Chapter 39
Violet squared her stance towards her opponent as the captain counted down.
“Three. Two. One.”
All of her strength gathered in her legs before she exploded off the ground towards her opponent.
Neither of them was surprised at the other's exuberance as they clashed in midfield.
Sparks jumped away from where their sabers connected, the charged ions in the blade striking each other at unimaginable speeds and creating electrical discharge that arced away from their bodies.
Beam sabers were incredible weapons, but they definitely had certain quirks. Violet was well used to them and adjusted as she stepped back to disengage.
There was a force on her back, as if someone had shown up behind her and given her a heavy shove back into her opponent's blade.
Violet stepped into the force, taking control of her momentum and redirecting the energy to her step, letting her sidestep her opponent's blade and flick down, catching his leg and shearing off most of his calf.
Ushael jumped back, hobbling for several steps before he was able to reclaim his footing as his leg healed before her eyes. "Cheap shot." He sneered at Violet, but she crashed back into him even faster.
The two of them most likely were nothing but blurs to the onlookers.
There was always something strange about moving at a certain speed. For all being a divine did, it didn't necessarily make them think quicker. Not that kikai couldn't think at decently high speeds, but it was that battling at full speed became entirely reflex.
She could practically hear her master beside her as she wove through the fight. The words echoed too many times during her training for Violet to ever forget: what matters more than power is how power gets used. Even nine tails are worthless without combat reflexes built into their muscles.
As a result, Akari had worked with Violet extensively. There was no better preparation than experience was another of her master’s favorite sayings.
And at that moment in the fight, Violet found herself thankful for her master’s zeal for preparation. Even in the dozen exchanges that rapidly stacked up between her and her opponent, she could feel that he was struggling to get his sword where it needed to be.
When fighting at such high speed, Ushael struggled, and she managed to catch his blade off tempo and drive him back far enough that he wasn't on strong footing to receive her next attack. The result was that she had a far better application of force.
His strength, weakened by physics, was enough for Violet to shape the tempo of the fight back in her direction despite being a tail down.
Ushael simply wasn't strong enough to make up the difference of attacking with bad form.
Martial forms at times seemed ridiculous and over-practiced, but the reality was that there were long-standing reasons that these forms had been passed down for so long in their current iteration.
The angle of a blade and the leverage extended onto joints at different angles mattered.
It mattered enough that a two-tailed kikai simply wasn't as strong as a one-tailed divine if they were holding their blade wrong.
It also showed how sloppy these divines who had gone against her master were. No wonder they had to strand her in space to defeat Akari.
Now that Violet had a hand on the tempo, she wasn't going to let Ushael get it back. Her attention was locked on the other divine, her eyes unfocused to prevent tunnel vision and let her instincts pick up every little twitch and shift of her opponent's stance in order to read him like a book.
"No, you don't!" he shouted, both of his tails flicking forward as Violet felt a blade-like pressure slam into her sword and threaten to push her back.
But even that hit she caught on her blade, and with a flick of her own tail, she rooted herself, weathering it like a mountain suddenly brushed by a violent storm.
But the delay was enough that he was able to regain control of the tempo. Ushael powered forward with every ounce of his two-tailed strength.
But Violet wasn't worried. She had gained the upper hand once and could do so again.
She caught several strikes and dissipated the energy to the side, letting him throw himself upon her blade while she remained steadfast and immovable, her instincts running at full speed, doing everything she could to use his strength against him.
She'd brace her arms against light strikes and parry the heavy ones gently to the side, forcing him to pull back and use his own strength to prevent overextending.
It might not seem like much, but fighting was often perfected in the minute movements.
It was in those minutiae that small muscles that could grow fatigued easily were heavily used.
Heck, if he had as little training as he appeared to have, there was a solid chance those muscles weren't nearly as developed as they should be, which gave Violet a small surge of pride.
He really didn't deserve to be a divine.
Violet let him continue to clash against her, doing her best to wear him out until she saw her opening.
