The clash erupted like a storm, weapons colliding with a resonance so pure it sent tremors through the air.
A whirlwind of force repelled both combatants, yet Kyorin staggered three steps farther than his opponent.
Changli, however, neither smirked in triumph nor frowned in disappointment. Instead, her gaze flickered briefly to the scythe in his hands, a glint of curiosity in her sharp eyes.
'This is no ordinary weapon,' she realized, the weight of the revelation settling in her mind. The opponent before her, was not lacking in arms.
From the sidelines, even Mayor Fu, a man not easily shaken, found himself momentarily stunned. A mere scythe, unassuming with its weathered wooden handle, was holding its ground against the Blazing Brilliance—a sword of legend.
Xuanmiao, watching the exchange unfold, leaned slightly forward, intrigue dancing in his expression. "Lady Dan," he inquired, "do you recognize that scythe?"
"Un," Xia nodded, her voice steady as she unraveled the mystery. "Where we come from, there stands a divine tree, one we revere. That scythe—" her gaze shifted to Kyorin, "—is its gift to him. The very thing he resonates with, or so he claims."
Xuanmiao hummed in contemplation. "Resonance, is it? Even so… that cannot be an ordinary weapon."
He had seen it shift, morphing from a mere gourd into its current form. Yet it was clear—Kyorin had no command over the transformation.
The weapon was already predetermined to take the shape of a scythe, as though following a will of its own.
Mayor Fu, too, observed keenly. His eyes traced the weapon's structure before a thought crossed his mind. 'The handle… it's too long.'
Meanwhile, back in the heat of battle, Changli pressed forward, swift as a flickering flame—only to recoil the moment she saw the deadly arc of the scythe sweeping toward her.
She had nearly closed the gap, yet the weapon's reach kept her at bay.
'A long-distance battle,' she mused, recognizing the advantage Kyorin held.
With his scythe's extended range, he could attack from afar, rendering her sword useless before it ever touched him.
Yet she had no time to strategize further. A sudden force gripped her, a pull like an unseen current dragging her toward Kyorin against her will.
Skill: Vortex Pull. A technique that reel the target towards the attacker when the attacker is poised to attack.
Changli gritted her teeth, feet digging into the ground as she fought against the pull. At the last possible moment, she wrenched herself free, barely evading the incoming strike.
A few strands of her hair drifted into the air, severed cleanly by the scythe's edge.
Since her opponent had already used his Resonance techniques, it would be foolish not to respond in kind.
Flames surged around Changli, her Tacet Mark igniting with fierce intensity. She advanced, sword swinging in a diagonal arc, yet Kyorin was met with more than just cold steel.
At her command, the fire coalesced into radiant plumes, searing feathers moving as extensions of her will. Though her blade followed a singular path, the flames did not.
In an instant, they mirrored her strike, forming a blazing X that slashed toward Kyorin from two directions at once.
But Kyorin was no novice. He reacted swiftly, summoning the same force he had used before—not to pull Changli this time, but to draw the converging flames toward his scythe.
With a deft motion, he redirected the burning assault elsewhere as she pressed forward into her next attack.
She swung upward, and once more, diagonal slashes of fire manifested.
But unlike before, the flames did not remain rigid, nor originated from a single huge plume.
The plumes were myriad, and interlinked like a burning chain, crackling as they lunged forward in a whipping motion.
Kyorin stepped back, intercepting them mid-flight before redirecting the fiery whips back in Changli's direction.
Seeing her own attack turned against her, she spun sharply, her blade tracing an arc that became a protective dome of steel. The chained flaming plumes, severed from their link, scattered, their embers flickering as they fell toward the ground.
Yet she was not done. The moment those embers descended, they surged back to life as though sentient, not seeking Kyorin but instead returning to their source. In that fleeting instant, her body was no longer flesh but fire itself.
Then, she moved.
Like a spark leaping to consume dry wood, she vanished—only to reappear before Kyorin in a flash of incandescent fury.
With a downward slash, three featherine swords materialize, acting like talons of a phoenix, three burning strikes descending upon him in rapid succession.
