Silence, thick and heavy, hung in the air of the ruined building, broken only by the distant drumming of rain on the collapsing structure.
Draco watched from his vantage point, nestled beside a gaping hole in the roof.
Below, the tension between Ais and Ryuu was a physical force, crackling like static electricity. He made no move to intervene.
Ryuu, he observed, seemed burdened, her mind frayed with troubling thoughts.
A contest of arms, a cathartic release, might just be the salve her troubled mind needed.
As long as they didn't tear the place down entirely, he amended silently.
The simmering friction soon boiled over in an instant.
Steel shrieked against wood – Ryuu's weapon – as the two figures blurred into motion.
The first, explosive clash was all it took.
Swords locked for a heartbeat, a raw exchange of force and skill.
In that fleeting moment, they didn't just gauge strength; they tasted the very essence of their opponent.
Both felt it – a shockwave of power, honed dedication, and lethal intent.
'Such power' the thought echoed internally, a shared gasp in the sudden maelstrom.
Then, they were a tempest.
High-speed slices rippled through the air, a frantic, beautiful dance of death played out at ridiculous speeds.
It was a performance befitting above average level three adventurers.
The furious clash of their exchange clawed its way through the pounding rain outside, a desperate rhythm against the storm's roar.
Yet, even in the heat of battle, an instinctual caution remained.
They moved with a terrifying precision, acutely aware that any misplaced strike could bring the damaged building down around them.
'She's so small, fragile almost, but her strikes… they're impossibly clean, utterly without hesitation' Ryuu mused mid-parry, the thought a fleeting whisper in the whirlwind of motion.
'How many monsters, how many battles, did it take for her to reach this point?'
Ais fought with the raw, untamed ferocity of a wild beast, a relentless onslaught that made it almost impossible for Ryuu to track her movements.
Ais was fast, unnervingly so, conjuring flashes of another blade-wielder in Ryuu's mind – Eleni from the Bahamut Familia, only slightly older, yet not quite possessing this sheer, explosive speed.
When Ais swung, it was as if every sinew in her small frame coiled and unleashed its power. When she spun, she became a miniature whirlwind, a blur of deadly force.
High above, Draco watched their mirror-image fury.
'Funny how alike they are' he thought, a wry twist to his lips hidden in the darkness.
Both blonde, both wield swords, both possess this strange connection to the wind element.
While Ryuu wrestled with the enigma of Ais's power, Ais, too, was trying to solve the puzzle in front of her.
'Elusive' she thought, the word a frustrating mantra as her relentless attacks met empty air or were deflected with impossible ease.
'Not like, Finn, but… why can't I land a hit?'
Ryuu moved with the fluid grace of her elven heritage, augmented by forms studied in quiet night hours and brutally polished on blood-soaked battlefields.
She was the wind itself, flowing around Ais's assaults, parrying blow after blow with a minimal, almost dismissive effort that only fuelled Ais's frustration.
Her fighting style was a tapestry woven from diverse threads: the ancient, elegant techniques of her elven homeland, the sharp, decisive movements learned from Kaguya of the Far East, the bold, sun-drenched pragmatism taught by Alise, and the quiet, wisdom gleaned from Lyra.
To a seasoned adventurer, the disparate pieces of Ryuu's current fighting form would be immediately recognizable, a walking history of her journey.
Discarding the shock and unnerving revelations of their mutual power and mysterious origins, both Ais and Ryuu plunged deeper into the trance-like focus of battle.
The disparity in their physical size, so obvious at a glance, seemed to offer neither a distinct advantage.
Ryuu attempted to leverage her height and longer limbs, extending her reach in sweeping strikes, while Ais expertly used her shorter stature, dropping low to evade Ryuu's higher attacks, searching for openings, her small frame a low-slung engine of destructive force.
But no matter the power or frequency of Ais's blows, Ryuu met them all, deflecting, redirecting, or simply flowing out of their path.
It was a breathtaking display, made all the more surreal by the setting.
They fought in near total darkness, the only illumination coming from sporadic, blinding flashes of lightning that tore through the storm raging outside, briefly silhouetting their figures against the hole in the roof where Draco observed.
'Fast… strong… masked… wooden sword… cloak…' Ais's mind sifted through the sensory data, trying to piece together the identity of her opponent.
Who was this skilled, elusive fighter?
"Who… are you?" she finally managed, forcing the question past the ragged breaths that were beginning to claw at her lungs.
Ryuu offered no reply, her concentration absolute, her movements a silent rebuttal.
The relentless pace continued, a test of endurance as much as skill, until the first true signs of exhaustion began to appear.
Shoulders slumped fractionally, movements lost a whisper of their initial speed, and ragged gasps punctuated the clash of steel and wood.
"Huff, huff, huff…" Ais bent slightly at the waist, her chest heaving, but her eyes, even in the gloom, blazed with an undiminished fire.
"I… I'm not done." Her voice was strained, raw, but the declaration was ironclad.
"I can… get even stronger!"
'She's insane' Ryuu thought, her own breath coming in ragged bursts, tightening her grip on her wooden sword, ready for another round despite the bone-deep fatigue.
'Is this… is this why they call her the War Princess?'
"If that's how it's going to be, then… let's…" Ryuu's words trailed off, her head snapping up, not towards Ais, but towards the entrance of the ruined building.
A familiar voice, sharp with concern, cut through the din of the storm and the echoes of their fight.
"Ais! Where did you go? Don't run off by yourself!"
A flicker of something akin to worry crossed Ais's face at the sound of the voice, just as a figure emerged from the shadows, tall and unmistakable – Riveria.
"How many times do I have to tell you to stick close to--" Riveria broke off abruptly, her emerald eyes scanning the interior, not settling on Ais, but sweeping upwards.
