Altair finished stretching as the peanut gallery positioned themselves to one side of the arena. She gave them no attention as she looked toward Celestine who had finished stretching a while ago and asked, "Can we start now?"
Celestine nodded while saying, "Sure, anytime you're ready." Once she finished speaking she shifted her center of gravity down and put up an advanced guard with both hands. Her stance appeared to be very practiced and oozed confidence in herself. She had shaken off the fear that Altair had thrown at her earlier and was ready to fight seriously. Just because her brother had full confidence in her didn't mean that she would underestimate anyone. That's how she got so good so quickly because she never stopped applying herself.
Altair narrowed her eyes when she saw Celestine's stance. She had seen this before in her old world, right before she teleported away. It was the same stance that Human scum used to slaughter her people and boldly told her that she would be enslaved. Her expression darkened as she remembered that day again and her blood boiled at the memory. The exhaustion she felt from being awake all this time felt like it was quickly chased away by her feelings.
She took a deep breath to calm down and dropped into her own open handed stance. This drew a strange look from Hadrian who had seen it before. He didn't know how this stance of hers was supposed to work due to how open it was. All he could see was a lot of holes and it bothered him just by seeing it. He half wanted to instruct Altair to tighten up her guard and half the other half wanted to see Altair get thrashed by his sister.
Altair focused entirely on Celestine as she waited for some signal to begin. In return, Celestine also focused entirely on Altair. The room fell into an odd silence under an open tension that quickly spread to everyone around. It was like they were on pins and needles and a silent excitement started to spread, starting from Dornom. Hadrian eventually shouted, "Begin!"
Once the word left his mouth Celestine and Altair closed the gaps between them. Altair immediately started burning her Mana to envelop her body with her improved Body Reinforcement Magic while Celestine used her Spiritual Energy to enhance her own body.
The two met each other with probing blows to test out each other's guard. Celestine and Altair didn't let a single thing slip past their eyes as they exchanged fists into palms and dodges. A flurry quickly escalated in the center of the arena while the gallery focused entirely on how Altair fought.
Everyone in the room, excluding Altair, came to the same conclusion: Altair's battle style was full of holes but was extremely deadly. All of her attacks were aimed at vital points and the openings she left were glaringly obvious.
Rictor and Vargol couldn't help but furrow their brows at this. She was using a very different style of fighting from when she fought them earlier.
Celestine quickly decided to start fighting seriously when she noticed the openings and moved to exploit the holes in Altair's guard that she saw. She threw a sharp jab at Altair's collar which was caught a moment before it touched Altair. This caused Celestine's brow to twitch slightly in surprise as she threw a decisive punch towards Altair's gut, which was caught almost immediately before it even reached full power.
Once that happened Altair threw her leg out in a sharp kick at Celestine's stomach that she couldn't see because both of her arms obstructed her view. Celestine only knew what happened after she felt the pain and her legs started to buckle from the impact.
Altair saw her flinch and used that timing to let go of Celestine's hands and ducked under her arms at the same moment. She then threw both of her palms into the spot she attacked with her legs while Celestine tried to recover as quickly as she could.
Celestine didn't recover in time and was knocked back a meter from the weight of the blow. Her stomach cried out in pain as she gritted her teeth and looked at Altair who was pressing her attack. She was sure that was a hole in Altair's guard and couldn't understand how her attack had been blocked so effectively. It was as if it was a trap.
Hadrian and the others couldn't believe what happened either. They would have attacked in the same spot if they were in Celestine's shoes, but their follow up would have been different. However they all judged that it was probably a mistake to make that attack due to how Altair countered it.
Once Altair closed the distance between the two she had the initiative and threw out several key strikes in an attempt to knock Celestine further off balance.
Celestine was using a tried and tested military combat style though.
Once Altair started her assault she quickly realized that Celestine was regaining her balance more and more. She also realized why almost just as quickly. Due to the height different between her and Celestine she had to attack up more often than not. The gap between her targets and her hands was significantly longer than the gap between the targets and Celestine's hands. Because of this her attacks lost power and weren't as effective as she wanted them to be.
