The 'Capture the Flag' recreational training exercise had finally began. And surprisingly, the first serious opponent Leah found in between the chaotic activity ended up being no one else than Kadiah herself.
On the meantime however, Cayde and Lord Shaxx were actually watching the view showing both girls with lots of excitement... from the exo's side at least.
"Woah! A fight between those 2?!" the hunter vanguard claimed in excitement as he watched the hologram with rigor. "Leah VS. Kadiah! This is definitely something I can't miss!"
"This isn't about who wins or loses, you know?" Lord Shaxx bluntly replied while sweat-dropping. "The whole point of this activity is to..."
"Yeah yeah... Whatever you say... 'Lord'. Now could you please remain silent? I wanna enjoy this fight to its fullest!"
Shaxx remained in silence for some seconds. "I really... really hate you" he finally muttered, emotionlessly, only to then leave the matter aside.
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Back with Leah and Kadiah...
The 2 girls were in fact facing each other without saying a word. Leah was standing on the ground with a serious and determined face, whereas Kadiah was still floating in mid-air with a violet aura around her.
Then, out of nowhere, both girls smiled softly but defiantly at each other. "So you wanna see who between us is stronger, huh?" Leah asked. "Well, I gotta say... I'm quite curious myself"
"Heheh... Should we get started then?" Kadiah asked back while extending her arms again in some sort of battle stance.
"I'm ready when you are" Leah then did the same thing but without drawing her daggers out, something that caught Kadiah's attention.
"Ohhh? Are you really gonna fight barehanded?" the awoken girl asked with a confident grin. "What about your daggers? You use daggers, don't you? I saw you training with them lots of times. Could it be that you are underestimating me?"
"No, that's not it. It's just that I'm not training alone this time, am I? We are fighting between friends, and using knives against friends could really be dangerous"
Kadiah smiled and chuckled slightly at Leah's way of thinking. "Teehee... Well, do whatever you want. Just don't regret it later"
Leah then chuckled as well. "Heheh... I won't. I assure you"
And so, a few seconds later, both girls finally jumped into action. Leah didn't lose a second and rushed towards Kadiah. However, this last one instantly aimed both of her hands at the huntress and shot a barrage of lots of small purple void blasts towards her.
'Wh-what the...?!' Leah thought as she startled and quickly changed direction to one side, dodging the dozens of small attacks.
Kadiah kept on shooting while moving through the air non-stop. Almost like a machine gun whose bullets were practically unlimited. But then, Leah made a big jump towards one tree and the moment her feet touched the log, she immediately bounced against it, propelling herself with lightning and aiming to land a punch against the warlock.
'I got you now!'
Kadiah however, smirked confidently and simply moved to one side. "Too slow!" The awoken girl claimed jokingly.
Leah couldn't believe it one bit. She went past Kadiah and landed on the ground, only to receive even more void blast from her some moments later.
The huntress began running once again. But then, she jumped towards the log of a nearby tree and Kadiah again... and again... and again... and again... without success.
'Wh-what is going on? Why can't I land a single attack?' Leah asked herself while in shock. 'Am I really not fast enough? Is Kadiah actually quicker than me?' Kadiah then began shooting again as Leah flipped into the air, dodging her attack. 'No... that's not it. I'm faster than her. And her attacks are pretty slow too. I wouldn't be able to dodge them otherwise. The problem... The problem is...'
"What do you think about this?!" Kadiah yelled with a smirk while shooting a quite bigger blast.
Leah noticed it and jumped up high, only to land on a tree branch some moments later. 'The problem is that she's floating in mid-air!' Kadiah showed Leah a childish smirk at that moment as this last one began analyzing the situation. 'Close combat techniques and martial arts like the ones I use are meant to be applied in plain ground. The only time I attempted to use them in mid-air was when Ravi and I fought that giant servitor back in the Cosmodrome. But even then it only worked because that monster was huge!'
"What's wrong, Leah? You give up already?"
'Kadiah is a lot smaller than that machine, and she has probably trained a lot in air maneuvering as well. It's only normal that I feel out of my element here' Leah realized something else at that moment. 'But wait a sec! If that's true, then maybe... Yeah... That has to be it!'
Without thinking twice, Leah jumped once again towards Kadiah. "Come on! Haven't you learned your lesson?! You won't land any attack on me while I'm on the air!"
"I'm counting on that!" The human girl headed straight towards Kadiah. And just like before, the awoken warlock dodged in a playful way, only to startle in surprise mere moments later. "You are not getting away this time!" Leah then yelled as she swiftly twirled her body in mid-air and took a strong firm grip of her friend's long coat.
"Wh-what the...?!" Before Kadiah could finish, she was pulled all the way down and smacked against the floor by Leah. "AGH!" the warlock groaned as her body hit the ground hard. Then, she stood back up as fast as she could, but it was too late already. Leah was right in front of her and ready to fight her from up close this time. "Ggh! Oh no!"
