Ravens of Eternity

331 Rematch, Pt Freya and Lucifer both soared across the sky in one of the fleet’s fancy two-seater jets. The fleet adopted a handful of these smaller civilian craft – three touring jets and a shuttle – partially for any non-military tasks they needed to do.

Not everything they did involved guns and blood, after all.

More than that, however, they got them because they wanted to encourage the citizens of the republic to go exploring, be daring, and enjoy their lives. So whenever they went to port for supplies or to make harbor or to join a meeting, the civilians had the chance to do just that.

So they went exploring and traveling and sightseeing whenever they had the chance. Not only did they enjoy themselves greatly, but they also brought footage for the Raven’s OmniCast. Even better, they also brought back goodies and treats, too.

Freya banked the jet to the right and made a sweeping arc around a beautiful mountainous forest. This allowed Lucifer to peer through the jet’s transparent metal canopy and scan the land below them.

“Here looks good,” ze said.

The jet then performed a slow corkscrew as Freya descended downwards, to what appeared to be a waterfall coming down from a short cliffside. At its base was a rather beautiful lake, which then narrowed down into a thin, winding river that split the forest around it in two.

She carefully maneuvered the hovering jet above a relatively flat clearing, a few dozen meters downriver of the lake, and landed the jet gracefully.

Its canopy slid open as the two unbuckled themselves from their seats. Then they hopped out and looked all around them as they stretched their muscles a bit.

.....

Both of them marveled at the sights and sounds and smells all around them. A light wind whistled through the trees, even as the loud splashing of the waterfall dominated the landscape. More than that, the way the plants smelled around them filled the both of them with rejuvenating energy.

The rawness of it all made them both feel completely at ease and one with the land around them. Once they got a good look around them, they walked into the woods in front of them.

“No holds barred, right?” Lucifer asked slyly.

“To a point, I guess,” Freya answered. “Last thing I wanna do is uproot a buncha trees or tear up the landscape or redirect that river or something. I guess none of that?”

“Fair enough. And it makes sense, since it’s a Hegemony-designated sanctuary planet and all that. Wouldn’t want to run afoul of the Hegemony bluecoats, or their prosecutors. Would hate to get fined for having a bit of fun.”

“Mhm. I was thinking more about the wildlife.”

“Well, good for you.”

The two continued through the woods. And though they were relatively thick, there was still plenty of room for them to maneuver around. The trees themselves looked rather thick and robust, and could likely handle a good amount of punishment.

Freya put a hand on one of the trees and looked up its thick trunk. Then she scanned the immediate area surrounding them and noted how muted the waterfall sounded. It all looked incredibly ideal to her.

“How ’bout here?” she asked. “Looks like a good place to start, yeah?”

Lucifer looked around, and agreed audibly.

Ze rolled hir elbow and stretched hir neck, even while Freya began to circle hir. After a few moments, the two slid into their stances, though neither stayed that way.

Everytime Lucifer made an adjustment to hir arms, or hir footing, Freya adjusted hers to counter. And vice-versa. Whenever Freya would step forward or back, Lucifer would immediately react and adjust hir position. Ze wanted to ensure that the distance worked in hir favor.

They had sparred with each other so many times in the many months since they first held their duel, but none were with any measure of power. Or, rather, they focused on their techniques instead of the rest of their abilities.

Now that they had a chance to stretch out a bit more, neither didn’t even hesitate to do so. They wanted to know if either of them had gained on the other.

Freya tapped straight into her Ascendant Form, and allowed a portion of her energies to flow through her. Lucifer quickly followed suit and opened up hir True Harmony. Ze allowed hirself to bathe every cell with heaps of energy.

Then, satisfied with the swell of power, ze shot forward with explosive force. Freya met hir attack with her own counter-charge, and caught Lucifer’s fist with an open palm. At the same time, her own fist was caught by Lucifer’s.

Their clash was powerful enough that a small shock wave burst forth the moment their hands and fists met.

But they stood deadlocked immediately afterwards, a testament to the evenness of their power and skill and willpower. The two pushed against each other with tremendous force, and their arms shook from the pressure.

“You sure you’re up for this?” taunted Freya. “You’ve been spending more time onboard than on the ground. Who knows how rusty you’ve gotten...”

“Spare me,” Lucifer shot back. “As if those weaklings you’ve fought against posed any kind of challenge at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve gotten lazier because of ’em.”

The two broke from each other and leapt back, but only momentarily. Lucifer pressed an attack with a leaping spin kick, then ducked down for a low leg sweep, both of which Freya easily evaded. Ze immediately rolled backwards and spun out of the way just as she flanked to hir right and threw a fierce uppercut at hir ribs.