This caused Altair to curse inwardly due to her inexperience in unarmed combat. The combat style she was using was one that was taught to her by other Demi-Humans. It was very effective against normal humans who often held the height advantage over them. It also specialized in counter attacking viciously using whatever weapon was on hand. There were rare occasions when fights came down to unarmed combat, even rarer for Altair due to her Shadow Magic being able to make whatever weapon she wanted when she wanted it.
Due to these factors Altair had very little experience in fighting unarmed and had brute forced her way through her fights so far with instinct and Mana. Now that she was fighting someone who could actually keep up with her and was more skilled in unarmed combat, Altair started to feel a little worried that she would lose.
As soon as Celestine recovered completely she started looking for another hole in Altair's defenses. It didn't take her long to find one and she threw out her attack towards it.
Altair saw the attack coming and, utilizing the full power of her stance, caught Celestine's fist as soon as it fully extended towards her chest with both hands. This caused Celestine's eyes to widen slightly because it was the third time in a row that happened. It also surprised all the viewers as well but Altair wasn't done. She pulled on Celestine's hand and effectively yanked Celestine towards her. At the same moment she threw her head forward and head-butted Celestine right in head. Altair was aiming for Celestine's nose but she avoided that at the last moment and the impact hit her in the cheek.
The effect appeared to be the same though. Celestine crumpled towards the ground and caught herself with one hand. Altair immediately sprang into action as she threw a flying knee at Celestine's head to knock her over fully.
Unfortunately for Altair's idea, Celestine was trained to react on instinct and her fake fall to one hand was an act. As soon as she caught sight of Altair's knee coming into her head, she jerked her head out of the way and reached up to grab Altair's leg with her free hand. Altair couldn't avoid it because she was already moving forward in the air and her leg was grabbed. Celestine then rotated her body and used Altair's momentum to throw her behind herself while picking her own body up with the rotation.
Altair was thrown near the edge of the arena before she landed on the ground. She quickly turned around and saw that Celestine was already standing with a deadly serious look on her face as she returned to her stance. Altair narrowed her eyes before she dashed back in to engage her.
Celestine had figured something out Altair's stance and she found it a little hard to believe. With the timing of Altair's defense and counter attacks she was forced to accept it though. All of the holes in Altair's defenses were illusions. It only worked because Altair was shorter than Celestine by quite a bit. If it was used on anyone the same height as her it would fail spectacularly. But, due to the height difference, Altair was able to use the momentum and the fully extended attacks of her opponents to her advantage in timing and reversals. She could also use her opponent's view being obstructed by their body to launch sneak attacks as well.
It was a very clever fighting style that tricked their opponent but it had one flaw that Celestine could abuse heavily: the weight difference between attacks.
Celestine's Inborn Ability was a physical strength boost. It was fairly generic in terms of what it did, but in the case of this battle, it would be enough to toss Altair the moment she tried to block an attack. She originally didn't want to use it against Altair because she knew that other people would be watching their fight. She also didn't want to expose her ability but she changed her mind. If she kept fighting the way she was right now she might lose and she really didn't want to lose.
Altair had the initiative again and started the flurry between the two. Very quickly several holes in Altair's guard started to pop up to both viewers and Celestine. Celestine frowned as she activated her Inborn Ability by pooling her Spiritual Energy into her fists and threw a punch at Altair's chest.
Altair caught the punch just as before and felt the weight difference immediately. It felt like she had been slammed into by a young dragon's tail and she arm crashed into her chest and she was sent skidding across the arena floor, barely managing to keep herself from falling off her feet.
This caused Rictor's group to tilt their heads as they rushed to understand what just happened while Hadrian's eyes opened wide in realization. He couldn't believe that Celestine had chosen to use her Inborn Ability against Altair. They had talked about it before and Celestine said that she wouldn't use it because she probably wouldn't need to. They didn't know Altair's age but they did know that she definitely didn't know the military combat style. Because she didn't know that style it would be practically impossible for her to fight against it evenly. But since Celestine had chosen to her use Inborn Ability that meant that she was actually losing without it. Such a thought was absolutely crazy to Hadrian.
He didn't know how Altair managed to defend against the attacks that were aimed at the holes in her defenses. He assumed it was because she got lucky or had some kind of sixth sense Inborn Ability. But now he was leaning more towards the sixth sense ability. The only way to deal with that would be for Celestine to use her own ability. Since it came to this, then Altair wouldn't be able to rely on her own ability to defend and would be forced to change how she fought.
