The Queen began with a series of rapid cuts at the air, each one tailored to cut me into neat bite sized pieces.
Whistling through the air with deadly intent, I swiftly back peddaled and donned my protections
Mostly intact armor snugly fitting to my body, the steel in my hand became heavy as it was substituted for its much larger counterpart, following the momentum of my body and curving towards the Queen.
Seeing how I swiftly transformed myself from a swordsman to a swirling whirlwind of steel in order to both dodge and counterattack the numerous thrusts made at the air with her silver colored rapier, the Queen's eyes sparkled.
Stomping forwards, with a quiet huff the silver rapier in her hands was coated in an orange energy that reminded me of something...
Something I couldn't contemplate for the time being.
Hurriedly dodging the energy that left traces on the previously unmarked ground, the heavy edge of the broadsword in the battle of steel and sparks with the Queen's rapier was instead the one gaining dents on its edge.
Becoming more like that of a serrated blade as it met the glowing orange edge of the Queen, mana flowed into my eyes and began to slow down my perception allowing for a much faster reaction time.
Replacing the heavy broadsword that was proving to be futile in the face of the rapier, a pair of longswords found their way into my palms whilst I seamlessly switched from a momentum based style to a flowing one.
Planting my feet onto the ground, the ram runes served to enhance the gravity on my soles as my arms were coated by flames that jerkingly launched my limbs into more optimal situations.
Flipping my wrist this way and that way, I planted my feet against the ground as the Queen continued to thrust forwards with the very same attacks that she had used at the very start of our fight.
You would think such a repeated attack would find it's capability thwarted by increasing familiarity, but therein lies a quality that made the seemingly monotone strikes of the Queen had that made it so hard to counter.
Speed
Wind whistling in my ears, with every flick of the wrist and every joly of the arm, the Rapiar seemed to teleport to another position before sharply angling for the flesh like a shark in bloody waters.
"You're better than I had thought, no wonder my Servants got excited and destroyed the Lighthouse before I could begin the ritual to seal the Boss cell"
Speaking with the same distorted voice that I had first heard, the Servant Kleio hurriedly tried to interject.
"My Queen my Sist-"
"Quiet"
She was quickly silenced however
"I suppose I should start moving my body now"
Stepping forwards, it was only now that I realize that the Queen had barely moved from her spot whilst I was trying to counteract her numerous thrusts as many as the teeth in a shark.
And seeing as a shark's teeth came in several rows, four sets of fangs simultaneously retreated before coming towards me at a different angle.
'Behind!'
Feeling a tingling sensation at the back of my head, the condensed piece of wood dropped out of my inventory during the switching process of my two swords and the broadswords responded top my will.
Conveying my intentions through the vine rune, I felt a tingling sensation at the back of my head as I felt the vines coiling around something.
Snapping my head to see what it was that was behind me, a glowing orange blade narrowly missed the bridge of my nose as I jolted backwards. More vines moving to support me.
"To think you're extremely proficient in plant magic..."
Pulling back her blade, without knowing it, the Queen had already made five meters of distance while keeping the rapier steady in her hands.
"Well you aren't the only one knowledgeable in magic"
Moving her hand not holding the rapier, she performed a series of signs that transformed the air behind her into a broadsword made of flames.
Opening my eyes, I smiled lightly and joked to the Queen "Well well well, two can play at that game."
Gesturing at the air behind me, although they couldn't form a broadsword made of flame, I made up for it by forming several spears of flame behind my back.
Feeling the waves of heat cascade down on my back, trace amounts of amusement crossed the Queen's voice as she suddenly reappeared before my face.
"Then let me test how well you play this game"
Moving the five spears to meet her broadsword, I was slightly surprised to find out that the broadsword was able to cut through three of the spears before being stopped by the combined efforts of the two spears
Blinking at how effective that was, I let the falling rapier slide against the flat of the sword in my hand colliding against the guard.
Pulling her blade away, my other sword flashed towards her neck coated in the flames of the blazze rune, the spears of the inferno rune flashing with newfound energy as three more spears formed behind my back.
Shifting around and flying towards the Queen, the Queen instantly teleported behind me simultaneously dodging my sword strikes and fire spears all the while giving her the space to counterattack my exposed back.
Except the Vines that had previously frozen in place where the Queen previously was were still there.
Activating with a flash of green, life was breathed into the numerous brown vines as their wooden surfaces as they stabbed at her body.
Turning around to meet her hindered body, the Queen raised her hand above forming another fiery broadsword.
Already anticipating her swinging it, I jumped backwards in an attempt to make some distance from the falling broadsword to close for comfort, five fire spears belatedly formed behind me as the broadsword collided against the ground.
However, instead of breaking apart into a cascade of embers and sparks leaving nothing more than scorch marks as traces of their existences like my fire spears, the fiery broadsword instead transformed into a wave of fire.
Shockwave of flame traveling across the earth my eyes widened as the vines hidden in the earth in an attempt to trap the Queen and lock her in place instead were repurposed to protect myself.
Grimacing, the Queen laughed lightly, her voice seemingly getting more energetic as the fight went on without any of us being able to hurt the other as the vines protecting myself were sent as a counterwave to the Queen.
"This is more fun than I had thought, I suppose I should be getting more serious."
'I'm sorry what?'
Feeling a chill on the back of my neck, I hurriedly ducked as she suddenly reappeared behind me from the air, thrusting downwards.