Kyorin raised his scythe just in time, metal clashing against metal in a frenzied exchange. He blocked the first, the second, the third—yet her momentum carried her higher, and then she came crashing down, delivering a decisive, triple-layered strike.
He caught the final blow, but not without consequence. Charred fabric fluttered from his attire, the heat licking at him faster than he could fully react.
Beneath her blade, the ground bore the mark of a talon's imprint—engraved where Kyorin now knelt on one knee.
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A/N: This attack of Changli is based off her real "Basic Attack: Blazing Enlightenment" from the game. Damn Kuro did not hold back, I had to observe her attacks for quite some time to come up with a written description of the attack. I hope it hits the mark.
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And yet… even as she burned with the force of ignition itself, she couldn't fully outpace him. Or perhaps—she had.
Xuanmiao, observing from the sidelines, couldn't help but think, 'What a monster this ladis.'
Kyorin should have been no match for Changli in speed, but his senses—those were something else entirely.
Like a beast attuned to the rhythm of battle, he wielded them with absolute control. It wasn't that he moved fast enough to keep up.
Rather, he sensed her approach before she struck, positioning his weapon just in time to block. He couldn't match her outright—but it was just enough to defend.
Yet, in that exchange, Kyorin was left shaken to his core.
DEVA's voice echoed in his mind, "Damn, this lass is powerful for her age."
But Kyorin wasn't focused on that. Instead, his eyes caught something else. "Look at her arms… and her clothes," he noted.
Even before the battle, there had been signs—small burns on her skin, ragged clothing smoldering at the edges. Now, those flickering flames had grown wilder, strands of fabric disintegrating in embers.
"Perhaps her power is too much even for her to control," DEVA reasoned. Kyorin nodded. This girl—her strength was undeniable, yet she lacked full command over it.
The fire charring her hands, the flames that refused to extinguish at will—these were signs of power that outpaced its wielder.
Yet there was no time to dwell.
Unlike before, Changli wasted no moments. The space between them vanished in an instant as ten afterimages materialized, each one delivering a strike with blistering speed.
Kyorin barely registered the blows before he was sent airborne, his body thrown into the sky by the sheer force of impact.
But it did not end there. The remnants of those ten slashes—the lingering resonance of each flaming strike—did not dissipate. Instead, they coalesced, drawn into Changli's form as she plunged downward.
Kyorin's eyes widened. Spiraling down, the shape of her descent twisted into something more—a flaming lotus drill, spinning wildly, an untraceable vortex of fire hurtling toward him like a spiraling torpedo.
His mind clicked into action. If she was spiraling downward—then he would spiral against her.
Once more, Vortex Pull activated, but this time, Kyorin spun it in direct opposition to the flaming lotus drill. The moment they collided, opposing forces waged war against one another, friction tearing into the swirling mass of flames.
By the time both touched the ground, the lotus's destructive force had been heavily subdued, its impact diminished.
Yet Changli still held the advantage.
Even as Kyorin steadied himself, his eyes narrowed. He had been watching her carefully, and now, something else became apparent.
"Her flames… they're growing more rampant." The embers that once flickered along her clothes, singeing them thread by thread, had now intensified.
The fire was no longer content with mere strands—it devoured in patches, pieces of fabric disintegrating as the inferno spread.
And yet, she fought on.
Changli repeated her sequence of attacks, the fiery blade dome erupting once more. This time, the feathers were consumed by a swirling inferno. But unlike the phoenix's talons before, Kyorin now faced the full force of the phoenix itself.
With a crouch, Changli surged forward, her sword aimed upward toward Kyorin. Once again, her body became engulfed in flames—her form now a living embodiment of fire.
Kyorin raised his scythe in defense, but the attack's power sent him hurtling upward, his feet leaving the ground.
In that moment, Changli's body fully transformed into the phoenix. A fiery silhouette surrounded her as the air vibrated with the screeching cry of flames.
It was a sound so sharp, so haunting, that the onlookers fell into stunned silence.
Fu, sweat pouring down his face, whispered urgently, "Is that lad going to be alright?"
Even he, the ever-confident mayor, felt the weight of the power in the air. For the first time, concern flickered in his eyes—not for Changli, but for Kyorin.
