One of the spells in her spell storage, one whose form he did not recognize, disappeared and with it so did she. She'd had more spells he didn't recognize the form of, as well as six more arrows of a different element than the ones she'd already thrown at him. Mixed in with them was also another of the spells that had disappeared from her storage when she'd blocked his blow.
Not knowing quite where she was, but knowing that she'd be able to guard herself from his blows if she saw them coming he decided instead to wait and see what she had planned. Three copies of her appeared suddenly at different locations within the arena, more spells already woven and ready to throw. He was able to infer that the spell he'd seen disappear first had to do with her own disappearance, of course.
Futher, two spells that had been identical remained, the two copies of her that stood in the arena and spells that had to be channeled and maintained. Each copy still had the shield spell she'd used earlier and the arrows but yet another spell was missing from the original roster. It had to be the explanation for why he'd not heard her move, meaning it was a teleportation spell and likely a 'Step' spell, considering it was such short range.
She did not have another copy of it woven currently, and so if he could decide which was her, had only to strike three times in quick succession if her shield acted as it had before. Rather than picking a single target, he touched a blazing wing with his free hand and appeared to take several feathers from it before launching them. The feathers were a spell of his own, a fiery projectile and he threw them with frightening accuracy.
He watched as the shielding spell disappeared from her storage as it was cast and nodded to himself as he picked a target to rush towards. There was no surprise in the pink eyes that watched him, though two spells disappeared from her storage simultaneously as she gave up on the decoys. The fire from his arrows had shifted the positions of the shadows in the room and her decoys had none.
It was a common mistake with those that did not make use of the rather new illusionary magic that had been introduced into Fantastoria often, forgetting to copy shadows so they would react to outside influence. He was not nearly as inexperienced with illusions as she was.
She took an arrow on the shield spell followed by his blade dissolving it, just as before, though she suddenly darted in close once more. He tucked his wing in the path of her dagger and turned his blade for another blow only for her to surprise him yet again. Though she'd stood as if still holding the dagger, it was not in her hand and he had been so focused on her spells that he'd not even taken note.
Rather than a dagger in her hand, there was nothing at all, at least not until she snapped her fingers and one of the spells in her storage reacted and cast. The area around them both plunged into a darkness so deep even the glow of her spells could not penetrate it. Remembering her location just before the orb had taken him by surprise and hoping he'd not wasted so much time she could escape, he struck out a little more widely than he might normally have.
His blade impacted nothing as twelve arrows that felt like the icy chill of a starless night combined with the bright midday sun all at once hammered into his back. When the orb of darkness disappeared, she stood behind him and he lay his sword upon the ground as he admitted defeat.
With a grin, he turned to look at her and tried to figure out how exactly she'd gotten there. Step spells required line of sight and she should have been just as blind as he in the darkness. Her eyes shifted through a rainbow of colors as he looked up at her, the effect mesmerizing though when they touched back to pink they remained that way and he had no doubt that many in the crowd around them were left doubting if they'd seen her eyes change color at all.
He took the hand she offered as she stepped close to him and hauled himself to his feet, "I knew you would be a tough challenge for me," he said with a light laugh, "I hope I might be able to convince you to agree to a rematch at some point."
Ash's neutral expression turned to a gentle smile as her posture relaxed a bit with the confirmation that he didn't hold her win against her, "Perhaps, though I feel as if you've seen through a fair number of my tricks so I will need some time to weave more."
He turned his own attention to the crowd, tuning in to the one that had started the match as they announced Ash as the winner. There was a lot of chatter around them, though most of the speakers had already deemed Ash an opponent out of their range. Even with his power scaled down, Ailanthus was not a pushover and many had battled against him. His keen observation and insight, though, had always made it hard to fight with any sort of trickery and yet someone had won using that very tactic.
Ryn stood near the edge of the arena, looking as if he was truly rethinking his life choices. Though he knew it was ever so slightly in poor sport to kick a man while he was down, Ailanthus approached and leaned in close to warn Ryn of something further before he contemplated fighting Ashterra, "She is largely immune to status effects."
The blue-haired man gulped slightly, realizing that he would be fighting what felt like someone entirely beyond his reach with only his wits and his skills before he turned and retreated after calling to Ash that he no longer wished to duel her. He did, however, make it clear that he'd be interested in a date if she ever changed her mind.
Ash shook her head slightly as she came up beside Ailanthus, "What did you do?"
"Merely told him that his magic would be of no use against you, nothing more," he scratched the back of his head, suddenly just a little bashful, "Though, perhaps, it was unkind of me."
"I'd intended to do the same," she said, though the mischief in her expression told him her next words almost before she spoke them, "Though it was a little mean of you to do that, jealousy doesn't look good on a Blazewing."