Clang!
Oscar's ice-attuned odachi repeatedly clashed with Rosi's long, heavy axe. In his enhanced state, Oscar's speed was equally matched with hers, and so he was able to parry, block, and strike her a few times.
"Impressive," she complimented Oscar's swordsmanship. As she clashed, weaved, struck, and took shallow cuts to the cheek, her eyes followed Oscar's every movement.
— Damn it... I have to be careful... I can feel that I'm losing myself.
Oscar's skin grew paler.
"Anore has an impressive batch of youth. I've analyzed your patterns enough, though."
Her stance changed. The air shifted. She finally swung with determination.
Unlike all her other strikes, where they had just been thrown to test how Oscar would react, this strike was calculated and meant to land.
[Cast: Thorned Chains of Frost]
Chains of ice appeared from magic circles floating in the air, shooting out to catch her hand and delay her swing, giving time for Oscar to move out of the way.
[Cast: Cryo Steps]
His feet became chilled, the ground underneath him freezing into ice. This made him faster.
"Oh... I'm starting to understand now!" Rosi smiled.
Clang!
She blocked an incoming strike with relative ease, mana emanating from her body. She was enhancing her physical state and her senses with the application of mana.
"While others preserve their mana for enhancement, and rarely use [Casts], you're one of the few individuals who have an abundance of mana and decide to go all out, huh?" she concluded, clapping her hands together.
[Cast: Flashstep]
"We're more similar than you think, then."
Even in an enhanced state, Oscar struggled a bit, barely avoiding the strike. Her axe stuck in the ground, sending energy waves into the earth.
[Cast: Glacier Spear]
With his offhand, he held an icicle resembling a well-forged spear, chucking it toward Rosi.
She abandoned the axe to avoid the incoming spear, jumping into the sky.
[Cast: Tornado Lance]
Strong winds gathered in her palm, twisting to form the shape of a lance, or more so a drill, that spun rapidly. She thrust the lance toward Oscar.
Its movement was fast and unpredictable.
— I have to... sacrifice some clarity to gain more power! If I don't... I won't be able to avoid that.
He thought quickly.
And so he did just as he thought.
Feeling his consciousness holding onto a thread. But it was still there.
[Cast: Chilled Halberd]
With quick thinking, a halberd of ice formed in his hands. He swiped, dissipating the wind.
"Oh? Your energy... it feels a little different."
Oscar bit down, holding his head in his hands. A pulsating headache had come to him. It had come from him trying to resist the [Aeloan] nature. After a few seconds of calming down, he looked back up.
Rosi had already reached him. Preparing a strike.
He blocked the strike. But the force of the strike was enough to knock him into a row of trees.
Crack!
The tree splintered, and then he crashed into another tree, another tree, and then a rock, which broke into some pieces but maintained its overall shape, forming a crater.
[Cast: Rapid Glacier Recurve]
— Using advanced ice techniques like this... I really have to be careful. Or else I'll become overwhelmed.
A bow of ice appeared in his hand, manifesting three arrows along with it.
He pulled back the cold string with his thumb, firing it at Rosi who was heading toward him.
Rosi twisted, dodging the three arrows. But with this twisting, she was vulnerable.
With no hesitation, seeing that small opening, Oscar zipped through the air in near zero time. Reaching Rosi the millisecond he departed.
[Cast: Advanced Frostfire Slash]
The lines carved into his odachi glowed a light blue. Cold, icy mana shot out in fragments, expanding quickly like an explosion.
All that mana suddenly retracted back into the sword, intensifying the glow.
Slsh!
[Cast: Heavenly Gale Cut]
Clang!
Wind began to gather, and Oscar felt strong breezes coming into his face.
Rosi used elemental mana to enhance her strike, to become on par with Oscar's ice-attuned strike.
They were stuck in a clash.
A stalemate.
Rosi covered any signs of struggle with a cocky smirk, applying more mana and force as the clash went on longer.
On the other hand,
Oscar's face was twisted into a concerning grin. His skin was pale as snow at this point, and the ice in his hair was starting to form a crown.
— I'm... my mana reserves are running out... I can feel it. If I'm unlucky, I'll faint on the spot. But if I'm... less unlucky, that 'nature' of mine will take over. I have to take a gamble!
The light-blue mana grew larger. Exploding!
"!"