Xia shuddered, her breath quickening as the tension thickened. Xuanmiao, however, stood unmoved, as still as stone.
Xia, feeling dizzy, tried to focus, but the pressure was too much. Her heart raced.
Xuanmiao turned to Fu, his voice steady. "Xiao Fu, please, help her to a quieter place."
Xia opened her mouth to protest, but Xuanmiao was steady. "Lady Dan, please trust me. I will take full responsibility for what happens here." He promised.
"You are not in the right state of mind to watch this duel. I fear you may intervene if you believe your son's life is in danger. Please, trust me," he urged, his tone both kind and firm.
Reluctantly, Xia nodded, and Fu led her away, his servants in tow. Once done, he returned to the arena to watch the unfolding duel.
If one could still call it a duel.
Changli moved with the fluidity of a force of nature, her phoenix form lifting Kyorin effortlessly into the air, as though toying with him.
Flames twisted and curled around her. Kyorin, helpless against the barrage, was thrown skyward once more, only to be sent crashing back down to the earth.
She was like a bird of prey—lifting her catch into the heavens only to release it, watching it plummet before rising again to drop it once more. The relentless cycle played out without mercy. Still, Xuanmiao did not intervene.
Fu's voice cut through the tension. "Grand Resonator, shouldn't you intervene?"
Xuanmiao shook his head, his gaze fixed on the battle. "There have been seven exchanges. Kyorin has won three, and Changli has won four," he answered coolly, as if the outcome had already been determined.
And then, as if to mark the end of the sequence, Changli moved for the final, decisive blow. Her stance shifted slightly, her shoulders tensing in preparation.
With a swift motion, a blindfold materialized over her eyes, its dark fabric concealing her vision entirely.
"Looks like she's now ready for her ultimate strike," Xuanmiao commented, his gaze fixed on the dueling arena, now engulfed in flames.
Fu's eyes remained locked on the fiery chaos below, sensing the change in the air.
Xuanmiao's attention shifted to the blindfold now covering Changli's eyes.
It was supposed to have appeared after four exchanges, but Kyorin's resilience had forced the battle to stretch longer.
Because of this, Changli had reached this point later than anticipated.
Now, with the blindfold in place, her true power was unlocked—her ultimate form: True Sight, Conquest.
This was the pinnacle of her strength, where her "Forte Circuit" reached its peak. With her mind's eye now fully open, the battlefield became hers to command. She had unlocked the ultimate skill of a Resonator: Resonance Liberation.
A surge of alarm pulsed through DEVA's circuits, her voice shrieking in Kyorin's mind as Changli prepared for her final strike.
"Holy shit!" The warning echoed like a shrill bell, cutting through the tension. "You should have told her to give you a handicap, instead of challenging her to a duel where no leniency is shown."
The words were sharp, but Kyorin didn't acknowledge them. His focus, unwavering and intense, was fixed solely on Changli.
Inside him, something shifted—raw, jagged anger bubbled up from his core, a molten fury that spread like wildfire. It wasn't just a spark; it was a volcano.
"She is," Kyorin muttered, his voice low, strained, as Changli rose into the air.
The flames surrounding the arena crackled and twisted, fueling the atmosphere with an overwhelming heat.
It was as if she had become the embodiment of fire itself—a phoenix, her form a living inferno, burning through the air.
"She is being lenient," he added, the words barely escaping as if he were holding back an immense rage.
Changli, hovering in the air, prepared for her Resonance Liberation: Radiance of Fealty. But beneath the surface of her power, memories from their first encounter replayed.
Though unarmed at the time, she had been defeated by someone younger—someone who had awakened far later than her. The shame of losing to him lingered, along with the sting of her boastful words of being unrivaled, now disproven.
She remembered her master's laughter as she was bested by someone else. That day had been humiliating, and it had fueled her drive to prove herself, to win at all costs.
'I will not lose again,' she swore to herself, the flames of determination sparking within her, matching the fire that had coalesced behind her.
Today, she was going to prove herself—not only to the world, but to her master above all.
And if she had to break him to do so, so be it.
Her obscured eyes, once clouded with doubt, now locked onto Kyorin's.
