21: How A Star Melts Ice

21: How A Star Melts Ice

From what Nyssa could tell, everyone fighting was holding back a little. Instead of trying to overwhelm each other with power, everyone was, instead, trying to use technique. Of course, she couldn’t say for sure, but that’s what her gut told her.

Albion had a body with some pretty crazy physiological changes—it was near freezing and could change into ice, all while seeming normal with all its necessary functions. Given these changes, Nyssa assumed he could cover the entire training room with a layer of ice in his sleep. Now, however, he only froze a pool-sized patch around him.

The fight was unfolding with much more acrobatics than the previous one. Albion skated around on ice as he both summoned more ice while also transforming the walls and floor into ice itself. Sending an unending barrage of ice spikes towards Celeste as he skated, he grimaced as nothing he did could land a hit.

Celeste, on the other side, chased Albion through the air. Energy blasts lasered their way out from her eyes and from her hands, deflecting and destroying every ice spike sent her way. Occupied by Albion’s neverending attacks, she could only muster up a couple stray shots every couple seconds.

Up the walls, along the ceiling, and back to the floor. Albion traced a looping path over every surface of the training room—bar the area where spectators were watching. Waving his hand upward, he summoned a wall of ice to block a stray shot before leaping down from the wall to run along the floor.

“He’s stuck, not unexpected,” Conrad analyzed as various scanning panels swirled around his eyes. “He can’t hurt Celeste, but he’s using a lot more energy than her.”

Tilting her head, Nyssa motioned for Conrad to elaborate a little if he could. Conrad, happy to continue talking, began pointing towards fighters. “If you look closely, Albion’s hands are both ice right now. If he could make contact with Celeste, he could end it by turning her to ice, but I’m pretty sure he’d get absolutely blasted by energy beams the moment he got close. I’m quite sure both recognize the situation so Celeste is putting on the pressure by just chasing while conserving energy.”Fôll0w current novÊls on n/o/(v)/3l/b((in).(co/m)

“So, Albion needs to do something, but doesn’t have much he can do,” Titus summed up with a shrug. “We’ll see, he’ll probably try some deception tactic soon which’ll mark the end of the battle, no matter if he’s successful or not.”

Settling back down in her chair, Nyssa kept quiet as she watched the battle unfold.

It was... just nice to watch. Very colorful. Albion had gone from ice spikes to entire columns large enough to belong in a museum about ancient civilizations. Celeste, on the other hand, kept up her bright energy blasts as she coasted along behind Albion.

“Does your whole star ascension thing not help?” Nyssa asked as Celeste’s hair faded back to brown and her eyes cleared up.

“Nope, it makes it harder to be honest,” Celeste confessed. “I have a lot of raw power right now, but not a lot of control. So it’s like dragging a heavy weight around. Or a super high pressure hose. I don’t know how to describe it, really. But it makes me out of breath really quite quickly.”

Covering her mouth as she laughed, she flashed a peace sign with her other hand. “I’m glad you thought I was cool though.”

Answering with an “Of course,” Nyssa reached over to grab a sip of water only to notice Conrad motioning towards the training area. “Oh yeah, we’re up next aren’t we?”

“Indeed we are,” Conrad answered as he got up and out of his chair. “We still have a lot of duels left to go though. Especially Titus.”

“Especially Titus?” Nyssa asked as she did a half-jog for a couple steps to get next to Conrad. “This is for him, right? So is he fighting more people?”

“Yeah, he wants to fight everyone at least once,” Conrad stretched his arms while doing a couple basic warm up exercises. “Anyway, we have so much time that everyone can spar to their heart’s content.”

“Well, I’m... not much of a fighter, but sounds good to me,” Nyssa extended a hand towards Conrad. “Hope we have a uhm... pleasurable spar?”

“Likewise,” Conrad returned the handshake. “Perhaps this can be a duel for her- I mean the heart?”

“Heart? The? What? Who?” Nyssa furrowed her eyebrows as Conrad walked off. “What...?”