Exhibition Match: Jun vs. Daedalus

Alright, here goes nothing.

An upbeat, relatively small-framed young brunettte side-step galloped onto the battlefield. She wanted to convey her enthusiasm to the crowd, and she waved gleefully with one hand at all the spectators on one end. Then she quickly turned around and waved at the others.

Big smile. Biiiig smile.

She was wearing an emerald, thigh-length gambeson of a thick cloth, clearly designed to take some damage. On top was a lamellar brigandine, pauldron, gauntlets, and tassets, all of verdant hue. Her not-waving cheerfully hand held a barbuta helmet that appeared to be made of shimmering brass-like material with a white pattern-weld.

On a strap around her waist hung a glimmering brass-like shield with an sapphire orb inset in the middle. Holstered was what appeared to be a sky blue shortsword. 

Jun brushed some hair out of her eyes and started strapping on her helmet, which had a coif already tied inside. This took only a few seconds. When she was done she gave the crowd a thumbs up. (A little birdie told her that the crowd might want to get a  good look at her olive face first.)

She then looked around excitedly to see her opponent. After all, at least eighty percent of the enthusiasm she demonstrated was genuine.

Jun smirked when she sees Daedalus up close. Heh, good-looking guy. A twinge of insecurity shot through her throat when she saw that he isn't armored, and she wondered for a second if she overprepared for the match. In that regard, his dazzling smile was a relief, even more so after he got through bathing himself in his golden gallantry. Of course, now her thoughts shifted to what it would take to penetrate that armor like a sword through a can of anchovies. Her smirk went from flirty to devilish.

("May the best combatant win!")

"Backatcha. Don't go easy on me just because I'm not as shiny as you." She winked.

She took a couple of steps back and drew the sky blue sword, its luster glimmering prominently in the light. She also removed her buckler from her waist and held it out in front of her with her left. Then she took her sword and held it behind the buckler so that the point was underneath her armpit. Her right foot was forward, her left was back, and her body seemed to tighten like a spring.

("Talent verses experience! New verses old! The match you didn't know wanted until you saw it!")

Did he just call me old? What the- nevermind.

("Begin!")

The purpose of her stance suddenly became clear as the air around her changed. It was as if the heat of her surroundings was being magnetically drawn into her chest area, and a violent aura of miraging air enveloped her torso. The air shrieked with danger as mana energy rapidly built up around her chest area. Her weapon, shield, and torso started to glow. But her stance kept everything tight so it was impossible to determine what sort of attack she was planning to launch. Her fame meant that there were several signature opening moves Daedalus could anticipate, involving her sword, shield, or body. But it would not be clear what was the focus since everything was grouped together, in a stance that also seemed well equipped at counter-attacking no less.

Jun knew little about Daedelus, but reasoned that he would probably do his homework on her in case they fought. Hence she resolved from the very opening half second she would be ready for anything.

The tug of war of energy recruitment was not long on Jun, nor was Daedalus' attempt to take control of the terrain.

Keep the ground then.

The energy Jun had gathered had been focused on her chest, and as Daedalus' spell propagated so too did Jun's. It exploded from her heart and reached out to the rest of her limbs in the form of a white, quartz-like material. But unlike true rock, this material was both solid and malleable. In just a second, her entire body was encased and protected in a floating construct of light.

But this wasn't a usual construct, not some mundane golem. Instead, its core, which temporarily housed Jun's entire body, was a glittering octohedron. Her silhouette was visible and still in a defensive position even inside. Extending from three points of the floating structure were tendrils of white light. Approximately ten meters long each, the tendrils tapered into sharp points at the ends.

The structure hummed as it floated above the icy floor. Then, it lurched straight towards Daedalus. Two of the long tendrils stretched outwards as if they wanted to give Daedalus a biiiiiiiig hug. The third stretched up above to help cut off Daedalus' escape.

Jun's light construct tendrils slammed against the ice spires with loud, dull thuds which were audible throughout the arena. She backed off, feeling the intense impact of the solid wall. The structure floated back and rose up into the air to avoid most of the spikes. Octohedrons are notoriously strong shapes, and even a direct hit onto the structure was almost guaranteed to be mitigated by the structure's sloping walls, bouncing it away instead of piercing it. Not that the structure was indestructible, but like most gemstones, sharp pointy things were usually not the answer.

Still, the sheer power and volume of Daedalus' spell was troubling. The ice aura had covered the entire field in such a short amount of time. And during their tug of war, Jun got the distinct impression that he too could absorb heat energy from his surroundings, suggesting that fire might actually make the spell stong-

Jun got a hilarious idea.

As the octohedron floated back, one of its tendrils quickly reached into its core and seemed to phase through, touching her silhouette for just a moment before pulling itself back out and extracting what looked like a golden disc with a blue gem in the middle. It was Jun's buckler.

The tendril hurled the metal object straight into the air just above Daedalus, where hopefully it would fall, guided by the ice spikes, and conk Daedalus straight on his helmet.

Of course that wasn't the only part of her plan, as evidenced by the blue gem pulsating rapidly as it flew into the sky. Daedalus would probably sense it drawing power from Jun's mana pool, assuming he saw it coming.

Still, Jun really, really hoped it would conk him on the head, just for laughs.

This is gonna be so good.

The fact that the buckler even got close to Daedalus was enough. Like a bomb with a flickering timer, the buckler's gem went off just as it was going to be thrown back.

BAWOOSH!

An explosive torrent of water rushed out of the gem, as if it was manifesting an oversized, ethereal fire hydrant in midair. The buckler seemed to have a mind of its own now, as it held fast to the air and attempted to douse Daedalus with what would eventually amount to an olympic-swimming pool's worth of water!

