An odd surge came up from the ground. It sent a chill down Chariton’s babsp; His hands tensed up, causing the brooms to rotate slower than before. ‘…this…presence…’ A little sweat dripped down the side of his face.

  He knew he had an advantage in his disruptive ability, but against Eudokia he still wondered. If she was serious in the fight, it left him with uainty. ‘…she’s seen my abilities…’ It left him in a difficult position. ‘…she’s an unknown, while I’m an open book for her…’ Chariton knew he only kept the advantage against her because she didn’t take him seriously. She held back, as if he was not worthy.

  Questions increased. s mounted.

  ‘What is she hiding behind the fog?’

  Chapter 195 – Denied Expectations

  The fog pressed to the ground. It pooled around the snow, hanging with no desire to leave. It grew thick with a life of its own tumbling over itself. However, it merely id down a stage. The stage presehe recovered Eudokia low to the ground on all fours. She looked as feral as she sounded.

  Her previous appearance ged dramatically. The kimono and shorts disappeared in favor of something more fhting. A be-piece suit covered her entire body. ails or embellishments li. It was simple. Over top, deep blue ice covered all of the critical areas. Her hands a were pletely buried in ibsp; Eudokia’s face remained visible, but with a different look in her eye. Her face was thin and narrowed with harsh lines of shadows deepening her features. “This is what you wanted…”

  “…Eudokia…” A grim look filled Chariton’s fabsp; ‘…this is…’ The appearance of Eudokia gave him bae of his focus. He rotated the brooms around faster knowing that she would be ing after him soon. ‘…she’s still going to have trouble with the disruption…’

  Ied along the sides of her head. It grew out to cover up her eyes. Only faint lights broke free from the deep blue ibsp; The ice stretched down to cover her nose, f a mask.

  The fog suddenly swirled about, disturbed by something. Eudokia leaned back looking ready to jump. However, a bst of snow and fog erupted behind her when she moved. She shot out towards Chariton with greater speed than she had before and quite possibly a normal human as well.

  Watg her leap forward, Chariton took a step back feeling surprised. He didn’t have enough time to react how he wanted. His brooms came in to block her. The ford weight of her attack made his feet slide a little as the ground gave before his banbsp; ‘…such power…all from that jump…’ Chariton pressed ba Eudokia once he re-established his banbsp; The weight in the brooms forced her back, but she quickly darted around attag from a fnking position.

  He couldn’t get almost any rotation on his brooms before she struck again. The timiweetacks had decreased leaving him short oion. He mao keep up with her, but the pace ged. ‘She knows that I get greater force from the rotation, she’s keeping me from building any momentum.’ Chariton did what he could to keep up with the ged Eudokia.

  In the csh, he saw multiple sparks jumping up from his broom. He had been so focused on dealing with her, that he missed her ons. Before the snow buried them, but she bore them on him. ‘Cws…’ The ice c her haended beyond and sharpened into bdes. Each finger maniputed an individual bde. The ice worked as aension of her fingers and evehe same flexibility, never breaking or crag.

  Charito watg her movements, trying to read her as. The quick boosts in speed made it difficult. She even made use of the snow Field as before to keep bat a three-dimensional fight. ‘Everything is dired clear, ation or mistakes…she overcame the distortion effects?’ Each move she made had him questioning the situation. ‘That ’t be it…’

  Blood came up from a blow he failed to parry. The cw marks didn’t cut deep, his clothes provided him some prote. However, their powers cshed tightly together. The stronger power would win in their test.

  ‘If she’s not affected, theaken the advantage, but how…’ He still needed answers. The answer would be the only way he could take back his lost lead. However, he wondered if he discovered the answer, if he could find a solution. ‘…I won’t know without the answer…’

  More cuts appeared on his body, always just shallow enough for him to keep going, but they tio build up. His formal attire hid the injuries from sight, sealed up after the attacks. He was losing more and mround with each minute.

  The battle wore on with Eudokia tinuing her lead gaihrough high speed movements. Chariton’s brooms looked battered, nearly falling apart with his attention toward other things. It took longer for him to recover.

  Amongst the fighting, he started tossing in other things from his wide arsenal of normally impractical ons. Chalk tried to put dents iracks, but she stayed ahead of his attempt. A frying pan worked as a shield and even gave him a parry that knocked her off him for a moment. It applied enough force to chip her cws briefly. Rope gave his arms a little more prote as he tered her attacks. Mix between attacks, he used some twio trip her up for a moment. It gave him the ce for a terattack, but the ice armor dampehe damage signifitly.

  When he focused on the fight, he actually mao keep up, mostly.

  His thoughts fought with him over the o figure her out. ‘At this rate, she’ll win by default. I need something…’ In his spare moments, he looked over Eudokia again. The only thing he came out with was the mask she wore, but he already dismissed it. ‘It ’t be the mask, she’s able to still see me through it. Any disruption the ice creates would only make it harder oo fight.’ It was his only lead. It still felt like a dead end for him.

  Chariton deflected the blow. Some of the motions started to bee easier for him to read, but her speed still made it difficult. The broom ged into a deck of cards. He waved the card, palmed, through the air leaving a trail of cards behind. They blocked the ining strike leaving him a moment to ter. A small pstic loop, only forty timeters in diameter, rested atop his index finger. When her cws broke through, he caught one of her hands in the loop. The loop quickly shrank in size to fit her wrist perfectly.