Her gaze fixed on the dark patch near the hole in the ceiling.
"Who is there?" she demanded, her voice ringing with authority, instantly cutting through the tension the fight had created.
'Ah, well, shit' Draco thought, a sigh escaping his lips.
He'd been too absorbed, too entertained by Ais and Ryuu little 'squabble' – though calling that a squabble felt inadequate now – that he'd completely missed Riveria's approach.
Her sudden, sharp caution instantly put Ais on edge, her golden eyes snapping upwards to follow Riveria's gaze.
Ryuu, however, experienced a wave of acute embarrassment wash over her the moment she registered Riveria's presence.
Riveria Ljos Alf.
A High Elf.
And not just any High Elf, but a member of one of the most venerated familia's in Orario, a figure of respect, almost reverence, in elven culture.
Simply being in Riveria's presence seemed to snap Ryuu back to her senses, the fog of battle receding to reveal the mortifying reality of the situation.
She, Ryuu, a seasoned adventurer and member of the Astraea Familia, had been provoked into a brawl, a reckless, full-blown fight, by… a child.
She felt a hot flush rise to her cheeks, hidden by her mask and the darkness.
Her mind was a chaotic mess of adrenaline, shame, and exhaustion, and explaining this – explaining her impulsive, undignified behavior – felt utterly impossible, far more embarrassing than the fight itself.
Discretion, or perhaps pure, unadulterated mortification, became the better part of valor.
With a burst of speed born of desperation, Ryuu turned and bolted, a blur of dark cloak disappearing back into the driving rain and the night.
Ais saw Ryuu's sudden departure, but Riveria's gaze remained fixed upwards, unmoving.
Ais, responsive to Riveria's cues, held her ground, her fighting instincts still thrumming but held in check.
'Sigh. Ryuu, you owe me for this' Draco thought, already moving.
There was no point in hiding now.
He dropped from the hole in the roof, a dark shape against the flickering sky, landing with a soft splash as his boots met the shallow puddle that had gathered beneath the leak.
His dark cloak swirled around him, further obscuring his form in the dim light.
From the shadows beneath his hood, his red reptilian eyes glowed with a faint, eerie luminescence.
Ais tensed instantly, her grip tightening on her sword.
Her senses screamed danger, an alien presence, powerful and unsettling.
Every instinct urged her to attack, to eliminate the threat.
But then, a firm hand settled on her shoulder – Riveria's.
"Riveria-san, it's me," Draco called out, his voice calm, raising a single clawed finger.
A small, steady ball of fire bloomed in his palm, casting a warm, albeit flickering, light across the immediate area, illuminating his face for a moment before he extinguished it, preferring the shadows.
"Draco," Riveria breathed, the tension draining from her posture, replaced by a visible wave of relief.
It would have been disastrous if the figure lurking in the dark had been a powerful Evilus member, or worse.
Injured as she was, she wasn't sure how much resistance she could have offered.
Ais, however, still had a frown scrunched on her face, her body language screaming suppressed aggression.
Riveria had drilled it into her consciousness, repeatedly, after the 'first incident,' that attacking Draco was strictly forbidden.
It was a lesson her instincts still struggled to accept.
'Oooh' Draco thought, a trace of amusement touching his lips, 'that's impressive. She actually restrained herself this time'
"Anyway," he said, stepping further into the clearer space, though still allowing the cloak to shroud him, "what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be resting back at the camp? You're seriously injured."
"I was looking for a certain troublesome child who decided to run off on her own," Riveria replied, casting a pointed look at Ais before lightly smacking the top of her head.
Ais looked up at Riveria for a moment, a silent protest in her eyes, before quickly dropping her gaze to the ground when Riveria's glare intensified.
"Ah, what a coincidence," Draco said, the amusement returning.
"I was doing something similar."
"Hmm, I see," Riveria said, her sharp mind connecting the dots.
"You're referring to that elf who just fled?"
"Yes," Draco confirmed.
"So," Riveria's expression turned questioning, "why were she and this little one fighting?"
Draco shrugged, the movement barely visible under the cloak.
"I don't know. You'd have to ask her."
"Huh! Weren't you watch--" Riveria began, her voice laced with disbelief.
"That aside," Draco interrupted smoothly, his tone shifting, becoming serious, the faint glow of his red eyes seeming to intensify in the dimness.
"There is something I have been wanting to discuss with you for a long time now."
Riveria paused, sensing the abrupt change in atmosphere, the weight behind his words.
She was not displeased by the interruption; the fight between Ais and the mysterious elf was secondary to whatever had put this look on Draco's face.
"What is it?" she asked, her own demeanor becoming grave.
"Do you perhaps know," Draco began, his voice lower now, more measured, "of a High Elf named Rize?"
The effect of that single name was immediate.
Riveria froze, every line of her body rigid with shock.
The colour drained from her face, her breath catching in her throat.
Ais, despite her suppressed agitation, didn't miss the stark, terrifying change in Riveria's posture, her sudden stillness.
"You…" Riveria finally managed, her voice a strained whisper, her emerald eyes wide with a mixture of disbelief, hope, and raw fear.
"Where… where did you hear that name? Where is she? When… when did you meet her?" She surged forward, abandoning all pretense of calm, her hand clamping down on Draco's cloak, her questions tumbling out in a desperate, breathless torrent.
"I see" Draco thought, the light of revelation dawning, cold and hard, in his mind.
The intensity of her reaction confirmed it.
His assumption was correct.
Rize-Sensei and Riveria… they were related after all.
His expression, hidden mostly by the shadows of his hood but discernible in the grim set of his jaw, darkened further.
He wasn't sure how he was going to deliver the news.
How do you tell someone that the person they're desperately asking about was slain years ago… by the Black Dragon?
The heavy weight of the truth settled upon him, absolute and crushing.