Eudokia’s hands pulled at the cloth tightly spun around her nebsp; Her teeth ground together trying tle. Nothing she did broke its hold. The struggling started to calm down. Less movement came from her body with each attempt. Time tio pass as tensions mounted.

  Everythi still.

  Eudokia stopped moving.

  Chapter 194 – Forced Expectations

  Trying to read the se, Chariton paused in motion to stare down at Eudokia. He had his suspis. ‘This ’t be the end. What trick is she pying?’ His hand materialized a broom, lightly rotating it around his fingers. It seemed to carry an odd amount of force with it turning up the air as it spun.

  A chill ehe air. The temperature rapidly dropped. Frost appeared on the edges of anything it could toubsp; Chariton saw his breath expand in front of him as white puffs. ‘She’s pnning something…’ The spinning broom pulled in the falling snow starting to appear like a white tornado.

  Crag sounds ran up from Eudokia. They grew louder and louder. Tension increased with the questions. It was already clear she did something. It only became a question on when she would act.

  A came quickly, almost pletely carried out in only a sed. The b shattered as though it were ibsp; Eudokia began to fall. Her snow Field shattered in the moment, exploding upwards as Chariton fell down. In the same moment, Eudokia’s dire ged rapidly, asding suddenly with her sword in hand.

  His broom ended up being the only reason he survived the surprise attabsp; Blood arched up from the ssh as Eudokia finished. A glimmer of surprise fell amongst Chariton’s pain.

  Oime resumed passing normally, Eudokia nded on the ground several meters away from Chariton. Their backs faced each other in silenbsp; They just stood for a while not making a move. Eventually, Chariton smmed his broom into the ground to keep himself on his feet. The surprise started to drown out the pain.

  Frost covered his broom with droplets of his blood. Already patched up, a rge nick used to be buried in the broom handle from Eudokia’s sword. It dampened enough of the ford deflected the ao leave only a shallow wound across his chest. ‘It was executed so quickly. Going for the kill, merciless and fident…that’s the one I remember…’ Chariton rotated around his broom to get a look at Eudokia.

  All he found was her back staring at him. However, it appeared tall and broad as though necessary to carry an unimaginable weight. ‘She looks different, yet the same too…very strange…’ The pain in his chest snapped him back to reality. ‘What am I doing standing here like I’m admiring her…’

  He straightened himself out, no longer supported by the broom. His eyes winced a little as he covered up from the pain. It looked worse than it felt, not that Chariton believed it. ‘It’s been a while since I’ve felt pain like this…the routine doesn’t normally follow along these paths. These exceptions are the days we all look forward to, even if we don’t admit it. The days we actually feel alive and not crushed.’ A tap of his foot khe broom back up to his shoulder. The frost quickly disappeared from his broom. Chariton started to look more like his previous self.

  Gng down at his ruined uniform, he picked at the torn edges of the cloth. “Guess I’ll be needing something else now. I had po hold off on it until you got serious, but it ’t be helped.” Spinning the broom around, the uniform disappeared. A strangely formal appearing suit, while also dated, repced his military garb.

  It had an incredibly poor sense of taste. The striped vest was yelloink, bright hues. His double-breasted suit was no more subdued with a mix of red, purple, green, white and . Almost not wanting to be outdone by the style, his pants carried literal swirls stantly moving c at least ten pletely distinctive colors and probably a hundred more that no normal person even knew names for. A fashion disaster uated the criminal appearance he held, and wore as though nothing was wrong.

  To make matters even worse (which at this point doesn’t even seem possible), the colors flipped and then ged in the span of a few seds. They couldn’t even stay itern for more than a few moments. It looked like they were scrambling about trying to figure out what actually worked, but none of them actually worked in cert. Therefore, it always failed to achieve anything.

  Staring too long at his clothes made it seem almost as though he moved without moving. A natural waviness altered his stahout even doing anything. It made for an uling sight. One didn’t have to have a love for fashion to actually feel nauseous from a momentary gnbsp; It actually seemed to induce a feeling of seasiess.

  Twitg a little, Eudokia only looked at him briefly. It affected her, the same as it did to everyone else. “I had hoped to end this before you did that,” muttered Eudokia, “It’s a pain dealing with you.”

  The man in a fashion crisis twirled the broom about, appearing to have recovered pletely from this injury. “You could have if you actually got serious. This is only your own fault.”

  “Maybe so,” she admitted. Her sword came up as a signal of her preparedness for the round. “But I won’t o for you.”

  He grinned back at her. “Oh, are you so sure? If you keep this rexed attitude about things you might slip up.”

  “If you keep talking it only highlights your cowardice.”

  “Provoking me now? I’ve kept pace with you. I’d think that earned me a little respect.”

  “You have to do more than still be standing against me to earn that.”

  Sighing a little bit, Chariton started to spin his broom around with greater iy. It began to affect all of the foliage in his Field. Spores from the mushrooms blew about while floating pnts drifted away from him. “Still as rigid. Was getting worried everything about you had ged.”