She parried another of his particularly heavy attacks to the side.
Once again, he put all of his weight on his front foot to balance himself, and when he did so, Violet kicked out his ankle.
Ushael fell to a tumble, rolling along the ground and out of her way. His two tails flailed behind him and matted the fur down in dirt.
She still scored the ground where he had stood, mostly for effect, smirking as he came to his feet and regarded her warily. "Who was your master?" Violet scoffed.
"What, as soon as you get a good hit in, you're going to suddenly get cocky on me?" He puffed himself up, and Violet darted forward, reclaiming the tempo of the fight.
Having control of the tempo was far more important than the banter itself.
Violet knew that talk could be strategic to unnerve or understand an opponent.
Oftentimes, by making them talk, it got easier to notice when their focus was shifting.
It gave clues into the opponent’s state of mind, clues that Violet didn't need, but her opponent might.
Their blades clashed in a rapid staccato as Violet led the fight, pushing Ushael back and scoring several debilitating strikes. With one slice, she managed to cut off his toes and drive him to the edge of the arena.
There had been no statement about bounds drawn up before the fight, and Violet suddenly cursed herself for that oversight.
He could backpedal as much as he needed to buy time for his leg to heal.
Violet needed to push in quickly; in a battle of attrition, he would have the upper hand.
She needed to take advantage while she had it.
His toes were healing back, only for her blade to clip his knee. Unfortunately, the cut was not deep enough to sever it, but it did cause him to favor protecting that leg while Violet swept in with another strike at his foot.
Now that both legs were injured, she came in high overhead, her blade crashing down atop him and pinning Ushael to the ground.
His tails sprang back as he tried to use a wave of force to get himself out of the situation. Violet had already seen the maneuver coming and leaned in harder over top, using leverage and her own tail until there was nothing he could do but be crushed under her pressure.
His tails flicked out to the side and pulled him along the ground, but not fast enough.
Her blade came down to shear off one of his shoulders, and the two-handed grip he had used on his saber was gone.
Violet refused to let up. She swung her blade for his neck.
He would not be dead with that hit, but there was no need for more death.
There had already been too much. The divines were here to lead the kikai, not to commit war and atrocities.
They certainly weren't here to slaughter each other, and so her blade paused, close enough that it singed the divine's neck.
He could recover, but his loss was clear.
"It's your loss," Violet said. And Ushael blinked, looking up at her with what she hoped was recognition of the end of the duel.
There was no reason the fight had to end with one of their deaths.
That might have been his desire, but it was not hers.
She wanted to show that other approaches were possible.
She wanted to prove that her master's push for peace wasn't a lie, and the practices could work.
***
Faster than I realized, the fight was over. Violet had won, and though it had been close at times, it seemed that she had it all under control as she breathed heavily, her chest heaving in steady but deep breaths while her saber hummed at the other divine’s neck.
“I suppose I lose.” Ushael dipped his head and let his tail sag to the ground. However, I was on edge as I watched for the slightest flicker of aggression from either of the enemy divine kikai.
While Violet had chosen to avoid killing, I doubted either of these kikai was going to let it be so easy.
"Violet," Lily hissed from across the field, "this is not the time for mercy."
"It is my fight," Violet shot back.
Lily ground her teeth in frustration—a noise that I had to say was particularly grating. I wondered if she just ground them down and would restore them?
"Hold it, Lily. This is her fight," I cautioned Lily before she tried to intervene.
"She is making a mistake," Lily grumbled.
I turned to her. "Then it is her mistake to make."
Lily crossed her arms and mumbled something more under her breath.
"No, it is fine. I have the honor of a divine," the two-tailed kikai said, sticking his nose up in the air. And I was prepared to be surprised, as by all sense, both of them appeared to have accepted the outcome.
"For your loss," Violet said, "you owe reparations for the damage you and those you command caused to us."
"Understandable." The two-tailed kikai nodded along.
"And then, of course, I would like a formal apology," Violet stated.