Altair finished stretching as the peanut gallery positioned themselves to one side of the arena. She gave them no attention as she looked toward Celestine who had finished stretching a while ago and asked, "Can we start now?"
Celestine nodded while saying, "Sure, anytime you're ready." Once she finished speaking she shifted her center of gravity down and put up an advanced guard with both hands. Her stance appeared to be very practiced and oozed confidence in herself. She had shaken off the fear that Altair had thrown at her earlier and was ready to fight seriously. Just because her brother had full confidence in her didn't mean that she would underestimate anyone. That's how she got so good so quickly because she never stopped applying herself.
Altair narrowed her eyes when she saw Celestine's stance. She had seen this before in her old world, right before she teleported away. It was the same stance that Human scum used to slaughter her people and boldly told her that she would be enslaved. Her expression darkened as she remembered that day again and her blood boiled at the memory. The exhaustion she felt from being awake all this time felt like it was quickly chased away by her feelings.
She took a deep breath to calm down and dropped into her own open handed stance. This drew a strange look from Hadrian who had seen it before. He didn't know how this stance of hers was supposed to work due to how open it was. All he could see was a lot of holes and it bothered him just by seeing it. He half wanted to instruct Altair to tighten up her guard and half the other half wanted to see Altair get thrashed by his sister.
Altair focused entirely on Celestine as she waited for some signal to begin. In return, Celestine also focused entirely on Altair. The room fell into an odd silence under an open tension that quickly spread to everyone around. It was like they were on pins and needles and a silent excitement started to spread, starting from Dornom. Hadrian eventually shouted, "Begin!"
Once the word left his mouth Celestine and Altair closed the gaps between them. Altair immediately started burning her Mana to envelop her body with her improved Body Reinforcement Magic while Celestine used her Spiritual Energy to enhance her own body.
The two met each other with probing blows to test out each other's guard. Celestine and Altair didn't let a single thing slip past their eyes as they exchanged fists into palms and dodges. A flurry quickly escalated in the center of the arena while the gallery focused entirely on how Altair fought.
Everyone in the room, excluding Altair, came to the same conclusion: Altair's battle style was full of holes but was extremely deadly. All of her attacks were aimed at vital points and the openings she left were glaringly obvious.
Rictor and Vargol couldn't help but furrow their brows at this. She was using a very different style of fighting from when she fought them earlier.
Celestine quickly decided to start fighting seriously when she noticed the openings and moved to exploit the holes in Altair's guard that she saw. She threw a sharp jab at Altair's collar which was caught a moment before it touched Altair. This caused Celestine's brow to twitch slightly in surprise as she threw a decisive punch towards Altair's gut, which was caught almost immediately before it even reached full power.
Once that happened Altair threw her leg out in a sharp kick at Celestine's stomach that she couldn't see because both of her arms obstructed her view. Celestine only knew what happened after she felt the pain and her legs started to buckle from the impact.
Altair saw her flinch and used that timing to let go of Celestine's hands and ducked under her arms at the same moment. She then threw both of her palms into the spot she attacked with her legs while Celestine tried to recover as quickly as she could.
Celestine didn't recover in time and was knocked back a meter from the weight of the blow. Her stomach cried out in pain as she gritted her teeth and looked at Altair who was pressing her attack. She was sure that was a hole in Altair's guard and couldn't understand how her attack had been blocked so effectively. It was as if it was a trap.
Hadrian and the others couldn't believe what happened either. They would have attacked in the same spot if they were in Celestine's shoes, but their follow up would have been different. However they all judged that it was probably a mistake to make that attack due to how Altair countered it.
Once Altair closed the distance between the two she had the initiative and threw out several key strikes in an attempt to knock Celestine further off balance.
Celestine was using a tried and tested military combat style though.
Once Altair started her assault she quickly realized that Celestine was regaining her balance more and more. She also realized why almost just as quickly. Due to the height different between her and Celestine she had to attack up more often than not. The gap between her targets and her hands was significantly longer than the gap between the targets and Celestine's hands. Because of this her attacks lost power and weren't as effective as she wanted them to be.
