Zara gives her a puzzled expression.
"Reynard? No, I don't know an elf by that name. Why?" (Zara)
Alyse shrugs playfully.
She never expected Zara to have actually met him, after all.
"Ah, you just remind me of him is all...you really are two of a kind. Anyway, I suppose you've got a point about what's acceptable in this duel. However..." (Alyse)
Her expression hardens, and a warning edge finds its way into her voice as she addresses Zara, her sword still pointed forward provocatively in her dominant hand.
"You don't seem to have what it takes to best me without Mizuki's blessings, so I'll have to insist that you start putting more effort into this duel. I'm a little too prideful to tolerate your half-assed showing so far...I'll never get to go all out at this rate." (Alyse)
As she stares her down, Zara maintains an unreadable expression in silence for several moments. Then...
Zara's eyes narrow, and she blurs across Alyse's field of vision.
CLANG!
Alyse's pupils constrict as she barely moves her sword in time to block Zara's strike, feeling a weight behind the blow that wasn't there before. Despite the unexpected ferocity of the attack, her lips curl into a satisfied smile.
"Now that's more like-" (Alyse)
She's robbed of breath by a follow-up strike from Zara, this one somehow even more overbearing than the first, and her words die on her lips. Her eyes lock with Zara's, and she's struck by the lack of Zara's earlier, battle-crazed grin. Instead, there's a quiet sharpness to Zara's eyes that gives her the impulse to shiver. However, that feeling is quickly dwarfed by a rush of excitement, and her own grin only grows.
'I get it...no more time for words now that you're serious, huh? Alright then...'
She tightens her grip on her own sword, and just like that, their duel erupts into a clamor of steel so ferocious that it makes their earlier exchange seem performative by comparison.
Slash, parry, sidestep, counter, block, stab, dodge...she soon finds herself focused solely on the seamless transition between her and Zara's attacks, leaving herself no attention to mind the now pale spectators around them.
The two of them are soon dancing across their area of the Park, exchanging blows at a dizzying pace, as the fervor of their duel only seems to rise. Both of their attacks come faster and harder until the sound of periodically ringing metal melds into a near-continuous whine, as though their very swords are protesting the strain they're under.
Their skill, power, and enthusiasm are on full display for those nearby. However, a discerning eye might notice that, as the battle progresses and its intensity climbs, their sword styles begin to diverge as they lose themselves in the thrill of their exchanges.
Alyse's movements become sharper, more precise, more focused...the epitome of deadly efficiency, and a testament to the millennia she has spent ingraining refined sword techniques into her very soul. Meanwhile, Zara seems to become more feral, more unpredictable...her earlier, traditional sword movements giving way to more fluid, primal swings that she intersperses with kicks, elbow strikes, and even claws.
And yet, this makes her no less devastating than Alyse.
Alyse narrowly sidesteps yet another unexpected kick from Zara after her last slash was parried by the young wolf-kin. She stabs her sword towards Zara's now exposed side, thinking she's left her no room or time to react. But Zara just drives the claws on her free hand into the side of the blade, deflecting it just enough to miss her as she brings her own blade back around for a counter-attack. Alyse is forced to hastily dodge after having overextended herself.
She can't help but frown, feeling the battle's momentum shift.
'This is absolutely ridiculous...'
Against Zara's fighting style, all her battle instincts feel just slightly inappropriate. She can no longer be as certain when there's truly an opening, or when there's no threat of counterattacks from a specific direction. How could she be? She's fighting another swordsman, so she instinctively focuses on the distance and momentum of Zara's sword to make decisions. And yet, she's having her attacks parried by a random claw or her blind spots kicked unexpectedly. Fighting Zara is the worst of both a swordsman and a pugilist.
They continue to exchange blows, neither managing a decisive blow on the other, but Alyse's frustration only deepens. She's matched her physical enhancement to Zara's, and Zara has the advantage of better senses as a wolf-kin, so her only advantage lies in sword technique and experience. True to form, her attacks are precise, unwavering, and executed to a textbook perfection that far exceeds Zara's, but that only seems to make it easier for Zara to read her and avoid critical blows. By contrast, Zara is a chaotic blur of less refined but harder to predict strikes. She can tell that it's only a matter of time before one of Zara's attacks slips past her defenses.
Despite Zara's calm, collected expression, she continues to press Alyse with an almost bloodthirsty fervor, dancing across the Park's grass and constantly closing the distance between them in a feral whirlwind of sword, claws, fang, and foot. All the while, Alyse is looking for any reliable opening to alter the flow of their battle, unwilling to stomach the idea of going all out against some wolf-kin pup.
Then...
"UGHH!" (Alyse)
Zara finally finds her way past Alyse's guard, driving her knee into the unsuspecting elf's gut. Alyse's eyes bulge as the air is pushed from her lungs and spittle flies from her mouth, and the force of the blow sends her sliding away from Zara. She drops to a knee involuntarily, her breath coming in ragged gasps, but she quickly brings her sword up to parry Zara's inevitable finishing blow.
