Diana crept through the dense demonic mist, flexing her wings and fingers in anticipation. Having taken on her demonic form and surrendered to her bloodline, she had a primal urge to charge at Stella, who stood on the other side of the mountain peak with an annoyingly unfazed look despite the encroaching demonic mist.
But then she would lose without a doubt. Stella, despite her flaws and young age, was talented. It was like she had been born for combat and fought life-and-death battles since childhood. If that wasn't bad enough, Diana had seen her fighting once her bloodline was active. It turned her from a talented but experience lacking fighter to a ruthless being devoid of openings and weakness. It was as if she had a third eye in the back of her head and could foresee the future.
"Be patient," Diana hissed to herself as she kept her eyes and spiritual sense peeled for the first sign of movement from Stella. Even the slightest twitch or ripple in spatial Qi would not escape her notice.
As a spatial cultivator, distance was a non-factor for Stella in this fight. If not for the demonic mist concealing her location, she could appear behind Diana in the blink of an eye.
Diana watched from the shadows of the mist as Stella took in a deep breath and tilted her sword horizontally. Purple soul fire flowed down the blade's edge, making the air shudder. It looked like she was preparing to attack but was looking at the wrong part of the mist.
What is she doing? Diana wondered. I have never seen her open an attack like that? Is this a new technique she learned during the Mystic Realm? How did she manage that and increase her cultivation by two stages?
Diana believed she had a very fortuitous encounter in the Mystic Realm. She had stumbled upon another training ground of the Ravena Clan floating among the thousands of pocket dimensions. The demonic mist there was dense and of peak Star Core quality. A large Qi gathering formation had been constructed on the island, and she could cultivate it without worries. She had even retrieved some flowers she planned to give to Ashlock later. Yet somehow Stella had still inched ahead?
Unaware of Diana's bafflement, Stella closed her eyes and crouched with her sword outstretched horizontally. She then rapidly spun around on her heel as her soul fire shot down her blade. Her sword cleaved through reality, sending tears that streaked to the other side across the mountain peak. She didn't stop there and kept spinning and cutting reality as she slowly stood up to her full height.
Diana saw it all in slow motion due to her heightened demon senses as the attacks approached.
If Stella had unleashed a single dimension slash horizontally or vertically, Diana could have simply avoided it and had her mist refill the gap. However, since Stella sent multiple horizontal waves of dimension tears her way, there was nowhere to run or hide.
So, you want to force me out. Clever girl. Let's take this fight to the air.
Diana pushed Qi into her artifact boots that they had looted from the dead bounty hunters. They took on a ghostly form in reaction to her Qi, and she felt her body lurched up in a blur as she leaped into the sky and spread out her wings.
From above, she watched in real-time as the dimension tears tore through her mist, and anything that was left lingering was sucked to the other side as the rips in reality snapped closed with a thunderclap and rush of air.
Stella finished her attack by calmly opening her eyes and looking straight up at Diana as if she had known her exact location all along.
It must be some kind of spatial perception. Diana mused. Knowledge of spatial cultivators wasn't as widespread as other affinity types, but she had still endured lectures from tutors when she was young and spent a lot of time watching Stella fight, so she knew the basics. The first lesson had been that distance when facing a spatial cultivator is meaningless, and the second lesson was always to watch your back—
Stella vanished as if she had been an illusion. Diana relied on her heightened perception and reaction time to spin around and grab Stella's blade with her claws in a shower of sparks and ringing steel.
"Surprised?" Diana smirked as Stella's eyes widened ever so slightly, "You know I don't only have ridiculous strength as a demon, right?" With Stella's sword locked in place, Diana used her other arm to push down on Stella's shoulder with all the force she could muster, sending the girl plummeting to the ground and impacting the stone with a loud crash followed by hairline cracks spreading out from the impact site.
Flapping her wings to gain height as she had the advantage in the air, Diana looked down with a fang-filled grin. In that short exchange, she had confirmed a drastic difference in strength and speed from before entering the Mystic Realm.
Diana felt Ashlock's eye shift its focus to her, and she shuddered.
"Hey, you know she asked for it, right? This duel was her idea, and she almost cut me in half if I didn't jump up in time?"Diana muttered and rolled her eyes. "It's not my fault she's arrogant and needed a lesson. Stop being so protective. She is fine."
Diana knew that the tree cared for her and enjoyed her company, but it was clear who his favorite was. Ashlock was far too protective of Stella, and there was definitely a hint of disapproval in the tree's gaze at her actions of hurling his adopted daughter into the ground.