"Gotcha!"
Finally, Leah attacked and landed a potent blow on Kadiah's gut. And just like that, she kept on going with more, a bit pulled back, punches and kicks which Kadiah was desperately trying to block and dodge with what little close combat skills she actually had.
"ACK!" Kadiah groaned as she received an elbow attack on her cheek.
'Seems like I was right after all!' Leah thought. 'Kadiah has and incredible control over her void guardian powers, but from what I've seen so far, her fighting style is one in which she has to keep her distance from the opponent at every time...'
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'And the reason for it is more than clear!'
Leah made a small jump and then landed a sudden spin-kick which Kadiah barely managed to block.
'She has almost no martial arts skills at all!'
Kadiah was pushed backwards due to Leah's kick. Then, she immediately tried to float in the air again. But just before she could actually do it, Leah rushed to attack her once more.
"Oh no, I don't think so! I'm going to end this right now!"
The huntress aimed to hit Kadiah again and finish her off. But then, she was unexpectedly stopped on her tracks... by a void forcefield the warlock created before she got hit.
"Wh-what?!"
Kadiah then didn't lose a second and deactivated the void barrier in an instant. "I can do more than just fly and shoot blasts, you know?!" she then claimed while aiming to punch Leah this time.
This last one however, moved her head to one side and dodged. "You'll have to try harder than that!" Then, she jumped and aimed to side-kick the awoken girl, only to be stopped once again by the bothersome forcefield from before. "Oh, come on!"
"I'm not going down that easily!"
But Leah didn't stop there. She kept on punching and kicking the barrier without resting, and also without giving Kadiah the slightest chance to fly away.
Meanwhile, the awoken girl was also backing up quite a bit and pushing herself to the limit in order to keep her void barrier up... Something that Leah easily noticed and actually gave her a good idea.
'She won't be able to keep her forcefield activated for much longer' Leah thought again as she extended her arms backwards. 'Well... In that case...'
At that exact moment, Kadiah startled in surprise after noticing that something had materialized in both of Leah's hands. Some of the many weapons she had stored up in her ghost's database to be precise...
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...a pair of black batons.
"What the...?! But... You said you weren't gonna use any sort of weapon!" Kadiah claimed with her eyes wide open.
"Wrong!" Leah bluntly replied. "I said I wasn't gonna use any knives! These batons are another story!"
Leah then finally landed one last attack against the forcefield using the batons covered in lighting. And just as she had actually expected it to happen, the barrier crushed in pieces at last, leaving Kadiah in total shock and completely wide open to attacks.
And so...
...
...
...
...it was finally time.
Kadiah found herself slowly falling backwards towards the ground while Leah on the other hand, was already up close to her, charging arc energy all around her batons with one sole objective in mind...
END THAT FIGHT ONCE AND FOR ALL.
Something that surprisingly and against all sorts of probabilities...
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...didn't go as she had planned at all.
"Ah?! Wh-what is this?!" the huntress yelled as Kadiah quickly swung her arm to one side, making some sort of purple vines to suddenly come out of the ground and grab Leah by her waist and legs, only to then pull her all the way to a nearby tree. "GAH!" the human girl groaned while being smacked against the log, letting go of her weapons in the process.
In any case, now she was the one completely defenseless and at her opponent's mercy. The human girl had a long purple and a bit translucent set of vines restraining her against the tree while Kadiah on the other hand, could finally catch a breath from the beat up she received moments earlier.
"Heh! What do you think of this, Leah? Isn't it cool?" the awoken girl asked with a childish smirk.
"D-damn it! Stop joking around! What the hell is this?!" Leah asked while trying to break free. "Where did this thing even come from?! Did you... Did you do it?!"
"Of course I did it! An amazing and useful technique if I say so myself" Kadiah swung her other arm this time, causing even more vines to appear and restrain Leah's arms as well.
"KYAH! Kadiah! Stop!"
"Oh, I don't think so!" The awoken girl displayed a mischievous smirk. "This is my revenge for beating me up earlier!"
Without any kind of warning, she swung both of her arms this time, moving the vines along with Leah and making her crash against the ground. "KAAAGGH!!" After that, Kadiah kept on doing the same thing over and over, smacking the huntress against the trees and floor many times.
"How's this, Leah?! Do you like it?!"
"Kadiah! W-wait a minute!!!" the warlock didn't listen to Leah at all and swung her arms again, restraining the huntress against a tree once again. "AGAAAGHH!!!" There was nothing Leah could do. The purple vines were simply too strong and the grip they had on her body was just too tight too even move. "D-damn it... That was... enough revenge, don't you think?"