However, she's surprised to see that Zara is still several meters from her...standing still. Before she can even look puzzled, Zara's placid face finally twists into a small smirk. Zara slowly raises her sword to point it towards Alyse, mirroring Alyse's own provocation from earlier.
"You're much better than Klaus...but you still fight like him. If you're just going to bore me with more of the same, and you keep holding back, then you don't stand a chance. Should I make you kneel some more, until you toss away your pride and quit limiting your physical enhancement?" (Zara)
The entire area falls silent, with everyone stunned by the boldness of Zara's words. Naturally, it's a small mercy that Klaus is not in attendance. Otherwise, he'd cough up blood at the sight of someone he was training just a month ago referring to his skill so dismissively.
Alyse blinks, dumbfounded. Then, as the arrogance of Zara's words begins to gnaw at her pride, she narrows her eyes at Zara, letting out a cold chuckle as she climbs to her feet.
'Fufufufu...nobody told me how arrogant she is.'
She glances over at Alto, curious. However, she's surprised to see a rare emotion plainly etched into Alto's expression...shock. Alyse raises her eyebrows.
'So, this isn't normal behavior? Or, is she just surprised that Zara managed to get the upper hand against me? Whatever, it doesn't matter...I'm annoyed regardless...'
In fact, though she has no way of knowing it, if Mizuki was here to witness Zara's behavior, he'd be equally shocked – he's never seen Zara show so much useless bravado. How would he know that Zara's just enjoying herself so thoroughly in the sword fight that she wants to goad more out of Alyse? But...that's neither relevant nor obvious to those in attendance now.
Alyse turns her gaze back to the expectant Zara, then snorts dismissively.
"You're entirely too cocky if you think I need a physical advantage to best you in a sword fight. But you're right about one thing..." (Alyse)
Paying no mind to Zara, who merely raises her eyebrows at the comment, she walks over a few meters to where she left her other sword and picks it up in her free hand. Meanwhile, realization dawns on Zara's face as she watches from nearby, and an excited glimmer takes root in her eyes.
Alyse turns to face Zara again, now wielding both her blades, and she steels her expression.
"I've decided that I'm tired of holding back on you. Now...l'll show you what it means to fight a real sword master." (Alyse)
To her surprise, Zara just smiles wolfishly, her tone becoming almost...teasing. Suffice it to say, those close to Zara would hardly recognize her personality at this point.
"Oh, two swords? What's the other one for?" (Zara)
Alyse purses her lips in annoyance. She gestures at the sword in her dominant hand nonchalantly.
"This one is for cutting you..." (Alyse)
Then she nods at her second sword.
"...and this one is for cutting you faster." (Alyse)
Zara's small smirk returns. Then, without another word, she drops into her sword stance. Seeing the response, Alyse doesn't waste any more breath on monologuing. She just blurs forward, vanishing from her position...
And appearing in front of Zara's waiting figure.
__________
'Finally...'
Zara feels an emotion close to giddiness threaten to overtake her as she sees the now dual-wielding Alyse blitz towards her with a serious expression.
'I've finally gotten her to quit holding back on me. I was worried I wouldn't get to learn anything from her the way things were going...'
CLANGG!
She blocks Alyse's opening strike, preparing to counter with a clawed hand. But before she can even make a move, Alyse's second blade is already closing in on her exposed side.
DING!
She barely deflects the second sword with her claws instead, feeling her entire arm vibrate from the force. However, she doesn't get a second to recover before the first blade is already moving again, arcing towards her shoulder.
Just like that, Zara falls under a merciless barrage of near-endless sword strikes.
Her sword, her claws, her kicks and elbow strikes – whereas before her wholistic attack strategy provided her with an advantage to surprise and even overwhelm Alyse, now it's taking everything at her disposal just to keep from being struck down by either of Alyse's menacing blades.
One might think that, at worst, she'd only have to parry or dodge Alyse's attacks twice as frequently. However, the reality for her is not so simple. Not only is she being assaulted by twice as many blades, but Alyse's dual-wielding style seems to provide a kind of...balance, which makes it easier for her to pivot and launch follow-up attacks. The synergy of the two blades, wielded by a practiced expert like Alyse, gives way to something that is more than the sum of its parts.
And to Zara, the result is nothing short of...overbearing.
CLANG!
She parries a blow.
"Grr!" (Zara)
The second blade nicks her exposed shoulder.
DING!
SHIIING!
CLANG!
She deflects a stab attack with her claw, redirects one slash, then blocks a heavy strike.
SQUELCH!
Yet another sword strike cuts her exposed side.
She struggles to keep up with the tyrannical barrage of sword strikes, not even able to spare the time for meaningful counters of her own...Alyse's swords are just too relentless, the time between strikes too minimal. Zara perseveres admirably, blocking several dozen strikes or more for every singular, minor blow that lands...but those rare failures are enough.
As seconds turn to minutes under Alyse's explosive sword performance, she can feel herself slowly accumulating damage, her movements becoming more restricted.
And yet...she can't help but twist her lips into a rare, reluctant smile.