It wouldn't take long, not anymore.
He didn't really care to end this quickly anymore, he knew the woman would not be able to beat him, even if she recovered completely, the only reason she had been able to even really fight against him being the storm that had been raging on, and with him having discovered something new, the sharp pillars he had the4 idea of creating and shooting, something that was quite obvious in hindsight, she was even further outmatched, the only hope she'd have is if she was healed completely and used the sword perfectly, or perhaps if she had another hidden card up her non-existent sleeve, or rather, the invisible sleeve she had tucked in, but that was practically impossible as she hadn't even really been able to see far enough in the storm to help her friend, brother, boyfriend, comrade, whatever the two were.
The only disadvantage of his situation, if one may call it that, was that he would most likely not be able to keep her blade outside of this arena, if he truly did try to take it, and, of course, that none of this was real in the end, that the blade would just vanish once he gout out of here, after facing his last opponent, whoever, whatever it might be, something he had been scared off quite a bit, but yet, he felt as if he was starting to be ready to face them, whoever they were, finally, and take this trial down, meeting with this so-called great pillar of motion, and probably regretting it soon after.
He would've loved to analyse the enchantment on that thing, figure out the mysterious golden wave, find out the difference between the sides, perhaps some kind of arcane dislocating barrier of the artificing circuits from what he could tell, or perhaps some kind of ancient material he had never heard of, in which case, he'd have to ask why it wasn't made into an armor, one that threw everyone back but seemingly didn't affect the wearer themselves, that kind of seems like a very good skill for a defensive equipment.
But enough of the theorizing, after all, why should one theorize about such things when one could just take the weapon, experiment a bit, overwhelm the opponent with great force, end this battle, get a rest and recover, especially with his still hurting eyes, closed and unusable, his shoulder that had luckily been cauterized, or rather, covered, by the violent winds of the dusty storm that was probably still quite bad after the mage had died, propelled by the infused mana and destined to rage for a few more minutes, depending on how much mana exactly they had infused in the end, something Cades was only slightly interested in, and more so because he yearned to perhaps be able to do something like this, it would be very useful, he had experienced the receiving end after all.
He took a step forward, and within the same instance, using the warping step, he arrived right in front of the woman who was still struggling, her eyes scratched out from what he could tell, difficult to perceive for him due to the mask and the fact his eyes looked far worse, blood having been covered in dark dust, sharp stones having penetrated his iris and made it burn for a while now, his left eye basically being missing, a deep hole where the thing should've been, replaced by countless scratches and stones, dirty and old, as all stones were, but she was at least able to tell he was there, picking her sword and weakly pointing at him, her muscles and even her mana seemingly having given up as she had felt her partner's death, perhaps even being soon to fall into utter despair.
Cades put his sword in the scabbard, as always, situated on his right hip, the swordswoman seemingly not hearing, her ears probably full of dust as well, having been situated a bit lower where the dust was stronger due to gravity.
It was not needed, his sword would just end this too quickly, he needed her blade, and he was fairly certain that she would have some kind of power over swordsmanship, though he did feel uncomfortable, almost naked, without his sword in his now battered hands, his right one even having started to bleed from the impacts at some point, probably because of the golden side of that blade he would now take.
Bracing himself for some kind of retaliation he grabbed at the blade, knocking it out of her hand, watching it fall to the ground with the woman stumbling backwards, her hands now empty, her face most likely looking even more despaired, and he was glad that there had indeed not been a trap.
Yet, before Cades was able to pick up the blade it vanished, turning into a golden silver light, fitting when one thought about the design of the beautiful piece of equipment, and vanishing, as soon as it touched his scabbard that had appeared within this world of dreams, fever dreams that is.
Cades left his mouth open, just looking at the blade, or rather, looking at where the blade should've fallen, not even caring about the woman who was now starting to take out a dagger, small and sleek, golden design, though a bit too arrogant and haughty from the choice.
Though, after a second, he realized, noting that the blade was gone and he could not use it anymore, even if he yearned to, and punched the woman, his rage and mana moving to enhance the power without him even thinking about it, something quite rare, and knocking her, already weakened, her physique no longer enhanced by mana, the impact not lessened by the natural magic presence dampening the body, away.
She ricocheted of the ground a few times, red spots appearing where she fell, subsequently getting cut by the fallen pieces of the great storm of dust, before she simply fell down, away from the battlefield, down onto the endlessly big hand, destined to become just another splatter of blood, the last proof of her existence being a cut on Cades shoulder and her dead body.
Finally, Cades, his mind still in turmoil, his self starting to change quite a bit, simply looked down and sighed, saddened by the loss of an interesting new weapon, not so much thinking about the fact he just killed two people.