  “Enough with the games.”

  “Yeah, I guess it is about that time, huh?” Chariton began to walk forward accepting that their fight tinued. He saw how Eudokia tried to focus on him, but gnced away. ‘This is why I wao wait until you were serious. But it should draw you out of your stubbornness. I don’t uand what your reasons are, but you ’t win as you are.’ The whirlwind he built up followed him, while he tio spin the broom around. He looked almost casual about the whole approach.

  The waiting and dey ended abruptly as though both sighe other. They broke into a sprint to charge across the remaining short distanbsp; Eudokia brought her sword up to parry his ining strike. The broom spun down on her sword with all of the built up momentum. Sparks and an explosive bst of air erupted from the csh in the first sed. The found Eudokia’s sword shatter and the broom carry through.

  His blow missed Eudokia as she leapt back, already sensing her loss. However, when the broom head rammed into the earth it cratered everything around it into ks. Stone and ks of earth flew up along with a wave of dirt knog Eudokia off banbsp; Her body flung through the air until colpsing in her snow.

  Hefting the broom out of the cracked earth, smaller ks fell down, as it broke free. Chariton spun it arouing the dust trail off the ends. He started to stalk his way over to Eudokia. “Shouldn’t uimate a broom.” The broom came to an eing up against his back ready again.

  He rubbed his head a little in his approabsp; A pencil suddenly appeared resting on the back of his ear. His harieved it, judging it a little, pressed between his fingers. It was sharpened, but otherwise looked ordinary.

  Eudokia coughed a little, gathering herself together. The pencil came speeding at her, the eraser end first. Snow stretched up to block the attabsp; A dull thud sounded off. It had a rather anticlimactid, until it exploded ripping through her snow and ibsp; “…damn…” The force sent her flying again, tumbling over her Field.

  tinuing his march, he resumed spinning his broom. However, he allowed it close to the ground, letting it brush over it. Little ks and pebbles flew across the Field, picked up by the broom. It applied enough force to turn them into deadly projectiles.

  Still trying to recover, Eudokia managed a loose defense, but the objects were real. The ohat made it through weren’t subdued by her power. They ripped through her clothes and cut into her skin. Minor ceratiohe least of her problems. Eudokia fought tht herself as Chariton came in for the attack.

  She threw out her chakram as an opening strike. The broom k away with ease. It gave her enough of a momentum to get ba her feet when Chariton swung the broom. Her feet stepped away to dodge the initial strike. A sword formed in each of her hands to ter him. Quick exges fired off between them. The weight of the broom pushed her back.

  Knocked around, Eudokia had to dodge the series of swings. verting her ons into shields to deflect much of the debris tossed up at her. Dragged around by her Field, she moved into a better position. However, she found chalk flying at her. It bleart her path knog her to the ground.

  Eudokia scrambled to get to her feet as Chariton hunted her. She tried to parry him again, but it didn’t st for long. None of his movements could be followed by her anymore. Everything was distorted. He moved like a blur to her eyes. In a moment of fusion, Chariton broke through her defense. The broom hit her dead ter in her chest sending her flying through the air. Unlike previous times, there was no trol in the way she fell.

  She dropped to the ground in a most ungraceful manner. A cloud of snow coughed up around her. Eudokia remaiill after.

  Narrowing his eyes, he watched for aion out of Eudokia. ‘I got a hit ohat time. It must have hurt a lot for her. She going to be able to tihe fight?’ He rested the handle on the ground, leaving it to crush the earth a little. ‘She never got serious…what’s her game?’

  While Chariton filled his mind with thoughts, slight movements came from Eudokia signaling her sciousness. It went ignored by him until he noticed something ged in the air surrounding her. A fog rolled in to begin to mask her out. It was enough to focus his attention ba Eudokia. ‘Huh? Something new?’

  He watched with caution, w if she might be actually getting serious. Old experiences with her already made him uneasy every time something different happened. Each ce could be the ime she unveils her true self. He wouldn’t approach carelessly without uanding her motives.

  Eventually, the fog pletely wiped her from sight. It tio stretch out over her entire Field. The mystery left him even more uain about her as. ‘I haven’t seen her do this before. Does that mean this is just more of her Law set? But urpose is this? Our strengths are nearly equal, the fog won’t give her any real cover.’ He tried to keep everything in his sight while he sidered the situation. The silent moments left him ed he missed something.

  Keeping to his advice of caution, Chariton materialized another broom. He stepped back a little to allow him more room to react to whatever Eudokia tried. “Alright…Eudokia…” The brooms spun around slowly in preparation.

  The fog began to lift a little. A shadowed figure appeared deep inside. However, through the fog two tiny lights surfaced attached to the figure. The figure remained small and unmoved. Yet the prese gave off sent chills different from the temperatures. It had a darker, more savage aura. A voice came out from the darkness rough and shaking, but still unmistakably Eudokia. “You wao see something more…don’t start havis now!”