Hir eyes widened as ze felt Freya’s knuckles just barely brush against hir clothes.

Too close!

Though Lucifer was tempted to back off to regroup, ze instead decided to press forward. Just as the strength of Freya’s counterattack faded, ze leapt forward with a knee.

Ze then followed up with a few fists, elbows, and kicks, each of which Freya evaded or parried with grace. And when she returned the favor, Lucifer also parried and evaded with style.

Though, ze noted that hir reactions seemed fractions of a second later than they should be...

But ze pushed it aside quickly and poured more energy into hir body in response. Freya had long since shown hir that overthinking during a fight was its own pitfall. Better to let hir fighting instincts take over in those instances.

“And by the way, I’ve been training plenty with my pilots and my marines,” Freya argued, many blows later. “We all work hard to improve our martial skills. And that’s a whole lot more than what you do with your people!”

“Hmph,” ze replied. “We do our own exercises, thank you very much. As a weapon, fists just don’t rank high with us.”

As the two fought and taunted each other, their energies rose higher and higher. As Lucifer ratcheted up hir strength and speed, Freya raised hers to match.

Every blow and parry they landed caused the ground around them to shudder from the force.

“And besides,” Lucifer continued, “if the tacticians and analysts are doing the rank-and-file kind of pedestrian-style fighting, then you’ve got a way bigger problem on your hands.”

Ze leapt up, planted her legs on the side of a tree, then shot straight towards Freya with all hir might.

Though Lucifer rocketed towards Freya with ridiculous power, she simply leaned into her old dance. She took a half step to the side, grabbed Lucifer as she spun, and flung hir straight towards the ground with as much strength as she could add.

But instead of slamming Lucifer into the ground, ze simply extended hir arms out, flipped forward, then rolled until ze got back on hir feet.

Lucifer quickly spun around with hir arms up and faced Freya as soon as ze could, anticipating an attack from behind.

But Freya maintained her position, and instead raised her arms up as well, then took a half step forward aggressively.

Both of them were panting from exertion, but nowhere near close to tapping out.

Though Lucifer noted that hir breaths were harder than Freya’s, which shouldn’t have been possible. It made hir question if ze actually was lagging behind, despite the fact that ze kept up hir physical regimen every cycle.

Practically religiously.

Ze knew that Freya didn’t have as much time to do so, and couldn’t fathom how she was beating hir in the stamina department.

“Pedestrian-style fighting, huh?” said Freya. “And yet here you are, powered up, in top form, and lusting for blood.”

Lucifer grinned at her evilly.

Ze adjusted hir stance and began to circle Freya once again. Hir feet navigated over the myriad clumps of grass and bulging roots that stuck up from the ground, even while ze kept hir gaze on Freya’s form.

“I’m not after blood,” ze said. “I just enjoy the simple things in life, like you. The chase, the fight, the victory, the dominance. A bit of the gloating, too.”

Ze launched hirself forward again, and entered into a flurry of spinning flying kicks, each of them filled with devastating power. Freya only partially blocked the first one, and was pushed backwards as a result.

Lucifer pushed hir advantage and continued to throw a frenzied combo of fists and elbows at Freya, and pressed her. Their strength and power was more than enough to cause her footwork to stumble and skip with every blow.

Ze followed up with an overhand chop that came straight down on Freya’s left shoulder, which caused her to fall to one knee temporarily. The ground around her shook violently from the blow, and kicked up a small amount of dirt into the air.

On top of that, a wave of force rippled outward from the point of impact, which caused the woods immediately surrounding them to shiver.

She quickly swatted hir arms away, then jumped back to regroup from the blow. Her face puckered slightly from the pain, and paced back and forth while she rubbed her deltoid and rolled her shoulder.

Pain spread out from where Lucifer hit her, and she did her best to massage the pain away. At the same time, she shut off some of the pain receptors in her upper arm and numbed it slightly. Just enough to give her full motor control again.

“Good hit,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Thanks,” Lucifer replied. “By the way, since you’re doing the Rules part of this fight... How do we figure out who wins?”

“I suppose, since we’re not going after blood this time, we can keep it simple. Whoever concedes, loses. Easy. That good with you?”

“Could take aaages. Both of us could take and receive a whole lotta damage before either of us calls it quits!”

“That’s right,” she said. “And I aim to exhaust you in every way possible.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

Freya simply grinned mischievously in response, a twinkle in her eye.