  Her arm suddenly dropped down to the ground, knog snow away. Following up quickly, the broom spun around once before eg with her midse. The force sent her flying into the air. Charito a keen eye on her during the eion. She recovered in midair and a bst forced her back towards him. ‘Still didn’t make any sort of impact even with that much of an opening. I’m going to have to do something more…’ He blocked her return strike, before their dance resumed.

  The stant fighting finally started to leave its marks on Chariton. He felt sweat dripping down his fabsp; His body stuck to his clothes as a reminder. Initially, he worried his mental energy would run out first with the slow paced fighting, however he started to fear physical fatigue more thaal. ‘Eudokia might be highly trained, but even she has limits physically, she’s got to be having troubles as well.’ If she had troubles, he couldn’t tell from the way she kept up a relentless attack.

  Fatigue or not, Chariton pushed through any pints his body sent him. He had to keep focus against Eudokia, she already had him up against the wall. It felt like he was throwing everything at her and barely keeping his head above water in the fight.

  A slip of his leg left him exposed to a terattabsp; Eudokia granted him a fresh wound for the trouble. ‘Damn, I o figure something out. I’m running out of tricks. She’s taking everything I’m tossing at her and I’m barely slowing her down.’ Chariton flipped his broom around with the head turning into a light bulb. It fshed brightly in Eudokia's face to blind her for a moment.

  Chariton took the mon both brooms and build up some weight iation before smming them in from both sides of her waist. He followed up with a dle to knock her flying backwards. While she flew through the air out of trol peanuts shot her, turning her in different dires as they hit. Eudokia crashed in the snow shortly after his assault ended, small cracks spread out through her ice, but sealed up quickly.

  g his teeth together, he saw how little it affected her. ‘All that and I still only barely cracked the armor?! How much force do I need? I don’t have enough time to build up that much force against her…’ He didn’t have much more time to think. Eudokia charged ba taking advantage of his frustration clouding his mind. He tried to dodge out of the way, but already saw it was too te.

  However, when Eudokia’s attack came it missed by a narrow margin. Chariton stumbled away with some surprise lifting to his fabsp; ‘What was that?’ He kept up the parries against Eudokia, trying not to let his thoughts overpower him. ‘She missed me, but it was an easy hit. She hasn’t missed me for any easy opening.’ The question started to e more of his focus. He lost track of the fight and caught a deep blow on his upper arm. Pain shot up when he moved his arm, but he couldn’t let it get to him.

  Exges pyed out, tinuing on until Chariton noticed araion from Eudokia. ‘She moved more to the left than necessary…’ The position pushed her clearly in range of his attack, which he naturally took advantage of the situation. She went tumbling away. Once more, he felt puzzled. ‘I find it odd she’d make such a mistake…I’m missing something…’

  The battle started to take a new dire. Chariton’s discovery ged his tactibsp; He read every movement Eudokia made with scrutiny. His victory hinged on him uanding the mistakes she made. It cost him some of the ground he built back, but over the few rounds, he started to gain an uanding. Enough pieces fell into pce for him to make theories to act.

  Another mistake slipped in for him. It firmed his theory. He was right about her. ‘I see…’ It made sense suddenly. All of his questions found answers in an instant. ‘Very clever, she knew my abilities and she must have pnned for this beforehand, but it has a weakness. It’s why she’s been so aggressive. She knew I’d figure it out eventually.’

  Chariton grinned with his discovery. ‘It’s checkmate, Eudokia!’ Taking advantage of what he knew, he created an opening for himself. ‘Your mask provides you a filter against my clothes, something like seeing things in only bd white. It makes all of the colors and variations lessened so you aren’t affected by them. However, it has the drawbaaking colors hard to differentiate from others. So if I just make it like the background it’ll seem like part of me disappeared, foreshortened or extended.’ She fell into the trap and he knocked her away. As he took his move, he saw a brief ge in Eudokia expression. She knew he figured it out. ‘I have to end things now. She won’t give me another ce.’ Chariton knocked her back with his broom.

  A pencil flew at her, the tip poi her. She tried to pull up snow to block the explosion, but it already went off. Uhe st time, blinding light came from it. ‘Now!’ Chariton’s broom had already been spinning around after he unched her. Wielding his sed broom as a vault, he leapt into the air still twirling the broom around to increase the weight.

  S over top of Eudokia, Chariton took the final spin on his broom. Wind blew out from the sides of the built up momentum. He brought both hands together to swing it down on Eudokia. The force shot her down into the ground, bsting out snow. ‘Damn, I only managed a dent to the armor.’ He threw down a couple of pencils with the erasers pointed down. They blew up close to the ground, keeping her pinned down as Chariton fell, the sed broom already spun.

  The sed broom, swung with one hand, smmed into Eudokia’s back crag the ice armor. It still didn’t do enough. He had his first broom ready and brought it down again. Charito up the barrage alternating without letting Eudokia a ce to recover. Her body pushed through the snow. The force of the broom started to cause cracks to the ground and crater around, her armor providihe only prote from the crushing tonnage dropped on her.

  Each pound of the broom knocked her in deeper. Her limbs jumped up with each hit. Chariton tinued in what seemed like a futile effort. No sign made from Eudokia said he did anything to her. The seds just crammed through with the brutal beating tinuing.

  Suddenly, it all ged with the ice armor shattered. The hit ripped through the suit underh exposing her babsp; Blood jumped up over Chariton’s fabsp; Bone broke skin and likely ans ruptured. Eudokia’s Field disappeared along with her equipment. Her tunic returned, blood already soaking into the material.

  Eudokia made no movement as the swing came down for her.