This caused Altair to curse inwardly due to her inexperience in unarmed combat. The combat style she was using was one that was taught to her by other Demi-Humans. It was very effective against normal humans who often held the height advantage over them. It also specialized in counter attacking viciously using whatever weapon was on hand. There were rare occasions when fights came down to unarmed combat, even rarer for Altair due to her Shadow Magic being able to make whatever weapon she wanted when she wanted it.
Due to these factors Altair had very little experience in fighting unarmed and had brute forced her way through her fights so far with instinct and Mana. Now that she was fighting someone who could actually keep up with her and was more skilled in unarmed combat, Altair started to feel a little worried that she would lose.
As soon as Celestine recovered completely she started looking for another hole in Altair's defenses. It didn't take her long to find one and she threw out her attack towards it.
Altair saw the attack coming and, utilizing the full power of her stance, caught Celestine's fist as soon as it fully extended towards her chest with both hands. This caused Celestine's eyes to widen slightly because it was the third time in a row that happened. It also surprised all the viewers as well but Altair wasn't done. She pulled on Celestine's hand and effectively yanked Celestine towards her. At the same moment she threw her head forward and head-butted Celestine right in head. Altair was aiming for Celestine's nose but she avoided that at the last moment and the impact hit her in the cheek.
The effect appeared to be the same though. Celestine crumpled towards the ground and caught herself with one hand. Altair immediately sprang into action as she threw a flying knee at Celestine's head to knock her over fully.
Unfortunately for Altair's idea, Celestine was trained to react on instinct and her fake fall to one hand was an act. As soon as she caught sight of Altair's knee coming into her head, she jerked her head out of the way and reached up to grab Altair's leg with her free hand. Altair couldn't avoid it because she was already moving forward in the air and her leg was grabbed. Celestine then rotated her body and used Altair's momentum to throw her behind herself while picking her own body up with the rotation.
Altair was thrown near the edge of the arena before she landed on the ground. She quickly turned around and saw that Celestine was already standing with a deadly serious look on her face as she returned to her stance. Altair narrowed her eyes before she dashed back in to engage her.
Celestine had figured something out Altair's stance and she found it a little hard to believe. With the timing of Altair's defense and counter attacks she was forced to accept it though. All of the holes in Altair's defenses were illusions. It only worked because Altair was shorter than Celestine by quite a bit. If it was used on anyone the same height as her it would fail spectacularly. But, due to the height difference, Altair was able to use the momentum and the fully extended attacks of her opponents to her advantage in timing and reversals. She could also use her opponent's view being obstructed by their body to launch sneak attacks as well.
It was a very clever fighting style that tricked their opponent but it had one flaw that Celestine could abuse heavily: the weight difference between attacks.
Celestine's Inborn Ability was a physical strength boost. It was fairly generic in terms of what it did, but in the case of this battle, it would be enough to toss Altair the moment she tried to block an attack. She originally didn't want to use it against Altair because she knew that other people would be watching their fight. She also didn't want to expose her ability but she changed her mind. If she kept fighting the way she was right now she might lose and she really didn't want to lose.
Altair had the initiative again and started the flurry between the two. Very quickly several holes in Altair's guard started to pop up to both viewers and Celestine. Celestine frowned as she activated her Inborn Ability by pooling her Spiritual Energy into her fists and threw a punch at Altair's chest.
Altair caught the punch just as before and felt the weight difference immediately. It felt like she had been slammed into by a young dragon's tail and she arm crashed into her chest and she was sent skidding across the arena floor, barely managing to keep herself from falling off her feet.
This caused Rictor's group to tilt their heads as they rushed to understand what just happened while Hadrian's eyes opened wide in realization. He couldn't believe that Celestine had chosen to use her Inborn Ability against Altair. They had talked about it before and Celestine said that she wouldn't use it because she probably wouldn't need to. They didn't know Altair's age but they did know that she definitely didn't know the military combat style. Because she didn't know that style it would be practically impossible for her to fight against it evenly. But since Celestine had chosen to her use Inborn Ability that meant that she was actually losing without it. Such a thought was absolutely crazy to Hadrian.
He didn't know how Altair managed to defend against the attacks that were aimed at the holes in her defenses. He assumed it was because she got lucky or had some kind of sixth sense Inborn Ability. But now he was leaning more towards the sixth sense ability. The only way to deal with that would be for Celestine to use her own ability. Since it came to this, then Altair wouldn't be able to rely on her own ability to defend and would be forced to change how she fought.
