The Citadel of Sorcery

[Aiden]

Christina Verde

Christina, to her credit, didn't allow the complete invalidation of her entire style of magical combat to stop her dead in her tracks. Instead she moved, using her own magic to propel herself like a rocket up into the air just above the impact zone for Sakura's gem! In that same moment one of the jewels from her armor fell out of its slot and into her hand, and she tossed it down from her new vantage point at her opponent. "APOLLYON!"

The gem exploded, and a column of white hot fire extended up and down vertically from the impact point to strike the platform and the pinnacle of the crystal sphere. It spread from both points of impact like a tidal wave, turning all that it touched searing red with its heat.

[SINIB]

Christina Verde

Christina, to her credit, didn't allow the complete invalidation of her entire style of magical combat to stop her dead in her tracks. Instead she moved, using her own magic to propel herself like a rocket up into the air just above the impact zone for Sakura's gem! In that same moment one of the jewels from her armor fell out of its slot and into her hand, and she tossed it down from her new vantage point at her opponent. "APOLLYON!"

The gem exploded, and a column of white hot fire extended up and down vertically from the impact point to strike the platform and the pinnacle of the crystal sphere. It spread from both points of impact like a tidal wave, turning all that it touched searing red with its heat.

Sakura

Sakura snapped her fingers as Christina jumped up into the air. The gem exploded. Black shadows burst out of it, arcing towards Christina like hungry wolves. They shot out in every direction, a few of the tendrils headed straight towards her. The inky black things seemed strange, dangerous. As if they didn't belong in this world, or they were a creation of somewhere else.

Then, Sakura tossed another gem at the airborn woman. Her mask opened up, revealing her face. She didn't need so many precautions against her, after all.

Sakura winked as the mist continued to proliferate, saturating the area, feeding her. It devoured the fire overhead, returning the magical power back to Sakura, allowing her to spread the mist even further.

[Aiden]

Christina

Her eyes widened at the unnatural force coming her way, and desperately shot her hands out at both incoming threats - the gem and the cloud of inky hell. Power visibly surged through her veins, the spaces where her skin was exposed through her armor lighting up. "Damn it, PALISADE!"

A wall of solid metal violently shot up from the platform, reaching just high enough to give Christina some breathing room the shadows couldn't penetrate - the mist's attempts to drain the mana merely halted its advance before it could reach the roof of the crystal sphere, but couldn't destroy the now entirely mundane structure with the same ease as a spell.

"JINN!"

And in her place, a spectral figure of wind and fire took whatever terrible fate the second gem had in store instead of her.

That being said, she formed another platform of solid stone for her feet to make purchase on, and shot herself like a rocket right at her foe with her fist cocked back.

"COMET STRIKE!"

[SINIB]

Christina

Her eyes widened at the unnatural force coming her way, and desperately shot her hands out at both incoming threats - the gem and the cloud of inky hell. Power visibly surged through her veins, the spaces where her skin was exposed through her armor lighting up. "Damn it, PALISADE!"

A wall of solid metal violently shot up from the platform, reaching just high enough to give Christina some breathing room the shadows couldn't penetrate - the mist's attempts to drain the mana merely halted its advance before it could reach the roof of the crystal sphere, but couldn't destroy the now entirely mundane structure with the same ease as a spell.

"JINN!"

And in her place, a spectral figure of wind and fire took whatever terrible fate the second gem had in store instead of her.

That being said, she formed another platform of solid stone for her feet to make purchase on, and shot herself like a rocket right at her foe with her fist cocked back.

"COMET STRIKE!"

Sakura

"Suoja!" Sakura exclaimed. The shadows merging into the floor suddenly shot upwards, right in Cristina's path. They merged together into a solid wall, or perhaps a portal.

It was unclear. The only thing that was certain was that it wouldn't be good to fly right into it.