Jun reasoned that Daedalus' spell was designed to convert as much moisture in the atmosphere as possible into ice, and that it could appropriate ambient energy in order to do so. Thus in order to weaken the spell, she would have to force it to do more work. And freezing a massive amount of water suddenly in a short time frame to prevent Daedalus from being drowned from above (or at least save him the hypothermia of being soaked while surrounded by ice) would be the perfect way to weaken the spell. The best part was, even if the water was all frozen, it would contaminate his spell with ice that was laced with Jun's mana. All of his ice would be infected with ice owned by Jun, which would prove problematic to him as the fight dragged on.

Jun's light construct was beginning to weaken. But that was alright. Her silhouette was just visible to the audience. It appeared to be in a meditative state. The tendrils were beginning to withdraw back into the octohedron to conserve the spell's power, as light started to absorb back into her body. Between preparing for her next attack and influencing Daedalus ice, she felt confident enough to meet the next challenge Daedalus would present her.

Jun's water had one last surprise in it. As it cascaded down upon the dragon, it didn't exactly hit the ground.

The buckler remained affixed above the dragon, serving as a core for a large, floating mass of water. Laced with Jun's mana, the water had developed the impetus to protect Jun from harm. Although it wasn't nearly as voluminous as the dragon, it was enough to encase the creature's neck while maintaining tendrils and protrusions all over its shimmering surface. As the dragon prepared to launch its attack, the water would hold fast to the dragon's neck and wrench to the side in order to derail the beam. Even as this was happening, tendrils of water started to extend menacingly towards the creature's mouth.

The light construct shifted in the opposite direction to ensure that Jun would not be hit by the beam. This also carried her away from any lingering pernicious effects hidden in the ice spires left behind near her. The last of the construct's energy was absorbed into Jun's sky blue sword just as she descended on the ground. She hit the dirt with a thud, holding up her weapon, which glimmered violently. She seemed to have it aimed at the mass of water which was assaulting the dragon. She leered at the beast, seemingly unconcerned that she was now exposed.

Jun noticed that her water was beginning to freeze even while its breath was sent off course, and that she felt no resulting bond with the ice. Then the dragon attempted to leap forward...

With a sweep of her opposite hand, she relinquished her mana from all the water and drew that mana into her body, where it would conduct its way through her and into her glimmering sword.

All the water would suddenly cascade down onto the dragon's body. It was no longer Jun's water, but just water, meaning that Daedalus' mana would have nothing to fight against as it sought to freeze the water and appropriate the ice for itself. The water would drench its mouth and limbs and freeze much more quickly. The unexpected lack of resistance would catch Daedalus' dragon off guard, like a wrestler unexpectedly moving with the opponent's force rather than against it. The water would now freeze much more quickly.

Numerous problems would arise for the dragon. The water would potentially form an icy cast around its neck, joints of its legs, and claws, which was bad news for a dragon trying to run at full gallop. Even if the dragon was strong enough to break the ice, the unexpected clog in its motion in the form of jagged ice crystals around its elbows and knees would likely cause the dragon to trip and fall. The sheer weight of the water suddenly crashing down on it might shift its center of gravity forward, possibly sending the dragon careening into the ground as it attempted to leap. If nothing else, its impossibly fridged claws would suddenly freeze the water running down it to the ground, perhaps sticking it to the dirt, or even creating a frozen glove which wouldn't have the same traction against the now muddy sand as its regular claws would.

It was unlikely that all of these complications would arise simultaneously, but really Jun only needed one or two to be a factor to buy her that extra second.

And during that extra second Jun would aim the point of her sword straight at the dragon's core. The sword would glow even more violently with the extra time to build up power and the energy taken from the water. Jun's aura suddenly flared out, bathing her surroundings in an ominous orange glow. The sword would no longer appear sky blue, but rather a molten red. Sparks of mana would crackle around it like lightning bolts as Jun took aim...

Jun would accept the consequences of making the dragon stronger as it barreled towards her.

Just as it reached her, Jun's body ignited in a blaze of flames. The torrent of plasma roared as she rocketed forward towards Daedelus' dragon feet like a meteor. The flames would cause little damage to Jun herself and would help protect her against the dragon's icy magic as they sped her forward. Her blazing hot blade would collide with the dragon's leg. If it was regular ice, it would have sliced right through, leaving a deep gash, and the intense heat would have flash melted the ice around the cut, resulting in an explosion of steam. If for some reason the ice resisted the attack, Jun's blade would bounce off, but it wouldn't affect her overall trajectory; she would come to a skidding halt in the muddy sand where Daedalus had once been.

The intense heat given off by Jun's body would vaporize the water in the sand, creating a billowing steam cloud all around her. She would use it as cover as she quickly deposited a magic scroll in the sand and strafed sideways. The scroll would unfurl, and the glyphs which were drawn into it would start glowing faintly, though they would not be visible in the cloud of steam.

As the curtain of steam rose up and dissipated, Jun appeared facing Daedalus in an en guard stance. Flames continued to lick her sword and body without consuming her.

She was breathing deeply. Her ward showed a similar level of damage around her boots, although it was somewhat obscured by her flames. She had a very good idea of what she was up against now.

"You know, I wouldn't be embarrassed to lose to you! Hope the feeling's mutual!" She called out to Daedalus while waiting for the water to reach a certain point. She had been planning to use her own water for the trap later on, but as the melted water from the dragon once again threatened to change the battlefield, she knew she had no choice. The second the puddle came near enough to her scroll, she snapped her fingers.

The scroll disintegrated, replaced by a ball of pale blue light. The ball burst a fraction of a second later into dozens of great arcs of lightning, dancing and interplaying as a great dynamic web. The great basket of electrical arcs then blitzkrieged along the water towards Daedalus, burning zigzagging trails of steam into the pool as they traveled along.