Kadiah chuckled slightly. "You know? From the way you attacked me earlier, I can see that you discovered my weakness... and you are right. I suck at martial arts"
Then, she showed Leah a playful but kinda longing grin.
"Jeez... It really didn't matter how much I tried in mastering all those close combat and self-defense techniques. In the end, I never managed to apply them properly when the situation demanded it... HOWEVER... instead of feeling miserable because of it..."
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"...I decided to work hard on other skills I had"
Leah listened closely to all that Kadiah was saying, even though she was also trying to break free somehow.
"In any case, this fight right now is the fruit of all the hard work I've put on training MY powers!" Kadiah stood proudly and with starrish eyes. "Levitation! Void Blasts! Forcefield Barriers! I developed all of those techniques with the sole purpose of strengthening my own fighting style! And now... I even managed to use my most recent one: Void Illusions!"
"Illusions?!" Leah asked while struggling. "What are you talking about?! These vines aren't an illusion at all, they are completely real!"
Kadiah shook her finger in sign of denial. "Na-ah~ They aren't real in the slightest... They just pretend to be real. That's why it's called an illusion!"
Leah sweat-dropped at such weird explanation from Kadiah's side. Though in reality, she did understood the concept behind the warlock's technique...
She could basically create anything she wanted (or that's what it appeared to be) out of her own mind. The only limit seemed to be her imagination. But there was one particular problem with such thing: the bigger the illusion she wanted to create, the more energy and time it required to do so... without mentioning she could also probably not maintain the respective illusion for long periods of time.
"Just check this out!" Kadiah continued with a smile as she swiftly extended both of her arms; causing 2 big, purplish-violet, glowing and very... VERY beautiful elegant flowers with lots of petals suddenly bloom from the ground at each side of her. "TA-DAAAHH! So, what so you think?"
"A-amazing... They are... so pretty..." Leah replied without knowing what to say.
"Teehee... Well, I guess this is it then"
"Huh? This is it? What do you mean by that?"
"Eeehh... Isn't it obvious? I mean that now that you are completely restrained up there, there's nothing else you can do to fight back at all. SO... you might as well just give up alrea..." At that exact moment, just before Kadiah finished, both the vines restraining Leah and the 2 flowers she created vanished into thousands of particles. "...dy?"
Kadiah didn't expect that at all. And as she remained there, sweating and displaying an innocent pokerface filled with fear, Leah saw her chance and rushed towards the warlock once again.
"Hey! N-no! Time out! That wasn't supposed to happen!"
"Too bad!" Leah replied with a grin. "I guess you still need to practice more that technique of yours!" The huntress aimed to punch Kadiah. But then, this last one jumped into the air and barely dodged the attack. "Tsk!"
Kadiah was floating in the air again. And now, it was her turn to attack. "How about this?!" She swung her arms and lots of vines came out once again from different places: the ground, the logs... even the air near her.
Leah startled, and immediately dodged and kept on dodging the tens of purple glowing vines coming after her. She jumped up high and began bouncing from tree to tree while letting out a light-blue lightning trail along the way... Almost like an agile snake whose movements were extremely precise and fast for the vines to keep up with.
'How is it possible?! She's too fast!' Kadiah asked herself while trying to follow Leah with her eyes. Then, during one of her many swift bounces, the huntress positioned herself very up in the air... right above Kadiah to be precise. "Wh-what?!"
"You are mine!" Leah yelled as she was about to attack Kadiah from above.
However, she wasn't able to do it in the end. Because at that precise moment, Kadiah swung her arms together one more time and combined all the vines she had created into one sole illusion: a giant and beautiful violet flower which suddenly appeared right on top Leah... and trapped her inside her petals.
"Hey! What the hell is this?!" Leah yelled from inside the flower.
"It's over now, Leah!" Kadiah happily replied as she moved her arms and caused the giant flower to crash against the ground along with the human girl.
The floor crumbled and the wind blew in all directions after that. And then, when the dust finally settled, the purple flower lied there, in the middle of a small crater, totally static. Nothing but absolute silence was heard, and there wasn't a single sign of Leah fighting back at all anymore.
"I... I won... heh... hehe..."
Seems like Kadiah really did end up as the winner of the fight...
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...
Or that's what she thought at first.
"Eh? Wh-what's that?" the warlock girl ask innocently as she took notice of some tiny but noticeable light-blue sparks coming out from inside the big flower... and that were progressively turning brighter and stronger with every second. "O-oh no! You gotta be kidding me!"
And so, the inevitable finally happened. Lots of precise and fast thunder-lightning slashes suddenly cut every single petal in pieces, and from in between the lots of void and arc energy that could be seen; Leah emerged, wielding her daggers surrounded in lightning.
"D-d-daggers?!"