[Aiden]

Christina

Fighting against her own momentum, Christina scrambled to place her hands and feet to the side and push herself away! A gust of hurricane-force wind knocked her off course, out of the path of the shadow barrier, and left her with one last chance to slip around past it and get her hit in! A flying roundhouse kick was all she needed to pull off...!

[SINIB]

Sakura

And then, just as Christina was so confident in her victory, Sakura clapped. The mist suddenly focused around her, closing in on them, nearly instantly draining all of Christina's magic. It ate away at her spells, but it wasn't nearly at a level where it ate at her lifeforce anymore. Sakura's arm streaked out, grabbing at her leg.

The wall also didn't disappear, instead morphing in shape, into more of an amorphous blob of black hole.

[Aiden]

Christina

"Nnnn... damn it!" And then something seemed to snap in Christina, and her other leg spun around in Sakura's grasp to strike at her side with an unnatural amount of force. Her eyes wide, ferocious, the redhead tried to wrap that leg around the other sorceress' side and use it to lift herself up so she could punch the purple head right in her pretty smug face!

[SINIB]

Sakura

Oh, she's pretty good. That's the thought that flashed through her mind at that moment. She hadn't expected her to be trained in the feminine art of close quarters combat.

A corner of Sakura's mouth curled upwards.

"Very well! I'll take your challenge!"

The mist dispursed, and Sakura ducked underneath the girl's swing. She sprung upwards, slamming her arms into Cristina's midriff and lifting her up, leaping into the air herself. "As a properly bred Edelfeldt Lady, I accept your challenge!"

There was a new fire to her voice as she slammed Cristina into the ground.

[Aiden]

Christina

They struck the platform hard enough to make it tremble oh so slightly, but with the mist gone it was simple for Christina to draw on the mana in one of her armor's crystals, protected by their housing from direct contact with the siphoning mist, and reinstate her reinforcement.

Once she hit the ground she, with a red burning tint to eyes, used her legs to shove Sakura several feet off her of her with a howl of challenge! "That's fine by me!"

In that same moment she returned to her feet, and moved in to strike as many opportunistic blows as she could.

[SINIB]

Sakura

Sakura leaped back, landing on her feet. She grinned at her opponent as she got caught up in the heat of it all. She instantly took a defensive stance, ready to catch Christina's attacks on an instinctual level, as if it had been physically beaten into her by somebody. She dodged out of the way of the first blow, turning her body and transferring her momentum into a powerful roundhouse kick at the redhead's side.

[Aiden]

Christina

She dropped to the ground at the last moment, following an instinct of her own that saw her go right for Sakura's other leg from her prone position!

[SINIB]

Sakura

Sakura knew her attack wasn't going to hit, but she didn't retreat. It just wasn't her style to fall back in a hot-blooded contest of wills! Instead, she hopped, just barely in time to dodge christina's counterattack. She repositioned herself midair, attempting to slamming down towards Christina's back.

[Aiden]

Christina

Christina turned over onto her back at the last moment, taking the blow directly into her stomach instead. And yet, seemingly impervious to the immense pain such an impact would cause she latched bone-crushingly hard onto Sakura with her legs and roared in fury as she took advantage of the moment to start hitting her about with her hands.

[SINIB]

Sakura

Sakura ignored the pain from the fierce flurry of blows and responded to Christina's lock with one of her own. She wrapped her legs around the woman's neck, tightening her grip with her thighs constricting her ability to breathe.

[Aiden]

Sakura

Sakura ignored the pain from the fierce flurry of blows and responded to Christina's lock with one of her own. She wrapped her legs around the woman's neck, tightening her grip with her thighs constricting her ability to breathe.

Christina

Christina's face was red for more than one reason as she struggled for air. She gave up on trying to punch Sakura into submission as the urgency of muscular thighs pressing in around her head took precedence. Instead she started to close the vice of her own deceptively powerful legs, hoping to be the one to crush her opponent first.

She was clearly running on more than just adrenaline and mana.