The dust from the thrown-up rock blew away in the fierce mountain winds, and as Diana suspected, Stella arose from the destruction and was totally fine. A simple throw like that wouldn't even leave a scratch on a Star Core cultivator.
If I had been going for the kill, I would have infused my claws with my demonic mist rather than using raw strength. And instead of throwing Stella to the ground, I would have snapped her neck or torn her arm off.
"You know Diana, this is why I love to practice with you," Stella said as she stood there looking up, still wreathed in spatial flames. Her gaze was tranquil, but a light smile tugged at the edge of her lips.
"Oh?" Diana raised a brow, "And why is that?"
"Every time we fight, I learn something new," Stella rolled her shoulders, likely to rid herself of the stiffness from being hurled into solid stone, "I just realized that I have come to rely on my bloodline too much. From my understanding of it so far, it gives me heightened reaction times and helps me focus on the flow of battle. Perfect for swordfights where I can react and copy an opponent's fighting style, not so much when the opponent can just grab my sword and lock me in place."
Diana smiled and was glad Stella was still as focused on self-improvement as before.
"So? How do you plan to beat me then?" Diana asked.
"Well, with your demonic mist gone," Stella brought out a thin strip of black cloth and began wrapping it around her eyes and head, "I think a different fighting style that Tree inspired me to try someday would be better."
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"Oh, a new fighting style, inspired by Ashlock of all people... ahem, I mean tree," Diana spread her wings and flexed her claws in excitement at the thrill of battle as something seemed to arise within her, "This should be interesting."
Stella suggested this fighting style would only work without my demonic mist obscuring me, and judging how she couldn't locate me and opened with a large-scale attack to get rid of it before, it must have been a serious hindrance to her.
This short duel had already showcased the strengths of her newly improved demonic mist. The addition of demonic Qi made it far superior to the water Qi mist she could make before.
Satisfied, Diana decided to hold back on flooding the area with her demonic mist again to allow Stella to try this new fighting style and also to not waste precious Qi on a duel with a dear friend.
Come on Stella, show me what you got. Diana watched in anticipation as Stella's spatial ring flashed with silver light. A second sword appeared in her other hand while a dozen daggers manifested and orbited her with telekinesis. They all lit up with purple soul-fire-like candles as their blade tips pointed toward her.
With her eyes covered, Stella didn't even look at Diana as a dozen aflame daggers shot toward her. Perhaps for a mortal or weaker cultivator, these highspeed daggers may seem like a threat, but to Diana, they were like toothpicks the richer mortals liked to use after a crude meal.
Bringing one of her feathered wings of darkness before her, she easily slapped them away but then felt a searing pain in her back.
Ow, what the fuck was that? I blocked them...
Diana didn't even have to look behind to realize what had pierced her back. Looking down, she saw that Stella had stabbed one of her swords through a portal near her feet. The attack hadn't gone too deep and had skillfully missed anything important, but it still made Diana grit her teeth in pain as Stella withdrew the blade and flicked off her blood onto the stone as the portal to her side snapped closed.
"Pay attention," Stella said as she snapped her fingers.
Diana felt a ripple of spatial Qi near her leg as a rift opened, and those same daggers she had just so easily slapped away before re-emerged. Pushing Qi into her boots, her body blurred as she floated backward to dodge them.
"Above."
Diana shrouded her fist in demonic mist Qi, punched upward without looking, and shattered a freshly forming rift. It was well known that spatial rifts would become unstable and collapse when interacting with other Qi types, especially demonic or void Qi. It's why spatial cultivators couldn't simply redirect every attack that comes at them through portals.
Phew, if Stella hadn't told me in time, that would have hurt—
"Left, right—"
"What?!" Diana said as two portals opened on either side of her. Flexing her wings, she slapped both portals out of existence, causing them to snap closed with a gust of wind.
"Front, back—"
Diana twisted her body to destroy one and block a flurry of daggers from the other with her wings, but her eyes widened as she felt a ripple of spatial Qi from...
"Above," Stella said simply as Diana howled out in pain. Two swords from separate portals overhead had struck down and dug into her shoulders. Her vision began to take on a red hue, and it felt like her brain was pulsating in her skull as blood rushed around her ears. She was... enraged.
"Run, Stella," Diana hissed out as demonic mist poured out her mouth and wings which devoured the portals. Her control over the primal urge to tear Stella limb from limb brought on by surrendering to her demon bloodline for power was loosening.
Stella didn't hear her warning as she remained on the ground with the blindfold on, directing the many portals opening and controlling the flying daggers.