Without thinking twice, the huntress stood firmly and rushed towards Kadiah like a flashing and unstoppable beam of light. "That was a nice try, Kadiah!" she then yelled with determination. "But it wasn't enough!"
Kadiah on the other hand, extended her arms in desperation and activated her void barrier once more, only to then watch how that same barrier crumbled in pieces after receiving a powerful slash from Leah's electric daggers.
The warlock pulled back as fast as she could but Leah was already chasing after her as well. "What the hell?! I though you weren't gonna use your knives against me!" Kadiah claimed, firmly.
"You are right! That was my bad!" Leah replied in the same manner. "But as you may know, there are other ways to use knives apart from just straight cutting stuff with them!" At that moment, the huntress jumped forward and spun her body in mid-hair, throwing each of her daggers towards one tree at each side of Kadiah on the way.
"Huh?! Wh-what are you...?!"
"You better be prepared!" Leah landed on the ground and crouched. Then, she placed both of her hands on the floor while letting out 2 intense electric currents which headed straight towards one of the daggers she threw before each. "HERE GOES NOTHING!!"
Instantly, 2 new currents were shot from each of the daggers straight towards Kadiah. "OH, CRAP!" It was too late to react. The pair of lightning beams reached the warlock, inevitably, and electrocuted her. "AAAAAGGGHH!!!"
Then... a few seconds later, the electricity finally stopped as Kadiah fell on her knees while still holding on. Nonetheless, Leah was approaching her already, ready to arc-punch her and defeat her at last. "IT'S OVER!! KADIAAAAHHH!!!"
The warlock however, didn't feel like giving up yet. And so, she charged void energy around her fist and aimed to counter Leah's punch with her own. "THAT'S WHAT I SHOULD BE SAYING!!!"
That was it. The final exchange of attacks between the guardian girls.
Leah and Kadiah's punches collided against each other, producing a massive display of void and arc energy which was blowing the wind and dust all around. Tiny lightnings were bouncing in every direction... and small void blasts were also being thrown without control. Such was the level of power that the pair of girls could reach together.
But it didn't last forever...
Because some seconds of struggle later, the entire battlefield exploded as a huge void shockwave spread all around, and a powerful lightning was shot all the way up to the sky.
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...
Everyone in the entire arena heard the noise produced by such amazing display of power, though most of them didn't know what was it that produced it at all.
"I-Incredible..." Cayde muttered in disbelief while watching the hologram.
"Are those girls... really first-years?" Lord Shaxx asked in the same manner.
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...
On his side, Idus didn't actually see the fight... but he still sensed the tremendous strength and pressure from Leah and Kadiah's final collision.
"Wh-what the hell was that?" Idus asked himself while looking at his surroundings along with the exo girl from before, who also found herself surprised.
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...
Meanwhile, in some other part of the jungle...
"Was that... a lightning?" Ravi asked himself while staring at the sky. "Leah..."
There were a few moments of silence after that. "She'll be fine" Wire then barged in. "She's very strong after all. So she'll surely be able to defeat whoever gets in her way"
Ravi remained pensive for some seconds. "Yeah... You are right" he then added while grinning softly. "Well, we better get going. We still need to find that red flag after all"
"Yeah, let's go"
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Back with Leah and Kadiah...
The whole place was in complete ruins. The ground had crumbled in pieces... Lots of trees were more than destroyed... And there was also a huge cloud of dust and smoke covering the area.
However, when such bothersome cloud finally dissipated... there they were... The 2 guardian girls.
Both of them were lying on the ground, covered in bruises and panting from exhaustion with their arms and legs fully extended. Also, their suits were very torn apart. Leah had almost no sleeves covering her arms anymore, and she also had a few holes in some other parts of her skin-tight suit... Like in her legs and belly. Kadiah on the other hand, also had holes in some parts of her pants and her sleeves almost completely gone. And in addition to that, her long coat seemed quite ragged and full of dirt as well.
It certainly ended up being quite the brutal battle. Though the truth was... they were actually smiling at the fact that they really did go over the top with their little... fight.
"That... was... crazy..." Leah muttered while breathing heavily.
"I... I know..." Kadiah replied in the same manner, after which both girls remained in silence for some time before finally speaking again. "Hey... By the way... Is it okay... if we... leave it in a draw?"
Leah chuckled slightly at Kadiah's suggestion. "Y-yeah... Sure... hahah..."
"Haha... hahaha..."
And so, both girls inevitably began laughing non-stop. They were exhausted and couldn't move one inch. And yet...
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...they were happy.
They also had no idea however, that at one side of the battlefield, their ghosts were chilling around and watching them while sweat-dropping at how cute and innocent their guardians could be.
"Jeez..." Cybel began. "To think that they were punching and kicking each other just some minutes earlier, and now they look like the best friends ever"
"Well, that's our guardians for ya! Hahaha..." Tera finally replied, happily.