Over these last 2 years, Maria has begun to learn how to control her eyes better than before to help avoid the senses of especially sensitive people like Mira.
She has a pretty good idea of just how sensitive Mira is to stares and it could be said that not only can she determine a person's intentions based on their stare, but she can also determine a lot about a person based on that as well.
So if Maria stared at Mira with the intention of joining the battle, Mira would definitely be alerted. To combat this, instead of watching Mira closely and waiting for a mistake, Maria decided that she will watch Celaine and attack Mira based on where Celaine is leading her.
She slowly made her way towards Mira's blindspot and prepared her attack. She was going to use her fastest move which just so happened to be the simplest, Light Beam. Basically, she's just going to shoot a supercharged beam of light at Mira and just hopes she can catch her off guard.
Maria waited for the perfect moment… until…
'NOW!'
Maria shot a Light Beam towards Mira's heart as soon as she took a step back to block Celaine's attack.
Faced with such a quick attack, Mira didn't have any time to produce an Ice Shield or block it with her scythe so she ultimately decided to dodge, but doing so created a small opening for Celaine to take advantage of. To which she did.
Instead of going for her neck or body, Celaine decided to go for the leg in hopes that Maria will be able to follow up.
As soon as Maria shot her Light Beam, she formed Light Wings on her back while forming several Swords of Light around her that she'll be able to block and attack with.
As Maria charged at Mira, she shot 2 Swords of Light at the latter's heart and head.
Seeing them work so well together, Mira had a slight smile on her face that soon morphed into a smirk.
She moved her scythe in a way that allowed the curved end of her blade to block Celaine's saber and used the shaft to block the two Swords of Light.
Mira then kicked her right foot on the ground and shot a barrage of ice towards Celaine's feet. Right afterwards she moved positions so Celaine was standing right in front of her, blocking Maria's view of her.
Celaine was forced to move her feet according to Mira's will and by the time she realized that Maria was no longer in an advantageous position, it was too late.
The three of them just stared at each other for a second and all thought the same thing.
The warmup is over!
Mira was the first to start off the attack, but she came at Celaine much more fiercely than before. Now the fight will no longer be based purely on one's weapon skills, but Dao, strength, tactics, and adaptability.
While Mira was attacking with her scythe, she was no longer going for killing blows only but decided to mix in plenty of non-lethal attacks to create a bit of insurance in case the fight lasted a long time.
Celaine was unable to grasp this aspect and just thought that Mira was going at it much more fiercely than before.
Mira didn't only attack but also tried to restrain Celaine by creating Ice Vines on the ground in hopes of entangling her feet all the way pushing her in Maria's direction.
While in secret, she was also preparing for an attack on Maria as well, but she didn't show it.
Maria, on the other hand, was having a rough time trying to take advantage of Mira's weakness, ranged attacks. She constantly is trying to move around on the battlefield in hopes of getting in Mira's line of sight but to no avail. It's like Mira had a 360-degree view of the battlefield and could predict her movements perfectly as every time she moved, Mira would do something to Celaine in order to push her in the right direction to block her line of sight.
'Truly a pain in the ass opponent. Both me and Celaine are stronger than her in terms of both cultivation and our Dao comprehension, but we still can't take the lead in battle.'
Maria lamented as this was why she hated fighting against Mira. Every time they fought, she would always feel a sense of helplessness, like whatever she did wouldn't matter. What's even worse is Mira doesn't even have to look at her to know what she's planning, she just knows!
But that's why they are taking this risk today to fight her while they are currently stronger than her! Because they know that right now is probably the furthest Mira will be away from them in terms of power.
What's worse is that Maria can tell that Mira is evolving in this battle. It's slow, but she can tell that Mira seems slightly different. It almost felt like Mira is starting to shed her mortal mindset and is accepting herself as a cultivator. It was a very random and ethereal feeling and Maria might be totally wrong, but she felt like she knew Mira the best out of anyone in this world.
She knew Mira didn't step onto the path of cultivation to grow stronger or to go on fun adventures, she did it to take revenge. Cultivation has always been a means to an end to her and was only necessary in facilitating her goals.
Deep down inside, below all of her hatred and bloodthirsty thought, Mira never regarded herself as a cultivator. The feeling she gave off was more like a savage mortal who was the perfect fighter, who suddenly gained supernatural powers. Now instead of using her experience as a mortal to fight with those powers, she's starting to integrate them into her very being in order to grow and evolve.
'What a terrifying individual. Hehe~ I'm glad I'm her friend!'
Maria let out a big smile and shot up into the air above as she knew that if she wanted to attack Mira she'd either need to fight in close-quarters or fly in the air and keep attacking from afar.
Unfortunately, Mira isn't that stupid and had already made preparations for this ahead of time.
Mira tossed a spiked ice ball up in the air and as soon as it came within 10 meters of Maria…
BOOM
It blew up and pieces of icy shrapnel scattered everywhere at the speed of sound. Maria was caught off guard with this attack and was blown away until she smashed into the ground, forming a small crater around her.
She coughed up a bit of blood and was about to start cursing Mira out until things took a turn for the worse.
The shrapnel from the explosion ended up hitting Celaine as well. Many tiny pieces of ice are now embedded into her back and explosion and pain caused her to lose focus for a split second. That was enough for Mira as she threw another spiked ice ball at Celaine which caused her to tense up and prepare a few WindShields to prevent being struck by the blast, but instead of the ball exploding into a million pieces, it just went 'Poof' and formed a dense cloud of toxic smoke filled with Yin Magma and Fire.
Celaine was caught off guard by this, but as soon as Celaine's vision was blinded, Mira used her Ice Vines to wrap Celaine's ankles, rooting her in place. Celaine was stunned at how fast the turn of events played out and how everything went wrong in a second, but she had no time to complain when she saw Mira's scythe coming for her head. In a hurry, she used her saber to block it, but Mira quickly followed up with another attack and was able to score a direct hit on Celaine's abdomen. Causing her to fly through the air and ending up landing next to Maria, forming an even bigger crater.
She coughed up a mouthful of blood and could feel several broken ribs and some damage to her internal organs. Normally, an attack like that wouldn't cause too much damage, but Mira's scythe weighed an exorbitant amount which was able to cause significant blunt trauma.
Maria and Celaine looked at each other and smiled wryly at this turn of events, but they knew things weren't over and the true battle was just getting started.
