The Broken Halo

The frozen jaws swept toward their backs.

Sonya drove her heel into the stone supporting her legs. It folded beneath both demons, dropping them into a shallow trench as Akaza turned and punched upward. Gravity gathered around his knuckles, and the lowest teeth burst apart.

”Move!” he roared.

They slid beneath the broken edge. Behind them, the jaws collided with a crash that shook Frostveil’s road. Sonya dragged a slab overhead before the shattered ice could follow them down.

Akaza landed against her shoulder and coughed. Something shifted beneath his ribs.

”Drink a healing elixir,” she said sharply.

”You know we only have very few healing elixirs on us.”

”Yes, I do. So stop saving them for your corpse.”

He glared at her, but a small vial appeared in his hand. His earlier injuries had not justified spending one of the few elixirs he possessed. But these current injuries did.

He swallowed its contents while Sonya held the slab against the pounding ice. Heat spread through his chest. His torn flesh grew back, his broken ribs began settling, and he finally drew a breath without choking on blood. The medicine however, did not restore the demonic energy he had spent.

Sonya kicked their cover outward and climbed from the trench. Frost still clung to her arms, but her voice had changed and was more serious than before.

”This Honourable is taking things up a notch. Keep up.”

Akaza discarded the empty vial. ”That won’t be a problem, don’t worry.”

Elara chuckled beyond the falling rubble.

”Even if you were in your peak conditions,” she said disdainfully. ”You still won’t touch the helm of my garment.”

Sonya gave no reply.

Instead, she knelt, pressed both hands against the ground, and closed her eyes.

Beneath the shifting ice and confused vibrations, solid rock remained. She forced her demonic energy deeper, past the layers Elara kept shifting.

The ground behind Elara suddenly folded upward.

Elara’s brows rose.

A thick shelf of bedrock swung toward her back, lifting the ice instead of fighting it. She glided aside before it struck, but the tilted shelf became a ramp beneath Sonya and Akaza.

Both demons came racing up it.

Sonya reached the crest and was level with Elara’s shoulders, then she kicked toward her head. Elara leaned away from the approaching heel.

Sonya’s hip stopped turning. Her leg relaxed for an instant. Then her supporting foot drove against the rock and the kick accelerated again, reaching farther just as Elara began straightening.

The staff flashed upward.

BANG!

Sonya’s heel struck its shaft instead of Elara’s face, but the woman’s boots slid backward.

’What just happened? Did she just kick twice in the same instant?’

Akaza’s fist came toward her ribs. Elara brought a curved ice shield across its path. His shoulder loosened before contact, slowing the punch just enough for the shield’s sweeping edge to pass.

One shortened beat, then one renewed burst. That much, he could manage.

Gravity gathered at his knuckles.

BOOM!

A second barrier caught the blow, hastily formed against her armour. Elara slid several metres across the ice, her coat snapping around her legs.

”What did you just-”

Sonya was already above her before she could finish her words.

Elara thrust her staff upward.

Three ice spears rose beneath the demoness, but Akaza’s roundhouse kick smashed their stems. Sonya tucked her knees against her chest and dropped through the falling pieces.

Her fist descended.

Elara dodged, caught the delayed continuation of her attack with an ice shield, and sent an ice spike toward Sonya’s stomach.

The demoness twisted aside. It cut her flank instead, drawing a hiss through her teeth.

Despite both of them using the Broken Rhythm Art, Elara was still faster so she could react to their attacks using her speed. However, she had numerous questions in her mind as to what technique or ability they were using.

Sonya landed low and swept at her ankles.

Elara rose on a column of ice to dodge it.

Akaza jumped after her, lessening his weight, then drove a knee toward her stomach.

She blocked it and formed another sloping shield to send him toward Sonya.

However, this time around, he made himself heavier before the surface could carry him away. His free heel smashed into the column.

Bang!

The column snapped.

Sonya’s stone platform rose beside it, and Elara landed on a fresh sheet of ice to find both demons attacking again.

”What sort of technique is that?” Virella asked breathlessly from behind cover.

Rellis could barely follow their limbs. ”They never used this technique when we practiced.”

Ammor stared as Sonya ducked beneath Akaza’s elbow without waiting for him to finish moving. Their attacks paused, restarted, or continued normally. Both of them were already making room for the next strike.

If he was involved in the battle, he would have raised a wall when an ice shield appeared, and that would have blocked Akaza’s escape path.

’Blackmoon was right.’

Ahead, Elara cut Sonya’s platform in half, causing her to fall.

Akaza caught her wrist and swung her around him as she kicked at the Elara’s staff.

Elara pulled it aside, then shifted away from Akaza’s approaching fist.

His arm suddenly slowed.

Her eyes flashed as she recognised the strange movement once again and delayed her defence.

However, the punch never accelerated again. Akaza withdrew it completely, and Sonya landed on a stump of stone that put her face level with Elara’s.

Her head snapped forward and Elara quickly jerked back.

Sonya interrupted the movement halfway using the Broken Rhythm Art, letting her shoulders drop. The instant Elara’s retreat stopped, the stone beneath Sonya rose another few inches and her waist drove forward.

BAM!

CRACK!

She headbutted Elara.

Her forehead struck Elara’s nose. Blood splashed across the woman’s lips, and for the first time, she stumbled and bled.

’But I dodged it!’

”You-!”

Akaza stepped through the space Sonya had already cleared. His fist struck the armour over Elara’s stomach, gravity concentrating around it at the final instant.

BOOOOOOM!

The woman flew backward through her own ice column. Broken crystal showered the clearing.

Rathen’s axe slowly lowered.

”So she bleeds bled.”

”Of course she does. Be attentive to your surroundings and don’t be caught off guard.” Rellis said coldly while his eyes darted across Sonya, Akaza, and Elara.

Sonya landed beside Akaza and spat blood.

”Damn it. She has a hard head.” Sonya cursed while rubbing her bruised and bleeding forehead.

Akaza shook his aching fist and exhaled deeply, but there was a fierce grin on his face.

”So this is the Broken Rhythm Art,” He said with a tinge of excitement.

Across the clearing, Elara rose. She touched her upper lip, and blood stained her fingers.

Sonya stomped the ground and send a boulder toward her opponent.

”Akaza. We’re not giving her anytime to rest. We-”

Before she could finish her words, Elara’s shout tore through the air.

”ENOUGH!”

Elara smashed apart the boulder with her staff, then she drove her staff into the ice.

Immediately, everywhere turned white.

And the sound of sharp icy wind struck everybody’s ears.

The blizzard struck before Sonya or anybody could react.

Snow, broken ice, and freezing Aether tore across the ridge, lifting rubble and battering the cover around the other demons. Virella flung roots around the wounded before the first wall of snow reached them.

Sonya slammed both feet down. Stone closed around her calves and anchored itself deep beneath the frozen road. Beside her, Akaza increased his own weight and his boots ground into the ground as he fought the storm.

Both raised their forearms across their faces while trying not to be swept away by the storm.

Through the gap between his arms, Akaza searched the whiteness for Elara. However, he could no longer see her.

Then he looked higher.

A pair of enormous golden eyes opened inside the blizzard. Cold and unblinking, they stared down at the two demons.

Akaza’s grin disappeared.

”What the hell is that?”