Chapter 2: Sibling Rivalry, Part 2
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Deep in the reaches of space, on the planet Aleris-X, among the depths of its atmosphere, bolts of pure white lightning and blades of various shapes & forms danced continuously around both Isaiah and Mugen. The two were fighting with glee and joy.
Mugen Manifested Blades soared along the currents of lightning created by Isaiah's body strikes at Mugen. As they repeatedly dodged, parried, and blocked the oncoming lightning strikes from above, the blades danced gracefully.
Arcs of lighting swirled around the silver staff onto Isaiah's fingertips; his cyan eyes held an inhuman beauty, while his smooth, doll-like skin. Shone with an otherworldly light & from inside the depths of his soul sanctuary did the roars of a furious beast begin to echo loudly.
Despite the intensity of this battle rising, both siblings were enjoying it greatly.
Mugen, on the opposite side, sensed the rise in they're brother hollow energy output.
A warm smile stretched across the face of the original as they dropped into a battle stance. Mugen blitzed towards Isaiah at an unprecedented speed, closing the few meters of distance instantly.
With their hand positioned in a standard grip stance, the wrist facing back towards themself, Mugen jumps to the side, swinging the practice blade with elite precision, delivering two blows to Isaiah's left side: his ribs and forearm.
While put on the back foot, Isaiah's body dodges backward, narrowly avoiding the strike to his forearm. Following up, he twisted his body to the left, switched his hand position on the staff to the other side, and slammed it into the ground to protect himself from the second strike to his ribs.
caught Mugen off guard for only a split second, making him think they had him.
But for Isaiah, a second was all that
Was he needed for his dear sibling?
Placing his palm down toward the ground underneath their feet, he activated one of his trigger abilities, a move called "return stroke." Electrical bolts, formed from the thunderous atmosphere above, shape into large arcs of white lightning. These arcs collide, slamming down onto the ground, creating a 1000-meter-radius electrical field between himself & mugen.
Instantly, Mugen's entire body is shocked as over 1 billion volts of hollow-energy-enhanced electricity surge through it.
The ground trembled violently, with intense wildness. Rapidly, fissures began to open on the planet, heating the atmosphere under the immense pressure of the lightning field striking down Mugen, with Isaiah's constant output streaming into the return stroke.
However, despite the devastating attack of the return stroke. Mugen held fast, still in a state of shock. They struggled against it for a few moments, watching their muscles tense and contract.
Continuing to fight against the pain pulsing with shocks, Mugen reinforces their body and footing with hollow energy hardening, quickly tightening their grip on the blade they held. Pushing their blade horizontally in front of them with both hands, with the tip of the practice sword aimed at Isaiah's chest.
Mugen uses the blade as a pseudo-rod, swinging it in a forward arc in front of themselves. A thin air slash forms in front of them. Multiple blades they have had manifested all turn upwards, directing all of the electrical hollow energy Isaiah has been outputting onto Mugen now transfers onto the storm of blades they created from the beginning to counter.
Isaiah noticed the change in Mugen's battle stance and watched as his bolts now converged upward into the air. Locked in a tug-of-war with the metallic blades, Mugen summoned rods of energy above their head to protect them.
Isaiah chuckled for a brief moment.
"Good job, Mugen! That's the ingenuity of you using your blades to they're advantages and challenging my thunder." His staff, still embedded in the ground, pulls itself out from the ground, shooting forward back into Isaiah's hand.
Reaching back with his arm, Isaiah thrusted forward, launching a spear of condensed lightning toward the air slash.
The two collided, creating a massive explosion of electric pulses and smoke. Without giving the other time to rest or prepare, both siblings engaged in an exchange of battle styles once more.
Forward thrusts and side strikes from Isaiah silver-staff kirin, backward blade swings and quick-footed dodges by Mugen. flowing into a dance of precisely timed, horizontal & vertical slashes, mixed with powerful stabbing attacks.
Feeling the dullness of the thousands of bruises adding up to pain aching from his body. Isaiah, in his thoughts, could see that his sister Mugen's swordsmanship was unparalleled.
'Her style of battle was highly aggressive, following a sense of grace and precision to each flowing movement. Coupled with the different sword techniques she can weave into her well-balanced stances.'
"You fight like the blade isn't even there with you. But, an extension of your very soul, unbroken and reforged as one."
Mugrn smiles warmly, "Thank you, brother. Your words are always enough to motivate me through our battle practices and keep me prepared for another round."
They lunged at their brother, Mugen swinging their practice blade from the right side, angling it to strike him at three distinct points of contact with each hit, each blow greater than the last.
Instantly, Isaiah Jumps backwards into a deep roll. Quickly, avoiding one of Mugen's powerful swings, the slash traveled behind him. In the far distance, there sat a gargantuan mountain range.
The compressed air blade barreled towards the large mountain range, cleaving it in half from the bottom of its foundation and splitting it horizontally.
"Dancing winds of the fallen blossoms."
In the next instant, Mugen executed a two-stage combination attack. Following Isaiah's initial dodge. She leaped into the air, following after him, she twisted her body like a spinning torpedo, and landed in front of her brother. With a downward vertical slash in an arcing motion, she sliced through the air.
As the blade descended from above, careening downward towards Isaiah's shoulder and abdomen, he was prepared to block the attack. He positioned his silver staff defensively, ready to defend himself on the right side.
However, what he mistook for another downward strike came from his left side unexpectedly. Mugen, in response, slowed her descent by manifesting a flying blade under her feet. She then used underhand sword holds, switching the blade to her left. Isaiah was caught off guard. He instinctively swung his staff toward Mugen on his right side, matching the same speed at which his sibling could swing their practice blade.
Twhack !! Twhack!!
Mugen was struck on the right side
Of their face bleeding from the hit.
Isaiah was hit directly in the left side of his head, causing him to bleed.
The two powerful blows sent shockwaves rippling across the entire planet, causing the core to rumble violently. As more fissures began splitting open across the planet's surface, the ground trembled beneath the feet of all who stood there.
Despite the planet crumbling beneath the weight of each strike exchanged between the siblings, their bodies and minds remained completely focused on the fight they were still engaged in, even as everything around them became engulfed in the flames of the planet's core.