Diana felt her vision tunnel onto Stella as everything else faded into a haze. Qi surged through her body and into her artifact boots, and she rushed at Stella. The ground came faster than even Diana could process what was happening, and before she knew it, she punched a crater into the ground and shook the mountain peak.
"Missed me."
Diana felt rage consume her as she rocketed up from the crater and turned to face Stella in the air. The blonde girl stood a bit away with a slight carefree smile as if everything was under her control.
"You know, if my bloodline wasn't active and I hadn't covered my eyes to heighten my perception of the spatial plane, you might have killed me with that—"
Diana wasn't listening—she couldn't listen—her body was moving on instinct and was far more focused on slashing Stella's neck so she would stop speaking than whatever she said.
"Run," Diana begged as the world once again blurred forward, and she briefly caught Stella's carefree smile turn to one of surprise before she vanished in a pop of spatial Qi.
Diana hated how she felt even more enraged because her prey had escaped. With empty claws, her head snapped in the direction Stella had teleported off to, and her body was already moving to complete its one and only task: slaughter.
"Diana, stop," Stella said as she vanished again with Spatial Step.
I wish I could. Diana cursed inwardly. That's like telling a starving person to stop eating mid-bite or a drowning person not to breathe. I am not me anymore... I am something else.
"Please stop. I don't want to hurt you," Stella shouted from behind.
Diana twisted around to follow her prey, and she blurred forward like an unstoppable phantom through the demonic mist that began to fill the mountain peak. Her speed and reaction times increased while Stella grew slower.
"I don't want to hurt you either, so get serious, Stella. I know you can stop me if you try."Diana yelled as she tried to wrestle back control of her body. "I am not in control right now. I need you to knock me out!"
Diana hadn't felt this out of control in a long time and suspected it had something to do with her recent drastic leap in power. She hadn't given herself time to readjust and get used to feeding her bloodline the correct amount of demonic mist Qi to have it awaken but not consume her very sense of self.
"Your bloodline is better than mine!" Stella shouted back, "It always has been. Even with the difference in our cultivation, I can't win!"
That filled Diana with a different kind of rage.
"Is this the bloodline you are so jealous of Stella?" Diana roared out as her claws blurred for Stella's throat and once again barely missed. "Look at me. I am a fucking monster bound by my primal urges. Is this truly something to envy? To feel threatened by? I am trying to rip off my best friend's head against my will right now, and all she feels is jealousy?"
Stella reappeared a few meters away with a gasp. Sweat dampened the cloth over her eyes, and her hands were trembling. The fast-paced spatial steps within an inch of her life must have been getting to her as she felt genuinely threatened yet didn't wish to fight back with the necessary force. The demonic mist swirling around, dampening her senses, likely wasn't helping.
Surely, if it got too dangerous, Ashlock or Maple would step in to stop me. So why haven't they yet? Diana wondered. She felt Ashlock's gaze follow her every move and knew of his capabilities, yet he wasn't even trying to suppress her with his presence, let alone sending one of his Ents to deal with her.
There's no way Ashlock can't see I am out of control and in a berserk state, so the only other option is he wants me to keep going. To keep hunting Stella like a monster. But why?
"Just surrender," Diana snarled, "If you surrender the duel, I may regain control and stop being a monster. I don't want to hurt you—"
"You think Nox would have stopped killing Tree if I fucking surrendered?" Stella snapped back, "Would the assassins sent to kill me in childhood have retreated if I begged? No. They would not. I stand by what I said. Despite the cost, your bloodline is better than mine, and I can't win. Whether you are sane or not, does that matter? Monster or human, I face an opponent I can't defeat in my current state. I am not jealous of you. I fear you."
Diana surged forward, and Stella disappeared once again.
"What I need is to improve—we both do," Stella said calmly across the peak, "That is why the duel will not end. Not until we have reached our limits and surpassed our current selves."
"But it's not me you are fighting," Diana hissed as she turned and stood at full height with her wings stretched. "I am moving with nothing but the instinct to kill."
"I wouldn't want it any other way," Stella said with that infuriatingly calm smile as she tore off the headband and stared at her with those tranquil eyes, "Let's both become monsters together."
A strange aura of pressure seemed to come from Stella as the tips of her hair turned white, and she began to walk forward. The air around her cracked and warped with every step, and the purple soul fire took on a lighter hue.
Diana didn't rush forward at the opportunity to kill. Rather, she felt the red hue plaguing her vision and the rage consuming her mind slowly retreat, and she instinctually took a step back.
Yet despite her retreat, she still wasn't in complete control. Her body that was hellbent on slaughter knew when to take a step back if death was assured.
The hunter instinctually knew it had become the prey.
