

The Drogar harrumphed.

“Well this explains why you’re not dead yet,” she said.

Over the next few moments, their breathing leveled off, and their stamina regenerated a small amount. Eva began to wind inwards with her dance, and Orsethii hopped closer in light zig-zags, which grew wider as they neared.

Then, both duelists leapt towards each other with astounding speed and force. Eva lashed out with her blade as Orsethii swung forward with her fist.

When both clashed in the middle, a wave of energy swept out from the point of impact, which could be felt across the stands. The closest spectators were able to feel the pressure of it on their faces. It was as though a sudden blast of wind hit them in the face.

Some sat agape in absolute wonder. They stopped caring who won at this point, and just wanted to see which truly was the better.

The other duelists were left agape at the display of raw power, speed, and skill that the two duelists exhibited. Since they were closer, they certainly felt the force of the blow.

It made their hearts leap.

Eva was thrown back after her blade was repelled by Orsethii’s strike. She sailed in the air for nearly a half dozen meters before she flipped rightway up and backstepped until she regained her balance.

The power Orsethii exhibited shocked Eva. Her arm trembled as the impact’s vibrations traveled up and down her blade. She quickly flicked her beltknife, flexed her arm, and canceled out the remnants of Orsethii’s power.

She needed to end this before she made a mistake. So she doubled down on provoking her anger. Since the Drogar was an incredibly prideful species, she knew how to hit her opponent just right.

“I get it now!” she exclaimed. “You’re afraid to die! Down here, you’re a god. Nothing can beat you. But in a mecha... any pilot could. What a complete waste!”

“You filthy ape!” screamed Orsethii. “How dare you call me a coward!”

Anger bubbled up from within her, then roared into the air and unleashed it all. Once again, she drew herself in, then shot forward at Eva. This time however, her speed and power were far greater. She was so fast that Eva barely had time to get into a defensive stance.

It only took a fraction of a second for the Drogar to reach Eva. And just as she came within striking distance, she launched her right fist right into Eva’s helmet. And unlike the first time, Eva was unable to evade it. She barely even saw her opponent move.

The armored fist struck her squarely, and shattered a portion of her helmet. Shards of metal flew in the air as the huge reinforced metal fist smashed right into Eva’s right eye.

Eva was thrown over a dozen meters before she fell face-first into the sand. She rolled a couple of times before she stopped and settled into a heap, mere centimeters from the ring’s edge.

Her helmet had splintered open, which exposed the right side of her face. Cuts from the shattered metal had cut into her temple. Her right eyebrow started to swell severely and had a huge split. Blood flowed freely out of her lacerations, down onto her eyes, and further across her face.

And although she was breathing, she certainly wasn’t moving.