Feeling the hair on the back of my head get sliced apart, the Queen's body collided against mine as a shockwave was generated shocking my internals and causing blood to well up in my throat.
Coughing out blood at the sudden shock traveling through my innards, the Queen laughed again as a grenade suddenly came in flying through the air abruptly ending her laughter.
Numerous pieces of shrapnel impaling themselves into her raised arm, she reappeared far from me as I took a swig of the potion from my inventory, feeling my internals repair themself.
"Heh, Well Queenie, can I call you that? You could say that you weren't the only one who hadn't gotten serious yet."
Wiping the blood from my face with the back of my arm, the Queen nodded her head, her voice becoming more distorted than before as she spoke.
"How... ExCitInG"
Getting back into the stance that she first used when we initiated combat, the glow of her rapier intensified as I sensed something different coming from her.
Frowning slightly as my eyebrows twitched, mana began to flow around my body.
Something I had noticed during the circulation of mana throughout my body, as an added benefit to enhancing the flow of mana, it additionally reinforced it, making it more susceptible to my thoughts and actions.
Narrowing the distance and gap between the brain and the body so to speak.
Holding a spear now, I tensed my legs and activated all the runes atop my body as I realized something.
Time rune slowing down my thoughts to physically conceptualize what I was thinking, the Ram rune intensified and ground my feet into the earth, forming two pits from where I stood.
Vine rune activating as roots hidden deep in the earth were drawn up with new life flowing through its wooden veins, they coiled around my limbs like snakes as the blaze rune simultaneously coated my upper body.
Wooden armor forming the majority of the armor around my body, the flames coated the parts of my limbs where th wood was much to stiff to cover, forming an armor that covered my entire body.
And despite the armor being made of wood, it was significantly tougher than the average piece of metal being enhanced by the vine rune constantly flowing through my new exoskeleton.
Than the Queen came running.
Swinging her blade, I brought up spear only to feel a shiver run down my spine as I hurriedly abandoned the concept of defense and gave my all to run backwards.
And a good thing as well as I laughed dully at what had happened next.
Rapier moving at a speed seemingly visible to the eye, I knew for a fact that if I didn't react ahead of time, I wouldn't have been able to react at all as the path drawn by the Rapier Split
Hurriedly pulling back in awe, my eyes widened into saucers as space literally began to unravel around the tip of the blade, a condensation of power that made my skin crawl in trepidation as the void itself was visible in the path that the blade took.
Laughing to myself, I wondered how the hell I was supposed to combat this before running right into the gap of numerous crisscrossing space rendering slashes.
Deactivating the ram rune, I spun around through the small gap as I skewered at the Queen using my spear.
Laughing lightly in a way that grated at the ears, the Queen seemingly teleported... no.
"You're actually teleporting, and it only happens when you're voice distorts"
"Oh?"
Voice barely recognizable to even my ears, the Queen laughed and teleported right besides me raising her blade that contained an impossible amount of energy at the tip of its blade.
"Now how did you find that out?"
Rolling to the side, the ram rune forcefully slammed my feet against the ground generating a shockwave on the ground followed up by an explosion of fire from my limbs as they jettisoned forwards.
"Your speed gave it away."
Forming more of those space rendering slashes this time, a network of cuts made in space formed themselves like a cage around me as I hurriedly picked a space big enough for me and shot towards it.
"It just didn't make sense."
Feeling my arm flare up with pain as I was made aware of a part of me that had suddenly gone missing, blood and flesh gave rise to the sent of cooked meat as I hurriedly seared the wound shut.
"If you were fast enough to escape my senses, then surely the same could be said for your attacks."
Replacing the spear for a bow since the Queen had reappeared to form another cage of space rendering attacks to hinder my movements, my arms tensed with pain and agony as an arrow threaded the needle and disrupted the path of her blade.
"But nope, I could still see your attacks although they did teleport themselves a few times to confuse my senses."
Seeing the larger path I had formed, without a moments hesitation I dove through the gap and continued to fire more and more arrows at the Queen.
"So I wondered, what was the secret behind your speed?"
Throwing out a grenade this time intersped with the arrows, the grenade collided with a cut in space and instantly detonated, the blue colored shell giving way for ice colored mist that covered the area with chills.
"At first, I thought you had a temporary speed buff."
Recalling the area where the spatial blades had covered, I seemed to remember a space that had been previously ignored by the Queen and moved to dive through the gap.
"Since you always seemed to teleport before appearing in places where it wouldn't be possible without a high amount of speed, I wondered"
But before diving through the gap, I knelt onto the ground and felt the roots under the ground respond to my call, moving them and feeling them get sliced apart by a series of spatial slashes placed where the gap was.
"But then I realized that if that was the case, then you would've abused it constantly attack my limbs every single time, immobilizing me before I could even react."
Instead moving to a smaller and tighter gap, I waved away the ice mist to allow myself better passage as I snuck out of the cage made of reality slashes.
"Of course it could be that you yourself are unable to control the speed, only being able to make rough adjustments, but here comes the reason why I realized you could travel through space."
Pulling out a blade, with a sixth sense, I twisted round and placed my blade against the neck of the Queen.
"It only begins whenever your voice distorts."
Icy mist clearing, the black mask of the queen glowing purple tilted in amusement before freezing in shock.
"Isn't that right Enderman?"
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