'A Demon?'
The thought pierced her mind suddenly. She didn't see fear in his gaze—there was something far more dangerous there: the glint of fury, the fire of battle igniting in his eyes.
It was as if she had offended him, and Kyorin's expression was filled with disgust, contempt, and an undeniable fury.
For a fleeting moment, she hesitated, thrown off by the intensity of his stare.
'Wait, why are you offended? Wasn't it I who suffered humiliation at your hands?'
But the hesitation lasted only a heartbeat. In the next moment, her resolve solidified, as unyielding as steel.
With a swift motion, she unleashed her Resonance Liberation. In that instant, the world seemed to shift, and her form blazed like an unrelenting sun—burning through anything that dared to stand in its path.
'Victory will be mine,' she vowed, her promise as fierce and unyielding as the inferno now engulfing the arena.
Her blindfold burned, the flames around her converging into a single pillar of fire that descended from the heavens, crying out in the shrill, echoing wail of a phoenix. From this blaze, five feathers materialized—each one a symbol of the great phoenix's power.
Confident in her victory, Changli watched as the feathers surged toward her. But something unexpected happened.
An unknown force pulled them away, and there stood Kyorin—his clothes burned, his skin singed, yet he remained unbowed. He gathered the flames toward his scythe.
"What?" Changli cried out in disbelief, watching as Kyorin, rather than merely deflecting the flames, extinguished them entirely. His inherited skill, Entropy, had activated.
Entropy, as the name suggested, introduced chaos into the system. For energy, this meant a tendency to dissipate over time. Kyorin, with a precise control, disintegrated the flames that surrounded the arena, rendering them flame-free.
But still, how was he standing?
Earlier, Xuanmiao had been ready to intervene, yet Kyorin's strike had been no ordinary attack. The moment his blade breached the pillar of fire; the flames began to extinguish upon contact.
Kyorin's strike created a safe zone around him, where the energy was dissipated, rendering the fire powerless.
However, Kyorin was far from done. Without warning, he discarded his scythe. In a moment of sheer bafflement, he soared into the air, his body a blur of movement.
Then, with the force of a thunderclap, he came crashing down, unleashing a devastating axe kick aimed squarely at Changli.
Changli, took the onslaught, her figure plummeting down, but before she could react, Kyorin was already upon her.
Fury burned in every line of his body; his face twisted with rage.
PAAA!
Without hesitation, he slapped her across the face—so hard that she sent her rolling on the ground.
Some of her teeth dislodged as a crimson imprint of Kyorin's hand appeared on her cute swollen face.
Meanwhile, Kyorin's wrist, observed by Xuanmiao, was broken from the impact.
'He slapped Changli with such force that it fractured his own wrist.' Xuanmiao's breath caught in his throat as he watched the raw display of emotion.
Changli winced, her eyes filling with tears from the sting, but Kyorin's voice, cold and filled with unbridled fury, cut through the air: "Resonator Changli."
At the sound of his words, every Resonator in the arena felt a ripple of unrest. Changli herself teetered on the edge of a violent overclock, her energy surging uncontrollably for a brief moment as if Kyorin's fury had cracked the dam holding it all back.
"It seems you've forgotten about the earlier vow," Kyorin spat, his words dripping with disdain. His gaze was scorching, like a furnace of rage.
Xuanmiao, watching closely, was taken aback by the overwhelming intensity of Kyorin's presence. His words, amplified by his resonance, surged with unchecked power, and for a moment, the air seemed thick with the pressure.
It was as though Kyorin was not only unleashing his anger but letting his resonance run rampant, an energy so raw it almost threatened to drive every single Resonator in the arena into a state of overclock.
Right now, Kyorin was a volcano—his chest heaving with each breath, his entire body exuding a menace so palpable it could be felt in the very air.
His anger was undeniable, yet Xuanmiao couldn't help but wonder: 'What was it that truly ticked him off? Was it Changli toying with him, or something deeper?'
To be continued...
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A/N: Writing battle scenes has been truly challenging, especially trying to stay true to the game. I hope everyone liked the battle description. I've done my best to keep it as faithful to the game as possible.